MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[gsrjc]

Are folks excited for the BMW championship for be held at Caves in 2021? I’ve never been there so I don’t know much about it.

[TheCityGame]

Caves is cool. Beautiful looking course. SHOULD look good on TV. Don't know how it will stand up to the pros. I saw the Women's International Cup there a few years back. they skirt all the tree real high and uniformly.

A bunch of us have played it. . .Fabb, DC, me, C.Freeman, Eagle. . .thanks to the largesse of Fabb's FIL via Fabb.

Ya know, I'll just out with it. . .I just don't have much desire to watch professional golf in person. I doubt I'll go, but I'm not etching that in stone right now.

 

[dcmidnight]

I've been to a few practice rounds at different courses - US Open at Congo, Players, LPGA at Kingsmill - but the idea of going for a big tournament round is miserable. Standing 10-15 deep, cant see anything, dont get to see whats going on elsewhere. I get that some people really like it, its just not my thing. The thing I liked most at the Players was just watching them on the range.

I would definitely drive two hours again to play Caves (cough cough cough cough) but would not drive two hours to stand in crowds all day.

[FAbb]

I'm not sure if I'd go or not. I'm not really into watching golf in person. I didn't attend the Quicken a single time when it was in the area.

[Kent01putt]

Liked going to the LPGA at Bulle Rock. Would sit on the hill above the 4th green. You can watch all the 4th hole, tee shot on 5, approach on 6 and the 7th tee shot to the par 3. I can't think of any place on Caves where you can see much more than two shots from any vantage point.

[vtnerf]

I'd be extremely interested in going for a practice round. Went to Congo and Marion for practice rounds and it was a blast. Cameras were allowed, guys were playing with guys they wanted to play with, caddies were chatting with the gallery, and players were working on the range for extended times. Really cool to watch them work. Very laid back and lower crowd numbers as well. Definitely interest in Caves 2021

[2moreTerpz]

re caves:

every january i used to go down to florida for a couple days. Every year we'd get stuck in horrible traffic somewhere on 95 and it'd take us 16 hours to get from college park to orlando. One year i said to myself "i will never ever do this again. if i'm not willing to pay for a plane ticket, i'm not going"

point is i will never ever buy a standard ticket to a pga tour event again. Either i'm living the lux life and having access to an air conditioned tent with good views and food ... or i'm not going.

Now. I LOVE the practice round idea. That makes a lot of sense to me. Years ago when the korn ferry (then nationwide) tour was at UMD my dad and i went. We walked the course once. Then we left. It was 3.5 hours. Really pleasant. It was all I needed to see. I'd do something like that at the BMW depending on the price.

[vtnerf]

The great news was we bought upgraded tix for the practice rounds at the US OPEN and it was still under $100. The upgrade got us into the air conditioned tent, but that's worth a few bucks in June in the mid Atlantic.

Even the VIP tix were less than a normal ticket for the Thurs/Fri rounds. And about a third of the people.

[dcmidnight]

I think the LPGA event at Kingsmill was the best of all. When you got to the farthest points away from the clubhouse there were no ropes even setup so you could stand right next to the teeboxes. Granted you might only have known a handful of players but it made it fun to follow around. And the tickets cost next to nothing.

[SullGolf]

Sunday at the Congressional US Open was the only time I've been to a professional event. I've probably said this a dozen times in each of our dozen thread iterations, but it was a terrible experience. I might try going again to a practice round or with VIP access. Practice rounds are always a little tough because of the need to take a day off of work.

[Sterling_247]

My name is....and I have a problem....

My plan to not change equipment has been blown to hell. The following clubs will now be in the bag for Pinehurst:

Cobra Speedzone 3 wood 14.5* - played at 16*Titleist 818H1 19* - played at 18* Titleist 818H2 21*- played at 22*Scotty X5 TM Hi-Toe 54*The only thing safe at this point is my irons and the bst has thrown a few sets of blades out there this morning that really have my attention

Also been looking at a possible upgrade in the driver department for no apparent reason

This is what happens when I sell all of me extra clubs.....I just buy more clubs that will probably be sold later in the spring once I set up a fitting

[dcmidnight]

Also been looking at a possible upgrade in the driver department for no apparent reason

I knew when I outdrove everyone on 18 Monday that this was a distinct possibility...

[Sterling_247]

....you caught me

[aiyyer]

My name is Mr.59 and I have a problem..

Shopping for Pinehurst

 

[dsc123]

Re: the $177m--that was just tour earnings. I don't see why players would give up any outside money, so I think this is the correct number for comparison. Its actually a bit inflated because it includes majors, which I would expect the players to continue to play.

