There was a nice symmetry to this weekend. While the best players in the world were grinding out the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, everyone who walked through our doors was playing the exact same golf course — same links, same fescue, same brutal closing stretch. Just with air conditioning and a coffee within reach.
Here's what happened, in here and out there.
Two champions, one stroke apart
Our first-ever White Tee Invitational ran all weekend alongside The Open — free two-hour sessions, live coverage, and a full slate of contests. Two friends walked in together and split the weekend between them.
Tyler Callahan — a 2.7 handicap who had never hit a shot on a simulator in his life — did not play like it. He won both contests:
- Closest to the Pin — the island green 17th at TPC Sawgrass, with water everywhere and nowhere to miss. 4 feet, 6 inches.
- Longest Drive — 337 yards.
He had company. Ryan Green stuck one to 12 feet on that same island green, and John Mitchell and Phil Atwell both cleared 290 off the tee — numbers that would hold up in most clubhouses in Florida.
Beside him, Craig B put together the best round anyone played all weekend: an 81 at Royal Birkdale, earned the hard way in a head-to-head that ran all the way to the 18th and came down to a single stroke.
The scorecard tells it better than we can. Through nine they were dead level — 39 apiece, neither man able to shake the other. Craig came home in 42, Tyler in 43. Eighteen holes of Royal Birkdale off the white tees at 6,755 yards, and one single stroke in it at the end.
Two friends, one bay, a finish decided on the last hole — and two champions who each took something home. That's exactly the kind of golf we built this place for.
Congratulations to both. The rest of us have eleven months to prepare.
And thank you to everyone who came out — the bays were full all weekend, the room was loud, and for a club that isn't technically open yet, it felt an awful lot like one.
Meanwhile, at the real Birkdale: Fox steals it on the last
Ryan Fox birdied the 72nd hole to win The Open at 10 under, one clear of Cameron Young. He closed with four birdies in his final six holes — the kind of finish that wins majors and ruins the Sundays of everyone chasing.
It's Fox's first major, his third PGA Tour win, and it makes him the first New Zealander to win The Open in the modern era.
Spare a thought for Sam Burns, who carried the 54-hole lead into Sunday, shot 2-over 72, and finished solo third. Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood tied for fourth.
The two shots everyone is still arguing about
The story of the week wasn't the champion, though. It was the two-stroke penalty given to Bryson DeChambeau in round two.
On the par-4 fifth, DeChambeau drove well right into the penalty area and judged the ball playable. Video showed him taking exaggerated steps behind it, flattening the fescue exactly where he'd shortly be making a backswing. The R&A ruled he had improved his lie under Rule 8.1.
The cost was severe: bogey became triple, a 66 became a 68, and he fell from solo second — one off the lead — into a tie for fifth.
The penalty applies even when the action is accidental. You're entitled to fairly take your stance, but you must take the least intrusive course of action — you are not entitled to a normal stance or a normal swing.
That's the part worth understanding, because it applies to your game too. The R&A's Grant Moir confirmed the ruling stands even though they accepted Bryson's action was unintentional. When your ball finds a bad lie, the lie is part of the problem you have to solve.
It split the sport. American players defended him. Rory McIlroy called the reaction "performative" and said the penalty was deserved. Golf Digest landed on what's probably the fairest verdict: incredibly harsh, and also correct.
Rules don't care about intent. Worth remembering next time you're tempted to tread down the rough behind your ball.
What's next
We open to the public on August 1. Founder memberships are available until then — founder pricing locks in for life, and once we're open, it's gone.
Every golf story starts on a white tee.
Sources: Golf Channel — The Open recap · PGA Tour — DeChambeau penalty · Golf Digest — the ruling