Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 23 July 2023

After a weekend defined by Open Championship dominance on the part of Brian Harman (definitely not an Umcee), a playoff in the opposite-field Barracuda Championship and, of course, a developmental golf devil in the details, it's that time of week again. You know, time to name the latest Upper Midwest Connection of the Week.

Last week, I noted nine Umcees in tour golf fields of significance. But it turns out I'd completely forgotten Iowa City-born, Cedar Rapids-raised, Drake University-educated 2015 Open champion Zach Johnson! Oops! Anyway, of the ten to play last week, Tom Hoge (#1 among Umcees heading into the week) missed the cut at Royal Liverpool by two strokes (+5 through Friday), but Johnson made it thanks to a -2 second round to get to +2 for the week to that point. Back in America, Erik van Rooyen and Troy Merritt both cleared the cutline at the Barracuda by a combined two points in a modified Stableford system. Van Rooyen just made it on a measly three points on Friday (eight Thursday), while Merritt scored thirteen the first two days. On the Korn Ferry Tour, Frankie Capan III made the weekend at the Price Cutter, but only because of a rain delay Friday.

All this was nothing compared with what befell the Umcee contingent in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. Of the five entrants with connections to the Upper Midwest, only Chippewa Falls, WI native and former University of Minnesota golfer Thomas Longbella made the cut. His fellow Wisconsinite, George Kneiser of Oconomowoc, missed by but one stroke. Derek Hitchner of Minneapolis didn't show up, and Harrison Ott of Brookfield, WI withdrew after one round for reasons unknown. And of course, we know about Justin Doeden.

So, what happened after the cut fell? Longbella was looking good on -10 after two rounds, but then he stumbled on Saturday and only mustered a 70 on Sunday, good for -1 to finish -7 (T43, fell to #33 in Fortinet Cup). Johnson failed to break par the last two days of the Open, finishing +5 (T55 but did move up to #150 in FedEx Cup). The going was better for Merritt on Sunday, but he couldn't get much going generally after his Thursday of 11 points, finishing with just 21 (T50, slipped to #130 in FedEx Cup). Seeing as how it's not how you start but how you finish, the logical choice for Upper Midwest Connection of the week is...

Erik van Rooyen.

Let's face it, it's not been the best year for the former Minnesota Golden Gopher from South Africa. After his injuries a year ago, many thought van Rooyen would bounce back this year. Alas, he came into the previous week's Scottish Open off seven straight missed cuts, and he hadn't had a top-10--make that top-30--finish since the Valspar Championship in March. Even though he made the cut at the Renaissance Club, he stumbled after doing so with back-to-back +3 rounds to finish T68 and plummet to #215 in the world. He put many of his droughts to rest, though, with a strong weekend in Truckee, CA with consecutive rounds of double-digit points. Ten points on Saturday raised his hopes of a good finish, which became a great finish with a fourteen-point Sunday. It sufficed to take him to a four-way T6 in the end, good for 52.5 points in the FedEx Cup and a twenty-place jump in the world rankings. He also climbed to #126 in the FedEx Cup standings, just one place out of where he'll need to finish this fall to retain his card.

Now he gets to return to the PGA Tour event held a stone's throw from where he went to college. He hasn't performed well so far at the 3M Open, but with the playoffs yet an outside hope, van Rooyen will be motivated to go up against some of the top Umcees in golf, as well as other luminaries like Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama and, of course, reigning champion Tony Finau, whose win at the 3M last year sparked a three-win stretch through the Houston Open in the fall. Game on!

Edward the Scop

Re: Justin Doeden, Part II: The Incident (and Suggested Punishment)

UPDATE, 24 JULY 2023: Justin Doeden has reopened his Twitter feed, and the first thing he tweeted was below.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am here to confess of the biggest mistake I have made in my life to date. I cheated in golf. This is not who I am. I let my sponsors down. I let my competitors down. I let my family down. I let myself down. I pray for your forgiveness. John 1:9 <a href="https://twitter.com/acaseofthegolf1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@acaseofthegolf1</a></p>&mdash; Justin Doeden (@jdoeden11) <a href="https://twitter.com/jdoeden11/status/1683501137905762304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Just to be clear, I am all for people acknowledging mistakes than can affect their careers. I still believe he should be suspended for some time, but his relatively prompt response to Ryan French's article (as cited in the original version of this post) two days after the article broke is a good sign of the contrition I was talking about. Furthermore, were he to back up his apology in some tangible way, I would suggest a lighter punishment than what I recommended at first.

