I am absolutely filled up after the PGA Tour offseason. East Lake feels like it was ages ago. I used the time to fight down the number of tabs I have open, which currently stood at 73 open on the various Safari and Chrome windows on my laptop and 488 tabs on my phone. Made some progress last week but we're still not in a great spot on that front. However, I only have 43 total emails in my inbox, which is a win.

GHIN

Randy really stretched the bounds of the “GHIN” category in the last G&T by writing about his dog, Arthur. This week, I’m going to reset us by getting really literal and talking about my actual handicap index and address some of the haters in the process.

Barstool released a video last week in which Riggs (who seemingly plays 10x more golf than I do, yet has an impossibly unathletic move) challenges an internet commenter to a match. While I think a concept stemming from handicap manipulation accusations would’ve been more interesting/applicable in a stroke play format, that they pulled in an internet hater and then put him in the cauldron is something we’ve been talking about for years as a fun “what if” but never had the bandwidth to put it in play.

This comment, from a prolific hater of ours on YouTube, is what got me going on this topic a couple of weeks ago:

People see me play golf on camera and it’s often not pretty, which can be chalked up to a combination of factors: Playing on camera isn’t easy - filming a round is a pain in the ass and often results in various stops and starts. Sometimes good shots get edited out. Sometimes bad shots get edited out. I’m 38 years old, have two kids, and until recently, hadn’t worked out in a decade. I have an ugly over-the-top move, and many of the videos we’ve filmed this year have been the morning after a cross-country flight (and sometimes the day of that flight, or on another continent), and I’m the least flexible person on the planet.

All of this adds up to a potent, high-variance, feel-based combination that can yield drastically different results round-to-round. I rarely warm up at this point — and usually play better when I don’t — and I’ve practiced twice this year and I often go weeks without playing. All of this is deeply self-inflicted and unnecessary, and I’m in the early stages of fixing it (as are Casey, Cody and DJ - if you haven’t seen our latest video, it’s not to be missed.)

I’m a 1-handicap because the GHIN system says I’m a 1-handicap. And there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of (or refusal to accept) how the system actually works. To refresh: the system only looks at your last twenty scores, of which it takes the eight best score differentials to par when factoring in slope, rating, and conditions that day. At any given point, despite my volatile and streaky nature, the best eight rounds of my last twenty are usually pretty good. These rounds tend to come in the middle stretch of golf trips, after I’ve gotten a few days of golf under my belt, have found the bottom of my swing, and have mixed in a free afternoon to rest up and stretch.

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At various points during NLU, I’ve been called a sandbagger and a vanity cap, sometimes at the same time, which is interesting! I would rather be getting strokes from Soly, Neil, Ben and Cody, and have a far higher floor and a lower ceiling than I currently do. Something in the 3.6 range would be very comfortable. Unfortunately, I can’t pick what my handicap is!

I came into 2024 as a 2.1 handicap, before going up to a 3.8 in mid-February after some exceptional scores from 2023 fell off. I then got in gear with some good rounds in March, June and July that got me down to 0.9. Currently sitting at 1.4 and it’s trending in the wrong direction. I’ve posted 50 rounds this year. 28 of which were in the US and 22 internationally (I think I missed posting a couple of rounds from Australia, particularly RM West; I’ve also played quite a few rounds of alt shot that obviously aren’t post-able, so the total rounds played is higher. I’ve posted nine rounds from my home club, which is nearly twice as many as last year’s total already. Average score this year is 78.1, with the low round of the year an even-par 71 at Bel-Air on the fourth day of a trip there and the high round of the year the 87 fired at Colorado Golf Club during the event we hosted a couple weeks ago. Truly bleak, to the point that I’ve made the decision to shut it down for a few weeks, work on my body and reboot it from scratch before we get into the fall. Tear it down, rebuild, forgive, forget, things of that nature.

Other golf quick-hitters:

  • We had our Summer Festival out at Colorado Golf Club a few weeks ago and I was blown away. Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw are two of the best to ever do it, and this is among their best work. It combined the feeling of alpine prairies that you get at Bandon Trails with long vistas and brilliant short par fours and some of the topography you see at Prairie Dunes. The par three short course was best in class, too. Can’t wait to get back. I am grateful to our friend Jeff Marsh for making the trip out to Colorado to shoot for us and memorialize the day - here's a sampling of my favorites:

  • I want to shout out Golf Course Graveyard Instagram account. Always sends me down an interesting wormhole each time a new post goes up.

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  • The other day I found myself watching The (Golf) Channel and they had a documentary called “Peter the Great” and it brought back so many memories of watching the European Tour in the mornings when I was early on in my love of golf. Alliss was a big part of that. I yearn for similar coverage these days. What an interesting man. I’m unable to find a link to any information on the Golf Channel Film, but here’s what (I think) they adapted it from and it’s just as good. Worth your time!

  • The Golf Projects Instagram account got on my radar in February and I watch every reel that goes up. I try to casually keep tabs on golf fashion, but the way that Raymond organizes, curates and delivers information is remarkably creative and draws you in. He’s got a good eye and a way with words, even if sometimes the golf fashion scene can make me roll my eyes.

Tonic

Basically a consumption log of the past month or so.

Eating:

  • We were out in Denver for the BMW Championship and I had a truly elite meal while out there. And no I’m not talking about the Shanahattan I had at Shanahan’s. Instead, it was at an Israeli/Mediterranean place called Safta. I thought about going back the next night but couldn’t make it work. That good. Will plan my trip around it next time I’m in Denver. Also failed to take any pics because I was so locked in on the food and the convo.

