Bethpage Black Greens Crew vs Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas recently went on the No Laying Up podcast with Soly and brought some stories to light about the Ryder Cup, particularly with how Team USA and Keegan Bradley handled a couple things. 

One of the stories that JT explained that made headlines was that Team USA argued with the grounds crew about green speeds. Here is a quote from JT on No Laying Up:

Keegan has been crucified for not being prepared, which was very evident with his pairings the entire week and how he set up the course. The players arguing with the grounds crew on greens speeds just echoes this sentiment. How Keegan and the Bethpage Black greens crew weren’t on the same page about the green speeds is inexcusable. 

The headline got a little out of hand. If you listen to the full podcast, JT wasn’t blaming the Bethpage Black greenskeepers. JT agreed with Keegan and everyone that they should have set up the course differently. It was just a massive mistake that there was a lack of communication between both parties. 

This is now two straight Ryder Cups that Team USA have been completely unprepared for and not prioritizing using data to make optimal decisions. Will 2027 at Adare Manor be any different?

Potential New PGA Tour Schedule?

At the RSM Classic, Harris English spilled the beans on some potential revampments of the PGA Tour schedule for the 2027 season. He mentioned that the Tour could start the season after the Super Bowl in February, with less events being played to force players to participate in a near full season schedule. Here were his exact comments:

There’s been a ton of steam on the idea of a 20-ish tournament season. As the new CEO Brian Rollap has cited, he wants to create more “scarcity” in golf, but what does he mean by that?

Let’s use the NFL model for example. They have a 18 week, 17 game regular season plus the playoffs. With the NFL only having 17 games, this allows every game to ultimately have more value. Compared to the NBA, NHL, and MLB, these leagues have 82+ game seasons. We have seen star players sit out regular season games since there are so many games being played, thus lessening the importance of each one

The current model in golf to get the top players to play as much as possible is these signature events with mostly no cut and a huge purse. The model is currently confusing with the FedEx Cup playoffs, because you have the opportunity to earn more playoff points at these events than non-singature events. If you win a signature event, you receive 700 points, and if you win a non-signature event, you receive 500 points. 

Right now, the top players have committed to these signature events and some don’t even play in the non-signature events. If there are fewer events and each one is worth the same amount of points, this will force the players to play almost all the tournaments.

As a hardcore golf fan, it would suck to have less events to wager on. However, it makes sense to start the year after the Super Bowl, as potentially having the opener being the Waste Management or Pebble Beach? That would certainly be awesome. 

This would allow for a more balanced model and easier for the fans to consume. Fans would know when they buy tickets to the non-signature events, the top players will be there. Some of my friends complained that Scottie Scheffler wasn’t playing the Truist Championship at Philly Cricket, notably because it was a signature event. Under the new model, Scottie probably plays that event. Having fans know for sure if their favorite players are showing up is important. 

There are some other parties that would be affected by a reduced schedule. What happens to the current TV deals with NBC, CBS and ESPN. Will the PGA Tour now have less title sponsors? All these questions will need to be answered if Brian Rollap and his team do indeed agree to reduce the schedule. 

The other point that came from these rumors is that Rollap wants events in the bigger metro cities. I assume these markets are Philadelphia, Boston, New York, New Jersey and Chicago. I have written at length in our ISN newsletter how the Tour needs to invest in these cities with the most passionate fanbases. There’s plenty of golf courses to choose from that you would want to host, or even if you want to rotate courses in the area like how the BMW Championship does it.

All in all, if these rumors are true, I love how Rollap is thinking about changing the future of the PGA Tour. We all know changes need to be done, and it will be interesting to see the other potential changes that the new leadership makes.

The College Football Schedule is Flawed

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks if you follow college football. Lane Kiffin has been stirring the pot in the media ever since Brian Kelly was bought out by LSU. Kiffin was stalling during his decision of either staying with Ole Miss or departing for LSU. After weeks of strange comments and causing much controversy, Kiffin decided to take his talents to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and become the head coach of LSU. 

Kiffin was struggling with the dilemma of taking the LSU job now, which he did, and now won’t be able to coach in the College Football Playoff. Ole Miss currently ranks 6th in the country with an 11-1 record, it being one of the best seasons in program history. 

What caused debate around the college football landscape is should Ole Miss allow Lane Kiffin to coach in the playoff despite taking the job at LSU? Kirk Herbstreit had some interesting comments on this decision:

Lane Kiffin tried to convince the athletic director to let him coach out the rest of the season, but the school decided to promote the defensive coordinator, Pete Golding, to be the head coach instead. The only reason that this is a debate is due to the fact that the college football schedule is all out of whack. 

