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Curtis Strange was talking about the PGA Tour and LIV Golf and LIV Golf’s lawsuit against the PGA Tour when Tiger Woods came up. And a thought on the 15-time major champ summed up most of Strange’s thoughts on the topic du jour rather efficiently. 

Strange, himself a two-time major winner and now an analyst, had watched Woods earlier this year at the Masters. He listened too. Strange said he heard Woods talk about his legacy. He said he heard Woods say he was full of gratitude to be able to play in what was his first event since his car crash. 

And LIV players? 

“They’ve turned their back on a Tiger Woods when you think about it,” Strange said Friday in an interview on the Starter with Taylor Zarzour show on SiriusXM radio. 

“It’s just annoying that the game that not only do I respect and love so much, it’s the players that came before me and who paved the way. I just think we owe them more than this.”   

Strange’s comments come days after 11 LIV golfers filed an antitrust suit this week against the Tour, alleging it is acting unlawfully in the suspensions it has levied against its members who have left to play in the upstart league. The group of 11 seeks to have their suspensions overturned and their playing privileges reinstated, while a smaller group of three players — Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones — has petitioned the court to issue a temporary restraining order allowing their participation in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin next week.   

The reaction to the moves from those who either played or continue to play on the Tour has been one of frustration, unsurprisingly. A day before on the Starter with Taylor Zarzour show, longtime pro Rocco Mediate opined that he was good with players leaving for LIV, but wasn’t with the idea of them returning, a thought shared by Joel Dahmen, Kevin Kisner, Davis Love III and others. And Strange said much the same on the show. 

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But also notable — and credit to Zarzour for asking (and you can listen to the entire show here with a subscription) — were Strange’s thoughts on both what the “end game” could be for LIV and its CEO, Greg Norman, and whether the competing tours could grow the game. Both answers tied into his comment on Woods, who, according to Norman, turned down $700 million to $800 million to join LIV. 

On the end game question, Strange said he didn’t know for sure what that could look like, which actually does say a lot.  

“I guess the end game would be to create an atmosphere to where they’re good people,” Strange said on the show. “Let’s not forget the bottom line on who the Saudis really are and what they do and how they run their country. But be that as it may, Norman comes from an emotional, vindictive attitude and history with the Tour. We know that. That’s all I really want to say about him. 

“The end game, when you don’t need a return on your investment, which is going to be close to a billion dollars this year on the Saudi tour — when there’s no return on your investment, there’s just some big circus, eight or 10 times this year — I don’t know how many tournaments they really have — let me just say this: If they had such a great product and a tour, without paying appearance fees, would these guys be going? Hell no, because they don’t have the product. Fifty-four holes, shotgun start, three days, come on, give me a break. I want to play the same games that Hogan and Snead and Nicklaus and Palmer played. I want to play the same courses. I want to play the same format. I want to play in the same tournaments to compare myself at the end of the day. 

“And so it’s all about the money and we know that and that’s fair enough. But the end game for me is to be able to compare my game at the end of my life knowing full well I gave it the best I could. I can’t answer your question. I can’t answer your question. But I know that the end game for the PGA Tour is.”

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But could that continue with tours splitting the world’s best players? Zarzour asked this question: “You have some of the best players playing on one league, and a few of the best players playing on the LIV Golf series. Are you concerned about the game growing forward with all of this going on?”

Strange was. In the immediate future, the hearing for the temporary restraining order will be next Tuesday, and the Tour’s playoffs begin next Thursday, while LIV does not play again until Labor Day weekend. But after that is largely unknown. 

“I’m concerned about all of it, Taylor,” he said on the show. “If it becomes the Wild West, if it goes to court, and they win, then there’ll be no rules and regulations on where and when you can play. And then the Tour will become the Wild West. It will all be run by money, all appearance fees, and you know who suffers — the fans. The fans will suffer and the charities will suffer. And if that’s what Greg Norman his entourage want, I hope they’re happy. I can’t envision what would happen then. …

“And I just hate in my wildest dreams to envision what could happen here in the next year or so. I just can’t imagine. But anyway, the Tour might have to make a few changes. We’ve already made changes to purses and some prominent tournaments for top players. It annoys the hell out of me as well because we are growing, we continue to grow, we continue to grow to the smaller neighborhoods and more access to kids to play the game and we have the youngest major champions of all time, great kids, and there’s so much good going on in the game. And we just came out of Covid. And now we got to confront this.”

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The post Music not only transports golfers, but it can also transform them. Ask Disco Dick appeared first on Golf.

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They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

Depending on your DOB, you won’t need this reporter to tell you that those lines are from the cryptic and spectacular 1977 Steely Dan hit “Deacon Blues.” It was a staple of my senior year of high school, a time when music settles in for good.

They do call the Alabama teams the Crimson Tide, and Alabama was a football powerhouse then, as it is now. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons were not, though they always had good golf teams, from the Arnold Palmer era on. Were the composers, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, goofing on Wake, much as R.E.M. goofed on Elvis years later? Were they making a reference to the outsized defensive end Deacon Jones, the epitome of SoCal NFL cool?

