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Edition No. 94 | July 10, 2024
Hey,
I have been sitting on and thinking about this week’s Ryder Cup news all week. Instead of jamming another 1,000 words into this newsletter, I’ll have some thoughts on the Keegan selection and the reaction to it on Friday.
Onto the news.
Pro golf is not as romantic as some would lead you to believe. It’s mostly a meat grinder that destroys dreams far more frequently than it fulfills them.
We hear the fun stories because those are the ones that are relevant and more enjoyable to tell, but for every Akshay Bhatia, there are 1,000 David Chungs.
Who?
Exactly.
The truth is that most pros play golf because the money is good at the top, but they don’t love it the way you believe you would if you were in their shoes. Most (almost all) of them are more concerned about their status for the following few months than they are about the all-time major championship winners list.
You get the point. The smaller the point of the pyramid gets, the tougher it is to be romantic about the sport.
Then there are moments like we saw last week during Open Championship qualifying.
There’s Sergio Garcia, 99 majors into his career, trying to qualify for Troon against fellas like Max Weaver and Benjamin Follett-Smith. There’s Sergio, dressed like a bizarro USC running back, rocking black cleats with red (not white) laces, Fireballs paraphernalia abound.
There’s Justin Rose, who won a Tour event last year. Who has more major top 10s in his career than most of the guys he was playing against have attended, either as a fan or as a participant.
There they are, European lions, chasing the sun and a jug at 9 p.m. on a Monday in July. Trying to carve a path to Troon. Trying to eke a few more majors out of bodies that have endured so many of them.
via theopen.com
The irony of romance is that the more accomplished you become, the less you need to chase but the more it sometimes means. Because when you’re 18 or 22 and playing in The Open, it feels like you’ll always be a part of that tournament and that week.
But when you’re 42 or 45 and you can see the end of the Wikipedia boxes approaching, each one carries weight.
“The Open has always been super special and you can kind of take it for granted,” said Rose. “As you get a little older, things get harder and in a way I think it's a good thing to happen (having to qualify) as it makes you appreciate how special it is."
Grinding 36 with folks who are not on your planet is no dream for anyone. But dreams and romance are not the same. The former is rooted in fiction that could come to pass, but the latter is quite literally, “a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.”
What describes golf better than that?
Sergio missed The Open. Rose made it.
None of it matters.
Because the romance isn’t whether you made it or didn’t. No, the romance is simply the chase.
Dear Jordan, never change.
1. This one got me. Imagine an NBA player carrying a trash can across the floor of a live game!
2. First of all, follow Jeff Marsh on Twitter or, even better, on Instagram. He took this extraordinary photo. Second of all, if an alien landed and wanted to know about “this Jordan fellow,” and you could only present him with one photo, would you show him this or the Pebble cliff pic?
3. This clip from the Arnold Palmer Cup that I got tagged into made me laugh. Especially the part where it looked like the player was going to fall face first into the hay. This moment right here. I almost lost it.
4. DT giving Crooked Joe 10 a side and saying it would be bigger than the Ryder Cup “and maybe even the Masters” was incredible. Here’s the clip. We’re like two leaked memos and a tweet from watching two 80-year-olds play Doral for the presidency.
Also, wouldn’t be the first time one of the great Americans of all time could confidently give out 20 strokes and still win Doral.
Here are the 2014 WGC scores.
Ty might need some help. Also, been there buddy.
Also, I’m sorry I have ruined so many of you. Apparently all of whom are named Ty. What an insane and hilarious thing to Google. Also, now I’m curious.
Whatever it’s normally at, you know Trump dialed it up +2 or +3 just so he could claim that “no president in history has maintained faster greens.”
You cannot name two humans who combine for more FedEx Cup points than Scottie Scheffler has this year. You can barely name three or even four.
That’s remarkable.
1. I think I might be out on fireworks. At least put me in the “I know we drove 45 minutes, kids, and we’ll have to wait 45 more to get out of this parking lot, but I’m not sure the sparkly pink stuff in the sky was actually worth it” camp. (I would never say this out loud to them, but i said it many times in my head last week).
2. I may have mentioned this before, but the cereal industry is a sham. Sugary pre-toasted bread in a bowl of fatty liquid? And we’re OK with this as parents? Big Cereal is the greatest manipulator of our time. Maybe of anyone’s time.
3. It made people incredibly mad when I called Djokovic “Pat Reed with DJ’s talent.” Like really really mad. I stand by it. I double down on it! Everybody is acting like DJ wouldn’t have won 19 majors with Reed’s sociopathic disposition!
Lose me on all the sub-60 rounds. Instead, give me a “best true SG rounds of the year” list. Here is what it looks like for 2024, per Data Golf.
