Iss. #140 | The Match: NBA and NFL Champion Edition

Iss. #140 | The Match: NBA and NFL Champion Edition

Last week in golf wildlife

BEADS. BEES? NO, BEADS! BEES?!?

Starting strong this week with an Arrested Development classic that still gets an actual LOL from me every time. The actual connection to golf here is a callback to last weekend’s Mexico Open where a “fog of bees” swept through a fairway and caused Erik Van Rooyen and crew to hit the deck.

A maneuver I had no clue kept you safe from bees—and on the scale from squirrel to gator, bees might actually be one of the most dangerous on-course foes. Assuming you aren’t at the GOAT wildlife golf club out in Africa called Skukuza where elephants, hyenas, and hippos regularly frequent.

The AIMPOINT secret revealed?

ADAM SCOTT SPILLS THE BEANS

AIMPOINT is a putting technique you see often on Tour where pros will walk off their putt, hold up a certain number of fingers in the air, and magically know exactly how to putt—apparently.
 
However, ask most non-pros what they’re doing when they try it themselves and you’re met with a weird assortment of educated guesses and a weird secrecy. Even when my favorite podcast Chasing Scratch mentioned it—they got super cagey about details because it’s a secret? You have to subscribe to it?
 
Idk, seems sus.
 
Anywho, I came across this video from Fore Play Golf of Adam Scott actually attempting an explanation. He mentions that you are supposed to take a ruler-kind-of-thing to measure the % grade of the slope then train yourself to feel the slope with your feet so you can assign a number to how severe the grade is. And apparently the number you give it corresponds to the fingers you hold up when you line your putt up.
 
It’s the closest I’ve come to a real explanation—and tbh, any putting technique that requires a trip to Home Depot can’t be the answer.

Keepin' things spicy

INTERNATIONAL TEAM PLAY!

This weekend sees the return of the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown—a team-based match play event that happens every two years—though the 2020 was postponed because, duh.

Eight countries participate and send four person teams. The lucky countries? United States, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, England, Thailand, Australia, China.

The format is super interesting as it starts with two round robin pools of four teams. The top two advance to the final day's play where they play two singles matches and one four-ball match. The first team to get to two points wins their team matchup and plays the other winning team in the afternoon.

It's action packed... and it's BARELY televised.

So in a world where LIV was able to get a live feed of their inaugural season on YouTube… we have to be at a point where we can get this done. For f&@# sake, I can bring up about 7 different tiny home renovation shows at any given moment on streaming… but we can’t find a way to make the numbers work for consistent televised women’s golf events like this?!? Come on.

Speaking of televised events

THE MATCH 2023 IS SET

Dropping with relatively little fanfare, The Match 2023 is set and features a duel between champions!
 
Patty Mahomes and Travis Kelce will take on the Splash Brothers Steph and Klay on June 29th. Played at Wynn Golf Club for the third time, I was a bit underwhelmed by the overall response—though the NBA Playoffs being in full swing likely means we won’t hear much about this matchup until the Warriors win/get eliminated.
 
That said, Kelce is a great personality add and Klay will likely be a dud. So my overall confidence rating for this being watchable is 6/10.
 
Honestly? Would love the format from the International Crown tourney for this. Four person squads from real sports teams and/or sports in general (baseball v. football) and/or sports positions (quarterbacks v. pitchers) competing in future editions. We could be onto something...

Father-son duo at the US Open?

DOUBLE DOSE OF KUCH

Pretty cool potential storyline for the US Open this year at LACC - can’t wait by the way and I’ll be hanging out on Friday for anyone coming. Find me and I’ll hook you up! More to come on this.
 
For the actual news...
 
Matt Kuchar’s son, Cameron, is 15!!! and just made it through his local qualifier which means he will play the longest day in golf aka US Open 36-hole qualifying on June 5th to earn his spot.
 
Meanwhile, his dad Matt is solidly within the top 60 and could find himself squaring off with his son. Which gives me all the feels thinking about a father-son moment out there. Make it happen Golf Gods!

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