My inspiration comes from the golfers themselves, who in spite of kicking and cursing, find that a trip around a Pete Dye golf course is always memorable. Golf has given me a life that is rich in experience, personal achievement and friendship, but I find the greatest satisfaction in believing that I have somehow contributed to making the game I love a more exciting one to play. PETE DYE
Jay Monahan sat down for a solid exchange of many questions and gave pretty frank answers as the 2022 Players week begins. It’s fascinating to ponder what might have happened had he taken the tough tone toward disruptors sooner. Now that things have unraveled thanks to Phil Mickelson and other players committing to the PGA Tour, Monahan made clear the PGA Tour is moving on.
Before I make some additional comments on THE PLAYERS Championship, I wanted to take a moment to address all of the news, discourse and conjecture lately about the world of professional golf.
I'd like to emphatically reiterate what I told our players at our mandatory player meeting two weeks ago at the Honda Classic.
The PGA TOUR is moving on. We have too much momentum and too much to accomplish to be consistently distracted by rumors of other golf leagues and their attempts to disrupt our players, our partners, and most importantly our fans from enjoying the TOUR and the game we all love so much.
I am grateful for the strong support our top players have shown recently and publicly, and I'm extremely proud that we've turned the conversation around to focus on what we do best: Delivering world-class golf tournaments with the best players to the best fans, all while positively impacting the communities in which we play. We are and we always will be focused on legacy, not leverage.
Wednesday’s induction ceremony is set for Jacksonville International’s Terminal A, aka the Global Home, with a one surprise presenter (Sam Woods for Tiger Woods) and one total non-surprise (Davis Love for Tim Finchem).
The key details, including a new “trophy” for the World Golf Hall of Fame inductees made by Tiffany & Co. The ceremony will be carried live on Golf Channel at 7 pm ET:
World Golf Hall of Fame Announces Presenters for 2022 Inductee Class:
2022 Inductee, Susie Maxwell Berning (Judy Rankin)
2022 Inductee, Tim Finchem (Davis Love III)
The same day the NFL suspended Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley over a $1500 bet and costing him his $11 million salary, it was hard not to think of Ridley’s situation when Golf Channel aired a perplexing feature (below) about sports betting during Monday’s Live From The Players. In just over five minutes, the piece served up a combo platter attempting to use golf’s long history of players wagering on the course as a legitimizing force for the fan gambling push. With plenty of the usual grow-the-game, it’s-what-the-kids-want gibberish.
(After the feature the PGA Tour’s Norb Gambuzza revealed in an on set discussion that the 501(c)(6) non-profit is hoping to up its share of the U.S. sports betting market from 1.5% to 4-5% in the next few years. So much for the slow, careful buildout.)
Also making the piece pretty weird: ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt was the primary voice for a pro-gambling message.
The feature’s message suggests it'’s cool for players to bet in a practice round or at home when playing golf, yet there will be consequences if they bet on PGA Tour action under their integrity statutes. However, since the PGA Tour does not announce fines and suspensions, we probably won’t know if a player ever does such a thing or is punished in the same manner as Calvin Ridley.
Regarding disclosure, Gambuzza was asked by Rich Lerner in the post-feature discussion if player injury reports will be optional. It’s a good question given that other sports provide various ways for gamblers to have some sense who might be at less than 100% or even doubtful for a game. Golf is going to leave such information up to the players.
With all of the weirdness at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, you might have missed Ryan Brehm’s must-win win in Puerto Rico. Playing in the last event of a medical exemption, Brehm could have finished second and kept a PGA Tour card for the 126-150 category.
Instead he won, vaulting Brehm into this week’s Players. But it’s his story that’s the kind Netflix should be including in a documentary. Thankfully, Brentley Romine did a superb job here capturing all of Brehm’s story that includes a 91 m.p.h. fastball and his wife serving as his caddie.
“It sounded like I had a bunch of pressure, but there really wasn’t,” Brehm said. “This was an opportunity for me to swing for the fences and see if we could win.”
Touch ‘em all.
With his wife, Chelsey, on the bag, Brehm cruised to a six-shot win Sunday at the Puerto Rico Open to not only retain his card but lock it up for two more years.
No motive here, just me catching up on my queue and sharing some recent golf pods of note.
I think there’s something for everyone on this list. Enjoy all…it’s all free, including this edition of The Quad!
