I tried to tip you guys on Aldrich Potgieter…did anyone pick that up? The Big Young became the youngest South African (20) to win on Tour after clipping Max Greyserman on hole 5 of their playoff. Potgieter showed no less than 190mph ball speed of the tee. An aggressive move plus Mass. He can push it out there. The Donald Ross designed Detroit Country Club gets ripped up today in favor of a renovation. Did they call Gil Hanse?

Cussin n fussin in the Big Leagues. Marlins/Dbacks got mad enough at each other to push, wave fingers and say bad words but no haymakers thrown. Is that growth? Is that restraint?

The NBA is unofficially open for business. Pen can’t be put to paper until July 6th, but the “legal tampering” (why?) period has begun. What should we expect?

The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is set at $14.1m. That means the bulk of the NBA middle class will be chasing 3y/$42m deals. Anyone signing for more than that will likely have to orchestrate a sign-and-trade. Why? No one in the NBA actually has cap space. Brooklyn is the only team below the cap. The most competitive Buyers are teams over the cap ($154m) but below the first luxury tax line ($187m). If your team lives in that golden zone, they can offer your 15th favorite role player $14m a year. “KMARK, should I care about any of these guys?” Maybe, let’s see if anyone on this list piques your interest:

- Nickeil Alexander-Walker

- Gary Payton II

- Dorian Finney-Smith

- Gary Trent, Jr

- Guerschon Yabusele

- DeAndre Ayton

- Clint Capela

YIKES - I feel you. How did this happen?

The NBA has no cohesive strategy from one CBA to the next. That’s how. Every 4-5 years the Union and the League have to agree on an operating structure, but the motivations of each party change from one deal to the next. Here are the two themes from the last two CBA’s:

1. We need to give small market teams (and everyone) the best chance at retaining their superstars (so that Durant doesn’t leave OKC for Golden State).

2. We need to punish teams that spend a bunch of money by inventing the Second Apron.

How did Theme 1 play out? Teams can extend their stars before they hit the open market with deals so rich that few players turn them down. Thus, the free agency pool suffers. More to that point, teams extend their players for so much cash, they rarely have cap room left for those role players that do hit the open market. There’s good and bad to this policy (like all policy). SGA is going to be in OKC for a long time. Giannis never left Milwaukee. The bad? If you draft well, have success, and sign your stars, you can still end up like Boston and need to trade away your support staff as mega-extensions from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown kick in. So yes, all teams have a better chance to retain their superstars. But, as per Theme 2 from the most recent CBA, keeping your really good team together is now more expensive and challenging than ever. Neither Theme worked in the interest of the NBA’s middle (or upper middle) class.

I started writing this piece as free agency started and a few signings have reinforced the position above. Back to Boston, they’ve now lost part-time starter Luke Kornet to the Spurs. The Lakers lost Dorian Finney-Smith to the Rockets, and the Wolves lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Atlanta. What do these have in common? Each of the losing teams feature cap sheets locked down by 2 max players. In Minnesota’s case, they have the max player slot split into Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle. The Buying teams in each signing feature only one max guy (Durant in HOU, De’Aaron Fox in San Antonio, Trae Young in ATL). We’ve seen CBA’s attempt to cancel superteams (3 max players). Is this the summer that cancels the two-max player team? Can two-max teams compete against single stars and deep rosters? Lots to observe over the next week and year.

We had absolutely run out of gas by the time we hit Montrose. Three straight days of 36 and the hike to Cruden drained the tank. We showed up late and the starter closed shop after we teed off. I don’t think we ever swung at top speed, but Montrose is a worthy charmer and didn’t disappoint.

Golf has been played here continually since 1594. That’s before Galileo started rifling off Big Thoughts. Imagine your 10x great-grandson playing Pebble and describing it as “pre-Rogan”. Wild times.

As expected, time is taking a toll. The fairway on #2 runs along a dune that is eroding more and more each year. I’m bullish. I think it’s got another century in it. Even if the beach takes it, it’d make an intriguing forced carry off the tee.

H.P and I went blow for blow on the front, before he swept me away by 15. My strong play was more of a final flicker before my candle burned out. If Kilspindie is a great place to start an East Lothian trip, I’d recommend the same for Montrose if you’re in Fife. It’d be a great first round off the plane before the more notable tracts. The course winds into the community and you can frequently hear the town rugby practice, pedestrians strolling, and diners heading to the restaurants. The course doesn’t feature the postcard holes that some others do, but the routing is fantastic. The centuries old fairways are peppered with interesting moguls. Even in a stiff breeze, the course shouldn’t beat you up. For us, we packed our bones into the car, headed straight to McDonalds, then back to St. Andrews for a well deserved day off.