Hey Everyone,

We all have those one or two people who introduced us to the game of golf. For me, it was my parents. My mom bought golf lessons for me and my dad for Christmas when I was eight.

Over the next 22 years, I played endless rounds with my dad, but I never once witnessed my mom swing a golf club. What my mom did do was drive me around town to driving ranges and golf courses. She waited in the car while I played tournaments or dilly-dallied on the putting green, unaware that she was in the parking lot.

I was sad to learn that Kultida Woods passed away this week at the age of 80. Tiger’s mom was known for instilling his killer instinct and the famous Sunday red that is indelibly marked in the minds of so many golf fans. While Earl Woods was the bombastic father who promised his son would impact the world like Ghandi, Kultida was always in the background. She was even at a TGL match in the last couple of weeks, which made the news seem even more surprising.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how I got into golf and the best gift I have ever received. If those people are still around in your life, make sure to thank them.

News and Notes:

Charles River CC gets U.S. Senior Women’s Am in 2031: “We are thrilled to bring the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur to Charles River in 2031,” said Mark Hill, USGA managing director, Championships. “With its timeless Donald Ross design and classic New England setting, this golf course will serve as the perfect stage for what promises to be a challenging test and an unforgettable championship.” Full press release from USGA

Future USGA Events in Massachusetts

• 2028 U.S. Women’s Amateur - Brae Burn CC

• 2030 U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur - The Country Club

• 2031 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur - Charles River CC

• 2034 U.S. Amateur - The Country Club

• 2038 U.S. Open - The Country Club

Thorbjornsen struggling at WM Phoenix Open: Once again, every player didn’t finish their round on Thursday. Thorbjornsen is +2 through 16 holes. Play faster, everyone!

Locals teeing it up in Korn Ferry this week: Down in Colombia, John VanDerLaan, Rob Oppenheim, Davis Chatfield, Richy Werenski are competing. What a grind. VanDerLaan and Oppenheim are both T14 (-5) and Chatfield shot a 67 to open the tournament. Feels like he’s going to have a good year.

Davis Chatfield tumbles on Sunday in Panama: A disappointing final-round 77 left Chatfield in T17 after starting the day in second place. Robbie Oppenheim had a good Sunday and climbed 11 spots. John VanDerLaan also made the cut and finished T35.

Golf Musings

Here is a buffet of items that have been on my mind or have made news the last couple of weeks. From golf, influencers aligning with professional tours to Phil Mickelson’s big claim about LIV golf to Charley Hoffman penning his own letter to professional golfers and more.

Golf Influencers expanding, spending, and cashing in

On Wednesday night, Good Good Golf hosted a live event at Grass Clippings in Arizona. It was televised on Golf Channel. I tuned in for a bit of background noise while I did some work and read. It’s juts one of the many things that Good Good is involved with at the moment. The YouTube behemoth is dipping its toe into a few new golf ventures. They obviously partnered with Golf Channel, and they also announced this week that they bought an ownership stake in the TGL’s Los Angeles Golf Club.

I don’t consume Good Good Golf, but this is obviously a big deal because they have been the most aggressive at leaping from YouTube into other parts of the golf ecosystem.

Last year, I posed the question, “Is YouTube Golf the new And1 Mixtape” The issue for all these influencers is how to they continue to influence and keep eye balls. Good Good has a CEO and seems to run like a business more than other golf influencers. That’s not to say other brands don’t have CEOs, but Good Good is making it clear they are a business, man. I enjoyed this long piece about how the Good Good guys came together over the years.

The other side of the influencer story is Rick Shiels, the wildly popular YouTube OG. He announced a partnership with LIV Golf, which caused quite a stir and lost him plenty of subscribers. The Englishman had made his thoughts about LIV Golf pretty clear in the past. He didn’t love it. So cashing in and having exclusive rights with the breakaway league rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

It’s been a rocky month for Shiels. His numbers took a hit. In the image below from Viewstats.com he lost 20k subscribers in 48 hours. The graph shows his views, which spiked the day he announced his partnership on Jan. 24. He lost 10k subs that day and another 10k on Jan. 26.

Of course, 20k out of 2.9 million followers is a drop in the bucket for Shiels, but his views have dropped even over the last year. This is likely the rhythm that most golf influencers feel during the year, with summer marking the peaks and winter marking the valleys.

The leap to LIV certainly gives Shiels a lot of comfort and access. He’s already posted a Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka video. Some will say he sold out and others will say it was a savvy move to lock up money without worrying about algorithms.

One thing that gets lost when people think about any type of massive influencer is they have people behind the camers and they have people editing and they have people planning. Those people need to be paid. Big influencers are not just a brand but a small business, and Shiels leaping to LIV was one way to probably take care of himself and those people.

