Big Break Myrtle Beach Finale

SPOILER ALERT:  This post will talk about the winner of the Big Break Myrtle Beach.  If you  are waiting to watch this on your DVR stockpile, you may want to skip this and come back later.

The twenty-second edition of Golf Channel's signature program, The Big Break, concluded last week in a match between 31 year old Jimmy Brandt and 28 year old Toph Peterson.  It was the conclusion to an interesting season that began with six men ands six women squaring off to achieve their Big Break.  The most interesting part of the season was that one contestant, 19 year old Anthony Quezada, might have been the most loathsome person to ever appear on the Big Break.  All shows such as this need a "villain", and Anthony fulfilled this role by violating every tenant of sportsmanship on which the game of golf prides itself.  He made it to the Final Four, and fell to to the eventual champion.

In that championship match, Brand defeated Peterson on the seventeenth hole, 3 and 1. It was a ragged match that at times it was a match that neither guy seemed to want to win.  Winner Jimmy defied golf's oldest cliche that you "putt for dough" by butchering almost every opportunity he had with the flat stick.  Still, he prevailed, and in addition to his cash and prizes, his Big Break will come in the form of an entry into the PGA Tour's Valspar Open which will be contested March 12-15 this coming season.

I will be tracking and reporting on Jimmy's performance in that event, but I will predict now that, based on how he performed on BBMB, he not only will not make the cut, he will be in the bottom five of those "missed cut" players.  For his sake, I hope I'm wrong because he seems like a nice kid, but professional tournament golf is the ultimate meritocracy, and I fear that a cruel fate awaits the young man.

All that aside, he is a Big Break Champion, and no one can take that away from him, so big CONGRATULATIONS to him.

The Big Break NFL Concludes

SPOILER ALERT: If you recorded the concluding episode of Gold Channel's "Big Break NFL" and are planning on seeing it later, you may wish to delay reading this entry, as I will divulge who won.  If you are so inclined, please come back and read when you have seen the show.

Golf Channel's latest rendition of its Big Break series concluded last night when Team Dolman, the only team that did not suffer a loss in the series, came up against Team Rice in the "four quarters" of match play.  Kind of hokey, but Golf Channel had to stick with its football theme.  I found myself rooting for Jerry Rice and his squad because (a) Rice was a likable sort throughout the series, and (b) Chris Dolman was not.  I felt bad for the two golfers who were paired with Dolman throughout, but they were in the final show, so maybe his methods worked somehow.

Of the two football players, Rice was clearly better than Dolman, as evidenced by a scrambling par 5 that Rice made after driving in grass that was as high as his shoulders on one hole, and by a topped drive on one hole by Dolman that didn't clear the ladies tees.

In any event, the winning team was........

TEAM RICE!!!!!

Big Breakers Emily Talley and Isaac Sanchez won exemptions into primo tournaments on the big circuits.  Talley will play in the LPGA Shoprite Classic that will be held from May 30-June 1, and Sanchez will play on the PGA Tour's FedEx St. Jude Classic on June 5-8.   As I did with the winner of Big Break Mexico's Taylor Collins, I will follow up and report on how Emily and Isaac do when they get their Big Breaks come June.

Another entertaining entry in this Golf Channel Series.  Can't wait for the next one!