Supporters will be allowed to attend a European Tour event for the first time since the resumption of golf after the coronavirus outbreak at the Scottish Open next month.
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The biggest knock on artificial putting greens is that they don’t roll like real putting greens.
BirdieBall believes it’s cracked the code. Using a proprietary foam material, it claimed status as MyGolfSpy’s “Best Putting Mat 2020.”
Given the state of the world and trending consumer behavior, putting mats might become more popular than the 1990s “8-minute Abs” video.
Testers Wanted
We’re looking for six golfers who are motivated, detail-oriented, and committed to providing a thorough review of the BirdieBall putting mat and sharing your thoughts and grades with the MyGolfSpy forum community.
Spornia Golf Net – Key Takeaways
The Spornia Golf Net is MyGolfSpy’s Best Golf Practice Net runner-up for 2020.Spornia is a father-son company and has been making pop-up nets since the late ’90s.Spornia turned its back on lucrative OEM business to maintain high quality and focus on its own brand.I’m willing to bet my entire collection of Jan Stephenson calendars that most of us weren’t even considering buying a golf practice net before last March. Then came COVID and suddenly nobody could find one.
California-based Spornia finished a close second in this spring’s MyGolfSpy Best Golf Practice Net Buyer’s Guide. The company is very much a Cinderella story, outta nowhere (sort of) to become a playah in the golf practice net game.
It’s fair to say most golfers hadn’t heard of Spornia before last spring. We want to take a closer look at this company, the father-son tandem that makes it tick and how it came to develop a unique pop-up style of golf practice net.
Buckle up, because it’s an interesting tale of a former high school baseball player, children’s tents and a pretty ballsy decision to say no to the Big Box stores.
Good Field-No Hit
Casey Cho was born and raised in South Korea and his first love – as far back as he can remember – is baseball.
Oh I jest. At least about the horrors of red numbers.
Because you have to step back. Savor the absurdity of 600 or so rich folks investing so much passion into protecting par, as if they will add height or portfolio heft.
Even after all these years. Par matters to the folks of means. But I’m going to predict here and now: the folks at Winged Foot will recover. Live will go on after round one of the 2020 U.S. Open’s sensible, get-the-round-in-during-early-fall-days setup which, admittedly, rendered the vaunted West Course a tad overwhelmed by today’s jock-strap wearing, former boxers who randomly discovered the Royal and Ancient game.
I offer this for those “of means” who are grieving near the blue and white awning that really doesn’t fit with Clifford Wendehack’s masterful clubhouse:
—Your course is in perfect condition.
As predicted some time ago, the inclusion of Peacock as part of NBC’s streaming strategy might upset U.S. Open fans. This, even though the app was free and shockingly, completely free of ads during its round one debut on Comcast’s big foray into streaming.
Todd Kelly reports on the viewer issues with Peacock, which picked up the last and first two hours of weekday coverage (more weekend windows early are looming).
Problem is, Peacock doesn’t quite have Netflix-level penetration across the U.S. and many sports fans are probably still scrambling as this story was being typed, looking for that app. NBCUniversal reported on Sept. 15 that 15 million people have signed up. It first debuted about three months ago for Comcast and Cox subscribers.
They’re probably banking on acquiring more by using a major championship to spur sports fans to jump on board.
Good news: You can find Peacock on your computer by going here. You do need to create an account but it’s free.
Reports on Twitter are that Peacock is not on the Roku. It’s been confirmed that it’s also not on the Amazon Firestick, but, there’s a work-around for that.
Nothing says well-oiled machine like a workaround and being unattached to Roku and Amazon.
But the kids love their streaming no matter how clunky it remains for sports viewing. Personally, I had no issues with Peacock working on a smart TV other than a noticeable loss of picture quality and whites looking blue, some of which was verified by many on Twitter if you hit this and read the replies:
Brendan Quinn at The Athletic dropped a doozy of a feature that I’ll return to next week when Golf Channel’s U.S. Open coverage is over.
But among the many exclusive details: NBC (and therefore Comcast)’s dismantling of Golf Channel: the stunning end of the channel’s reliable, award-winning golf website, GolfChannel.com.
Quinn writes:
Golfchannel.com is being shuttered at the end of the year. Its content will move to NBCSports.com, where it will be found as a drop down option off the main page, like any other sport. Its staff is shrinking dramatically, weakening the focus on written content and originally produced journalism.
Now holding heaps of live programming costing countless millions of dollars, including documentary work and television series, Golf Channel is expected to dramatically reduce if not outright eliminate original productions.
Coffee for wellness, 19 clubs, 2 launch monitors, last minute driver adjustment...US Open Thursday for Phil. pic.twitter.com/wvuvk5Y1IE
— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) September 17, 2020Not sure if you’ve heard, but to recap: Phil Mickelson did not finish well the last time Winged Foot hosted the U.S. Open, New Yorkers are just amazing in every way, and Danny Noonan caddied in the tournament practice rounds.
The only story of those that matters: 50-year-old Mickelson’s return hot off a Champions Tour win. But a 79 ended his bid to win the 2020 U.S. Open. He was gracious after a round that probably was over before it started judging by the range scene four hours prior (above).
Q. Obviously you got off to a great start.
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah. I don't know what to say. It's a disappointing day.
