Here we sit, with fewer than two weeks left in the PGA Tour season.
That's OK. Wooden tees to rubber tees is cool, and football is about to be everywhere.
But a shrinking window for golf certainly does not mean shrinking storylines.
Let's start with the two Baylor School alumni who will put a peg in the ground Thursday in Delaware at the BMW Championship, the season's penultimate event.
(Side note: That penultimate is a fun word to use, you know?)
Luke List and Keith Mitchell, two internationally known bombers off the tee, have been startlingly consistent through the 2022 campaign and are just on the outside looking in of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup rankings who get invites to next week's Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
Mitchell, who was recently added to the PGA Tour's Player Advisory Council, is 38th in the standings; List is 42nd after missing the cut last week in the postseason opener, the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
Mitchell's role on the PAC will be even more important during the offseason as the tour and its players continue to field questions and ponder possibilities about the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series headed by Greg Norman. You likely have heard of the LIV. It's made a few headlines.
Speaking of collecting headlines, Cam Smith is a spotlight magnet these days.
AP photo by Julio Cortez / Keegan Bradley, left, and Luke List, right, work on the driving range Wednesday at Wilmington (Del.) Country Club, where the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship tees off Thursday as the FedEx Cup playoffs continue.This year's British Open champ has, in a little more than the span of a week, been rumored to be LIV bound, was the target of an 18-hours-later-two-shot penalty that doomed his hopes in Memphis, pulled out of the BMW with a sore hip and made one golf fan forever happy.
A wayward tee shot last Saturday from Smith hit and busted a spectator's phone. Within days, Smith had replaced and upgraded the phone in a gesture that was above and beyond, and a general reminder that we don't need our sports stars to be heroes.
No, forget running into burning buildings to save Aunt Bea's cat Fuzzy. We just need you to be decent dudes, and we'll love you forever for it.
Of course, we'll even love you forever if you're not decent dudes, right, Tiger?
Which brings us to the next golf headline that truly makes you shake your head.
Apparently, Patrick Reed has filed a defamation of character lawsuit against The Golf Channel in general and analyst Brandel Chamblee in particular.
It also is apparent that Reed has not been informed that you in fact need to have character before said character can be defamed.
How bad is the reputation of Reed, who has been whispered to be a cheater and allegedly was asked to leave the University of Georgia for having sticky fingers in the locker room? I can remember writing about his pressure-resistant demeanor when he won the 2018 Masters and even said he had the nerves of a cat burglar.
The next day, three thieves from Silverdale called and complained.
Seriously, Reed, one of the newly converted LIV-ers, is headed to court because of all the criticism he has received for his decision to go for the green.
And make no mistake, Chamblee is as arrogant as his name sounds and is as enjoyable to listen to as a crippled goose.
Man, wanna know when golf is most like politics? When you have to pick between Patrick Reed and Brandel Chamblee.
Pick one box with one hand and hold your nose with the other.
And let's hope that Luke and Keith make enough noise this weekend to get to East Lake next week.
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