We'll kick off with a quick Breakfast Balls Invitational update. Absolutely humbled by the amount of people who applied to come play some G with me and the Bad Birdie fam. I wish we had room for you all—and know that even if we don't get ya this time, hopefully this will be the first of many more to come.
Check those inboxes people, we're sending out the official invites on Monday!
Tiger leaves Nike but...
WE'RE TALKING LINKEDIN
Biggest story in golf news this week was easily the long-awaited announcement that Tiger Woods was leaving Nike.
I guess, for those who don't consume golf content every hour of the day, this possibly was a bigger deal. But we're several months into the rumor mill so it ended up falling a bit flat for me.
End of an era.
Now, the question becomes where's he going next? Tiger gave a quote in the last week or two where he mentioned "we'll see you in LA." So the expectation is that he'll have a formal announcement around his new apparel partnership for the Genesis.
Frankly, if it's anyone but Bad Birdie. It's a miss.
The reactions on golf social were all over the place from contemplative to wild speculation of him joining every name under the sun. But easily my favorite reaction was from TopGolf... on LinkedIn.
Mere hours after Tiger's announcement, the job above popped up. Huge position to just drop on LinkedIn? Sure. But ultimately, seemed reasonable enough to me.
But then I scrolled down and read about some of the qualifications...
Pure genius.
Name me another brand that could make this big a splash with a friggin' LinkedIn post! I saw this thing everywhere and apparently it was the TopGolf CEO who came up with it too. Look at him getting in the weeds with a little viral idea.
"Jupiter, Florida preferred" was a nice touch. Loved the final bullet on "willing to wear red on Sundays." But easily my favorite part of the entire post... apparently hundreds of people legitimately applied to it. Not reading a single thing beyond the main description.
Gotta love short attention spans.
New podcast alert!
WHAT'S YOUR GOLF SPIDEY SENSE?
It's not often I add a new podcast to my rotation. But since fantasy football season is over (WITH A CHAMPIONSHIP THANK YOU VERY MUCH), a new slot opened in my weekly listening. So I perused some golf podcasts I'd always wanted to try.
Group Golf Therapy popped up in my feed as I've followed and admired one of the hosts, Bradford Wilson, on social for a while now.
The concept seems to be an exploration of golf's mental game. And in a world where my time to physically practice golf has popped like the swarms of bubbles Jack demands of me daily—maybe working on my mental game could be worthwhile instead.
My story here comes from their episode with the writer of Zen Golf, Dr. Joe Parent. The entire interview was fascinating and definitely worth a listen through the link here.
But one story of Joe's stuck out. He said that every golfer plays the game using one of three senses; sight, sound, or feel. (And apparently Ben Crenshaw could even SMELL the bottom of the cup...)
Some need to see the line or watch someone demonstrating a swing to understand what to do. Others learn best by hearing the sound of the shot they want to hit, loud smacks, crisp stingers, high lob wedges that plop softly on the green. And finally, others imagine the feel of their shot. How wet the ground is, how thick the grass is, or the contours of the green.
No real punchline here, I just found this fascinating. And realized that I was a big time feel golfer—I read putts by pretending to roll my ball to the hole and feeling the moisture of a green with my hand.
A South African golf safari train
MY GOLF BUCKET LIST GROWS
Just when you think you've seen it all, you scroll Instagram one day only to get a TARGETED AD for a South African golf safari train excursion.
Yes, the map above is the Rovos Rail 9-night, 2100km journey across northeastern South Africa. The trip features 5 rounds of golf, a safari day, and offers non-golfers excursions at each stop. All meals and beverages on-board and at the course are covered—and the suites look kind of legit...
If my conversions to USD are right, the priciest suites (because why not?) go for about $10,000 which both seems insanely expensive and also super reasonable.
What I'm getting at here is...
Are trains back?!?!
If you told me that there was a Pacific Coast golf train that took me from Torrey Pines here in San Diego to Sandpiper in Santa Barbara to Pebble Beach to Bandon to Chambers Bay... you're telling me you wouldn't round up the crew and hop on board??
Iconic clip...
A RELATABLE KATT
Katt Williams was on Shannon Sharpe's podcast and dropped one of the most relatable golf quotes I've heard.
As Shannon recoiled in surprise to learn that Katt golfed, Katt responded with "my short game is impeccable." Same.
Then Shannon asks if he plays from the tips—and I laughed out loud at Katt's pause. "Uhhhhh, no. I found that you don't get anything for that. It seems very ego-maniacal. They go hey Katt for free you can go further back."
And I don't know if I have a good answer to him. I played a round after Christmas where my buddy and I decided to join the random dude we got paired with on the white tees—best round I've played in months. Easily. What are we doing to ourselves people?!?!
Phil, the thought leader?
I DON'T HATE IT
Really interesting nugget from Phil via Flushing It Golf. Obviously, this would depend on the LIV format continuing in whatever the new joint golf venture will eventually become, but here's what Phil had to say...
“There’s a lot of great young players that don’t have access to the proper physical training or the proper instruction or the proper facilities needed to be their best. As a team owner... I’ll have a HyFlyers Golf Course. A facility where I’ll have world class fitness training, world class physical therapy, world class instruction... So when they go out and they become a great player and they are winning majors, winning tournaments, I’ll have the first right of refusal to sign him to my team.”
Did Phil just break the NCAA model? In a world where you can join teams in golf (and they figure out how to make golf profitable on the level of other major sports) why wouldn't you just dedicate yourself to the sport by joining a facility like this instead? It's almost like the EPL clubs in soccer that have their developmental leagues which feed the upper clubs.
His methods and attitudes may be controversial, but got to respect him as a thought leader here. This form of golf would be fascinating.
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