Golfers from other sports – These are the Top 9 from the NBA!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
As a professional golfer, I am fortunate to meet and sometimes play golf with stars from other sports.
The thing I notice almost immediately is their attention to detail.
They have learned how important this is in their own sport, and it automatically carries over to golf. Of the NHL, MLB, and NBA players I’ve met and played with, the NBA seems to me to be better golfers as a group. (maybe they get to play more, I don’t know) It would be fun to have an outing of 10 of the best players from each professional sport and see who comes out on top!
Golfers from other sports – These are the Top 9 from the NBA!
Here are the nine NBA players who’ve used their offseasons – and probably many of their off days during the season – most successfully to hone their golf games:
Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
Curry made his first tournament appearance over the summer at his family’s Curry Celebrity Classic, then he tied for fourth at the American Century Championship, the annual celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. He actually sat atop the leaderboard after the second round, but posted a 3-over-par 75 on the last day to fall back. Still, he was the top active athlete, and improved from his T-28 finish in 2010. Curry says he has a two handicap, aided by three years on his high school golf team.
Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry watches ball after making a shot in the Johnny Miller Pro-Am, at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. The event is part of the Frys.com Open golf tournament. (John Green/Bay Area News Group)
Ray Allen, Free Agent
The two-time NBA Champion and 10-time NBA All-Star puts on a golf tourney benefiting the Ray of Hope Foundation every year, is a regular in the annual Lake Tahoe celebrity event (37th in 2013, T23 in 2011) and was ranked as the top current NBA player in Golf Digest’s 2009 list of top athlete golfers.
Kyle Korver, Atlanta Hawks
Also known to host golf tournaments for his Kyle Korver Foundation, Korver’s handicap has been reported to be anywhere from five to eight.
Deron Williams, Dallas Mavericks
Williams is also a regular in Lake Tahoe, where he debuted in 2011 and tied for 46th overall, second among active NBA players behind Allen. He says he’s dabbled in golf for only six years, but has about an eight handicap.
Woods and Mickelson are still the Top Brands in any Sport!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The latest Forbes Magazine release of their “Fab 40” top athletic brands has Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as #1 and #2!
That is impressive when you see the names on the list. It is a veritable compilation of who’s who in the field of individual sport! Thanks to back9network.com and Chris Chaney of Wrong Fairway for sharing this story!
LeBron James, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt, Kevin Durant and Cristiano Ronaldo. What do all five of those global superstars have in common? Their “brands” aren’t as valuable as Tiger Woods’ or Phil Mickelson’s, according to Forbes.
The business magazine released its annual “Fab 40: The Most Valuable Athlete Brands” and Woods and Mickelson came in first and second, respectively, although this list is one time we doubt Phil cares about coming in second. Rory McIlroy came in ninth among the 10 individual athletes featured. Forbes defines an athlete’s brand value as “their endorsement income, less the average endorsement income of the top 10 athletes in same the sport.”
Mixed messages on playing golf in China – Yes or No!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The Communist Party put a ban on 88 million members in China from joining golf clubs.
No explanation!
Back in March, I posted a story about the Chinese government closing down 66 golf courses. (There are approximately 600 golf courses in China.) They also denied government employees the right to golf during work hours, they are forbidden to bet on golf, to hold positions on golf club boards, or to play golf with anyone whose business related to the employees’ line of work.
It is believed that President Xi Jinping fears that corruption can result from business deals done on the course. And golf bets may result in collusion with unsavory characters and illegal activities, all of which go against the high ideals of the Communist party.
But wait! This country hosts PGA Tour events and Chinese players compete on the LPGA Tour and the OneAsia Tour, while golf courses and academies continue to open.
In March, Tiger Woods traveled to China, at the behest of the government, to give clinics to spark local interest in the game and to inspire young athletes.
Female Caddies are the norm in China.
This is one heck of a mixed message about golf in China!
It seems as if the President realizes that he can’t completely shut down golf as it is a significant source of income and it also enables the country to compete, sports-wise, with the world. Nothing makes the Chinese happier than to beat other nations at the Olympics and other international competitions.
Can you imagine if your government suddenly decided to shut down courses and to ban you from playing golf?
