By Alex Myers

Welcome to another edition of The Grind where we’ve learned a lot during our eighth(!) year of doing this. You can go from not being able to break 80 to winning the Masters. You can drink as many proteins shakes as you want without risking harm to your organs (Actually, we’re not sure about that one yet). And you can’t touch Tiger Woods’ coffee:

Who's stealing a cup of this coffee? ?

Stay tuned for more with @TigerWoods coming soon. pic.twitter.com/ergZwHz6v5

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) December 3, 2020

Oh yeah, we also found out global pandemics are no joke. But hopefully, we were able to at least share a few laughs through all the weird and tough times. So thanks as always for reading, and grab a cup of joe as we take one final spin in 2020. Just not Tiger’s cup of Joe.

WE’RE BUYING

Viktor Hovland: Not only did the 23-year-old win his second PGA Tour title, he broke the “Curse of Coco Beach” by becoming the first golfer to win another tournament after winning the Puerto Rico Open. And, of course, this engaging young star was well aware of that fact.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Viktor Hovland (@viktor_hovland)

Hang in there, Tony Finau. There’s still hope for you! Plus, when Hovland wins, we get to hear these Norwegian announcers go nuts!

The Norwegian call of Viktor Hovland's winning putt @MayakobaGolf is EVERYTHING. ??? pic.twitter.com/CObVto6YYk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 7, 2020

“YES! He makes it—again! Our boy! Look how ice cold he is!” Absolutely electric stuff, just like when Viktor won for the first time in February. Apparently in Norway they don’t abide by the whole “there’s no cheering from the pressbox” motto. Hey, we’re not complaining.

The Class of 2019: About 18 months ago all three (Hovland, Collin Morikawa, and Matthew Wolff) were still in college and now they all find themselves in the top 15 of the Official World Golf Ranking. And it’s not just the six PGA Tour wins between the bunch that have gotten them there. Morikawa already has a major, Wolff finished top five at his first two majors, and Hovland holds the tour record for most consecutive rounds in the 60s. These (young) guys are good.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout: But don’t forget about the Class of 2015! BEZ! Two weeks in a row! Man, this South African is absolutely cooking right now after some serious home cooking the past two weeks on the European Tour, claiming the South African Open after the Alfred Dunhill Championship in his native land.

Richard Heathcote

Our new favourite player—if you didn’t see the giant wine glass he was drinking from last week, check it out—showed he can rally after a big celebration too. Impressive stuff. He’s got an even bigger event on tap this week as the Race to Dubai wraps up:

Probably a smart move to stick to normal-sized glasses with so much at stake.

WE’RE SELLING

Peter Alliss passing away: Sadly, 2020 has claimed another. Since as far back as I can remember, my favourite part of waking up early and watching the Open Championship was when Alliss would join the American telecast for a bit. Man, was he cheeky in the booth. Like Johnny Miller, Alliss is a Hall-of-Famer on two fronts, with a lot of younger fans not realizing how great of a player he was with 31 professional wins and eight Ryder Cup appearances. I encourage you to read the fantastic pieces by our own John Huggan and John Feinstein. And here’s a touching tribute from the European Tour:

Peter Alliss – A Tribute ?

The voice of The Open ? pic.twitter.com/wc1uc0hOeg

— The Open (@TheOpen) December 7, 2020

REWIND: Golf Digest Middle East’s 2014 conversation with the ‘voice of golf’

Also, anyone would get a kick out of Alliss calling Jean van de Velde’s 72nd hole collapse at the 1999 Open Championship. Even Jean himself:

RIP to a true legend.

Putting like Happy Gilmore: We’d love to hear Peter Alliss’ take on what Joel Dahmen began doing late in the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic:

2020 Mayakoba Rd. 3.
No quote today, but a story instead:
Before the round, Joel was messing around putting like Happy Gilmore. Split handed-right hand way down the grip. He was making EVERYTHING! He told me he was going to bust it out during the round. Did it on 17 and here: pic.twitter.com/ngWeiII3OE

— Geno Bonnalie (@GenoBonnalie) December 5, 2020

Then after continuing to use the unique method on Sunday, Dahmen felt confident to lobby U.S. captain Steve Stricker for a spot on the American Ryder Cup team.