Some of the info in this second part of my rant on Justin Doeden is adapted from Ryan French's article on the matter. I have followed Ryan's work on lesser-known tours and players on Twitter, although that era will end on Wednesday when I delete my feed and leave Twitter for good, as promised. I still intend to subscribe to his website since Lord knows he needs the money!

Anyway, when I found out Doeden had withdrawn from the Commissionaires Ottawa Open on PGA Tour Canada yesterday, he had been fluctuating between -1 and -3. The cutline of -2 was based on the low 60 and ties, according to PGA Tour Canada regulations. I initially thought it was a data-entry error that had raised my hopes of following Doeden this weekend and later theorized he had withdrawn due to injury or illness.

Well, neither was the case. According to the linked article, Doeden was even through seventeen holes at -3 and needed only a par or even single bogey to make the weekend. But his second shot hit the water and his fourth hit the bunker by the green, and he couldn't get up and down to save bogey, taking a tap-in 7 to finish -1.

But it is believed that sometime between the last tap-in and the official scoring of his round, Doeden altered his 7 from the last hole to a 5. When rules officials confirmed the actual score, Doeden announced his withdrawal from the event.

It's one thing when a golfer who happens to be an Umcee melts down on course after a bad shot, as happened with Doeden's fellow-alumnus of the U of M, Erik van Rooyen, at the 2021 PGA Championship. But tee markers are replaceable. Divots from anger over a topped shot are replaceable. What isn't remotely as replaceable is sporting integrity lost to cheating. The only hope is that this incident isn't serial a la Patrick Reed when he was on the PGA Tour (and God knows if it's continued in his LIV era). For now, it brings me no pleasure to suggest the following sanctions against Justin Doeden:

1. That he be banned from PGA Tour Canada for the rest of the season. Wherever he goes the rest of the summer, Doeden would be followed by the allegations of cheating. Not having any hope of a paycheck until at least September would encourage him to think about the consequences of breaking the rules next time the lust for money earned doing so overwhelms him.
2. That until the ban is lifted, Doeden be not allowed to enter any qualifiers, including pre-qualifiers for PGA Tour events, nor seek any sponsor's exemptions for the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour. This would affect the next two PGA Tour events--the Wyndham Championship and the Fortinet Championship (the latter part of the FedEx Cup Fall). It would also apply to the last four events before the Korn Ferry Finals: the NV5 Invitational, the Utah Championship, the Pinnacle Bank Championship and the Magnit Championship. He wouldn't be allowed to enter any further pre-qualifiers until the ones for the Sanderson Farms Championship. This would close a competition loophole that he could otherwise exploit to get around the ban, which would enable him further, possibly.

I am not sure a life ban is the answer, especially if he proves contrite. If not, though, that may have to be an option. Furthermore, since Doeden's 16th place finish in the Totalplay Cup for PGA Tour Latinoamerica guarantees him a trip to Second Stage of Q-school, and that doesn't take place until November, he'll have sufficient time to show contrition before he is guaranteed to play again.

Again, these are just my suggestions. Feel free to suggest your own takes and punishments by commenting if you like.

Edward the Scop

Re: Justin Doeden, Part I: Background to an Incident

Any time a golfer or anybody whose career revolves around golf does something that tarnishes the sport, it's reason for pause. We've been bombarded with stories about the PGA Tour clashing with breakaway golfers forming the LIV Golf League, lured by Saudi money without apparent strings. Then came the hypocrisy of imitating LIV with designated events run strictly by the PGA Tour rather than in collaboration with other tours as the similarly no-cut WGCs had been run. (The only difference is these designated events will have 72 holes, not 54.) And to top it all off, the PGA Tour acquiesced to the Public Investment Fund to make peace with LIV after pretending to stand for the integrity of the game.

All this is well-documented. But at the end of the day, it doesn't compare with an actual breach of the rules of the sport. Whereas PGA v LIV is a matter for the sport's professional governing bodies to sort out (with a little help from the politician-friends of said bodies), the incident described and the punishment I recommend in these next couple posts is related to playing the game itself. And the player who broke the rules, sadly, happens to be an Umcee.

