Off-Season Musings

It's a narrow window, as the off-season lasts a good hour and a half.

LIV Updates - We'll lede with what is not so much an update, but rather a forecast of awkward locker room moments:

This week at Wentworth Club in Surrey, England, the DP World Tour’s flagship event — the BMW PGA Championship — takes center stage and will feature 18 players who have all defected to the

LIV Golf Series. It could be uncomfortably awkward as the moment this scribe realized I had to wear speedos in a French public swimming pool. Sacre bleu indeed.

The likes of Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na and Talor Gooch, who had hardly shown much interest in playing in Europe before, are all in the field now on the basis of their top-60-in-the-world exemption.

They need to top up their world ranking points – LIV Golf hasn’t been awarded world ranking status yet – but it must be mighty galling for some proper DP World Tour loyalists who miss out on the old European circuit’s showpiece amid this general tumult.

As for McIlroy’s views on the rebels pitching up in the leafy Surrey stockbroker belt? “I hate it, I really do,” said the Northern Irishman with his usual open and honest assessment of affairs. “It’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth and seeing 18 of them there. That just doesn’t sit right with me.”

On the bright side, it might distract from the serial desecration of this Harry Colt gem by Ernie and others...

 But the writer seems to take a skeptical view of this one guy's decision making process:

“After much reflection, prayer, and conversations with trusted advisors I have made the decision not to renew my Tour membership for next year and join LIV Golf,” wrote the deeply religious Tringale in a lengthy epistle of justification.

The Lord, it seems, will provide. Or at least the Saudi Public Investment Fund will. These are fascinating times.

Maybe he needs to take time away to work on being the kind of man he wants to be....How's that working out for the other guy?

 But this seems unduly optimistic:

The fractured, disjointed scene at the top of a sport blinded by money remains a rather unedifying spectacle, though.

The players on either side of this divide are getting richer and richer but the game is poorer for all the squabbling and self-serving haverings. In this ongoing battle of attrition, it will be a while before a winner emerges.

For those who don't know, which includes your humble blogger with the caveat that, like Yiddish, the definition can be intuited from its sound:

havering

 /ˈhāv(ə)riNG/

noun

BRITISH

vacillating or indecisive behavior.

"she was exasperated by all this havering"

 As for a winner, best case might be a survivor...

The Tour Confidential panel had way too much time to contemplate LIV, so shall we?

1. The latest batch of LIV Golf defections came in on Tuesday, and the list of players was … not too surprising! World No. 2 Cameron Smith marked the highest-profile signing, joining the new league just weeks after winning the Open Championship at St. Andrews. How important was this batch of defections for LIV?

Josh Sens: Every player LIV picks up is a victory of a kind. But Smith is the biggest so far–the reigning Open and Players champ, the World No. 2, the first guy, really, who LIV critics couldn’t fully dismiss, whether by saying he was either past his prime or never that gung-ho about competition in the first place. On the other hand, LIV didn’t land Hideki, whose market impact would have felt even bigger.

Even Sergio?  PReed?  Ever heard of  Pyrrhus of Epirus?

James Colgan: It felt as if this batch of LIV defections was the first in which you picked your head up and realized, ‘whoa, the PGA Tour has lost a TON of talent.’ Sure, it helps the argument to see a 23-year-old multi-time winner and the World No. 2 join. But it’s hard to keep up the argument the LIV field consists only of old has-beens and burnout youngsters. This crop brought top-tier talent.

Sean Zak: If Sunday was any indication, hugely important. You had Cam Smith vs. Dustin Johnson vs. Joaquin Niemann. That’s entertaining! IT was the first time LIV Golf has truly entertained me with its finish, and I’m not particularly hard to please. I think in terms of marketability, it was massive. Because the reigning Players Champ and Open Champ is now in all their promotional material. That’s a nice bullet to have in the chamber.

It's not that Sean is completely wrong, but it's still a thin roster.  

