McIlroy secretes speed, Hatton ‘looks like a farmer’: Weekend 9

At 12:30 a.m. on a Friday morning in January, I was watching a 2014 baseball game.

My wife even double checked.

“At 12:30 in the morning in January, you’re watching a baseball game from 2014?”

I was.

“Wecker?”

Uecker.

She left and I continued to watch. Or listen. In Weck. Like me in ’87, at 620 in the morning, when Deer and Sveum went deep on Easter Sunday, and 9-year-old me was listening at the kitchen table, 3 miles from County Metal Stadium. I also heard in ’92, though this time on the way home from the yard, in the dark brown wagon bought from Bud Selig’s Buick dealership, at night Rockin Robin hit number 3000. I also heard some of them on Thursday afternoon Uecker’s last words from last season, as the Milwaukee Brewers were stunned in the first round of the playoffs. Those injured. He said the loss has hit. And it was done. Another year, another wait until next year. However, the team’s longtime radio voice has been battling cancer, and on Thursday we learned that he had passed.

If you’re not familiar, Uecker used to have his hand in everything, in an everyman way. pitcher of Miller Lite. Carson guest. Sitcom and movie star. He was also called Mr. Baseball, which you knew was ironic, since he played six largely undistinguished seasons in the MLB — though no one embraced the irony more than Uecker himself. He leaned into it. No one hit Ueck harder than Ueck, which made the Milwaukee native a bit like the guy next to you on the barstool — and a perfect fit when he grabbed the play-by-play radio mic during the Brewers’ season. first, in 1971, and I just kept talking. About the team. About yourself. For whatever. After all, baseball has built-in gaps, like golf.

Right, golf. Let’s get to the point. There are several.

First, welcome! Think of it as a place to warm you up for the weekend. 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. As for who I am, the first few paragraphs above do the job there. Milwaukee kids. It grew across the street from a bar. Dear wife. The sports watcher. Golf typist.

And someone who has heard the cries of dying interest in the pro game – and wonders if any of the pros have seen how Uecker did it. Maybe golf needs a Mr. Golf. And a Mrs. Golf. That of Trevino. Who else?

Rest in peace, Weck. Go to our other eight.

A takeaway from the week – and the weeks ahead

2. Where do we stand with TGL?

In a very unscientific scan, the expectation from paid and unpaid to comment was good the first week. Lots of bells and whistles, but not enough hammer. Fast paced, although a bit slow at the end. It was different. At least it was some golf to watch on a Monday or Tuesday night.

But then the second week came

And the technology appeared to the people. The game too. Things were very random. Does anyone care if they win? Or losing? Comments were being made. Should we care about this?

Here it is saying that we have to wait. Give it time. Maybe until week 7, which comes at the end of next month. Things should be more closed. We also get three games then, two on Monday and one on Tuesday. How will the league make us watch all this?

Speaking of…

3. What did he do? my now 17-year-old correspondent think about week two? In the first week, I (sort of) forced my golf-loving teenage nephew to watch, then talked to him afterward, since he’s exactly the audience TGL is trying to attract.

But he didn’t watch it this week. A kind.

He didn’t fit in with ESPN’s coverage. But on YouTube, he caught on Good, good, go away inside the TGL dome.

That says something.

The best non-GOLF.com reads for your weekend

4. what am i reading (besides that the thoughtful prose of my colleagues)? Two articles are worth clicking.

Here, Golf Digest’s Luke Kerr-Dineen wrote why pros are sending greens during TGL play – and the reason isn’t technology. A kind. LKD asks ‘why’ as well as anyone.

5. Here, Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay took his turn at reviewing TGL. This was gold:

“Golf reimagined. That’s what TGL promises, which should call for a proverb: Whenever you see “__________ reimagined,” investment firms have entered the conversation.”

This was also great:

“The night began with the zen expression of sports enthusiasm: the dramatic departure. Demure men, used to quietly emerging from tour courtesy cars, marched into the SoFi Center raucous like gladiators in printed pants. Woods, of course, got Tuesday’s biggest ovation, walking last to the blare of Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ a song old enough to qualify for a discount at most South Florida restaurants .”

The best guide tip (and best YouTube video) for your weekend

6. What am I looking at to try to improve (besides that thoughtful videos of my colleagues)?

A YouTube video by YouTube star Grant Horvat is worth your time. In it, Rory McIlroy review the moves he makes if he’s “really going after one” and the video can be found by clicking here or by moving immediately below.

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Horvat, in particular, has been a heater. He also posted recently an instructional video with Tiger Woods.

The best golf story that only I can care about

7. He is the captain of the European Ryder Cup Luke Donald preparing his side for possible strife in New York’s Bethpage Black? Apparently so. Tommy Fleetwoodin his press conference ahead of this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic, alluded to the effort that went into last week’s Team Cup.

“Look, there’s no way you can replicate what a Ryder Cup is like, that’s for sure,” he said. “But you can definitely try your best and create different environments that will help us get to the point where we need to address this, and I think Luke has been great and very on task, if you will, in some challenges we will face. ; which the team will face in September playing in an away Ryder Cup. I think it’s more about being aware and trying to develop certain skills that will help you deal better with those situations, and then being able to practice it.

“So there’s no way you can replicate what the first tee is like in a Ryder Cup or different scenarios out there. But you can definitely decide – create sort of little situations, if you will, that will help you work on the things that you need to when it comes to that time, and I think last week was a great example of that. where I’ve definitely never, you know, done things like this before, and I think that can only help.”

Bunkered’s Ben Parsons provided more details — and his story can be found here. These paragraphs were something:

“‘They changed a few things with distraction tactics because we’re going to New York,'” Jordan Smith, a member of the Great Britain and Ireland side, told bunkered.co.uk here at the Dubai Desert Classic.

“They had these big microphones and speakers in the first car, the noises of babies, things coming out, people screaming and coughing. Then when we got to 7, which was a tough par-3 with water around it, they had an American guy there yelling at us. He was an American comedian.

“He told Tyrrell Hatton that he looks like a born-again Amish farmer because of his beard. He was trying to push everyone, saying you’re going to put him in the water, you’re going to hit like *** shot’”.

The best golf story that only I can care about, part two

8. Sauce Gardner of the New York Jets was giving away golf clubs earlier this week. The story comes vIA Golf Digest’s Alex Myerswho had seen Gardner’s Instagram stories, where Gardner wrote this, below a video of a collection of clubs:

“Don’t ask me why I have so many clubs. Just help me get rid of them. At one point last off-season I thought it was the club that played better golf. Not the other way around lol.”

What golf is live on TV this weekend?

9. Here’s a roundup of live golf on TV this weekend:

– Saturday
02:00-08:00 ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic third round, Golf Channel
4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET: American Express Third Round, Golf Channel
7:00-10:00 PM ET: Final Round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, Golf Channel

– Sunday
02:00-08:00 ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic Final Round, Golf Channel
Noon-3pm ET: Bahamas Great Abaco Classic First Round, Golf Channel
4pm-7pm ET: American Express Final Round, Golf Channel

Your golfing moment of zen

10. Let’s make 10 items.

The picture below is fascinating.