While technically the festivities began in the Coachella Valley this past weekend, Torrey Pines always signals the true beginning of the West Coast Swing at the NLU headquarters. A big boy track, a respectable field, and a dramatic setting on the Pacific embodies the true nature and spirit of the best coast.

Dustin Johnson makes his mainland debut, and rest assured that the entire Pacific Fleet ported at the 32nd street Naval Station nearby has been fully alerted regarding scheduled missile launches off the shores of La Jolla commencing at 10:30 local time on Thursday morning. Unlike North Korea’s nuclear testing, the US of A does it’s testing out in the open and live on your television screens. Lemme Jolla at ya, Kim Jung-un!

Jason Day returns to defend his title, but 

 that he’s as “sick as a dog.” It seems like it’s always something like this with Day, and it’s impossible to factor this stuff in when considering his chances, as he always seems to somehow overcome whatever is ailing him to deliver legendary performances. Last year alone included a near fainting incident at the U.S. Open due to vertigo (where he finished T9), and a 

 from lifting all of his cash at the Barclays that looked bad enough that I called for him to withdraw (he later went on to win). He’s withdrawn from the Wednesday pro-am, but I’m guessing that he suits up on Thursday.

(It should be noted that I actually had to go back and look up what event the back incident happened in. That’s how many times Jason Day won at the end of last year, and how they all just blended together. It also speaks to how bland and forgettable the FedExCup Playoffs can be, but mostly speaks to what Day managed to do. I hope we don’t lose perspective on that any time soon.)

The Farmers Insurance Open (San Diego Open for traditionalists) sprawls out across the North and South Courses at Torrey Pines on Thursday and Friday before settling on the much more difficult and defined South Course for the weekend. Torrey remains one of the most beautiful and scenic courses in the world, despite the fact both courses get over 92,000 (!) rounds per year each. The South is a big ballpark (think Petco Park) at 7,569 yards, while the easier North plays to a meager 6,874. Little known fact about the course is that it overlooks the 

 (the link is safe, no nudity). As fun as the Waste Management is, it’s manufactured track in the middle of a dessert, and man made stadium atmosphere lacks the authenticity of the breathtaking views of the shores of La Jolla.

The South Course famously played host to the 2008 US Open, Tiger’s one-legged triumph over Rocco, so it has a legacy to match the scenic views. Fresh off the last several weeks of avian genocide (birdies galore), it’s going to be a little weird seeing guys pumped to make par, especially on the weekend. The main scoring opportunities on the South Course are the four par-5’s, but measuring 560, 613, 541, and 572 yards, respectively, they possess plenty of girth and certainly aren’t auto-birdies.

The winning recipe is to get as fat as possible on the North Course, where the par-5’s are extremely vulnerable (listed at only 520, 548, 507, and 485 (!!!) yards, respectively) and the 326-yard, par-4 2nd plays as one of the easiest par-4’s on Tour every year. Then you strap up and go about your business on the South Course, constantly picking your spots and taking care not to make big numbers.

When the big guns come out, so do the galleries. CBS will sprinkle in the sights and sounds of SoCal at every turn (hang-gliders galore, surfer bros/chicas wandering the premises stoned to the bejesus and decked out in their Billabong duds and hater-blocker sunglasses), making everyone wonder at least a few dozen times why the hell they don’t live in San Diego (where you could play Torrey South for $61 on weekdays as a City resident).

The aforementioned Day refused to layup on the 18th hole, and J.B. Holmes publicly dishonored the No Laying Up movement by turning in his man card and laying up on the 18th hole from about 230 out. That wasn’t even as scary as Scott Stallings almost winning this event in back to back years. Day does not get enough respect for what he helped save us from.

Once the tournament hits Saturday it becomes a veritable BSD ball-striking convention. Tiger has won the event seven times in fourteen starts, while Lefty has three wins in his career (though nobody likes to mention his last win came way back in 2001). More recently, in non-Tiger years, heavy-hitters like John Daly (’04), Nick Watney (’09), and Bubba Watson (’11) have captured the hardware, though Ben Crane (’10) and Brandt Snedeker (’12) have proven distance isn’t a definite requirement.

This event has been renamed 13 times! Notably, from 1968 to 1980 it was named the Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational. Still trying to figure out how a tournament can be an “invitational” but yet be “open”? It went on for 13 years under this title from 1968 to 1980.

Big Cat would be rolling in his grave if we didn’t show a highlight of his from Torrey. Listen to the crowd here. Have you ever heard anything like that on TV?

I shouldn’t write this year, as I know my league reads this every week, but for Yahoo! fantasy leagues, be sure to split your lineup into 4 guys that play the North course on Thursday, and 4 guys that play the South. Pull a line change on Friday to take the full advantage of the much, much easier and abbreviated North course, then ride out guys like Fowler, Phil, Rose, and Sneds on the weekend.

One particular Horse for Course this week that I’m starting is Charles Howell III (aka Chucky Triple Sticks). The guy could retire in the Pacific Palisades just off the money he’s made in this time zone, and he threatens but fails to win one of these events perennially.

I wrote this here in The Fringe last year: “I’m expecting DJ to be in form right away, and he’s going to have a big year. The majors set up real well for him this year, and I honestly think he’ll be as refocused as much as his brain allows him to be.” Not changing a word of that.

