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“When I was 6 or 7, this guy said he’d give me five chances to hit the pole. If I did, he’d buy me a car when I was 17. My dad says I hit the pole twice. Still no car.” - Scottie's still tapping his foot waiting to collect some debts it seems. Not even another major could distract him.
Golf, but make it alcohol
FORAGED FROM THE OLD COURSE
Our lead this week comes courtesy of a LinkedIn post I came across from The Links Diary profiling a new "golf gin" courtesy of Eden Mill.
"Golf gin," you scoff, "What kind of weird branding experiment is this?"
It turns out, it's more than just a gentle suggestion to drink while playing or watching golf. And while it may seem like I'm in the bag for Eden Mill, I'm not. I was actually just hooked completely by the gin's flavor gimmick.
Yes, this gin was created using real botanicals foraged from The Old Course! So you are technically drinking history.
Maybe you all have seen this kind of stuff before, but I was blown away by what a creative idea this was–and while I am not really a gin drinker (outside of weddings oddly enough), I'm so intrigued to try this.
Now imagine an entire series sourced from botanicals from famous golf courses around the world? It'd be the most bada$$ home bar setup I could imagine.
Anyone tried this? I guess there's also a world it just tastes like grass and is best left on a shelf. Color me intrigued either way.
Dad content alert
THE BEST KIND OF STANDING OVATION
Scottie wins the PGA, locking down his third major and now only two away from the career Grand Slam, and yet there still seemed to be equal coverage on my social feeds of his son Bennett.
What's a guy got to do?
That said, the content was pretty great. Bennett playing with his dad's winning scorecard and hat as Scottie signed his Sunday card in the clubhouse.
And then this clip which seems to show Bennett standing for the first time ever—as his dad casually wins a golf tournament. I mean, this kid's baby highlight reel could start to rival Steph Curry's daughter Riley when she'd drop in on all the Warriors press conferences.
Would love to know the nap schedule and logistics of bringing him to all these tournaments too? Is there a secret room on-property where families of players can bring kids to relax or snooze? Do we only see the three moments they're actually around on the broadcast and the rest of the day is spent chasing them around fields of grass and shushing them as they scream during player's back swings?
Venn diagram test
RISK X GOLF
It's no secret that I am a nerd at heart. Also potentially a nerd on the outside as well—that's a question for another day.
So when I saw this post on Golf Digest about a new Risk-inspired game to play for a group of golf buddies who frequent the same course throughout the year, I about dropped my LMNT. (Huge electrolyte guy)
The writer is Shane Ryan and they named the game "The Lords Of Hillandale" after the name of their local course.
The idea is that each person is assigned a few holes aka "territories" via a draft. Shane's group is 9 guys so it worked out to 2 holes/person.
Once assigned, the goal is to make a birdie on one of the neighboring holes to "capture" the hole. So if you had hole 6, then you could capture hole 5 or 7 if you made birdie on it.
As he writes, the beauty of the game is that everyone doesn't have to play at the same time. You can get out any time to play as long as you record at least 9 holes.
Obviously this relies on a day when I can play to my heart's content and go "raiding" all the time—but I ADORE this idea. Super clever and engaging. I don't play Clash of Clans or any of that though this feels somewhat relevant to those people too.
They even created a little app to track who owned what and share live updates when new territories were conquered.
My one question for you all is whether or not this is the most restricting Venn Diagram test I've ever done. Are we talking five of you interest in this? Ten?
To be honest, it's my occasional Bravo content drops, isn't it? (The Valley is INSANE this season btw.)
This week on r/golf
A BRUTAL LIE (AND CLEVER CUP HOLDER)
In what other sport can a fan's transfusion affect the outcome of a game/athlete's play so drastically?
Sure, we've seen the baseball flying into foul territory as a fan catches it in their beer cup and the out fielder collides into them. Sure, we've seen the courtside cocktail get spilled onto the hardwood as a basketball player trips over them on a fast break. But what happened to Max Homa at the PGA was next level.
Apparently, a user on Reddit posted the image above and confessed that the divot in the pine straw where Max's ball landed was created by him as a cup holder for his transfusion. And obviously, since Max couldn't do anything with the lie, he had to hit it out of basically a several inch divot.
The image on the right lets you know about how it went.
I'll admit, I'm turning pretty hard on the play it as it lies rule. Funny when it's a giant's foot in Happy Gilmore—less so when it's a golfer trying to compete in a major as he gets screwed by fan's riding the fairways or Shane Lowry finding his ball in a giant plugged divot. How is any of this their fault?
Any time I play a tournament that adds winter rules/roll it out of divots, the day brightens, I breathe easier, and who cares?? I'm still going to leave this thing 10 yards short of the green because I assume I will pure every iron I hit.
In fact, in a match play once I allowed my partner to roll his ball out of a nasty maintenance-induced mud patch—only to watch him absolutely rip a fairway wood to the green on a par 5 (hole 17 at Torrey North) and knock in an easy two putt birdie to beat me. I share that less as proof of the rule and more to pat myself on the back for being a "good guy".
(This was five years ago btw and it still haunts me.)
