The history of the Bridgestone Invitational may embody the narrative of golf in the 21st century more than any other tournament on the calendar: The dominance of Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods. Along with Muirfield Country Club a couple hours South, Firestone Country Club served as an annual stage for Tiger’s evolution from amateur swashbuckler to GOAT that pushed golf to the front of the national sports discussion, inspired an entire generation of free-swinging young guns, and as outlined by Big Randy, made fellow professionals 

If you look closely, you can see Chucky Three Sticks driving and Justin Leonard riding shotgun (not seen: Tiger in a Buick up ahead).

From 1999 through 2009 there isn’t a course Tiger dominated more often or more effortlessly than the South Course at Firestone. It’s fitting that in the personal and professional turbulence of ’09 with his greatness and his imperfection coming to a head, this week’s event provided the last vintage Tiger performance we’ve seen and maybe the worst as well. The History of the Bridgestone is a history of Big Cat’s dominance and downfall over a full decade.

Full list of Memorial Tournament/WGC-Bridgestone winners in same year:



1999 Tiger Woods
2000 Tiger Woods
2001 Tiger Woods
2009 Tiger Woods



— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelESPN) 

The Bridgestone Invitational is part of the four-tournament World Golf Championships, a group of big-money events that function basically as the Golden Globes to the major’s Oscars. The fields are smaller (typically 70-80), the qualification rules are major-esque (major worldwide tournament winners, top 50 OWGR, recent Ryder/Presidents Cup players), and the rewards for winning one are sweet (huge cash and a three-year PGA Tour exemption). This week’s event takes place at the 7,400-yard 

, South Course at Firestone, a course nicknamed “The Monster” by Arnold Palmer when describing the lengthy par-5 16th hole.

The Bridgestone came into being in 1999 as the WGC-NEC Invitational from the start, Tiger was in charge. He sandwiched two close victories (one shot over Lefty in ’99 and a three-way playoff in ’01) around an avian massacre in 2000 that sent the area into an ecological fallout. Per Kyle Porter, 

 was his best and saw him post tournament records in Akron for aggregate low score (259) and lowest score to par (-21) as he blitzed the field by 11 shots and provided us all with this signature shot in the dark:

Over the next eight years, Tiger won four more times on ‘The Monster’ and only finished outside the top 10 once. The relationship between Tiger and Firestone looked a bit like this:

Tiger’s win at Firestone in 2009 was vintage Cat and a performance I now realize I took for granted. Middling rounds of 68 and 70 had Tiger at -2, five shots back of Paddy Harrington, going into the weekend. The Irishman, who was in the midst of a swing change but had won the final two majors of ’08, posted a cheeky 67 to take a three-shot lead into the final day.

After a flawless front nine 5-under par 30, back to back bogeys at 13 and 14 left him one shot back. But, the 667-yard 16th that Arnie once famously tripled reared up and bit Paddy, gouging him for a snowman and handing the lead to Big Cat, who pounce on the opportunity. Another bird at 18 gave Tiger a 3-shot victory that looked more comfortable than it felt.

The same could be said for Tiger’s personal life later that year.

Tiger’s 2010 return was turbulent at best but his return to the Bridgestone was an absolute disaster.

Pic of Tiger Ejecting over Northeast Ohio

 firing an eighteen over par, 78th place finish (in an 80-player, no-cut field). His worst finish (barring MCs) since his very first tournament as a pro in 1996. This quote from Harig’s piece linked above is pretty indicative of Tiger’s mental state:

“Asked what he needs to do to turn it around, Woods said, ‘I need to hit the ball better, I need to chip better, I need to putt better and I need to score better.’” It must be bade when Tiger doesn’t even answer with technical or military #jargon.

It’s hard to say it’s been all downhill, but there certainly haven’t been many classic Big Cat performances at Firestone (or elsewhere) since his 2009 victory. Outside of his win during a semi-resurgent 2013 season, he’s finished T37, T8 (back-doored with a Sunday 66), WD, and NQ (not qualified). To add insult to career injury, the 2011 Bridgestone was the tournament where former caddie Stevie Williams captured a win he called “

, and I sincerely mean that,” while on the bag of Adam Scott.

And while he’s worked through more glute activations, chip yips, and release patterns than most golfers go through in a lifetime, the young thoroughbreds have arrived and are ready to run. As the tournament’s qualifications are the definition of “What have you done for me lately?” (minus the glacial OWGR), I wonder if Tiger will ever tee it up at Firestone competitively again…

Tiger's Track: Quick History of the Bridgestone Invitational

After promising myself I would do this kind of stuff all the time, and making exactly one golf trip since moving abroad almost two years ago, I jumped a flight from Amsterdam to Dublin for a weekend ball striking extravaganza at some of the best courses the east coast of Ireland has to offer for my first ever experience with Irish golf. My buddy 

 picked me up at the airport, and we drove directly to 

my review of The Island Club here in Part I

). After some pizza, whiskey, and a few hours sleep, we were off for more incredible golf at The K Club.

