Width & Angles: Jan 25th, 2026
Desert Golf: A Midwinters Golf Dram
This week two of the sneakiest best tournament of the year blessed us while most of the country is covered in snow and ice. The Bob Hope (I refuse to ever call it the Amex or whatever sell out name the PGA Tour has picked to help destroy legacy and history) & Dubai Desert Classic are exactly what we needed this weekend and we were gifted some terrific story lines. Let’s dive in!
Bob Hope Classic
In a semi-boring Sunday Scottie Scheffler continues his domination in golf. He is truly on a Tiger-esque run, and it something special to watch him do it like it’s a normal Sunday game at the club. A great nugget on the broadcast this week was the conversation they got into about the different ways Tiger and Scottie dominated the tour. They talked about how Tiger dominated with fear and athleticism whereas Scottie dominated with pure skill, practice and being… nice? It’s something to note that both Blades Brown (more on him later) and S.W. Kim both played poorly today paired with Scottie. Sound familiar? All hyperbole aside, I hope Scottie can keep this up, Tiger did it for a decade+ and we are still very early in this for Scottie. We all thought Spieth would last forever and Rory would win 10 majors.
Blades Brown (sick name) has played 8 consecutive days of golf plus more with practice rounds after finishing on Wednesday at the Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas and Palm Springs. For him to play well and have a chance to win when he was presumably out of gas on Sunday is some amazing talent. Also, the kid is 18 years old going on 30 from the way he carries himself. It looks like he has an amazing career ahead of him as long as no one gets in his head and tries to change his swing or something.
A quick note on the Amex, it seems that the tournament is really starting to turn around in popularity again with bigger names playing. I would love for the event to really lean back into the Bob Hope days and bring back Hollywood stars and major athletes back into the mix instead of the old white guys that look like they need life alert on the course. Anyways, I know it’s not the most challenging courses in the world but it’s really cool to see what these guys can actually do when they are golfing in a dome.
Dubai Desert Classic
P Reed (-14) wins the Dubai Desert Classic by 4 strokes over Andy Sullivan (-10). This is exactly the PR boost LIV needed at the moment with Reed beating a great field of Euro big guns including Rory, Shane, Tommy and one of the Hojgaards (never sure which one). Reed has taken plenty of heat throughout his career, much of it self-inflicted, but there are a few things he does as well (maybe better) as anyone in the game. He’s a true drawer and releaser of the club which is rare these days in the pro ranks and is notably anti-torque with the putter (respect). He is a scrappy player, and seems to find a way to win when he gets his way into contention. A true grinder, and it’s a shame we don’t see him week to week on the tour. I think there are only a handful people in the sport that can stare down Scottie Scheffler when they have their A++ game and P might be one of them.
P Reed
Jon Rahm
Brooks
JJ Spaun
A nugget that Reed dropped in his winning pressor is that he is a free agent and not currently signed with LIV. He mentioned he doesn’t like to negotiate while he is playing so his negations will begin Mon-Wed. I am guessing after this week his price went up a few hundred million, and I am sure Yassir will be wanting to get a deal done this week. It could be interesting if Rolapp makes an exception given his “I want to play all tours” quote this week to try to stick it to LIV one more time before Riyadh.
Equipment Corner
The biggest equipment story of this week was that Scottie switched back to the Qi10 in Palm Springs. The fitters and execs at Taylormade have to be freaking out given he had been using the Qi4D in the Bahamas which was the last time we saw him. What I find interesting is that Taylormade hasn’t gotten ahead of it and gave a reason why he isn’t using it. My hope is he is close but waiting on one last tweak from the engineers to make it work. If there is something larger at play it has to be DEFCON 1 at Taylormade HQ.
This week we had the PGA Show and a few new equipment drops
New Callaway mallet putter line with an updated half circle alignment. I think Odyssey makes a great putter but where they struggle is none of their putters feel timeless.
The star of the PGA Show was a new launch monitor that is starting at $199. Yes it will not be 100% accurate and won’t be able to give you spin and more advanced metrics, but it’s perfect for someone that just wants a small helpful range tool that isn’t a grand plus.
MYGOLFSPY@MyGolfSpyRemember that $199 launch monitor I told you about Yeah, it’s lighter than my iPhone…
6:28 PM · Jan 20, 2026 · 148K Views35 Replies · 17 Reposts · 736 Likes
Vokey SM11
These were released earlier this week and I have a very specific take on Vokeys and why they are good:
Vokeys are so consistent year to year, and they don’t try to re-build the wheel which makes it a no brainer for good players to upgrade into when they are looking for fresh grooves. I have been playing Vokeys since SM4s and if I tried to move to MG5s it would be like learning a new language. Think of Vokeys like the iPhone, there is no reason for Titleist to risk a massive change and ruin the daily workflow of the best in the world. I think of other wedges like androids.
Titleist Oilcan Irons
Yes these are sick, but will they make you play better? No. I am always skeptical about buying special release finishes for irons, but these are cool if you have a spare 2k laying around and want to hang them up. Just know, they aren’t putters.
An update on my driver testing
My fitting on Friday got cancelled due to ice-pocalypse in Dallas. My current thoughts are that I can’t use the Callaway driver because Good Good are sponsored by Callaway.
Random Thoughts
Why doesn’t the Euro and PGA Tour combine to have a Rolex series and Siggy event to start the season in Dubai if they are really getting rid of Hawaii?
David Puig might be one of the players that the PGA Tour needs to make an exception for
Having experienced a snow weekend in DFW I can confidently ask: How the heck does anyone that loves golf live in the north?
Weekly Rankings!
