Be forewarned: I know some of you don't like golf. I know many of you think it's stupid and you'll think my reaction to the PGA this weekend is stupid. I don't really care. There are going to be a lot of golf thoughts in here and it's going to be long. If you don't like it, skip to item No. 2.
1. This is for all things PGA Championship. Just a rambling scattershot of my thoughts from the weekend.
*First off, if you're one of those guys that wants to take shots at St. Louis after this weekend, you're a clown. What an amazing event. When every single player is saying they've never seen crowds like that, when Tiger Woods appears emotional talking about the support from the gallery, you did yourself damn proud. Look, the KC/STL rivalry is kind of fun and all, but this is our state. And for the entire country this weekend, our state showed up. What a weekend. If you're from St. Louis, you should be proud. Because that was one hell of a show. I heard Friday and Saturday were the biggest crowds in PGA history. Sunday had to have been bigger.
*That was one of the top two sporting events I've ever attended. The 2014 wild card game is going to be almost impossible to ever top for me just because I had an emotional rooting interest in it, I watched it with my son and it was perfect. But yesterday was awfully close. I don't know if I've ever been in a crowd that for three straight hours was just absolutely juiced the entire time. We all wanted the same thing. And we damn near got it.
*I get that some people don't like Tiger. I've had people say they can't root for him because of the off-course stuff. To me, I mean, was he a good husband? Of course not. But in terms of things that are going to make me quit rooting for an athlete, cheating on his wife isn't very high. He's hardly in select company there. But contrary to popular belief after the last few weeks, I'm not this big Tiger honk. I didn't necessarily root for him in every major 15 years ago. But now? These last two majors have been like Jack Nicklaus at Augusta in 1986, like Fernando Valuenzuela throwing a no-hitter late in his career, like Cal Ripken winning the MVP in his last all-star game. What Tiger gave us from 1997-2008 or so was the most dominant stretch we've perhaps ever seen out of an athlete. We were all pretty sure we'd never see that magic again. There were so many people at that course yesterday who might have HEARD about Tiger Woods when he was great, but they'd never SEEN Tiger Woods be great. They saw it yesterday. The second shot on 9 off the dirt left of the cartpath was just ridiculous.
But this was the moment I believed
We were about 40-50 yards back in the 15th fairway when he hit that shot. We could see the flag, but not the hole. We knew it was close, but we didn't know how close. If that ball had carried another foot, the earth would have shook. At that moment, we all thought, "Holy Moses, he might really do this."
*All that said, Brooks Koepka was phenomenal. He won this tournament. Tiger didn't lose it. Adam Scott didn't lose it. Koepka had guys charging at him and he birdied 15 and 16 and he won it. Koepka has now won four tournaments. Three of them are majors. That's nuts.
*To sum up, I think anyone who was there is going to remember it for a long time. Anyone who wasn't? Read this story by Kyle Porter. It perfectly sums up what it was like.
2. Somewhat tangentially related to the PGA: I wonder what it's like to be a guy who can just pick up the phone and say "I think I'd like to be able to walk inside the ropes at a major championship. Can you hook me up?" What's up Michael Phelps?
3. On the swimming theme...and the theme of dominant athletes...
I'm not sure anyone has ever dominated a sport like Katie Ledecky. She won a race at one of the fastest meets in the world by 21 seconds. She averaged beating the second place finisher by 2/3 of a second PER LAP for 30 laps. Absolutely awe inspiring what she's done the last five years or so.
4. Not a great weekend for football coaches being seen as human beings. Most of you have read the ESPN story on Maryland football. I mean, I don't get how this keeps happening. Aaron O'Neal died 12 years ago. He wasn't the first. He certainly wasn't the last. How do we keep pushing kids so hard that this happens? Are some of them freak accidents? Yeah. Many are preventable. I can't say for sure this one falls into the second category, but it sure doesn't seem like anyone tried hard enough to prevent it. I don't really even think there's a question whether D.J. Durkin loses his job. The only real questions are how much money Maryland is going to pay and how many people are going to lose their jobs.
And Will Muschamp, is this really the hill you want to die on?
Let's quit giving these coaches so much credit. They're not all bad guys and they're not all idiots. But they're not all geniuses and saints either. They're just people. And they screw up as much as any of us do.
