cliftonparksufan
Iggy Award Czar/Co 2020-21 Iggy Award Winner PPG
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Finally won some money on Hovland today after he let me down at Oak Hill. Definitely turning into one of my favorites.
2023 PGA Tour
- Thread starter OrangeXtreme
- Start date
syrBossHogg
Living Legend
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I'm curious to see how big of a confidence booster this will be. He's been so close in the majors but hasn't put it all together yet.
cliftonparksufan
Iggy Award Czar/Co 2020-21 Iggy Award Winner PPG
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It's so difficult to win the majors and the elevated events. The fields are so stack with great players. One bad hole and you can be finished. McCarthy played somewhat conservative with ten straight pars before his bogey on 18. Meanwhile, Hovland had four birdies on the back nine.
Hovland might have learned his lesson and remembered how to win. Maybe next time Denny McCarthy plays it a little different when he's in the same position.
UpstateSM
First to Surmise Dakota Leffew Would Be Orange
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He is awesome
kirbivore
2019 Cali Award (Passing Yards)
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Still looked better that the pilled up Tiger Woods two days before his drug assisted crash.
cliftonparksufan
Iggy Award Czar/Co 2020-21 Iggy Award Winner PPG
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RBC Canadian Open. This morning, I put money on two Canadians, Corey Connors (+1400) and Adam Hadwin (+4500). No jinx for CC as he opened up with a nice -5 round. Hadwin playing this afternoon.
jncuse
I brought the Cocaine to the White House
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Went to the Canadian Open in Toronto on Thursday. Debated whether I should support the event or not given how the Tour treats the status of the event. In the end I did - went to Toronto for a few days watch the open and went to a few ball games.
Highlights / The Good / Amusing Things
The Course I lived in Toronto for many years and this was never noted as one of the top "private courses" in the city. Never in Canada top 100 courses. Honestly had never really heard much about it until they announced the Open would be there in 2023 and 2026.
I would say the course was much better than I expected. It seems like a valid PGA tour course which was my concern. They have 27 holes, so they were able to remove some of their weaker holes. It's a solid layout (not elite) but fairly good. A lot more valleys than I expected in that part of the city -- many elevated greens that can be tricky with a few mild false fronts. The rough was long -- Graham Delaet said the rough may have been a bit longer than the PGA at Oak Hill - obviously the rest of the course was not as difficult.
That being said there were some holes that the driver was taking out of play, because of short fairways, narrow fairways at longer yardages. Can be viewed as a good or bad thing.
Corey Connors - Was able to follow about 5 holes of his last 9 (didn't arrive for his first 9). Crows were fairly big around him, but much smaller than the Rory groups.
Rory Drive on 7: Not a highlight for Rory, but a highlight for me. but his drive on 7 was about 50 yards crooked and he was in some nasty crap. I was close enough to where the ball landed - so i was one of the first 5 people to get at the ball. It was interesting to be about 5 feet away as Rory arrived and he (and caddy) tried to figure out what the heck to do.
Crowd - Always good crowds at the Canadian Open despite getting shafted on the field.
Thank you Europeans - Of the few top 30 players that came many were Euro's - Mcilroy, Fitzpatrick, Hatton, Fleetwood, Rose. That was a positive for an otherwise shaky field that did not have many top Americans. (Burns, Young and Theegala were probably
Kramer Hickok Drive on 15, sliced about 100 yards offline - More of an amusing thing as it also involved his wife. I was just walking a few holes at the end seeing some no names. I ended up following the obscure group of Kevin Stadler, Paul Haley (I think) and Kramer Hickok for #14 and #15 - who had a group of maybe 10 people following them down 15. I get ahead of the group as they tee off on #15, so that I am near the driving land area by the time Hickok hits. He hits a massive slice, that not only misses the 15th fairway, but crosses past the ajacent 16th fairway as wall. The ball markers do not see where the ball land. Some female fan starts giving directions to the ball markers where to go, as she was the only one that saw where it landed. It ended up being Hickok's wife - she said she had never seen him a ball so offline before.
As I did the rest of the hole it was interesting to see how she followed her husband. She always went well ahead ahead of him / or stayed in the shadows. She always moved towards his landing spots rather than being close to him when he hit.. or when he putt sort of went beside a tree far enough from the green. Never wanted to get too close.
She also wore some tight pants that showed some certain aspects of herself quite well ... not that I look at that type of stuff.
