The #TourSauce has been sprayed all over the place in 2015. Back in January of 2014, we brought you 

 have taken their turn in stirring the sauce.

All year long (with your help of course), we’ve been pointing out the best and most unique 

. Below, we highlighted some of the most unique and hilarious sauce moments of the year. Now it’s your turn to really weigh in and help us award some lucky unsuspecting tour pro the prize of the most ridiculous sauce move of the year, in the second annual #Saucies.

Below you will find all of the matchups for round 2. The winners will move on from this round of 8 until an ultimate winner is crowned. As always, special thanks to 

 for the GIF’s and helping me compile the list.

You know you're good when this is your bad shot. ? 





— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzPwd86tiFo

Elementary, my dear Watson. Bubba needs a magnifying glass to solve this 

Rory McIlroy disposes of his long iron after a pond ball. 

HE ADDED A PIMP STEP WHY CANT I INCREASE MY FONT SIZE. 

. Pulling the putter out after an ace just to tap down the pitch mark. 

2015 Saucies, Round 2

Below you will find all of the matchups for round 1. The winners will move on from this round of 16 until an ultimate winner is crowned. As always, special thanks to 

: Caddie keeping the ball dry as long as possible 

 here from Scott Piercy. Only landed about 3 feet from the pin. 

2015 Saucies; Round 1

While most of the U.S. was rolling out of bed and nursing their Sunday morning hangovers, Rory McIlroy was putting the finishing touches on a four win season that was capped off with the Race to Dubai title. Yes, Rory winning the Race to Dubai looks shockingly similar to Baylor running through a non-conference schedule, as he needed just six non-co-sanctioned European Tour events, and only two on the actual continent of Europe. While the poor man’s version of the already comical FedExCup is hardly the best barometer for accomplishment, nor necessarily a great predictor of what is to come, it’s what Rory said immediately after claiming the title that got me hyped for the near future of the sport. For Rory, 2015 will be defined by “what could have been,” and no one is more aware of that than Rory himself. 

 the following quotes from the Ulsterman (h/t 

“I had a big lead in the world rankings and you see Jordan and Jason play the way they did. Fields are so deep, you can’t let up at all.



“Tagging along with that, you know, this is my time to capitalise on my career. The next 10, 15 years is my time.



“I really can’t be doing silly things like playing football in the middle of the season to jeopardise even six months of my career. It’s a big chunk where I could make some hay and win a major or two.



“I won’t be making those mistakes again next year.”

) critical of Rory risking his health playing soccer with his friends this summer, and it’s refreshing to hear that Rory himself now shares that same sentiment. I get the whole deal about athletes having their own lives, but I firmly believe that players should not be unnecessarily putting their bodies in harm’s way during the middle of major season. Rory was going to win The Open. I truly believe that. I think he would have shot 20 under. But instead we literally got a piece of corn in the Claret Jug, and I still haven’t forgiven Rory for that.

I was already absolutely hyped for 2016, and I hate overreacting to words said to a group of reporters, but the quotes above have me ready to run through a wall. A fiery and motivated Rory adding to the mix of the emergence of Jason Day and Jordan Spieth? Justin Thomas’ breakout campaign? Brooks Koepka? Dustin Johnson? Rickie Fowler? Patrick Rodgers? I can’t even name all of the guys that I’m pumped about without feeling like I’m leaving out a class of ten more of them.

We’re spoiled. Remember back in the day when you would try to download a song from Napster or Limewire, and you would have to leave it on overnight and just 

 that you would have a bootlegged version of a song by morning? These days, if I can stream a song within five seconds, I’m chasing down an IT guy. Now I’m the same way with golf. A story like G-Mac returning to the winner’s circle barely registers as a blip on the radar because we’ve become so used to seeing awesome things week in and week out that we become numb to it, to a certain extent.

The logs and the brush had already been arranged in a tidy circle. Rory just poured gas over the wood, and now the 2016 season is ready to be set ablaze into the 

. In the second half of 2014, it became clear that a new era of golf was coming. In 2015, young golf fans were treated to the best (non-Tiger) season that we’ve ever seen. In 2016, the rest of the sports world is going to start noticing. Came. Saw. Conquered. I still have no idea what “lit” means, but this season is going to be lit. (Oh, and it’s a Ryder Cup year!)

Typically, I would roll my eyes at a generalization of “The Big Three,” but the distance these guys have put between themselves and the Fraudulent Floridian looks a lot like the Protracer on one of Rory’s drives.

The 2015-2016 reacharound season is already off to a fiery start, and I’m expected to start my bitching process about Ryder Cup qualifying in this space, aren’t I?

If fall portion of PGA Tour season counted toward Ryder Cup, Kisner would be 3rd instead of 6th. Justin Thomas would be 6th instead of 33rd.



— Doug Ferguson (@dougferguson405) 

) on the European Tour. Added another top 10 this weekend.



— Jake Nichols (@jalnichols) 

Worst part? He earned zero Ryder Cup for his T3, 2, T10 finishes. Good chance this will turn into a 

 rant next September.



— Jake Nichols (@jalnichols) 

If you’re expecting a rant, I think I’ll save it for next September. For now, I’m going to give Davis Love III the benefit of the doubt, and just assume that he’s smart enough to take Justin Thomas as a captain’s pick, if he somehow does not make it on points. That being said, there really is no point in analyzing the Ryder Cup qualification standings at this point, as it’s really only counting the 2015 majors (1 point per $1,000 earned), WGC’s and Players Championship events (1 point per $2,000 earned). For 2016, regular events will be granted 1 point per $1,000 earned, and majors will grant 2 points per $1,000 earned.

