Follow-Ups: Tony Awards and Big Break Performances

HUGE Congratulations go out today to The Grandstander's Broadway Correspondent, Bill Montrose, aka Big Poppy.  Bill hit on 11 of his 12 predictions for Tony Award winners, missing only in the category of Best Actress in a Musical.  As they might say on the Great White Way.... Bravo, and what can you possibly do for an encore!

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Medium Congratulations go out today to "Big Break Florida" winner Jackie Stoelting.  Her "big break" was an entry in the LPGA ManuLife Classic, which was played this weekend.  Jackie made the cut, finished with a T-71, shot even par for the tournament (23 strokes behind the winner), and cashed a check for $2,923.  Not great, but considering how many of these Big Break winners fare, that was pretty good, and here's hoping that we hear more from Jackie Stoelting in the years ahead.  Which leads us to.....

Major Condolences to the male winner of "Big Break Puerto Rico/NFL", Isaac Sanchez.  The "big break" for Isaac was entry in this past week's PGA FedEx St. Jude Classic.  Sad to say, Isaac failed to make the cut, and he did so in spectacular fashion.  He shot 86-81, a whopping 27 strokes over par, and finished dead last (although, to look on the bright side, ten golfers withdrew during the course of the tourney, so I suppose you could say Isaac finished ahead of them).   After watching Isaac in two different versions of "The Big Break", I had no expectations for him when he teed it up with the big boys, but to see such a major flameout , well, I do feel a bit bad for him.  Still, he did have his fifteen minutes of fame on the PGA Tour, which is more than any of us will ever have.

Emily Talley's Big Break

Last December, 23 year old Emily Talley won $50,000 as the female winner of Golf Channel's "Big Break NFL Puerto Rico", and, the biggest prize, an exemption into the ShopRite LPGA Classic, which is being contested this week in New Jersey.

Sorry to report that Emily's Big Break ended yesterday when she failed to make the cut in the tournament.  She shot 75-72 (5 over par), thirteen shots behind leader Stacey Lewis.  However, Emily can take solace in the fact that her +5 score tied her with twelve other golfers, and that she actually finished ahead of twenty-seven other golfers, including one time LPGA major champion Morgan Pressel.

It's not what she wanted, I'm sure, but she has to be encouraged.  Here's hoping that we hear more from Miss Talley in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, the male winner of "Big Break NFL Puerto Rico", Isaac Sanchez, gets his big break this coming week in the PGA Tour's FedEx St. Jude Classic.  Also, recent "Big Break Florida" winner, Jackie Stoelting gets her big break in LPGA ManuLife Financial Classic this week, as well.

I shall be watching.

Following Up on The Big Break

This coming weekend will see the playing of the Shoprite Classic on the LPGA Tour.  This is significant in that one of the participants will be Emily Talley, who was the female winner of the Big Break NFL last year.

Emily's Big Break was a spot in the field of this LPGA event.  The Grandstander will be following her in this event and will report on her progress.  Good luck, Emily!

SPOILER ALERT:  The remainder of this post will discuss the recently completed Big Break Florida.  If you have saved these episodes on your DVR and have not yet seen them, stop reading now and come back later.

The season concluded last Monday night with a match between finalists Jackie Stoelting, 27, 

and Fiamma Felitch, 24.

Both were likable, attractive, and good players throughout the season, and I would have been happy had either young lady prevailed.  However, the championship  match offered little suspense, as Jackie dominated from the first hole on and won the match, 5 and 4.  As part of her Big Break, Jackie will have a spot in the LPGA Manulife Financial Classic in Ontario that will be played from June 5-8.  I shall be reporting on that event as well.

What was the best news of the finale was the fact that the "villainess" of the series, the equine-like and foul-mouthed Mary Narzisi, 24,

was not a part of the championship match.  She did make it to the Final Four of the series, and she got more irritating and unlikable with each passing show.  I was hoping she'd have been gone by week two.

Anyway, another great edition of the only "reality show" that I watch.  Can't wait for the next one.

Big Break Florida

A new season of Big Break debuted on Golf Channel last week, and I was finally able to catch up with the first  two episodes this morning.  As you can see from the picture above, this show takes place in Florida (Amelia Island), and features 12 women contestants vying for their "big break".

Brit Tom Abbot is back as the breathless host, and his co-host this time around is Melanie Collins of Yahoo Sports.  The show still features all sorts of golf skills challenges including the Big Break signature event, chipping golf balls through panes of glass.  It never gets old!  In the first show there was a new twist to the Elimination Challenge.  Only one contestant was involved. They had her tee it up on a par five.  If she scored par or better, she was saved and would go on to the next show.  If she bogeyed the hole, she was eliminated.  Sounds simple, but it was pretty good theater.

In prior iterations of this show, it takes a couple of weeks and a couple of contestants being eliminated before you really get a handle on who's who and develop a rooting interest for one or more of the players, and that will be the case here.  There is, however, one exception to that in Big Break Florida.  As with all such shows, a "villain" is required, and this role has fallen to 24 year old Mary Narzisi.  She is clearly, and I'm sorry, but I don't know how else to say this, the least attractive of the 12 ladies on the show, she is constantly being bleeped because of her cursing, she continually says how the other players "piss her off", and she behaves in an unsportsmanlike manner with her opponents that defies all known golf course etiquette.  I will be cheering mightily each week for her elimination.

Only two episodes have been shown thus far, but if you look hard enough, Golf Channel is always rerunning past episodes, and even if you don't find them, it is early enough in the series for you to still be able to get caught up in it.  New episodes air Monday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern on Golf Channel.

Enjoy.