The Crock Pot is Ready

In the penultimate PGA Tour event in the leadup to the Masters, Min Woo Lee has earned his first victory on Tour. The 26-year-old Australian known for his ball speed and short game held off a group of chasers including Scottie Scheffler to grab his maiden win at the Tom Doak-designed Memorial Park Golf Course. Entering Sunday, Lee held a four-shot lead. Despite a couple errant tee shots over his last 11 holes, Lee rode tidy around-the-green play and a hot putter to a one-stroke win. He gained 8.7 strokes with his putter for the week, the second-highest total in the field.

While impressive, the win shouldn’t fundamentally change the way Min Woo Lee is discussed in the sport. He creates a ridiculous amount of speed, struggles to keep tee shots within the playing corridors, and is exceptional on and around the greens. That’s a formula that works well at Memorial Park, a forgiving golf course off the tee whose primary defense is big, boldly contoured green complexes. Of the top eight finishers on the Houston Open leaderboard, five (Lee, Gary Woodland, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, and Alejandro Tosti) ranked in the top 12 on Tour in average ball speed entering the week.

On the eighth tee on Sunday, Lee fired a 190-mph missile a mile off line into an unplayable lie – one of the few ways you’ll find a penalty shot off the tee on this golf course. On 16, he hit a 193-mph drive way right and into the water – one of the only other spots of bother at Memorial Park. His power and elite short game provide him a significant advantage, but Lee will need to be more precise to contend on major championship setups. He’ll also need to elevate his iron play if he aspires to factor in tournaments like the Masters.

In other results, we won’t see either World No.1 Scottie Scheffler (T-2) or World No. 2 Rory McIlroy (T-5) again until the Masters, each of whom should be feeling confident entering the season’s first major. One situation to keep an eye on: following his final round, McIlroy relayed on the telecast that he’s been experiencing discomfort in his elbow. Hopefully it’s all systems go for Rory in just over a week.

But Fans Love Home Runs!

Rest assured: the “torpedo” bats that have made their way into Major League Baseball are officially on my radar. As detailed in an article from The Athletic, an MIT physicist-turned-baseball-coach named Aaron Leanhardt began developing these bats back in 2022 while working in the New York Yankees minor league hitting department. Apparently, the bats he’s designed redistribute weight from the tip to the barrel, expanding the sweet spot. Per The Athletic, the bats are designed so that “the densest part of the bat is where that particular hitter most often makes contact with the baseball.”

Shortstop Anthony Volpe experimented with the bats throughout last year’s season, and now he and at least four other Yankees are using the bats in games. On Saturday, the Yankees hit nine home runs – a franchise record – en route to a 20-9 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, sparking some social media outrage over the new bat technology. These athletes sure are stronger than ever before, eh?

You know where I’m going with this. Should baseball equipment be rolled back? I don’t know the answer to that question. I do know, however, that if the increased fargiveness of the baseball bats significantly decreases the skill required to hit one over the fence and turns baseball games into home run derbies, the MLB should scrutinize the new technology. And I presume they will.

Even if some sloppily designed fan survey suggests that home runs are baseball fans’ favorite moments of the game, that doesn’t mean that an increase in home runs is actually positive for the game. Just as 325-yard drives are only impressive when there’s threat of consequence for a mishit, home runs will lose their appeal the less scarce and skillful they become.

We’ll see how this torpedo bat situation unfolds, but much like St. Andrews, Wrigley Field doesn’t have the space to move back tee boxes. If leadership at the MLB must choose between preserving the integrity of the sport or appealing to athletes and equipment manufacturers who are more concerned with dollar signs than the long-term interests of the sport, I hope they show more leadership than is being shown in professional golf.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.