The photo accompanying Ron Green’s story says everything I have been saying about Bryson DeChambeau (“One man meets the moment,” June 17 GGP). He can never get enough attention. He chases it in too many annoying ways to count, and it is far more important to him than even being U.S. Open champion. It’s written all over his face. Everything in life is a photo-op to him.
And the following line from Green in the piece speaks volumes about the mindset of golf writers, for whom a good story trumps everything, even principle: “DeChambeau is the game’s greatest showman at the moment, a churning mix of bravado, newfound self-awareness and stage presence. Until an agreement peacefully ending professional golf’s civil war is found, DeChambeau is the best thing to happen to a sport that needs to pull people in rather than push them away.”
Sunday, June 16 marked a seminal moment in the professional game. DeChambeau’s win will be the catalyst for ending the civil war, and golf will be the worse for it. Enter the “new golfer” and the “new golf fan.” Professional golf is now entertainment, not competition.
It is a very sad day for the greatest game of all.
Ron Garland
Prescott Valley, Arizona
(Garland is the founder of the Golf Nut Society.)
There will no doubt be those who will subscribe to the narrative that Rory McIlroy is a busted flush as far as more professional major victories are concerned (“McIlroy peels away after Open collapse,” June 17 GGP).
However, a certain Jack Nicklaus, back in 1963, bogeyed the 71st and 72nd holes at the Open Championship to finish one shot out of the playoff. He went on from that shattering experience to have a half-decent career in subsequent majors.
David Morris
Bristol, England
Get your popcorn ready. Tiger Woods will turn 50 in 18 months. His ability to use a golf cart then will end the retirement talk (“It’s time, Tiger,” June 17 GGP).
The cart helps with the physical aspect, but it also relieves mental impediments of which very few people are aware. He can still hit the shots. His ability to think and strategize remains unquestioned. He remains a great competitor and mentally tough. What seems to be lacking is his ability to play multiple events consecutively to get back into tournament shape.
There’s nothing anyone playing at home can do to create a tournament atmosphere, the urgency, distractions, obligations, course conditions, additional adrenaline and many more things that make tournament golf unrecognizable from golf at home, generally with people whom you appreciate. The only way for him to reconstitute that talent is to show up to several tournaments per month and keep hitting shots under that pressure and prove to himself that he still has that aptitude, but the only way he can play multiple tournaments is with a golf cart. Then his mind will be at rest with his physical limitations, and he will begin playing more like the Tiger Woods whom people remember and desperately would like to see again.
So many credible players have attested that they paid to witness he still has plenty of game and hits all of shots at home with a golf cart, so that seems to be the main obvious difference from under-50 golf. So, the Champions Tour is eagerly anticipating his eligibility, but I suspect many people will be playing for second, but for much more money because those purses will explode once he demonstrates interest in competing regularly.
David Hofer
Davie, Florida
Tiger Woods might not even compete well on the senior tour with all of his health issues (“It’s time, Tiger,” June 17 GGP). I doubt he would dominate like Bernhard Langer and predict we will never know.
Dart Meadows
Amelia Island, Florida
So few athletes know when to quit. Jimmy Brown got out on top. Watching Tiger Woods, one of the greats, is like watching Willie Mays tripping over his own feet as a Met (“It’s time, Tiger,” June 17 GGP).
It’s time.
Charlie Miller
Westport, Connecticut
Justin Thomas won the PGA Championship in May 2022. After not winning in the 2022-23 wraparound season and missing the Tour Championship, he fired his putting coach and, some will say, fired his swing coach (his father). He said he became over-dependent on them and decided to be on his own.
When that didn’t translate into wins, he took the next step and fired his caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, the week before this year’s Masters. He missed the cut at the Masters and recently missed the cut at the U.S. Open. How’d that work out?
Maybe he should go totally on his own and carry his own bag. Then he can see where the problem really lies.
Charlie Jurgonis
Fairfax, Virginia
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