Which Young Stars are Ready to Make a Name in 2016?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Who is ready to make a big splash in 2016?
2015 was an unbelievable year for Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, and Jason Day. There are several young stars standing in the wings, looking for their chance to shine in 2016! I really like Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger. Two who I will have my eye on in the coming season. Thanks to Joe Steigmeyer reporting for bleacherreport.com for putting this list together!
When it comes to ranking PGA Tour golfers set to have a breakout year in 2016, there are a lot of candidates. And even more criteria.
On one hand, Rickie Fowler or Jordan Spieth’s respective 2015 campaigns could be considered models for breakouts of the highest order. On the other hand, a young player who triples his career best in top-10 finishes at big tournaments could also be considered a breakout, albeit in a less glamorous sense.
For this list, we focus on players who are primed to become regulars near the top of the leaderboard and who can be expected challenge for multiple titles during 2016. They got their feet wet, put together at least one solid year of full-time tour action and showed us they’re ready to take the next step.
But which players are looking most likely to become breakout players in 2016? Will Brooks Koepka make an even bigger splash at the majors next season? Will he perform better than Danny Lee and Daniel Berger, who both topped him on the FedEx Cup leaderboard in 2015?
But before we rank the top contenders, let’s first look at the players who just missed the cut.
Which Young Stars are Ready to Make a Name in 2016?
6. Kevin Kisner
World golf rank: 34
FedEx Cup finish: 21
Kevin Kisner has been around for a while—he turned pro in 2006 and made his first PGA Tour cut in 2011—but 2015 was the first year that could actually be considered the precursor to a potential breakout season.
Before this past season, Kisner never had a podium finish. Now he has three, and they’re all from tournaments that boasted strong fields. Kisner claimed second place at the RBC Heritage, second at the Players Championship and yet another runner-up medal at the Greenbrier Classic—all three in playoffs.
Overall, the 31-year-old doubled his record for most top-10 finishes in one year, earning six in 2015, and nearly quadrupled his personal record for earnings in one season. Add to that the fact that he survived through the entire FedEx Cup playoffs with respectable finishes at all four events (including a tie for 12th at the Deutsche Bank Championship), and it’s clear Kisner is close to a major breakthrough.
Which Young Stars are Ready to Make a Name in 2016?
5. Justin Thomas
World golf rank: 75
FedEx Cup finish: 32
The 22-year-old from Kentucky has been slowly but surely climbing into serious tour discussions—and 2015 was the year he made his biggest jump to date.
Thomas made seven PGA starts in 2014 (making three cuts) as a modest prelude to the 30 events he played this past season. Of those 30, he made 23 cuts—a 77 percent success rate—and earned 15 top-25 finishes.
Among his most impressive results in 2015 were a tie for fourth at the Quicken Loans National, a tie for fifth at the John Deere Classic, a tie for seventh at the Wells Fargo Championship and a tie for 13th at the BMW Championship.
Thomas only entered one major championship (the PGA). But he turned in a more-than-respectable tie-for-18th-place finish, suggesting there’s hope for more major involvement in the near future.
And as far as metrics are concerned, it’s always a nice confidence booster for a young player to see his earnings increase by more than $2 million from 2014 to 2015.
Rich Beem helps Poulter try to qualify for the Ryder Cup Team!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing!
On the one hand, Ian Poulter is a feisty Ryder Cup competitor who seems to raise his game on Ryder Cup week and would be a formidable opponent for the European team. On the other hand, Poulter has been in poor form recently, and if he does not make the team but makes it as a captain’s pick, he would be the weakest link on the team. A good thing for the US, looking for an elusive victory!
Less than a year out from the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, the United States nearly avoided having to worry about the eye-bulging stares of Ian Poulter.
Not unlike the scheduling snafu that precipitated Martin Kaymer’s loss of PGA Tour status for the 2015-16 season, Poulter found out on Monday, Oct. 19 that he had fallen outside of the Official World Golf Ranking’s top-50 for the first time since September 2006.
No big deal, right? Wrong.