Here's some more evidence @stevestricker! #RyderCupBound pic.twitter.com/uBgILAqMdS

— Joel Dahmen (@Joel_Dahmen) December 6, 2020

As always with Dahmen, who at another recent tournament channelled Russell Crowe’s “Gladiator” character, we are entertained. But good luck with that, Joel. We haven’t seen Adam Sandler tearing up the celebrity golf circuit.

Getting a job at MJ’s new course: If you’re looking for a gig driving around a beverage cart at Michael Jordan’s The Grove XXIII, don’t bother sending your resume. That’s because the new ultra-exclusive course is using drones instead:

Michael Jordan's new course, The Grove XXIII, delivers drinks by drone. ?

Learn more about the NBA superstar's exclusive club: https://t.co/iFXqdGGwtF
(?:Instagram/@Chadilac_FSU) pic.twitter.com/N6SPUhaXNk

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) December 7, 2020

What a world.

ON TAP

With the PGA Tour officially heading into the off-season, the LPGA and European Tour take centre stage. The U.S. Women’s Open is being held in Houston and the DP World Championship, the conclusion of the season-long Race to Dubai is in, you guessed it, Dubai.

Random tournament fact: Lexi Thompson will be using Bryson DeChambeau’s caddie, Tim Tucker, this week. If anyone needed an off-season, you’d think it would be Tim, but that’s a tough bag to turn down. And we’re pretty sure he’d make history by becoming the first person to win two U.S. Opens in the same year.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Tim Tucker will spend as much time as usual deliberating shots this week: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
—Joel Dahmen will make the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team: 10-to-1 odds
—If Joel were European, he’d not only make Team Europe but go 4-0-1 against Team USA: LOCK

PHOTO(S) OF THE WEEK

This beach wedding stole the show during the second round of the Mayakoba:

nothing screams "final event of the year" like the PGA Tour broadcast repeatedly cutting to a half-dozen people setting up for a wedding, which will apparently be taking place on this beach volleyball court pic.twitter.com/sv912MUZFD

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) December 4, 2020

Genius move to save money on a photographer/videographer. I could have probably joined Michael Jordan’s golf club for the amount I spent on ours.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIbTTb8peju/?utm_source=ig_embed

We’ve all been there, but that’s rough. Even Mike Davis thinks that’s an unfair pin position.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I don’t know if I could say that without getting fined.” —Brooks Koepka when asked to describe a disappointing year. And that was before he missed the cut in Mexico. Rough.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Angela Stanford for winning a seventh career LPGA title, but a first in front of her parents. Talk about coming through under pressure. . . . According to the National Golf Foundation, there will be an increase of 50 million rounds of golf played in this country compared to last year. The last time there was a bigger increase was 1997, when Tiger Woods won his landmark first Masters. . . . Speaking of Tiger Woods, his World Golf Hall of Fame induction has been postponed until 2022. The good news is he’ll have more time to work on his speech. . . . Jason Day said he kept his ATM receipt for a couple months the first time he made a withdrawal after his first PGA Tour win. Hope he saved some of that money because now he’s about to have a fourth kid. . . .And, finally, speaking of kids, I put together this bookshelf for my daughter all by myself:

If Rory McIlroy or any of the other new PGA Tour dads need help with this stuff, let me know. Kidding. I’m miserable at it and you’d have to pay me. A lot.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Will I spend more on college tuition or Pottery Barn furniture?
Can 2020 please just be over already?

The post Viktor Hovland breaks a curse and a PGA Tour pro channels Happy Gilmore appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we love the fact that Phil Mickelson is “in the process” of becoming a member at Michael Jordan’s exclusive new golf club, The Grove XXIII. Is Lefty waiting on letters of recommendation or something? Is he just taking his time to avoid paying dues this year? Do he and Amy still have to attend a few functions and pretend they’re having a great time to make sure they’re “a fit”?

