GHIN

An update on real GHIN, as the USGA pushed out the GHIN Rewind this week and mine contained some surprises. We’ll dig deeper this week on the podcast, but I’ll get it started here.

  • I will likely end the year at a 2.1, the exact same spot I started. The 61 rounds is light.
  • I played at least eight rounds of alt shot that I couldn’t post (many at home) and then played another six rounds on courses that aren’t rated or postable.
  • Of the scores I posted, I love seeing the variety: 43 different courses across 61 rounds. Seeing new courses is why I play golf. My “hardest round” also turned out to be the absolute best round I played all year - a 1-over par 72 at Western Gailes on a windy, grey day. It wasn’t the lowest score of the year but it was absolutely the best golf I played, and the 76 rating and 146 slope make sense. On the flip side, the “easiest” course I played according to the ratings is the Lagoon Course at my home club, Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. This could not be further from the truth. It’s a sub-6000 yard par 70 that’s rated as a 68.4 and 126 slope. This year the superintendent grew the rough up, the greens are fast, there’s water everywhere and there are six par-3s, six par-4s and six par-5s, and it’s HARD. Members and guests tend to scoff at it because of the yardage, but if I wanted to sandbag I would play there on a weekly basis and my index would shoot up.
  • We’re recording our beginning of 2025 “Goals” podcast in the coming days, and I’ve already decided one of those goals is going to be 100 rounds posted.

Here's what I had going on in 2024:

  • My friend Garrett Morrison from Fried Egg Golf is down in Melbourne, Australia this week on a whirlwind tour of the Sandbelt and I am positively jealous. I cannot wait to return down under, and get to Hobart and Perth and Kangaroo Island and back to Adelaide on the next trip and then dig a level deeper in Victoria to see Yarra Yarra, Commonwealth, Woodlands, the various courses at The National, and Healesville. Balancing that and a proper New Zealand trip is going to be a tricky thing over the next 18 months.

  • Speaking of Australia, the Australian Open (golf, not tennis) is a disgrace in its current iteration. Pitiful purse, paltry corporate support, sparse crowds in Melbourne, a neutered golf course setup, and a contrived co-ed format that’s great in theory and a mess in practice and short-changes both genders. National opens need to be celebrated and the winners rewarded with exemptions into the majors, but that’s also a two-way street and they need to be serious competitions befitting their title. Based on conversations with nearly everyone I know in Australia, I’m close to placing a fatwa on the entire Golf Australia organization. Get it together!

  • I am grateful to the dozens of people who reached out and offered up dozens of the “old” version of the Cypress Point Club plastic ballmarkers and then sent them through. I mean, look at this thing!

  • This is how I feel after Cal Club into Sea Island into Tree Farm into a father/son trip to Boston into Thanksgiving into Ohoopee into Randy’s wedding and then back to Ohoopee and then down to West Palm for TGL Media Day (seeing “The Spear” and “The Temple” in person is going to be majestic) this week, and I think I need to detox/chill out at home for a few weeks and get my feet under me:

Recent recommendations:

  • I really enjoyed this recent podcast conversation between Andy Johnson and Bob Crosby. My friend/oft-collaborator Wolfie has told me repeatedly that Bob Crosby might be the smartest, most enlightened dude in golf, and this episode certainly supports that.
  • Speaking of Wolfie, we recorded a “Best Golf Countries” Office Hours episode that will be coming out later this week. It’s my favorite OH ep we’ve done yet - be on the lookout for it. And in the meantime, catch up on our recent episode on Lost Golf Courses.
  • On the newsletter front, Kyle Porter’s conversation with Rufus Peabody last week in his Normal Sport newsletter was fantastic. Rufus is someone who the more I learn about him, the more fascinated I become.

