Welcome! The place are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Consider it as a spot to heat you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have ideas. We’ll have suggestions. We’ll have tweets. However simply 9 in all, although generally possibly extra and generally possibly much less. As for who I’m? The paragraphs under inform among the story. I could be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
For 20 years now, I’ve puzzled who carried a drive 50 yards over my head at Bethpage Black.
To start out this thriller, although, we have to leap again one other six years, to 1999. That summer season, whereas interning, I lived in Huntington Station, N.Y., residence to a mall named after author Walt Whitman, Pleasant’s eating places and my first expertise with the Lengthy Island Rail Street. However Bethpage was the place I wanted to go, the LI’ers informed me. 5 golf programs. Grillroom. All just a few miles away. Say much less. I performed the Purple. And the Inexperienced. And the Blue. And the Yellow. However due to funky intern hours and gentle worry, I by no means bought onto the Black — however regretted that. On my final day, I attempted, nevertheless it was booked and I purchased a head cowl.
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However Ethan was — and nonetheless is — a helluva dude. In 2004, I used to be one of the best man in his wedding ceremony. And he knew that I’d whiffed on not enjoying the Black. In order a finest man’s present, he wished us to present it a go. Keep in Lengthy Island. See town. Play golf. Yessir.
Then it rained.
Each day.
We managed 9 holes on the Inexperienced, ending in a downpour — which prompted a firefighter in a close-by firetruck to shout over a speaker: “Get inside, you freakin idiots.” So we did, had a pint and left. However we returned on our final day. This time, Ethan wished a memento, and for amusement, I regarded on the tee instances board.
There was a Black opening.
For 45 bucks. Twilight fee.
Thirty minutes later, we teed off, and I hooked my first ball ridiculously left. Who cares? We have been on. We have been paired with a Lengthy Island dad and son. A twosome was behind us.
Chances are you’ll know the place that is going. The primary paragraph provides it away.
On 5, our foursome was 300-some yards out, when a ball dropped over us, 50 yards forward.
The dad we have been paired with rotated. He shouted. Each different phrase he stated began with the letter F. He wanted an apology. He informed us we shouldn’t transfer. Ethan and I have been, properly, feeling just a few issues. Confusion? Sure. Fright? Sure. However primarily curiosity. What was about to go down?
And who hit that ball??
It was … a 15-year-old.
He apologized. An older man with him apologized. Our enjoying accomplice stated some various things. However as he walked away, I whispered to the child:
“Good shot.”
However I by no means caught his identify, although possibly ‘the thriller teen bomber of Bethpage’ makes for a greater story. As for the purpose right here, in addition to needing an intro to our weekly dialog? Since this Ryder Cup was introduced, I’ve been satisfied that golf will see no greater taking place. Workforce occasion. In Lengthy Island. At a muni. A beloved one. The Folks’s CC.
The place everybody has a narrative.
Let’s see if we will discover eight extra objects for the Weekend 9. (And when you’ve got a Bethpage story your self, ship it to me. I really like yarn.
One takeaway from the week that was
2. An interview Rory McIlroy did with the Off the Ball group this week on the Amgen Irish Open struck me. In it, whereas speaking about his motivation following his Masters win, he was requested if he may win the Masters once more, and he answered this manner — which additionally once more confirmed his allegiance to caddie Harry Diamond:
“Second inexperienced jacket, a second Claret Jug, a second U.S. Open,” McIlroy stated. “You already know, Harry stated to me fairly quickly after I received Augusta, he stated, it’s nice you’ve received the Grand Slam, however I haven’t but. So I used to be like, that’s — in order that’s cool. It’d be cool to have the ability to try this with Harry. I believed it will — certainly one of my favourite issues about profitable the Masters was with the ability to do it with Harry. We met on the placing inexperienced at Holywood Golf Membership after I was 7 years previous, and we’re striding up the final gap with an opportunity to win a inexperienced jacket. Like, that’s pretty much as good because it will get for me. So if he’s on the journey for the remainder of my profession and we will choose off just a few extra, that may be superb.”
You’ll be able to watch the complete interview below.
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One other takeaway from the week that was
3. On Wednesday, a member of our staff wrote in our Slack channel: “When is Paddy going to put in writing a self-help guide?” The thought was in response to Padraig Harrington’s press convention forward of the Amgen Irish Open, the place Harrington answered 12 questions from reporters, however spoke for about 20 minutes, confirming once more he could be golf’s finest thinker.
This alternate was my favourite, with the reporter’s query in italics:
How do you retain the fireplace in your stomach?
“I’ve this principle that I match very properly, definitely as much as my age group,” Harrington stated. “Most careers final about 20 years, nevertheless it’s seven or eight years earlier than you begin moving into it and peaking. You most likely have 18 months, two years of the actual peak, a pair years after that, after which 15 to twenty years, you’re burnt out. You’re nonetheless enjoying, however you’re burnt out, and I might have mirrored that. So many individuals.
