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2017-2018 PGA Tour


bigup2dahorns

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17 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Koepka has to be the most underrated player in a while. If he wins today, that’ll be 3 out of the last 7 majors.

gotta respect the hell out of that guy working his way up the ladder by playing in tours all over the damn world.

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That was a really entertaining Sunday especially considering how complete uninspiring the golf course was.

Sometimes the tournament transcends the location.

Next year at Bethpage the golf course will be a factor. This weekend the golf course was irrelevant. It was all about the competitors and their performances.

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One thing I know for sure. The powers that be are going to be burning the midnight oil at the National for the next several months fearing what Brooks may possibly be capable of doing next April. 

If he averages off the tee what he did during the PGA he will chipping into 6 of the 14 holes after his drive. And will have nothing larger than a fucking 8 iron into all of the par fives.

Woods averaged 341 when he won in 1996 and destroyed the course. And strangely the bigger Woods got, the shorter he became off the tee. 310 yards in 1997, and 280 in 2001. So the club felt as if they had “Tigger proofed” the tract enough to protect the courses 90 year history. When in reality Woods simply wasn’t hitting it as long.

Now we have a bonafide big hitter in Brooks who can hit it where they mow, with three majors on his resume that is in that rare air of averaging +330. AND is pretty damn accurate. Not to mention he has great touch with his wedges, and putts damn good. No one else in the field sans Dustin Johnson (who has a million dollar power swing, but a 10 cent head) can equal Brook’s combination of power and touch. 

So I am very much looking forward to the next Masters. And don’t be surprised if we don’t hear a story come out of the blue how Augusta plans some necessary changes. They have already purchased the tract adjacent to Augusta Country Club which would allow them to extend 13 if they so desired. But damn the history that would become irrelevant. Number 8 is stuck in between two holes that would have to be completely reconfigured to accomplish. Can’t do shit to 2 unless they cut it across what was Berckman road. It is going to be a very exciting 2019.

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Rick Reilly:
The day time ran backward at the PGA Championship

ST. LOUIS — For all those kids who were born too late, for all those teenagers who never got to live it, this was it. This is what it was like to see Tiger Woods turn a golf course into a mosh pit on a major Sunday.

The Ear-Ringing Roars. The Fist Pump. The 1,000-Mile Stare. It was all back at Bellerive Country Club, where the weather suddenly came up 2000. The long-lost golf god, 42-year-old Tiger Woods, who hadn’t won a major in 10 years, who hadn’t won at all in five years, who sometimes wondered if he’d ever play again, was suddenly 25 again. On this one, unthinkable throwback Sunday, dads were telling sons, moms were telling daughters, “See? This is what I was talking about!”

It had no business happening, but here it was. A man with a fused back, a guy who started the year ranked 656th in the world, was suddenly making a run at his 15th major, and the biggest crowds I’ve ever seen in 36 years covering golf were screaming into each others’ ears and still not hearing.

“It was actually funny,” said Brooks Koepka, who’d started the day with a four-shot cushion on Woods and two overall. “You could hear the roars when we were on 10 and 11, and then you could kind of hear it trickle down as they changed the leaderboards (all over the course.) You could hear a different roar like every 30 seconds. So we knew what Tiger was doing.”

What Tiger was doing was the impossible.

It started right away. Woods, playing two groups ahead of Koepka, made a birdie on No. 2 from the bank of a lake, then another on 3. That set a normally sedate country club into a rock concert. He gave one back on 6, then birdied 8 and 9 and yet NEVER hit a single fairway on the front nine. He somehow shot 32 on that nine, which is sort of like painting The Last Supper in a straitjacket.

Magic rabbits kept popping up from under Tiger’s headcovers. Bellerive became one giant woofer. It was like St. Louis had discovered a new drug: uncut Tiger, and the place went mad, piling goosebumps on top of people’s goosebumps.

By the 8th, Woods was only one shot back, despite hitting his driver like a Rain Bird Sprinkler. He’d make eight birdies on the day, almost all of them coming from clumps of mud and cart paths and gaggles of fans who’d reach out and try to touch him as he’d chase after his next preposterously terrific shot. The roars left the leaders’ ears ringing, just like the old days.

When Woods cut Koepka’s lead again to one after a birdie at 13, I kept watching one guy. He was bouncing up and down, on some unseen pogo stick, in a circle, now clockwise, now counter-clockwise, pounding on his buddy’s shoulders, as if to say, “Can this be happening?”

How was he doing it? Even Woods had no idea.

His warm-up was awful and it got worse on the course.

“I didn’t drive it good all day,” an exhausted Woods said afterward. “I was struggling with my golf swing. I warmed up hitting it left, I was hitting it right with every single club, even my sand wedge I wasn’t doing very good. So I knew this was going to be a struggle to try and piece together a round, and I did.”

He pieced it together with Super Glue and guts and Houdini escapes from places that don’t show up in any caddy book. It whipped the crowd into a din so loud you could feel it in your kidneys. “The energy was incredible,” Woods said. “I wish we could play in front of crowds like this every single week.”