For long time readers and followers, it is no secret that one of the many jokes that I beat to death is the futility of the 2006 Ryder Cup team. The mid-2000’s were dark, dark times in American golf. The Chris Riley led 2004 team was bludgeoned 18.5-9.5 on home soil, and to avenge this loss, the U.S. sent a team that included Vaughn Taylor, Brett Wetterich, J.J. Henry, Scott Verplank, Stewart Cink, Chad Campbell, and David Toms over to the K Club to face an absolutely stacked European team. They were predictably annihilated yet again by a score of 18.5-9.5. An 8:20 tee time on the morning of June 25 and a match against a European was the moment I’ve been waiting a decade for: the chance to retaliate the Massacre at the K-Club.

Before you even reach the clubhouse, you can feel the ghost of Brett Wetterich in the cool morning breeze. The grounds of the resort are huge, with a castle like gate entrance that you pass through from the road. You pass the massive luxury hotel, the hotel parking, and the enormous practice area (a rarity in European golf) to reach the car park near the clubhouse. Inside the stunning clubhouse, dozens of pictures line the walls celebrating the 2006 European victory, and reminding you of the futility of that U.S. team. It looks like a Ryder Cup museum, and I could have easily spent an extra hour in there just looking at the artifacts and the pictures of Michael Jordan, Bill Clinton, Elin, and the all brown scripting worn by the guys whose country colors are red, white, and blue. It’s really, really well done, and helps set the scene for the championship course that you’re about to play.

You would be hard pressed to find two courses that have a more polarizing style of play than The Island Golf Club and The K-Club. The Palmer course is set inland, and consists of a layout that is much more consistent with the style of golf I am familiar with. The sea winds, rough terrain, unpredictable bounces, and challenge of the elements do not exist here, but the challenge remains.

If I were to use one word to describe the course, I would say “lush.” Ireland is infamous for their weather systems and their precipitation, and while the timing of those showers may get you wet on the course, it can also lend huge favors to the golf course itself. The first thing you notice about the course is that there is hardly a blade of grass out of place. Similar to other Arnold Palmer designs you see in the states, the fairways are wide and friendly, but you still need to find them, as the rough is thick and grabby. If you do find the fairway, it’s hard to not compress the ball purely off the perfectly manicured grass, launching a pelt in the air far enough that it deserves it’s own ProTracer.

The story gets even better once you get to the putting surface. Smooth, fast, and very readable surfaces leave you with no one to blame but yourself for any missed putts. The greens are soft and receptive, which helped a ton on pitches around the green in addition to holding a well struck iron approach in its place. While the condition of the greens certainly helps, this is not to say that the complexes are not challenging, as I can’t recall having even one dead straight putt. The combination of the purity of the roll-out and the difficulty of the slopes provides as fair of a challenge as you can hope for on the greens, and it helped a lot with my confidence standing over a 12 foot putt.

I’ve been fortunate enough to play what I consider to be a decent amount of championship golf courses, and a common feeling I get when playing these places is that everything just seems a little bit bigger. Bigger distances between holes, wider fairways, bigger bunkers, and overall sense of grandeur in the atmosphere. The K Club is no exception to this. We played the furthest back tees that were setup (white tees, 6,815 yards), and with the ball not rolling out at all, a premium was placed on getting a ball a ways down in the short grass. The wide fairways encourage you to hit driver and swing away (the polar opposite of our round on the previous day), yet at each tee box we found ourselves gazing in amazement at where the pros play some of these holes from.

I always try to never lose perspective over how good those guys are, but sometimes it takes a round at a course they actually play to give you that real life example that you need to humble yourself. Specifically, the shot that Rory hit on 16 at this year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, while it was even impressive to see on TV, in person it borders on unfathomable. From 270 yards, into the wind, he knocked it on to what is basically an island green, which setup a critical birdie that helped lead to him winning his national title. The golf course itself stands on its own, but when you add in the memories of the things that have happened there, and the experience is even richer.

Obviously I couldn’t leave the grounds without trying 

 from May, which was voted as the shot of the month on the European Tour for the month.





— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) 

I was planning on throwing a ball down from the general area and trying it just for fun, but ended up busting a drive into the wind that put me about 265 out, so I had a real go at it. Wind was slightly hurting, and mostly off the left, so I just let one loose. Haters will say it’s fake.

Had to try the @rorymcilroy shot from 265 on the 18th at @thekclubireland. Haters will say it's fake.

A video posted by No Laying Up (@nolayingup) on Jun 25, 2016 at 5:02am PDT

I played what was easily my best round of the trip at the K-Club. Thanks to 

, I was finding the slot with the driver, and playing from pretty much the middle of the fairway on every hole. Some horrific 7-irons and a quad kept me from posting a good score, but as it was my third round in the last ten months, I was happy to post a 77. I closed Barry out, and now I can rest peacefully knowing that the 2006 Ryder Cup has been avenged.

