#last time i played this he was a golf caddy cause he wants to be a slacker with money 🤢🤢 where is his JOB!!!?

[robotpussy]

um did this guy get fired from his job why is he unemployed and his dog is working her ass off on movie sets?

[emmy-writes-sometimes]

Love is a Polaroid

Summary: Tom posts the first picture of you on Instagram. 

Pairing: Tom Holland x female reader

Warnings: None

-

“What about...” Tom scrolled through his phone as you sat sideways in his lap, your legs over the couch and your back against the arm. “This one?” 

“I look terrible,” you groaned. It was a picture of you and Tom, your noses scrunched up as you laughed at something he said. Tom rolled his eyes, kissing you right at the end of your eyebrow. 

“You look gorgeous, princess. What about this one then?” He scrolled to another one, of the two of you together on a golf course. You were being his caddy girl, something he’d teased you about for days after he saw that you had bought a short skirt for it. You shook your head at that one too and grabbed his phone, scrolling through pictures of the two of you. You’d finally told him you were ready to go public, mostly because you were getting so sick of people trying to figure out who you were at the same time that they assumed Tom was with Zendaya or one of his PA’s that he’d been seen at a restaurant with. 

You knew there was going to be some kind of feedback, good and bad. You’d set your Instagram to private already, just knowing how many people would try to follow you and DM you. Tom had contacted Disney to put you through media training a month or so ago and his agents had given you the all clear. You were just nervous. You wanted the world to know that you were with Tom because he was funny and brilliant and talented beyond belief. But you were also terrified. You were only nineteen, so a good bit younger than Tom. You had been Paddy’s best friend for years, but Tom hadn’t even thought about making a move on you until you were nineteen. And then things had just gotten very serious very quickly. You moved in with him only after a few months, mostly because he needed someone to take care of the house and the dog while he was gone. 

The bottom line was that you loved Tom and you knew he loved you. You were certain of that more than your own name some days. But you were nervous, and you had to have the perfect picture. The perfect one to tell the entire world that you loved him. 

“Okay, this one isn’t the worst,” you said finally. It was actually a really, really cute picture of the two of you. You were at a party, Tom behind you with his arms around your neck. He was smiling at the camera as he kissed your cheek and you were smiling, too. You remembered feeling on top of the world that night because it was the night Tom had told you he loved you for the first time - he’d told you he loved you when he thought you were asleep. And then he’d snuck out of your parents’ window even though you had told him a million times that he could just go out the front door. It was a polaroid-style picture, put through several filters to get the right look to it. You loved editing photos. 

“I look like a div.”

“You are a div,” you giggled. 

“Oh, you’ll pay for that.” He started tickling your stomach until you dropped the phone on his knuckle and he finally quit, just pulling you into a hug. 

“Let’s caption it,” he said. “I’m trying to think.” 

“I don’t know, it’s your Instagram,” you shrugged. 

“How about...” Tom bit down on his lip as he typed. He turned the phone to you a few seconds later. Love is a Polaroid it said. You looked over at him, finally nodding. He hit the post button and took your phone from where it was in the pocket of your sweatshirt. He put his phone on top of it, then put them down on the coffee table. 

“Why?” You asked, eyebrows furrowing. 

“Because. I always stop looking after I post something. It’s better just not to look unless it’s someone you know commenting.” You looked down at where one of his hands was playing with your watch, absentmindedly changing the face of it by scrolling through the gallery. 

“What if people...” 

“What if people what? All that matters is that I love you, okay? Not what anyone else thinks.” You nodded and he kissed the center of your forehead, dropping the topic as you started another episode of New Girl. A few minutes later he took a call from his agent and made sure to take your phone with him. But he didn’t take your phone when he went to take a shower a couple of hours later. 

You eyed your phone as you cooked dinner, seeing it light up every few seconds with another Instagram notification. The shower had just started, just as you were done with the instant pot, so you walked over to the table and grabbed your phone. You were too busy looking at Instagram to realize that the shower water had stopped. And when you did look, you wished you hadn’t. Most of the comments were saying aww or they’re so cute! or i ship it!! But some of them didn’t say that at all. 

wtfffff she’s literally like twelve

isn’t that illegal????

do better, thomas 😂

she’s not it 🤡

cradle robber

it’s bad enough that it’s borderline illegal but she’s not even cute...

yeah, love is a strong word

You scrolled through the seat of comments, each one worse than the last. Most of them were positive. But the negative ones made the tears come to your eyes and before you knew it, you were hunched over on the couch, crying your eyes out. You were getting snot on Tom’s favorite pink hoodie, one he barely ever let you borrow even though he always said anything for my princess. You were sitting on Tom’s couch, wondering if you should leave. Wondering if you should go up and steal his phone and take the picture down, even though the damage had already been done. 

“What are you doing?” Tom asked as he walked down the stairs just wearing a pair of boxers. His hair was soaking wet. He’d heard you crying. His eyes were wide in alarm, thinking something else was wrong. 

“I know you said not to, but...” you mumbled through a sniffle. He sat down beside you and grabbed the phone, shaking his head. 

“Babe, they’re just...”

“I’m not good enough for you.” 

“No, don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.” He shut your phone off and tossed it onto the other side of the couch. “Don’t ever say that. I love you. I love you so much, you know that.”

“But they think...”

“They think. They don’t know. Nobody knows anything except for you and me.” He put his fingers in your hair and pulled your face to his shoulder, deciding that maybe it was just best to let you cry until you were calm. There was no sense in trying to talk to you if you were all worked up. He just let you cry, holding your head to his neck. Your mascara rubbed off on the hood of his sweatshirt, but he didn’t care. It would wash out. He made sure your eyes were closed as he looked through the post, sighing. He responded to some of the good ones, but he knew removing that bad ones were useless. They'd just come back. 

“You know people are always gonna be mean like that,” he said a few minutes after you’d seemed to calm down. “And the worst part about it is that I can’t protect you from it. But what I can protect you from is thinking that about yourself. You don’t think that, right?”

“I don’t know what I think. I just know I love you but...”

“The rest of the world thinks they own me, but they don’t. You do, okay? None of this is going to change my mind or make me think differently of you, because it’s not you. Okay?”

“Okay,” you finally said back. He smiled at you.

“You look so pretty in that picture, princess.” You couldn’t help but smile back, leaning into him as he gave you a quick kiss. “And I’m glad the rest of the world knows you’re mine, ‘cause I don’t want to think you could ever be anyone else’s.” 

[enjolraspermettendo]

I was bored so I played Bitlife as Grantaire and added the others as custom characters:

So, I was born as R Grantaire on the 14th of August and my parents are Anna Grantaire (22) and Paul Grantaire (26). The mother has an Italian name so I'm keeping my headcanon that R is Italian

R has Looks at 78% so he's beautiful, suck my dick Hugo

Oh okay, R's three years old and he just got a baby brother named Victor, which, weird, because I didn't put Victor Hugo as a custom person. This is completely random and almost scary

Oh okay, apparently R and Victor hate each other.

Wait I just realized R is blond, of all things. Gonna dye his hair as soon as I can

R is 6 years old and started school; Mme Thenardier is a classmate, definitely staying away...

Oh we're getting bullied. I decided not to react since he always accepts and makes even worse insults to himself in canon

R has low smarts and I can't make him keep good grades :(

R started Jiu-jitsu classes

R is 11 and he just received another baby brother named Noah

I just made R join his Middle school's Politics club LMAO

OH a classmate named Napoleon Bonaparte, who is also a popular kid, just asked R out. I'll accept just because, I mean, I can make R hookup with Napoleon, think about it

Grantaire and Napoleon are officially boyfriends

Grantaire has been elected secretary of the politics club

Cosette and R are classmates!!! Gonna befriend her because Cosette and R friendship is precious

R is 14 and 1) his parents gave him yet another sibling, a sister named Victoria seriously guys, learn how to put a condom on, they've all been caused by it slipping off, and 2) R JUST GOT ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF THE POLITICS CLUB

R started secondary school and joined the dance club; he also started working as a part time golf caddie

VICTOR HAS BEEN BULLIED AND CALLED RACIAL SWEARS AND NO, WE'RE NOT OKAY WITH IT. GONNA FIGHT THE MOTHERFUCKER

The game said I can't attack him cause he lives in Afghanistan and I am in France???? What???? How does he go to school with Victor???? I'm confused

R and Feuilly are classmates so I made them become friends :)

R is 18 and his parents divorced :(

R started studying arts at university. Eponine is a classmate BUT SHE REFUSED TO BEFRIEND GRANTAIRE

Grantaire and Napoleon broke up 😣

Grantaire came out as gay. Uhm, we been knew honey

classmate Hugo Fontaine asked R out but he got rejected

R and Combeferre are now friends. Eponine keeps rejecting Grantaire

R's mum just married a very rich guy named Rousseu but he hates Grantaire sike. R calls him "bro"

R's dad remarried too, she's normal. R calls her "sis". She has a daughter called Juliette, so now she's R stepsister

Grantaire graduated and started a position as Junior graphic designer!

Grantaire started drinking wine

Oh okay, R and Bahorel are now dating

They broke up

Bishop Myriel asked R out on a date... R refused, sorry it's too weird even for me

R and Montparnasse are dating. Damn R you really go around

They broke up. And R started dating Courfeyrac

They lasted two years

BOTH MARIUS AND JEAN VALJEAN HAVE ASKED R OUT GODDAMN

Grantaire and Enjolras are dating!!! (yes It's because I wanted it to be like this shut up)

Okay, I looked at Enjolras's info and I shit you not, he graduated in political science. He's a real estate agent tho

Enjolras came out of the closet as gay

Grantaire proposed to Enj and he accepted 🥺🥺

They got married at the beach and went to Pompeii for their honeymoon 🥺🥺🥺

Feuilly got married to a certain Mila

Grantaire is now an uncle! His brother Victor fathered a baby girl called Camille!

Grantaire and his brother Noah got in trouble for dancing in the middle of a road 😬 they've been declared not guilty tho

Grantaire and Enj adopted a little girl named Iris!!!!

Enjolras and Grantaire have been married for 10 years :)

For some reason the game is not proposing the other custom characters I added sike

They adopted another girl named Eva 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Cosette had a son called David Antoinette. The father is unknown

Grantaire's stepfather died of Hepatitis C

Feuilly pranked R by setting 15 alarms on his phone hours before he was supposed to wake up

Grantaire's brother Noah fathered a boy named Ethan

Eva wants a cockatiel so OF COURSE WE'LL GET HER A COCKATIEL

We got her a cockatiel named Ronda :)

Enjolras and Grantaire have been married for 20 years

Grantaire's father died of leukemia ☹️ Grantaire and his siblings inherited quite a lot

Eva and Iris started secondary school 😭 they grow up so fast

While at a soccer game a brawl started between parents... So of course Grantaire joined in

Feuilly and R went partying. 55 years old and still kicking

Iris and Eva graduated 🎉

Grantaire's mum died of tuberculosis

Ronda the Cockatiel died too of dehydration after her water bottle malfunctioned :(

Eva moved out

Iris is a writer, while Eva is a cadet at the police 😬 imagine the tension at home.

Grantaire just befriended Joly!!!! Joly is married to a Charlotte Clement

Grantaire's stepmother died of Aids

Eva has been promoted to patrolman

Joly and Grantaire are officially best friends

Enjolras retired (both him and R are 62 now)

Eva has been promoted to Trooper. Enjolras must be going crazy

Feuilly has invited R to do mushrooms so of course he accepted

Eva has been promoted to corporal

Grantaire retired (he's 67)

Eva has been promoted to sergeant

Enjolras is nagging at Grantaire to buy a car so R bought a purple lambo 😎

Feuilly keeps inviting Grantaire over for drugs and OMG FEUILLY YOU'RE ALMOST 80 STOP IT

IRIS GOT MARRIED!! To a certain Paul Girard

NOOOO FEUILLY DIED OF FUCKING EBOLA

Iris had a baby girl named Alice 🥺🥺🥺 Grantaire and Enjolras are grandpas 😭😭

Omg, now that Feuilly is dead Combeferre is the one that keeps offering drugs

Iris had another daughter named Olivia 😭😭😭😍😍😍

Eva just had a son named Ethan 😭😭😭 there three grandchildren now omg

4 grandchildren!!!!! Iris gave birth to a girl named Lina!!!!!!

Grantaire's brother Victor just died :(

Omg the grandchildren are starting to go to school, my heart cant

NOOOOO JOLY DIED

Grantaire's brother Noah died too

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO ENJOLRAS DIED IN HIS SLEEP 😭😭😭😭 at 91 tho which is way better than canon

COMBEFERRE DIED TOO FUCKING FUCK

Grantaire died at 93. Game over. Here is the grave:

[reverseblackholeofwords]

Bo and Yancy

Part Two: For the Love of Physics

Part 1 Here

Professor Beauregard grumbles to herself and speeds back to her laboratory outside of town, leaving Happy Trails Penitentiary, one of the last human strongholds in the area, in her dust. That idiotic Warden just doesn’t understand. He never takes a step out of the jail himself, and Bo can’t convince him that the world really is coming to an end right under his nose.

So she’s going to have to think of something else, find another way to get to that brainless behemoth to hand over the anomaly. It has to be his fault, and if she can only find out what he’s doing to cause all this, maybe she can reverse it. Maybe she’ll be able to bring them all back, stop this from ever happening in the first place.

