Your Friday Frisson

Just a few bits for you today, because I've lost the fight to control the number of open browser tabs.  

Monday is a travel day, heading to Unplayable Lies Western HQ to give this skiing thing another go.  There's a chance I'll blog The Match on Sunday, assuming that A.) I watch it and, B.) There's anything worth blogging.  Not to mention C.) That I'm not too lazy.

I Saw It On TV - We threw some shade at CBS yesterday, but that other network seems in disarray as well:

More changes will be coming to NBC’s broadcast team for its coverage of the PGA Tour in 2023.

Golfweek has learned that Kathryn Tappen, who handled post-round player interviews this season, will be replaced by a revolving door of Golf Channel talent already on site, including Cara Banks and Damon Hack. Tappen declined to comment and neither Banks nor Hack responded to messages.

An NBC spokesperson said it had no further comment beyond its previous statement that it “will be announcing any additional changes to our lineup early in the new year.”

Well, that last bit sounds ominous, no?  

Tappan has been doig this since, checking watch, about 6:00 this morning, so it's nit like anyone will miss her, it's just that this comes on top of other changes (as well as that hint that more are to come):

Golfweek was first to report that Gary Koch and Roger Maltbie won’t have their contracts renewed. Golfweek also broke the news that Smylie Kaufman and Brad Faxon will be joining NBC.

Faxon could be an interesting addition, but what explains the axing of those two familiar voicers?  As we've noted previously, when they tell you it isn't about the money...

A source told Golfweek that “it’s not good times at NBC,” and termed the move part of “significant cuts to the entire team for budgetary reasons” given the sharp increase in its PGA Tour rights fees. (Golf Channel experienced widespread layoffs in 2020 when it shuttered its headquarters in Orlando and moved staff to Stamford, Connecticut in a cost-cutting measure.)

I've frequently noted that Jay has been fortunate to have those new rights fee deals available to head off the LIV threat.   But it's not like CBS or NBC would do those deals today, so their dissatisfaction will ultimately land in Jay's lap. although that's currently penciled in for 23030.

How's it working so far?  Well, it's only the one Silly Season event, but still:

🧐 Despite a solid leaderboard and Tiger spending ample time in the NBC booth, ratings for the Hero World Challenge were down 30% all four days from a comparable weekend in 2021, reports ShowBuzzDaily.com. The network rounds were 50% of what the tournament drew just four years ago.

What did you expect without Karl Stenson?   

The Year That Was - Year--end retrospectives are appearing, so shall we sample a taste?  Golf Digest is in the midst of a countdown of the top twenty-five newsmakers, which includes a reminder that this will hit soon:

No. 20: Netflix jumps into golf

The success or failure of the upcoming, still-untitled Netflix documentary on the year in professional golf will inevitably be compared to the breakout hit “Formula 1: Drive To Survive,”

which transformed how the world—and especially America—saw F1 racing. It will be tempting, in fact, to believe that it was “Drive to Survive” that was the direct inspiration. In fact, Chad Mumm, the chief creative officer at Vox, dreamed of making a golf-themed show since at least 2014, when, as the head of Vox's ad agency, he lost out to Skratch in a bid to work with the PGA Tour. Having maintained his relationship with the tour’s media team—they played golf together each year in Las Vegas at a tech conference—he finally got his shot in 2019. By that spring, it was starting to become clear what Netflix had on its hands with DTS, and even if it didn't necessarily assist with Mumm's initial pitch, it helped with everything that came after, from signing players to securing Netflix as the platform of choice.

With the first audio recorded at Tiger’s Hero World Challenge in December 2021, and shooting starting the week of Torrey Pines in 2022, Mumm’s teams have been behind the scenes, chronicling a year in professional golf, whatever that might entail (and in 2022, it involved more than they ever expected). Among the “cast” of signed players are Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Ian Poulter, Tony Finau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Mito Pereira, Joel Dahmen, Max Homa and Sahith Theegala.

The biggest "character" of all, though, might be the one they weren't expecting: LIV Golf. Whether the schism in the sport is good for the game is up for debate, but controversy and drama of that type is never bad for a film crew, and in that sense the Netflix team couldn't have picked a better year to start its project.

