Members of the cast are scheduled to engage on Twitter throughout the day on Monday using BigBreak. Future Big Break marathons include:. NBC Sports presents Matt Ruhle: A healthy Cam Newton is a special player.
Currently competing on a limited schedule on the Futures Tour, Jacques has a new, fresh outlook on the game. Bennett Maki 26, Orlando, Fla. A model and actor, Maki has appeared on numerous commercials that have aired on Golf Channel, which has served as a supplemental source of income to achieving his dream of competing on the PGA Tour.
Currently residing in New Orleans, La. Nina Rodriguez 27, San Jose, Calif. After Joe took his drop from the hazard, he hit a great layup shot out of the trees. Now the pressure was back on me. I received several text messages from friends during this week's episode, most of them regarding my 4-iron layup shot. I had yards to the flag for my second shot and knew I would be laying up since the wind was blowing hard in our face.
All I had to do was advance my golf ball about yards down the fairway to leave myself a little wedge into the green. I also needed to keep it out of the wind to avoid hooking it into the Liffey or blocking it into the trees flanking the right side of the layup area.
I proceeded to hit a beautiful "stinger" which never left the ground, leaving myself yards to the flag for my third shot. The rest is history. I made a clutch birdie and eliminated Joe. I remember talking to Mark about Joe's selection in the interview room later on that day. Mark made the comment that the point of the show is to stay on the show and I agreed with him. I could also see how Joe wanted to eliminate what he thought was the best player on our team I'd like to thank Joe for that compliment!
Joe was probably also hoping to catch me off-guard. This is the nature of Big Break Ireland. Next week's episode promises to be a good one as we are getting to experience a little bit more of Irish golf. Stay tuned and thanks for reading! For this episode's commentary, I figured that having fellow contestant and Team Liffey member Mallory Blackwelder's perspective on the elimination challenge might be fun for you readers, especially since she has now survived three of them in a row. As usual, I will provide my commentary, but will let Mallory take over the elimination part If you've watched Big Break before you know that the hosts, in this case Tom Abbott and Stephanie Sparks, rarely come into the breakfast room to talk to the contestants.
But when they do, it usually means they have some kind of news, be it good or bad. In this case, the news was awful -- our Straffan teammate Bennett was about to undergo an appendectomy at the hospital and his Big Break was over.
Talk about bad timing. To have it happen when you have a chance of a lifetime is such an awful shame. Sure, he made some bad decisions as captain in the first episode.
It is unfortunate, however, that he didn't get a chance to redeem himself and his image. All of us both teams felt bad for Bennett and wished him a speedy recovery. But back to the competition, when the producers of Big Break tell you to warm-up for flop shots, you know what you're getting: the Flop Wall.
The Flop Wall is another staple on Big Break. Let me just tell you that if you were out playing a friendly nassau with your friends and you came upon the Wall, it might not be that intimidating.
Put a dozen cameras, your team's fate, a tight fairway lie, and a rooster going off in the background and it's a whole different animal. Kelly and Nicole were captains for Liffey and Straffan, respectively. Nina and Nicole went first for Straffan and failed to get up and down. Mark and Kelly then missed their opportunity to earn a point for Liffey. Andy and Mallory followed their teammates with a nice up and down.
I was expecting Andy to hole-out the shot, not only because he is a good player, but also because he was probably expecting me to hole it too. Joe and I walked around the pond to the Flop Wall location just short and right of the 13th green of the Palmer Smurfit course. The nerves were kicking in. Visualization before the Flop-Wall shot is key because you can't see the flag.
I remember picking out a letter on the "Big Break" logo on the Wall for a target to shoot over and trying to feel the shot with several practice swings. I was about to hit the shot when a rooster from a nearby house started crowing.
I backed off the shot and turned to Joe and we started laughing. This interference might have been a blessing since it helped loosen me up.
I think the rooster was still crowing when I nipped the flop shot beautifully to about 4 feet. Both teams escaped the Flop Wall with two halves for a full point each. The next location was a fairly simple pitch shot over a bunker with some green to work with to the pin.
Andy began the challenge with a poor pitch that rolled 10 feet past the hole. Mallory hit a good putt, but missed her mark. Nicole and Joe then missed an opportunity for our team to take the lead. After both tandems got up and down in the second part of the challenge, it was my turn to perform for Team Straffan. There was only one thing on my mind, especially with a six-inch hole.
