Couldn't resist the click bait.
TIGER (AND JT) NOT WELCOME IN ST. ANDREWS?
It was announced last week that Tiger and Justin Timberlake have applied to open their second T-Squared Social venue in none other than St. Andrews.
T-Squared Social opened a few weeks back in Manhattan to plenty of buzz. It's basically a golf simulator venue meets trendy bar with some culinary delights sprinkled around.
The problem for Tiger and JT... they've chosen a historic movie theater called The New Picture House as their location and local residents are NOT pleased. Starting petitions to force the city council to decline the application by claiming the venue will destroy the last remaining cinema in town—and a whole bunch of other complaints around catering to golf-obsessed tourists with a ~luxury sports bar~.
(The "~" added there as I saw it in a tweet from some local resident and it was just DRIPPING with "Teacher, teacher, you forgot to give us homework" energy.)
The best detail to come out of this story was an X thread embedded in a news article from @suzyscavenger that produced the title image seen above as well as the following gems.
Seems Suzy has a bit of a knack for graphic design as she painted a picture of what an evening in St. Andrews could look like for Tiger and Justin were they to open up a T-Squared in town.
Social media is a mysterious fig.
My TGL predictions finally fail me
STEPH CURRY FROM DOWNTOWN (SAN FRAN)
Sadly, my streak of correctly predicting TGL founding franchises has come to end. I fear my homer-ism desire for a Chicago team led me to look past an obvious contender for a tech-enabled golf league... San Francisco.
This week, it was announced that Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala will join Marc Lasry (a big time investment dude) to create a Bay Area-based franchise. Lasry was previously a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks from 2014 until February and this marks one of the first major investments for his $2B sports-based fund. (Must be nice.)
San Francisco becomes the fifth of the potential six franchises—and if I had to guess who the final one will be, it's got to be a Mark Cuban-led Dallas team. Tech. Sports. Exclusive. A-List. These are like Cuban cat nip here.
TGL also announced the final list of players joining the first season that kicks off on January 9th—Min Woo Lee, Patrick Cantlay, Wyndham Clark, Lucas Glover and Kevin Kisner.
This leaves the list of major (non-LIV) players who didn't join the league at... Jordan Spieth basically. You could talk me into a Dahmen for some spice or maybe Sunjae? But that's about it.
Impressive.
But also, what's up with Spieth?!?! How did Rickie and JT not pull him in? There's a story there...
Swing to Survive... come on, Netflix
NETFLIX: THE CHALLENGE
The rumors were true—a few months back there was word that Netflix was going to dip its toes into live sporting events with some sort of an F1 v. PGA event. And this week, we got the deets!
The Netflix Cup—Swing to Survive... a lazily named collab between two of its most popular docu-style sports series is a go. On November 14th, four pairs of teams matching one PGA pro with one F1 driver will go head to head match play for 8 holes before the winners square off for a one hole takes all match. "Takes all" appears to be bragging rights and maybe a trophy, but the more you think about it, the more you realize that money is likely meaningless to this roster of talent.
The designated F1 drivers will be Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, and Carlos Sainz. And the PGA pros are Rickie Fowler, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa, and Justin Thomas. So this explains all the behind the scenes at PGA event coverage given to F1 drivers.
And from a marketing standpoint, F1 is throwing everything it has into making the Vegas race a thing. The Netflix Cup will kick off the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix week—and while I will likely tune in for the fanfare—I am not sold on why this will be any more successful than the stale Match broadcasts.
The F1 race however... I'll dabble. So hey, they got me, I guess.
Look at PGA Tour social with the relevant post
AI GOT JOKES!
When the main golf accounts try the social trend of the day—it's cringe about 99% of the time.
We're dabbling in the 1% today because I am ROLLING over these AI headshot expansions they posted last week.
I mean, like, what part of Rory's headshot singled that he may be a guy who daintily clasps his hands in front of his body like he's weighing whether or not to ask if it's okay to eat a lollipop.
And they just get better...
Scottie ABSOLUTELY gives off the full salmon "I'm the HOA president for my Boca Raton development" vibe.
And Rickie's looks shockingly real. Why camo? Who knows. But as far as AI renderings go, this is legit.
And then there's my favorite one of the bunch...
Xander's out here looking like he just back to the skatepark from a 7-11 run. (Side note, have you looked at 7-11's Instagram... go check it out. I don't know if there is a wider delta between a brand's real world presence and social presence right now.)
And then we've got Max Homa. The body proportion. The school picture crossed hands. AND THE BENT LEG TOE TOUCH!!! So good.
Your 2024 LPGA "Rookies"
PRINT IT, SHIP IT
Golf Digest tipped me off to this video on social where Babe Ruth compares the baseball swing with the golf swing.
Felt appropriate considering the MLB playoffs and all—if you're into that kind of thing and your home team didn't completely collapse in on themselves in the final weeks of the season. Reminding you of countless seasons of heartbreak that came before the miraculous World Series run we had a few years back. A run that now feels like a distant glimmer of a memory as old habits come roaring back to life. I believe Taylor Swift put it best—it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me. And "me" is a being a Cubs fan.
Anyyyyyways, the article describes what's happening here better than I would and/or I'd just end up copy and pasting the entire thing. Something about weight transfer. I hated baseball as a kid, never made it past tee ball. Too much standing around for my tastes.
Also OF COURSE Babe Ruth was also a great golfer. Feel like he would've been a blast to follow in the modern era/social media age.
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