Iss. #189 | Did Lilia Vu Out-Dinner Rahm?

Okay, Chevron, I see you

PURE OPULENCE AT THE CHEVRON

With Scottie's Masters dominance in the rearview, the first major of the LPGA season cranks up this week in Houston—The Chevron Championship.

If you hadn't been following, the LPGA has their own dominant presence as Nelly Korda has won four CONSECUTIVE events on Tour. She enters as the clear favorite, especially as last year's champ Lilia Vu had to withdraw with back issues.

But beyond the dominance of Nelly, I've been a bit blown away by the opulence on display for past champions of the event.

Apparently, past champions playing in the event get a Bentley to bring 'em around town. Past champions who are not playing will weirdly get driven around not in Bentleys but Rolls Royces. There were helicopter arrivals for the Champions dinner—as seen above with 2022 champ Jennifer Kupcho.

And, finally, Thomas Keller—the celebrity chef behind the absolutely out of this world delicious restaurant The French Laundry—curates the dinner for the past champion.

This year's spread?

A white asparagus panna cotta to start with a sweet pea agnolotti second course. And for the main event was Bò Kho using an “All Day Braised Snake River Farms American Wagyu Brisket.”

“I told Chef Keller, hey, really love steak, made it my personality trait,” said Vu. “Then I also said that I’m Vietnamese, and I kind of want to do some Vietnamese flavors. You can do whatever you want. I know he’s so GOAT’ed, so like, just let him do whatever he wants.”

Seeing this back to back with Rahm's Jose Andres spread really makes me regret rating Scottie's burgers and fries menu as anything other than mid.

But sometimes the burger just hits.

Putting Scottie back in his place

INFLATION, AMIRIGHT?

Nothing like another Tiger stat to put what Scottie's doing on Tour right now into mind-boggling context.

The consecutive weeks as world #1 is always effective as Scottie still is 200 weeks away from reaching Tiger—literal YEARS away.

The table above I found particularly powerful as well—Jamie Kennedy from Golf Digest actually crunched the numbers to determine what Tiger would've made today during his historic 2000 season.

So far Scottie is around $15 million which by this chart is actually quite competitive, however, he still has $77 million to go and likely less help from the PIP than Tiger given his, uhhhh, less than vibrant social media presence.

Another interesting callout here is that outside of the majors and the tournaments named after an individual, only the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach has kept the original title sponsor. Do with that what you will.

High stakes par 3 golf

GRASS LEAGUE DEBUT

For those who follow golf news, you've likely heard of Grass Clippings—a relatively new to the scene lit par 3 course in Tempe, Arizona. It's been profiled by all the golf magazines and podcasts as the future of golf, blah blah blah. (I don't disagree, but feel no need to elaborate at this point.)

What I didn't realize was the official kickoff for their annual event called Grass League is this weekend. The event will be broadcast live through their media partner Bleacher Report and it features two-person teams from across the country (and Canada!)

The franchise logos are Madden-esque/in some cases non-existent and just a letter.

BUT

The vibes are absolutely impeccable. The seemingly raw design I think plays into the spirit of what they're building perfectly so whether intentional or not...

How the event works is that it's a two-man scramble on all par 3's—and while the teams have actual financial backing, there are also independent teams that joined on their own merit so I'm even picking up some haves v. have-nots storylines.

If you have some down time Saturday, I highly recommend tuning in. They are offering a $1 million dollar pot for any holes-in-one and by all accounts this appears to be one of the best-marketed amateur tournaments I've ever encountered.

To me, this has legitimate potential to create an entirely new avenue of golf entertainment. Wish them the best and hoping that we can see some hometown Chicago teams enter the mix in year two for me to support.

Miles Russell makin' some waves in Florida

KORN FERRY AT 15

Becoming only the fifth player under the age of 16 to play on the Korn Ferry Tour (joining my golf crush Michelle Wie West), Miles Russell teed it up at the Lecom Suncoast Classic in Lakewood Ranch, Florida on Thursday.

How'd he do?

Well, he went four under through his first five... so I guess nerves aren't really something he deals with yet.

