Category: Golf

Your Guide to Betting The Masters

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Looking to throw down a few bucks on The Masters this weekend? Preferably in a way thats not completely random and reckless so you might actually walk away a richer man? Well, look no further. I picked Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka to win at Augusta last year, both of whom tied for second place one stroke back of Tiger Woods. Here’s to hoping for a little more luck this year so I can continue my outlandishly expensive habit of actually playing golf.

With that being said lets take a look at the odds on some of the top names in golf to take home the green jacket this year.

Bryson DeChambeau (+800) is the betting favorite currently and will be the player to watch as he’s just been mashing this year with his Happy Gilmore-esque drives. He took home the US Open trophy earlier this season by outdriving, and outputting, everyone on tour. So while he’s finished outside the Top 25 his last two outings at the Masters, 2020 has been his year.

Tiger Woods (+3400) returns to Augusta this week in what is presumably the longest Masters title defense ever without actually repeating as Tiger won the green jacket 19 months ago. Tiger has been inconsistent recently, but those are some excellent odds for the defending champ.

Dustin Johnson (+900) has been hands down the best golfer in the world this year with nine Top 10 finishes and two wins, including an absolutely ridiculous performance at The Northern Trust when he shot a -30 and won by 11 strokes. DJ however is coming off an unforced vacation after he tested positive for the coronavirus so it remains to be seen if there are any lingering effects or rust he’ll need to shake off.

Jon Rahm (+1000) and Justin Thomas (+1100) are the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked golfers in the world so they should be in the mix this weekend. Not to mention Rahm hit maybe the greatest shot of all time with this practice round hole in one yesterday.

Collin Morikawa (+3300) made his PGA Tour debut in 2019, but he blew onto the scene with his ballsy win at the PGA Championship earlier this season so we’ll see if he’s ready for the gigantic stage of Augusta.

Xander Schauffele (+1400) finished second at the Masters last year (and cost me a big chunk of change) and has seven Top 10 finishes in 2020 (including a win at the Tour Championship) so he’s been knocking on the door for a while.

Rory McIlroy (+1200) is always a favorite to win anytime he steps onto the course, which is no surprise since he’s the No. 5 ranked golfer in the world with six Top 10 finishes on the year. What else is there to be said about Rory that hasn’t already been said? A slight knock on Rory is the fact that he did immediately kill the PGA Tour video game franchise after taking over for Tiger.

Brooks Koepka (+1600) is coming off a knee injury that forced him to miss some time this season, but as everyone knows Koepka ALWAYS shows up for majors. It’s actually kind of crazy when you look at the numbers. Koepka has seven career victories on the PGA Tour with four of those coming in majors. He’s won the 2017 US Open, the 2018 US Open, the 2018 PGA Championship, and the 2019 PGA Championship, which made him the first golfer ever to hold back to back titles in two majors simultaneously. More than half of his PGA Tour wins have come in the biggest tournaments in the game. Thats banana land.

Webb Simpson (+3300), Tyrell Hatton (+2800), and Patrick Cantlay (+2500) round out the Top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings so those guys are always a safe bet.

Patrick Reed (+2800) is one of my favorite golfers to watch because he is an absolute hothead like your buddy that snaps his club in half after a bad shot. No, literally.

Patrick Reed: the people’s golfer for people like me who sometimes flip out on the course. But Reed did win the Masters just two years ago so he’s always in play.

Keep an eye Matthew Wolff (+3300) too, who was in great position to win the US Open this season before melting down on the final day when he shot a 75 and ultimately finished second as DeChambeau took home the trophy. He’s a pretty solid dark horse bet, plus how great would it be to see a 21-year-old with the most unconventional swing in the game win at the most storied course in the world?

Although he’s been shaky on the PGA Tour lately, Phil Mickelson (+7000) is a 3x Masters champ so you can never count him out at Augusta. He also has battered the competition so bad on the Senior Tour, excuse me the PGA Tour Champions, that it should realistically be considered elderly abuse. My point is that while he may be “just” the 64th ranked golfer in the world currently, he’s far from washed up. I don’t know if I’d bet more than some pocket change on him, but if you’re looking for long shots you could do a lot worse than Lefty.