She blinks and realizes that she’s heading right for a group of zombies playing golf in the middle of the road, and she swerves but... maybe a little too late. A caddie rolls up the windshield and off the back of the car. Bo hisses through her teeth. “Whoopsies.”

That night at the lab is more lonely than ever. It’s been the longest time since she’s seen another human that isn’t rotting and falling to pieces or trying to raid her lab for supplies--though Warden Bloodspatter or whatever is hardly an improvement. She stays up all night, going through the last of her coffee reserves to try to come up with a plan to break out the anomaly.

He’s bigger than her, that’s for sure, which would make him difficult to carry if she used some sort of knock-out gas. So she’d have to take him willingly, not that she thinks that would be too much trouble. By the time she has a plan that she thinks is fool proof, the sun is rising outside her window, and the zombies are gathering like they sense that she’s planning to leave. No matter.

She takes her laser gun off the charging rack and checks it for damage, and then she charges out the front door in a blaze of hot blue light.

Back at the penitentiary, Yancy is in a bad mood. It doesn’t happen too often, usually only when the Warden lets the guards rough up one of his family members a little or when he’s working out a particularly difficult lyrical conundrum. Today, it’s for a different reason.

He can’t figure out why the Warden wouldn’t let him help the professor, or why she wanted him specifically in the first place. None of it adds up to him. He’s certainly not all that valuable to either party. So why in the world would they be fighting over him like this?

“Yance, cheer up, man,” Sparkles McGee says, punching him playfully in the shoulder. “You’re too deep in your head today. Let’s go outside and walk around.”

“It’s raining,” Yancy groans. “In case youse haven’t noticed.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t like... singing in the rain,” Sparkles suggests with a waggle of his eyebrows, and Yancy’s face slowly lights up in realization. His family always knows how to make him smile.

“Well... now that youse mention it...”

Yancy and Sparkles race each other out to the yard. No one else is outside save for a single guard huddled up under the awning over the doorway. Yancy splashes through a particularly big puddle and swings himself around a light pole as he starts to sing.

He and Sparkles go through the whole song, “Singing in the Rain,” twice before they’re so wet that Yancy is sure he’ll be wringing out his uniform for days. He can feel the squish of his shoes with every step, and it would be depressing if he wasn’t so dizzy with laughing. Sparkles shoves him playfully, and Yancy slips, tumbling into the mud.

Sparkles gasps. “Yancy, bro, I’m sorry!” He reaches a hand down to help his fellow jailbird up, but Yancy just grins and pulls him down into the mud with him. “Okay, okay,” Sparkles laughs, “I guess I deserved that one.”

“Yeah, you bet.” Yancy smears mud in his friend’s hair and then gets up trying to clean himself off as best he can.

“Hey, you two!” The guard is sneering at them as if he’s finally noticed them, and Yancy frowns. “Quit making a mess of yourselves and get back inside! It’s time for lunch!”

Yancy cups his hands around his mouth. “Yeah, well why don’t youse come and get us?”

Sparkles looks up at Yancy warily. “Yance, are you sure about this? It always ends badly when you antagonize...”

“Youse heard me, ya chicken!” Yancy shouts. “What? You scared youse gunna melt or somethin’?”

The guard comes charging towards them then, and Sparkles yelps, jumping to his feet to hold his friend back. Yancy is always quick to pick fights, but he doesn’t always win them. “Yance, wh-why don’t you just apologize to the nice... big man and lets you and me go inside? Get a hot shower and some food, eh? Maybe you’re just hangry!”

But Yancy just puts up his fists and bounces from foot to foot until a blast of blue energy knocks the guard out cold. Yancy and Sparkles both turn to look through the fence around the yard at the small woman standing in the rain with a giant gun aimed at them.

“Come with me, anomaly!” she shouts, her voice much bigger than she is.

Yancy shrugs his shoulders. “Ah, no?”

Bo drops the gun to her side. “What? Don’t you want to get out of here?”

“Break out? Of this place?” Yancy gestures around. “Why would anyone want to...”

Sparkles punches Yancy in the arm again. “Not right now, Yance. Don’t you see this lady means business? She’s got a big gun!”

“Yeah, and I can use it too.” She points it at him again. “I could just kill you right here, right now, and probably save myself and everyone else a lot of trouble. But I’d really rather try to figure out what makes you tick first, anomaly!” She changes the setting on the laser gun and burns a hole in the fence, the metal melting away like ice cream on a hot day.

Yancy gulps.

“So? Are you going to come peacefully, or am I going to have to use force?” Bo asks, hefting the gun.

Sparkles clears his throat. “Uh, I think you should go with her.”

“But...” Yancy glances back at the penitentiary, at his home, where his family is sitting peacefully unaware of his kidnapping.

“Go.” Sparkles pushes him forward a step. “I’ll tell the others what happened, okay? We’ll send someone after ya,” he whispers.

Yancy nods and sloshes through the muck towards Bo. She pulls out a pair of handcuffs and links one of his wrists with hers. “Alright now, come quietly. I don’t want any funny business.” She walks him back to her Jeep as Sparkles watches nervously chewing at his fingernails.

The guard stirs where he fell in the mud, and Sparkles darts back inside before he can realize what’s happened. Meanwhile, Yancy rides along in the passenger seat, rain dripping down his window as he watches the jail shrink away to nothing.

“What are youse gonna do with me?” he asks solemnly.

Bo ignores him for a moment, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. “I don’t know yet,” she finally says. Her face doesn’t reveal a hint of emotion, and Yancy finds her absolutely terrifying.

He turns away from her in the seat, as much as he can with his hand cuffed to hers, and continues staring out the window--trying not to wonder what’s going to happen to him.

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

In line with my recent announcement about High School Musical fanfiction, here comes another analysis from High School Musical II. Apologies for the fuzzy video quality: I found this on Youtube. 

The above scene shows Gabriella Montez accusing Troy of becoming “a new Troy”, and the rest of the Wildcats sharing her anger after Troy is called away to practice with the Redhawks. 

One thing that strikes me throughout this scene is the sincerity of Troy’s apologies. During my series, Questions for High School Musical II (Part I & Part II), my commentary contained less nuance. Having discovered things about the series which I had not learned beforehand, I just wanted to spill my thoughts onto Tumblr. 

Returning to High School Musical meta and fanfiction therefore challenges me to use more nuance and reasoning in my work, and I am fascinated to know whether my views have changed. So the scenes that caused me such frustration beforehand still render the same reaction? Have I noticed things which were concealed beforehand? All of these things are worth considering. 

Troy apologises for forgetting the staff baseball game, for missing lunch, and for missing the two-on-two play after work. We don’t see any impatience, something along the lines of, “Can’t you see that I have to--?” Sure, he shows frustration, but only because he is caught between commitments and has chosen to prioritise his scholarship opportunities. Instead, he say, “I know... I’m sorry.” when Zeke reminds him about the after-work game. 

It astonishes me that Troy Bolton is portrayed as the culprit here. Anyone could criticise him for trying to please all the people all the time, one of his lasting flaws throughout the series. He can be inconsiderate and forgetful. He can ignore good advice, and stubbornly pursue the wrong path. But has he really changed into a snob who has no time for his friends? 

If that were the case, then why offer to go on a date with Gabriella once he returned from basketball with the Redhawks? Why apologise for forgetting about the staff baseball game and commit to being there? Why, when Chad insinuates that Troy thought the Redhawks were too good for the Wildcats, would he quickly clarify his comments: “It’s a closed practice.”? At every turn, Troy clarifies his position and is mortified by even the suggestion that he is abandoning his friends or insulting them. “No, no, no that’s not what I meant.” 

This scene is built on insinuations from Gabriella and the Wildcats, which we the viewers are told to take as fact. Gabriella goads Troy by mentioning his “Italian golf shoes, new clothes, golf carts...” as proof that he changed. She doesn’t mention that Troy never sought these advantages (something that Troy commendably points out to Chad later on). Neither does she mention that Chad also rode in a new golf cart when caddying for the Evans’ (something he considered hugely beneficial), nor that Taylor got her own golf cart as part of her job. 

Should Gabriella be upset that Troy has missed dates? Well, he turned up for the picnic (she was ambivalent about this one), he was late for the after-work swim (she commendably waited for him without complaint). He missed the free cheeseburgers at lunch, in what can be described as the only show of inconsiderate behaviour throughout this entire movie. Sure, if Gabriella wants to be upset, have at it. But 2/3 ain’t bad. She rarely gives him credit where credit is due in this movie. 

The fact that she cannot highlights the unrealistic expectations she has of Troy and their relationship. Her cutting sarcastic comments highlight this: “Crazy stuff. Hard to keep track of, I bet.” Remember that Troy had been promoted to a job paying $500 a week plus tips, teaching golf to children. He also had to practice with the Redhawks, and rehearse for the Talent Show. That’s a considerable amount of responsibility, and so it’s inevitable he would forget other tasks and commitments. But once again, Troy responds by apologising and promising to do better in future. 

It’s worth pointing out that Troy was practicing college-standard basketball with the Redhawks. This meant developing and refining his technique, listening to tough feedback, all under the watchful eye of his father and his employer. Unlike what Taylor McKessie claims, sportsmen work hard to earn their fame.  

But Gabriella doesn’t even acknowledge the work Troy is putting in to secure his future goals, instead casting him as the recipient of new privileges and thus a new person. Why? Because he forgot a few commitments. Well, I don’t wish to justify forgetting your commitments, but as I said, Gabriella doesn’t even humour his explanations, though they are entirely reasonable. Just a few errors and she has already emotionally detached herself enough to make sarcastic remarks after he had promised to take her on a date. 

I think it’s worth examining Troy’s remark here: “So what’s your point?” I have often said before that Troy is impervious to Gabriella’s faults. Actually, I think that is untrue. I think this section of dialogue disproves my previous claims. Just see how Troy’s smile disappears, replaced by a frown. 

He catches the insinuations. Instead of trying to explain himself, he asks Gabriella to come straight to the point. So he dislikes her statement, and is hurt by her insinuating, rather than directly stating her problem. Of course, Gabriella’s response leaves him without an answer, but it encourages me to see a glimpse of Troy answering back in his defence, if only for a moment. 

Later on, it is Chad who insinuates that Troy has forgotten the team (the same accusations he made in the previous movie), and that Troy doesn’t want the Wildcats to come and play the Redhawks because he thinks the former are beneath the latter. We know that Chad made the accusations without evidence, because Troy quickly clarified that it was “a closed practice, sorry.” That’s not snobbery. It’s just a fact-- after all, the Redhawks players call Troy alone, not anyone else. 

(Watch how the player/driver’s smile disappears when Chad says, “Hey Bolton! That’s my ball!”. I think he is very perceptive. His reaction to Sharpay’s cloying behaviour is also illustrative). 

In HSM I, Chad, Zeke, and Jason all told Troy that they had had “another team meeting” about “how we haven’t been acting as a team”. They rightly confessed to downing Troy’s ambitions because it didn’t align with their own perceptions, and promised to be “cheering for you”. Yet fast-forward to the summer and the same three are again guilt-tripping Troy because his ambitions don’t align with their own perceptions. As Troy’s father rightly says, Troy has as much a duty to himself (even more so) as to the Wildcats. “There’s nothing wrong with keeping your eye on the prize.” 

Let’s not forget that the purpose of attending Lava Springs was to work for money. Each Wildcat had their own goals. Chad wanted to save up for a car, “so I can take that little hottie out on a proper date”. Zeke had to find a job so that his parents would match what he made (he has good parents, evidently). Troy was concerned about college funding, and made that concern clear: “No but seriously, guys: this summer I’ve got to make bank. My parents keep talking about how much college is gonna cost.”

Yet when Troy, in imperfect circumstances, does his best to achieve that goal, he is shunned and maligned. Sure, Sharpay pulled strings to give him privileges, but some of those came as a result of Mr. Evans’ more objective appraisal. Certainly, the Redhawks weren’t lying when they took a liking to Troy and invited him to scrimmage. And Troy did demonstrate an ability not only to play but teach golf, which also impressed the Redhawks. 

So it would appear that the Wildcats are not as contrite about their deception from HSM I, since they still question his motives any time he makes his own way-- even if making his own way in basketball, supposedly their common language. Worse, not one of Troy’s friends apologises for the above exchange. If Troy has to apologise for putting his scholarship and financial future first, why can’t his friends also apologise for the above scene?

[thisdaynews]

Tiger Woods: His scandalous, tumultuous and redemptive decade, sparked by a car crash

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/tiger-woods-his-scandalous-tumultuous-and-redemptive-decade-sparked-by-a-car-crash/

Tiger Woods: His scandalous, tumultuous and redemptive decade, sparked by a car crash

Woods ended an 11-year wait to claim his 15th major with a fifth Masters title, in April 2019

Tiger Woods sped out of his Orlando driveway, across kerbs and a central reservation, collided with a fire hydrant and ploughed into a neighbour’s tree.

For the world’s most recognisable sportsman, this incident during the very early hours of 27 November, 2009, began a scandalous, tumultuous and spectacularly redemptive decade.

In the previous dozen years Woods had dominated golf like no other player. He won multiple majors – the championships that define careers – and reeled off tournament victories all over the world.

