Stricker Picks: Put Me In Coach I'm Ready To Not Be Patrick Reed!
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USA's Ryder Cup Captain makes clear distance that a "put me in coach" attitude is key to his six Ryder Cup selections.
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
The Open Returns To Royal Portrush In 2025
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After all those years we heard it couldn’t be done, Royal Portrush will host its third Open Championship—and second in six years—with today’s announcement. The course and region were huge hits so it’s a fitting statement to make the unusually quick return.
For Immediate Release:
THE OPEN SET FOR TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO ROYAL PORTRUSH AND NORTHERN IRELAND IN 2025
8 September 2021, Portrush, Northern Ireland: The Open is set to make a triumphant return to Royal Portrush in 2025, marking an exciting new chapter in the history of golf’s original championship and providing another outstanding showcase for golf in Northern Ireland.
Following the success of The 148th Open at Royal Portrush in 2019, the First Minister for Northern Ireland Paul Givan MLA, Junior Minister Declan Kearney and Economy Minister Gordon Lyons joined Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, and Dr Ian Kerr, Captain of Royal Portrush Golf Club, at the renowned links on the Antrim coast today to announce that the Championship will be played there from 13 – 20 July 2025.
The Open generated more than £100 million for the economy of Northern Ireland two years ago, attracting a record attendance for the Championship outside of St Andrews of 237,750 fans throughout the week. More than 5,400 hours of television coverage were broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers globally as Irishman Shane Lowry performed superbly to become Champion Golfer of the Year and lift the famous Claret Jug.
The return of the Championship to Royal Portrush for only the third time in 74 years has been wholeheartedly supported by the Northern Ireland Executive and Tourism Northern Ireland as well as the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.
Martin Slumbers said, “We could not be more thrilled to be bringing The Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025. There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men’s players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again.
“The Open in 2019 was a massive success and showed just how much collective enthusiasm, passion and commitment there is to make Royal Portrush one of the leading venues for the Championship and to build a distinctive golf tourism brand for Northern Ireland. We greatly appreciate the support we have received from the Northern Ireland Executive, our partner agencies and, of course, from the Club and its members. We look forward to working with them to deliver another fantastic celebration of golf in four years’ time.”
First Minister Givan said, “Following the outstanding success of The Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 I am thrilled to welcome the return of the championship in 2025. It has been a key aim of the Executive to bring The Open back to Northern Ireland quickly and as we start our preparations to host the championship again I am certain that it will provide a platform on which to build a global golfing destination brand for Portrush and Northern Ireland to complement that of St Andrews and Scotland, in partnership with The R&A, as well as an opportunity to stimulate additional private sector investment in the COVID-19 recovery era.”
Attending the event on behalf of Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Junior Minister Declan Kearney said, “I wholeheartedly welcome the return of The Open in 2025 along with the anticipated business and jobs that it will bring to these shores. We are an island with a wonderful golf product and in a normal year we welcome hundreds of thousands of golf visitors. 2019 was an exceptional year for golf here when we staged The 148th Open at Royal Portrush and attracted almost 240,000 spectators over the course of the week. Following a tumultuous period that has greatly affected travel, tourism and events I now look to the future with greater optimism as well as look forward to welcoming our international visitors back to the north coast to explore the very best of what we have to offer.”
Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said, “As the home of some of the world's best golfers and the location for some of the finest golf courses that can be found anywhere in the world, I am determined that Northern Ireland should make the most of its golfing assets and achieve strong economic benefits from them. The benefits to Northern Ireland in excess of £100 million from The Open in 2019 demonstrate the sheer scale of our success and are a reflection of what can be achieved through collaborative working across public and private sectors, focusing on a shared and common goal.”
Dr Ian Kerr, Captain of Royal Portrush, said, “We are delighted to see the return of The Open to Royal Portrush Golf Club. This is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and to see it return to Northern Ireland and Royal Portrush so soon, is a recognition of the excellent work done by all involved in 2019. The Open in 2019 created a positive festival atmosphere in the area and we look forward to hosting this wonderful event once again.”
