Golf

[leon]

He played pretty well, just missed too many makeable putts. Bradley is not likely to run away with it. Aberg has had last round issues as has Noren.

Big opportunity fo Scotty. He hits that 3 wood far enough.

Yer, but for such an experienced golfer, going 11 shots worse from a 63 to a 74, was very ordinary. Sure, more difficult conditions and I agree re Bradley but he only went 68/70. Not many made much ground.
So I agree with Red, Adam didn't play very smart at all. Bradley will dig in and might get more out of himself under the pressure. Aberg could blow them away if he fires up but agree he seems to lack that killer instinct yet. Schauffele has moved into range 5 back after his 67; might be the real danger if these leaders falter again. Obviously has huge belief with his form in '24 and really steps up when in contention.
Scottie needs to harden up and play the percentages better and stop throwing shots away carelessly but there's a reason he hasn't won much since his Master's triumph.
Most of the Aussie golfers seem very similar in this era - they cannot even play play steady golf when the heat is on.

 

[leon]

He'll *** it up like most Australians do.

That's funny; just saw this after posting my own comment. Shared sentiments.
It the same with our women too - at the Olympics (Green crashed out, Minjee never got close) and lately the British Open. Both Hannah and Minjee missed the cut.

 

[Redford]

That's funny; just saw this after posting my own comment. Shared sentiments.
It the same with our women too - at the Olympics (Green crashed out, Minjee never got close) and lately the British Open. Both Hannah and Minjee missed the cut.

Really, he doesn't like or deal with the heat that well. One win in the last 8 years.

Great swing, good guy. But like a lot of Australian golfers, a bit fragile mentally.

 

[leon]

Really, he doesn't like or deal with the heat that well. One win in the last 8 years.

Great swing, good guy. But like a lot of Australian golfers, a bit fragile mentally.

Yep. I harbored high hopes that first Cam Smith (who just cannot ever sort his driving sufficiently to seriously contend against the world's best consistently it seems now) and MWL (who will always blow a few holes with wild shots and ruin his chances, although he's still young enough to improve possibly).
Cam Davis I really like, has a lot of the tools with his driving and iron-play, but lacks the confidence and belief, keels under pressure with his putting a weakness too.
Then, Jason Day. Great that his debilitating back has recovered enough to at least contend again, but just seems deluded. Should just shut up until his game can actually back up his silly pronouncements. Lets himself down and looks silly.

Unfortunately, it doesn't say much for the standard of our male golfers that Adam Scott may still be the best, most reliable performer/contender.

 

[Redford]

Yep. I harbored high hopes that first Cam Smith (who just cannot ever sort his driving sufficiently to seriously contend against the world's best consistently it seems now) and MWL (who will always blow a few holes with wild shots and ruin his chances, although he's still young enough to improve possibly).
Cam Davis I really like, has a lot of the tools with his driving and iron-play, but lacks the confidence and belief, keels under pressure with his putting a weakness too.
Then, Jason Day. Great that his debilitating back has recovered enough to at least contend again, but just seems deluded. Should just shut up until his game can actually back up his silly pronouncements. Lets himself down and looks silly.

Said it several times before, but until we start sending all of our best juniors to the best US colleges and get them toughened up in the best amateur comps in the world, get them understanding the work that's involved, and get them hooked up with the best teachers and facilities, then our guys and girls will always be under prepared when hitting the pro ranks.

 

[leon]

Said it several times before, but until we start sending all of our best juniors to the best US colleges and get them toughened up in the best amateur comps in the world, get them understanding the work that's involved, and get them hooked up with the best teachers and facilities, then our guys and girls will always be under prepared when hitting the pro ranks.

Yes, the Yanks have so many advantages in this respect; their highly competitive and professional-like golf programs just churn out seriously good young golfers who virtually walk onto the PGA tour every year and can win.
However, I thought that many of our best young golfers (and indeed internationals) are kind of getting into and coming through these kind of programs now. If talented enough they can get recruited into these college teams with sports scholarships etc.

Still very hard to match the Yanks though who are going to get the best coaching and support systems. The US virtually think they own the sport of golf and they, in fact, almost do. One reason for many of us having some sympathy for LIV for at least offering an alternative as a world game ... as it truly is and should be.

 

[Michael]

Agreed Leon, we clutch at LIV just hoping that it will bring change.
But like all endeavours to challenge the American sport business, it will probably fail

But I am so over the PGA

 

[Redford]

Told ya. 3 bogies in a row from A Scott. Poor shots followed up by an inability to scramble for par because he kept missing 4-6 footers.

Australians have a big reputation for getting in the way of themselves and not being able to gut things out (kind description used).

Unlike Scott, Bradley made most of his putts for par when he needed to and pressurised Scott.

 

[MD Jazz]

Told ya. 3 bogies in a row from A Scott. Poor shots followed up by an inability to scramble for par because he kept missing 4-6 footers.

