Lucas Glover defeated Jonathan Byrd in a playoff Sunday at Quail Hollow to capture the Wachovia Bank championship.
Glover hadn’t won (or hardly contended) on Tour since his US Open win in 2009. There were rumors that he had considered walking away from the game at one point.
He was also still sporting the beard that he has been growing since last fall [and what a magnificent beard it is]. So not only was this a figurative return from the wild, it also looked like a literal return as well.
Golf.com has an interesting set of articles featuring two tour players, Ted Purdy and Justin Rose, arguing for and against miking players on the golf course.
Ted Purdy is in favor of the practice, arguing that anything that helps make golf broadcasts more interesting is good for the viewers, sponsors, and ultimately the players themselves.
I was on the PGA Tour’s policy board a few years ago when we approved miking players during tournaments, but it never happened. I hope it catches on now. The bottom line is, we’re trying to sell a product. Anything that helps is good.
It could be entertaining because golf has so much down time between shots. There are opportunities to chat, which could be fascinating.
Jonathan Byrd pulled out the win today in Kapalua at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions with a playoff victory over Robert Garrigus. No, it wasn’t as dramatic as his last victory, but I suspect that Byrd is pretty happy with it none-the-less. Byrd has now won his last 2 starts in a row, both of which were playoff victories.
Earlier this year, the Golf Channel experimented with “announcer-less” (really announcer-lite) coverage on the Nationwide tour. The experiment worked pretty well, especially having mic’d players in the field.
Trying to build on that success, The Golf Channel approached several players with the idea of wearing a microphone this week at Kapalua. Things were looking pretty grim as everybody said “no”. But now Stephanie Wei is reporting that co-leader Jonathan Byrd has agreed to wear a mic during Friday’s round. Apparently carding a 7-under 66 put him in an agreeable mood.
I like Jonathan Byrd and this just bumped him up another notch in my book. And hopefully it will pay off for him. As Stephanie noted, Hunter Haas agreed to be mic’d during the Nationwide tournament last fall and he went on to win the event. Maybe Byrd is hoping to continue that good fortune and cash another $1 million dollar paycheck.
[Update: Apparently technical problems have postponed this experiment until a future date.]
[Update #2: That future date is Saturday. Supposedly that goes against the PGA Tour's agreement with the Golf Channel (they are only supposed to mic players on Thursday and Friday) but presumably Byrd was willing and everybody agreed to go ahead and give it a shot.]
The Golf Channel put together a video this morning recapping the top 5 golf shots of the year. I can’t say that I disagree with any of their selections. It’s interesting to note that 2 of the top 5 came within the last 3 weeks. The Fall Finish is proving to be a hell of a lot more exciting and compelling than the FedEx Cup. When will the tour learn that you can’t just manufacture drama by dangling huge sums of cash in front of a bunch of multi-millionaires?
What an ending! It seems like the Fall Series has had some of the most dramatic and entertaining finishes of the entire season. With an ace on the 204-yard 17th hole (the 4th hole of a 3-man playoff), Jonathan Byrd grabs his first win on tour and secures his tour card for the next 2 seasons.
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