Golf - classic or dud

Playing golf is something I won't do till I'm a good bit older but it is the best activity for people as they get older. Very social, not too strenuous, lots of dinners/drinking sessions. I love golf on BBC, Alex Hay is such a polite and good humoured man. There's no sport left on TV with as little glitz as Golf right down to the commentators.

Ah golf.....I even love the rippling applause and the noise when they hit the ball

Rant over.

am sad i am missing the open (already missed wimbledon and the eng sri lanka test series) but the good thing abt missing the open is not hearing Peter allis' 'commentary'. It's just torture really.

They then started creating artificial coastal scrubland all over the world.

apparently American golf courses are more "artificial" than Irish & Scottish ones, and there is some pressure on courses over here to become less natural so as to appeal to yankee dollar.

but whatever, it's all golf = all boring middle class men off playing their boring game and cosying up to the boss over a few gin and tonics and then drink driving home.

The fact that there is no player interaction only increases the enjoyment of the game for me. Sublime and no jock0's around to spoil your day.

golfing with the boss=dud, which is why almost nobody does it.

My husband streaking across golf courses at sunrise in the early 70's=classic.

Miniture Golf- A good time for druken teenagers on a Saturday Night. Watch where your standing at the ramp over water hole, I was hit with a flying ball and got a bruised collar bone. It was funny till the booze wore off...

Classic Allis - Hay exchange from yesterday;

Allis (lamenting Seve's withdrawal due to being rubbish now): 'I'm afraid there aren't too many things you get better at as you get older'.

Hay: 'Sweeping?'.

today they showed a bunch of CLIPS together [highlights, perhaps] with some krazy 'dance' music over the top.

one commentator: is that the sort of music you like to dance to?

another commentator: no, actually. I'm more of a gavotte-merchant.

I have an inkling that the another one was allis. if so: AllyC is OTM.

and the end of the open yesterday was rather thrilling

Allis: A mention to Mrs [x] who's just about recovered now from the shock of the burglary. I hope they catch the culprits soon.
Hay: Terrible. [Proceeds to say something about appropriate capital punishment to apply when they are caught]
Allis: Ooh no, surely a bit of flogging first. So the punishment lasts longer.
Hay: Oh yes, of course.

i hit golf balls this week. i have more natural ability at it than most other things that involve hitting balls. fun. and v. satisfying when you actually get it up in the air and far away. though i usually don't get quite as much distance as others. dunno if that's a strength thing or a technique thing (or the stella i had?). not too much exercise if you're just driving, though.

(we never heard of Africa in America, btw. TS: chatty, bubbleheaded non-news v. snide content.)

I've started playing again recently too and my handicaps gone down from a 14 to about an 11/10 - played ardeer and carded an 84 (an unecessary 7 [!!!], and three unecessary 6s) but shoulda been a 79. that is playing to handicap I guess (it was 14) but I reckon markers would have given me the 7 and 6s as 5s (taking into account the rest of my card.)

I love golf.

soft hands!

do you like it? do you play? are you watching wentworth? will you play golf with me?

Nae bother at aw

Oh thank god

God is great

its a simple game

This is lovely. Tho also kinda scary how much was on the line for him today, feels sort of unfair.

i said earlier if he did it today he'll do another five but i cancel that statement the nature of how he did it may well have just underlined the questions even further

hes worth ten of any of the robots that have put perfect majors together without any of that nonsense. box office doesnt do it justice

who even is cryson deshambles

One of the greatest days watching sport I've ever had. Darragh otm. Perfect illustration of why he's not really the best golfer in the world though the experts think he is/should be.
Side note , I'd give up most of what I own ( not much admittedly) to swing the club like aberg for a round.

Rory carded four double bogeys — two of them sevens — both a first for any Masters winner. McIlroy also wound up with 30 ‘3’s’ on his scorecard, three more than anyone has accumulated in Masters history. His last 11 holes this week included five birdies, three bogeys and a double.

this is wild! three more 3s than anyone ever, bizarre stat

xpost, thought Conners has a lovely swing also, tho not great with the putter.

still can't fully process that last night, one of the most amazing and crazy sports events I've ever watched. it would have been beyond words if he'd lost. at least one friend said they had to turn it off when it went to the playoff.

it must be such a huge relief for him - just so bizarre this jekyll/hyde battle with some absolutely awful shots and then some of the greatest shots you'll ever see.

that pitch into the creek at 13 was like an amateur, and he drove badly all day, but some of the iron play was absolutely ridiculous

Was listening to it on radio and maybe it heightened how horrific and uncomfortable it was? I won't know.

Don't know how rational it was but I felt afraid for his wellbeing if he lost, which is mad - he is wildly successful, has everything and had nothing to prove.

And yet.

Yeah it felt a bit voyeuristic or something watching it as it clearly had taken on a bigger and more personal significance.

He didn't even enjoy winning it.

McIlroy crashed to his knees before bursting into tears as victory was secured. “It was all relief,” he said. “There wasn’t much joy in that reaction. It was all relief.”

Yeah you both kinda touch on what makes sport great/ uncomfortable. In order for me to love it as a spectator it has to matter too much to the protagonists. I want it to really hurt them when they lose whilst at the same time rationally not wanting that to be the case. Yesterday just was that dual feeling amplified the most I can remember feeling it.

I do reckon he's gonna go on and win more now. Imagine how free he's going to feel after this. The Open is at Portrush this year and he'll definitely be confident for that.

not out of the question that he does the grand slam in a year which of course goes to show what a ridiculous, mercurial talent and maddening persona he is

second captains covered a lot of it today but in particular they touched upon the aspect of the genius who cannot accept the easy shot. i think the 13th epitomised that, but the three miracle iron shots - the one over the trees in particular was to me one of those moments ill never forget watching as it happened- show the other side of the coin

they discussed the "in the end he had to win it this way" before deciding that was bullshit and with mcilroy that every opinion anyone has ever had about him actually probably does apply, and probably did apply at some stage during the course of one round yesterday- the guy provides a richness of content that really does add something unique to the game.