Ultimately, he finished the round on Thursday at three under so he did cool off but as of writing this he was well under a projected cut line. On some level it's got to be pretty humbling to the guys who are 10+ year vets out there still grinding away—then looking to the side to see a freshman in high school cruising up the boards.

That said, it's not just any 15 year old. Miles reached the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals as a 9-year-old, won the boys division in the Junior PGA Championship last August, and was named the 2023 boys junior golfer of the year by the AJGA.

Another fun fact, he's the first junior player to ever sign a NIL deal with TaylorMade. So we'll be hearing plenty more from Miles.

Come. Watch with me.

FULL SWING S2: EPISODE 6 THOUGHTS

We round out the Full Swing recaps with Part 1 of the Ryder Cup action this week. Part 2 will be next week where I'll finish Episodes 7 and 8 together.

Why break the system, you ask?

Well, I'll let a quote from my wife speak to that—as we watched Episode 6 earlier this week.

"The hype is over. We've all moved on."

Harsh—but likely true.

I like to think I'm hitting the balance here similar to Family Guy when they do those bits where Peter falls on the ground and winces and rolls around and it keeps going on and on until you find it not funny... but then it keeps going and you come around again as the joke is more about committing to the bit. In my mind, it's like that.

Anywho...

EPISODE TITLE:

Pick Six

TAKEAWAY 1:

Zach Johnson, man.

I'm likely being incepted by golf social media right now who have largely turned against him—but he struck me as so unlikeable in this series as well.

The editing made it all seem as if he cared more about being "in" with the cool kids than he did constructing a team of American players who were playing at their peak.

Until now, I hadn't really considered the kind of weight put on the Ryder Cup captain. I previously believed it to be more ceremonial, honoring an aging Tour guy with the title while some NCAA March Madness style committee does the dirty work of actually choosing the team in some windowless room.

But seeing how singular the captain becomes in making the team decisions, Zach doesn't seem to have the temperament to do it. A captain should be able to rise above or at least pretend to rise above the nasty reactions from fans after a potential loss. And if the incident at Augusta is any indication... he can't do either.

Also, side note, what was up with the metric ton of steak he was cooking for that family dinner scene? My man prepped about 15 different Iowa steaks, one by one, cooked in a cast iron pan—all in a kitchen that appeared to have the same interior design as the tunnels of The Venetian in Vegas.

TAKEAWAY 2:

Justin Thomas

Man did he have an awful year. In my mind, I knew he had a bad one. But seeing it condensed into a single episode of TV... yikes.

And as a general rule, regardless of your Ryder Cup history and unless your name is Tiger, maybe we make a baseline criteria for making the team that you had to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Other JT observations:

Rockin' the camo Crocs at home while playing fetch with his dog. Epic.
Maybe it's the way JT's face gets overly red at times, but I bet my man can knock 'em back with the boys. We learned a few weeks back he can't necessarily chug... but as a guy who grew up in Kentucky and went to college at Bama... yeah...
Most of these golfers Florida pads all seem to be different versions of the same—but I have to admit that it's making Florida coastal living look pretty cushy. Ignoring the hurricanes and all.

TAKEAWAY 3:

Keegan.

Hearing Keegan's side of things puts a whole new spin to the Jordan/JT/Rickie clique. They low key struck me as Mean Girls in this episode as Netflix showed Keegan alone in a sad hotel room alongside the boys sharing dinner with Zach.

I left this episode a massive Keegan fan. Unfortunately, it seems he's also having a pretty rough year so far on Tour so that's not ideal timing on my part.

But what clinched my fandom for Keegan was his house. It was, dare I say, normal. So many of these Florida pads are sterile glass boxes with not a single sign of humans actually living inside them.

Keegan's place had, gasp, family photos on the bulletin boards and fridge. Actual toys spread out on the ground. It was oddly refreshing to me and made him that much more endearing.

EPISODE GRADE:

B+

Excellent edit this week as we volleyed between JT and Keegan. It set the stakes perfectly for the decisions to come. Only thing keeping it from an A would've been a touch more on JT personally. I still don't have a sense of what home life is for him—and I think it would've been interesting to see what his support system looks like at.

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