Fred Couples’ Ryder Cup change and my favorite ghost story

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this weekend 9. Think of it as a place to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have thoughts. We will have advice. We will have tweets. But only nine in all, though sometimes perhaps more and sometimes perhaps less. But who am I? The following paragraphs tell some of the story. It can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

Aaron Rai believed in ghosts.

I was thinking back to that last weekend when Rai won the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship of the DP World Tour and people learned more about the English gentleman. His story is also good, and on Instagram earlier this weekGOLF’s Dylan Dethier wonderfully gave all the reasons why. He has an intellectual. He is a thinker.

And this was noticed a few years ago as we walked the 7th fairway in Oak Hill and talked about Buffalo Bill – who has been dead for over 100 years, but probably still occasionally visits a stream that crosses the hole.

I had learned that as part of our staff’s preparation for the 2023 PGA Championship held at Oak Hill, so I kept digging. For several years, Bill Cody lived near the course in Rochester, NY, but probably kept coming back. The club’s former historian, who I was told was a no-nonsense person, once wrote this:

“Some say there are ghosts in Oak Hill!

“Walk down the No. 7 freeway on a warm summer night, for example. Crouching on the bank of the creek, they say, if you look closely, you can see the faint silhouette of some fishing. Look closer and you might be able to make out a big hat, a flowing mustache, and maybe even boots.

“This is Buffalo Bill, they say. The Wild West showman who hunted and fished these grounds in the 1870s. …

“William F. Cody, better known as ‘Buffalo Bill’ for his amazing skills with a rifle, spent his early years as a rugged frontiersman of the American West. However, in the 1870s, he brought his family to Rochester to live.

“While here, the grounds that would later become today’s Oak Hill were Buffalo Bill’s favorite hunting and fishing spots. By this time, he was also already active in his famous Wild West shows.

“Although Buffalo Bill’s grave is on Lookout Mountain in Colorado, three of his family are buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester.

“Do we really have to wonder that he can still be visiting Rochester now and then, and walking the green grass of the beautiful streets of Oak Hill . . . when the nights are warm and still.”

What a story!

I called a pair of Buffalo Bill museums. I talked to a psychic medium in Rochester – and she taught me how to summon ghosts. I spoke with the current Oak Hill club historian who agreed to come down to 7 with me when I went to the course. I also talked to a few players about it all, and mostly everyone shrugged it off when they found out I was writing about a potential visitor from the bigs.

Then there was Rai.

Two days before the PGA, he played the 7th. I approached.

Aaron, hey, this is Nick from GOLF.com. Can I walk a little with you?

i can

OK, this is going to be the weirdest question you’ll be asked all week, but … do you believe in ghosts?

He did. His reasoning was profound. “I think a ghost is also a spirit,” Rai said. “I think all living things have some sort of soul. I just believe that; there is more to living things than just our physical form.”

We continued walking. I filled it in about Buffalo Bill. We reached the water. I gave the words the psychic medium told me.

Nothing.

At that point, I thanked Ray for his time and wanted to wish him well, but he cut me off.

He asked if he could try to summon the ghost.

Yes, you can!

So he tried. Nothing again, unfortunately. I reached out to shake his – but he wasn’t done.

He wanted to know if we could both try.

Yes, we can!

And we did. But not Buffalo Bill. After this attempt, I thanked him again and again and he was on his way.

And I had the leadership of my story two years ago. And today.

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the 9th weekend.

A delivery for the weekend

2. It’s this week’s Annika tour the most talked about LPGA event of the year?

Yes, it seems so.

However, could it be the most important?

One of the golf sides of things, hell no. There are the graduates. Next week is the Big Money CME Group Tour Championship. The schedule is packed with meaningful tours.

But there is noise this week. How many words and videos did you watch of Wednesday’s pro-am with basketball superstar Caitlin Clark? What a sight and sound you will see over the next few days When Trumpthe president’s granddaughter who got a guest sponsor in Annika?

How many new people will be curious about everyone else? Maybe some.

Maybe they’ll stick around too.

Because golf alone should be enough to get you fit.

3. However, I thought it was odd that you could only see about half an hour of Trump’s game during Thursday’s broadcast.

Another weekend treat

4. On SiriusXM’s “Katrek and Maginnes On Tap” show this week, Couples Fred there was a suggestion for the Ryder Cup.

There should be fewer people around the players.

“I know that’s really selfish to say, and that’s all I know,” Couples said on the show. “I know when I go to play at Augusta, even after ’92 when I won, you go out on Saturday and Sunday, you don’t want your car to be full of 10 people. You’re driving the course, I want to go on my terms, the car comes back, it takes everybody else. I don’t want to say hello to 400 people, I don’t want to be in line with my partner in the morning. Love in 1993, but I don’t want to be around a lot of people and at the Ryder Cup, we’re around a lot of people.

“The answer is, so do they. There’s team dinners, there’s a big dinner where you wear a tuxedo, and all that – that’s part of life. But I think in the team rooms, I’d like to see just the 12 guys and maybe their caddies, but there’s no real reason for the caddy to be there unless he’s telling them. It’s going to rain less for these players.

“And then when you go back, then guess what happens? Everybody’s patting you on the back; ‘we’re going to get them today.’ that – I see it as golf.”

Next, the couples thought about the crowds.

“I think it got out of hand in New York. I’d like, let’s say you and I were golf fans and we went to New York to watch. Fifty thousand people watching four sets? It’s impossible. And you say, well, what do we do? There weren’t 50,000 people when I played, and they made money, and they did very well, but 500 watching four sets of golf.

“It is impossible to see; it removes the sting.”

You can listen to the full show here.

Another weekend treat

5. Before this week Butterfield Bermuda Championship, Sahith Theegala he was asked for a reminder of his grouping in 2021 with Brian Morrisa Bermuda professional who died in 2023 due to cancer – and Theegala shared this story of the colorful player.

“Well, he said a few words that I can’t repeat here, but one of the statements was — it just made me laugh. He was talking, hey, man — that was like the beginning of time. Like I didn’t know how to bring up cancer with him, but at one point I was like I’m just going to talk about it, he seemed so cold to me.

“Like, ‘Man, how’s it been, how’s everyone treating you, what’s your prognosis?’

“He’s like, ‘S**t, Sahith, now that I have cancer I can say whatever FI wants, I can do whatever I want, I can ask for anything.

“In the darkest times of his life and I’m sure those around him, he’s able to – still show his humorous side and never take for granted every day that he still had a life. There were a lot of moments like that there.

“He hit some — he hit some shots, and the first thing, he put his hand on me and just hugged me. He said, ‘Sahith, F this game, man, it’s the worst game ever.’

“But he’s also said several times that it’s the best game ever and golf has saved his life a lot. I think he attributes a lot of it to the kind of right relationships he’s made through golf and why he feels he’s been so fortunate in his life.”

A tweet that interests me

6. I thought of the tweet below it was interesting.

A non-golf story

11. Doesn’t Weekend 9 usually appear on Fridays? It does. So why Thursday? Because, over the weekend, I’m visiting some colleges with my nephew.

Please feel free to email me the topics of conversation for the next 10 hours we will be in the car.

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