Resolution rates look great. But Gladly's 2026 Customer Expectations Report reveals the metric most CIOs are missing — and what the data says about where AI investments actually translate into retention, not just throughput.

See the findings

The most famous shot in golf this week is 137 yards. That’s the number on Sawgrass’ island-green 17th, which is absurd when you remember how many rounds and reputations it has swallowed.

At the same time, Akshay Bhatia just won Bay Hill by doing the opposite of what most of us do under pressure: he didn’t steer it, he didn’t guard it, he stayed aggressive long enough for the moment to flip. If you’ve ever stood over a Saturday swing trying to “just not screw this up,” this issue is for you.

Akshay Bhatia looked cooked when a short par miss left him five behind on Sunday. Then he ripped off four straight birdies on the back nine, nearly jarred a 6-iron on the par-5 16th, and outlasted Daniel Berger in Bay Hill’s first playoff since 1999. On a course that usually punishes any hint of panic, he stayed available to the round long enough for the whole thing to turn.

Here’s the part I can’t stop thinking about: Bhatia didn’t win with hero-golf brain. He won by keeping the shot in front of him when the pressure got loud. Weekend golfers love to call that patience, but it’s really courage with quieter body language.

👉 Read the full article here.

Rory McIlroy got to TPC Sawgrass less than 24 hours before his opening tee time and said it would be a game-time decision whether he could defend his Players title. He withdrew from Bay Hill with lower-back spasms, arrived later than expected because recovery was slower than hoped, and said things were moving in the right direction after hitting balls up through a 6-iron and doing short-game work. He also said he does not believe playing would risk further damage, but the real test would come Thursday.

My take: Sawgrass is the wrong place to feel half-ready. Even if the card does not demand driver everywhere, it still asks for total commitment to shape, start line, and strike. When McIlroy says the real test comes Thursday, that feels exactly right, because this course has a way of finding out what your body and your conviction are both willing to give.

👉 Read the full article here.

The useful part of this GOLF.com piece is how unsexy it is: tee it a little lower, narrow the stance, aim a touch left, and finish low. The goal isn’t trajectory art. The goal is a stable, piercing ball flight that can find the fairway when the wind gets weird or the hole starts looking smaller than it did on the tee marker.

I tried a version of this on a breezy range night a while back, and the first gift wasn’t distance. It was emotional. A tee shot feels a lot less frightening when you have one lower, calmer option that doesn’t require your full stock-driver bravado.

👉 Read it here.

The PGA.com lesson is basically three rules for not torching a scorecard on slick greens: prioritize lag putting, favor spots below the hole even when they’re farther away, and shorten the stroke so speed doesn’t run wild. On greens pushing 14 on the Stimpmeter at Bay Hill, Berger leaned into restraint instead of trying to be clever.

This one hit home because the quickest way I stop bleeding shots is also the least glamorous way possible. Give me a boring uphill 20-footer and a stress-free two-putt over a downhill eight-footer and a prayer every single time.

👉 Read it here.

This week’s Bourbon section is for the golfer who has ever felt a good round change temperature in an instant. One swing, one leak of doubt, one shot you try to guide instead of trust, and suddenly the scorecard is not the thing bothering you most. It is the feeling that you had the right picture, then blinked. Golf does not always punish bad swings. More often, it exposes the moment you stopped believing in the one you meant to make.

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

This week’s bottle is Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. It is rich, warm, and a little heavier on the finish, the kind of pour that feels like it has seen a few pressure moments before. If this week’s theme is commitment under heat, this is the right match. It is the bourbon equivalent of taking one deep breath, picking the real line, and finally making the swing without flinching.

Find it here.

This week’s 19th Hole Story comes from a reader who sent in a moment almost every golfer will instantly recognize.

He wrote about a windy par 4 where the picture was clear before he ever stepped into the shot. Start it at the left bunker. Let the breeze move it. Trust the number. Trust the shape. It was all there.

Then the round started to feel valuable.

Instead of making the swing he had chosen, he tried to guide it. Not enough to call it a bailout. Just enough to drain the conviction out of it. The ball floated weakly right, the kind of miss that tells on you immediately.

What stuck with him was not the result. It was the feeling. He said the worst part was realizing he had not really been beaten by the hole. He had been beaten by the urge to protect something that did not need protecting yet.

That is what made the moment linger. A bad swing can be shrugged off. A fully committed mistake can even be respected. But a swing made with doubt halfway in it has a different kind of sting. It follows you because it feels familiar. Because somewhere deep down, you know the shot was lost before the club ever reached the ball.

And maybe that is why golfers remember these moments so clearly. Not because they were dramatic, but because they were honest.

Here is the big lesson this week: the game gets expensive the second you start negotiating with a shot halfway through it.

That is true at Sawgrass. It is true on your home course. It is true on the holes that matter, and usually on the days that matter too.

Pick a real target. Make a swing that belongs to it. Live with the result honestly.

Most golfers can survive a bad swing. What unravels them is the one they never fully meant.

See you next week,

Adam Rosen
Editor-in-Chief, Birdies, Bogeys & Bourbon

PS: Have a fun golf story? Share it here, and we may include it in the next edition.