The Official Pick:

As my long shot I’m going with Collin Morikawa (+3300) because even though he’s been pretty off since winning the PGA Championship, he showed he’s got ice in his veins when he’s in it down the stretch. Then I’m hedging a bit with Brooks Koepka (+1600) since he is absolutely nails in majors and to round it out I’m taking Xander Schauffele (+1400) because this man has been banging on the door for a while now with five Top 10 finishes at majors.

So who do you think takes home the green jacket? Tweet us your picks @The300sBoston

The 2020 Masters – Who Is Going To Be Wearing The Green Jacket On Sunday

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In this dogshit, miserable, civil unrest-bringing, beloved celebrity killing year of 2020, The Masters still occurring, for golf fans, is a brief reason for ruckus joy.

Long considered possibly the most coveted prize in golf, the Masters not only awards its winner a major championship, but does so under layers of pomp and circumstance that is not widely seen throughout sports.

First there’s Augusta National itself. Augusta may as well be the Vatican City of golf, except instead of cathedrals, statues, and emotive religious relics there are pimento cheese sandwiches and humblebrags about memberships and handicaps. Fuck ya.

Then there’s the jacket. That one. Trophies are cool. Championship rings are just plain baller. But I cannot even begin to imagine what it feels like when that jacket is put onto the winner’s back. You literally get to wear the spoils of your years of hard work and your nearly perfect weekend of precise golf. It’s like the affluent opposite of the scarlet letter.

So here, in the year our Satan 2020, who will wear the jacket? Who will be the king of the pimento cheese sandwiches? Will someone finally (please) punch Jim Nantz in the face? Let’s look at the board.

John Rahm – 26 years old, No Major Championships

While the Rahma Bull has never won a major, he has been constantly sniffing around one since turning pro in 2016. The 26 year old Spaniard, coached at A State by, among others, Phil Mickelson’s brother Tim, currently sits at the #2 spot in the world and has held the #1 spot in the past. For all of his talent, his is also known for having a short temper and throwing tantrums on the course. Overall though Rahm is an extraordinary player who should be in the hunt come Sunday.

Dustin Johnson, 36 years old, 1 Major Championship (2016 US Open)

Dustin Fuckin’ Johnson. DJ. The Great Son-In-Law. Just a king of a man. The current World #1 has won one major and tied for second in the other three. He has 23 wins overall on the PGA Tour and when he is on, motherfucker is he on. Among other things, he absolutely murders the ball and has long been one of the longest drivers on tour. He also loves blow? Whatever the case he has crushed 2020, winning the Travelers, the Northern Trust, T2’ng the PGA, and winning the Tour Championship on his way to becoming the 2020 Player of the year. What pandemic? DJ is my pick in this one.

Bryson DeChambeau, 27 years old, 1 Major Championship (2020 US Open)

Bryson DeChambeau won a major tournament this year after spending the first few years of his career as the weird kid who got followed around by a camera crew on practice rounds for no apparent reason and choosing to wear a scali cap in a misguided attempt at individualism in a populist game. He spent his offseason eating a lot and “naturallywinkwinknudge” putting on muscle so that he now murders the ball, putting him in a position to birdie if not eagle every hole. He still relies a little too much on his little math notebook and fear of hazards such as ants to win championships however so I don’t know how sustainable his success is.

Xander Schauffele, 27 years old, No Major Championships

Xander Schauffele is one of those guys who just oozes talent,. He’s been someone to watch since he came out of San Diego State in 2015, but just hasn’t quite sealed the deal yet. Schauffele, who sounds like either a Madden generated player or a bad guy in a worse Tom Cruise movie, has actually tied for second or third in three of the majors (The PGA seems to give him trouble) and is always in the hunt. A member of the legendary “Class of 2011” that also includes Spieth and JT, Xander Schauffele could finally win his major this weekend. It would be a huge payoff for a player who shows remarkable consistency in all phases of the game.

Ricky Fowler

Poor fuckin Ricky man. At least there’s always Stokke.

Colin Morikawa, 23 years old, 1 Major Championship (2020 US Open)

After gaining notice on the tour last year, the young Angelino now has people asking themselves where his ceiling is, if there even is one. He won the US Open, which is obviously a gigantic accomplishment at 23, but he also won the Workday tourney and has played well throughout the season. An early sign of solid play this weekend from Morikawa could spell bad news for the rest of the field.