(And for the record, my actual shot on 18 ended up here:)

We closed the morning with the standard pint of Guinness, and grabbed some lunch in the Clubhouse before making our way back towards the sea for the afternoon round.

There have already been a few people that have reached out to me asking whether or not I think the K Club is worth a weekend visit, and the answer is a resounding yes. 

With prices starting from EUR 295 per person

, you get bed and breakfast, a round of golf on both the Palmer Course and the Smurfit Courses, and a EUR 50 dining credit. I would think that the hotel room itself would cost that much, and when you factor in the quality of golf you get with it, as well as the food, that’s a fantastic offer that should be taken advantage of.

Here are some additional pictures from the day:

View of the hotel from the course, in between 16 and 17

An example of the aesthetics and attention to detail

Check out Part III, on Portmarnock Golf Club.

Dublin, Ireland Golf Trip, Part II: The K-Club

After promising myself I would do this kind of stuff all the time, and making exactly one golf trip since moving abroad almost two years ago, I jumped a flight from Amsterdam to Dublin for a weekend ball striking extravaganza at some of the best courses the east coast of Ireland has to offer. My buddy 

 picked me up at the airport, and we drove directly to 

. What followed was 48 hours of wind, rain, sun, links, parkland, classic, and new golf that exceeded my already high expectations.

Thanks to the crowdsourcing, and Barry’s local knowledge, we ended up on 

 in the entire country, and we never even left the greater Dublin area. In this four part series you will find a breakdown of each of the four courses we played, with some pictures sprinkled in at the end of each post. Spoiler alert: I loved all four of them, and the reviews are glowing.

The view from the 18th tee at The Island Golf Club

I mentioned late on the podcast last week that I was going to making a quick trip to Dublin for some golf, and opened it up to suggestions from listeners on where to play. The feedback was tremendous, and I sincerely thank anyone that had a hand in helping us have such a great experience. One of these gentlemen was 

, who mentioned that we were welcome to join him at The Island Golf Club on Friday afternoon. Admittedly, my knowledge of Irish golf and history is limited, so I defaulted to Barry for his thoughts. He lit up like a Christmas tree with excitement, and I soon found out why.

“In September 1887 four men rowed across the channel which separates the North Dublin village of Malahide from the spur of land to the north known locally as the Island. Their mission was to survey the wilderness and assess its suitably as a golf links.”

Up until 1973, this classic course was only accessible by boat. Now there is a long and narrow winding road that brings you to the property. The land sits on an exposed inlet (you can play around on Google Maps here), and the wind starts hitting you before you hit the car park. The rain clouds were letting loose, and less than two hours since my plane touched down, I was already getting my true links experience. We chatted with the professional in the golf shop, sat down in the clubhouse for a pint and some lunch, and explored the hallways to get a feel for the history of this place, founded in 1890. The Island Golf Club is one of those courses that you can take just one look at, and know that you are in for a special day.

I’ve played a decent amount of links golf (St. Andrews area courses, Bandon Dunes, etc.), but it takes years of experience on these types of courses to truly learn how to play them. All of your instincts change completely on pretty much every style of shot. I can’t think of one 420+ yard par-4 I’ve played in the U.S. that makes me want to reach for a 3-iron off the tee, but on a course like the Island, you are likely better off playing with your eyes rather than the yardage on the card.

Most holes are framed by aesthetically pleasing dunes that provide you with what seems like a tunnel to flight the ball through. However, the deep heather that inhabits the slopes of these dunes prevents balls from buoying back towards the fairway, which usually means that the head cover stays on the driver. Most courses I’ve played in the past that “force” you to hit a lot of irons off the tee feel gimmicky and Mickey Mouse, and often bore me to death, but this style of challenge was the exact opposite of that. A well struck iron that finds the seaside terrain of the fairway gets plenty of run out, despite the rain that fell on us for most of the front nine.

My golf impulses make me want want to get as close to the green as possible off the tee, as I’m usually most successful hitting wedges into greens, even if they aren’t from the fairway, than I am hitting 7-irons from the middle of the fairway. It takes a truly unique and special golf course to make that instinct go away just by looking at a golf hole from the tee. This is the kind of impact that links golf, and in particular the test that The Island gives you, that makes this style of golf so enthralling. When the greens are firm, protected by slopes, and the flag is bending over like a 

, a wedge from 100 yards is anything but a green light special. In almost no scenario are you better off throwing the ball way up in the air, so hitting a flighted 6-iron from further back in the fairway into a green where you 

 to land it in front to hold the green is often a more visually appealing shot than trying to nip a lob wedge off of firm turf, risking it ballooning into the wind if you do happen to catch it flush, and still not being able to control the run out. Factor in the bunkers that you have to avoid at all costs, the pin locations, the wind direction, and you have the world’s most fun rubik’s cube.

In summary, the Island Golf Club is a great challenge that tests your talent, spirit, brain, and internal will power to commit to a shot, and execute it. It is all you could ask for in a links experience.

