Looks like our regular Wednesday game has been moved to Thursday in light of the Biblical rains... So, let's go deep, shall we?
The Times, They Are A-Changin' - We may have jumped the gun in reacting to NCAA rule changes that affect college golfers, for today we have the USGA/R&A announcement of their similar loosening of constraints:
The Rules of Amateur Status will read differently come Jan. 1, 2022. And yet for the large majority of everyday amateur golfers, little will be different, save for the fact that prize limits have been bumped $250 and may, under certain circumstances, be payable in cash.Officials with the USGA and R&A unveiled Tuesday the finished product of their four-year modernization initiative that redefines what amateurs can/can’t do to better reflect the modern game and make the rules easier to understand and apply. Most notably, amateurs now will be allowed to receive money to cover expenses with no restrictions or prohibitions. Additionally, amateurs will be able to make money off their name, image and likeness.Short term, the biggest beneficiaries of the relaxed rules are elite nationally and internationally ranked players—those whose golf prowess would allow them to be compensated for endorsing, promoting and advertising products and services. Since all previous prohibitions will be lifted, there will be no ambiguity as to what is or is not permissible. The era of Lucy Li being “warned” about appearing in an Apple Watch ad jeopardizing her amateur status are over.
Kudos for the Lucy Li call-out, an incident your humble blogger had almost forgotten. The fun stuff there was that Li (or her people) knew exactly how to game the system. They filmed a variety of normal life scenes f Lucy and her iWatch and, wouldn't you know it, just made a game-time decision to use the golf-themed scenes in the final product.
More importantly, the USGA saw this violation of their clear rules, including the deliberate and rather transparent subterfuge, and couldn't be bothered enforcing the rules that every other amateur seemed to play by. And you wonder at the source of Phil's contempt for the organization? is there anything the USGA can't do if they have me agreeing with Phil?
Now, is anyone buying this?
Long term, the hope is that the changes will allow up-and-coming golfers previously hindered from developing their true potential because of the monetary issues associated with traveling and playing in tournaments to continue to pursue the game without the burden of certain financial worries.“Playing tournaments and traveling is expensive. Breaking down the barriers for both getting access to promotion and advertising will provide the ability to raise funds and handle the expense side of things,” said Craig Winter, USGA Senior Director, Rules of Golf and Amateur Status. “So, if you look 10 years down the road, we believe these changes will set the stage for, ultimately, our U.S. Amateurs, regional events, possibly some international competitions outside the United States, to look more inclusive because those younger players at the local level will be able to get support, will be able to move on to the regional level and so on. That’s the biggest change for what people are going to see. [But] that’s going to take some time.”
Ummm, it seems to me that the folks in Far Hills Liberty Corner need to get out more....They seem to believe that young, financially-challenged players will use the proceeds of their monetization of the value of their NIL to fund the cost of competition, whereas those NIL's are, at that point, worth, ummm, well, nil. So sure, perhaps someone will fund the trip to a golf tournament, but isn't the likely scenario that the kids wil;l be forced to sell the future value of their NILs.... Sounds a little predatory, no?
But, and I know you're asking, is there anything the kids can't do? Yeah, there's one biggie that sticks out like a sore thumb, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize whose feedlot is being protected:
There will remain some prohibitions in the rules: Amateurs cannot accept compensation for giving instruction (with some notable exceptions), be employed as a club or driving-range professional or hold membership in an association of professional golfers. They can’t play in golf competitions as professionals and are allowed to accept a prize up to a certain nominal limit.
They can become double-agents for the Chinese, they can act in porn movies and they can presumably invade the Capitol, but they cannot be compensated for using their skills to help another golfer. For those keeping score at home, we'll just call that the Seth Waugh Appeasement.
Obviously, the ruling bodies' hands were forced in this by the actions of the NCAA, but is the ban on giving instruction any more rational than the previous ban on sponsors and reimbursement of expenses? Why can't an amateur use the proceeds of instructions to fund his or her travel? The only reason I can see is to protect PGA club professionals... Of course, we should be thankful for small favors, because it's pretty rare to see the PGA of America even acknowledge the existence of its dues-paying members, so we've got that going for us.
The harder issue to discern is the relative importance of this move. I start with the premise that the value of these assets is quite small, based primarily on the TV audience size. College golf has, in aggregate, sufficient value to warrant Monday-Wednesday coverage on Golf Channel, delivering audience sizes in the mid-six-figures. That's aggregate value in excess of zero, but the value of each participant would seem to be a rounding error, no?
