2023 PGA Tour

johnmd20

mad dog
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Dec 30, 2003
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Hodges had it locked up anyway, but he just stuck his 3rd shot (from 114, Par 5) to 6 inches.

And that was very cool.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
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Dec 30, 2003
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Less cool was Poston triple bogeying 18 (disastrous hole) to fall into a tie for 2nd with two other people rather than a solo 2nd. Not a huge deal but it does cost him some money.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,614
Havent seen this mentioned.
Phil Mickelson wagered $1 billion, according to Billy Walters' book - The Washington Post


Golfer Phil Mickelson wagered more than $1 billion and lost more than $100 million on sporting events over the past three decades and attempted to place a bet on a Ryder Cup he was playing in, professional gambler Billy Walters claims in a book that will be published Aug. 23.
In a book excerpt published Thursday by Golf Digest, Walters said he first met Mickelson at a 2006 golf tournament. A few years later, Walters said he and Mickelson entered into a 50-50 gambling partnership in which the six-time major winner would place large bets at offshore sportsbooks and the two would split the profits.
 

WestMassExpat

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Jul 18, 2005
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Sounded like he was at least partially using offshore and mob books. Crazy stuff. The implied vig alone, $40 million+, is eye popping.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,614
I'm not a bettor. Is the bolded a thing that happens? A bettor gets better and gets shut down?:

The first six months of our agreement ran like Secretariat. The offshore bookies failed to detect anything different in the pattern of Phil’s bets other than that he was winning far more often. Despite our best efforts to keep the two accounts alive, it wasn’t long before the offshore bookies closed them. They told Phil the bets were far more disciplined than usual, so they knew they weren’t solely his. He could resume betting, they said, but only if it was on his own. This led Phil to activate a formerly dormant account for our partnership.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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306, row 14
Pretty good leaderboard in Memphis at the first playoff event. Lucas Glover of all people has the lead and is looking for back to back wins. Bunch of big boys chasing, Spieth, Fleetwood, Max and Rory all within striking distance.
 

Mooch

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Jul 15, 2005
4,553
Haven’t had a win in the SOSH league this season. I may be the only person in the world rooting for Cantlay.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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306, row 14
Haven't listened to it yet but NLU dropped a pod with Billy Walters to talk about his life as a gambler and I'm sure plenty of Phil.

Anywho, could be a good tournament this week. Down to 50 players, at a US Open track. Last time they played here was the Rahm/DJ duel during the pandemic where DJ made a circus putt on 18 to force a playoff and then Rahm did the same to win in the playoff.
 
Anywho, could be a good tournament this week. Down to 50 players, at a US Open track. Last time they played here was the Rahm/DJ duel during the pandemic where DJ made a circus putt on 18 to force a playoff and then Rahm did the same to win in the playoff.
FWIW, it's not a US Open track. (There are two courses at Olympia Fields, and they're playing this at the non-US Open course.)
 

snowmanny

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Dec 8, 2005
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Someone convince me that this Tour Championship format with, for example, Scottie Scheffler starting 10 strokes ahead of Jordan Spieth is a great idea and makes the tournament more compelling for the viewer.
 

DontTauntOrtizMe

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Jul 18, 2005
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Someone convince me that this Tour Championship format with, for example, Scottie Scheffler starting 10 strokes ahead of Jordan Spieth is a great idea and makes the tournament more compelling for the viewer.
See, McIlory, Rory, circa 2022. That was some of the most compelling Tour Championship golf I’ve ever seen. At one point he was 10 shots back of Scheffler - who I can’t really get into - and he ended up winning on the last hole.

I agree the format is lame if Scheffler - or whoever - is cruising. Hopefully that doesn’t happen and Max comes out strong and wins the whole thing.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

has big, douchey shoulders
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Someone convince me that this Tour Championship format with, for example, Scottie Scheffler starting 10 strokes ahead of Jordan Spieth is a great idea and makes the tournament more compelling for the viewer.
They want the winner of the Tour Championship to also win the FedEx Cup. This is the best they've come up with so far. It's a little gimmicky, but it's not bad.
 

cshea

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Someone convince me that this Tour Championship format with, for example, Scottie Scheffler starting 10 strokes ahead of Jordan Spieth is a great idea and makes the tournament more compelling for the viewer.
I'm not sure it's more compelling but it's easier for the viewer to understand. Whoever wins the golf tournament wins the FedEx Cup. Pre-2019, they were 2 separate things and it was difficult to follow for Tour fans let alone casual viewers. They don't want to basically throw out the year long standings and hold a 72-hole tournament for the year long prize so they converted the FedEx points into this staggered start. Scottie had a much better year than Spieth so if the goal is to to decide the season long champion. it seens fair to me that Scottie starts with an advantage. I'm sure they ran the math and simulations so Scottie has roughly the same chance of winning the FedEx Cup under this format as he had with the old one.

