Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Weekly Swing. Every week I’ll highlight five things that have piqued my interest in the world of professional golf. It could be things I saw Sunday or am looking forward to come Thursday. It could be interesting musings, storylines, statistics or historical markers that I’ve unearthed throughout the week. I hope to highlight a cornucopia of unique items for your entertainment.

So, let’s get started.

1. The Designated Thrivers: We’re now halfway through the PGA TOUR’s Designated events schedule. The Wells Fargo Championship is the ninth of 17 such events, which feature the top players in the game competing for elevated purses. Eight events came before it, eight more will come after it.

So how has it gone so far?

“I think if you look at the leaderboards, you look at the rivalries that it's already created and the pressure-packed moments, I think it's been pretty dang cool for our game,” said Tony Finau, a two-time winner this season. This is an opportune time to take stock of what’s happened so far, so here are the top 10 FedExCup points earners strictly from this season’s Designated events:

Rahm and Scheffler have thoroughly separated themselves. The top two players in the world have combined for five wins and five more top-10s in the designated events. As expected, the other three Designated event winners – Kurt Kitayama (Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard), Matt Fitzpatrick (RBC Heritage) and Sam Burns (WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) are comfortably in the top 10.

Fitzpatrick has used the Designated events to his advantage this season, with 92% of his FedExCup points coming from those eight starts. Tyrrell Hatton and Cameron Young aren’t too far off, either. Homa, meanwhile, is much more balanced across Designated and non-Designated events thanks to his wins in the Farmers Insurance Open and Fortinet Championship.

I found it a useful exercise to narrow down who have been the best performers on the biggest stages thus far. Maybe it gives clues as to who will wind up in contention on Sunday at Quail Hollow Club.

Or maybe, we’ll get another story like this…

2. Bank on a first-timer at Wells Fargo?

The Wells Fargo Championship has developed a reputation for crowning first-time winners on the PGA TOUR – and good ones at that. Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Rickie Fowler and Anthony Kim all earned their first TOUR win at the Wells Fargo Championship.

There’s another first-timer at Wells Fargo who doesn’t often get mentioned with those other names: Derek Ernst.

It was 10 years ago that Ernst earned his first PGA TOUR win at the Wells Fargo Championship, beating David Lynn in a playoff. If that slipped the mind, don’t feel bad (I’m mostly talking to myself). It’s Ernst’s only win of his career. In fact, it’s his only top-10 in 126 starts on TOUR.

That victory has become a bit of tournament lore, I’ve learned.

The UNLV alum began the week as the fourth alternate. He finished his college career in 2012, then earned his TOUR card in his first Q-School attempt. Ranked 1,207th in the world, Ernst had made only three cuts in eight career starts on TOUR. He was in a rental car on his way to Athens, Georgia for a Korn Ferry Tour event before he got the call on Tuesday of tournament week that a spot opened for him in Charlotte.

Two days later he shot an opening-round 67 to share the lead. He came from two shots back on a wet final day, carding a 3-under 69 with a birdie on the 72nd hole to make it to a playoff with Lynn, who later admitted he had no idea who Ernst was until they were paired together. Ernst would outlast Lynn both in the playoff with a par on the first hole, but also in career longevity. Lynn, a top-100 player at the time thanks to his runner-up to McIlroy in the 2012 PGA Championship (albeit eight shots back), decided to leave professional golf entirely at the end of 2014.

That Ernst, then 22, would rise from relative anonymity to an exclusive group of TOUR winners in their early 20s was something to behold. That it has remained, now a decade later, the only time Ernst has been in contention on TOUR might be even more strange. His best finish since was a T17 at the 2015 Valspar Championship. He lost his card after his two-year exemption ran out and has not gotten it back. He’s still plotting a return. Ernst has played four times on TOUR this season, most recently finishing T60 last week at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.

It's a story without many parallels in sports but aptly describes both the joys and perils of golf. That, without much warning, a life-changing moment is just around the corner. But as quickly as it comes to you, it can leave you. There may be no better example than Ernst 10 years ago.

