Whether you call it The Open, The Open Championship, or the British Open can we all just agree that debating about the name of the event is stupid? It’s pretty apparent that it’s called “The Open” if you look at the grandstands and everything associated with it. People, it’s right there!
If you’re anything like me and live in North America, you were up early watching the action from the 149th Open Championship. While many golfers amongst us prefer The Masters as our favourite of men’s golf’s Major Championships, it’s The Open Championship that’s my favourite. There’s all of the history of the golf courses that make up the rota and I love links golf. Not just to watch though because links golf as it happens is my favourite to play.
It’s nice to see all of the fans gathered at Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent. Avid, very knowledgeable golf fans that for the most part don’t scream obnoxious things liked “Mashed Potatoes”. There was a loud “get in the hole” at one point for one of Tommy Fleetwood’s putts, so there was that. As I watched the action today I sort of sat there sipping my coffee and gnawing away at my English Muffin with a side Old Cheddar Cheese and quietly thought to myself, “Damn, it’s been two years” since we last watched this championship.
I then had my first glimpses of the leaderboard and I was taken aback a little bit by the scores that were being posted. American lefty Brian Harman was leading the way at -5, Jordan Spieth was sitting at -4 and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes was sitting at -3. I started to do some quick mental math and thought, “If the winning score of this is -16 or lower this is totally going to suck”. Sure, it will mean that good golf was played but I love The Open because of the potential for carnage. As it stands right now 78 players are at Even Par or better.
Often, the weather plays a huge role because in some cases we see four seasons in one week. Honestly, I’m hoping that the winds pick up and some rain comes creeping into the area this week. Looking at the forecast though, there’s no rain in the forecast and to be totally frank the weather looks to be very good. Moderate winds? Meh, that isn’t so bad.
For the field navigating their way around Royal St. George’s, they just have to avoid the fescue around the golf course. Just hit the fairway and half of the battle is won. First round leader Louis Oosthuizen proved that. But then there are other’s that were a little less fortunate. Phil Mickelson fired a bunch of blanks during his +10 (80). Patrick Cantlay struggled a bit as did other notables like Adam Hadwin, Matt Kuchar, and Jason Day,
In typical fashion Bryson DeChambeau also made his presence known, but for all of the wrong reasons. Every time that I watched him strike a golf shot it was from the fescue. That’s not newsworthy, but what is newsworthy is that he absolutely lambasted the R&D team at Cobra Golf. DeChambeau would later issue a statement/apology.
In a return volley, a representative from Cobra Golf had this to say…
My take on this is pretty simple. Say you rent an apartment and you don’t like it. What do you do? You move. You leave that apartment and find something better. My advice to Bryson is exactly that. If you don’t like the products that Vice President of Research and Development Tom Olsavsky and the rest of the team at Cobra Golf are releasing then look elsewhere. Find equipment that suits your needs or better yet, design your own. Draw up plans, then design with a computer (CAD design), make a 3-D model, test that prototype and then bash your head against the wall time and time again until you get it just like how you want it. Bryson, you never ever bite the hand that feeds you.
Moreover, if I’m Cobra Golf I’m talking to my legal team to see if there was any sort of breach of contract on DeChambeau’s part in making these statements. Statements that were definitely malicious and detrimental to the brand. By definition, his statement was defamation but making it more serious is the fact that it was libelous. There’s a permanent record of this presser everywhere which brings it from basic slander to libel. While I understand that PGA TOUR players get points towards the $40M prize pool known as the “Player Impact Program” somehow, I don’t think that this is what they had in mind with the “Nielsen Brand Exposure Rating.”
I’ve jokingly referred to Bryson as “Biff” since he bulked up. So, with that being said, I have some food for thought. If you’re so long, bragging about short courses like Royal St. George’s and a place like Augusta National being a “Par 68” why aren’t you just mashing irons off of the tee. Hit every single fairway. Have a short iron or wedge in every time and yu’re looking at Birdie attempts all week. It worked for Tiger. Food for thought.
For the record, I have not made swings with RadSpeed so I can’t tell you if the driver “sucks”. But based on the way that the products have trended over the last near decade that I’ve been doing equipment reviews drivers from Cobra have gotten better and better. Besides, what has he been playing and winning with? If you won Bay Hill playing with a KING LTD, why not play “it”? Sometimes in life, we have to take responsibility for our actions and look directly at the person in the mirror.
Until The Next Tee!
#fightandgrind #seeuonthenexttee
The Next Tee (TNT) 