THERE'S MORE GOLF TO PLAY™
Golf, 2023 masters leaderboard, Golf hats, Golf Majors, Golf swag, The Masters
Sam Bennett, an amateur, is, as of this moment, sitting at -8 with a few holes to play, good enough for 2nd place at The Masters behind Brooks Koepka.
Where did this come from? Who is Sam Bennett? Is it possible he finishes in the Top 3? Is it possible he finishes in the Top 3 without the benefit of wearing one of our golf hats on his head? Sadly for Sam Bennett the answer is a resounding, “NO!” but good luck, Sam.
Before we talk about the PGA Championship, which is about to enter its final round, we must pay tribute the Lydia Ko, a former #1, who has gone 44 tournaments without winning. Normally, we pull for the underdogs and as a former #1, Ko would not qualify as such, but with her multi-year slide into the abyss, she’s become someone we can root for.
At Harding Park, DJ has a 1 shot lead going into the final round, but there are 10+ players who are within striking distance of winning. While we are looking forward to a great final round, with lots of drama, we have to pull for Matthew Wolff for nothing more than his unique "forward press,” if that’s what you call it, and Joel Dahmen. When you look at Dahmen’s background and what he has had to overcome, it’s easy to root for him.
As an aside, it is noteworthy that Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas, who have traded places as respective #1’s the last few weeks, have struggled to keep it together at Harding Park. It shows you how even the best players in the world could do themselves a favor and don a KIT hat to brace themselves against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
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Why are we rooting for Mackenzie Hughes to win the U.S. Open? Because he’s Canadian and Canadians are nice people. Plus, they rarely ever win on the PGA tour. In addition, Hughes has overcome adversity - once losing his tour card before regaining it five years ago. Outside of his own friends and family, nobody is cheering for Mac. While the last two months have not been kind to Hughes (missed cuts in five straight events) he’s played well this week and is on the verge of winning The Open.
That makes him a solid underdog and a golfer we are pulling for today.
Russell Henley is another rootable player. While he had some early success in his first year on tour - winning the Sony Open by a record margin - he has not won as often as many had predicted when he graduated from the University of Georgia ten years ago. Now a 100-1 shot to win any tournament he enters, Henley is also a guy we can get behind.
While technically not an underdog, Matthew Wolff is easy to root for because of his entertaining and unconventional golf swing. He’s also talked about his struggles with depression and anxiety.
We are definitely not rooting for Bryson DeChambeau because he is a weasel. A VERY LARGE weasel, but a weasel nonetheless.
Remember: we are all underdogs when we step on the golf course. Our golf hats instill golfers with the calm resilience they need to play well.
Epilogue: Unfortunately, Hughes, Henley, and Wolff struggled during the final round and fell out of contention. It is hard to ignore the fact that they did so while wearing PING, Titleist, and Taylor Made hats. One cannot help but wonder how they would have faired wearing our Go-Lo, On in Regulation, or Birddha hats.
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There are lots of story lines we could write about the 2020 Masters. Abraham Ancer contending in his first appearance, former Buddist monk, Jazz Janewattananond, nearly posting the the same score as the current PGA Championship and U.S. Open winners, or Jason Day and Matthew Wolff being outplayed by Larry Mize, who is close to qualifying for Medicare. However, the most interesting development has to be 63 year-old Bernhard Langer making the cut. A remarkable achievement for a player who continues to have a remarkable career.
Also remarkable is Bryson DeChambeau’s penchant for challenging official rulings that go against him. Yesterday, when he could not find his ball after a wayward tee shot, he wanted us to believe he should get a free drop, rather than take a penalty. At the St. Jude invitational, he debated with rules officials for three minutes that he ought to get a free drop because the grass was “swarming” with fire ants (it was not). And at the Memorial, DeChambeau famously protested when not one, but two, rules officials sided against him and his claim that his wayward shot over a fence should be considered in play and qualify for a free drop (he went on to card a 10 on that hole). It’s hard to imagine Bernhard Langer, Mize, Ancer, or most tour players whining like this with such regularity. He could, of course, stop this act and instead wear one of our signature hats, which many people say delivers an immediate, calming effect on their psyche. Keep it together, Bryson.
Going into the weekend, Brooks Koepka’s robotic takedown of Bethpage Black was on full display and another trophy seemed a foregone conclusion. There was speculation he could break Jason Day’s -20 under posted at the 2016 PGA Championship. Even though he merely held serve on Saturday, by the time he teed off on Sunday, he led by seven shots and everyone else was competing for 2nd place.
For most of his Sunday round, things appeared to be going according to script. Koepka moved through the front nine trouble-free with no outward sign that he was feeling any stress. No rapid eye blinking or involuntary winking; no bulging eyes or flaring of the nostrils; no clearing of the throat. There was nothing from Koepka. Just marched cool, calm and collected, from hole to hole, until he walked onto the 11th tee box, when his tournament began to turn from a coronation to a possible train wreck.
He bogeyed #11, #12, and was facing another bogey on #13, when we saw the first sign of serious trouble afoot. If you watch the video carefully, you can see Koepka aggressively rubbing his left eye while surveying his putt (a telling physical manifestation of the pressure he was now under; his left finger simultaneously digging and pushing his eyeball uncomfortably into its socket). He would bogey that hole, as well as #14.
After 4 straight bogeys, and with Dustin Johnson charging up from behind him, it looked as if Koepka was in serious jeopardy. Thankfully for Koepka, Dustin Johnson couldn’t maintain his momentum and was the first to crack, splaying shots all over #16 and #17. In the end, and much to Koepka’s credit, he made a beautiful chip shot, under enormous pressure, to ten feet of the pin on 18 and would make the par putt to close things out.
While the 2019 PGA Championship is now in the brooks, there was another story line worth mentioning.
Ever heard of Jazz Janewattananond? Most of the golf world had not. Well, it turns out a “Jazz Janewattananond” is a 23 year old, 5’9” 150 lb force of nature from Thailand, who attacked Bethpage with abandon. Where did he come from, and how is it that he was in 2nd place after three rounds of a golf major? It is an interesting story, to say the least.
Janewattananond turned pro in 2010 and for the next 6 years struggled to find his footing playing on both the Asian and European tours. Perhaps feeling frustrated with how he was playing and lack of results, he decided to walk away from golf after the 2016 season and, get this - join the monkhood!
Janewattananond credits the two weeks he spent as a disciple of Phra Maha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi, as restoring his mindset and approach to golf. And shortly after this experience and his re-emergence Janewattananond began to win. ““I learned from him that happiness is the greatest thing in life,” Janewattanananond told Thai media in 2017. “Before that, golf was everything to me, and it gave me so much pressure during competition. I have been competing with less pressure ever since and starting getting better results.” A lesson all of us can take to heart.
Given his recent “conversion” and embrace of Buddhism, we plan to send Janewattananond a “Birddha” hat in celebration of his recent success. We may send Dustin Johnson one, as well.
Lastly, we would be remiss if we didn’t tip our cap to Matt Wallace, a member of the European Tour, who has managed to make a outrageous amount of money in 2019 in just two tournaments - his performance at Bayhill and thIs tournament. As a result, his world golf ranking has sky rocketed.