Cleveland played amazing in September and squeezed ahead of the Tigers to claim the division championship. BUT…….with a 5 game cushion - Doug still wins THE BET. Right down the end - well done boys.
25 years!!!!
Yep - that’s how long it’s been since Dave won his only FGL championship. And that was back before the Tommy O Award existed. His line-up that magical year?
- Ernie Els, Tom Lehman, Jeff Sluman, Stuart Appleby’s, Freddie Couples and Steve Flesch
Congrats B.T.O. On a championship that wasn’t much in doubt in recent weeks. Scottie alone played in 13 FGL events. He won four of them; then 7 Top 10’s Plus 2 top 20’s. He never finished outside the top 20 nor did he miss a cut. I’d say that was pretty good!
What does 2nd place look like?
Congrats to Manager Jim. His 2nd place finish wasn’t much in doubt either with Rory’s steady play. And yet, an unusual spot for Jim. He’s won the Tommy O 3 times but until now never came in 2nd place. Congrats.
A good week by Doug and Jaustin helped boost them a bit on your leaderboard. On the other hand, manager Big J stumbled his way down to 7th place - assuring him the second pick in next years’ draft.
NEXT YEAR‘S DRAFT WILL BE SUNDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 1ST. (Not sure where)
A few other updates (mostly medical) before I sign off for the season:
- my favorite topic - Me! I “graduated” from all my open heart rehab stuff last week. Only took the entire FGL season to do it. Might have to have another surgery on a cyst that keeps popping up. I’ll learn about that on Wednesday.
- Mrs. Commissioner has finished her chemo. Scans have shown that her cancer is now half the size it was when all this started in April. Wednesday will also be when we find out how intensive of a surgery will be needed likely later this month. Open heart will then be scheduled for her in early 2026. But for now, she sits in the hospital where she’s been since Friday. Hopefully discharged Monday. Likely pneumonia. Never boring here.
Eli - Brelley’s new adopted son - was finally discharged today in Jacksonsville. Heroin withdraw from his mom really beat up his little body. They’ll spend a few more days in Florida getting paperwork finalized and then fly back.
I must correct an earlier error I implied about Manager Jim. He “only” had one knee replaced,, not both. But that completely screws up my vision of him running like the Bionic Man. Instead, it’s fast, slow, fast, slow, etc. I’m sure it makes things quite difficult. I even heard his wife Barb refuses to go with him to the grocery store. He keeps pushing the cart in a circle.
Finally - wishing the best to Manager Big J who is doing fun things. He’ll be off to Scotland as well as checking out the Panama Canal this Fall. Enjoy!
No plans for any rule changes next year. But everyone please keep in mind anything we can do to stick it to Kevin! It’s the little joys that mean so much anymore!
The Bet!
Tigers have bounced back leaving Dave running out of time.
A trip to TopGolf the other night
Julian’s first trip. He was pumped up! This first picture shows such an innocent, cute boy.
But then this picture seems to show a more ornery side of this lad
Squeezed in Eaglesticks in Zanesville Thursday
Too many rain-outs. It led to a desperation Thursday outing. A downpour came down before we tee’d off. Dry skies and then rain right when we finished. Sometimes you get lucky. On this hole, I know I’m not in the fairway, but I did par the hole.
Big J was his consistent steady self. Would you expect anything else?
Quiet tournament at 3M
If you add up all the points scored from all teams, it totals just 2 points. All of which means nothing changed. B.T.O. Picked up 3 points and Dave and Jim appear to have locked in 1st and 2nd place this season on your FGL leaderboard.
Had amazing plans to get Manager Doug and Big J out to Darby Creek Sunday. It’s been forever since the three of us have been out on a course. But on-going nasty pop-up storms put an end to the dream. I blame Dave. I don’t know why but it’s weather related so it just kind of makes sense.
One more tournament left. Line-up is already listed below. For the Tommy O Award and more likely 2026 draft position for the rest of us.
