Just when you think we’ve debated and #shrinked and #expanded and #eradicated and #nuked it all on Golf Twitter, another niche topic comes along to remind us that we’ll never stop finding things to be mad about. This Wednesday’s discussion of choice – is it OK for a golf creator to film every shot of his U.S. Open Local Qualifier?
That’s the talk surrounding a man who goes by “youngdalt” on Instagram, real name Dalton Joyce. Joyce, who has over 54,000 followers on Instagram, teed it up this past Monday in a local qualifier for our national open at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. The amateur shot a 10-over 82, missing out on advancing to the Final Qualifying stage by 13 shots. He took it well, even joking on his Instagram page that “one guy beat me by 20 shots.”
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His very next post was a shot-by-shot video of his worst hole of the round, a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 380-yard par-4 sixth on the Nicklaus Course. On one hand, you have to respect it. Social media is full of low-to-mid handicappers who only post their best swings, shots and holes. Showing the bad ones is relatable and humbling. People can get behind that.
On the other hand, this is a U.S. Open Local Qualifier, not some throwaway game up in Rochester. X/Twitter user @FlatironFlusher had some thoughts …
Some interesting, albeit aggressive, thoughts, that is. No one asked for my opinion, but it does seem a bit crazy that we’ve reached a point where creators have a camera man out there filming them shoot 82 in what’s supposed to be a serious qualifier. That’s not to say Joyce isn’t taking it very seriously, but we could be entering “slippery slope” territory. Next thing you know you’ll see a YouTube video titled “I ate one donut per hole and shot 93 in a U.S. Open Local Qualifier.”
FlatironFlusher was not alone, either:
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As Tour Swings Tommy astutely points out here, this is only becoming more and more prevalent. Would be surprised if the USGA continues to allow it, and if they do, it’ll get out of hand sooner rather than later.
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