True but it is amazing how many big numbers he puts up. 80 watch in effect whenever he tees it up last couple of years.

Maybe he's in his Stu Ungar phase? A completely messed up person with a lot of underlying talent that pops out once in a while.

How bad are the conditions? I didn't expect them to really even play today.


Should be some kind of rule so players like Bowditch get demoted. I think even more hilarious is his salary this week on Draftkings wasn't even the lowest or lowest + $100. Was more expensive than Furyk and the same price as Finau. Yeah, let me know in what scenario I'd ever take Bowditch over either of those two players right now.

This obviously isn't the way we should be looking at it.

Also, John Daly has won 5 PGATour events, 2 of them majors, and his life is pretty much an incomprehensible disaster.

C'mon, this is a poker forum...

Seriously though, how awful would it be to be in Tiger's shoes right now, age 41 and can barely walk? If he's that messed up now and has had this many injuries I can't imagine things are going to get better for him. He may have an absolutely miserable life from here on out. I never thought I would say this but I would not want to trade places with him. And of course if I woke up tomorrow as Bowditch or Daly I would probably kill myself.

Tiger is in for a rough ride physically, that's for sure, and he's never even going to get back to even being a remotely successful player at this rate. Things must be pretty miserable for him, $$$ and hot blondes aside.

Looks like a likely Monday finish @ Riviera.

Tiger was playing professional golf - and doing so pretty credibly - a few weeks ago, so I'm not ready to sign on to the "he can barely walk and will be in crippling pain the rest of his life" scenario.

He may need to retire from golf but he's not a cripple. He can still walk, play with his kids, run his businesses, or do whatever else most 40-something dads do. Back may very well improve if he stops playing. Feel bad for golf fans since golf is more exciting with Tiger. But Tiger's life is still pretty sweet overall.

Was out there Friday and yesterday. The course drains well and they did a good job with the bunkers to make it playable.

Round 3 will be done by like noon, then it's just a race to get it done.

Watched Spieth practice for a full 45 minutes. I am now convinced he's the best player in the world. He was hitting numerous clubs at various poles on the driving range netting. He was missing by legit 2-5 yards every time. He would also then turn like 80 degrees to his right and hit shots at a practice green over there. With two different wedges, and different trajectories, he hit at least 30 shots to 3 different pins. Pins were 61, 86, and I didn't hear the distance to the middle one. Guessing like 75. The worst shot was ten feet. The average was probably 7 feet. Sickest thing ever.

He started working out an issue with his takeaway. He told Greller that he was closing the face taking it away because he had "developed it in all the bad weather." He then fixed it in like 4 swings.

He gets frustrated when he hits it left, it's like a personal insult. Watching him work like that was proof that he's a complete professional.

I also watched Justin Thomas warm up. He hit a bunch of perfect wedges and then spent probably 20 minutes, seriously, trying to drill the driving range cart. He did hit it once. At one point he was hitting shots directly parallel to the driving range line. Patrick Rodgers remarked "that's impressive," not about the shots, but about how absurd that was. Thomas then hit 3 woods as far as Spieth had been hitting driver, if not further.

Thomas then went to the 10th and teed off with Van Aswigen and Chad Campbell at 5:42. Guys hit driver there all day to try to get on for an eagle putt, and miss left all day for a birdie up and down. It was playing 315. He hit THREE WOOD to about 15 feet in the front fringe. Totally absurd. On the walk to the ball the horns sounded, ending play for the day. If you check the Leaderboard, you'll see that neither of his partners finished. But he did as everyone else left the hole. Birdie after his eagle chip missed by an inch.

The trajectory of their shots is astonishing. They hit everything way higher than you think, especially driver. The ball climbs way up in the air and floats. Then there's DJ, who hits it even higher and further. Adam Scott absolutely crushes it, by the way.

With wedges it's the opposite story. Balls come in kinda low and the spin control is the whole game.

Just amazing players. You can learn a lot.

