Joe Highsmith Has Historic Weekend, Xander And His Rib Are Back, Playing Your Childhood Course One Last Time

In order to win on the PGA Tour, no matter the level of event or the strength of the field, you have to be damn near perfect, and while he did card one bogey over the weekend, Joe Highsmith was an absolute machine while chasing down his first career victory at PGA National.

A quick note on PGA National, by the way. It may not be the brutal test it used to be, with players turning it into a bit of a birdie fest over recent years, but it still delivers. Outside of a couple of Par 5s on the course, you can't blink if you want to get around unscathed, which is exactly what we want to see as golf fans week in and week out.

Speaking of tests, Xander Schauffele is going to test out his injured rib in a TGL match to begin the week before making what will be his second start of the PGA Tour season at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The No. 3 player in the world has six weeks to get his game in order before heading to Augusta National. 

Lastly, the golf course I grew up on is undergoing a complete renovation this year. I got to play it one last time before they rip up everything, and let me tell you, it's a bit of a weird feeling. We'll dive into it all in this week's edition of Par Talk.

As always, feel free to reach out to me at mark.harris@outkick.com with thoughts, concerns, questions, and, of course, disagreements. If you'd rather yell at me on Twitter, you can find me @itismarkharris.

Joe Highsmith Makes History With Maiden PGA Tour Victory

On Friday afternoon, Joe Highsmith was sweating while waiting to see if his two-day score of 5-under was going to be good enough to make the cut. Forty-eight hours later, he was standing on the 18th green, holding the trophy.

The 24-year-old Washington native became the first player over the last nine years to make the cut on the number and go on to win a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Brandt Snedeker was the last to pull off the feat when he managed to do so at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open.

After firing a third-round 64, it was clear that Highsmith had his game dialed, but he still headed into Sunday's final round four shots back of Jake Knapp atop the leaderboard. With Knapp already a winner on Tour, he was the favorite heading into the final 18 holes, but Highsmith kept his momentum from Saturday heading into Sunday and decide he'd post a second straight 64 to win by two shots.

Back-to-back 64s at PGA National where there is trouble lurking on every single hole while trying to chase down your first professional victory is some diabolical stuff, but Highsmith and his bucket hat were clearly up for the challenge.

While some will point to Knapp's water-filled triple bogey on the 11th hole as a gift to Highsmith, which it undoubtedly was, he still had to get his ball into the hole and was easily the most-impressive player in the field over the weekend.

Highsmith's win marks the second straight week we've seen a mostly-unknown player find the winner's circle after Brian Campbell won in Mexico the week prior. These are the types of stories the diehard PGA Tour fans and golf purists scream about as the professional game has been filled with nothing but green and money talk. Now that we've scratched that itch two weeks in a row, heading into a signature event filled with the best players on Tour feels like an ideal way for the schedule to play out.

Xander Schauffele Jumping Right Into The Mix

Xander Schaffuele is slated to make his second start of the 2025 PGA Tour season this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after being sidelined with a rib injury. 

He finished T-30 in the season opener in Hawaii and played in the opening match of the inaugural TGL season, but this will be the first time we've seen Schauffele compete in two months.

With a rib injury, there isn't really much to do in terms of speeding up the recovery process other than to sit on the couch and rot away. You can't go beat golf balls on the range for three hours and expect your rib to heal, so seeing how Schauffele comes out of the gates at this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational will be very interesting.

While it wouldn't be a shock to see Schauffele show a bit of rust this week, if he's able to get in the mix at all it would be the perfect sign that his game isn't missing a beat. Bay Hill is one of the tougher all-around tests on Tour with players needing to hit fairways and show off major touch around the greens. 

Schauffele finished T-25 at Bay Hill a year ago and then went on to pick up three-straight Top 10 finishes before finding a new gear and winning two major championships.

Saying Goodbye To A Golf Course

My family and I recently moved back to my hometown, and one of my first moves was joining the one and only private golf course in town. There is no such thing as ‘good timing’ when it comes to joining a country club - at the end of the day it's a luxury, whether it's $100 a month or $10,000 a month - but joining the country club weeks before they blow the place up for a renovation while asking you to pay an assessment is peak bad timing. My wife would agree.

Paying more money for a golf course you don't get to play for 9-ish months then having to wait a good year or two for the turf and greens to fall into place is less than ideal situation. You just have to tell yourself it's all going to be worth it, and the golf course was due for a total revamp, but it's still no fun.

Anyways, this past weekend, the club hosted its final ‘event’ before completely shutting things down and ripping the place to shreds. While you're out there enjoying the day you don't think about it, but after the fact, you realize you'll never see that place as you've known in it for your entire life ever again.

That's a really, really weird feeling.

We're talking about a piece of property you've spent hundreds of hours on. It's familiar. It's nice. It's relaxing, at least more often than not, and now it's just…gone.

This is definitely me just being way too sentimental since becoming a dad a couple of years ago, but it is crazy to think about the memories my family, other families, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. have made on golf courses that are essentially forced to be redone to keep up with the times.

Here's to new memories on a new golf course in the future, and here's to the old ones that helped shape me and my family.