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.
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.
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.
Tiger Woods is off the first tee at Royal Portrush. Little grimace after his drive. Not good. pic.twitter.com/Fm2aotBFO7
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.
The British Open crowned a first time champion on Sunday, Francesco Molinari, in what was, as my girl described it, “surprisingly entertaining.” And thats exactly what it was. On Saturday Tiger had clawed his way back into contention climbing from 29th all the way into the top 10. So when Tiger walked out onto the links for the first time on Sunday morning in the *collar-less* red henley I was SWEATING.
Pure style. Pure swagger. An absolute game changer. Hell even Nike was going back and forth with me on Twitter, they know when they have a monster on their hands.
As rough as the entire course was at Carnoustie I loved it because it made golf harder for everyone, which makes me feel better because I am not good at golf.
Now say what you will about Tiger the person, but Tiger the player? Golf is hands down better when he’s playing well and in contention. And man was he in contention. Tiger climbed all the way up from the basement with a monster 66 on Saturday and continued rolling on Sunday to eventually take a share of the lead on Sunday afternoon. It looked like Tiger was going to threaten to snatch his first major since 2010.
He was playing cocky too. He wasn’t playing it safe, he saw a field crumbling around him and knew he’d have to take some chances if he wanted to steal a win. Mickelson was playing out the string, Rory was making a charge but up and down, Speith was forcing his way out of contention with a brutal short game and a drop after hitting it into a goddamn bush. So Tiger saw his chance. Tiger was playing so well that he should have been cocky, but that might have been his downfall.
After crushing it all day, he suddenly imploded with a double bogey on 11 and a bogey on 12 that sealed his fate. Tiger landed in some rough patches and some bunkers and rather than two hit it and play it safe he opted for the Happy Gilmore approach to try and win it now.
Didn’t quite work out the way he had planned, as he bogeyed and double bogeyed, sinking any chance he had of winning. Thats where the flashbacks of old Tiger vanished.
I am far from an old school golf purist, but with that being said, I want that dude’s head. More so than the lady who brought her baby in a carriage to the front row of the gallery. You gotta be a special breed of dickhead to go all the way out to the British Open just to yell in Tiger’s backswing on 18.
Now Tiger would have had to essentially eagle it to even force a playoff, but still what the fuck dude? Take that shit to a public course, not the 18th tee at the British goddamn Open.
So Francesco went on to win his first major ever. I cant say I’m familiar with his work, but its hard not to root for a guy who was doing this not too long ago.
These pictures from the ’06 Masters of Molinari caddying against Tiger (and Stevie!) are priceless pic.twitter.com/Hb39YHuuoH
I know there has been a lot of hate directed at Tiger the last few years because he can come off as a phony at times, but I don’t know man I just love the redemption story. Winning a shit ton of majors when you’re young is awesome, but being the old guy, the last samurai, the old wily vet, playing with nothing but grit and balls trying to grind out a victory is way more entertaining to me. You can just tell it means more to him than it ever did before, despite having put 20+ years into the sport already. Just look at this quote from Tiger about what he said to his kids after he came off the 18th green.
“I know that they know how much this championship means to me and how much it feels good to be back playing again. I’ve won a lot of golf tournaments, but they don’t remember any of them.
“The only thing they’ve seen is my struggles and the pain I was going through.”
As Bodhi says in one of my all-time favorite movies Point Break:
I’m rooting for old Tiger to pull one out and it looks like he’s closer than he’s been in a long time.
The 300s 