Tag: Golf

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.

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.

Korean Golfer Gets THREE YEAR Ban for Flipping Off Some Fans

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ESPN – The Korean Tour has suspended current money leader Bio Kim for three years after he made an obscene gesture to fans during the final round of a tournament this past weekend…Kim reacted angrily after a cellphone camera went off during his downswing. His drive ended up going about 100 yards, according to the Korea Herald.

After the poor shot, Kim, 29, turned to the crowd, flipped off fans and slammed his driver into the ground. The incident was captured on live TV in Korea.

On Monday, the Korean Professional Golfers’ Association, which operates the Korean Tour, voted unanimously to suspend Kim for the next three years. It also fined him about $8,350 in U.S. currency. In a statement, the Korean Tour said: “Kim Bi-o damaged the dignity of a golfer with etiquette violation and inappropriate behavior.”

Korean Shooter McGavin over here is clearly part of the not fucking around crew.

Damn you people go back to your shanties! Three years seems a bit harsh for flipping the bird no? I know I’ve done a lot worse on the golf course after a shitty shot. Granted I’m *paying* for the privilege of drinking 6 beers before noon and throwing my club into the woods, but hey golf is frustrating no matter the level.

I’ve never understood the unwritten rules of golf and the expected silence on the course. Sure you shouldn’t be blowing air horns on the course (even if you have bursitis), but if you can’t deal with the sound of a camera snapping a photo then maybe you’re not ready for primetime.

Phil Mickelson and His Jacked Calves Are On Standby to Replace Tom Brady If Necessary

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So yesterday news broke that Tom Brady was on the Patriots injury report after being limited at practice with a calf injury. I’m not too worried because this is the same guy that was on the Patriots injury report every week for approximately a decade with a shoulder. However, in case anything tragic does transpire, we’ve got Phil Mickelson and his JACKED calves on standby.

Even Brady himself was on board with at least a few tips from Phil on how he built those leg cannons.

In case you’ve somehow forgotten, Phil has absolute porterhouse steaks packed into his calves.

PS – Phil absolutely SMOKED a guy for shooting his shot trying to get 18 holes in with the legend and I am wheezing.

Brooks Koepka Crushes New “This is SportsCenter” Commercial

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What can’t this man do? Dominate every major tournament he plays in, rocks banana hammocks while on vacation with his super model girlfriend, makes me feel some kind of way with his ESPN The Body Issue photo shoot, and now deadpan acting in his This is SportsCenter debut.

True story: one time Mattes and I completely punted on studying for our final exams in college because the night before the exam ESPN dropped a 2 hour long Best of This is SportsCenter Commercials special on us. The choice was out of my hands. Hey, I got a C so it was well worth it.

Whats your favorite SportsCenter commercial?

The Latest Episode of Phireside With Phil Mickelson Did Not Disappoint

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These Phireside With Phil videos literally make me laugh out loud because they are just absurd. As I wrote a few weeks back, its my new favorite show. For this episode Phil literally brought a candle into the clubhouse in between rounds of The Open for this sit down interview with 3x major champion Padraig Harrington. Mickelson seems like a guy I would love to go on a bender with as Harrington tells a story of Phil just handing out bottles of wine to 18 year olds at dinner one night, on Harrington’s tab no less.

Sneaky hilarious move to put the subtitles up just for Padraig too, just in case people get lost in the brogue.

Hopefully Phil is crushing all the fatty food he can get his hands on after dropping 15 pounds in the week leading up to The Open, only to miss the cut. Thicc boys are in these days Phil, embrace it.

Darren Clarke is a Man of the People, Ripping Cigs Between Shots at The Open

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John Daly would be proud, Darren. Just an absolute man of the people we have here. Who here doesn’t rip a cig, throw in a dip, or slug a beer in between shots while on the golf course? Nobody I want to be friends with, thats who.

The Open at Royal Portrush Has Been a House of Horrors for Everyone Except My Fantasy Team

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Today has been a nightmarish start to The Open for a whole bunch of household names at Royal Portrush. Tiger Woods is +7 and tied for 144th. Seeing as how he’s had more surgeries than Gronk and has a spine made of Adamantium, Tiger unsurprisingly doesn’t play as well in cool weather. Bad news because Ireland is pretty much permanently 60 degrees and rainy.

Rory McIlroy is +8 and tied for 150th. Oh and Rory had a QUADRUPLE bogey on the first fucking hole.

Rough start for Rory who may be gripping the clubs a little tight playing in front of his countrymen.

Oh and David Duval had an absolute meltdown on Day 1 with a 14 on the 7th hole. The former Open champ and No. 1 golfer in the world actually set a record for the worst Open round in 69 years. Yikes.

So yes, the first round of The Open has put a beatdown on pretty much everyone. Everyone except my fantasy team. Yes in my infinite wisdom I rolled with studs like Brooks Koepka (-3), John Rahm (-4), Jason Day (-1), Tommy Fleetwood (-3), and my guy Kiradech Aphibarnrat (-3). This squad of killers has me currently tied for 4th place in my fantasy pool.

Naturally I forgot to double dip my lineup in some sweet, sweet DraftKings action, but hey I could definitely use the free green fees and cart fees that go along with winning my fantasy pool. Now I just have to sweat it out for the next 3+ days.