With the way these fall events played out, of course I’d rather have Justin Thomas up near the top of the standings. But at the same time, do we really think the results of these events are key indicators of players that should be on the Ryder Cup team? Jimmy Walker has played on to the last two Ryder and Presidents Cup teams with hot falls/winters, and ridden that out into automatic qualification. He’s 2-4-3 in those competitions. Does a win in November really mean that you’re going to be ready to roll at Hazeltine next September?

That being said, if I’m looking at the current lineup (Spieth, DJ, ZJ, Fowler, Phil, Kisner, Bubba, Koepka) and my four captain’s picks as of today (Thomas, Reed, Na, Horschel), I’m liking our chances against anything the Euros are able to put together.

(Disclaimer: I fully reserve the right to bitch on the qualification system if Thomas somehow doesn’t make the team.)

Rory Wins Race to Dubai, Sets Stage for 2016

A lot of really good questions this week. I had trouble narrowing it down to these few.

 It's no secret that major golf publications are putting out terrible articles every day, but what else can they do?



— Piso Mojado (@MuthioraESPN) 

The main problem is that there are so many people out there writing, yet not enough interesting topics to cover. Golf is not a team sport, so there is no team aspect to report on, no armchair manager/coach/general manager roles to play, trade possibilities, free agency, divisional races, or (real) playoffs, etc. It’s just a bunch of guys playing golf, and only a handful of them are actually interesting characters. It becomes difficult to stick out, so most, if not all, websites tend to resort to the same formula:

It’s not the write or publication’s fault that golf fans will fall down the rabbit hole every single time one of these links is shared. It’s a formula that works, and it pays the bills. We know Tiger gets clicks, and slideshows and aggregation are not unique to golf. But try this exercise. Think of a married PGA Tour player. Can be any married player. Go to Google, and type their name in (you chose William McGirt didn’t you). I’ll bet you that that player’s name followed by “wife” is one of the top five searches. It’s the same reason why Paige Spiranac has 400,000 Instagram followers, and there are more pictures of LPGA players in bikinis on golf.com than there are actual articles on them. Golf fans are apparently made up almost entirely of horny men that are unaware that porn exists. Either that, or that they mix their golf fetish with their actual fetishes. Seriously, go read the comments on Paige Spiranac or Natalie Gulbis’ Instagram posts. It’s creepy out there.

This is why the WAG posts show up at least monthly on all major sites. These terrible posts get clicks, which is why these sites all end up looking the same. And guess what, if my paycheck was dependent on page views and clicks, this site would probably have a lot more posts that would ensure that my lights stay on. Of the 250 published posts on this website, I’d say we are guilty of four sexually driven, attention grabbing posts, three of which I posted because I just thought they were funny (the 

). And the one that I’m most guilty on is 

 (I’m embarrassed to even link to it), which is one of the first posts we ever made, so I’ll use the excuse that we were still figuring out what we are at that point (and still are). But guess what…. those are some of the most viewed posts we’ve ever made. I pounded out the original Bongiovanni story in 40 minutes while waiting on a delayed flight, and spent hours and hours on a PGA Championship preview that week that got out-viewed about 20 to 1. It’s sad that this is the kind of stuff that gets rewarded. As I’ve touched on in the past, we do this site purely for hobby. We don’t have ads, and if we did, we’d care a lot more about traffic. Which is a slippery slope.

All of this isn’t to say that all other work out there is shit, and we are the best, and the only ones coming up with good material. There are plenty of writers out there that I respect and read on a regular basis that are capable of way better material than I can come up with. There’s just so much crap out there that’s easy low hanging fruit to make fun of, and frankly, it deserves the criticism.

 did your podcast recording equipment break?



— Eric Tomko (@erictomko) 

Fair call out. Hey, it’s the “offseason.” I actually “recorded” a podcast with Shane Bacon a few weeks ago, only to find out my recording equipment actually 

 broken. It was an hour of, what I thought was, excellent discussion that was not recorded, and I was pretty deflated about that. So my motivation to do more of these is diminished.

I’d be doing podcasts more regularly if there was enough going on that was worth discussing, or if the golf that’s actually going on wasn’t going on in the middle of the night here in Amsterdam. I got up to watch JT get his W, but unfortunately, Russell Knox doesn’t get the same treatment (more on this below). Podcasts are harder to do than they look, and my time zone difference limits the time of day to record them, and get guests on. Hell, I’ve texted/emailed with 

 pretty much every day for the past two years, and only been able to get him on the podcast one time. I will try to get at least one more out this fall.

That being said, I’m in on the fall series. I could probably go without two tournaments in the same week in November, but I like this little mini season as a “viewing optional” approach. If the leaderboard is interesting, I’m gonna tune in. If it’s not, I’m out. I understand the players being fatigued, and feeling obligated to play so they don’t fall too far out of the FedExCup race. I understand writers tired of travelling, and wanting to spend some true down time just chillin. So I’ll allow their complaints, from that perspective. But what I can’t stand for is the complaining from a fan’s standpoint. No one is making you watch, or even pay attention. It is strictly optional, and as it turns out, this fall series has been very entertaining for those of us that have been licking our lips in anticipation of the uprising of young players on tour. Yet at the same time, I don’t feel even the slightest bit “obligated” to tune into the Sanderson Farms Championship like I do a normal, regular season event.

 who is joining the No Laying up will get up at 4am to watch them play list this year? who is on the list?



