OAKMONT, PA – We’ve had our ledes written for 17 years, but still haven’t been able to use them. “Phinally Phil!” “Phillin’ Groovy!” “Mickel-slam!” – they all lay useless in a seldom used Microsoft Word file I call “The Well of Lost Plots,” where bits of articles that end up on the cutting...
It was the 66 that was the illusion — that and the four consecutive birdies to close the front nine on Sunday. But those 22 holes are what made us believe that Jordan Spieth was headed into Butler Cabin for another Green Jacket Ceremony to close out the 80th Masters as back-to-back champion. Surely the steely-nerved, iron-willed, icy-veined two-time major...
Ryan Ballengee and the rest of the GNN team have wall-to-wall coverage of everything going on at the Match Play in Austin, Texas this week. For today, Ryan has this excellent breakdown of how ties in the 16 groups will be broken. Remember – the winners of the respective groups advance. Moreover, a head-to-head victory over another player in your group does not...
“Take your bottom lip, and pull it up over your head.” That was how comedienne Carol Burnett described labor pains, but it also depicts how it feels to flush a 4-up lead in golf to the drummer of a punk rock/top-40 band, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The stars were still bright when Gary Wiseman’s Escalade pulled into the Quik-E-Mart so we...
For the first seven months of the year, Jordan Spieth was the face of sports, not just golf. He became only the sixth golfer to win both the Masters and U.S. Open in the same yea, and made a valiant run at the Open Championship, (at St. Andrews no less…), only to fall one shot shy of the 3-way playoff eventually won by Zach Johnson. Jason Day made it a race by...
Another terrific Jay’s plays show in the books! 50 year media center vet Marino Parascemzo joined us to talk Tiger, the Tour, Oakmont, and more! Always great to have a grizzled old pro whose been everywhere and done everything. Then we take a trip out to Boston to check out Granite Links, the John Sanford-designed golf course that was the springboard for his...
HAVEN, WI – With a tip of the hat and a golf clap to Una Jones of the PGA of America, here’s everything you need to know about the magic number – 63, now accomplished 27 times. HIROSHI IWATA JOINS CLUB 63 With a 9-under-par 63 in the second round, Japan’s Hiroshi Iwata tied the all-time 18-hole scoring mark in a major championship...
World Number 1 golfer Rory McIlroy was given only a 10% chance of defending his Open Championship title at St. Andrews next week when he suffered a “total rupture of his left ATFL” on Saturday. He posted a photo of himself on crutches and in a cast on various social media sites Monday afternoon GMT. “Total rupture of left ATFL and associated joint...
UNIVERSITY PLACE – “It’s too brown! It’s too bumpy! It’s too British!” they moan plaintively. Yes, the whiny blockheads are out in force this year, as they usually are at the U.S. Open, complaining about how unusual golf’s annual Final Examination is. It’s actually flabbergasting: They’re not complaining about how...
UNIVERSITY PLACE, WA – I have to weep for our society because we have lost it as a species when we can’t all instantly fall in love with Chambers Bay, the site of the 2015 U.S. Open, hard by Puget Sound’s rugged waters, where forest-fragrant air gently caresses verdant, dew-dripped tree-covered hills. “Idyllic” is the first word that...
We talk new courses, the Tour, Tiger, and more with present and past presidents of the American Society of Golf Course Architects Steve Smyers and Jeff Brauer on Jay’s Plays. All this week on the Golf News Net Radio Network!
Well golf certainly had a What-the-hell? Weekend! Tin-foil hat stuff meets the PGA Tour. First there was Robert Allenby who is mysteriously sporting facial cuts and bruises after some sort of attack in Hawaii. Allenby missed the cut in the SONY Open and went out to a wine bar for dinner and drinks with his caddie and his friends. The rest of the story is Twilight...
It’s one thing to lose when you’re expected to get beat. It’s another thing altogether to go with a whimper instead of a bang. So it was that the 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup team closed the 40th Ryder Cup with a flaccid performance in the singles, absorbing a 16.5-11.5 loss to Europe. It was the U.S.’s their third consecutive defeat and eighth in the...
There is one indisputable truth about U.S. National Sports teams: the more underrated and hungry they are, the better they play. When many an American team goes into an international competition with a “swagger,” or an “attitude,” they frequently fall on their face. That sense of complacency takes root and the weed of overconfidence spreads...
Though the selection show was longer and more useless than a Judge Judy marathon, U.S. Ryder Cup Captain made the best three selections with his at-large picks, choosing former U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, past PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley, and plucky Hunter Mahan. When the other choices are Chris Kirk, Brandt Snedeker, and Ryan Moore, you have to err...