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Golf

Redford said:
I think Sandra Mackenzie used to play on the WPGA Tour. Not sure. Whatever, she’s been involved in golf for a long time. I think she’s given up commentating now and just leads the quiet life in Australia, but I’d guarantee you’d have heard her commentating something or other in the past, and you’d recognise her voice.

She reckoned that by and large (one or two exceptions eg people like Allenby I guess) that Australians are really well liked on Tour. Good guys. Other players like being paired with us. Don’t take ourselves too seriously. Immense levels of talent.

But dovetailing with that was that we’re seen generally (not all Australians) as being a bit too casual. We don’t practice or prepare as hard as the Americans or most Europeans do. She reckoned that it was her experience when commentating on the PGA Tour that when you went to the practice range at the end of the day, there were only one or two Aussies you’d be a chance of seeing there regularly. The rest would be back at the hotel or off doing other stuff.

She reckoned we lacked a bit of hard nosed professionalism v most of the Americans in terms of practice and preparation, discipline, etc. She put a lot of this down to the fact the Americans have come from a big, cut throat “golf industry” where the best of the best are competing against each other all across the country from early junior days (eg 12 years old), competing for college spots, competing against each other in college and in big, semi professional college environments before they even try to get a spot on Tour. In other words the Americans are used to super intense, large scale competition in a semi pro environment from a young age whereas here in Australia it’s much more casual, less structured and what not.

I dunno how much of this is true. Guess you’d need to be on Tour every week, every year to gauge. But when I look at a lot of Australian players you can maybe see that. You named a few Australian players that you could maybe make that association with. I think Smith for example is on record as saying he doesn’t like practicing much.
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Yes, I have absolutely no trouble believing any of that at all. Great description. The US a super-competitive society of 300m people with huge differences in wealth distribution to motivate people too. Look at Tiger Woods - his father a somewhat embittered retired Marine, aggressively drives and motivates his son on the path to end up a billionaire golfer. Then there's the college sports system as well.
 
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leon said:
Yes, I have absolutely no trouble believing any of that at all. Great description. The US a super-competitive society of 300m people with huge differences in wealth distribution to motivate people too. Look at Tiger Woods - his father a somewhat embittered retired Marine, aggressively drives and motivates his son on the path to end up a billionaire golfer. Then there's the college sports system as well.
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That college sports system is unreal Leon-ardo Decaprio. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investment. And golf gets its decent share of it.

Years ago I was lucky enough to go to Arizona State University’s golf facility. Alumni include Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Paul Casey etc. Unreal place. Besides their own fantastic university owned course given to them by Karsten Solheim (founder of Ping) the practice and coaching facilities etc were just amazing. And these guys are playing, practicing, training, psych work or whatever nearly every single day of the week. And there’s dozens of colleges that probably have even better facilities and programs eg Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, OSU etc. Massive advantage for the USA.

That’s why I can’t help but think that when we have a genuine young talent (say top 100-200 world amateur ranking or whatever) that we try to place them in a Division 1 collegiate program in the USA. Golf Australia and the VIS for as good as they are, can’t provide that sort of support. Plus the kids get an education to boot. Won’t be for everyone. Some kids won’t wanna move. But do the Rahm (ASU), Hovland (Oklahoma), Scott (UNLV) thing ….hundreds of others….where possible and try and get them placed into a top flight collegiate program.

We do actually do it a bit, but I’m not sure it’s that well co-ordinated from Australia.
 
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The Big Richo said:
I'm much happier being given less bonus money than I am paying money out of my own pocket that I've actually earned.
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That confirmed amount of bonus is earnings just like your regular confirmed earnings and it goes into your pocket, just like your regular earnings.

You don’t separate your employer’s bonus income from your regular income on your tax return. It’s all income.

Anyway, let’s give the thread back to the people and get back to the great game of golf. Esp with the PGA Championship coming up next week.
 
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Redford said:
That college sports system is unreal Leon-ardo Decaprio. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investment. And golf gets its decent share of it.

Years ago I was lucky enough to go to Arizona State University’s golf facility. Alumni include Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Paul Casey etc. Unreal place. Besides their own fantastic university owned course given to them by Karsten Solheim (founder of Ping) the practice and coaching facilities etc were just amazing. And these guys are playing, practicing, training, psych work or whatever nearly every single day of the week. And there’s dozens of colleges that probably have even better facilities and programs eg Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, OSU etc. Massive advantage for the USA.

That’s why I can’t help but think that when we have a genuine young talent (say top 100-200 world amateur ranking or whatever) that we try to place them in a Division 1 collegiate program in the USA. Golf Australia and the VIS for as good as they are, can’t provide that sort of support. Plus the kids get an education to boot. Won’t be for everyone. Some kids won’t wanna move. But do the Rahm (ASU), Hovland (Oklahoma), Scott (UNLV) thing ….hundreds of others….where possible and try and get them placed into a top flight collegiate program.

We do actually do it a bit, but I’m not sure it’s that well co-ordinated from Australia.
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Totally agree again. It means the rest of the world - despite golf really growing and spreading through most of Asia, now the ME, Central and South America (where the sort of money on the PGA or LIV tours must appear like El Dorado), through a far more diverse range of European countries such as Scandinavia, Finland and even Icelandic players - will struggle to ever compete with the overall domination of the US. With those fantastic college programs and subsidiary tours popping out a heap of quality young players every year.

Really, we bat well above with our Aussie players winning a lot over the years considering the relative numbers and our limited resources in comparison. But it's great that some foreign young stars get accepted into these incredible programs, but I bet they have to be clearly better prospects than that US college's next best local American candidate.
 
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The ole Byron Nelson this week. Reckon that event has gone backwards over the years. Appears at first glance a lot of players are giving it a miss. PGA Championship next week at Oak Hill. Thought a few might have wanted a final tune up eg Rahm who missed last week.

Looking hard at Snuffler for the PGA right now.
 
Scott 3 under after 4 in the featured group. And just missed birdie on the other hole. Nice start. Playing with Min Woo good watching.
 
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Course is getting torn to shreds by quite a few players.

Scott and Day looking good.
 
Scott was superb in almost every facet. Drove it beautifully and chipped and putted well. His only bogey was one of the easier holes when he got down in 4 from 90 yds.

He is so good to watch.
 
11 under 60. Ridiculous.

Winning score last year was 26 under (KH Lee). Matsuyama shot 10 under in the final round.

This course is sooooooft !
 
How's the putter that Garrigus uses, would be shorter than a cricket stump, must've grabbed his kids putter by mistake.
 
J. Day in contention at The Byron. Just 2 shots back. The WUG is 3 shots back but he won’t win. Too unlucky.

Minjee, Kempy and Grace going ok at the Founders.
 
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