2014 was a weird year. I teamed up with Grantland and Paste writer Shane Ryan to talk through our top 10 weird drama moments of the year, with our sweltering takes.
Phil and Tom Watson Spat at the Ryder Cup
(Golfweek)
Soly: I’ve been back and forth on this one. Part of me thinks Phil didn’t need to take Tom Watson out behind the shed and pull an Old Yeller on him on (inter)national TV. But part of me thinks it was a calculated move by Phil because he knew the best chance for change was for him to call out Watson for the worst captaincy in Europe since the Costa Concordia disaster. Was this worth it? You gotta think about how often Phil and Tom are going to see each other. How awkward is this Masters dinner going to be?
Shane: Hey, come on Chris, Watson released a statement after the Ryder Cup saying he and Phil resolved everything with an “open and candid conversation.” Why do you have to stir up drama just because a couple of old pals gave each other the needle? (In reality, I loved what Phil did, and thought Watson was such a disastrous captain that nothing short of an open mutiny would have been appropriate in the circumstances.)
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Ted Bishop Calls Ian Poulter a ‘Little Girl’
(Golf Digest)
Shane: I’d like to point out that the actual word he used was not “little,” but “lil.'” The creepy shortening of the word was something I found more offensive than the term itself. I also think that if everyone at the PGA of America didn’t already despise Bishop, he probably could have survived this and served out the last 29 days of his term. As it was, the way he mugged for the cameras and his unilateral approach to picking Watson—a disaster—made him the kind of enemies that were ready to bury him at a moment’s notice.
Soly: Looking back at this a few months later, it’s even more entertaining to me now than it originally was. As I said at the time, I’m just going to give Ted the benefit of the doubt that he was drunk. We’ve all done plenty of dumb stuff when we’re drunk, and I’m certainly no exception to that. I’ve even tweeted some dumb stuff after a little too much of the sauce. But I’m also not the president of the PGA of America. If there is one thing I can sympathize with, it’s harassing Ian Poulter on twitter (which I’m now blocked from being able to do). But for a guy that makes it SO EASY to make fun of him, you have to at least come up with something better than “lil girl.” The whole thing was so hilariously amateur that he deserved to be fired, but mostly for the lack of creativity.
Playing the 18th Hole of the PGA in the Dark
(CBS)
Soly: The whole incident just reeked of amateurism. Who was in charge of this? Oh, that’s right! The guy that called Ian Poulter “lil girl!”(Seriously though, great season Ted.) The big mistake was not moving up tee times at the beginning of the day, which is why they got put in this situation. Undiscovered tribes in the Amazon were aware that there was a storm heading towards Valhalla that day, and Bishop and his crew did nothing about it. So once they sent them out (I believe the leaders teed off around 4:30), we knew it was going to be a race to beat darkness. So while that last hole was complete madness, I’m not sure what I really would have done differently in that particular situation. Did we really want to make Rory wait to play one more hole the final day? Bishop is really lucky that it didn’t end up affecting the outcome of the tournament, because if Rory had missed a short putt because he didn’t have night vision goggles, Bishop would have somehow had an even worse 2014. The guy I feel for is Fowler, who missed a putt on 18 that cost him about a quarter of a million dollars, if I remember right. (Ok, I don’t feel THAT bad for him.)
Shane: My favorite part of the whole thing was watching Rory essentially bully his way into not only teeing off on 18—which is more or less normal—but hitting his approach before Phil and Rickie finished the hole. The truth is that it wouldn’t have mattered, since Rory’s clutch birdie on 17 sealed the tournament, and he actually almost managed to cost himself the tournament in his haste, with a drive that came a whisper away from falling into the creek on the right side. But it was brilliant to see the Rory/Rickie dynamic at play—Rory basically insisted to Rickie at the tee that he was going to hit, and all Rickie could lamely do was tell him he’d ask Phil. Then, when Rickie and Phil marched to the green after their second shots, Rory yelled after them, and then railroaded the officials into letting him play again. Just more evidence that Rory is the ultimate alpha dog on the PGA Tour…it was so fitting for me that he ended his 2014 season by just annihilating Fowler at the Ryder Cup in the most devastating way possible. He’s a psychological marvel, that one.
Bubba’s PGA Championship Antics
(ESPN)
Shane: Oh boy. Bubba refusing to take part in the long drive competition, despite the fact that he could have earned money for his precious charities, is the most Bubba moment in a year full of Bubba moments. There’s simply no rationale for it besides Bubba being a baby. Here’s a guy who loves attention, but apparently only on his town terms…because God forbid he accede to the PGA of America’s unreasonable demands and hit a driver during a practice round on a par-5 where he would normally hit…driver.
Soly: The best part is that this was maybe the third or fourth douchiest thing he did during the PGA. And we’re still talking about it! This was one of the best majors of the last five years (at minimum), and we’re talking about Bubba’s antics in a Tuesday practice round! And then we have this from the actual tournament:
"Water on the clubface, bro… water on the clubface. I got no chance!" Bubba to caddie Ted Scott #PrayForTedScott
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) August 8, 2014
"It doesn't matter what I do man. It doesn't matter. It's f*cking horseshit."
-Bubba-#YearOfRejoicing#PrayForTedScott
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) August 8, 2014
Ugh Bubba to Teddy after missing the green on 16, "I can't play golf man. I got nothing."
— Amanda Balionis (@Amanda_Balionis) August 8, 2014
"Nobody wants to move man…. you'd think I was speaking English."
Bubba is at it again…
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) August 7, 2014
He’s just the worst. Unfortunately for us, the blowback was so hard from these incidents that Bubba, the master of public relations, apologized and vowed to clean up his act. Just like that, all of our free material went out the window. Well, until #BubbaFraud has his next meltdown (1/5 odds that it happens before the Masters).
Rory and Wozniacki Split
https://nolayingup.com/blog/2014-drama-controversies-feuds-and-rumors