2021 Olympics (And Golf)

[Shorty]

4 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

She was a wonderful swimmer. Her accomplishment was similar to Eric Heiden winning the gold in ALL the speed skating events at Lake Placid. Mind boggling. When I visited Sydney a while back, I recall there was a boat named after her, maybe a ferry.

An incredible person in every way. State champion in horse drawn ploughing too!!

When she was travelling home from the (tragic) Munich Olympics  at some point in her journey and she needed her gold medals to prove who she was.

[boogielicious]

As for golf, Schauffele is leading at -11 with Matsuyama at -8 with 2 to play. 

[Archie Bunker]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:42 PM, Alx said:

Oh boy...

The camera work is awful on the first tee. These guys are trying to zoom in on the ball while its flying all you see is sky and a hazy white dot. When the ball lands they zoom even further and you dont even know where the tee shot ended up. 

 

Agreed. This is hard to watch and really boring. Commercials every 2 minutes (thanks, DVR and ff!) Perhaps the last day will be worth watching, with the gold on the line. I would not be surprised if some guy you never heard of takes a medal.  

[nevets88]

 

[Chris223]

What a shot into 18 with all that pressure.  Great playing Xander.

[MSDOGS1976]

Congrats to Schauffele! May not be a major but it ranks high on the list of a golfers resume. It does with me anyway.....

[Club Rat]

On 7/25/2021 at 7:37 AM, boogielicious said:

If Rory Sabbatini wins the gold for Slovakia, because he’s the only player left, I will puke.

Did you wake up feeling a bit nausea this morning Scott?
Sab damn near pulled it off with a remarkable final round.
After Shaf's drive on 18, I'm like Holly Shit ... 

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, Club Rat said:

Did you wake up feeling a bit nausea this morning Scott?
Sab damn near pulled it off with a remarkable final round.
After Shaf's drive on 18, I'm like Holly Shit ... 

I’m sure he made his native country of Slovakia proud. 😜 

[ncates00]

This gold medal could be a launching point for Xander. 

[Shindig]

29 minutes ago, ncates00 said:

This gold medal could be a launching point for Xander. 

I hope so.  In the past few years, he's gone from "that guy on tour with the weird name" to one of my favorite players to watch.

[iacas]

7 hours ago, ncates00 said:

This gold medal could be a launching point for Xander. 

It won’t be.

[jmanbooyaa]

Was the course playing a bit too easy for the Olympics? 

[Wally Fairway]

19 hours ago, iacas said:

It won’t be.

I agree
 

Spoiler

 

because his career was launched several years ago.

27 years old, 4 PGA wins, >$22 million in earnings, currently ranked #4 in the world .... seems like a decent start has already taken place for Xander.

 

 

[ncates00]

28 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

because his career was launched several years ago.

That’s not what I’m talking about. 

[iacas]

21 minutes ago, ncates00 said:

That’s not what I’m talking about. 

And I'd wager that within a reasonable version of "launching pad" it won't be.

He won a weak, limited-field event. I'm sure it feels great - it's one event every FOUR years instead of majors which are four events every year (usually). But it's not even as good as winning a WGC event or the Masters or something (also limited field events) as an actual achievement.

I'd be willing to wager that simply because:

• There are a lot of other good golfers out there.
• He hasn't done it yet, and for "this" to be the catalyst, he'd have to do it within the next year or so for this to be the "launching pad." Who cares if he, like Sergio, wins a major 15 years later? The 1999 PGA was not the launching pad for Sergio's Masters win. Nor were any of the Ryder Cups in which he played so well, etc.

[ncates00]

19 minutes ago, iacas said:

And I'd wager that within a reasonable version of "launching pad" it won't be.

He won a weak, limited-field event. I'm sure it feels great - it's one event every FOUR years instead of majors which are four events every year (usually). But it's not even as good as winning a WGC event or the Masters or something (also limited field events) as an actual achievement.

I'd be willing to wager that simply because:

• There are a lot of other good golfers out there.
• He hasn't done it yet, and for "this" to be the catalyst, he'd have to do it within the next year or so for this to be the "launching pad." Who cares if he, like Sergio, wins a major 15 years later? The 1999 PGA was not the launching pad for Sergio's Masters win. Nor were any of the Ryder Cups in which he played so well, etc.

Maybe. Maybe not. That’s why I said it “could be.” Statistically things aren’t in his favor because, as you mentioned, the field is pretty good. But he’s also pretty good—one of the best statistically-speaking. Sometimes just a little bit of success can spur one on to do more. He looks like he has the talent, so I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

Curious: is there something in his game or swing you see that you don’t like? You’d know better than I, for sure. To me, he looks very solid. I didn’t know if maybe you saw something he needs to fix, just based it purely on the numbers, or the fact that you don’t like him and that your dislike of him could have tainted your view of him (even if deserved!). 

Edited August 2, 2021 by ncates00

[ncates00]

For the record and for what it’s worth, I’m not a Xander fan. I just think he’s pretty good. 

[boogielicious]

Nelly Korda wins the gold! Mone Inami roared in to take silver for Japan and Lydia Ko medals again for New Zealand.