18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…
- 4.5 trillion to 1 were the odds that Amelia Garvey bucked at the NXXT Women’s Championship at Royal St. Cloud in Florida when she recorded a hole in one, an albatross, an eagle and a birdie in a single round of competitive golf. Garvey, from New Zealand, has played on the Epson tour for the last two years opened her insane round with an eagle and then proceeded to ace the par 3 6th hole. She punctuated the historic day by holing out her second on the par 5 13th hole. Garvey made four bogeys as well during the round for a psychotic scorecard that totaled 66. In true golfer martyrdom form the player who made an eagle, an albatross and a hole in one lamented that it was “a little bit annoying that this was a mini tour event, it didn’t make me that much money”.
- Viktor Hovland is a bright light amongst too many players who appear utterly downtrodden to be making a living playing golf. Appearing on Claude Harmon III’s podcast, “Son of a Butch” Hovland shared a sentiment felt by tons of fans when he said, “Obviously getting the paycheck for winning is nice but if that’s what you’re remembering by the end of the week that feels a bit soulless”. Amen. Hovland also expressed that it is sad that the only main talking point from the PGA Tour in response to LIV’s presence has been money. That is the blame of everyone involved.
- Talor Gooch is a fabulous player. He also epitomizes the undercurrent of entitlement and aggrievement permeating from some elite players. Professional golf is a meritocracy, or it was. Play well and be rewarded, play poorly and feel a sense of vulnerability and jeopardy. The world ranking system is in a precarious place in need of reform now with the existence of LIV. However, Gooch throwing a pity party in the form of an imbecilic asterisk suggestion as it pertains to Rory McIlroy and the Masters is embarrassing for him. The list of excellent players who have failed to qualify for major championships through the years is endless to say nothing for hall of fame players who missed majors due to injury. The aggrieved golfer is an utterly pathetic look.
- Monday is the annual pro-member at Seminole. When I was on the professional staff there in the mid 90’s the event had long since been shuttered for various reasons including the presence of a bloated Calcutta by the early 60’s. In 2004, then Seminole President Tim Neher, resuscitated the event with a healthy dose of club professionals solicited by the platinum standard of the profession, Bob Ford, the then resident professional. By the early 2010’s Jack and Arnie were playing together with members in addition to all four major champions from 2013, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson, and Jason Dufner representing in 2014 with the green jacket and the major trophies in tow. It is currently the greatest assemblage of golf talent and corporate power players, past and present, on one golf course any day of the year. Paint on the wall in the Seminole locker room is the summit.
- Tiger Woods playing in the Seminole pro-member Monday with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh is interesting on a couple fronts. One, this is his first appearance in the event at 48 years old. In all the years Tiger has lived on Jupiter Island he has only played Seminole a few times including his first round with then President of the club, Tim Neher. It doesn’t indicate to me that he’s any closer to playing the Players but it’s another modest example of his evolution.
- Luke Donald was exactly what I expected him to be on the NBC broadcast in the lead analyst chair; prepared, insightful and easily conversational with his tower mate Dan Hicks. What we have discovered thus far is that there are varied voices capable of doing the job, but like a playing career, a broadcast career can be very long if you’re good which means the openings are few and very far between.
- An argument can be made that the best player in the world is playing on LIV, Jon Rahm. Additionally, the most prolific major championship winner of this generation, Brooks Koepka, also plays on LIV. But when you add Joaquin Niemann, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Tyrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau, etc., etc., you start to understand the erosion week to week of PGA Tour fields. Moreover, at a time where there is NOT a player captivating the public you realize the perilous position the tour finds itself in. That dynamic will be amplified the next two weeks at Bay Hill and the Players.
- When Rory McIlroy made a reckless triple bogey on the 16th hole Saturday to fall from the top 10 to outside the top 25 the Cognizant Classic was looking at another “star-less” leaderboard. Shane Lowry is a major champion and imminently likable but he’s not a sticky TV guy. Meaning you don’t stick around just to watch him. NBC, CBS, ESPN sees these sagging numbers and they are all asking the same thing. When are the stars going to take over a tour event?
- Joaquin Niemann has now won two events early in the year on LIV. A fantastic player but his immediate reaction on each occasion was to point out something that should be better in his life. After Mayakoba he moaned about not being in majors, not entirely accurate, and just this week he received a special invite to the Masters, earned, by the way. Sunday, after winning in Saudi Arabia, the on-course interviewer suggested he’d be a favorite to win a major this year and his reaction was to point out his current world ranking was too low to support that claim. Everyone knows the world rankings are out of balance but Neimann’s reflexive reaction in the form of lame humor is stale. Literally in a week he won a golf tournament and received a Masters invite his first words after victory was stale aggrievement. I don’t attend pity parties and Niemann is suddenly a regular host of them.
