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Hey,
No you didn’t dream it, the two primary presidential candidates — in a debate about who should be in charge of a nation of 350 million people — actually yelled about their handicaps and driving distances on national television.
Imagine Mitt Romney and Barack Obama hollering about whose fadeaway was purer. Or Al Gore and George Bush going back and forth about maxing out a radar gun. We were like 30 seconds from somebody throwing Trackman numbers on a projector last night!
Normal sport.
Normal country.
Onto the news.
1. Something I think about all the time when I think about golf (which is almost all of the time) is how to properly evaluate players and careers.
This is, in the grand scheme of things, of little to no importance and yet sometimes in my job covering professional golf, it can feel like the most pressing endeavor in the world.
Why?
Legacies matter. Careers matter. I believe that evaluating, discussing and ranking them with thoughtfulness is one of my primary tasks as a golf writer/thinker/podcaster.
Also, all of it is just tremendously fun to consider. Do I care about what Ben Kohles did on the par 3s on the back nine at Detroit Golf Club on Thursday? Not really. But I will absolutely lose sleep thinking about who I would have higher on my golf pyramid between Sergio and Adam Scott.
Anyway, all of this is top of mind because Andy invited me on the Fried Egg podcast to talk about what one golf question I think about all the time. My question: How much emphasis should we give major wins when evaluating careers? We got steep on it in a soon-to-be-released episode that I’ll link in here when it drops. Or you can just subscribe to their pod here.
2. With that as my way-too-long intro, here is the provocative question I posed to Andy as a sort of jumping off point for that bigger question above:
Who is the best golfer in the world in 2024?
This seems like the most obvious answer in the world, and it probably is. However, I would absolutely listen to somebody make a case for Bryson over Scottie. Why? Well, Bryson has been the better major championship golfer, and major championship golf — because of its venues and because of its setups and because each organization only has to host one monstrous men’s major every year — is the purest form of tournament golf in the world.
It is more meaningful, consequential, important golf than anything on any other world tour. And Bryson has been the best at it so far in 2024. And heck, Scottie is not even second (or third!).
Here are all the players under par at the three majors in 2024.
All of Scottie’s other wins (including a Players!) more than make up for the 12 shots Bryson has on him at the three big ones, but it reminded me that I often have no idea how much meaning to give to major wins vs. strokes gained vs. other tournament wins vs. [45 other variables].
I think it also matters that we define what we’re trying to determine. When we debate legacies and careers are we talking about who the best golfers are? I think we can all agree that Adam Scott is straight up better at golf than Sandy Lyle. Or are we talking about best resumes? Because I think Adam Scott might trade his resume for Sandy Lyle’s.
Definitions matter.
Part of this stemmed from my question in Tuesday’s newsletter about whether Spieth should be in the top five players of the last 10 years group.
Rory has been objectively (a lot) better at golf, but also he would 100 percent of the time trade his resume for Spieth’s. What do I do with that? Does this happen in other sports? I guess you have your Karl Malones and Dan Marinos, but this seems like an issue that is fairly unique to golf (which is part of what makes it so fun to think about).
3. Here’s something from a recent Data Golf newsletter to drive the Bryson point home.
It has kind of snuck up on us, but DeChambeau is one strong finish away from a historic major championship season in 2024. Through 3 majors, he has gained 48.8 strokes on the field.
If he can gain another 12 strokes at The Open that will put him above 60 strokes-gained for the major season, a mark that has only been hit seven times since 1983: Tiger ('00, '02, '05, '07), Spieth ('15), Phil ('04), Els ('04).
This is not to disparage Scottie’s 2024 season, which has been borderline surreal. It’s more to get some questions and thoughts out there that I genuinely do not know the answer to.
4. Speaking of great golf newsletters, you should subscribe to Practical Golf if you haven’t already. Jon Sherman runs it, and he does such a great job offering insight into his own game (and your game) that will transform the way you play.
