the SCOUTING REPORT
The Green Jacket Heads West, Or Is It East?
It appears that Direction is as relative as distance is in this case. I actually think that people who fly to Japan would fly from Atlanta and then take the Delta non-stop that takes thirteen and a half hours into Tokyo. That’s basically the quickest way there. It’s the same flight my cousins Bill and Sally Montgomery go to visit their son Will, his wife Miwa, and their brood, son William and daughter Sarah, and vice versa.
By the way, William and Sarah have both graduated from something called The American School in Tokyo. William is studying at Georgia State, and Sarah, from what we’ve heard, may go to Athens and UGA.
And it’s also probably the same flight that Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters winner, will take back to his homeland. Matsuyama became the first of his golf-mad Japanese countryman to win the Masters on Sunday.
According to Nick Faldo, the Englishman and former 3-time Masters champion who provides color for Jim Nance of CBS, “The next time we see Hideki, it may be when he’s lighting the Olympic flame.”
Faldo is right. This is going to be huge for Asian golfers. The sport has been huge on the Asian continent for decades now.
Will, the cousin who lives in Tokyo and has taken a 50-mile bullet train trip out of Tokyo several times to play with some of his Japanese friends, told me once how different the game is in Japan.
One reason for the differences is the expense. The really exclusive golf courses around Tokyo charge dues that average around 3 million yen. That’s almost 30 thousand dollars a year.
He told me that the average Japanese golfer “dresses to the nines” when golfing. He also told me that the average round will last at least 6 hours, and that they will spend 4-5 minutes per hole reading their putts and plum-bobbing to their hearts’ content.
Regardless of the expense, people will find a way to play. Never Too Early To Talk A Little College Recruiting You have to admit, Kirby Smart knows what it takes to recruit in the Southeastern Conference.
Smart and his coaching staff are getting after it again on the recruiting trail, and some of Georgia’s rivals are simply getting stuck in the starting blocks.
While Georgia and Ohio State are seemingly cleaning up the commitments in the 2022 Class, teams like Clemson, Florida, Tennessee, and even Alabama are lagging behind the Bulldogs and Buckeyes.
Georgia has procured three 5-star commitments, including Rabun County QB Gunner Stockton, Tift County defensive tackle Tyre West, 6’4”, 265, and massive Texas defensive tackle Keithian Alexander, 6’4”, 320, out of Denton Ryan High.
These kids are just finishing their junior years. Ohio State is right there with the Bulldogs.