“I do see the height of individuals’s careers taking place a lot earlier. That 18-month run, two-season run can occur two or three years, 4 years into their profession, however no person is ever good after the height. That’s the character of the sport. So yeah, burnout comes, and it will have come for me in 2016, round then, about 20 years in. I checked out it and did quite a lot of various things. I did a little bit of teaching, did a little bit of commentary, all that kind of stuff, and I spotted I truly actually favored enjoying golf. So I type of checked out it a distinct means, bought slightly bit extra relaxed about it, didn’t strive as onerous, took away among the stuff that was making it — I mainly couldn’t go on the tempo I used to be making an attempt to go at. I couldn’t go on the tempo I might have been going at after I was a younger man.
“I discovered a brand new lease on life. The Champions tour has undoubtedly helped with that. The unusual factor is, I play higher, [and] the temptation is to return to working tougher and going again to making an attempt tougher. It’s fairly easy. I describe it like this: 15 years in the past, if any person stated we’re going for dinner, I wouldn’t have gone — I’ve bought physio, I’ve bought to get within the gymnasium, I’ve bought to do that, I’ve bought to do this restoration, all that. Now I type of go, we’re going for dinner, nice, I’ll change all the pieces to go for that dinner. I’ll nonetheless go to the gymnasium, I’ll nonetheless do my physio. However my priorities, I wouldn’t be wherever close to as skilled as I might have been 15 years in the past as a result of I can’t.
“It was burning me out making an attempt too onerous. Getting up three-and-a-half hours earlier than your tee time, a younger man can try this. I watch the younger guys and I see them do the stuff within the gymnasium and all that, and I’m going, yeah, I used to do all that. You simply can’t maintain that tempo up.
“I’m reinvigorated as a result of I discovered a brand new means. I’ve all the time cherished enjoying golf. I’ve all the time cherished practising, however I do must have a distinct outlook. I feel it involves most individuals of their life, they get to a stage in their very own job the place they’ve bought all this experience as a result of they’ve type of hit a wall. The most effective answer is to try to eliminate among the stuff that’s annoying them and maintain the stuff that they’re good at and skilled at, and that’s the type of means I’ve tried with the golf.”
One takeaway for the weekend
4. Watch the Walker Cup this weekend at Cypress Level. For the golf. For the course.
Why? Watch the video below, narrated by GOLF’s Michael Bamberger:
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5. I additionally loved loved the thread below from the Golfers Journal (and the whole story could be discovered on the backside of the tweets):
In 1982, a caddie pitched a makeshift shelter between the fifteenth and sixteenth holes at Cypress Level and secretly lived there for eight months.
Not on the town. Not down the street. Proper right here, within the bushes overlooking golf’s most well-known gap.
6. I believed this was attention-grabbing. On a latest episode of Barstool’s “Fore Play” podcast, Tommy Fleetwood talked about how he put into play his mini driver — and stated he’d discovered about it by Fred Couples.
“So I used to be on the Masters in 2023,” Fleetwood stated. “Fred {Couples} is on the vary with this burner mini driver. And I imply, Fred talks to everyone on the vary on the Masters. Like he loves speaking, hitting balls, hanging out, no matter. And he comes over to me, he begins speaking, he’s speaking about this membership. He’s going, ‘Have you ever tried this membership? I’m going to hit this in every single place. Unbelievable.’ I’m it, I used to be like, ‘Yeah, it does look good.’ Like no matter.
“Anyway, I bought one at Hilton Head the next week and I hit it in every single place all week and I used to be like, this membership is unbelievable. So I’ve had one since then, like actually that day. And I feel I might even have to present Fred {Couples} credit score as a result of he was most likely the primary one which used it and I used to be most likely quantity two, however I feel as a result of I used to be enjoying on tour, I used to be the one that folks noticed with it and it’s change into actually common since then.”
You’ll be able to watch the complete interview below.
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A guidelines video that me
7. I believed the foundations video below was attention-grabbing.
A Viktor Hovland video that made me chuckle
8. The Viktor Hovland video below, recorded after the captain’s picks have been made for the European Ryder Cup staff, made me chuckle.
A Justin Thomas video that made me chuckle
9. The Instagram video below, shared by Justin Thomas, made me chuckle.
What golf is on TV this weekend?
10. Let’s do 10 objects! Right here’s a rundown of golf on TV this weekend:
– Saturday
7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET: Amgen Irish Open third spherical, Golf Channel
7 p.m.-10 p.m. ET: Walker Cup last day, Golf Channel
What you’re emailing me
11. Beneath is an e-mail I bought this week:
“Each participant who has performed in a Ryder Cup talks about what an honor it’s to be a part of the Ryder Cup Workforce and what a dream come true it’s.
“However captains nowadays are extra within the bragging rights of profitable the Cup reasonably than spreading the respect of representing the U.S. or Europe to as many aspiring golfers as doable. One would have anticipated that’s the simplest means for the captains to train the captain’s picks — to decide on new gamers and unfold the respect and the dream. As a substitute, we see, again and again, captains select gamers who’ve performed three or 4 or 5 Ryder Cups, simply because they did properly in previous Ryder Cups, or as a result of they’ve private rapport and kinship with the captain himself, no matter present type.
“Sadly the media typically don’t flag this apply and criticize it. Maybe you additionally consider the bragging rights are extra essential than the dream itself. A pity!”
;)
