And yes, people rolled their eyes at Earl Woods when he predicted Tiger would win 14 majors before he even turned pro, but guess what? Woods actually won FOURTEEN majors. So far, the biggest news surrounding any of LaVar’s overexposed offspring is that one got arrested for shoplifting in China. Maybe it’s time to cool it on those prognostications.

Anyway, as you can see, LaVar is featured prominently in our video, “The Biggest Sports Turkeys Of 2017,” but we’re sticking to golf here because there’s plenty to chew on as we head into Thanksgiving. Let’s dive in.

WE’RE BUYING
Austin Cook: This former Monday qualifying sensation finally has a full season to impress on the PGA Tour and wasted little time with his maiden victory at the RSM Classic. It’s tough to play much better than Cook, who only missed 12 greens all week and got up-and-down on 11 of those occasions. “Yeah, I slept terrible last night,” Cook said of having the 54-hole lead. Well, he can rest easier knowing he’s basically got three more seasons of fully exempt status. Although falling asleep in Augusta this April might be a challenge.

John Rahm: So much for that “controversy” surrounding Rahm being named European Tour Rookie of the Year. By winning the tour’s season finale, he jumped to No. 3 on the season-long Race to Dubai list and to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking. All this just a week after turning 23. Combine Rahm’s season with what Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth have done in recent months and it’s not a stretch to say that the three best golfers in the world right now are all 24 or younger. Also, congrats to Tommy Fleetwood for hanging on to win the Race to Dubai. Good thing he got one of those under his belt, because at 26 he’s practically a fossil.

Lexi Thompson’s 2017: The numbers don’t lie, this was the best year of Thompson’s career so far. She “only” won twice, but she claimed the Vare Trophy for best scoring average on the LPGA and she also captured the season-long Race to the Globe title thanks to a runner-up at the season finale. But. . . Yeah. . .

WE’RE SELLING
Lexi Thompson’s final par putt of 2017: That was rough to watch. A (maybe) two-footer for likely the win and the honor of LPGA Player of the Year and. . . well, you know. Of course, you also know what happened to her at the season’s first major when a belated four-shot penalty cost her that title. Those are two pretty rough things to happen in one year to the same person. The $1 million bonus should soften the blow a bit, though.

Sam Greenwood

Unfortunately, the whole situation short-changed Ariya Jutanugarn, who birdied four of her final six holes, including draining the winning 25-footer moments after Lexi’s miss. As excited as we are about the sub-25 stars in men’s golf, the women’s game has even more.

This “ban golf” piece: Criticizing someone else’s writing is risky if you don’t have any Pulitzers to your name, but Joel Beall did a nice job here deconstructing this terrible column that trashes golf. Golf is by no means perfect — and neither is the writing of Joel or myself — but if you’re going to knock an entire sport and all those who play it without any facts and by drawing absurd parallels to serial killers, you deserve to be ripped.

Brandt Snedeker’s new diet: We’re happy Snedeker is back after an extended break due to a rare (for a golfer) sternum joint injury, but we’re saddened by the new diet he’s been advised to obey. His two main eating rules now are no sugar and no carbs, which means there’s not a single food in the world he can enjoy anymore. “A miserable, kind of boring diet to say the least,” Snedeker told reporters at the RSM Classic. Poor bastard.

ON TAP
The PGA Tour heads to. . . wait a minute, the PGA Tour is off! And so is the LPGA! Despite just wrapping up its season finale, though, the European Tour gets cranking on its next season right away with the UBS Hong Kong Open. The Race to Dubai never stops!

Random tournament fact: Miguel Angel Jimenez became the oldest Euro Tour winner ever at this event in 2012. And then he broke his own record the following year at 49 years, 337 days. What a stud.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK
— Miguel Angel Jimenez is cutting anything out of his diet in 2018: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
— Tiger Woods will win a major in 2018: 20-to-1 odds (Actual odds)
— Brandt Snedeker would cry at the sight of a delicious deep-fried turkey: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Sorry Lexi, but we still can’t believe you missed this putt:

Tim Bradbur

OK, that’s it. No more Lexi or LaVar talk for the rest of this post. Moving on to happier things. . .

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
The European Tour continues to pump out incredible video content, this time convincing a foursome of players to try to hit a two-yard-wide fairway set up in the middle of the Dubai desert. We don’t feel bad blowing the ending and telling you Ross Fisher managed to hit the sliver of green turf, because you should watch anyway:

The Two Yard Fairway ? pic.twitter.com/DjsW8oWv0z

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 17, 2017

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (TERRIFYING DIVISION)
When turkeys attack on the golf course:

If you golf during the week of Thanksgiving, do so at your own risk! ?: @daaavidfried

A post shared by Golf Channel (@golfchannel) on Nov 20, 2017 at 7:02am PST

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I feel there’s a huge gap between us. I don’t know whether it’s a lack of practice or whether I lack the strength to keep playing well. It seems there are many issues to address.” – Hideki Matsuyama on Brooks Koepka, who won the Japan Tour’s Dunlop Phoenix Open by nine shots. Deep breaths, Hideki. You’re still only 25. And you’re still ranked fifth in the WORLD.

