THIS IS WHY WE LOVE THE MAJORS !

Busacca Bozo has a few things in his life he cherishes. His family, his Coors light and his Sundays relaxing and watching the final round of PGA golf. For Father’s Day, I convinced my wife and Fisher’s wife to allow us to sit on his couch and watch the final round of the U.S. Open and eat ribs and junk food. I love the majors and I especially loved the U.S. Open last week and hearing golfers whine about how hard the course is. Fairways had hills that ran off even if you hit the middle and the greens were like putting on a bowling alley. Golf is a game played on the ground, not in the air and if all you had to do was bomb a ball 300 yards, I’d at least be on the “Hooters Tour” …I better hold on to that thought right there, before I get in trouble. It was a magnificent ending and emotional for the winner on many fronts. Fast forward a week to the Travelers and it was absurd in my opinion.

Keegan Bradley won with a -23 under against some of the sports best in what was largely a birdie fest. Everyone was carding low 60’s from Thursday to Sunday and they STILL couldn’t crack the top five. For example, Rory “I hate LIV” McIlroy shot an 18 under and finished in 7th place? In what world is this possible? Second place was a tie with two golfers at 20 under! This course played more like Del Boca Vista Municipal than a professional course. In Florida they make fairways and greens incredibly wide so people in their 80’s named Morty Seinfeld can keep up with the pace of play. Don’t get me wrong, this Bozo doesn’t mind that when he is cutting up the turf on a Saturday, but my expectations are a little higher for professionals and for once I will applaud Rory for stating the obvious: “This course is obsolete”.

It is obvious the golfers are bigger, stronger, better conditioned than ever and the technology they use probably came from NASA. Gone are the days of Craig Stadler eating a Krispy Crème while putting. You look at old videos of the great Jack and Arnie and you realize they are playing with wooden clubs and have probably never done a push-up in their life. Although, plaid polyester pants sure help contain the jelly belly. It is obvious that golf needs to start telling these courses to start improving to professional standards or bring these tournaments to other venues. Once they accomplish this, they must start addressing the equipment these players are using. From the clubs to the balls, it’s obvious that some of what we saw Sunday was attributable to that. Other sports like Tennis and NASCAR have previously done this. NASCAR for decades was about who had the most money and the best car. NASCAR stepped in and put restrictions on cars, the dynamics, and specifications. Major league baseball does not allow aluminum bats for a reason. Aaron judge would hit 100 home runs a year if he could break out the unbreakable. It’s high time the PGA treated all of its events like they do with the majors and make it challenging.

-BSB