Comebacks & breakthroughs!

Andy’s Golf Lab Weekly — 28 September 2026

America turns Medinah around, Nishimura breaks through and Fitzpatrick makes it four

Professional golf gave us three very different versions of pressure this weekend.

At Medinah Country Club, the International Team went into Sunday with a three-point advantage and its best opportunity in years to end American dominance of the Presidents Cup.

In Arkansas, Yuna Nishimura began Sunday five clear, briefly found herself behind, and then recovered to win her first LPGA title by five.

And in Paris, Matt Fitzpatrick took a five-shot lead into Sunday and made the whole thing look considerably less complicated.

Three situations. Three different responses.

And another reminder that pressure doesn’t necessarily change the golf shot.

It changes how the golf shot feels.

PGA Tour — an American comeback at Medinah

For most of Saturday, it looked as though this might finally be the International Team’s Presidents Cup.

They led the United States 10½–7½ after Saturday and needed only 4½ points from Sunday’s 12 singles matches to win the Cup. 

Instead, the Americans produced the biggest Sunday singles comeback in Presidents Cup history.

Captain Brandt Snedeker loaded the front of his singles order, and the response was emphatic: the USA won eight of the first ten matches and eventually completed a 17–13 victory. 

And there was a lovely continuation from last week’s newsletter.

Seven days ago, Jacob Bridgeman shot 61 to win the Biltmore Championship.

This Sunday, he supplied the point that secured the Presidents Cup, beating Min Woo Lee 1-up on the 18th. 

That is quite a fortnight.

For the USA, it is an 11th consecutive Presidents Cup victory. 

For the Internationals, however, this one will hurt.

Three points ahead overnight.

Four and a half required.

Then watching the scoreboard turn red.

That is team golf at its most uncomfortable.

Is the Presidents Cup finally becoming compelling?

I’ve questioned this competition before because one-sided team sport eventually becomes difficult to sell as genuine rivalry.

The Americans keep winning.

But this edition felt different.

The International Team didn’t spend four days trying to remain respectable. They had the United States in real trouble.

And that matters.

A competition doesn’t necessarily require a different winner every time.

It requires uncertainty.

For several hours on Sunday, we genuinely didn’t know.

That’s what makes us watch.

LPGA Tour — Nishimura finally converts

Yuna Nishimura’s week in Arkansas was outstanding.

She opened with 63.

Then shot another 63.

After 36 holes she was 16-under and five clear. 

The first of those rounds was particularly impressive statistically: she hit all 13 fairways and all 18 greens in regulation. 

But Sunday became rather less comfortable.

Nishimura dropped two shots in her opening six holes while fellow Japanese player Aki Iwai charged with six birdies in seven holes early on the back nine.

For a while, Nishimura actually lost the lead. 

That’s where the story becomes interesting.

She didn’t unravel.

She played a flawless back nine, closed with 66 and finished 21-under, five clear of Iwai, Chanettee Wannasaen and In Gee Chun. 

At 26, Nishimura was already a six-time winner on the Japan LPGA.

Now she is an LPGA Tour winner too. 

And then Lauren Coughlin did something extraordinary

Nishimura won the tournament, but perhaps the statistic of the week belonged to Lauren Coughlin.

On Saturday she began her round with nine consecutive birdies.

Nine.

It is the first time in recorded LPGA history that a player has started a round with nine straight birdies.

Her opening nine of 26 was also the lowest raw nine-hole score ever recorded on the LPGA Tour. She eventually shot 61. 

One day you’re two over and worrying about missing the cut.

The next you’re rewriting LPGA records.

Golf.

DP World Tour — Fitzpatrick is becoming difficult to ignore

If Nishimura had to recover from adversity on Sunday, Fitzpatrick did almost the opposite at Le Golf National.

He entered the final round of the FedEx Open de France five clear.

And stayed in control.

A closing 70 gave him a 20-under total and a three-shot victory over Ángel Hidalgo. 

It was Fitzpatrick’s fourth victory of 2026, his 15th worldwide and 11th on the DP World Tour. 

His rounds were 65-64-65-70.

Remarkably, the bogey at the 72nd hole was only his second bogey of the entire week. 

That is a different type of excellence.

We tend to celebrate the spectacular comeback.

But there is enormous skill involved in beginning Sunday with everyone expecting you to win — and simply doing it.

Hidalgo’s runner-up finish also earned him a place in next year’s Open Championship at St Andrews through the Open Qualifying Series. 

And next comes one of the most enjoyable weeks on the European calendar: the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, played across St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns from 1–4 October. 

Ladies European Tour — Alexander wins again

A month ago, Casandra Alexander had accumulated five runner-up finishes during the season.

Now she has won twice in four weeks.

Alexander closed with 69 at Golf Club Milano to win the Buccellati Ladies Italian Open on 12-under, three ahead of Sophie Hausmann and Anna Morgan. 

Cara Gainer finished alone in fourth at eight-under. 

For Alexander, it is her third career LET title following her breakthrough in the Czech Republic last year and her KPMG Women’s Irish Open victory only four weeks ago. 

This is a wonderful example of why we have to be careful with the language of near misses.

Five runner-up finishes could easily be framed as:

She can’t get it done.

But another interpretation is:

She keeps putting herself in position to win.

Eventually, probability starts working in your favour.

Now she’s doing rather more than knocking on the door.

She’s walking through it.

LIV Golf — the uncertainty continues

There was no LIV tournament this weekend; its 2026 season is complete.

The significant story remains the league’s Chapter 11 restructuring. LIV filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month and subsequently received interim court approval to access financing while the restructuring proceeds. 

And the player picture remains uncertain.

Joaquin Niemann, a nine-time individual LIV winner, said last week that he has not committed to the league for 2027. 

That is significant.

Whatever emerges from LIV’s restructuring, player retention will be fundamental.

Golf fans don’t follow corporate structures.

They follow golfers.

Andy’s Coaching Takeaway

Pressure doesn’t change the shot

Think about Nishimura.

She started Sunday five ahead.

Then lost the lead.

Did her golf swing suddenly become technically worse?

Probably not.

The context changed.

Think about the International Team.

They woke on Sunday three ahead.

Within a few hours the scoreboard was moving rapidly towards the USA.

The golf course hadn’t changed.

But the environment had.

This is why competitive practice matters.

If all of your practice is technically comfortable, you are only practising one part of golf.

Give yourself consequences.

Nine holes: can you beat your handicap?

Putting green: hole five four-footers consecutively.

Short game: ten balls, seven must finish inside six feet.

The objective isn’t to recreate a Presidents Cup.

It’s to make yourself feel something.

Then learn to perform while feeling it.

Pressure doesn’t change the shot. It changes how the shot feels.

That’s what we’re actually learning to manage.