Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
Last Thursday, at a Las Vegas pool, while holding a marg, my friend cheered for Hideki Matsuyama to birdie a hole in Detroit after betting on him on his phone.
Some scene, right? Because the wager lasted the length of the par-4, it was quick, too, and you could even fire up another one on Matsuyama, for the next hole, as you waited. Maybe the same bet. Or maybe one a bit less optimistic.
Perhaps a bet on him to bogey.
These acts, of course, aren’t new, nor are the ramifications of gambling addiction, or fans howling after players to help along their picks. But news this week in Major League Baseball brought to the forefront another piece of wagering — players becoming involved. According to a story written by ESPN’s David Purdum and Jeff Passan, Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz is under investigation after a betting-integrity firm flagged two pitches that drew unusual gambling activity. Money was twice placed on Ortiz either to throw a ball or hit a batter, and Ortiz threw balls on both occasions.
Not to give anyone any wise ideas, but one mistake seemingly was betting significantly, instead of spreading it out. Would anyone then notice a Luis Ortiz ball in, say, the end of June, and a few people cashing for $100? Or would anyone spot a $100 bet on Matsuyama to make a four on a par-3? That’s just one hole. He could recover. He could potentially profit, too. And do it again this week. And on and on.
OK, OK, enough of the virtuous preaching. My friend’s bet was fun. Matsuyama did birdie. We immediately ordered another drink after the winnings. The onus, though, will be on how this is policed. And good ole-fashioned honesty. I’ll let you decide whether that can happen.
Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9.
One takeaway from the week
2. Thursday, my interview with Richard Teder was published — and if you want to read the story about the 20-year-old amateur who holed-out from the fairway to make the Open Championship, you can do so by clicking here — but I left out one item that I’ve been interested about in his story:
By becoming the first-ever player from Estonia to play in a major, he could make the case that he’s the best-ever golfer from the country in northeastern Europe. Of course, Estonia has just seven courses and golf isn’t all that popular there, but still, that’s an impressive title to own — and I asked him about it.
Considering that you’re the first Estonian to play in the Open Championship, I think the case could be made that you might now be the best-ever player from your country. What is that thought like?
“Well, I feel like I’ve been the best player here for years now,” Teder said. “But, because there’s not many out here, but there’s loads of good ones. I mean, our national team, there’s loads of good players there. But, yeah, it means the world, man. It’s everything that I worked for, and it’s cool, man. It’s a pleasure to get into the Open as well. That’s the most crazy part. I mean, that’s the first Estonian to ever play it. It’s just — I’m just so grateful. I mean, no one has played on the PGA Tour. We have one pro.”
Do you think at all about being the best-ever?
“No, I don’t think about it at all, man,” Teder said. “Because, I don’t know. It’s just a small country. We don’t have many players, and I’ve been pretty good for the last three, four years. There’s not many people who can beat me here. So kind of used to it, really.”
One takeaway from the week — and for the weeks ahead
3. Teder can also send it. He said his clubhead speed clocks at 126, 127 mph, which would rank at the top of the PGA Tour — or in the neighborhood of another 20-year-old, Aldrich Potgieter, who won last week at the Rocket Classic and is looking to be in contention at this week’s John Deere Classic.
Neither player is alone in the under-the-drinking-age bomber group, either, which led to a reporter this week at the John Deere Classic asking 49-year-old Zach Johnson: “They just can’t keep getting better, can they?”
The response was interesting.
“I don’t know. I mean, I guess they can,” Johnson said. “You know, records are meant to be broken. The trajectory of the youth in this game is not like it’s going on that incline [gestures vertically], but it’s a steady incline. Maybe with a little bit of this in there [makes a wavey gesture].
“It’s impressive. I mean, I think you got to pay tribute to a lot of the guys. We’re entertainers obviously, and having the relationships we do with our media partners, I mean, golf is an attractive sport for youth. It’s all of that. It’s a Tiger Woods effect, too. Not going to hide that fact. It’s all of that. We got athletes playing this game at a young age that could probably go a different direction in sports, but this sport grabbed them, for good measure because it is awesome. It’s daunting, it’s scary, but it’s fantastic, if that makes sense.
“As a competitor, as an athlete out here, the youth of this game is impressive. I mean, just like one of my son’s best friends, arguably his best friend, both going to Clemson, is a freak in this game. He’s a freak. He’s been doing things at 15 years old that I’ve never been able to do. He’s 18 now.
“So, yeah, watch out. There is a lot of them.”
An instruction tip for your weekend
4. In the one-minute video below, Bryson DeChambeau fixed the slice of Nate Ament, a five-star basketball recruit for the University of Tennessee.
5. In a video that you can view by clicking here, shared by GOLF Top 100 instructor Stan Utley, Bobby Jones explains how to hit a fried-egg bunker shot.
6. I’ll also instantly support whoever brings back a tie into golf.
A golf story that may interest only me
7. A story written by Noah Brennan of the Calgary Herald — which you can read in full here — alerted me to a group shutting down a hole in Canada in an attempt to make a hole in one.
After 57 hours, the ace came, and you can watch a video of it below.
8. In the tweet below, announcer Joe Buck shared a moment from a round of golf with announcer Jim Nantz — who graced the video with his signature golf phrase.
Rough day in Mexico!!! This is where @NFLonCBS and @ESPNNFL come together in the name of family. What a day. Blake’s first 9 holes with the Nantz boys pic.twitter.com/ywF976SFcd
6:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. ET: BMW International Open third round, Golf Channel
11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET: John Deere Classic third round, Golf Channel
1 p.m.-4 p.m. ET: John Deere Classic third round, CBS
— Sunday
6:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. ET: BMW International Open final round, Golf Channel
1 p.m.-3 p.m. ET: John Deere Classic final round, Golf Channel
3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET: John Deere Classic final round, CBS
What you’re emailing me
10. Let’s do 10 and 11 items! Two weeks ago, I’d asked for readers’ thoughts on whether they were more entertained by pros looking like world-beaters, or pros being brought to their knees, and I received several responses.
Here’s one:
There’s room for hard courses and ‘easy’ courses. But I don’t enjoy seeing pros “brought to their knees.” The local pitch-and-putt could be backbreaking if the greens were concrete and the rough was waist high. Courses that are really challenging solely because of the design — without being tricked up — should host Opens.
11. Here’s another:
Challenge ’em — they hit 600-yard par-5s in 2 and wedges into 450-yard holes. Screw them. Make them play closer to the game we all play. Par should be a good score.
More of what you’re emailing me
12. Let’s do 12 items! Here’s another email I’ve received:
Max [Homa] is right. The anonymity of social media allows people to show the worst of themselves without consequences. Our society is generally rife with anger these days, and I attribute a lot of it to cable TV “news” shows that are more appropriately called “rage factories” because they build their viewership by enraging people. Viewers get addicted to their rage so they keep tuning in. I stopped watching cable TV news shows a couple of years ago and I’ve been much less angry ever since, which means I’m generally happier. As Max said, when anything important happens, you still find out about it, although perhaps not immediately.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
