McIlroy’s speed secrets and Hatton ‘looks like a farmer’: Weekend 9

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

My wife even double checked.

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

I was.

“Uecker?”

Uecker.

He left, I continued to watch. Or listen. To Ueck. Like I did in ’87, at 620 AM, when Deer and Sveum went deep on Easter Sunday, and 9-year-old me listened at the kitchen table, 3 miles from metallic County Stadium. I listened again in 1992, though this time on the way home from the yard, in a dark brown wagon bought at Bud Selig’s Buick dealership, the night Rockin Robin hit number 3,000. I also listened Thursday afternoon to some of Uecker’s last words last season, after the Milwaukee Brewers were stunned in the first round of the playoffs. They don’t hurt. He said the loss hurt. And so it was. Another year, another wait until next year. The group’s longtime radio voice had been battling cancer, however, on Thursday, we learned he had passed.

If you’re not familiar, Uecker once had a hand in everything, in everyone’s way. Miller Lite pitchman. Carson is a guest. Sitcom and movie star. He’s also been called Mr. Baseball, which you knew was ironic, since he played the most of six MLB seasons that went unnoticed — though no one embraces the irony more than Uecker himself. He leaned on it. No one nailed Ueck more than Ueck, making the Milwaukee native the next-to-you-on-a-barstool guy — and fitting when he grabbed the microphone for a radio play-by-play during the Brewers’ season. ‘ first season, in 1971, and continued to speak. About the team. About him. Anything else. Baseball has built-in gaps, like golf, after all.

That’s right, golf. Let’s get to the point. There are quite a few.

First of all, welcome! Think of this as a place to warm you up for the weekend. We will have thoughts. We will have some tips. 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 baby. I grew up across the street from a bar. Dear wife. Sports watcher. Golf machine.

And someone who has heard the cries of dying interest in the pro game – and wonders if any pros have watched how Uecker did it. Maybe golf needs a mr. Together with Ms. Golf. This is Trevino’s place. Who are the others?

Rest in peace, Ueck. We moved on to the other eight of us.

One takeaway from the week – and the weeks to come

2. Where do we stand with TGL?

In a very unscientific scan, the reception of both paid and unpaid comments was positive in the first week. Lots of bells and whistles, though not enough hammers. It’s fast paced, although slow at the end. It was different. At the very least, it was golf to watch on a Monday or Tuesday night.

But then came the second week.

And the tech seemed uninteresting to the people. Game, too. Things were just sitting there. Does anyone care if you win? Or loss? Ideas were made. Should we care about this?

Here we are waiting. Take your time. Maybe until week 7, which comes at the end of next month. Items should be buttoned up. We will have three games then, two on Monday and one on Tuesday. How is the league going to get us to watch all of that?

It talks about…

3. What did my 17-year-old reporter think of week two? The first week, I (also) forced my young golf-loving nephew to watch, and I talked to him afterward, since that’s exactly the audience TGL is trying to appeal to.

But he didn’t watch it this week. Kind of.

He didn’t listen to the ESPN coverage. But on YouTube, he caught Good Good’s go inside the TGL dome.

That means something.

The best non-GOLF.com read for your weekend

4. what am i reading (without that partner’s imaginary prose)? Two articles are worth clicking on.

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

5. Here, i The Wall Street Journal Jason Gay took his turn in reviewing TGL. This was gold:

“Golf has been rethought. That’s what TGL promises, which should warrant a saying: Whenever you see ‘________ being rethought,’ investment firms have entered the conversation.”

This was also great:

“The night started with the highest expression of sports passion: a spectacular exit. Low-key men who used to quietly step out of competition cars marched into the ‘SoFi Center’ like gladiators in pressed trousers. Woods, naturally, got a big kick out of Tuesday, finally coming out to hear the roar of Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ a song old enough to qualify for a discount at most South Florida restaurants.”

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

6. What am I watching to try to get better (without that thoughtful partner videos)?

A YouTube video from YouTube star Grant Horvat is worth your time. In it, Rory McIlroy reviews the moves he makes when he’s “really after one,” and the video can be found by clicking here or scrolling down quickly below.

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Horvat, in particular, was on the heater. He recently posted a video tutorial with Tiger Woods.

A great golf story that only interests me

7. Is European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald preparing his team for potential clashes at Bethpage Black in New York? Apparently so. Tommy Fleetwood, in his press conference ahead of this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic, referred to the effort in last week’s Team Cup.

“Look, there’s no way you can replicate what the Ryder Cup is like, that’s for sure,” he said. “But you can try your best and create different environments that will help us get to the time when we need to deal with that, and I think Luke has been good and busy, if you like, in some of the challenges that we’re going to face. ; the team they will face in September is playing in the away Ryder Cup. I think it’s about being aware and trying to develop certain skills that will help you better deal with those situations, and then you can practice that.

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

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

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

“‘They had these big microphones and speakers in the first one, the sounds of children, things moving, people shouting and coughing. Then when we got to the 7th, which was a tough par-3 with water next to it, there was an American guy who was yelling everything at us. He was an American comedian.

“‘He said to Tyrrell Hatton that he looks like an Amish farmer reincarnated because of his beard. He was trying to put everyone off, saying he’s going to put it in the water, he’s going to shoot ***.’”

A great golf story that only interests me, part two

8. Sauce Gardner of the New York Jets was donating golf clubs earlier this week. The story comes with Golf Digest Alex Myers, who was watching Gardner’s Instagram stories, where Gardner wrote this, below is a video of a collection of clubs:

“Don’t ask me why I have so many teams. Just help me remove them. At one point last season I thought it was the club that made you a better golfer. Not the other way around lol.”

What golf is live on TV this weekend?

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

— On Saturday
2 am-8 am ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic third round, Golf Channel
4 pm-7 pm ET: Third round on American Express, Golf Channel
7 pm-10 pm ET: Final round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, Golf Channel

– Sunday
2 am-8 am ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic final round, Golf Channel
Noon-3 pm ET: Bahamas Great Abaco Classic first round, Golf Channel
4 pm-7 pm ET: American Express Final Round, Golf Channel

Your golf zen moment

10. Let’s do 10 things.

The picture below is amazing.