Rippee Writes: Thursday Scoop
Golf, golf and a more golf. Oh, a little baseball too.
A happy Thursday to all. Collin and I are recording a podcast tonight. Send any questions you have. It will be Ole Miss Baseball-centric per usual, as the Rebels navigate through the postseason. We have a ton to get to today.
Let's go.
Ole Miss Women's Golf wins the national championship.
The Rebels etched their place in history with a dominant victory in the championship match over Oklahoma State. The Rebels led in four of the five matches when it ended and scored the three points needed to clinch before Oklahoma State even got on the board. The job head coach Kory Thompson-Henkes has done since she took the job in 2015 is simply remarkable. The program was in pretty dire shape and it was undoubtedly the worst job in the SEC and she took it to the pinnacle of the sport in less than six years. It's hard to put into words how hard this is to do at all, much less in the timespan she did it in. This team was dominant, entertaining and an absolute pain in the ass to deal with in match play, which to me, embodied the spirit and vibe of the group.
There's a relentlessness about them. Kennedy Swann went 3-0 in match play and only set foot on the 17th green one time. Chase Parham pointed this out to me: Swann and Julia Johnson are 18-3 in match play over the last two seasons. That is just a stupid number.
Chiara Tamburlini lost both of her matches on Tuesday, both were tight until the end, and responded by absolutely blitzing Oklahoma State's Lianna Bailey, going five up thru 10 and ending the match in 13 holes. Smilla Sonderby, a freshman with two events under her belt, replaced (arguably) the team's second best player Ellen Hume due to injury, and was responsible for what might be the most crucial moment of this run. Ole Miss was down 2-1 to Texas in the quarterfinals with both the remaining matches in extra holes. The Rebels had to win both to advance. Sonderby dumped her second shot in the water of the first extra hole. Instead of wilting, she stiffed a wedge to four feet, saved par, extended the match and won it in 22 holes. Ole Miss goes home if that doesn't happen.
The examples are endless. They were loose and relaxed, but ruthless at the same time. Does this look like a team fretting about the biggest matches of their individual careers?
This was no fluke. This team was great and will be again next year. They had leaders and the perfect combination of talent and toughness-laden DNA. That's a credit to Henkes and the staff. I'll have more on this in the coming days, but this was a treat to watch and a great reflection on the university so many of you love.
Ole Miss loses to Vanderbilt in Hoover
This will shortly become outdated as the Rebels take the field in just a couple of hours to face Georgia in a loser's bracket game, but here are some thoughts from last night:
1. Overall, I thought there was way more good than bad in this loss last night. Ole Miss lost a close game to a great team. It happens. It's tough. It doesn't mean a ton.
2. Tim Elko hit two home runs last night and is doing his best to have scientists study him when he dies in 300 or so years because he is clearly not human. What he's doing in the short time removed from this ACL injury is just absurd. I don't really have any adequate adjectives to describe it. The way he poked the ball on that first home run, to the opposite field, out of that massive ballpark is a testament to the ridiculous amount of power and talent he has. Kevin Graham pulled a ball just under the scoreboard out there two years ago and I almost went to retrieve it and to give it to him to commemorate the feat. Elko hit it like 80 percent as far, with one ACL. It's insane that he's contributing to this team at all and even more incredulous he's hitting in the five hole of one of the best lineups in the country, a month removed from tearing his ACL. He’s leading the team in home runs and missed a month of the season. With Ole Miss' thin margin for error on the mound, it is going to need to mash its way through the postseason and having Elko do what he's doing is a massive lift.
3. How about that injection of confidence from Derek Diamond? That'll play, kid. I thought he was tremendous last night. His slider was sharp, he located well and he didn't implode at the first sign of trouble and actually faired decently well with the hitters he faced a second time. Kyle Peterson was all over it on the broadcast last night in saying Diamond is paramount to this team's success in June. We already knew this and there is not a better dosage of confidence you could possibly have given him heading into regionals than last night. Now, for the love of god, hope you see him on Friday next week.
4. The bullpen wasn't great last night, but I didn't think they were atrocious either. It was somewhere in the middle. Kimbrell wasn't great. His command was not good, but he also sort of fell victim to some crap luck on soft contact. Dougherty was great for two innings, and honestly pretty good in the ninth but got a little fatigued. Go look at the pitch that ended the game. It's out off the plate with decent bite. You just have to tip your cap and move on. Vanderbilt is a good offense and took advantage of a walk and a couple of mistakes. It happens. Ole Miss can close out a game without Taylor with that combination of pitchers that went out last night, it just didn't happen on this occasion.
5. As for today, if it were me, I am trying to prove the very thing I just said: Ole Miss can close games without Taylor Broadway. The Rebels now have to win three in a row to really feel good about being selected as a national seed. It's not likely to happen. Ok, fine. Broadway was unavailable last night due to some tenderness after a lengthy Tuesday night outing. Why in the world would you use him again? See if you can go win a game without him. You have to win three games to get through a regional and he's likely not finishing all three. See what you have and what the other guys can do. If you lose, ok fine. Go rest up for a home regional. If you win and they pitch well, he got an extra day of rest while someone else got some confidence. It's a win-win. Ole Miss still has things to play for in Hoover, but with the loss last night, it can also work on itself a little and test some things. Do that today.
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Magnolia State Golf Update:
How do you top winning a national title? You can't, but we will fill out our normal professional update here.
1. The PGA Tour is in Fort Worth this week. No Mississippians are in the field to my knowledge. But we're coming soon, dammit.
2. The Korn Ferry Tour is in Chicago this week. Four of the usual five Missisippians are in the field.
- Tupelo native and Mizzou alum Hayden Buckley teed off at 7:16 this morning and goes off at 12:41 tomorrow. Buckey's coming off a top 15 finish last week and sits at 35th in the points standings, well within range of creeping into the top 25 that earn PGA Tour cards, largely thanks to his win in Florida in February.
- Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry tees off at 1:23 this afternoon and 7:58 tomorrow morning. Thornberry took the week off last week while this tour was in Kansas City. He sits at 49th in the standings and is within striking distance of the top 25 as we hit the homestretch.
- Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley went off at 7:16 this morning and goes off at 12:41 tomorrow. Riley is essentially just cashing checks and playing for a third win that would promote him immediately to the PGA Tour. He won twice before the COVID shutdown in 2020, and should already be on the PGA Tour but is a victim of this pandemic-induced wraparound season. Riley passed the fail-safe points threshold two weeks ago and is guaranteed to graduate to the PGA Tour at season's end.
- Brandon native and Ole Miss alum Jonathan Randolph tees off at at 12:10 today and 6:45 tomorrow morning. Randolph is 101st in the standings and should realistically be eyeing to creep into the top 75 that qualifies him for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which starts immediately after the season and is a four-event showcase that awards an additional 25 Tour cards.
- Tupelo native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey appears to have taken a well-earned week off. Ramey is the middle of an insane 18-month stretch of golf. He’s 10th in the standings and well-positioned to earn a PGA Tour card and he’s done all of it without winning a tournament, which is a remarkable run of consistency, particularly on this tour. I am not totally convinced he doesn’t somehow rattle off a top 10 this week without playing. I am kidding, I think.
The 16 oz prime strip for $10 deal is still rolling but you can now get a second one for $15 bucks if you want more than one. Also, you get $2 off any fish in the freezer. Thanks for subscribing and enjoy. Go by LBs. They’re the best.
On the Horizon:
- mailbag Friday podcast
- two more newsletters
- golf stories on the national champion Ole Miss Rebels
That's all from me today. Much more to come tomorrow. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join the fun. Have a great day.