Lipping Out

AAS APPROACHES the end-of-year awards season, the prize for the most pointless distraction in golf must be shared between the incredible sulks, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. Adult males in their athletic prime, their back-and-forth has seemed to be a playground dust-up, just without the bumps and bruises. They should have received afterschool detention but got off the hook—after creating a social media frenzy. With the pair confirmed for the next episode of The Match this “feud” will come to a head of sorts, probably in front of a disproportionate TV audience. It’ll be “wheelbarrow time,” as Ernie Els once called it. Skepticism of the spat is fueled by the $40 million made available by the PGA Tour’s new Player Impact Program, which rewards PGA Tour members who generate exposure for the tour— though no one’s exactly sure what that means. So is Koepka–DeChambeau more Shaq–Kobe or Rocky– Apollo? Who knows, but one thing is for sure: the Brooks and Bryson tiff pales compared to a few other relationships that found the rough. Consider...

Don’t taunt the Tiger

Before their knock-out match at the 2006 WGC Match Pay, Canada’s Stephen Ames said of Tiger Woods: “Anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball.” Unfortunately for Ames, he is remembered more for what happened next than he is for his four PGA Tour wins: Tiger beat him 9&8, having missed a putt on the 10th green to make it a perfect 10&8.

Paul Azinger recently spoke to Golfweek about his interactions with Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros, saying, “We were never what Brooks and Bryson are: No.1 and No.2 on the list of most interesting players in today’s game.” We beg to differ— Seve versus ’Zinger had way more spirit and personality—even if, as Azinger had it, “everyone had a back-and-forth with Seve.”

The tension might have begun at the 1989 Ryder Cup, when Ballesteros asked Azinger if he could replace a scuffed ball on the green and the American said no, the ball was fine. At the next Ryder Cup Seve returned the favor, accusing Azinger and his partner Chip Beck of changing the type of ball they were using. The moment cost the Americans their focus and might have contributed to their loss. At the same Ryder Cup, Azinger also accused Ballesteros of making noise in his backswing, prompting Seve to respond, “Everybody knows I have allergies.” The coals were stoked two years later at Kiawah Island when Seve labelled Azinger a “liar,” then Azinger called Seve “the king of gamesmanship.”

The Spaniard ultimately made his opinion clear as day, commenting that “The American team has 11 nice guys… and Paul Azinger.”

Entertaining surely, these were the building blocks of the modern Ryder Cup, let there be no doubt.