5. BK’s peers on his brashness
Steve Dimeglio, perhaps in an end-of-season emptying of the notebook, re-examined some of Brooks Koepka’s boldest remarks and solicited peer reaction…
- “Billy Horschel, the 2014 FedEx Cup champion, said he has no problems with what comes out of Koepka’s mouth. Now, the ball coming off his clubs, that’s an altogether different matter…”It can come off as arrogant and cocky to certain people, but I don’t mind it at all. If you don’t like it, do something about it.”
- …”Brooks doesn’t play angles,” said Paul Casey, a winner of 19 professional tournaments. “He’s a straight-forward guy, focused on being the best he can be. And he’s backed up his words with impressive stuff.”
- …”He has just enough arrogance that you need to be the best,” Harmon said. “All great players, in all sports, have it. If you ask LeBron if he’s the best player in the NBA, he’s not going to say no. If you ask Tom Brady if he’s the best in the NFL, he’s not going to say no. If you asked Tiger back in the day, he certainly wasn’t going to say no.
Full piece.
6. Let the data show…!
Geoff Shackelford with this interesting bit on Bryson…
- “Here’s DeChambeau, now (maybe somewhat slightly kinda unfairly) branded as the poster child from Saturday at the Safeway Classic:”
- “There’s data out there now that shows that I am not the slowest player at all by any means,” he said.
- “When asked to elaborate on the data he was referring to, DeChambeau was less than forthcoming.”
- “Well the PGA Tour has it. I’ve seen it. I don’t know if I can disclose any of it,” he said. “But I’m definitely not in the top 10 percent. I’m not close to that. That’s from Shotlink data. We have that. So, I can say that, I know I can say that without a shadow of a doubt.”
Full piece.
7. That’s one interpretation!
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall with a modest proposal: Rory McIlroy is going to defect to the U.S. Ryder Cup team (note: this is satire…I think)
- “We can hear the gravy-muffled guffawing from the British press on this side of the Atlantic. Sure, ascribe McIlroy’s latest round of haymakers-announcing his disappointment with European Tour’s course setups-as post-round frustrations. That is failing to see the forest for the trees. Well, if England had any trees left, which it does not. The truth runs to a grander design, which ends with McIlroy wearing red, white and blue in Wisconsin exactly one year from now.”
- “A scheme that is more than a decade in the making, beginning in 2009 when he called the Ryder Cup an exhibition. This caused an uproar and forced then-Euro captain Colin Montgomerie to respond, “It is not an exhibition and it never will be. It’s a very unique, special event.” Which is what you’d expect from someone without a major.”
- “McIlroy backtracked, but it was would not be the last time he took a Mack truck over all the European golf cognoscenti holds dear. In 2011, he ridiculed the Open Championship, saying “I’m not a fan of golf tournaments that are predicted so much by the weather.” Forget that he was right (there’s a reason the major has the highest OWGR average winner); that McIlroy had the audacity to defame the claret jug caused the strokes of a dozen R&A septuagenarians. And he almost no-showed the final day of the 2012 Ryder Cup, but quickly realized that was too brazen, too fast. The plan needed longer to marinate.”
Full piece.
8. Champ’s club builder speaks
Good Q&A from Andrew Tursky at PGATour.com doing the lord’s work of getting inside info on the pros equipment decisions from the folks they work with…
- “…PGATOUR.COM caught up with Champ’s club fitter and Ping TOUR rep Kenton Oates…”
- “PGATOUR.COM: Can you take us through Cameron’s changes?”
- “KENTON OATES: “The change that started all this was when he started wanting to look at G410 LS Tec drivers in Detroit, so we did a lot of work between Detroit (Rocket Mortgage Classic) and New York (THE NORTHERN TRUST). By the time he got to New York in the Playoffs, he wanted a driver that he could hit lower and hit little cuts with. So we went even shorter in length, from 44.75 inches to 44.5 inches. We also went into a shaft that’s really stiff in the tip, the Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green. Then he loved the driver.”
- “That’s what kind of sparked us wanting to work on iron shafts. He played Blueprint irons after winning with iBlades (at the 2018 Sanderson Farms), and he actually statistically gained more shots with the Blueprints, but that change kind of came at the wrong time. So we reached out to him after the season was done, and we’re like, ‘Hey, the Blueprints were actually pretty positive. What did you like about them? What didn’t you like about them?’
Full piece.
9. Perspective shift
Golf Digest’s Brian Wacker on Jason Day’s focus on family ahead of golf.
- “In early 2017, Day’s mother, Dening, was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. In the ensuing two years, Day has had to balance his career and family life with his wife, Ellie, and their three children, while helping his mother cope with a life-threatening condition that appears to be in check.”
- “When doctors in Australia first examined Dening, they gave her 12 months to live. The news came in the wake of some of Day’s biggest professional successes. In 2015, he had won his first career major at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits and reached the top of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time, a position he would hold for much of the following season with more victories piling up in 2016.”
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Jon
Oct 2, 2019 at 11:29 am
Hmm…2020 NY, 2021 CA, 2022 MA, 2023 CA, 2024 NC, 2025 PA, 2026 NY, 2027 CA…Yeah, I see where the US Open is going…just coast-to-coast. My family will be happy that I will be able to spend time with them on Father’s Day at least thru 2027. Hey USGA, thank you for bringing back segregation. What’s wrong with Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Denver? Bye Felicia.