— Shosh Agus-Kleinman (@ShoshEAK) 

It’s not a long list. JT, Koepka, and Kyle Stanley (the original man crush, before NLU existed) are at the top. Mostly it’s going to be made up of guys that I’m fans of that I’m waiting on to make their breakthrough. Horschel passed through this spectrum in 2014 by winning the FedExCup. Spieth blasted his way through in historic fashion. Guys like JT and Koepka are well on their way. Now it’s time to turn to a new crop of young guys, led by currently Patrick Rodgers and Ollie Schniederjans.

Rodgers earned his card the same way Spieth and Koepka did, by obtaining special temporary membership through sponsor’s exemptions, and earning more (non-member) FedExCup points than number 150 on the prior year’s list. And get this…. He’s good buddies with Justin Thomas! Roommates even! So we get to look forward to this narrative when he busts out and wins (probably going to be this week in Mexico).

devastatingly close to playing his way into the Web.com Tour finals

 last season, but unfortunately will have to go the Rodgers route this season. He’ll need to earn 361 FedExCup points in just seven starts, and has already made three (earning just 64 points). He’s going to need a big week at the McGladrey to end the 2015 portion of the season, and I’ll be pulling hard for him to bust through.

 – if Ted Scott wrote a book, would you buy it?



— Mickey Corso (@mickeycorso) 

Strictly to see if #PrayForTedScott was mentioned.

Ok, I’m not fooling anyone. Are you kidding me? I would read that thing cover to cover. For the sake of this question, let’s hope that Teddy is desperate to sell some books, and willing to pretty much sell Bubba out. The first-hand account of the ridiculous things Bubba has done and said would give me enough material to stock up my draft tweet game until Y3K. This book would need to be translated into a hundred different languages and taught in schools like the Diary of Anne Frank.

The disappointing thing is that Ted seems to buy into the Bubba propaganda circa Nazi Germany 1933. Which leads me to the next question….

 If you had a gun with 2 bullets and were in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, and Zach Johnson, would you shoot Zach twice?



— Jake Borton (@jsb1872) 

My God! I’ve never been teed up better to channel my inner @PFTcommenter. I mean, the question was asked, so I 

 to do this, right? I can’t belivve you’re making me do this Jake. (For those not familiar with PFT’s fire takes, the following in italics is an attempt at satire. I hate that I have to explain that, but I do. I already ruined it by explaining this, didn’t I?)

At first I thought this question was ridiculous before I started to connect the dots.

Zach Johnson joined the PGA Tour in 2004, then occupied the lush and mountainous terrain of Eastern Georgia in his third year by winning the 2007 Masters. Know who else occupied lush and mountainous territory in his third year? That’s right. Adolf Hitler and the Wehrmacht occupied the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936 after he took over as chancellor in 1933. Can’t make this stuff up folks. In 1939, Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The day ZJ picked up a golf club, he signed a non-aggression pact with every golf course on the planet. The similarities do not Ge-stop-o there.

ZJ comes from Iowa. Guess what the largest ancestry group in Iowa is? That’s right, German. Don’t tell me you did nazi that coming.

ZJ grew up Catholic. Hitler grew up Roman Catholic. Makes you think.

ZJ is sponsored by Transamerica. Hitler sunk naval transportation from America. Shall I keep going?

ZJ dropped a bomb on the 18th green at St. Andrews to win the British Open. Hitler dropped bombs on Britain on the reg.

. Hitler is famous for another type of shot in a bunker.

I think my “hate” for ZJ has been over exaggerated (maybe 

 comparing him to Hitler doesn’t help). There’s nothing wrong with ZJ himself, I just don’t gravitate towards guys with his style of play. He doesn’t even come close to the disgust that “personalities” like Poulter and Bubba evoke within me. He just lays up. And he happened to win the greatest tournament in the world by famously laying up, thus he became the poster boy for antithesis of what we’re about. He’s a guy I wouldn’t mind getting a beer with. Agree to disagree and move in.

 most intoxicated you've ever been on the course?



— Jake Nast (@JakeNast) 

I’m not going to voluntarily incriminate myself! So I’ll start with the most intoxicated group I’ve ever been in.

Last April, I took a trip to the Tampa area for a bachelor party with some buddies to play a bunch of courses in the area. We started by playing the Red and Blue courses at Streamsong, then played 36 more at another course the following day. We drank for the first 18 holes, and agreed that we would draw straws for who had to stop drinking, and be responsible for driving us home at the end of the rounds. The first thing you need to know is that I will lose one of these blind draws every single time. I have played credit card roulette twice in my life, both on the same night, for a round of drinks with 15 people, and I lost both times. We drew straws for priority at St. Andrews earlier this year, and I got last both times. So of course, I lose, and I’m now the DD.

What proceeded to occur over the next 18 holes was unlike anything I had ever seen on a golf course before. I had played tons of golf with these guys (all 7 handicaps or better). They were literally 

 shots. Cheesy lines at the cart girl. One guy passed out on one of the tee boxes (picture below). On every hole, they would try to gather themselves and say something along the lines of:

“Guys, guys…. Let’s calm it down…. Soly has to be sober….”