In the past 10 years he has won only one major but his life has turned around. He is a doting father, his sport’s greatest ambassador and still a player capable of winning at the very highest level.

Comparing the most recent decade with the all-conquering period that preceded it, Rory McIlroy, who is one of his biggest rivals, says: “I think what he had to go through to get to the other side in the last 10 years is equally as impressive.”

In the wake of the crash, Woods’ image plumbed shameful and painful depths before eventually soaring again to hit epic highs.

That night, 10 years ago, he was surrounded by shattered glass and was groggy from a cocktail of painkillers and sleeping pills. He then lost consciousness and was ferried to hospital in an ambulance.

We were about to discover that this proud champion was, in fact, a deeply flawed individual. The crash occurred in the moments after his wife Elin had found out that her husband had been cheating.

In the days and weeks that followed, it became clear Woods had been a serial philanderer. Celebrity gossip magazines and websites were all over the story. They became an essential source for hard news, as the downfall of Woods made headlines everywhere.

He had always jealously guarded his privacy. Now the whole world knew his address: 6348 Deacon Circle, Windermere, Florida 34786.

Woods drove his SUV into a fire hydrant and tree near the entrance to his neighbour’s driveway

The crash happened a week after Woods added yet another tournament victory to his glorious career. He won the Australian Masters in Melbourne, but reporters from the National Enquirer were on his tail. The American celebrity magazine suspected Woods had a secret girlfriend, Rachel Uchitel, in tow at the luxury Crown Casino and hotel.

When he returned to America he warned his wife the Enquirer would be publishing a story. He denied its allegations and multiple accounts state that he set up a call between Uchitel and Elin to reassure his wife.

Then on 26 November, Woods went to the nearby Isleworth clubhouse to spend Thanksgiving evening playing cards. He returned home, took an Ambien sleeping tablet and went to bed.

At this point Elin started to go through his mobile phone. She texted Uchitel and then called her. In the process she confirmed the affair. “I knew it,” she is widely reported to have said. Elin then confronted a groggy Woods, who ran to his driveway, jumped into his Cadillac Escalade and fatefully crashed exiting his property.

No-one tracked Woods closer in 2009 than journalist Robert Lusetich. He was writing Unplayable, a book examining the character of this most guarded of golfers.

Lusetich was playing golf with friends on 27 November. The Australian reporter recalls: “One of the guys looked at his phone and he said: ‘Tiger Woods has been injured in a car accident and nobody knows how bad it is.’

“It was like ‘wow, that’s incredible’. So I sent Steve Williams [Woods’ caddie] a text. He was in New Zealand.”

Williams called Mark Steinberg, Woods’ long-time agent from the International Management Group.

Tiger Woods’ smashed car after the 2009 crash outside his home

Lusetich heard back from Williams. “Steinberg said everything will be fine,” the writer says. “And then he said: ‘Don’t believe anything that you’re gonna hear.’ That’s a strange thing to say. When we saw the story from the National Enquirer it became clear that this was indeed a scandal of some magnitude.”

Numerous women subsequently came forward to say they had secret relationships with the world’s best golfer leaving his fans and fellow players stunned.

“I’ve learnt a few of the new websites this week,” said Irishman Padraig Harrington, who was one of Woods’ biggest rivals at the time. “It’s a phenomenal story, the spotlight is massive.”

American tabloids gave more coverage to this tale than the aftermath of 9/11. When Woods was front page of the New York Post for 20 consecutive days, it beat a record set by the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

“I’m just amazed,” admitted the 2006 US Open winner Geoff Ogilvy. “How did nobody know? Tiger Woods is quite recognisable.”

Woods retreated from competitive golf – the sport he dominated with 14 majors, second only to the game’s most successful player, Jack Nicklaus. He had been on track to overhaul that record of 18 major titles. It seemed only a matter of time for such a special player, one who had grown far bigger than just golf.

A black man dominating a white man’s game, he could flash a million-dollar smile. Woods was the face of multinational companies such as Nike, Accenture, Gillette, Gatorade and Tag Heuer. He was the number one golfer in the world and Forbes made him sport’s first billionaire.

There was a seemingly idyllic domestic scene with a photogenic wife and two young children. To the outside world he had it all, but inside there was turmoil.

And it came cascading to the fore with the relentless revelations which detailed his behaviour leading up to that infamous car crash.

Woods was released from hospital the following day and headed to Arizona where he had plastic surgery to repair his lip which had been cut in the crash. His whereabouts were known to only his closest confidants.

“I couldn’t believe that Tiger Woods would be that reckless,” says Lusetich. “He had basically convinced himself that he was bulletproof because of prior incidents and being able to cover them up.”

On 11 December Woods released a statement which said he was taking an indefinite break from golf.

“I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children,” he posted on his website.

Woods, pictured here on 21 November 2009 with his daughter, Sam, and then-wife, Elin Nordegren

After Christmas, he checked into Pine Grove Behavioural Health and Addiction Services, a facility in downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was reported he enrolled on the “Gratitude” programme to treat sex addiction.

Woods has never confirmed the nature of his treatment. “Gratitude” was designed by Dr Patrick Carnes, who first introduced the term sexual addiction into medical circles in 1983.

What seems certain is that Woods faced a brutal regime of self analysis well away from the outside world. It meant he missed the first birthday of his son Charlie.

“I can’t go back to where I was,” he later said. “I want to be part of my son’s life and my daughter’s life going forward.”

Not everyone was convinced of the wisdom of Woods’ treatment. A future president weighed in on Fox News: “I would recommend Tiger just call it a bad experience,” said Donald Trump.

“Say bye-bye, go out, be a wonderful playboy, win tournaments and have a good life. The most important thing Tiger can do is get back on the golf course and win. This whole thing with sex rehabilitation, I’m not sure I’m a believer.”

Woods returned home to Isleworth on 15 February 2010 and it was time to address the world.

Four days later, surrounded by close friends and his mother Kultida, he stood before a television camera in a room at PGA Tour headquarters in Florida. Twenty two TV networks in the US interrupted schedules to broadcast Woods’ 14-minute statement. Never had this supreme champion looked so vulnerable.

He apologised for his “irresponsible and selfish behaviour” and afterwards his mother stated: “I’m so proud to be his mother, period. He didn’t do anything illegal. He didn’t kill anybody.”

The Open champion at the time, Stewart Cink, commented: “It was probably one of the most difficult things he’s ever had to do.”

Woods embraces his mother Kultida after making a statement admitting to cheating on his wife, in December 2009

The night before the apology Woods went to the range to hit his first golf balls since the scandal broke. “I hit them solid,” he is reported to have told Hank Haney, his coach at the time.

He returned to action at the first major of the year, the Masters, a little under two months later and received heavy criticism from Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club.

“He disappointed all of us,” Payne said at a remarkable chairman’s news conference. “And more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.”

Remarkably, Woods finished fourth in the tournament, a stunning result against the best players in the world after four tortuous months away from the game.

Within days Woods split with Haney, who subsequently wrote a tell-all book, The Big Miss. It detailed his hugely successful time coaching Woods and provided unique insights on someone so secretive of his life on and off the course.

Haney revealed Woods’ obsession with the military, that the player had trained with Navy Seals and undergone punishing regimes that put enormous stress on his body.

Throughout his career he has needed multiple surgeries to correct knee, neck and back problems. “Some of the injuries, I believe, did not come from golf,” says Lusetich.

“He went through that crazy phase of wanting to be a Navy Seal and did some dangerous things that hurt both his back and his knee.”

Nevertheless, by 2013 Woods returned to the top of golf’s world rankings. He was dominating the PGA Tour but failed to add to his major tally. No longer feared in the way that he was pre-scandal, he appeared a weaker force on major weekends.

“What happened 10 years ago, I think there was always that aura of invincibility around Tiger, so I think that showed a little bit of a vulnerable side to him,” says Rory McIlroy.

“It humanised him a little bit. It is obviously very hard to come back from something like that from a mental standpoint.”

But as a fellow competitor, McIlroy is also impressed by how Woods coped with the injuries that threatened his career. “He’s been through the wars just with what he’s had to go through physically,” says the current world number two.

“I remember to this day the lunch we had in 2017 and he was sort of talking ‘maybe this is it? Maybe I can’t play anymore’. Then 15 months later he’s winning on the PGA Tour again.”

Weeks after that pessimistic lunch date, on April 20, 2017, Woods had what proved to be a career-saving back fusion operation. It was the last throw of the dice, surgery essentially aimed at making him able to be an active father and family man. If he could compete again as a golfer, that would be a bonus. “It is hard to express how much better I feel,” Woods wrote a month after the procedure, his fourth and most important back surgery.

But, although he was repaired there was more shame to be endured. To cope with the rehab and previous pain, Woods was dependant on a cocktail of painkillers and sedatives. Within days of that upbeat assessment, he consumed a potentially lethal concoction of drugs.

In his system there was Vicodin for pain relief, Dilaudid – a controlled substance to combat severe pain – Xanax to ease anxiety, THC – the active ingredient in marijuana and Ambien to help sleep.

We know this because he was found by Jupiter police slumped at the wheel of his Mercedes car which was parked up with punctured tyres at around 2am on 29 May, 2017.

Video footage of an incoherent, shambolic Woods being questioned by police, handcuffed and put in cells for the night went viral. His puffy-eyed mugshot stared from the front page of pretty much every newspaper.

His DUI (driving under the influence) arrest led to prosecution for reckless driving. There was no alcohol in his system but the episode threatened uncomfortable echoes of his calamitous downfall of 2009.

“The biggest part of his comeback and the one that will get least attention from ‘Camp Tiger’ is that DUI,” insists Lusetich. “I think that was rock bottom.

Woods’ police booking photo after his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI)

“When everyone saw him slurring, unable to walk, the great Tiger Woods and that video, there was a sadness to it. It was a tragic vision of a once great but now fallen star.”

Once again Woods needed to put his life back together. He got clean and furthermore found he was able to swing a golf club with freedom. It was a revelation and meant he could do what he always did best – compete.

He came close to winning the 2018 Open at Carnoustie and the US PGA the following month. Then he won the season-ending Tour Championship, eclipsing McIlroy, his playing partner in the final round.

“And fast forward another seven months after that and he’s won another major,” McIlroy says. “I think it’s been incredible.

“I think it shows his character, his mental capacity, his grit that he can come back after all these mishaps, whether it be personal life or the physical injuries that he’s had to endure.”

Woods has reconstructed his whole life since the 2009 crash. Elin divorced him in the wake of the revelations that followed. Between 2013 and 2015 he dated US skier Lindsey Vonn, someone well aware of the unique demands of life in the sporting spotlight. Now the golfer is in a long-term relationship with Erica Herman, general manager of his restaurant in Jupiter, Florida. She was there with his children to greet him at Augusta after Woods won this year’s Masters.

For the champion, the fact that his children were there to witness his 15th major title, his first since the pre-scandal US Open of 2008, was the most thrilling aspect of that extraordinary triumph last April.

“I think he achieved more as a person in the last decade,” says McIlroy. “Think about the wonderful job he has done as a dad to Sam and Charlie.

“That takes up a huge chunk of his time now, trying to be with them as much as possible. He doesn’t travel as much because he doesn’t want to be away from picking them up from school, watching their football matches or any of that.

“That side of him has really blossomed because of all the stuff he’s had to go through,” adds the Northern Irishman.

Earlier this month Woods won again. The Zozo Championship in Japan provided his 82nd PGA Tour success, equalling the record set by the legendary Sam Snead.

The tournament spilled into a fifth day because of weather delays. On the final morning English golfer Ian Poulter warmed up alongside Woods.

Woods is now one PGA Tour success away from setting a new titles record

“He’s amazing,” says the 43-year-old, who has played throughout the Woods era.

“It was as good as I’ve seen Tiger Woods ever hit it. Ever. It was as controlled as I’ve ever seen him,” Poulter adds.

“To listen to the strike, watch the ball flight and to see him finish off that tournament, Tiger has still got it. He doesn’t need his A game, his A minus game is still good enough to get the job done.”

Woods remains deeply private but his image has softened and in a controlled way he lets more people into his life. On Golf TV, where he provides insights for subscribers, he demonstrates previously unseen charm and humour.

“He did a great job of not allowing the human being to come out and be seen,” Lusetich says of Woods’ former life.

“It’s not like he’s an open book these days but things like he does now with Golf TV, and I know they pay him, open him up more and there is more depth to him.”

It has been a remarkable journey over the last decade. From rock bottom, Woods rides high once again. He is a redeemed, restored champion still more vital to his sport than any other player.

Next month he returns to Australia a different man. He captains his country in the Presidents Cup, a Ryder Cup equivalent against the rest of the world outside Europe. He is playing so well he had to pick himself as a wildcard selection.

He turns 44 at the end of this year, a leader and player, fit and fighting and a champion of more substance than the figure who was hiding so many secrets in the first part of his career.

As McIlroy says: “He’s a wonderful ambassador for our game. Everyone involved in golf, you in the media, ourselves as players, equipment manufacturers – everyone benefits from Tiger Woods being at the top of golf.

“I think we should all count ourselves very lucky that he’s still in that position.”