Australians have a big reputation for getting in the way of themselves (kind description used).

Yeh, tuned in when he was equal leader and he made some real poor mistakes. He only needed to play average on the weekend and he wins by 3 or 4. More. Massive opportunity missed with so many big guns playing poorly. Hard to see him winning another major.

Aberg is developing a seriously poor last round rep. I am sure he will sort it out, perhaps he is too aggressive?

 

[Redford]

I know we've all moaned about slow play, but where it was once maybe an occasional problem, it's now endemic in the game. And getting worse.

Today I watched this "digital creators" round of golf at Eastlake before the start of the Fed Ex Championship tomorrow. These people playing were all these prominent social media people in golf. Most are reasonably handy golfers as a result. But FMD....

Group reaches the par 3 15th. All 4 of them stand around on the tee talking with one another. Then, they finally decide to start talking to their caddies about the distance, wind (none) etc etc. Range finders. On it goes. Then, after maybe 5 mins in total, one of them finally decides "gee I better hit a shot" and puts a tee in the ground. Then he starts taking practice swings. But wait, now he has to check his yardage book again. And starts over again. Finally he hits a shot. Then the next one steps up and does much the same.

The total time taken by all 4 of them to play this par 3 ? 17 minutes. 17 minutes to play a par 3 !

At that rate, if you played 18 par 3's it would take these pack of fwts over 5 hours to do so. *** knows how long they took to play the 18 on the day. 6 hours ????

You see it a lot, day in day out in society. People completely in their own world. And *** don't they unnecessarily make golf more bloody frustrating than it all ready can be these aholes.

 

[Michael]

Did any of them hit the green?

Yep, they all did.

Great

Then they all proceeded to stick out two fingers and stand on each other's lies
Then mark, clean, two more fingers, stomp around, align, align from the back of the hole, align from the side, two practise strokes, then leave it short.

Note I haven't started on bloke 1 who putts with the pin in, bloke 2 has it out, bloke 3 has the pin in to align up and then has it out when he putts and 4 has some casino chip marker the size of a kenworth radiator cap

 

[Redford]

Did any of them hit the green?

Yep, they all did.

Great

Then they all proceeded to stick out two fingers and stand on each other's lies
Then mark, clean, two more fingers, stomp around, align, align from the back of the hole, align from the side, two practise strokes, then leave it short.

Note I haven't started on bloke 1 who putts with the pin in, bloke 2 has it out, bloke 3 has the pin in to align up and then has it out when he putts and 4 has some casino chip marker the size of a kenworth radiator cap

Yep. That's them. **** unbearable.

 

[tigerman]

In winning the Tour Championship $cottie $cheffler finished the year with earnings of $US62,228,357, or $3.3 million per tournament or $12,000 per shot !!!!
His scoring average of 68 is the lowest in PGA Tour history......your're the man $cottie.

 

[Redford]

Fed Ex Cup = boooooooring !

 

[MD Jazz]

I know we've all moaned about slow play, but where it was once maybe an occasional problem, it's now endemic in the game. And getting worse.

Today I watched this "digital creators" round of golf at Eastlake before the start of the Fed Ex Championship tomorrow. These people playing were all these prominent social media people in golf. Most are reasonably handy golfers as a result. But FMD....

Group reaches the par 3 15th. All 4 of them stand around on the tee talking with one another. Then, they finally decide to start talking to their caddies about the distance, wind (none) etc etc. Range finders. On it goes. Then, after maybe 5 mins in total, one of them finally decides "gee I better hit a shot" and puts a tee in the ground. Then he starts taking practice swings. But wait, now he has to check his yardage book again. And starts over again. Finally he hits a shot. Then the next one steps up and does much the same.

The total time taken by all 4 of them to play this par 3 ? 17 minutes. 17 minutes to play a par 3 !

At that rate, if you played 18 par 3's it would take these pack of fwts over 5 hours to do so. *** knows how long they took to play the 18 on the day. 6 hours ????

You see it a lot, day in day out in society. People completely in their own world. And *** don't they unnecessarily make golf more bloody frustrating than it all ready can be these aholes.

Yeh, slow play is getting worse. Have played a few ambrose events through Golfer tour recently. Good fun, but geez they are slow. 2 Man ambrose events that are taking a minimum of 5 hours a round! Way too many guys waste so much time once they get to their ball.

It usually strats before the next hole. Guys get to a green and leave their clubs anywhere they want, not in the best place to exit the green and walk to the next tee. Then they get to next tee and decide to stand around and fill out their score. Someone hit!! I was always used to tthe old "honour" system where the best score on the prior hole had the honour. Blokes usually knew they had the honour so always got up to the next tee and hit before worrying about filling out the score card. Now everyone should just play ready golf because no *smile* seems ready. They get their range finder out and see how far trees, bunkers etc are. Mate, that bunker is 280m away, you ain't reaching that. Often the guys that take the longest also have 3 or 4 practice swings, a massive pause before starting their backswing and end up pulling it 94m into the rough.

