Golf 2022

[Pakuni]

I think he’s said as much in his PMT interview. That’s why he really only practices for the majors. He mentioned getting bored midway through rounds.

I think in that interview he mentioned baseball was the sport he had a passion for.

It's an act.
Nobody gets to the pinnacle of their profession, especially as a professional athlete, by hating it. He may hate what it entails to stay at the top, but no way he just hates playing golf.

[JWags85]

It's an act.
Nobody gets to the pinnacle of their profession, especially as a professional athlete, by hating it. He may hate what it entails to stay at the top, but no way he just hates playing golf.

I agree that he doesn't hate golf as a whole, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't love 80-90% of the non competition part of the game.  And much like a gambler who increases stakes, lower (non-major) stakes don't excite him.  I think it seems silly for the vast majority of casual golf fans/rec players, but I understand it in a way.

Ive mentioned here before, my best friend in college was a D1 safety.  Freakish athlete.  But he didn't love football.  He liked basketball much more and wished he was a basketball player, but a D1 football scholarship was more appealing than D3 basketball offers.  He did the bare minimum, became a serviceable starter but could have been much more.  His older brother played a few years in the NFL and was in love with the game, but was undersized for his position.  Meanwhile, my buddy had all the physical tools and on field intelligence, but little desire.  I talked to him a bit ago and he joked how he hadn't even played flag football since he graduated.  One of their good childhood friends is now a D1 position coach and asked my buddy if he ever thought about coaching or if he missed the game...the response was a resounding "nah".

[MuggsyB]

I agree that he doesn't hate golf as a whole, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't love 80-90% of the non competition part of the game.  And much like a gambler who increases stakes, lower (non-major) stakes don't excite him.  I think it seems silly for the vast majority of casual golf fans/rec players, but I understand it in a way.

Ive mentioned here before, my best friend in college was a D1 safety.  Freakish athlete.  But he didn't love football.  He liked basketball much more and wished he was a basketball player, but a D1 football scholarship was more appealing than D3 basketball offers.  He did the bare minimum, became a serviceable starter but could have been much more.  His older brother played a few years in the NFL and was in love with the game, but was undersized for his position.  Meanwhile, my buddy had all the physical tools and on field intelligence, but little desire.  I talked to him a bit ago and he joked how he hadn't even played flag football since he graduated.  One of their good childhood friends is now a D1 position coach and asked my buddy if he ever thought about coaching or if he missed the game...the response was a resounding "nah".

We'll never know if Koepka could have been a pro baseball player.  He stopped playing as a 10 yr old after a serious car accident.  So while baseball may have been his first love, it's a little different situation than someone who was a high  D-1 safety or college baseball player.    In other words the insinuation that he doesn't like golf because of his affinity to baseball is a bit of a stretch.

[JWags85]

We'll never know if Koepka could have been a pro baseball player.  He stopped playing as a 10 yr old after a serious car accident.  So while baseball may have been his first love, it's a little different situation than someone who was a high  D-1 safety or college baseball player.    In other words the insinuation that he doesn't like golf because of his affinity to baseball is a bit of a stretch.

The point is there are elite athletes who don't love the sport they play, to varying degrees.  Guys that when they retire, they don't watch the league they played in.  YMMV on how much it affects their career trajectory or how much they pursue other passions.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

The point is there are elite athletes who don't love the sport they play, to varying degrees.  Guys that when they retire, they don't watch the league they played in.  YMMV on how much it affects their career trajectory or how much they pursue other passions.

Curtis Martin from his HOF speech:  "Everyone here who knows me, you know that I was never a football fan. I wasn’t the type of guy to watch football.  I could probably count on one hand how many football games I’ve watched from beginning to end in my lifetime."

[Uncle Rico]

Does Brooks like golf or not?  Not sure other than to go on what he says, however, I do believe his alpha dog shtick got exposed and he didn’t have any other ammunition.