Of course, my ego got in the way on more than one occasion, and I reached for driver more often than I should have, and paid the price for it. A common occurrence was me finally reaching the green, looking back down the fairway, and thinking to myself how differently I would have played the hole based on the knowledge I had gained in the last fifteen minutes. I barely even play golf anymore, so it was not surprising that the 88 I posted (3 handicap) was my worst score in I don’t know how many years, and I grinded my whole way through.

Admittedly, I’m a mental midget when it comes to playing in the rain. This is of course part of the experience playing golf in Ireland, and in particular, links golf. The Irish are a lot more tough than I am, and much more familiar with these conditions. I was at least relieved to hear them say that the rain that we played in was a strong shower, and was not upset at all when we decided to wait out a particularly strong part of the shower while waiting on the 5th tee box following my four putt from 15 feet on the previous hole (seriously, mental midget). The course was challenging enough in itself, but adding in the conditions, and the challenge of trying to keep at least some part of my body dry so that I could hold on to the club.

As would be custom for the whole weekend, a Guinness pint in the clubhouse was a necessity as we cheers’d to a memorable day on a historic track. If you can’t tell by now, I give The Island Golf Club my a very strong recommendation, and I would love another chance at it in the future. Thanks a ton for having us out, and thanks again to Chris McCourt for the invite. It is a day I will not soon forget.

Here are some more pictures from the day:

One of the few times the cameras came out during the rain

 for a phenomenal day. Check this track out if you're around. 

Click here for Part III on Portmarnock Golf Club.

I will follow up shortly with details from Killeen Castle.

Dublin, Ireland Golf Trip, Part I: The Island Golf Club

Helicopter at the opening ceremony. #TourSauce opening ceremony 

I attended the 8th annual Birdies for the Brave charity golf tournament last Friday to represent No Laying Up. It was a phenomenal day out at 

 with the course in excellent condition in preparation for the annual 

 Web.com tour event in late July (past winners include Tony Phenom Finau). Stonebrae superintendent Dave Davies and his crew put on a fantastic event with over 95% of the proceeds going directly to the sponsoring non-profit organization highlighted below.

No Laying Up was thrilled to add some fun to the 1st tee with the 2nd annual #TourSauce competition, and I appreciate Dave and Colonel Terry Bare of the 

Veterans Transition Center of Monterey County 

allowing NLU to participate in the annual scramble again this year and help spice up the post-scramble raffle and silent auction with 

. I left the event humbled by the strong bonds forged by those who have served, and I hope I can continue to support veterans both at home and abroad through the No Laying Up community. Lastly, a YUGE shout out to Aubrey of the VTC, our resident Vanna White/#TourSauce judge! Her quick grasp of the subtleties of each #TourSauce move ensure a fair and balanced judgement was made for each group coming through.

#TourSauce Competition Tent. Come one come all.

Founded by Phil and Amy Mickelson in 2006, 

 is an outreach program dedicated to supporting the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. On site this year were several organizations that support combat wounded veterans and their families including:

: Established by Kevin Graves to honor his son, Spc. Joseph A Graves – KIA 25 Jul 06 Baghdad, Iraq. The Some Gave all Golf Bay Area 

: Dedicated to supporting Navy SEALS and the intensities associated with serving as a SEAL or having a family member serve.

: Very creative organization uniting U.S. military families who face physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together.

The Range scene pre-round. Plenty of guys getting there #RangerRick on before they fired up the chopper.

As for the golf, the Colonel and I played a 6 man (yes, a six-some) scramble shooting 17 under with the help of mulligans purchased for $5 each. Needless to say, we got several GREAT looks at birdie putts on each hole, and oh how demoralizing it is when none of those 6 putts goes in. Also, we only reached one par-5 in two – #LPCP.

Here are a few more thoughts from a great day on the links:

Scrambles encourage lazy golf (especially off the tee when someone in your group already put one in the fairway freeing everyone else up to go after the ball), which leads to lost balls (in my case YUUUUUGE misses high and right). The Colonel had about 5,000 used golf balls donated before the tournament, and I was playing Precept Laddies most of the day. What a throwback! Who needs a box of $50 Pro-V1…Not this fuggin guy!

Speaking of the Colonel, check out this move he puts on this 8 iron on the 7th. I think we made the putt on the 5th try…#Tasty

Colonel getting #Steep on an 8-iron colonel2 

TPC Stonebrae requires accuracy off the tee and the ability to miss to the right spots on large, mound infested greens. It reminds me of a mountain courses in Highlands North Carolina and North Georgia I played in High School where a flat lie in the fairway is a luxury, which adds subtle complexity to what look like easy shots. The course weaves through rocky outcroppings and California tumbleweed with significant elevation changes from hole to hole. If you have reciprocity as part of TPC course, I’d highly recommend making the trip to Hayward for a round at Stonebrae.

Below is a bit more footage from last Friday. God Bless America:

It’s a bit blurry, but here are the official #TourSauce competition guidelines.