Three Dog Night predicted it long ago
Several years ago, Monica and Doug joined us at Picnic with the Pops to see 3 Dog Night. Great entertainers. One of the best shows I’ve seen in years. One of the songs they threw our way was “Eli’s Coming”. They were right. Last Tuesday, 7/22, Brandon & Kelley (Team Brelley) got a call that a mom just outside of Jacksonville, FL had delivered a baby boy and selected Team Brelley to be the parents. They flew down Wednesday and named him Eli John. Because of his biological mom’s substance abuse issues, little Eli is still in NICU and going through seizures and difficultly with most everything. But each day gets a little better. Brelley hopes he’ll be discharged sometime this week. Liam & Luke have been bouncing around houses all week and that “fun” is starting to get old for them. It’s never boring. The Commissioner’s office now has 5 grandkids - all boys!
Tigers struggle
They’ve gone 1 - 9 in the last 10 games. That doesn’t help the cause.
Time to wrap up this season at Wyndham Clark Hotels
Manager Golfers expected to play
B.T.O. Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, lil Rickie, Henrik Norlander
Jim Captain Kirk, Beau Hossler
Big J Matthieu Pavon
Commish Denny’s McCarthy, J.T. Poston
Doug Max Greyserman, Eric Cole, Matt Fitzpatrick, Aaron Rai
Kevin Wyndham Clark Hotels, Tom Kim, Milton Bradley
Jaustin Akshay Bhatia, Cameron Young, Byeong Hun An,
PAK-Mon Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Nick Dunlap, Adam Scott
Oh Ozzy!
Hulk Hogan is gone. Theo Huxtable of the Cosby Show passed away. And also Ozzy. As local news reported below, Ozzy and Black Sabbath had an interesting adventure in Columbus back in 1997. OzzFest at Polaris Amphtheather. Lots of metal bands all day. I was in the VIP section with Kurt Haag who had the connections. We mostly had that section to ourselves. When it got to be around 9:00 and we all expected Ozzy to come out, the lead singers from the other bands came out and started singing his songs; as they tossed bottles of Jack around to each other. We were confused. Why would they play Ozzy’s songs if he’s about to come out? Then we noticed helicopters overhead and someone mentioned all the concessions were closed up. We later learned Ozzy was too hung-over to make it to Columbus. A riot followed. At 11:05 that night, my dad called from Findlay. “Your mother just saw a concert riot on the news and figured you might be in it.” Yep - about the 5th row!
A hot Wednesday at Shaker Run!
Thanks again to Woody as we played in the Pipe and Plumbers golf outing near Lebanon, OH, Shaker Run on a hot Wednesday. We ended up middle of the pack. Big J and I were both able to totally screw up some easy shots! He did much better with the hard ones. A good fun day!
What's left to say?
It’s inside 1 minute left in the 4th quarter and the game is a blow-out. And the announcers have run out of things to say. That’s kind of where we’re at. This season is pretty much done. Scottie alone has scored over 110 points and Bastard Team O’Brien is sailing along. Even won the Major sidebet. And Jim looks to have 2nd place locked up. Top two ranked PGA golfers (Scottie and Rory) are aligned with the top two managers on your FGL leaderboard. Coincidence. Clearly they must feel blessed to be with the best managers around.
In just a couple of weeks, Big J has jumped from 4th place to just one point ahead of 7th place. A brilliant pre-2026 draft move!
Bryson and Wyndham Hotels were both so far out of the tournament after Thursday that I chalked them up as missing the cut. What a turn-around. Both ended up in the top 10.
Okay - that’s all I’ve got. We’re off to the 3M Open -wherever that is.
Manager Golfers expected to play
B.T.O. Max Homa, lil Rickie Fowler, Henrik Norlander,
Jim Captain Kirk, Beau Hossler, Max McGreevy
Big J Matthieu Pavon
Commish No one
Doug Max Greyserman, Eric Cole
Kevin Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim, Maverick McNealy
Jaustin Akshay Bhatia, Byeong Hun An
PAK-Mon Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Nick Dunlap!!!!, Adam Scott
All-Star Break. And this is where THE BET stands
I don’t ever recall the team behind at the break coming back to win THE BET. Not looking good for the Tribe.