Maybe that’s the answer, he doesn’t like golf and actually having to work to win doesn’t appeal to him.  That’s fine.  Either way, I think he’s done as a legit threat to win majors saving a hot weekend

[MuggsyB]

The point is there are elite athletes who don't love the sport they play, to varying degrees.  Guys that when they retire, they don't watch the league they played in.  YMMV on how much it affects their career trajectory or how much they pursue other passions.

I don't disagree with you but I think you have to make a distinction between obvious elite athletes and Koepka. 

[tower912]

It was schtick.   He promoted how physically fit he was and how focused he was and how simple the game was for him to to intimidate other golfers at majors.    Then he would find a chip to put on his shoulder when the golf channel didn't call him the favorite.    It worked for a bit.    Then his body started breaking down and with that he couldn't maintain the facade of superiority.   It was a nice run and I enjoyed watching him play while at his best.    But his body and that attitude have a short shelf life.   

[MuggsyB]

It was schtick.   He promoted how physically fit he was and how focused he was and how simple the game was for him to to intimidate other golfers at majors.    Then he would find a chip to put on his shoulder when the golf channel didn't call him the favorite.    It worked for a bit.    Then his body started breaking down and with that he couldn't maintain the facade of superiority.   It was a nice run and I enjoyed watching him play while at his best.    But his body and that attitude have a short shelf life.

I'm with you on this one. 

[Pakuni]

I agree that he doesn't hate golf as a whole, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't love 80-90% of the non competition part of the game.  And much like a gambler who increases stakes, lower (non-major) stakes don't excite him.  I think it seems silly for the vast majority of casual golf fans/rec players, but I understand it in a way.

Ive mentioned here before, my best friend in college was a D1 safety.  Freakish athlete.  But he didn't love football.  He liked basketball much more and wished he was a basketball player, but a D1 football scholarship was more appealing than D3 basketball offers.  He did the bare minimum, became a serviceable starter but could have been much more.  His older brother played a few years in the NFL and was in love with the game, but was undersized for his position.  Meanwhile, my buddy had all the physical tools and on field intelligence, but little desire.  I talked to him a bit ago and he joked how he hadn't even played flag football since he graduated.  One of their good childhood friends is now a D1 position coach and asked my buddy if he ever thought about coaching or if he missed the game...the response was a resounding "nah".

Doesn't this anecdote kind of prove my point?
Brooks Koepka didn't became a serviceable college golfer on account of his natural skills. He became a three-time All-American, turned pro and won four major championships on his way to becoming the #1 ranked golfer in the world for nearly a full calendar year.
I don't think anyone puts in the time and effort to accomplish that while hating golf. Becoming the best in the world at anything requires an obsessive desire.
I think the "I hate golf and only care about the majors" bit is part of his too-cool-for-school routine.
 

[JWags85]

Doesn't this anecdote kind of prove my point?
Brooks Koepka didn't became a serviceable college golfer on account of his natural skills. He became a three-time All-American, turned pro and won four major championships on his way to becoming the #1 ranked golfer in the world for nearly a full calendar year.
I don't think anyone puts in the time and effort to accomplish that while hating golf. Becoming the best in the world at anything requires an obsessive desire.
I think the "I hate golf and only care about the majors" bit is part of his too-cool-for-school routine.

Has he claimed to always have hated golf?  Cause that would be BS.  But I can totally buy he didn't love it the last 5+ years, idk.

[MuggsyB]

Doesn't this anecdote kind of prove my point?
Brooks Koepka didn't became a serviceable college golfer on account of his natural skills. He became a three-time All-American, turned pro and won four major championships on his way to becoming the #1 ranked golfer in the world for nearly a full calendar year.
I don't think anyone puts in the time and effort to accomplish that while hating golf. Becoming the best in the world at anything requires an obsessive desire.
I think the "I hate golf and only care about the majors" bit is part of his too-cool-for-school routine.