3. “We are just a bunch of losers”

By now you’ve probably seen it. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s viral clip discussing failure after his team was eliminated by the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Asked whether the Bucks’ season was a failure Giannis resisted the idea that failure and success are binary.

“It’s not a failure,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s steps to success. There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships, The other nine years [were] a failure? That’s what you’re telling me?

“There’s no failure in sports,” he continued. “There’s good days, bad days. Some days you’re successful. Some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn. Some days it’s not your turn. And that’s what sports is about.”

The clip reached people from all walks of life, including PGA TOUR golfers – a group that’s all too familiar with losing.

Tiger Woods’ career winning percentage hovers right around 22%. Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler have been unquestionably dominant this season, yet they are winning at just a 25% and 16% clip, respectively. Even the world’s best are losing three out of four times they tee it up.

It seemed natural that Antetokounmpo’s message might have resonated with TOUR players.

“Everyone comes here to win a golf tournament, but I think the point is no one but yourself decides if you failed,” Max Homa said Tuesday when asked about the clip. “… There's a potential that I could win a golf tournament and feel like I failed if I didn't meet a goal I was looking for mentally or something. I just think the point in sports is it's not up to the fans, it's not up to the media, it's not up to anybody other than myself if I fail.”

Tony Finau’s been on both sides of it. He won twice in his first 211 events and was often criticized for “failing” to convert on his chances to win. Now he’s won four of his last 18 starts, including last week at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.

“We know sports is about winning, but you either win or you learn,” Finau said. “It's hard to say that you fail especially at the level we're playing at. Just anybody in general, when you're trying to accomplish something, if you're always looking at yourself or something as a failure, it will be hard for you to succeed. I couldn't agree with Giannis more.”

Xander Schauffele added: “It's definitely a really cool one if you apply it to golf because we are just a bunch of losers at the end of the day. Only one guy wins and you've got to find perspective on that.”

4. The winding roads of Pierceson Coody and Akshay Bhatia converge at Wells Fargo

Everyone’s path to the PGA TOUR is different. There may be no starker example than in the 2:11 p.m. Thursday tee time at Quail Hollow.

First, there’s Pierceson Coody, the former University of Texas star. He gained full status on the Korn Ferry Tour after finishing No. 1 in the 2022 PGA TOUR University rankings and quickly won in just his third start. He won again this year and is, currently No. 6 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List and in line to earn his PGA TOUR card for next year before he turns 24.

He represents the traditional path. A decorated junior who quickly turned into a top-tier college player and leveraged that success for immediate status in professional golf.

His playing partner, Akshay Bhatia, was a decorated junior too. But that’s where their paths diverge. While Coody opted for college, Bhatia turned pro at age 17.

“I have never liked school,” Akshay explained at the time. “I’ve never been very smart going in, sitting in a classroom – and I have the worst attention span when it comes to it. I just love being outside. I love playing golf and I love competing.”

He traded dorm rooms for long weeks on the road. College tournaments for Monday qualifiers and high-profile amateur events for mini-tour starts.

It took four years (fitting), but the 21-year-old Bhatia is now well on his way to earning PGA TOUR membership for 2024 after a top-five finish at the Mexico Open at Vidanta. Now a Special Temporary Member, Bhatia has accrued 396 non-member FedExCup points this year, which would place him No. 76 on the current standings if he were a member. If his non-member points equal or surpass No. 125 on the official FedExCup standings at the conclusion of the FedExCup Fall, he will earn full 2024 PGA TOUR membership.

5. The return of unorthodox practice methods

If this weekly column is good for anything, I vow it to be the central resource for the weird and wacky practice routines across the TOUR. Maybe I should aspire for more … Nah, I’m comfortable with that for now.

It’s nothing new – players turning to uncommon methods to improve their putting – but it seems they’re getting more innovative by the week.

It caught fire first back in March at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. That’s where we saw Kevin Kisner’s unique training aid on the practice putting green.

Then there was this with Hideki Matsuyama.

And last week at the Mexico Open we uncovered another with this from Alejandro Tosti.

So, if you’re thinking about trying something unusual to improve your own game, know that it’s happening at the highest level. There must be a method to their madness. At least that’s what I tell myself.