2023 PGA Championship--Oak Hill

JokersWildJIMED

Blinded by Borges
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Oct 7, 2004
2,742
“Baba Booey!” is still a thing?
Who knew? For someone who doesn’t watch much golf, from this crowd acting like asses after every shot, and CBS all over the place in this telecast (no yardage after shots, a cameraman close to getting hit on the fairway on the 17th…really?) this is a clown show compared to the Masters (interestingly also by CBS).
 

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
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Dec 2, 2006
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Tuukka's refugee camp
Who knew? For someone who doesn’t watch much golf, from this crowd acting like asses after every shot, and CBS all over the place in this telecast (no yardage after shots, a cameraman close to getting hit on the fairway on the 17th…really?) this is a clown show compared to the Masters (interestingly also by CBS).
The Masters isn’t the best comp as even the best tournament is a clown show compared to it. They’re top class in everything they do.
 

Adirondack jack

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Aug 24, 2008
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Block has delivered a fuckton of joy for a guy who is finishing 15th.
I don't follow sports like I used to but this 15th place finish has got to be the sports story of the year.

That slam dunk was insane and a shot heard around the world. Guy is a rock star.
 

88 MVP

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Dec 25, 2007
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So happy to see that he's getting some exemptions, he was a great story this weekend.

I was standing along the 15th tee box when he hit his ace this afternoon, and the crowd reaction was one of the coolest moments I've experienced at a sporting event -- that split second delay where the crowd collectively did a double take, realized that it went in the hole, and exploded.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
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Apr 12, 2005
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I don't follow sports like I used to but this 15th place finish has got to be the sports story of the year.

That slam dunk was insane and a shot heard around the world. Guy is a rock star.
Yep, this is just an amazing story. I wish the PGA would spend more time on stories like this. Obviously, I'm biased given my relationship with Rob, as most of you are aware, but these guys that toil around in the lesser tours fighting for a chance like this almost all have pretty incredible back stories of determination and perseverance, and I think the Tour would be smart to try to capitalize on this with some features and stories about those guys. For example, guys like Hovland (Norwegian amateur champ, US amateur champ, basically played one tournament on the Korn Ferry, finished 2nd in the Championship and immediately got to the Tour) will have years/decades of features and stories. Whereas, almost nobody really knows the story of Kurt Kitayama (outside us lunatics), a guy that played at UNLV to ok success, barely did anything on the Korn Ferry, so he went to Asia (ranked like #1150 in the world in 2017), then he went to European Q School, got his card to play on the European Tour, and somehow, out of nowhere, won his 2nd event, then he won again in his 11th event. He then goes to the Korn Ferry Champs, and finishes 23rd (top 25 get a card) in September, 2021. He comes in 3rd in the Honda, 2nd in the Genesis and 2nd at the Mexico Open to keep his card for this year, and then this season he finished 2nd at the CJ Cup, he won at Bay Hill and just came in 4th at the PGA Championship, and has already made over $5mil.

You literally couldn't dream up some of these stories if you tried. The PGA should be blitzing this stuff to the masses.
 

Zomp

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Aug 28, 2006
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Hell look at Koepka’s story. Couldn’t play well enough on the web.com tour so for 3 years grinded it out on Europe’s version of the AAA tour before coming back stateside to play on the PGA tour.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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Yeah, he went to the Challenge Tour (the KFT equivalent in Europe) and won a battlefield promotion (3 wins in a season which gets an auto immediate call up plus a card for the next season). He worked his way into the top 50 in the world then started getting sponsors exemptions and even Monday qualified into PGA Tour events. His breakthrough was the 2014 US Open when he finished 4th which gave him enough points/money to earn full status on the PGA Tour. The rest is history.

I still kind of struggle to wrap my head around Brooks behing a 5-time major winner. He's basically what we thought Rory or Spieth would be. When Rory won his 4th in 2014, Brooks was just starting on the PGA Tour, and less than a decade later he has more major titles than Rory. It's hard to play the projection game but if Brooks continues to stay healthy it's hard to see him not winning more. In his career he's at 50% top 10 rate in majors which is insane.

I'm a little bummed he's with LIV. Now with the new designated structure, it'd be fascinating to see if his competitiveness and give-a-shit meter would've kicked into high gear more often if he was playing head-to-head with Rory/Rahm/Scheffler 10+ times a year instead of 5-6. It seems like he feels some regret too having explored a way back. I also find it interesting he's the only LIV player I've seen that hasn't worn their LIV logo. Not sure if that's a decision he made or some sort of contractual thing with Nike, but I found it interesting. That said, maybe being on LIV just let's him throttle down and cruise through the BS events and just focus on the 4 weeks a year that actually matter to him. Who knows.
 

Senator Donut

post-Domer
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Apr 21, 2010
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I also find it interesting he's the only LIV player I've seen that hasn't worn their LIV logo. Not sure if that's a decision he made or some sort of contractual thing with Nike, but I found it interesting.
I believe it’s a Nike thing. Nike prefers that its endorsing athletes wear only the swoosh. For example McIlroy, Scheffler, and Finau don’t have any other company logos on their shirts or caps, whereas Cam Young was sporting a whopping seven different marques last weekend. It’s not a hard and fast rule, because I’ve noticed Tom Kim has a sleeve patch, but it seems to be the overwhelming trend. The other LIV Nike players that I’m aware of, Varner and Pieters, also don’t wear Range Goats or LIV logos.