 

Listening to the second to last NLU podcast, they say rumors are that they're offering Tiger $200-250m. I don't know what that means, really. Appearance fees? The value of one of these "teams"? I don't know. But from something I read elsewhere, I think its a payment to Tiger to get him to take ownership of one of the teams. That's double his career earnings.

NLU also said the "scuttlebutt" is that the organizers have $1B cash in the bank to back this. Yes, this is all "talk." I did put in a request to view the personal and business bank statements of organizers but they haven't gotten back to me yet.

 

Its certainly a long shot, and I don't know that its desirable, but I think its silly to dismiss it out of hand as having zero chance. A number of the top players have attended private meetings about it and a few have made public comments that show they're considering it. You don't come up with $1B and get the attention they're getting from the players unless its serious.

From Bob Harig, after Rory's negative comments -- "And so far, most of the top players have remained open to the idea. Last week at the Genesis Open, seven top players and their representatives attended a Premier Golf League presentation, according to Golfweek. Among the players present were Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose."

You know what else I dont see, I dont see one actual player themselves say they aren't getting paid enough money.

RORY McILROY: But I think, as I said, it might be a catalyst for some changes on this tour that can help it grow and move forward and, you know, reward the top players the way they should be, I guess.

JUSTIN ROSE: "What it boils down to is a redistribution of the economics in golf, the media rights and all that, in favour of the most marketable players," he said.

GREG NORMAN: “Why would they rule it out when you actually look at the financials?” Norman asked. “If you’re a player, my gosh, you’re a professional, so you play golf for a living to make money. When you see the compelling numbers that are in front of these guys, you wonder: how could you not pay attention?”

One player agent who wished not to be identified presented it this way: "The needle-movers, the guys who are responsible for revenue, go out and compete at the risk of not being paid," he said, citing the example of a big-name movie star. "He doesn't shoot a movie for free and see how it does." "Tiger Woods can sell a million dollars' worth of tickets, be largely responsible for a large part of the television contract (the rights fees paid to the PGA Tour), and he has to shoot scores to get paid," the agent said. "There really is an issue there. The question is how to manage and respond to it."

See also - 2020 Saudi International.Or that they only want to play against 40 other players.

TIGER WOODS: I think that just like all events, you're trying to get the top players to play more collectively. It's one of the reasons why we instituted the World Golf Championships, because we were only getting together five times a year, the four majors and THE PLAYERS, and we wanted to showcase the top players on more than just those occasions. We came up with the World Golf Championships and we're meeting more often. And so this is a natural evolution, whether or not things like this are going to happen, but ideas like this are going to happen going forward, whether it's now or any other time in the future.

JUSTIN ROSE: 'Format-wise, it would draw all the top players together each time and we'd all like that.

 

 

 

[dsc123]

There's a new, nearly 90 minute interview with one of the founders: https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2020/2/21/premier-golf-league-goes-public-andy-gardiner-podcast-with-rick-shiels

Summary of some of it here: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-man-behind-the-premier-golf-league-emerges-to-reveal-some-but-not-all-of-his-vision

And Shackleford has a short interview up: https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2020/2/21/qampa-with-andy-gardiner-ceo-of-the-premier-golf-league

 

 

[GooseHook]

Getting out today was a nice refresh, but I had a rude awakening going to a new club that has fluffy bunkers. Shot an 85 with literally 6 attempts left in the same trap.

SIM driver is incredible, conditions on fairways and greens are what I'd expect to see in April. Looking to be an awesome year for course conditioning.

[FAbb]

Has human trash can Patrick Reed ever played a run of consistent golf this long in his career? He seems like he's always been a streaky player, but this stretch goes back to essentially the middle of last summer.

[dcmidnight]

Talk about an an A+ mental game. Played his arse off yesterday, even when he was in some really bad spots. Never seems to compound a bad shot with a second bad shot.

I dont know what happened to JT but the guy seemed like he was stuck in neutral the whole day. Still had the best shot of the day though with his lefty cut-punchout out of the woods.

[2moreTerpz]

how about VIK. Terrible triple on 11 but then an amazing chip in on 15 and long putt to win. His driver swings the last couple holes were amazing. He fearlessly SMASHED the ball.

[TheCityGame]

Reed is really good. I liked him when he came on the scene and said he was top 5 and was wearing red on Sunday.

But, he became much harder to root for as one got to know him.