Rory McIlroy, 31 years old, Four Major Championships (2012, 2014 PGA Championship; 2011 US Open; 2014 Open Championship)

This list is just not complete without Rory, for a couple of reasons. First of all he is the best player of his generation, which is now firmly the last one thanks to the likes of JT, Spieth, etc. Secondly the Masters is the only major that has eluded him in his incredible career, something the media, fans, and the man himself are always brutally aware of. For awhile injuries, particularly a bothersome back, threatened to completely derail Rory’s career, but heres’s to hoping he can reutn to form starting Thursday.

Brooks Koepka, 30 years old, Four Major Championships, (2018, 2018 PGA Championship; 2017, 2018 US Open)

Brooksy. Brooks Was Here. My generation’s favorite player both for his dominant play, dry sense of humor, and heroics in the Ryder Cup all those years ago. It’s fair to note that Brooks has had a down year. He has had some injuries, specifically in his hips and knees if I recall correctly (feel you bro), that probably had a ton to do with his struggles. But you can never sleep on the Wizard from West Palm.


So there it is and look, I could go on for days with this list. Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson, and Justin Thomas could run the fuck away with this, making me look dumb and sending friend of the blog Patty Blackouts into a spiral as blow out tournaments suck to watch. Throw in the fact that 2020 has been flat out bizarro world and who knows. Maybe Hunter Biden caddies for Patrick Reed and Ol’ Estrangement goes 30 deep for the weekend. I don’t man.

I do know, however, that it is supposed to still be topping out in the mid-50’s and sunny this weekend in the Greater Boston area. So let’s crack a few brews and watch this beautiful dance and sometimes trainwreck unfold.


-President Elect Joey B.

College GameDay Will Be Live from Augusta National During the Masters

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ESPN – On Saturday, Nov. 14, the show will combine two of sport’s greatest traditions — college football and the Masters. ESPN announced on Tuesday that College GameDay will originate from Augusta National Golf Club, which is hosting the postponed Masters Tournament next month, Nov. 12-15.

“Any time College GameDay travels to a new destination, it’s special, and the opportunity to be on the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club during the Masters is extraordinary,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and Sports Content. “As this iconic event coincides with the college football season for the first time, we look forward to getting fans ready for a football Saturday while also showcasing the Masters and the greatest golfers in the world.”

Longtime ESPN hosts Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and others will broadcast from the par-3 course from 9 a.m. to noon ET.

So I guess ESPN just officially declared that November 14th will be the drunkest day of the year huh?

What a weird year 2020 continues to be. After having no sports for months during quarantine, it’s like we’re all drunk on the possibilities now and just stuffing everything together. Every single NBA team in one Disney World hotel? Did it. NBA Finals-Playoff Baseball-Playoff Hockey-NFL games all on a single day? Easy. Now we get a November Masters tournament with College GameDay busting through the door like your drunk uncle!

I’ve already begun my preparations for this event because well, ya know COVID. We’ve already had Boston Calling cancelled, live comedy shows postponed, a summer of games drunk in the Fenway bleachers axed, and sports bars won’t be opening any time soon.

Now I’m not a moron, I’m not campaigning for any of those things to reopen because I understand it’s just not safe during these UNPRECEDENTED TIMES. So I’m not about to have a bunch of people cramped into my apartment, we’re just gonna have to pretend we’re all in high school drinking in the woods again. Weather be damned. Mid-November in New England could mean temperatures in the 50s or the 30s so I’m really hoping for the former. Got the fire pit and the patio string lights already set up, currently browsing projectors on Amazon, maybe set up the putting green on the deck and just get blitzed outside watching the Masters and college football. Just make sure you dump your jacket outside before you go home so your parents don’t smell the smoke from the fire on you. Thats a dead giveaway.

COVID times call for desperate measures and winter is coming, so dress accordingly.

Bryson DeChambeau Earns His First Major, Crushes the Competition at the US Open

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While it may not have been the way he pictured it, Bryson DeChambeau won his first career major, dominating the field to win the US Open at a Winged Foot course that crushed most of his peers.

