Welcome to GHIN & Tonic Vol. 10. Double digits! Thanks, as always, for reading. Here are a few quick things that are on my mind this week.
GHIN
The best golf thing I read last week – actually the best thing I've read in many, many weeks – was Brendan Quinn's profile of Lilia Vu in The Athletic. Actually, it's much less of a profile of Vu, herself. It's more of a telling of her origin story.
If you watched any of Lilia's historic run in the majors last year, you probably heard broadcasters making passing mentions of her family's history; her grandparents escaping Vietnam on a homemade boat with a handful of others and making their way to America to start a new life. When it's crammed into a few lines in a media guide, it's a compelling note. But when it's spelled out in full detail – through countless interviews and stop-you-in-your-tracks, first-person perspective, it makes for one of the most thoughtful and propulsive pieces I've ever read in golf.
The Midnight Troubadour
Tough and timeless, this polo is built for the long ride. Featuring a crisp, non-collapsing collar and a rugged, stretchy fabric, it's the perfect shirt for any cowboy's wardrobe.
I wouldn't call myself a particularly patriotic person, and the Olympics as a whole have, admittedly, always been mostly an eye roll for me. But all I'll say is that it's hard to get to the end of a piece like this and not be struck by how beautiful an American medal would look at the end of this particular butterfly effect.
Massive thanks to BQ and everyone who participated in this piece for creating a true show-stopper and an unforgettable feature.
In other news: A professional golfer named Hayden Springer shot 59 last week at the John Deere Classic. It was the 14th time someone has broken 60 on the PGA Tour.
Shooting 59 on a 7,300-yard PGA Tour setup (even a soft one like TPC Deere Run) is a concept that every golfer can theoretically wrap their heads around. You need to make everything. You need a couple of good breaks. But I would guess that the level of golf required to do so is still basically inconceivable to most people. It’s Video Game Golf. Maybe better, honestly. Springer, a player you probably have never heard of, shot 27 on the front nine. Twenty-seven!!!!!!!
When I was growing up, 59 was a mythical number. Sub-60 rounds were like comets that only came around once a decade. It was really fun to look for them. Guys might get close occasionally, but even after Al Geiberger broke the seal in 1977, there were only two more 59s in the next 22 years. And that third one was, of course, the best one: David Duval closing out the Bob Hope in 1999 with a final-round 59 to win by one.
The only one I saw in person was Jim Furyk’s 59, which might have been the most impressive (no one else shot better than 65 on that blustery day at Conway Farms). I was covering the round for the PGA Tour and even though it was a Friday, it felt every bit as exciting as watching someone chase down their first Tour title.
Since Duval, it’s happened 11 more times and each one understandably feels a little less exciting. That’s the way life goes. To be honest, scanning through the list of players to break 60, I forgot about half of them had happened. (Kevin Chappell?)
Springer’s 59 was the second on the PGA Tour in 12 days, after Cameron Young’s 59 at the Travelers. These Guys Are Good. Live Under Par. Things of that nature.
Being a superstar has never been a prerequisite for shooting 59. A lot of 59ers look much more like Springer than Scottie Scheffler (oh, right, he did it once, too). Coming into the week, Springer had made 6 of 18 cuts on Tour. DataGolf had him as the 295th-ranked golfer in the world.
None of this is meant as a shot at Springer: Instead, what I'm struck by is the feeling that rounds like this might be the best way to illustrate how incredibly d
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/ghin-and-tonic-vol-10-dj