Odds and Ends

It's that time of year, so bear with me as we acquaint ourselves with the bottom of the barrel...

Teeth, Gnashed - We haven't had one of these "Woe is me" stories in a bit....Sports Business Journal had a piece a few days ago (behind a paywall, so no link) to the effect that golf ratings were in the loo.  Shack had this summary:

The headline was brutal but reading between the lines, the drops might not be quite a "tumble." 

Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal says PGA Tourviewership "took another plunge during the 2013-14 season," reporting drops in average weekend numbers by 18% (NBC), 14% (CBS) and 9% for Golf Channel early weekend coverage, while pointing out that the "drops followed sharp declines the previous year as well."

Those numbers are certainly not great, but not quite as bad a s everyone seems to want them to be.  Shack commits an actual act of journalism, and follows up with this:

The Tour's Ty Votaw says the cumulative audience was down just 1 percent over 2013. The cumulative takes into account things like telecast replays and other variables.

“We have a lot of total TV hours, probably more hours of competition than most sports,” Votaw said.

A four-year snapshot shows that the tour’s cumulative audience in 2011 reached 175.9 million viewers; 171.2 million in 2012; 172.6 million in 2013; and 170.7 million in 2013-14.

With Tiger out for all but a few events and other variables, the numbers may not be that alarming. 

The 2014 tournaments also faced some difficult competition for eyeballs. The Sochi Olympics in February went up against three tour events, while the FIFA World Cup ran from June into July.

Given that neither Tiger nor Phil were weekend factors (excluding Phil's PGA cameo), this sounds about right.  It's more Apocalypse Delayed.

Saviors, Actually Talking - in another headline that doesn't hold up under moderate scrutiny, the Ryder Cup Task Force finally met.  And by "met" we mean held a conference call:

The PGA of America held the initial meeting of the U.S. Ryder Cup task force on Tuesday at its South Florida headquarters. 

As first reported by GolfChannel.com, the 11-member panel met via a conference call for more than four hours, beginning at 3 p.m. 

“We discussed a wide array of issues including the selection process for captains and vice captains and more,” PGA president Derek Sprague said in a statement. “Today was the beginning of a process that is designed to create the conditions for long-term Ryder Cup success. We have more work to do and look forward to gathering again to complete the work of the task force.”

I love that bit about meeting at the PGA's south Florida HQ.  No word on important issues, such as whether InstantConference.com or GoToMeeting.com was the vendor of choice.  But wait, there's more Ryder Cup silliness....  First up, at a kids clinic putative Ryder Cup Captain Fred Couples was asked about one of Captain Tom's most dissected decision:

Couples made the comments in a casual question and answer session while conducting a

clinic for young golfers at the opening of a 6-hole golf course in Maricopa, Arizona. 

Asked about the Ryder Cup, Couples said, “I'm not bashing Tom Watson, but sitting Mickelson, your best team player? Are you kidding me?" Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, has long been a close friend of Watson, whose captaincy of the US team was widely criticized after the September loss in Scotland.

Hmmm....lede, buried.  I'd actually prefer to hear more about the six-hole golf course than rehash this nonsense.   Might be an interesting business model, no?  But to his point, I have not the slightest problem with Watson sitting Phil in foursomes, as he couldn't find a fairway with a map.  The mistake was playing him in foursomes the first day...

Next up, Lee Trevino connects the dots for the purpose of....concluding the blindingly obvious:

Trevino has studied the records of Ryder Cup competitors and determined this is why the U.S. team has lost eight of the past 10 biennial competitions with Europe. 

"You look statistically: Tiger (Woods, who did not play this year) has a minus record, Mickelson has a minus record. Furyk has got a (10-20-4) record. (10-20-4)! You see what I'm telling you? A (10-20-4) record. I know he's a hell of a player, but he's got a (10-20-4) record. He's a minus-10. (Trevino, on the other hand, sported a 17-7-6 mark.) You can't name me a guy with a plus record that's playing the Ryder Cup right now. (Jordan) Spieth has one now, and then (Patrick) Reed, yeah, he's got a 3-1, right? They're rookies. But you give me a veteran that's played in three or four Ryder Cups, and not one has a plus. You can't win that way. You cannot win."

Ummm Mex, exactly how much studying did this require?   So as I understand your thought process, the way to win Ryder Cups is to, you know, win matches.... have you shared this with the Task Force?

Reset, Reset - Shack long ago dubbed the FedEx Cup the Reset Cup, tweaking Commissioner Ratched over the opaque and needlessly complicated process of taking away valuable FedEx Cup points to ensure that...oh heck, none of us really know what they have in mind.  It's just a massive money grab so who really gives a damn?

But soldier on we must, as the Tour has announced yet another tweak to their formulas:

Yet the PGA Tour appears not to be satisfied, and a tweak to the points formula

announced Thursday will decrease the number of points awarded at the four playoff events from 2,500 to 2,000, thus limiting slightly the amount of volatility that occurs at the four season-ending tournaments. 

The winner of a regular tournament receives 500 points, with 600 going to those who capture a major, so you can see that a victory in the playoff events has far greater importance. Instead of being five times as valuable as a regular event, now it is four times greater, apparently in an attempt to make the regular season more meaningful.

Fair enough. 

The problem is, you can't really have it both ways.

All righty.....let's see, the Fry's is worth 500 points, the U.S. Open 600 and The Barclays is worth 2,000.  Any questions?

Monty, Unhinged - But I repeat myself... I'm guessing that His Montyness might have had a wee nip before saying this:

"Tiger Woods is going to come back into the frame,' Mongomerie told Kicca.com when discussing next year's Masters. 'Is he going to be able to get back, not just to the levels he was but better than that? Because that’s where Rory McIlroy's taken the standard of golf: to one level beyond where Tiger was."

How can I put this respectfully?  Are you out of your effing mind?  Whatever you're smoking, I hope you brought enough to share....

 What I find most amazing about this comment is that Monty had a front row seat for Peak Tiger.  Shack had this very appropriate retort:

I'm pretty confident that we can drop today's Rory on a super firm, fast golf course and he's still going to struggle. Throw in some wind and he's just not there. Great player, but it's shockingly shallow, even for Monty, to make that case. But it worked, we're giving him the attention he craves.

True that, though I think the shear consistency of Tiger's performance is also worth a mention.  My sense is that Rory will always struggle with consistency, though his highs are quite impressive.  But let's circle back to this when Rory wins a U.S. Open by 15 shots.

From My Twitter Feed - I like speaking of "My Twitter Feed" even though I'm clueless as to how to utilize it.  There's still an opportunity for a teenager for an unpaid internship at one of the best new golf blogs, as I'm barely able to navigate 20th century technology.  But I digress...

I have gotten as far as following a bunch of folks, including Royal Dornoch Golf Club, who tweeted this photo of their famed links under snow:

Combined with our snow here a few days ago, that pretty much makes it official.  There's snow everywhere on our planet except for bloody Utah.