Like many global stars of the game, Poulter holds membership on both the PGA and European Tours and is forced to set a schedule that requires he play in 15 PGA Tour-sanctioned events and 13 European Tour-sanctioned events. Spending the majority of his time stateside, Poulter played in 19 PGA Tour events and, prior to this week, 12 European Tour events. The requirements have their advantages and disadvantages as major championships and World Golf Championships are co-sanctioned events, thus limiting the number of starts players need to make on each Tour — four majors and four WGCs already mark off eight events on each circuit.
However, to qualify for each WGC including the HSBC Champions, which will be contested Nov. 4-8, one needs to fall into a certain category of winners, be a top finisher in an end-of-season series (FedEx Cup, Race to Dubai) or rank in the top-50 of the OWGR. With Poulter outside the top-50 and just 12 events to his credit on the European Tour, the Englishman was thrust into scramble mode, not only to maintain his European Tour card, but also to be eligible for the 2016 Ryder Cup.
Dottie Pepper – a great choice to replace Feherty on CBS.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Former LPGA Player Dottie Pepper was the most prominent female golf analyst at NBC Sports from 2004 until 2012. She had also done spots for ESPN.
Pepper was recently hired to replace David Feherty as an on-course reporter for CBS for the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season.
This is a great move, in my opinion. As CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus says “… Dottie is one of the most respected and insightful analysts in golf. She has played and covered the sport at its highest levels and her reputation, contacts, and relationships are outstanding.”
Pepper won 17 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, including 2 majors. One of my favorite memories of Dottie was seeing her play on the Solheim Cup team. I don’t believe there’s ever been a more emotional player in golf. She was an absolute lightening rod who amped up the American players every day!
Dottie Pepper has had a long, great career as a player and broadcaster. (Getty Images)
Dottie Pepper has been hired to replace David Feherty as an on-course reporter for CBS for the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. It’s a good get by CBS and, as someone who watches an absurd amount of golf, one I’m looking forward to.
Pepper is straight pro and loads of fun to listen to.
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus agrees with me.
“Dottie is one of the most respected and insightful analysts in golf,” said McManus. “She has played and covered the sport at its highest levels and her reputation, contacts and relationships within the game are outstanding. We have the strongest ensemble of voices in golf, and the addition of Dottie to our team makes us even stronger and deeper.”
I did a Q&A with Pepper recently to discuss her new job.
What are you most excited about?
“First and foremost is getting back into the live golf arena on a regular basis. It’s mostly live golf and the events CBS covers. You’re talking about two major championships, they’re events that matter. They matter a lot. That was the biggest thing for me.”
Sang-Moon Bae should play for S Korea in the 2016 Olympics!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
It was poignant watching the South Korean Pro golfer, Sang-Moon Bae, compete in the Presidents Cup in his native country.
Bae has won 2 tournaments on the PGA Tour and has earned over $5 million. He has also won several tournaments on the Asian and Japan Golf Tours. Bae has his green card to work in the USA, but he did not change his citizenship as other Korean players did. South Korea has a mandatory military service of 2 years for all males aged 18-35 years, and Sang-Moon has been ordered to report for duty!
Earlier this year, Sang-Moon fought his government in court for an extension to his travel visa and avoided a 2-year interruption in a career that is continuing to be very successful. He lost his appeal!
I can’t believe that South Korea won’t back down on this decision, which means that their country’s star golfer will not represent them on the big stage at the 2016 Olympics.
Here’s my suggestion to the S Korean Government. (like they would listen)
“Why punish an S Korean citizen who decided to keep his loyalty to his country instead of becoming an American Citizen like the rest of the S Koreans who wanted to avoid military training? Let him represent his country on the PGA Tour and in the 2016 Olympic Games, and bring pride and honor to his country.”
Check out this video of highlights on Sang-Moon Bae’s first victory at the Frys.com Open. A title he will not be able to defend in October 2015.
A court ruling Wednesday in South Korea eventually will force the two-time winner off the PGA Tour and into a mandated two-year military service in his native country.
“I am sorry to those who have supported me, including all my fans and South Koreans, for causing anxiety,”
Bae told the Yonhap News Agency. “I completely respect the court’s decision, and I humbly accept the judgment by the law.”
