2021 PGA Championship- Kiawah Ocean Course

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
Crazy how fast things can change. He had a putt on the 11th green to go up by 5. By 13 tee the lead is in doubt.
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
There’s absolutely no way Louis’s tee shot crossed the hazard line. He should be re-teeing.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,375
I assume that if a player does something per the official's ruling, that even if the official turns out to be wrong, the player is ok, right?
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
Yeah, the red line is way up the bank, not down by the water. The ball flights looked almost identical.
The broadcast unsurprisingly completely ignoring it. What a joke.
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
Also Louis conveniently decided it crossed right where he’d be standing on a sprinkler head allowing him to subsequently drop in the fairway.

Gotta love cheating in a major.
 

Average Reds

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 24, 2007
35,330
Southwestern CT
Feel compelled to point out that the angle of the overhead camera may not be accurate. That said, Louie’s ball looked like it was *nowhere near* the hazard line and he should have re-teed.

The problem is that his competitor (Phil) told him he had a view and it crossed inside the Red stakes up the fairway.

Edit: the choosing of the sprinkler head location to get himself into the fairway was some serious bullshit.
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
Feel compelled to point out that the angle of the overhead camera may not be accurate. That said, Louie’s ball looked like it was *nowhere near* the hazard line and he should have re-teed.

The problem is that his competitor (Phil) told him he had a view and it crossed inside the Red stakes up the fairway.

Edit: the choosing of the sprinkler head location to get himself into the fairway was some serious bullshit.
The sprinkler head part is way more egregious than dropping up thinking it crossed after Phil’s comment. Just wish the broadcast would even acknowledge that it happened.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
Also, if Patrick Reed did was Louie did, the internet would have blown up.

It should blow up anyway. That was bush league nonsense. If you smash a ball in the water, you next shot shouldn't be in the fairway.
 
I love rooting for Phil, and I really want him to win today, so what I'm about to say doesn't come from any anti-Phil bias I might have...but he is hitting the ball SO far off the tee this week, would it shock you to discover after the fact that he's been taking steroids or HGH or the equivalent? I'm getting some McGwire/Sosa vibes that this could be a feel-good story that's just too good to be true. (He's hitting it super-straight by his standards as well, of course, so it's not just a distance thing - but the distance is itself kind of shocking relative to the young bucks in the field.)
The PGA is weird. He might just be the type of guy to win it.
My theory about the PGA Championship is that every year, the PGA has the highest-quality field in golf bar none - even factoring in the 20 club pros and some past champions who have little or no chance of winning, the rest of the field is basically the best 120 players in the world, with no qualifiers as such (like the US Open and the Open Championship) and a full-size field (unlike the Masters). But because the margin between #1 and #120 is so small in golf relative to other sports, that means more really good golfers get the chance to have one really good week and become the next Shaun Micheel than is the case in other majors. There are always relative outsiders like Trevor Immelman and Ben Curtis who win at Augusta or the Open, of course, but there are more relative outsiders who are capable of winning in any given PGA, which is why more relative outsiders do win the PGA.

In that context, it'd be interesting to quantify how small the field in a major would have to be to have a tournament in which literally nobody could be a surprise winner. You'd probably have to narrow the criteria down to something like a) golfers who have already won at least 2 majors in the past 20 years, b) golfers who have won at least 10 PGA plus European Tour events (with each European Tour event counting as 2/3 of a win) in the past 10 years, and c) the Top X in the Official World Golf Rankings, but "X" would have to be a much smaller number than you think considering that a golfer like Harris English is currently #22 in the rankings, and he would definitely be a surprise major winner at this point. I do think it'd be awesome to watch a major like this with only 40 or so players in the field, although I'm probably in the minority about that.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
SoSH Member
Feb 22, 2004
12,959
The Paris of the 80s
Mickelson has a custom made 5 degree driver head with a 47.9" shaft in his bag this week.

I wouldn't be surprised by any athlete using PEDs. I hope he's not simply because people will never shut up about it.
 

Average Reds

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 24, 2007
35,330
Southwestern CT
Mickelson (1) has dropped a ton of weight, (2) has specially crafted clubs, and (3) is Phil Mickelson.

Nothing about PEDs would shock me, but speculating that Mickelson’s play is based on steroids feels lazy to me. I say that as someone who is not a Phil fan.
 

Zomp

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Aug 28, 2006
13,942
The Slums of Shaolin
I don’t think it’s lazy looking at his transformation.

IF he’s on anything, my guess is TRT. I mean this is the leanest he’s ever looked, at 50.

I think the tour tests though, and until something came out I would consider this one of golfs greatest accomplishments if he could win a major at 50.
 

Phil Plantier

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2002
3,419
This thread has helped me, someone who hasn't watched a golf tournament ever.

You were all spot-on with your CBS dislike. It's as if ESPN coverage is designed for 30-year olds (constant action, strategy and tactics discussions, different voices, humor) while the CBS coverage is for 70-year olds (few shots with lots of establishing material, lots and lots of talk, guys with accents).

I think I'm going to switch to the 16-17-18 hole coverage on ESPN+ rather than the CBS broadcast in the afternoon.
 
I think the tour tests though, and until something came out I would consider this one of golfs greatest accomplishments if he could win a major at 50.
I completely agree with this - I'm not going to put even the smallest mental asterisk next to this win if Phil brings home the trophy today. I'm just saying that when a 50-year-old is hitting it this far relative to his younger peers, it's pretty extraordinary, and because we live in the post-McGwire/Sosa era, my antennae are twitching at least a little bit. (The fact that he's hitting it as straight as he is runs counter to any suspicions one might have, of course: he's clearly getting the maximum distance out of his ball in large part because he's hitting so many drives right in the middle of his clubface.)
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
I completely agree with this - I'm not going to put even the smallest mental asterisk next to this win if Phil brings home the trophy today. I'm just saying that when a 50-year-old is hitting it this far relative to his younger peers, it's pretty extraordinary, and because we live in the post-McGwire/Sosa era, my antennae are twitching at least a little bit. (The fact that he's hitting it as straight as he is runs counter to any suspicions one might have, of course: he's clearly getting the maximum distance out of his ball in large part because he's hitting so many drives right in the middle of his clubface.)
Tom Brady just threw for 40 TDs and won a Super Bowl in his age 43 season. That's the NFL, where every player is a mass of speed and muscle.

And it's fair to assume every professional athlete is doing something to gain an edge, not just the old guys. Your comments about this are pretty unseemly and also extremely weird.
 

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
Phil has low key gone full Bryson. He hasn’t done the bulk up but he’s gone all in on speed.

I don’t think there is anything crazy going on. He’s 50th in driving distance, a few spots ahead of fellow old guy Padraig Harrington. If they can maintain their speed, the old dudes can still get it out there.