“This can’t be fun for you, is it…. I’m so sorry.”

They would forget this by the time we would reach the fairway, and would be yelling in my backswing before we got off that tee box. Somehow I started playing the round of my life, even though they had absolutely no idea. I would back off a putt because they were slurring something, they would try to collect themselves, and then I would make it.

“Well, I’m two under on this side.”

“HOLY SHIT! GUYS SOLY IS TWO UNDER ON THIS SIDE!”

Next hole, I’m putting for birdie. It goes in.

They literally did not remember conversations from fifteen minutes prior. I went on to shoot my lowest 9 ever at the time, a 4-under 32, and not one of them has a single memory of the whole thing. When I told them about it the next day, they were genuinely in shock that they missed my best 9 ever, despite the fact that they were there the whole time.

 play the Old Course every day for a year or play Augusta once?



— Dalton Johnson (@SmoochJohnson) 

It pains me to say this. I could not have had a much 

I looked at this way. If I accept the Old Course part of this question, then inherently I am turning down an opportunity to play at Augusta National. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

The question you ask is a good inherent question that could be applied on a more general level, and the answer will depend on a person by person basis. How much do you value playing a new course that’s on your bucket list? For me, that answer is a lot. Once I’ve played a top course, in my head, I’m mentally ready for a new challenge, and a new course that I’ve not already experienced. For instance, I’ve played TPC Sawgrass. If I had the chance to play there again, or play a course that was “ranked” much lower on the Top 100 lists, I would often pick the new course. And for Augusta, I would bypass pretty much every other course in the world.

 Build your perfect burger. Big proponent of pineapple on there.



— Doug Maccaferri (@bigmac1441) 

This is the question I’m actually the most afraid to answer. There’s just too much of a chance to be judged here. For instance… pineapple? You’re a monster.

To qualify this…. I’m a picky eater. I order it medium. Bacon. American cheese. Avocado. Fried egg. Garlic aioli. Pretzel bun. (*jumps into a trench for cover*)

Side note – if anyone ever has the chance to go 

 in Chicago, it exceeds the hype. No reservations, two hour wait on a Wednesday, and it’s still absolutely worth it. Best burger I’ve ever had. I’m very anti-taking-a-picture-of-your-food, but made an exception:

 Loved your Scotland trip pod and write up. So, what courses will comprise your next group pilgrimage?



— Kevin Sill (@LabRat79) 

In the midst of planning this now, and willing to take recommendations if you’ve got them. We’re talking about Ireland as a more affordable option compared to Scotland and the dreaded British Pound exchange rate.

The St. Andrews trip was was amazing because there is so much great golf there within a 45 minute drive that you can stay in one place the whole trip. I feel like for the other top courses in Scotland, we would be driving more, thus having to change accommodations, etc. Does anyone have an itinerary they followed, or advice on this?

The same kind of goes for Ireland, but I know even less about the courses there. Who has had good Ireland golf trips? Please leave your insight in the comments.

 After playing old course, most potentially problematic single shot other than the road hole?



— Tucker Blankinship (@TuckerBlanc) 

The tee shot on the par-3 11th hole. The caddies call this hole the “hardest par-5 on the course.” There is no where to miss. If you hit it in the Strath Bunker in front of the green, you’re dead. If you go long, you’re dead. The green is heavily undulated, and it’s at the most wide open part of the whole course, so the wind howls. I played it in three over in my two rounds, and left part of my soul behind in that Strath Bunker.

 What's better; a) doing a winter golf trip w/the guys, b) spend that money on lessons at an indoor facility. 11-handicap.



— Colton Davis (@Colton45) 

This is an easy one for me. Take the golf trip. It gives you something to look forward to in the winter, and the memories that come out of that trip will be stronger than the lessons learned on mats at an indoor facility. Sure, you want to become as good as possible at golf, but as my opportunities to play golf dwindle more and more every year, I find myself focusing more on having fun the few times that I do get to play, rather than fretting about improvement or scores. I can’t think of one golf trip I’ve ever taken where I’ve sat back afterward and thought, “you know what, that money would have been better spent on lessons.”

November Mailbag

Justin Thomas held off Adam Scott, Brendan Steele, and Kevin Na to win the first of many PGA Tour titles at the CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. You might think I’m going to use this space to gloat about my Thomas related predictions, but nearly everyone capable of forming an opinion on golf could see this coming. Does Gwen Stefani gloat when she spells “bananas” right in a spelling bee? No. This was just too easy. Unfortunately this win came during the middle of the night in the U.S., and during a time when most golf fans are tuned out, but that doesn’t make this victory any less significant.

 to getting into a playoff at the opening event of the new season at the Frys.com Championship, and has knocked on the door frequently enough in his short career without breaking through to make some (not very smart) people start to question his ability to close a tournament. Remember, it’s not that long ago that 

some people were also questioning the ability of a certain youngster’s ability to close

 based on an absurdly small sample of data. 

When I spoke with Thomas on our podcast back in May

, we talked a bit about narratives in the media, and how he kind of rolls his eyes at some of the things people say. He touched on the “winning” narrative a bit in his interview with Arron Oberholser on the 18th green on Sunday:

“What I just kept telling myself is that it’s tough to win, ya know? I mean look at guys like Rickie. He’s done pretty well for himself, and it took him awhile to win, too. I understand we’re in a sport where the winning percentage isn’t in your favor.”

