PGA Tour News, College Football, MLB, NBA for notes for Friday, 7-10-20

The 43rd Ryder Cup, scheduled to be played this September 25th-27th at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, has been postponed until 2021.

The players were completely on board with it and I agreed with the decision by the PGA and R&A, too. The event needs fans, there would be no fans there and with more outbreaks around the country, staging the Ryder Cup may not have worked anyway as it got closer to time to play. Having the fans makes it like the Super Bowl, it’s a Spectacle and one of the best events in sports. It’s thrilling with the fans packed on the course. Whistling Straits will be rockin when they hold the event next year. Justin Rose said it would have been an advantage for the European team to not have fans at Whistling Straits, but was on board with the decision. It would be a real advantage for the European team, so it’s the right thing to do. Looking forward to it as always in 2021. Will be a late September event.

Tiger Woods has committed to play next week in the Memorial Tournament. The 5 time champion at Muirfield Village has yet to play since golf restarted 5 weeks ago at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth, so we’ll see how he fares against guys who are totally prepared for this awesome event. 

The Big Ten has cancelled out of conference games this season. The SEC is still waiting it out, which I’m happy about. All Power 5 Conferences should wait to see how things transpire at the end of the month. Like how Commissioner Greg Sankey and this conference are playing it. 

 MLB and NBA seasons start at the end of this month. It’s a tricky proposition, but it could work.  Both leagues are taking major precautions to make sure they can have seasons. In MLB, the Yankees and the Dodgers are the favorites to play in the World Series with the Yanks as the favorite to win it all. The Astros, despite last year’s scandal, will be loaded, as will the Bravos. The Nationals will be tough with Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer headlining their pitching rotation, and the Minnesota Twins, Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays will also be good in the American League. The St. Louis Cardinals should have a very good team, and in the NL East it’ll be highly competitive with the Braves, the Phillies, the Mets, and the Nats. So should be a thriller this season in MLB. I like a 60 game schedule and playoffs with the usual 10 teams. A shortened schedule is a nice change. There will be 3, 10 team Divisions matching up regional opponents to avoid major travel across the country. There will be many interleague games, so it sounds pretty good.

I picked the Milwaukee Bucks over the Los Angeles Clippers in my NBA Championship with the Bucks over the Philly 76ers and the Clippers over the Lakers in their respective Conference Finals. Pretty excited about that too.

Bryson DeChambeau now wants to get up to 270 pounds. He’s around 220-225 right now. Seems pretty big for a golfer to me. Maybe for a Crimson Tide or Auburn Tiger defensive end, but not a golfer. He’s living on the edge with his physique and just begging to get hurt. It happened to Tiger. He certainly is playing superb golf right now. Not only is he crushing the ball off the tee 360 to 370, he’s putting lights out as he led the field at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Strokes Gained Putting, a huge factor in winning a tournament. So the guy, if he’s not stupid about this, can really excel this year. He’s the favorite in the Fed Ex Cup, and all 3 majors. The 102nd PGA Championship is August 6th-9th at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, the 120th U.S. Open is  September 17th-20th at Winged Foot Golf Club, a total classic course and tough, in Mamaroneck, New York, and the 84th Masters will be played November 12th-15th. The Fed Ex Cup starts August 20-23rd at the Northern Trust at TPC Boston. The BMW Championship will take place August 27th-30th at Olympia Fields in Olympia Fields, Illinois, and the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta will commence Sept. 4th-7th. With this tournament, the Memorial next week, the 3M Open in Minnesota, July 23rd-26th, the PGA Champ, and then the Wyndham Championship, Aug. 13th-16th, there is some riveting action forthcoming.

Collin Morikawa, one of the young stallions on tour at 23 years old, who’s from L.A. via Cal-Berkeley, and has already won on the tour, he did it last year at the Barricuda Championship, and went into a playoff with Daniel Berger at this year’s Charles Schwab Challenge before succumbing to Berger, is leading the Workday Charity Open at -11 through 15 today. Ian Poulter is 2nd at -8. through 14. Play has been suspended  due to inclement weather. They’ll get back to it soon enough. There’s some shaky weather in Dublin, Ohio this weekend, so there could be some delays. But they always seem to get it in eventually. Will have more next week.