Exclusive

PGA superstar Bubba Watson says golf is BOOMING in popularity right now all because of COVID -- and it's so huge, equipment companies can barely keep up with the demand!

"Golf is at an all-time high because of the virus," Watson tells TMZ Sports ... "There's more people playing the game, there's more equipment being sold."

Watson isn't trying to be insensitive -- he's just pointing out the facts ... people are looking for safe activities to do during the pandemic and golf checks a lot of those boxes since it's outdoors and you can easily social distance while playing.

Watson -- who's promoting the "Golf Clash" mobile game -- says even interest in golf VIDEO GAMES is through the roof right now.

In fact, Watson says golf equipment companies are "a little behind"  the demand -- and they're struggling to churn out enough product to keep everyone happy!

"They're trying to push through and it's hard to get components to make golf clubs. It's hard to get different golf equipment to be made because of some of the slow down."

"Vanderpump Rules" star Danica Dow's ex-BF -- the one she got a restraining order against -- is admitting he ransacked her wardrobe, but he's still avoiding criminal charges for the clothing attack.

So, here's the deal ... back in August, Danica got a temporary restraining order against Brett Willis claiming he broke into her home in the middle of the night, cut up a bunch of her clothes, and stole her iPhone.

Danica reported the incident to cops, but TMZ's learned the L.A. County D.A.'s Office will not file charges against Willis, and here's why.

We're told Brett copped to damaging Danica's clothes, but he offered to pay for damage and Danica accepted. He also returned her iPhone, which he said he grabbed by mistake because it looked like his. So, basically ... no blood, no foul so the D.A.'s Office decided not to charge him.

Brett tells TMZ ... he cooperated with law enforcement, and is relieved to close this chapter of his life. He wants to move forward with a positive attitude, but there's still the matter of a couple restraining orders.

Brett also filed for one against Danica, claiming she got violent with him in July over dirty dishes. He claimed she "grabbed my neck twice, each time digging her nails deep."

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs received their Super Bowl 54 rings a little over 2 months ago, and now one of the iced out rings just sold for BIG BUCKS at auction!!

The ring was originally given to Mike Weber -- a 23-year-old running back who was on the Chiefs practice squad last season -- before the blinged-out jewelry made its way to the block at Goldin Auctions.

The auction house would not disclose the final sale price ... but one big-time collector placed a bid for $70k.

The opening bid was $35,000.

Sure, it's a lot of cash ... but the ring is absolutely awesome. It features a bunch of super cool aspects to commemorate the Chiefs' championship.

It's made with 10 karat gold and contains 2 Lombardi Trophies made with marquee-cut diamonds ... and a Chiefs logo designed out of 60 diamonds.

But, it's not JUST gold and diamonds ... the ring also includes 16 rubies representing the teams 10 AFC West division titles and 6 playoff appearances under Andy Reid.

The perimeter of the ring top has 122 diamonds which represents 100 NFL seasons and the 22 playoff appearances in Chiefs’ franchise history.

The blinged-out jewelry also contains the name, number (#45) and signature -- inside the ring band -- of Weber ... who just signed on with the Packers' practice squad.

Aaron Pico admits he felt bad after OBLITERATING his opponent with a crushing right hand at Bellator 252 on Thursday -- and later apologized to the guy for talking trash after the knockout.

If you haven't seen the video yet ... BUCKLE UP!!

Pico just destroyed John de Jesus with an overhand right in the 2nd round of their featherweight bout -- sending his opponent crumbling to the ground, where Pico continued to fire off shot after shot until the ref stopped the fight.

In the moment after the knockout, Pico was so fired up, he started talking trash to JDJ while he was still laid out on the mat.

But, Aaron eventually cooled down and tells TMZ Sports he had a respectful conversation with JDJ after the fight.

"Yeah yeah, he said good fight, I just apologized, and said that I probably shouldn't say that after the fight, but it's over it is what it is."

"It's a fight," Pico added ...  "That's what people don't realize sometimes. There's so many emotions that go into it that you just can't explain it, especially when you knock somebody out."

"It's a feeling that you can't explain ... that seems like the best drug that you could possibly take, knocking someone out. You feel like on top of the world for a while, and then it wears off."

Aaron says the two men had been beefing all week -- which got him more hyped up than he would have liked to have been in the fight.

"I just knew I had to literally just stay calm and that was the game plan going into the fight -- that he was gonna taunt, he was gonna do a lot of things. But, my coaches just said 'just stay in the process. Be like Georges St-Pierre and don't let anything phase you.'"

Pico is now on a 3 fight win streak -- winning all of his fights in 2020.

The only thing Americans have to fear from murder hornets is fear itself ... experts say odds are low the remaining queens out there give birth to an army of killers.

