18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…
- Arnaud Massy, the 1907 Open Championship winner, getting major run on a Saturday night on CBS from Jim Nantz was all we ever needed. Massy was a Frenchman like Matthieu Pavon, the winner of the Farmers Insurance Open. Martin Trainer was born in France but when he won the Puerto Rico Open in 2019, he was representing the United States, but he changed his sporting nationality to French in October of 2022. This of course set off a social media shit storm as Pavon was being declared the first French champion since WWII on the PGA Tour. I just want to know who was the courtesy car sponsor for the Open Championship in 1907 when Massy won? Also, the ability of a faction of the golf media to choke the charm out of all things including bickering about who was born where and which country they represent is unrelenting.
- Pavon’s closing hole birdie was wildly impressive considering he was in a mini meltdown. He pulled his second shot on 17 which left him a lengthy birdie putt. The resulting pulled 4-footer for par gave him a one-shot lead on 18 and after a poor drive, a below average fairway bunker shot that nestled in the long rough he was staring at 155 yards over water to a front pin. His 3rd shot and the downhill make for his first win was accentuated by the great work of the CBS golf team and was excellent television.
- Nicolai Hojgaard is up to 30th in the Official World Golf Rankings and if you include the Data Golf Rankings, he’s even higher. He’s that guy. Equipped technically, emotionally, and psychologically to swim in the deep end of the pool. 2024 will continue his ascent and the likelihood of his first PGA Tour win is strong and a major weekend that he should be in the throes of it all.
- There are people I respect and trust for their sensible viewpoints on the men’s professional game who expressed real concern about the future of Will Zalatoris since his return at the Hero World Challenge. The surgery was a very big deal and the switch to the long putter always causes pause but his week at Torrey should hopefully stop some of the hysteria. Too good and too committed to not find the rare air again.
- I asked Frank Nobilo late last fall about the chemistry of CBS’ golf broadcast team, and it was not an easy explanation, but what he said is that viewers can just hear it and feel it and the CBS team just has it. They also have something else, the support of the golf social media intelligentsia. Those things foster confidence, and you couple that with the willingness of the network to spend on technology and you have a house in order.
- Kazuma Kobori won the New Zealand PGA as an amateur. He turned 22 last fall and just picked up his 3rd win on the Australian PGA. Kobori was born in Japan and moved to New Zealand when he was six years old. He’s coming to America, how soon we will share see, but he’s got the goods.
- Aldrich Potgieter became the youngest winner in Korn Ferry Tour history in winning last week in the Bahamas. Potgieter, 19 years old from South Africa, won the Amateur Championship at 17 and destroyed the field at last year’s junior invitational at Sage Valley. It’s not beyond the realm that Mike Weir will give him a hard look for the Presidents Cup team if he can make his way to the PGA Tour by the summer. It means he needs more Korn Ferry Tour wins, but he is a freak show of talent.
- That gets me to Nick Dunlap, who starts the professional meter this week at Pebble Beach. He will immediately get the advocacy of top players starting with Justin Thomas for the next U.S. international team at the Presidents Cup. Not unlike Jordan Spieth in 2013, the first impressions he will give to the established USA guard will give captain Jim Furyk ample evidence that he’s ready now for the cauldron. The bold type he has on his resume already is historic.
- The Crosby clambake was gone a long time ago, but a reasonable facsimile has been in place for decades with the ATT Pebble Beach pro-am. Long gone were the deep fields, replaced by what almost felt like an alternate event. This week, the marathon rounds, and excruciating depth chart of celebrities is being replaced by a short field with the best players on the PGA Tour. A forecast of cold and windy wet weather coupled with the possibility of an attractive leaderboard give the PGA Tour a chance, without football being played next Sunday, for something they haven’t had in a while…a good TV number.
- Attending the PGA merchandise show in Orlando for the first time since 2020 gave me a sense of a few things. One, there is still a belief among the entrepreneurs and dreamers that they have something that the industry of golf needs. From gadgets to gear new products were everywhere. Secondly, technology as it pertains to remote instruction has taken off. The days of needing an hour with your local pro are not gone because the local clubs have never been in greater demand but sophistication of getting a fix from someone is on fire as a facet of the industry.
- Seeing established brands like Tumi make a real plunge into golf is just another indicator that the GAME is riding a wave that is showing real sustainability. Companies like Vessel expanding deep into the shoe game off their high-end golf bag offerings and full-scale proliferation of the launch monitor category amplifies the big money being spent by the golf consumer.
- The newest incarnation of “The Match” featuring Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson has a chance to resuscitate a stalled franchise. The date, venue, and players are what the made for TV event desperately needed. Professional athletes playing golf on TV can be entertaining and the right ones paired with great golfers can work, but players hitting uncommon shots with a good dose of personality is the recipe. The Park will sizzle under the lights.
- Thorbjorn Olesen won for the eighth time on the DP World Tour with his win at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship. A rising star 10 years ago, Olesen has found his footing again in all phases and is another example of the sneaky depth from Europe coupled with rise of young talent in Ludvig Aberg, and the Hojgaard brothers. Bethpage is way out on the horizon, but Europe and Luke Donald transitioned in warp speed.
- If you want to hear some fantastic stories from life on tour, carve out the time for Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz’ conversation with Steve Marino on the SubPar podcast. Colt and Drew excel in getting guys to share memories and rarely heard tales and Marino gives the details on his infamous flight with Ernie Els and a weekend pairing at the Open with Tom Watson just to name a few.
- I ran into Keith Rhebb at the PGA show, the primary shaper for Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, and the co-creator of the Winter Park 9 with Riley Johns. Keith and Riley have their own projects, but Keith told me that the Coore/Crenshaw project in Montana, Crazy Mountain Ranch is a showstopper. Incredible land and huge scale to the site. Sounds like an America’s Guest episode in 2026.
- The report this week from Dylan Dethier that Anthony Kim is strongly pondering a comeback to professional golf is fascinating and will create a fair amount of buzz. I walked with Anthony in his singles match in 2008 vs. Sergio Garcia at Valhalla as well as his win at Quail Hollow. He was dynamic and interesting and I loved interviewing him. The notion that he will come back, and win is beyond remote. He was never the hardest worker, best player or most focused guy. Now, a lifetime removed from the arena he’s going to come back and be relevant? Not happening. He’s mythical to many who now cover the game which makes his narrative pseudo fiction among younger fans who never really saw him play. Its far more of a young man’s game than when Anthony left the stage as a young man. Fun for us all but him winning again won’t be part of the next chapter.
- The culmination of the LPGA’s Drive on Championship coincided with the 4th quarter of the AFC championship game which was not ideal. What they got in the last hour was a dream scenario for the tour. Arguably the two biggest stars battling in the playoff when it looked like both were going to win at different points of the day. The Nelly 3-3 finish after the Lydia eagle on 17 was all you can ask for as a golf TV show. Nelly’s 9th win deprived Lydia of auto entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. A glorious start to the season for a tour ascending.
- My conversation with Sony Open winner Grayson Murray is now available on all of our 5 Clubs platforms including our YouTube channel. We all have things to atone for and I am not telling anyone to forget his mistakes, because he certainly hasn’t. I know from where he’s been when alcohol takes control of your life. Hope is lost, confidence is gone and the belief that life is possible without alcohol is almost extinguished. I believe you’ll hear someone you are likely unfamiliar with if you’ve followed his career. I appreciate his vulnerability and his truth. My own journey of recovery is helped hearing from others walking a similar path.