2016 Golf thread

The season doesn't start until April (I don't care what you, the PGA, or anyone else says). This wraparound season is crap and I'm not tuning in until the Azaleas are in bloom...

To start the year, Fox has booted analyst Greg Norman from the booth.
Apparently he choked when it came to providing analysis ...

http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2016/1/18/10785470/greg-norman-fox-golf-us-open-analyst-paul-azinger?ref=yf

 

Hey, I hear this Spieth kid is pretty good. You might want to keep an eye on him.

 

You can unilaterally declare the opening to the golf season any time you want but you're not the PGA Tour. It's their candy store. Most players like the wraparound season because there are more playing opportunities: kind of the PGA Tour's reason for being, because it's a 501 (c) (6) trade organization whose defined function is to set up business opportunities (tournaments) for its members (players). The fall events are a great way for rookies and journeymen to make some cash and when the big boys come out of the woodwork in January, they'll assume their rightful spots on top of the points list soon enough.

 

A lot of good young players got a chance to shine in the fall, too, and punched their tickets to Augusta. Fun to see guys like Smylie Kaufman and Emiliano Grillo get their chance. Bryson DeChambeau could be an instant star, too, the second he turns pro.

 

You know what will sound odder than that? Dottie Pepper at Augusta.

 

Rickie Fowler crapped his pants Sunday and lost in a playoff. Granted, he got a bad break, but man .... you got to close it out.
He took the loss hard, ending his post-tournament interview in tears.

Hideki Matsuyama beats Rickie Fowler in Phoenix Open playoff

I like Fowler, but he's a step back from Speith and whoever is this month's flavor for a rival ...

And Bubba Watson is still a petulant dick.

 

Fowler will do well to win one major in his pre-senior career. Might win 2.

 

McIlroy and Day are frankly Spieth's superiors from tee to green.

But Spieth last year turned into Crenshaw in some rounds as a putter.

That's the big 3, and Day might just be the best of them this year.

 

Fowler showed all the game needed to win a major yesterday, right up to when he stepped up to the tee on 17 and....hit it in the drink. Granted it was a bomb, a 360 yd drive but damn, with a 2 shot lead, he's got to take no worse than par and make Matsuyama catch him. Other than that though, Fowler showed he could bomb drives, hit crisp irons and make clutch putts (especially in the playof).

 

If Fowler hits the same club he hit in regulation that he did on the 4th playoff hole, he would have won the tournament.
When I saw him step up with driver and aim down the left, I said "this is not going to end well......"
If you're going to hit driver there, aim middle of the green and make sure your miss is right........he had 9 miles of room to the right.
Hit 5-iron, wedge......just take bogey out of play.

 

Have never been much of a Fowler fan, but his game is consistently getting there to where I'm kind of rooting for him to bring home a major, and wouldn't be surprised if he was able to do that in 2016.

On the flip side, he does seem at this point like a guy who's always way up there in the hunt for the big prizes, but just can't quite finish the deal. Tom Weiskopf comes to mind--someone who was just short of the all timers of the day, Nicklaus, Watson, etc.