At press conferences, questions come from all directions, from left and right and up and down — room configurations vary, you know — and from all walks of life. Even from ballplayers. Or at least from folks who play them on screen.
Wednesday, for example, one day ahead of the Players Championship, Justin Thomas had this exchange with Patrick Renna.
Who you may know best as the actor who wonderfully portrayed Ham Porter in the “Sandlot” movie.
Said Renna, from the back of the media center at TPC Sawgrass: “Oh, hey, J.T., handsome, curly haired guy in the back. Big fan. Would you consider, in the offseason, of course, giving like a 15-handicap just, I don’t know, one lesson maybe at TPC? Just play 18 quick, I don’t know. Just spitballing here. You don’t have to answer now. Give it some thought, sleep on it.”
Said Thomas: “OK. Yeah, we can maybe do like a home-and-home, like where you come here, maybe we’ll spend some time on the baseball field, or I don’t know. What do you think?”
Said Renna: “I’ll give you some baseball lessons, you give me some golf lessons you, got it?”
Said Thomas: “My dad’s the coach, by the way, so anything bad that happens, that’s on him.”
Said Renna: “You bring your dad, I’ll bring mine. I’ll see you here, TPC. We’ll talk later. We’ll figure it out.”
Said Thomas: “Perfect.”
Good stuff.
Of course, there’s been heady discussion this week, too, as these are heady times. The future of the PGA Tour’s fight with LIV Golf, now in its third season? The status of a proposed deal struck last June with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, the backer of LIV? Specific details on how the Tour will spend a billion-plus dollars from its deal with a group of sports owners? How can pros best return these owners’ investment? Is Jay Monahan right for his role as Tour commissioner?
In short, there’s a lot going on, though little of it actually involves the goings-on on the course. All of which spurred a short, toward the end-of-the-press-conference query of Xander Schauffele on Tuesday.
Pulling back the curtain, I’m a consumer of life thoughts like the one that I’ll share in a sec. I won’t say whether it was right or wrong; I’ll leave that to you. But it got me thinking, which is sometimes a scary thing, but mostly good, as you collect enough insights, and eventually you form an outlook. So I thought I’d share, in the hopes that it triggers something for you. Or not, and I apologize for wasting your time, and as penance, here is the link to our Players Championship betting guide, with the hope you can make a few bucks this week.
OK, the question came from Golf Digest’s Joel Beall, who asked:
