The PGA Championship is not the first place you’d expect to find a passionate take about conference realignment and the expansion of the Big 12. But Saturday’s round at Baltusrol has delivered us exactly that kind of take.
The man who screamed ‘UConn Big 12!’ during a golf tee shot just wanted to be heard
Golf galleries rarely fail to disappoint, but this take on Big 12 expansion was an unexpected treat.
Eric Sucar-USA TODAY Sports
Japanese golfer Yuta Ikeda teed off in the 1:55 p.m. ET group on Saturday, alongside world No. 3 Jordan Spieth. It isn’t uncommon for gallery members to shout words of encouragement when players are teeing off, especially on their first holes of the day. But one man in the crowd, rather than yelling, “get in the hole,” or some such, opted for something else.
“UConn Big 12!” the man shouts, just as Ikeda’s ball is flying off the tee box.
The fan who made his voice heard is named Mike Paonessa, and he just wanted to be heard.
“We’ve got to get UConn into the Big 12 and the Power 5,” Paonessa told the Hartford Courant’s Jeff Jacobs. “I’d never yelled anything like that before. Just the normal stuff when I go to Travelers every year, stuff like ‘Way to go, Bubba!’ I just wanted to try to maximize the exposure for UConn on national television.”
The sound on TNT’s broadcast is a bit lagged, but Paonessa did have the courtesy not to be load up Ikeda with his realignment views while the golfer was still in mid-swing. “I wouldn’t yell during his swing,” he assured Jacobs.
Fans at the tournament are also yelling a lot about Harambe.
Anyhow, UConn’s athletic department brings in more annual revenue than the rest of the Big 12’s top expansion candidates, and the university also has the highest U.S. News & World Report ranking. Paonessa has studied up.