The Fowler example is a good one, as he’s been the poster boy for the “why doesn’t he win more” ignorance that runs all too rampant in the age of the hot take. 

 at the beginning of this year, and after a Players Championship and FedExCup playoff win, we’re no longer asking that question about Rickie. Winning is hard, and this concept is not a new one. Just because a guy doesn’t come out and go full Emiliano Grillo, it doesn’t mean that a player doesn’t have “it”, or “needs to learn how to close.” For almost everyone, there is going to be a lot more heartbreak than there are going to be trophies.

It looked like it was going to more heartbreak for Thomas when he chunked a wedge into the water on 14 with a one shot lead, and made double. While I was freaking out, pacing my apartment, and reading self-help books, Thomas looked completely unphased as he walked off the green, almost as if he knew in his head that he still had this thing. The bounce back over the next three holes was the emergence of the butterfly from the cocoon:

He followed that birdie on 15 with two more on 16 and 17. It was clinical. When I think back to this win, hopefully I remember those moments more than having to watch the last hole curled up underneath my desk as he made us all sweat it out on 18 after he ran his 20 foot birdie putt five feet by:

The list of guys that I set 4:00 AM alarms for to watch on TV is very short, but this was well worth the payoff. What is most exciting about this is what it means for Thomas’ future. This win alone vaults him to around 30 in the OWGR, puts him in the Masters, the WGC’s, and sets him up to make the 2015-2016 season “The Leap.” I’m not saying the JT bandwagon is getting crowded, but Drake is probably going to be front row for his next start, so get on board while you can. Also, he doesn’t lay up:

Justin Thomas Arrives, Wins the CIMB Classic

It’s been awhile. Let’s just get to it.

 who makes the 12 man squad for Ryder cup 2016



— Chad Tully (@ChadTully) 

I was hoping someone would ask this so I could justify speculating on this. How soon is too soon to start talking about the Ryder Cup? Since the first foursomes session at Gleneagles, I was counting down to Hazeltine, as I truly believe this is the year that the tide turns for the U.S., and stays that way for a long time. And I’ve been dying to get overly confident and cocky about it, so for that, thank you Chad. First, 

– 2015 Major Championships (1 Point per $1,000 earned)



– 2015 WGC Events and The Players Championship (1 Point per $2,000 earned)



– 2016 Regular PGA TOUR Events (1 point per $1,000 earned, beginning Jan. 1, 2016, through and including the Barclays on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016)



-2016 Major Championships (2 points per $1,000 earned)



– The Top Eight: Eight of the 12 members of the U.S. Team will be named on points earned following the conclusion of The Barclays, which is scheduled to conclude Sunday Aug. 28, 2016.



– Captain’s Picks: U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III will select three of his four Captain’s Picks after the conclusion of the BMW Championship, which is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. His fourth pick will take place Sunday evening after the TOUR Championship, Sept. 25, 2016. This new timetable also is pushed back two weeks.

These standings mean next to nothing at this point, but here’s where we stand so far.

This is going to be a hybrid of who I expect to be on the team, and who I want to be on the team, and it’s going to look more like a wish list than it is a prediction. The reason I like a lot of these guys in general has a lot to do with how I project the future for them, so while it looks like a list of players that have restraining orders against me, it actually represents guys that I think will either do enough to qualify on their own, or enough to impress DL3 to forget the Furyk era. No Kuch, no Sneds, no Mahan, and no Keegan. The theme here is going to be fresh blood.

Of the top 8 listed above, there’s no one there that I for sure want to boot out. As big of a problem as I had with the Phil pick for the Presidents Cup, I was wrong. He played great, and was clearly a leader on that team. He could start playing right handed in 2016 and Davis Love still wouldn’t leave him off the team. J.B. Holmes is the only guy in that top 8 that I’m guessing will not be there at the opening ceremony (either through qualifying, or captain’s picks), so that leaves five openings:

 – I think he wins again in 2015-2016, and his match play career just can’t be ignored. He was the most animated player in an event in which his team was getting blown out on foreign soil…. can you imagine the unleashed version of Reed we’re going to get at Hazeltine? He’s going to bypass the team jet to ride into Minnesota on a bald eagle, wearing a special issue revolutionary war uniform.

 – He was a brutal lip out away from being in a playoff at the opening event of the year. Of course, this doesn’t count in the points race yet, but the breakout is absolutely, 100% coming this year in the same way that the Koepka missile launched in 2015. He will win at least once. The first one will either be the Career Builder Classic or the Waste Management (petition to start renaming tour events please). If he plays well, yet still doesn’t make it on points, the Spieth relationship that we have grown sick of hearing about will pay off in a captain’s pick.

As discussed on my podcast with Mr. Horschel

 himself last week, when Billy get’s hot, he gets really, really hot. After a somewhat disappointing 2015 campaign, we’re due for a signature Horschel run that will leap him into the picture. His ball striking would make him an excellent foursomes player, and similar to Reed, he’s going to ignite some passion from the U.S. side.

 – Combine Na’s quirkiness with his pace and his stellar play and being on a Ryder Cup team isn’t as crazy as it sounds. I expect Na to win this year (I’m running out of trophies to give away).

 – I’m legally bound to immediately say “bomber” after mentioning Tony Finau’s name, and also mention that 

 has coined him “The Nuclear Football.” I’m expecting big things out of him this year, including a win this week at the Shriners Hospital.

