Let's fix Olympic golf

+ A DM about walking vs. riding

Author

Sean Melia
July 05, 2024

Cyprian Keyes in W. Boylston, Mass.

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all had an excellent 4th of July!

On Wednesday, I checked a new course off the list in my quest this week. Cyprian Keyes in West Boylston was my 124th different course in Massachusetts. It was designed by Mark Mungeam, who joined the Bay State Podcast a couple of weeks ago. It was $39 to walk on Wednesday, which made me do a double-take in the pro shop. Awesome value. It’s a narrow, tight course. I liked the greens, and the course was in great condition. I’ll be back there in a couple of weeks to play in the MassGolf Publink Links Qualifier.

Have a great weekend wherever you are!

News and Notes:

  • Every week, I record a short amateur golf podcast for AmateurGolf.com. We touch on the biggest amateur events and preview the week ahead. Give it a listen and a subscription! Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

  • I missed it last week, but Trevor Drew won the Lowell Cities. He forced a playoff with a birdie binge late in the round, and then he beat Molly Smith in the playoff. Lowell Sun article.

  • Speaking of Molly Smith, she shot a 64 at Knoll Golf Club in Boonton, NJ to earn medalist honors and punch a ticket to her fourth U.S. Women’s Amateur. She’ll play in the Mass. Amateur next week, too.

  • Nick Maccario birdied the last four holes at Wachusett CC to force a playoff in the Worcester County Amateur last weekend. It’s a sneaky great tournament that has been won by the likes of Frank Vana Matt Parziale. Maccario beat defending champ Weston Jones, who is a rising senior at Rutgers, on the first sudden-death playoff hole. Worcester Telegram and Gazette had a good recap.

  • The 2nd Worcester County Women’s Amateur kicks off July 5 at Tatnuck CC. The 36-hole event has a strong field. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette has a preview.

  • Shannon Johnson and Megan Buck won their fifth straight Mass. Four-Ball. I do wish this tournament was a 36 hole event like the men’s four-ball in April/May. MassGolf Recap.

  • Jake Ratti shot 67 to earn medalist honors at his home course of Wollaston GC in the U.S. Amateur Local Qualifying. In total, 10 Bay Staters reached Final Qualifying out of Wollaston on Monday. Most likely, all the Massachusetts-based players who qualified will tee it up at Concord CC on July 22. One possible story is that Connor Willett would be returning to the site of his incredible victory in the 2022 Mass. Amateur days after his father tragically passed away.

  • Two years after Conner Willett’s dad, Rick, passed away, Charles River CC, along with the U.S. Challenge Cup, hosted the Willett Cup…pros and amateurs from the area played on Tuesday to remember Rick Willett. MassGolf had a nice recap on IG.

  • Five of the six New England states host their state amateur championships next week. This year, a great wrinkle is that each winner will earn an exemption into the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine.

    • MassGolf was kind enough to share the average handicap for the field in the Mass. Amateur. What do you think it is… the answer will be the first bullet point in Double Clicks.

Olympic Golf needs a reboot

This week, Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old sprinter, reached the finals of the 400 meters in Olympic qualifying. The kid from Maryland is a phenom running against grown-ass men who have won Olympic medals.

My brother described Wilson’s running style perfectly. “He looks like the little brother trying to keep up with his older brothers.”

Wilson finished sixth in the 400m final, and only the top three made it through. Thus, Wilson’s Olympic dreams were dashed.

Until they weren’t.

Then, this week, he was invited by the coaches as one of the six “pool” runners for the 4×400 relay runners in Paris.

He’s the youngest male track athlete to ever represent the United States.

I didn’t know that relays have different runners in different heats to help with the workload over the course of the Olympics. So Wilson will certainly run in early rounds and would earn a medal if the team earned one.

Wilson was the story of the Olympic trials in Eugene.

In the gymnastics trials, Simone Biles obviously grabbed a lot of the headlines, but another 16-year-old named Hezly Rivera from New Jersey earned the fourth spot on the team, and it seems like her skillset will fill out a weakness in the squad when they compete for a team medal.

Meanwhile, Olympic Golf is just using Official World Golf Rankings to select the players competing in Paris in August.

What a missed opportunity for golf to generate some interesting, attention-grabbing stories. Instead, the United States is sending four professionals to play a 72-hole tournament at a golf course that was the site of a Ryder Cup massacre in 2018.