Let’s hope CBS bounces back from what was an absolutely abominable 2015. But my hopes are not very high. The object of the game of golf is to play the least amount of golf possible. In 2015, CBS interpreted this as “the object of covering golf is to show the least amount of golf as possible.” This isn’t just a Koepka thing. I’ve said time and time again that Spieth almost 

 the Northern Trust Open last year, without getting a single shot televised until the 17th hole. They’ve proven week in and week out that they would rather have their broadcast presented like some beautiful fairy tale storyboard script read live on the air by Jim Nantz than cover the actual golf tournament and show the critical players. In comparison, the Golf Channel coverage the last few weeks has been fantastic. I’m going to be holding CBS to a very high standard this year, and getting on them until someone there takes notice. Any contributions you as a viewer and a reader can make to the movement will be appreciated.

I vented a bit on generalizations in labeling eras

, and why there’s no reason to get caught up with the “Big 4” nonsense over at SB Nation this week. This was absolutely not meant to be a shot at Rickie. By all means, I’m a huge Fowler fan, and have been an apologist for him since this site began. I just have no interest in trying to label and define these guys while their careers are still on the rise. There isn’t any point to it, and I’m happy to kick back and watch all of this stuff unfold.

Morning Drive tried to kill #TourSauce last week, but they were kind enough to 

admit their mistake and invite me on to give a crash course lesson

. The segment was cut a bit short due to the Abu Dhabi Championship running long, so most of what I wanted to say about what #TourSauce has become and what it is now was not able to be said. Not shown in the attached video, Paige Mackenzie went seemingly out of her way to miss the point, and mentioned that she couldn’t relate to it because she “actually played on tour.” Other than that, I think the message was well received, and we won’t be seeing anymore cringe worthy segments with bottles of “Tour Sauce” on the program.

Chatted with the consummate professional, John Swantek last week on 

. It was a fun 15 minute conversation, and will serve as my apology for the lack of podcasts the last two weeks.

This is linked to above, but worth pointing out again that I’m very intrigued to see 17-year-old 

 up close this weekend. Read that article and try to tell me that this guy doesn’t have FIGJAM ingrained in his DNA. Look at that list of goals!

Here’s something that just inherently pisses me off a bit. It may not sound important, but it’s about blogging/reporting/whatever in general, and applies across the board, and not just on this particular story. My Dutch friends over at 

Thomas Pieters getting the photoshop treatment on the PGA Tour website

. Normally, a funny gem like this I would just retweet, but their tweet was in Dutch, so I posted the same screenshot with credit to them, with the quick back story in English. The Golf Channel sees this from me, then it becomes a 

. They took something that is easily presented in the twitter window, took it out of that medium and 

. While they do credit Golf NL at the bottom of the post (that nobody reads), the story reads like something they uncovered, and are reporting on. 

, and it becomes “Jason Crook reports on,” and the link back to whoever actually uncovered this fun fact is lost. 

” thing, and we’ve come full circle to it being back on twitter with no trace back to who initially found it. 

The whole original “story” fits perfectly into a tweet

. I get that you want clicks for your websites, but taking information out of twitter and bringing it to your website is only purposeful to a reader if you need to provide some context to tell the story of what is going on here. But apparently taking context 

 (Golf Channel cropping out Pieters’ explanation) to bait people into clicking on the story is the new “reporting.” Again, for a silly story like this it’s not a big deal, but this whole style of swooping stuff off of the small shops is so lazy, and it’s rampant in the industry. These aggregation stations may argue that swooping on these stories help generate traffic and attention to the small shops by crediting them at the bottom, but having been on the receiving end of this treatment countless times, and our ability to track where our traffic comes from, I can say that the attention generated towards the original source of the content is microscopic. Rant over.

Check in with the NLU Gang all week on twitter whilst we do our usual hood-rat act: 

2016 Farmers Insurance Open Preview

As usual, I got a ton of good questions this week. Too many for just one part, so I’ll try to get to the rest of them by early next week. But for now, here is Part I:

 Also rank the top 3 players who would look the worst in shorts..



— Jon Matsumoto (@Matsy11) 

I really don’t care either way on this one. There’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to wear shorts, other than “that’s the way it’s always been done.” This isn’t going to be coming to the PGA Tour anytime soon regardless, so in my mind it’s a bit of a non-issue. But players will continue to hit the ball further and further, rendering more and more courses obsolete, and this is still going to be the kind of stuff that we’re going to talk about.

To answer your question, the worst three players to see in shorts would be:

. It may be worse than his jeans game. He can’t be trusted.

? Imagine what those trunks look like. #OBstakes

David Lingmerth – Considering his pant size is “male capris,” I don’t think they even make shorts in his size.

 Thoughts on who should replace Greg Norman in the booth for the US Open? (Odds on it being Big Cat?)



— Sarah Endacott (@sendacott) 

 this week, but didn’t get a chance to expand on my answer. Full disclaimer: it was 5:30 AM, and I had literally found out about the Norman news when I received this question, so I didn’t have time to give it full thought when I answered Lanny Watkins.

What I feel like Fox badly needs is experience, and Watkins has a ton of that in the booth. He also appears to be the most available to me, based on the fact that he’s covering the Champions Tour, and I’m sure he would rather be cover the big boy tour. Paul Azinger seems to be the front-runner, and honestly, he makes a lot more sense than Watkins, so if I were to actually have given this proper thought, I would also conclude that it will probably end up being Azinger.

If you ignore money, the biggest question for me is, why would this be a desirable job? Obviously money is a big factor, but we’re talking about a role where you’re literally calling one PGA Tour event every year. Granted, it is the national championship, but I’m not sure how you recruit away someone like a Brandel Chamblee, who has a full gig at the Golf Channel year round. Maybe the fact that it’s a smaller workload for a boat load of money that makes the role appealing, but I don’t know enough about the TV contracts to really understand how this would work out.

I went into more detail on Fox’s questionable model 

with John Swantek on Talk of the Tour this week

 Was Rickie's joggers and high-tops outfit a devious/genius ploy to trick the Tour into allowing pros to wear shorts?



— Jesse Larson (@JesseLarson) 

I was trying to come up with a joke similar to this but I couldn’t land it. I got called a curmudgeon for hating on the joggers, but it’s a terrible look. I’m 29, and Rickie is 26, so it’s not like there is a generational gap here. I’m all for new fashion trends, and guys breaking from the mold, but these are sweatpants. I don’t go to the grocery store in sweatpants, much less the golf course. It’s a sloppy look, and I don’t think it’s going to catch on at all.

I didn’t follow it closely, but I thought I saw that Rickie had already abandoned them on the weekend at Kapalua, and I didn’t see him wearing them in Abu Dhabi. I’m hoping these go straight to the Hall of Shame along with Tiger and Phil’s mock turtlenecks from the mid-2000’s and Furyk’s button down shirts. I’m telling you, there needs to be a D.A.R.E. program where these vets warn them about regrettable fashion trends. You can’t recover from 

 who's your pick not named Rory, Spieth, or Day to win a major this year



— Manuél Retweet (@RyFo18) 

, as this is inevitably asked every single mailbag.

 will Dufner or Bradley ever figure things out??



— Phillip Johnson (@PhillipJohnson7) 

If I’m being completely honest, I had completely forgotten about Keegan Bradley until you asked. Like, I had forgotten that he exists, and for sure forgot that he has been a part of the last two US Ryder Cup teams (speaking of which, has he unpacked those bags yet?). Aside from nearly getting carved up like a victim of Zorro’s sword by Miguel at the Match Play, you could have convinced me that he didn’t play on tour last year.

He hasn’t a non-silly season top 10 since the Memorial in June, and has fallen to 76th in the world from inside the top 30 at the season’s beginning. It’s relatively easy to make your way up into the top of the rankings (and stay there) with a few good results, due to the events you’re able to get into and get free OWGR points. It’s a lot harder to fall that far in that course of time. It means consistently not performing in line with your ranking. Not a good sign. And despite a lot of golf writers wanting to point to a hot round or two with the short putter, I don’t buy into the whole “these guys are going to be fine” assumption that’s based on a miniscule sample size. So I’m not expecting a fast turnaround from Bradley.

On the other hand, I am expecting to see a rejuvenated Dufner this year (I promise I wrote this before his 64 on Thursday). Coming back from injury and a tough year that included a divorce, he seems to be refocused and motivated. It’s easy to forget that he was the 8th ranked player in the world after he won the 2013 PGA Championship.

A funny story about Duf – by complete chance I ran into a friend of mine at the 2010 US Open. We got to catching up, and he told me to watch out for this guy, Jason Dufner, and points over to this guy with his belly hanging over his belly and a dip in his mouth (Duf was ranked in the top-100 at the time, but I didn’t follow golf nearly as closely during that time.) He hovers over the ball waggling his club back and forth, and proceeds to hit a nasty little hook with a 3 wood. I rolled my eyes at him and laughed saying I’ll be sure to look out for him. A year later he’s playing in a playoff (and should have won) in the PGA Championship.

 when will the tour back a skills challenge for the players? I'm just imagining Phil challenging everyone to a flop-off…



— Troy Treanor (@troytreanor) 

I’ve thought of this before, and it’s one of those things that makes too much sense for it to actually work. I’m not sure how you motivate the players to partake, but I’m guessing a Rickie Fowler endorsement would encourage the younger guys to eat this up and really promote it. Why not do this the Wednesday night before the Waste Management? Booze the crowd up (won’t take much convincing). Adding this to my list of half-baked ideas for when the PGA Tour finally decides to start paying me to develop this stuff:

A long drive contest (that isn’t in a practice round of a major championship) where they seed everyone based on their best of three drives. Then you go into a 16 person bracket, head to head, best of five series (five drives each, first to win three advances).

A trick shot challenge with fan voting (kind of like a dunk contest). You can use props, guests, and you don’t get a million takes to make the perfect trick shot video.

A flop shot challenge over walls and stuff. You’re telling me Phil wouldn’t be all over this?

A H-O-R-S-E competition. Could be in the style of Top Golf or something like that.

End it with a closest to pin competition on 16. That place would be rocking off it’s foundation.

 Is Patrick Reed's ceiling to the level of Tom Watson, Curtis Strange, or Scott Hoch? Those are the games who seem most similar.



— Ben McNamara (@1867_ben) 

I’m am willing to answer Tom Watson. Reed has a huge ceiling, and our vision of that may be impaired by the fact that he has turned into an easy target for social media jokes (with no one being more guilty of that than me). Obviously Reed has a long, long, long ways to go before he can even begin to be compared to Tom Watson, but do I think he 

 win 8 majors? It sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but that’s what we have to ask ourselves when we use the word ceiling. It’s easy to twist this into “wow, Soly just compared Patrick Reed to Tom Watson” or “Soly thinks Patrick Reed is going to be Tom Watson” when that’s not what I’m saying at all. I simply think, in the most ideal scenario, Reed 

 be that good. I’m for sure not saying that it’s likely, just that I think he possesses that kind of talent. Do I think he’s going to win 40 times on the PGA Tour? Of course I don’t.

That being said, I think a more realistic career trajectory is more like Curtis Strange (or if you’re looking for a more modern example, along the lines of a Jim Furyk or a Davis Love III). Predicting around 20 wins may seem kind of crazy (again), but we’re talking about a 25 year old that already has four. Would anyone really be surprised if averaged basically one win a year for the rest of his career?

Not to play semantics, but the use of the word ceiling in this question makes it much more difficult to answer confidently without seeming as if I’m bordering on hyperbole. We tend to throw the word ceiling around too liberally without really evaluating what that means. Inherently, the difference between every athlete’s ceiling and floor is huge, with Tiger perhaps being the best example.

Of course, if you asked Reed himself, he may tell you his floor is Jack Nicklaus.

 Avery/Dassey… Guilty or innocent? (Haven't listened to your latest podcast yet.)



— The Sydney Golfer (@thesydneygolfer) 

(If you have not watched making a murderer, both this answer and the answer to the next question will have spoilers. That being said, I don’t think this show gets ruined by spoilers, as it is a true story and a documentary, but I feel like I’m obligated to warn you on this. There will be no more golf questions/answers after this one, so feel free to stop reading if you haven’t watched.)

While I’m thrilled to get a Making a Murderer question, I don’t think this is the question that should be asked. I’ll answer it, but the better question is whether or not he should have been convicted. That may be the easier question to answer, as I can’t imagine anyone watching the show actually thinking that justice was served. For me, there is more than enough reasonable doubt for me to find him not guilty.

I went through a cycle that I believe many other viewers are going through when trying to assess his guilt. You watch the documentary, assume he’s innocent. Then you read some things about “evidence left out” of the series that was critical to the prosecution’s case, and you’re questioning everything you just watched. I have been thoroughly reading the 

 interesting and captivating than the actual documentary series.

While I originally thought the criticisms of the series were well founded, I have flipped 180 degrees after my research. In reality, the “evidence” left out is just a bunch of rhetoric from the prosecutor, Ken Kratz. And if we really want to open up the discussion on evidence left out, there is WAY more defense helping clips that were left on the cutting room floor than there is prosecution evidence. 

 of such material, with a few highlights below:

Regarding the “sweat DNA” that Kratz claims was found under the hood of her car: First of all, if someone refers to anything as “sweat DNA”, just disregard anything else they have to say (

). To quote Jerry Buting: “There is no such thing as ‘sweat DNA.’ DNA is found in all nucleated cells, but there has never been a test to determine that a sample of DNA came specifically from perspiration.” Also, the investigator that handled the hood did not change gloves from looking in the car, and also easily could have been planted.

Culhane testified that the amount of Avery’s DNA on Halbach’s hood latch (which could have been blood) was very small, similar to what you would get from rubbing Avery’s toothbrush on it, or from the unchanged gloves of the tech who handled blood evidence inside the car and then touched the hood.

In between 3:30 – 4PM, A propane delivery truck driver (John Leurquin) saw a green SUV leaving the Avery property at but couldn’t identify driver or if it was a male or female. He delivers propane for Valders Co-op. Usually fuels up near Avery property at 3:30 for about half an hour. This validates the bus driver’s timeline, and completely invalidates Bobby Dassey’s, Scott Tadych, and the state’s timeline. This was not included in the documentary.

Dean Strang stated they had a forensic anthropologist at trial who testified that an open fire wouldn’t have generated enough heat to burn a body in the way that those bones were destroyed. This was not included in the documentary.

Honestly, that is tip of the iceberg, from an evidence perspective.

There’s even been criticism out there towards the creators of the documentary regarding their lack of response to the criticism. These are mostly ridiculous, in my opinion, but 

. I don’t think they needed one. The documentary speaks for itself.

 last week (around the 38 minute mark, excuse the bad audio) in great detail, and I’ll highlight some of that here.

The evidence simply doesn’t add up. He very well may have killed her, but it 100% was not in the way that the state described it. He could not have killed her in the garage and left not one spec of her DNA in there. He’s not Dexter Morgan. That bullet that was found FIVE MONTHS after the initial search (and missed in several subsequent searches after that) had to be planted. The key that was discovered in his bedroom is her spare key (and she’s been photographed with multiple keys on her key ring), and it magically contains none of her DNA, but some of Avery’s (also, her co-worker testified that she had multiple keys on her key ring). This key is somehow found on like the fifth search of a tiny bedroom. 

By the same guy. The same guy that was not supposed to be involved in the investigation at all. The same guy who was deposed in the civil suit brought forth by Avery himself. 

He claims he shook the bookcase violently, yet the book case looks nearly the same as it did in the initial search.

The state completely ignores Theresa’s blood and hair in the back of her car, because it doesn’t work with their story. If he killed her in the garage, and burned her 30 feet away in his backyard, why in the world would he put her in the back of her car? The evidence of her bones being found in the burn barrel at Bobby Dassey’s house, and (potentially) in the quarry is basically ignored. Why? Doesn’t fit their story.

There’s not a single piece of evidence in the state’s claim that can’t be very strongly questioned. On top of that, I’m nearly certain that there was evidence planted. So, for the evidence where there weren’t necessarily clues that it was planted, how can we be sure that it wasn’t? How can we put ANY faith in the investigation that was performed? How do we know they weren’t the ones that put the car on his property. (Also, 

 about how she found the car.) Add in the fact that there was some very questionable stuff going on within the jury pool (a juror being replaced at the last minute for suspicious reasons, the fact that the initial jury vote had 

 not guilty votes, vote negotiating, and stories of fear for their own safety), and you have a mountain of stuff that just doesn’t work.

On top of the fact that evidence just 100% does not add up, the way that Avery carries himself is not that of a guilty man. All of his phone calls from the jail are recorded, and not once does he even remotely slip up and implicate himself. Remember, this is not some mastermind criminal. He talks to his girlfriend twice that afternoon (recorded calls) and there is nothing even slightly suspicious in the calls.

I’ve written about 1,000 words on this question already, and I’m confident I could write 5,000 more about the holes in the case. I’ll leave it with this: 

Here’s the best theory I’ve read so far

 F, marry, kill: Kratz, Kachinsky, Lenk



— Ryan Clark (@r_clark17) 

Kachinsky – He needs to see what it feels like to be on the other end of this.

Kratz – He’s the one with the six figure salary and the $350,000 house! He’s the prize!

Lenk – I’m going to get framed for it if he gets killed anyway, so I might as well.

January Mailbag, Part I

Humana Challenge. Just doesn’t have much ring to it. Let’s see, how can we make this thing even less appealing? Let’s call it the Career Builder Challenge!

While it’s certainly understandable that the organizers wanted to inject some new life (and funding) into this event, for many it will always be the Bob Hope Classic. In the years since his passing this tournament has struggled to find it’s footing, so it made sense on a lot of levels to bring Bill Clinton into the fold a few years ago and add some cache to the event. Clinton actually played the event as a SITTING PRESIDENT in 1995 along with Gerald Ford and George Bush version 1.0. (Holy Secret Service nightmare!)

Slick Willy got sick of showing up every year (just assuming), so in comes Career Builder to tee Rich Lerner up for the perfect “a win here could be a career builder in itself for (insert name).”

After altering the format from five rounds to four a few years ago (and 

 George Lopez in the process), the Tour is FINALLY abandoning the celebrity format (if you could even call them that). It was one thing when you had legends like Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Ike Eisenhower teeing it up on a yearly basis, but these days one annual celebrity pro-am is more than enough (no thanks on the six hour rounds and cloying television coverage). However, instead of doing away with the Pro-Am format altogether, Finchy opted to keep the corporate money flowing and allow wealthy white dudes to still buy their way in. We see you working, Boss Man!

To me, this event feels like the last one of the winter that I really don’t care to pay attention to. Compared to Torry-Phoenix-Pebble-Riviera stretch we’ve got coming up, this week feels like the equivalent of the “trap game” on the schedule. It could sneak up and surprise us, but my eyes are into next week. I’ll tentatively promise you that this is the last week that I’ll mail it in.

It’s really not necessary to do a deep-dive on the courses this week; they’re hilarious resort courses and are the equivalent of setting up a sporting clay’s course in an 

 (which, ironically, these tracks are). Picture the exact opposite of The Open Championship rota and that’s what the Coachella Valley offers – a variety of perfectly manicured tracks in the birthplace of target golf and water-management 

. This year’s trio features two PGA West courses (TPC Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament) and La Quinta Country Club. All three courses are short, have nothing resembling rough, and perfect greens. Birdie bonanza.

Guarantees: perfect weather; a smattering of cougars in the gallery; some uber-bro’s who made the trip over from L.A.; and an awkward segment with the Career Builder CEO (you know he’s not passing up that first opportunity to get in the booth). Overall, this is an event caught between a glorious past and a cloudy future. From a television viewer perspective, I wouldn’t expect a lot of social media buzz this year, considering this is one of the few times a year the Euro Tour is able to outshine the PGA Tour in Abu Dhabi.

Bill Haas won. Justin Thomas should have. His 4-iron off the 16th tee rolled out to 277 into a bunker he didn’t think he could reach. His wedge from there found the water, and the double bogey cost him the tournament.

Brace yourself: Johnny Miller shot a final round 63 to win this event in ’76. He’ll mention it at a time that is completely unnecessary.

Corey Pavin won this event twice, and as was the case at the Hawaiian Open, attempted to rename it the “

 Open.” Come to think of it, Pavin won the same event twice five different times (Honolulu, Los Angeles, Houston, Colonial, and Milwaukee (RIP)). Pretty remarkable. And he lost Hartford in a playoff twice. Shit, he went to a playoff nine times in his career, going 5-4 with all four losses coming at the hands of an opponent’s birdie. Hat’s off to Corey Pavin (seriously).

 in 1999 to win by one stroke. Take a minute or two today to appreciate that feat. Who’d he beat? The ‘Volcano,’ Steve Pate!.

A year ago Tron wrote about how weird it was that they didn’t even play the best PGA West course. Here’s 

. Interestingly enough, it’s added to the rota this year. It could make for an interesting element as the telecast tracks the “leaders,” but fails to acknowledge the different difficulty level of the three courses. Most of the betting experts I follow on twitter have already thrown in the towel this week trying to figure out how these courses are going to play and who it is going to favor, so I’m not going to pretend to even try.

Patrick Reed is 8.5/1 this week. That’s some tremendous respect. He’s quietly top-10’d each of his last seven events, while climbing to 10th in the world. That day where he triumphantly enters the top 5 and comes off the 18th green doing the Ray Lewis dance is closer than we anticipated.

 this week, so check that out and make fun of my Lanny Watkins call. If you’re too lazy to click through to that, I’ll share some of my takes here:

Kevin Kisner is going to be on the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team. He and Justin Thomas are hurt by the fact that their fall series wins count for exactly zero Ryder Cup points (thank you, Phil’s task force), but you would have to think DLIII would consider this fact when narrowing down his captain’s picks. The U.S. team is shaping up very nicely, and I’m confident that they have a great group of 11 core guys (Spieth, DJ, ZJ, Rickie, Phil, Koepka, Bubba, Reed, Thomas, Kisner, Furyk) that are going to be on the team barring injury (or winning other events that award them zero points). A lot of these guys started very strong in what should truly be a transcendent year in golf.

Phil comes back in a big way in 2016. The Presidents Cup seemingly re-lit a fire under him, and he’s helped by the fact that he already knows he’s going to be on the Ryder Cup team regardless of what happens. Despite the zero wins in the last two years, expect to see confidence oozing out of Phil at every stop along the way this year. Bones will be tending some flags in the desert this week.

I’m probably going to be more focused on Abu Dhabi this week than I will be California due to the Spieth/Rory factor. In a top heavy field, there’s a better chance than usual that we’ll see these guys going head to head come Sunday. We’re all going to lose our heads this year if an actual rivalry develops between these two, with myself included.

Perhaps for the first time in history, I made a clear mistake and 

 and was not corrected by anyone! The Euro event this week is of course in Abu Dhabi, not Dubai. It took me half a day before I realized the error, and just quietly hoped people would continue not to notice.

2016 Career Builder Challenge Preview

The Sony Open is the first event in 2016 to feature a full field and a Monday qualifier. To those souls who traveled across the Pacific to claim one of four qualifying spots, we salute you. It’s actually wily move: miss qualifying for the field and soothe the sting of disappointment with a week of Daiquiris on Waikiki Beach (looking at you Olin Browne and Olin Browne Jr.)! Shout to Luke List, who has put his weekly money game with MJ at Bear’s Club on hold this week by qualifying Monday with a TIDY -7, 65 at Hoakalei Country Club. Also, a HUGE shout to Robert Allenby, for showing the courage to return to the scene of his kidnapping while keeping a 

 – #StayWokeRob. This week’s field is chalked full of familiar names, wily veterans, up and comers, and target golfers enjoying the Pacific vibes while the bombers and top 5 prepare for California.

Kapalua’s wide fairways, severe elevation changes, and relatively modern design are nowhere to be found on Waialae’s classic and flat Seth Raynor layout, which plays to a modest (at least by Tour standards) 7,088 yards. Michael Collins’ 

 provides good insight this week on the impact stiff ocean breezes will play this week, and highlights some of the same sentiments we discussed last year:

A refreshing change from the “bomb & gouge” tracks so prevalent throughout the year, the premium is instead on accuracy and being able to flight the ball through the trade winds. By all accounts, tour players seem to enjoy this course and the consensus suggests it’s an underrated track (although that could be skewed with the players sampled being, by and large, those who enjoy and/or are well-suited to this type of test; surely the bomber contingent has a different view and thus quite a few stay away).

It’s also worth noting that the first hole is one of the most bossy opening holes on Tour, a 488 yard par-4 incorporating elements of the road hole at St. Andrews – it’s a STRONG start. May we suggest PGATour.com put a live feed of this hole for the week and and dub it, “The Snuff Film?” Overall, not a typical No Laying Up style track, but there is fun to be had. It just all comes down to how hard the wind blows.

Tickets start at $15, so expect a bunch of retired white men milling about clad in baggy Tommy Bahama shirts and cargo pants/board shorts. The Golf Channel Schwaldos will embrace the attire and play up the Hawaiian vibe HARD with music, surfers going ‘aggro’ on some clean, backside pipeline barrels, and Waikiki Beach jokes. Even if you don’t like golf, just tune in for a televised respite from the shitty weather that’s making you SAD right now. We can only hope to see ample amounts of Shaka #TourSauce (#TourShaka?) this week in place of the traditional crowd wave – we see you Ricki!

@rickiefowler eagle shakaing #LetsWhisper #ThreeFingerDrop ????⛳️????????

A video posted by Ian Walsh (@ian.walsh) on Jan 9, 2016 at 5:57pm PST

If you’re looking to go DEEP on fantasy and gambling insights, check out 

 weekly Podcast. Below are a few guys I like for very uneducated reasons!

: 61 here in the 2nd round last year, and a solid weekend last week (69, 69). Though the value isn’t what it used to be, get use to seeing JT in this section of previews even if Soly isn’t behind the wheel!

 Broke through here with a record setting -24 under in 2013 to win his debut. Surfer lettuce and #FratStar vibe make him an easy play.

 Strong showing last week playing with the big boy (final round 66). #ElPatito is here to stay.

 Good value, played well last week (T10), not TOO far from home down under, “Oodles of game,” according to @TronCarterNLU – that’s good enough for me.

 When he’s on, “Marky Mark Jr.” hunts pins. His iron play sets up well here.

The Robert Allenby saga is truly bizarre. For the last year, I’ve envisioned Allenby beating himself up like 

 is the best recap and analysis I’ve read on the psychological effects last year’s mugging had on Allenby. After reading that, I actually feel for the guy because it’s still unclear what really went down, and that night kicked off a season from hell that sent his game, confidence, and world ranking careening off a cliff. A ton of jokes have been made and opinions cemented on Allenby in the aftermath of the incident (His on course

 breakup with longtime Caddie Mick Middlemo

 at the Canadian Open last year didn’t help his image either), but I give him credit for showing up a year later to face his demons. #StayWokeRob

Little known fact: The 1998 United Airlines Hawaiian Open (they probably had AWESOME hospitality and customer service back then) was won by John Huston. Dude went 28 deep, causing uproar among environmentalists and local homeowners over the sheer number of birds slaughtered during that year’s event. The negative publicity caused United to pull out and Sony signed on, but with a caveat: the membership redesigned the course during the off-season (the next year Jeff Sluman emerged as champion with a heavily toned-down winning score of -9. Coincidence? You be the judge). The Oahu avian population rebounded nicely post 1998 atrocities, for those who are wondering.

This event is essentially the PGA Tour’s spin-off of the popular TLC show “Little People, Big World,” with the illustrious lineage of little ass dudes who have won this event: the aforementioned Sluman, Paul Goydos, Mark Wilson, Corey Pavin (Back-to-back winner, Tom Emansky style! Shortly thereafter he tried to rename it the Rat Family Open), Brad Faxon, David Toms, and Russell Henley among others. It would seem that Tim Clark and Mike Weir are PRIMED to win this thing. How did Ian Woosnam not get an invite?

Among today’s hopefuls in Sony Open’s Monday qualifier at Hoakalei? Tadd Fujikawa. 

2016 Sony Open Preview

The 2015-2016 season resumes with its first event of 2016, featuring winners of PGA Tour events from 2015 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Confused yet? Think of it this way. This tournament is the annual reminder of the names that you can’t believe won tournaments in 2015 (Fabian Gomez, James Hahn, JJ Henry, Matt Every, Peter Malnati…. Troy Merritt!?), and a sobering reminder that Tiger and Phil failed to qualify. Thankfully, 2015 produced the best list of winners we’ve seen at least since Obama took office, but still of course goes up against the NFL playoffs over the weekend, and still gets bypassed by the likes of Rory. In its heyday, the event was known as the Mercedes Championship, but has been appropriately downgraded to the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. This event used to be about celebrating the previous year’s winners. Now it’s about celebrating the fact that Mark Rolfing lives in Hawaii.

This year, our defending cham-…… Oh my God…. do you hear that? That music?? (You knew this was coming).

OH MY GOD!!! THAT’S PATRICK REED’S MUSIC!!!!

The Plantation Course at Kapalua is perhaps the most unique golf course that is played on the PGA Tour circuit. While that may sound like praise, it is also one of the least popular courses amongst the tour players. In fact, in the tour players voted it as their 

Let’s face it: mountain golf sucks. A golf course was simply not meant to be built on this piece of land. The greens are some of the slowest on tour because the slope of them is so severe. The routing is enormous, and it contains dramatic views of the ocean, drastic elevation changes, and the widest fairways you will ever see. It plays over 7,400 yards, and oddly to a par 73. You’ll see some 400 yard drives, and some 130 yard 6 irons if the winds cooperate. Some of the distances between holes are so large that the players must ride in cars to get from green to tee box. While it is aesthetically pleasing, the bottom line is, the course just isn’t a great test of talent.

This event used to be something we looked forward to for months, as it was the true kickoff of the PGA Tour season. Now, it doesn’t stick out quite as much due to the fall series, but it still has its significance. You’re getting home from work, it’s dark, shitty outside, and you haven’t touched your sticks in a month and half. You flip on the tube and it’s golf porn from Hawaii. It’s shock value. It works. To a large extent, this is what the entire West Coast Swing is about – it’s like an antidepressant for Seasonal Affective Disorder. You flip it on and it warms your soul. For as poor of a test of golf as this course actually is, it plays fantastically on TV for the viewers.

The prime time television airing is great for the fans (except those of us that live in Europe), and you really do get the feeling that several of the players are just there to grab an easy paycheck and escape their families the winter back home. There’s something about seeing that solo patron around the fifth green that makes you question every decision you’ve made in life, as you just shoveled your driveway for the third time this week, and this guy with the button down short sleeve Hawaiian shirt is free on a Thursday to attend a PGA Tour event on a remote island in the Pacific with zero of his closest friends. But hey, at least you don’t have Island Fever.

Patrick Reed’s dethroning of Zach Johnson’s 2014 triumph can only be compared to another American expedition on a Pacific Island to overthrow evil:

General Reed jarred his approach to the par-4 16th to mount a furious comeback, and in the playoff, Jimmy Walker went so far right that Bob Estes retweeted it, and the rest is history.

You could hear the roars from Mark Rolfing’s nearby home (it’s in Hawaii).

The five years or so after the tournament moved from SoCal to Maui were the golden years. With Mercedes bankrolling the event, it was one of the premier stops on tour and had a certain aura about it. You didn’t hear quite as much bitching about the layout, the resort hadn’t gone through bankruptcy proceedings yet (Lehman Bros. went HAM on renovations in ’07), and year after year the winners were straight-up thoroughbreds: Duval, Big Cat, Furyk, Sergio, and Els those first five years in Hawaii. It was all downhill after that: Stu Appleby won three years in a row (’04-’06), Tiger stopped making the trip in ’05, and then the bottom fell out in ’08 when Daniel Chopra won and singlehandedly prompted Mercedes to drop their title sponsorship (just kidding, but that had to be a factor, right?).

Below is a fun video from the ’97 Mercedes Championship. First reaction… Mike Tirico! Second, check out the #TourSauce from Tiger right off the bat.

With this small of a field, it’s nearly impossible to find proper value. What makes this event even more difficult to handicap, is that it is tough to evaluate who is bringing their family out there with them on their golf trip so that their wives let them play golf, and who is there to grind and stack that paper. That being said, here are three guys that are familiar names around here:

 – It’s been pointed out to me by many people that I’m overly hard on ZJ, so consider this to be an olive branch. He plays well here, and seems like the kind of guy that would care way too much about a ho hum tournament like this. Let’s be honest, if you’re going to rank PGA Tour players by the likelihood of them calling an offensive foul in a pickup basketball game, ZJ is in your top 5, isn’t he?

 – First timers at this course don’t have a great history of success, but you can bank on Thomas being in this spot for the majority of 2016. To get 22/1 on him in a field of this few players seems a bit like stealing.

 – Essentially, Walker’s career is going to be defined by this new wraparound schedule. You know those guys on Deadliest Catch that go out on a boat and fish for like five months a year and then take the rest of the year off? Well Season 12 is going to be about Jimmy Walker. Yes, I may be a bit bitter about him playing his way onto the last two Ryder/Presidents Cup teams by February, coasting into Scotland and South Korea respectively, and shitting the bed/shitting the bed respectively. But this is the time of year that you can bet money on Walker.

I recapped 2015 and previewed 2016 on a podcast with Adam Sarson this week, in case you missed it

. Hoping to bring the podcast back with much more frequency this year, as soon as I get some technical issues worked out.

 for his honest answer when asked if he’d rather win a major or be a part of a winning Ryder Cup team in 2016 over at SB Nation.

I may have mixed feelings about Kapalua, but doesn’t mean I’m not jacked up that golf season is back. I’m in support of the fall series and the reacharound schedule, but I just don’t like the way the season seems to have three different start dates (the fall series, the Hyundai, and the day Big Cat shows up). In this exact spot in the 2015 Hyundai preview (right below where I predicted Reed to win), I said that I really thought 2015 was going to be an enormous year for golf, for social media, and of course for #TourSauce. I feel the exact same way about 2016. I just don’t get the feeling that this tournament is really the kick-off.

Normally, I would be all over Koepka this week on a course with this wide of fairways, but the first tournament with the new equipment has me a bit gun shy. In speaking with a few people, it seems that most of the concern comes with the change in the golf ball.

Be prepared to hear a lot of Hawaiian music, shots of the Pacific Ocean, and cutaways to para gliders, beach goers, and jet skiers. Remember that the Golf Channel doesn’t have a whole lot of shots to show you, so there will be a plethora of less than stellar shots, a long with a lot of air time to fill. Whenever the first announcer “apologizes” for the weather you’re experiencing back east, finish your drink. And if I were to put a drinking game together for this week, it would obviously include “every time a golf writer tweets something to try to make you jealous that they’re in Hawaii” but for safety reasons I’m not going to do that.

Troy Merritt is 250/1 in a field of 32 players. That’s just special.

I’m likely out on coverage for the most part of this week, considering the 11 hour time difference and the fact that the leaders will finish around 4:00 AM Monday morning for me. One of the few weeks being a golf fan in Europe really backfires.

If you have any ideas of stuff you want to see in previews, send them our way. The previews are actually a lot harder to do than they seem, and can get boring, so we’re up for more ideas on what you guys wanna see.

2016 Hyundai Tournament of Champions Preview

“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”

We all remember the year 2000. After we survived Y2K and spent months going through the Pop-Tart stash you had stored up in preparation for all of our computer systems breaking (? is that what our fear was on Y2K? Maybe I don’t really actually remember). The presidential election in November of that year came down to the state of Florida, where it was initially erroneously called in favor of Gore, then erroneously called in favor of Bush, only to lead to a painful month of counts, recounts, hanging chads, butterfly ballots, controversy, and supreme court rulings. Eventually….

I am proud to say that I have learned from this lesson in history, and refused to make a final ruling on the 2015 Saucies until the year truly ended. The voting could not have been any closer, and every time I checked it, the leader seemed to change, yet the lead never expanding to more than 10 votes. I lost sleep over the matter, consulted with friends on what to do, and was a step short of seeking actual therapy. But when I awoke in the morning afternoon of January 1, 2016, we had a winner. And by God was it close:

A mere four votes separated these two titans of the sauce industry, but in a year where things did not go well for either of the two, it obviously went a lot better for Phil than it did for Tiger. I agree with the public’s decision on the important issue at hand, and respect the democratic process in which these results were achieved.

Phil’s wave to a freaking boat at the PGA Championship is your winner of the 2015 Saucies.

. Thanks to all that participated, and may the sauce be with you in 2016.

Winner of the 2015 Saucies

I meant to do this monthly this year, but went a solid 1 for 12. Here’s some of my favorite golf tweets of the year. This list is not meant to be all inclusive. Enjoy.

Then he said, 'that is that.'
and then he was gone
with a tip of his hat.



– (Big) Cat in the Hat



— D.J. Piehowski (@DJPie) 

"Rory are u better than Jordan? Be careful tho cuz if u say yes ur too arrogant but if u say no then ur weak."- Reporters, basically



— max homa (@maxhoma23) 

Tiger's at the Alpine World Ski Championship today. Must be comforting to see athletes who have gone downhill faster than him.



— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) 

If you start the ball right of the hotel complex off the tee at the Road Hole, you should get knighted no questions asked.



— Big Randy (@BigRandyNLU) 

https://twitter.com/JustinThomas34/status/572143039352856576/photo/1

Last year, Rory McIlroy played the majors in 27 under par: "Legend!"



This year, Dustin Johnson played them in 29 under par: "Choke city!"



— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) 

Stenson should keep his 3-wood in one of these things: 

Sergio and JT:



2 in the pink. 1 in the drink.



— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) 

 answering question if Tiger win would overshadow Spieth's 2015 season.



— Big Randy (@BigRandyNLU) 

Writing

2016 Farmers Insurance Open Preview

January Mailbag, Part I

2016 Career Builder Challenge Preview

2016 Sony Open Preview

2016 Hyundai Tournament of Champions Preview

Winner of the 2015 Saucies

2015 Golf Tweets of the Year

Lacks Pop; Can't Play - The #LPCP Manifesto

The 2015 Saucies, the Finals

December Mailbag

The 2015 Saucies, The Final Four

2015 Saucies, Round 2

2015 Saucies; Round 1

Rory Wins Race to Dubai, Sets Stage for 2016

November Mailbag

Justin Thomas Arrives, Wins the CIMB Classic

October Mailbag

Scotland Golf Trip, Part V: Crail Balcomie Links