- Anthony Kim’s week was of zero surprise. He finished 33 shots behind the winner in a 54-hole competition. Immaterial. As I stated on the 5 Clubs YouTube channel on Thursday Kim’s results should be judged based on progress seen over the course of the season. Eventually the scores will tell most of the story, but he has so much he needs to improve on after a lifetime away. Crowds on the ground in Saudi were nonexistent and it’ll be interesting to see the level of interest he can conjure when the tour returns to the states, after next week in Hong Kong, in Miami before the Masters.
- Hannah Green will likely win several more times in her professional career but her closing 30-foot birdie putt to win the HSBC in Thailand will be hard to eclipse. Green chased down Celine Boutier by making birdie on the final three holes to win by one and become the second Aussie to win the HSBC alongside Karrie Webb. Green’s fourth LPGA title comes soon after getting married in January and then more recently moving into a new house. Green and her new husband, Jarryd Felton, have not had a honeymoon and have been apart for almost a month. They will celebrate this coming week when they are reunited.
- Jordan Gumberg at 28 years old has kept the dream alive and the lights on as he’s globetrotted playing professional golf on various tours. Sunday, as the 669th ranked golfer in the world, he won in a playoff on the DP World Tour to win by far his biggest title. The University of Arizona grad, by way of Ft. Lauderdale, now has a home away from home on the DP World Tour. Gumberg got some late help on Sunday when Robin Williams, the leader with two holes to go made a double bogey to open the door for the playoff win for Gumberg who has played in three PGA Tour events in his career including qualifying for the 2023 U.S. Open. Any day, anywhere in the world, there are a ton of guys who can win golf tournaments.
- The USGA announced on Saturday that Tiger Woods will be the recipient of the 2024 Bob Jones Award. The award is the highest honor the organization bestows on someone in and around the game of golf. Woods would have appeared an inevitable recipient considering his immense impact on the game, but this year makes practical sense because it conveniently ties in with the USGA’s likely decision to give Woods a special invite into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. The Jones award ceremony is conducted the week of the U.S. Open. Woods has come agonizingly close on two occasions at Pinehurst in 1999 and 2005 finishing two shots back of the eventual winners, Payne Stewart and Michael Campbell.
- The Saturday announcement by the USGA that the 2036 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open will be conducted in consecutive weeks at Shinnecock Hills is cool. Pinehurst pulled off the national championship fortnight in 2014 and two weeks on the eastern end of Long Island in June is dreamy. Moreover, the future sites for the women’s open are a murderer’s row of historically great venues, especially the 30’s.
- 2030-Interlachen
- 2031-Oakland Hills
- 2032-Los Angeles Country Club
- 2033-Chicago Golf Club
- 2034-Merion
- 2035-Pebble Beach
- 2036-Shinnecock Hills
- Of all the things I miss about not having Arnold Palmer of this earth, the scene of him riding around his own golf tournament, the renewal is this week, with a set of clubs strapped to the back was his essence. He played golf, with anyone, especially at Bay Hill. Arnold was the Everyman, the iconic sportsman, and golf’s first TV star. He loved the engagement of a golf game more than any other. The clubs on the back of his cart in the twilight of his life at an event he created but no longer competed in was emblematic of how he saw the game. For all and for life.
- The Florida swing is associated with a much more punitive style of golf when players hit errant shots. PGA National, Bay Hill, and the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass have an identity of punishing the fate of heart. PGA National was softened by rains and they did not have a blistering wind day, but it doesn’t change the fact that the course was set up in a more benevolent way. Stats proved that with proximity from the rough, which was lighter. Even without the winner being decided on Sunday, the scores were much lower this year than past years. Taking into consideration that the 10th was converted to a par five the most accurate way to show the leniency of the set-up is in the overall scoring numbers. In 2023 there were 10 players who shot a four-round total of 272 or better. This year there will be more than twice that number. Bottom line from hearing from several players, the set up was easier and NOT because they had heavy rains on Sunday. That’s not in the best interest of interest in the event.
- Austin Eckroat was a member of an Oklahoma State team with studs in Matt Wolfe and Viktor Hovland but also absurd depth in Sam Stephens, Kris Ventura, and Brendon Jelley. A college team that produces multiple winners on tour is not that common but when you potentially have five guys who will all win tour events at some point, that is crazy good.
- Jake Knapp has the best new gait in golf. It’s really not close.