Mayor Councillor Richard Holmes of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, added, “The Open will be etched in the memories of those people who either live, work or were fortunate to be visiting the borough between the 14th to the 21st July 2019, so I am delighted to learn that we will again be hosting and enabling the largest sporting event on the island of Ireland.
“Based upon the way the whole of Northern Ireland embraced The 148th Open, I have no doubt that in collaboration with The R&A, Royal Portrush Golf Club and the other delivery partners, we will honour this incredible event and build upon the achievements of 2019.”
An independent report produced by the Sport Industry Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University found that The 148th Open delivered a direct economic impact of £45 million to the Northern Irish economy. An additional £37.3m of Advertising Equivalent Value (AEV) was generated by global television coverage and Tourism Northern Ireland assessed £23.7m AEV in other media coverage.
Royal Portrush joins a formidable line-up of venues for The Open in the coming years with The 150thOpen being played at St Andrews in 2022 and then Royal Liverpool and Royal Troon hosting the Championship in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Q&A With CPG, Author Of Club Pro Guy's Other Black Book
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Club Pro Guy recently surprised the golf world with the publication announcement for his new book, Club Pro Guy’s Other Black Book.
Authored with Paul Koehorst, CPG’s already placing it in the pantheon of American golf literature with Scotland’s Gift-Golf and Hogan’s Five Fundamentals.
A Mexican Mini-Tour “legend” who is believed to have made 17 cuts, CPG is a former Lynx Ambassador and founder of the 7-4-7 Swing Thought System®. Despite an ugly losing streak in the Thursday Afternoon Men’s League and what appear to be labor shortage issues while building Three Jack National, CPG carved out a few minutes from his busy schedule to answer my questions. (Full disclosure: I bought a Yucatan National membership and am sorry to report they are not currently available.)
GS: The book cover looks suspiciously like Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book. Do you share any similarities with Mr. Penick in your life or teaching philosophies?
CPG: Mr. Penick was faithfully married to the same woman for 74 years and abstained from alcohol. I’ve been thrice divorced and can’t start my Miata without blowing into a court mandated breathalyzer, so our life philosophies couldn’t be more divergent. From a teaching perspective, I feel like Harvey was very one dimensional. Was he a great teacher? Yes. But he never played the game at an elite level and I think that limited his ability to get the most out of his students. It’s also probably the reason Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw only won 3 majors between them. As for me, I’m a classic dual-threat. Meaning I can teach the game at a high level as well as play the game at a high level. Which is extremely rare. Not only can I give players the knowledge to be great, but I can also tell them what to expect when they become great.
GS: What are some of the “Other Black Book” topics we can expect and are there any chapters that you’re particularly proud of?
CPG: The topics are all over the board and I think that’s what makes this book so unique and so valuable. In one chapter you might learn how to develop a rock solid pre-shot routine, and in the next you're getting valuable tips on how to avoid shitting your pants on the course. Instruction, travel, dating, technology, you name it. It’s all in there. The chapter I’m most proud of is probably the one where I list my complete cache of private swing thoughts.
GS: What topics ended up getting cut?
CPG: I had a 68-page chapter devoted exclusively to the Medicus Golf Club that my editor convinced me to scrub. It started out as an instructional piece, then it meandered into a product review of sorts and by the time the chapter ended, I had somehow delved deep into Mark O’Meara’s personal life. It got pretty dark.
There was also a "travel and destinations" chapter that focused on the Sioux City, IA that didn’t make the book, as well as a chapter detailing the 79 I fired in the 2nd round of the 1993 Yucatan Masters where I attempted to walk the reader through my round, shot by shot.
GS: Where do you actually do your writing and what kind of environment do you like to create when doing so and do you have any advice to aspiring writers?