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A colorful history of Edinburgh Castle

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will start from the 7-29th August of 2020. It is an evening of live military performances from Military bands and Regiments that include the military displays, massed pipes and drums, dancers, performers, singers, special lighting effects and the Lone Piper.

Edinburgh Tattoo is just closer to its 70th birthday that’s are celebrating in August 2020. Tattoo fans who want to join this iconic festival can buy official Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets from our most consistent and unfailing online platform.

Edinburgh Castle stands on a volcanic plug, a piece of hardened basalt that has withstood the ice caps of Europe. The flow of ice divided around it, braiding the edges and depositing debris in its wake. When the ice retreated, it left a flat area to the north with a rock (the castle rock) and a tail (today the "Royal Mile").

The top of Castle Rock is 130 meters (430 feet) above sea level, with rocky cliffs to the south, west, and north, rising to a height of 80 meters (260 feet) above the surrounding landscape. The only easily accessible route to the castle is to the east, where the ridge slopes more gently, but where any approach can be seen for miles and where a defense could be concentrated.

Climate and geology had combined to create a natural defensive position.

Archaeological investigation has not yet established when Castle Rock was first used for human habitation. There is no trace of Roman activity. The map of Ptolemy from the 2nd century AD shows a settlement on the Votadini territory called "Alauna", which means place of rock, which makes it perhaps the first known name of the castle.

It did not reappear in historical documents until around 600 AD, however, when the epic of the Welsh poem Y Gododdin referred to "Din Eidyn" (the stronghold of Eidyn).

The first documentary reference to a castle in Edinburgh is the disputed account of Jean de Fordun of the death of King Malcolm III. What is more widely accepted, however, is Malcolm's youngest son, King David I, who began to develop Edinburgh as the seat of royal power in the 1140s. In 1174, King William "the Lion" ( 1165-1214) was captured by the English during the Battle of Alnwick.

He was forced to sign the Cliff Treaty to obtain his release, in exchange for the handing over of the castles of Edinburgh, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Stirling, to the English king Henry II. The castle was occupied by the English for twelve years, until 1186, when it was returned to Guillaume as dowry from his English wife, Ermengarde de Beaumont.

The colorful history of Edinburgh Castle really started to take off in March 1296, when Edward I launched an invasion of Scotland, thus starting the First Scottish War of Independence. Edinburgh Castle was quickly bombed for three days and surrendered to British control.

Edward brought his master builders from the great Welsh castles to Scotland and Edinburgh was strengthened. However, after the death of Edward I in 1307, England's control over Scotland weakened. On March 14, 1314, a surprise night attack by the 1st Count of Moray took over the castle.

A group of thirty handpicked men was guided by a William Francis, a member of the garrison who knew a route along the north face of Castle Rock and a place where the wall could be climbed. Making the difficult climb, Randolph’s men climbed the wall, surprised the garrison, and took control.

Robert the Bruce immediately ordered the destruction of the castle's defenses to prevent its re-occupation by the English. Four months later, his army won the battle at Bannockburn. Tickets for the Edinburgh Tattoo are available online.

After Bruce's death in 1329, Edward III of England decided to renew Scotland's attempted subjugation. Edward attacked in 1333, marking the start of the Second Scottish War of Independence, and English forces reoccupied and re-fortified Edinburgh Castle in 1335, holding it back until 1341.

This time the Scottish physical attack was led by William Douglas, lord of Liddesdale. Douglas' group disguised themselves as Leith merchants bringing supplies to the garrison. Driving a cart into the entrance, they stopped him to prevent the doors from closing. A larger force hidden nearby rushed to join them and the castle was recaptured. The English garrison, 100 in number, was killed.

The Berwick Treaty of 1357 ended the wars of independence. David II took over his reign and began to rebuild Edinburgh Castle which became its main seat of government. The Tower of David was started around 1367 and was incomplete when David died at the castle in 1371.

It was completed in the 1370s by his inheritor, Robert II. At the beginning of the 15th century, another English invasion, this time under Henry IV, reached Edinburgh Castle and began a siege, but eventually withdrew in due to lack of supplies.

Edinburgh Castle from Prince's Street Gardens. The castle never really developed the traditional turrets and towers that we could associate with Wales.

From 1437 Sir William Crichton was the caretaker of Edinburgh Castle and soon became Chancellor of Scotland. In an attempt to win the regency of Scotland, Crichton sought to break the power of the Douglases, the principal noble family of the kingdom.

William Douglas, sixteen, Earl of Douglas, sixteen, and his younger brother David were summoned to Edinburgh Castle in November 1440. After the so-called "black dinner", the two boys were summarily executed on accusations fabricated in the presence of King James II, 10 years old.

Supporters of Douglas later besieged the castle, causing damage, but construction continued throughout this period, the area now known as Crown Square being vaulted in the 1430s.

Royal apartments were built, forming the nucleus of the last palace building, and a large hall existed in 1458. Edinburgh fans can buy Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Tickets online.

In 1479, Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, was imprisoned in the Tower of David for plotting against his brother, King James III (r.1460-1488). He escaped by drinking his guards, then lowering himself from a window on a rope.

Albany fled to France, then to England, where he allied with King Edward IV. In 1482 Albany entered Scotland with Richard, the Duke of Gloucester (future King Richard III) and an English army. James III was trapped in the castle from July 22 to September 29, 1482, until he successfully negotiated a settlement.

In the 15th century, the castle was increasingly used as an arsenal and an armament factory. The first known purchase of firearms took place in 1384, and the “big bomb” Mons Meg was delivered to Edinburgh in 1457.

The first recorded mention of an arsenal for the manufacture of firearms took place in 1474 and, in 1498, master gunner Robert Borthwick threw bronze cannons at Edinburgh. In 1511 Edinburgh was the main foundry in Scotland, replacing Stirling Castle,

Mons Meg, the 13,000-pound (5.9-ton) gun rests on a reconstructed cart. Some of Meg's rifle stones, weighing around 150 kg, are on display next to her. On July 3, 1558, she was dismissed to celebrate the marriage of Marie, Queen of Scotland, with the French dolphin François II. Soldiers recovered one of his stones near the Forth River, 2 miles from the castle

On September 9, 1513, the Scots were routed at the Battle of Flodden. James IV was killed. Waiting for the English to take advantage of their advantage, the Scots hastily built a wall around Edinburgh and raised the defenses of the castle.

Three years later, King James V (r. 1513-1542), was brought to the castle for safety. When he died 25 years later, the crown was passed on to his week-old daughter, Queen of Scotland, Mary. The English invasions followed as King Henry VIII attempted to force a dynastic marriage in Scotland, "The Rough Wooing" from 1543 - 1551.

The city of Edinburgh did badly in 1544 and was razed to the ground. Those who sought refuge in Edinburgh Castle remained largely unchanged. The fortress held under cannon fire was spilled on the Royal Mile.

In June 1548, however, Musselburgh and Dunbar were razed and it was deemed necessary to evacuate Mary to a safe place, where she was engaged to the Dauphin of France in August 1548. Edin Tattoo Tickets can buy online from our trusted online market.

Edinburgh Castle at night - (Just on a complete tangent, during her exile in France, Mary continued to play golf. She was a natural target for English assassins and was assigned to a bodyguard of the cadet body from the nearby naval academy. She quickly discovered that her cadet bodyguard could be used to carry her batons.

The French word for a cadet is, of course, pronounced Cad-Day. Therefore, his club bearer became his junior. When she returned to Scotland, she had adopted the idea of ​​a club carrier. You have probably already guessed where the word caddy comes from?)

Be that as it may, with the military and financial aid of France, the Scots were able to maintain the resistance. Hostilities ended with Scotland with the Treaty of Boulogne in March 1550, which was mainly between France and England.

James V's widow, Marie de Guise, acted as regent from 1554 until her death at the chateau in 1560, over which the Catholic Marie, Queen of Scotland, returned from France to begin her reign, which was marred of crises and quarrels among the powerful Protestant Scottish nobility.

In 1565 the Queen made an unpopular marriage to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and the following year, in a small room in the palace of Edinburgh Castle, she gave birth to their son James, who would later become King of Scotland and England. The reign of Mary was however condemned and ended abruptly.

Three months after the murder of Darnley at Kirk o ’Field in 1567, she married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, one of the main murder suspects. Much of the nobility rebelled, eventually leading to imprisonment and forced abdication.

She escaped and fled to England. Edinburgh Castle was originally handed over by its captain, James Balfour, to Regent Moray, who had forced Mary's abdication and now held power in the name of the infant King James VI. Tattoo lovers can get Military Tattoo Tickets 2020 online.

Shortly after the Battle of Langside, in May 1568, Moray appointed Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange Keeper of the Castle. Grange was a trusted lieutenant of the regent, but after Moray's murder in January 1570, his allegiance to the king's cause began to falter.

Under the inspiration of William Maitland of Lethington, Mary’s secretary, Grange changed sides, occupying the city and Edinburgh Castle for Queen Mary and against the new regent, the Earl of Lennox.

The ensuing impasse was not resolved until two years later and became known as the "Lang Siege". Hostilities began in May, with a month-long siege in the city and a second short-lived siege in October.

Blockages and skirmishes continued while Grange continued to re-fortify the castle. The King's party appealed to Elizabeth I of England for help as they lacked the artillery and money to reduce the castle and feared that Grange would receive help from France.

A truce expires on January 1, 1573, and Grange begins to bomb the city. However, its reserves of powder and shot were low and, despite the availability of 40 guns, there were only seven gunners in the garrison. However, the king's forces, now led by the Earl of Morton as regent, were advancing.

Ditches were plowed to surround the castle and St Margaret’s Well was poisoned. In February, all the other supporters of Queen Mary had surrendered to the regent, but Grange had resolved to resist despite the water shortages in the castle. The garrison continued to bomb the city.

In April, a force of approximately 1,000 English soldiers arrived in Edinburgh. They were followed by 27 cannons from Berwick-upon-Tweed. The English troops built an artillery site on Castle Hill, immediately opposite the east walls of the castle, and five others in the north, west, and south. By mid-May, these batteries were ready and bombing began.

Over the next 12 days, the gunners fired about 3,000 shots at the castle. On May 22, the south wall of the Tower of David collapsed and the following day, the constable's tower also fell. Debris blocked the entrance to the castle, as well as the Fore Well, although it has already dried up. People can enjoy the live moments by getting the 2020 Tattoo Tickets online.

On May 26, the English attacked and captured the castle's external fortification. The next day, Grange emerged, calling for a ceasefire. However, having obtained no conditions, he decided to continue the resistance, but the garrison threatened to mutiny. Therefore, he arranged for Drury and his men to enter the castle on May 28, preferring to surrender to the English rather than the Regent Morton.

Edinburgh Castle was given to George Douglas of Parkhead, the regent's brother, and the garrison was authorized to liberate. Much of the castle was now to be rebuilt. The task falls to Regent Morton. The spur, the new Half Moonbattery and the Portcullis gate have been added.

James’s successor, King Charles I, visited Edinburgh Castle only once, hosting a party in the Great Hall. It was the last time that a reigning monarch resided in the castle. In 1639, in response to Charles’s attempts to impose the episcopate on the Scottish Church, a civil war broke out between the king’s forces and the Presbyterian Pacts.

The Covenanters, led by Alexander Leslie, captured Edinburgh Castle after a brief siege, although it was returned to Charles after the Peace of Berwick in June of the same year. The peace was short-lived. The following year, the Covenanters took over the castle, this time after a three-month siege, during which the garrison ran out of supplies.

In May 1650, the Covenanters signed the Treaty of Breda, joining forces with Charles II in exile against English parliamentarians, who had executed his father the year before.

In response to Charles King's Scottish proclamation, Oliver Cromwell launched an invasion of Scotland, defeating the Covenant army at Dunbar in September. Edinburgh Castle was taken after a three-month restriction, which caused further damage.

The next wave of turbulence did not take long to arrive in 1688 when James VII was deposed and exiled by the Glorious Revolution which installed William of Orange as King of England. Tattoo Edinburgh Tickets can buy online from all over the world.

Shortly after, in early 1689, Scotland officially accepted William as their new king and demanded that the Duke of Gordon surrender Edinburgh Castle. Gordon, who had been appointed by James VII as a Catholic confrere, refused.

In March 1689, the castle was blocked by 7,000 men against a garrison of 160 men. Viscount Dundee, determined to spark a rebellion in the Highlands, climbed the west side of Castle Rock to urge Gordon to hold the castle against the new king. Gordon agreed. Despite his first victory at Killiecrankie, Dundee was fatally injured. Without its leadership, the rebellion lost its leadership.

The battle of Dunkeld resulted in an inconclusive result. Some rebels began to abandon the cause and returned to the Highland valleys. Returning to Edinburgh, Gordon began to realize that he was not going to be relieved and would surrender on June 14 due to reduced supplies and the loss of 70 men during the three-month siege.

The castle was almost taken during the first Jacobite lever in support of James Stuart, the "old suitor", in 1715. On September 8, just two days after the start of the lever, a group of about 100 Jacobite Highlanders, led by Lord Drummond, tried to climb the walls with the help of members of the garrison.

However, the rope ladder lowered by the castle sentries was too short and the alarm went off after a watch change. The Jacobites fled, while the deserters from the castle were hanged or flogged. The last military action at the castle took place during the second Jacobite uprising in 1745.