Oh, Thomas Pieters hit the best shot I've ever seen from behind some trees on 12, huge cut off a sidehill and downhill lie through a gap in the trees. Hit the green 8 feet from the cup and backed up to the fringe. Just absurd.

I always tell people that even have a little interest in the game to go out and watch a tour event if they can. I've been to plenty over the years but it always amazes me how high they hit the ball. Every time. I get astounded every single time someone rips a 3 or 4 iron a mile into the air. You really don't appreciate how damn good they are on tv.

Hell, even if you don't golf the worst outcome is getting a little rain or too much sun while taking a nice walk and drinking some beers when you go out to watch them play live.

Edit: worst outcome might be what I saw on Saturday of last years Open at Oakmont. Place was a mud pit. I saw a girl dressed up in heels, dress, and hat like she was going to the Kentucky Derby lose a shoe in the mud, go back to try and retrieve it only to take a digger completely wrecking her outfit.

Did Triangle change his swing last year and forget how to golf? He was pretty competitive a few years ago and had a down year last year. He's rocking the "I'm playing a big slinging hook around this big cluster of trees" twirl above his head on straight-forward shots.

Thanks CPHoya, awesome trip report.

Kind of a coronation round for DJ here. Has to hold an 8 shot lead with 10 to go to get to #1.


Also if you want to improve your own game the PGA tour range is a gold mine. 20 years ago I watched Tom Kite hit pitch shots for almost 3 hours. I still use that session in my brain.

DJ's drive has got to be the greatest golf shot of all time. It's astounding how long and how consistent it is.

Most well run clubs that are large enough will flight their major tournaments by handicap to avoid this.

The member guest I play in I'm not going to play against a person whose handicap is more than a few strokes different than mine until the final shootout which tends to have a format that is not as favorable to the higher handicappers.

It is spectacular but saying best ever brings in guys like Ben Hogan or Lee Trevino who's cut is often talked about as the most consistent and repeatable thing in golf history.

Over a career its hard to assess a best shot due to the changes in courses and equipment. I'm pretty sure peak driving Rory a couple of years ago was the longest straightest driving ever recorded though.

Be an interesting discussion:

Best Driver
Best Fairway Wood
Best at Long Iron
Best at Mid Iron
Best between 50 and 100 yds.
Best Pitch
Best Chip
Best in the Sand
Best Putt
Best from the Rough
Best at Recovery

Best recovery has to be Seve, Phil attempts too many shots that don't make any sense.

Mid and long irons is Tiger.

Funny thing about DJ is that he doesn't rank very high in driving accuracy (in the 130s last year and no better so far this year). Which actually surprised me because seems like every time I see him he's piping another one down the middle.

Of course with his length and how good his wedge game has gotten, it's not that important to hit lots of fairways.

If he figures the putter out consistently they'll have to start DJ Proofing courses. Who cares if you're in the rough on a 470 yard par 4 when you can bomb it 350. Wedge in hand, target practice

Does anybody have any experience/an opinion on the PGATOURLIVE subscription?

I have a subscription. It's actually pretty cool and they show way more golf than the telecasts do.

I usually watch Thursday - Friday, sometimes on Saturday and Sunday as well. The app is really good for phones as well.

They always have 1 morning and 1 afternoon featured group, and then "featured holes." Featured holes honestly seems to just be random holes but whatever.

The announcers are different too. It's very casual - I'm kind of a big fan.

wow... not sure i've ever seen what happened to fowler. putting from way off the green with a sprinkler head in the way. he putts, ball falls into its hole.

stupid question but can he not get relief when there is a sprinkler head right on his line? or was he too far away? he was 7 or 8 yards away and as mentioned obvously off-the-green

It can not be said enough how bad NBC is at covering golf. Not that any golf coverage is great but nbc is pretty much unwatachable. Basically no golf show. Fluff peices, ads, peter jacobson segments, ads, jack talk, ads.

I agree. I really enjoy it. I like watching two groups entire rounds and the commentating is actually pretty good commentary. I prefer much more than the actuall coverage