Have you ever heard of Dr. Well, I paged him but he didn't show up. I hit a nice pitch shot which barely missed the hole. Nina cleaned up our work to complete the up and down. Mark and Kelly followed with an up and down of their own. The particular chip shot chosen for the third part of the immunity challenge was a little tricky. The shot bounced to the right but broke left at the end. As you witnessed on the show, there were a lot of shots missed to the right.
Nicole was the only one to capitalize on the challenge. Liffey had now lost three episodes in a row. Who was Kelly going to pick? I'll let Mallory take it over from here. I'm not sure if you could tell on the episode, but I was really agitated because although I didn't perform to my standards in the first three shows, I felt like I had proven myself in the elimination matches in episodes 2 and 3.
So when we lost again, I had a feeling that Kelly would choose me for the elimination but that was a mistake for her. When Kelly picked me, I could feel the blood start pumping through my body because I was so angry. Being in the elimination challenge is gut wrenching. You are no longer worried about anyone but yourself. You have to do everything in your power to out-perform your opponent and survive to the next episode. I felt like I thrived in that situation.
Being a part of the team aspect was difficult for me. Kelly was shown on the episode saying I was scared of success but I think the reality is that I'm scared of failure. Throughout the first few episodes, I didn't play up to my standards because I was afraid of letting down the team. Once I got into the elimination challenges, I didn't have to worry about failing the team anymore because if I failed, I only failed myself.
I managed to make a clutch birdie on 16 to eliminate Kelly. She had essentially become my third "victim" in a row. My performance in the elimination challenges has earned me the nickname "The Eliminator" by the other contestants. The contestants even joked that my favorite nation was "elimi-nation"!
While this title gave me confidence, it was still really hard to send my friends and teammates home. In episode 2, I felt guilty that Annie was eliminated because I had failed to get up and down against Nina.
In episode 3, I became extremely emotional after eliminating Matt and cried because I felt that he didn't deserve to go home. In this week's episode, I felt less guilty for sending Kelly home because I was so frustrated with my team and the fact that I once again had been called out for elimination. I'd like to thank you readers again and also thank Julien for letting me explain my feelings.
Stay tuned to see if next week's episode will make four elimination challenges in a row for me! Hello again readers! Why do I feel like this week's commentary has a totally different feel than the previous two?
Maybe it's because I still cannot believe that our team won the immunity challenge in this episode. Maybe it's because you want to hear what I have to say about Bennett. Episode 3 began as a normal competition day on Big Break. We woke up around am, had our microphones on by am, and were at the breakfast table by am.
We were hitting balls on the range by am. The team captains were set -- we flipped a tee for Nina to be Team Straffan captain while Team Liffey picked Matt as its leader.
Both teams showed up at the par-5 seventh hole of the Palmer Smurfit Course and decided on their lineups for the playing order. It was obvious that one of the longer-hitting guys would be playing both the tee shot and the second shot into the green for both teams, especially since the wind was howling off the left and slightly into the face. Matt and Joe hit the tee shots for Liffey and Straffan while Andy and I hit the second shots for our teams. Team Liffey decided to have Mark hit the third shot and would have Kelly and Mallory clean up the fourth and fifth shots.
Bennett's condition was the only concern for our team. Since he wasn't feeling well, we decided to have him go last for Team Straffan. Team Liffey went first and their captain Matt drove it perfectly. Andy stepped up and hit a great shot to six feet. Mark then calmly rolled in the eagle putt for Team Liffey. I couldn't believe what I just saw.
Team Liffey made an eagle, as a team, before am, with the wind howling and with at least 12 cameras filming them. Well, it was our turn to match them. Joe hit a great drive for Team Straffan and it was then my opportunity to match what Andy had done minutes before. I was thinking the almost impossible -- a "walk-off" albatross? I just wanted to give Nina a chance at tying their eagle. I hit my hybrid to some 30 feet and Nina missed the putt.
We made a nice team birdie but fell short of Team Liffey's impressive effort. By this point, Bennett was home because he was seriously ill. If you watched Episode 3 you saw him vomiting as our team began the first part of the immunity challenge. I didn't have a problem with him being sick and sitting out. I wanted him to feel well but I also knew that if we lost the immunity challenge, then Nina would obviously pick Bennett for the elimination challenge.