THIS WEEK IN PGA TOUR PROS LIVING THE LIFE
Here’s Justin Thomas and girlfriend Jillian Wisniewski sitting in court-side seats at a Chicago Bulls game:

2017 @PGATOUR Player of the Year @JustinThomas34 in the house! pic.twitter.com/9MaawkaQIP

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 18, 2017

And Thomas might get asked back soon after the Bulls scored 40 points in the fourth quarter to beat the Hornets 123-120, just their third win of the season.

Y’all were great hosts.. Thanks for showing @jillian_grace3 and I a great time. Heck of a game too! https://t.co/GXIx9TvXeJ

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) November 18, 2017

We’re guessing JT will also be at the big Alabama-Auburn football game this week. Winning a major championship has its perks.

THIS WEEK IN DUSTIN JOHNSON-PAULINA GRETZKY BELEN MOZO-ROBERT FARAH PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION
Remember that one-week social media break Belen said she was taking? Well, it lasted all of five days. Mozo shared these photos of her and boyfriend, professional tennis player Robert Farah, frolicking on a beach:

In our free time we are acrobats ??‍- currently applying for cirque de soleil - – – – – #mexico #puertoescondido #beach #fitnessmotivation @robertfarah

A post shared by Belen Mozo (@belenmozo) on Nov 17, 2017 at 4:23pm PST

Easy to see who wear the pants in the relationship… Se vé fácil quien lleva las riendas en la relación… ? credit, the one & only: @stephan_ach Special effect daddy credits to : @ptorres @robertfarah @casainspiracion @eberjey ? – – – – #girlboss #athletes #couplegoals #mexico #puertoescondido #casainspiracion #fit #fitcouple

A post shared by Belen Mozo (@belenmozo) on Nov 19, 2017 at 1:55pm PST

Cool visual effect. Also, this is strictly a hunch, but these two probably will eat a little healthier than I do on Thanksgiving.

THIS AND THAT
Roger Federer moved ahead of Tiger Woods on Forbes’ ranking of the all-time prize money earners in an individual sport. Of course, Woods has still made over $1 BILLION more than Federer in total earnings, so we’re guessing he’s not too upset about it. . . . A photographer who fished Andrew “Beef” Johnston’s 3-wood out of a watery grave at the RSM Classic was told he could keep it by the affable Brit. Christmas come early! . . . Country music star Jake Owen has accepted a sponsor’s invite to play in next year’s Nashville Golf Open on the Web.com Tour. Good luck topping Stephen Curry’s pair of 74s at the Ellie Mae Classic, Jake. . . . And finally, I attended my first Knicks game in some time and was especially excited to see this new option at MSG concession stands:

Sure, the cup cost $9.25, but free refills?! For the entire game?! What a great night. Oh yeah, the Knicks also won.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
— How much does Fred Couples miss the Skins Game?
— What’s Tiger’s favorite Thanksgiving side?
—  Do I have a soda problem?

The post Lexi Thompson’s painful miss, Justin Thomas’ sweet seats, Belen Mozo’s bikini barrage, and the most terrifying turkey attack ever appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rahm’s drive “only” went 393 yards, but his approach found the front fringe, and his long putt found the bottom of the hole for a 3 that highlighted an opening 67 that put the Spaniard just a couple shots back of leader Thomas Pieters. Check out how Rahm (sort of) brought “The Monster” to its knees:

393 yard drive
250 yard approach
 56 foot putt

Jon Rahm is just the second player to eagle the 16th hole since 2008. pic.twitter.com/1wYn0zSX9k

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) August 3, 2017

As the tweet says, Jon Rahm, who is making his tournament debut this week, is just the second player since 2008 to eagle the hole, joining Justin Thomas, who needed to chip in after hitting a 413-yard drive during the second round last year. There have only been three eagles made on the hole in tournament history. In other words, Jon, the hole isn’t supposed to be that easy.

In fact, it was Arnold Palmer who first called Firestone’s 16th “The Monster” after making a triple bogey in the 1960 PGA Championship. And before this year’s event, the club renamed a bridge on the hole for Palmer, who passed away last September.

The post Jon Rahm makes extremely rare eagle on Firestone’s ‘Monster’ 16th hole appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Thirty nine players bettered par on an absorbing opening day at the 146th Open Championship and another 18 are within six shots of overnight pacesetters Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar.

The American trio are a shot ahead of former Masters champion Charl Swartzel and Paul Casey who fired 66s, the latter leading the English challenge heading into Friday, his 40th birthday.

It’s a quality leaderboard but like winter in the HBO hit Game of Thrones, some seriously scary weather is coming to Royal Birkdale.

Get yourself set for a day of snakes and ladders drama on the big yellow leaderboards with our quick-fire first round wrap and some potentially wet and wild predictions for round two.