Here's the deal ... a lot of folks were alarmed by recent reports that scientists in Washington found nearly 200 queens in the nest that was eradicated last month, the fear being ... how many escaped alive and are now buzzing around?!?

But, you can breathe a sigh of relief ... Chris Looney from the Washington State Department of Agriculture, which is studying the insects, tells us there's no particular reason to believe a lot of murder hornets got out of that nest, and even if they did, the majority of those queens are unlikely to start their own nests. Phew.

Of course, there are scenarios where those queens might start their own nests, but fortunately, we're told those odds are low ... even in 2020.

The doomsday scenario would have to play out like this ... a queen would need to mate with a male murder hornet, but that's no simple task. It's not like they have Bumble.

Let's say the queen mates ... the queen would then have to spend this winter hibernating. Well, surviving hibernation is not a given, and we're told some of the queens would surely die in the process, just like any other bug.

There's more hurdles after mating and hibernation ... in the spring, a queen would have to find food and an appropriate nesting site. Again, no easy task, and the process exposes the queen to more potential danger and puts them at risk of dying.

Feel better now?!?

And, there's this ... Chris says murder hornets have only been found in Northwest Washington, so folks in nearby states have no reason to fear murder hornets flying their way.

In fact, he says WSDA scientists recently conducted a study showing it would take about a decade or more for murder hornets to invade another state ... and that's the worst-case scenario, because it's likely to take even longer.

And, if you do live in Washington, we're told the only worry should be about the murder hornet nests that are already made and haven't been found. Just like the nest the WSDA eradicated last month, we're told there could be a nest out there with a ton of queens, some of which will go off and form their own nests.

Quando Rondo didn't come looking for trouble when his crew got into a violent altercation with King Von that ended in a fatal shooting ... at least according to Quando's camp.

Sources close to Quando Rondo tell TMZ ... the rapper wasn't seeking out a fight with King Von the night Von was shot dead outside an Atlanta hookah lounge, and they say Von was acting as the aggressor in the brawl that preceded gunfire.

Our sources say Quando was napping in a car outside the club and when he woke up, Von's crew was there, and things suddenly got tense. We're told Von approached Quando and his crew with anger, which led to the brawl.

New footage from outside the club appears to show King Von throwing punches at Quando Rondo's crew, and our sources claim Quando's camp was just defending itself. We're told Quando didn't know what was going on and believed his life was in danger.

As we reported ... police also opened fire while confronting the gunmen, but cops say King Von was shot during the initial shootout with Quando Rondo's group.

One of Quando Rondo's crew members was arrested for felony murder, and our law enforcement sources tell us QR is NOT under investigation and cops consider the case closed.

The party's over for Mattie Breaux ... she's doing time behind bars, because the third time is NOT a charm when you're talking DUIs.

The "Party Down South" star pled guilty to misdemeanor DUI and will serve 7 days at Davidson County Jail. According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, the judge hit Mattie with nearly a year behind bars, but suspended all but 7 days of her sentence.

Karla West, chief of staff at the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, tells TMZ ... Mattie will serve her jail time on weekends until she finishes her sentence. We're told it's normal procedure for similar DUI cases.

Once she's served 7 days behind bars, Mattie -- who's also been on MTV's "Floribama Shore" and "The Challenge" -- will be on supervised probation for close to a year, and will also lose her driver's license for a year. Third time for that too.

Mattie was arrested in August 2019 after a solo crash in Nashville. Cops say she told them she'd taken Hydrocodone and chugged 2 beers before getting behind the wheel.

Cops also say they smelled a strong odor of booze and that her speech was slurred. While getting treated at a hospital, she told cops she had 2 previous DUIs in Louisiana.

Pretty crappy trifecta to score.

As soon as President Trump is no longer the U.S. President, he needs to answer for his alleged criminal activity ... according to Congressman Eric Swalwell, who has a proposal on how to make that happen.

The Democratic Representative from California says 45's day of reckoning must come -- along with his enablers -- for what he says they've done to the country, which is why he wants to create a 'Presidential Crimes Commission.'

Swalwell says ideally, this group would be made up of independent prosecutors outside Congress who would be responsible for determining if the President or senior officials broke the law during their term, and if so ... they'd go after them.

The Congressman says the goal is to make sure nobody, not even POTUS, is above the law and gets away with any offenses. As for what crimes he'd want the PCC to take a look at with Trump ... there's a laundry list, but obstructing justice and sabotaging the mail are top of mind for Swalwell.

Currently, Swalwell believes the Prez is committing another transgression by not cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden during the transition period ... something Trump's press secretary won't even talk about.

"They put that money up, hell yeah I'll go over there and fight him!"