Highlights / The Good / Amusing Things
The Course I lived in Toronto for many years and this was never noted as one of the top "private courses" in the city. Never in Canada top 100 courses. Honestly had never really heard much about it until they announced the Open would be there in 2023 and 2026.
I would say the course was much better than I expected. It seems like a valid PGA tour course which was my concern. They have 27 holes, so they were able to remove some of their weaker holes. It's a solid layout (not elite) but fairly good. A lot more valleys than I expected in that part of the city -- many elevated greens that can be tricky with a few mild false fronts. The rough was long -- Graham Delaet said the rough may have been a bit longer than the PGA at Oak Hill - obviously the rest of the course was not as difficult.
That being said there were some holes that the driver was taking out of play, because of short fairways, narrow fairways at longer yardages. Can be viewed as a good or bad thing.
Corey Connors - Was able to follow about 5 holes of his last 9 (didn't arrive for his first 9). Crows were fairly big around him, but much smaller than the Rory groups.
Rory Drive on 7: Not a highlight for Rory, but a highlight for me. but his drive on 7 was about 50 yards crooked and he was in some nasty crap. I was close enough to where the ball landed - so i was one of the first 5 people to get at the ball. It was interesting to be about 5 feet away as Rory arrived and he (and caddy) tried to figure out what the heck to do.
Crowd - Always good crowds at the Canadian Open despite getting shafted on the field.
Thank you Europeans - Of the few top 30 players that came many were Euro's - Mcilroy, Fitzpatrick, Hatton, Fleetwood, Rose. That was a positive for an otherwise shaky field that did not have many top Americans. (Burns, Young and Theegala were probably
Kramer Hickok Drive on 15, sliced about 100 yards offline - More of an amusing thing as it also involved his wife. I was just walking a few holes at the end seeing some no names. I ended up following the obscure group of Kevin Stadler, Paul Haley (I think) and Kramer Hickok for #14 and #15 - who had a group of maybe 10 people following them down 15. I get ahead of the group as they tee off on #15, so that I am near the driving land area by the time Hickok hits. He hits a massive slice, that not only misses the 15th fairway, but crosses past the ajacent 16th fairway as wall. The ball markers do not see where the ball land. Some female fan starts giving directions to the ball markers where to go, as she was the only one that saw where it landed. It ended up being Hickok's wife - she said she had never seen him a ball so offline before.
As I did the rest of the hole it was interesting to see how she followed her husband. She always went well ahead ahead of him / or stayed in the shadows. She always moved towards his landing spots rather than being close to him when he hit.. or when he putt sort of went beside a tree far enough from the green. Never wanted to get too close.
She also wore some tight pants that showed some certain aspects of herself quite well ... not that I look at that type of stuff.
jncuse
I brought the Cocaine to the White House
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Lowlights / The Bad (man
More organizational issues than anything.
Field - I have complained enough above about how the placement of Hartford as a designated event really screwed up the field.
Pricing
Pricing is way higher despite the relative demotion in term of the event's status and resulting weakened fireld.
$110 (2023) vs $90 (2022). It also went all the way up to $140 on Friday as they had a Black Eyed Peas concert that day. In prior years concerts were an enticement to go those days (fridays) and there was no additional price
Parking - $35 (2023) vs $20 (2022).
Bratwurst + Bottle of Nestea for Lunch - $23 (includes mandatory 15% tip)
The $20 18th Hole "General Admission" Grandstand
There are only 3 grandstands for general admission on the course. One of them you needed to pay $20 to use. (A lot of corporate or VIP seating which is fine)
OK, that makes sense on Saturday and a Sunday --maybe. But on a Thursday and Friday, when there is no real extra meaning to the 18th hole, its idiotic to charge people to sit there. I saw one or two people in the stands every time I passed by.
Parking
On the good side, they had people accepting payments electronically vs none last year when it was a crap show for some people.
It was a traffic jam to get into the parking lot (15-20 minutes) and took a further 30 minutes to then get on the bus, wait for it to leave, and get to the course.
That is a significant time delay.
On the way out there was zero security or personnel directing where to lineup for the shuttle buses. The line was long, and some people were just walking to the front line... and too many nice canadians didn't tell them to "**** off" including me.
In my bus they let in about 6 people too many, who had to stand on a bus that doesn't really accomodate standing.
Shortage of Parking (Friday-Sunday)
On Thursday night, they tweeted that unless you bought pre-paid parking, you were crap out of luck for parking on Friday-Sunday. How could they not plan for enough parking spots?
