Danielson

The PR 180 he's done since leaving for LIV is incredible to me. I checked out one of his Youtube videos yesterday and I can't believe anyone thinks he's genuine at all, but I guess it doesn't even matter if he's playing a character since he's still been entertaining.

I think once the ball hits the tree it's in god's hands. It coming back into the fairway means you're living right, but then it landing in a divot means you're not living all the way right. The karmic slider is a cruel mistress sometimes.

Sure: 1) Finding a drop on your line for OB balls 2) Taking relief from sprinklers 3) Taking relief from burrowing animals 4) Taking TIO relief 5) Whether or not the ball moved at address

The point that people who want relief are making is that hitting it in the fairway and landing in a divot is unlucky, you hit it in the fairway and in theory deserve a decent lie. Hitting it in the trees and being stuck in a lie with roots all over is not unlucky, you hit it in the trees and deserve nothing.

I'd argue that you hitting it into a tree and not having a good lie is completely fair.

I wonder if it will tell us Scottie is the best

Is that not pretty much how it works now with dozens of other rules?

Why not? It's a game of honor. Everyone knows what a divot looks like. If you think you're in a clear divot, take relief. If your playing partners disagree, you get penalized.

Again, what is the point? The only point of the rankings now is to determine who gets into majors. If your ranking is only performance in the majors, what do we use that for?

The correct answer is Scottie based on overall play, but Rory finishing off the career grand slam is going to get him the win here and I'm not mad about that at all. Rory deserves the recognition, and watching him overcome a decade of close calls and the accompanying scar tissue is one of the greatest sports achievements I've ever seen.

I guess what's the point though? We already know who the best golfers are I think

They did come up with their own ranking system, it's called the OWGR.

I put Hatton and Niemann in that group too. Results aren't there as much, but you can see both of them still putting in work.

I'm not about to take a victory lap on LIV guys, because there are still a large handful who I would be 0% surprised to see win any given major... but THIS is what people were talking about when wondering if guys would fall off. It was never a concern that they would suddenly and immediately forget how to play golf. It was a question of whether they could continue to keep that edge and grind that extra 1% in a sport where the margins are slimmer than they've ever been. Cam Smith has allegedly always not been about that life, outside of 2022 where he was reportedly practicing harder than he ever had, so he's not exactly representative. Still, it seems like 2-3 guys are actually better since going to LIV and the rest have lost a tiny step.

Agreed, I do not understand that "Scottie is boring" takes at all. Because he doesn't hit it in the s*** all the time? He's working the ball around, playing bump and runs, showing awesome creativity in his short game overall. He is hitting ALL the shots, he just so happens to put pretty much all of them where they need to be.

I think the purses would have definitely gone up, but I think there's no way they institute all the stuff they did for the lower end players (min yearly winnings, stipends, etc). I also think it's worth mentioning that the PGA Tour offers an allegedly great retirement plan, and survived through covid on the money that Phil was upset they weren't paying out. I'm not saying that they're angels, but it does seem like they have some responsible money managers somewhere in the organization that were/are keeping the tour healthy and not running things too close to the edge.

Is there a legitimate concern that Blandy runs off to join Good Good?

I think they've been in poor mental form since sales of their leather weekend bag failed to meet expectations. Big blow to the confidence, they should get it back once they launch their branded throw pillows.