Excellent point Pakumi.  I'm gonna go with this is utter nonsense.

[Uncle Rico]

Herb Kohler passed away yesterday.  Kohler’s choice to build world class golf courses in Wisconsin helped turn the state into a golf destination

[🏀]

Herb Kohler passed away yesterday.  Kohler’s choice to build world class golf courses in Wisconsin helped turn the state into a golf destination

Yep. Wish they were moving dirt on the Andrae site before he passed.

#83nation

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Herb Kohler passed away yesterday.  Kohler’s choice to build world class golf courses in Wisconsin helped turn the state into a golf destination

He got to see the Ryder Cup at his place.

[Herman Cain]

Excellent Video Interview embedded with Herb Kohler discussing Whistling Straits on the eve of The Ryder Cup

https://www.wisn.com/article/kohler-co-executive-chairman-herbert-kohler-jr-dies/41076068#

[Herman Cain]

DJ and Paulina having fun after DJ win in playoff at LIV

https://nypost.com/2022/09/05/paulina-gretzky-dustin-johnson-celebrate-4-million-liv-golf-win/

[MU82]

Golfweek's Eamon Lynch eviscerates Sergio Garcia:

However implausible it may seem now, once upon a time Sergio Garcia enjoyed a reputation that was, if not quite the gold standard, then at least a couple of notches above junk status. That was when he was a teenage phenom scissor-kicking down the fairway in pursuit of Tiger Woods, when success — particularly in major championships — seemed not only assured but imminent. In the almost 20 years that elapsed before that major win finally came, Garcia didn’t mature, his only growth apparent in a disposition that became more sullen, more entitled, more petulant and more unprofessional.

The data set for Garcia’s dickish behavior was augmented right up until his final regular event on the PGA Tour, where he has earned more than $54 million, before bonuses. At May’s Wells Fargo Championship, he bellyached about an unfair ruling before announcing, “I can’t wait to leave this tour. I can’t wait to get out of here … ” His words fell like a welcome rain on the usually arid world of rules officials.

Garcia decamped to LIV Golf with a lengthy résumé of gauche antics, select lowlights of which include flinging his shoe into a gallery, flipping off spectators, spitting into the cup, and getting booted from a tournament in Saudi Arabia for defacing five greens during an extended conniption (that he found the Saudis’ limit for unseemly conduct is an accomplishment at least as impressive as winning the Masters). But like other LIV defectors, he wants to continue cherry-picking the most important stops on the tours he left behind. The BMW PGA Championship, for example, which was held this week in England.

The Spaniard had been asked about the chilly reception likely awaiting at Wentworth and his response sounded a note of selfishness that was wholly on-brand: “What I’m going to do is support the European tour and that’s all I can do. Whoever doesn’t like it, too bad for them.”

The “them” for whom it was too bad included the many competitors who objected to the presence of 18 LIV members in the field; the DP World Tour itself, which made clear the LIV outcasts were in only under legal duress; and the luckless players on the alternate list, who were denied 18 opportunities to compete in their tour’s premier tournament.

Garcia’s professed support of the DP World Tour has never been much in evidence at its flagship event, where he has appeared only twice in the past 22 years. On his last showing, in 2014, he quit after one round. If nothing else, this week indicated how little he has changed in the intervening years.

In Thursday’s first round, Garcia shot a 76 that had him firmly at the arse-end of the leaderboard. He was finished by the time news broke of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, which prompted a suspension of play and reduced the championship to 54 holes. When matters resumed on Saturday, he was announced as having withdrawn. A few hours later, he was sideline at the Texas-Alabama game in Austin, 5,000 miles from Wentworth. He did not extend tournament organizers the courtesy of an explanation for his WD.

There were other WDs, but Garcia was the only LIV member to commandeer a precious spot in the field and then abandon it after 18 indifferent holes. His was also the only WD intended as a middle finger to the DP World Tour and its unwelcoming members. To interpret it as anything else demands a generosity that he has not earned.