DeChambeau is one of the most polarizing figures in all of golf as people seem to either love him or hate him. I for one don’t understand the hate for a young American challenging the status quo in a sport full of stuffy unwritten rules. I fully admit that he is an interesting cat and has a way of rocking the boat (bitching and moaning to officials) that probably rubs some people the wrong way, but golf is a sport that has been begging for some novelty. Bring on the guy who goes out of his way to do things differently like just randomly deciding to put on 40 pounds

Or a guy that is custom designing his irons so they are all the same exact length. Odd, but hey it works. It’s not like Bryson is showing up in jorts and giving people the DX suck it sign after bombing one off the tee like he’s Kenny Powers. He’s just looking at the way things have always been done and said well what if I do it differently?

Bryson has been criticized a ton because he always tries to just overpower courses like he’s Happy Gilmore.

That criticism was especially loud this past weekend as the US Open took place on a ruthlessly tight and unforgiving course like Winged Foot, but it worked for DeChambeau in a huge way as he dominated the field. He was the only player to finish under par and finished a full 6 strokes ahead of Matthew Wolff who melted down on Sunday to finish in second place. Bryson basically punted on accuracy and figured if I can just bomb it as far as possible, the course is set up in a way that I can recover from most roughs.

You know, assuming your ball doesn’t end up with a lie like the grass in a public park that hasn’t been mowed in six months because the entire landscaping crew got furloughed.

DeChambeau’s percentage of fairways hit was ugly at 41%, but because of that extra 20-30 yards he was getting off the tee, he was able to pick up a legit advantage like grabbing an eagle on a long Par 5 on Sunday.

If you watch golf every weekend you’re well aware of DeChambeau’s “Scientist” nickname, but if you’re even a casual fan this isn’t stuff that you would automatically know. I feel like I’ve heard it 20 times, but it doesn’t make it any less insane that DeChambeau uses a driver with a 5 degree loft. That is absolutely bananas. Most guys are using 9.5-10.5 degree drivers and DeChambeau figured out if he swings at a fast enough speed he can maximize his distance off the tee by basically swinging with a frying pan for a club. I mean his putter has more loft than his driver for christ’s sake.

Does he fairly get criticized for pissing and moaning to the officials more than your average bear? Yup, the fire ants complaint was a Hall of Fame moment of unintentional comedy.

But even yesterday he knew the rule where he was close enough to a sprinkler head in the rough just off the green that it warranted a drop in any direction within a club’s length. Granted he was up a handful of shots at the time, but knowing that rule allowed him to move his ball from the rough onto the green. Cannot hate on that awareness.

While the celebratory zoom call with his parents got a little awkward as a crowd surrounded and millions at home watched the private convo, but it was hard to not get choked up witnessing his initial reaction to seeing his parents.

So Bryson’s an unconventional guy, but with Tiger and Phil at the tail ends of their careers we could use some more unconventional guys and personalities on tour to keep this game growing beyond its core audience.

The 300s is Looking For Bloggers

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With everyone either remote or part-time, we know you’ve got some time on your hands so The 300s is looking for interns and part-timers to blog about Boston sports, national sports, golf, TV, movies, video games etc. We’ll give writers a platform, promotion on social media, and the opportunity to write about what you like.

If you’re interested send an email to Red@The300s.com and let us know what you want to write about and any samples you might have.

2K Sports Just Announced PGA Tour 2K21 from the CLOUDS

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Last year I went on the hunt for a golf game actually made this century since as we all know Tiger Woods PGA Tour hasn’t been a thing in years. Luckily I stumbled on to The Golf Club 2019, which is a pretty solid game as well as a very realistic round of golf.

It can be a little too realistic at times though and just as frustrating as actual golf is sometimes. Think Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge.

So I would like something a little more casual as it pertains to the laws of physics. Hell I’d love a new Mario Golf platform game, which Nintendo has kept locked away in its IP vault since 2003 for some reason.

Well out of nowhere 2K sports just announced they are coming out with PGA Tour 2K21! Talk about some much needed good news during this never ending quarantine. This is huge because despite its solid gameplay, one of the biggest drawbacks to The Golf Club 2019 is that it doesn’t have the full PGA license so there are only a couple of real courses and zero real golfers in the game. Well PGA Tour 2K21 seems to have no such issues as the teaser shows off the gorgeous 17th green island at TPC Sawgrass.