Discuss amongst yourselves. [Circular hand motion, like you’re spreading red sauce on an uncooked pizza dough.]

Justin Thomas, who played on the Alabama golf team for two fast years, knows about as much about Crimson Tide football as anybody in Monday night’s broadcast booth. Jerry Pate, winner of the 1976 U.S. Open, was recruited to Alabama’s golf team from the Florida panhandle in the early 1970s by Bear Bryant, Alabama’s legendary football coach. And now I’m wondering: What was Jerry’s go-to get-in-the-mood song when he was driving to the Atlanta Athletic Club on Father’s Day 1976? In those days, your options were more limited. Typically, you hit buttons on your radio, trying to find “Shake, Shake, Shake” or some such thing.

Or how ’bout Thomas, driving to the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, summer of ’17, fourth round of the PGA Championship, looking to win his first major? (And he did.) What was he listening to, with every song under the sun a voice-command away.

By the way, they were both, Jerry and JT, trailing the leader by two through three rounds.

Justin, if you can hear me, kindly let me know.

Can’t you hear me knockin’?

How ’bout those Stones, still doing it after all these years?

Fred, Barney.

(Thank ye kindly, Steven Wright.)

I would very happily play any number of Rolling Stones or Steely Dan songs en route to the course while in contention for a major. A man can dream, and music, like smell, is singularly transporting.

This subject has interested me for a while. In 2014, when covering Rory McIlroy’s British Open win at Hoylake for Sports Illustrated, I slipped this in, with a nod to Rory’s father, Gerry:

Rory drove to the course each day in his black Range Rover. He geared up for work by listening to high-volume dance hits by David Guetta, Avicii and Sigma. Gerry, once a scratch golfer, could handle it. Listening to 50 Cent for several years prepared him for anything. The music is Rory’s Red Bull.

The headline for the story, funnily enough, was this: “You Say You Want a Revolution?”

You say you want a revolution?
Well, you know
We all want to change the world.

Twenty years before Rory’s win, I went to see Sam Snead, both at the Greenbrier and at his home over the border in Hot Springs, Va. Snead told me how he could play various instruments by ear and that his innate golf ability and his musical aptitude came from the same place. I wish I had gone deeper. He also told me about the pleasure he got, combing his grandmother’s hair. Should have gone deeper on that, too. He was an interesting man.

Instruction

One year at Augusta — I believe in 2005, the only year I ever caddied in a Masters — I saw Jerry Kelly on the practice putting green, behind the 1st tee, earphones, or some sort of listening contraption, on his head. My guy (Stuart Wilson, the reigning British Amateur winner) was paired with Tom Watson and Jim Furyk. Watson walked past Kelly on the green, removed his listening device and took in a few bars of something. He then smiled widely and said something like, “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“He might have just said, ‘Yeah,’ Jerry Kelly told me by phone the other day. “But I remember him doing that very well.”

I was so struck by it, in part because it seemed so unlikely, everything about it. Jerry said he felt the same way.
 
He can’t remember what he was listening to, but he has listened to music while practicing for years. I wondered if it was country and Jerry said that that was a good guess. Might have been country, blues, rock, classical, jazz. He cited Billie Holiday, too. How many players are going to cite Billie Holiday? He said he grew up in a house where music was always playing and that in his early years as a professional golfer, when he and his wife, Carol, drove everywhere, their whole life had a soundtrack. Their son, Cooper, in college now, hopes to have a career in music.

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“I liked listening to music when practicing especially when I was going bad,” Kelly told me. It helped him clear his head and think about. . . nothing.

Curtis Strange told me the other day that he couldn’t imagine, for himself, listening to music on the way to the course to get in the mood. Curtis, in his prime, didn’t need anything to get him in the mood. He was thinking about shots before his feet hit the floor.

I mentioned to Curtis that the first person I saw with headphones on a practice was Mac O’Grady in 1985 or ’86. But Curtis remembers the Canadian golfer Richard Zokol listening to music some years before that. I’m glad Curtis told me about that because it got me to an interview Zokol gave the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted in 2011.

Zokol was asked, “Disco Dick? Who gave you that name?”

His answer:

“It was the first round of the 1982 Greater Milwaukee Open, my rookie year on the PGA Tour. I was paired with Larry Rinker and Ronnie Black, we tee-off the 10th tee in the morning of the first round. I didn’t pull out my Sony Walkman until I got down the fairway, away from the clubhouse. I was concerned what others veteran Tour players might think but took on the risk anyway.

“As we walked down the fairway, Larry Rinker turned around and saw me rocking the Walkman and said, ‘Hey, Disco Dick.’ I shot seven under par, 65, wearing the Walkman (see photo at top of article) between shots in PGA Tour competition.

