Well Chicago, after all these years, you got your wish.
A holiday outing
It was indeed a boiling hot round of golf at Kings Mill golf club near Marion. Probably close to 400 degrees. But at least there was a nice hot humid breeze blowing. At one point, I think Big J’s underwear simply imploded. Tough conditions.
It happened!!!!!!
The Tommy O has been hung in its rightful place at the B.T.O. estate!
And congrats to Manager Jim as I hear he’s headed to Europe for a long river boat cruise! ENJOY!
A wonderful night at the Blossom Music Center. Caught Don Felder play a lot of Eagles songs for the opening act. Chatted with one of the ladies working there during the break and she ended up moving us up from the 80th row to the 15 row for The Guess Who. A very comfortable night!
Travelers goes to sudden death overtime or whatever we call it
Hovland got the win and Morikawa a 3rd place finish for Big J. 20 points for the tournament!!!! Moved up on the leaderboard which may just end up screwing up his 2027 draft spot! But congrats anyway!
11 points for both Jaustin and PAK-Mon as we head to the John Deere.
Let's go ride a John Deere tractor!
Well - not quite. But it is time for the John Deere Championship. Not many FGL golfers playing as they’re busy looking for flights to Scotland where we have the Scotish Open in a week.
Manager Golfers expected to play
Jaustin Milton Bradley, Sungjae Im
Jim Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Max Homa
Kevin Tony Finau
Doug Chris Gotterup
PAK-Mon Keith Mitchell
Commish Sudarshan Yellamaraju
Big J Jacob Bridgeman, Jordan Spieth
B.T.O. lil Rickie , Daniel HamBerger
Surprise tennis outing
Thank you Ashley. Reminds me of outings at Oglebay, WV with Monica and Doug as well as Chatham with Doug. Some good shots. Lots of bad. And a few home runs over the fence.
So many guys not performing this season
One example would be Big J’s buddy Jordan Spieth. We haven’t see much of Jordan on TV as he’s not had the best of years. Tends to get a bit off the beaten path:
In homage to those who went first decades ago…..
I tried to celebrate the dawning of Summer with an IronMan outing. The opening first hole at #1 at Granville…..
And finished on #18 at Longaberger
Ryan asked that we post this picture
Sunday was a beautiful day for some baseball
Oh sure - the Clippers lost. But it was still a great afternoon with all the added entertainment. And on top of all that, it was also Manager Austin’s birthday!
Would you expect anything else this season?
Wyndham Hotels, after years of doing nothing, decides to win another US Open. All I can figure is it’s the new management. Congrats to Paul and Monica on another outstanding weekend. 32 points and the sidebet win. On a course to be a historic FGL season. When it all comes together, guys like Keith Mitchell open with a 40 on his opening nine holes yet somehow ends up in the top 10. The current second, third and fourth top ranked players are all on a certain someone’s team. See how their salary has increased since that infamous TopGolf Draft night:
Player Draft Night 6/21
Rory McIlroy $8.70 $9.57
Cameron Young $3.18 $7.28
Matt Fitzpatrick $3.07 $6.82
Jake Knapp $2.11 $2.50
Wyndham Clark $1.72 $5.05
Keith Mitchell $1.11 $1.74
TOTAL $19.89 $32.96
Defending Tommy O Champion - negative two points for the weekend. Tsk tsk tsk.
Jim and I picked up 14 points. Not much to brag about there.
Big J’s favorite Jason Day played a few holes Thursday and then decided to go home. He pulled a Morikawa with a sore back.
We’re going to the Travelers next. It’s a Signature event which means: limited field, all make the cut, top names are expected to compete (except Rory who has decided he just doesn’t care about those events) I would guess a few of the guys that gutted it out for four rounds at the US Open would not be too upset if they missed the cut. But there’s no cut. So they’re playing all four rounds. I expect some tournament schedule changes next year!
Manager Golfers expected to play
B.T.O. Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, Akshay Bhatia, lil Rickie Fowler, Daniel HamBerger
Jim Fleetwood Mac, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, Maverick McNealy
Jaustin Xander, Alex Noren, Keegan Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im
Doug Chris Gotterup, Shane Lowry, Gary Woodland, Si Woo Kim, J.J. Spaun, Min Woo Lee
PAK-Mon Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jake Knapp, Wyndham Clark, Keith Mitchell
Commish Don Henley, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Sam Burns, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Nicolai Hojgaard,
Big J Bob MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Jacob Bridgeman, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa
Kevin Scottie, Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau
A lovely Buckeye outing.
Sponsored by Roosters, thanks to Woody & Delta Dental for the invitation. Weather was perfect out on the OSU Scarlet course. Coach Hinton was with our group. He was terrible - which really helped me feel better about my game!