Regardless, we’re pretty sure Phil is a fit with the owner based on their history of throwing a few bucks around on the course. Oh, to be a fly on the grillroom wall when these two trade tales—and deeds to houses. In fact, I think we may have found the next hit reality TV show: “Michael Jordan’s Playground.” OK, so we can work on the title, but this thing would be ratings gold. Until then (fingers crossed), here’s everything else that’s (still) happening in the world of golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Tiger’s trash talk: Or rather, trash show-and-tell. Everyone is doing video calls these days, even the guys involved in The Match: Champions for Charity. So when Phil Mickelson taunted Tiger Woods with a green jacket photo, Tiger responded by getting the actual green jacket.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5mDGBFSrV/

Perfect. And this thing is actually happening because we finally have a date (May 24), a venue (Medalist), and a format (a mix of best ball and alternate shot). As long as Phil doesn’t have his playing interview with other members of The Grove that day, we should be good.

Joost Luiten: Congrats to the six-time European Tour winner for his unofficial victory in the BMW Indoor Invitational powered by Trackman. Eighteen tour pros teed it up at the Old Course on simulators and Joost came out on top thanks to splendid ball-striking and a lot of yelling at his golf ball:

How did you spend your Saturday?@joostluiten spent it shouting at his ball. It worked though, he won the first #BMWTrackManInvitational ? pic.twitter.com/GJjETG1mpH

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 10, 2020

We’re also buying Lee Westwood’s backyard:

Westwood's tee shot on 11 is almost as good as his well manicured garden ?#BMWTrackManInvitational pic.twitter.com/Md0QbrzNpd

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 9, 2020

But not his playing. There was no putting and everything within eight feet was good. How did Westy not do better?! That’s a perfect format for him! Anyway, congrats to Dean Burmester for his unofficial hole-in-one:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_91-AsHWAN/?utm_source=ig_embed

Great reaction. And great white belt.

Joel Dahmen’s course record: Congrats to the PGA Tour pro for firing a 58 at Mesa Country Club, including a 26 on the back nine. Dahmen was “only” two under through seven before going an absurd 12 under over the final 11 holes. Must be nice.

I hold the course record at all my home courses, except @mesacountryclub. That changed today with some of my good friends along for the ride. That was FUN! @brandonharks @derekbohlen @davidsonhomegroup @ihapp_1 @kschwarb12 #58 pic.twitter.com/e1DKOB0hCf

— Joel Dahmen (@Joel_Dahmen) May 8, 2020

Speaking of nice, how about the 69 Chicago Cubs second baseman Ian Happ shot in the same group? Too bad he got dusted by ELEVEN shots. Don’t quit your day job, Ian.

WE’RE SELLING

Joel Dahmen’s social distancing:

Guys, what happened to staying six feet apart?

Vijay Singh: The three-time major champ, who is No. 4 on the PGA Tour’s all-time earnings list is listed in the field for the first event when play resumes. Considering Singh’s reputation for a gruelling schedule, that’s not surprising. What is, though, is that the event is on the Korn Ferry Tour since Singh, a lifetime PGA Tour member, isn’t qualified for the field at Colonial and there’s no senior event that week.

Keyur Khamar

Needless to say, some tour pros are not happy about this, including Brady Schnell, who called Singh “selfish,” a “piece of trash,” and a “complete turd” before deleting those tweets, probably out of fear that Singh would sue him. While I’m not quite as fired up as Schnell—and I realize there are plenty of players like Phil Mickelson supporting Singh—I don’t think a man who has made well north of $100 million in his career should be taking a spot, even if the event is in his backyard. At it’s heart, the Korn Ferry is the developmental tour of the PGA Tour. I’m sorry, but it’s no place for a 57-year-old.

Caddie tall tales: Last week we brought you a video from longtime looper Dave McNeilly in which he said he was drunk/hungover during Nick Price’s record-setting 63 at the 1986 Masters. This week, we bring you Nick Price saying Dave was just pulling everyone’s leg. “The only thing that’s true about that whole 8-minute speech was the fact that I shot 63 that day,” Price told me. “I told him, ‘You should have written a book, David. You would have been right up there with J.K. Rowling.’” Seriously, Dave, if you’re going to do that kind of stuff, please post it on April Fool’s Day next time. Thanks.

ON TAP

This week would have been the PGA Championship, AKA the fourth major that’s now the second major, but which could wind up being this year’s first major. This is major. When it ever happens again. In the meantime, golf fans thankfully have the TaylorMade Driving Relief event this Sunday, a skins game matching up Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson vs. Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff. Considering it’s been two months since we’ve seen live golf, this is major too.