CPG: Most of my writing is conducted on the back of cocktail napkins during shift changes at Bottoms Up. One of my big pet peeves about strip clubs is when random dancers just come and sit by me, totally uninvited. Don’t get me wrong, I understand they have a job to do and I appreciate the hustle, but I have a special type. I like brunettes with some meat on their bones. So when a super skinny blonde starts walking toward my table I have to look preoccupied and uninterested. That’s when I start jotting down random golf thoughts on a cocktail napkin. Not only does it help me finish such an ambitious project like this one, but it also keeps girls with tons of tats away from me. Did I mention I hate tattoos?
GS: Yes, thanks. Good to know. Now, I see you have a co-author, can you give us a sense of your writing process?
CPG: That's a perfect follow up to your last question. The ideas I jot down on cocktail napkins are sent to my co-author and he brings them to life. Sometimes it’s detailed notes, sometimes it’s unintelligible gibberish because the DJ (Alan) talked me into doing a line of coke, and sometimes it’s a graph or a formula with little to no meaning. I’ll never forget one night I drew a stick figure holding a golf club and wrote the words “custom shaft” under it. My co-author took that and turned it into a complete chapter on how big of a rip off Club Champion is.
GS: You are the publisher of The Other Black Book, why did you choose to go this route instead of going with a big New York house?
CPG: I tried, but I couldn’t get a meeting with anyone. I’m actually glad. Publishers like Simon & Schuster are dinosaurs anyway. Everything is digital nowadays. When is the last time you thumbed through a porno magazine? It’s been over a year for me. Truth be told, I would have put my book out as a Kindle version only if I hadn't known how good of a coffee table book it was gonna be.
GS: Do you have any favorite bookstores? Any plans to do a signing at one?
CPG: I’m not a huge reader, but if I had to pick a favorite bookstore it’s probably The "Lions Den”, which is a little place off I-70 just east of Kansas City. I used to stop by there a lot on my way to St. Louis to visit one of my step-dads. Last I heard the adult arcade is open but the video booths are still closed due to Covid. They have a huge truck driver clientele so I’m not sure an in-person signing for a book about golf would move a lot of units.
GS: Any other promotional plans? Mike Stone took out ads on Golf Channel for his latest album. Could that be an option?
CPG: Why did you have to mention Mike Stone! Now I’ll never get the tune “One Week in April” out of my head! It’s interesting, after the debut of Shotmakers I thought it would have been impossible for the Golf Channel to embarrass themselves further, but the emergence of Mike Stone proved me wrong. He kinda reminds me of a poor man's “My Pillow Guy”. I actually feel sorry for the people who work at that network.
My promotional plan for the book is two-pronged. The first is to tweet about it so much that I either sell 100,000 books or lose 100,000 followers, and the second is to pay Instagram models to post about the book as it rests on their tits.
GS: Sounds smart. If this is successful, might you consider publishing the other Black Book? And what’s in that book?
CPG: I won’t rule out anything, but my original Black Book probably wouldn’t be appropriate for public consumption. It’s a book I used to carry around Mexico in my Nickent Staff Bag that was filled with beeper numbers, course yardages and old soccer lines. At its apex my original black book coulda got you laid or high from Albuquerque to Zihuatanejo but sadly most of the numbers don’t work anymore or have blocked me.
GS: How many people did you approach about writing the Foreword before you landed on Scott McCarron?
CPG: I can honestly say zero. Scott McCarron was my first and only choice because he has been the only player on tour to fully embrace my teaching methods, he’s also one of those rare guys who truly understands what it means to “Live Under Net Par”. He’s got a hot wife, he loves to party, and no matter how many snarky comments you guys in the media make about it…..he DGAF that you think he’s anchoring.
Here is The Other Black Book’s ordering information and embedded below is CPG’s Tweet announcing this unique buying opportunity. Apologies to my pal John Feinstein:
Royal Melbourne To Institute "No Jab, No Play" Policy
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The Age’s Noel Towell and Samantha Hutchinson report on Royal Melbourne’s first-in-Australia (and anywhere I know of) with a “no jab, no play” policy.