The news does not come as a complete surprise for Bae. South Korean men between the ages of 18 and 35 years must complete two years of military service because the country technically remains at war with North Korea.
The 29-year-old Bae was charged in February with violating that rule by not securing an extension that permits overseas travel. A United States resident since 2013, Bae challenged that decision in court, saying he didn’t qualify as an overseas resident because he hadn’t spent enough time outside of South Korea in 2014.
On Wednesday, a court in Bae’s home city of Daegu sided with the Military Manpower Administration of South Korea, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Brandel Chamblee on the Golf Channel talking Presidents Cup!
When Brandel Chamblee first came to the Golf Channel I enjoyed his fresh approach to the commentary and his insights as a former player.
But as he went along, his ego became bigger and bigger and now he thinks he is the expert in everything, including who will and will not be a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup captain.
This by a man who has only won once on the PGA Tour! Best finish in the Masters T18 (the only time he was invited) US Open T44, British Open T62, and PGA Championship played 4 times, missed the cut 4 times! And yet according to an article by Luke Kerr-Dineen writing for USA Today Brandel is saying Tiger (and Phil) do not deserve to EVER be Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup Captains! Wow, what a HUGE put-down of two of golf’s best from someone who has no resume to speak of compared to the two players he is putting down.
Reports emerged during the Presidents Cup last week that Tiger Woods, who looks unlikely to make next year’s Ryder Cup team, expressed interest in becoming an assistant captain at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
According to Golf Digest: “[Woods] was talking about all the things he thought we needed to do, and he had a lot of ideas …”
Love said the next task for him is naming assistant captains. Woods is a candidate, among many, if he doesn’t qualify for the U.S. team. “But we’re not waiting around for that. We’ve already been doing a lot of planning,”
Love said. “And Tiger is just as interested as the rest of us to get going.”
So, Tiger wants to be an assistant captain next year if he doesn’t make the team? Probably a good idea. But not according to Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee.
Chamblee said that both Tiger and Phil Mickelson don’t “deserve” the roles because: “I don’t really think it’s appropriate to give players leadership roles in an event they didn’t show interest or passion for when they were competitors.”
It’s hardly surprising given that Chamblee generally rips Tiger whenever he can. On Tiger specifically, Chamblee said that the former World No. 1 doesn’t deserve to be a captain because he didn’t show “interest or passion” in the competition earlier in his career. If he had, Chamblee claims, Tiger would have finished with a record better than his current 13-17-3 career Ryder Cup record.
Super Bowl QB gets it – Not football – Golf Course Management!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Former Super Bowl QB Ron Jaworski has a Super Bowl Ring!
But I think he is even more proud of the 6 golf courses he owns and manages in both PA and NJ. Ron is an entrepreneur who sees an opportunity and takes it. He has owned, sold (at a huge profit), and bought again, all the time taking advantage of the booming or failing economy! Sounds like Donald Trump! Thanks to fortune.com for this interesting article.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski gets ready to hand off the ball during a game against the Washington Redskins.
For those familiarwith Ron Jaworski’s exuberant, wonkish analysis on ESPN’s NFL programming, it is easy to imagine his having been an insatiable game-film connoisseur in his playing days. Yet the quarterback spent his in-season off days more concerned with par 3s than third downs, his 18-hole escapes as important to his recovery as his time in the trainer’s room.
“I was away from the media, away from fans, away from talking about the game,” Jaworski says of his golf outings. “It was where I would recharge my batteries.”
Blue Heron Pines Golf Club
The man known as Jaws explains this while seated in a conference room at Blue Heron Pines Golf Club in Egg Harbor City, N.J.
Embroidered on his orange polo shirt are the words “Ron Jaworski Golf.” Both wardrobe and setting are reminders that Jaworski’s former refuge from work nowis his work. With six courses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey (including Blue Heron Pines), Jaworski has employed the doggedness and eye for detail that characterize his TV scouting to turn a favorite hobby into three-plus decades of business success.
“It’s like he’s still a quarterback reading the field,” says Ken Kochenour, Jaworski’s partner on five of his courses. “He sees stuff other people don’t see.” Sometimes that means adding an alternate tee, or trimming trees to open up the fairway, in the service of playability. That’s one of Jaworski’s central tenets, along with affordability (his courses charge less than $100 per round, even during weekend peaks), atmosphere (each features a sports bar), and a quick pace of play (which his rangers are not reluctant to enforce).
