Tag: PGA Tour

Euros Back in a New York Groove

Much of the hype leading up to this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black Golf Course revolved around the challenge the visiting Euros faced playing in front of a hostile New York crowd.  While the New York fans did their best to get inside the heads of the Euros by heaping abuse on the players and their families, it did not produce the outcome they were looking for.  It did, however, produce a somewhat predictable outcome.  All of the rudeness, taunting, heckling and vulgarity did zero to throw the European players off their game and instead elicited some of the most inspired and exceptional play ever seen at a Ryder Cup event.

As an Indiana Pacers fan, I’ve witnessed this phenomenon many times before.  Whether we’re talking about the Reggie Miller era or the Tyrese Haliburton era, there’s no greater feeling than watching the New York faithful choke on their jeers and insults as their championship hopes go up in flames.  Even though the Pacers have yet to win it all, beating the Knicks and their fanbase year after year is a pretty awesome consolation prize.

The point is, all of the boorish and abusive behavior does nothing to throw a great player off his game.  Great players feed off it and get inspired by it.  They lock into states of concentration and focus seldom achieved under normal circumstances.  Say what you will about Justin Rose, but on Saturday the dude was dialed into Matrix level mental and physical performance, willing the improbable into certainty time and time again.  So, by the way, were his teammates, Tommy Fleetwood, John Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry.

This weekend, the European Ryder Cup team not only won the Ryder Cup but reaped the added bonus of sticking a golf cleat in the mouth of the vaunted New York fanbase.  To his credit, Shane Lowry didn’t give the “choke” sign to the abusive fans after sinking the winning putt, but rather reveled in the victory.  It was nice to see the pure joy of the moment pour out of Lowry and Euros.  They could have taunted the crowd, but instead opted for class and dignity.  Perhaps, in the future, some of the worst clowns in the gallery will do the same.

Masters patron left hanging on attempted McIlroy fist bump

Masters patron Phil Rickle left The Masters golf tournament in a huff Sunday after tournament champion Rory McIlroy left him hanging on a congratulatory fist bump.  Claiming to be one of McIlroy’s biggest fans, Rickle told reporters he’d never root for the Northern Irishman again after being rebuffed on national television.  

A highly emotional McIlroy had just sunk the winning putt and was sharing an embrace with his wife and daughter when the snubbing occurred.

“Look, I get it that McIlroy wanted to share the moment with his family and all, but he can’t take a second while he’s hugging his wife to reach out and knuckle bump his biggest fan while I’m standing there offering it. I mean, he left me hanging in front of the whole world.  I looked like the biggest boob.

“I followed the dude around all day Sunday and yelled out ‘MASHED POTATO!’ and ‘BOOM SHAKALAKA!’ after every shot.  I shouted ‘DESHAMBLES!’ every time Bryson screwed up.  I was there for Rors.  I don’t see why he couldn’t spare a quick bumpy knuckles with his homie,” Rickle said.

Following the tragic Masters experience, Rickle is currently weighing his options.

“I’ll probably start following Bryson.  Maybe I’ll get a little more appreciation over at LIV.”

Pressure on LIV Golf to acquire some underdogs

Within minutes of amateur Nick Dunlap’s historic PGA Tour victory, Greg Norman’s texts were lighting up with demands from his Saudi overlords to bring the same level of excitement and drama to LIV Golf.

“Are you seeing this, Shark?  Why don’t we have any Cinderella stories?  LIV needs drama, Greg Norman!  Spare no expense.  Buy us some amateurs!  Get us some underdogs, Shark!” the texts read.

The Alabama sophomore’s improbable victory over some of the PGA Tour’s finest highlighted what’s special about the PGA Tour and exposed one of LIV Golf’s most glaring weaknesses.  LIV Golf can’t produce the high-drama, engrossing narratives that are a recurring attraction on the PGA Tour.   

A tour composed almost entirely of entitled, overpaid wicked stepsisters playing exhibition golf will never produce any Cinderella stories.  Who looks back on any NBA season and goes, “Wow, that was some All-Star Game!”?   

I know, somebody’s going to come at me with the Chili Dippers defeat of the Sandbaggers in the team finals as an example of pressure-packed, LIV Golf high drama at its finest.  Sure, I’m old school and I don’t get it.   

“Greg Norman,” the texts continue, “get me a journeyman golfer who is about due for a breakthrough victory.  We need a couple of almost washed up tour veterans who yearn to taste victory one more time.  Buy me some fearless young guns ready to announce their arrival to the world.  Whatever it takes, Greg Norman.  There is plenty of money in the bottomless PIF.”

Tour officials to investigate PGA Championship riot

PGA Tour officials today vowed to get to the bottom of why thousands of golf fans were able to storm the 18th green at the PGA Championship on Sunday, and whether Phil Mickelson played any role in the melee that ensued after he hit his final approach to that green.

Moments after Mickelson hit his approach shot to 18, thousands of fans broke through police and security lines and stormed the 18th green.  Officials want to determine if the siege was in any way coordinated, and if eventual winner, Phil Mickelson, possibly encouraged the mob’s behavior through his play or his actions.

“All I know is after he hit that approach he started walking toward the green and gave a ‘thumbs up’.  That’s when all hell broke loose.  You tell me whether or not he was giving the ‘green light’ to the mob to do its thing,” said one anonymous official.

Another avenue of investigation will involve what, if any, role social media played in what seemed to be a highly coordinated siege of the closing hole at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.  Some have pointed to Saturday night chatter on Reddit and Facebook as proof that the storming of the green was preplanned and highly coordinated. 

At this time, authorities are reviewing tape in an effort to identify some of the principal offenders.  One individual of interest with whom authorities would like to speak is identified only as Beer Can Hat Dude.  He is visible in much of the footage handing out beers, cheering vociferously and inciting the crowd’s raucous behavior.  

After the match, Mickelson playing partner, Brooks Koepka, who at one point became engulfed by the frenzied mob, had little positive to say about the chaotic scene on the 18th hole.  

“It would have been cool if I didn’t have a knee injury and got dinged a few times in the knee in that crowd because no one really gave a s***, personally,” Koepka said.  

Indeed, another avenue of investigation will almost certainly look at why so few in the excited gallery were thinking of Koepka’s knee at the moment a 50-year-old Mickelson was on the verge of golfing history.