The blow of those roars on Koepka’s ears must’ve been dizzying, but somehow, the big Floridian wouldn’t go down. “It brought me back to when I was a kid,” Koepka said afterward, “when I was watching him. We went to the British Open once and I heard the roars. … When you’re playing, it’s still pretty neat. It kind of pushes you to step up your game. I mean, you have to because you know he’s right there if you fall.”

But he just wouldn’t fall. Every time Woods made them roar, Koepka would answer.

The roar: Woods makes an incredible birdie on 9 from the spinach.

The answer: Koepka gets it up and down for birdie on 8 behind him.

The roar: Woods hits it inside the flag shadow at 12 for a birdie.

The answer: Koepka hits a 246-yard four-iron on 16 so straight you could hang clothes on it to within five feet and makes a birdie.


Tiger Woods’ chances ended on the par-5 17th, where he had to scramble out of an errant tee shot and a bunker to post a par. (Photo by Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
Finally, on the par-5 17th, with Woods needing an eagle to tie, the clock struck midnight. Woods’ untamable driver sent it miles right, leaving his ball in a miserable lie on the banks of a creek, forcing him to gouge it out and settle for par. Koepka held on for a two-shot win over Woods, who shot 64, the lowest closing round in a major in his life.

“He’s a tough guy to beat when he’s hitting it 340 in the air,” Woods conceded of Koepka, who is 14 years younger and a rack of dumbbells stronger, “320 in the air’s like a chip shot. And so that’s the new game. Dustin’s (Johnson) done it, now Rory (McIlroy) is doing it, Brooksy does it.”

Brooksy isn’t a bad comeback story himself. This is a guy who sat on his couch for months this season with a wrist injury, wondering if he’d ever be healthy.

Now he has three majors in his last seven tries, an unheard-of feat in the post-Tiger-crash era, and he’s gaining confidence trophy by trophy.


It shaped up as a winning championship Sunday for Brooks Koepka, who bagged his third major title in his past seven outings and got a celebratory kiss from girlfriend Jena Sims. (Photo by Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
“Looking where I was, sitting on my couch watching the Masters, to think I would do this, I would have laughed at you and told you there was no way, no chance,” Koepka said.

But this one he’ll never forget. To do it this way, outlasting a suddenly young, pin-rattling Tiger Woods when 99.9 percent of the fans were howling for him to lose? Even sweeter.

“I mean, look, Tiger Woods is the reason guys of my generation are even playing golf,” he said, shaking his head. “To duel it out with him … I don’t think I ever dreamed of that.”

For a while there, neither did Tiger.

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1 hour ago, Goodman said:

Brooks is such a beast and his story to glory is even better. Now he has to win an Open, that is the big one and with his history playing the euro tours he should have a good shot. 

He hasn’t even finished top 10 at Augusta. Let’s tap the brakes a bit. 

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9 hours ago, Hamttx said:

One thing I know for sure. The powers that be are going to be burning the midnight oil at the National for the next several months fearing what Brooks may possibly be capable of doing next April. 

If he averages off the tee what he did during the PGA he will chipping into 6 of the 14 holes after his drive. And will have nothing larger than a fucking 8 iron into all of the par fives.

Woods averaged 341 when he won in 1996 and destroyed the course. And strangely the bigger Woods got, the shorter he became off the tee. 310 yards in 1997, and 280 in 2001. So the club felt as if they had “Tigger proofed” the tract enough to protect the courses 90 year history. When in reality Woods simply wasn’t hitting it as long.

Now we have a bonafide big hitter in Brooks who can hit it where they mow, with three majors on his resume that is in that rare air of averaging +330. AND is pretty damn accurate. Not to mention he has great touch with his wedges, and putts damn good. No one else in the field sans Dustin Johnson (who has a million dollar power swing, but a 10 cent head) can equal Brook’s combination of power and touch. 

So I am very much looking forward to the next Masters. And don’t be surprised if we don’t hear a story come out of the blue how Augusta plans some necessary changes. They have already purchased the tract adjacent to Augusta Country Club which would allow them to extend 13 if they so desired. But damn the history that would become irrelevant. Number 8 is stuck in between two holes that would have to be completely reconfigured to accomplish. Can’t do shit to 2 unless they cut it across what was Berckman road. It is going to be a very exciting 2019.

While I agree with the "big hitter is an issue" - Augusta doesn't need to do much. Bubba is probably just as long and they didn't tear up the course after 2012 or 14. Spieth and Garcia are not bombers and they won so somehow Augusta finds a way...

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5 hours ago, Tailleur17 said:

He hasn’t even finished top 10 at Augusta. Let’s tap the brakes a bit. 

He didn't play this year due to injury.
Do you tell people to tap the brakes on Tiger, because he hasn't won a major in over 10 years?
I'd think that back to back US Opens and a PGA all in 14 months would get some folks pretty hyped, but maybe that's just me

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