This Mooney’s weekly golf league represents the greatness of the game

Last month, another season of golf ended with the end of the FedEx Cup playoffs. But unlike Tommy Fleetwood, its winners don’t get eight-figure salaries. What he received was a high five, a zealous congratulations and a promise of unmade memorial fashion accessories.

So went.

Professionals make a living by a game. The rest of us also work for rewards that cannot be measured in standard currency. We work for fresh air and practice, for friendship, community and quirky collections, and of course the right to brag. It’s hard to decide to defeat a partner.

Jeff Pelizzaro understands this. That’s the whole purpose of the alliance he co-founded.

“There is so much golf that it’s trying to post a score,” he said.

Pelizzaro, 47, is a relatively follow-up event for the game. Born and raised in St. Louis, he focused on football and did not wave the club seriously until after college. He is a physical therapist and he quickly blends his passions with 18 Strong, a golf fitness and training company he runs with business partner Ryan McMullen. For about a decade, the two have also co-hosted the same-name podcast, which has attracted guests across the industry to talk about the connection between golf and fitness, another way.

One of the sponsors of the podcast is the golf clothing brand Linksoul, whose founder John Ashworth’s weekly traditional champion at Goat Hill Park in Southern California is known as “mandatory golf Friday” – the point is that life shouldn’t be all time, and going out at least one week a week will be good for your body and your body and your mind. Fix it almost Required.

Pelizzaro shares this view. Inspired by Ashworth’s weekly mission, he summoned some of the same gathering friends to join him on Ruth Park in St. Louis Muni. These relaxed dawn cycles become a popular weekly respite on a schedule filled with work and family obligations.

In the early days, Pelizzaro and his friend Brian Daniels borrowed the word Ashworth. They called outings for mandatory golf Friday. However, when they learned that Linksoul has copyright to the name, they changed it to a Friday loop.

By any tag, the concept is appealing. It has become more and more popular after Covid. Last year, up to 50 golfers appeared once or once in Friday’s cycle, from age and ability to teenage college players to the ability of more than 50 employees working to make Bogey’s 50 employees.

As attendance expands, parties become more formal, locked down in Ruth Park from 6 to 7 a.m. every week. In the 2025 season, Daniels also cooked the champion’s rave game for the FedEx Cup points system and a friendly 12-week disability match – just like in a belt buckle, the winner will receive a memorial award.

(Why belt buckle? Long story short, the idea was taken to Nashville, Nashville, on a golf tour, Pelizzaro and Daniels, where belt buckles are as common as country music stars.)

Two weeks ago, after a full summer competition, the hunt for buckle was over, and Friday’s cycle of creaming Tommy Fleetwood was over. His name is John Mossotti, although his game partners call him “Moss”. (According to Pelizzaro, all regulars in the Friday loop have nicknames, just like the monikers emitting from Tiger Woods, it seems to only involve adding “Y” to the player’s actual name.

Mossy entered the season with nine indexes, but more than once this summer, he played nine holes and even caught some eyebrows in the game. Without the whispering sandbag charges, it would not be a disability incident.

“I told him that every champion would take the arrow behind,” Pelisaro said. “That’s how it develops.”

Of course, all of this is what is meant to enjoy in the sad spirit of golfers everywhere.

Mandatory golf Friday. Friday cycle. An outing of the same kind is not difficult. They appear from coast to coast in almost every corner of the country where they play the game. Prizes vary. Participants did the same. But the relationship that binds them is the same. This is why most people play games.

As for the button, the moss has not received it yet, because the button still does not exist. It is made by a company found online by Pelizzaro and Daniels. The moss will have to wait. But that’s OK. As every golfer knows, winning something like a button is much more important than actually wearing it. Whether it is Shabagh, Moss brags about right or not.

Now, with fall approaching and the pursuit of buttons in the rearview mirror, Friday’s loop is done this season. But, Pelizzaro said he and his friends will continue to sneak away as much as possible until the cold weather settles in St. Louis, and their classes will be closed throughout the year.

Meanwhile, among pros, Fleetwood and his 23 peers will soon be played at the Ryder Cup, a biennial game where Team USA will be paid. If you can get it, that’s great. But there are many other ways to enjoy the game.