Justin Doeden of Prior Lake, MN has had a quiet but respectable career grinding on PGA Tour Canada since graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2018. He was forced to go back to Q-school for that tour in 2019 but managed to finish 36th in the money list that year, earning full membership for 2020. Only, Covid-19 intervened, killing PGA Tour Canada for two years. In the meantime, Doeden continued to plug away on the LOCALiQ Series in 2020, even taking the 54-hole Classic at the Club at Weston Hills for his first PGA Tour pyramid win. As Covid continued to close the Canadian border in 2021, Doeden participated on the one-off Forme Tour and finished 27th, missing out on a First Stage bye for Q-school by just seven points. That said, he made it through First Stage and squeaked through Second Stage to earn conditional Korn Ferry status, though he wasn't able to capitalize at Final Stage. Last year was a step backward, but he still mustered a top-50 finish in the new Fortinet Cup, which is a points-based metric that has replaced the money list for PGA Tour Canada.

Justin Doeden in happier times.

After sitting out last year's Korn Ferry Q-school due to injury, Doeden qualified for half a season on the other third-tier circuit in the PGA Tour pyramid, PGA Tour Latinoamerica. He struggled early on, missing the first two cuts, but then made it at the Chile Open in mid-December. He cracked the top-60 threshold needed for survival to the second half of the season with a T12 when it resumed at the Rio Hondo Invitational in March in Argentina. By the time the reshuffle followed the Brazilian Open in early April, Doeden had secured enough points to play the second half of the Latinoamerica schedule. His first top-10 finish on the Latinoamerica was a T6 at the Kia Open in Ecuador in early May, but his best showing was in the all-time finale of the PGA Tour Latinoamerica at the Bupa Tour Championship on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Doeden was one of two losers in the playoff to decide the winner of the event, along with France's Jeremy Gandon. (Chandler Blanchet won all the marbles.) This PT2 lifted Doeden to a final Totalplay Cup (points system for the Latinoamerica) standing of #16, good for a long-awaited Second Stage direct entry. Given such a track record, one would think he could suddenly do little wrong that mattered, right? Wrong! One month or so after his strong showing in Mexico, Justin Doeden committed an incident that could epitomize a good golfer gone foul...

To be continued,

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 16 July 2023: The Verdict

 Now that I've broken down the performances of the ten Umcees participating in tour golf last week and eliminated the three who missed the cut, it's time to reveal the Upper Midwest Connection of the Week!

In case you forgot, here are the seven surviving candidates in order of world ranking heading in:

• Tom Hoge
• Erik van Rooyen
• Frankie Capan III
• Justin Doeden
• Harrison Ott
• Thomas Longbella
• Angus Flanagan

So, without further ado, the new Upper Midwest Connection of the Week is...

Derek Hitchner.

The Blake School (Hopkins/Minneapolis, MN) and, latterly, Pepperdine University alumnus posted his best-ever finish as a tour professional so far at the Quebec Open, placing T6. Admittedly, it was only his third event ever on tour anywhere in the world, but he had yet to place inside the top 25 on PGA Tour Canada coming into the week. Furthermore, he was only #67 in the Fortinet Cup standings, and only the top 60 will survive to the merged PGA Tour Americas next year. But by finishing with a 6-under 64, Hitchner has moved to #23 in the Fortinet Cup and is within striking distance of the top 1500 players in the world. Of course, he'll need to finish top five in the Fortinet Cup to improve his Q-school standing; as a PGA Tour U top-20 honoree, he was already assured of a first-stage bye. Even so, it's quite an accomplishment for him.

This week, the Open Championship takes centre stage with one Umcee, Tom Hoge, playing in it. Of the other nine, at least eight are expected to tee it up across North America. There's also the possibility Flanagan starts the Big Green Egg Challenge in Germany, but it might not happen. As of this writing, he is fourth alternate.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 16 July 2023: Umcees in America (and Canada)

 In this second part of my Upper Midwest Connection (Umcee) of the Week feature, I detail candidates for the honour who competed either in the Korn Ferry Tour's Ascendant Presented by Blue or the Quebec Open on PGA Tour Canada. Since the Barbasol Championship on the PGA Tour didn't have any Upper Midwest connections, I could safely omit that event from consideration. Nevertheless, it was a thrilling finish, with Sweden's Vincent Norrman overtaking 54-hole leader Trevor Cone and beating England's Nathan Kimsey in a playoff despite suffering his only bogey of Sunday at the last.