You could make a pretty good living standing near any green at any country club or public course in America and betting even money that the next approach shot you saw would be short of hole high. Watch it the next time you play. Most golfers are consistently short of the pin, even short of the green…hardly ever does the average golfer go over the green. ARNOLD PALMER
How nice to see the celebration of Musselburgh’s 350th (official) birthday, even though all signs point to golf having been played there long before that. Mary Queen of Scots may wish she had not teed it up there in 1567 so soon after husband two—her cousin—departed in a mysterious explosion.
Anyhow, The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster covered the birthdate of March 2, 350 years after the earliest recorded round there by Sir John Foulis. He also notes the efforts of locals to keep it as a community centerpiece and even has a story of a Royal visit.
Avril Campbell in the East Lothian Courier recounted some of its key contributions to golf history (the diameter of the cup, mid-round snack bars, fights over bets, etc… and also talked to local golfers who are keeping the place and its incredible history going, with more events planned.
To mark the 350th anniversary of golf at Musselburgh, Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club (MOCGC) – which later this month celebrates the 40th year of its re-founding in 1982 – is hosting a series of events across 2022, ending with a gala dinner in the town in September.
This Saturday, members of MOCGC will contest the club’s 40th Anniversary Stroke-play Championship. On July 4, more than 20 golf clubs and foundations from across Scotland have been invited to participate in an 18-hole tournament on the Old Course.
In announcing the 9-hole challenge set for the Friday before the 150th Open at St Andrews, the R&A also shared 9-hole round data worth noting.
It could be entirely pandemic related, with more employed golfers working from home and getting in an early or late nine. But there are plenty of reasons to believe the increase can also be tied to various worldwide campaigns designed to legitimize 9-hole rounds and encourage golfers to turn in non-18-hole scores for handicapping purposes.
The numbers of note from the R&A’s story to launch the 9-hole challenge:
• In Australia, nine-hole round data has experienced 20% growth with more than 517,000 rounds played in 2020-21.
• In England, nine-hole rounds played for handicap purposes increased from 175,000 in 2019 to 407,000 in 2021.
To place a president of the United States in proper historical perspective might take several generations, but to evaluate the impact of Arnold Palmer on golf we need not wait. He has meant more to the game than anyone, ever, in virtually every conceivable way. NICK SEITZ
To place a president of the United States in proper historical perspective might take several generations, but to evaluate the impact of Arnold Palmer on golf we need not wait. He has meant more to the game than anyone, ever, in virtually every conceivable way. NICK SEITZ
In advance of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rory McIlroy was asked about the fleeing from Phil Mickelson and if it’s gone overboard.
It is unfortunate. I think Phil has been a wonderful ambassador for the game of golf, still is a wonderful ambassador for the game of golf. It's unfortunate that a few comments that he thought he was making in confidence or off the record got out there and were -- not used against him, but this whole situation is unfortunate.
Look, Phil will be back. I think the players want to see him back. He's done such a wonderful job for the game of golf, and he's represented the game of golf very, very well for the entirety of his career.
Look, we all make mistakes. We all say things we want to take back. No one is different in that regard. But we should be allowed to make mistakes, and we should be allowed to ask for forgiveness and for people to forgive us and move on. Hopefully, he comes back at some stage, and he will, and people will welcome him back and be glad that he is back.
Golf is a game, a great and glorious game, the greatest game any man was ever privileged to play. It is played for pleasure—for the modest and natural pleasure of walking around in the good clean air and for that other exquisite and almost unbearable pleasure of watching a perfect drive describe its graceful arc against a pure spring sky. Even those of us who earn our livings at the game, I can assure you, play it more for the pleasure than for the money. ARNOLD PALMER
Golf is a game, a great and glorious game, the greatest game any man was ever privileged to play. It is played for pleasure—for the modest and natural pleasure of walking around in the good clean air and for that other exquisite and almost unbearable pleasure of watching a perfect drive describe its graceful arc against a pure spring sky. Even those of us who earn our livings at the game, I can assure you, play it more for the pleasure than for the money. ARNOLD PALMER
Golf is a game, a great and glorious game, the greatest game any man was ever privileged to play. It is played for pleasure—for the modest and natural pleasure of walking around in the good clean air and for that other exquisite and almost unbearable pleasure of watching a perfect drive describe its graceful arc against a pure spring sky. Even those of us who earn our livings at the game, I can assure you, play it more for the pleasure than for the money. ARNOLD PALMER
Golf is a game, a great and glorious game, the greatest game any man was ever privileged to play. It is played for pleasure—for the modest and natural pleasure of walking around in the good clean air and for that other exquisite and almost unbearable pleasure of watching a perfect drive describe its graceful arc against a pure spring sky. Even those of us who earn our livings at the game, I can assure you, play it more for the pleasure than for the money. ARNOLD PALMER
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