No kidding. There are only 5 American's in the top 20, 4 of which are amateurs. Japan has 10 ladies in the top 20, WTF?
Couple of great tournaments in back to back weeks, this weekend it's Jack's Tournament at Muirfield. A great course and with a 20 million purse should be excellent field. Then the following week the US OPEN at Pinehurst #2.
I see that there is another teenager who is going to get a start on the PGA Tour. I do wonder if this a good thing or not. The Chinese kid who made the cut at the Masters as a young teen was never heard from again, played golf at Arizona State I think but all the hoopla was never realized. The youngster from Alabama who actually won a PGA Tour event has struggled more than a bit, which is not surprising. What bothers me the most is this young man has not been going to school (traditionally) he's been doing online classes so he can focus on his golf. Brandel Chamblee had a good rant on this going pro as soon as you can, he pointed out how hard it is to win on either the LPGA or PGA Tours and that not going to college and getting a bit more mature and also just getting to be a normal young college student benefits you in life. While certainly some do great (Tiger obviously) and Rose Zhang has had a nice start to her LPGA career, after dominating in college for 2 years. But more often it's a big step up and a big change in lifestyle with all the travel.
Obviously what drives the desire to go pro early as possible is money and that isn't changing anytime soon. Kids/Parents want the money. It's the same in most sports, kids used to not be able to go pro in Football and still can't but make NIL money as a compensation. It's been that way awhile. In Tennis there have been lots of teen phenom's all the way back to Chris Evert who turned pro at 18 never went to college, younger teens than that played on the women's tennis tour. LPGA has had teens like the soon to be retired Lexi Thompson and Michelle Wie amongst others for sure. So this kid isn't really unique, but personally I wouldn't like to see my kid as a pro in his/her Teen years.
Jason Day was at my course Saturday. We passed him going up 18. Didn't look happy. Shot 72 I heard. I didn't bother him (I don't do that stuff) but maybe could have said hi because I was riding along with Nicholas (The "San Diego Kid" in our football contest) and he knows Jason and is friends with Jason's father in law. Hopefully he'll do better this week at Muirfield Village.
LIV Golf is in Houston this weekend, but you'd hardly know it. Local paper has hardly acknowledged it is happening.
Jason Day continues to push the limits with his attire, I hope he's getting a lot of money for wearing that stuff from Malborn
No. Walked it a few times. Michael (John Deere) played it once. I had a tee time once but our “member host” had to cancel and didn’t bother to find another member to play with us.
Just learned that Jack Nicklaus didn't go to Ohio State on a golf scholarship, he was recruited to play basketball along with Jerry Lucas and Havlicek said he quickly decided golf was his game!
Don it came out when Jack was chatting with the TV guys. Surprised me as well apparently he was a good HS Basketball player.
Arnold Palmer ruled golf while Jack was playing for the Buckeyes but his dad was already financially independent with his drugstore chain.
Adam Hadwin had a great day and has a 1 stroke lead over Scottie who also had a great day. This is a tough course, and it's beautiful.
Late May and early June are great times to be playing golf in the Midwest. The area explodes in green. This is one of my favorite tournaments. The course and fiield make it enjoyable to watch.