Textbook #TourSauce Group winner. Delayed #TourSauce IMG_4558 

2016 Birdies for the Brave: Event Recap

After a U.S. Open weekend filled with slick greens, 

, the PGA Tour returns to normal this week at the Quicken Loans National, which No Laying Up has respectfully dubbed The Sub-Prime Open. Of course, “normal” is a relative term when discussing this tournament, its history, and its rightful place on the calendar.

The PGA Tour moves in a predictable pattern each year. The reach-around events in the fall barely register with most fans addicted to preoccupied with Football on Saturdays and Sundays. January brings about the Tournament of Champions and Sony Open, a surge in the “cheap flights to Hawaii” Google search, and folks questioning the decision live in New England voluntarily. Then it’s on to the West Coast and Florida swings, with familiar tournaments at dependable courses (Waste Management, AT&T Pebble Beach, Bay Hill, etc.), after which, Nantz says hello, and the season is off and running.There are always a few shakeups (Austin CC hosting the Match Play 

), but generally, Finchy & Co. haven’t rocked scheduling/sponsorship boat (remains to be seen if Jay Monahan shuffles the deck a bit).

And then there’s this week’s Sub-prime Open, the foster child of the PGA Tour Schedule. The Quicken Loans National started in 2007 as the AT&T National, which replaced the Denver-area 

ernational, which began 1986 and played at the tasty Castle Pines Golf Club. The International leveraged the 

 scoring format, a point-based system where eagles are worth 5, a birdie 2, par 0, bogey -1, and double -2, and was all about the action. It encourages an all out assault on attack pins and par-5’s especially with risk almost always worth the reward.

Knock off green jackets, Retief Goosen, and an unnecessarily large and oblong trophy with birds on it? Sign me up.

Stableford is pretty much the official format of No Laying Up. Past champions include heavyweights like Lefty (twice), DLIII (twice), The Shark, Vijay, Ernie Els, and Lee Jansen (Lefty was runner-up twice as well). NLU Hall of Fame nominee Rich Beem also won at Castle pines in style:

Sadly for those of us who enjoy more than endless, mind-numbing stroke play events (a subset of folks that doesn’t include the Olympic golf czars…WTF are they thinking), The International was #Ejected from the 2007 season. Tournament organizers were unhappy with the proposed change in dates (from early/mid August to the week after the U.S. Open), which is really code for they couldn’t find a title sponsor. AT&T stepped in and pulled together a new event and moved things back to the Mid-Atlantic to up the cache. Nobody really knows how Big Cat was roped into hosting and sending out the 120 invitations, but I wonder if 

 (or another course he designs in the near future) is a potential home for this invitational.

(Sidenote: The modified Stableford is back with the Reno-area Barracuda Championship. It may be renamed the 

The AT&T National was played at Congressional from 2007 to 2009, then hopped over to historic Aronimink near the –iladelph (RIP Stu Scott) for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. It returned to what was left of Congressional in 2012 (after Rory’s nuclear detonation of the 2011 U.S. Open), with the only deviation being last year’s tournament at the somewhat narcissistically named Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Last year’s tournament deviated on the calendar as well, finishing up August 2nd – two weeks before the PGA Championship.

 Troy Merritt dropped a Saturday 61 en route to his first career PGA Tour victory. This year, the tournament is back in its (semi) regular slot on the schedule at its (mostly) usual course. It’s worth the watch, as there’s no telling what the future holds for this scattered event, but with Tiger tied in as the host, it’s not going to disappear.

Robbie is a guest contributor to No Laying Up. You can find him on Twitter 

The Scattershot Story of The Sub-Prime Open

With everyone exhausted from US Open recaps and USGA hot takes, it’s time to look ahead to The Quicken Loans National at Congressional C.C. (aka The Democratic Republic of Congo Country Club per Tron Carter) in Bethesda. Held in late July last season, The Quicken Sub-Prime National is back in the post-US Open position this year with most heavyweights (and let’s face it, most of last week’s TV audience) taking the week off. Big Cat is roaming the premises playing host for his foundation, and hopefully he stops by the booth for a jargon fueled discussion around Call of Duty tactics and gluteus activation. Alas, I have a feeling that slimy Dan Gilbert will be holding court with CBS as well.

May have to get use to seeing Big Cat behind the mic…stinks.

First-time winner and First-Team ALL-#LPCP member Troy Merritt posted an 18 under with weekend rounds of 61 and 67 to best The Rick-tator and Little Swede at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. It’s worth noting that Justin Rose won in a play-off over Shawn Stefani (no relation to Gwen but 

) two years ago when it was last hosted at Congo (Rose isn’t in the field this week).

