Now 50, former Tour pros Bowden, Uresti seek more time in the big-time

Brooks Koepka is now one of the marquee names in golf, becoming the first back-to-back U.S. Open champion in almost 30 years after winning at Shinnecock in June. Early last year, though, Koepka wasn't as well known, to the point where his girlfriend was mididentified on the broadcast. We're sure you've heard about it. As FOX Sports announcer Joe Buck described the scene as Koepka's girlfriend greeted him after the victory, Buck referred to her as his old girlfriend, Becky Edwards, and not his current girl, Jena Sims—who Koepka is still dating.
Buck and Koepka have both acknowledged the snafu in good humor, and they've become friendly after the fact, with Koepka getting to visit Buck in the booth of a baseball game on a couple occasions. Buck had fun with it, too, referring to Jena multiple times by name during the FOX broadcast this year at Shinnecock. And it appears Buck and Jena finally had a chance to meet at Bellerive early this week at the PGA Championship..

Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesIf you're like us, you've probably wondered how tour-player prize money gets paid out after tournaments. Thanks to an unfortunate situation involving Tommy Fleetwood on the eve of the PGA Championship, we now have somewhat of an answer. Although Fleetwood's team, now, are the ones really looking for answers.
Thanks to a tweet from the user @GregThornerGolf, who is a golf instructor in New England, he alerted us to the fact that his friend, who is apparently also named Tommy Fleetwood, received the 29-year-old Englishman's payout from his T-12 showing at Carnoustie.
We didn't know whether to believe this at first—so we went to the source. Fleetwood's wife, Clare, confirmed in an email to Golf Digest that this situation, is, in fact, true. And Fleetwood's team is now dealing with getting the funds back. Now we know: yes, tour pros receive a direct deposit like the rest of us working folk. And yes, even the world's best play..

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We were saddened to hear of the latest example of golf course vandalism on Tuesday. But hours later, we were reminded that Mother Nature is capable of doing a lot more damage than any joyriding teen. Just check out these incredible photos taken at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs following a sever hail storm:
https://twitter.com/ZBTurf411/status/1026626423396528128
Wow, that's a lot of pitch marks to repair. . . Good luck to the club's greenkeepers.
The Broadmoor has hosted four professional major championships, most recently this year's U.S. Senior Open, which was won by David Toms. Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be hosting golfers of any skill level for a bit. In any event. . .
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Jamie SquireThe world is moving too quickly to figure out exactly where in the zeitgeist of life GIFs of Phil Mickelson’s extraordinary indulgent viral Mizzen + Main circus act dancing ads currently reside. In the interest of time, we’ll just acknowledge they’re a thing. And being a thing, they have been exploited to the point of excessively excessive excess.
However, let’s give credit to Kevin Streelman for finding a new, creative use for one of these GIFs, while also breaking news.
https://twitter.com/Streels54/status/1027223907579953157
The original domino that caused this chain of unusual events was that Thomas Bjorn pulled out of the PGA Championship on Wednesday. Which opened up a spot for Streelman, who has been around this week waiting for just such an occasion. Which caused him to become a social-media producer.
Which leads us to wonder: Has he been sitting on this Tweet, just waiting to unleash it to the world?
Clearly, Streelman is happy he’ll be playing at Bellerive. Unclea..

As a country, Finland hasn't exactly produced a ton of great professional golfers, though the Finnish will be represented this week at the PGA Championship when Mikko Korhonen tees it up. Korhonen, who won the inaugural European Shot Clock Masters back in June, earned a special invitation to Bellerive, and, as far as we know, will be the first Finland-born player to play in a major championship since Mikko Ilonen tied for 54th at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
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What Finland does produce is great hockey players, the latest of the bunch being rising star Teuvo Teravainen, who just enjoyed a breakout season as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes, posting career highs in both goals (23) and assists (41). Perhaps inspired by Korhonen's presence at Bellerive this week, or maybe a decent golfer himself, Teravainen posted a video of him juggling a golf ball with his hock..

Tommy Fleetwood has been on a hot streak, winning three times on the European Tour and contending in majors, and now has his sights set on winning in the US

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