(Not) An Open Championship Preview
Or Better Said, Why This Isn't an Open Preview
Some of you expected a preview of the British Open and Royal Portrush today. I’m sorry to say I won’t be providing that this time around.
Allow me to start off by saying I intended for this to be a farewell column. Not just a sabbatical but outright shutting down this page permanently. In fact, I wrote that post but yesterday I realized completely shutting the door on further writing would be regretted quick. The last thing you want to be is that guy who swears he’s never going to do whatever and then right back at it the next day. However, certain realities can no longer be ignored.
This has not worked. At all. The reasons for that are many. To the extent I don’t produce anywhere close to as compelling content as I imagined is almost immaterial. Whether what I am doing here is on the level of Shakespeare or horrible dreck the likes you might see on a clickbait Athlon link doesn’t make any difference. Nobody is reading it either way, not even my family aside for my Son. Worse, nobody is even SEEING it either way. I have tried every avenue conceivable to promote this page and hearing crickets would be a charitable characterization.
Facebook, nobody clicks my links. I imagine the fact I unfriended virtually everybody I know a few years back in a drunken stupor does not lend a helping hand. But it wouldn’t matter. Nobody uses it anymore. It’s an ad curated hellscape from which all those people I deleted have fled anyway.
Twitter is a special and unique problem. My history and reputation there is complex. For the last year I’ve seen very starkly that most everyone there is over my schtick. Here is what I can tell you from a bottom line standpoint—the number of views I have received here from Twitter over about 80 posted links? Less than 20. Combined. Almost incomprehensible failure. The fact noted free speech white knight Elon Musk purposely throttles tweets with Substack links only exacerbates this. I saw this practice plain as day. An ordinary tweet about almost anything usually 70-90 people will see it. A tweet with a link to one of my columns here? If it got 25 views that was a miracle. Plus, your average Twitter participant has the attention span of a gnat. I doubt 5% could get through a comic strip without losing focus never mind the longform stuff I normally put out.
Then you have Substack itself. An App and website that goes out of its way to discourage casual usage. Requiring a potential reader to create an account before accessing material is special needs stupid. I suspect many tried to check out my stuff and after the requisite roadblocks said the hell with it. But in the last 3-4 months things have somehow dived deeper into Hell. A “Notes” feature was added over that time. If unfamiliar a Note is EXACTLY like a Tweet. Related—I haven’t gained a new subscriber since April. I have though obtained many new “followers”. Meaningless bullshit from randos who will never see my posts in their feed and stay off of the email list. Because Lord knows what this world needs is another version of Twitter.
Despite exactly none of the writers asking for this and being bombarded by complaints, the ownership here doubled down. Notes is now driving the bus, not original writing. So if you go to your homepage and start scrolling you might do so for 5 minutes before seeing an actual column. One Tweet, er Note, after another of which 90% are algorithm pirates and engagement farmers. How often do you think my columns show up on someone’s feed? You are correct, never.
So if people won’t click externally and the links are suppressed anyway AND I can’t generate momentum even internally, what am I even doing. It’s only fair to point out that some people are thriving here and not just known brands. There is one guy I have no idea who he is that I’m not subscribed to nor “follow” who shows up in my feed every day with one of those cursed Notes. Always political and always crushing Leftists. However he also posts full articles regularly, most of which is incredibly behind a paywall. The content? Cooking. Specifically reviewing kitchen aids. Stuff like which are the best stainless steel pots and pans. He has about 6,000 subscribers. I shit you not.
You should understand, I am not seeking empathy here. I set this up with no expectations of grandeur. There was never even a glimmer of thought to monetizing this. And really I only began this journey for two reasons:
I am forever looking things up and doing historical categorizations. The one thing I’ve learned about myself over the last 15 months is that while I’m neither a great or bad writer, I seem to have a skill in taking vast quantities of information and organizing it. I guess I should have been a Cliffs Notes editor. Or a fucking librarian. Either way, since I was doing all this research I figured I might as well preserve my findings somewhere. Plus, since I had absolutely nothing to do here in prison (Not literally—that’s a post right there) I might as well do something besides scrolling Twitter and Instagram all day. So this has been my job for 15 months and I took it seriously, spending 50+ hours a week for most columns. In fact it’s the only “job” I’ve ever had in which I didn’t feel like a sell out bitch.