Congressional Country Club – The Blue Course

Congo Country Club dates back to the Pre-Great-Depression early 20th century, and it’s founding members include five former presidents (Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover). What was once a place of refuge for congressmen, lobbyists, and anyone involved in poli-tricks, is now only congressional by name. The course was built by two congressmen from Indiana, yet today’s politicians rarely take their mulligans from Congressional’s tee boxes. Per 

 piece (RIP, but seriously, that’s an excellent piece on The Congo by Washington Post reporter Jason Horowitz):

“Congressional is sort of the wannabe power center of golf courses in the D.C. area…it doesn’t attract as many rounds of congressmen and senators as some other courses do.”

one of the best courses on the PGA Tour circuit

, although it is not above criticism. Redesigned by Rees Jones in 2006 to beef it up for the U.S. Open, The Blue Course is long, tough, and situated on a nice piece of property though still forced to wear that 2011 U.S. Open “disaster” as a scarlet letter. There were congressional hearings about how many birds were decimated by Rory and the gang that year, and I’m pretty sure PETA got involved. Rory shot 16 under. Am I the only one who misses unkept Jumeirah look?

A Young Rory, Post-Avian Massacre – so senseless.

Purse: $6,900,000
Winners Share: $1,242,000

(all lines courtesy Ladbrokes.com, the Official Bookmaker of NoLayingUp.com)

 are the brand names this week even after poor showings in PA. After a strong finish at Oakmont, 

 is far from a sleeper on another US Open caliber course that rewards a grinder. Though he finished +8, ‘

 (25/1), poured in birdies last week and looks close to putting together another win. Former champ 

has a strong track record at Congo and has had a solid season full of top 10’s and top 20’s (per usual) – expect him to contend and cash checks.

 – T-11 at Memorial and 2nd at Quail Hollow, Castro is playing well on big-boy tracks with strong finishes on the weekends.

 Low amateur at the US Open last week, the Spaniard is making his pro debut and has proven he can play on a lengthy track.

 After a play-off win over Castro at Quail Hollow, 100/1 seems like solid value for Hahn, who has made the cut every week since Charlotte.

: This one is for Big Randy and Tron. After Spence’s Melt-down last week, we all hope he bounces back with a strong showing and at least half as much passion. #SpenceFuqs

Spencer Levin let his golf club know EXACTLY what he thought of it. 

The vibe around Congressional should mirror a Chesapeake OysterFest with the lobbyist breaking out the 2016 Masters polo’s and pretending the expansive Congo clubhouse is a 

. The sheilas will be donning unnecessarily large brimmed hats while sipping Mimo’s and Bloodies on the expansive clubhouse balconies. Hopefully Slimy Dan doesn’t show up and ruin the Georgetown Alumni soiree…

mint juleps and the masters go together like petey and patron or denise and coffee – see you sunday in augusta my friends #officetalk #ot60 #themasters #pgatour #mintjuleps #fastandfurious #seeyouinaugusta #jimnantz #fore

A video posted by office talk (@officetalk) on Apr 8, 2016 at 6:29am PDT

NoLayingUp.com got a re-design over the weekend. We tried to keep things simple and understated, and we will continue tweaking the layout and adding small features. We hope this new design will serve as a home base for more consistent content from all four founders and guest contributors as well. Huge thanks to 

 for their help with the web development.

The golf fanatics that tune in this week will be watching CBS closely to see how their “traditional” coverage stacks up against some of the innovative things Fox was doing. Tim Collamore had a solid piece on the 

 yesterday, and I know Tron has been deep in the lab watching film and taking notes on what each network is doing well/not-so-well. For me, evaluating the intricacies of the telecast closely has added a new element of interest to watching golf.

New readers and followers, if you don’t already know, you can check out the 

No Laying Up merchandise line in our pro shop

 for #TourSauce T-shirts, hoodies, coozies, and a lot more. Secondly, if you are not already 

subscribed to the No Laying Up podcast, please do so here

. We’ve been pounding out the podcasts lately thanks to the recent feedback, and will continue into the future. For the regular listeners, if you could take two minutes and leave a review and a rating in iTunes, it would help us tremendously.

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Quicken Loans National Preview

Overall, Fox’s coverage of the 2016 US Open was strong (to quite strong) proving that copious amounts of Pro-Tracer can make up for inevitable missteps. The Azinger addition brought professional polish and perspective to the broadcast commentary, which also benefited from having a year of experience to draw on. If you took Johnny Miller, dialed back the bitterness from an 8 to a 5, threw in a few corny pre-determined jokes, and substituted his catchphrase “nerves” with “pressure”, you get Paul Azinger. There’s still plenty of room for improvement as the on-course reporting was not up to par (pun intended) compared to what we get from the likes of Feherty and Kostis on NBC/ CBS. I’ve appreciated Curtis Strange’s work in the booth for ABC/ESPN in the past, but his inexperience with on-course reporting showed. He oftentimes had no idea what was going on or gave viewers misinformation.

