Iss. #299 | Pete Dye: Plumber/Golf Course Architect

"If people don't like it they can lump it." - Charley Hull on fan reaction to her prank on her caddie. The story is she bought a fake scratcher lotto ticket that her caddie, Adam Woodward, THOUGHT was worth $100,000 (or pounds actually but I don't know how to type out that symbol). Reports are Adam ran around the locker room happily proclaiming he was taking the day off... only to learn that it was all a hoax. 

Fans ran with it, roasting her on social for the "cruel" prank. To which Charley responded via presser... lump it. I have to agree, if the caddie laughed it off... which he did... then fair game.

A true jack of all trades

PETE DYE: PLUMBER/GOLF COURSE ARCHITECT

No Laying Up dropped a helluva nugget on their Pete Dye podcast about just how batty the golf course architect is. (A golf course architect, I'll add, who is absolutely infuriatingly batty. The day I score double digits on any of his courses is the day I've truly made it as a golfer. Respectfully, @#*^ off Pete. Respectfully.)

The story is about a home he owned in the Dominican on one of his courses. Apparently, he decided to hook his plumbing up to the course's irrigation system. A move that, if you had asked me about a few days ago before I heard this story, didn't seem like it was that terrible of an idea.

Water is water, right? Wrong.

Water pressure is a thing and the difference in water pressure required for a golf course's entire irrigation system... and the personal toilet and shower of Pete... is significant. So significant that he literally blew the toilets off their casings and they described the shower as being so powerful it not only took the hair off your skin, it would take your skin off your bones.

Canada, huh? Almost made it.

SI WOO TOOK A DETOUR

A fantastic story from the Rocket Classic this week came courtesy of Si Woo Kim who agreed to grab dinner with Michael Kim on Tuesday night. A seemingly mundane affair.

Except when Si Woo googled the restaurant and blindly set out on his way. He paid a quick but steep $9 toll and... “I had to pay to go through and thought, ‘Why is it so expensive?’” he said. “And as soon as I get through the tunnel, ‘Oh, this is Canada.’”

He apparently got stopped for an hour by the authorities as he now found himself in a foreign country without a passport... “The guys are coming at me searching my car, and somehow I got out of it,” Si Woo said before dropping the hammer. "[The lead officer] asked me if I was going to win this Sunday, and I said ‘Only if you let me through.’”

Eventually dinner was had... albeit 90 minutes late.

Grass League bringing the fun for all

FAN EXPERIENCE WITH SOME STAKES

Grass League and Lucra (a social competition aka betting platform) announced a new partnership to bring the fan experience to the next level. 

The partnership features two chances to compete while the golfers are out playing. Ahead of each tournament, fans can enter a real-money, skill-based "trivia game" to select things like who will hit it closest to the pin or winning teams.

During the tournament, they will also offer a free-to-play, in-game experience to allow fans to make real-time "wagers" on outcomes as they happen to earn discounts and rewards, some of which are redeemable on-site.

First of all, love the carefully selected language that these partnerships use like "skill-based trivia game" to skirt around gambling laws. But second, I appreciate the effort to involve the fans more directly into the action... and it got me thinking about my own ideas to loop the fans in to the action on a deeper level. So here are three more ideas I think they need to throw in the mix.

1) COMMUNAL CTP

Set up a banks of simulators in the fan zone area and each day offer a CTP competition where either a) if anyone can hit it closer than the best pro that day, you win a prize or b) you select a player from the field and play a CTP match against them using their shot that day. If you win, you get a prize.

2) PRO-AM

Upon entering the grounds, everyone gets to select a pro to "partner" up with for the day. If they get the low score on that day, you win.

3) SCRAMBLE

Another simulator idea but you and your friend take on a pro and try to beat their score on a hole or maybe three holes. This feels like an easier to accomplish challenge so maybe it's $5 off a hot dog and drink... but hey, I'd still play.