I am a fast player, and no matter how hard I try i always get frustrated with pace of play and it mostly has a detrimental impact on your own game.

 

[MD Jazz]

Fed Ex Cup = boooooooring !

Yeh, it is hard to get too enthusiastic about it. Incredibly wealthy guys getting even more money with less competition for it.

They should make Shuffles start 5 back of everyone.

 

[Redford]

Yeh, slow play is getting worse. Have played a few ambrose events through Golfer tour recently. Good fun, but geez they are slow. 2 Man ambrose events that are taking a minimum of 5 hours a round! Way too many guys waste so much time once they get to their ball.

It usually strats before the next hole. Guys get to a green and leave their clubs anywhere they want, not in the best place to exit the green and walk to the next tee. Then they get to next tee and decide to stand around and fill out their score. Someone hit!! I was always used to tthe old "honour" system where the best score on the prior hole had the honour. Blokes usually knew they had the honour so always got up to the next tee and hit before worrying about filling out the score card. Now everyone should just play ready golf because no *smile* seems ready. They get their range finder out and see how far trees, bunkers etc are. Mate, that bunker is 280m away, you ain't reaching that. Often the guys that take the longest also have 3 or 4 practice swings, a massive pause before starting their backswing and end up pulling it 94m into the rough.

I am a fast player, and no matter how hard I try i always get frustrated with pace of play and it mostly has a detrimental impact on your own game.

It does my head in how many people stand around on the tee, basically just *** around.

They *** around with stuff in their bag, then its having a chat, then sloooow and deliberate practice swing after practice swing, then they remember something else ........and it starts all over again. And then they'll do it on every other shot the entire round as well.

Can somebody tell me why an absolute hacker playing off a big number that can barely hit the ball 200m is using a range finder for a bunker that is 250m plus away ? Or using it on a par 3 when the tees are exactly in line with the distance marker and they probably only hit the green 1 out of 10 times anyway ?

And don't get me started on hackers using Aim Point. FFS.....

 

[MD Jazz]

It does my head in how many people stand around on the tee, basically just *** around.

They *** around with stuff in their bag, then its having a chat, then sloooow and deliberate practice swing after practice swing, then they remember something else ........and it starts all over again. And then they'll do it on every other shot the entire round as well.

Can somebody tell me why an absolute hacker playing off a big number that can barely hit the ball 200m is using a range finder for a bunker that is 250m plus away ? Or using it on a par 3 when the tees are exactly in line with the distance marker and they probably only hit the green 1 out of 10 times anyway ?

And don't get me started on hackers using Aim Point. FFS.....

Yeh, range finders have slowed things down. I played with a guy off 15. He overestimates how far he hits the ball on every shot. He asks me what club I am using all the time, and often plays the same club. WTF people ask what someone else is using or what did they use always bemuses me. It is farking irrelevant most of the time. Different lofts on clubs, different lie angles, shafts etc etc etc. And then most times they are also using a different ball. He never ever goes past the flag. Ever. Most times he is short. Rarely he is pin high. Mostly because he is not finding the centre of the club every time. I keep telling him to take one more. He rarely does, and always has an excuse for why he came up short when he lands short of the green.

That is one tip I would give anyone who plays off more than about 15, take an extra club on every shot from 120-200m. And if you are more than 230m out in the fairway don't bother with a range finder, you ain't getting there. You don't hit it 230 off the tee, you ain't hitting a 3 wood 230 off the deck.

 

[tigerman]

Fed Ex Cup = boooooooring !

Agree.

 

[Redford]

Yeh, range finders have slowed things down. I played with a guy off 15. He overestimates how far he hits the ball on every shot. He asks me what club I am using all the time, and often plays the same club. WTF people ask what someone else is using or what did they use always bemuses me. It is farking irrelevant most of the time. Different lofts on clubs, different lie angles, shafts etc etc etc. And then most times they are also using a different ball. He never ever goes past the flag. Ever. Most times he is short. Rarely he is pin high. Mostly because he is not finding the centre of the club every time. I keep telling him to take one more. He rarely does, and always has an excuse for why he came up short when he lands short of the green.

That is one tip I would give anyone who plays off more than about 15, take an extra club on every shot from 120-200m. And if you are more than 230m out in the fairway don't bother with a range finder, you ain't getting there. You don't hit it 230 off the tee, you ain't hitting a 3 wood 230 off the deck.

Next time he asks you that before playing his own shot, tell him that he's breaking the rules by doing so. 2 stroke penalty.

He'll stop doing that pretty quickly.

(And if you answer him, you're also adjudged a 2 stroke penalty.)