Stage 11.
Never mind that the season hasn’t started.
This is a new low.
Even with the intense individualism that marks life in the (dis)United States, I will never understand the preoccupation with MVP races.
Last I checked, basketball, football, baseball are team sports. I don’t give a shit about who is the most valuable player. Now, mid-season, late season. Tell me one thing, what’s your winning percentage?
That said, it’s prob time to name the MVPP. . . Most Valuable Pressing Pauser. Are you a contender or pretender? Contender. . . someone named DanDanTheRetiredTranspo Man; Don in the premier destination for technology development; the GoodWife for her behind the scenes support, Reverend Wright, two Centrist baboons, the list goes on and on. If you’re not on the short list, I suggest you work a little harder on your brand.
Semi-pro ball just isn’t the same.
My Cougie friends are homeless and Deion Sanders has turned over the Colorado roster of “student-athletes”. Neon Deion also got mad at some of his new “student-athletes” for not fighting during practice. Asked about the importance of team culture, he said:
“‘I’m not welcoming to that word, culture. That’s all I heard when I was in Jackson. Culture, culture, culture, culture, culture. Now culture, culture. What the heck does that mean?’
In this context, it was defined for the Pro Football Hall of Famer as creating an environment to become a good football team. For example, what little things do the players have to do every day to maximize their potential?
‘I don’t think you got to have unity whatsoever. You got to have good players.'”
Now let’s debate which is most important, fruits or vegetables, air or water, minor or major sports. The best teams create winning environments and have good players.
No promises, but this fall I will try to keep it together watching my Bruins in their final Pac-12 season. My UCLA football dream is that someday, in my lifetime, they draw as many fans as Nebraska women’s volleyball.
Just from today.
Adding in “legitimately” is the tell. What the hell is an illegitimate hole-in-one? Oh, I know, one the Former Guy claims to have made. I’d bet everything the Good Wife has that TFG and I are tied at zero*. I haven’t pegged it in a long time, but I’d play TFG straight up tomorrow for all his classified documents.
No, don’t be silly, I would not sell them, I would promptly return them to the National Security Agency, thus becoming an even bigger hero.
*my greatest shame in life
Could Denver’s point center be any more different than their football team’s image conscious media loving quarterback? More Jokić and less Wilson please.
As I’m sure you know, the year’s third professional golf major championship, the (dis)United States Open, is underway at Los Angeles Country Club.
What a great course. Bonus points for being a stones throw from the world’s greatest university.
I was about to submit my application when I learned no shorts are allowed. Some of the other rules are a bit onerous too. Guess I’ll stick with Tumwater Valley GC.
Some of LACC’s rules.
It’s common knowledge that Pressing Pause is the place to go to make sense of all things professional golf. Apologies to RZ, DDTM, and the legion of other regulars who have just about lost all their patience with me.
First, James Colgan and Sean Zak did a nice job detailing Rose Zhang’s arrival on their most recent Drop Zone podcast. If you don’t know this RZ (what are the odds of two famous golf RZ’s?), you will soon enough.
Zhang, in two years at Stanford, played in 20 tournaments and won 12 of them. That’s absurd. Then, last week she won her first professional tournament becoming the first pro to do that since 1951. Smart, personable, seemingly immune to pressure. The “future of women’s golf”.
For as thoughtful as they are, Colgan and Zak dropped the ball (Drop Zone pun intended) by not pointing out that Zhang won $412,500 versus Viktor Hovland’s $3.6m check he earned an hour earlier at Nicklaus’s Memorial tournament. For those keeping score at home, Zhang’s victory earned her 11.5% of Hovland’s.
That’s a woefully underreported scandal in professional golf. Critics of this discrepancy always say that’s because of the vast differences in commercial sponsorships, meaning eyeballs, but that begs the question of how/when is that calculus ever going to change. Maybe I should be the LPGA commish.
Tangent. Hovland deserves major props for cashing his check on Sunday and then caddying for his college teammate at a US Open qualifier on Monday. The young Norwegian carried his boy’s bag. That’s class personified.
Alright, are we warmed up now? When one of my golf besties texted me about the LIV/PGA merger, I texted back, “Is this for real?” I thought someone might have been punking us.
All I’ll say is some decisions are so bad—Chris Licht amplifying Donald Trump’s bullshit, everything Elon Musk has done at Twitter since buying it, dismembering a dissenting journalist—that there’s no coming back from them. Licht is out at CNN. Twitter’s ad revenue has cratered and the value of the company has fallen by two-thirds. And yet, Musk and MBS are so wealthy it looks like they can survive anything, thanks to the likes of PGA commissioner Jay Monahan.
Jay Monahan won’t survive though. “Hypocrisy” isn’t a strong enough word for his double dealing with LIV’s Saudi’s funders, we need another. One Pressing Pauser asked me “If the PGA supports dismemberment now?”
It appears so, at least a few of the most influential suits. I went cold turkey on CNN post Trump “town hall” vowing to never watch it again. Professional golf’s future is still as murky as the New York City skyline. Sadly though, my golf sickness is far too advanced for me to go full CNN on the PGA.
Go ahead, call me a sad (sick) sellout. Probably fits.
Watch from the 32 minute mark. Incredible acceleration over the final 400 meters.
Pressing Pause 