Time for the US Open! Hold on tight!!! (Oh wait, the FGL season feels like it's over)
Manager Golfers expected to play
B.T.O. Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, \Akshay Bhatia, lil Rickie, Billy Horschel, Daniel HamBerger
Jim Fleetwood Mac, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, Maverick McNealy
Jaustin Xander Schauffele, Alex Noren, Keegan Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im
Doug Chris Gotterup, Shane Lowry, Gary Woodland, Si Woo Kim, J.J. Spaun, , Min Woo Lee
PAK-Mon Rory, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jake Knapp, Wyndham Clark, Keith Mitchell
Commish Don Henley, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, George Burns, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Nicolai Hojgaard,
Big J Bobby MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Jacob Bridgeman, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa
Kevin Scottie, Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka
Bud Cauley?
Another winner not in the FGL. But in the end, the story is the same. Monica picks up 10 points with Fitzpatrick’s 2nd place finish. Well done Monica! Paul sure has picked a good team!
Doug and your Commissioner are now tied for second place with Jim and Jaustin right behind. Big J and Kevin are tied for 6th.
Kevin’s boy Brooks Koepka made the cut. Congratulations. But then he didn’t play Sunday. I don’t know what happened. Made the cut but didn’t finish. No points for that.
Wonderful outing at Shaker Run near Lebanon on a glorious Saturday afternoon. Three Finger Tim and his son Cody backed out on us that day but Big J and myself carried on. Sounds like Tim’s body is a bit beat up.
Let's go to Canada
Most guys resting up for the US Open the following week. But we’ve got a few FGL players digging their passports out for the trip north.
Manager Golfers expected to play
B.T.O. Billy Horschel
Jim Fleetwood Mac, Pete Rose, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Max Homa
Jaustin Alex Noren, Corey Conners
Doug Shane Lowry
PAK-Mon Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Hotels, Keith Mitchell
Commish George Burns, Sudarshan Yellamaraju
Big J Bobby MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Jacob Bridgeman, Collin Morikawa
Kevin Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka
Weather at the tournament
Dave would have loved it!
Buckeye Lake
The Commissioner’s Headquarters team took an afternoon trip out to Buckeye Lake over the weekend. What a fun time. There was a guy related to the audio guy who happened to be in town and brought his violin. Turns out he’s played background for some of the big names in Nashville. No clue who he was - but he was good and joined in on several songs.
They will be performing again this Friday out at the Hollywood Casino for the grand opening of the new hotel out there. they’ve got to figure out what to wear.
Huh?
JT Poston and Ryan Gerard? In a playoff to win the Memorial? With such a strong field? Who saw that coming? Clearly none of the FGL managers.
Monica picked up 16 points which is all she needed to keep her huge lead. Doug did well with 14 points as well and is now sitting so proudly in 2nd place in your FGL Leaderboard.
The winner of the Major Sidebet goes down to the Tampa area and Manager Jim. This is his 2nd sidebet win of the season. Just 4 guys in the tournament and they all made the cut. More than that, they ALL finished in the Top 20. 24 points for Jim.
Big J - you had three guys miss the cut. That’s not pretty. Only to be topped by B.T.O. - he had four guys miss the cut! Congrats Dave!
Thursday night at Polaris
The British Invasion played for us Thursday night at the Polaris Fashion Mall; in the parking lot next to Dave & Buster’s. (Yes - that place still is in business). A lovely night.
Thoughts from the tournament
As I was out at Muirfield Village Tuesday, a few thoughts and observations:
Sandwiches are pre-made with pre-determined condiments. You don’t get a choice. They don’t want to have to fill up dispensers or worry about little plastic ketchup/mustard packets all over.
There’s also no napkins. They could blow out on the course and that’s no allowed on TV.
Wrappers for sandwiches are green - for basically the same reason. So they’re not seen.
I walked with Ryan Fox briefly (mostly because I couldn’t figure out who he was). Interesting that he was carrying his golf bag and his caddy was busy making lots of notes. Other caddies used IPADS. A few brought along TrackMan devices. All had at least a swing coach with them.
Adam Scott and Patrick Cantlay were practicing together. I found that interesting and odd. Adam did look over at me and say “Tell Monica I said ‘hi’”.
I know the golfers love the bunkers. But some are ridiculous. Front bunker on the #8 par 3. If you’re standing in that, you’re about 10 - 12 feet below the surface of the green.
I saw Jordan Spieth. He actually came over to me. Whispered in my ear, “You think Big J will have me back again next year? Jason Day was wondering the same thing.” All I could think of to say was that Milton Bradley was waiting for him. (Yes - two nervous guys practicing together!)
Jack had a few spots on #5 covered up - trying to get a little more grass growing there. Wish he’d come over to my house and do that.
