Australian News Today

Golf

A surprisingly red-hot golfer, some shocking Ryder Cup ticket prices and Rory McIlroy receives an all-time random dagger – Australian Golf Digest

  • by
  • October 15, 2024
A surprisingly red-hot golfer, some shocking Ryder Cup ticket prices and Rory McIlroy receives an all-time random dagger – Australian Golf Digest

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are excited about our putting for the first time in a long time. After a season of struggling on the greens, I finally got a putting lesson and it’s already making a big difference. Crazy how that works, right? Anyway, shout-out to Bill Smittle for getting me to ditch my old Leo Diegel move (Read more about that here) and start making more putts. Even the misses feel a lot better, although this one to shoot my lowest round in 15 years coming up a rotation short was tough …

Wait, did my golf ball roll backward at the end? Was that cup cut properly? I demand an investigation! Anyway, thanks, Bill. Let’s keep, um, rolling. OK, here’s what else in the world of golf has us talking.

WE’RE BUYING

Matt McCarty: This has to be one of the most unexpected heaters in golf history. McCarty had never won on the Korn Ferry Tour until three months ago, but after three wins in six weeks on that tour to earn a PGA Tour promotion, he’s now won in his third career start in the bigs. A three-shot victory at the inaugural Black Desert Championship gave the 26-year-old four wins in his past 10 starts.

Crazy stuff for a self-described “late bloomer” who won once in college at Santa Clara University, was never an all-state selection in high school and still had 700 Twitter followers after his big win. But like another Matt, he uses The Stack speed-training system. And I can attest that it can lead to big wins:

I just wish I could switch bank accounts with Matt. Anyway, look out for this lefty. And toss him a Twitter follow while you’re at it.

Ruoning Yin: This Chinese star is anything but a late-bloomer, and after winning her first major at 20 last year she certainly looks like she’s returned to the form that made her World No. 1. Yin won the Buick LPGA Shanghai by six shots to earn her fourth career win on the circuit.

Zhe Ji

Playing in front of her hometown fans, Yin shot 25 under and went bogey-free over the final 50 holes. She credited a long-distance call to her swing coach after the first round for getting her back on track. And my new putting coach, Bill, can expect the same when I have an off round.

Lucas Glover’s irons: The 44-year-old was absolutely slinging his irons around Black Desert Resort during his T-3 finish. Glover gained 13.576 strokes on approach shots for the week, an incredible number that easily led the field.

2178130801

Christian Petersen

And for the season, the six-time PGA Tour winner ranks fifth in that all-important stat. Now, for the bad news …

WE’RE SELLING

Lucas Glover’s putting: Glover ranks 143rd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained/putting. And he finished 60th in that stat among the 69 players who made the cut in Utah. Which led to this statistical anomaly:

Pretty crazy that this has only been done three times in two decades. It’s also pretty crazy Scottie Scheffler has never pulled it off.

Black Desert’s lava rocks: First off, I loved what I saw from Black Desert Resort, and I’m itching to got on a golf trip to the St. George area. The place looks spectacular.

2178276255

Christian Petersen

I’m just selling all the lost balls. And that the PGA Tour doesn’t play this area as a hazard. Am I missing something? As our Tod Leonard reported, there were 201 penalties from guys hitting it onto these areas over four rounds. And some of those took a lot of time to figure out, including Michael Kim’s lucky animal hole.

Wouldn’t it just be simpler to play everything as a red-staked penalty area? If I ever do go on a golf trip there, that’s definitely what I’ll be doing.

Ryder Cup ticket prices: Thanks to No Laying Up’s Kevin Van Valkenburg for pointing out these eye-popping prices for next year’s Ryder Cup:

That’s right, $749.51 (Don’t forget that 51 cents!) to go see one of the three official rounds at Bethpage Black. A couple things to note: These are Ryder Cup+ tickets and they include unlimited food and (non-alcoholic) drinks. But they also seem to be the only tickets available for purchase. So you have to pay that to get in the door. And even if you absolutely stuff your face, what are you spending? $100? $150 maybe? So that means it’s $600 for the ticket. Plus parking. I’m sorry, but that’s outrageous. And as KVV points out, that could have a real effect on how rowdy the crowds are there. Although, after a testy Ryder Cup in Italy—not to mention last month’s Presidents Cup—maybe it’s not the worst thing to try to prevent another international incident. Anyway, we talked a lot more about this topic on this week’s episode of The Loop podcast. Please have a listen! (And then come back.)