Under Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), The Jacobite army captured Edinburgh without a fight in September 1745, but the castle remained in the hands of his aging, General George Preston, who refused to surrender. After their victory over the government army at Prestonpans on September 21, the Jacobites attempted to block the castle.

Preston's response was to bombard Jacobite positions in the city. After the demolition of several buildings and the death of four people, Charles lifted the blockade. Fans can know Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets prices online.

The Jacobites themselves did not have heavy weapons with which to respond, and in November they entered England, leaving Edinburgh to be the garrison of the castle. The uprising would eventually perish on the Culloden field in April of the following year

During the following century, the vaults of the castle were used to hold prisoners of war during several conflicts, notably the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and the wars Napoleonic (1803-1815). After a massive escape of prisoners in 1811, it ceased to be used as such from 1814

The Edinburgh Castle regularly originated to assume a different role as a national monument. The palace began to be open to visitors in the 1830s. The Sainte-Marguerite chapel was "rediscovered" in 1845, having served as a store for many years.

Works in the 1880s, saw the Argyle tower built above the Portcullis Gate and the great hall restored after years of use as a barracks. A new Gatehouse was built in 1888. The permanent garrison moved in 1923, although the castle was briefly used again as a prison during the Second World War, for captured pilots from the Luftwaffe.

The castle was entrusted to "historic Scotland" when the agency was created in 1991 and was designated a historic monument registered in 1993. Today, it fulfills a function of ceremonial, tourism and administration, soldiers still present.

He is probably best known today for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo which takes place on the Esplanade every year in August. The basis of each performance is a parade of massive pipes and drums from Scottish regiments, and since its creation in 1950, the tattoo has developed a complex format that includes a variety of guest performers from around the world, albeit always with a purpose military.

The highlight of the evening is the solitary bagpiper on the ramparts of the castle, playing a pibroch in memory of the comrades-in-arms, followed by massive groups joining a mix of traditional Scottish melodies. The tattoo attracts an annual audience of around 217,000 people and is broadcast in around thirty countries to an estimated television audience of 100 million.

Another tradition that visitors can observe is the discharge of the One O’Clock Gun, a time signal, fired every day at 1 p.m., except Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day.

The "Time Gun" was created in 1861 as a signal for ships in the port of Leith and the Firth of Forth, 3 km away. The original gun was an 18-pound muzzle-loading cannon, which needed four men to charge, and was fired from the Half Moonbattery. On Sunday, April 2, 1916, the One O’Clock Gun was fired in vain at a German Zeppelin during an air raid, the only known use of the pistol in wartime.

Edinburgh Castle remains Scotland's most popular tourist attraction, with more than 1.4 million visitors in 2013. Historic Scotland has a number of facilities within the castle, including two cafes/restaurants, several shops and numerous historical exhibitions.

An educational center in the Queen Anne Building organizes events for schools and educational groups and employs reenactors in costume and with vintage weapons.

Tattoo fans can get Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets through our steadfast online ticketing market place. www.edinburghtattotickets.com is the most unfaltering source of The Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets.

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Slow Play – “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”

By ED TRAVIS

The topic of slow play leapt into focus on social media when the number one and number three ranked players in the world, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, criticized the time a few of their fellow Tour players take to get off a shot.

This latest reaction was instigated by a video of Bryson DeChambeau preparing to putt at the Northern Trust. It shows him staring at the line, conferring with his caddie, pulling out his green contour book, squatting down to look at the line, standing up to look at the line, walking the length of the putt, squatting down to look at the line, meticulously placing the ball in front of the marker, adjusting the ball alignment, using his putter shaft to check the ball alignment, walking to the side to look at the line…well, you get the idea. All this and DeChambeau still took another minute to actually stroke his putt for a total of just over 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

That’s not the whole story though. The video also showed playing competitor Justin Thomas fidgeting over on the side of the green. First one foot then the other. A tug of the shirt, a rub of the cheek and a rolling of the eyes with “Come on already hit it” plainly showing on his face.

Oh, and after all the machinations and incantations DeChambeau missed the eight-footer knocking it four feet past.

Reaction on Twitter pummeled DeChambeau and the PGA Tour with incredulousness, outrage and disgust.

The Tour was quick to respond. In a statement after the tournament was completed PGA Tour Chief of Operations Tyler Dennis said, “We are currently in the process of reviewing this aspect of pace of play and asking ourselves, ‘Is there a better way to do it?’ We think technology definitely plays a key role in all of this and we are thinking about new and innovative ways to use it to address these situations.”

It would seem this is another case of better late than not showing up at all. By the way where is the USGA on all this? They used to do “While We’re Young” PSAs with Arnold Palmer and have continued to promote cutting the time it takes to play by pushing nine-hole rounds. You can judge for yourself, but it will be interesting to see if anything substantial comes from this recent viewing with alarm, taking another firm stance and committee formation to “assess the problem.”

To be fair though, some aren’t sure slow play really needs a remedy, and this could be worth thinking about. They are of the opinion golf is a chance to enjoy friends, decompress from life’s stresses and even commune with nature. This isn’t as farfetched as it may sound though it certainly doesn’t reflect the majority’s view since slow play has been an issue for as long as I can remember but let’s be clear about two things.

The cause of slow player is the players. That seems to get lost in all the noise, but players cause it and players can fix it…if they want to.

The self-centered attitude whether the player is a top ten ranked professional or the guy ahead of you last Saturday who changed clubs three times (only to hit it in the water anyway) is the basic problem.

A basic problem rooted in the lack of respect for others.

Harsh you say? The truth is often uncomfortable, and another uncomfortable fact is slow play is fostered by a whole army of enablers.

Course architects (layouts too difficult), coaches (not teaching ready golf), the USGA (no effective overall rule), the PGA Tour (not enforcing their current rule) and course management (seven minute tee times and tucked pins on too fast greens) but most of all, the problem lies with us. The fans who put up with it.

Should we all decide watching televised golf is a not fun and switch to bowling, sponsors and advertisers would quickly force the PGA Tour to stop enabling slow play. Lower viewership inevitably would lead to reduced sponsor and advertising payouts sending a clear message to Tour players.

Their own financial self-interest would do the rest.

Slow play on the Tour will go on until fans and sponsors decide enough is enough.

As far as the three-change-of-clubs guy is concerned, effective course rangers can work wonders especially if they are properly trained to manage the idiot-factor inherent in self-indulgent me-only players. Not easy for clubs to do but it’s a lot better than shrinking the customer base, i.e., pushing golfers away from the game by catering to the inconsiderate few.

As Walt Kelly’s character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

[luxus4me]

GolfWRX http://j.mp/2VE4IW2

By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com)

December 17, 2018

Good Monday morning, golf fans.

1. Feel-good stories of the year

The whole of 2018 may have been a Tiger Woods feel-good story (on the heels of the 2017 Woods feel-bad story as a foil). However, TW was but a dish in a multi-course meal of homestyle favorites.

Golf Digest’s Joel Beall rounded up his top-15 feel-good stories of 2018. Included in his list…JoAnne Carner at the Senior Women’s Open

“JoAnne Carner’s legacy was well intact when she arrived at Chicago Golf Club for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, but the player known as “Big Mama” left the Windy City by augmenting her legend status. Carner, who won the U.S. Open in 1971 and 1976, birdied the 18th hole to shoot 79, her age, in her opening round. Not bad for someone who hadn’t walked a golf course in 15 years.”

...and Cody Blick

“Cody Blick needed to jump 34 spots in the final round of Q-School to earn Web.com Tour status. A challenge daunting in itself, especially so after Blick’s equipment was stolen following the third round. All Blick did is turn in a Sunday 63, highlighted by a back-nine 31, a score that vaulted him into the 25 to grab guaranteed starts next season. Not bad, given the borrowed set in tow. “Hitting bad shots was OK, almost, like, ‘Dude, I have a mismatched set. It’s not expected of me to hit good shots,'” Blick said. “In a weird way, that was comforting.” Sorry Johnny Miller, but there’s a new best all-time 63 in town.”

Matt Parziale, Sang Moon Bae, Lexi Thompson, and more in the full list.

Full piece.

2. Lipsky victorious 

Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”David Lipsky will enter 2019 as European No. 1 after winning the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, the last event of 2018. He joins Kurt Kitayama as the two American winners, after Kitayama’s victory in the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open.”

“Lipsky earned his second victory following the 2014 Omega European Masters with a two-shot win over Scotland’s David Drysdale. The 30-year-old Northwestern graduate entered the final round one shot behind ex-Augusta State player Scott Jamieson. A closing 4-under 68 gave him a 14-under 274 total and a check for just under $270,000.”

Full piece.

3. A victory for Love(s)

AP Report…”Davis Love III and his son Dru played so well Sunday that they set two scoring records, rallied from a three-shot deficit to win the PNC Father-Son Challenge and then wondered if they would get to play again.”

“Team Love shot 27 on the front nine at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club to get in the mix, took the lead with a birdie at No. 11 and finished off their record round with four more birdies an eagle for a 16-under 56, breaking by one the 18-hole record in a scramble format.”

“They won by three shots at 26-under 118, another record in the scramble format….”Who knows? This might be our last time playing, so it was fun to finish it off,” Davis Love III said.”

“The 36-hole event is for players who have won a major or The Players Championship, and their partner cannot hold a PGA Tour-sanctioned card. Dru Love has played 17 times in the last two years on the PGA Tour, European Tour and Web.com Tour, but he has yet to earn a card and missed out in the qualifying tournament this year.”

Full piece.

4. LPGA Tour: Top 10 moments in 2018

Beth Ann Nichols rounded up the 10 most significant moments on the LPGA Tour in 2018.

Here are two…”Michelle Wie drained a birdie bomb from off the green on the 72nd hole in steamy Singapore to win for the first time since 2014. Wie took the HSBC Women’s World Championship, also known as “Asia’s Major,” in stirring fashion with a 35-foot putt that broke her out of a four-way tie for the lead. The LPGA’s resident needle-mover credited her family’s relentless belief for propelling her through a four-year drought.”

“Lexi Thompson’s sparkling performance at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship – her first of 2018 – was among the most significant of her young career. Burdened from 18-months of hardship and disappointment, Thompson took a break mid-season to work on herself. It became obvious in Naples that her puppy, Leo, played a key role in helping Thompson feel like her old self. Her golf game looked vintage too, with the stock draw and old putter helping her back to the winner’s circle.”

Full piece.

5. Quotes of the year

The Golf Channel crew did some textual mining and assembled the best quotes of 2018.

“I never counted him out. When somebody said, ‘How is your [major] record, Jack?’ I said, ‘If Tiger comes back and plays I still think he’s got a shot at breaking my record.” – Jack Nicklaus on whether or not he believes Tiger Woods can still reach 19 major wins

“I would argue [Tiger Woods] got the least out of his talent of any player, maybe in history.” – Brandel Chamblee

”I think I’m going to do exactly the same thing I did (Friday) night. I’m going to have a margarita as an aperitif, and then I’m going to have a nice bottle of Rioja (wine) and smoke a big fat cigar.” – Miguel Angel Jimenez on refusing to change his routine the night before the final round even with a three-shot lead (p.s. It worked.)

“Nope … He has my number.” – Patrick Reed, on whether or not he’s spoken to Jordan Spieth after the Ryder Cup.

Full piece.

6. Farewell, Charlie

Charlie Rymer is leaving Morning Drive for the greener pastures of retirement, golf, and charitable involvement.

Golfweek’s Forecaddie…”the Tennessee-born, South Carolina-raised Rymer confirmed he is departing the morning talk show for a scaled-back Golf Channel role in 2019.”

“Rymer said he’ll next be seen on April’s Drive, Chip and Putt Championship. He plans to relocate to Myrtle Beach, S.C., with wife Carol to play some golf, fish and focus on charity work for his favorite causes: junior golf and military veterans.”

“It’s been a wonderful run here, you guys are going to make me cry,” Rymer said at the conclusion of Sunday’s “Morning Drive” as he thanked the “hard-working men and women on the crew” along with his colleagues.”

Full piece.

7. Sports Personality of the Year!

BBC Report…”Italian golfer Francesco Molinari has been named World Sport Star of the Year at the BBC’s Sports Personality show.”

“The 36-year-old enjoyed a memorable 2018, most notably winning the Open Championship at Carnoustie in July to secure his first major and become the first Italian to win the title.”

“In September, he helped Europe to Ryder Cup victory over the United States. In doing so, Molinari became the first European player to win all five of his matches.”

Full piece.

8. Back on the bag

Brentley Romine writes…”Damon Green wasted no time finding a new boss…The 58-year-old Green and Zach Johnson parted ways last week after nearly 15 years, two majors and 11 total PGA Tour victories. Five days later, Green has agreed to caddie for Schniederjans beginning next year.”

“The news was first reported by The Caddie Network and confirmed to Golf Channel by Schniederjans’ agent.”

“According to a report by Golfweek, Johnson’s agent helped facilitate a meeting between Green and Schniederjans, who played golf together last week at the Golf Club of Georgia before Green headed back home to caddie for Jim Furyk’s dad, Mike, in the PNC Father/Son Challenge in Orlando, Fla. On Thursday night, Green and Schniederjans reached an agreement over the phone.”

Full piece.