Fox also fell into the trap of not showing enough golfers throughout the week – a problem that is all too common across all 3 networks (though least problematic for NBC). Case in point: David Lingmerth, Brendan Steele, Marc Leishman, Graeme McDowell, Adam Scott, and Sung Kang all placed top 20 in the tournament and combined for exactly zero shots shown on Sunday. Kevin Na finished 7th and had three shots shown. ZJ finished 8th and had 2 shots shown, neither of which I can recall but I have no doubt they were layups (data courtesy of 

To be fair, the CBS and NBC broadcast teams each cover dozens of tournaments per year. Considering the low number of reps and lack of experience, Buck and team performed as well as can reasonably be expected. I appreciated the “less is more” approach that Fox used in the broadcast. The absence of heavy commercials breaks and insubstantial fluff pieces resulted in the refreshing experience of actually watching golf though the tournament still had a strange vibe. As with last year’s coverage, there is a lack of energy in the Fox broadcast, and I’m not sure who or what is to blame (I want to say Joe Buck, but he did a much better job this year).

The main revelation of Fox’s coverage is its usage of technology. Though I watch plenty of sports action outside of golf, the limitations of golf coverage have never properly struck me. When watching football or basketball, a viewer can clearly see each component of every play within the same camera shot. When Steph Curry launches a three pointer, nothing is left to the imagination. You can see his release, the ball’s trajectory through the air, and the battle going on for the rebound under the basket all at the same time.

Without the Pro-Tracer, a golf shot leaves much up to the viewer’s imagination. Sure, we can watch a guy swing, follow the white speck briefly, and then wait for a different camera to show us the ball landing 300 yards away, but it’s hard to fully appreciate how it all happens in real-time. Being able to see DJ and Jason Day launch arcing mortars and dead straight missiles completely changes our appreciation of how purely they hit the ball. I got a stirring in my nether regions when DJ teed off yesterday. Without pro-tracer, it would’ve been a tingle. And, as much as I like to justifiably clown on him, it’s pretty awesome to see the flight patterns that Captain Bubba takes off of the tee. (Sidenote: I have no idea what to make of Bubba lurking around post-round to give DJ a handshake. He seems to do this a lot and I have no idea whether he’s being a good guy or he’s grand-standing. Because it’s Bubba, I will absolutely not give him the benefit of the doubt).

Pro-Tracer also gives context to the bad shots, and helps the viewer piece together narratives. For example, pro-tracer highlighted Shane Lowry’s minor case of the hooks yesterday, which we would otherwise be relying on a commentator to point out. Pro-Tracer also helped me appreciated how well an undersized Andrew Landry hit his driver. Just imagine if we’d had pro-tracer on that Webb Simpson shank at the Masters or Steve Stricker’s shank at Merion a few years back, and there’s absolutely no doubt the Pro-Tracer adds a great deal of visual pleasure to all the #TourSauce Wayward Drive points!

The markers showing distance and aim were also helpful, as was the split screen projecting the ball flight over a map of the hole layout. Now that I’ve seen the promise and value of these viewing aides, I’m terrified about what will happen when we return to the stone-ages. I hope that CBS and NBC take a hint and incorporate the technology that’s clearly available for golf broadcasts. If not, they might as well show golf in black and white.

Shout out to Andrew Landry for an incredible performance and for pocketing $150K. I would have bet anything after day 1 that he would finish outside of the top 25. Usually the unknowns in that position fade hard and fast.

I’d love to see Scott Piercy get a look as a Ryder Cup captain’s pick. He hasn’t been flashy for most of the season but he’s only missed 2 cuts this year and has 6 Top 20s. I’ve always been a fan and I think he’s playing as well as anyone in the 9-20 range. The reality is he would only ever get considered if he tears it up the rest of the summer.

I already beat this drum but it’s worth beating again: the shortage of golf shots shown throughout the rounds is downright criminal. I understand it to some degree on Sunday because there’s a narrative to be built around the leaders. Even still, for golf nerds who root for and like to monitor a number of different players, it is frustrating to see how many guys who finish in the 10-30 range of a tournament get absolutely no play. It wouldn’t be that hard to squeeze in more shots from more players, particularly in the early rounds. Seriously, go look at the leaderboard and tell me you had any idea that the guys not named Jon Rahm who finished T23 at +7 were even in the tournament. Come on.

Good to see Zach Johnson and Kevin Streelman paired together in the Official LCPC Doppelgangers Sunday Grouping. Speaking of doppelgangers, I’d believe that Piercy and DJ were brothers. Same goes for Branden Grace and Ryan Moore. Alright, carry on everyone.

When life gives Henrik Stenson lemons, he surely says “F lemons” and bails.

No one wears the thousand yard stare more often than DJ

Tim is a guest columnist for No Laying Up.

More Pro-Tracer Please

Golf twitter went absolutely HAM on the USGA on Sunday. I tried to accumulate the best tweets of the night. Enjoy.

If his putter did not sit, you MUST acquit!!!



— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) 

Sneak preview of Dustin Johnson's post round meeting with the 

DJ answering "I don't know" to course strategy questions is easier than saying "you don't have the clearance level for that" 

I admire the USGA's unwavering determination to show fidelity to the rules. Of course, I admired Titanic's doomed captain for the same.



— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) 

Not even Manitowoc County could stop DJ winning this one



— Luke Kerr-Dineen (@LukeKerrDineen) 

"Um it appears you signed your scorecard with a picture of a middle finger Mr. Johnson."



— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) 





— RonTonFenomenon (@RonTonFenomenon) 

Re: DJ's relief when his shot went over the TV tower anyway—why does this guy get all the breaks?



— Shane Ryan (@ShaneRyanHere) 

Fox needs a new set of graphics when DJ is on the tee. "275 to the bunker" isn't really relevant.



— Trevor Reaske (@TrevorReaske) 

Adam Scott in a collar-less shirt with buttons undone today in case you were wondering why so many babies are born in Pittsburgh next March.



— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) 

 can't/don't follow their own rules! Make it up as they go along! 





— Secret Tour Pro (@secrettourpro) 

What else could've caused it? MAYBE THE BRUTAL GREEN SLOPES YOU'VE BEEN BRAGGING ABOUT FOR SEVEN DAYS YOU FUCKING MOUTH-BREATHER?!!!!?



— Dillon Mays (@dillonmays_) 

 thinks that DJ caused the ball to move is completely ridiculous! Laughable!



— Rickie Fowler (@RickieFowler) 

This is ridiculous… No penalty whatsoever for DJ. Let the guy play without this crap in his head. Amateur hour from 

Bryson is about finished.. USGA should ask him about physics involved with gravitational force.



— Steven Bowditch (@bowdo83) 

Golf. They've ruined the final round of the US Open because a ball may have moved 0.0001 of an inch on glass. Nice one. 

I'm going to give myself a 2 John Daly cocktail penalty for just watching this tournament! ?

 looks at the video long enough perhaps they will determine DJ was actually in a bunker. 

Starting to think I may have a chance of a playoff at +8 if these rulings keep up 

I know people like other sports, but in golf, athletes who played in that event are THROWING FIRE at the rules people WHILE IT'S GOING ON!



— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) 

Best Tweets from 2016 U.S. Open Sunday

I was especially hard on Fox during last year’s U.S. Open, but that was some low hanging fruit. I was pretty confident that a more familiar and historic venue, plus a year under their belt, that they would have a much better go around this year, and I think they’re on their way there.

 – They spent more on these graphics than HBO has spent on Khaleesi’s dragons all season. I thought at one point we might see a fire graphic come from Azinger’s mouth as he ran off a hot take! This is one of the few things on the entire planet that everyone agrees on. There’s not one person that sees a ProTracer shot and gets annoyed by the bright colors on their screen.

 – There’s not a more difficult time to have to ad lib than when you have almost no highlights to show. Four minutes into their broadcast, the horns blew, and they were stuck trying to figure out what to do with their hands for hours. Azinger was a great fit in the booth, and Holly Sonders spent four years filling time on the Golf Channel on Morning Drive, so this was right up her alley. I was especially hard on Buck last year, but he’s not really that bad. I’m not a Buck fan (there aren’t many), but the hate for him has probably gone too far.

 – Admittedly biased call here, as he’s a friend, and he’s in an interview role that I would otherwise not notice had I not personally known him. But kudos to Fox for putting a young guy in this role to talk to the players, and avoid the Rinaldi like “emotion” questions. He asked specific questions, and filled a LOT of time in these delays with player interviews, and looked really comfortable doing it in his first go around.

 – I saw two things I’d never seen before, and never knew that I wanted to see until I saw them. The first is the Golden Tee style split screen that even included some ProTracer porn. My only gripe is that I only saw this once, and of course it was on a Spieth lay up. The second was the rolling graphic showing the slope of the greens, similar to the mid 2000’s Tiger Woods games. Obviously we’ve seen graphics showing green slope before, but just digitally overlaying it over the actual green (rather than a cutaway to a digitally created green) was appealing to me. I’m pumped to see what else they have in their arsenal for the weekend.

 easily the best thing Fox has done so far 





— Michael Shamburger (@mshamburger1) 

: I’m nitpicking a bit, as I do want to stress that it was an overall positive. But their transitions from their ProTracer use to the result of the shot was a bit sloppy. They were consistently late to getting to the shots on the green, and sometimes completely losing the ball if it was landing in the rough. They just need someone a little quicker on the draw at the switches.

: They seemed to really hone in on the Spieth-ZJ-DeChambeau grouping, which is understandable. But what we don’t need to see is DeChambeau searching for his ball, walking up to the green from forty yards out, checking his yardage book, etc. Or Spieth’s entire (lengthy) pre-shot routine. That time is better spent showing more players in other groups, even if it’s on delay. We’re hard on CBS for not showing live golf shots, but that’s on a Sunday when the field is trimmed in half, and only 20-30 guys even remotely matter. On the opening day of a major, everyone is still in it, so don’t hone in too much on one group (especially when we have the option to watch every shot from that featured group online).

: They should be fined by the FCC every time this happens. At minimum, a shock collar to stop them mid-take. There’s nothing you can add over a caddie/player conversation that is more interesting than listening directly to the players.

Writing

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