I’ve gotten deep recently on my own game, thinking about how to get around the courses I play, messing around with different chipping actions, watching tons of YouTube videos and texting swing coach friends too many videos of my swing.
Anyway, this chart stood out in Jon’s newsletter this week because it is probably not what I would have guessed (I am the 14 who thinks he can make 2 birdies a round).
5. This is a great comp.1 Two ball speed kings who haven’t done a lot else (yet).
6. A couple of thoughts on this tweet below.
7. This story about a failed media company in Oklahoma is as sad as it is fascinating. TL;DR —> A company lured the most prominent sportswriters in the state to start a new business, but it didn’t have the funds its leaders said it did. So it went under in less than a year.
I have some association with a lot of the people who got burned in the process of all of this, and I feel for them. As someone who has run a media business rooted in the state of Oklahoma, I can tell you that media businesses rooted in the state of Oklahoma (and really, all media businesses rooted anywhere) are difficult.
It’s a double edged sword, too.
Because media businesses are difficult, the allure of something compelling outside of traditional newspapers and radio was too much to resist.
But also because media is a difficult business, it seems obvious in retrospect as you read that article — based on what was being promised — that this whole thing was a bit of a fantasy from the get go (though I’m sure it didn’t feel this way in the moment for everyone involved!).
8. I admit, this on-course solve for the commercial load seems like it could and should work. It’s at the very least an interesting thought exercise.
Howevah!
Let me be the first to note that playing through also seemed like a great idea at the beginning (I remember specifically praising the concept — there is probably a tweet on it somewhere). Now what do we think about playing through other than hoping it gets the same infection Jon Rahm’s toe got at the U.S. Open?
To me, the commercial load solve looks like the following.
Seeing point No. 3
None of these organizations necessarily need the money, and the Tour doesn’t need its purses to be $500 million. You want to last beyond the next 15 years without Tiger Woods, then improving the product at the expense of purse sizes is a great place to start.
9. Here’s a fun one.
You know what most other sports — including tennis — have? Human defenses to mitigate advancements in technology and athleticism. You know what golf doesn’t have? Human defenses to mitigate advancements in technology and athleticism.
The conversation is far more complicated and nuanced than that, but when I see stuff like this used in favor of not rolling the ball back, I find it amusing. To me, it proves the opposite.3
10. The U.S. Open continues to bounce around my brain, and the idea that majors should be weighted4 — which Tron has discussed and others have talked about as well — has never been more relevant.
A U.S. Open at Pinehurst in those conditions over that group of leaders with the whole thing closing in on the leaders should be worth like two and a half 2016 PGA Championships.
My last several thoughts this week are the ones from the U.S. Open that have stuck with me over the last two weeks that I cannot seem to shake.
11. Don’t let that ending distract you from the fact that we got two all time — like all time — memes (thankfully neither was of me).
They might immediately go into the top 10 golf memes of the last 10 years. Might need to make a list.
12. This idea from Jamie Kennedy about banking your score at a tournament is so insane, and of course I love it. It would make a mockery of major championships, but I think it’s something you should try to do once a year at a difficult golf course. It would be wild and stupid and fun.
Other ideas I’ve seen floated recently involve the cut line.
Make one tournament’s cut line everybody within five of the leader. That’s it. If that‘s three people then only three people play the weekend. Or make it everybody in front of Tiger. Or make it everybody who shoots 135 or better at a given event. You would see guys employ such different strategies and processes than what they do on a regular basis.
It would be kind of awesome.
13. Let me be the 900th person to point out how cool it was that Pinehurst made people think. This may have been more true on and around the greens than anywhere else. Or on long approach shots (No. 5 comes to mine), which includes some of the par 3s. Skill and execution were key, sure, but so was thoughtfulness. Anything that makes players think, renders them uncomfortable and incapable of just pointing and ripping. That’s the good stuff. The stuff I wish we got more of on a week to week basis.
