Morning 9: 2 tours, 2 victory droughts ended | Rubenstein on Connery | Shinkwinning | 2 aces this year for 10-year-old

1. Gay a winner again at 48

 Kevin Prise for PGATour.com..."Since the PGA TOUR's Return to Golf in June, the 48-year-old was without a top-25 finish in 11 starts. He had made 169 starts since his last TOUR title, The American Express in 2013."

• "...The University of Florida alum carded a final-round 64 at the Bermuda Championship, capped off with a birdie at the 72nd hole, ultimately good for a playoff with Wyndham Clark at 15 under. Gay won with a birdie on the first extra hole - again the par-4 18th at Port Royal GC."
• "With his fifth TOUR title, Gay becomes the oldest TOUR winner since Davis Love III at the 2015 Wyndham Championship. He gains entry into next year's Sentry Tournament of Champions, PLAYERS Championship and Masters Tournament, in addition to earning 500 FedExCup points."

Full piece.

2. Shinkwinning! 

Reuters report..."England's Callum Shinkwin won his maiden European Tour title when he beat Finland's Kalle Samooja in a playoff to win the Cyprus Open after both golfers finished 20-under overall in a dramatic finale on Sunday."

• "Shinkwin, 27, was two shots behind Samooja with two holes to play and sank a birdie on the 17th before holing a 54-foot putt for an eagle on the par-five 18th, his second eagle at the hole after one in the third round."
• "Samooja managed to birdie the 18th to force the playoff but missed a birdie putt while Shinkwin sank his own birdie to win his first title in his 112th event."

Full piece.

3. Phil headed to Houston

Golf Channel's Ryan Lavner..."Phil Mickelson has decided to play in the PGA Tour's Vivint Houston Open, not the PGA Tour Champions event, in his final tuneup before the Masters."

• "Last week Mickelson said he was exploring whether to tee it up in Houston at Memorial Park - a course he'd never seen - or at the senior event at Phoenix Country Club. Also complicating his decision was the Tour allowing 2,000 fans per day in Houston, marking the first time a Tour event in the U.S. has permitted spectators since the Players Championship. Mickelson later told GolfChannel.com that the fans wouldn't be a deciding factor."

Full piece.

4. Special Temporary status for Zalatoris 

Golf Channel's Brentley Romine..."We should be seeing a lot more of Will Zalatoris on the PGA Tour."

• "Entering the Bermuda Championship, the 24-year-old Wake Forest product needed just three points to achieve special temporary membership. He cliched the designation by making the cut on Friday and then made things official Sunday with a closing 68, T-16 finish and 59 FedExCup points."
• "Yeah, it's exciting," Zalatoris said. "I thought I had a pretty good chance of it in Vegas. Obviously a couple points short. I'm glad I got it done in one week. If I kind of let that wander a little bit, it wouldn't have been fun."

Full piece.

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5. Clarke wins TimberTech

"Craig Dolch syndicated in Golfweek..."It has been nine years since Darren Clarke had a victory toast, but he showed Sunday he still knows how to win and celebrate."

• "Clarke birdied the 18th hole to win the TimberTech Championship by a shot over defending champion Bernhard Langer and Jim Furyk. It was Clarke's first victory since the 2011 British Open, and Clarke celebrated with a champagne toast outside the Broken Sound clubhouse."
• "I haven't had one of these in a while," Clarke said. "I was drunk for a week the last time I won. I imagine I'll wake up with a headache tomorrow."

Full piece.

6. Icon of the screen...and links

In his excellent piece on the passing of Sean Connery, Score Golf's venerable Lorne Rubenstein wrote this: "...in that summer of 2000, Nell and I lived in Dornoch, Scotland, a village I had first visited in 1977. It remains my favourite course and village, way up in the Highlands. Connery loved Dornoch and wrote in his 2008 book Being a Scot that, "During the filming of Goldfinger, I learned the essential challenge of links golf in Royal Dornoch."

• "He also loved the entire country in which he was born. Connery was born in Edinburgh and was a strong supporter of Scottish independence. I contacted him and he agreed to write the foreword to A Season in Dornoch, my account of that summer of 2000 when we lived in a roomy, chilly flat above a bookshop a five-minute walk from the links."
• "As a Scot, I'm drawn to links golf and its enduring challenges," Connery wrote. "It's quite naked golf. There aren't many trees, or features to aid your alignment. Much is left to the imagination, and to picturing the shot. Then there's the wind, always a factor on a links. You're required to play run-up shots, and to work the ball this way and that."

Full piece.

7. Two aces this year...and he's 10!

Joe McLean for Flagstick Golf..."In a normal year, the McMahon family would have been balancing Spring Hockey with Competitive Soccer throughout the summer for their son Mason. This year, it was golf and fishing for 10-year-old Mason who joined the Ottawa Hunt club in July and got out to play as much as possible."

• "...During his rounds of golf this summer, Mason scored two holes-in-one. Yes, two."
• "The first was on September 8th on the 7th hole at Stonebridge Golf Club. He scored the perfect shot from the white tees with a 4 hybrid from 137 yards. The second was on October 15th off the green tees on the 4th hole on the West course at the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club. A 7 iron did the trick from 110 yards."

Full piece.

8. Hickory finds its way back to Pinehurst

Shaun Tolson of Morning Read on Pinehurst's new hickory club rental program..."It's a fun experience for individuals who have never done it and also for people who might play hickories once or twice a year," Barksdale said of renting a set and playing the No. 1 course, the No. 3 course, or The Cradle, Pinehurst's nine-hole short course. (Although the hickory clubs can be rented for play on any of Pinehurst's course - even the resort's revered No. 2 layout - it's on the resort's aforementioned shorter courses that Barksdale and his team encourage their use.)"

"They go out there with no expectations whatsoever and simply enjoy the game. It really does give you an appreciation for the early years of golf and how talented those individuals really were." Renting a set of hickory clubs for a round at Pinehurst, which costs $50, can impact more than just a singular round of golf. The simple act of carrying those clubs to the driving range can pave the way for noteworthy introductions and interactions."

Full piece.

9. Gay's winning WITB

Driver: TaylorMade SIM (9 degrees)

Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade SIM (15 degrees)

Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 7 X

Hybrid: Callaway Apex (20 degrees)

Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White Hybrid 90 TX

Irons: Srixon Z U45 (4), Srixon Z 745 (5-PW)

Shafts: Project X 6.0

Wedges: Vokey SM8 Raw (50-12F, 56-14F@55, 60-10S@59)

Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Spinner

Putter: Scotty Cameron TN2

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Grips: Iomic

Photos here.