Local broadcasts will always win the day
HOLY... #^&%
Math. Laughter. Norwegian. These are life's universal languages. (And for the nerds, there's binary, I guess.)
This clip was from the Norwegian broadcast team last weekend as Viktor Hovland drained his putt to shoot 61 at the BMW Championship. Click through for the full experience, it's a short clip and well worth it. Don't worry, I'll wait for ya.
...
Incredible, right?
These two, Per and Henrik (whose X feeds are basically just Viktor Hovland fan blogs) are absolutely bonkers in the best way. I love watching local broadcasts of sporting events and that kind of unrestrained electricity makes me wish I watched all my favorite teams on local channels.
My favorite sound bites:
"Holy... I want to scream out the worst words I've got."
"Check out scorecard" - apparently a direct translation in Norwegian?
"Aw the smeeel" - watching their faces in admiration and joy as Viktor smiles. The ultimate Stans.
This clip sealed the deal and officially locked Viktor in as my favorite pro on Tour.
And to Dahmen and Theegala... show me your homer broadcast team and maybe we can re-open the top spot.
Speaking of electric...
THE US AMATEUR WAS SO PURE
That hair. My God. So luscious and flowing.
Sorry, wrong thread.
But for those who caught any of the US Amateur action last week, it was golf in its purest form. The video above is from Neal Shipley's approach on 17 to seal his semifinal match. Guy hit a beauty in and zipped it back to basically gimme distance.
And then the magic began.
The camera followed him through the crowds as he approached the green. It was so incredibly adrenaline-pumping to watch someone hit a shot like that and instead of having to take a lonely walk with his caddie up to the green, we get to see Neal wind his way through the crowds that were allowed to follow out on the course.
Slappin' fives. Exchanging fist bumps. FEEDING off the energy of the fans.
Really really special event that I'm ashamed to admit I got into a bit too late. But you can be sure that next year I'll be locked because it's the breed of golf that is actually unachievable on Tour since the pros would never allow fans to get in their face like this. And in this setting, it works so well. Watching everyone with a shared desire to simply experience damn good golf as it happens—and then appreciate the warriors out there who are giving it their all.
A rare milestone to share with El Tigre
LET IT HAPPEN
This story is about Nick Dunlap, the eventual US Amateur champ—not Neal, the long haired gladiator from the section before.
Nick made some serious history last week as he became the second player EVER to win both the US Junior Amateur and the US Amateur. The first? Tiger.
Now, for some additional context to show the remaining gap between Tiger and Nick... Tiger actually won the US Junior Amateur back-to-back-to-back... and then won the US Amateur back-to-back-to-back... sooooooo yeah.
But still, what Nick accomplished is truly insane. And he had to barrel through some huge names in the amateur field to do it, so hats off.
The image you see above is a message left for Nick by his caddie, Jeff Curl.
"Nick Dunlap began this 123rd U.S. Am by playing a wrong ball on his 3rd hole, four-putting his 5th hole and being 5 over thru 7.
That's when his caddie Jeff Curl wrote this on the 8th hole of Dunlap's yardage book: "This can be an AMAZING story if you let go and LET IT HAPPEN!!!""
Mission accomplished. Legend cemented.
And now we move on to the Walker Cup next month where we get to see Nick across the pond fighting for Team USA. LFG baby.
Zire golf gem of the week
WHERE'S THE RAMEN?!?!?
Not sure which detail cuts the deepest here...
The "K" after my man is clearly grinding out there and trying to keep the other team at bay. Up 2... now 1... then gets hit with a "K".
Obviously the star of the show is the hole in one pic with no comment, emoji or text reaction of any kind.
But also the ? reaction to the ramen line too, you can just feel this guy through the phone completely dumbfounded. Riding the high of his hole in one and now he's fielding ramen questions?
And so you say, okay Scott, but let's try to show some empathy here. What's Elizabeth's story?
Okay, game on.
Elizabeth is likely elbows deep in single parent mode. Earlier that day, I can see daughter 1 cutting the hair off daughter 2's Barbie—meltdown ensued.
As Elizabeth piled them into the car to run some errands, daughter 2 lost a grip on her water bottle, spilling sticky apple juice all over the back seat and onto daughter 1—meltdown ensued.
And now, daughter 1 and 2 are finally sitting silently on the couch watching a little Bluey as they both say in unison... MOOOOOOOMMMMM we want ramen!
Elizabeth checks the pantry to find an empty container of ramen and a text history showing that my guy promised to pick up more ramen the day prior—text meltdown ensues.
Official ruling? I get it. But at least throw my man a text reaction heart.
And to Mr. Hole in One... you need to track down this ramen, STAT.
Is this my first LinkedIn reference???
CALL ME THE TGL NOSTRADAMUS!
I was BUZZIN this week as I scrolled my LinkedIn feed to see the TGL announce their third franchise—Atlanta. The TGL being Tiger and Rory's new stadium-based golf league set to kick off in early 2024.
First, I'm buzzin' because Arthur Blank is behind it (owner of the Atlanta Falcons) and it lends yet another massively credible name to the already impressive list of owners. Which can only mean that however Tiger and Rory are pitching this league is really resonating.
Second, and more importantly, I CALLED IT!! About a month or two ago after Boston announced they were going to be the second franchise to join the league, I dropped my prediction list of the other 4 cities to join.
Dallas
New York
Chicago
and Atlanta!
"Dude. This is not that impressive. You picked four of the largest cities in the country." - You
"COME ON! Let me have this." - Me
"Everything okay with you? Seems like you're making a huge deal of it." - You
"Yeah, I'm good. I just really, REALLY like being right." - Me, a Leo
Where my astrology people at????
Ha, we're having fun. Now, let's get Chicago a team.
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