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Friday, April 1, 2022

Dear Harvey: Grateful is the right word (#GDTBATH)

Harvey on the practice tee at Austin CC
Dear Harvey:

How superb is the new 5G in heaven? Much better than Royal Mail. Thanks for the quick feedback below.

I am on sports fan overload. The Dell Technologies WGC Match Play was a huge success. The course looked terrific whilst watching with my golf mates in England. Congrats to Director of Golf Dale Morgan, Course Superintendent Bobby Stringer, Head Professional Aaron Chileck, Tournament Director Jordan Uppleger, and their respective staff. And special thanks to Head Teaching Professional Ann Marie Gildersleeve, who does a beautiful job keeping your legacy alive on @takedeadaim1899.

The Masters is just two weekends away, and in between is a Blue Blood NCAA Final Four for the ages. North Carolina owns six national titles, Duke has five, and Kansas and Villanova each have three.

I need your opinion on something. Former Duke star and fellow Austin Country Club member JJ Redick had an interesting take on ESPN Tuesday morning.

Redick says:

"I’ve always felt that Carolina fans hate Duke fans way more than Duke fans hate Carolina fans. And the reason is that people that go to Carolina — and there’s a lot of people in North Carolina that are UNC fans that didn’t go to Carolina — but people in North Carolina and UNC fans all over the country, they have an inferiority complex. They have an inferiority complex, and that’s just part of the rivalry.”

Harvey writes:

gPage, I think Mr. Redick might be confused on this, and he did later say he was only stirring the pot, which is something he was quite good at back in the day!

Davis Love Jr. was a great friend, so when DLIII chose UNC I became a Tar Heel fan. I remember Davis telling me about a friend of his, a young man named Mike Jordan, who wanted to learn how to play golf. Mike of course, later became known as Michael, and perhaps one could stop right there on inferiority complexes. #GOAT.

I did a little research, and the data does not seem to support JJ:

    • National Titles: UNC 6, Duke 5
    • NCAA Tournament Appearances: UNC 52 vs. Duke 44
    • Sweet 16s: UNC 35 vs. Duke 32 
    • Elite Eights: UNC 29 vs. Duke 23
    • Final Four Appearances: UNC 21 (1st all-time) vs. Duke 17 
    • NCAA Tournament Wins: UNC 130 (1st all-time) vs. Duke 111
    • All-time victories: UNC 2294 vs. Duke 2214 
    • Head-to-Head victories: UNC 141 vs. Duke 115
    • ACC regular-season titles: UNC 32 (1st all-time) vs. Duke 20
    • ACC tournament titles: Duke 21 (1st all-time) vs. UNC 18

But as you know, I'm not a data driven golf instructor and find the whole trackman thing a bit much. This rivalry is like a putter in the hands of Ben Crenshaw. It is all about feelings or in golf speak, 'feels'.

As to who hates each other the most, that is personal. I would hope there is a mutual respect between true fans of both programs. The rivalry has certainly given us many special moments through the years. I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks for Mr. Redick. I will say this, that guy could really shoot the rock!

Take dead aim,

Harvey 

Thank you, Harvey, for doing the heavy lifting on the data. You are right about feelings. As for me personally, inferiority is not the right word. A better one would be grateful. I'm grateful to my loved ones who took me to my first Carolina football game and the magic of Stadium Drive in Chapel Hill on a fall afternoon. I'm grateful to my 'UNC Buds' text thread, where we exchange life and death messages throughout every Carolina game. And I'm grateful to live when this rivalry grew to be the best in all of sport.

Go Heels,

gP

P.S. Best vanity license plate (explained here) goes to my good friend Ricky May. And I am told that the second plate below has been ordered by Duke fans in all 50 states.

Down 8 w/17 seconds to go!







Go to hell Carolina, Go to hell



Letters to Harvey from The Kingdom:

Other 'golfy' scribblings:
"Millions of people were charmed by the homespun golf advice dispensed in Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, a sports classic that went on to become the best-selling sports book of all time. Yet, beyond the Texas golf courses where Penick happily toiled for the better part of eight decades, few people knew the self-made golf pro who coaxed the best out of countless greats -- Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright -- all champions who considered Penick their coach and lifelong friend." - Kevin Robbins, author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf
"And if you play golf, you are my friend." - Harvey Penick
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