Shack has a post up for Quadrilateral subscribers, in which he allows us a tease that includes this framing hypothetical:
Congrats Mary! Pistol Pete’s American Diner is so proud of your win in the Greater Boca RatonJunior Classic, Girls 14-15 division!So proud, in fact, we’ve taken out this charming digital “classified” ad after you credited your win to our delicious kombucha-based Swamp Burgers (with fresh fruit replacing the fries because we value your dietary needs as you pay your way through junior golf).See you at the diner Mary and thanks for tagging us on The Snap, The Tok, The Gram and The Meta, as your contract required. Fairways and greens!
Geoff admits to feeling cranky about this, and I tend to agree that it's not a great look. My distaste is admittedly is tempered by the fact that there's only a limited audience for these assets, though I don't see anyone else worried that the kids will end up selling the future value of their NILs, perhaps without even knowing such terms are buried in legal boilerplate. And none of the interested parties, the USGA, R&A. NCAA and the various PGAs, seem inclined to even warn the kids about this.
What If We Held a Tourney and No One Came? - We've had no shortage of items covering the dumpster fire that is the PGA Tour's wraparound schedule. Shack himself has had a series of posts on ratings, the most notable of which had the PGA's round-bellies drawing a higher rating than the main Tour, both of which at times had an audience so small as to not qualify for an actual rating.
The latest of these is just up, indicating that Hideki's ZoZo win was a tree falling in the forest:
The ZOZO moved back to Japan after a one-year stop at Sherwood and without Tiger Woods contending, apparently off all radar screens.Showbuzzdaily’s weekly roundup included no detectable golf broadcast ratings for Hideki Matsuyama’s ZOZO win, Jin Young Ko’s BMW Ladies Championship win, or Bernhard Langer’s historic Dominion Energy Classic win, all on Golf Channel.But I’m sure the streaming numbers were yuuuuuge!
Yeah, no one cares, but that's not the least of Jay Monahan's problems. Have you followed what's going on with this week's event in Bermuda?
Even though the Butterfield Bermuda Championship is offering a two-year exemption to the winner, full FedExCup points, a Masters invite and a week at Port Royal, the event is only going to be played with 127 players instead of the 132 planned.
Dylan Dethier has been all over this story, although he has kind of buried the lede, which is that this event is struggling despite a significant upgrade in its status:
When an opposite-field event struggles to fill its tournament field, it can dive into the reserves, inviting folks with lesser PGA Tour status by dipping into Nos. 151-200 on the previous year’s FedEx Cup list. That would have included folks like Rafael Campos (No. 151) and Tom Lewis (No. 156). But the Bermuda Championship has (through some dark irony) been upgraded to a “full-field” event each of the past two years, given the cancelation of the WGC-HSBC Champions, so that provision does not apply.
There are some complications related to the location, for sure:
For one thing, Bermuda isn’t the easiest place to get to. The island (technically 181 islands, but the Main Island gets most of our attention) sits some 600 miles off the coast of North Carolina, which is the nearest mainland. Sure, there are plenty of flight options — but if you’re a Tour pro that needs a proper tune-up to get tournament-ready, it might be tricky to get on island and scope Port Royal in time to feel prepped. Travel is especially challenging from Japan, the site of last week’s Zozo Championship. The two islands aren’t exactly in close proximity. And there are come extra complexities flying to Bermuda in particular, like this one: Gay, the defending champion, was among a group of players left behind on Monday as his plane was deemed “too heavy” to take off with everyone aboard.Bermuda’s Covid-19 policies are also proving a major deterrent for some golfers. To participate in this week’s event, players were required to show proof of vaccination or have undergone a 14-day quarantine period. The PGA Tour does not require its players to be vaccinated and reported that just over 70 percent were vaccinated as of early August. They have not released an update since then, but the requirement makes it extremely unlikely that unvaccinated players would make the trip.
Sure, BUT.... Let me repeat in case the import has been diluted. They are holding a full-field (as that term is defined this time of year) event with a Masters invite on the line, and they can't fill the field. Yowzer!
These will be your featured groups:
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 26, 2021
Wow, that's some serious firepower....
Obviously, the wraparound portion of the schedule is a hot mess. there are some Covid-related complications, but it's pretty clear that there is simply no demand for the product. I can only hope that one of those players over the 1,000 mark in the OWGR cashes his ticket to Augusta, and then perhaps we can have a serious discussion about why these events even exist.
You'll ask the obvious question at this juncture, what does it matter if they hold events and no one cares or shows up? the first answer involves understanding why the PGA Tour plays this time of year... The answer, and it's a bit ugly, is so no one else can. Got that?