“Coming down my last hole wearing a Walkman while leading the PGA Tour event caught a great deal of media attention. It was such a radical move the PGA Tour officials had to call the USGA to see if listening to music was legal in the rules of golf. For a moment after the round when the PGA Tour officials asked me what I was listening to, I thought I might get disqualified. The pressroom was abuzz with this radical Canadian rookie wearing a Walkman in competition and being the 1st round leader. ‘Disco Dick Leads GMO’ made the headlines in newspapers across the country.

“Listening to music while on the golf course made a huge difference to calm my hyperactive mind and freeing me up to play the way I knew I could. It was a tremendous learning experience for me.”

Curtis said, “Those Canadians, they can be a little different.”

Indeed they can!

In the next edition of this occasional and continuing series, Greg Norman will offer his go-low soundtrack.

In the meantime, and I’ve cited this before, the 1957 album “Music for Tired Golfers,” by Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, features a song called “Sometimes I’m Happy.”
 
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael_Bamberger@Golf.com.

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When you’re winning by five, a two-stroke penalty doesn’t mean much. But the awarding of said penalty could set a precedent with major consequences. On Wednesday, three members of ESPN’s golf broadcast team mused on the implications of the penalty Jon Rahm accepted at the conclusion of the Memorial Tournament — and how it could have been handled differently.

First, a quick refresher: Rahm held a four-shot lead over playing partner Ryan Palmer when he faced down a short-sided chip on the par-3 16th hole at Muirfield Village. That’s when he pulled off the iconic shot of the PGA Tour’s latest mini-season, landing the ball in the perfect spot and watching as it trickled into the center of the cup for an improbable birdie 2.

But upon review, Rahm’s wedge had actually moved the position of the ball ever so slightly before he hit the shot. After consulting with rules official Slugger White post-round, that birdie 2 became a bogey 4. Rahm’s five-shot win became a three-shot win. Curtis Strange, for one, didn’t think much of the penalty.

Speaking on ESPN’s pre-PGA Championship conference call (ESPN is airing “the most hours ever” during next week’s major championship), Strange summed up his feelings on the matter.

“Jon Rahm said he didn’t see it move. That should have been the end of the conversation,” Strange said. “Because the rule states that if the player didn’t see it and then the high definition camera says it moved just a fraction, then no penalty.”

Strange didn’t care for the taste the post-round penalty left in his mouth, nor the way it took attention away from Rahm’s victory.

“I didn’t like it at all. That’s all I have to say,” he said.

But it wasn’t actually all he had to say; the remarks spurred an interesting discussion between Strange, Scott van Pelt and Andy North. First, van Pelt suggests that this exact sort of situation was supposed to get eliminated with a series of rules changes allowing some latitude for imperceptible ball movement.

“Just philosophically we’ve had these conversations, guys as a group sitting in the TV compound, for years,” he said. “You put a camera on Rahm with high definition and see it move ever so slightly. Granted, he had the big lead so it was a lot easier to slap that penalty on him. If he was up one, what do you do? I don’t know.”

He also pointed out the disproportionate scrutiny placed on golfers playing on camera.

“So he’s the leader and you had however many high definition cameras trained on every move he makes. Well, Thursday or Friday you’ve got people going off two tees, so somebody is on the 3rd hole, nobody is paying any attention and the ball moves just as much or more but nobody saw it happen so nobody is there to police it. So you’re effectively ruling incorrectly.

“Like, you’re not applying the same standards to all the competitors, and that’s where I know we’ve had these conversations throughout the years where you’re like, well, how is that reasonable, which is why I believe they stopped taking that sort of viewer feedback from the person sitting on his or her couch going, ‘hey, that’s a rules infraction,’ which I was all for.”

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North agreed with Strange’s line of thinking, suggesting that if neither Rahm nor the player keeping his card say anything and were willing to sign for that number, that should be the end of the story.

A reporter asked how that philosophy would apply in the case of Patrick Reed at the Hero World Challenge, where Reed was penalized after moving sand from his lie in a fairway bunker.

“That’s definitely a different situation, because in the Reed thing it was more obvious, and he did it twice. In Rahm’s case, again, I think it was contradictory to the new rule — and if I’m wrong, somebody speak up — but if he didn’t see it and the high definition saw it, we all saw how little it actually did move, and in high grass, God knows how many times that’s happened over the years and you don’t see it.

“That was supposed to be the end of the conversation, but they decided to put two on him, and I just — I didn’t agree.”

The new rule Strange is referring to is Decision 34-3/10: Limitations on Use of Video Evidence, which reads as follows:

“If the Committee concludes that such facts could not reasonably have been seen with the naked eye and the player was not otherwise aware of a potential breach of the Rules, the player will be deemed not to have breached the Rules, even when video technology shows otherwise.”

Ultimately, White decided to stick with the basics laid out in Rule 9.4. “It was a ball at rest by the player, moved, and since he didn’t put it back, he was assessed a general penalty, which is two strokes. That’s pretty much the bottom line,” he said, explaining that Rahm had agreed to take the penalty without argument.

On the ESPN call, North had the final word on the matter, invoking a lesson he learned from the Memorial Tournament’s host.

