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"March is going to be major." - The Players stirring golf media into a frenzy arguing about whether a fifth major is possible/worth it—or me literally every year getting ready for the basketball tournament.
The fifth major (in the US) debate is pretty open-shut to me. Let the elevated tournaments stand on their own, each with its own flavor. But why add another "major" at this point. The amount of asterisks that would need to be applied to golf history alone makes this so annoying. All the Grand Slam winners suddenly aren't Grand Slam winners anymore?
Now, set it somewhere besides the US and maybe I'd be interested. Like if we went with a European Open that rotated between Spain, Italy, France, etc. Schedule it a few weeks after The Open and let the big names spend a couple weeks across the pond before returning to US for the FedEx Cup home stretch.
How else could he come up with stuff?
BRYSON'S AI-ENABLED CONTENT PLAN
Buzz continues to buzz about Bryson's next big move. $500M contract with LIV? Leave the Tours entirely and go full YouTube. Well, from the latest few Bryson drops, it seems like maybe he doesn't even know what's next. And taking this one step further, the content is getting weird to the point of "was this content concepted by AI" kind of weird.
The above was posted by famed photographer David Yarrow a few weeks back and for seemingly no reason (despite a VERY lengthy Instagram caption to try and connect the dots), he snapped Bryson in full Red Dead Redemption mode on the cliffs of Durango, Colorado.
David explains that it's his gunslinger mentality and he's the only golfer he could imagine getting up and down from these heights. Again, very GPT of him to say.
But the weird content didn't stop there.
From Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly to Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia—Bryson is out here milking camels then posing like he's in a Johnny Depp Sauvage fragrance ad.
I just checked Kalshi and the odds favor him going Full Metal Jacket next and hitting lob wedges in the jungles of 'nam.
A star is born.
MEET THE AQUA MAN
For those who've been following the Tour this year, you've likely seen a name pop up on almost every single top 5 leaderboard—Ryo Hisatsune.
He got a bit of notoriety earlier in his career for taking a sip of water before every putt. Speculation swirled that he held it in his mouth for the entire putt—to which, at the time, I pretty much just said "weird" and then moved on with my life. (Turns out, he just takes a drink like a normal person instead.)
Then the interview above dropped this week at Pebble and I'm officially locking him in as my favorite player of the year.
A reporter asked if he took a sip of water before and Ryo hit back with, actually it's a sake bomb. And, in so many words, I got drunk.
An endearing laugh and a brief second passes before he gleefully corrects.
Pure joy.
Take Ryo by ten strokes in Pebble this week! Lock it in.
Venn Diagram Test
WORLD SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY WINNERS
I've had some odd Venn Diagram tests before and I'll admit, golf + sports photography isn't all that out there. But I do appreciate sports photography and just how hard it is to not only capture a sport but also always be at the ready to capture the millisecond long moments that can happen at any time, anywhere on a field/course/pitch/court/etc.
I dipped my toe ever so briefly into the world of photography as a kid when my parents got me a real film Nikon camera and I proceeded to rip about 38 rolls of film at every zoo/wildlife preserve/Disney's Animal Kingdom I came across.
Turns out, it's very hard. And I was not a patient boy.
But—these people likely are and so I present a few of my favorites from the World Sports Photography Award Winners in the golf category. (Tommy through the hedge took gold.)
Golfers are absolute maniacs.
GOLF ON THE MOON
This story is one of those things I always knew in the back of my mind but never actually comprehended until this week.
For those who don't know, in 1971, American astronaut Alan Shepard played golf on the moon.
But let that actually sink in. My man wasn't satisfied with the idea of simply traveling into space, traveling to the moon, or even getting out of a spaceship and walking on the moon. No, he SMUGGLED a golf club and golf balls to be able to actually hit shots on the surface of the moon.
Check out the full video USGA posted through this link, but each detail makes this story more and more insane.
DETAIL 1
He smuggled on board a custom made 6 iron head, rigged up to attach to a tool they typically used for collecting dirt samples. HE SMUGGLED A GOLF CLUB ONTO THE SPACESHIP. NASA literally did not know he was doing this. What kind of operation were they running?
DETAIL 2
He narrated the whole thing for Mission Control while his boys were collecting samples in the background. Saying he had a little white pellet in his hand that may be familiar to most Americans... a golf ball. The definition of the kid in school group projects that just showed up with snacks and kicked back while everyone else did the work.
DETAIL 3
Alan recounts that the ball should've only gone 30-35 yards "but that little rascal went over 200 yards with a one hand chili dip." This man was hand-selected and deemed worthy enough to travel to the moon... and he's out here talkin' chili dips.
DETAIL 4
With no atmosphere, there is no way to slice or hook the golf ball.
I love this game.
