David Lipsky kept it together at the Sony Open

How many PGA players come out of Northwestern University?

ZERO!

We’re willing to guess there has never been a PGA professional from Evanston, IL. It’s TOO COLD! You can’t practice year round. It’s hard to concentrate when you are shivering. Yet, here we are. David Lipsky almost wins the Sony Open.

Well done, David, but you’ve still got a ways to go before you can seize the mantle of the best golfer to come out of Illinois because that belongs to Bill Mehlhorn, a person few people remember, but one of the better golfers you’ve never heard of. He still holds the distinction of having won the 3rd most tournaments without a major - right up there with Steve Stricker and Lee Westwood. Also wore a cowboy hat!

Si Woo Kim was a 14-1 shot going into Sunday so hat tip to him for winning. Of course he would have won by 12 shots had he worn one of our hats, but he seems to be satisfied with sqeeking out wins by the slimmest of margins. Odd but perfectly within his rights to do so.

The LIV Tour Freak Show & The End of Golf Majors

Most golf fans do not organize their personal lives around PGA events such as the Greensboro Open, the John Deere Classic, Sanderson Farms. the Shriners, or the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. All minor and largely inconsequential tour stops that most of the golf community could care less about.

However, when it comes to golf “majors” everybody tunes in. But the advent of the LIV tour has upset the apple cart. It’s splintered the professional golfer community, forcing everyone to pick sides and prohibiting LIV-aligned golfers from participating in PGA and Euro-tour events.

Not satisfied with driving up gas prices, you’ve also ruined golf. Thanks Saudi Arabia!

Denny McCarthy

We could use this space to celebrate Justin Thomas, the winner of the PGA Championship, or Matthew Fitzpatrick, the winner of the US Open, but instead we want to call attention to Denny McCarthy. Yes, that’s right: Denny McCarthy.

Denny McCarthy is 29 years old and has been around for a few years and while he hasn’t won yet, he’s knocking VERY LOUDLY on the door, with three recent top 10 finishes at the Memorial, The US Open, and the Deere Classic.

He was born and grew up in Tacoma Park, MD. While there’s a chance he was born into privilege, it’s unlikely. Tacoma Park is bordered by Flower Ave and Piney Branch Road. The entire area is encapsulated by check-cashing outfits, car washes, and discount furniture stores.

The nearest golf course is a short, cheap 9 hole course - Sligo Creek. Five (5) mins down 16th Street is Rock Creek Park Golf. There’s also Northwest Park, Needwood, and Falls Road, all muni courses he no doubt he cut his teeth on.

We don’t know McCarthy, nor do we know anyone who does. We have no idea what his character is like. He could be a homicidal maniac, for all we know. But we do know he played a lot of muni golf growing up so that’s good enough for us.

Denny - if you are looking for a golf hat that will put you over the top, you can find a nice selection here.

The Hero World Challenge

The Hero World Challenge, underway in the Bahamas, features a select and limited field that typically features the Top 20 golfers in the world. This year’s event is headlined by Collin Morikawa, Koepka, McIlroy, and Justin Thomas. Given such a small and limited field of elite golfers it’s hard to find a true underdog.

Everyone competing has won this year at least once. They’re on top of the world and awash in cash. Everyday more money rains down on them. There are no bills, car payments, or mortgages that ever come due. Most of their time is spent inside country clubs. They walk through life in a bubble. Their only concern, if they have any, is how to maintain control of their adulterous tendencies, or how to cover up any current dalliances they may be engaged in.

Given this, it’s hard to identify a true “underdog” in this field. However, upon closer inspection we do see one candidate: Henrik Stenson. Stenson is 45 years old and is not too far away from his first colonoscopy. His teeth are starting to bother him, and it’s likely he has trouble ordering off a menu without reading glasses. He’s even got his own line of eyewear: https://henrikstensoneyewear.com/ He has not been playing well of late and is ranked well outside of the Top 20 in the world so we’re not even clear how he managed to get into this event.

So even though we like to find a more worthy Underdog to root for, this week it has to be Stenson, who going into Saturday finds himself squarely in last place.

Mickelson's gum

Phil Mickelson kept it together and nailed down an improbable win at the PGA Championship played on the Ocean course at Kiawah Island, SC. he was a 600-1 underdog at the start of the tournament and rightly so. He hadn’t won a major in 8 years and had only won twice on the PGA tour in the past 7 years. It was a historic win and Mickelson now becomes the oldest major winner - at close to 51 years old - easily surpassing the previous standard bearer, Julius Boros, who won the PGA championship in 1968 at the age of 48.

But as remarkable as Phil’s win was - and it was - we are really mainly interested in the gum he chewed throughout the entire championship. It’s been long-rumored that CBD gum has become quite popular among some of the older Tour players. CBD provides an array of amazing benefits, pertaining to stress reduction, sleep, inflammation, digestion, pain management, and more. But to feel these benefits to the fullest, your body needs to be able to absorb as much CBD as possible into the bloodstream.

We know that Mickelson was chewing SOMETHING the entire tournament and assuming it was CBD gum and he popped his first piece on during a practice round leading up to the tournament start and continued chewing almost non-stop through Sunday, he likely was feeling pretty good by the time he began the back 9 on Sunday. It seemed there were several holes where Mickelson’s caddie - his brother, Tim - had to re-direct a seemingly out-of-it-Phil to the next tee box. At least, that is how it appeared to the viewing audience.

Chances are - given Phil’s age - in addition to CBD, there were some Metamucil chewables mixed in, along with a tincture or two of NUGENIX, though this is just speculation on our part and we have no basis for believing this to be the case.

Rather than exotic cocktails and supplements, golfers of any age can spend less than $40 and get a golf hat that will almost assuredly lower their scores. Check out these unique, play-enhancing, and score-lowering hats here.

Can Will Zalatoris or Justin Rose Win the 2021 Masters?

Six months ago Will Zalatoris was teeing off in the WinCo Foods Open, a Korn Ferry tour event in Portland. Today he is 1 shot off the lead at the Masters, with a very real chance to win in his first attempt - something that has only happened once in the past 90 years.

Zalatoris has five Top 10 finishes so in his last 15 events so it’s getting hard to think of him as an underdog for much longer. He’s top 20 on tour in driving distance and greens-in-regulation, so he’s destined to win, and win frequently.

Justin Rose is no stranger to the Masters, nor to golf majors. At 42 years old he’s played in over 50 golf major events. But at his age winning gets harder and harder. Throw in a balky back and Rose now qualifies as an official golf underdog.

We’ll be rooting for both of these guys this weekend. They’d likely be in an even stronger position if they were wearing our golf hats, but that’s their choice.

We did enjoy watching Billy Horschel fall on his ass while playing the 13th hole with Phil Mickelson. There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as watching someone who struggles to control their temper, slip and fall, mainly because you never know what they will do in response. Unfortunately for the viewing audience we were not treated with a classic Horschel meltdown.