THE STARTER SHACK
New Jersey has collected $2.99 billion in sports betting revenue in 2021...so far. And now golf with its new live betting coming to NBC is going to help take that figure to the bazillions.
💰 Live betting on golf is here!
🧐 How much do you spend on golf annually?
🔥 How much dough do you burn on golf?
⛳️ Player/Caddie breakups
PGA TOUR
"Don't Fall In Love On Demo Day"
“Don’t Fall In Love On Demo Day”. We're not familiar with this adage from Johnny Miller. Miller noted that once he found irons that he trusted, he wouldn’t change them out.
If new gear didn’t cost what it does, we’d be as loyal as a bead collector at Mardi Gras.
How pros hone in on what they are looking for is a combination of comfort (and excessive testing) as well as the almighty dollar. Chasing a buck has lead to some real head-scratching disasters:
- 5 of the worst equipment changes
- Some of the most costly equipment changes
- Phil changing to Callaway on the eve of the 2004 Ryder Cup
- Justin Rose dropping Taylor Made to briefly endorse Honma
As part of any club change, players tune in their “go to” specs, maybe nobody more maniacally than Tiger Woods. He was so focused on his ideal specs, that he was disappointed he hit the new TaylorMade irons “too far”. Yeah, that's a real problem.
Woods was a Nike man, until they pulled out the rug back in 2016, forcing all their pros to hunt for new equipment providers. Some like Tommy Fleetwood have just signed on with a new company.
Others like Brooks Koepka and Paul Casey have remained free agents, playing sets more mixed than a James Bond’s martini.
Some golfers, like Charles Howell III are notorious tinkerers who like to fiddle. Whereas free agent status appeals to a growing number of players, not just the Koepka’s, Casey’s and Rose’s of the world:
The one thing we can get behind; players who can’t quit their old reliable weapons; even Nike club sightings in three different bags at the recent Ryder Cup!
Thankfully the Cleveland VAS 792 irons, the Hammer X driver and the Ping Doc putter are relegated to the dustbin of golf equipment history and won’t be making an appearance any time soon.
GIMME
- Griping about grips: There was a bit of a rules run-in at the Ryder Cup that no one witnessed...because it happened behind closed doors. Harris English has a putter grip that belongs in a museum but it's not in a museum it's on the end of his putter. The tattered grip was deemed illegal and needed medical attention, served by Davis Love III.
- The Grudge Match: Brooks and Bryson are set to play a 12 hole exhibition at the Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas. We get it, we get it. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so any fun and camaraderie that these two twits have together ends as soon as they leave the city limits.
- Gas-tronomical money: Chevron is taking over as the title sponsor of the LPGA's first major (used to be Ana Inspirations) and will increase the purse by 60%!!! It's going to bring the total purse up to $5 million, which is still $10 million less than the Players Championship.
- Live betting on golf: provided by Pointsbet is coming to live golf on NBC, Golf Channel, and The Peacock. As reported by Golf.com, fans will have access to betting information as it happens...in real-time...in real life. This is fantastic news to anyone who hates having money and wants to piss it away...where do we sign up?!
- How much do you spend?: Golf.com did a survey about how much golfers spend each year and on what. 1% of the participants spend more than 50% of their disposable income on golf. Are these people making $10 a day and spending $5 of it at the driving range? What's going on here?! 25% of the people would build their own golf course if they won the Powerball.
- Breakups are hard: when Charlene stopped taking our calls a couple years back we were heartbroken but at least our three-day cry wasn't front-page news like some of these caddie/player splits.
- How to be faster: here is an article that has 15 tips on how to be a faster golfer. We have one tip...suck less. We're still trying to figure this one out.
PIC OF THE DAY
Patrons listening for Bryson to finally yell fore?
This may be an old article about Bryson's fellow players getting on his case about not yelling fore but we couldn't help but revisit it when we came across this photo.
WITB
If this Utility Wood performs half as good as its soleplate looks, we're in for a real treat.
Callaway is releasing the Apex UW which is not a hybrid and it's not a wood...it's a utility wood. It has the loft of a fairway wood but a shaft length that is 1.5 inches shorter. For better control...like a shorter shaft is going to control the windmill arms of our swing...good luck.
Callaway releases this today for $299!
INSIDE THE ROPES
"...potential to storm its way into the world's elite" — Golfers Journal
Those are big claims for a golf course in Nebraska. Then again, Sand Valley, Erin Hills, Whistling Straits have changed how we think about golf in Wisconsin. Landmand GC is being brought to life by Rob Collins and Tad King. The shovels behind this new, grandiose course in the Nebraska prairies.
GOLF GEAR
Bubba Whips...Whips it real good:
Remember when alignment sticks weren't a thing? Can we go back to that time? No? Okay, then let's get the goods on the good alignment sticks.
Bubba Whips was the first on the scene a few years ago and they've got some great nostalgic color schemes.
*not a sponsored post
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Today's email was brought to you by: Nolan Filipenko & Colby Johannson