Taking on the Shipnuck premise, which your humbler blogger defenestrated last week:

2. Phil Mickelson basked in the changing landscape in pro golf at LIV Golf Boston (where he finished T40). On the topic of structural changes enacted by the PGA Tour, Mickelson

argued they proved the Tour needed a rival. (“Unless there was leverage, nothing was going to happen,” he said.) With a rival league helping to force major changes on the PGA Tour, was Phil right?

Sens: He was right about the leverage. No way we would have seen such big changes so fast. And he was right that these changes are great for many pro-golfer bank accounts. It’s also been great for headlines and clicks. Whether all the shake ups have been great for fans is another matter. I don’t see any immediate perks, unless you’re caught up in that weird faux-populist belief that more money for already rich athletes is somehow a victory for the rest of us. To me, that’s been one of the most striking phenomena in all of this. All the cheering from the sidelines about sticking it to the system. Something we see more often in politics. Oh, wait. I forgot. Stick to sports!

Colgan: He was right, of course, but the irony is that he won’t ever be remembered for it. Right or wrong, Phil has tied his legacy to LIV. Maybe the PGA Tour needed his push, but no amount of victory laps is going to bring him back to see the fruits of his labor.

Zak: He was right but also wrong? Phil has routinely glossed over important details and even cited information incorrectly in this process of “being right” against the PGA Tour. So good for him! He can continue to bask in it, but I’ll continue to believe that there was an easier process than looping in money from Saudi Arabia.

It's quite the horrid look for golf and it's players, so by all means credit Phil.  Only he is smart enough to have them play exhibitions with no one watching while on the pay of the Wahabis... So, yeah, leverage over legacy.

And on this issue:

3. Bubba Watson, one of LIV’s newest players, said he was at peace with his decision to join, even if it cost him an invitation to the Masters. “If Augusta National tells me I can’t go, being a past champion, then I don’t want to be there anyway,” he said. Is there any chance Watson, a past champion, doesn’t receive an invitation next April?

Sens: Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t see the Masters disinviting past champs. More likely that anyone who’s won a green jacket keeps coming back, with other invites being sorted out by World Ranking points, which is a whole other can o’ worms to be opened soon enough.

Colgan: I’m shocked a number of Masters champs made the jump without assurances from Augusta National that their invite would remain intact, but if a few more go to LIV, they may leave Augusta no choice.

Zak: I’m shocked Bubba even brought it up. I highly doubt any of the majors dis-invite people we would already expect to be qualified. It opens them all up to criticism, for better or worse, and even litigation potentially. No one wants that.

Limiting ourselves to the question as asked, I tend to agree with the responses.  I've analogized it to the belief expressed in recent years that Augusta would introduce a new ball to roll back distance, which always seemed a big ask for an individual golf club, even this atypical golf club.  Fred quite obviously prefers Jay to Greg and MBS, but is it really his to fix?

But that ties into this piece that I think misses the mark:

LIV players are seemingly calling the majors’ bluff. Could the tactic backfire?

 It gets off to tan interesting start:

The pinnacle events of the sport, it is well known, are managed by various governing bodies. At

times they are similar — the USGA and R&A act in concert to decide how golf is played at all levels — and at others they are different. But above all remains the notion that the majors matter the most. Or at least that’s what we’re led to believe.

But how much do the majors really matter?

It’s a question that has only been seriously asked this year as LIV golfers have in return for huge paydays risked the means by which they have long qualified for those events. They have joined a tour that currently does not award world ranking points, the easiest means for major qualification. Rank inside the top 50, you’re bound to play in every major. Top 60, you’re probably fine, too. And while many LIV signees would prefer to see change to the system, their joining LIV implies an acceptance that they might not play in the majors at all. Bubba Watson admitted that dilemma Wednesday, detailing how he told his children they might not be able to go to Augusta National next year. He didn’t seem to enjoy having that conversation, but he’s certainly come to grips with all potential outcomes.

How much do the majors matter?  Talk about the wrong question, as the edification we've all absorbed is more to the point of hos little the PGA Tour matters.  Though, of course, these guys have all shown us what matters most to them, that just doesn't have much to do with golf.