“Jack Nicklaus for his entire career has never grounded his golf club, and he told me that that is the reason, that if it doesn’t get grounded, there’s nothing they can ever say to you about it. I think that’s pretty darned smart,” he said.

Fair point.

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The post What I learned calling five U.S. Opens (and what I’ll miss now that I’m off the job) appeared first on Golf.

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It was the best of times.

It flat-out was. We — your friends at Fox Sports — had just finished the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and millions of people across the world saw it. It was Father’s Day. I’m a broadcaster. My late father was a broadcaster. The winner was Gary Woodland, a stud (can you still use that word?), a friend to many on Tour (myself included), a human being, a husband, a father. Gary’s papa is, as am I, a proud son of the Midwest.

I could see Mr. Woodland from across the room, which was packed with revelers. As the silver, lidded winner’s trophy made the rounds, we were all sneaking peeks at it, the celebrity in our midst. A happy room, with happy people in it. I believe Jordan Spieth had a second beer.

The future was blinding. In a year — June, 2020 — we would be at Winged Foot. Twelve moons after that, we would gather at Torrey Pines, where Tiger performed various magic tricks at the last Open there. Then to The Country Club, in Brookline, Mass., in ’22. (Note to self: Confirm that Ouimet ends in a hard t.) Then Los Angeles C.C. in three. Bring in Sheryl Crow: This ain’t no disco. It ain’t no country club either. This is L.A. No, this is the venue for the national open!

Are. We. Having. Fun. Yet?

HELL YES!

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Way back in 2019, the only Corona I knew about was beer with a lime in it. There were no discussions for the broadcast rights for the 14 great USGA national championships to leave Fox and head back whence they came, not that I knew about anyway.

You remember June of ’19, don’t you? It was a simpler time.

At no point during the four-day championship that year (do not say tournament!) did the Pebble greens look like overcooked broccoli. (Who can forget the Chambers Bay greens in 2015?)

There was no nutty two-hour stretch when we did a broadcast without knowing the score of the game, as had been the case at Oakmont on Sunday in 2016, when Dustin Johnson made a score under review on the 5th hole, owing to a wobblyballgate.

And let’s not forget that sweet moment after Brooks Koepka won the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills and some clown in the booth, doing play-by-play on the victory hug, got his old GF mixed up with his current one. Well, Brad Faxon, got that straightened out right away. (Thank you, brother.) Fax lives the game — clearly all parts of the game. Still, not an ideal way to end the show.

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Then to Shinny for the ’18 Open. It does not get better than Shinnecock Hills, right? But on Saturday, on the 13th green, Phil Mickelson, everybody’s favorite lefthander, started playing hockey with his golf ball, and my phone started blowing up with: they lost the green, there’s no grass on it; the green is fine and it’s the same for everybody; Phil should be thrown out of the tournament (get your terms right, people!); Phil just did what we all want to do; the USGA needs to apologize for the hole location, etc.; the USGA has nothing to apologize for and needs to tell the players to stop acting like babies. On and on and on. 

We left there thinking that one of these years everything would go just great and we would not get killed in the Twitterverse. At least, that’s what I was thinking.

And then came our fifth U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. There is a God!! It was wonderful. And afterward we gathered in the Tap Room. My two daughters. My wife. Gary Woodland and his new trophy and his dad and Woodland family members. Jordan Spieth and Brad Faxon and various fans and USGA people and assorted others. Everybody happy.

Now, 13 months later, I see it for what it was: our closing exclamation mark.

People are writing me condolence notes. Sorry for your loss. I would have LOVED to keep doing it. I am OBSESSED with golf. I play as much as I can with or without our 2-year-old twin boys at home. We, at Fox, would have continued to get better and better at broadcasting golf. But I wouldn’t trade our five-year run for anything, because of the people I worked with (starting with our producer, Mark Loomis), what we experienced together, what we learned. Here are some quick lessons: Let the players and caddies talk. Less is more. From the field is better than from the booth. And the Fox Sports production-side innovations will become a big part of TV coverage elsewhere. Drone shots and more ball-tracers already are.

Broadcasting golf is not like broadcasting baseball or football. You see the ball and the action through your own eyes. The story is unfolding in front of you. In golf, the story is unfolding here and there and everywhere. As the guy in the broadcast tower, you’re getting it all on screens and from reporters in the field. It’s a tricky business. And we were basically doing one PGA Tour event a year, and one LPGA event a year. (The fabulous U.S. Women’s Open, where I worked with the fabulous Juli Inkster. You want her beside you in a broadcast booth, at your member-guest, at a ballgame.) One of our basic challenges is that we weren’t getting that many reps, to use a Tigerism. That’s not an excuse. But it is a starting point.

Regarding Tiger: We never got to see THE MAN do his thing. (MC, DNP, DNP, MC, T21 in our five years.) And that kills me. I did get to interview him once, on a ramp near the press tent, in ’15 at Chambers Bay. We were surrounded by scores of other reporters, looking for tidbits from him, which are few and far between. When returned to the tower, my in-the-booth guy, Steve Horn, who tries to make me look smart, wanted to know about Tiger’s hands. He’s always interested in people’s hands. I saw them up close: the hands of a concert pianist. The skinniest hands you ever saw.