9. Tiger’s best swing ever? 

Quothe the Golden Bear…

“I think his swing is much better now than it ever was. The reason for that is Tiger was very much up and down with his head and I think that put a lot of pressure on his back.

“The fusion that he had, obviously was something he didn’t want but it was something he needed. … I didn’t think he would ever play golf as well as he’s playing.

“I never dreamed that he would play quite as well as he has and that the operation actually leveled out his head and leveled out his swing.”

http://j.mp/2Qscpeh via GolfWRX URL : http://j.mp/2xIqpYD

[junker-town]

Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, golf’s biggest beef, explained

What got us to this point?

Every great sports beef has a flashpoint. A moment. A clearly established pivot that turns rivals into enemies. But, when it comes to Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, it isn’t that simple. There isn’t an obvious catalyst for their hatred. They’re just two guys, who’ve disliked each other for years, and now bubbling over into the public forum.

Is it childish? Yes. Stupid? Absolutely. Has it become the most compelling golf rivalry in years? You better believe it.

Why do Koepka and DeChambeau hate each other?

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the beef started simmering between these two, but we know when it started to boil over. In 2019 the duo got into a spat over perceived slow play, with the pair trading barbs and going so far as talking about who could beat who in a fight. It was the early days of the feud, but the embers were there.

Absence didn’t make hearts grow fonder when golfers were home due to the pandemic, and idle time started to cause the disdain between Brooks and Bryson to play out in social media.

Every moment, no matter how insignificant, seemed to set the other off. Bryson explained how he worked out during quarantine and put on 30 pounds of muscle being away from the course, then had a run-in with a CBS cameraman during an event. Brooks was right there to poke fun.

pic.twitter.com/DTjuc48hFp

— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) July 7, 2020

When they returned to the links Bryson asked for rules clarification after his ball settled near, what he believed, to be a fire ant hill. Not missing a beat, Brooks jumped on the moment again — poking fun at Bryson by telling caddie Ricky Elliot “there’s an ant,” stopping Elliot in his tracks, before revealing he was just kidding. Clearly a barb at DeChambeau.

This is where it all gets a little tricky to discern pageantry from reality. Yes, there was unquestionably dislike between the two prior to their social media run ins, but Koepka’s Kenny Powers tweet really pushed their relationship to the forefront, and both parties knew it. Koepka felt his feud with DeChambeau was good for the game of golf, telling Golf Digest:

“It’s bringing new eyeballs. Like I said last week, you’ve got different—it’s pretty much been on every news channel,” Koepka said. “Pretty much everything you look at online, it’s got this in the headline, or it’s up there as a big news story. To me, that’s growing the game. You’re putting it in front of eyeballs, you’re putting it in front of people, the game of golf, who probably don’t normally look at golf, don’t play it, might get them involved. I don’t know how it’s not growing the game.”

Was this truly a pure example of two competitors just not liking each other, or were they playing it up for the publicity? Either way, it worked. No longer a sideshow, fans were hanging on every moment of the feud and waiting to see what would happen next.

It was a pure dislike that spread from the golfers to their fans through osmosis. Koepka fans began calling DeChambeau “Brooksy” at events, which was weird because that’s ... not his name. It was a goofy name that really made zero sense, but it annoyed DeChambeau enough that he got fans ejected for it. This put fuel on the fire once more, and Koepka offered to buy the ejected fans beers, only because they annoyed his rival.

Then, everything came to a head when Koepka became a meme at the PGA Championship. Koepka broke during a post-round conversation with the media when DeChambeau walked past, making a point of making as much noise on the pavement as he could with his spikes.

The moment was captured forever.

“Sometimes, um ... I lost my train of thought,” Koepka said, “hearing that bulls***.”

We had a rivalry growing in intensity, fans were invested, now we had a meme to go along with it. This was no longer just a side note in golf, but a story that everyone in the sports world wanted to know more about. We love it when two athletes hate each other, and this one looked like it was headed for a blow up.

Beef was back on the menu for the U.S. Open

One major question remained: Would the U.S. Open pair Koepka and DeChambeau together to increase the chance of fireworks? Rumors abounded that it was the plan. Broadcaster (and former tour winner) Brad Faxon claims the USGA offered to pair them together, which DeChambeau declined.

Now, Bryson’s camp has been vehemently denied he was offered the chance — because as it stands the assumption is that he’s dodging Koepka. In the narrative of their rivalry, which has positioned DeChambeau as the villain, then dodging Brooks is the coward’s response, and people are picking up on it.

For what it’s worth. Koepka is echoing DeChambeau, saying he wasn’t asked about being paired with his rival, and the USGA are denying it happened as well. However, despite this the damage has been done. Perception has now trumped reality, and the belief is that DeChambeau didn’t want a part of this.

So where does this all stand?

Ask any fight promoter and they’ll tell you that the skill in building a bout is keeping the public hooked for as long as possible. Had Brooks and Bryson been paired at the U.S. Open it would have been rushing the main event.

As far as most of the sporting world in concerned, this rivalry is fairly fresh. Now it’s time to milk this one out for a while. The U.S. Open is too soon for this to come to a head. We need more incidents, more back-and-forth, and more bad blood to rise up and make their eventual pairing a can’t-miss event.

There is no doubt something will happen between Brooks and Bryson at the U.S. Open, because after all, these are two guys who don’t like each other. But, we might need to wait a touch longer for the blow off, and that’s okay. There’s more professional wrestling in sports than anyone cares to admit, and both golfers know what they’re doing is making themselves, and each other more famous as a result.

[johnboothus]

How a PGA Tour Event in the Desert Became The Wildest Party In American Sports

On Feb. 6, 2016, Ryan Palmer lined up his putt on the 10th hole at TPC Scottsdale, the annual venue of Arizona’s Phoenix Open. He pulled back his club, ready to caress the ball into the hole, when a nearby spectator cried out “miss it!” just as Palmer was mid-stroke. The player stopped, composed himself, and once again readied his stroke. Again, the heckling voice shouted out, “miss it!”

After a third call came out, James Edmonson, Palmer’s caddy of 18 years, jumped into action. “I walked all the way around the green and went right up to the rope [separating the crowd from the course]. I pointed at him and I was like, ‘Hey, come here!’” Edmonson says, describing the heckler as a “frat punk” wearing a “stupid little tie.”

“I was going to pull his tie and pull him over the rope,” he recalls. “‘Cause once you get inside the ropes, you know, it’s fair game.” The fan backed down — “like a keyboard warrior on social media” — but when the next group of players arrived on the green, his antics resumed. Security staff soon decided enough was enough and kicked him out. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Edmonson says.

Professional caddies’ typical duties include carrying golf bags, calculating shot lengths, and determining which club their player should use to make a shot. Altercations with “frat boys” is not, as the old adage goes, par for the course. But the Phoenix Open is an event like no other on the PGA Tour.

Officially billed as the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the tournament is better known among golf fans as the “Greatest Show on Grass.” The event eschews the sport’s rigid etiquette, with raucous crowds, a festival-like atmosphere, and extra-curricular activities that extend well into the night. Its annual attendance figures closer resemble music festivals than sporting events.

The tournament is notorious for its spectators’ epic alcohol consumption. In a bid to curb overindulgence and crackdown on DUIs, the Scottsdale Police Department introduced free breathalyzer tests as part of a “Know Your Limit” campaign in 2012. Meanwhile, the event’s costly corporate boxes, which are sold with “open” bars, set a 10-drink limit per person a few years back. Even with that in place, multiple sources told VinePair that bartenders are happy to ignore the limit when tipped generously.

“The way I try to explain the Phoenix Open to people that have never gone is, ‘Imagine a humongous bar or outdoor party, and in the middle of it, there’s a golf tournament going on,’” Edmonson says. “I mean, 90 percent of the people attending don’t really care about the golf.”

His estimate, though unscientific, is telling. The seven-day event takes place during Super Bowl week and concludes the first Sunday of February. The competition itself spans Thursday through Super Bowl Sunday; but practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday’s celebrity Pro-Am, which has previously featured the likes of Mark Walhberg, Michael Phelps, and Aaron Rogers, draw crowds of up to 70,000.

In terms of attendance, there’s only one winner between the Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open. The highest-attended Super Bowl in history barely breached 100,000 spectators. In 2018, more than 200,000 fans turned out at the Phoenix Open on Saturday alone. Over the seven-day period, close to 720,000 people crossed its gates.

The Phoenix Open’s attendances don’t just trounce almost every event on America’s sporting calendar, they make Burning Man, which receives some 70,000 visitors annually, seem like a county fair by comparison. Only Coachella, the celebrity-stacked music festival that takes place over six days on two separate weekends, boasts similar numbers.

The jewel in the tournament’s crown is the legendary par-3 16th hole, hailed as the “most electrifying” in all of golf. It holds a singular place within the sport, owing to the 20,000-capacity grandstand that completely surrounds the hole. On competition days, thousands of spectators queue from as early as midnight the night before gates open to try to claim a spot in the stands.

The calm before the storm on the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open. Credit: WM Phoenix Open / Facebook.com

When play begins, the raucous crowd is ruthless. Players enter the golfing coliseum through a makeshift tunnel before stepping up to the infamous tee. Find the green with their shot, and the stadium celebrates with rapturous fervor; miss it, and the 20,000-strong crowd erupts with catcalls and jeers.

Players “can embrace it and play along with it,” Edmonson says. “But if you try to fight it, they’ll crucify you.”

Tiger Woods embraced it. In 1997, with a 9-iron in his hand, as he reached the top of his backstroke, the TV caller said: “They’re going to go nuts when he hits this thing.” Less than a second later, Woods’ ball took off from the tee box, and the noise from the crowd reached the level of a Boeing 747 during takeoff.

When the ball finally hit the green, it bounced twice and dropped into the hole. The crowd practically broke the sound barrier in celebration. After high-fiving his caddy and playing partner, Woods turned to the crowd and alternated between fist pumps and “raise the roof” motions for the entirety of the 152-yard walk to collect his ball from the hole.

Some of the players even encourage the crowd to cheer and make noise while they’re hitting their shot. “No other hole in golf really has that,” says Ryan Conlogue, an insurance group service operations supervisor who attends the Phoenix Open every year.

Just another day at the Phoenix Open. Credit: WM Phoenix Open / Facebook.com

Like many spectators, Conlogue turns up to the event in fancy dress. Cast a gaze across the stands that line 16, and you’ll see gorilla suits, caddy overalls, Sesame Street characters, and Where’s Waldo (if you can spot him).

Conlogue arrives dressed as professional golfer Rickie Fowler, a one-time winner and two-time runner up at the tournament, with whom he bears a striking resemblance. “People do some wild things out there, so it’s just what I do to kind of be funny,” he says.

Like Edmonson, Conlogue estimates that most people in the crowd are not there for the golf — nor to enjoy just one or two drinks. “People are there to drink all day,” he says.

When play eventually stops, the party continues at the Coors Light Birds Nest, a 50,000-square-foot live music venue and the official afterparty that takes place every night from Wednesday through Saturday. Its headline acts span musical genres from country to punk rock to hip-hop.

On Feb. 1, 2019, Snoop Dogg took the Birds Nest’s party atmosphere to “a whole new level,” according to local news site AZCentral, when he brought pole dancers, “blunts,” and worked the crowd with iconic hits like “Gin and Juice” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”

“It’s just a really cool atmosphere — people hanging out, enjoying music, and enjoying some beverages,” Conlogue says.

TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole is the only one on the PGA Tour that’s completely enclosed by stands. Credit: WM Phoenix Open / Facebook.com

Among all the partying, some still find time to use the event for their business interests. Patrick Shaughnessy, a 67-year-old finance industry veteran, has attended the event for more than 20 years. Through his work, he gains access to one of the corporate “Skyboxes” that overlook the 16th hole.

For $53,000, the corporate package includes 34 Skybox tickets per day, and perks such as complimentary food (breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon buffet) and an “open” bar. While general admission costs between $45 and $60 depending on the day, Shaughnessy says the $1,500 per person for the Skybox is a canny investment and describes it as the “best business development tool ever.”

The tournament offers similar, slightly cheaper packages on the 17th and 18th holes, but it’s 16 that holds the biggest pull. “My clients always wanted to go, so I had to take care of them,” Shaughnessy says. “And then they’ve wanted to bring their friends — prospects in my world. So I’ve gotten many, many introductions to people from all over the country who come here for this thing.”

Shaughnessy calls the 16th hole “the madhouse,” and says Friday and Saturday at the event are “just insanity.” But when there’s potential business to be done, just like the golfers, “you have to be on your game,” he says. “I have a tendency to pace myself out there because I know it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Perhaps the most subtle of the tournament’s quirks is its title sponsor, Waste Management. In place of the requisite insurance companies, investment banks, cell phone networks, or luxury carmakers that tend to align themselves with elite sporting events, the Phoenix Open has been supported by a company that specializes in trash disposal and recycling for the last decade.

In a way, it comes full circle. “When you put 160 to 170,000 people on a property, and you have to open up the next day and play golf, that property looks like the remains at Woodstock,” Shaughnessy says. “The place is a mess.”

While spectators get wasted, Waste Management cleans up the mess. Shaughnessy believes it’s a perfect fit. “I’m telling you,” he says, “they couldn’t have found a better sponsor.”