The Ascendant, held at TPC Colorado in Berthoud, Colorado, featured one Umcee--namely, Frankie Capan III of North Oaks, Minnesota. He was on his way to a top-ten finish again when he sprung a leak at the 17th hole. Unfortunately, the KFT page at pgatour.com doesn't have shot trails, so I had to rely on origin types for the shots to describe what happened. Capan shanked his tee shot into the native area and used up the four shots needed for par to get to the green, and he then missed the bogey putt to drop to 12-under. He was fortunate that he didn't replicate the feat at the final hole, as he not only missed the GIR, but he needed to get up and down from the first cut around the green just to keep the damage to a single bogey. As a result, he lost two places on the KFT points list, and the meltdown of sorts also probably kept him from cracking the top 400 in the OWGR for the first time. Moreover, the lost places in the KFT list pushed him out of the top 30 who will receive PGA Tour cards for next year for now. Even so, it was another good showing. Better finishing at the Price Cutter Championship, hopefully.

Frankie Capan III stares down a putt.

Meanwhile, the Quebec Open featured five Umcees: Justin Doeden, Thomas Longbella, Derek Hitchner, Harrison Ott and George Kneiser. Doeden and Longbella played for the University of Minnesota in college, while Hitchner went to the Blake School in Hopkins, Minnesota for high school. As for Ott and Kneiser, both are from Wisconsin. When the cut fell, Doeden (fresh off finishing 16th in the swan song season of PGA Tour Latinoamerica) and Kneiser both missed out. Ott started out the weekend strong, adding a 5-under 65 to his card, but then he sputtered Sunday, settling for a 1-under 69. Longbella, who MC in the season opening Royal Beach Victoria Open but hasn't done so since, mustered a bogey free 5-under round for his Sunday (starting on the back nine) after struggling to a 1-over 71 Saturday. Sunday was also the one day he didn't double-bogey No 1!

Arguably the most remarkable week for the Umcee contingent in Quebec, though, belonged to Hitchner. Even on Thursday, he mustered a 1-under 69, followed by 4-under 66 on both Friday and Saturday and then his best round, a 6-under 64. This despite TWO bogeys that day, as he finished T6 and soared from #67 to #23 in the Fortinet Cup! To be fair, this isn't quite the accomplishment that one might think it is. As a top-20 finisher in this past school year's PGA Tour U program, Hitchner automatically qualified for the second stage of PGA Tour Q-school, which is being revived this year. Still, for one who skipped the season opener and struggled in the following two events, it's a big deal.

So, with seven of ten Umcees involved in tour golf this week making the cut in their respective events and four of these players meriting special consideration, who will come out on top as Upper Midwest Connection of the Week? Did he play in Europe or in America? Did he have a strong start or rally for a quality finish? Find out in part III of this feature, either tonight or tomorrow!!!

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 16 July 2023: Umcees Abroad

This is gonna be quite a doozy. With so many candidates for Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, I had to split this week's installment into not two but three parts! This part will focus on those connections competing in Europe, as the next one will emphasize those staying in North America.

After the quiet of the previous week due to the Fourth of July, last week was much more action-packed for Upper Midwest connections in tour golf the world over. The Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour Canada resumed action after their hiatuses, enabling Frankie Capan III, Thomas Longbella and Harrison Ott, among others, to grind anew towards the ultimate aim of reaching the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, over in Europe, a total of four Umcees (as I shall abbreviate the phrase "Upper Midwest connection" from now on) competed across two events on three tours.

Two events on three tours?! Yes, the Genesis Scottish Open became co-sanctioned between its traditional tour, the D.P. World (formerly European) Tour, and the PGA Tour last year. This meant the best and brightest on the PGA Tour would come over to North Berwick, Scotland's Renaissance Club (pronounced with the stress on the penult, which sounds like "nay"). Not that this has been unusual; plenty of PGA Tour stars applied for conflicting-event releases to participate in the tournament in order to get ready for the Open Championship for years prior to the PGA Tour's coopting of the event. It helped that the Scottish Open has been held the week before the Open since 1987, and I don't see that changing.

The Scottish Open saw three Upper Midwest connections tee it up last week.

Anyway, three of the Umcees in Europe played the Scottish Open. As you'd expect, they were the big three Umcees--Tom Hoge, Troy Merritt and Erik van Rooyen. Hoge came in ranked #42 in the world but hadn't cracked the top 40 on tour since March's Players Championship, where he'd placed third. Merritt headed in at #177 but was coming off back-to-back T17 finishes at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the John Deere Classic. As for van Rooyen, he had fallen out of the top 200 in the world (#204) and just wanted to make a cut somehow, having missed his last seven.

