From Dirty Sodas to Great Golf, Here's What's Happened So Far at the 2026 TOUR Championship

We're 36 holes down here at the 2026 Tour Championship, but the golf isn't even half the story of everything that's happening here at Eastlake. I'm going to show you some of my favorite moments so far. On a Monday, grind never stops. This way or this way? Everybody thinks golf is really cool now, which is great. Here at Eastlake, fan work is thirsty work and I've been dying to try some of the dirty sodas they're making in the Coca-Cola Lounge. Okay, so I've come back to the Coca-Cola Lounge to actually make a dirty soda. I'm gonna make a cherry vanilla dirty twist. Here we go. Ice, cherry syrup, now the vanilla syrup, some Mr. Pibb, and finally the half. Top it all off with a Coca-Cola straw. Hits the spot. You definitely want to sign up for a PGA Tour Pass to get a free one of these this weekend. Tour Championship Week is also the week when Coca-Cola brings out some of the recipients of their annual HBCU Golf Impact Grant, a donation aiming to support college golf programs. Because of the grant, this year's main beneficiary, Clark Atlanta University, was able to start their golf program. The new women's team spent the day at Eastlake where I sat down to talk college golf and beyond. This is our first time really bonding, like together as a team. This is so cool. So like all of us being together, including coach, we hung out a couple of times, but being able to experience a golf-centered moment with each other, honestly, it means the world to me because I really love y'all. During college and right after college is a time that you're really changing as a person. That's what college is all about, right? Figuring out what you like and what you don't like. I don't want you to think that, oh, college golf is only valuable if you work in the golf industry. That is absolutely not true. I have so many friends that work in all kinds of industries that their college golf has just been a huge calling card because their hiring managers are so impressed with that and it's a great networking tool. I want to go into a career in golf journalism, but seeing all of it in action on the course itself is, yeah, I really like it. It's awesome. It can be very easy to equate your self-worth and your confidence with your score. So I would just say golf is really important, but it's not the only thing, right? Whether you shoot 65 or you shoot 85, those other things are not changing. You're still a great teammate. You're still a great friend. You're still all these other things regardless. For me, when I came out of college golf, I didn't know what I had just experienced for the last four years and how that would propel me into all of the things that I've done since I left college golf and graduated. So what did you think would happen when you left college golf? Did you see all of this in the forefront? You want to have dreams and you want to have goals, but you also want to be flexible and realize that things might come in a different form. I found in college uncertainty very, very difficult and I think I would have saved myself a lot of anxiety if I would have just kind of been like, let's see what happens. This will be fun and just know that, hey, you've got a great coach. You've got a great team around you. This is an exciting journey and you're going to spend the next couple years kind of like figuring out where you want to go. And college golf is going to be a great tool in helping you guys do that. The Coca-Cola Company is really excited about creating this program, which we believe is all about creating access and opportunities to grow the game of golf. Grant dollars like the ones that we're giving and that we're able to do in partnership with the PGA Tour, we think helps create a more level playing field and gives more students an opportunity to enjoy the game. Before play got underway, Thursday started with the Ceremonial Hope tee shot, which happened right behind me. It was the Australian Min Wu Lee who set the early pace with an opening round of 62, matched by Cameron Young a day later. But at the halfway point, it's 2023 Tour champion Victor Hovland and Ryan Gerrard, tied at 10 under and leading the way in the race for the FedEx Cup trophy. I played a lot of good golf this year. I really only had a chance to win one of those golf tournaments coming down the stretch. That's kind of what we play for is to have a chance kind of on the back nine on Sunday and that's kind of what we prepare for and we'll be ready. Let's see if moving day can live up to his reputation. I can't wait to find out.