Club captain Andrew Kirby alerted the membership in an email obtained by The Age and he did not soft-pedal the renowned club’s stance on receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.
“We got incredibly strong support from the members, an amazing number of notes and passionate support from staff and from other clubs,” Mr Kirby said.
“We’ve got lots of rules in golf and here’s another one. If you want to play, you’ll have to be vaccinated. At least one jab, then two and of course there’ll be a system of registration.”
Kirby, whose day job is commercial litigation barrister, says Royal Melbourne expects most if not all clubs in the state to introduce no-jab no play mandates as the sport continues its efforts to convince Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and Premier Daniel Andrews that courses can re-open safely.
Rahm Sweeps PGA of America POY, Vardon Trophy Awards
/Prepare for the usual PGA Tour efforts to campaign for FedExCup winner Patrick Cantlay as player of the year, and while he had a fine year, one of his wins in 2021 was thanks to Jon Rahm’s COVID-positive WD from the Memorial. Plus, there is the whole secret vote of agents…I mean, players, matter.
The PGA of America uses a points system and while Rahm only had one victory, he might have had the Memorial on top of his incredible consistency. His 2021 majors: T5-T8-1-T3.
For Immediate Release:
Jon Rahm Sweeps PGA of America Player of the Year and Vardon Trophy Awards
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (Sept. 7, 2021) – Jon Rahm of Spain captured his first PGA of America Player of the Year Award, presented by the PGA of America for excellence by a PGA TOUR professional. Rahm capped the sweep of season-ending PGA of America awards by also claiming the Vardon Trophy, presented annually since 1937 to the touring professional with the lowest adjusted scoring average.
In a unique season that featured six major championships, Rahm tallied a career-best 75 overall Player of the Year points, five more than Bryson DeChambeau. A year ago, Rahm finished second to 2020 PGA of America Player of the Year Justin Thomas by 10 points.
Rahm won just once in 2020-21, but made it count, winning the U.S. Open (and its 30 victory points) in June at Torrey Pines in San Diego. He also split 10 victory points with Kevin Na at the just-completed Tour Championship, as they tied for the lowest score (266) under PGA of America rules that reward the low scorer to determine the PGA Player of the Year.
DeChambeau finished with 70 points for his highest-ever PGA Player of the Year performance, while Patrick Cantlay (60) was third and Collin Morikawa (54) fourth.
Rahm, 26, garnered 20 points apiece for winning the season’s money title, based upon events prior to the 30-player FedEx Cup finale, and the adjusted scoring average.
In the Vardon Trophy race, Rahm finished with a 69.300 adjusted scoring average based upon 86 complete rounds. Dustin Johnson was runner-up at 69.619, followed by Louis Oosthuizen (690.714), DeChambeau (69.728) and Cantlay (69.736).
The Vardon Trophy, named by the PGA of America in honor of legendary British golfer Harry Vardon, requires a minimum of 60 rounds, with no incomplete rounds, in events co-sponsored or designated by the PGA Tour. The adjusted score was computed from the average score of the field at each event.
Since 1948, the PGA of America has honored the game’s best players with the PGA Player of the Year Award. It is presented to the top TOUR professional based on a point system for tournament wins, official money standings and scoring averages. Points for the 2020-21 season began with the A Military Tribute at the Safeway Open on Sept. 10, 2020, and concluded Sunday, Sept. 5, at the TOUR Championship.
The PGA TOUR also recognizes its annual Player of the Year, with the winner announced in September, determined by a vote of the membership.
Girl On Fire: Leona Maguire
/You know she’s big when Leona Maguire gets a song, Sam Harrop’s twist on Alicia Keys’ Girl On Fire. And from the sound of things in Beth Ann Nichols’ roundup of Solheim Cup notes and other loose ends, she was genuinely fired-up for Sunday’s singles match against Jennifer Kupcho.
In fact, Solheim rookie Leona Maguire was the undisputed Woman of the Match, earning 4 ½ points, including an absolute beatdown against Jennifer Kupcho, 5 and 4, to score Europe’s first singles point. She was the only player in the event to play all five matches.