Meanwhile, in Austria, the Challenge Tour was holding its Euram Bank Open, and this time, Angus Flanagan was in the field. As a Category 15 member of that tour, Flanagan can't afford to miss out on whatever opportunities to play circumstances afford him. Fortunately, he had made the cut in style last month at the Kaskada Challenge in the Czech Republic (T23), moving him briefly to within striking distance of the top 200 on the Road to Mallorca despite not having played since.

Angus Flanagan played the Euram Bank Open in Austria.

When Friday's play concluded, three of the four Umcees were headed for the weekend. Only Merritt was unfortunate to miss out in Scotland, and now he heads to Lake Tahoe this week with his status for 2024 up in the air. Of course, the same could be said for van Rooyen. After climbing to 5-under heading into the weekend, he sadly fell apart, posting back-to-back rounds of 3-over 73 to finish T68. At least he made a cut, but he slipped one place to 134th in the FedEx Cup and lost more ground in the world rankings. That said, he may have momentum heading to Tahoe, just as he did two years ago when his pre-Barracuda start had seen him T58 at the 3M Open.

That leaves two real candidates for Umcee of the Week among those playing abroad. Hoge kept up the momentum from successive rounds breaking par (69-66) to record another 4-under 66 and get to 9-under going into Sunday, but he matched van Rooyen that day and slipped to 6-under 274 for the week. It was still enough to climb to #38 in the world and inch up to #44 in the FedEx Cup, and the T19 finish was his best since the Players. As for Flanagan, he couldn't match his finish on Czech soil, but his T23 finish in Austria enabled him to move deep into the top 200 of the Road to Mallorca. He'll have another chance to pad his ranking in that regard if he gets into the Big Green Egg Challenge in next-door Germany (currently 4th alternate).

In part II, I'll focus on those Umcee of the Week candidates who stayed home in America, including those on the Canadian Tour.

Sources for data: pgatour.com, europeantour.com, owgr.com

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 9 July 2023

Normally, a post of this kind would have been put up 24 hours ago or so. After hitting the driving range yesterday, though, I had to help take care of our horses. After all, it got to nearly 90 degrees near Delano, Minnesota. Then came the All-Star Home Run Derby, which I have made an annual tradition of watching since we got satellite last decade. Now that Vladimir Guerrero Jr has taken home the trophy to go with his father's honour of that sort, I have had more time today. But that's enough for excuses made, so let's get on with it!

The KFT and PGA Tour Canada both took a break last week for the Fourth of July, which thinned out the pool of Upper Midwest connections in action. This after the PGA Tour Latinoamerica breathed its last with the conclusion of the Bupa Tour Championship. This meant no Frankie Capan III, no Justin Doeden, no Thomas Longbella. Furthermore, try as he might, former University of Minnesota star and one-time Big Ten co-champion Angus Flanagan fell three slots short of making the field for the Italian Challenge Open on the Challenge Tour. And with his spot in both the Scottish Open and the Open Championship secure, Tom Hoge of Fargo wasn't going to bother with the John Deere Classic, which lost its usual Open Qualifying Series tie-in this year to the Made in Denmark, AKA the Made in HimmerLand, anyway.

So, who did bother to show up among Upper Midwest connections? There were three, listed in order of their placement on the OWGR (such as it is) heading into the week:

• #184 Erik van Rooyen, former U of M golf captain (played 2009-13) with three Hall of Fame-eligible wins;
• #189 Troy Merritt, Spring Lake Park, MN HS grad and former Winona State golfer (2004-06), originally from Osage, IA with two such wins; and
• Unranked Anders Larson of Pine Island, MN, incoming sophomore at Tennessee Tech.

As it turned out, two missed the cut, leaving only...

Troy Merritt finished T17 at the John Deere Classic.

Troy Merritt.

Heading into the previous week's Rocket Mortgage Classic, Merritt had missed a whopping thirteen successive cuts on the PGA Tour since last cashing at the Sony Open in Hawai'i. But at Detroit Golf Club, where he'd finished second in a playoff only to Australia's Cam Davis two years ago, he registered his best finish since November's World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, where he had placed T3. In the Quad Cities, Merritt saved his best for last, registering only one bogey against seven birdies to card a 65 on Sunday to place T17 and move to #129 in the FedEx Cup standings and #177 in the OWGR. While it's hardly going to lead him to a playoff appearance this year, Merritt got a surprise on Monday when he received news that M.J. Daffue of South Africa had declined a trip to the Scottish Open, creating an opportunity for Merritt to qualify for one of three places in the Open next week.

