Bizarro golf

Hey there! Ryder Cup coverage is on its way. But first, I stopped in Chicago for this week’s LIV event and after such a bizarre experience, I decided to blog about it.

This is a totally different post than most Quick Nines, but I hope you enjoy.

Anyways, here are some notes and takeaways from a strange day in Chicago.

I mostly wanted to see Brooks’ game heading into Italy next week. And to see if he’d gotten a haircut.

Of course, there was also the intrigue. What was it like to actually attend a LIV Golf event, especially one with Nelly as its Friday night headliner? And, with the circuit’s uncertain future, would it be my last chance to check it out?

Reluctantly, my father-in-law and I made the two hour drive north to Chicago to experience LIV Golf first hand.

How it started

• Parking is free (nice!) but it’s in a muddy field with tall grass, and I immediately get Fyre Fest vibes. What happens if it rains and we’re all stuck here forever?

• We enter near the driving range and an announcer comes over the PA system to tell players it’s time to head to their carts for the shotgun start. Now, it feels like a charity tournament.

• I watch Brooks tee off on #1 and thought his hair looked shorter, but couldn’t confirm a haircut. Minutes later, I check my phone and see the Freedom Flow video everywhere across the internet.

Some positives

• The course wasn’t crowded, and it’s still pretty cool to see guys like Cam Smith, DJ, and Brooks up-close with relative ease.

• There was also some cool on-course technology. For instance, we were standing near the green at the par-5 10th and a nearby big screen told us how many yards each player in the fairway had to the pin.

• Despite the shorts and the uniforms and the music playing everywhere, some guys were still hitting world class shots. One highlight was seeing Sergio stick it to about 10 feet from 300 yards out and drain his eagle putt.

The strangeness

• I just was not prepared to see so many people wearing LIV merchandise or team swag. Maybe it wasn’t a ton of people, but it was definitely a decent number and certainly more than I anticipated.

  • I told this to a friend and he asked if people were just being ironic. I don’t think they were. 🙈 

  • Also, I saw one fan wearing a cape.

• The shotgun start and having so few players on the course at once creates a bad spectator experience. There were big gaps between groups, which meant a lot of waiting around to see golf shots.

• I also can’t get over the music, which seemed to be playing loudly on pretty much every hole.

  • There’s a lot of money on the line in these tournaments, which is supposed to make them serious. But then, everything outside of the ropes is so… not serious.

  • You could see the frustration on players' faces throughout the day (Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter come to mind), and you gotta wonder if they knew house music was going to play such a big part in this whole experiment. (Of course, the pains of not being involved in next week’s Ryder Cup probably didn’t help either.)

• I witnessed such a weird scene between Bryson and Bubba that you can watch here.

  • Bryson makes two false starts with his putter before finally hitting his birdie putt — a move I have never seen in professional golf.

  • Meanwhile, Bubba is in the background laughing about it with his caddy — a reaction I have also never seen in a professional tournament.

• To top it off, we came across a petting zoo with actual goats on our way out because, you know, Range Goats.

Maybe on Sunday, things will feel more serious. And maybe, if I didn’t have two young kids at home, I’d stay and enjoy a drink around the par 3 17th — aptly named “the party hole.”

“Not staying for Nelly?” one parking attendant asked us on our way back to the car.

Unfortunately, no. We had to go.

That’s all for today! I’ll see you on Monday, as we gear up for Italy.

Until then, enjoy the Solheim Cup! - Nick B.