This to me gives the game away:

Sitting next to Watson in the press conference was Harold Varner III, who played in each major this season for the first time in his career. Varner admitted that when he won the Saudi International in January, his sole focus was to earn enough ranking points to qualify for the Masters. “This is my first year playing in every major, so it was cool,” Varner said. “But, like, I think it’s way cooler making sure my kid doesn’t have to worry about anything. That’s about it.”

Varner has been out there making bank for a while, and has endorsements that include guaranteed money for some time.  So, were his kids worrying about having enough?  This is a bunch of guys with 7-9-figure banks accounts preaching about financial security..... so sure, really happy for you Harold.

Unlike the header, I don't see this as brinksmanship or throwing down the gauntlet.  It's far more depressing than that, as these guys are willing to throw away their remaining careers for the check they just received.  Yet, having shown such indifference to their own careers, they somehow think the rest of us are somehow still interested... That's why I suggested there will be no winners.

As for that Varner guy, he disappoints me because I actually thought highly of him before this:

Varner, who opened up on social media and wrote easily the most honest explanation yet of anyone who defected from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, nonetheless took a lot of flak on social media.

“It sucked,” he said after reading all the comments sent his way. “Who likes to be hated? It’s terrible. I hate being hated. I’d rather not be, not even be known than be hated.

“So yeah, it was terrible. I just hate to be hated because you’re doing what’s best for you and whenever someone else is doing something that’s best for them I’m like, ‘How can I help, how can I help you make a better decision, why are you making this decision?’ That should be more of the language instead of like, ‘Well, you didn’t do what I want you to do so I hate you, I’m done, I’m unfollowing.’ Like, you can’t win that. People are just not right.”

Guess what, Harold, your terms are acceptable, as you've moved to a place where you will no longer be known.    

If there's a battle space to watch, it seems to me to be the Euro Tour.  We had Lee Westwood's harsh words about the PGAT Tour making Keith Pelley their bitch, and we have a series of items about that make it clear that is the new front in this war.

These first couple are items from the London press that are behind paywalls, first this about a former Ryder Cup venue:

Valderrama the latest battleground for LIV Golf who hope to add course to 2023 schedule. @jcorrigangolf reports.https://t.co/YAO0wH3Pt5

— Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) September 3, 2022

And this about the week that will be in Wentworth:

LIV Golf rebels in fiery exchange with DP World Tour AGM Keith Pelley https://t.co/jkMgt3eU2y

— James Corrigan (no blue tick) (@jcorrigangolf) September 5, 2022

Matthew Fitzpatrick has thoughts on this topic, though they feel different given that he hasn't taken those thirty pieces of silver:

“I do hope that events in Europe are part of whatever the final plan is,” Fitzpatrick said on Monday at Wentworth, where the DP World Tour’s signature event, the BMW PGA Championship, begins on Thursday. “The PGA Tour needs to live up to their role in the strategic alliance. I think it’s important that three or four DP World Tour events are part of the elite event mix. I was disappointed this year when so many spots in the Scottish Open were taken away from DP World Tour players. That was unfair. They got very little in return. They got screwed in my opinion. But I understand that’s where the tours are going."

Screwed?  Yeah, I think Matthew can anticipate a phone call from a 904 area code, but is he right that that was unfair?  I certainly feel for the players involved, but there has to be a benefit from the co-sanctioning and increasing the presence of the Tour, not the least being network coverage in the U.S.

 But this is just heresy:

“In my ideal world we’d play from January 1 to September 1. Then we’d have three months off. People would then miss golf and look forward to it coming back. We need to be more like the NFL. It is a relatively short season so just about every game is special.”

I guess he missed that class at Northwestern where they teach that nature abhors a vacuum....  the joke is that he was at Northwestern for an hour-and-a-half, but that is seriously Jay's concern about the Fall, that someone else will fill the void.

