Iss. #177 | The Bad Birdie Fam Grows

Well, well, well—look at what dropped this week...

I'll give you a brief glimpse into the last month with me and the team.

Me - "When can I talk about Si Woo?"

Team - "Not yet."

Me - "Come on, can't I tease it at all?"

Team - "Not yet."

Me - "What about some sneaky Si Woo Kim puns within completely unrelated content?"

Team - "Not yet."

And this process repeated for weeks—like a little kid in the backseat saying "are we there yet?".

Then, Bad Birdie Bill sent the message—"Check IG."

And there it was, in all its glory—Bad Birdie was officially on Tour!

Which leads me to the real lead story...

Did I manifest the Si Woo signing?

CHECK THE TAPE!

Almost 150 issues ago, I saw a spark. A literal spark actually as I screen-capped a video of him hitting driver off the deck on a cart path that produced real sparks.

Now, look, was this actually the effort of Bill and team who put a LOT of time into making this a reality and putting Bad Birdie front and center on Tour... yes.

But if you've read me long enough, you know I got to grab these W's where I can and sneak a little of the spotlight. So here it is, I planted the seed and now we all have a ride-or-die fam to follow on Tour. You're welcome.

Best part—Si Woo ain't alone because he's joined by fellow Bad Birdie Pro Harrison Endycott who won the Q School event by four strokes to earn his Tour card this season.

There will be LOTS more to come as I was just told that some interviews are on the table for yours truly with our roster of STUDS. So send me any burning questions for the crew, the weirder the better!

The Match 9 Details Announced

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Details dropped this week about the newest edition of The Match.

It will feature Rory, Homa, Rose, and Lexi in a 12-hole, mixed skins format where the winner of each hole will take home money for their charity.

I'd love to see the trajectory of my enthusiasm for The Match over the the course of my Breakfast Balls tenure because it's probably a slippery slope of sadness.

I don't know, this just feels whatever. I love the mixed men and women format. And the players they got will be one of the more interesting groups in a while. Thank the lord we don't have to deal with quarterbacks.

But the skins thing is super wonky and I think I finally know why this event always holds such promise for me but falls flat almost every time.

It's a live broadcast. Why does this need to be live?

Wouldn't this be so much tighter if they filmed these in private at iconic courses then actually edited them to fit into a tight hour with deeper storytelling, produced moments, and actual pacing?

In a world where the guys at Good Good are getting like 10x the views and 20x the engagement as the PGA Tour does for their YouTube videos—shouldn't we be taking that as a hint that people prefer tighter, produced content they can watch on their own schedules?

Imagine if instead of just getting another boxing-esque one-sheet showing who is playing in the next event—WEEKS AWAY. We got a hype trailer on social surprising us with who's at The Match, where it's being played, and a supercut of the best moments.

Will someone put me in touch with Capital One's golf department, or wherever these conversations are happening?

Lexi goes with Maxfli

MAXFLI, HUH? WELP, SEE YA LATER!

A lot of new partnerships have been announced over the last few weeks. And if we hadn't dropped the news on Si Woo and Endycott... this deserved top billing.

Lexi Thompson will be playing a new golf ball this year—Maxfli.

The BAG that must have been dropped for this to be a reality is mind-boggling. Does Lexi have equity in the company now? Will their new line of Pro Tour balls be called LexFli? What kind of blackmail do they have on one another?

Maybe this is too harsh and I just haven't played a MaxFli in a decade—but for me they're up there with Rock Flites and Volviks for balls that I find in thick grass searching for my own overpriced ball and then toss back to the golf gods because I don't want to be seen with it in my bag.

Really odd.

But to avoid this being a super mean section, let me drop some massive appreciation stats for Lexi's end of 2023...

- 3-1-0 performance for Team USA at Solheim Cup

- A second-round 69 on THE PGA TOUR at the Shriners Children’s Open

- 301 yards off the tee over two rounds in Las Vegas

- Tied for 13th in driving accuracy against the men, hitting 20 of 28 fairways.

Lot of people were raggin' on her for being included in the Solheim but she can still rip it.

Also, shout out to the Big Gulp scene from Dumb and Dumber which inspired the headline. Mount Rushmore of favorite comedy moments for me. I still think about or say this line out loud to someone weekly.

That didn't take long

AMATEUR NO MORE

20 year old Alabama student... and Amex Champion... Nick Dunlap declared this week that he'd be taking his talents full-time to the PGA Tour. (Let's see, at 20 years old I was playing "ketchup pong" in the family room of the house we rented at Syracuse. The idea was to lob a closed packet of ketchup into the other person's open mouth, sitting on a couch across the room. Nothing makes you feel lower than the sad smack of a ketchup packet meeting your forehead. We were making good use of our time, though.)

Meanwhile, Nick is set to make his official debut as a PGA Tour member at Pebble Beach. Cool.

My favorite Dunlap nugget came from the Amex as Nick prepared to putt it in on 18—his caddie Hunter Hamrick walked up behind him after giving the read and said "Your mom could make this putt."

THAT'S knowing your player. If I heard that, you can guarantee I'm pulling that bad boy 10/10 times.

Venn Diagram Test

THE SHIRE COUNTRY CLUB & SPA

I think we may have a new recurring section on our hands. I find some weird as hell niche content that likely only speaks to me... and then I share it in the hopes that at least 100 of your Venn diagrams overlap too.

This week it's an experiment in AI imagination as we explore the cast and world of Lord of the Rings... but make it golf.

Click through the post above to see the full carousel but wow I had never thought about how epic The Shire would be as a golf destination. Rolling hills, towering fescue, and a clubhouse aesthetic that speaks to my core—greenery covered everything!

Plus, there's this image.

Gandalf with the flat stick serenely watching people tee off on 1, I'm imagining.