So if you did not have a parking pass (and only planned to buy day off), you then risked driving to the lot and being told to turn around, and then basically fend for yourself to find a way to get the course.
The course is not that close to any subway stations.
Leading everybody down to the Retail Area on Entrance
Most PGA events I go to are scattered on entrance with multiple options to start your day. Instead they led everybody down to one area (you entered on the first hole), that forced you to go through the retail area as you entered the course. It would have been great to be able to enter somewhere else and see more holes that way. Not fan friendly at all/
More organizational issues than anything.
Field - I have complained enough above about how the placement of Hartford as a designated event really screwed up the field.
Pricing
Pricing is way higher despite the relative demotion in term of the event's status and resulting weakened fireld.
$110 (2023) vs $90 (2022). It also went all the way up to $140 on Friday as they had a Black Eyed Peas concert that day. In prior years concerts were an enticement to go those days (fridays) and there was no additional price
Parking - $35 (2023) vs $20 (2022).
Bratwurst + Bottle of Nestea for Lunch - $23 (includes mandatory 15% tip)
The $20 18th Hole "General Admission" Grandstand
There are only 3 grandstands for general admission on the course. One of them you needed to pay $20 to use. (A lot of corporate or VIP seating which is fine)
OK, that makes sense on Saturday and a Sunday --maybe. But on a Thursday and Friday, when there is no real extra meaning to the 18th hole, its idiotic to charge people to sit there. I saw one or two people in the stands every time I passed by.
Parking
On the good side, they had people accepting payments electronically vs none last year when it was a crap show for some people.
It was a traffic jam to get into the parking lot (15-20 minutes) and took a further 30 minutes to then get on the bus, wait for it to leave, and get to the course.
That is a significant time delay.
On the way out there was zero security or personnel directing where to lineup for the shuttle buses. The line was long, and some people were just walking to the front line... and too many nice canadians didn't tell them to "**** off" including me.
In my bus they let in about 6 people too many, who had to stand on a bus that doesn't really accomodate standing.
Shortage of Parking (Friday-Sunday)
On Thursday night, they tweeted that unless you bought pre-paid parking, you were crap out of luck for parking on Friday-Sunday. How could they not plan for enough parking spots?
So if you did not have a parking pass (and only planned to buy day off), you then risked driving to the lot and being told to turn around, and then basically fend for yourself to find a way to get the course.
The course is not that close to any subway stations.
Leading everybody down to the Retail Area on Entrance
Most PGA events I go to are scattered on entrance with multiple options to start your day. Instead they led everybody down to one area (you entered on the first hole), that forced you to go through the retail area as you entered the course. It would have been great to be able to enter somewhere else and see more holes that way. Not fan friendly at all/
jncuse
I brought the Cocaine to the White House
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Before getting to specifics its possible the PGA will fix the new issue that arose in 2023 moving forward, as they had to rush into a designated schedule format. And as you will see below there are some other dates during July they can give Canada. My suggestion is that if they still want to designate Harford, they should move that event to July. I just don't trust the PGA when it comes to this.
The date that we have now (which has existed since about 2018) was fine until 2022. We have had that date since they made schedule changes to move the PGA Championship.
It was a good date before this year - the week before the US open, and players that did not want to play 4 times in 4 weeks could choose between the Canadian Open and the Hartford Open.
Now they all choose the Hartford Open as it was designated - that is my issue - why was the Hartford Open designated? I'm not even suggesting that the Canadian Open should have been designated above it. But designating Canada or designating neither would have made much more sense.
Now in the span of 4 weeks you have A Designated Event. The Canadian Open, the US Open, and then a designated event. Players don't like doing 4 events in 4 weeks.
All of the following would have been better for Canadian Open if you insist on designating Hartford -- June 29, July 6, July 27.
It reminds me of the killer place we were on the schedule prior to 2018 - the week after the British, and in the middle of 3 big events. John Deere had much better spot on the schedule for example.
British Open
Canadian Open
World Championship (Firestone)
PGA Championship
Last edited:
UpstateSM
First to Surmise Dakota Leffew Would Be Orange
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Nevermind Taylor is going to win with the horseshoe up his azz
Symphony Steve
All American
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This is SO MUCH FUN! Ryder Cup feel, indeed.
PoppyHart
All American
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Played like a complete wuss over the last 5 holes.
