Quite the juxtaposition happened on the PGA Tour this past week. Vijay Singh used his 6th position all-time to return to the Tour as a fully exempt player for the 2026 season. Players within the top 50 of the career money list can use this one-time, one-year exemption. Vijay has earned $71.2 million in career earnings, but he is 62 year old turning 63 on February 22nd. He has not made a cut on Tour since since the 2020 Memorial, but he did make the cut and tie 59th at the 2024 Masters.
Your Hack’s take? Vijay will make at least 20 starts in 2026 and earns at least 1 Top 30.
In more relevant news, Brooks Keopka (ex-LIV) has officially returned to the PGA Tour for the 2026 season through the newly established Returning Member Program. This program allows elite players who have won a major or The Players Championship since 2022 (sorry Phil Mickelson) and have been away from the Tour for at least two years to rejoin.
His return involves several financial and competitive conditions:
Charitable Donation: Koepka must make a $5 million out-of-pocket donation to a charity to be determined jointly with the Tour.
Forfeited Equity: He is ineligible for PGA Tour equity grants for the next five years (2026–2030). The Tour estimates this loss could be between $50 million and $85 million.
Bonus Money: He will not be eligible to receive any FedEx Cup bonus money for the 2026 season.
No Sponsor Exemptions: He cannot receive sponsor exemptions into the $20 million signature events and must qualify for them through his own performance.
Playing Requirement: He is required to commit to at least 15 co-sponsored or approved events during the 2026 season.
Field Expansion: To protect current members, he will be added as an extra player to any field he qualifies for so that he does not take a spot from another
Brook’s first appearance will be Torrey Pines (Farmers Insurance Open) on January 29th.
Your Hack’s take? Given the estimated $125 million Brooks received for jumping to LIV several years ago, this financial penalties will not hurt. Especially considering the “forfeited equity” is like getting coupons payable in the future and have questionable value. Koepka will qualify for a couple of Signature Events based on his play, will have 2 wins, and will make the FedEx Play-offs. He’s a killer, especially when he has something to prove.
Now, let’s talk about why you’re really here . . .
Wednesday was a beautiful winter day in Bethany Beach with the temperatures rising into the low 50’s under sunny skies and mild wind. Turns out it was the last time to play golf for a while as we’ve been hit with a cold front with possible snow showers this weekend. Luckily for your Hack, my buddy Rob messaged me that he had a tee time at 11:40 and was looking for a game.
I arrived early, hit 25 putts on the practice green and 25 chips in the short game area followed by a couple of wedges, 5 irons and drivers swing on the range. All the while we were watching 4 foursomes of the Schmuck Nation tee off on #1. Now the Schumcks just play for fun, nothing serious, but they are also the slowest players around. As a 2-some, we had visions of 5 hours of hell waiting and waiting behind these guys.
Noticing that nobody was on the 10th tee and the next group was only on the 8th green, we got the pro shop to let us go out on the back 9 to avoid the slog. On the way to the tee we agreed I’d give Rob 2 shots a side playing a small $5 Nassau. (A note about the course set-up: We are playing from temporary short tees on the par 3’s and to a temporary pin in the fairway of the par 5, #14 that reduced the yardage on the back to about 2,725 yards and par to 35.)
I started out steady, hitting fairways and greens and posting pars on the first 5 holes to go out to a 3 up lead. Shrewdly, Rob was waiting until the last 2 holes of the 9 (#17 & #18) to press because that’s where his pops fell. Cruising into #15 - a short par 4 - I yanked a sand wedge about 30 feet left of the pin from the middle of the fairway. Walking up to the green that was covered in goose droppings, we did our best remove the largest offenders from our putting lines. Unfortunately, your Hack was not very diligent and the first putt was stopped dead by a missed dropping - talk about a shitty result! The 3-putt dropped my lead to 2 up as Rob made a nice par. This was followed by a shank out of the right bunker on the par 3 - 16th for a double bogey and your Hack was down to 1 up with 2 to play and Rob stroking on both of the remaining holes.
Rob returned the favor by double bogeying #17 to my par and we went to the 18th with the first 9 closed out and Rob 1 down on his press. On the long par 4, 18th hole, I hit 3-wood onto the left fringe with a nice 20 foot uphill putt for birdie and Rob was short of the green in 2 shots. Rob couldn’t get up and down and made 5, while your Hack drilled the birdie putt 5 feet past the hole and missed the come-backer - Rob squared the press and was only down $5.
I was 4 over par with 2 bogeys, a double and zero birdies.At the turn, we decided to play the back again because the first tee was full and the first group of the Schmucks had still not reached the 9th hole.
Rob and I both made par on the first 3 holes and then Rob made a nice putt for birdie on the par 3, 13th which was playing about 80 yards from the temporary tee, to go 1 up. We both parred the next 2 holes and came to the 16th tee with Rob still 1 up. Rob hit his tee shot short of the green and I ended up about 15 feet below the back pin (5 iron). Rob couldn’t get up and down and I made another par to square the second 9.
We’d caught up with another twosome on #16 and decided to play in together as their were two foursomes ahead. Dave and MaryAnn are two of my favorite folks at Cripple Creek.
The par 5, 17th is 550 yards and your Hack is not hitting the ball very far these days. After a drive that landed on the right side of the fairway and a topped 3-wood that didn’t get past the large pine tree guarding the right side, I was left with a 215 yard shot over water, into the wind, with a pine tree between me and the hole. Rob stroked, but was laying 3 short of the water with about 90 yards to the front pin. It was time to get aggressive and see where my game really was these days. My only play was to hit left of the pine tree directly over the water with a 20-25 yards cut (slice) to the green - did I say it was into the wind?
Taking 3-wood and placing the ball a little further back in my stance, your Hack hit the best shot he’s hit in the last 2 years. It missed the pine tree by a couple of yards, climbed high and sliced onto the green about 10-12 feet above the hole. Wow, the adrenalin was flowing :-). I’d pulled it off.
Of course I missed the birdie putt and the par halved Rob’s bogey/net par to remain even. The same result on 18 and we ended the 2nd 9 all square. Rob had shot 2 over, bogeying the last 3 holes, while I’d shot 35 with 9 straight pars.
Score: 74 (+4 to the adjusted par of 70 on a 5,700 yard course)
Greens in Regulation: 15 of 18 or 83%
Fairways in Regulation: 11 of 14 or 79%
No. of Putts: 36 with 2, 3-putts and 2, 1-putts
Until next week - keep it in the short grass!
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