"I know it stinks, I know the ramifications, I know it stinks." - Matt Kuchar after he chose to play out the final half of a hole on 18 at the Wyndham on Monday morning... or me after housing my tuna melt in a windowless office with poor air circulation at work?
Too much has already been written about the Kuchar incident last weekend so I'll just leave it at that.
Want to be in Happy Gilmore 2?
THE PRICE IS—DEPENDENT ON SAG STATUS—B@#^&
From golf social to the Today Show, people were abuzz this week at the open casting call announcement for extras in Happy Gilmore 2.
The deets?
Tuesday, August 20th
1pm - 8pm
Hyatt Regency Morristown Plaza Ballroom
3 Speedwell Ave, Morristown, NJ 07960
The official casting page mentions they're looking for NJ locals as it films from September through November this year across the state. But hey, I know some of you are either young enough or crazy enough to make the trip regardless so screw it—get in there! You can apply via email too.
Day rates are $216 for eight hours of work for SAG-AFTRA members and $176 for 10 hours of work for non-SAG actors. A distinction that does have me asking why they would ever hire SAG-AFTRA members at all—considering they could get two more hours of working time at around $8-9 less per hour.
Best part of extra work? Craft service.
Now, originally, I had planned to do just a quick joke about some gross NJ junk food that would be at the craft service table. I remember having a lot of those sandwiches with chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks and french fries on it when I visited New Jersey many years back.
Instead, I went down a rabbit hole of local radio journalism. Yes, New Jersey 101.5 radio station apparently has a blog. The article title of was "This is New Jersey's favorite junk food."
Seemed simple enough. The answer? Chips Ahoy, apparently.
But I kept scrolling to discover that this blog article was actually three blog articles wrapped into one with no indication the older content was even there. Perhaps some sort of master level SEO trick? More than likely a lazy web master.
I only bring this up because one of the articles was a comprehensive history of school cafeterias over the past 100 years. (Not a joke.) And the second was a ranking of "Every movie theater candy".
The list was 27 items long and included Twizzlers at the 5 spot and Dots at the 10 spot. Read that again, please. Of all the movie theater candy at their disposal, New Jersey 101.5 decided that Twizzlers and Dots deserved top 10 spots.
For the last hundred or so of you who are still tracking this tangent—#1 was Starburst, #2 Sour Patch Kids and Buncha Crunch disrespected at the 8 spot and Raisinets at 15.
Guys, what are we even doing as a society anymore?
(My own top five is Buncha Crunch, Skittles, Raisinets, Peanut M&Ms and Sour Patch Kids.)
Skukuza is WILD
A FEEDING FRENZY ON 18
The screenshot does not do this clip justice so please click through and watch it all.
Long time readers will recognize this golf course as I write about wildlife videos from there every fiscal quarter. But for those who don't—this is Skukuza Golf Club. A real golf course in South Africa that's right next to the infamous wildlife sanctuary that is Kruger National Park.
What you see here is two lions feasting on an impala ON THE 18TH GREEN! The video is being filmed from the outdoor dinner patio as dozens of people have their meals not 100 yards away.
The other figures you see in the video are a cackle of hyenas running circles around the lions trying to get their piece of the action.
The OTHER figure you see splitting said hyenas and eventually scaring the two lions away is a massive crocodile that emerged from the water nearby.
Obviously these kinds of encounters don't happen every day, but the combination of golf and wildlife viewing satisfies me at such a deep level that Skukuza is legitimately challenging Pebble Beach or St. Andrews in my mind of top bucket list golf destinations.
Rodgers has spoken
PYRAMIDS = AUGUSTA
The main reason I'm even going to bring up this story from Aaron Rodgers this week is an excuse to say that the Bad Birdie Fantasy League is back for season three! Stay tuned in the weeks to come but I'll be planning a little season-long wager for BB readers who are able to pick the winner.
(As a Bears fan, I was programmed to hate Rodgers from the moment I first saw him. But the energy of this photo is 100% what I will be bringing into this season. Doing the championship belt move that he used to do for touchdowns around my house as I watch Bad Birdie Brandon turn down yet another one of my trade offers.)
Now, for the actual story.
Aaron was on the "Boomer & Gio Show" this week talking about his trip to Egypt that caused him to miss mandatory training camp. (He was fined.) Of course it was all under the guise of a much-needed mental exploration and journey apparently. Because when you do ayahuasca, your entire life becomes a series of exploratory journeys.
And in describing Egypt he said this:
"It was one of the few places in life where it kind of exceeded the expectations, to be honest. The only other place that was kind of like that was when I went to Augusta [National]."
Same. Same.
Field of Dreams: Mini Golf Edition
WE WERE BORED DRINKING KOOL-AID
Shout out to my buddy Austin for finding the deep cut local news segment from Minnesota to close out this week's issue.
The video above profiles two boys, Henrik and Hudson, who built a nine-hole mini golf course in the woods by their house in Minnesota in 2021. Natural obstacles, buried exhaust tubes, and actual cups for the cup.
My favorite highlight is the audio clip from one of the boys saying that they just got bored of drinking Kool-Aid one day and said let's go build a mini golf course. Without a single shred of irony, this is my dream for Jack one day.
It's all just wholesome content and narrated in the stunted, debatably AI but likely just quirky local news personality way. Stretching a 20 second script into a 40 second video package.
And in a true coming together of references, someone in the comments even shouts out the Twin Tour Golf account I profiled last week to play their next mini golf major there.
Cheers to local news still plugging away with insane personal interest stories in the era of people getting their news from X feeds and re-posts on Instagram.
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