Father. Golf Channel Analyst. Author of “The Anatomy Of Greatness”Lucky to call @Bailey_Chamblee my wife. The Favorite Chamblee podcast OUT NOW.
Joined December 2010
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PGA Tour players may be wealthier because of LIV but the PGA Tour I would argue is much poorer because of LIV …iconic events relegated to qualifying status, fewer tour cards, smaller fields, players who think this is good, players who confuse better compensation with better competition… I’m afraid it will be a slow erosion of excellence, where each compromise seems inconsequential, but the cumulative effect is the quiet destruction of what made the product exceptional.
PGA Tour 2.0... sooo... Waiʻalae, Kapalua, Colonial, Innisbrook (and probably Riviera too)... all cast aside... and major metro markets like Los Angeles, Atlanta & Houston, likely joining them in the "We're not worthy" club...
Are we sure this is what we want? 🤷♂️
the-daily-drive.com/p/livs-f…
No, they went to work for murders, bigots, tyrants and evil personified. And then tried to pretend they were agents of change when they were puppets of the deranged.
Reading this story is a reminder that we are too often being manipulated by the media for their profit. Division sells. Anger and hatred sells. Good stories don’t.
We live in a world where hatred is amplified, division is monetized, and the worst of humanity is so often mistaken for the whole of it.
But hatred makes headlines precisely because it is extraordinary. Goodness, meanwhile, goes largely unnoticed because it is so ordinary.
For every act of cruelty that commands our attention, there are countless acts of kindness, compassion, and quiet courage that never make the news.
And that is what makes this story, more than 80 years old, so timeless and so important. It reminds us that the world is not nearly as dark as those who profit from our outrage would have us believe.
Evil may be louder, but goodness is more abundant. Hatred may command the headlines, but humanity carries on beneath them.
And perhaps the greatest testament to the human spirit is that, despite all the darkness history has known, there have always been people willing to risk everything to bring a little light into the world.
Hatred may dominate the moment, but humanity endures through the ages.
This man saved 25 people from death, but what he really saved was an infinity of tomorrows.
In 1942, a drunk German officer sat at dinner and bragged about the Jewish woman he had selected from the brothel the Nazis had forced open in town. He said her name out loud. The Tunisian Arab sitting across from him stayed calm, smiled, poured more wine, and finished the meal. Then he drove the officer home, sped through the dark streets, and knocked on a door close to midnight. That night, he hid 25 people for four months. He never spoke about it again.
His name was Khaled Abdul-Wahab. He was 31 years old, a wealthy Muslim Tunisian who had studied art and architecture in New York and spoke fluent German. Nazi officers trusted him. They invited him to their dinners.
Tunisia was the only Arab country directly occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. Jewish families were pushed from their homes. More than 5,000 Jewish men were sent to forced labor camps. Yellow stars marked every chest.
That December night in the coastal town of Mahdia, Khaled listened as the officer boasted. The woman he named belonged to a family Khaled had known all his life.
He left immediately. He drove through the night. He knocked on their door at midnight.
Pack nothing. Come now.
He gathered 25 people — mothers, fathers, cousins, and children — and drove them nearly 20 miles to his family farm, hiding them inside the olive press, stables, and storage buildings.
This was not one brave act. It was four straight months of courage.
He fed them while supplies grew scarce. He kept babies quiet. He trusted his servants to stay silent. When German soldiers arrived to count Jewish families, the hidden people pinned yellow stars onto their clothes and stood motionless. When the soldiers left, the stars came off again.
One night, a drunken soldier wandered onto the farm and discovered them. An eleven-year-old girl hiding under a bed watched him laugh and threaten to kill everyone there. Then Khaled appeared. She remembered him her entire life as a guardian angel. He calmly walked the soldier outside, took away his weapon, and sent him off the property.
Nobody on that farm died.
In May 1943, British forces liberated Tunisia. All 25 people returned home alive.
Khaled went back to a quiet life. He married, raised daughters, painted, and worked in government service.
He never told anyone what he had done. Not his wife. Not his children. No one.
He died on September 4, 1997, at the age of 86. His story was buried with him.
Ten years later, his daughter Faiza was sitting in a café in Paris reading a Sunday newspaper when she came across an interview with an American historian describing a Tunisian Arab who had hidden 25 Jews in 1942.
The historian mentioned her father by name.
She was 45 years old and had never heard the story before.
She contacted the historian. One of the children saved on the farm had left behind 83 pages of testimony before her death. Every detail matched.
“I rediscovered my father,” Faiza later said.
Khaled was nominated for Israel’s highest honor given to non-Jews who saved Jewish lives. He would have been the first Arab to receive it.
The committee declined, saying he had not risked his own life enough.
Faiza answered with a line history should never forget:
“My father opened his home to Jews. They did not open theirs to us.”
Today, the 25 people Khaled saved have hundreds of descendants living across Israel, France, America, and Tunisia. The little girl hidden beneath the bed grew up, moved to Paris, and built a family of her own. None of them would exist if Khaled had stayed silent that night.
He had everything to lose. He acted anyway. Then he spent the rest of his life saying nothing about it.