Four days later, I was interviewing the winner, 21-year-old Jordan Spieth. The kid as man and the man as kid. I could feel the depth of his mixed emotions. The joy of winning his national championship, the pain he felt for Dustin Johnson, who had a putt to win, a putt to get in a playoff and, in the end, a putt to finish one shot back.

So many great people in golf! Jim Nantz, coming into our booth at Pebble, strolling in from his house. David Fay, former USGA man and our rules expert. Paul Azinger. So much golf spirit in him, so much insight into what the player is enduring. (And he won’t miss a beat here. He’ll be at Winged Foot for NBC Sports, sitting alongside Dan Hicks, a Winged Foot member and a pro’s pro.) Curtis Strange, who prowls those U.S. Open fairways like he’s looking for his third U.S. Open himself. Nobody understood the insanity of what was happening at Oakmont better than he.

A year after Chambers Bay, I was so eager to get the Oakmont show off to a good start. I wanted us all to breathe. I know I was on edge, going into it. Golf can put you on edge. There are a lot of rules, written and otherwise. Don’t say driving range. Do say practice tee. And a hundred others.

I had an idea. Just prior to going on the air Thursday morning, I gave one of our production assistants a little stash and told him to return with a dozen beers. We poured them into maybe 20 little Styrofoam coffee cups and had ourselves a toast. Poor Loomie. He was in a truck somewhere far away and couldn’t see a thing we were doing. We mush-clinked Styrofoam and I said, “Have fun. It’s just f—ing TV.”

Part of my job is to be the quarterback, to set the mood. When my father, Jack Buck, was doing baseball, the attitude was always, This is a game. I felt we needed a shot of that. It wasn’t about the alcohol content of six ounces of beer. It was about creating a mood.

Then we had a four-hour rain delay.

Hey, that’s golf, and that’s live TV. You take what you get.

Our get was five great years with great people and great experiences. Six, if you count the reconnaissance trip we made to the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. I was hanging with Greg Norman. Incredible person. So charismatic. And fit like you wouldn’t believe! He gave me a useful tip: “Don’t call them PGA players, mate. They play the PGA Tour.” I knew that, I knew that! But who among us is perfect, or would even want to be?

NBC Sports does a great job with golf. I’m happy for the people there. But I wouldn’t trade the experiences I had doing golf for anything. We were getting better and better. I’m certain of that. Just one request from @Buck, put the top of the leaderboard on the damn screen and leave it there.

We shut down that Tap Room. When we came in, it was Father’s Day. It wasn’t when we left.

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The post Defending Valero Texas Open champ Andrew Landry on breaking through on Tour and ‘B.S.’ criticism appeared first on Golf.

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He’s a Texan through and through.

Andrew Landry was born and raised outside of Houston, lives in Austin and is never shy about speaking his mind. This week the third-year PGA Tour pro heads back to the Lone Star State as something he’s never been before: a defending champ.

Landry returns to the Valero Texas Open to defend his title after winning his first career PGA Tour event in San Antonio a year ago.

GOLF.com’s Ryan Asselta recently caught up with the 31-year-old Landry, who was as candid as ever, talking about winning, heartbreak, and where Curtis Strange can shove his criticism.

GOLF.com: Last season produced the first win of your career at the Valero Texas Open. Having grown up in Texas, and having a ton of family and friends in San Antonio, how special was that first win for you?

Andrew Landry: That was honestly one of the most special moments of my life. I think it’ll probably be one of the most special until I win a major. To have my family, new baby, my wife there, it was crazy. My mom was about to pull her hair out. She went nuts! My dad’s just kind of low key and chill but my mom’s like, “Come on! Push harder!” It bothers me a little bit on the course because I’m like, This isn’t junior golf, mom. Just relax. But she’s fiery.

Andrew Landry closed with a 68 to win the 2018 Valero Texas Open by two.

USA Today

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I know you used to be pretty fiery, just like your mom. How did you change that on the golf course?

Honestly, just working on it. Just understanding that golf’s not the end of the world. Also experiencing a lot of failure. That was probably the biggest thing that I overcame. Being right there at the first stage of Q-School and missing, then gong back and being right there, playing bad in the second stage of Q-School, and I just kind of had a great attitude towards it, and turned it around and got myself on Tour. But you do kind of lose that competitiveness, you know? There’s a fine line between being super competitive and having a good attitude and being super competitive and having a bad attitude. So you just have to kind of balance it.

I know there was some trying times back then going through Q-School. How emotional was that?

After shooting 81 at Q-School in the first round, I was literally in tears the night before the second round. I was just like, I’m done. I’m gonna quit golf. And the next day I just went out and shot 64! I finished 10th and made it through to the next stage. I was actually staying with Austin Cook that week and it was kind of cool to be able to experience everything with him. Cookie and I have done a lot together.