So why did Garcia enter a tournament at which he wasn’t welcome, played on a course he doesn’t like? Because LIV expects its infantrymen to present themselves at every significant event for which they are eligible — to normalize its existence, to grab world ranking points, and to otherwise disrupt the status quo. And LIV doesn’t own a man more infantile than Garcia.

It’s futile to wonder if Garcia’s reputation among his peers will be hurt by this latest unprofessionalism since one cannot further diminish that which has already been rendered fecal. He ensured as much at the BMW International Open in Munich earlier this summer with a locker room tirade overheard by a number of players. “This Tour is s***, you’re all f****d, should have taken the Saudi money!” he was widely reported to have shouted.

“Amazing how fast you can lose respect for someone that you’ve looked up to all your life,” said a barely cryptic tweet by Scotland’s Bob MacIntyre shortly afterward.

“He fooled a lot of people for quite some time,” said a Saturday evening text from one person who has known Garcia well for his entire career, “but I think his true colors are now visible in glorious technicolor.”

It’s unlikely that Garcia will exhibit the same contempt for his new employers as he did for the DP World Tour and his fellow players at Wentworth, not least because the boss is known to get sawed off at dissent. He’s obliged by contracts and cash to meet his commitments on LIV’s circuit. All that was required to fulfill the obligation he assumed at Wentworth was professionalism and courtesy. Predictably, he was again found wanting.

Whatever the amount that greased Garcia’s palm for the jump to LIV, it didn’t buy him the one thing he has never possessed, nor apparently ever sought: class. Not even MBS can gift him that. At some point, the Saudis will glumly realize just what they have bought. Too bad for them.

[Uncle Rico]

Golfweek's Eamon Lynch eviscerates Sergio Garcia:

However implausible it may seem now, once upon a time Sergio Garcia enjoyed a reputation that was, if not quite the gold standard, then at least a couple of notches above junk status. That was when he was a teenage phenom scissor-kicking down the fairway in pursuit of Tiger Woods, when success — particularly in major championships — seemed not only assured but imminent. In the almost 20 years that elapsed before that major win finally came, Garcia didn’t mature, his only growth apparent in a disposition that became more sullen, more entitled, more petulant and more unprofessional.

The data set for Garcia’s dickish behavior was augmented right up until his final regular event on the PGA Tour, where he has earned more than $54 million, before bonuses. At May’s Wells Fargo Championship, he bellyached about an unfair ruling before announcing, “I can’t wait to leave this tour. I can’t wait to get out of here … ” His words fell like a welcome rain on the usually arid world of rules officials.

Garcia decamped to LIV Golf with a lengthy résumé of gauche antics, select lowlights of which include flinging his shoe into a gallery, flipping off spectators, spitting into the cup, and getting booted from a tournament in Saudi Arabia for defacing five greens during an extended conniption (that he found the Saudis’ limit for unseemly conduct is an accomplishment at least as impressive as winning the Masters). But like other LIV defectors, he wants to continue cherry-picking the most important stops on the tours he left behind. The BMW PGA Championship, for example, which was held this week in England.

The Spaniard had been asked about the chilly reception likely awaiting at Wentworth and his response sounded a note of selfishness that was wholly on-brand: “What I’m going to do is support the European tour and that’s all I can do. Whoever doesn’t like it, too bad for them.”

The “them” for whom it was too bad included the many competitors who objected to the presence of 18 LIV members in the field; the DP World Tour itself, which made clear the LIV outcasts were in only under legal duress; and the luckless players on the alternate list, who were denied 18 opportunities to compete in their tour’s premier tournament.

Garcia’s professed support of the DP World Tour has never been much in evidence at its flagship event, where he has appeared only twice in the past 22 years. On his last showing, in 2014, he quit after one round. If nothing else, this week indicated how little he has changed in the intervening years.