Random tournament charity event fact: Rory and DJ have combined for the same number of major championships (5) as Rickie has PGA Tour titles. Oh, man, you know things are starting to return to normal when we start talking about Fowler’s career win total!

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Vijay Singh cares what I or any other writer thinks about him: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
—DJ will be keeping a running tab of skins in his head: 500,000-to-1 odds
—Phil and MJ play for more than what your foursome plays for: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

What’s sweeter than posing by the hole after making an ace? Posing by the hole with your significant other who just made an ace on the same hole as well. Not that I would know about either of those things, but this is pretty neat:

Two for the record book: Steve Howe and Carolyn Barnett-Howe, husband and wife from Appleton, make aces on back-to-back swings https://t.co/VgGsgI0pjh via @wisdotgolf

— Gary D'Amato (@garydamatogolf) May 5, 2020

And they used the same club (7-iron) from the same tee (158 yards) while going back-to-back. Amazing. It should be noted these two aren’t your typical hacking husband-wife duo with Steve a former president of the Wisconsin PGA Section and Carolyn a four-time Wisconsin Women’s State Open champ. In any event, the couple that aces together, stays together. Congrats.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (MUSIC DIVISION)

This medley of sports themes is brilliant. It’s also really sad.

If you need me I'll be bawling my eyes out for the rest of the day pic.twitter.com/QyFr33a2EM

— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) May 9, 2020

THIS WEEK IN TOUR PRO PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_-tYeYguCh/?utm_source=ig_embed

Aww. Of course, HV3’s fellow PGA Tour pros had to heckle him.

Poor guy.

THIS WEEK IN OTHER GOLFERS GOLF MEDIA BEING QUARANTINED

Our Hally Leadbetter has resorted to doing play-by-play of household chores:

When there's no live golf… pic.twitter.com/TFm1OeSQix

— Hally Leadbetter (@hallylead) May 8, 2020

Golf Magazine’s Tim Reilly created this funny ode to video game character selection:

Choose your golfer ?

(They’re all me) pic.twitter.com/9ggdpVl14q

— Tim Reilly (@LifeOfTimReilly) May 8, 2020

And the BBC’s Andrew Cotter continues to go viral with his delightful dog videos:

Still having the company meetings online. pic.twitter.com/aR3LfuSdKl

— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) May 11, 2020

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“If I could spend one hour with Jordan Spieth, I’m absolutely convinced he’d be the number one player in the world.” —Gary Player on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. Even for someone with nine majors, that’s a bold claim.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Pepperdine’s Sahith Theegala and Furman’s Natalie Srinivasan for winning the Fred Haskins Award and the Annika Award, respectively, as the male and female national college golfers of the year. Even though that year was obviously cut way short. . . . Congrats to Southern Hills for being awarded another PGA Championship—in 2030. You know, if all tournaments aren’t played on simulators by then. . . . Michelle Wie says she’s eying a return to golf at the U.S. Women’s Open in December after giving birth to a first child this summer. This will really test the theory if you need a good night’s sleep to play good golf. . . . And finally, I highly recommend HBO’s “Bad Education.” And not just because I’m a huge Jackman/Janney fan.

So give it a try. What else do you have to do?

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

What would a World Ranking of simulator golf look like?
How much would it cost to join The Grove XXIII?
How much could Gary Player improve my golf game in an hour?

The post Phil Mickelson’s Michael Jordan connection, Tiger Woods’ green jacket comeback, and a legend gets called a “complete turd” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Phil Mickelson will team with Tom Brady against Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning in “The Match: Champions for Charity” later this month. But it appears like more tee times with another sports GOAT are in his future as well.

Appearing Monday on “The Dan Patrick Show” to promote the May 24 charity event, the five-time major champ said he’s in the process of joining Michael Jordan’s ultra-exclusive golf club, The Grove XXIII.

“It’s a really cool place,” Mickelson told Patrick. “He did an exceptional job there.”

The Lefty has previously said he’s moving to Florida from the left coast. Mickelson added that he and wife Amy recently purchased a lot near this new course, which opened last fall.

“You have to be invited,” Mickelson said of Jordan’s new club. “Fortunately, I know a number of members there, and my wife and I just bought a lot fairly close, about 10 to 15 minutes away. So it’ll be a great place to play and practice.”