“I heard that Kupcho made some comments last night in the team room and that fueled a little bit of fire,” said Maguire, who wouldn’t divulge what she’d heard.
The 26-year-old Duke graduate spent 135 weeks as the top amateur in the world and was a stalwart in every kind of amateur team competition imaginable. Now the whole of golf knows of her gutsy talent.
“She’s the one we’re going to have to fear,” said Hurst, “for a long time.”
Harrop’s latest…
"The neatest moments in golf are when you’re not thinking about money at all, and for both fan and player the world becomes ball, hole, club in hand."
/Strong stuff from Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger on the flat Tour Championship vs. the Solheim Cup:
You can’t have professional golf without prize money. Golf without prize money is amateur golf. But the neatest moments in golf are when you’re not thinking about money at all, and for both fan and player the world becomes ball, hole, club in hand.
That’s why, in no particular order, the four men’s Grand Slam events are so enduring, as are the four women’s majors (sorry, Evian), the three senior majors for men, plus the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup and (some years more than others) the Presidents Cup. In Toledo on Sunday, the earth was shaking when Jennifer Kupcho do her thing and then Mel Reid did hers. As pure sport-as-theater, it was hard — you could say impossible — not to be more drawn to that.
Shock Finding: You're Only As Athletic As The Driver You're Playing
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Golf.com’s Andrew Tursky “wanted to see how much driver technology has actually increased distance over the years” and conducted a test to find out.
He took five Taylormade drivers from different years over to True Spec Golf—company man!—and used a Foresight launch monitor to gather his data.
While you should hit the link to understand his approach and results, the biggest takeaway involved the leap from the 2004 R7’s Quad carry distance, which jumped 22.1 yards from 264.2 to 2021’s SIM2’s 286.3. The overall distance jump of 25.4 yards from 285.4 to 310.8 Tursky found would suggest:
(A) it’s not all the ball
(B) His athleticism really fluctuates as he changes clubs, not coincidentally
(C) The helping agronomy also was totally inconsistent between shots
Anyway, nice research on how different drivers react.
Why The PGA Tour Is Cracking Down On The Unruly Behavior It Encouraged
/It might as well have been since it’s a crackdown necessary, in part, because the get-young desperation got the best of them. Who could have seen that? Obviously not the Global Home’s high-priced adults.
Schupak writes:
The level of decorum at all professional sports has eroded, but as Rory McIlroy pointed out golf was different. It held itself to a higher standard. Yell, “Miss it, Noonan,” when a player was putting and you’d get a slap in the head just as in “Caddyshack.” But it wasn’t that long ago – before golf’s COVID bump – that the game was supposedly dying and the industry was collectively in full desperation mode, trying everything from 15-inch cups to Foot Golf to attract new golfers. The PGA Tour, facing a Tiger-less future, went so far as to build its current marketing campaign around an inclusive, “Live Under Par,” motto that encouraged selfie-nation to get close to the action, document their encounters and share it all on their various social media platforms. Oh, and can you fill out this release form from the Tour’s legal department so it can include you in its next boffo TV campaign.
The Tour was so willing to cater to a younger demographic that it tolerated the “Baba Booey” and “Mashed Potatoes” screams and welcomed the Cameron Crazies-like behavior from other sports.
Quadrilateral: Solheim Cup Takeaways
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In the latest Quadrilateral, I cover the course and the brouhaha that is festering as I type due to fans badgering Nelly Korda online. Amazing how these Amer…oh wait, it’s Europeans? Anyway, a super three days of Solheim golf at a course deserving of more majors. And The Quadrilateral covers majors so subscribe!
"The success of the series will hinge on access and authenticity."
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The PGA Tour is certainly going down the right path in trying to develop a show with Netflix and in the vein of “Drive to Survive.” But it was hard to read Golf.com’s exclusive from Dylan Dethier and not laugh at the idea pro golfers will let us know much beyond how upset they were to get a dark grey courtesy card at Memphis three years.
