By Ben Alberstadt
December 3, 2020
Good Thursday morning, golf fans. .
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1 From “idiot” to first-round leader
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”When it comes to self-assessments, Andy Sullivan’s description of his golf game prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was as blunt as it gets.”
- “I was being an absolute idiot,” Sullivan said.
- “The numbers certainly supported that. The 33-year-old Englishman, who less than five years ago was a top-30 player in the world and a European Ryder Cupper, dropped outside the top 150 in the world rankings during the coronavirus break, a downward trend sparked by a few years of mediocre golf.”
- “But things changed when the European Tour restarted this summer. Sullivan tied for fourth at the first event back, the British Masters, and two starts later notched his fourth career European Tour victory, at the English Championship. He’s now No. 72 in the OWGR, and on Wednesday in Dubai he equaled the best round of his tour career, an 11-under 61, to take the first-round lead at the Golf in Dubai Championship.”
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2. Brooks’ blunt assessment
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…”The year 2020 will go down in the record books as a lost year for Brooks Koepka. Injuries to his hip and knee didn’t heal properly and prevented him from being the cold-blooded closer who won four majors between the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills and the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.”
- “Koepka made a valiant effort at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and the PGA Championship to claim a victory, but he enters this week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico with one last chance to avoid being winless in 2020. Asked to sum up out how he would describe his golf year, Koepka took the high road.”
- “I don’t know if I could say that without getting fined,” he said. “Pretty bad.”
- …“It couldn’t have got much worse than it did over the summer,” he said. “My body wouldn’t let me do things that I wanted to do.”
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3. Aphibarnrat making first start since COVID-19
Chuah Choo Chiang for PGATour.com…”The burly Thai, who is nicknamed “Asia’s John Daly,” arrived at the Mayakoba Golf Classic following a tie for 11th at the Bermuda Championship early last month. It was his best result on TOUR since finishing T8 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in Korea last year.”
- “After being home-bound in Orlando with the coronavirus, Kiradech started practicing two days before flying out to Mexico on Sunday. He spent two hours at the driving range on day one and doubled his range time the next day. He credited time spent with his swing coach Mike Walker in the U.K. in October for his recent resurgence in Bermuda.”
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4. Andy Ogletree’s grind for PGA Tour status begins
Golfweek’s Julie Williams…”After garnering so much attention next to Woods at Augusta – and making a Sunday trip to Butler cabin – Ogletree returned home to small-town Mississippi last week. He helped his dad Jim put on a local community Thanksgiving. Ogletree hopes to get back home for Christmas, when he can make the rounds, see everyone and celebrate recent milestones.”
- “Like turning professional and making his first start as a pro at this week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic.”
- “Ogletree, 22, made four other Tour starts this year before the Masters, including at the Charles Schwab Challenge, RBC Heritage, the Memorial and the U.S. Open. He missed the cut in all four. Before those doors opened for Ogletree, the 2019 U.S. Amateur champion, he hadn’t ever played a Tour event. It was a transition that felt similar to the one from junior golf to Georgia Tech.”
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5. John Wood is the latest caddie to become a full-time on-course TV reporter
Brian Wacker for Golf Digest…“Though the move marks a career change for Wood, who stopped working for Kuchar in August, it won’t be his first time behind the microphone. In 2015, Wood joined Mackay as an on-course reporter for Golf Channel at the RSM Classic. Two years later, Mackay parted ways with Phil Mickelson and joined the network full time. “I couldn’t be more excited to be joining the incredible team at Golf Channel and NBC,” Wood said. “They’ve set the standard in golf coverage, and I hope to bring an interesting perspective to their incredible production.”
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6. Catriona Matthew on Emily Pedersen
“It’s been a fantastic year for Emily,” Matthew told BBC Sport.
“The 24-year-old’s success is all the more admirable given the way her form plummeted following a dispiriting Solheim Cup debut for Europe in 2017.”
- “Pedersen was picked by skipper Annika Sorenstam for the match in Illinois but was comprehensively beaten in all three of her matches in Europe’s 16 1/2 – 11 1/2 defeat.”
- “I really felt for her after the Solheim in Des Moines,” said Matthew, the 2009 Women’s Open champion.
- “She was at the top of her game and she just kind of completely lost it after that Solheim.
- “It just shows great character, I think, to come back. I’ve seen her over the last couple of years working really hard at her game, but golf is a lot in the head and I think it’s taken a lot of mental strength.”
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7. Match 3 ratings
Geoff Shackelford…”I have no idea if the organizers find the .21 for last week’s The Match 3 a success or not given the bizarre sports ratings of 2020. As Mitch Salem’s roundup of last Friday’s cable numbers highlights, The Match was just edged out by WETV’s Love After Lockup with the coveted demo and landed 8th on the list of November 27, 2020’s most watched cable telecasts.”
- “After the streaming debacle that was The Match 1, the absolute ratings stunner that was The Match 2—a higher rating than the final round of the rescheduled U.S. Open—the average of a million viewers is probably about right for a celebrity golf match.”
- Check out the full post for all the links.
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8. “Don’t be Rory McIlroy”
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard on Abraham Ancer’s acquired wisdom…”I“I quickly realized that I made huge mistakes trying to play golf like other golfers,” he said Wednesday from the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
- “Specifically, he wasn’t Rory McIlroy.”
- “It was at the 2015 Frys.com Open, and Ancer was making his first start on Tour when he set up next to the former world No. 1 on the range.
- “He starts hitting these irons that just take off straight up in the air carrying 210 [yards] into the wind and cold, like 5-irons,” Ancer said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t do that.’ I started thinking I need to hit it higher and farther, so I started tinkering and that was a terrible idea, but I just didn’t know better.”
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9. Sea Island Women’s Am
Golfweek’s Julie Williams…”Sea Island, Georgia, has long been an important stop in men’s amateur golf, having hosted the Jones Cup tournaments (together with Ocean Forest Golf Club) since the early 2000s. Now, women will get the chance to compete there annually, too. The Georgia resort has announced the creation of the Sea Island Women’s Amateur, to be played for the first time July 27-29, 2021.”
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