That's boxing superstar Terence Crawford -- arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world -- telling TMZ Sports he would seriously consider an MMA match with Conor McGregor.

So, why would the undefeated welterweight champ cross over into Conor's sport? Easy ...

Turns out, Crawford comes from a family of wrestlers and has some legit wrestling experience himself. He's very confident in his skills.

Plus, he doesn't think Conor's that big of a threat on the ground anyway!

"To keep it real, Conor's not a real good wrestler. He may kick the sh*t out of you. You gotta worry about them kicks to the head and them elbows more than him grabbing you."

"It'd be other things that you'd be having to worry about other than wrestling you."

Of course, if Conor wanted to stand up and turn it into a fistfight, the undefeated Crawford believes it would be a slaughter.

There's been talk about a possible Crawford vs. McGregor match for a while -- but Terence says he's seriously open to it.

"Conor is a big talent in the octagon and I'm a big talent in the boxing ring. Money talks. They put that money up, hell yeah I'll go over there and fight him!"

In the meantime, Crawford has a big fight coming up on Saturday -- taking on former champ Kell Brook in a WBO welterweight title bout.

Crawford is a huge favorite -- but we spoke with Kell, and he ain't about to roll over.

34-year-old Brook is 39 and 2 as a pro -- with a win over Shawn Porter in 2014.

Phil Collins says his ex's accusation about him reeking like hell is a blatant lie, and a cheap attempt to smear his name to get millions out of him.

The famed hitmaker filed legal docs calling Orianne Cevey a liar after she claimed Phil became a hermit and completely secluded himself from the world. In docs, obtained by TMZ, Phil calls it "a litany of demonstrably false, immaterial, impertinent, scandalous and scurrilous allegations which have nothing to do with the legal claims in this case."

In short ... Phil says Orianne's allegations have a clear malicious motive ... trying to extort him. He claims she lied about his depression to cast doubt about his mental capacity all to "deliberately make sensationalized and/or false allegations in an effort to extort money" from him.

Phil says it's all either lies or gross exaggerations, pointing out that much of it is contradicted by the fact that he says he's currently preparing to tour with Genesis again after the pandemic passes.

TMZ broke the story ... Orianne's beefing with Phil claiming he's going back on his word to give her 50-50 ownership of the home he's now trying to evict her from. To that end ... Phil argues Orianne's lies have nothing to do with the issue of whether her claim that he ever made such a promise is true. Remember ... she also claimed he stopped brushing his teeth and was not capable of performing sexually.

Tyga's no stranger to lawsuits -- particularly over unpaid bills -- but he added a new wrinkle this time, according to his landlord who says he failed to pay rent AND trashed the pad.

The landlord is suing the rapper, claiming he stiffed them on $32K in rent when he left the place back in April, after renting it for about a year. But, that's not even the worst part.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, the landlord claims Tyga left gouges in the kitchen's white oak flooring ($27,650), damaged marble flooring and counters ($15,575) and damaged walls with murals and wallpaper ($103,160.25).

What's more ... the landlord claims Tyga installed a basketball hoop that damaged the driveway, and new locks that destroyed the entry door. The landlord says Tyga never had permission to install any of that stuff.

The landlord says he tried to settle this mess through mediation in May, but claims Tyga refused to play ball. He's now suing for breach of contract and wants more than $200K in damages.

Remember, Tyga was also sued in 2018 for failure to pay rent at a Bev Hills pad. So, ya gotta wonder, who keeps renting to this guy?

We've reached out to Tyga for comment, so far no word back.

Michael Jordan's last piece of NBA laundry is hitting the auction block -- the actual jersey from his final game ... and it's gonna fetch a TON of cash!

It's MJ's #23 away jersey from his final game with the Washington Wizards on April 16, 2003 ... the last time Jordan stepped on the court as an NBA player.

39-year-old Jordan dropped 15 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists against the Philadelphia 76ers that night -- but it wasn't enough to get the W. Final score, 107 to 87.

BTW, we're also told Jordan rocked the jersey for the final 2 months of his NBA career -- his final 14 road games.

The one-of-a-kind jersey is about to hit the block at Goldin Auctions ... and GA tells us they expect the threads to bring in over $500,000!!

As for where the jersey -- which Goldin says has been photo-matched to ensure authenticity -- came from ... well, it's a pretty cool story.

Back in 1984, Jordan befriended the owner of a limousine service ... and the 2 men became close.

MJ gifted the jersey to the guy who held on to it for years -- but he has now decided to part ways with the item.

The Jordan jersey is part of a larger collection of rare MJ items hitting the auction block -- including a pair of signed, game-worn, Air Jordan 1's from Michael's 1984-1985 season. GA also has MJ's signed, game-worn minor league baseball jersey from the Birmingham Barons.