Olympic golf has already wrecked the professional major schedule. The PGA Championship was moved, in part, to accommodate the addition of golf to the Olympics. The 2016 Olympics was hampered by the Zika Virus which scared off a number of athletes from traveling to Brazil, including Rory McIlroy. Then the 2020 Olympics were postponed for a year, and Tokyo was still a mess in 2021. This is the first Olympics where golf has a smooth runway to take off. With the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, it feels like the window is open for some great stories.

So why not carve out time for a US Olympic Team golf trial? Invite the top 20 American professionals, eight of best amateurs, and 10-15 invitees and let them compete over 54 holes for four spots. You could leave the week after the U.S. Open empty on the schedule (gasp, no PGA Tour event?) and hold it in the vicinity of that championship. Play it over three days and make a 36-hole cut down to 10 players. It would be riveting television. Players who self-select to play in these types of events always make it more interesting than players just being picked to play. It’s why U.S. Open Final Qualifying is so great. No money on the line, just an opportunity.

Imagine a 4-for-1 playoff for the final Olympic spot? Imagine a kid like Blades Brown, a 16-year-old amateur who will be a high school junior, battling for a spot? Brown made the cut on the PGA Tour this year. Give me Gordon Sargent dueling with Xander and Scottie.

Give me 15-year-old Asterisk Talley, who won the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball and the Junior Invitational and was a low amateur at the U.S. Women’s Open, nipping at the heels of Rose Zhang.

USGA is also in the midst of launching a national golf program. The Junior Team played its first match this week against Australia.

Everything points to making the Olympic team more than just picking pros from the world ranking. Even this current selection process left Bryson Dechambeau off the team. Even as someone that doesn’t like him, Dechambeau in Paris would have been intriguing stuff.

I did appreciate this deep dive from Brendan Quinn about Lilia Vu’s grandparents leaving Vietnam on a ramshackle boat in 1982. 42 years later she’s representing the USA in the Olympics.

The IOC could also embrace the track and field, swimming, and gymnastics model and put multiple medals up for grabs. How cool would an 18-hole “sprint” be? Go shoot the lowest score possible in one round of golf. Winner gets a medal.

What about a mixed alternate shot event? Scottie and Nelly teaming up?

Yes, please.

Having a 72-hole stroke play event is so unimaginative. The Olympics is built to shine a light on sports, maybe draw in a new audience, and inspire kids. If Xander, Scottie, Wyndham, and Collin aren’t getting people talking every week, why is it going to be different in Paris?

People will be talking about Quincy Wilson and Hezly Rivera. They could be talking about Blades Brown or Asterisk Talley or another precocious teenager.

Instead, it will feel like another week on the PGA Tour except with sweeping views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

Double Click(s)

  • The average handicap in the Mass. Amateur this year is… +1.3. Pretty incredible.

  • A peak into my Direct Messages… this was quite a take from a follower this week after I posted about Cyprian Keyes and enjoying the “tough walk.” I’ve been reading pace of play research and the overarching theme is that carts and fast greens tend to be the biggest culprits for slow play.

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  • I’m still basking in the glow of the Celtics championship. Love these foreign language calls of Payton Prichard’s half-court buzzer beater in game 5. I’ve never heard the TDGarden so loud.

  • Your weekly reminder that Padraig Harrington is a gift to us all.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

I’m listening to…

  • New Ray Lamontagne album is coming. Two songs are available on Spotify.

  • Good stuff on The Town Podcast (no, this is not a Joe Mazzula podcast about the movie… IYKYK). This episode covers the ruling that Sunday Ticket and NFL lost a $12 billion antitrust case.

I’m drinking…

  • Post-round fountain soda > post-round beer.

  • 818 Reposado tequila is delicious. Very much like a bourbon.

I’m eating…

  • I took this delicious Gochujang Buttered Noodles recipe, added ground lamb, onions, carrots, and tomato paste, and tried to replicate Pammy’s lumache. I also bought fresh made lumache pasta. It kinda worked!

I’m watching…

  • The Bear is back! We’re three episodes in. I can’t think of a show that has transformed more over its existence. The first episodes were nothing like the glossy season 3 version.

  • Put on the first episode of Sprint this week. From the same people that made Drive to Survive and Full Swing. A good primer for the Olympics.

  • England plays Switzerland on Saturday in the Euro 2024 quarterfinal. Sure to be a great match.

    • This is one of my favorite clips on the Internet. English soccer fans singing in a pub.

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