Other times it means spotting savings opportunities.
Ron Jaworski Golf relies on economy of scale, purchasing everything from fertilizer to clubhouse food in bulk to be split among locations. This spring, after his purchase of Downingtown (Pa.) Country Club, Jaworski mobilized employees from his other courses to redo its shoddy sand traps. What would have cost upwards of $110,000 through a contractor was done for $18,000.
Downingtown Country Club.
“It’s like he’s still a quarterback reading the field. He sees stuff [on his golf courses] other people don’t see.”—Ken Kochenour
In golf, “your margins are tight and it can be thankless,” says Charlie Clarke, superintendent at Blue Heron Pines and a longtime Jaworski employee. But Jaworski says each of his courses pulls in six-figure annual profits. “I have never lost money on a golf course,” he says, knocking on the wooden table. “I say that proudly because I know a lot of people can’t.”
Jaworski’s loveof the links dates to his childhood in Lackawanna, N.Y.
The son of a worker at a local Bethlehem Steel mill, Jaws was no country-club kid. But around age 9, he and his friends began sneaking onto the grounds of a public nine-hole course near their grade school to play scofflaw rounds, and Jaworski was smitten.
At 22, in 1973, Jaworski bought his first set of real clubs. By then he was a hotshot second-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams, and he put those Wilson Staffs to frequent use. But he was painfully aware of how short an NFL career could be. “I was scared to death of the future,” he says. In 1977 he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, where he found stability on and off the field. Coach Dick Vermeil installed Jaworski as starting quarterback. And in ’79, the off-season before he led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl, Jaworski and a teammate took over operations at a nearby golf course. An experience he enjoyed enough to begin envisioning his second career.
Hottest Gadgets – A Cool golf app keeps track of your golf bets!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
If you like having a small wager while you play golf with your friends.
It is sometimes tough to try and keep score, focus on your game, and keeps track of the bets all at the same time. Enter – Golf Money! Golf Money is a cool golf app that allows you to set up the game before you tee off, then all you have to do is enter the scores on each hole, and at the end of the round, wallah, you have a total of who won and who lost. And you cannot argue with an app now, can you?
Until recently, keeping track of your golfing wagers has really been (to be polite) quite difficult – until now. Introducing the best app to keep track of your “gentleman’s” wagers – Golf Money.
This is a pretty cool app.
The first thing that caught my eye about it was the beautiful UI (user interface). I come from a design background so I really appreciated all the beautiful details, colors, textures (love the leather texture!) that the makers put into this app. It’s a hard app not to want to go back to just because it looks (and feels) cool. Out of 10 stars (10 being the best), I give the UI a solid 9.
What does it do and how might it be useful to me? Good questions! It’s basically an app that keeps track of your golf bets and it’s useful because the app basically does everything for you. It assists you in adding players, handicaps, hole handicaps, bet options (Points/Nassau) and even seeing reports of your wagers over time.
That’s easy to say in theory but what happens when you put it to the test on the course?
Well, that’s exactly what I did!
I wanted to try to set a friendly Nassau* bet in our foursome. First, I had to do was to set up a new bet in the app. Then I set the course – Crumpin Fox Golf Club and the course (per hole) handicap.
Next, you set the players (and their handicaps) which I initially set up in the “Friends” tab at the bottom of the app. Then you select the match structure. For example, if it’s teams (me and my partner versus you and your partner), or is it everyone versus everyone.
Then you set the “Bet Options” (see top image – right screen). You can set it to Nassau, points, or both. I set mine like the above image to – Nassau and then entered the bet amount. Then you just enter scores (see scorecard below) and you are off and running. The app does the math and record-keeping for you!
Here are the nine NBA players who’ve used their offseasons – and probably many of their off days during the season – most successfully to hone their golf games:
LeBron James, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt, Kevin Durant and Cristiano Ronaldo. What do all five of those global superstars have in common? Their “brands” aren’t as valuable as Tiger Woods’ or Phil Mickelson’s, according to 