Where might they play? Well, anyone out there familiar with the news from Australia? Australia has a long history of holding major events, their Championship season, in December, and U.S. players would make the long journey and participate (most famously, a guy named Nicklaus). The Australian Open is the most prestigious of these events, but hasn't bene held since 2019 due to Covid. The great news is that Mike Clayton and Geoff Ogilvy have created a substitute for this year:
Geoff Ogilvy has his eyes on both the men’s and women’s Australian Opens. Not to play, but tosurpass.The 2006 U.S. Open champion, alongside tournament director and golf course architect Mike Clayton, has created a new professional golf tournament in Melbourne with a unique format that is set to be held at four world-class golf courses. The news was first reported by 10 News First in Melbourne.The Sandbelt Invitational, Dec. 20-23, 2021, will be played at 2019 Presidents Cup host Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Yarra Yarra and Peninsula Kingwood and will include both men and women, as well as a mix of professionals and amateurs.“We called a few courses and they were almost unanimously instantaneously, ‘yes, were in.’” said Ogilvy to 10 News.
This is a nice story in many ways, but it also obscures the realty of the U.S. Tour's predatory behavior. Before we go there, Alistair Tait takes the two Aussies to the woodshed:
Someone needs to have a word with Geoff Ogilvy and Mike Clayton. They’re surely missing the point about what professional golf is all about.Imagine staging a golf tournament on golf courses picked because they’re great layouts. Haven’t these guys learned anything from a combined 63 years in the professional game?Don’t they know the quality of the course often has nothing to do with professional golf? Don’t they know it’s all about squeezing every single dollar out of the tournament and to hell with the golf course, especially when owners of said course are willing to pay huge amounts of money to acquire the tournament?Haven’t they watched the Ryder Cup?U.S. Open champion (2006) Ogilvy and former European Tour winner Clayton have teamed up to offer a unique event, the Sandbelt Invitational, where the golf courses are the stars. The week before Christmas will see the staging of a tournament for men and women over Australia’s classic sand belt courses – Royal Melbourne, Peninsula Kingswood, Yarra Yarra and Kingston Heath.
Tait is on a role, so let's let him finish his rant:
Methinks Clayton and Ogilvy need to lie down in a darkened room and do a wee bit of reflecting. Showcasing great, classic golf courses and no thought of appearance fees or gate submissions? What. On. Earth? Next thing you know they’ll be saying we should roll back the ball in the professional game to bring long and medium irons back into play rather than driver–wedge golf and 24-under-par winning scores, which is obviously what professional golf is all about. Right? Right?
Slightly off topic, but who doesn't love a good rant?
The more serious point is that the expansion of the PGA Tour's schedule to twelve months has sucked all the oxygen out of world golf, and not to our collective benefit, methinks. We know that monopolies result in calcified industries, so why are we allowing this to happen to the golf world?
Not to be a downer, but it's even worse than that, because the only disruptive forces in the game, the Premiere and Super League folks, have an even worse vision for our game. Not a healthy or sustainable position, at least to this observer.
Udder Stuff - I'm going to throw some unrelated stuff in this grab-all sub-header, beginning with some bits from this week's Tour Confidential panel. First, it's getting interesting at the top of the women's game for sure:
2. Jin Young Ko’s attempt to shoot a record 15th-straight round in the 60s fell just short when she shot an opening-round 71 at the BMW Ladies Championship — then she shot rounds of 64, 67 and 64 again and won the event in a playoff. It marks Ko’s fourth win inseven events, and she is expected to unseat Nelly Korda atop the world rankings. As the golf year enters its final weeks, where does Ko’s surge rank among the hottest runs of 2021?Zak: It’s the hottest run! I think we can make that claim pretty comfortably, even if Jon Rahm might beg to differ. She added tallies to her victory total. Rahm, technically, added only one.Sens: Can’t argue with those numbers. Now, how to turn those gaudy figures into TV ratings to match?Dethier: Haven’t seen a dominant run like this since Zak at the office Golden Tee machine in December 2019. Korda made her run, and now Ko has chased her down. The consistency stands out — she’s relentless!Bamberger: Absolutely, and please, save your typing, dear readers, if you’re going to accuse of us being “woke” but highlighting the great run by a woman golfer. Nothing in golf this year touches it.
The woke Nazis are the least of your problems, Mike, but wazzup with the idiots writing your questions? There's no question that JYKs streak tops anything in golf in 2021, because the best player in the men's game, Jon Rahm, won exactly one event all year. I know, it requires a boatload of asterisks, which is why the question is so profoundly silly.
The real question, one that might interest your readers (though, really, why start now?) is the JYK v. Nellie handicapping. Who's better? Who will have the better career? Wouldn't want to touch anything that interesting... wouldn't be prudent.
