OT: 2023 Golf Thread
- Thread starter Knightmoves
- Start date
Lost the four ball semifinals at the club yesterday. 12 handicap putting from four inches into the rough sinks a downhill, lighting fast 25 footer, early in the round. Then, slams a lag putt over the green and into the rough on 16. You guessed it. Makes the 25 footer putting out of the rough for the second time. Not our day, lol.
Ouch.
Played lousy on one great course and one really good course this Memorial Day week. Played my first round ever at Shinnecock Hills on Wednesday and was up at Caves Valley yesterday. Have some great golf coming up this summer just need these swing changes to get ‘grooved”. Oakmont, Laurel Valley, Fishers Island, Inverness and Winged Foot booked over the next 12 weeks. Waiting to hear on a Wannamoisett tee time for when I visit RI.
One of my closest friends is a member. I’ve Been fortunate to play it a bunch of times. Excited to see the bunker renovation which I believe is just about complete. Doing the trip on Fathers Day weekend with a couple dear friends.
The pluses and minuses of being arse deep at work these days: I am getting off the charts good golf invites is the plus—-it’s May 29 and Shinnecock and Caves were my 7th and 8th rounds of the year is the minus. My close friend who hosted me at Caves played his 50th round of the season yesterday. I can only hope I can get time to play more/practice more at some point.
Nice list. Played Shinnecock a couple of times. Great experience. Got out on Caves once. Don’t know why that place is not rated higher. I loved it.
Come on, Man. You're killing me now! Shinnecock is my all time favorite golf course and Oakmont is number 1 on my, "wish I could play that once," list! Fishers is amazing, enjoy the golf!
Played Caves a couple of years ago and stayed in one of the "cabins". Fantastic. Included having the Director of golf sit down with us for drinks. He brought his photo album from when he was the first Vice Captain at the Ryder Cup. Back then it was a real job as he was basically the travel agent.
Great stories from him about that Ryder Cup (drawing a blank, but I think it was Valderama. Phil was a rookie) and about the Presidents that came to play there.
Great stories from him about that Ryder Cup (drawing a blank, but I think it was Valderama. Phil was a rookie) and about the Presidents that came to play there.
The Golden Bear weighs in on LIV and The Memorial - got this from FB (so no link - they never work here). Haven't seen him weigh in on the Ryder Cup yet.
Jack Nicklaus aka “The Golden Bear” turned mean when asked to comment on LIV Golf stars playing in this week’s Memorial Tournament. The Memorial is Nicklaus’s tournament which is staged at his Muirfield Village Golf Club.
A visibly annoyed Nicklaus told reporters: “I don’t even consider those guys part of the game anymore. I don’t mean that in a nasty way. This is a PGA Tour event and we have the best field we can possibly have for a PGA Tour event for those who are eligible to be here. The other guys made a choice of what they did and where they’ve gone and we don’t even talk about it.”
The players that he was referring to were Brooks Koepka and Cam Smith.
Although some great golfers won’t be in the Memorial field, Nicklaus declared that he was still satisfied with who will be playing, stating that this is probably the best field at the Memorial they’ve ever had.
Jack Nicklaus aka “The Golden Bear” turned mean when asked to comment on LIV Golf stars playing in this week’s Memorial Tournament. The Memorial is Nicklaus’s tournament which is staged at his Muirfield Village Golf Club.
A visibly annoyed Nicklaus told reporters: “I don’t even consider those guys part of the game anymore. I don’t mean that in a nasty way. This is a PGA Tour event and we have the best field we can possibly have for a PGA Tour event for those who are eligible to be here. The other guys made a choice of what they did and where they’ve gone and we don’t even talk about it.”
The players that he was referring to were Brooks Koepka and Cam Smith.
Although some great golfers won’t be in the Memorial field, Nicklaus declared that he was still satisfied with who will be playing, stating that this is probably the best field at the Memorial they’ve ever had.
The LIV guys resigned from the PGA Tour. They are not eligible to participate in Jack's tournament. Not sure why this is even a discussion. It's not like Jack is saying anything negative about the LIV guys or tour.
Because there are people still pushing for LIV to be included despite the fact that they resigned.
Gotterup getting a start at the Memorial tourney this week, an elevated event. Hope he plays well.
Included in what? Jack’s comments were related to his tournament (and PGA Tour).
Our group played Myakka Pines GC in SW FL yesterday, home of Goliath, a 17 foot gator that lives there. He also has some offspring and they are all big boys as well. Actual photo, not photoshopped.