Mostly he just seems worried about his home tour, and who can blame him?  Oddly though, unlike Jon Rahm, he isn't balking at the number of events.

And on the important issues:

4. The LIV news wasn’t over there! On Friday, Greg Norman announced that players would be allowed to compete in shorts, upending a longstanding rule to the contrary. Is this a step forward for tournament golf, or much ado about nothing?

Sens: Egad! I’m scandalized! Nah. Seems very much on-brand and hard to argue with. Most golf dress codes are silly anyway. No shirt, no shoes, no service should be the extent of it. Not that I’m itching to see pasty legs on a golf broadcast, but it doesn’t really matter a lick to me one way or the other.

Colgan: It always struck me as strange that pants were required, especially when I realized Average Joes wore them to feel more professional during “important rounds” — like my buddy on Pinehurst No. 2 … in 115-degree heat. Shorts are a beautiful thing, even if their professional liberation is mostly trivial.

Zak: The pants vs. shorts rule has been one of the most difficult things to explain to non-golf fans in my entire career. It made no sense. It’s a good example of how a little speedboat like LIV can make quick turns for its benefit and the massive cruise ship that is the PGA Tour has struggled to do so. [It’s also pretty meaningless in scope]

Those going to LIV don't seem very invested in how they play, so why should they (or we) care how they look... 

Short-Term Beneficiaries - Obviously the golf ecosystem is taking its hits, but there are beneficiaries in the short-term:

Five weeks ago, Justin Lower gave one of the most raw and candid interviews of the PGA Tour season.

The rookie three-putted the 72nd hole at the Wyndham Championship to fall outside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings and lose his PGA Tour card for the 2022-2023 season.

Fast forward to this week, and even before the conclusion of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Lower has his card for next season secured — and he has LIV Golf to thank for it.

Because of the LIV golfers’ removal, Lower, along with Matt Wallace, Austin Smotherman, Doc Redman, Danny Willett and Kelly Kraft, all moved inside the top 125 of Eligibility Points List, secured PGA Tour cards and will have full status next season.

Be fun to see one or more take advantage of it...

The Late, Lamented Dinah -  The good news is that Chevron is putting some effort into it.... the bad news is that it'll suck, and suck without any history to it:

As previously announced, The Club at Carlton Woods will host the tournament formerly known as The Dinah from April 20-23, 2023. The latest efforts to upgrade the first women’s major of the season include an emphasis on more amateurs in the field:

• Expanded amateur access via exemptions to winners of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, Women’s British Amateur Championship, Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship, Women’s Latin America Amateur Championship, Augusta National Women’s Amateur and Chevron Silverado Showdown.

• Chevron has introduced a new $5,000 stipend for all players who miss the cut.

• At least $2 million in donations to non-profit organizations based on year one of Chevron’s sponsorship with an emphasis on foundations and community programs advancing women's excellence and STEM.

• The event returns to network airwaves on NBC.

Yawn!  Still pissed at the Lords of Augusta for this one...

R.I.P., Herb Kohler -  Can't say I've ever know what to think of the guy:

Herb was an innovator and an artist, an American industrialist in full and a lover of the game. He ran Kohler Co. for 43 years as CEO, but he also personally held more than 200 design and utility

patents. And just as important as building the company was to him—more than 40,000 employees on six continents—he believed in building the community through service, his family trusts and foundation. And he left the mission in the hands of his son David, who took over seamlessly as president and CEO in 2015.

Herb Kohler made the state of Wisconsin a golf mecca through his portfolio known as Destination Kohler—Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, The American Club—that attracted six of golf’s major championships and the 2021 Ryder Cup. And he revitalized the town of St. Andrews with unprecedented investment in the Old Course Hotel, The Duke’s Course and Hamilton Hall.

I've just always found Mike Keiser's development work the more interesting, although there's more than enough room for the both of them in our game.  But Jerry Tarde makes it seem a life well lived, so R.I.P.

The next few days' schedule will not be conducive to blogging, so will see you at the end of the week.