PGA Tour 2K21 will actually be developed by HB studios too, which is the group that made The Golf Club 2019. 2K teased the fact that more info will be released next week. So help me God if this game isn’t coming out real soon because without actual golf or actual anything happening right now, I think we are all going a little stir crazy.

Take my $60 right now and let me and Brooks Koepka CRUSH the competition as we go for the Tiger Slam.

QUARANTINE BLOG: The Short, Definitive List of Male Interests That Were Never Intended to Get Them Laid

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So I’m sure the blog title comes as exactly zero surprise. Although I’m not sure how much it is discussed, it is well known that there are very few hobbies and interests that straight, white males pursue where the goal is not to “get them drawers.” It is just a simple fact of life that right around 3rd or 4th grade we abandon interest in things just because we find them entertaining or fulfilling and instead take up whatever is going to get us in the best graces of the fairer sex.

HOWEVER. There always remains a few things that a man just cannot leave behind, or picks up along the way, that in no way, shape, or form, is going to get them laid. Why we make these exceptions we don’t know, nor do we exactly notice. They just are/become part of our existence without any question as to why and life goes on – much to either the indifference or dismay of the ladies we pursue.

So without further ado, I, on behalf The 300s dot com, present you with the list of those things, past and present.

6.) Golf

Like a lot of post-college men stumbling through adulthood, a number of us here at The 300s have decided to become avid horrible golfers. Papa G bombs the ball with nary a clue of where it’s going. Red’s game is so cold he always wears pants. Me? Well I’ve never gotten within 100 yards of a green I could hit. But the ladies? Well actually they hate it. Why wouldn’t they? Their guys (or prospects) disappear for five hours on a weekend morning and come back not only shitfaced, but happy. I mean the audacity to be in good spirits after five hours away from them. But we know why we do it right, fellas? I mean whats not to love about playing a long, slow, impossible game that costs a shitload to participate in? Ya, I don’t know either.

5.) Quantity of Alcohol/Substances Consumed

Man I guess this is an inadvisable one in hindsight huh? But I am man of integrity so I must not exclude it. Because there was a time, friends, where we would boast o so braggadociously of the 10 beers (of Natty), 4 shots (of Sailor Jerry), and 5 blunt hits (of middiest mids) one ingested the night before. Did you puke and pee somewhere you shouldn’t have like in the hallway, a closet, or on your roommate? Sure you did. But legends never fucking die do they? What does die, on the contrary, are your chances with Jennifer, the cute girl from Art Survey that you invited to the party only to have her arrive and find you leglessly hitting on the fridge.

4.) Home Entertainment/Audio/Electronic Setups

I remember walking into one of my buddy’s rooms in college to find that he had a high-end Alienware laptop, three monitors, huge speakers, and like, a subwoofer. For what fucking reason pray-tell? I didn’t know. Neither did he. He was a D-student Phys Ed major who didn’t know much. Maybe God spoke to him and said it was written for him to shake the entire fucking hallway with whatever mixtape he had recently ripped off the internet. No matter which way you shake it though no girl was walking into that room and realizing with erotic elation she could bleed out through her eardrums playing “Umbrella” on full blast.

3.) Beirut Skills

There was no bigger dick-measuring contest in high school or college than determining who was the best ‘rut player. Thinking back on it I can almost hear a National Geographic narrator describing how pack power rankings were decided on Friday night, regardless of who was cooler when walking into the house, by who won the Beirut tournament. Know who didn’t give a fuck? The girls that were there. They played too, and giggled a whole bunch, and sometimes cried, and sometimes hugged dudes that were crying, and generally got hit on a whole lot. What they didn’t do was go total Niagara Falls for the guy who called “solo” last.

2.) Random Athletics Prowess

Yes, athletes get all kinds of poontang. By that I do mean players of the four major sports. However, that never stopped a group of guys from determining who was the best contestant in street/pond hockey, wiffle ball, horse or any other of the trillion ludicrous excuses for “sports” we’ve come up with over the years. Did chicks care? Fuck no. As a matter of fact we probably were only playing because they weren’t around at the time. Didn’t matter. I’d die before I let you hit my 12-6 sinker that dropped like Amy Schumer’s popularity after fourteen and a half minutes.