5. E.J. Liddell is going to release his top six schools at 1 p.m. today. I'll be shocked if Missouri isn't in it. Illinois, Kansas State and Ohio State will be as well. Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Northwestern seem to be the contenders for the other spots. Stay tuned.
And speaking of list cuts, Mario McKinney made his as well.
Cuonzo Martin will make a lot of people happy if he can land these two. He has a good shot at both. I'd say a little better at McKinney right now, but it's way too early to say Missouri is falling behind for Liddell.
6. On the football side, C.J. Boone will commit a month from Wednesday and will visit Missouri officially the following week. That would seem to be a good thing. Boone told Josh Helmholdt that Mizzou and Minnesota "are probably the teams to beat." Gonna change my forecast on this one to Mizzou probably.
7. Good news for you Mizzou fans. @Anne Rogers who covered women's hoops and softball for us last year and was great, then spent the summer covering the Colorado Rockies for MLB.com, is back in the market. She'll be working with Dave Matter covering Tiger football this fall. You all will be better for it.
8. On a personal note, my oldest son turns 21 today. Momentous occasion when you get to have your first sip of alcohol, which I know he waited to do until it was legal, like all the rest of us did. My youngest turns 16 on Friday. Big week here. There are really only three cool birthdays. At 16 you can drive, at 18 you can vote and at 21 you can drink. After that? It's just another day.
9. What to listen to this week:
Origins by James Andrew Miller is starting a new series called the House of Saban. It's a deep dive into Alabama football. I listened to the first one on Friday. The most amazing part was former Outland Trophy winner Barrett Jones saying all incoming freshmen had to run 16 110-yard sprints and hit a certain time. The only rule was that you could not bend over. If you bent over, it showed weakness and the rep didn't count. The group ended up running 28 110-yard sprints before it got 16 that counted. Mercy.
10. What to read this week:
I didn't have any reading time this weekend, but here are three I want to read
Vahe Gregorian went to East St. Louis with Cuonzo Martin. I'm sure it's great.
An Oral History of the Gus Macker Tournament from The Athletic. It will require a subscription.
That's His Boy. Why isn't Dennis Rodman more involved in his son's career? The Worm is fascinating. Look forward to diving into this.
1. This is for all things PGA Championship. Just a rambling scattershot of my thoughts from the weekend.
*First off, if you're one of those guys that wants to take shots at St. Louis after this weekend, you're a clown. What an amazing event. When every single player is saying they've never seen crowds like that, when Tiger Woods appears emotional talking about the support from the gallery, you did yourself damn proud. Look, the KC/STL rivalry is kind of fun and all, but this is our state. And for the entire country this weekend, our state showed up. What a weekend. If you're from St. Louis, you should be proud. Because that was one hell of a show. I heard Friday and Saturday were the biggest crowds in PGA history. Sunday had to have been bigger.
*That was one of the top two sporting events I've ever attended. The 2014 wild card game is going to be almost impossible to ever top for me just because I had an emotional rooting interest in it, I watched it with my son and it was perfect. But yesterday was awfully close. I don't know if I've ever been in a crowd that for three straight hours was just absolutely juiced the entire time. We all wanted the same thing. And we damn near got it.
*I get that some people don't like Tiger. I've had people say they can't root for him because of the off-course stuff. To me, I mean, was he a good husband? Of course not. But in terms of things that are going to make me quit rooting for an athlete, cheating on his wife isn't very high. He's hardly in select company there. But contrary to popular belief after the last few weeks, I'm not this big Tiger honk. I didn't necessarily root for him in every major 15 years ago. But now? These last two majors have been like Jack Nicklaus at Augusta in 1986, like Fernando Valuenzuela throwing a no-hitter late in his career, like Cal Ripken winning the MVP in his last all-star game. What Tiger gave us from 1997-2008 or so was the most dominant stretch we've perhaps ever seen out of an athlete. We were all pretty sure we'd never see that magic again. There were so many people at that course yesterday who might have HEARD about Tiger Woods when he was great, but they'd never SEEN Tiger Woods be great. They saw it yesterday. The second shot on 9 off the dirt left of the cartpath was just ridiculous.