Tonic

  • I took my older son Freddie up to Boston before Thanksgiving for a Celtics game and to show him where he was born. It was great to go up and also a reminder of how much I don’t miss the weather and gray and cold. We hit Pammy’s, Modern, the Celtics facility thanks to some gracious hospitality from a friend, got to see Anthony Edwards in person, saw a Celtics win, and Freddie was a trooper as we walked a lot. Fun weekend!
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  • Randy’s wedding weekend in Austin was a blast, too. It was a very stereotypically “Austin” long weekend, with dinner at a buzzy coastal Mexican spot called Este, brunches at Sour Duck and June’s All Day, lunch at Perla’s, and a late-night meal at Dai Due. All were fantastic. Caught a Wilco show at ATX Live. Caught up with some Austin friends I don't get to see enough. And stayed at the South Congress Hotel and drank way too much at the hotel bar with the NLU crew, Randy’s family, and college friends I hadn’t seen in over a decade. I’m still recovering. Also got to meet DJ and Justine’s new addition, Charlie, and then share some drinks with David Ruff, from Washed Media, though I have not dabbled with his Guinness + espresso combo yet, I remain intrigued.
  • My 24 hours in a Waffle House punishment will happen in the next two weeks. Some of my buddies told me this weekend that a fantasy league they’re in makes the loser of their league here in Jax take a Greyhound bus to Cleveland and back, so I consider myself lucky with the WaHo stakes.
  • I cannot emphasize enough how much I love this video. I watch it almost daily and it makes me laugh every single time.

I’ve got three pet peeves to harp on this week:

  • Bars and restaurants are not cleaning out their draught lines. This is an epidemic, and quite frankly, it needs to be regulated because it’s fucking gross and a health hazard. So many establishments rely on draught beer for their highest margins, yet they don’t want to do the work to properly service these systems and clean out all the shit that builds up in there, especially if they have a wide variety of beers. Do better! In the meantime, I’ll be extremely choosy about where I imbibe pints.
  • I’ve made my feelings clear on CLEAR (it’s a disgrace with OR without TSA Precheck), but I’ve got a couple of bones to pick with the Atlanta airport. Normally, on the (maddening) new “Analogic” machines the TSA is commonly using, there are three or four stations to put your bags, then you push it into the second level, then the machine automatically takes it to the bins to third level in a regimented way. In Atlanta, at least on the international side (where I tend to park), passengers are forced to push their bins all the way to the third level, which results in the people on the end of the line pushing their stuff onto the conveyor while the other 2-3 spots closer to the machine are forced to wait. I must’ve waited while 5 different people from that last spot go their stuff in before me. I witnessed several Diamond Medallions (who should know better and be more considerate) do this and was appalled. The world’s busiest airport needs to do better and fix this. Also, the parking garages at ATL don’t have a system where it recognizes your license plate and automatically knows how much you should pay. Instead, you have to put your ticket into the machine. That’s just not acceptable these days. I’m thankful for the ease of parking at JAX and the systems they have in place.
  • While IAH has some of my favorite airport restaurants and I generally like flying through there, the online ordering at the various “OTG” restaurants is a disgrace. I can’t talk to a human being. At the “Little Purse Dumpling Den,” we ordered dumplings, a bowl of ramen, edamame, a glass of sauvignon blanc, a Sapporo, and a bottle of San Pellegrino and it came to over a hundred bucks and took forever. Similar issues at EWR in Terminal C. OTG is a borderline-criminal organization that should lose its license to operate in these airports.

Life lately:

NFL/CFB Quick Hits as the #BallKnowers are on hiatus until January due to scheduling constraints and holiday break:

