As usual, I got a ton of good questions this week. Too many for just one part, so I’ll try to get to the rest of them by early next week. But for now, here is Part I:
@NoLayingUp Thoughts on this story. https://t.co/A9vCUw1Z9A Also rank the top 3 players who would look the worst in shorts..
— Jon Matsumoto (@Matsy11) January 20, 2016
I really don’t care either way on this one. There’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to wear shorts, other than “that’s the way it’s always been done.” This isn’t going to be coming to the PGA Tour anytime soon regardless, so in my mind it’s a bit of a non-issue. But players will continue to hit the ball further and further, rendering more and more courses obsolete, and this is still going to be the kind of stuff that we’re going to talk about.
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To answer your question, the worst three players to see in shorts would be:
- Tiger Woods. We’ve seen his shorts game. It may be worse than his jeans game. He can’t be trusted.
- Patrick Reed – Remember the forehead tan? Imagine what those trunks look like. #OBstakes
- David Lingmerth – Considering his pant size is “male capris,” I don’t think they even make shorts in his size.
@NoLayingUp Thoughts on who should replace Greg Norman in the booth for the US Open? (Odds on it being Big Cat?)
— Sarah Endacott (@sendacott) January 19, 2016
I got into this a bit on Golf.com’s Tour Confidential this week, but didn’t get a chance to expand on my answer. Full disclaimer: it was 5:30 AM, and I had literally found out about the Norman news when I received this question, so I didn’t have time to give it full thought when I answered Lanny Watkins.
What I feel like Fox badly needs is experience, and Watkins has a ton of that in the booth. He also appears to be the most available to me, based on the fact that he’s covering the Champions Tour, and I’m sure he would rather be cover the big boy tour. Paul Azinger seems to be the front-runner, and honestly, he makes a lot more sense than Watkins, so if I were to actually have given this proper thought, I would also conclude that it will probably end up being Azinger.
If you ignore money, the biggest question for me is, why would this be a desirable job? Obviously money is a big factor, but we’re talking about a role where you’re literally calling one PGA Tour event every year. Granted, it is the national championship, but I’m not sure how you recruit away someone like a Brandel Chamblee, who has a full gig at the Golf Channel year round. Maybe the fact that it’s a smaller workload for a boat load of money that makes the role appealing, but I don’t know enough about the TV contracts to really understand how this would work out.
I went into more detail on Fox’s questionable model with John Swantek on Talk of the Tour this week, if you are interested.
@NoLayingUp Was Rickie's joggers and high-tops outfit a devious/genius ploy to trick the Tour into allowing pros to wear shorts?
— Jesse Larson (@JesseLarson) January 19, 2016
I was trying to come up with a joke similar to this but I couldn’t land it. I got called a curmudgeon for hating on the joggers, but it’s a terrible look. I’m 29, and Rickie is 26, so it’s not like there is a generational gap here. I’m all for new fashion trends, and guys breaking from the mold, but these are sweatpants. I don’t go to the grocery store in sweatpants, much less the golf course. It’s a sloppy look, and I don’t think it’s going to catch on at all.
I didn’t follow it closely, but I thought I saw that Rickie had already abandoned them on the weekend at Kapalua, and I didn’t see him wearing them in Abu Dhabi. I’m hoping these go straight to the Hall of Shame along with Tiger and Phil’s mock turtlenecks from the mid-2000’s and Furyk’s button down shirts. I’m telling you, there needs to be a D.A.R.E. program where these vets warn them about regrettable fashion trends. You can’t recover from this.
@NoLayingUp who's your pick not named Rory, Spieth, or Day to win a major this year
— Manuél Retweet (@RyFo18) January 19, 2016
I need to just pin my picks somewhere, as this is inevitably asked every single mailbag.
Masters – Spieth
U.S. Open – DJ
British Open – McIlroy
PGA Championship – Koepka
Gold Medal – Spieth
@NoLayingUp will Dufner or Bradley ever figure things out??
— Phillip Johnson (@PhillipJohnson7) January 19, 2016
If I’m being completely honest, I had completely forgotten about Keegan Bradley until you asked. Like, I had forgotten that he exists, and for sure forgot that he has been a part of the last two US Ryder Cup teams (speaking of which, has he unpacked those bags yet?). Aside from nearly getting carved up like a victim of Zorro’s sword by Miguel at the Match Play, you could have convinced me that he didn’t play on tour last year.
He hasn’t a non-silly season top 10 since the Memorial in June, and has fallen to 76th in the world from inside the top 30 at the season’s beginning. It’s relatively easy to make your way up into the top of the rankings (and stay there) with a few good results, due to the events you’re able to get into and get free OWGR points. It’s a lot harder to fall that far in that course of time. It means consistently not performing in line with your ranking. Not a good sign. And despite a lot of golf writers wanting to point to a hot round or two with the short putter, I don’t buy into the whole “these guys are going to be fine” assumption that’s based on a miniscule sample size. So I’m not expecting a fast turnaround from Bradley.
On the other hand, I am expecting to see a rejuvenated Dufner this year (I promise I wrote this before his 64 on Thursday). Coming back from injury and a tough year that included a divorce, he seems to be refocused and motivated. It’s easy to forget that he was the 8th ranked player in the world after he won the 2013 PGA Championship.
A funny story about Duf – by complete chance I ran into a friend of mine at the 2010 US Open. We got to catching up, and he told me to watch out for this guy, Jason Dufner, and points over to this guy with his belly hanging over his belly and a dip in his mouth (Duf was ranked in the top-100 at the time, but I didn’t follow golf nearly as closely during that time.) He hovers over the ball waggling his club back and forth, and proceeds to hit a nasty little hook with a 3 wood. I rolled my eyes at him and laughed saying I’ll be sure to look out for him. A year later he’s playing in a playoff (and should have won) in the PGA Championship.
@NoLayingUp when will the tour back a skills challenge for the players? I'm just imagining Phil challenging everyone to a flop-off…
— T