“Offseason” months seem to be the only months I actually consistently do a mailbag year over year, and figured it was time for me to catch up. The overwhelming majority of my posts in the last month+ have been about an Ireland golf trip, and I haven’t talked much real life golf since the Ryder Cup, so let’s get it.
@NoLayingUp who will make the cut for the SB2K17 roster?
— Eric Buenning (@ericbuenning) October 18, 2016
I think SB2K17 is already doomed before it begins. The beauty of SB2K16 was that we didn’t know what we were getting into, there was no anticipation, and no expectation. We were all so innocent back then. It was a performance that can’t be replicated without it feeling fabricated. Once something like this makes its way mainstream, and every golf website on the planet is covering it (and the PGA tour is pairing three of them together in subsequent events), it goes from being a trendy, funny surprise, to an overplayed top 40 hit. Golf Digest has an article about it in this month’s magazine! It’s kind of like the Beef thing. He’s been the flavor of the month for every magazine, twitter account, and television network to the point where we just get beaten over the head with it, and almost forced to reject it.
SB2K17 is doomed before it even begins
And there’s a direct crossover here, as Beef is specifically one of the dudes that invited himself to the sequel. As funny and entertaining as the 2016 version was, by day three or four, it had gotten a bit repetitive, and the law of diminishing always rules strong.
That being said, if they need a golf blogger down there to document it, I can clear some stuff from my schedule (damnit, I just invited myself).
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@NoLayingUp do you think Rory gets back to no.1 this year?
— michael murney (@themurn) October 18, 2016
I was begging for a Rory question. I’ve been dying to talk more McIlroy since Hazeltine, where he consumed my soul about six times over through the course of three days.
I’m going to say yes. The Rory we saw the final month of the season looked a lot like that baaaaad man from 2014. Day’s health is too big of a question mark, and Rory is going to rattle off some wins, and probably a major. I feel like he’s adequately addressed the putting issue, and there’s no other issues with the rest of his game. I hate the “whose ‘A’ game is best” charade more than anyone, but I just feel like we still don’t give enough respect to how great Rory’s peak was. As ridiculous as Day’s run has been over the last 15 months or so, he got one major out of that. People still don’t understand how many majors four majors is! It’s taken Phil an entire career to get five, and Rory’s got four at the age of 27. And I see nothing to make me think he’s dropped off from being that player.
I think his biggest threat isn’t Day, but it’s DJ. He’s the only guy I’m confident we can say that we don’t know what his ceiling is. 2015 was the DJ Shock and Awe campaign, with the main difference being that he’s not hunting for weapons of mass destruction, he is the weapon of mass destruction. An arms race between Rory and DJ can only end in Mutually Assured Destruction for my loins, and will probably be the end of my existence on this planet.
@NoLayingUp Why is Spieth so popular? He's slow, not exciting, caddy reliant/whiny. Appreciate talent, but gimme Rory. Not trolling I swear
— Jake Borton (@jsb1872) October 18, 2016
I don’t take this as trolling at all. It’s understandable if you don’t like Spieth, and I’m actually not seeing him as being as popular as maybe you’re implying.
2016 was certainly a bit of a disappointment for Spieth, but it was pretty easy to predict. There was just nowhere to go but down after one of the greatest single seasons in PGA Tour history. The surprising shift to me was how quickly I felt the public jumped off his bandwagon. All of the things mentioned here (pace of play, not exciting, caddy reliant/whiny) all existed in 2015, but our focus was on his meteoric rise to the top of the game. I think in general we just kind of brushed them aside, identified them as “passion,” and didn’t think too much about them because we weren’t that exposed to him.
Now, he enters 2016 as the defending Masters, US Open, and FedExCup champion, and nearly every shot is going to be shown on television. Along with that, the pre-shot routine. Don’t forget, that two months before he won the Masters, he bogeyed the 72nd hole of the Northern Trust at Riviera to miss a playoff by a shot, and didn’t have a shot of his shown until the 17th hole. That’s how little exposure he was getting at this point (which Big Randy had noted even a year prior). Now, that’s more of an indictment of the abomination that is CBS golf broadcasts, but it’s a great example of how much our window into Jordan Spieth shifted from one year to the next.
In my mind, the pendulum swung too far, and by reading my timeline, it seems like people are mostly out on Spieth (that, or Tron is just speaking for the entire country). Strolling the fairways at Hazeltine, I swear there were more American fans cheering out for Rory than there were for Spieth. He kind of seems like the forgotten man, but I can see a huge bounce back in 2017. I’m gonna assume that he’s going to lighten up his schedule, not wear himself out early in the year, and focus on what made him the best player in the world in 2015, which was his iron play. I’m going to pick him to win the Masters probably every year for the next ten years, and that’s the only major pick I’m ready to lock in at this point.
@NoLayingUp What is the biggest thing being inside the ropes that we don't get to see on TV?
— David Kateeb (@DKateeb) October 19, 2016
The best thing about it obviously is the vantage points. It’s kind of shocking how close they let you get to the players while they’re hitting. There is a certain amount of trust that’s implied with the access, in that you are expected to be unseen and unheard. This can be challenging, but I do my best to just err on the furthest side of caution imaginable.
But one of the things I love about it is that it just humanizes these guys so much more. I’ve always been curious to hear what players talk about, and in my mind picturing it being the most riveting conversation imaginable. If we could just get a mic in there, it would be gold. Then you hear it, and realize it’s just two people talking, and the conversation sounds exactly what it would be like if you and I chatted. A football game, how a putt broke, a fan that yelled something, etc. They don’t seem to be secretive at all about what they’re saying, and most of it is not even remotely interesting enough to report back on. TV makes this guys look like and seem larger than life, but walking near them in person, they just seem so much smaller in the huge sea of people, and the fact that they’re just playing a golf tournament becomes more evident. It feels less dramatic than television, and just much more raw. I’m not sure if that answers the question, but that’s the best way I can describe it.
@NoLayingUp Ideally all of us working stiffs would go (not quite full) Joey D, but realistically what do you as a better player do 1/
— Lou Brown (@Lou_TireWorld) October 18, 2016
@NoLayingUp either physically or otherwise to stay as golf ready as possible between infrequent opportunities to peg it? 2/2
— Lou Brown (@Lou_TireWorld) October 18, 2016