1.) Power Hour Playlists

BOOM. I’d be lying through my teeth if I didn’t say this relic of my past wasn’t the reason I came up with this list in the first place. I was talking to a buddy about doing a power hour over Google video as a fun quarantine activity. His response? He could never figure out how to get the music to work. It took me a solid 30 seconds to figure out what the fuck he was even talking about. Then it dawned on me he was worried sick he didn’t have the requisite time or resources to get the hallowed playlist together before doing the power hour. It was indeed considered an art form back in the day. The song selection itself was a delicate thread to weave, but getting them in the perfect order? Now that is where the true artistry was found. You know who was never impressed? Or even fucking noticed beyond a “hey, I like this song”? The girls. And I don’t blame them. Because they didn’t like doing fucking power hours like idiots like we did.

And thus concludes the list. That’s it. Maybe I’ll think of more/a part two later on in quarantine. Or maybe if it lasts long enough we’ll come up with new ones.

-Joey B.

The Masters Has Been Postponed. We Officially Have Nothing to Watch Anymore

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The Roni strikes again. This now makes the NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, XFL, Fast and the Furious, March Madness, the Boston Marathon, and now the biggest golf tournament in the world all postponed and/or cancelled. I literally prayed to the golf gods and the twitter gods yesterday when a commercial for The Masters came on…while I worked from home amid mass hysteria.

What the hell are we all going to watch now? Everybody better start enjoying books real quick because there’s not much else left. I’m not a doctor or a scientist so I’m not going to question the decision because there is obviously a massive health crisis happening in this country right now. It’s probably for the best to just punt on the spring and we’ll all regroup for the greatest summer of TV programming ever created. Imagine the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, The Masters, MLB, and NFL Training Camp all going on at the same exact time? It will make Sweeps Week look like public access television in comparison.

With that being said I am left here to twiddle my thumbs and scroll through twitter all day and night. Theres only so many World Star videos a man can watch and I’m already pretty over the Toilet Paper heist stories. My advice is to watch *everything* in your Netflix queue, even that shit you don’t actually care about, but tell yourself you do because you’re cultured. Like that documentary on yoga thats been sitting in my queue for months. I’ve done yoga once in my life so why did I save a documentary on yoga in my queue? Because I had zero intention of watching it unless oh ya know the entire country shut down and every sports league ceased to exist for the foreseeable future.

If you need somewhere to start, check out The 300s Top 30 TV Shows of The Decade.

So that and mass amounts of video games will be played. The big guns at EA, Sony, Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo, Rockstar etc. would be wise to offer some discounts on their titles because I am liable to buy half a dozen vidyagames right now.

This is like the reckoning for all of our short attention spans. We’ve all been constantly stimulated by TV, internet, sports, and our phones 24/7 for the past decade and now we’re all being forced to entertain ourselves for the first time. Godspeed boys.

The Premier Golf League is Hoping to Overthrow the PGA Tour

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ESPN – It was no coincidence when Phil Mickelson’s partners during the pro-am at last week’s Saudi International tournament happened to be three key figures in a proposed new golf tour that could potentially shake the foundations of the longstanding PGA Tour and European Tour and enrich the biggest names in the game.

A few days earlier, Mickelson had told reporters in San Diego that he was “intrigued” by a concept known as the Premier Golf League that would launch in two years’ time and potentially have limited fields, guaranteed paydays, $10 million purses and a team concept with ownership stakes.

New sports leagues sprouting up to compete with established giants that have been around since the 1920s is nothing new. We have the latest one in the XFL kicking off this weekend and now there are reports of a brand new experimental golf league looking to take on the PGA Tour; the Premier Golf League.

Wait, what?

The Premier Golf League is something that has been in the works for the past few years, but due to Phil Mickelson’s recent pro-am partners is starting to attract a lot of attention. This new tour would look to shake things up, consist of 48 players with 18 tournaments played weekly in the US and other countries.

“The events would be 54 holes with no cut and shotgun starts over the first two days to better showcase all the players during a television window.”

A shotgun start is intriguing because how often do you want to watch a specific golfer or two and they’re playing at 7 am and 3 pm respectively. Not exactly conducive to a neat and tidy TV (or streaming) broadcast. So having everyone tee off at the same time makes watching all your favorite golfers at once a reality.

Thats not even the biggest proposed tweak.

“There would be 12 teams of four players each, with a season-long competition that culminates in a season-ending event for players and teams.”