Remember, these are people who won’t wear a microphone for fear we’d learn their state yardage secrets.
And unlike auto racing, it’s hard to do golf action or film the “teams” without distracting from the competition.
Dethier lays out the companies involved, including Rickie Fowler’s media company, and it’s already bizarre to see the references to players as the “cast”.
Still, the players under consideration are a high-powered bunch. The cast includes major champions, Ryder Cuppers and some half-dozen of the top 20 in the current World Ranking.
The success of the series will hinge on access and authenticity. Access will hinge on the final list of participants as well as their willingness to open up on the Tour’s weekly goings-on. Authenticity will depend on all parties allowing the sport’s most interesting subplots to play out on screen.
A few big questions remain: Which top players will sign on? How much off-course access will they grant film crews? Just how “real” will this reality television get?
I repeat, they won’t wear mic’s, do mid-round interviews or even let their caddies be mic’d up. Good luck producers!
Patrick Reed Reinforces The Ryder Cup Case Against Picking Patrick Reed
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If you want the short version of what he said, both Doug Ferguson (here) and Bob Harig (here) file skeptical accounts of Reed’s weird claims.
Phil Still Upset About Possibly Losing 1.5 Inches Off His (Driver) Shaft, Now Wants The Golf Ball Targeted
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Interesting twist in Phil Mickelson’s crusade against a proposed rule change yet to be proposed as far as I know: change the golf ball.
Last week he randomly took on the notion of a 46-inch shaft limit and this week, with his tennis court and palm trees as a backdrop, continued his battle for the everyday golfer against an unproposed proposal.
This week he starts off with some batty analogy about New York City crime rates and ice cream sales. Don’t close out the window so fast.
While I love that he’s advocating a ball that moves more (again) by “not having the ball be perimeter weighted,” he does admit more sidespin means more balls might be hit offline. “
“Just an idea to start addressing the real issue,” he said.
I’m fairly confident limiting the driver shaft at 46 inches—the standard shipping length for his Callaway Epic—will be much more palatable to the masses than a ball curving a bit more. But hey, at least he’s generating conversation and his old friends in Fairhaven will just love this.
The full video:
The Quadrilateral: Major(s) News & Notes, September 2, 2021
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If you had subscribed, then this would already be in your inbox.
Cantlay On The Symptoms Of Fan Behavior Issues, The "Ridiculous" PIP And The "Not Good" Tour Championship Format
/Fresh off his BMW Championship six-hole playoff win, Patrick Cantlay met with media in advance of the Tour Championship. And while he’s always good in these interview room/Zoom situations, Cantlay offered unvarnished takes on the topics of the day: fan behavior, the root causes and this week’s season-ending format.
All of it is here, but the highlights:
Q. Rory mentioned that he was talking, I asked a little bit about Bryson and he said he felt sympathy for him. Having been, having played alongside him last week, just wondering what you feel.
PATRICK CANTLAY: I think it's a tough situation. I think, naturally, of course there is some sympathy because you don't want to see anybody have a bunch of people be against you or even be heckled. I think anybody that watches sports and sees someone being heckled, they don't like that inherently because if you imagine yourself as that person, it wouldn't feel good.
I think, unfortunately, it might be a symptom of a larger problem, which is social media driven and which is potentially Player Impact Program derived. I think when you have people that go for attention-seeking maneuvers, you leave yourself potentially open to having the wrong type of attention, and I think maybe that's where we're at it and it may be a symptom of going for too much attention.
But it can be awesome too because if you succeed and you act perfect all the time and you do the perfect things all the time, and then you also go for the right attention-seeking moves, you get like double bonus points because everyone loves you and you're on the perfect side of it. I think it's just a very live by the sword, die by the sword type of deal. And when you leave it to a jury, you don't know what's going to happen. So it's hard to get all 12 people on a jury on your side.
