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QUESTION OF THE WEEK

From a golf perspective, what are you most looking forward to — either personally or for the sport as a whole — in 2025? 

Send replies on this question or other topics and questions you would like to have asked to shall@buffalogroupe.com. For a response to be published, you must include your first and last name, along with the city and state of residence.

> Responses to the last question: The First Call's Gary Van Sickle wrote about professional golf's pace-of-play issue and the Shot Clock Masters. How do you believe the issue should be addressed? | Read

Whoosh: Announces a strategic partnership with Foresight Sports, a Revelyst brand that manufactures optical launch monitors and golf simulation technology. Whoosh becomes the preferred partner for reservation and operations management across simulator facilities worldwide. The partnership builds on Whooshʼs recently announced expansion into full activity management, which introduced duration-based booking and resource optimization features to recreation facilities.

PGA Tour: Announces a new version of its Fantasy Golf game, which will go live on Jan. 2. Refreshed with an updated design and enhanced features, PGA Tour Fantasy Golf is a free-to-play fantasy game that allows fans to showcase their golf knowledge by picking a team of six PGA Tour stars each week to compete against their friends and fellow fans. Prizes, courtesy of PGA Tour Superstore, will be awarded throughout the FedEx Cup Season, culminating with an overall champion named after the season-ending Tour Championship. The 2025 fantasy golf schedule will be broken down into three segments across the 2025 FedEx Cup Season, beginning with The Sentry, with midseason segments starting at The Players Championship and then the RBC Canadian Open. Prizes will be awarded after each segment and at the conclusion of the season.

Full Wedge Golf: Announces the Full Wedge Orlando Classic, a two-person scramble tournament scheduled for Jan. 20 under the lights at the Orange Lake Golf Legends Walk Course in Orlando, Florida.

The Q at Myrtle Beach: Competition that blends traditional golf with innovative digital storytelling will return in 2025, offering 16 players the opportunity to earn a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic. Featuring a 16-player field comprised of eight influential content creators and eight aspiring professionals, the 18-hole shootout will again be played at TPC Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.

United States Golf Association: Announces that the 70th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, originally scheduled to be played at Biltmore Forest Country Club in Asheville, North Carolina, has been relocated to Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas. The championship will still be conducted from Aug. 23-28, 2025. The championship site is being moved due to the impact of Hurricane Helene, which caused extensive flooding and damage to the Asheville area. Oak Hills was originally scheduled to serve as host of the 2028 U.S. Senior Amateur but agreed to move up in the championship order. Biltmore Forest will now host the 73rd U.S. Senior Amateur in 2028.

Epson Tour: Announces 2025 schedule, which celebrates its 45th season, includes $5 million in total prize money to be awarded over 20 tournaments, and debuts with three new events. The Epson Tour will visit 14 states, with Michigan and Florida hosting three tournaments each, and will begin in Winter Haven, Florida, with the Central Florida Championship, Feb. 28-March 2. Three new tournaments are the Reliance Matrix Championship (May 1-4 in Las Vegas, Nevada), the Great Lakes Championship (June 13-15 in Boyne Falls, Michigan) and one in conjunction with the Legends of the LPGA (July 25-27 in Toledo, Ohio). The Epson Tour Championship will round out the 2025 schedule, Oct. 2-5 in Indian Wells, California.

PGA Tour: Releases its schedule for the 2025 FedEx Cup Fall, a seven-event slate that helps finalize PGA Tour eligibility for the 2026 season. The FedEx Cup Fall features the Procore Championship (Sept. 8-14, Silverado Resort, Napa, California); Sanderson Farms Championship (Sept. 29-Oct. 5, The Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi); Baycurrent Classic (Oct. 6-12, Yokohama Country Club, Yokohama, Japan); The Black Desert Championship (Oct. 20-26, Black Desert Resort, Ivins, Utah); World Wide Technology Championship (Nov. 3-9, El Cardonal at Diamante, Los Cabos, Mexico); Butterfield Bermuda Championship (Nov. 10-16, Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda); and The RSM Classic (Nov. 17-23, Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

PGA Tour, Baycurrent Inc.: Announce a multiyear agreement for the Japan-based consulting firm to become the title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s Japan event — reimagined as the Baycurrent Classic. The FedEx Cup Fall event will also relocate to Yokohama Country Club in Yokohama, Kanagawa, in 2025. The Baycurrent Classic, which is co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour Organization, provides opportunities for JGTO players to compete with PGA Tour players.

