2022 Macadoodles Mailbag: 21st Edition

GD: I'd say the playoff was pretty good. The weird thing about being at a golf tournament is you can't see everything. You have to pick and choose and make the best guess. So when Justin Thomas missed an 8-footer for birdie on 15, we thought he was done and decided to stay at 15 to watch the leaders go through. We saw the first two groups play 15, 16 and 17. During that time, Mitchell was getting text updates from his cousin watching the broadcast on JT. When Mito Periera was on 17, Will Zalatoris made a putt on 18. We weren't sure if that was to tie Thomas or take the outright lead. By that time, 18 is packed so there's really no way to get within 250 yards of the green. So we know that Zalatoris and Thomas are tied and we know Mito either wins it or there's a playoff. Word starts to circulate through the crowd that can't really see that Mito put it in the water on 18. At that point, half the people take off for 13 and 17 in anticipation of a playoff. We assume it's going to be a three-man playoff, but when we're standing behind the 17th green, somebody tells us Mito is putting from off the green for bogey. You guys all saw it all unfold, but we're playing a game of telephone. We didn't really see 13, just judged by the reactions. But we were on the 17th green and saw all of that and 18. Part of the fun of being there in person is trying to figure out what you want to see live and strategize how you can say you saw the moment the tournament was won in person. We got lucky and made the right choice.

Outside of the golf, my favorite part was getting to spend a bunch of time with my dad and some of my friends without bothering to look at my phone all the time. My dad said he went to the 1970 PGA with his dad and followed Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. It was cool to be able to go with him and see Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, etc. My son and I have already talked about going to a major together down the road. I'll keep entering the Masters lottery and hoping.

GD: Here's the thing: The goal of NIL has never been parity. The goal of NIL was to give the players something they've deserved for a long time (again, the implementation hasn't been great, but the goal was good). But anybody that thought the landscape would greatly change was kidding themselves. I think a possible offshoot of NIL could be a slight leveling of the playing field. Jackson State got Travis Hunter, Mizzou got Luther Burden. NIL can allow some of the non bluebloods to get kids like that here and there. But the best overall classes are still going to be signed by the schools that have always signed the best overall classes. And therefore, they're going to remain, for the most part, the best teams. The best shot at parity is expanding the playoff, which gives more teams access to the chance for a championship. Sure, the title is probably still going to be won by the same schools most of the time (five schools have won 23 of the 24 CFP games). But maybe every now and then we can get a surprise. Even if we don't get a surprise team winning the title, maybe one makes the title game or the semifinals. That's not happening now. It does in basketball because of the tournament setup (and because it only takes one or two great players or getting hot for four games to get there). Lack of parity is a far bigger problem in college football than college hoops. And NIL isn't likely to have a major impact on it.