Morning 9: Goodbye GolfChannel.com? | Terrible start for Tiger | Munoz in front at Zozo

By Ben Alberstadt

Email me at [email protected]

 October 23, 2020 

 Good Friday morning, golf fans.

1. Sebastian Munoz leads Zozo

AP report..."Munoz twice holed out for eagle from a combined distance of 219 yards. He also had eight birdies. Throw in a wild tee shot for double bogey, three bogeys and only five pars and it added to an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead."

• "That especially was the case for Woods. For the first time in his 1,277 rounds on the PGA TOUR as a pro, he made bogey or worse on three par 5s in a single round. That led to a 4-over 76 - by two shots his worst score in 49 rounds at Sherwood - that left him 12 shots out of the lead."
• "Munoz, the Colombian who played his college golf at North Texas, finished off his bizarre round by saving par from a narrow section of the front bunker with a 15-foot putt on the 18th hole."
• "He was one shot ahead of Tyrrell Hatton, the hottest golfer this month, and Justin Thomas, who had a hot finish..."

Full piece.

2. Kang in front

AP report..."Danielle Kang leads the Race to CME Globe and, at No. 5 in the world, is the top-ranked player in the LPGA Drive On Championship-Lake Reynolds Oconee. She showed why Thursday."

• "Kang shot a 7-under 65 for a share of the first-round lead with Jennifer Song."
• "I think I know the golf course a little bit better," Kang said. "I've only played it once technically so it's still very new, but I just tried to work on some pace drills on the greens and figure out the type of grass around here. I feel good about today."

Full piece.

3. Tiger cards worst round at Sherwood ever

Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard..."Tiger Woods' first title defense since 2014 didn't start well."

• "Playing for the first time since last month's U.S. Open, Woods was tied for 74th out of 77 players following a sloppy 4-over 76 at the Zozo Championship, which he won last fall in Japan. Although Woods declined to speak with the media following his round it wasn't difficult to pin down his issues on Day 1."
• "Woods ranked 77th in the field in strokes gained: off the tee, 64th in fairways hit and 72nd in driving distance. He also made a mess of all but one of Sherwood Country Club's par 5s."

Full piece.

4. Goodbye, Golf Channel.com?

John Hawkins for the Morning Read with this heretofore unknown (to me at least) element of Golf Channel move to Connecticut...

• "The most noticeable change in Golf Channel's identity is likely to come from the dissolution of its website, GolfChannel.com, which will be integrated into NBCSports.com by the end of 2020 and become accessible only by the scroll-down menu so prevalent on other general-sports sites."
• "How big is the loss? We'll have to see for ourselves. In terms of comprehensive golf coverage from horn to hoof, no journalistically based Internet domain can match GolfChannel.com's consistency, timeliness and nose for news. The website has played a huge role in the network's reputation for one-stop shopping. There might be a half-dozen or so other websites with similarly strong credentials, but none of them had a television network behind it, leaving us to wonder whether the NBCSports version will pack as much punch and volume as the original."

Full piece.

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5. Sergio prepping for Master by - Playing pro tennis?

Golf Digest's Alex Myers..."Garcia has long been a huge fan of the sport and an accomplished player, but now he'll be putting his racket skills on full display at the H-E-B Pro Tennis Open in Austin. The event, which is part of the Dropshot Tournament Series, is scheduled for Oct. 25-Nov. 1."

Full piece.

6. I mean...yeah...

Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard..."It would be nice to go out and have Tiger talk about how good you are and stuff, his opinion is definitely a higher value than others," Wolff said, ""but at the end of the day, if you don't have confidence in yourself and you're just trying to impress him, I just feel that that's not a really good way to go about it."

• "Wolff's not the first player to try and downplay a pairing with Woods. It was at Sherwood during Woods' own Hero World Challenge in 2010 when Rory McIlroy was first paired with Woods in a competitive round."

Full piece.

7. Indigenous burial ground vs. luxury golf resort

CTV's Jackie Downs: "Local advocates in St. Lucia are concerned about the preservation of an Indigenous burial site and the lands surrounding it due to the construction of a sprawling luxury golf resort by the team of developers behind two famed courses in Nova Scotia. The Cabot Saint Lucia project consists of an 18-hole golf course, hotel, villas, and available residential lots covering 152 hectares of land in the Cap Estate neighbourhood on the Caribbean island's northern tip. Construction is already underway for the resort, which will be Cabot's first golf course outside of Canada. Two of the development's principal investors, Canadian Ben Cowan-Dewar and American Mike Keiser, were co-founders of the award-winning Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs courses in Cape Breton, N.S."

Full piece.

8. Brooks Koepka owes George Kittle golf clubs

Golfweek's Kyle Madison..."Kittle on Tuesday joined the Candlestick Chronicles podcast and explained why professional golfer Brooks Koepka is one set of clubs in debt to the 49ers tight end. "I'm still upset. Brooks Koepka still owes me a set of golf clubs," Kittle said. "He told me he was gonna send them to me in March and I think we're a little bit past that. But I'm gonna still talk (expletive) to him." So how did the golfer currently ranked 11th in the world come to owe Kittle such a prize? An early shelter-in-place pushup contest. "He challenged me to a pushup challenge back during quarantine," Kittle said. "I said I'll do it if you send me some clubs. He was like, 'oh yeah, no worries.' I was like, how many pushups you want, dog?"

Full piece.

9. Johnny's loving and worrying about

I LOVE this "The Match" concept...I went to the first one, the second was a ball to watch, and the momentum into this third one is fantastic. Its become our new "Skins Game" and golf needed it. Truth be told, this is the Phil Mickelson show: He's funny, engaging, an educator, and simply one of the most talented humans ever to grab a club. What's not to love?

I'm WORRIED this Match 3 is being force-fed a bit. Phil I get. Charles I get. Steph I get. Peyton: I love yah, but why? Especially in the pitched format of 2 on 2. Why not go 3 vs Phil? Net Best Ball vs Phil Gross, white tees, stroke play and the net team gets to call out "no driver" 3 times, "no putter" 3 times, and "no wedge" 3 times...I'd watch that.