Is it something I would have done? Probably not. Did he take a short-term loss for a long-term gain? Maybe, that’ll become more clear in the next 12-18 months.

Kids, but louder

Let’s linger on LIV for another moment, shall we? Phil Mickelson believes that the biggest draw of LIV Golf is that kids are more welcome because… their voices are drowned out by the music on the course. Parents don’t have to be as anxious about their kids making noise because LIV is like, super chill. Unless you’re a drone hovering over Jon Rahm.

Charley Hoffman is too scared to call out Rory by name

It’s WM Phoenix Open week on the PGA Tour, so naturally, Charley Hoffman, who is sponsored by WM, decided to write a letter to the players on the PGA Tour. I mean, who doesn’t want to hear from a 48-year-old veteran of the PGA Tour about pace of play and what’s good for golf in general. What impeccable timing.

On the heels of the Justin Thomas’ letter, Hoffman’s seemed redundant except for the part where he calls out “players” for wanting to play less while also squeezing in cross-country flights for TGL events and the Race to Dubai.

The irony of the letter is that 3+ million people tuned in to watch Rory McIlroy win at Pebble Beach over the weekend. A massive jump from the horrible ratings that were recorded in the previous month of PGA Tour events.

Let’s not forget that Hoffman melted down in 2022 at the WM Open, “'You wonder why guys are wanting to jump ship and go play on another tour.”

Here’s how Rory responded after a disastrous Boston Common Ball Frogs loss on Tuesday night.

The next player letter will be too soon, whenever it happens…

Brandel Chamblee and bad faith arguments

Chamblee making bad faith arguments seems like a tradition at this point. I caught Chamblee debating Rich Learner on Saturday about slow play. Chamblee couldn’t square the slow play complaints in Justin Thomas’ letter about slow play with the desire to listen to caddies and players discuss shots. He fails to understand that viewers don’t need a podcast recording between Jordan Spieth and Mike Grellar before each shot. Players should be able to process a golf shot in under 40 seconds, just like Patrick Mahomes has to snap a ball in 40 seconds while organizing 10 teammates AND reading a defense who is trying to decapitate him.

What was most incredible is that Chamblee cherry-picked Tiger Woods’ famous putt from the back of the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass. That shot took 90 seconds, and we would have been robbed of this moment… or maybe Tiger Woods is good enough to make this putt in 40 seconds? Maybe players should be more strictly penalized for slow play, but they get three “timeouts” a round like they have in TGL.

Lucas Glover sounds off on Aimpoint

Aimpoint has become a scapegoat for slow play on the PGA Tour, and Lucas Glover said it should be banned. If you don’t know what Aimpoint is, it’s a way of reading greens with your feet instead of with your eyes. Players feel the slope and equate it to a percentage of the slope (usually, putts fall in the 0-3% slope).

Keegan Bradley has been the whipping boy for the anti-Aimpoint movement for moments like this… for what it’s worth, he took 43 seconds to hit miss this putt.

Full disclosure: I have been messing around with Aimpoint since August, and I really like it. I was taught how to use it, and yes, I am very sensitive to stomping around the cup, so I usually avoid using it for short putts.

Like anything else, if you do the work before it’s your turn. It’s a pretty quick process. Of course, there are moments when it’s hard to use Aimpoint if your ball is close to a playing partner’s ball. But the same goes for reading putts with your eyes or circling the cup to get a read from 360 degrees.

In my experience with Aimpoint, it isn’t about making more putts. It vastly improved my green reading on lag putts. It’s not all about making putts for pace of play. It’s also about eliminating shots, and I had fewer three putts.

I think this clip from No Laying Up with Max Homa is a good, simple explanation of how Aimpoint works.

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When I’m not golfing…

I’m listening to…

🎵 The Garden State soundtrack found its way back into my life this week.

🏌️ This Mike Whan interview on No Laying Up was excellent.

I’m eating…

🐟️ This Baked Fish and Chips was awesome. Full disclosure: I made store-bought frozen steak cut fries to save some time.

I’m watching…

🚗 We started a documentary called The Disappearance of Maura Murray. The UMass student disappeared in 2004 after crashing her car in Haverhill, NH. Considering I was at Holy Cross in 2004, I am surprised this case never registered with me.

Bay State Archives

• A list of golf courses open in the winter.

• Bay State Picks: Best courses you can walk for less than $60.

• Bay State Picks: Nine-hole courses to play before or after work

• Bay State Picks: 18 public golf that is worth your time

• Bay State Picks: Easy 18-hole public walks

• Bay State Deep Dive: Myopia Hunt Club

   

• "On Course" New England Journal Podcast

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• Amateur Golf Podcast

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