THE STARTER SHACK
Phil is no slouch when it comes to beating up the "old guys" on the Champions Tour. He's on a 3-4 heater at the moment.
💰 All-Time Money Winners
🏎 Who has the faster swing?
🙍♀️ 114 holes without a bogey...that's a nope for us
⛳️ 50 Classic Courses
PGA TOUR
Tiger Is The All-TimeTiger King
A recent accounting of the all-time winningest players at each tour event currently played suggests that Patrick Cantley would be the King of The Strip, earning a hair short of $3M coming into this year’s event.
In a nice bit of symmetry, the Las Vegas event 25 years ago was when Eldrick won his first event and kickstarted his ass-kicking on the PGA Tour.
Taking even a simple “man look” at this all-time event’s winnings list, a few things jump out…
- Tiger Woods is The King. Full stop. All-time winnings leader at 11 events!
- all-time winnings leader at the Masters and PGA Championship
- Open Championship? Nope, that’s Ernie Els, Tiger’s old punching bag
- US Open kudos? Brooks Koepka (thank you recent huge purse increases)
In another simplistic “hot take”, inspecting the all-time PGA Tour money list, Tiger is in top spot; a result less surprising than David Simms laying up on a par 5.
Upon further inspection of this list’s top 20 a few things become apparent:
- it is good, err great, to be playing in the vapor trails of the Tiger Woods era
- 14 players still active on Tour, will be jockeying for position in the future
- only one player on the list joined the PGA Tour before 1990 (Davis Love III)
- only seven are Champions Tour eligible, the eldest being Vijay at age 58
Even taking into account worldwide earnings and not just PGA Tour earnings, this list remains about as unchanged as Jim Furyk’s swing, with all the same caveats we note above.
Not surprising given the Stratosphere-ic (get it?) rise is purses since the mid-to-late 1990s through today. What is still hard to fathom is that when looking for the stars of their day, we see:
- 70s greats -> Nicklaus (#314), Trevino (#395), Weiskopf (#446)
- 80s/90s stalwarts -> Norman (#141), Azinger (#142), Olazabal (#167), Crenshaw (#270)
There has been attempts to try and normalize this all-time list
- bring every player in PGA Tour history up to today’s standard
- using inflation and other things we find hard to comprehend (see: math)
- Tiger bumped to 2nd all-time, Jack taking over first with $216M in adjusted earnings
- Some surprises here: Tom Kite (8th), Vijay (11th) and Phil (15th)
- Otherwise, the top 20 becomes a who’s who of PGA Tour historical lore
Tiger is likely number one on just about any list (weird math or not), and even if you break it down by earnings per state. For Tiger, Vegas was always the start of something, some good (a maiden professional win) and other stuff, not so good. Just more living proof that what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay there.
GIMME
- What's inside: here's an up-close and personal look at the inside of your favourite golf balls. Unless your favourite golf ball is a Pinnacle Gold.
- Rules are hard: Phil was caught in a rules "situation" over the weekend that didn't cause him an extra stroke to be added to the card. So what exactly happens when your ball moves?
- Weekend Golfer: Sungjae Im has played in 98 events since 2017 and has played 342 rounds. He's a few rounds ahead of his nearest competitor.
- Ko with the KO: Jin Young Ko has played 14 consecutive rounds in the 60's. In 2019 she played 114 holes without a bogey taking over Tiger Woods' record by four.
- Rules are rules: here are the 27 biggest rules issues of 2021. Patrick Reed is involved in one...weird. There's also a lot of pro's who either signed an incorrect scorecard or just plain forgot to sign their scorecard.
- Top Classic Courses: here are the Top 50 Classic International Courses.
PIC OF THE DAY
Bryson DeChambeau or Bryson & Justin Timberlake's offspring? Or Harry Hall? Or none of those?
INSIDE THE ROPES
Im Vs Finau
Who has the faster swing, Im or Finau? One of these players can make two swings while the other makes one full swing.
INSIDE THE ROPES
Phil is only 3 for 4 in Senior events...probably has something to do with shots like these.
Here are the Top 10 hole outs from The Shriners and Furyk's Friends.
GOLF GEAR
Jackson Pollock meets Vice Golf:
This Vice Pro may or may not be inspired by Jackson Pollock (most likely not) but they are pretty damn cool. The splattered paint pattern is reminiscent of our splattered golf game...but much...much cooler.
*not a sponsored post (may have affiliate links at times)
SHARE THE SHACK
Share today's newsletter to your favorite social sites...or your favorite playing partner(s). Help spread the word! Technically you're helping spread words...plural. Just tap forward in your email browser and send it to all your friends. Hopefully, you have friends.
We thank you in advance!
Today's email was brought to you by: Nolan Filipenko & Colby Johannson