Talk about awkward situations ... Melania Trump's preparing to spread Christmas cheer at the White House while a ticked off President Trump appears to be in full Grinch mode. Good luck!

A rep for the First Lady tells TMZ ... Melania is, indeed, planning on decorating 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. again this year for Christmas, as is tradition. Might seem like a no-brainer -- First Ladies have been doing it for decades -- but the difference now is ... we know it's not one of MT's favorite things.

You'll recall, Melania was recorded in 2018 -- by her then-adviser, Stephanie Wolkoff -- trashing the White House decorating tradition. She said, "Who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decoration? But I need to do it, right?"

At the time, the First Lady was frustrated because the media was focusing on child separations at the border, and she apparently felt like no one would give a Fievel's ass about the decorations.

Well, cut to 2020 and there's a new hot button distraction -- her husband seems convinced they're staying put for another 4 years, despite losing the election to Joe Biden.

That begs the question ... does Melania think this will be her final Christmas bow in the White House? It'll be interesting to see her 2020 theme, as it could give some insight into how she's dealing with all this drama.

In light of all that's happened this year, maybe pass on repeating last year's white Christmas. Just a thought.

Kodak Black's not letting imprisonment stop him from putting food on the table for thousands of folks in Florida this Thanksgiving.

The rapper dropped $15k to provide more than 1,000 frozen turkeys for families in Pompano Beach ... according to his attorney, Bradford Cohen.

We're told Kodak arranged for the birds to be sent to the E. Pat Larkins Community Center on Wednesday, where hundreds of people waited in a long line of cars to get their free food -- including a bag of chips and sodas -- courtesy of the incarcerated rapper.

As you can see ... Kodak's team members were at the community center to safely place the frozen turkeys in recipients' trunks before they drove off. We're told KB's giveaway lasted from 11 AM to 1 PM, and his people were responsible for the huge turnout by putting up flyers in local neighborhoods.

Cohen tells us another community leader who focuses on feeding the needy also helped spread the word for Kodak. We're told the rapper's working with the man on future outreach projects.

Kodak himself will be spending Thanksgiving in his new prison cell at USP Thomson, a high-security prison in Illinois. As we first told you ... he got transferred there last month from the Kentucky prison where he claimed he was being tortured.

Blueface is offering up his home for rent, but you can't exactly live like the rapper does ... because quarantine stripper parties aren't allowed!!!

Here's the deal ... Blueface just put his 3-bedroom mansion in the San Fernando Valley up for rent on Airbnb for a cool $2,500 per night, but there's a catch.

The listing says the host doesn't allow pets, parties or smoking.

Remember ... the rapper caught a ton of heat for hosting a party at his Chatsworth crib early on in quarantine. Video from the bash showed a bunch of women in g-strings and bikini tops getting into an all-out brawl.

Maybe Blueface learned a lesson and started listening to Dr. Fauci ... unlike some people.

Anyways, Blueface's pad looks super modern ... it's decked out with a pool, hot tub, indoor fireplace, grand piano, pool table and a basketball hoop.

Everyone wants to know why UFC star Paul Felder is volunteering to fight a killer like Rafael dos Anjos on just 5 days' notice.

Well, Paul just gave us the answer -- and it's about as gangster as it gets.

"This is the crazy stuff that will either set me up for a major fight and move my career forward or I'll prove that I got balls that are bigger than anybody else's in the division."

No lies detected.

Paul -- who hasn't fought since February -- stepped up to replace Islam Makhachev in the main event on Nov. 14 ... after Islam was forced to withdraw this week due to a staph infection.

Felder says UFC firmed up the fight on Monday night -- giving him less than a week to prep himself for war.

Fortunately, Felder says he's been training like a maniac recently for a triathlon -- which means his cardio is insane at the moment.

So, he weighed the pros and cons of fighting a legend like dos Anjos -- and quickly came to the decision that it's worth the risk.

"If he beats me, he's a former champion! I don't give a sh*t! It's Rafael dos Anjos!"

Felder continued, "I mean, I've got nothing to lose other than some brain cells and some broken bones and things as usual but I will heal up and I'll be fine."

Don't get it twisted, Paul says he wouldn't have taken the fight if he wasn't 100% confident he can win.

"I'm fully capable of beating him, that I will make everyone clear of! I'm not coming in here to get a payday."

Felder says there's a real chance this could be the last fight of his career -- but he's not worried about that. He's just getting himself ready to fight.

Dos Anjos is the former UFC lightweight champ -- with signature victories over stars like Nate Diaz, Robbie Lawler, Kevin Lee and "Cowboy" Cerrone.