The risk is a runaway in what they want to be their Super Bowl, but evey major sporting event has the risk of a blowout. Small sample but so far the blowout hasn't happened. In the 4 previous years they've used the staggered start the leader entering the week is 2-2 and the largest margain of victory was 4 shots by Rory in 2019. Rory has both the come from behind wins, he started 2019 at -5 and last year at -4 and chased it down (and last year he started off on Thursday with a triple and a bogey to give back the 4 shots and still hunted it down).

Personally, I'd like to see them do the staggered start and play 36 or 54 holes of stroke play down to 4 and then match play.
 

steveluck7

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May 10, 2007
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I guess I don’t get the need to have the tour championship be any sort of weighted competition. It seems like a solution in search of a problem.
What’s the problem with having the “playoffs” be a contest to get into the top 30 (or whatever the best number is) and then having a championship tournament?

Look at the video of Tyrell Hatton from this weekend. He couldn’t have cared less about being 29 or 31.
If the big competition was to get into the championship, you damn well better believe he would have been more engaged in whether he was in or not.
Every other sport gives lower seeds a relatively equal chance to win the championship.

Hell, make the tour championship a 2-week, 144 hole event at 2 different courses.
 

voidfunkt

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Apr 14, 2006
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I guess I don’t get the need to have the tour championship be any sort of weighted competition. It seems like a solution in search of a problem.
What’s the problem with having the “playoffs” be a contest to get into the top 30 (or whatever the best number is) and then having a championship tournament?
Ding Ding Ding. Top 30. Purse is 40+ million and skew it heavily towards the winner so 2nd place is only getting 500K tops.
 

cshea

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I guess I don’t get the need to have the tour championship be any sort of weighted competition. It seems like a solution in search of a problem.
What’s the problem with having the “playoffs” be a contest to get into the top 30 (or whatever the best number is) and then having a championship tournament?

Look at the video of Tyrell Hatton from this weekend. He couldn’t have cared less about being 29 or 31.
If the big competition was to get into the championship, you damn well better believe he would have been more engaged in whether he was in or not.
Every other sport gives lower seeds a relatively equal chance to win the championship.

Hell, make the tour championship a 2-week, 144 hole event at 2 different courses.
In other sports the higher seeds tend to have some sort of advantage like home field.

I think the general idea is that the cream is going to rise to the top over the long haul and the idea of the FedEx Cup is to funnel money to the stars. The problem with the play to the top 30 then a winner take all championship is you could get left with someone like Adam Schenk getting hot for a week and winning it all. Nothing against Schenk but I don't think that's a great outcome for the PGA Tour. They want Rory, Rahm and Scheffler battling it out.

Also there's already a lot on the line for making the top 30 like membership for 2 years, exemptions into the majors and things like that. It's just that most of the players who make it are already secure in their future in pro golf. Maybe they could add additional incentives to making it?
 

steveluck7

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May 10, 2007
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Re: someone like Adam Schenk winning. I guess that’s where I disagree. If “he” gets hot Thursday or Friday, they’d do well enough to pump up the Cinderella story of it all.
Look at Mike Block at the PGA. I know his story was different as a club pro making a run but there’s something to be said about someone getting hot at the right time and winning it all.
Also, there would very likely be big stars in the mix. Rory, Rahm, Scheffler, etc would be stalking this underdog.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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306, row 14
Re: someone like Adam Schenk winning. I guess that’s where I disagree. If “he” gets hot Thursday or Friday, they’d do well enough to pump up the Cinderella story of it all.
Look at Mike Block at the PGA. I know his story was different as a club pro making a run but there’s something to be said about someone getting hot at the right time and winning it all.
Also, there would very likely be big stars in the mix. Rory, Rahm, Scheffler, etc would be stalking this underdog.
Yeah, I have no issues with a cinderella. As I mentioned, I think the real purpose of the FedEx Cup is to funnel money to the stars. It's their way of paying out the needle movers. Nobody bought a ticket this year or tuned into a broadcast to watch Adam Schenk. They do buy tickets and turn on the TV to watch Rory, Rahm and Scheffler. The Tour don't just pump all the money into the weekly purses because golf has a high variance on a weekly basis, so they established this year long point system where the cream rises to the top over the larger sample and thus the stars end up getting the most money (which in fairness they deserve). Having this huge pool of prize money gobbled up by a Adam Schenk who got hot for a wekk defeats that purpose.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
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Dec 30, 2003
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Over half the field is within 5 strokes and it's only Friday. That is pretty good.

The only other way to keep things flat would be to have an extra tournament and this round would be to set a top 12 and those 12 play for the title, even up. But that would add an extra week and a terrible 12 man golf tourney.

I think the way they have it set is the best way to reward the players who had the best season but allow for someone to get hot and still pull off the win.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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30 players feels about right to me. 12 gets into a little bit of a hit and giggle feel like the Hero World Challenge. Maybe with real stakes it'd be different but 30 seems like a nice sweet spot.

The best part of the limited field is the pace of play and TV window. It's basically 5.5 hours if you want to watch all 30 players. The first group goes off at 11:20 and the final group finishes around 6.