Swing Control: Plans to unveil its fall/winter 2025 collection at the PGA Show, Jan. 21–24, in Orlando, Florida. Swing Control’s exhibit will feature standout pieces from the After Hours and Mystic Marine collections, including the Side Stripe scuba pants and Jetsons Airspun skorts.

Nippon Shaft: Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp paired to win the Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Florida, on Dec. 15, and did so while playing Nippon Shaft products. Tavatanakit competed with N.S.Pro 950GH steel shafts in her irons and Modus3 Wedge115 steel shafts in her wedges. Knapp played Modus3 Wedge steel shafts in his wedges.

Blue Tees Golf: Launches the Player Pack Go, a premium holiday gift bundle featuring three of the brand’s most popular and innovative products — the Series 3 Max+ rangefinder, Player GO GPS speaker and 6-in-1 utility divot tool. The bundle is now available at BlueTeesGolf.com.

Blue Tees Golf: Launches its 5-foot premium interactive display. Designed to offer an immersive and educational in-store experience. The 5-foot interactive display features a 32-inch 4K touchscreen that allows users to interact with Blue Tees Golf’s ecosystem via touch, swipe and video functionalities, along with up-to-the-minute product information, reviews, and tutorials. The display also serves as an educational tool for customers and a training platform for retail associates, displaying simplified complex product features to make them easy to understand and communicate.

PGA Tour: Opens its PGA Tour Studios as the 2025 FedEx Cup season opens this week at The Sentry. First conceptualized in 2017 leading into media rights negotiations, the 165,000-square-foot building broke ground in 2022 and tested its capabilities throughout the fall of 2024. The opening of PGA Tour Studios is a pivotal next step of golf content production in an ever-changing media landscape. PGA Tour Studios now houses all PGA Tour media operations, including live production of PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, more than 5,000 hours of PGA Tour Live on ESPN+, as well as the Tour’s expansive roster of more than 50 original, social and digital media platforms.

Vineyards Country Club: Appoints Sean O'Donnell as lead assistant golf professional for the Naples, Florida, club.

Jondo: Four-time major champion Ernie Els will debut as a brand ambassador for the golf eyewear company at the 2025 PGA Show. The sunglasses feature Krisp lens technology for enhanced depth perception and glare reduction, along with TR-90 frames for lightweight durability and 100% UV protection. Also, Jondo will support the Els for Autism Foundation.

PGA Tour: Nick Dunlap, 20, wins the Arnold Palmer Award as the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2024 season. Dunlap, who became the first player in Tour history to win as an amateur and a professional in the same season, is the youngest player to be named Rookie of the Year since Jordan Spieth in 2013. Rookie of the Year is determined by a member vote and Dunlap received 57 percent of the vote over three other nominees — Max Greyserman, Jake Knapp and Matthieu Pavon. 

Reebok: Announces a long-term partnership agreement to become the apparel and footwear sponsor of Bryson DeChambeau and his LIV Golf team, Crushers GC. In March, Reebok will tap DeChambeau, a two-time major champion, as the official face of Reebok Golf apparel and footwear offerings, including the introduction of Nano Golf — the brand’s new on-course performance golf shoe. Also, the official Crushers GC team kits will be available for purchase in March 2025 on Reebok.com and at LIV Golf events.   

PGA Tour: Honors Ken Hoffman, a volunteer with more than 45 years of service at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, as the 2024 PGA Tour Volunteer of the Year. With the award, the PGA Tour will donate $10,000 to the charity of Hoffman’s choosing — The Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation, the primary beneficiary of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Hoffman has been a volunteer at the Arnold Palmer Invitational since 1979, initially serving with the Status Board committee. After many years of chairing several committees, Hoffman served as a member of the Volunteer Executive Board for eight years before becoming the Volunteer General Chairman in 2017 and 2018. After his two-year term, Hoffman continued to support multiple areas of the tournament and was invited to serve on the Volunteer Executive Leadership Team (VELT) where he oversees the Scoring committees.

PGA Tour: Announces that The Ophelia Project, a nonprofit beneficiary of The American Express, has been named the 2024 PGA Tour Charity of the Year. The organization was presented the honor during the tournament’s annual Community Impact Celebration. The Ophelia Project, which is part of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, is a comprehensive, five-year mentoring program that provides a supportive environment, training and education for 300 to 400 girls annually in grades 8 through 12. The Charity of the Year award comes with a $30,000 grant from the PGA Tour and will go toward helping support mentorship programs for local, middle, and high school aged girls.