  • The Falcons continue to piss me off. The offense is so bland and uninspired, even in last night’s flaccid victory over a moribund Raiders team. I realize that Cousins can’t really move, but the scheme isn’t putting him in a position to succeed and I’m not sure it would be any different with Penix. It was interesting to watch them on a split screen with the Bears/Vikings game on at the same time. Kevin O’Connell’s on another level right now with some of their concepts and it’s really fun to watch. (Look for their QB coach Josh McCown to get some HC looks in the months ahead, too.) Same deal with Flores on the other side of the ball. It’s also really fun to watch how bad the Bears are. Awful penalties, horrible protection, and Caleb just isn’t accurate. He deserves credit for not losing his mind in the midst of this disastrous rookie season, but his footwork, rhythm, reads and ability to play on-schedule just don’t seem to be good, at all. And that’s a continuation of what we saw at USC, the only difference is the game is just faster in the NFL and he can’t get away with it. Not impressed.
  • On that note, I miss Coach Flus so much. His post-game pressers, pre-halftime quick interviews, and general demeanor made me so happy. The timeout fiasco at the end of the Thanksgiving game was the highlight of the NFL season. Rarely are we gifted such staggering, no-holds-barred ineptitude and hilarity, and when we get it we need to cherish it. Reminds me of Urban’s tenure with the Jags. Still can’t believe he stayed behind in Ohio and didn’t fly back with the team after the Thursday night game against the Bengals and THEN got nabbed for <redacted> at Urban’s Pour House the next night! And now he’s gainfully employed on the worst pre-game show in sports!
  • I can’t figure the Ravens and Texans out.
  • There have been a lot of Eagles fans in the DMs crowing about the current winning streak. I remain steadfast in my belief that Sirianni and Hurts are frauds, and I’d encourage everyone to wait until after the playoffs to reach out. Howie’s built a heck of a roster and he’s on another level when it comes to evaluation on DBs. It’s a very good defense, I’m a big AJ Brown fan, and they’ve got some predators up front. Time will tell.
  • Just wasn’t Los Niners’ season. Injury apocalypse. Not quite sure what they should do moving forward - it’s an old roster and Purdy’s about to get very expensive.
  • The Jaguars not firing Pederson and (especially) Baalke by now is extremely concerning.
  • The Bills are very good and I’m not sure how you defend them. The Packers are really good and I was very wrong about Lafleur. That performance on Sunday night in Seattle was awesome. Meanwhile, the Rams offense has been a joy to watch this season. They’ve been involved in three of the best games I’ve watched all season.
  • Super impressed with what Dave Canales has done over the last 6 weeks or so. Sitting Bryce Young to press pause on things and restore his confidence was a great move, and he’s working wonders. Jalen Coker is really good at WR. That team is playing hard.
  • It feels like we’re a year too early to judge #Baugh down in San Diego. That’s a bad skill position room made worse by injuries, and when McConkey is out there’s just not a lot they can do, no matter how good they are upfront. But if Herbert was the generational QB talent that all the dipshits like Ruiz say he is, he should be more of a weapon.
  • The Broncos are fascinating.
  • At some point, the Saints have to rip the bandaid off and just bite the bullet on the salary cap/dead money front. What a bad place to be as a franchise - absolutely rudderless, yet unwilling to embark on bottoming out. Same deal with the Titans. What a bad, vanilla-ass team.
  • On the college front, the progression of Billy Napier this season has been interesting, and a lesson in patience. Florida fans were trying to run him out of there after the first third of the season and then that team played hard, won some big games, played some good teams hard, has something special at QB in DJ Lagway, and the recruiting is good. He came in and wanted to recruit high schoolers and develop and build the program the right way and it’s paying off. Patience!
  • The Georgia Tech/Georgia game was the best thing I’ve watched all year. Neil and I were in Atlanta that night with our whole family and we all stayed up watching through all the overtime (which is gimmicky and I long for the old college OT.) I’m pretty agnostic as it relates to both programs, but I found myself captivated by GT - it was like watching the college version of my high school team, running option concepts and just generally being crafty. And then I watched Brent Key’s postgame presser and it’s clear he’s building something there and it’s about more than just football. I’d send my sons to play for that guy. Consider me a fan from here on out.

  • On the opposite side of the spectrum, I enjoyed this on Brian Kelly. What a cartoon villain!
  • Last thing on the football front, if you don’t subscribe to Holly Anderson and Spencer Hall’s Channel 6 newsletter you should! And here’s why - this, on the Ohio State loss is them at their best: