Smashing-Pumpkin

I was talking to you harshly to give you a jolt. Sorry if it was too blunt. I do believe youd get far far more out of doing something yourself that gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride rather than putting your happiness in the hands of people who dont care about you doing an activity that wont always entertain you. I get disconnected from footy too. Im not the one kicking the ball. I dont make any difference to what goes on on the field. There are other things im good at that give me far more.

Why not get off your arse and do something costructive with your life rather than sitting in the stands watching a game you dont even like and then moaning on a forum about it. Seriously why bother? Do something else. Play a sport instead of watching, drinking beer and moaning.

Mike Ashley would run a sustainable business. Thats the sort of character they need. Immediately.

Do you ever play at Wergs GC? Last winter we were looking for somewhere dry where you could use a trolley rather than carry and Wergs GC was open. We only knew of it from being on the doorstep of South Staffordshire (great course). Me and a couple of friends were pleasantly surprised with the course, very dry which was nice, some nice holes particularly on the back 9 I felt, all for about £25 quid each. Its not Longcliffe or The Leicestershire, but was a very tidy course and only about 20 years old I believe?

Its just a combination of a dreadful format, and the signing on fees that just kill the whole thing. If you take the Canadian Open for example, if you get into the nitty gritty of the tournament, youve got many many subplots going on all at once. Youve got the likes of Cam Smith making a friday move just to make the cut. If theres no cut, hes just going to use that as an extended practice for next week and not go on a friday birdie blitz. Youve got the guys down the wrong end of the fedex cup, the likes of Wyndham Clark who was one of the worlds elite amateurs and had a very solid start to his career, struggling this season but puts himself into contention and clearly the nerves were around on sunday, but he got through to a T-7th finish and a spot in the Open. Well done him, well deserved. And of course, youve got the actual tournament itself. The main prize. On the LIV tour, youve got no cut. So youve got a field of 48 and out of that, over half of them are playing absolutely horribly, so thats a grim spectacle immediately. The fact theres no cut means unless a player is near the lead, theres basically nothing to play for. This "teams" element to the thing is pointless and crap, no one was making reference to it, I dont see any reference to it on the website meaning anything for later in the season, etc. Theres some players in the field who are more "current" than others. Some of the sunshine tour guys youd expect to do well. Schwartzel, Oosthuizen, DJ.....theyd easily keep a full PGA Tour card, so theyre bound to be up the top of the leaderboard. There miles better than physically diminishing players like Westwood, Mickelson etc and nobodies who play no proper tour golf. Even the scheduling is pants. Want to make golf fast, fun and accessible? yeah good idea. So lets put on a shotgun start at 2pm, the first two rounds on thurs and fri. So unlike the Open, DP World Tour etc, you cant watch it before work, after work, after school. Finish the tournament on a sunday ffs The LIV events are like trying to hype up Northampton Town v Walsall but played in halves of 30 mins rather than 45 and then calling it revolutionary.

So what do we think then, whats more likely to inspire youngsters to the game? Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau in their prime battling it out and throwing birdies at each other all over the place, Rosey showing his class with a sunday charge, Sam Burns with a solid week and Corey Conners leading the home charge or Some guys 84th and 113th on the Asian Tour order trailing one of the few actual golfers in the field by about 20 shots, but some nice tv graphics and some cut scenes with bouncy castles and bean bags? Yeah. Exactly.

I think Forest Hill is a bit of a joke to be honest. At least it used to be cheap and cheerful, but the course hasnt improved one ounce whilst everyone is charged an extortionate membership fee. The course in winter when it gets wet is absolutely unplayably muddy for a start. The welcome from their golf club pros is borderline non existent. One of their nob heads took a club out my bag and started fiddling with it.....errr, hello? you mind fvcking off and leaving that in my bag thanks tosser???? And then the driving range, again, wildly overpriced junk. The top tracers are clearly not calibrated properly, the place is essentially just full of beer drinking chavs pumping drivers non stop (not that i begrudge their business plan of those wanting a good time). The whole place is a proper dive that you pay premium prices for.

Its just talent, physicality and artistry all in one. I remember standing on the third tee at Hoylake in the Open the year Rory won there. Was on the friday early in the morning before the big crowds were out. Hole was playing dead into a decent breeze, internal bounds all the way up the right so cant hit anything leaking. I got right up close to Charley Hoffman. Pegged up a 1 iron, drilled the thing with 230 carry and about 50 yards worth of chase, no higher than 20 feet in the air. It was absolutely nutted. Insane to watch. Followed Brandt Snedeker for 5 or 6 holes at Lytham, also in an Open, and delivered an absolute masterclass in being pin high. Working it against the breeze, flighting it down or up, but always pin high. And then basically holing everything inside 10 feet. Could give you numerous examples. Its just very very impressive.

Have you been to watch pro golf live? If you havent, i recommend it. Itll blow your mind. And youll appreciate how hard the courses they play are too.

Local man Paul Broadhurst is one off the lead on the Champions Tour, American Family Insurance Championship. Trailling Tom Pernice and Thongchai Jaidee by 1

Now that the dust has settled on the first LIV Saudi League event, I actually dont think it would take much to make these events top class events to be honest. At the prize money on offer, these events could realistically take the prestige spots the WGC events hold on the PGA Tour. Let me please be clear, im not talking politics, ethics, sportswashing, and all the other stuff people like to justifiably criticise. Here would be my takes on what could be done better with the events. 1) If the idea is about team golf, emphasise this more. All you got was a caddie bib to look at, which if im correct didnt even have the players name on the caddie bib as it would in a PGA tour event. Why not group the team mates together if sticking to the shotgun start, and give them colours that make that team recognisable? I dont think this aspect of it was barely touched on at all during the three days yet was supposed to be one of the main elements? 2) Mic up the players and caddies. This has been done before on PGA Tour feature group coverage. If you want to get new people up close to the game, let them get the insight of the caddie player relationship. How far is the shot playing? what are they going to hit? etc etc. Especially if they arent going to show yardages or anything on the screen. Then maybe back this up with some jargon busting like you used to see in the channel 4 cricket coverage. Explain to the viewer the golf specific phrases. What is a "hurting breeze"?? what is a "knockdown shot"?? what is a "high cut".....talk to the audience. Walk with them and interview them as theyre going down the hole. 3) Rather than have a shotgun start for rounds 2 and 3 (particularly round 3, if a winner comes from another group than the last one that would be so stupid that they finish on the 1st or something), why not use the tried and tested PGA Tour formula when needed of a reverse U draw. Its very simple. First players are the players in the middle of the field off 1st and 10th. Then towards the later groups, leaders off one, those at the very back off 10th. That way the fans will be able to see EVERY LEADING GROUP, i.e 4 or 5 groups, all come up the last hole or tee off on the last if they want to. This to me makes perfect sense rather than the shotgun. 4) Rather than just give a bucketload of money to the winner, and small bonuses for the team, why not incentivise everyone to do exciting things, so a smaller overall cheque to the winner, $4 million is pretty obscene.....why not give a daily bonus to the player who makes the most birdies in the day, or split it if its tied. We are asking the players to take risks right? "dont blink" and all of that? so give them some easier pins, gettable par 5s, and watch them take it to the course if you want fast action (obviously dont make it too easy, its still a test of skill). Or why not give a bonus each day for low round of the day?? 5) Get a proper ranking system and priority list to the field. If the field HAS to be limited to 48 players, I dont want to see Wade Ormsby and Andy Ogletree again. Fill the field with players who would be worthy (if it existed) of a higher exemption category (if it was a tour). Id start from there personally.

Hi mate Id have joined you and played, but Greg Norman offered me $125 million to play in his next Liv event at the Whetstone Invitational. Im starting at 1.30pm off the 14th tee with Heath Slocum, Duffy Waldorf and Pat Perez's wife In all seriousness, its a great cause, I have donated and I wish you all the best for your fundraising efforts. Its sad to hear of your father in laws condition, and im glad we can help in some small way to the work Macmillan do for such people. Hope you have a great day!!

One big minus of the coverage ive watched so far, is there is little to no insight at all into the shots the players are facing, what difficulties they encounter such as lies, wind etc, and no insight from anyone thats played the game. his diminishes the product for me massively. Even things like trackman data like launch angles and ballspeed are welcome additions to skys PGA Tour coverage. I thought they might trick the course up a bit for more excitement too but they dont seem to have done. But the pins in bowls, move the tees up etc. I think the format doesnt add a great deal to the excitement really, I think it could have been done differently and better.

The DP World Tour has played in Russia during the Putin regime, and the DP and LET tours have stops in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China. Does this make the people who run the tours and everyone who participates in the events, men and women with full fields, immoral? Or, as i said previously, because the prize funds are the same as the other events, no one cares. Which one is it?

Danny Tiatto Nolberto Solano Niklas Bendtner

In a funny kind of way, if it was actually a LEAGUE, it might be a better product. The matchplay format is one thats naturally fast paced and volatile, lots of action, rather than the grind of putting together a successful 54 or 72 hole score. Then you actually could have a league table, fixtures etc. Just thinking in my head that could work. You could have two historical rivals head to head to win a point, 3 day event three fixtures per stop on tour....i could actually see SOME merit to that, in the way they used to play the old Dunhill World Cup at St Andrews. The format as it is now is just basically a mess, other than being fast (and why is fast good anyway?) On final day for example, you want the ampitheatre of the crowd being around the last group on the banks....not half the fans being on the other side of the course not knowing whos winning.

Id say the majority of the people who get into golf get into it BECAUSE of its traditional formats. Medal play is about as basic, AND challenging as it gets. 18 holes. Every shot counts. Add em up at the end. Over 72 holes, thats a serious, serious test for the best in the world. But its watching the best in the world that makes people (certainly did me) want to go out and play the game THEY are playing. To emulate what THEY are doing. They occasionally innovate the game. Stuff like the mixed event in Scandanavia, thats quite unique and an interesting concept, tricky to get the course set up right. Theyve tried the shot clock masters for example too. I know no one wants to see slooooooooooow play, (personally think slow play is exaggerated on TV and i can explain why) but no one wants to emulate the shot clock masters either at their club. The sport is what it is, it doesnt NEED revamping. New players come to the game because of what the sport is traditionally, not for the bells and whistles.

Ive been watching this a little bit this afternoon. ANOTHER shit thing about the shotgun start is completely losing track of whats going on in terms of..... ok, someone is -2 or -3....do they have a par 5 to come? do they have a tough hole to come? You just lose track of whats going on, you cant work out what hole everyones on. I did say in an earlier post, a shotgun start was more reminiscent of a charity day in October than any kind of serious golf. Wonder if the halfway house is open for a cheese cob.

I feel if the players can still use exempt status to get into majors and WGC's and if saudi DOES carry world ranking points, then it makes sense for a lot of players to play. Co-sanctioning has to be the way forward i would have thought. Some of these players have helped grow the game too, so I agree whilst LIV wont help grow the game, the people within it have in their own ways and theyre at periods of their careers where it makes sense for them. I dont need to know what Ian Poulters "limit" is thanks. Thats my opinion.

Im actually going to stick up for the saudi players a little bit here. The "is there nowhere on earth you wouldnt play" line of questionning to people like Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood is absolutely shit. If the journalists find it such an issue, dont report on the tournament. Dont give it anymore oxygen. Many of those journalists have worked on absolute shit shows in their newspapers like Hillsborough, phone hacking, bare faced brexit lies and a host of other things. Have these journalists questionned at all why the noble DP world tour continues to play the Qatar Masters? the HSBC Champions in China? What about on the Ladies European Tour (LET) where they play the Aramco Team in Jeddah? Why dont we ask this question to every single player in the massive fields these events will attract? or cant we be bothered because the prize fund is no bigger than the Scandanavian Masters so no one cares?? I dont think theres anything wrong with asking questions that are along the lines of this is about money, because it is. Are they mercenaries? yes. Would I prefer to see these guys playing the "real" tours? yes. But the journalists can absolutely get in the bin.

To be fair though, if we are talking about someone like Talor Gooch who was referenced in the golf channel clip, then I think he genuinely just wants to make a good living under less pressure. We have to be real about this, the PGA Tour is HARD. Its cut throat. Youve got 125 guys who will be playing next year (with full exempt status), the rest will be heading back to Korn Ferry finals. Theres no guarantee of getting back to the PGA Tour and even if they do, the Korn Ferry guys are not going to get into the WGC's, the invitationals, or the majors, so straight away their at a big disadvantage on the fedex cup. I know Talor Gooch is already exempt for 2 years for winning at Sea Island, but in his position its dog eat dog. Hes got a chance to make a huge living for his family to avoid the possibility of returning to Korn Ferry and being broke. The fact he wants to do this doesnt make him implicit in some sort of morally bankrupt sportswashing activity, to me he is a genuine example of someone using it to genuinely provide a good life. It doesnt make every single person who goes down this road a saudi regime sympathiser, just as Newcastle United's players and fans arent.

Its this bit of it that I dont understand. If youve got limited fields, who loses their spot to Bryson, and on the basis of what exemption category does someone move out of the field?

Ive got to be honest, the format of this thing is at best bizarre, and at worst absolutely pants. First of all, the shotgun start is so tinpot. It doesnt give a better fan experience at all because the entire days play will be over in four and a half hours and then the field will always be tiny. Secondly on the shotgun start, the "individual" strokeplay winner (if i understand the format correctly) wont be in the final group by default, as there wont be a final group. He will just finish somewhere around the course, walk off and win without the leaders being grouped together? some live spectacle thatll be....NOT. The winner holes out for par and walks off the 12th green whilst everyone else watches someone tied for 28th on the other side of the course. Youve then got the team aspect each week, despite the fact that the "team" will be comprised of different players every week. How the F does that work then? Presumably the team captain has committed to playing the entire LIV series, so he will always be on team duckhook, but his team mates will change every tournament. Youve then got 48 players and no cut, so everyones in the money, so I have absolutely no idea who decides what next weeks field will be, and the week after that. And the week after that. Why do people think that sports need to be "jazzed up" to be exciting. Like playing snooker with 6 reds or playing football with 5 balls?? 72 hole medal play is what makes the sport what it is, its exciting, it builds to a crescendo, the excitement of the closing stretch of holes, holding the lead or sleeping on the lead, saturday and sunday charges up the leaderboard. Sticking chili dip gc in a friday afternoon shotgun start is more reminiscent of a Rainbows charity day than a professional tour.

I think youre right, but i also think in some ways its not even just a case of sanctions. The main players are going to want to hold a PGA Tour card and a DP World Tour card, so they can pick and choose their events. If youve got a guy who also wants to hold a Saudi League card (which i dont even know what the exemption categories are on that tour), then I dont know how a top player plays the minimum number of events on all tours including Saudi, plays them well enough they keep their card on all three tours, and has a schedule that works to peak for the majors all at the same time. To someone like G-Mac, i suppose it doesnt matter about holding a card on either tour. On DP world id assume he still gets most events he wants through career money exemption. On PGA Tour, even if he was to lose his card, he would still get a decent amount of events on conditional status outside the top 115 and sponsors invites, so its not so much of a big deal. But the guys who only play one tour, the likes of Wiesberger, Oliver Fisher, Justin Harding.......... these guys are basically going to either get sanctionned or lose their DP cards through falling outside the order of merit to keep their cards. Is their ambition just to play a few years on Saudi, lose their cards and just think stuff it im done? thats incredibly sad if true. If Greg Norman's ambition to have "free agents" is true, then I dont know how he envisages filling the field every week for the Saudi events. Or else how does a player who WANTS to play Saudi know which events he is exempt for and which he isnt once the tour grows? The logical solution all round is surely to co sanction the Saudi League events with DP World Tour, which increases the DP prize fund and should attract decent fields, so its win win for both governing bodies.

I think the Saudi league makes perfect sense for someone like Phil, Poulter, McDowell.....no cuts, huge money, and at a stage of their career where cutting back on events and not relying on DP world/PGA tour exemption status is crucial. But from a Saudi point of view, you cant build a multi million dollar tour around the worlds B list players, its just not going to attract tv or the sponsors. Its the players like Oliver Fisher or some of the lesser DP world guys that surprise me. 3 years of Saudi League theyll almost certainly lose their cards on DP world and be left with nowhere to play after theve cashed in for a few years. Just seems a totally unviable career move.