Tully Tuesday Volume 16

I’ve spent the last few nights trying to figure out what to watch on tv at night. Yeah, I should be reading a book. I get it. Smart people love that shit. I could use a couple summer books but when you’re coming off the high of playoff Hockey and Basketball, this week feels like the darkest period of entertainment.

Last night I sat down after dinner and watched the US Open “Longest Day in Golf” on Golf Channel. For those that are unaware, the US Open hosts local qualifying, giving anyone under a certain handicap the opportunity to play their way into regional qualifying and ultimately the US Open. It’s awesome. And there is always great drama.

I watched 3 separate playoffs with a mix of players, including an 8 for 2 playoff that Pro Golfer Harry Higgs was able to survive through by making 2 tap in birdies on the two play in holes. Elsewhere, I watched Brendan Todd win a spot at the Ohio State Golf Club Scarlet course, highly recommend if you are out in Columbus by the way. What’s amazing about these playoffs is you have a mix of college players, Amateurs, club pros, and touring professionals trying to get into the US Open. Many Ams made it through, I was really impressed with some of the shots down the stretch from a handful of guys, it just shows that sometimes in golf its your day, and sometimes its not.

The Springfield Ohio site had a playoff between two former President’s Cup teammates Adam Scott and Cam Davis. Adam Scott has played in 92 straight Majors and was down to his final shot on the first hole with Davis lined up for Birdie.

He sunk his chip and forced his fellow pro to make a pretty decent birdie putt to extend the playoff. Davis would go on to win on the 3rd playoff hole, ending Adam Scott’s streak. Adam Scott has arguably one of the best swings on the PGA Tour, and even a guy like that has his back against the wall in Pro Golf. It’s really incredible to see the grind that these guys go through consistently.

Let’s say a random golfer plays at a handicap of 17, a 17 handicap has a 1 in 7,249 chance in shooting 83 or better on a given day on a random golf . These guys all showed up knowing they had to shoot par or better to even have a chance, and they had to do it twice in one day. To even further that math, according to CoPilot, a 17 handicap has a .00000245% chance of shooting 83 or better in consecutive rounds.

Thats a pretty standard handicap for most golfers in America, and they are so astronomically far from the level of play these guys have to get to even have a chance to play in some of golf’s most prestigious events. It’s one of the reasons I love golf, anybody can play but the skill disparity between the elite players and even a scratch golfer are so vast, that everything you see on TV or in person at one of these pro events is legitimately breathtaking all things considered. And even with that, a lot of amateurs just slightly have better odds than the 17 handicap does of shooting their best round on back-to-back days, none the less in the same day.

Outside of golf I’ve watched this video 100 times since I first saw it

That is disgusting. Wakefield was awesome but there’s something about this dude’s knuckleball that just does not make sense. He’s hitting 80 and the ball is just zipping around the strike zone.

Short blog this week, Lab of Data Insights will have full breakdowns of the NBA and NHL Finals on Thursday so be on the look out for that piece.

Until next week,

TT