I would take that team against anything that Europe is able to put together. Their top four of Rory-Rose-Stenson-Sergio remains formidable, but once you get past that, the lack of emerging young talents out of Europe is kind of exposed (*ducks*). I know, I know, I know that this is extremely premature, but if you’re looking at the top 12 European players in the OWGR at the moment (ignore the actual European qualifying system at this point as they are way more subject to change than the US standings), the names Shane Lowry, Danny Willett, Berndt Wiesberger, David Lingmerth, Andy Sullivan, and Soren Kjeldsen aren’t exactly striking a lot of fear in me if I’m taking the squad listed above into battle.

 Spieth, Rory, Day and Fowler to combine for more wins than the rest of the tour this season?



— Liam Daly (@LiamDaly90) 

Easily taking the field here. What that group did in 2015 was absurd, but there are like 158 events in the PGA Tour season, and these guys don’t play in a lot of those. So let’s make the qualifying factor here be to only include the events where at least two of them are in the field. It’s much closer, but I’m still taking the field. It feels like the first three guys on that list are going to win every event next year, but like we’ve all been saying for years now, the depth of the tour is bordering on getting out of control, with so many guys capable of winning every week. Expecting the next year to be just like the last year can be very faulty thinking. It would be unfair to expect Spieth to imitate, much less duplicate his 2015 season. Rory had a breakout season in 2012 by winning four times, and followed it with zero wins in 2013. He bounced back with three wins in 2014 (consisting of two majors and a WGC), and responded with a “disappointing” two wins season as he watched Spieth and Day lap him. I’d rather bet on at least one of them having a “disappointing” 2016 than bet on them to replicate it.

 How would you fix the Official World Golf Rankings?



— Ben McNamara (@1867_ben) 

For someone who complains about the OWGR as much as I do, I really should have more of an opinion on how to fix them. I will point you in the direction of the always excellent Jake Nichols, who summarizes the issues with the current system 

 (2012) went into a lot of detail about the bias inherent in the OWGR. A encourage you to at least peruse that paper. They basically rated all golfers from 2002-2010 using actual on-course performance and then compared those ratings to the OWGR. Their findings indicate that PGA Tour golfers are ranked significantly lower than golfers from the other major tours when controlling for on-course performance. Basically, the fields in non-PGA Tour events are systematically overrated, making a win in the Malaysian Open or Nordea Masters look more comparable to a win in a full field PGA Tour event.”

I’m not capable of statistical analysis like the stuff Nichols does, and I’m quite impressionable, so I pretty much buy everything he’s saying in that post. The European Tour is basically the 

 of OWGR points, especially this time of the year (for the record, I’m aware that Koepka has benefited greatly from this system).

The best example I had from this past season was during the Valspar Championship/Hero Indian Open week this year. Henrik Stenson finished a shot out of the playoff including Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, and received 15 OWGR points. Anirban Lahiri won the Hero Indian Open over S.S.P. Chawrasia (who shot a final round 76), and Lahiri received 19 OWGR points. The field strength at the Valspar was 370, compared to 40 for the Hero Indian Open. So in a sense, the system gives you too much credit for winning, and doesn’t factor enough in to 

 you actually beat. Considering that the field strength on the US tour vastly exceeds that on the Euro side, it’s easy to see how the players that play mostly on the European Tour can be overrated in the rankings.

 regarding the OWGR at the top. I can’t stand the people that harp week to week on the change in the #1 ranking, despite it not corresponding to the previous week’s results. The system is not perfect, but it’s not designed to differentiate between the #1 and #2 players in the world.

 included in the rescue of Sang-Moon Bae? 

The Barn Rat was considered, but was benched on this mission for three main reasons:

 was a diplomatic mission, carried out by an elite team of SEALS from within the Walled World. A mission this classified, this close to the DMZ had to remain inside these walls.

There were medical concerns regarding this 2014 incident:

You yourself correlated the Barn Rat with an “Arms Race”

 which only would have called more attention to this clandestine assignment.

 I'd love a preview/Nostradamus like write-up of Brooks' year ahead. 





— Arron Oberholser (@ArronOberholser) 

See, people are asking about Brooks! So I’m 

 to talk about him! I can’t believe you guys are making me do this.

In his first season as a PGA Tour member, he played in 23 events, won the Waste Management Phoenix Open, had eight top-10’s, 14 top-25’s, and only missed three cuts. I’m expecting him to improve on just about all of those numbers, including wins at the Farmers Insurance Open and the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Part of the reason 

I was so insanely adament about him being on the Presidents Cup team

 is that he’s going to be on the Ryder Cup team, and while I don’t think experience in these events is vital, I wanted him to get exposed to the team room, the players he’s going to be playing with, and the atmosphere around an international team event.

I’m also predicting that he’ll continue to get ignored by CBS until he wins a major. If he does win the Masters, we may have to find out about it online.

 Bigger Finchem mess up: Q School or running off Justin Timberlake at the Shriners?



— Chris Chaney (@Wrong_Fairway) 

Finchem’$ Folly takes the cake here, but I do love the idea of sifting through Finchem’$ blunders one by one. If I’m being honest, I haven’t cared enough about the Shriners to really understand why JT is no longer involved, but he was good for golf, so I’ve got no problem pointing an ignorant finger of blame in the direction of the commissioner here, and just assume that money was the root of the decision here. During this money grab era, I think that’s a pretty safe conclusion.