My Son is an upcoming college senior and media major who would like a career covering sports in some way. My hope was to inspire him as to what was required in communication on a written level. That was successful just not in the way I anticipated. He will read this and we have not discussed it prior to publication. So I’ll be interested in his take but it feels like I have demonstrated traditional sports journalism via writing is DEAD. If he has any future in this it will be electronically—TV, radio, podcasts, YouTube. Save very rare exceptions, there is no place at the table for traditional sportswriting. From that perspective, I’ll count it as a win.
A handful of my posts did pretty well. The addiction one from about a year ago got passed around pretty liberally. Ironically since I’m tapping out here, my Major previews almost always found readership. I credit most of that to my friend lennykoz who emails them to his friends. These are folks that have forgotten more golf than I’ll ever know and are or were serious players. If what I am putting out was crap, these guys wouldn’t bother with it so I find that satisfying.
With all that said we come to a much more pressing problem. I just don’t want to do it anymore. At least not in the fashion I’ve been going about it The lack of engagement certainly discourages desire but all of a sudden I can’t summon creativity. After the U.S Open just out of the blue I was cooked mentally. Normally between Majors I get to work immediately. With the British I did that very thing. And had nothing. I wrote section one multiple times and just could not find a rhythm. No matter how I framed the history of Royal Portrush it kept looking like a data dump. A glorified Wikipedia entry. I took numerous breaks and tried to reset but the light never came on.
In the back of my mind I started thinking about football and the need to start researching for an SEC preview was looming. Perplexingly, something I had absolutely no desire to do. My passion for college sports, and particularly Tennessee football has cratered since the beatdown in Columbus. Something that has been my life since 1985 is no longer that. And actually I probably will write extensively on the reasons why as we move closer to September. Will that change once the season starts? It might. Hard Habit to Break as Chicago once sang.
In hindsight this erosion began when I accepted an invitation to write weekly for Tony Basilio’s blog not quite a year ago. What I thought was a golden opportunity at the time turned into a debacle which I should’ve known would be the endgame from the start. No one benefitted on either side. I made a very incorrect assumption that I would be a regular contributor to the show. That was never promised or even implied and it was the height of delusion to think it was in the cards. Quintessential Jason Skelton. From Basilio’s perspective I think he regretted inviting me in very quickly. What I was turning in were pieces far too long for a blog. He never read what I was writing himself and I guess who could blame him considering the length. Not to mention at least one guy on his paid staff would put me in front of a firing squad if he could. The instant he had an opening to cut ties that was seized on.
From my perspective the concept of a weekly column was not something I ever intended. I was going to write about golf, some 80’s nostalgia, and historical insights in other sports I stumbled upon over time. While that became an every week thing (sometimes more often) I didn’t HAVE to do it. What I wrote was organic as I was motivated or something I wanted to examine statistically. With a weekly spot I was required to come up with something and most of the time I had nothing. So that morphed into weekly prediction columns with historical context if I could find it. The problem was that is not a strength as I am completely ill equipped to produce interesting material like that.
The fact relatively zero Vol fans found their way here says a lot. Tennessee people will consume anything about the Big Orange. Except here evidently. Do you know how many subscribers matriculated over here from Basilio’s blog? Nine. I never asked how many people read his blog each morning but whatever the number that conversion rate is pitiful. Sometimes the best thing to do is wave a white flag.
Things I have wanted to write about the last 6-8 weeks would surprise you.
Astronomy
Physics
Skepticism of certain conventional scientific beliefs and why.
Biblical riddles
Pharmacology
My experience in the pharmaceutical industry—what is real, what is bullshit that you hear.