When you look at your golf game, what’s the biggest strength?

Driving. We looked back at stats throughout the year, and driving the ball well is super key for me. I’m not, obviously, the strongest player out here. And so being out in some thick rough is not helpful for me. When I drive the ball well normally, I’m gonna be hitting my irons well.

It seems like you don’t hurt yourself at all on the green. You ran a streak of over 225 consecutive holes without a three-putt. Is two-putting a state of mind?

I’ve done so much preparation in the way that I do my routine. It’s actually kind of fun. It sucks having to make a putt for the cut, but I thrive on that. That feeling of it’s a putt for the win. And it’s funny, cause in preparation I always make it.

Outside of the win in San Antonio, one of your most high-profile moments came at Oakmont, at the 2016 U.S. Open. You opened with a 66 and were the first-round leader. You ended up going off in the final group on Sunday before finishing T15. How much did the pressure of playing in that group help you get to where you are now?

It really has. Just the fact of knowing I can play out here. That was the biggest thing. Because I went through a whole year where I think I maybe had one top 10 and I just didn’t feel like I really earned myself a spot out there my first year. I didn’t have any expectations at Oakmont, which actually made sleeping Saturday night really easy. It was one of those weeks where if it would’ve been any other event I would’ve probably won, but everything just completely changed on Sunday at Oakmont. I mean it was a totally different golf course. It was hard. The pins were in ridiculous spots. And you just had to know where to miss it. And we didn’t do a very good job of it.

He's obviously got a couple majors under his belt, so I don't have the ability to tell him to f--- off, like I wanted to.

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You’ve also lost in a playoff at the CareerBuilder to Jon Rahm. Do you think players need some close calls, a little bit of heartbreak to make them tougher?

Absolutely. I think that every player has them. I mean, look at Jordan Spieth. He’s one of the best players in the world, and he’s got them. He doesn’t have many, but he’s got a few. And I’m sure if you ask him, he’s gonna tell you it’s definitely helpful. I mean it sucks to lose, but when you’re in contention and up there, it’s fun. There’s nothing better in the world.

You took a little heat from Curtis Strange during the 2018 CareerBuilder for chatting with Rahm during the playoff. What do you think? Was it unfair criticism?

He can say what he wants. He’s obviously got a couple majors under his belt, so I don’t have the ability to tell him to f— off, like I wanted to. [LAUGHS] But it was a little unfair. We’re all competing. We’re all wanting to win. Just because he maybe is a little bit more fiery than I am or Jon Rahm is; I mean Jon and I are friends. We talked. Sorry. I feel like that was one of the best playoffs of the year. We went shot for shot for four holes. Yeah, I just thought that criticism was just B.S..

In general, is there too much buddy-buddyness on Tour?

What people have to understand is we’re a family. We’re all out here every single day all year. It’s not just ending in October, starting in January. We’re out here from January to January. Then some guys all live close together. I feel like back in the day on Tour people didn’t live in Jupiter and people didn’t live in all these centrally located spots where the weather’s good. People are getting to be buddy-buddy because they are truly friends. We’re all coming off college and junior golf together. I mean you look at Justin Thomas and Spieth, they’ve been together their whole lives, playing junior golf together. They played college golf against each other. It’s hard not to be buddy-buddy out here, you know? You can’t just be a jerk the whole time you’re out here or you won’t have any friends.

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The post The Social 7: Poulter doesn’t forget, Tiger’s energy drink, Koepka’s clone and more! appeared first on Golf.

The post The Social 7: Poulter doesn’t forget, Tiger’s energy drink, Koepka’s clone and more! appeared first on Golf.

1. Ian Poulter’s favorite hobby? Trolling Americans.

In case you forgot, Poults is here to remind you of the Ryder Cup result. He did some updating to a t-shirt several members of Team USA were seen wearing in Paris. I have to give Poutler credit where credit is due. It’s impressive that he was able to write on his chest, and pound himself in the chest, at the same time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrGnFJ6hNDb/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrGuxjYBZSn/

2. When I first came across this video I was reminded of the sheer joy golf can bring out of us all. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember when I made my first birdie. On top of that, I don’t remember my last birdie…

Welcome to the birdie club, Jillian! Don’t get used to it.

First 🐦!!! And I’m a little excited 🤣 pic.twitter.com/HET3CaklRy

— Jillian Mele (@jillianmele) December 8, 2018

3. Dan Marino is one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Dan Marino is also one of the best golf trick shot artists of all time. OK, I’m not sure about the trick shot part, but this was rather impressive.

The best part about wearing a golf glove for Marino? It helps prevent “where’s your Super Bowl ring?” jokes.

Dan Marino has spent retirement working on trick shots. https://t.co/gRl4DmmDUt

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) December 9, 2018

4. Brooks Koepka gets knocked for being a boring golfer. He dominates in silence and rarely shows emotion. How is a guy like that going to help grow that game?!

Well, it appears Koepka has inspired at least one youngster. Maybe there’s an army of Koepka clones out there learning to play golf?