Shot of the Day – A Tale of Two Starts

A smidgeon unfair perhaps, but to put our shot of Thursday into context we’ve hit rewind to the very first shot of the championship. Golf is hard as Mark O’Meara could attest after sending his tee ball sailing out of bounds en-route to a dreaded snowman.

And we're off…#TheOpen pic.twitter.com/VymiAUXEYH

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

In the 60-year-old America’s defence, he did encounter the worst of Thursday’s weather as he signed for a dead last, 11-over 81. Contrast the 127th Open champion’s (Birkdale in 1988) 6.35am horror show to Charlie Hofmann’s 1.48pm dream with a healthy dollop of sympathy thus.

Great start! @hoffman_charley holes an eagle on the first. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/mXGgIvUwYb

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

Who said golf was hard? The eagle helped Hoffman, a bit of a first round specialist in majors of late, to a opening 67. Out early in what is expected to the best of Friday’s patience-testing conditions, the American must fancy his chances of staying in or around the top-10. Whatever happens, he gets the nod for shot of the day by a whisker from Koepka and his sand-dusted eagle on 17. We’re loving the artistic in-bunker insights.

Great work! @bkoepka holes a bunker shot to move in to a share of the lead. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/cv8UGVpRFD

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

Comeback of the Day – McIlroy’s Tale of Two Halves
From downright pity to pretty darn good. McIlroy looked over when he went out in 39 with five bogeys in his first six holes. But just as a ‘four missed cuts in five starts’ inquest looked certain, he positively Rors home in 32 with four birdies in his last eight holes, including a real momentum swinging gain on 18 in front of the appreciative galleries.

A bogey free round for the new clubhouse leader @jordanspieth. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/Qc3ik002Gl

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

McIlroy is off at 9.47am (12.47pm UAE time) and should just sneak in before the the heaviest of the rain and 35mph winds arrive. He’s six back but its not so much the margain, but the names ahead. Eitherway, the questions still begs – which McIlroy will turn up on the first tee? Class is permanent, right?

Attire of the Day – Dapper JT

Justin Thomas promised to “rock” his tie and cardigan combo ahead of the first round and he duly did, a 67 seeing him just two back. And its just as well. If you’re going to wear yesteryear gear, as dapper and well-intentioned as Mr. 59’s nod to the traditions of The Open were, you gotta have game.

Reprieve of the Day – Rahmbo’s (2nd) Great Escape

After his ball marking scare en-route to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, Jon Rahm’s heart surely sank when he accidentally uprooted a plant addressing a shot on 17. The Spaniard called a two-stroke penalty on himself but the rules police again came to his aid as they had at Portstewart, waivering the penalty, saying he hadn’t improved his lie.
Another great escape and potentially pivotal too as Rahm finished one under and is off in match 19 (of 52) at 9.58am (12.58pm UAE time). Looks like he might have the weather gods on his side as well.

Round of the Day – Spieth by Split Decision

Spieth marked his 65 a “nine [out of 10] across the board for everything – tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting”, so who are we to argue? The only blemish was a pushed birdie putt on the last but the 23-year-old Texan seems to have sublime control over almost every facet of his game right now. With an otherwise co-operative putter and “ball-striking [that] hasn’t been better in any years that I’ve ever played golf,” watch out over the weekend if the two-time major champ can escape his 5.48pm (UAE) tee time Friday relatively unscathed.
An honourable mention for “Kuuuch” of course who went out in 29 (-5) but couldn’t shake his Mr. Consistency tag with the outright lead at his fingertips, nine straight inward nine pars keeping him pegged at -5. What Kuchar would have given for a little of Koepka’s flat stick magic. Defying any fears over rig-rust having put his sticks on ice since Erin Hills, the newly crowned U.S. Open champ needed just 21 putts to navigate his way around Birkdale and to the cluttered summit of the leaderboard, the least number of putts since Rocco Mediate in 1988. Holing out for eagle on 17 helped somewhat but that’s scary good.

.@jordanspieth is the joint-leader of The Open after and a bogey-free Round 1. Will he continue to tame @RoyalBirkdale_ tomorrow? #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/cXe5wK6bws

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

146th Open Championship: Leading Scores – Round 1
T1. SPIETH, Jordan 65. -5
T1. KOEPKA, Brooks 65  -5
T1. KUCHAR, Matt 65  -5
T4. CASEY, Paul 66  -4
T4. SCHWARTZEL, Charl 66  -4
T6. POULTER, Ian 67  -3
T6. THOMAS, Justin 67. -3
T6  BLAND, Richard 67  -3
T6. CONNELLY, Austin 67  -3
T6. HOFFMAN, Charlie 67  -3
T6. CABRERA-BELLO, Rafa 67 -3

Check out the best of the action from today's Round 1 highlights from #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/iYwEPKMyrp

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

The post Birkdale Morning Report: 5 things for your Open Friday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.