Mental health, the psychosis of the psychiatry industry itself, and further exploration of the levers which drive addiction.
Exactly zero people who come to this page have any interest in my thoughts on these things. When I have got off the beaten path on topics other than sports the uptake is even worse than normal. See the nostalgia series I did three posts on which were completely ignored. I remain convinced there is an audience for that type of thing but I’m not going to find them.
A few weeks ago I did the skeleton of a post recalling my experience with a drug called Accutane for disfiguring cystic acne that I developed in 7th grade. It was raw, highly personal and toed the line on the concept of too much information. I thought it would be an important review of how the past can bend the future in ways that can’t be walked back. Frankly, I thought it was gold albeit needing some serious editing and smoothing before public consumption.
So I had met this young lady who happens to teach middle school in the building that used to be my high school. A math teacher who is also a talented poet. I sent my draft to her for feedback and the reality of my skills became all to clear. She was repulsed if anything. The discomfort with the entire concept was palpable. And immediately I threw in the towel. The realization that what I find interesting is shared by essentially no one dropped on me like an anvil.
So with all that, the only reasonable conclusion is to cease. At least for awhile and certainly in the format I have chosen. Probably above all I need to scale back the volume. 10,000+ word entries is a big ask of people especially coming from a layman with no training or expertise.
For subscribers, I can understand if you cancel but I prefer that you don’t. Once emotions simmer and I get my head cleared I’ll be back sooner or later. I’ll have thoughts on Tennessee no matter how I feel now. We have a Ryder Cup this fall which is unmatched by any sporting event in the years it hits. I’ll probably do Bracketology if the Vols are any good but now that I figured out how the sausage is made I’m not as interested in that either. I’ve already began a Masters outline though. Maybe I’ll do some of the other stuff too regardless of whether it’s an overreach. Right now it’s time to take a step away.
While we are here, might as well do some quick hit British Open picks.
Fades
Bryson DeChambeau (+2000) Bryson is where Phil Mickelson was in his early British days. Until he adapts his style and learns to flight the ball for wind this is not going to be a tournament he can win.
Xander Schauffele (+2500) I do not recommend picking a player to successfully defend. The odds are massively against it.
Rory McIlroy (+750) The last time the British was held in Rory’s home country he imploded on the very first hole. I suspect he learned from that but these type fairy tale wins seldom come to fruition.
Ludvig Aberg (+3000) Aberg is having what in hindsight is a predictable sophomore slump. I expect a resurgence next year.
Scottie Scheffler (+450) Strange to say a guy with three victories including a Major and almost never out of the top ten is having an off year but Scheffler is. That’s what true greatness looks like. The British has been his Major bugaboo so far.
Darkhorses
Ben Griffin (+9000) The guy has won twice this year. Sure it might be an outlier season but the man is hot.
Russell Henley (+6500) I’m not a believer in Henley generally but this is a course that will prioritize ballstriking over length which gives him an advantage.
Cameron Young (+8000) Young has emerged from 10 months of golf purgatory. He keeps knocking at the door in Majors.
Chris Gotterup (+9000) Recent history says the Scottish Open winner follows up nicely the next week.
Marco Penge (+16000) A very out there pick who was 2nd at the Scottish last week. An excellent top 20 choice if not the actual win.
My Favorites
Tommy Fleetwood (+2800) Surely he’s going to get one of these before it’s over?
Collin Morikawa (+3500) The win drought approaches two years (and really four as the win in 2023 was a fall event in China) but like Henley the elite ballstriking should be rewarded at Portrush.
Robert MacIntyre (+4000) Incredibly impressive at Oakmont. MacIntyre was the winner until fate intervened.
Patrick Reed (+8000) Pure hunch. And I’m pretty well out of options.
The Winner
Jon Rahm (+1200)
It’s been a slow burn back to the top and it crests this week.
For those who have stuck around, especially from the beginning, my sincere thank you. I’ll see you when I see you.