And, just a guess, wager a few bucks.

Anyway, good luck with the application, Phil. We’re betting it goes through.

The post Phil Mickelson says he’s in the process of joining Michael Jordan’s new golf club appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“That’s my ocean.”

Weed is standing outside the nearly completed clubhouse at The Grove XXIII, the uber-exclusive golf course he built for his client, NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan (it opened in the fall of 2019), explaining how Shinnecock Hills became the inspiration for the design even though this particular site—formerly a citrus grove near Hobe Sound—is South Florida flat and unambiguously landlocked.

“We started to gradually raise this land where the clubhouse is, and as we did, we realized we had views across the whole course,” he says. “We could see everything.” The vastness of the property and the sandy, grass-covered spaces between the holes reminded Weed and senior design associate Chris Monti of the famed U.S. Open venue on Long Island. A visit to Shinnecock to double-check their instincts confirmed the idea.

LC Lambrecht
WET & WILD The brutish par-4 12th

The logic works. Seen from the patio, The Grove XXIII’s holes spool and unspool against the open backdrop of undeveloped pasture—the sea. And from the golf course, the clubhouse is never out of sight, a modernist stand-in for Stanford White’s omnipresent, wood-framed landmark.

The Grove XXIII (the Roman numeral represents the number Jordan wore with the Chicago Bulls) twists in an ingenious double-helix routing that can be played in four nine + nine combinations, and in shorter three- to six-hole loops. The key to the flexibility is the clustering of greens and tees, and a crossover junction after the fourth and 13th holes. Walking off the fourth green, for instance, play can continue on at the fifth, or it can switch over to the 14th and finish in the opposite direction, so each nine can be broken into sections. In fact, it’s possible to play continuous internal circuits without ever returning home, enhancing the likelihood of ongoing presses, overtimes and emergency holes.

LC Lambrecht
The par-3 13th, playing towards the “sea.”

Architects love to work with nature’s broken lines and irregular shapes, but little of that splendour existed here. Each hole was cajoled and massaged using fill from a chain of lakes that Weed transformed into a marshland habitat. Jordan’s primary requirement that the course play fast and firm with features that produce dramatic matches gave way to broad fairways that glide over dips and swales and melt into low-slung putting surfaces. Watching players putt or bump 7-irons onto greens from 20 yards makes Weed giggle.

In an era when nearly every new and remodelled course bears a naturalistic or faux-historical aesthetic, The Grove XXIII skews clean and contemporary, all short grass and sophistication. Weed’s “collection architecture,” rife with hollows, depressions and shallow scoop bunkers that gather shots, celebrates the centripetal force of gravity.

LC Lambrecht
A look behind the eighth green.

There’s certainly nothing pacific about the 15th and 16th, two holes that can quickly flip matches. The first is a par 3, drawing diagonally over a ridge of moguls to a partially blind green kicking everything rightward into a deep chipping hollow. The other, just 260 yards from the regular tees, features a strand of central bunkers separating routes to the hole and a convex putting surface that moves chips and putts in irrational directions.

LC Lambrecht
An aerial of the 17th hole.

Although limiting in some ways, the old, agricultural property did offer an unexpected bonus in the form of two deep irrigation canals bordering the north and eastern boundaries. Weed notched slender strips of tees atop the high banks on the opposite sides, using the canals as the rarest of features in American golf: long, dead-straight hazard lines that play like inverted versions of the stone walls at North Berwick in Scotland.

“We kept asking ourselves if we were overdoing it [hitting across the canals],” Monti says, “but then we’d cross to the other side, and it was a better hole from over there.”

Architecture’s best rule is: Use what’s there. Sometimes that’s a perfect landscape, a Shinnecock Hills with wild grasses, sand ridges, a distant bay. Sometimes it’s Florida citrus land, a pasture and canals.

LC Lambrecht
A view from the fifth hole, playing along the canal.

LC Lambrecht
The clean, sharp edges of bunkers evident at Grove XXIII’s 12th hole.

LC Lambrecht
A view behind the 18th green, and its intricate bunkering surrounding the green complex.

The post Welcome to Michael Jordan’s new course, The Grove XXIII appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.