NEW SPONSOR, NAME AND VENUE—WHO DIS?
The LPGA kicks off its major season this week with The Chevron Championship.
The peculiar part of this major? It has a new sponsor, a new name AND a new venue. Which prompted the question, what makes a tournament a major in the first place if literally everything about that tournament changes?
The usually-too-dense-for-my-attention-span-but-extremely-well-researched The Fried Egg did a fantastic rundown of this exact predicament.
Their answer? Relatively similar to the Supreme Court's ruling on porn—you know it when you see it.
Basically, the tournament has been going on for 50+ years in Rancho Mirage, California. It boasted one of the largest purses ever at its inception. It was co-founded by a beloved singer and TV star, Dinah Shore. And through decades of tradition-building, became the staple of the LPGA calendar it is today.
Where it gets tricky is when you change absolutely everything about it. Is it still the same? Ask the crew in Woodlands, TX and they'll say of course it is! See, we named the hospitality tent after Dinah, invited the Shore family to attend, and we even built a fun little pier on the lake so the winner can continue to do the victory leap.
BUUUUUTTTTT the pond has alligator netting. The Shore family has no connection to Texas. And the major has now gone through four different names.
So really, it's just whether the players, media, and fans respect the win in the same way. Which is TBD I guess? But it's just an odd thing to witness in real time as traditions become new traditions.
My natural follow-up thought... how much $$$ will it take for Bad Birdie to buy the US Open? Our market cap is roughly on par with Chevron I have to imagine. Though, they don't let me look at the 1090EZs and P-790s... or whatever financial documents are called.
OKAY... SO WHO DECIDED THE MASTERS WAS A MAJOR?
Easy answer? This guy.
Also linked in The Fried Egg piece is a nod to The Masters origin as a major, which we have THE Arnold Palmer to thank.
In what turned out to be a Russian nesting doll of hyperlinks that led to yet another article from Golf Monthly, the story is that Arnold Palmer and journalist Bob Drum started scheming on a plane while en route to the 1960 Canada Open.
The two mused how the sole "Grand Slam" champion Bobby Jones was impossible to catch because Bobby won the US Amateur, The Amateur Championship, US Open, and The Open Championship in a time when amateurs actually could win the two Opens...
Quick side tangent for another epic tale of golfers past, that year Bobby placed a 50-1 wager on himself to win all four titles which he cashed for a cool $60k and promptly quit the game. Now there's a story you ain't seein' on @br_betting anymore.
Anywho, Palmer and Dunn literally decided on that plane that they were going to designate the new Grand Slam as The Open Championship, US Open, PGA Championship, and The Masters (a tournament that at the time held the largest prize pot around.)
And then it just happened I guess? Dunn wrote it up in his piece as the new Grand Slam of golf and we haven't really looked back since.
Wild.
Art imitates life.
IT'S TALLADEGA NIGHTS—BUT GOLF
Shout out to BB enthusiast Nate M. who flagged this bombshell drop from the suits over in Hollywood.
Deadline reports that Will Ferrell has joined a new comedy TV series project that's set in the world of competitive golf.
The premise?
Will plays a professional golfer who becomes the face of a rival golf league to the PGA.
Expectations for this project are already through the roof for me and it's got me wondering if I try to restart my own television comedy writing aspirations just to go work on this show. (Yes, I used to work in Hollywood...)
Literally no other details exist at this point besides the production partners and no network has even bought it yet as I imagine it's being pitched as we speak. But my top three most likely destinations...
3) AppleTV—this would make an excellent companion series to Ted Lasso.
2) Netflix—imagine if they had the market cornered on golf series with Full Swing.
1) HBO—I don't know why, but I have Danny McBride in mind for this cast and considering Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones all are squarely in this comedic realm.
Wildcard network? The CW! LIV AND the LIV comedy series? Step aside Gilmore Girls... this is Norman Country now.
Denver is getting its Dunes
<INSERT DROOLING FACE EMOJI HERE>
I try not to double hit the massive stories that everyone has likely already seen on golf social media... but this news was just too big to ignore...
Introducing Rodeo Dunes
The latest project from the minds behind Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley and Cabot Links at the aptly named Dream Golf company.
Located less than an hour from downtown Denver... there is already plans for two courses with the first opening as soon as 2024.
Honestly, my own descriptions can't really do it justice so just click this link, grab a bib for the drool and start dreaming of how incredible it will be to have a complex of this caliber within an hour of a major AND relatively central airport.
"This is a place where the best features of the rugged Irish links blend with the mystique and romance of the American West, on the vast plains of Colorado."
Oh, yeah, and if that wasn't enough? Denver gets 300+ days of sun per year... so all those absolutely horrific looking videos of people putting in literal standing water at Bandon for 50% of the year? In the words of Thorny from Super Troopers... "Oh that little guy? I wouldn't worry about that little guy."
Speaking of Denver...
BRONCOS COUNTRY... YOU GET IT
Sometimes you can see a joke coming from a mile away and you don't want to say it because it's just sooooooo friggin' obvious. And yet, your buddy goes for it and it still absolutely slays.
This is like that.
Full Swing: The Finale
MY WATCHALONG RECAP-APALOOZA
And now for the final edition of the section that's just like the half-eaten box of cheerios in the pantry—two months stale. These are my Full Swing Finale thoughts.
In this week's edition, we end with the captain of Team PGA, Rory.
- Took me a second to realize Rory's blood sugar monitor wasn't a tattoo. And the autofill option on Google reveals I'm not alone in wondering if he is diabetic. Turns out, he isn't. Just a health nut.
- Nick Faldo's junior master class in golf on VHS gets kids to be quiet and learn golf you say??
- LOL - remember when St. Andrews revealed they added rocks to the Swilcan bridge then almost immediately were like whoops, our bad, didn't know you guys would be so ticked at us changing a course known for its legacy and heritage...
- Anyone tried golf in VR? Is it dizzying? Cool? Glitchy? In theory, sounds awesome. But the fact that Rory is slicing in-game is probably not a great sign for realism.
- The players-only meeting in Delaware sparks an important question, is Delaware our most forgotten state? For me, the finalists are probably Delaware, Idaho and Arkansas.
- The country club, players meals we've seen all look so incredible. You know those chips are fried to order. The toast BLT-type sandwiches are unrivaled. And the bottle of Hellman's in the caddie is... well, a left turn actually. But everything else I'm down with.
- Love this Real Housewives style wrap-up as we hear from the cast. Though I do wish we got a freeze frame with a pithy saying they wrote for themselves. Which, you know half the housewives write themselves and the other half have their teams write. You can ALWAYS tell.
- Impressive story for the final episode and really lucked out that the face of the PGA last year ended up winning the final tournament. I guess odds were good as they followed most of the stars, but still, solid luck in season one.
- Rory's mini-bar setup in the locker room! Guinness, red wine, Topo Chico—he had it all. That's peak your team not having a f'n clue what kind of mood you're going to be in and I love it. Takes me back to my Production Assistant days just praying that people's lunch orders were correct.
OVERALL RATING: 6/10 - Felt too little too late for most of the themes we saw but a huge get for Rory in season one. All in all, the series felt (as the kids say) mid. Though a 50% hit rate on enjoyable episodes was impressive for a season one and here's hoping lessons were learned for season two and we can get the DRAMAAAAAA and candid camera moments that we crave.
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