Next up, our hero Phil:
3. Phil Mickelson downplayed the importance of accuracy off the tee this week. Ahead of this week’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic on the PGA Tour Champions, Mickelson said the host course would require him “to be a little bit more patient and manage my game alittle bit better,” and a reporter noted that and asked: “Please correct me if I’m wrong, [but] your last win on this tour, you were 81st in driving accuracy, I think. I don’t know if I have that exactly correct, but would you get away with that here this week?” To which Mickelson replied: “So, I look at longest, like I try to hit it the farthest out here, and I was No. 1 in driving distance. That’s the way I look at it. If you want to look at stuff that’s irrelevant, have at it. What I’m looking at is distance. I want to hit it — I want to fly it 305 and try to — because I’m a really good wedge player, so if I get wedges in my hand, I’m going to be tough to beat.” Mickelson would finish the event tied for 49th. Is Mickelson’s distance-obsession wise, worrisome or somewhere in between?Zak: Not worrisome at all. He’s doing exactly what the modern game asks and allows. It’ll probably pay off on the PGA Tour once every other year. It’ll pay off on the Champions Tour a lot. Phil added he’s just trying to have fun on the senior tour and keep competing. What he’s doing is exactly that.Sens: Not worrisome for him. But it doesn’t make the game more interesting.Dethier: It’s an interesting thought experiment and an important analytical question. But Mickelson is still at his best when he’s keeping the ball in play. Simply put, if he could drive it straighter, he would be much better. The death of golf this ain’t.Bamberger: He’s doing what he’s paid to do: Figure out a way to shoot the lowest 72-hole score he can, or lowest 54-hole score. As far as an approach, it stands to reason. As far as making the game more compelling to watch, I think it doesn’t work, but others would surely disagree.
Again with the silly framing, an issue that's bene debated for centuries without resolution.
But they all seem immune to irony. has Phil downplayed the importance of accuracy? His words might point in that direction, though his career kind of argues the opposite, no?
But, of greater importance, his whining about the USGAs action with regard to club length, specifically his disdain for accuracy and childish taunts, have done a bang-up job of downplaying the importance of Phil. The irony, she burns.
This one could have bene included in the scheduling section above:
4. In the wake of the best season of his career, world No. 1 Jon Rahm is taking off a month to recharge. “More than my body, it is my mind that can’t take it,” he said. “… If we add it all up, I need to rest.” He added, “This is the first time in my life that I don’t want to see a golf club.” With no real off-season in golf anymore, do you sense the mental grind Rahm describes has become a common problem?Zak: I think each player hits their own limit. Or rather, they learn their limit. You never really hear Dustin Johnson talking about needing a mental break. Rahm has grinded all year through themany ups and very public downs. He’s at his limit. I’ll bet he’s learned something in the process. I don’t think it means anything special for anyone else.Sens: No doubt he’s not alone. It’s a job, and a demanding one. But you’ll forgive me for not shedding any tears.Dethier: It’s a refrain I’ve heard from many a playing partner. Who hasn’t threatened to give up the game after a rough couple rounds? If Rahm had been asked the next day or even after dinner, he may have answered differently. The grind is part of the deal.Bamberger: Yes, if you drill deep into the statements and body language of all these elite players, they all say that. It’s a shame. It’s the pressure of modern life, where all focus, in anything, is so extreme.
I certainly don't recommend drawing any huge conclusions from the experience of the one guy, especially given the season-from-hell nature of his year. But in adding the wraparound portion of the schedule, the Tour creates a dilemma for its members, whereby they allow others to get a leg up if they take the time off.
And on Brandel's folly:
5. Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee and architect Agustín Pizá are planning, as our Josh Sens described it, a course that would double as a home for the finest women golfers in the world, a state-of-the-art facility that would be to the LPGA Tour what TPC Sawgrass is to the PGA Tour. The course, in southern Texas, would be designed specifically with women’s golf in mind, with the goal of playing host to a marquee, Players Championship-type event. What do you make of Chamblee and Pizá’s plan?Zak: It’s absolutely brilliant in theory. I’m excited to see it in reality. I get the sense we’re still a number of years away. Until then, I’m very optimistic!Sens: Chamblee’s not wrong in saying it’s long overdue. I’m keen to see what happens in the transition from concept to reality.Dethier: With the ANA’s move away from Dinah Shore, the LPGA should absolutely be targeting signature venues that it can make distinctly its own. Whether or not Chamblee is the one to do it, he’s definitely onto something — particularly the idea that a course shouldn’t just be built from the tips and then adapted from there.Bamberger: I was delighted to hear about, it but it’s nothing too surprising. When the elite women amateurs play Augusta National from the so-called members’ tees, it plays perfectly — just as AMac and Bob wanted it to play.
The required snark is directed at Sean, Josh and Dylan, who seem not to understand the world as it is. the LPGA had a venue with scads of history, and the abandoned it for thirty pieces of silver. So, by all means, develop more signature venues to abandon in favor of future shiny objects.
But Mike gets the gold, for noting one salient detail. You know what courses play perfectly for the ladies? Pretty much every single golden age design.... But I'm sure Brandel's will be better...
Gotta run here. I'll see you again on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment