Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we now understand why open casting calls are referred to as cattle calls. That’s because I drove down to Morristown, NJ, last Tuesday and was crazy enough to wait in that crazy line to apply to be an extra in “Happy Gilmore 2.” You know, this one:
And that was the line just to get into the building. It took me four HOURS to make it all the way through to the end. I could have played an entire round of golf in that time! To be determined if it was all worth it—read my full account of it here—but in the meantime, I can’t ever be accused of not willing to go, or, rather, wait the extra mile for a story. Anyway, while I wait for my opportunity to read lines with Adam Sandler, here’s what else is going on in golf.
Keegan Bradley: Who says a golf postseason doesn’t work?! A week after being the last person to advance in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Bradley won the BMW Championship to emerge as one of the guys with the best chance to win the whole thing. “I really was in my hotel room in Memphis, I had a flight booked home to Jupiter, bags packed,” Bradley said. Talk about a cool Cinderella story! Take that, March Madness!
Seriously, that was a fun event and the Denver area showed out. And after holding of Adam Scott, Ludvig Aberg and Sam Burns by a stroke at Castle Pines, Bradley shared the adorable good-luck charm his family put together for him:
Aww. Has anyone become a more likable figure on tour since the second season of “Full Swing” aired earlier this year? How can you not root for this guy, who at 38 is the oldest golfer in the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking. Making Bradley’s seventh career PGA Tour victory even sweeter, of course, is the fact he was recently named Team USA’s captain for next year’s Ryder Cup and an assistant captain for the Presidents Cup next fall. But look at this incredible stat:
The Americans might need this guy at Bethpage Black for more than just his leadership.
Lydia Ko: For those of you thinking she was going to ride off into the sunset after winning Olympic gold, think again. Ko added to her Hall-of-Fame resume with arguably the biggest win of her career by claiming the Women’s British Open. At The Old Course.
It’s a third career major for Ko, who broke an eight-year drought in majors for Ko. More amazingly is that she could win major No. 3, break that eight-year drought and still only be 27. Also amazing was the final leaderboard at St. Andrews as the former World No. 1 edged four current or former World No. 1s by two shots. At this rate, don’t count out Ko from getting back to that top spot in the Rolex world ranking before she really rides off into the sunset. Whenever that might be.
Augusta National’s job openings: From managing volunteers to bartending, the Masters venue is looking to fill a bunch of different job openings, but one gig seems better than the rest: Senior manager and HISTORIAN.
Cool, indeed, Josh. Although, you winning the Masters Monday media lottery last year must have been pretty cool also. But maybe this gig comes with some tee times there as well. Regardless, this seems like a golf lover’s dream. And if the whole “Happy Gilmore 2” acting thing doesn’t work out for me, I might send in an application as well.
Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie’s luck: Poor Shota Hayafuji. First he gets his passport stolen in that robbery that cost Hideki his wallet, causing him to fly all the way back to Japan from London and miss the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Then he misses out on the biggest payday of his career when Matsuyama wins in Memphis. Then he gets new travel documents, flies all the way from Japan to Colorado and Hideki WDs after an opening 67 that had him one off the lead.
Just a brutal sequence of events. Hopefully, Hideki is fine for the Tour Championship or this will be one of the worst three-week stretches in caddying history.
Rory McIlroy’s week on the tee box: Forget about his sub-par driving performance, I’m talking about what happened after he hit his tee shots. First, there was this (weak) 3-wood toss into a pond on Friday:
And then, by accident, McIlroy snapped his driver by leaning on it on Sunday:
For those of us who don’t get free golf clubs when we snap our fingers, these were good reminders of how not to treat our equipment.
Peyton Manning’s chipping motion: Seriously, what is going on here?
Woof. More like Peyton Stabbing, am I right? This is Peyton Manning! One of the greatest football players of all time! And an avid—and by all accounts pretty darn good—golfer! Hopefully, this is just a blip. Regardless, you know brother Eli (The Great) has been ribbing him.
The PGA Tour heads to Atlanta for the Tour Championship, AKA that event with the staggered start and the stunning payout for first place. This year, the winner will get a whopping $25 MILLION. There’s so much money on the line during the FedEx Cup Playoffs that Ludvig Aberg’s nose started bleeding during his round last week:
OK, so that was probably all due to the high altitude at Castle Pines. But they are playing for a staggering amount of money.
Random tournament fact: Since the Tour Championship went to the staggered start in 2019, the leader entering the week has only “won” two of five times (Dustin Johnson in 2020 and Patrick Cantlay in 2021). That includes Scottie Scheffler failing to close the door each of the last two years. Maybe third time’s the charm for the World No. 1 this week.
RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK
—Scottie will be happy with the FedEx Cup format if he doesn’t win: 25 MILLION-1 odds
—Scottie will win after being spotted two strokes: EVEN odds (Actual odds!)
—Ludvig Aberg won’t be getting an on-course nosebleed in Hotlanta: LOCK
I have a feeling I’ll have at least one of these in my future.
Max Homa, the King of Golf Twitter, made his return to the social media platform after more than two months away:
Unfortunately, it didn’t turn his on-course struggles around as his season came to an unexpected early end. On the bright side, however, that leaves him with more time to, well, tweet this week.
VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (DRIVING DIVISION)
Holly Sonders and Oscar De La Hoya went viral last week for a video of them dancing in skimpy bikinis that was taken down by Instagram. Well, this is not that video. And this one of the former college golfer and Golf Channel personality was allowed to remain up:
VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (PUTTING DIVISION)
Congrats to Good Good’s Matt Scharff for breaking the world record for the longest putt:
That’s 462 feet! If you added up every putt I’ve holed this entire year, it wouldn’t amount to that. Anyway, good for this Good Good dude for sticking with it for seven hours. That’s dedication.
THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS
As if we didn’t know already, Sauce Gardner is ALL-IN on golf:
You love to see it. Dude is going to be dominating the celebrity circuit next summer.
THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION
Lydia Ko and her husband, Jun Chung, had a nice moment after their first major title as a couple:
Chung is the son of Hyundai Card vice chairman and CEO Ted Chung. It’s good to know billionaires cry like us regular folk.
“I thought that was pretty strange.” —Max Greyserman to Barstool’s Dan Rapaport about Matt Kuchar’s comments that he decided to finish that 72nd hole at the Wyndham Championship on Monday to help . . . Greyserman. We couldn’t agree more, Max. That was definitely strange.
Congrats to Matt McCarty for winning a third Korn Ferry Tour title in seven starts to earn that coveted “Battlefield promotion” to the PGA Tour. Of course, it would have been nice to get those three wins earlier in the year, but that’s impressive. See you in the bigs next season. . . . Congrats to the 12 automatic qualifiers on both the U.S. and International side for the Presidents Cup. It probably doesn’t matter because the U.S. will likely win again, but congrats again to those who will be involved next month. . . . One of the Louisville police officers involved in the Scottie Scheffler arrest at the PGA Championship has been arrested himself for theft and misconduct. The World No. 1 continues to look better and better after that strange saga. . . . And, finally, does anyone else have a kid who does the same puzzle over and over (and over) again? This is Julia’s new hobby:
Not that I’m in position to judge how others spend their time after choosing to wait four hours on that crazy casting call line last week. Oh, and that was my wife who had “Real Housewives of Orange County” paused on TV. I swear. Again, not that I can say anything.
RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
How good will Sauce Gardner get at golf?
How good bad will the Jets and Giants be this season?
Will I get a part in “Happy Gilmore 2”?