In Thursday’s first round, Garcia shot a 76 that had him firmly at the arse-end of the leaderboard. He was finished by the time news broke of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, which prompted a suspension of play and reduced the championship to 54 holes. When matters resumed on Saturday, he was announced as having withdrawn. A few hours later, he was sideline at the Texas-Alabama game in Austin, 5,000 miles from Wentworth. He did not extend tournament organizers the courtesy of an explanation for his WD.

There were other WDs, but Garcia was the only LIV member to commandeer a precious spot in the field and then abandon it after 18 indifferent holes. His was also the only WD intended as a middle finger to the DP World Tour and its unwelcoming members. To interpret it as anything else demands a generosity that he has not earned.

So why did Garcia enter a tournament at which he wasn’t welcome, played on a course he doesn’t like? Because LIV expects its infantrymen to present themselves at every significant event for which they are eligible — to normalize its existence, to grab world ranking points, and to otherwise disrupt the status quo. And LIV doesn’t own a man more infantile than Garcia.

It’s futile to wonder if Garcia’s reputation among his peers will be hurt by this latest unprofessionalism since one cannot further diminish that which has already been rendered fecal. He ensured as much at the BMW International Open in Munich earlier this summer with a locker room tirade overheard by a number of players. “This Tour is s***, you’re all f****d, should have taken the Saudi money!” he was widely reported to have shouted.

“Amazing how fast you can lose respect for someone that you’ve looked up to all your life,” said a barely cryptic tweet by Scotland’s Bob MacIntyre shortly afterward.

“He fooled a lot of people for quite some time,” said a Saturday evening text from one person who has known Garcia well for his entire career, “but I think his true colors are now visible in glorious technicolor.”

It’s unlikely that Garcia will exhibit the same contempt for his new employers as he did for the DP World Tour and his fellow players at Wentworth, not least because the boss is known to get sawed off at dissent. He’s obliged by contracts and cash to meet his commitments on LIV’s circuit. All that was required to fulfill the obligation he assumed at Wentworth was professionalism and courtesy. Predictably, he was again found wanting.

Whatever the amount that greased Garcia’s palm for the jump to LIV, it didn’t buy him the one thing he has never possessed, nor apparently ever sought: class. Not even MBS can gift him that. At some point, the Saudis will glumly realize just what they have bought. Too bad for them.

Sergio is who he has always been, a petulant child.  He hasn’t grown one bit in 25 years of professional golf. 

[MU82]

Sergio is who he has always been, a petulant child.  He hasn’t grown one bit in 25 years of professional golf.

Those of us who were lucky enough to be at Medinah in 1999 thought we were witnessing the start of a new era in golf -- a talented, fun-to-watch teenager ready to battle Tiger Woods (then only 23) for years and years and years.

But he soon turned into exactly what you say, Unk. What could have been.

[Herman Cain]

Sergio is who he has always been, a petulant child.  He hasn’t grown one bit in 25 years of professional golf.

Sergio is a guy who constantly snatches defeat from the jaws of Victory. By being a total jerk and having lack of emotional control his whole career ,he wasted his wimmense talent .

[MU82]

the jaws of Victoria

A favorite porno of yours?

[Herman Cain]

A favorite porno of yours?

Lol correction noted

[MUfan12]

“He fooled a lot of people for quite some time,” said a Saturday evening text from one person who has known Garcia well for his entire career, “but I think his true colors are now visible in glorious technicolor.”

Who, exactly, was fooled by this? He's always been a colossal prick.

[RJax55]

“He fooled a lot of people for quite some time,” said a Saturday evening text from one person who has known Garcia well for his entire career, “but I think his true colors are now visible in glorious technicolor.”

Who, exactly, was fooled by this? He's always been a colossal prick.

Some of the Euros. They chalk up Sergio's behavior to his Spanish blood, all that bs. Complete nonsense, but hey, the Ryder Cup.