Touchdown! Aaron Rodgers gets the W...in golf

Good morning, armchair golf commentators. This is Easy Pars, the golf newsletter that slides into your inbox with news and memes — without the contraptions that make you look ridiculous (and don't improve your game).

Here's what we've got for you today:

• The Pebble Beach Pro-Am is over, but it's also not over

• Trash event gets a huge prize purse

• Something that'll never happen, but you'd watch if it did (don't lie)

Aaron wins the "amateur" part of the Pro-Am

Michael Jordan. Bo Jackson...Aaron Rodgers??

To many, Aaron Rodgers's golf career seems to be taking off after his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am alongside Ben Silverman. After all, he (and Bryson DeChambeau) beat Phil Mickelson in 2021, at The Match IV.

Guy's stacking trophies like John Rahm wants to this year.

Will Rodgers make the transition to pro golf any time soon?

Probably not.

Rodgers is currently in negotiations for his next NFL home. And someone with the NFL star status he brings along has several teams willing to sign a big check for him to join. He even hinted at what might be his next team throughout the weekend.

Amazing NFL credentials aside, he played some fantastic golf over the weekend. Proving that an elite-level athlete such as Rodgers can get the job done when it matters.

When it rains, it pours

Bad weather forced the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro part (of the Pro-Am) to suspend play and finish today (Monday).

This wouldn't usually be a big deal—BUT today is also the qualifier for the WM Phoenix Open.

And in case you haven't heard, the Phoenix open will be extra juicy this year (more on that in a bit).

A total of 15 players will miss the Phoenix qualifying session and miss out on the potential of making a cool $3.6 million if they were to win.

Bummer.

But at least all of them are taking home a paycheck on Monday, so hopefully, that takes some of the sting out of missing out on the best-paying tournament of the year so far.

Twenty million reasons why the Phoenix Open will be awesome

For some reason, if you double the purse money at an event, it ends up attracting more top-tier players. (Cough, cough, it's probably because of LIV, cough.)

Who would’ve thunk?

This year, the Phoenix Open will increase its total prize money from a very respectable $9 million to $20 million.

Why?

Because they can.

Also, the PGA tour might be feeling the pressure from the competition, aka LIV Golf, since they seem bent on luring top players to the dark side with their healthy checkbook.

The Phoenix Open is one of the oldest stops of the tour and has also been the launching ground for the careers of players like John Rahm. So we can expect some extra excitement this year with the increased motivation.

Speaking of Rahm, he's arrived early in Pheonix. And he brought his boys, Tom Kim, JJ Watt, and they even pulled Michael Phelps outta the pool to join a practice round.

Here's a pic from Rahm's Twitter:

0% probability of ever happening

Imagine the matchups that would happen if the top PGA and LIV players were to go head-to-head.

It won't happen. So there’s no point in getting our hopes up.

But it would certainly make for some great matchups.

Check out the tweet below to see what Dylan Dethier came up with.

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Let's talk about Phil's Twitter game

After nearly a month of Twitter hiatus, Phil Mickelson started tweeting this week. And it was a bit of cliche, locker-room-style banter mixed with some "get-in-your-head" insults.

Thing is, we still don't know whose head he's trying to get into.

One things for sure, the Easy Gator thinks it's all about getting people to tune into the CW Network.

And you probably heard, but this is the one that set golf Twitter ablaze:

Golf meme of the day

Here's a meme our very own E. Gator sent via his Twitter (you follow him yet?)

That's it for today. Enjoy the week, and we'll be back Thursday with updates from Pheonix and a look at golf weekend ahead,

Keep your head down,

E. Gator