14. One point Porath made about Rory that I thought was great is that this won’t break him or end him. His retirement is not imminent. What it will do, though, is make Troon’s back nine – when he’s up four on Hatton and two on a suddenly sizzling Spieth – absolute cinema. Every failure is another rock in his backpack as he tries to scale the mountain once again. Enough to make a man go mad when he’s already playing a game designed to do that very thing.
15. Two of my favorite golf fans were in attendance at Pinehurst: The first is “talks to the ball at all times” guy. Morikawa hits a poofy approach to a right pin that looks like it’s going to float all the way to Pine Needles, Talks To The Ball guy will be screaming (screaming!) “SIT SIT SIT” like he’s playing in the tournament!
The seriousness with which it is said sends me every time.
The second is “giggles at nuclear drive” guy. Bryson launches one and you get this amused, borderline resigned chuckle from some 52-year-old who plays off a 12 index. Almost like he wants you to know that he knows that what you are seeing is beyond belief. He Knows Ball, and he wants you to know that he Knows Ball, too.
Two of the best. Might need to make another list.
16. Here’s a take: The idea of Rory winning is better than him actually doing it will be. Rory at the majors is such a default topic of conversation for anybody who’s even remotely interested in pro golf, and all of that will dissipate once he wins another one. Or at least it won’t be as prominent. There are few things more compelling, more captivating than the hero’s arc to try and recapture who or what he once was. And while the end result will be satisfying for him, it will leave the rest of us with a lot less to talk about.
17. Another thing I was considering — At what point does all of this define Rory? It almost feels like he hasn’t won a major at all. I’ve never seen anything like it. The Reverse Phil continues.
Reverse Rory’s career, and it makes a lot more sense. Reverse Rory’s career, and it looks a lot like Phil’s. Failure for so long before breaking through. Except Rory broke through for so long before failure.
If Congressional was his Kiawah then Pinehurst was his Winged Foot. The good news — as someone on Twitter pointed out to me — is that Phil won five more majors (five more!) after Winged Foot. I don’t know how (or if) that fits into the Reverse Phil Career since Phil only won once before Winged Foot, but it buoyed my spirits going into Troon.
Is Rory still considered a great champion? I think when it’s all said and done, probably yes (and definitely so if he gets another), but it’s weird that a lot of people now expect him to lose on Sundays instead of the other way around.
18. Who ends up with the most majors out of this group?
19. One thing I was struck by in being on site at Pinehurst is the difference between how the top 10 players in the world (maybe just the top five and Tiger?) experience a major championship and how the rest of the field experiences a major championship.
Rory is literally having his name chanted by thousands of people after walking in (sort of walking in) a birdie at the last on Thursday, and an hour later there were 12 people watching Riki Kawamoto, Sung Kang and John Chin finish up on the same hole. You could have whispered Sung Kang’s alleged rules violations to him from 40 yards away and he would have heard you.
We talk a lot in golf about whether the course, the weather, the playing partners and any number of other things are fair for the entire field throughout the four days, but I’m not sure we talk enough about how different (perhaps unfair, perhaps not?) the experience of playing a loaded major championship course is vs. playing an empty one.
20. I like to hang around people who challenge me to be a better writer. KVV is one of those people, and when we’re together at events we inevitably start jamming on old things we've read or what we're thinking about as it relates to writing as an art. Somehow we got on this J.R. Moehringer piece on Alex Rodriguez. I read it on Saturday morning at Pinehurst just to get my writing juices flowing for the day.
It's incredibly long but so good and well done. I loved it.
21. What is the best U.S. Open venue?
Thanks for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.
1 Although I would think any Cam Young comp should be MLB-related.
2 And the opposite of, say, Tiger or even somebody like JT.
3 Also, tennis rolled the ball back, though it still has plenty of ball-related issues.
4 This is unrelated to my opening few thoughts. I simply mean weighted within the context of other majors.
