PGA/LPGA Golf Discussion Thread • Page 33

Tiger and Charlie teeing off at noon today. Can't believe I'm so excited to watch a 13 year old play golf.

 

wish i was teeing off at noon

 

The kid's mitts are HUGE.

 

charlie looks hurt? hes noticeably limping, im watching without sound at work, have they mentioned anything on the broadcast?

 

apparently he rolled his ankle on the driving range

 

LIV players to be invited to the Masters

Felt like this was never really in doubt but, good to see.

 

I like that the Masters made a statement about it. They clearly don’t like that LIV has entered the game, but they can’t play favorites even as partners with the Tour. It would be a really bad look to keep guys out who have earned the right to play in the tournament through performance. And it’s a similar look to what the Open did at the end of last season, and what I suspect the US Open will also do. If you can qualify, we won’t stop you. Golf is one of the few pro sports where you have always had to eat what you kill. In that way, it’s the most merit based, and that’s how it should be.

What remains to be seen next year is how many can qualify for 2024, especially without World Ranking points. They allude to it as much with changes coming in that iteration. It will sort itself out that way without any grandstanding about funding or competitive circumstances, and the sport will be better for it.

 

Tournament of Champions week so that means the meaningful part of the tour's season starts. Thank God they're getting rid of the fall portion next year.

Here are seven bold predictions for 2023:

-Sahith Theegala plays his way into a captain's pick for US Ryder Cup team.
-Europe continues their homefield advantage and wins the Ryder Cup.
-Jason Day and Rickie Fowler both win an event.
-Rory wins the Masters, Finau wins US Open and PGA, Shane Lowry wins the Open
-Lexi Thompson wins a women's major.
-LIV announces a co-ed event which will look awful for the PGA that a Saudi-sponsored tour beats them to the punch.
-Netflix documentary brings very few new viewers to the sport

On the LIV front, other than the aforementioned co-ed event they will struggle to gain much of a foothold in the golf market. Their COO just quit and they're struggling to roll out a 2023 schedule. They might get some buzz from the Netflix documentary, though overall I don't think it will bring many new viewers to either the PGA or LIV. It's a lot harder to get people to commit to viewing a 54 or 72-hole event as opposed to a two-hour race on Sunday mornings. They're gonna need Cam Smith to continue his dominant run. Or to have Brooks and Bryce to regain their forms.

 

Co-Ed event would honestly be great. I think a LIV player is going to win a major this year and keep fuel on the fire.

 

If you're bored with football, tune into the Golf Channel with Morikawa blowing a six-shot lead to Rahm. No commercials the last hour!

 

i respect morikawa too much to not call that an all time choke job but

yikes

Good for Rahm

 

Some tidbits to catch up on in the golfing world...

-Si Woo Kim wins the Sony Open. He's such a fun player to watch, especially with the way he chips around the green. I hope he contends for a major someday.

-Spieth misses the cut after leading the first round. There was some great coverage of him just overthinking things as only he can do.

-Speaking of coverage, I have been pleasantly surprised at how NBC has upped their game in terms of quality. Better storylines, new camera angles, and a less uptight booth has enhanced the viewing experience. There were some poorly timed commercial breaks but baby steps have been taken.

-Patrick Reed is suing CNN for $450 million due to some hurtful comments made by Jake Tapper and Bob Costas. Never change, Patrick lol.

 

TV deal is gonna be what pushes LIV over the edge. This is big.

 

Looks official

 

DP World Tour is so good at this kind of stuff. You could spend an entire afternoon going through some of the skits they have done.

 

It’s actually scary how good Rahm is right now and he doesn’t even think he’s 100% yet.

I’m hoping for another top five for Tom Kim. Tomorrow should be fun.

 

Davis Thompson hanging in there with Rahm who is playing maybe his C+/B- game today. Still an impressive showing by Thompson. Also, I'll be surprised if Taylor Montgomery does not win Rookie of the Year. The guy has everything.

 

Davis Thompson learned that you should always take the pin out.

 

Rahm looking to go 3/3 to start the year. Crazy shit.

 

Well nevermind lol

 

Yeah, it was a week of extremes for Rahmbo. I guess he could still make a run here but would need some big names to start playing poorly.

It's crazy how well Max Homa plays in these regular tournaments. He has a poor record in the majors but wonder if he has figured something to help him elevate his game during the most important weeks.

 

Bummer for Ryder, he fell apart today, absolutely love the win for Max - i need him to be a major champion.

 

Rory and Rahm in their last 14 combined events:

Top fives: 13
Players lost to: 22
Wins: 7

Rory wins the Dubai Desert Classic, sinking the final putt to beat Patrick Reed by one. Given the events of the last seven days, it was quite the fitting ending. It's safe to say no DP World Tour in recent memory gained as much traction as this one. Of course, Reed was at the center of every controversy. It reminded me how much I'm going to miss his antics on the tour. As Harry Higgs said, LIV took all the villains. It got me thinking it's too bad Max Homa is a good guy because it would be an ideal scenario if he were to take on the villain role: an ascendant star who is good at social media.

 

Some rare Monday morning golf is about to begin as they finish up the Pebble Beach tournament. Not the sexiest of leaderboards but that's a given with a weak field but a lot of fun guys to cheer for in Peter Malnati, Brandon Wu and Keith Mitchell. Speaking of Mitchell, he had a cool on-course interview yesterday. Props to CBS implementing some new things into their broadcast with the interviews and the shot predictor technology. I'm not sure how cool or necessary the shot predictor thing is but at least they're experimenting which for the longest time never occurred.

Anyways, today's action is only an appetizer to maybe the most fun non-major event of the year with WM Phoenix Open. It's always a crazy atmosphere and with it being Super Bowl Week I can only imagine it being even more chaotic.