Freddy’s Fairway Thoughts

Ready …. aim …

There are all sorts of bets to be made on a golf course. How about number of gunshots? The Hyde Park Golf Club in Jacksonville has a wonderful history, starting with a design by Donald Ross and including the 11 that Ben Hogan once made on the par-3 sixth hole during a Jacksonville Open. Hyde Park’s neighborhood — Hyde Park — was once a lovely area. Mark McCumber grew up there; so did many of the city’s leaders. But apartment horses were built and property values went south, along with quality of life. The Hyde Park regulars have an over/under bet on how many police car sirens they’ll hear in an 18-hole round. The usual number is five; one guy takes five and under, another takes six and over. During a recent round, the sixth siren was heard as we approached the final green. During summer hours, when play can go until almost 9 p.m., the bet changes to gunshots. The over/under there is three.

Furyk and Friends

Lot of excitement in our area over Jim and Tabitha Furyk’s venture into putting on a Tour event. The two have a foundation and made a lot of money with a two-day pro-am/party in the spring, and now they’ve expanded into a PGA Tour Champions stop at one of Jacksonville’s top private clubs. They seem to already be successful. The club — Timuquana — is all in, spending a lot of money to upgrade facilities (almost a million bucks on the range, for starters.) The main sponsors are all it, with Constellation Energy doing big underwriting (including a $500,000 pledge to local charities) and the Circle K convenience store loving the publicity as they start their expansion into the area that will include 200 new stores. There will be three pro-ams, all sold out. There’s a Darius Rucker concert that will sell out. Furyk has a lot of friends on tour and plays in their events, so the field should be terrific, even with a middle-of-thepack purse. The Donald Ross course should be in great shape. Photo ops for TV will be neat with a big river on one side, a classic clubhouse and a very active Naval air base on the other. Only downer: no David Duval. He grew up on the course, where dad Bob was the head pro, but his 50th birthday is a month too late for this year.

Premier Golf League

Don’t fall for the insinuations that the rival golf tour is dead. That’s what the PGA Tour wants you to know, and the very compliant media (such as it is) is willingly going along. The PGA Tour is throwing a lot of money at its members, including that $40 million to be somehow split between whoever is deemed a good guy, but a substantial number of the big names (not necessarily the best current players) want more control. The money is still on the table: Saudi. The model is there: Formula One motor car racing. A good base of players is ready: the Europeans. Sponsors are there: those wanting international attention. For the moment, it’s a good threat for the top-level players to get what they want, or else.

Not-so-goofy golf

Enough is enough. We all love Phil Mickelson — “Phil” to the media suck-ups — but we now have been through four of his so-called matches. The latest proved a few things: • NFL quarterbacks have a lot of talents but (at least in the cases on Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers) not much in the way of personality. • Bryson DeChambeau’s quirkiness doesn’t come across on TV. • Not all Jack Nicklaus courses are exciting. At least, the 16 holes were saw were so boring that the conversations seemed to be about the 17th hole, which they didn’t play (someone won 3 and 2) and supposedly is spectacular. • Charles Barkley isn’t funny. Sad to say, the inside word is that Mickelson likes these things and will push to have more.

Good guy

Being born with a club foot doesn’t have to be a lifelong hindrance and it’s great that Jon Rahm is so open about what he went through as a youngster. You have to go back two generations to find another who overcame that kind of disability and let himself be a poster boy: Pat Summerall, who we know more as a great TV announcer but who our seniors know just as well as a very successful college and pro placekicker.