But this was the moment I believed
We were about 40-50 yards back in the 15th fairway when he hit that shot. We could see the flag, but not the hole. We knew it was close, but we didn't know how close. If that ball had carried another foot, the earth would have shook. At that moment, we all thought, "Holy Moses, he might really do this."
*All that said, Brooks Koepka was phenomenal. He won this tournament. Tiger didn't lose it. Adam Scott didn't lose it. Koepka had guys charging at him and he birdied 15 and 16 and he won it. Koepka has now won four tournaments. Three of them are majors. That's nuts.
*To sum up, I think anyone who was there is going to remember it for a long time. Anyone who wasn't? Read this story by Kyle Porter. It perfectly sums up what it was like.
2. Somewhat tangentially related to the PGA: I wonder what it's like to be a guy who can just pick up the phone and say "I think I'd like to be able to walk inside the ropes at a major championship. Can you hook me up?" What's up Michael Phelps?
3. On the swimming theme...and the theme of dominant athletes...
I'm not sure anyone has ever dominated a sport like Katie Ledecky. She won a race at one of the fastest meets in the world by 21 seconds. She averaged beating the second place finisher by 2/3 of a second PER LAP for 30 laps. Absolutely awe inspiring what she's done the last five years or so.
4. Not a great weekend for football coaches being seen as human beings. Most of you have read the ESPN story on Maryland football. I mean, I don't get how this keeps happening. Aaron O'Neal died 12 years ago. He wasn't the first. He certainly wasn't the last. How do we keep pushing kids so hard that this happens? Are some of them freak accidents? Yeah. Many are preventable. I can't say for sure this one falls into the second category, but it sure doesn't seem like anyone tried hard enough to prevent it. I don't really even think there's a question whether D.J. Durkin loses his job. The only real questions are how much money Maryland is going to pay and how many people are going to lose their jobs.
And Will Muschamp, is this really the hill you want to die on?
Let's quit giving these coaches so much credit. They're not all bad guys and they're not all idiots. But they're not all geniuses and saints either. They're just people. And they screw up as much as any of us do.
5. E.J. Liddell is going to release his top six schools at 1 p.m. today. I'll be shocked if Missouri isn't in it. Illinois, Kansas State and Ohio State will be as well. Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Northwestern seem to be the contenders for the other spots. Stay tuned.
And speaking of list cuts, Mario McKinney made his as well.
Cuonzo Martin will make a lot of people happy if he can land these two. He has a good shot at both. I'd say a little better at McKinney right now, but it's way too early to say Missouri is falling behind for Liddell.
6. On the football side, C.J. Boone will commit a month from Wednesday and will visit Missouri officially the following week. That would seem to be a good thing. Boone told Josh Helmholdt that Mizzou and Minnesota "are probably the teams to beat." Gonna change my forecast on this one to Mizzou probably.
7. Good news for you Mizzou fans. @Anne Rogers who covered women's hoops and softball for us last year and was great, then spent the summer covering the Colorado Rockies for MLB.com, is back in the market. She'll be working with Dave Matter covering Tiger football this fall. You all will be better for it.
8. On a personal note, my oldest son turns 21 today. Momentous occasion when you get to have your first sip of alcohol, which I know he waited to do until it was legal, like all the rest of us did. My youngest turns 16 on Friday. Big week here. There are really only three cool birthdays. At 16 you can drive, at 18 you can vote and at 21 you can drink. After that? It's just another day.
9. What to listen to this week:
Origins by James Andrew Miller is starting a new series called the House of Saban. It's a deep dive into Alabama football. I listened to the first one on Friday. The most amazing part was former Outland Trophy winner Barrett Jones saying all incoming freshmen had to run 16 110-yard sprints and hit a certain time. The only rule was that you could not bend over. If you bent over, it showed weakness and the rep didn't count. The group ended up running 28 110-yard sprints before it got 16 that counted. Mercy.
10. What to read this week:
I didn't have any reading time this weekend, but here are three I want to read
Vahe Gregorian went to East St. Louis with Cuonzo Martin. I'm sure it's great.
An Oral History of the Gus Macker Tournament from The Athletic. It will require a subscription.
That's His Boy. Why isn't Dennis Rodman more involved in his son's career? The Worm is fascinating. Look forward to diving into this.
