Denny McCarthy

We could use this space to celebrate Justin Thomas, the winner of the PGA Championship, or Matthew Fitzpatrick, the winner of the US Open, but instead we want to call attention to Denny McCarthy. Yes, that’s right: Denny McCarthy.

Denny McCarthy is 29 years old and has been around for a few years and while he hasn’t won yet, he’s knocking VERY LOUDLY on the door, with three recent top 10 finishes at the Memorial, The US Open, and the Deere Classic.

He was born and grew up in Tacoma Park, MD. While there’s a chance he was born into privilege, it’s unlikely. Tacoma Park is bordered by Flower Ave and Piney Branch Road. The entire area is encapsulated by check-cashing outfits, car washes, and discount furniture stores.

The nearest golf course is a short, cheap 9 hole course - Sligo Creek. Five (5) mins down 16th Street is Rock Creek Park Golf. There’s also Northwest Park, Needwood, and Falls Road, all muni courses he no doubt he cut his teeth on.

We don’t know McCarthy, nor do we know anyone who does. We have no idea what his character is like. He could be a homicidal maniac, for all we know. But we do know he played a lot of muni golf growing up so that’s good enough for us.

Denny - if you are looking for a golf hat that will put you over the top, you can find a nice selection here.

PGA Championship at Harding Park + Lydia Ko

Before we talk about the PGA Championship, which is about to enter its final round, we must pay tribute the Lydia Ko, a former #1, who has gone 44 tournaments without winning. Normally, we pull for the underdogs and as a former #1, Ko would not qualify as such, but with her multi-year slide into the abyss, she’s become someone we can root for.

At Harding Park, DJ has a 1 shot lead going into the final round, but there are 10+ players who are within striking distance of winning. While we are looking forward to a great final round, with lots of drama, we have to pull for Matthew Wolff for nothing more than his unique "forward press,” if that’s what you call it, and Joel Dahmen. When you look at Dahmen’s background and what he has had to overcome, it’s easy to root for him.

As an aside, it is noteworthy that Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas, who have traded places as respective #1’s the last few weeks, have struggled to keep it together at Harding Park. It shows you how even the best players in the world could do themselves a favor and don a KIT hat to brace themselves against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Mickelson's gum

Phil Mickelson kept it together and nailed down an improbable win at the PGA Championship played on the Ocean course at Kiawah Island, SC. he was a 600-1 underdog at the start of the tournament and rightly so. He hadn’t won a major in 8 years and had only won twice on the PGA tour in the past 7 years. It was a historic win and Mickelson now becomes the oldest major winner - at close to 51 years old - easily surpassing the previous standard bearer, Julius Boros, who won the PGA championship in 1968 at the age of 48.

But as remarkable as Phil’s win was - and it was - we are really mainly interested in the gum he chewed throughout the entire championship. It’s been long-rumored that CBD gum has become quite popular among some of the older Tour players. CBD provides an array of amazing benefits, pertaining to stress reduction, sleep, inflammation, digestion, pain management, and more. But to feel these benefits to the fullest, your body needs to be able to absorb as much CBD as possible into the bloodstream.

We know that Mickelson was chewing SOMETHING the entire tournament and assuming it was CBD gum and he popped his first piece on during a practice round leading up to the tournament start and continued chewing almost non-stop through Sunday, he likely was feeling pretty good by the time he began the back 9 on Sunday. It seemed there were several holes where Mickelson’s caddie - his brother, Tim - had to re-direct a seemingly out-of-it-Phil to the next tee box. At least, that is how it appeared to the viewing audience.

Chances are - given Phil’s age - in addition to CBD, there were some Metamucil chewables mixed in, along with a tincture or two of NUGENIX, though this is just speculation on our part and we have no basis for believing this to be the case.

Rather than exotic cocktails and supplements, golfers of any age can spend less than $40 and get a golf hat that will almost assuredly lower their scores. Check out these unique, play-enhancing, and score-lowering hats here.

Collin Morikawa and the game of inches...

He chips in at 14 and hits the “one for the ages” approach to 16, His opponents do the opposite. They do not get the breaks and their putts burn the edge and will not drop. Approach shots careen into greenside bunkers.

What is the difference? Why did Morikawa succeed where others failed?

We will never know but rest assured that Morikawa told himself more than once as he closed things out to “Keep it Together.”

Nice job, Collin! Now take down the Masters!.

Brooks Koepka, Jazz Janewattananond, Matt Wallace, and the 2019 PGA Championship

Going into the weekend, Brooks Koepka’s robotic takedown of Bethpage Black was on full display and another trophy seemed a foregone conclusion. There was speculation he could break Jason Day’s -20 under posted at the 2016 PGA Championship. Even though he merely held serve on Saturday, by the time he teed off on Sunday, he led by seven shots and everyone else was competing for 2nd place.

For most of his Sunday round, things appeared to be going according to script. Koepka moved through the front nine trouble-free with no outward sign that he was feeling any stress. No rapid eye blinking or involuntary winking; no bulging eyes or flaring of the nostrils; no clearing of the throat. There was nothing from Koepka. Just marched cool, calm and collected, from hole to hole, until he walked onto the 11th tee box, when his tournament began to turn from a coronation to a possible train wreck.

He bogeyed #11, #12, and was facing another bogey on #13, when we saw the first sign of serious trouble afoot. If you watch the video carefully, you can see Koepka aggressively rubbing his left eye while surveying his putt (a telling physical manifestation of the pressure he was now under; his left finger simultaneously digging and pushing his eyeball uncomfortably into its socket). He would bogey that hole, as well as #14.

After 4 straight bogeys, and with Dustin Johnson charging up from behind him, it looked as if Koepka was in serious jeopardy. Thankfully for Koepka, Dustin Johnson couldn’t maintain his momentum and was the first to crack, splaying shots all over #16 and #17. In the end, and much to Koepka’s credit, he made a beautiful chip shot, under enormous pressure, to ten feet of the pin on 18 and would make the par putt to close things out.

While the 2019 PGA Championship is now in the brooks, there was another story line worth mentioning.

Ever heard of Jazz Janewattananond? Most of the golf world had not. Well, it turns out a “Jazz Janewattananond” is a 23 year old, 5’9” 150 lb force of nature from Thailand, who attacked Bethpage with abandon. Where did he come from, and how is it that he was in 2nd place after three rounds of a golf major? It is an interesting story, to say the least.

Janewattananond turned pro in 2010 and for the next 6 years struggled to find his footing playing on both the Asian and European tours. Perhaps feeling frustrated with how he was playing and lack of results, he decided to walk away from golf after the 2016 season and, get this - join the monkhood!

Janewattananond credits the two weeks he spent as a disciple of Phra Maha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi, as restoring his mindset and approach to golf. And shortly after this experience and his re-emergence Janewattananond began to win. ““I learned from him that happiness is the greatest thing in life,” Janewattanananond told Thai media in 2017. “Before that, golf was everything to me, and it gave me so much pressure during competition. I have been competing with less pressure ever since and starting getting better results.” A lesson all of us can take to heart.

Given his recent “conversion” and embrace of Buddhism, we plan to send Janewattananond a “Birddha” hat in celebration of his recent success. We may send Dustin Johnson one, as well.

Lastly, we would be remiss if we didn’t tip our cap to Matt Wallace, a member of the European Tour, who has managed to make a outrageous amount of money in 2019 in just two tournaments - his performance at Bayhill and thIs tournament. As a result, his world golf ranking has sky rocketed.