Ladies and gentlemen,

It was (again) of course my honor to attend the first leg of the YGT put on by Grant Horvat and Bryan Bros. We (along with 3.85+ million other people) have seen round 1, but WE’RE ON TO ROUND 2 BABY.

I could pitter patter around and drone on and on about this or that, or we could get down to business. Shall we?

Onward!

Spoilers included, go watch the video if you want the real drama.

Standings after Round 1 Scramble:

T1: Team Wesley (-14)
T1: Team Brad (-14)
3: Team Grant (-13)
4: Team George (-10)

Each team had to bench one player to sub in their wild card for the 9-hole alt-shot round. Those who sat for each team respectively:

Team Wesley: Roger Steele replaced by John Peterson

Team Brad: Garrett Clark replaced by Ben Hadden

Team Grant: Sam Heung Min replaced by Michael Block

Team George: Josh Kelley replaced by JP Mehu

Each team’s score on Alt-Shot would be added to their morning scramble scores to determine which teams would advance to the singles stroke play final the following day.

THIS MEANS that Team George would have to come up with something really special. They’d have to make up 4 strokes on alt-shot.

Team Grant would have a little work to do, needing to make up one stroke on either Team Wesley or Team Brad.

Wesley and Brad had their teams in the driver’s seats (two driver’s seats on this bus), but not too securely, and alt-shot is no joke. There’s less rhythm, there’s far less control, and no options.

You just have to play your partners ball. Plain and simple. Here’s how it went:

George Bryan & JP Mehu: +2
Tooms & Taco: -2

Kiwis came to play in round two, though their -2 was unfortunately negated by a +2 alt-shot round for George and JP. To the credit of Tooms and Taco, they had the 3rd highest finish out of the 8 alt-shot pairings. Lots of good to take from this round for them.

It wasn’t enough, but all in all, Team George learned a lot out there. On to the next!

Team Grant: -2 (-15 total)

Grant Horvat & Luke Kwon: +1
Michael Block & Chance Taylor: -3

Not only brilliant play from Blockie and Chance, but I think you’ll find that they were the stars of the show. Unreal pairing for both performance and vibes.

WAS IT ENOUGH??

Team Wesley: -4 (-18 total)

Wesley Bryan & Ryan Ruffels: -5
Micah Morris & John Peterson: +1

You could argue that Wes and Ruff are the two best golfers on the YGT. If you thought it then, you’d surely think it now.

-5 through 9 on alt-shot is big time. After two rounds, Wesley has had the low round in both. A man man in the scramble, and mad man in alt-shot.

Team Brad: -2 (-16 total)

Brad Dalke & Sean Walsh: -1
Ben Hadden & Peter Finch: -1

Note that after hole 16, Hadden and Finch were +2 on the round.

Ben put his tee shot on 17 to about 8 feet, where Pete finishes the job with a disgusting, SPEEDY left to right downhill birdie putt.

While cause for celebration, hole 18 was where the magic happened. Pete’s drive put Ben right in the center of the fairway, but not completely out of danger. With a tree (right in the middle of the fairway) taunting him ever so slightly, Hadden slams a 2i from 255 out, bending it just around the tree with a beautiful high draw — he sticks it to about 15 feet for Finch’s Eagle try. One of the most incredible shots I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes.

A shot Ben Hadden says might have been the shot of his life. But the work wasn’t done.

Brad and Sean had a little more trouble, but were able to get safely in for par. Pete’s eagle putt remained.

Pete (I feel like I can call him that at this point, idk) had just nailed a birdie putt on the slippery 17th green to keep them in striking distance. Could he be the hero again? Sure thing. He sinks the eagle putt to give Team Brad the edge, as they advance to the final by just one stroke over Team Grant.

Best putter on YouTube, best putter in the world?

And just like that, Team Grant and Team George are eliminated. Team Wesley and Team Brad advance.

P.S. — Y’all like how I used B/W pics for the eliminated teams? I thought that was a good touch. I work alone so I have no one to tell me if I’m doing a good job or not, so I’m saying good job to myself on that creative decision. Good job Luke.

This marked the end of Round 2, and the end of the road for Team Grant and Team George.

They’ll have their work cut out for them in the events ahead, though neither team has reason to believe they’re out of contention for big money down the stretch.

Gosh it was just so fun out there. Golf is awesome. Y’all come back next week for a FINALS recap. Who you got?

CHEERS,

Luke Mangan
On Golf