My favorite course played. I've been lucky to play some great courses here and in Northern Ireland and Oakmont was my favorite.
Seems like the new PGA designated events is doing more damage to DP World Tour then the LIV. These designated events have more players coming to play on the PGA in more events and some have become full time on the PGA. Even players like Rory and Rahm who used to play a good number of European tournament have cut back. This week's DP Tour stop, the Porsche European Open was a full field of nobody's. The winner was 20 year old Tom McKibben who cleared the field by 2 strokes. From Northern Ireland he could become the next Rory.
Probably true but this week is difficult to judge. Memorial is a big event because of Jack.
True but the total is 13 non major events. These guys would come over for a few just a year ago. For them it's a complete reverse this year. With the majors they are now playing 16 events over here.
The Bear Trap at the Honda and the back 9 at Memorial are epic finishing holes. Take what you can get, pay dearly if you miss.
I have never played Oakmont, but have played RCD in NI - which was phenomenal. Curious if you have played RCD and you rank Oakmont higher.
I have and Royal Portrush too. It's splitting hairs for me between RCD and Oakmont. Ask me next month and I might say RCD. LOL.
I think part of the allure of Oakmont beyond it being such a great course, awesome clubhouse is the history of it with the US Opens. Knowing you are playing a great course that has had the all time legends walk the same fairways.
If I were rankings courses I have played:
1 - Oakmont
2 - RCD
3 - Pacific Dunes
4 - Royal Portrush
5 - Cabot Cliffs
Did you play others in NI? On our trip we played RCD, Royal Portrush, Portstewart - Strand (great course), Portmarnock, Castlerock and Ardglass.
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Yes, besides RCD played Galgorm (meh), Ardglass and Portstewart Strand (I agree it’s a great course and the first nine holes as scenic as it gets). Portrush was closed to visitors when we went but walked it at 2019 Open. Almost played Castlerock but ended up at Galgorm instead.
If you are Viktor Holland, after a grueling 4 rounds of playing and winning the Memorial I think most all of us would be sleeping in today. Not Viktor. Today he was up early carrying a full bag of clubs but they were not his. Today Hovland is a caddie for his former roommate and teammate Zach Bauchou in the US Open qualifying. 36 holes at two different courses. Not only a great golfer, Viktor is a great friend too!
Castlerock was OK, not great. It's right across the river from Portstewart. That first tee shot hitting down into the valley from Portstewart was awesome.
I think there was a separate thread, IIRC. I'm heading out for a quick nine in 20 minutes. Assuming I can see where the ball goes with this smoke.
Hope a few of you just saw the Canadian Open playoff, where Canadian Nick Taylor on the 4th playoff hole, sunk a 72 foot eagle putt (Taylor's longest in his career) to beat Tommy Fleetwood to become the first Canadian to win their Open in 69 years. Crowds were wild and what a great finish. This was after Fleetwood went birdie-birdie on the last 2 holes of regulation to tie Taylor. I think there's going to be a party in Canada tonight, eh.
Watched a decent amount of the Canadian Open today. Aside from the incredible finish, it was a really cool atmosphere. They set up the par 3 14th as a sort of stadium hole (a la TPC Scottsdale), but with boards resembling a hockey rink, marshalls wearing hockey referee shirts, and anytime a Canadian came to the tee, the crowd sang O Canada. Cool stuff and what a moment for Nick Taylor and Canadian sports.
So back to golf talk. Los Angeles Country looks fantastic and think it going to be a great, but different, US Open. Some of the commentary is it's more like Pinehurst then the famous North East famous venues used. No bleachers behind 18 to highlight the big, beautiful clubhouse.
Great course and it looks like scores can go very low. Max Homa shot 61 there 10 years ago while a college player.
The little 17th is a cool exhibition hole. Hope they show some pros hitting into it.
Monahan medical leave my ***! He will not return.
They did show it this morning. There was a closest to the hole contest with the winner getting 10K to donate to charity. Someone came w/i 2-3"
The 15th will play anywhere from 78-124 yards. The front right pin placement is going to be really difficult as the USGA allows the course to harden according to the talking heads. One said Ricky Fowler told him it may be better to play to the right of the green and have a fairly easy chip than end up in the front or back bunkers where balls will likely plug.
Koepka had an interesting answer about why he does well in the US Open. He said he basically thrives on the chaos and can calm himself down while everyone is freaking out. He talked about Shinnecock and how everyone was bitching about the course and focused on that while he was focused on just playing the course as it is and being the best guy on that course with those conditions.