Player | Score | Event | True SG |
|---|---|---|---|
Joaquin Niemann | 59 | LIV Mayakoba | 11.6 |
Nick Taylor | 60 | Phoenix | 11.0 |
Wyndham Clark | 60 | Pebble | 9.8 |
Akshay Bhatia | 63 | Texas Open | 9.6 |
Hideki Matsuyama | 62 | Riviera | 9.4 |
Jannik de Bruyn | 64 | Euro Open | 9.2 |
Xander Schauffele | 62 | PGA | 9.1 |
Hayden Springer’s 59 at the Deere is nowhere to be found.
He gained a little over 9.0 raw strokes on the field, but when considering the field average, that bumps down to below 9.0 true strokes gained.
This is not to take away from shooting 59, which is insane. The effect here, instead, is that it helps us appreciate something like Hideki’s 62 at Riviera even more and realize that it was actually more difficult to shoot — or at least equivalent to — a 59 on Thursday in Silvis.
“You're not afraid of failing, you're afraid of being seen failing.” -James Pierce
👉️ Speaking of being romantic about golf. This story about the Issa Nlareb and his journey to the U.S. Adaptive Open, where he finished fourth in the men’s division, is insane.
“No, I don’t have fingers or legs, but life is happy,” said Nlareb. “Playing golf, enjoying it. Every time is tough, but I keep on smiling to speak to the people.”
Sounds like he needs to speak at one of the U.S. Ryder Cup dinners.
👉️ The sounds of summer. The first two or three shots on this reel from Rory’s Scottish Open last year are just insane. Missiles.
👉️ Leave it to SMartin to connect Luke Clanton and Billy Joe Patton. This is one of the best things I read this week.
👉️ I went on Andy Lack’s pod to talk about the Keegan pick, Rory’s future and why Bryson is the most important golfer in the world right now. I love talking golf with Andy, and we had a blast. Check it here.
👉️ Joseph LaMagna and I debated some of the finer points of my statement about how Europe, too, has a boys club but nobody seems to call it that (more on this on Friday).
I certainly don’t think ZJ used the right process to arrive at his answers of who to put on the 2023 team (it became clear that he was just picking his buddies), but almost despite himself I think he landed on the correct choices.
The argument against this — one I could get on board with — is that if this type of thing becomes too insular and circular (and you could argue that it has), it could negatively impact future U.S. teams in immense ways.
👉️ One huge hole in my argument — one that JLM was kind to not hammer — is that JT and Spieth are literally on the committee that selects the U.S. captain. That’s not great! This committee is a remnant of the famous and hilarious task force, and one that I forgot about. I spoke with somebody from the Euro side that said there are no players on the committees that decide their future captains (which is probably for the best).
👉️ Can Christians be leaders in publicly-owned corporations or government?
• So so so perfect.
• I have no idea if this is accurate. I don’t care at all if it is. This is elite tweeting.
• Yes.
I was listening to the How I Write podcast the other day, and David Perell had a guy named Nat Eliason on. I don’t know Nat and am only tangentially aware of him from Twitter. But he said something that resonated deeply.
It’s a little long, but worth posting the whole thing.
He started talking about the influence David Foster Wallace’s writing had on his career. Let’s pick it up there …
And really what makes [David Foster Wallace’s] writing so powerful is the honesty. You hear this all the time, but it's very hard to take action on, which is [that] we're all walking around [as] these kind of bundles of anxieties and fears and unspoken thoughts.
Nat Eliason
Yes, this is true. Go on.
And everybody to some extent is wondering if they're broken or if they're screwed up or if they're the only one who feels these things. And part of your job as a writer is to tell people, ‘You're not the only one. Like, that's OK.’ The more you're willing to be honest about your emotional experience, the more your work is going to connect with people.
Nat Eliason
Yes!
And there's a natural tendency to pull it back because like, you know, if, if a, if a book does well, all right, millions of people might read and they're going to know that you feel these things. Like they're going to see that, ‘Oh, you are broken, right? Like, there is something wrong with you.’ And, you know, that's a terrifying thought, but you're also doing this great service by doing that.
Nat Eliason
Man, that whole thing just lit me up. Part of your job as a writer is to tell people, ‘You’re not the only one.’
You’re not the only one who finds himself or herself emotionally invested in a milquetoast 30-year-old from Dallas who not only can’t put the pieces together but sometimes seems like he doesn’t even know he’s dealing with a puzzle.
You’re not the only one who finds himself or herself psychoanalyzing Rory pressers and wondering what his words and his demeanor mean for Troon.
You’re not the only one who loves waking up at 3 a.m. for a rain-soaked golf tournament played 4,400 miles away.
You’re not the only romantic.
You’re not the only one.
Thanks for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.