And for fun - here’s the 1968 Champion Tigers Roster:
Pitchers
38 Les Cain
22 Pat Dobson
30 Roy Face
18 John Hiller
15 Fred Lasher
29 Mickey Lolich
17 Denny McLain
47 Don McMahon
43 Daryl Patterson
14 Dennis Ribant
34 Jim Rooker
21 Joe Sparma
39 Jon Warden
16 Earl Wilson
37 John Wyatt
# Catchers
11 Bill Freehan
12 Jim Price
# Infielders
33 Dave Campbell
25 Norm Cash
46 Bob Christian
2 Tom Matchick
7 Eddie Mathews
3 Dick McAuliffe
1 Ray Oyler
44 Dick Tracewski
8 Don Wert
# Outfielders
26 Gates Brown
27 Wayne Comer
30 Lenny Green
23 Willie Horton
6 Al Kaline
5 Jim Northrup
24 Mickey Stanley
I’m tired.
Yogi’s Bar & Grill golf outing. 27 holes out at Columbus Country Club. Such a long, hot, steamy day. I may sleep for days!
Leaders continue to hold their own
Bastard Team O’Brien (where losing is not an option) and Jim both did just fine at the Scottish Open. As has been typical all season, all their guys (except McGreevy) made the cut. Both continue to hold onto the lead for 1st and 2nd place as we head towards our final Major and last few tournaments.
Doug had a nice tournament. He slipped ahead of Big J and into 4th place on our FGL Leaderboard, for anyone paying attention that far down.
Congrats to Jordan Spieth for his new baby. Sully Spieth. He’s supposed to fly over for the Major but will his head be in it? I predict a missed cut.
We’re headed to Northern Ireland for this last Major. Peacock will have your coverage while you’re sleeping followed by USA & NBC.
Manager Golfers expected to play
Kevin Wyndham Hotels, Tom Kim, Milton Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Maverick McNealy, Jon Rahm
Jaustin Viktor Hovland, Akshay Bhatia, Cameron Young, Corey Conners, Byeong Hun An, Will Zalatoris
PAK-Mon Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Adam Scott
B.T.O. Scottie, Jordan Spieth, lil Rickie Fowler, Carlos Ortiz
Jim Rory, Justin Thomas, Fleetwood Mac, Captain Kirk
Big J Collin Morikawa, Bobby MacIntyre, Shane Lowry, Matthieu Pavon, Jason Day, Min Woo Lee
Commish Lude Aberg, Don Henley, Denny’s McCarthy, J.T. Poston, Sepp Straka, Daniel HamBerger
Doug Xander Schauffele, Max Greyserman, Matt Fitzpatrick, Aaron Rai, J.J. Spaun
We tried……..
Dave and Doug will remember this - Elks Run Golf Club in Batavia, Ohio.
Such a great lay-out!!!!
Possibility of a pop-up shower. A rogue cell - as Dave would say. Well - we played through a few. But before we finished, the skies turned black, the wind went nuts, rain somehow came in sideways from all directions and I think I saw a couple flying houses. I may be wet until Christmas. It took an hour for my phone to dry out so I could charge it. You try - and sometimes you strike out.
Happy 3rd B-day Sir Julian
Unofficial IDI takes place Sunday
Even though we did not have a Founding Father available, we still tried to carry on with some version of the Independence Day Invitational at Denison (Granville) Golf Club.
Big J won the boot! It was hot and steamy and one of those grind-it-out types of day. Except for a few curious drives, J was remarkable. I’ve never seen him scramble so well to save so many pars. He blew me away. Congratulations!!!!!
His tee shot on par 3 #14 which led to a birdie.
Jaustin witnesses Tigers destroy the Tribe
Austin and Julian made a Sunday road trip to Cleveland to watch Detroit take out the Tribe in 10 innings. With All-Star break coming up, this is starting to get ugly!
Dave continues to roll on
While riding his John Deere, B.T.O. picked up 7 points over the weekend. That stretches his lead to 18 points over Manager Jim.
And now we jump over the water to Scotland for the Scottish Open.
Manager Golfers expected to play
Kevin Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim, Maverick McNealy,
Jaustin Viktor Hovland, Corey Conners, Byeong Hun An
PAK-Mon Sungjae Im, Great Scott
B.T.O. Scottie Scheffler, Henrik Norlander
Jim Rory, Justin Thomas, Fleetwood Mac, Max McGreevy
Big J Collin Morikawa, Robert MacIntyre, Matthieu Pavon
Commish Ludvig Aberg, Denny’s McCarthy, Sepp Straka, Daniel HamBerger
Doug Xander Schauffele, Max Greyserman, Matt Fitzpatrick, J.J. Spaun