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  • Popsicles run DEEP in the Schuster family. My dad, aka “The Franchise,” used to house dozens of freeze pops in one sitting. Then he went to the traditional “Popsicle” brand, before switching to their sugar-free version. My younger son Gustav is completely off ice cream these days and addicted to popsicles, or “posspickles” as he thinks they’re called. JonnyPops entered my life about two months ago and I haven’t looked back since. There are half a dozen flavors I like and it’s sort of a dealers choice on which stores have which ones. Thus far, in order of favorite to least favorite, I’ve had the Rainbow Fruit Snacks, Star-Spangled Flag, Summer Sunrise, Blue Wave, Tropical Paradise Punch, and Watermelon (which is the only flavor I haven’t liked - an upset because I usually love all things watermelon.) I’ve seared the top of my mouth from eating too many of them on multiple occasions. An all-around elite product with simple, natural ingredients, and they don’t stain your mouth.

Doing:

Weather is cooling off in Jax and I’m looking to get back into the cadence of gardening and cooking over the next few months with some increased time at home. I also want to do something extremely nerdy and organize my golf pencils (the one thing I collect from every course I play.)

Reading:

  • Currently reading a book called “How To Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea” - I feel like I’m surrounded by it and don’t really understand it like I should. Plus, it’ll help my fishing.

Other things making me happy right now:

  • Brian Kelly losing his mind. That’s not going to end well down in Baton Rouge.

  • Baugh

  • FSU getting pantsed two weeks in a row.

  • Northern Illinois beating Notre Dame. In the past, this would’ve made me happy because of ill will toward Notre Dame (see: Kelly, Brian), but I like Marcus Freeman and think he’s moving that program forward and going through some growing pains and I legitimately hope he succeeds. This was all due to NIU Coach Thomas Hammock letting the gravity of the moment overcome him, speaking from the heart, and acknowledging all the kids who stuck with him. Along with Big Randy, I follow MAC football pretty closely and the transfer portal and NIL have completely gutted rosters over the last few years in a way that’s made it more difficult than ever to build a coherent program at a mid-major. Coaches spend a few years developing a class, only to have the top 20-30% get plucked away by a power conference school after a strong sophomore or junior season. To see a guy who played at NIU come back, do it the right way, experience the ups and downs and go on the road to beat the fifth-ranked team in the country as a 30-point underdog by dominating the line of scrimmage and overcoming bad officiating is why I watch college football. That resonated.

  • Seeing fans of other sports realize the depravity and ineptitude we’ve been dealing with from NBC’s golf broadcasts the last few years makes me happy because I know we weren’t the crazy ones. Jason Garrett is driving Notre Dame fans NUTS as the color analyst on their games. This past weekend’s primetime Colorado-Nebraska game featured Colt McCoy in the second chair in what I believe was his first-ever college football broadcast appearance, and it showed - he sounded like he was falling asleep at various points throughout the game, and then when he did try to liven things up there were whiffs of the “Boom Goes the Dynamite” guy from the early internet. That’s not even Colt. The halftime studio show was abhorrent. I’m told that NBC having a second NFL game (in Brazil, no less) stretched them thin this week and they didn’t have a bench to draw upon, which, gosh, feels like something that could’ve been foreseen.

  • Between the budget cuts, an arrogance that pervades the entire organization, the disdain with which they treat the audience, and the wrong people getting promoted, it’s tragic to see what’s happened to a once-proud organization. It remains to be seen if their best-in-class (outside of the pregame show) Sunday Night Football production is falling off, too. Can’t wait for them to get their hands on the NBA!

  • Juxtapose everything above about NBC with this fantastic Bryan Curtis piece on Fox’s courtship of Tom Brady that digs into Fox's approach to talent. TB12 didn't exactly crush his debut, and while I disagree with throwing him right into the fire there's no doubt he'll get better and find his footing. Fox has built a deep bench and it stinks that Greg Olsen's competence led to him being considered a solid backup plan.

  • Somewhat related: YouTube TV! Finally cut the cord from Comcast and made the switch. What took me so long?

  • The Jaguars! Hope springs eternal. I’m hoping that Brian Thomas Jr. is everything I thought Calvin Ridley was going to be!

  • The U.S. Open ruled. Major championship tennis continues to be at the apex of the sports viewing ecosystem.

  • My fantasy baseball squad made the playoffs in our NLU league and looks to be on a collision course with Soly’s Infinite WAR franchise for the finals. It’s a keeper league that allows future draft picks to be traded, and I’ve completely leaned into that. Imagine the LA Rams of the last decade mixed with the 1997 Florida Marlins. I haven’t just mortgaged my future, I’ve got a reverse mortgage on it, too!

  • Haven’t been drinking much wine (or anything else) this summer. Just too hot and I've been focused on sleeping better. But when I have been indulging, it’s mostly been my friend Tom Darling’s Gamay Noir. I’ll chill it down a bit and it’s just so versatile with whatever we’re eating. Light, fun, and kind of zippy on the tongue. I’ve canceled a few of my wine club memberships and doubled down on Darling, as it’s what I’m always reaching for.

  • I finally broke down and subscribed to Puck when John Ourand joined earlier this year. I haven’t been disappointed. Nerdy, insidery media stuff.

  • Looking ahead, it’s a fun time of the year between additional time at home, planning for 2025 and digging into future ideas, and flag football season starting for Freddie and Gustav. The best Saturday mornings!

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