Pro’s secret retirement, Tiger’s next start, Dahmen’s heroics

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’re feeling thankful for — you guessed it — golf. To the news…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Stepping away on your terms.

We knew it was Lexi Thompson‘s finale. Sunday’s fourth round at the CME Group Tour Championship was the final day of what Thompson has called her final full season on the LPGA Tour, marking the end of an era for an iconic LPGA presence. Thompson’s retirement announcement came back in May, ahead of the U.S. Women’s Open, which allowed her legions of fans a chance to bid farewell, so there was plenty of build-up to the waning moments of her round at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla.

“I think ever since I was super young I have held a lot in,” an emotional Thompson said post-round. “I think as athletes you’re always told to be strong and be intimidating on the golf course. Don’t show any sign of weakness … it’s kind of like, this time I’m actually letting myself feel those emotions and actually be real.”

Thompson wasn’t the only one calling it a career at the end of 2024. An impressive list of LPGA mainstays — 11 total, according to Golfweek — had already announced their departures. That included Thompson, Catriona Matthew, So Yeon Ryu, Angela Stanford, Mariajo Uribe, Laura Davies, Amy Olson, Gerina Mendoza and Brittany Lincicome.

It included I.K. Kim, who didn’t break the news until after her final round at St. Andrews, when she let it slip to R&A head Martin Slumbers. (She’d told her friends and family just the night before.) And it included Ally Ewing, who saved some of her best golf for last and finished strong with a T16 showing at the CME.

“Having family here but then also as many players that came out and supported me, finishing on 18 and even just the notes that have been left in my locker this week, it’s been incredibly special to have built relationships like this,” Ewing said.

And then there was Marina Alex.

For years, Alex admitted, she’d admired athletes who’d gone out on top. The image of Suzann Pettersen, who’d retired after holing a Solheim Cup-winning putt, had been etched in her mind for years.

“I thought that was one of the most incredible things I’ve seen from a player. I was like, ‘wow, that’s really cool. Way to go out on top.’ When you know, you know, and that’s that. I always wanted in some fashion that for myself.”

Alex almost earned herself that opportunity. She finished T6 at the Maybank Championship in October and then made it all the way to a playoff in the Toto Japan LPGA Classic, which she ultimately lost, just missing the chance to ride into the sunset a winner. She missed her next two cuts, a reminder that nothing ends perfectly. But a final-round 66 in Naples to lock up a T12 finish? That was pretty close. The craziest part? She’d kept it a secret.

“You never are going to get that fairytale experience, you know, win, walk away,” Alex said. But I’m so happy for the last month of golf. It’s truly — golf doesn’t owe you anything. To be able to at least get a little bit of feeling like it’s the best golf I’ve ever played and I’m leaving with that, I’m really thankful for it.”

Alex admitted that it was tricky not to tell her friends on tour. “Tell one person, might at well tell 20,” she said. But she appreciates the bond they share having played together for a decade-plus.

“I have some unbelievable friendships. I think there is an unwritten bond so many of us have out here just through traveling and the hardship, the good and the bad.

“I don’t want to whine and say this life is terrible. It’s amazing — and we know that. But it’s challenging. It’s hard. We all kind of share that struggle. For all of us who have known each other for an extended period there is a lot of intertwined just bonds and relationships.”

Going out on your terms — that’s golf stuff I like. As for what’s next?

“Right now, I’m just really ready to rest my brain and mostly, like, my heart,” Alex said. “This is a hard job emotionally and I’m finally ready to hang that up and not live and die by the golf course.

“I’m really looking forward to that.”

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Jeeno Thitikul won the CME Group Tour Championship thanks to a preposterous eagle-birdie finish and pocketed the first-place check of $4 million, the biggest prize in women’s golf, in the process. (This also brought her season earnings to a record $6.06 million, while Nelly Korda‘s seven-win campaign was second at $4.39 million.)

Maverick McNealy won the PGA Tour’s finale, the RSM Classic, thanks to an epic 72nd-hole birdie combined with a couple bogeys from his competition one group ahead. After a decorated college career, the win was McNealy’s first on Tour in his 100th made cut.

Elvis Smylie won the BMW Australian PGA Championship, edging his Aussie idol and mentor Cameron Smith by two shots in what is technically the first event of the DP World Tour’s 2024-25 season.

And Patrick Reed won the Link Hong Kong Open on the Asian Tour — his first victory in nearly four years — thanks to a wild 59-66 weekend.

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NOT-WINNERS

A few golfers who didn’t win but still kinda won.

Joel Dahmen was the talk of the RSM Classic; he’s a favorite not only among fans but Tour pros, too, and his top-125 status was in serious jeopardy heading to the weekend. First he needed a five-footer just to make the cut. Then he needed an epic Sunday rally and delivered a clutch six-under 64, enough to lift him to No. 124 in the standings. More on that here (and around the internet; Dahmen’s triumph left its mark) but if you want a taste of what that felt like for onlookers? Here’s Dahmen’s PGA Tour peer Mark Hubbard‘s reaction:

And if you suspect that fate was on Dahmen’s side, well, you’d have some evidence for that. Here was his second shot at No. 4 on Sunday:

Nearer the top of the leaderboard, three pros finished a smidge outside a playoff. Amateur (and Florida State student-athlete) Luke Clanton was paired with recent Tour winner Nico Echavarria; both were sitting at 16 under, both pulled their approach shots left at No. 18 and both made bogey. Daniel Berger, looking to cap off his comeback season with a win, saw several short birdie looks go wanting in the final holes and finished T2 beside them.