And if you're playing professional golf on the stage that you're playing on and 98 percent of the people are pulling for you and there are 10,000 people on the green, I don't know, what does that leave, 20 people that don't like you, even if 98 percent of the people like you? And if those 20 people have had enough to drink or feel emboldened enough to say something because they want to impress the girl they're standing next to, then, yeah, like, you're in trouble. Like, people are going to say bad things.
Golf, unfortunately, doesn't and probably shouldn't tolerate that. I think there's a respect level in golf and there's intimacy that the fans can get so, so close to you, and you're also all by yourself, and you don't have the armor of putting on Yankee pinstripes, and you don't have the armor of having, knowing that if you're on the Yankees and people hate you and you're playing in Boston, you can tolerate it for three hours in right field. But you only tolerate it because you know next week or on Friday you're going to show up and you're going to be in Yankee Stadium and no matter what you do, even if you fall on your face, you're going to have the pinstripe armor on and people are going to love you.
So golf is different in that respect, that if you only have 2 percent of the people that are very against you because you're polarizing and because you're attention-seeking, then you're kind of dead because those people are going to be loud, and they're going to want to say something to get under your skin.
And I think golf shouldn't let that happen. I think the Masters is a great example of a place that doesn't let that happen, and it's the greatest place to watch and play professional golf because of the atmosphere they create. I think if you look at the history of the game and you look at the respect that underlies the entirety of the history of the game, we shouldn't tolerate it, and we shouldn't celebrate that. We should celebrate the fan that is respectful and pulls for their side.
So it's a tough situation. It's a tough topic, but that would be my take on it and I'm sure it's not perfect, but after thinking about it a little bit, it's the best I can come up with.
Q. I thought you were reading from a script there. You actually made that up off the top of your head?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I'm looking around here. I don't see any prompters.
Yowsers that was good and the follow-up was perfect!
Regarding this week’s net championship to decide who wins the $15 million first prize, Cantlay can be added to the list of non-fans.
Q. It sounded from the very start of your comments that your focus is on playing good golf and shooting a good score and all that stuff. But I'm curious about something Rahm said a couple weeks ago that when they make the analogy of, Patriots can go 18-0 and still not win the Super Bowl, his answer was, Yeah, but they still finish second. And I'm curious what you still think of that and is there any part of you that is still annoyed about what happened two years ago?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I think, frankly, it's not a good format. I think it's obvious why they went to the format because the previous format was confusing. I think this format is less confusing. But I don't think it's a good format. I dislike the fact that we no longer have a TOUR Champion. So I dislike the fact that no one knows, when they look at the leaderboard, who shot the lowest round this week. I think the fact that Xander didn't get a tournament win for beating the field by two or three shots is absolutely criminal, not just because he's my friend, but I think that if that happened to anybody that would be criminal. And there has to be a better solution. I am not a mastermind on golf formats and there are lots of moving parts, so I'm not saying that I have the answer, there are lots of smart people and I guarantee you there must be an option for a better format out there than the current one we are playing in.
With that said, I am going to do the best possible job I can at winning in this format because that's all I can do. And in no way will that take, impact my ability to perform in this format. I think if you play the best golf this week, you're going to be in a great spot by the end of the week.
And back to the topic of the day…
Q. What's your PIP rating by the way? Do you know? Do you guys have access to look at it?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I don't know.
Q. Do they tell you?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I don't know. I got to be honest, I doubt I'm doing very well in that category. If I were to win any portion of the 10, I would let you know that I win in that 10 and I would be compelled to give all that money back to the fans that made it possible, because there's no way a person like me should be able to get into the top 10 of the PIP if not for people out there deciding that they want me to be in the top 10 and to try to get some of that PIP money for themselves. Because I, if I win PIP money, I am going to give it back to the people that made it possible in some way, shape or form. I won't take any of the PIP money. I think it's kind of ridiculous and I think it's, when I said there's a symptom of a larger problem, I think that's exactly what I'm talking about.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.
Get the hook, he’s saying way too many smart things!
