Hello, friends, and welcome to this week’s edition of the Rogers Report! I just landed in Boston after week 2 of TGL, where Los Angeles Golf Club absolutely crushed Jupiter Golf Links. But thanks to the banter, Kevin Kisner’s skulled bunker shot and Tiger’s walk out to “Eye of the Tiger,” I had just as much fun watching LA’s takedown of Jupiter Links as I would any close match.
Some personal updates: I finally decided to crack open the Kindle I received for Christmas (in 2023) and will be reading on my flights to pass the time for the foreseeable future. This decision may or may not be related to the fact that TikTok is about to disappear. More important, I am working hard to reach Delta Gold Medallion status and thanks to my weekly trips to Palm Beach for TGL, I’m getting a nice head start on my annual spending.
Okay, enough about me. On to the good stuff.
Celebrities at TGL
There were a handful of notable attendees at the second TGL match this week, and I realized that SoFi Center probably has the highest percentage of celebrities in the crowd when compared to other professional sporting events. SoFi Center holds 1,500 fans. If there’s 30 celebrities in the crowd, that’s two percent of the entire place! Between professional athletes, influencers, team ownership, plus-ones and politicians, it felt like I saw somebody famous every time I turned my head on Tuesday night.
LA Golf Club supporters
Twenty-three-time major champion and Los Angeles GC part-owner Serena Williams was in the house and even joined the broadcast to talk about TGL and her own golf game.
Her husband, entrepreneur and LAGC part-owner Alexis Ohanian, was also in attendance.
Shout-out to Ohanian for capitalizing on the perfect moment to hit Tiger with a “big dog” before dapping him up. The whole thing was perfectly executed.
Serena Williams wasn’t the only star athlete cheering for LAGC on Tuesday evening. LAGC investor Alex Morgan was also in attendance cheering on her team.
It’s not often that the most spectacular athletes on the planet are relatable, but I felt like I was in good company when both Williams and Morgan joked about their own golf games. You’re preaching to the choir, ladies!
And finally, LAGC investor Shonda Rhimes, aka the producer of “Grey’s Anatomy” and about a dozen other wildly successful shows was in the owner’s box cheering on Sahith Theegala, Collin Morikawa and Justin Rose.
Folks, I’m realizing as I write this that LAGC could be a problem for the other TGL teams this winter. They’ve already taken down Tiger’s team, and with their stacked squad of owners and investors, they’re in really, really good hands. If LAGC needs a digital host, gal who loves ice cream and professional Tweeter to add to their squad, they know where to find me.
Floridians at TGL
As I sat down in one of the second-floor suites to interview some of the “Good Good” guys about their TGL experience, I noticed a familiar face. Kai Trump, rocking a Sun Day Red sweatshirt un University of Miami colors, sat in the front row with her mom taking in all of the TGL action.
It wasn’t until I left the suite and noticed some security that everything added up. I had a great chat with the “Good Good” guys, who might have been the most polite group of people I’ve ever encountered. Everything I said was answered with a “yes, ma’am,” which definitely took some getting used to. But I’ve since decided I am okay with being addressed this way moving forward.
Miami’s very own DJ Khalid was in attendance for the second consecutive week at TGL, which should surprise absolutely no one considering what a golf nut he has become over the past few years.
I have no interest in (or ability to) ever being a politician, but the perk of getting to meet the best athletes of all time sounds pretty enticing. Florida governor Ron DeSantis was at SoFi Center on Tuesday night with his family to support Jupiter Golf Links.
And perhaps most important, the whole Woods family came out to SoFi Center to watch Tiger do his thing. Charlie, Sam and his mother, Tida (who was rocking a Sun Day Red hoodie), were all in the crowd.
At one point during the match, Tiger’s teammates jokingly asked Charlie if he wanted to come out and play because they needed some serious help out there. Everyone looked like they had a blast, including Boston Common’s very own Keegan Bradley who came down to check out the action. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only New England native in the building.
Match 2 brought out some serious stars, and I have a feeling we are just getting started. I want even more stars coming out to watch these golfers tee it up! Taylor Swift, you’d love the hammer. Beyonce, the moving green is something you don’t want to miss seeing. LeBron James, you’ll be a big fan of the shot clock. I just know it.
Golf’s version of A.J. Brown?
One of the biggest perks of not being 17 years old anymore is that I don’t have to think about the SATs. The fact that I never have to take them again (or stand on the starting line at a school cross country meet) is one of the biggest blessings of not being a junior in high school anymore. But things are a little different for professional golfer Neal Shipley who does SAT math problems to help his job performance.
You might recognize Shipley as the guy who got to play alongside Tiger Woods on Masters Sunday last year, but that’s definitely not the most interesting thing about the 24-year-old.
Shipley is a math guy. He majored in quantitative finance (I have no idea what that is) and minored in math and econ in college, so math and stats are fun for him. That’s why his caddie prints out math problems for the SATs for Shipley to work on during his rounds last year. This is such a productive and healthy use of time that I’m reconsidering how I spend my downtime during the day. Like I said earlier, it’s a work in progress with the Kindle.
AJ Brown went viral last week for reading on the sidelines, so I’m wondering if Shipley and his math problems are the golf version of this.
Folks, this is not an excuse to multi-task during your weekend rounds. No need to answer emails in between shots!
The best things I saw this week
Just because it’s the dead of winter here in Boston doesn’t mean there isn’t still some great golf-adjacent stuff happening out there! I have two favorite golf things I saw this week, and the first was Tiger’s TGL entrance at SoFi Center on Tuesday night.
Every other player at TGL gets introduced by name and a mention of some accomplishments, but the place went silent for Tiger before he walked out. It was such a fun moment to witness (especially because players got to pick out their own entrance songs) and seeing Tiger enjoy himself in a totally different environment was very entertaining. I’m curious if Tiger immediately picked “Eye of the Tiger” for his walk-out, or if he entertained any other options before landing on this. I guess we’ll never know … unless I get to ask him at a future match.