If I can transition from this question though, there’s a more important, underlying theme here that needs to be addressed. It took me a really, really long time to get passed the N’Sync Justin Timberlake phase, and embrace him as basically the coolest guy on the planet. I missed out on some peak JT time because I still wanted to hate him. I felt like I was supposed to hate N’Sync, so inherently, I kind of had to hate JT. As many others were coming around on him, I stayed safe under the cover of the assumed boy band hate.

So my question is, when do I have to stop hating Justin Bieber? I haven’t 

 either of his last two songs. I feel like that that is the first step in the process. I’m not ready to admit that I like them, but when does he pass through the JT vortex, and when am I allowed to admit that he’s not the worst? Or is he still the worst? Oh he is? I’ve said too much! Forget I said anything! He’s still yours Canada!

 what are the top 3 things you would change if you ran the PGA tour or the European Tour?



— Nelson Hunstad (@Hunny_Hunstad) 

Three!? I’m going to assume that’s a weird way to spell 8. I haven’t thoroughly thought these through, but these are my half baked ideas.

Start marketing your young players the way you market the guys in their 30’s and 40’s. I understand that those are the guys that move the needle from a ratings standpoint, but you can also help control that needle on your own. It may seem ridiculous after the year he had, and how strong the hype machine is rolling now, but there was a time 

not that long ago where we (Big Randy specifically) were screaming this about The Golden Child

, Jordan Spieth himself. You don’t have to wait until these guys win a major before starting up the hype machine. Guys like Koepka, Thomas, Reed, etc. (along with the obvious Spieth-Rory-Day trio) are going to be buttering your bread for the next ten years or so, and the casual fans need to know their names. It’s OK to think long term every once in a while.

If you’re going to charge fans for live streaming, 

make sure that you are providing live streaming

Make at least some effort on your website to indicate who is planning to play what events. How is it 2015 and there’s nowhere I can go to figure out who is playing where? I don’t want to go to each individual’s website to see what their upcoming schedule is, or rely on them to publicize it on twitter. It might be a bit thankless and tiresome task, but these events have an idea at least a few months in advance as to what top players are playing in their events. It makes sense that this should be cross referenced with the tour’s website.

Change the qualifying system for the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup to include international play. This isn’t really PGA Tour related, but I’m worked up so just let it slide.

Allow non PGA Tour members that earn special temporary membership to play in the FedExCup playoffs if they earn enough points.

Allow under-25 players to receive the opportunity to accept more than eight sponsor’s exemptions to prevent players from being encouraged to play in Europe rather than the U.S (i.e., the Spieth/Koepka rule).

Make the FedExCup Playoffs an actual playoff. After the Tour Championship, take the top 16, and put them in a match play bracket. Give the top four players a double bye, the next four a single bye, and run the playoff on a Sunday through Wednesday, on the west coast, with the finale airing on Wednesday night in prime time against no NFL football for $10 million.

 You can have a sponsor invite into one non-major and 3 mo. to prepare. What event, who would caddie, who's your practice rd w/?



— D.J. Piehowski (@DJPie) 

The Memorial Tournament. I grew up attending this tournament for about twenty years, so to play in front of all of the girls who wouldn’t date me in high school would be a dream come true. I would still manage to embarrass myself and they still wouldn’t date me, but it would easily be the event I would want to play. I’ve played the course a few times, so I’m at least familiar, and I’ve watched enough golf there that I at least 

 the ideal way to play the course. Obviously playing it would be much more difficult, but that’s the easy part of this question.

My caddie would be my best friend from home, Frankie Tedesco. Mostly because he would kill me if he wasn’t the caddie. But also because we’ve played somewhere in the range of 300-500 rounds of golf together since we were pre-teens, and have dreamed of this exact scenario (D.J. Piehowski asking this question in a mailbag) many, many times.

The practice round is the difficult, and impossible question. I’m going to reluctantly choose Phil over Big Cat, Spieth, Rory, Day, Thomas, Koepka, Dufner, Horschel, and that ilk. From what I’ve heard, before Phil plays a pro-am, he gets a folio of everyone in his group, and asks you more questions about your business than you are able to ask him about golf. From an experience standpoint, I think Phil would make that practice round the most interesting out of anyone listed above. From a historical standpoint, playing with Tiger or even Spieth may be more significant, but from an actual tangible experience standpoint, I think Phil would be the best guy to talk to for four hours.

Thanks all for the questions. Let’s do it again soon.

October Mailbag

 regarding my recent buddies trip to St. Andrews a few weeks ago, I’m going to do my best to summarize it all here. First of all, let me note that this is not an advertisement, and is in no way sponsored, although it is certainly going to read like Visit Scotland sent this over word by word for me to post. A few of you asked for a breakdown of our trip, the courses, the logistics, and the stories, etc. Hopefully these posts will inspire someone to do a similar trip, and help with some of the planning if so. I’ve broken down the courses in separate posts for the sake of length and clarity.

Part I on the Old Course, you can find that here

. Also included in that link are some logistics of how to get on the Old Course, where to stay, as well as advice on planning your trip.

, just 20 minutes down the road from St. Andrews.

, 45 minutes up the coast from St. Andrews.

Part IV on the St. Andrews New and Jubilee courses.