The PGA Tour tries to build this season long momentum with the FedEx Cup and a bonus to the individual points leader, but the team format could be interesting. Rather than rooting for just one or two guys that you like, with this concept you’d pick a team to follow all year long. I don’t know if that is too different from rooting for a specific guy, but the marketing power of four golfers coming together on one entity could be a windfall for awareness and merchandise sales.

Speaking of sales, the main driver behind this new league is of course money. Big money.

“The Premier Golf League is talking about $240 million, with a $10 million weekly purse for 17 events with a season-ending event. There would be $2 million paid to the winner, and a $10 million bonus to the overall individual champion. In addition, there would be a $40 million team bonus pool.”

That is some serious dough being thrown around, which is why this is starting to make some sense. Whether it’s realistic to launch a $240 million golf league from nothing remains to be seen, but I can see why guys would be listening. On the PGA Tour purses range from $3-$12 million with 1st place taking home anywhere from $500k-$2.1 million depending on the event. Not exactly chump change, but thats over the course of 50 events. Compare that to this Premier Golf League where in theory an elite golfer could be bringing in $1-$2 million *every week* for 4 months straight.

“Many in the golf world have declined to comment. They are sensitive to what the PGA Tour (and European Tour) has accomplished but also curious what this is all about. The reason? There is a sense among those in the game that the top players are underpaid.”

A guy like Mickelson “only” made $2.4 million on the tour in 2019, but he also raked in more than $40 million in endorsements last year. Lefty likely isn’t going to be winning a tournament a week at his age so I’d have to imagine there’s some serious equity investment opportunities being offered to make it worth his while.

However, all it takes is one top ranked player like Brooks Koepka to consider this new venture and it suddenly starts to become an uncomfortable conversation at PGA Tour HQ. Koepka made $9.6 million on the tour last year so in theory guys like him could double their take home pay with a strong four month stretch in this new league.

Thats one thing for the superstars of the game, but it might be a risk that players without gigantic endorsement deals to fall back wouldn’t be willing to take. Especially if it puts them at odds with the PGA Tour.

“As a member of the PGA Tour, a player agrees to certain stipulations, as expected. One of them is that you cannot play in competing events around the world. And since the tour has events some 48 weeks of the year, that’s a problem…To play the Premier Golf League, a player would basically have to leave the PGA Tour.”

If I’m a guy on the fringe of the PGA Tour, I’m probably happy playing golf for a living and taking home a million bucks a year. Why bite the hand that feeds you and risk your wellbeing on an upstart league that could go bankrupt before Labor Day?

That seems to be the selling point though as the PGL is aimed at making big bucks for the biggest stars, but not everybody gets to be Tiger Woods so they’ll need to assuage the fears of the other 47 guys they hope to sign up or this could wind up being a failure to launch.

But what would make fans feel the need to watch this new league? What would it do differently than the standards the PGA Tour have put in place? Golf Digest pointed out the answer could be in the league’s initial investors:

“We’d be remiss in forgetting the gambling element to golf. It’s worth noting one of the early partners is the Raine Group, which was integral in funding venture capital rounds for daily fantasy site DraftKings. It’s not a matter of if betting will be involved, an agent told Golf Digest, but to what extent, and how much of the cut will go in the players’ direction.”

Now we’re cooking with gas! Imagine a golf league with gambling fully baked into every broadcast? I was already screaming at the TV as Tiger cost me $1,200 bucks with his vintage win at The Masters last year. Imagine a broadcast with live updated odds, prop bets, and the commentators discussing fading a guy after he junks a couple of tee shots? Now THAT sounds like a great Saturday afternoon.

These upstart sports leagues fail way more often than they succeed, but there are success stories over the years. The key to those success stories is always innovation so it’s imperative for the Premier Golf League to shake things up if they want to stick around. We’re still a couple of years away from this launching, if ever, but I will be watching this like a hawk because who doesn’t love a little chaos?

Justin Thomas and Max Homa Golf in Kobe Jerseys at the Waste Management Phoenix Open

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Such a cool move especially because golf is usually so stuffy that you wouldn’t expect to see guys rocking a basketball jersey on the course.

Not much else I can really add to this as we see the Kobe tributes and old stories continue to pour in. Rest in Peace Mamba.