And Angel Yin was two shots clear of Thitikul with two holes to play and finished par-par — but somehow lost outright. Despite her opponent’s heroics, she still finished second alone and will have a consolation prize of $1 million. For Yin, who was in a wheelchair earlier this year due to injury, the finish capped off a remarkable turnaround.

“That I’m pretty awesome,” she said with a smile, asked what she’d learned about herself. “That [I couldn’t] walk and finished second. So I’ve learned that I just need to believe my myself and that’s what I did.”

SHORT HITTERS

Who’s in — and who’s out?

–Daniel Berger moved way inside the top 125; he started the week at No. 127 and finished at No. 100. He sounded plenty confident on the weekend despite a lengthy layoff from professional golf.

“To me, it doesn’t really concern me because when I play 1/10th of what I’m capable of, I’m at a level that’s — it’s going to sound terrible, but I think I’m just at a different level than some of the other guys I’m competing against,” he said after Saturday’s round. “Regardless, anytime you take two years off of anything competitive, it just takes a while to come back. I’m giving myself 12 more months to be where I want to be.”

–Henrik Norlander moved in, too — but not by much. He made the cut on the number and rallied with a 63-68 weekend to climb into T17 for the week and No. 120 for the season.

-Then there was Dahmen, whose rollercoaster week saw him finish at No. 124 — the same place he started.

“Makes you appreciate things a little more when times are tough,” he said afterwards. “I thought a lot about everything. It came down to the last putt this week. I hit thousands of golf shots this year, missed a lot of cuts, had a lot of opportunities to do everything, so it didn’t have to come to this. So I was thankful for the opportunity today, but I don’t want to go through this ever again.”

–Sam Ryder secured the last safe spot; he missed the cut but held onto No. 125 when Hayden Springer slipped down the leaderboard with a Sunday 70 and finished at No. 127.

–Zac Blair and Wesley Brian were the two players to start the week inside the number and finish outside; they played alongside Dahmen in the first two rounds but each missed the cut, fading from Nos. 123 and 125 to 126 and 128, respectively.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Mav on his final 6-iron.

McNealy credited his brother and new caddie Scout with keeping him in the right frame of mind coming down the stretch. So what was their conversation before that final 6-iron approach?

“It was 185 [yards] and 185’s usually a perfect 7-iron, but [the wind] was in off the left,” McNealy said. “I knew that pin was slightly on the back side of the grain change and I knew that putting from long at that pin was great.

“I’ve been working on hitting cuts and I just thought — I told Scout, ‘195 [yard] 6-iron.’ A 6-iron is like a 200 club, so I didn’t need to kill it, but I just needed good solid one. He told me, ‘compress it, just smash down, take a divot.’ Scout’s coaching has been pretty simple lately, he says
swing left and take a divot. So I just swung left, took a divot, all came out right on line, dead
center of the clubface and it couldn’t have been a better time for it.”

As always: sounds simple, when he puts it that way…

ONE BIG QUESTION

Who would be out?

Lately there’s been plenty of talk around the adjustments the PGA Tour will make to its membership beginning at the end of next season. That includes shrinking many fields plus reducing “full” PGA Tour cards from 125 to 100.

“I have to get better to be in the top 100,” Dahmen admitted post-round.

I’d argue the effects of the change are overstated; the Tour is really just guaranteeing that players with a card get into the events they should get into, and players in the 101-125 category will still get plenty of starts. But say the changes had been implemented this season — how would it look?

The Tour tweeted out the list of Nos. 51-125. The far-right column includes some winners who’d have multi-year exemptions, like Rickie Fowler and Matt McCarty. But most others would be staring down partial status for 2025 and trying to figure out what sort of schedule they’d be able to play.

ONE THING TO WATCH

Tiger Woods’ next tournament.

On Monday the 15-time major champ announced that he was “disappointed” not to tee it up in next week’s Hero World Challenge. It’s no shock that Woods isn’t ready — his latest back surgery was in September — but Woods had initially considered the possibility of recovering in time to tee it up in the Bahamas.

So now what? The team of Tiger and Charlie Woods had been expected to fill out the final spot in the PNC Championship; perhaps Tiger is sitting out to guarantee he’s in full health for what he’s called “our fifth major.”

And then there’s the TGL, the arena golf league co-founded by Woods, which is slated to kick off in January. Golf’s TV ratings have been buoyed by Woods’ presence for decades — part of the value proposition of the TGL is that he’ll play. We’re assuming he’ll be good to go, but it’s worth monitoring what golf fans have grown accustomed to monitoring for nearly two decades: the state of Tiger’s health.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

The Christmas tree is up. A pre-Thanksgiving tree shop is unprecedented in my household but with Turkey Day this late it was important to adjust on the fly. Eat up, gang. Sneak in a morning nine if you can. We’ll see you next week.

Before you go, a quick request: If you like the Monday Finish, subscribe for free HERE to get it in your email inbox!

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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