It’s an old slogan from long ago and Dave is bringing it back. I guess that’s what a Tommy O victory can do for you. And with that, Tyrell Hatton is gone. According to FGL Insider, Hatton was on a flight from Scotland to Akron for his first FGL meeting when he got the news that he’d been fired. Wow - Hatton is not someone I’d want to tick off. But anyway, out is Hatton and in is the Hamburgler, sponsored by McDonald’s.
Dave picks up where he left off last year
An amazing open tournament for Bastard Team O’Brien. Bhatia stayed strong and battled back to somehow take down Berger in a playoff for B.T.O. All his other boys made the cut including strong finishes from Horschak and lil Rickie. 18 points for Dave and your FGL lead.
At the other end is Team Jaustin. 3 of his guys (probably the one’s Julian picked missed the cut) while his other 3 made the cut but only finished. Net zero points.
72 men entered the tournament and 52 made the cut. 9 of the guys missing the cut were FGL players. And Rory quit. He just quit after making the cut. No points for him. Bad back and we’ll see if he’s ready for the Players. Sorry Monica (or Paul)
Scottie misses a Top 20 finish for the first time since the 8th grade. Could this be a sign of his new management under Kevin?
The Players Championship is next! Expected to play:
Manager Golfers expected to play
B.T.O. Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, Akshay Bhatia, lil Rickie Fowler, Daniel HamBurgler
Jim Fleetwood Mac, Pete Rose, Justin Thomas, Maverick McNealy, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Max Homa
Jaustin Xander Schauffele, Alex Noren, Milton Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Jimmy Conners, Sungjae Im
Doug Collin Morikawa, Chris Gotterup, Archie Griffin, Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Gary Woodland
PAK-Mon Rory, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jake Knapp, Wyndham Clark, Keith Mitchell
Commish Don Henley, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, George Burns, Kurt Kitayama
Big J Bobby MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Jacob Bridgeman, Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth
Kevin Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka
Entry fees
There was a lot going on Sunday so I could have easily gotten some of this wrong. I show entry fees paid for B.T.O., Jim, Kevin and Doug. If I’ve left anyone off let me know. I do NOT need entry fees now. But wanted to throw this out now so there are no surprises at the next Draft.
Buckle Up - here we go!
We start off this season at the Arnold Palmer. (The Players Championship is next) It’s a PGA Signature event. Top 50 plus ties and anyone within 10 shots of the lead will make the cut. Sorry Kevin - no Tiger; no Lefty and that’s no surprise. My boy Don Henley is defending champ. Expected to play: (and hopefully I haven’t screwed things up too much)
Manager
Golfers expected to play
B.T.O.
Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, Akshay Bhatia, li Rickie, Billy Horschel
Jim
Tommy Fleetwood Mac, Pete Rose, Justin Thomas, Maverick McNealy
Jaustin
Xander Schauffele, Alex Noren, Milton Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Jimmy Conners, Sungjae Im
Doug
Collin Morikawa, Chris Gotterup, Ben Griffin, Shane Lowry
PAK-Mon
Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Keith Mitchell
Commish
Russell Henley, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Sam Burns, Kurt Kitayama
Big J
Robert MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Jacob Bridgeman, Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth
Kevin
Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala
FGL kicks off 28th season!
Hard to believe! I never would have guessed it would have lived this long. But Sunday afternoon, TopGolf hosted our illustrious group for the 2026 Draft. Special thanks to Ashley for her IT help in getting everything set up and pulling Jim & Dave in. Food was really good and the boys certainly enjoyed “trying” to hit golf balls later. Then again, many of the rest of us “tried” too. Much of it was not pretty.
Yep - this is my typical result from the fairway
THE BET!
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