The last weekend in August brought the 2026 PGA Tour season to a close. The top 30 players gathered in Atlanta at East Lake, although only 29 completed the event. On day two, Cameron Young gave us a humorous take as he shook hands with the air after completing an eight-under-par round of 62. Young was the odd man out, reduced to a solo round after JJ Spaun withdrew.
The PGA Tour will rest for three weeks before resuming an eight-event Fall series, in addition to the Presidents Cup in Chicago. The LPGA found itself outside Boston for its last event in the run-up to the Solheim Cup in a fortnight. After the Euros and USAs do battle in Holland, the LPGA will return to an eight-week stretch that concludes with its Tour Championship. As 2026 is a non-Ryder Cup year, the DP World Tour will move full steam ahead through the northern autumn, with ten events from September to November, concluding in Dubai at the DPWTC.
The PGA Tour Americas and PGA Tour Champions conclude our coverage for this week. Minnesota welcomed the former, while the latter visited longtime touring host Warwick Hills in Michigan. As thoughts in places turn to school and the changing of leaves, golf aficionados bask in the extension of seasons into the fall months. We are a fortunate bunch, so let’s run down this week’s winners and their gear in Tour Tech Rundown.
Oh, thanks to WITBhub, GolfWRX, and Ping for their initial research into equipment.
PGA Tour @ Tour Championship: The Schef is in the house
Scottie Scheffler had a satisfying year. It seems that a campaign doesn’t go by without something odd happening to the New Jersey-Texan. Whether it’s an arrest or a serious illness, Scheffler seems to smile outwardly and grind inwardly. 2026 saw the Scheff win three times, lose two events in playoffs, and notch three top-four finishes in major championships. Does that putt us about ten swings from discussing the greatest season in golf? I think so.
This week in Atlanta, Scheffler didn’t dominate. He simply grabbed an opportunity that many let slip. Viktor Hovland, we weep for you. Another one bit the dust this week, and we’d love to see you win a few and gain dominance, if only for a year. Ryan Gerard, you are thiiiiisss much away from winning a big one. You won the Barracuda last year, and you made some runs in 2026. Carry that momentum into 2027, and chase down that dream.
What did Scheffler do on Sunday, that others failed to achieve? He made three times as many birdies as bogeys. His six birds against two boges brought him to four-deep on the day. That was the low round on the day, matched by Alex Fitzpatrick (T4) and Xander Schauffele (T14.) If you can’t strike the Scheff on Sunday, you probably can’t win the title.
Scottie’s Hardware Haul
LPGA @ FM Championship: Da-Doo-Ron-Ruoning
Sometimes they reveal hole locations on Sunday, to encourage birdies and crowd yodels. That was not the case at TPC Boston on day four of the FM Championship. The ladies had to battle for every saved shot. A wide handful of -4 were seen across the leader’s board, and numbers went as high as plus-seven. Ruoning Yin awoke to a one-shot lead over Hyo joo Kim on the final day, and when the sun had begun to set, she had added one to that advantage, for a two-shot victory.
After gaining a shot at three, Yin lost two shots at four and five. That was the crepuscular moment, when her day would either begin or end. Yin gathered her strength, posted secuential birdies at six and seven (six seven, you kids!) and rode an even-par train to the 18th green. Kim fought bravely, but came to the closing stretch still down. She took a chance at 16, but made bogey and moved two shots distant from the leader. Allisen Corpuz and Rose Zhang each closed with -4 to finish 3 and T4, respectively.
Ruoning’s Hardware Haul
DP World Tour @ British Masters: Not your average Joe
Joe Dean had a fairly mundane, round midsection (yawn) on Sunday at The Belfry. Just one birdie and five pars is a career haul for some. For a touring professional, it is borderline excruciating. Fortunately for the former delivery driver (more on that later), his opening sextet featured four birdies and two pars, as did his closing six-pack. Dean’s 63 was the low round of the weak, and hoisted him past everyone, to his first tour title.
In 2023, Dean had earned a card for the 2024 season, but he was broke. He drove a delivery truck for an English supermarket chain. When Dean joined the tour three months after he was eligible, he had two near-misses that resulted in runner-up finishes. A stalwart on tour since then, Dean now elevates to an elite realm of tour title holders.
Sunday was not a day for the leaders. Danes Niklas Norgaard and Jacob Skov Olesen fought to minus-one totals, and finished in a four-way tie for second place, with Nacho Elvira, and Daniel Hillier. Among that quartet, only Elvira moved up more than one place, and it was Hillier who fell from grace with the sea. The 54-hole leader went out in plus-three figures, and fought back on the inward half, but could not reclaim the strokes needed to reach a playoff.
Joe Dean’s Hardware Haul
PGA Tour Americas @ CRMC Championship: Justin Beebs, almost
Justin Biwer and Bryan Lee each dug a 61 out of the Cragun’s Legacy this week in Brainerd, Minnesota. Each one had a pair of mid-60s scorecards verified as well. The tournament came down to the high round for each golfer. For Biwer, it was a 67. For Lee, it was a day-two 70. That three-stroke differential was the essential element of Biwer’s two-shot margin of victory over Lee.
Neither golfer had won this season. and with two events remaining, post-Brainerd, before the Tour Championship, time was dwindling to make a statement and secure a spot for 2027. The victory pulled Biwer to sixth spot, well inside the Korn Ferry Tour qualifiers. Lee moved to 34th position, still quite distant, but essentially, one victory away from a big jump.
PGA Tour Champions @ The Ally Challenge: All Alker, all the time
As if the denizens of the Tour Champions didn’t have enought to worry about, with Cink and Johnson challenging every week, now it appears that Steven Alker has snapped out of his twelve-month funk, and is back to dominating the senior circuit once more. The Kiwi Konqueror won seven times in his first two years, but only three times in the next two. He now has three wins this year, and shows no signs of stopping. Alker gave upstart Michael Block and why-can’t-he-close Padraig Harrington a month’s worth of lessons on Sunday, as he signed for minus-four over the conclusive eighteen. Only a lightning 64 from Retief Goosen made the Alker performance not a runaway win.
In truth, much was up for grabs, until the final threesome reached the middle of the back nine. Alker zipped four consecutive birdies from 12 through 16, while Block could do little more than make the last of his five bogeys and slip into a top-five finish. Let’s not kid ourselves: Block is working wonders, and it won’t shock anyone to see him challenge again before the year concludes. When it comes to closing, to winning, Alker is on the top tier, where very few others take up residence.
As a matter of fact and supposition, Johnson won four events ago, Cink three, Alker two, Cink last week, and Alker this week. If the rhythm plays on, Johnson should win when the tour reaches Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the second week of September.
Steven’s Hardware Haul
An exclamation point from Steven Alker!
His lead is now four shots @AllyChallenge ?
? CNBC pic.twitter.com/KzjlvOyCxE
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 30, 2026