9/

Field ▲s → @ScottishOpen

OUT
MJ Daffue (playing @BarbasolChamp)

IN
Troy Merritt (sponsor) https://t.co/tcVQwV72eN

— Rob Bolton (@RobBoltonGolf) July 10, 2023

Who will be Upper Midwest Connection of the Week next week?

Regards,

Edward the Scop

 

What Is an Upper Midwest Connection in Golf?

 In my introductory post, I mentioned a plaudit called the "Upper Midwest Connection of the Week," which I also intend to extend to monthly, quarterly, midyear and annual honours. By now, you might be wondering what an Upper Midwest connection is. The answer to this question centres on three aspects: the definition of the region, what constitutes ties to the region and how to assess the strength of those ties.

The definition of the region varies from context to context but usually includes Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa and Wisconsin. Most definitions include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as well. The USGS definition adds Illinois and Indiana, along with the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, but excludes the Dakotas. For purposes of the Upper Midwest Connection awards, I favour a definition based on that of the Association for Institutional Research in the Upper Midwest, which includes the five core states and the Upper Peninsula. But to keep it simple, I exclude the U.P.

This is the Upper Midwest, but my definition excludes Nebraska.

I define ties to the region according to criteria that I call by the acronym OURS:

O stands for "origin." This simply means that the golfer in question was born in the region. Example: Troy Merritt was born in Osage, Iowa.

U stands for "university." This means the golfer in question played at least one season of college golf for a college or university in the region. Example: Erik van Rooyen played collegiately for the University of Minnesota from 2009 to 2013. Upon graduating, he turned pro and joined his native South Africa's Sunshine Tour.

R stands for "residence." This means the golfer in question maintains--or has maintained in the past for at least a year--permanent residence as an adult in the region. Example: Justin Doeden is a permanent resident of Prior Lake, Minnesota.

S stands for "school." This means the golfer in question played at least one season of high school golf in the region. Example: Tom Hoge played for Fargo South High School in Fargo, North Dakota before going to college outside the region at T.C.U.

As for the strength of Upper Midwest ties, I devised a points system based on these criteria.

• O gets one point.
• U gets one point for a year or more of college golf, another point if the guy graduated and a third point if he played his entire career for the same college or university.
• R gets one point for past residence as an adult and another for maintaining current residence for at least a significant part of the year (three months).
• S gets one point for at least one year of high school in the region and another for graduating high school in the region.

The minimum requirement for Upper Midwest ties is three points. Hope this helps you understand when you see me designate an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week each week!

Edward the Scop

Beginning Again

Hello there! It's Edward the Scop, your main golf, soccer/football (especially FA Cup) and tabletop gaming nerd. If you've come from my soon-to-be-defunct (as of this writing) Twitter feed bearing the handle above, know that I'll be deleting it this month. After that, you'll have to use the instruments furnished on this blog.

Rather than dwelling (at least for now) on why I left Twitter (and Facebook, for that matter), I would like to explain in this opening post what you can expect as to content. Although I will remind you all fairly frequently as to upcoming features, my content includes the following:

1. Golf: Monday rundowns and feature articles, including plaudits for an informal distinction called the "Upper Midwest Connection of the Week," to be defined in a post in the near future. There will also be Upper Midwest Connections of the Month and Quarter, as well as a rundown of the top three as of midyear. Then, at year's end, the top five Upper Midwest Connections of the Year will be announced here. Finally, there will be coverage of the growing Saudi influence in the game, both for weal and for woe.
2. Soccer/football: FA Cup picks for at least every round of the proper stage, which starts in early November each season. This was a popular feature of my Twitter feed, and it's how I met Phil Annets of the FA Cup Factfile. Phil, wherever you are, I hope you come on down to the Devilish Rake.
3. Tabletop gaming: Dungeons and Dragons updated for the pike-and-shot era of warfare, as well as various wargames.
4. Draft Day Party Hangover live blog: Taking a page from Phil Steele's College Football Preview, this feature drops every year in late April. In 2024, this will be 25-27 April in Detroit, as I will be distilling the NFL Draft for data on how producing draft picks affects college football programs.

And there will be other content on this blog as well. Stay tuned, and feel free to contact me with tips and suggestions!

Edward the Scop