Tiger has some work to do. So does Dustin Johnson. But Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and even Lee Westwood are in good shape. Here are the key storylines heading into Round 2 of the U.S. Open.
Justin Thomas (65) was one of 21 players to shoot under par Thursday at Winged Foot. The result: a 1-shot U.S. Open lead over Patrick Reed, Thomas Pieters and Matthew Wolff.
Phil Mickelson's 79 at Thursday's U.S. Open was tied for his worst opening round in any major in his career. He's in second-to-last place at Winged Foot.
The U.S. Open, especially at Winged Foot, is not supposed to be easy. It's not supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be impossible. On Thursday, it wasn't. Will that change, or is the USGA softening?
I’m not sure I would have dropped on day one of the U.S. Open and might recommend bookmarking if you want to stay focused on the tournament. But Michael Williams files a lengthy, shocking, bizarre and eye-opening piece for The Undefeated detailing something he witnessed at last year’s U.S. Open.
Shocking because it involves one of the best people you’ll meet in professional golf—Charles Howell—who has gone above and beyond to learn from the incident. As always, please hit the link and take all of Williams’ piece in, but below is the setup.
I’ll add this to expedite matters: picture a lot of affluent people in a Lexus tent at Pebble Beach, one that make you wonder why need to have these corporate tents in the first place (oh, right, growing the game).
Williams writes:
I had been invited to the tournament by one of the corporate sponsors of the USGA, the organization that owns and operates the US Open. One of the perks was the opportunity to attend private post-round interviews with players, including Howell, in the sponsor’s hospitality tent beside the 18th fairway. As a golf journalist, I was familiar with Howell as a player, but I didn’t know much about him personally. While he wasn’t a contender to win (Howell finished tied for 52nd, 17 strokes behind winner Gary Woodland), I decided to attend to get some insight into how a physically unremarkable guy had willed himself to a remarkable career.
Todd Lewis of the Golf Channel was slated to ask Howell and fellow pro Patrick Cantlay about how the players thought they did, what their chances were, the difficulty of the course, etc. Typically, the players’ answers would match the banality of the questions.
But after a couple of softballs, Lewis started describing a story that Howell had shared with him when asked for an amusing anecdote. “You all remember the night Tiger Woods hit the fire hydrant with his car, right?” The 75 or so people in the tent laughed nervously and nodded, unsure why the 2009 accident outside Orlando, Florida, that contributed to Woods’ tragic fall was being raised at the national championship.
Jordan Spieth, the three-time major championship winner who has no victories since his 2017 Open victory, managed to shoot 3-over 73 but is tied for 78th place at Winged Foot in the U.S. Open.
Even though he had five birdies on his card, Tiger Woods could not find much that was positive about his start to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.
Patrick Reed recorded a hole-in-one at the seventh hole in the first round of the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Watch it happen.
There were good moments, bad moments and plenty of moments of scrambling for Tiger Woods in the first round of the U.S. Open. Here's how it all went down.
Have you ever tried to walk in cement shoes?
Chances are kids feel that way when trying to swing a golf club that isn’t right for them. When introducing kids to golf, parents often think they need to choose between proper instruction and good equipment.
The fact of the matter is, as an instructor, it is nearly impossible to help kids develop the proper foundation for their swing when the clubs aren’t right for them.
With all of the options available, finding the right set of junior golf clubs may feel daunting. It doesn’t have to be that way.
As a parent, the first thing you need to ask is: What is a realistic goal for my child and the game of golf? If you just want them to get out and swing a golf club with you without focusing on improving their swing mechanics, then Grandpa’s cut-down forged blades will suffice. If you are looking to get them started by learning the proper fundamentals, are considering registering them for a local junior golf program or camp or hoping they’ll learn enough about the game and their swing to play a round of golf with you, then start them off with clubs that will maximize those opportunities.
USGA
The appeal of hack-out, last-man-standing golf has always been a mystery.
The joy of seeing tour pros brought down to a lower level is deeply narcissistic. To want to watch skills reduced or nullified, to make you feel better about your lousy game is both selfish and terribly simplistic.
But it’s been a while since we’ve heard of a setup so anticipated for the carnage it will inflict. Winged Foot this year sounds legitimately cruel, with spot-fertilized rough, tight fairways, old-style rough, restored hole locations and no fans to mash down the tall stuff.
Players made very clear in pre-tournament assessments that they expect this to be a war of attrition.
The next time someone mentions “ironclad” and sports rights contracts, you’ll probably think of this story by Dave Shedloski at GolfDigest.com.
He speaks to several figures, including NBC’s Jon Miller, who largely orchestrated the unbelievable swap of USGA rights from Fox back to NBC/Golf Channel by staying in touch with the Fox execs. Former USGA official and now-NBC Sports head Pete Bevacqua also played a key role in bringing the two sides back together after the shocking end to NBC’s prior deal.
Most amazing in the sequence of events might have been this revelation:
FOX and NBC had to hammer out a deal in which the two sides split nearly equally the cost of the remainder of the FOX contract. Talks wrapped up in early June. But that was hardly the end of it. FOX did not have the right to simply assign the TV rights to NBC. The USGA had to sign off on it, essentially negotiating an exit deal with FOX and closing on a new deal with NBC.
FOX representatives broke the news of their agreement with NBC to Davis at a June 17 meeting at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.
Well that must have been a surprise!