The world nearly forgot him twice. Now you know his name.
Looking forward to @eamonlynch ‘s new show tonight at 6pm ET… as much as I love to tease him, @GolfChannel is incredibly lucky to have one of the smartest people in sports interviewing the most impactful people in golf.
He doesn’t play favorites and he will hold people’s feet to the fire and yet everyone still talks to him (except for me) because he’s fair…. Now if we can just get someone to teach him how to hit a fairway.
One of the lingering questions in golf, besides why the USA struggles in the Ryder Cup, is how South Korea and Japan dominate the women’s professional game.
South Korea has 30 players in the top 100 Rolex world rankings. Japan has 25. The USA has just 12 and only one (Nelly Korda) in the top 19.
To put that into perspective, South Korea has approximately 16.5 times as many top 100-female golfers per capita as the United States, based on those ranking counts. Japan has approximately 5.8 times as many.
That is a remarkable disparity.
The United States has enormous structural advantages of population, wealth, facilities, junior organizations, collegiate programs and coaching resources. Yet, these advantages have not translated into a proportionate representation at the highest levels of the women’s professional game.
Another question:
Why doesn’t the same dominance exist among Korean and Japanese men?
If Korean and Japanese women’s success were explained entirely by discipline, national culture or practice habits, we might expect a comparable degree of dominance among their men.
We don’t see that.
It’s a complex question, and I certainly have my thoughts on this, and hope to get into it on the set with whole @GolfCentral crew at the @CMEGroupLPGA in a few weeks.
Have spent the last week or so rereading “ A Conservative Sensibility” by George Will.
Many lines hit like a freight train, but one in particular:
“How does a society decide what the natural rights are?
The answer is: It argues.”
And the indispensable foundation of argument is the First Amendment, which protects not merely our right to disagree, but our ability to reason together about the very principles upon which our freedom rests.
That is precisely the contradiction Haley Stevens exposed (below) in her post today: How can we preach inclusion while punishing dissent? The very essence of a free society is not the absence of disagreement, but the freedom to disagree.
“We cannot preach inclusion while punishing dissent. We cannot promise to heal a divided country if we cannot tolerate disagreement among ourselves. And we cannot build a lasting majority by making Americans feel their concerns are unwelcome.
Loyalty to a party should never require abandoning your values or judgment.”
Nominations for The @CongareeFdn class of 2027 are now open. If you know of a deserving young student who needs a little help pursuing their potential, reach out below.
#congareeglobalgolfinitiative
#thefriedkingroup
instagram.com/p/Dewxhl_jujJ/…
The Champions Tour doing away with Q School is just flat out wrong.
Being able to play at the highest level at and beyond the age of 50 should never be about whether you “supported” the PGA Tour, it should be entirely about who the best players are who are at the age of 50 and older.
I enjoyed the read Eddie.
The great irony of professional golf today is that the players who left the game’s traditional institutions in pursuit of financial security may now be offered competitive security by the very institutions they helped destabilize.
As much as I hate to say it, there's nothing wrong with opening the door to their return. But opening the door and handing them a seat at the table are two very different things. One offers a second chance; the other risks making a mockery of those who earned their first.
Seeing others speculate on the topic, I had to throw my hat into the ring. I couldn't help myself.
Free to read this one..
thechippingforecast.substack…
I happen to know this author…and have found it wise to agree with her on all things, but here, less strategically :) and more sincerely.
5 all-time-memorable golf dining experiences golfpass.com/travel-advisor/…
My dad is 91 and my mom is 85. They are the best parents anyone could have dreamed of. Very fortunate to still have them in my life.
Next year’s @PGAChampionship will be played at @OmniPGAFrisco east course designed by Gil Hanse. I was in Dallas this past week visiting my parents so I went out to take a look in preparation for the 2027 PGA.
For North Texas prairie land, the property has interesting land features. With almost 100 feet elevation change and Panther Creek meandering through the course, every hole was memorable.
Spring time in Texas means the players will have to deal with likely strong winds and hot humid conditions. With a type of Bermuda grass that is quick to come out of dormant season, the fairways will be superb and the rough will be punishing and the greens will be slippery.
I know this course has received a lot of criticism and up against the roster of major venues next year of Augusta, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews won’t help, but I thought this was brillant work by Gil Hanse.
The pictures of the east course at Frisco below are from my good friend @Evan_Schiller who has made quite a career for himself in golf course photography and his new book “THE GOLF COURSE” will be out soon.
Having once been a professional golfer should not come with a death sentence as it relates to one’s ability to compete at the highest level as an amateur.
Professional status itself doesn’t create an enduring competitive advantage.
There is no magical reservoir of talent that descends upon somebody just because they decide to turn professional, it’s just that most players that turn professional were amongst the best amateurs; why else would they think they could make a living playing the sport.
Of course there should be some stipulation or formula for the amount of time/and or success one was or had followed by a reasonable period in purgatory—but purgatory, by definition shouldn’t last for ever.
Two former professional tour golfers who should never have been allowed to regain their amateur status.