The article How a PGA Tour Event in the Desert Became The Wildest Party In American Sports appeared first on VinePair.

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[isaiahrippinus]

How a PGA Tour Event in the Desert Became The Wildest Party In American Sports

On Feb. 6, 2016, Ryan Palmer lined up his putt on the 10th hole at TPC Scottsdale, the annual venue of Arizona’s Phoenix Open. He pulled back his club, ready to caress the ball into the hole, when a nearby spectator cried out “miss it!” just as Palmer was mid-stroke. The player stopped, composed himself, and once again readied his stroke. Again, the heckling voice shouted out, “miss it!”

After a third call came out, James Edmonson, Palmer’s caddy of 18 years, jumped into action. “I walked all the way around the green and went right up to the rope [separating the crowd from the course]. I pointed at him and I was like, ‘Hey, come here!’” Edmonson says, describing the heckler as a “frat punk” wearing a “stupid little tie.”

“I was going to pull his tie and pull him over the rope,” he recalls. “‘Cause once you get inside the ropes, you know, it’s fair game.” The fan backed down — “like a keyboard warrior on social media” — but when the next group of players arrived on the green, his antics resumed. Security staff soon decided enough was enough and kicked him out. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Edmonson says.

Professional caddies’ typical duties include carrying golf bags, calculating shot lengths, and determining which club their player should use to make a shot. Altercations with “frat boys” is not, as the old adage goes, par for the course. But the Phoenix Open is an event like no other on the PGA Tour.

Officially billed as the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the tournament is better known among golf fans as the “Greatest Show on Grass.” The event eschews the sport’s rigid etiquette, with raucous crowds, a festival-like atmosphere, and extra-curricular activities that extend well into the night. Its annual attendance figures closer resemble music festivals than sporting events.

The tournament is notorious for its spectators’ epic alcohol consumption. In a bid to curb overindulgence and crackdown on DUIs, the Scottsdale Police Department introduced free breathalyzer tests as part of a “Know Your Limit” campaign in 2012. Meanwhile, the event’s costly corporate boxes, which are sold with “open” bars, set a 10-drink limit per person a few years back. Even with that in place, multiple sources told VinePair that bartenders are happy to ignore the limit when tipped generously.

“The way I try to explain the Phoenix Open to people that have never gone is, ‘Imagine a humongous bar or outdoor party, and in the middle of it, there’s a golf tournament going on,’” Edmonson says. “I mean, 90 percent of the people attending don’t really care about the golf.”

His estimate, though unscientific, is telling. The seven-day event takes place during Super Bowl week and concludes the first Sunday of February. The competition itself spans Thursday through Super Bowl Sunday; but practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday’s celebrity Pro-Am, which has previously featured the likes of Mark Walhberg, Michael Phelps, and Aaron Rogers, draw crowds of up to 70,000.

In terms of attendance, there’s only one winner between the Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open. The highest-attended Super Bowl in history barely breached 100,000 spectators. In 2018, more than 200,000 fans turned out at the Phoenix Open on Saturday alone. Over the seven-day period, close to 720,000 people crossed its gates.

The Phoenix Open’s attendances don’t just trounce almost every event on America’s sporting calendar, they make Burning Man, which receives some 70,000 visitors annually, seem like a county fair by comparison. Only Coachella, the celebrity-stacked music festival that takes place over six days on two separate weekends, boasts similar numbers.

The jewel in the tournament’s crown is the legendary par-3 16th hole, hailed as the “most electrifying” in all of golf. It holds a singular place within the sport, owing to the 20,000-capacity grandstand that completely surrounds the hole. On competition days, thousands of spectators queue from as early as midnight the night before gates open to try to claim a spot in the stands.

The calm before the storm on the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open. Credit: WM Phoenix Open / Facebook.com

When play begins, the raucous crowd is ruthless. Players enter the golfing coliseum through a makeshift tunnel before stepping up to the infamous tee. Find the green with their shot, and the stadium celebrates with rapturous fervor; miss it, and the 20,000-strong crowd erupts with catcalls and jeers.

Players “can embrace it and play along with it,” Edmonson says. “But if you try to fight it, they’ll crucify you.”

Tiger Woods embraced it. In 1997, with a 9-iron in his hand, as he reached the top of his backstroke, the TV caller said: “They’re going to go nuts when he hits this thing.” Less than a second later, Woods’ ball took off from the tee box, and the noise from the crowd reached the level of a Boeing 747 during takeoff.

When the ball finally hit the green, it bounced twice and dropped into the hole. The crowd practically broke the sound barrier in celebration. After high-fiving his caddy and playing partner, Woods turned to the crowd and alternated between fist pumps and “raise the roof” motions for the entirety of the 152-yard walk to collect his ball from the hole.

Some of the players even encourage the crowd to cheer and make noise while they’re hitting their shot. “No other hole in golf really has that,” says Ryan Conlogue, an insurance group service operations supervisor who attends the Phoenix Open every year.

Just another day at the Phoenix Open. Credit: WM Phoenix Open / Facebook.com

Like many spectators, Conlogue turns up to the event in fancy dress. Cast a gaze across the stands that line 16, and you’ll see gorilla suits, caddy overalls, Sesame Street characters, and Where’s Waldo (if you can spot him).

Conlogue arrives dressed as professional golfer Rickie Fowler, a one-time winner and two-time runner up at the tournament, with whom he bears a striking resemblance. “People do some wild things out there, so it’s just what I do to kind of be funny,” he says.

Like Edmonson, Conlogue estimates that most people in the crowd are not there for the golf — nor to enjoy just one or two drinks. “People are there to drink all day,” he says.

When play eventually stops, the party continues at the Coors Light Birds Nest, a 50,000-square-foot live music venue and the official afterparty that takes place every night from Wednesday through Saturday. Its headline acts span musical genres from country to punk rock to hip-hop.

On Feb. 1, 2019, Snoop Dogg took the Birds Nest’s party atmosphere to “a whole new level,” according to local news site AZCentral, when he brought pole dancers, “blunts,” and worked the crowd with iconic hits like “Gin and Juice” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”

“It’s just a really cool atmosphere — people hanging out, enjoying music, and enjoying some beverages,” Conlogue says.

TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole is the only one on the PGA Tour that’s completely enclosed by stands. Credit: WM Phoenix Open / Facebook.com

Among all the partying, some still find time to use the event for their business interests. Patrick Shaughnessy, a 67-year-old finance industry veteran, has attended the event for more than 20 years. Through his work, he gains access to one of the corporate “Skyboxes” that overlook the 16th hole.

For $53,000, the corporate package includes 34 Skybox tickets per day, and perks such as complimentary food (breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon buffet) and an “open” bar. While general admission costs between $45 and $60 depending on the day, Shaughnessy says the $1,500 per person for the Skybox is a canny investment and describes it as the “best business development tool ever.”

The tournament offers similar, slightly cheaper packages on the 17th and 18th holes, but it’s 16 that holds the biggest pull. “My clients always wanted to go, so I had to take care of them,” Shaughnessy says. “And then they’ve wanted to bring their friends — prospects in my world. So I’ve gotten many, many introductions to people from all over the country who come here for this thing.”

Shaughnessy calls the 16th hole “the madhouse,” and says Friday and Saturday at the event are “just insanity.” But when there’s potential business to be done, just like the golfers, “you have to be on your game,” he says. “I have a tendency to pace myself out there because I know it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Perhaps the most subtle of the tournament’s quirks is its title sponsor, Waste Management. In place of the requisite insurance companies, investment banks, cell phone networks, or luxury carmakers that tend to align themselves with elite sporting events, the Phoenix Open has been supported by a company that specializes in trash disposal and recycling for the last decade.

In a way, it comes full circle. “When you put 160 to 170,000 people on a property, and you have to open up the next day and play golf, that property looks like the remains at Woodstock,” Shaughnessy says. “The place is a mess.”

While spectators get wasted, Waste Management cleans up the mess. Shaughnessy believes it’s a perfect fit. “I’m telling you,” he says, “they couldn’t have found a better sponsor.”

The article How a PGA Tour Event in the Desert Became The Wildest Party In American Sports appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/pga-tour-waste-management-phoenix-open/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/190442544399

[biofunmy]

In His Twilight, Tiger Woods Searches for the Bright Spots

JERSEY CITY — From Liberty National Golf Club’s 10th tee box, Tiger Woods hit toward a distant Manhattan skyline shrouded in clouds. The imagery was crystalline even if the horizon was not.

When Woods, 43, teed off Thursday morning at the Northern Trust, the first FedEx Cup playoff event, he did not know what the next few hours would reveal about either his game or his body. His four-over-par 75 — his fifth over-par score in 13 rounds since his Masters victory in April — provided more questions than clarity.

“It just feels frustrating to shoot anything high no matter how I feel,” said Woods, who added that his back was “a little bit stiff, yeah, but that’s just the way it’s going to be.”

After four back operations, Woods has to look at each of his scorecards as a scratch-off lottery ticket; he can still hit the jackpot, but because he’s not sure what each new day will reveal, the element of luck looms larger.

On occasion, Woods wakes up and feels the way he did that humid Sunday three months ago at Augusta National; strong and light, capable of beating everybody, as he did with a closing 70 to secure his 15th major title.

More often, Woods struggles to get out of bed and feels the way he did during Wednesday’s pro-am round; stiff and sluggish, exactly like a golfer feted by his fans but incapable of competing with his younger self or the generation of players whose careers were molded in his image.

Thursday fell somewhere in the middle. Woods generated enough club-head speed to outdrive the 26-year-old J.T. Poston, one of the players with whom he was grouped, by 53 yards on the par-4 17th. That was after he tried — and nearly succeeded — to drive the green on the 303-yard, par-4 16th.

But Woods couldn’t will the nervy putts to drop, missing four within seven feet, including a three-footer for par at the par-4 third hole.

“Sometimes it’s like that,” Woods said. “No matter how much you try to will it around, it doesn’t add up to the number you want. It’s happened before. It happened today, and I’m sure it will happen in the future — hopefully not tomorrow.”

Woods’s slow start turned the 36-hole cut into a mountain that may be too tall for him to scale. He entered the week at 28th in the FedEx Cup rankings. The field will be winnowed to the top 30 after next week’s second event, outside Chicago, and Woods could find himself scrambling to stick around so he can try to defend his Tour Championship title at the playoff finale in Atlanta in two weeks.

By Thursday’s end, Woods was 13 strokes behind the Northern Trust leader, Troy Merritt.

His round had its moments. He cast the par-5 13th in a better light with a birdie. On the same hole in the final round of this event in 2013, Woods struck his fairway wood and was driven to his knees by back spasms. He finished in a tie for second, behind Adam Scott, blaming a too-soft mattress for the spasms. It marked the beginning of a few dark years spent trying to regain his physical health.

It is a continuing battle for Woods, who has scaled back his practice and tournament schedule to try to wring the most out of his career and his surgically fused back. Poston posted a 67 as he rode the momentum from his first career victory, which he sealed last Sunday with a closing 62 at the Wyndham Championship.

Woods hasn’t been able to play enough to settle into a groove. Since his victory at the Masters, Woods has played 26 fewer competitive rounds than Poston. It’s as if Woods is caught between the player he was — the one who outworked everybody — and the ceremonial golfer that he is not ready to become.

To find the middle ground, Woods has to work smarter than everybody, instead of longer. During his morning pro-am Wednesday, back stiffness caused Woods to confine his work to mostly chips and putts on the back nine. His rusty iron and wedge play suggest he hasn’t been able to spend as much time refining those parts of his game. Woods conceded as much, describing the effort as a challenge. He added, “It’s trying to figure out how to stay sharp, practice and also have my back feeling good all the time.”

While Woods was signing his scorecard Thursday, his caddie, Joe LaCava, was handed a slip of paper that contained a quote from the Red Sox slugger David Ortiz in 2013, when he was 37 years old and still a few years from retirement.

“It’s like a lottery because you don’t know how much longer your body can keep doing it,” Ortiz told The Boston Globe.

Ortiz added: “I’m not going to lie to you — there are some days that I have a hard time catching up with fastballs or catching up with pitches that I used to play with. But I can still hurt you.”

LaCava finished reading and looked up. “That’s pretty accurate,” he said.

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[torentialtribute]

Stockport’s Bronte Law writes her name into history with breakthrough victory in America

There will be no problem seeing the competitor with the widest smile in the women's game, the US Open, get going in [19459002Stockport'sBronteLawmakesaprettypersonalstoryaboutthecontinuationofaplay-offlossinSanFranciscoearlierthismonthwithastunningbreakthroughvictoryontheLPGATourinVirginiaonSunday

Nothing underlines how rare it is is for a woman from England to triumph on American soil. The last one was Charley Hull in 2016. Before that you have to go all the way back to Karen Stupples in 2004.

Bronte Law enjoyed a stunning breakthrough on the LPGA Tour in Virginia

Bronte Law enjoyed a stunning breakthrough on the LPGA Tour in Virginia on Sunday

During the Pure Silk championship, the law showed pure steel while keeping nerves and fatigue at bay while the temperature rose well into the 90s.

Leading an event from start to finish is one of the hardest things to do

& # 39; It was the hardest fight of my life, certainly & # 39 ;, said Law (with trophy above). & # 39; I started wrestling with my driver and there were a few times that it looked like it was pear shaped.