“I nailed it like Brooks Koepka!”

This boy has already shown more jubilation than Brooks has after winning any of his three majors.

For the record, I too would like to “nail it like Brooks Koepka.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrLT-dtF7pn/

5. Tiger is reportedly in talks with Monster about a branded energy drink. The biggest question on everyone’s mind: What should it be called?

Tiger Blood?

Big Eldrick Energy?

Eye of the Tiger?

Sunday Red?

Let’s hope whoever is tasked with deciding what the drink’s name is checks our replies first.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq7faGGFFkR/

6. Golf’s offseason is upon us. Some choose to continue working on their game while others choose to unwind. Max Homa is facing that very dilemma right now.

Practice or Tequila?

My question is why not both? Tuck a bottle into the bag and you’ll be loose on the course without even having to warm up. Tequila sunrises before a tee time. You down, Max?

The golf offseason is an interesting time cuz I wanna get my game as sharp as possible and get prepared to win some tournaments but also tequila sounds pretty good

— max homa (@Maxhoma) December 5, 2018

7. A throwback interview between Curtis Strange and some rookie named Tiger Woods resurfaced this week. Tiger was full of confidence from a young age and clearly aggravated Strange with his “if you ain’t first, you’re last” mentality.

Strange ends the interview by saying “you’ll learn” with a smirk.

Eighty wins later and I think it’s safe to say the only one that did any learning from this chat was you, Curtis.

that “you’ll learn” at the end… https://t.co/fL5eB50csi

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) December 6, 2018

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The post Stuff I might have tweeted if I was on Twitter: 13 post-U.S. Open thoughts from our non-tweeting writer appeared first on Golf.

The post Stuff I might have tweeted if I was on Twitter: 13 post-U.S. Open thoughts from our non-tweeting writer appeared first on Golf.

Ed. note: You won’t catch our analog-minded senior writer Michael Bamberger on Twitter anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean his mind’s not full of tweet-ready material. In the third installment of Stuff I Might Have Tweeted, our scribe reflects on and why the USGA shouldn’t have apologized, Curtis Strange’s commentary chops and the legacy of the great Peter Thomson. (We did not — and will not — limit him to 280 characters.)

1. When I asked Tom Watson about Peter Thomson, he said (by email), “I am of the opinion he was the greatest links golfer in history. Check his Open record. Something like 17 of 20 years finishing in the top-10.” Yep: between 1951 and ’79, Thomson played in 21 Opens — and had 18 top-10 finishes. Incredible.

2. I am of the opinion that Watson is the greatest links golfer in history. He and Thomson each won five, but Watson played much deeper fields. He won in his first appearance, in ’75, and lost in a playoff in 2009, at age 59. Plus three senior Opens, on classic links courses.

3. Amy had it exactly correct on Father’s Day: Phil had a bad day in the office. Too bad he didn’t acknowledge that after playing on Saturday.

4. On an emotional level, most people, I among them, think Mickelson should have been DQ’ed. It’s the rulebook that kept him in, just as it did John Daly in 1999 at Pinehurst. Should the rule be changed? Yes.

5. I miss the old stern USGA. Mike Davis is a truly knowledgeable and caring golf person. He had nothing to apologize for Saturday night. Courses change with the wind, literally and figuratively.

6. A friend suggested that the R&A should set-up the courses for the U.S. Open. It’s actually a good idea. Not literally, but on a consulting basis. Likewise, the USGA should use Nick Price, already in the fold, more. He’s one of the smartest people in golf.

7. Lost in the excitement and the noise was the USGA awarding its highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, to Dennis Walters, a trick-shot artiste confined to a wheelchair. He was introduced by two former Bob Jones winners, Barbara and Jack Nicklaus. Dennis’s pass at the ball is metronomic, hypnotic — and his life story an inspiration.

8. The U.S. Open needs what the British Open has: a rotation. It also needs a course with trees, now and again. I’d suggest Shinnecock Hills and The Country Club (East Coast), Oakmont and Crystal Downs (Midwest) and Pebble Beach and Los Angeles Country Club (West Coast). Maybe once a decade, tops, you bring back a golden oldie or introduce something new and special. Regarding Crystal Downs: Do what you need to do to make it work.

9. The USGA is actually trying too hard. Once you pick a course, just narrow the fairways, grow some rough, pick some challenging pins. Hole locations, as Curtis says on TV.

10. The best thing Fox has is Curtis. Part of it, of course, is his two Open wins. The bigger part is his candor, straight-forwardness, on-the-ground understanding of it all.

11. Anytime you have rough where a ball cannot be found without volunteer spotters, your rough is way too deep. This was the case at Shinnecock Hills. It’s the case at the Open every time the British summer is wet. And that’s often.

12. What Brooks Koepka did was astounding. Two win consecutive Opens on two totally dissimilar courses with hand surgery and a long layoff in between is a stunning achievement. He reminds me of … Mickey Mantle.