Basically, what I'm trying to tell you is that I knew there was no way that Joe, Nicole, or I were going home if we lost the immunity challenge -- Nina was going to pick Bennett for the elimination challenge and one of them would be eliminated.
Both teams managed to tie the second part of the immunity challenge. Mark missed an opportunity to secure victory for Team Liffey when he missed the green from the yard location. He was disgusted with Joe's celebration of his own failure. Our whole team celebrated when Mark missed the green from that location.
It is the nature of the competition that makes opponents celebrate as such. In reality, I think Mark was more disgusted at himself for letting his team down and Joe just seemed like an easy target to take his anger out on. To make matters worse, Mark then failed to improve his team's position in the third part of the immunity challenge, leaving Team Liffey's mark at four. When Mark left his chip shot short of the marker in that third challenge, I knew there was no way we were going to lose that challenge.
Sure enough, Team Straffan got the job done. After Nicole, Joe and Nina advanced, I proceeded to leave Nicole with at least 30 yards of green to work with.
Team Liffey had lost the immunity after being one shot away from being safe and onto the next episode. Let me tell you that Mallory was NOT happy when she realized her team was headed to elimination. She voiced her opinion immediately after Matt lost the playoff to Nina. She was furious that Bennett, who was probably our team's weakest link, had sat out and not participated in the immunity challenge.
She was also concerned with the fact that she felt like Matt would most likely pick her to go against him in the elimination challenge. I understood her arguments and completely agreed with her, but there was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it. Mallory would have to show her grit once again in the elimination challenge, even though Matt could have easily picked Mark since he had let the team down twice.
She ended up proving that she wasn't afraid of "the guys," knocking out Matt in the challenge. That night in my confessional interview, I remember talking about Matt. I remember saying he was a long hitter and that guys just like him had won a bunch of PGA Tour events early in the calendar -- Jhonny Vegas and Gary Woodland, most notably. We will see Matt Melrose on television again! Once again, next week's episode promises to be a good one!
Until then, I must thank you for reading my commentary and I must also wish all of you a great National Hockey League season to your favorite team. Go Habs Go! As I learned, being captain also means more than just picking an order and remembering it.
When our teams arrived at the 13th hole of the Smurfit Course, Mallory and I the captains in case you missed Episode 2 had to make sure we had all the appropriate yardages for the entire hole and "cover" numbers over the water. We were also in charge of surveying the 5 locations for the immunity challenge and had to start thinking about which teammate should play from which location. The two locations that stood out to me were the long fairway shot and the fairway bunker shot -- I knew one of the three guys would need to hit those shots since they require more spin.
I also felt like the downhill wedge shot out of the rough would benefit from a high-spinning shot. As we saw in the episode, Mallory and Team Liffey had the same thought in mind. When Mallory and I came back to Safe City, we explained the locations, gave the yardages to our teammates, and started making our picks for each location. Joe immediately said he wanted the fairway bunker shot for our team, which was fine with me.
The rest fell into place very easily. The stage was set. Nicole and Kelly made pars to tie the first location.
Matt then won a point for Liffey with a great putt after a solid iron to the green. There was a little hop in Matt's step when he made that putt. I knew at that moment he was going to be a tough competitor on this Big Break. Joe came up big for Straffan by making his par putt, especially after Andy knocked his second shot to almost gimme range. I don't need to tell you readers how lucky Andy was that that bunker shot didn't find the water.
But the fact that Andy got up-and-down for par after that poor shot shows his experience and competitiveness. Then it was my turn to face Mark. It had been two hours since we had hit a range ball. It was cold and windy. Mark and I walked to the location, which was a short distance from Safe City. The producers let us hit three range balls in the opposite direction to warm up and then it was "go-time.
I didn't think the shot was that difficult. After all it was just a full lob wedge for me off that downhill lie. The pressure of having to perform well for the team made the shot interesting however, especially with our team being down by one point with only two locations left. Checked out the link and hope that this one will be better than the last. From the brief summaries of the players, they look to be more competitive in their careers so far.
Let's hope this will be a good one. I'm finding myself less and less interested in Big Break, but the destinations really help. I've always wanted to go to Ireland and with a bit better golf this time around hopefully maybe this series will hold my interest a bit.
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