Width & Angles: Aug 9th, 2026

Micael Brennan gets to go to the Masters! (and 500 FedEx Cup points)

Aug 10, 2026

Michael Brennan wins the Wyndham Championship, Asterisk Talley wins the US Women’s Am, Michael Block gets DQ’d from a Senior Euro Tour event, and LIV Golf plays a tournament and says they have a girlfriend that goes to a different school.

Michael Brennan Wins Wyndham

Michael Brennan shot 66-65-63-64 (-22) to win the Wyndham Championship by three over a whiny Beau Hossler. The contrast down the stretch was stark — Hossler complained at every bad lie and swing, while Brennan hit some shocking shots and played it cool, acting like an athlete in the arena. Even better, he’s a long-sleeve guy, which makes him 100x cooler than your average tour player.

All jokes aside, have you seen a swing this good since Adam Scott? It’s so aesthetically pleasing it makes me not want to watch him play, because I know I’ll go try to emulate it, and my body can’t do that. The numbers jump off the page. He sniffs 180 mph ball speed with a 3-wood consistently, and from personal experience, he melts the driver. I watched him hit driver on holes 2 and 3 at Augusta National this year and have never heard a ball struck like that.

Brennan continues the run of young guns with massive speed and streaky short games winning on tour lately. Jackson Koivun, Michael Thorbjornson, now Brennan. All of them come from the new-age approach: hit it hard, figure out straight later. That’s professional golf now, and the kids are only going to get faster. It’ll be interesting to see who Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker picks. It will be a shame if he goes with the usual giggle squad of Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Colin Morikawa. Time to inject some new blood into the US Team.

Asterisk Talley

Casual fans and anyone not following the amateur game closely should start remembering the name Asterisk Talley. She led the ANWA this year going into the back nine, then made a mess in a bunker behind the green and chipped a couple into the water. She was emotional in the interviews afterward (take notes Rory) and talked about how much she wanted to win. Good to see her care that much about the game.

Today, all that hard work paid off. With her dad on the bag, she won the US Women’s Amateur heading into her freshman year of college. Before long she’ll be competing against the best in the world on the LPGA as the next great American star.

LIV Has an Investor Sort Of

LIV announced this week that it has an investor with a signed term sheet, approved by the investor’s board. From what I can piece together with my limited private equity knowledge, it sounds like a company willing to loan them money in exchange for equity, with a ton of strings attached. The breakdown:

$250 million for majority equity of the league
Players become equity partners in the league
The loan is contingent on keeping players like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm
The PIF will pay off the rest of the initial contracts at a discount to players like Rahm and Cam Smith
A 10-event schedule: 5 abroad, 5 in the US with smaller purse sizes

Looks like LIV is going to stick around a while longer, flailing until the money finally runs dry. Also Joaquin Niemann won again at Trump Bedminster.