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to Las Vegas for the Shriners Children’s Open, AKA that one Tom Kim wins every year. Elsewhere, Jon Rahm is a huge favorite at the Andalucia Masters on the DP World Tour, and the LPGA continues its Asian Swing with the BMW Ladies Championship. And then there’s Thursday’s Seitz Cup, Golf Digest’s annual outing that pits old vs. young employees. Joel Beall and I are once again captaining the Olds, and after a couple bad losses in a row, we are trying to keep this from turning into the Presidents Cup. Anyway, here’s one of the incredible mock covers from our crack photo staff:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/SeitzCover1.jpg

Random tournament fact: The Seitz Cup will be played for the first time at Knickerbocker Country Club, where I once randomly played with New York Giants legend Justin Tuck. Coincidentally, Team Old will need to summon a Justin Tuck-Super Bowl XLVI-type performance to pull off this upset.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—There will be any lava-related rulings in Tenafly, N.J.: 1 MILLION-1 odds

—Tom Kim will win in Vegas again: 12-to-1 odds (Favorite!)

—The Olds will need more Advil after Thursday’s round: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK (WELL-PLAYED DIVISION)

Yes, I fully got this tweet thanks to my 6-year-old daughter recently discovering the High School Musical series of movies. And, yes, admittedly, those movies have some bangers.

TWEET OF THE WEEK (RANDOM-DAGGER DIVISION)

After another summer of off-season hype videos, this golf-scored contest indicates the Brooklyn Nets will get the same-old Ben Simmons:

At least, at the free throw line. At least, when he actually plays.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (WELL-PLAYED DIVISION)

Congrats on 12-year-old Emery Johnson making his first career hole-in-one. On camera. In front of Tony Finau. And in slam-dunk fashion.

Man, I thought it would be tough to top the conditions surrounding my first ace earlier this year, but Emery may have done just that.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (RANDOM-DAGGER DIVISION)

In the randomest of daggers, Reince Preibus, a former White House Chief of Staff under Donald Trump, compared a recent Kamala Harris interview to … Rory McIlroy losing the U.S. Open at Pinehurst:

That is cold. He could have gone with a million different analogys there and he goes with that? Poor Rory.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Caitlin Clark is certainly making the most of her offseason by playing a ton of golf. And it looks like all that time on the course is paying off. Here’s the WNBA superstar freaking out after coming close to making her first hole-in-one:

Very impressive, Caitlin. And so was converting that birdie putt on aerated greens. And then there was Bill Belichick getting this golf-related dig in after a missed field goal during Monday Night Football:

Great line, Bill, but it’s probably long time you ditched your 4-iron.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Get out the tissues because Rob Labritz’s son and caddie getting a tattoo to match how dad marks his golf balls will hit you in the feels:

As will Rob’s reaction to coming up just short of keeping his card on the PGA Tour Champions:

This Met legend will bounce back. Hang in there, Rob.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Yeah, apparently, I’m the ‘Scottie Scheffler’ of making cuts on the number … You know he does it to win tournaments, I do it to make cuts on the number.” —Lanto Griffin. Well played, Lanto.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Dan Bradbury on winning his second DP World Tour title at the French Open. And on starting another “anchoring” debate. … Congrats to Golf Digest’s Kevin Harrigan on hitting one of the best shots I’ve ever seen, a hybrid dead uphill and dead into the wind from about 200 yards to within a couple feet on No. 18 at Westchester Country Club’s South Course. We just won’t talk about what happened the rest of the round. … That Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy vs. Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau exhibition match is officially scheduled for Dec. 17 at Shadow Creek. Let’s see if the PGA Tour/LIV rivalry is as fierce as the Olds vs. Youngs at Golf Digest. … And, finally, how hot are the New York Knicks (Including my latest mag profile subject, Karl-Anthony Towns)? Well, Costco is selling Knicks shirts for the first time that I’ve ever seen:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/241015-costco-knicks.jpg

Boom! And, yes, I bought one. Duh. Go New York Go New York Go!

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How many games will the Knicks win this season?

How many times will I have to watch “High School Musical”?

Why didn’t I get a putting lesson sooner?

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The Latest News
Popular News

More like this Related