"that pitch into the creek at 13 was like an amateur"

it is absolutely not in any way even smart alecky to note that it was some way below the level of any randomly chosen amateur if you can take that amateur covers someone who actually plays the game at all

think someone on another podcast fairly described it as perhaps the worst shot ever hit at a masters, and i mean there's a case that statements stands even if it were absolute

taking context into account then id need you to actually show me a worse one before id believe it existed

grand slam easy in golf since it only has two majors

Rory's reaction after hitting that short putt to win it is as iconic to me as any of Tiger's, there was no real joy or exhilaration, just pure "thank god I didn't blow that, I never would've lived it down", maybe it won't look great in a montage but I think we all felt the same way

I still think scheffler is a better player than him but then again it's easy to forget the rory who won the pga by 8 shots. That rory has been replaced in my mind by the one 2015-2019 that barely contended in majors and then 2019-2024 where he was punched in the face by them even when he played well. But of course he was always playing them with a weight around his neck. Fascinated to see what rory looks like from now on especially with quail hollow up next where he's won 3 or 4 times.

Xp
Absolutely the biggest rory stan to his harshest critic could look at that final round and feel their opinion validated.

the schuffler going through it

lotta rough scores out there today.

sam burns’ 65 is unholy

Only three players under par after two days love to see it. The burns round is nuts

oakmont is across the river from where i grew up (and my mom is in memory care at a facility that can see certain portions of the course)

anyway: make it harder. par is irrelevant. the slams are supposed to be hard. i want to see more four-putts

Yah it’s awesome to see these guys look human and get extremely pissed

Really exciting stuff

"Scottie Scheffler has matched Rahm’s aggregate. “Gosh, dang it” bawled Scheffler after a wayward drive, which is as close as he will ever come to an expletive-laden tirade. “I battled really hard,” Scheffler said. “It’s challenging out there. I was not getting the ball in the correct spots and paying the price for it. Felt like me getting away with one over today wasn’t all that bad. It could have been a lot worse. Around this golf course I don’t think by any means I’m out of the tournament.” Scheffler was still on the practice range three hours after he walked from the final green."

I still like scheffler for this. feels like evens wins it

jj spaun’s final putt was absurd. 67 feet!

ernie els salutes

Wow @ Robert McIntyre coming from nowhere.

Awesome closing day. No one could figure out the ruff. Felt pretty bad that burns didn’t get a drop from that one wet lie he had. But then again Spaun had some of the worst breaks I’ve ever seen and still rose above.

I watched a lot of hovland this week and I swear he didn’t make one out beyond like 7 feet.

hovland's iron play was p great all week, driving and putting wasn't. jj recovering from that start was v impressive. amazing the standard of golf you get from the best players in the world when the rough is such that you actually have to hit fairways rather than just bomb it 330 knowing you'll catch a decent lie wherever it ends up.

For sure, love this tourney wish there were more like it

American golfers really love the Open.

They just pass it round to each other every year

rory's interview yesterday where he said that scottie was inevitable was so otm.
I get that people think he's boring but I absolutely love watching him play.

scottie scheff really put it to the field man. that chip in was some magic voodoo. really starting to be hard not to compare to tiger a bit here. bobby mac started w a 4 shot lead and it was 2 after one hole and scottie just kept applying the pressure.

loved watching the cut line for the top 30 and all the motion going on to get in. poor fowler looked like a lock and then boom bogey / double bogey b2b on 14-15.

this weeks the championship then the ryder cup is just a couple weeks out.

kinda forgot the ryder cup is so soon, that's going to be fun.

🏆🇺🇸 Ryder Cup Standings

1 Scottie🔒
2 J.J.🔒
3 Xander🔒
4 Henley🔒
5 English🔒
6 Bryson🔒
➖
7 JT
8 Collin
9 Griffin
10 McNealy
11 Bradley
12 Harman
➖
13 Novak
14 Young
15 Cantlay
16 Burns
17 Clark
18 Glover
19 Bhatia
20 Gotterup

really hope keegan doesnt take Thomas, he stinks right now. I'd find a way to get Cam Young and Burns in there

morikawa playing far worse than jt imo and is a v shitty putter. cam young should be on the team as should sam burns but don't pair burns with scottie even though they are besties. scheffler/ henley should play together. tbh once you get 10 p obv picks the last 2 can be any of half a dozen p interchangeable guys talent wise. not wyndham tho he's awful.

shame aaron rai won't make the euro team. harry hall had a v solid season and is a great putter but bethpage black is too beastly a ball striking course for him to warrant a pick. think Fitzpatrick and rasmus will get the nod plus the usual suspects. Lowry has had a crap last couple of months so need him to wake up a bit.

cantlay has a good ryder cup record but is playing mediocre this season, same goes for xander.

my 6 would probably be
jt
cam young
griffin
mav
burns
cantlay

collin def stinking it up. i hope cantlay doesnt make it mainly cos i just dont like watching him play.

was into the idea of bhatia but watching him fold on the back 9 last sunday scared me off him a bit

omg mcilroys long sand shot on 18. incredible, great reaction shots too.

have been grinding a lot this summer on my own game and completely changed my swing (more compact, better path). now shallow on downswing which has improved my longer irons significantly and eliminated my slice. down to an 11 index without a reliable tee ball but finally starting to get the driver dialled in so think I can maybe get to single digits

ive been working on a flatter approach to my long irons to good effect also in the last few rounds

JT, morikawa, griffin, cam young, cantlay, burns

ok then