Fizzer. Good on Harman, he made it very boring. But that was one very forgettable Open.
Apparently Gulf Harbour golf club is closing. Had a lot of fun playing there circa 2000.
It was a lovely golf course to play. I used to enjoy Formosa as well, but that's gone too
Actually it's not gone. Formosa is still operating and whilst a whole lot better than it was 10 years ago, its still a shadow of its former prime time self.
Both courses turned up around the same time from memory and have struggled through the majority of their life span.
Gulf Harbours had a number of owners and the current one is a property developer who purchased GHCC a couple of years back with only one real plan, and it doesn't include golf. I've never been particularly fond of the track but still a real shame to lose it.
@barbarian said in Golf:
Fizzer. Good on Harman, he made it very boring. But that was one very forgettable Open.
Sure was eh. I was pumped for it and watched a fair bit but left a bit disappointed.
Not my dad though, who had a sweat $10 on Harman at $126. The jammy bugger!
@JK I only played there once, and was Ambrose.
NZ is pretty blessed with plenty of quality golf courses and most are reasonably priced, I am not sure what costs were exactly at GHCC, but from what I gather were not cheap, even by Auckland standards, and when the course isnt top notch, not sure you are gonna get much traction.
Its a great ambrose course - particularly with carts.
Well, up until this current owner changed the management team out and started running it purposely as a loss, it made money, and enough to cover costs etc. Unfortunately not enough to fund a desperately needed clubhouse upgrade, but that was far from a priority of the current owner anyway.
Last year green fees were $180 to $200 for a non-affiliate and $130 for an affiliate, but came down more recently. Hard to justify paying that when like you say its not in top notch, or anywhere near it.
1 month later
@taniwharugby not bad at all. To come back after that triple bogey and play the way he did was nothing short of amazing and to beat a field that had the whole European Ryder Cup team playing!
The significance of this win is huge for him. Will pretty much guarantee him a PGA Tour Card for 2024
So good. That recovery shot on 15 was just madness. Amazing resilience after that early triple!
10 days later
Ryder Cup day 2, and the US are getting totally pumped. I don't know what's going on, but it might be over today
Hovland and Aberg just won 9&7. Biggest win ever in the Ryder Cup. Won 9 of 11 holes and halved 2. Against Scheffler & Koepka. Ridiculous
What an incredible turn around in 2 years. Scheffler looked broken after that this morning. Then Cantlay basically fell apart on 16 and 17 greens to hand the match to Rahm and Hatton.
US mounting a comeback in the afternoon matches. Comfortably up in two matches, down 1 in each of the other two with plenty of holes to play. If they want to give themselves any chance of getting close enough to compete tomorrow I think they have to win all 4 matches. Spieth has been ice cold in all his matches so far, and he's continued to be a burden to Thomas. If they had an alternative option I think the US should have played them
Great comeback by Team USA this afternoon, although Team Europe still well ahead and only need 4 out of a possible 12 points tomorrow to retake the Ryder Cup.
But the momentum is with the Yanks and all to play for heading into what has been yet again a wonderful spectacle.
@Dodge apparently there are some issues in the team with Patrick Cantalay leading a protest about not being paid...slowest fluffybunny in the game will no doubt get his point across, eventually.
Rory pissed about something
Every now and then, one of the Seppos comes out with the “we should be paid” thing. Two issues here; firstly you don’t HAVE to play, just decline. Secondly, just how much fucking money do you want?
You know what, just fuck off.
@Catogrande bet he asked to paid by the hour...
@Catogrande said in Golf:
Every now and then, one of the Seppos comes out with the “we should be paid” thing. Two issues here; firstly you don’t HAVE to play, just decline. Secondly, just how much fucking money do you want?
You know what, just fuck off.
I notice some of the US players are not wearing caps on the final day. Is this some form of protest, or do they just enjoy playing with the sun in their eyes?
On the subject of pay to play, I guess the counter argument for not getting paid, would be that they should get paid to compete in a very lucrative TV event, the same way as football players or tennis players get paid to play in the WC or Davis Cup (assuming they get paid)
The US made it interesting on singles day. But in the end they gave up far too much ground on the opening day, most of the team played poorly. Interestingly, one of the commentators said many of the Americans had not played competitively in four weeks or more, and questioned how seriously they were taking the Ryder Cup
Re the paying thing, I can understand it to an extent but then you need to factor in where all that TV cash goes. After that there is still the fact that it is an invitational event to play in a team environment in what is an individual sport. You can say “no thanks”. Interestingly thee is a pay to play thing for the Presidents Cup, but who cares about that?
Having said all that and taking into account the LIV issue and his that has shaken up the status quo, I’d say it’s only a matter of time before they’re paid. My guess is that as and when that happens, general interest in the Ryder Cup will wane.
Let’s us also remember that none of these guys are worrying about paying their mortgage at the end of the month.
@Catogrande I don’t know, I didn’t know they weren’t paid to play until this year, and as somewhat uncomfortable as millionaires not being paid might sound, I think he’s right. Lots of people make a killing from this event, why should the players do it for free?
@Catogrande I don’t know, I didn’t know they weren’t paid to play until this year, and as somewhat uncomfortable as millionaires not being paid might sound, I think he’s right. Lots of people make a killing from this event, why should the players do it for free?
I agree. I don't think the fact they earn big money should be a way to justify not paying them, at least to cover costs. Unless the RC is the only invitational team event where individual pros pay for nix. A quick google search suggests Davis Cup players get paid, although at a much lower rate than the players could earn from other sources
@canefan I assume it was originally an amateur competition, that has evolved into picking the best available (although Dechamblowhard would dispute this) which is all pro players.
I couldnt care less if they are paid or not, but I expect given the profile and coverage, someone is making some good coin out of this, so no reason why the players shouldnt get their piece of gold.
Google tells me each US player gets assigned $200K, 100K of which goes to a charity of their choice and the other 100K goes towards PGA nominated charities.
US mounting a comeback in the afternoon matches. Comfortably up in two matches, down 1 in each of the other two with plenty of holes to play. If they want to give themselves any chance of getting close enough to compete tomorrow I think they have to win all 4 matches. Spieth has been ice cold in all his matches so far, and he's continued to be a burden to Thomas. If they had an alternative option I think the US should have played them
You mean DJ or Deschambeau?