The Loop

5 things to talk about on the course: The World Cup, "True Detective," and bye-bye to "Bennifer"

July 03, 2015

From sports to TV to politics (OK, so mostly the first two), we offer five hot topics that are sure to liven up your round of golf:

1. Women's World Cup: The U.S. will play Japan for the World Cup title on Sunday in a rematch of the 2011 final in which America lost in penalty kicks. USA! USA! USA! While this is the matchup the Americans wanted, it's only happening thanks to England having the most crushing own goal in soccer history in the semifinals, because, well, England soccer.

2. NBA free agency: What a wild start to free agency with stars going everywhere. Well, or more like they're mostly staying put. Kevin Love, Dywane Wade, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Paul Milsapp, Brook Lopez, and others are staying put. Tyson Chandler is going to Phoenix, Paul Pierce is headed to the Clippers, Greg Monroe is going to Milwaukee, and LaMarcus Aldridge is probably going to the (gulp) Spurs. And my Knicks? They signed Aaron Afflalo and the bad Lopez twin. Hip hip, hooray!

3. "Bennifer": We hate seeing celebrity couples split up -- especially one with such a catchy silly nickname. But a day after their 10th wedding anniversary, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner called it quits. The most obvious question is "What went wrong?" The second-most obvious is question is "Why don't either of them play golf?"

4. Max Scherzer: How about the run this guy has been on of late? The Washington Nationals ace threw a one-hitter with 16 strikeouts, threw a no-hitter with 10 Ks and in which he lost a perfect game by plunking someone with two outs in the ninth inning, and then started his next start with five perfect innings. His ERA actually went up during a fourth consecutive dominant start (nine Ks, no walks) in which he allowed two runs in 8.1 innings. No one is going to want to face this team in October, especially with Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman and Doug Fister following Scherzer and his ridiculous 0.78 WHIP in the rotation.

5. "True Detective": There was no way the second season of this HBO drama could ever live up to last year's brilliance (MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY as Rust Cohle, people!), but through two episodes it hasn't come close. And now (SPOILER ALERT) Colin Ferrell's character is dead?! (At least, he took two shotgun blasts, one from point-blank range. I'm 100 percent sure I'd be dead if that happened to me.) Huh?! He was by far the best part of the show. Between this and "Ballers," HBO's post-"Game of Thrones" season is off to a rough start.