My Top 100 Course Rejections, and the Inventions of John Daly

welcome! Where are you, you ask. I call it “Weekend 9”. Think of it as a warm-up spot for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have ideas. We will have tips. We will have tweets. But there are only nine in total, although sometimes there may be more and sometimes there may be less. As for who I am? The following paragraphs tell some of the story. You can contact me: nick.piastowski@golf.com.

We could buy anything we wanted from the clubhouse. I walked out with my luggage tag and glass.

We were even allowed to push a cart to the first tee. The view alone is worth the drive west to Mullen, where the skyline never ends and cell phone reception is cut off.

As far as rejection goes, the one we encountered at Sand Mountain Golf Club over a decade ago was exactly what we had hoped it would be. We were easily disappointed. They didn’t laugh. We didn’t cry.

But it was still a swift rejection.

I was thinking of all this when this website recently released its latest list of the top 100 courses in the world, and Sand Mountain came in at number 10. Nebraska’s Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw course has always held a high ranking, which makes the idea of ​​playing it very attractive to most people who live in the Cornhusker State, and I’ve been doing it for about 15 years.

No matter the course is super personal.

Unfortunately, Sand Mountain is not a place you can just drive up to and ask to play.

Or is it?

Maybe we can give it a try?

My wife and I did just that. We have a plan. We went later in the year when conditions might have discouraged out-of-state visitors. We went to the Nebraska football game on Saturday when the Big Red dominated the hearts of the state and the golf courses were empty. On Friday we stopped in Gothenburg and played the Broncos game, which is also a must-play if you’re traveling far away. On Sunday, we found a handful of ready-to-pay classes — no clubhouse, no waiters, just a box — including one called Augusta Wind, yes, a title that spans Masters enthusiasts and pun-lovers alike.

On Saturday afternoon we drove down Crenshaw Avenue.

We parked the car. There are three cars in the parking lot.

I’d pay $300 to play. Our claim is that we promise not to tell anyone. We would be in and out. There is no social media. No pictures. How could they say no?

Like this:

Sorry, no.

But we can buy anything we want from the clubhouse. We were able to push the cart to the first tee.

We did it. We stared for about 15 minutes. Saw what appeared to be a group of five, but no one else. It “looks” like one of the best courses on the site. It smells similar too. But we were never exposed to it.

Is this trip a fool’s errand? God no. I would do it again. I may do this again in other golf masterpieces. Maybe next time I’ll get a yes.

Or maybe I’ll meet again a man with an almost unreal discipline who turns down a boy, a girl and a few hundred dollars. This is actually impressive.

Let’s see if we can find 8 more items for Weekend 9.

A takeaway on the weekend

2. Is the LPGA’s announcement of its new television deal – in which all rounds of every tournament will be broadcast live – one of the biggest moments ever?

Yes.

But how do they retain their audience?

Is it enough to have a platform? Sort of like. It’s worth noting that the PGA Tour is addressing this issue. You might think golf would be enough, but the message is that people want more from what they see. So I think new LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler said he recognizes all the changes to “something more,” which is as important to the tour as the TV deal.

Kessler spoke with reporters Wednesday ahead of this week’s CME Team Tour Championship, and I thought the back-and-forth was interesting (reporter’s questions in italics):

What do you think of the LPGA competition? Frankly, what I’m asking is, how do you get women’s soccer and the WNBA to take notice? Frankly, golf already feels like it’s falling behind?

“You used the most important words,” Kessler said. “We compete in the attention economy. It’s not just competing against other sports. It’s that I should be watching Netflix, I should be going out to eat, I should be hanging out with friends, I should be playing in the backyard, I should be playing a round of golf. Anything that has the potential to capture a fan’s attention, we’re competing against that, so our job is to be different, to be interesting, and to capture the fan’s attention as much as we can.”

On the player side, what message are you sending to them that you have to put the oar in the water?

“I had two player meetings,” Kessler said. “The first players meeting – I’m very grateful that they did that. The players asked: ‘What can we do to help?’ The answer was: ‘Nothing yet. “Let us do our job and when we have concrete answers, we will come back and ask you to do your part at the appropriate time.”

“Last week at the Pelicans … they asked again: ‘What can we do?’ We said: ‘Here’s what we need you to do. If we ask you to be a global superstar, get involved. Be as present in the culture as you can. If we ask you to walk the talk, not just you but your ball boy, give it a try.

“‘Let us — we need you to do your part.’ Finally I asked, ‘Who’s in there? “Almost everyone in the room raised their hands. Now it’s our responsibility to actually make this a reality.”

Another takeaway for the weekend

3. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour may be downsizing. Ahead of this week’s RSM Classic, Harris English said the tour will likely start its schedule after the Super Bowl and “they’re going to be more of a place where the 20 games are the same, all the points, all the prize money, everything is the same.”

So what do these moves mean, and should they happen?

I guess it depends on what you like. You’ll get less pro golf. But you might get a higher level of professional golf. But isn’t every week important? Or should I take a proper rest?

Again, LIV Golf’s impact cannot be underestimated. How many of these changes would have occurred without the alliance?

4. Speaking of LIV, the New York Times published a story this week with the headline: “Saudi Arabia’s prince has big plans, but his massive fund is low on cash.”

You can read the entire story, written by Rob Copeland and Vivian Nereim, here.

Weekend Guidance Tips

5. Lindy Duncan won the LPGA Heather Farr Perseverance Award this week, and her acceptance speech is well worth reading. You can do this by scrolling below. (Click the white arrow in the middle of the post to see each slide.)

a story that interests me

6. I think the following story from Skratch’s Vanity Index Podcast is interesting. In it, co-host Chad Mumm describes a conversation with John Daly about the origins of the John Daly drink.

“John Daley, we were in the break room getting ready for this presentation,” Mumm said, “and we were doing some presentations to some restaurant workers, and I was like, ‘Hey, how did the John Daley cocktail come about?’ I was like, ‘How awesome is that? “Like, were you interested in naming it? Obviously, it was based on Arnold Palmer. Were you interested in that? Did someone else come up with it and you grabbed it? Because he had John Dalys—the Good Boy vodka brand, so they made their own John Dalys.

“He said, ‘No, I invented this when I was 9 years old. So he told this story. He said, ‘Yeah, I was in Darnell, Arkansas, and we won — when I was 9, our Little League team, we played by Piggly Wiggly Sponsored. We won the Little League championship in our town and so we went back home and celebrated. My mom used to make sweet tea in the sun, you know, sun tea… and then dad loved his vodka so, I guess we should celebrate. So, I went and got some lemonade and I poured my dad’s vodka all in, so, we lined them up and each kid had a drink and it tasted pretty good and then we made another one and then a third one and then our whole group of 9. The children are exhausted.

“‘I looked at my brother and said, ‘If one of us becomes famous, we’re going to have to patent this drink. It’s either going to be called Jamie Daley or it’s going to be called John Daley.’ That’s how it was invented.”

You can watch the clip with Mumm by scrolling directly below.

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7. Speaking of Daley, his annual go-to during Masters Week, Owl Course, about a mile from Augusta National Park, was demolished this week. Below are pictures of some of the works.

A question that interests me

8. I think the video below is interesting. In it, MLB players were asked: Is golf harder than baseball?

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