Wearing all black with a black hat was a pretty good move yesterday, though. I was REALLY rooting for a 3 putt there and a Reed/BDC playoff.

[TheCityGame]

Excellent.

They said on NLU that no one who has ever won the PR Open has won a different event. And, that he does actually suck at chipping (230th in SG around the green), like he said in his post round interview. I'd say for a young guy like him, that's not actually a "problem" with his game; it's just an area that he's neglected.

[Sterling_247]

Played Bristow Manor on Saturday morning. It was a great day to be out on the course and Sunday would have been even better. Teed off around 10:15 with about 4 groups ahead of me, thought it would be a long day based on the guy in front of me, but it ended up not taking too long.

All of the new editions were in the bag and I was pleasantly surprised by the hybrids...they're fantastic and will definitely be in the bag for Pinehurst. Battled the 3 wood a little bit but that's probably more me than the club and I've tweaked it a little so we'll see how it goes. Putter is rolling pretty well considering those greens can get a little tricky sometimes

Scored pretty well considering I think I hit 6 greens and 7 fairways. Pissed away 3 shots on the last two holes (from the mother-freaking fairway) but other than that I was happy with the day.

Figured a couple of things out with the swing that have me very excited to play alot of golf this week

[dcmidnight]

So I know the Mexico broadcast always obsesses over yardage and how far the guys hit it at altitude but I thought it was interesting that they focused a lot at the beginning of the broadcast on how long the course itself actually plays. Less than 6400 yards when you account for the altitude adjustment. Definitely some narrow chutes off the tees and tree lined in a lot of spots but its not like they were purposely putting the pins in tough locations - kind of the opposite actually.

[Gmen1204]

Got out yesterday with PaMatt we played Pilgrims Oak, course was in great shape a few tee boxes were being repaired but didn't interfere with play.Took a few holes to get driver figured out then went on a little par train it was the first outing with single length irons in the bag and hit some good ones and some bad ones but I think I'll stick with them for at least this year.

[HighBoomingDraws]

Underrated track!

[gregh729]

Played Saturday at Little Bennett. The course is in really good condition. They have been taking advantage of the weather to do a lot of maintenance work. They have cut down a lot of trees - 3 green, 4 fairway, 14 green, 15 green. Greens were pretty quick considering it is February.

 

I've got the itch again, time to start the season!

[2moreTerpz]

i love the event. very fun to watch.

 

fun golf weekend for me. i completely struck out finding guys to play with saturday. I thought one guy was meeting me but while warming up he said he wasn't coming. the first tee was packed so I went over the back and introduced myself to a husband/wife combo and walked the back with them. I really enjoyed playing with them. She's 59 and has been playing for 2 years. He's the same age and hadn't really played in 30 years until they joined turf in the fall. They just love to be out there, love to hit shots, don't take it seriously, and they played quick. then i walk over to the front. i ended up playing the last 8 holes with this legit scottish dude. He was great too. It was funny getting his opinions on American golf. As you'd expect he thinks our pace of play and lack of care for courses is shameful. He hit it great. He said if you go to scotland that you don't need to bother with the expensive courses. He said all the normal courses are fun, interesting, and give you the flavor of scottish golf (kinda paraphrasing obviously). Had the chipping yips which was interesting. He talked about it the whole time. I couldn't help myself and told him that didn't help and that he was only reinforcing it. I really enjoy playing with my friends but i still enjoy meeting and playing with strangers too.

 

yesterday i took the kids the range and then to putt. I was surprised how long they wanted to stay. I actually made us leave. It's best to leave them wanting more right? One guy I play a lot was putting with us. He misses like a 5 footer. My son drops his ball in the same spot. Guys says "lets see what you got" He center cups it hard enough that it does that little pop and falls right into the cup. My buddy "well alright then". me " you know what they say". "yeah yeah yeah. like father like son". lolz. good job son.

[dcmidnight]

I've got the itch again, time to start the season!

This is usually right when we get a cold or snow snap. We've gotten so lucky this year not just with the warm weather but with the big precip dumps that we have gotten, its been rain and not snow. What are the odds on a day we get mostly rain that Pinehurst/area gets a few inches of snow - I think just east of them it was up to 5"? I'll take it though.

Took the True Eco Knits out for a spin yesterday. For a lightweight walker they have the best "cleat" system I can remember, even better than the old Adidas Gripmores. Definitely not a shoe though for someone who needs something nice and heavy that will really lock you in. It is a super lightweight shoe, even light than their OGs. Not waterproof though.

[Gmen1204]

Tanglewood is another underrated track just up the road from Pilgrims.