13. Courses take pride if they have greens like Augusta National’s (though nobody does). Or bunkers like Pine Valley’s (ditto). Or length like Oakmont’s (who wants that?). Three better goals for any course should be to have the greens and tees near each other; rough that’s rough — rough terrain — but in which you can readily find your ball; a walk anytime policy, carrying your own or using a trolley. #Simplify,simplify #Thoreau   

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The post Curtis Strange: Koepka has what it takes to win three U.S. Opens in a row appeared first on Golf.

The post Curtis Strange: Koepka has what it takes to win three U.S. Opens in a row appeared first on Golf.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) – Curtis Strange stood by the 18th green at Shinnecock Hills, working for the TV broadcast and ready to welcome Brooks Koepka into the small fraternity of back-to-back U.S. Open winners.

“I’m happy for him. I hope it means as much to him,” said Strange, who won in 1988 and ’89 and was the last to win two in a row before Koepka matched him Sunday. “Now he’s going to learn things about Willie Anderson that I learned about that I never thought I would.

A year after shooting 16 under to win at Erin Hills by four strokes, Koepka repeated in the challenging conditions at Shinnecock. He shot 2 under par in the final round to finish the tournament at 1 over, one stroke ahead of Tommy Fleetwood.

Koepka is the seventh player person to win the U.S. Open in back-to-back years, a group that began with Anderson from 1903-05 and includes Bobby Jones (1929-30) and Ben Hogan (1950-51). Strange had been the last.

“Twenty-nine years. It shows how hard it was,” Koepka said. “I can’t even wrap my head around it.”

Strange said he didn’t say anything to Koepka as he walked the course with him.

“I didn’t even want him to know I was there,” he said.

But he was one of the first to congratulate Koepka before interviewing him for the TV viewers, telling him “hell of a job.”

“It was a pretty cool moment to have Curtis there,” Koepka said. “It was pretty neat. Calling the shots, I obviously can’t hear what he’s saying. It was cool to have him in the group. And to have him right there when I walked up 18, it was pretty special.”

Strange told reporters moments after Koepka’s final putt that he wasn’t the least bit disappointed he could no longer claim to be the most recent back-to-back winner.

“Heck no. What are they going to do, take them away?” he said. “I was only part of a group before. So what am I, part of seven? It’s a good group.”

Speaking to reporters alongside the 18th green as the crowd waited for one more group to finish, Strange said winning the second time was harder. He doesn’t think it will be another three decades before someone repeats, he said, “but I didn’t think it would be 30 years after me.”

If someone’s going to do it, it might even be Koepka, whose victories in contrasting conditions showed he has the skills to three-peat next year at Pebble Beach.

“He’s proven he can win on a classic” course, Strange said. “Hell, I came close, and he’d beat me like a yard dog.”

Anderson is the only person to win the U.S. Open three straight years. Hogan won three in a row that he played in, missing the 1949 tournament after getting in a car accident that nearly killed him. Strange was two strokes off the lead heading into the final round in 1990 and finished 21st; he also finished tied for fourth in 1987.

The pressure the third time is even more extreme, said the only person alive who would know.

“For me, it was,” Strange said. “He looks like water off a duck’s back, both times. I look like I’m wound a little differently. He seems to move right on through life, which is a good thing.”

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The post Curtis Strange not a fan of Jon Rahm, Andrew Landry’s friendly banter during playoff appeared first on Golf.

The post Curtis Strange not a fan of Jon Rahm, Andrew Landry’s friendly banter during playoff appeared first on Golf.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with how Jon Rahm and Andrew Landry interacted during their playoff of the CareerBuilder Challenge on Sunday.

Rahm, 23, and Landry, 30, traded pars on the first three playoffs holes before Rahm birdied the fourth to win for the second time of his young PGA Tour career.

But Strange appeared to have an issue with how the two pros chatted to each other during the playoff. He later clarified his thoughts by replying to a tweet, saying he would never want to make an opponent feel more comfortable.

Watching Andrew Landry and Jon Rahm in playoff. Walking off tee talking to each other. Are you kidding me ? Talking at all. ?

— Curtis Strange (@golf_strange) January 22, 2018

The issue is I don’t want to make you a bit relaxed or comfortable. High pressure, good.

— Curtis Strange (@golf_strange) January 22, 2018

Strange isn’t the first to bring up the issue of too-friendly Tour pros. In fact, it’s come up several times in the past years as Tiger Woods has struggled to stay healthy and a younger generation of pros — many of whom are friends on and off the links — have taken center stage.

But, according to a 2011 interview with GOLF, just because Strange doesn’t agree with how players interact between the ropes doesn’t mean he thinks this generation is softer than his.

“I think Dustin Johnson is a tough guy, an athlete,” he said in the interview. “I think there are a lot of them. You know, I would never say that my generation was any different than the other generations. We’re kind of made up of our environment. I think they’re plenty tough out there.”

And, to further punctuate Strange’s thoughts about interacting with opponents, you might remember the 1988 U.S. Open, the first of Strange’s two straight, in which he defeated Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

0 words

— Curtis Strange (@golf_strange) January 22, 2018

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