Hypothetically, could Kiffin coach out the rest of the Ole Miss season and then sign with LSU? Yes. However, because of the importance of using the transfer portal to build your roster, LSU can’t afford to wait until Ole Miss season is over to hire Kiffin. Ole Miss also can’t afford to wait either. If Kiffin leaves later in the year, that will screw how they build their roster. 

With the current college football schedule, these coaches are in a tough position. It’s not all about the coaches though, the players are in a tough position too. We saw it last year with Penn State backup QB Beau Pribula. He decided to enter the transfer portal while the team was in the college football playoff so he can get a head start on his portal visits. If Pribula decided to stay on the team and then enter the portal later, there would be less options for him to potentially get a starting job. 

Why is the college football postseason still going on when the transfer portal is open for teams to make calls? It makes no sense, and it puts players in tough positions to either stay on their current team to compete for a national championship or transfer and make a career defining move. 

Many people have been asking for an overall college football commissioner to fix all these problems. Would Nick Saban take this hypothetical job? Not sure. He’s having a lot of fun working with Pat McAfee and the rest of the Gameday crew every Saturday. 

Finally, going back to Lane Kiffin's request to coach Ole Miss while already taking the LSU job, the Ole Miss AD made the right call. Having Kiffin continue to coach would create more distractions for a team that has a legitimate shot to win the national championship. Lane can’t have the best of both worlds in this current college football landscape. It’s disappointing that the schedule plays a major factor and needs to be changed, but he has to choose one or the other. 

I hope the NCAA can finally realize the challenges and headaches they have created with the layout of college football. The players are ultimately losing the most in this current landscape. Do what is right for the players!

It’s Australian Open week at Royal Melbourne and that means there will be boots on the ground as I plan to attend on what is a sold out Sunday to see star attraction Rory McIlroy. But the other star attraction is the golf course itself. Royal Melbourne is a 36-hole facility, with the West course ranking up at number 7 in the latest Golf.com rankings, and the East course at 82. These courses span across four parcels of land, but the Australian Open will be played on the Composite course. With twelve of the best holes from the West course and six of the best from the East, all on the main piece of land, the unranked Composite course has an argument to be the best course in the world.

The combination of strategic architecture, Alister MacKenzie bunkering, firm and fast conditioning, and beautiful native vegetation really make this place special. There has been plenty of rain over the past week, so the course is not as firm as desired. But some hotter weather and minimal rain from Tuesday onwards will help it firm up. There are some strong winds forecast for Thursday (with a possible late/early advantage developing) and we should be in for a treat this week.

There is a real mix of grass types at Royal Melbourne. The fairways are Bermuda (Couch) and the greens are bentgrass and can run up to 14 on the stimpmeter. There is also a collar of fescue surrounding within roughly 10-20 yards of each green to promote firm bounces and running shots on approach and around the green.

The sandbelt region in the south-east of Melbourne is famous for its bunkering, and they play a crucial role in this golf course. Most of the fairway bunkers are no longer a factor for modern pros, but there are plenty of greenside bunkers and they are to be avoided. They usually have a very firm base and when combined with their depth, how close the pins can be with the bunkers cut up onto the edge of the green, and the speed of the greens, being short-sided is a real hazard.

For the rest of our Royal Melbourne preview, click here.

NedBank Golf Challenge Preview

Bexico City

The ‘other’ event this week, the Nedbank is still a great tournament in its own right and is colloquially known as ‘Africa’s major.’ Starting out as an extremely small field invitational, the Nedbank joined the DPWT in 2013 and increased in size to a 30 man field, and then again to the current field size of around 66 in 2016. It has at times been a part of the DPWT finals series and elevated Rolex series but has only been a regular DPWT event since last year, albeit still with an elevated purse.

Gary Player CC has hosted the Nedbank since its inception and is a stock par 72 of a very long 7,800 yards. But the course is near Johannesburg in Sun City at an elevation of 3,800 feet (which takes around 4% off), and with temperatures approaching 90F each day, it will play closer to a still long 7,400 yards. There is Kikuyu fairways and rough and bent grass greens.

Even with the adjustment in length, this is a pure ball-striker's golf course. The fairways are narrow, averaging just under 30 yards wide. And while the Kikuyu rough is tricky but not too punishing, the dense native jungle lurking on either side of most fairways certainly is. Accuracy off the tee is important here, but so is distance with the overall length. The four par 5’s are between 550 and 600 yards and have very small greens. The 14th is only 15 yards deep at its longest, and a tiny 6 yards deep in its left and right sections. The 10th is only 25 yards deep and 15 yards wide, the 2nd isn’t much bigger, and the 9th is only 25 yards deep at its longest and is an island green. Distance off the tee is crucial on these holes to get as much loft for the second shot as possible to hold the greens. You need to be a good total driver of the ball here.

For the rest of our Nedbank Golf Challenge preview, click here.