Nate Smith played on the PGA Tour and won a tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Andrew Bailey played on both the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour Americas.
Will there be an * against the winner’s name on the trophy?
Well said Steve.
Sorry to miss his 100th.
I went to his 95th birthday and he crooned a few songs, told many a joke and entertained a hundred or so people with his wit. He’s a great man and I count myself lucky to have been in his presence a few times.
As the legendary Bob Toski turns 100 today, I have to say he taught me more in 6 months about the golf swing than I learned in my entire life.
He called me a “hand flasher and a hip spinner” during our first lesson in the late fall of 2003. He was the first teacher to ever ask me how my marriage was. I said my marriage is great but my game sucks! (I had just missed every cut that year on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour) At the end of that same lesson, when I asked him how much I owed him, he got right up in my face (he’s a close talker) and exclaimed, “Steve, I’m rich. I don’t need your money. All I want you to do is go out there and kick ass!”
He taught me the value of a neutral lead hand and how it pushes and pulls throughout the swing.
He taught me that an ounce of touch was worth a ton of brawn.
He taught me you need to feel the force, don’t force the feel.
He taught me that in giving, you receive.
With all of that, he has always been tough, fiery and willing to debate you at any moment. I caddied for him one time when he was 78 years old. on the first hole, he said, “what do I have to the front of the green and the hole?” I said you have 145 to the hole. The pin is 15 on.” He said, “15 WHAT?” “15 yards, Mr Toski,” I said. He said, “I need it in FEET! Give it to me in FEET!! That’s the problem with you kids nowadays, you’re so damn GENERAL!! I deal in SPECIFICS!!”
The very next hole was a downwind par five and he had 265 yards to the middle of the green. With the pin towards the front, I was talking to him about a layup yardage to give him a good wedge number. He just stared at me, didn’t say a word and pulled his 3 wood out of the bag. At 78 years old (and 120 lbs. soaking wet) he proceeded to knock this 3 wood right on the green. I was floored.
I think that is why I totally put all my trust in my game in him. He talked the talk and walked the walk. He was the leading money winner on the tour in 1954. He had stories about Hogan, Sarazen, Nelson, Snead, Middlecoff. Priceless stories.
Happy Birthday Bob! Although I’ll never be able to pay you back for everything you did for me, I will always try to pay your generosity and kindness forward!
4th and 8 and 4th and 6 calls in the fourth quarter comeback by University of Texas!!’… hard to beat sports for drama. Arch Manning was incredible over the last 14 minutes of that game against the number 1 team in the nation.
He might as well have said, I see evil and greed trending upwards and philanthropy and meritocracy trending downwards.
LIV was nothing more than feral greed (cancer) masquerading as sport.
So a government fund ( Saudi/ PIF) which has virtually unlimited resources defaults on its commitments to fund LIV, a professional golf tour that, if you believed them, was meant to grow the game globally.
As I said at the beginnings of this ill conceived attempt to clean up the image of the Saudi government through LIV, the very nature of golf was drug into the sewer.
An evil ethos of corruption and consumption invaded the game trying to replace the generosity of spirit (and philanthropy) that the game has been imbued with for the better part of a century. The LIV players went from being autonomous—picking and choosing where they play, sometimes on a whim and answering to nobody—to going where they were told, playing courses they likely didn’t care for, under conditions they had no say in and finally and most sadly, playing for a dictatorial theocratic murderer.
So who is to blame for the damage done to professional golf? Not the Saudi government, evil people do evil things… but those who were essential in getting LIV off the ground and setting the cataclysmic events of law suits, discovery, defections, discord, greed, the massive career derailment or regression of almost all LIV players in motion…those who benefitted most from this destruction: Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau followed by EVERY player that took the money and inso doing became a puppet for a regime (against many ills) that butchered a journalist who spoke out against them.
Fun few days with Bailey in Carmel/Pebble Beach… oh and we ran into some guy who knows more about basketball than @RichLernerGC
Very well reasoned take on the POY race. We will talk about Justin’s point of view on @GolfCentral today at 3:30.
My random opinion nobody asked for on the POY race. What makes it so interesting to me from talking to different guys about it is how everybody’s definition of what makes a “player of the year” is different. That being said, nobody is right or wrong in that. It’s what is important to that specific person.
Personally, I always view the difference of a good and great season is how many tournaments or majors a person has won.
I think the best way to really debate it is which season would the players themselves actually rather have. Would they rather have more top 5’s, better scoring avg, consistency, wins, etc. Who has played better? Scottie has “played better” than anybody on the planet this season. No doubt. But… I find it hard to believe he would rather have his season (right now, pre Tour Champ) than Wyndhams which includes a major and one more W. A lot of this award also includes recency bias vs the entire season. The timing is important to be fresh in people’s minds vs remembering what may have happened early in the season. At the end of the day…. It’s not like an argument on other items where it’s a clear cut “this or that” kind of answer with stats to back it up. It’s all dependent on what an individual claims most important to make them the POY.
All that being said- what happens at the Tour champ will be a deciding factor on who I vote for personally. Thanks for reading my rant that nobody asked for, everybody carry on with their day 🤣