Law had a great amateur career, won a number of tournaments while studying sociology in America at the prestigious UCLA – but the obvious highlight came in her third Curtis Cup in 2016, when she was the first British or Irish player in the long history of the biennial match against the Americans to claim five of the five points.

[Wetten, links, wordt bespat met water en scheerschuim na het winnen van het Pure Silk Championship] was splashed with water and shaving cream after winning the Pure Silk Championship "

Law, left, is splashed with water and shaving cream after winning the Pure Silk Championship

Over the past two years, she has learned her trade during the LPGA Tour, before her rise in San Francisco, where she drops from 10 shots to forced play-off.] & # 39; Although I lost, I learned so much, and I don't think I would have this event without going through that experience, & # 39; reflected the law. & # 39; I came believe in the pro-game that I had the tools to do well but that was the week in which, deep down, I really believed I could compete at the top. "

The victory of the law means that, along with a British Open Champion Georgia Hall and Hull, there are now three players from England in the world's top 25.

& # 39; We are all similar in times we knew each other for ever, and we certainly push each other, & # 39; said Law. & # 39; If one of us achieves something, the others want it too.

So for Charleston, the kind of staid, literary city that might suit a girl named Bronte (and yes, her mother was a "It is golfing, so you never know what can happen, but I have speed and I will go there hoping to get back into the clinch, "said Law. & # 39; That's what I live for.

<img id =" i-250e34c139c9af07 "src =" https://dailym.ai/2XaRujZ "height =" 424 "width =" 634 "alt =" Generous Kevin Na handed the keys of 1973 Dodge Challenger to his caddy Kenny Harms "Generous Kevin After the keys of 1973 Dodge Challenger to his caddy Kenny Harms" ]

Oh, wow, that car is beautiful The Dodge Challenger from 1973, a true classic and completely renovated, I knew months in advance that it would be a winner, andit's amazing. & # 39;

He can sometimes be slow and painful to see, but American Kevin Na is certainly one of the good ones. Not only did he give his caddy Kenny Harms a six-figure bonus after winning the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas on Sunday, when he handed him the keys to the $ 120,000 (pictured above) car.

Good to see Tiger Woods had a fresher look last week during various trips on the west coast of America, after his weary display at the American PGA championship.

In addition to losing a poker game with celebrities for a good cause in Las Vegas and hosting his own foundation, the 43-year-old Masters champion played a practice round on Pebble Beach – US Open scene next month – and then announced that he will play in the Memorial tournament, which starts on Thursday and an event he has won five times.

Woods becomes & # 39; the world's fifth player, his highest position since June 2014. In total, he has spent 841 weeks in the top five – more than 16 years! File with staggering statistics that illustrate: there will never be another Tiger

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[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Cody on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: At the 19th hole, after 18 holes of joy, frustration, self recrimination and surprise I sat down with Golf Expert, Coach and Mentor Jordan Fuller and talked about The Prepper Journal and what we were trying to accomplish here. He thought for awhile and then told me the following. I hope I have captured it all. You can find him at Golfinfluence.com. I adopted golf as a business tool long ago because, after 4+ hours of all the above emotions you really do learn a lot about the character of people. 

As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share then enter into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies!

When preparing for the worst, it is always a good idea to utilize the lessons you’ve gathered throughout your life. For me, that education came through my experiences with playing tournament golf.

Now you might be wondering how golf carts and popped-up collars will help you prepare you and your family for disaster, but I assure you what I learned on the course has helped me immensely with my prepping homework. Here are five lessons that golf tournaments have taught me about survival.

Practice Never Made Perfect, But It Got Me Close

Anyone who has built their golfing skill set knows that it takes hours upon hours of practicing on the range and putting greens. Not only do you have to develop your fundamentals for your swing, but you also have to learn the correct way to chip and putt. The rhythm of each style of swing can be thrown off by the smallest ill-advised adjustment, so you have to make sure that you are continually working to keep your swing healthy.

The same is true with your emergency plan. You will want to make sure that your checklist is streamlined and always attainable. By attaching too many tasks, you can “alter your swing” causing problems down the road. If you find yourself overwhelmed, get back to basics. Don’t be afraid to scrap everything and start again.

Much like playing in a tournament, running through your plan will cause uncertainty and anxiety, but if you put the work into your preparation, you’ll give yourself the best chance at survival when disaster strikes.

Expect the Unexpected, So Practice The Unexpected

Even with the best preparation, I have learned that things will go wrong on the golf course. There are trees, sand bunkers, and water hazards to deal with when the bounces don’t go my way.

For these reasons, I always spend some of my practice time working on strange shots. I’ll hit golf balls over trees, I’ll practice shots on uneven ground, and I’ll roll my pants up to my knees, I’ll switch shoes to get comfortable ones and blast shots out of the water. I certainly get some strange looks on the range, but when the time comes to hit shots like these on the course, I’m ready.

When you take your emergency plan and start to put it in action, you’ll want to spend some of your practice time creating obstacles. By doing this you’ll be prepared when the worst is thrown at you during a disaster.

For example, perhaps you run through an alternative scenario where you split up your family and work on finding one another through unique methods. (Always remember when running drills for your preparation that you do so safely and with backup communication devices handy to end the exercise if necessary.)

Remember, there is no wasted time here with these outside-the-box preparations because it will create the type of thinking that will save you and your family.

Communicate Like a Caddie

Golfers trust their caddies implicitly. They are a trusted voice when determining wind direction, distance to the hole and other significant judgment calls on the course. When I have played in tournaments with a caddy to handle my bag, I make sure that the communication between the two of us is always open. Even if I do not take the caddy’s advice, I want them to feel comfortable enough to share their true opinion, so that I can take all the information into account before I make a final determination.

There is little difference with a golfer-caddy arrangement and how you should communicate with your loved ones when making critical decisions if a disaster strikes your location. Although it is essential to have a leader cast the deciding vote, if necessary, it is equally important for members of the group to have their voices heard in any discussion.

Quality communication is imperative for surviving a disaster, and that includes covering your emergency plans far ahead of time to make sure that everyone is on the same page. That said, it is also necessary to be able to discuss any tough choices if unforeseen issues should arise.

Always Have Your Fuel to Have Your Energy

When I’m playing a round of tournament golf, the last thing I want to be worrying about is my energy level. 18 holes can take around five hours to complete, and over that stretch of time, I will walk close to six miles. Now I always make sure to hydrate and eat before I play 18 holes, but during the round, I have a set number of snacks that keeps my energy even and allows me to perform at a high level.

With your previous preparation and planning, you have taken care of your long-term nutritional needs, but in the hours after a disaster hits, you’ll need to make sure that you do not stumble. For these reasons, having a pack that houses assorted snacks and energy boosting foods for the first 12 hours after a disaster strikes will keep your brain focused for the bigger decisions that lie ahead.

Making Sure Your Nerves Are Made From Steel

In my experience, there is nothing sweeter than when a tournament ends in victory. But, before I get to the point of holding a trophy, I will have been tested throughout the tournament with tough shots and situations where I’ll need to save myself from a terrible score by getting the golf ball out of trouble. Nothing tests my nerves like a tournament, but now that I have played in so many events, I don’t feel the pressure like I did in the early days.

If a disaster strikes, the situation will test your courage in difficult ways. The only way you can even come close to understanding that level of stress is by putting yourself in circumstances that test you now, so when trouble occurs, you have the resolve necessary to handle the situation with a calm and steady focus.

Conclusion

Although these five steps may be broad in scope, they will help you push away the noise so you can focus on the tasks at hand. With proper planning and a large amount of prep work done now, you will be able to handle any disaster imaginable.

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The post What Golf Tournaments Have Taught Me About Survival appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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[learntoplaygolftoday]

For Korean women, golf is a double-edged sword

New Post has been published on https://learntoplaygolftoday.com/golf-news/for-korean-women-golf-is-a-double-edged-sword/

For Korean women, golf is a double-edged sword

There is always a story behind the tears.

For In Gee Chun, it’s a story about more than her victory Sunday at the KEB Hana Bank Championship.

It’s about the other side of the Korean passion that runs so deep in women’s golf and that makes female players feel like rock stars.

It’s about the unrelenting pressure that comes with all that popularity.

Chun explained where her tears came from after her victory. She opened up about the emotional struggle she has faced trying to live up to the soaring expectations that come with being a young Korean superstar.

Her coach, Won Park, told GolfChannel.com on Wednesday that there were times over the last year that Chun wanted to “run and hide from golf.” The pressure on her to end a two-year victory drought was mounting in distressing fashion.

Chun, 24, burst onto the world stage when she was 20, winning the U.S. Women’s Open before she was even an LPGA member. When she won the Evian Championship two years later, she joined Korean icon Se Ri Pak as the only players to win major championships as their first two LPGA titles.

Following up on those victories was challenging, with Chun feeling as if nothing short of winning was good enough to satisfy Korean expectations.

After the victory at Evian, Chun recorded six second-place finishes, runner-up finishes that felt like failures with questions growing back home over why she wasn’t closing out.

“There were comments that were quite vicious, that were very hard to take as a person and as a woman,” Chun said. “I really wanted to rise above that and not care about those comments, but I have to say, some of them lingered in my mind, and they really pierced my heart.”

Chun struggled going from the hottest star in South Korea to feeling like a disappointment. She slipped from No. 3 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings to No. 27 going into last week’s KEB Hana Bank Championship. Maybe more significantly, she slipped from being the highest ranked Korean in the world to where she wasn’t even among the top 10 Koreans anymore.

“Some fans and the Korean golf media were hard on her, mostly on social media,” Park wrote GolfChannel.com in an email. “It caused her to start struggling with huge depression and socio phobia. She often wished to run away from golf and hide herself where there was no golf at all.”

Buick LPGA Shanghai: Articles, photos and videos

Socio phobia includes the fear of being scrutinized or judged by others, according to the Mayo Clinic’s definition of conditions.

Though critics of South Korea’s dominance have complained about the machine-like nature of some those country’s stars, we’ve seen quite a bit of emotion from South Koreans on big stages this year.

After Sung Hyun Park won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in July, the world No. 1 with the steely stare uncharacteristically broke into tears.

“This is the first time feeling this kind of emotion,” Park said back then. “It’s been a really tough year for me.”

It was the second of her three victories this season, a year in which she also has missed seven cuts.

“A lot of pressure builds up,” said David Jones, her caddie. “That’s just what happens when you’re that good, and you’re Korean.”

While American players admire the massive popularity Koreans enjoy in their homeland, they see what comes with it.

“Koreans really do elevate their women players, but at the same time, they put a ton of pressure on them,” American Cristie Kerr said. “There’s pressure on them to not only be good, but to be attractive, and to do the right things culturally.”

So Yeon Ryu felt the pressure to perform build as high as she has ever felt with Koreans trying to qualify for the Olympics two years ago. The competition to make the four-woman team was intense, with so many strong Koreans in the running.

“This just makes me crazy,” Ryu said back then. “The biggest thing is the Korean media. If someone is going to make the Olympics, they're a great player. But if somebody cannot make it, they're a really bad player.”

Ryu didn’t make that team, but she went on to share LPGA Rolex Player of the Year honors with Sung Hyun Park last year. She also won her second major championship and ascended to world No. 1.

LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park was under fire going to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She was coming back from injury and there was growing criticism of her. She was hearing clamor to give up her spot to a healthy player, but she went on to win the gold medal.

“I almost cried on air,” said Na Yeon Choi, a nine-time LPGA winner who was doing analysis for Korean TV. “Inbee had so much pressure on her.”

After the Koreans won the UL International Crown two weeks ago, there was as much relief as joy in their ranks. Though viewed as the dominant force in women’s golf, they watched the Spaniards crowned as the “best golfing nation” in the inaugural matches in 2014 and then watched the Americans gain the honor in 2016. There was pressure on the Koreans to win the crown at home.

“There were some top Koreans who didn’t want to play, because there was going to be so much pressure,” Kerr said.

Chun got the nod to join the team this year after Inbee Park announced she was stepping aside, to allow another Korean a chance to represent their country. Chun was the third alternate, with Sei Young Kim and Jin Young Ko saying they were passing to honor previous KLPGA commitments.

Chun went on to become the star of the UL International Crown. She was undefeated, the only player to go 4-0 in the matches.

“In Gee made up her mind to devote herself to the team and played with an extremely high level of passion and focus,” Won Park wrote in an email interview. “She took the International Crown as a war in her heart. She did not play, but she `fought’ against the course, not against the opposing team . . . During all four winning matches, she gradually found her burning passion deep in her heart and wanted to carry it to the LPGA KEB Hana Bank.”

Park explained he has been working with Chun to change her focus, to get her to play for herself, instead of all the outside forces she was feeling pressure to please.

“She was too depressed to listen for a year and a half,” Park wrote.

So that’s where all Chun’s tears came from after she won the KEB Hana Bank.

“All the difficult struggles that I have gone through the past years went before me, and all the faces of the people who kept on believing in me went by, and so I teared up,” Chun said.

Park said Chun’s focus remains a work in progress.

“Although it will take some more time to fully recover from her mental struggle, she at least got her wisdom and confidence back and belief in her own game,” Park wrote. “This is never going to be easy for a 24-year-old young girl, but I believe she will continue to fight through.”