2021 British Open (Players Angry Over COVID Protocols)

[Big Lex]

Thoughts on "Majors:"

The Majors are whatever "we" say they are. Right now there is consensus on a certain 4, but it wasn't always this way.

Who was the first person to say "major championship?" I have heard it was Jack Nicklaus, but I don't know how you verify this.

Bobby Jones once said that calling the Masters, PGA, US Open, and (British) Open Championship the "Grand Slam" was _wrong_. To him, the grand slam was the open and amateur championships of both the US and the UK. Today this would be impossible, but you can see how it would have been a more prestigious grand slam in his day than winning the currently defined grand slam. 

It is generally thought that strength of field is one thing that defines major championship status. Yet there is at least one tournament that routinely has a stronger field than the (British) Open Championship, yet it/they are not considered (a) major(s). Sorry for all the parentheses )

[DaveP043]

10 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

Who was the first person to say "major championship?" I have heard it was Jack Nicklaus, but I don't know how you verify this.

The story I remember is that it was Bob Drum, talking with Arnold Palmer, who first floated the idea of the current four Majors as being the "special" four.  As a relatively big-name sportswriter, he was able to get the ball rolling.

[Shindig]

34 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

Bobby Jones once said that calling the Masters, PGA, US Open, and (British) Open Championship the "Grand Slam" was _wrong_. To him, the grand slam was the open and amateur championships of both the US and the UK. Today this would be impossible, but you can see how it would have been a more prestigious grand slam in his day than winning the currently defined grand slam. 

It isn't really impossible, but you'd have to be really dedicated to trying to do that.  And independently wealthy or approximately, because if you're good enough to have a chance to win the Open or the UKBO but aren't looking at turning pro, I don't know.   I think Ken Venturi was the closest an amateur came to winning the Masters, and I do sometimes wonder what would happen if someone won that as an amateur, especially given how high esteem the hosts have for amateur golfers.

23 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

The story I remember is that it was Bob Drum, talking with Arnold Palmer, who first floated the idea of the current four Majors as being the "special" four.  As a relatively big-name sportswriter, he was able to get the ball rolling.

This is what I heard, too.  I think it was the in 1960, when Palmer already had won the first two. 

38 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

It is generally thought that strength of field is one thing that defines major championship status. Yet there is at least one tournament that routinely has a stronger field than the (British) Open Championship, yet it/they are not considered (a) major(s). Sorry for all the parentheses )

I assume you mean the Players' Championship?  I agree it has a strong field, but that's partly because it doesn't have the open qualifying nature of the UKBO or Open.

Don't worry about the parenthesis;  us LISP/Scheme/Racket programmers have to stick together  

(I have no idea if that last part applies to you, it's just what I think when I see that style of writing, which is largely how I write sometimes too)

[Vinsk]

Open Championship: Tallest player in PGA Tour history tees it up

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At 6'9", Jon Thomson is the tallest golfer in PGA or European tour history, and he's in the field at this...

 

[Shindig]

Is this thing where the final hour is on their streaming app going to be a thing on the weekend too?  

[David in FL]

Good grief, but Phil stunk it up today!

 

[boogielicious]

32 minutes ago, David in FL said:

Good grief, but Phil stunk it up today!

 

He is still in his “PGA Hangover” phase.

[saevel25]

Now that was a bad putt!!

 

[Shindig]

34 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Now that was a bad putt!! 

https://twitter.com/GeoffShac/status/1415671896335519753?s=20

 

It's nice to know I haven't done that.

Is this what NLU was talking about on their UKBO recap podcast today?

[Beastie]

Bryson DeChambeau’s club maker hits back at ‘stupid’ driver complaints | The Open | The Guardian

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Bryson DeChambeau has become embroiled in an extraordinary war of words with equipment...

A bad workman blames his tools…..

[subhro]

Yes... hard to believe that happened. Zalatoris had quite a wild round, an eagle, then birdies and bogies galore.

Edited July 16, 2021 by subhro
spelling

[boogielicious]

4 hours ago, Beastie said:

Bryson DeChambeau’s club maker hits back at ‘stupid’ driver complaints | The Open | The Guardian

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Bryson DeChambeau has become embroiled in an extraordinary war of words with equipment...

A bad workman blames his tools…..

Quote

“I’ve realised this for years now. This has happened since 2016-17 when players stopped drawing it. There’s not very many golfers that draw it any more. It’s not because of spin rate. Everybody thinks it is. It’s not. It’s literally the physics and the way that they build heads now. It’s not the right design, unfortunately, and we’ve been trying to fix it.”

Dude! You had three years of basic college physics! Three years! That’s f**king nothing!  Stop acting like you’re Sir Isaac F-ing Newton! You are not that smart! The guys who design the clubs heads have bowel movements smarter than you. Maybe don’t swing like a long drive competitor and swing like a professional golfer instead.

[jmanbooyaa]

The American version of Sergio. Says stupid shit that bothers people. 
 

Sergio had turned things around with age, maybe Bryson does also. 

[DaveP043]

28 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Dude! You had three years of basic college physics! Three years! That’s f**king nothing!  Stop acting like you’re Sir Isaac F-ing Newton! You are not that smart! The guys who design the clubs heads have bowel movements smarter than you. Maybe don’t swing like a long drive competitor and swing like a professional golfer instead.

I thought the same thing.  "When I miss the center of the club, bad things happen, and its the club's fault".  Here's a hint, learn to hit the center of the clubface.  If you can't do it at 130 mph, try dialing back to 125.  Try something different, if you want the results to be different.

[jmanbooyaa]

The guy is playing a 5 degree driver. I can’t imagine Cobra mass producing one of those for the public. Who the hell would want a 5 degree driver? Amateur and pro besides this nut. 

[colin007]

55 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Dude! You had three years of basic college physics! Three years! That’s f**king nothing!  Stop acting like you’re Sir Isaac F-ing Newton! You are not that smart! The guys who design the clubs heads have bowel movements smarter than you. Maybe don’t swing like a long drive competitor and swing like a professional golfer instead.

He's a freaking dickwad.

[Shorty]

22 minutes ago, colin007 said:

He's a freaking dickwad.

Imagine paying someone goodness knows how many millions of dollars to use your product and the message the public hear him say (despite him trying to wriggle out of it) is "This product is crap". I'd ditch him. This pr*ck has so little self awareness he's going to keep doing stuff like this. He's a loyal guy....

Here's another cringy thing from 2016:

"To talk and be able to have a personal relationship with [Bob Philion] the president and CEO of Cobra Puma is special," DeChambeau said. "I can go straight up to him and tell him something I think could help the company perform at a higher level, and he's right on top of it saying, 'Yeah, let's try it.'

Edited July 16, 2021 by Shorty

[mcanadiens]

You'd have thought Bryson shot the 10-over instead of Phil. 

So he's +1 and about to tee off for his second round. That's plenty of opportunity for him to get back under the cut line and give himself a chance on the weekend.

It will be interesting to see if the spoiled brat routine helps or hurts him today.