This course was a relative unknown to our foursome until a few weeks before our trip. I came across it on a tip from 

, saw the pictures on the website, and immediately booked a tee time. The course opened in 1895, and it would appear to me (as well as the amazing blueprint etchings in the clubhouse) that there have been minimal changes to the golf course over that time.

Old school. That’s the vibe you get immediately once you’re on the grounds. Upon entering the clubhouse, there is a sign that says that hats and cell phones are forbidden. It’s not tightly enforced, but I dig the thought. The clubhouse is immensely decorated with old pictures, drawings, and history of the club. I spent about 15 minutes just strolling the halls, reading, and salivating over the preservation of their history.

We paid our 80 pound (about $120) fare, and made our way to the first tee. Our eyes lit up in anticipation when we saw on the scorecard that it was a 5,800 par 69 course.

“I think a 66 may be in play,” Toomer claimed before we even hit a shot. Spoiler alert, it most definitely was not.

The first hole is a 320 yard par 4, dead downhill, dead downwind. Driver was too much club, and our entire group went birdieless. The 2nd hole is a gorgeous par 5, set right against the sea. Less than 500 yards, and also dead downwind. Also no birdies. Maybe this course was going to be more difficult than we thought. And it was about to get a lot worse.

The Balcomie Course at Crail is the most hilly, and the most wide open of all of the courses that we played. It was not a coincidence that it was the strongest wind that we faced the whole trip. The first few holes were a joy ride, with amazing views of the sea, perfect sunshine, and a helping breeze. When we turned back towards the clubhouse, we got absolutely ejected. I went OB on three straight holes. Being an old school course, all of the holes are crammed in close to each other. At one point, Leif missed a fairway so far right, he was in an adjacent fairway….. literally 

 fairways over. The moral of the story is, a 5,800 yard course may sound easy, but nothing is easy in Scotland.

Regarding the course itself: Absolutely amazing views, and some really, really fun holes out there. But the one word I would use to describe it is quirky. It’s very, very different from the other courses that we played in Scotland, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. However, some of the inland holes left a lot to be desired, and lacked a natural flow to them. There were holes fit into places that just shouldn’t be fit, and no real opportunity to even effectively renovate it. It is worth noting that this was our second round of the day, on our third straight 36 hole day, and fatigue was absolutely a factor. We had already played the Old Course (twice) and Kingsbarns, and any course following those is bound to disappoint on at least some level.

The views on several of the holes (particularly 2-5, and 14) are second to none, but it is quite obvious that the course has not been updated in a very long time, and does not fit the modern game played with modern equipment. To a certain extent, that is the appeal of this place, and some may actually be seeking that experience. We did not regret playing there, but of the eight rounds that we played over these five days, we all agreed that if we were to change one of the rounds, it would be the round at Crail. Again, it’s not fair to compare this place to the other places that we played, but this is the only one that I would not classify as a “must play.”

Scotland Golf Trip, Part V: Crail Balcomie Links

 regarding my recent buddies trip to St. Andrews a few weeks ago, I’m going to do my best to summarize it all here. First of all, let me note that this is not an advertisement, and is in no way sponsored, although it is certainly going to read like Visit Scotland sent this over word by word for me to post. A few of you asked for a breakdown of our trip, the courses, the logistics, and the stories, etc. Hopefully these posts will inspire someone to do a similar trip, and help with some of the planning if so. I’m going to break the trip down in separate posts for the sake of length.

Founded in 1895, the New Course is as new as Young Tom Morris is young. I admittedly knew nothing about about the course before planning our trip, and just assumed that most people would consider it a dump just because it carried the St. Andrews name, but was not the Old Course. I was pleasantly surprised to read good reviews of the New Course from friends who had played it, as well as other online reviews.

As I noted in Part I, we showed up on a Thursday afternoon with no tee time, and were set up to play the New Course in less than half an hour. It’s worth repeating every time I do one of these posts: the service at St. Andrews is second to none.

At 75 pounds (about $110), the New Course is fairly priced, and just a flat out fun experience. The course itself is not especially memorable, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. If you’re going to take a trip to St. Andrews, I would try to schedule the New Course for your first round, as it serves as a great introduction to Scottish golf. It’s long and it is not difficult, but it’s not short, and it’s not easy.

The fairways are much more narrow than the Old Course, and drives that find the fairway on the fly, and stay there the whole time are greatly rewarded. Missing a fairway by a small margin does not punish you greatly at all, but the distance of your tee ball will be limited. If you miss way off line, there’s a good chance that you find a parallel hole. In our two rounds there, I don’t recall searching for a ball for longer than 30 seconds without it being found.

No Laying Up

Writing

2015 Saucies, Round 2

2015 Saucies; Round 1

Rory Wins Race to Dubai, Sets Stage for 2016

November Mailbag

Justin Thomas Arrives, Wins the CIMB Classic

October Mailbag

Scotland Golf Trip, Part V: Crail Balcomie Links

Scotland Golf Trip, Part IV: St. Andrews New Course & Jubilee

The Escape from Pyeontaek

Scotland Golf Trip, Part III: Carnoustie

Scotland Golf Trip, Part II: Kingsbarns

Scotland Golf Trip, Part 1: The Old Course

The Koepka Kalamity

A Narrative Has Infected the Solheim Cup

2015 Deutsche Bank Championship Preview

Patrick Rodgers won't be in the FedExCup Playoffs...Why?

Brooks Koepka and the Presidents Cup

Wyndham Championship Preview