What’s to come is an eight-episode series that debuts on Feb. 15, and if it reaches anywhere near the dizzying heights of DTS, it will be a coup not just for Vox and Netflix, but for all the stars of the show and the sport of golf itself. A few years ago, it might have sounded hyperbolic to say that a simple documentary could transform an institution like golf. Now, we've seen what it can do for a niché sport, and we know that the so-called Netflix Effect could be seismic. —Shane Ryan

This is perhaps a category error, because it's mote of a marker for 2023, but a worthy one because of the unknowns.

My initial reaction was skepticism that these guys were sufficiently interesting to make this work.  However, my primary takeaway from 2022 and LIV is that, notwithstanding the Tour's assurances that these guys are all gentlemen, many of them revealed themselves to be money-grabbing arseholes, and that could be compelling TV.

As the kids like to say, developing....

We haven't gotten to the Top Ten yet, but unless you're Trevor Immelman, this is nothing compared to what might be on the horizon:

No. 11: Cup Upheaval

In an alternate universe where COVID never forces the Ryder Cup onto an odd-year cycle, the PGA of America, which runs the Ryder Cup, would have been the first to confront an

uncomfortable question: Should the organization do a solid to the PGA Tour and risk damaging its headline revenue-generating event by prohibiting LIV Golf participants from being on the teams?

Instead, that burden fell on the Presidents Cup, set for September at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Given the PGA Tour runs that match, it didn't hesitate banning LIV golfers. For the U.S. team, this was a largely incidental decision. All six automatic qualifiers were still card-carrying tour members, and there was no American plying his trade on LIV whose form would make an obvious captain's pick for Davis Love III.

It was a different story for the International team and captain Trevor Immelman. Two of his top four players in automatic qualifying—Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann—took themselves out of the running when they jumped to LIV after the Tour Championship in late August. Same with six-time PGA Tour Marc Leishman, who would've been an obvious captain's pick. Suddenly, a team that had won just one time in 13 editions of the match looked like an even more under of underdogs.

Yes, but Trevor took it like a man and his guys responded well and actually won the weekend.

But let's interrupt the sepia-toned reminiscences for this warning shot across the bow:

Europe hopeful that 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome won't have LIV Golf cloud hanging over it

I was reliably informed that hope is not a strategy....

I've been urging everyone to keep their eyes on Europe, because this event has outsized importance there:

Today, it is well-known that the DP World Tour’s reliance on the proceedings generated from a “home” Ryder Cup is huge. Every four years, the money made funds the next four years of tour operations. So maintaining the profile of what has become the biggest thing in golf outside of the four major championships is clearly high on chief executive Keith Pelley’s priority list.

For long enough, that was hardly an issue. The Ryder Cup’s popularity and ability to make millions was unquestioned. But, as it did in so many aspects of the professional game, the emergence of LIV Golf in 2022 has threatened the continuation of that happy status quo. Should enough of Europe’s leading players find the lucrative temptation of the controversial Saudi-backed tour too strong to resist, the Ryder Cup would be in danger of regressing into the glorified garden party it once was.

Which has interesting implications for Jay.  On the one hand, there'd be no direct financial hit to tanking the event although, to the event the U.S. Tour is financially supporting their European partners, there could be an indirect hit.

This is true enough, it's just not the crux of the matter:

But it hasn’t happened. Not yet. At least in terms of the makeup of its future Ryder Cup teams, Europe and the DP World Tour has so far emerged relatively unscathed. Of those who have made the leap to LIV—and essentially taking themselves out of play to compete in the matches moving forward—it’s likely only Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey had one more appearance in them. Others like Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter were almost certainly finished with the playing side of the contest in which they had performed with such distinction over many years.

The same, of course, cannot be claimed by the American side, albeit their larger pool of potential players allows it to comfortably absorb the absence of star names such as Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, starting next September in Rome when the U.S. tries to end a two-decade-plus winless streak away from home.

Although it does serve as a pretty good diss of the artist formerly known as Captain America....

I'll admit to a chuckle at this, though Matt really should think through those implications:

“I was absolutely dreadful at the last Ryder Cup,” McIlroy says. “If the guys who are playing five

matches—our core—play well and win most of their points, things become easier for the rest of the team. But you want to rely on all 12. One of the great things about the American team right now is its depth—1 through 12 is amazing. But we’re not too far behind. ‘Rosie’ [Justin Rose] looks like he is starting to play well again. It would be great to see Francesco [Molinari] back in the team. Our core group is really strong. We will have home- field advantage. So we will know the course a bit better than the Americans. I’m bullish about our chances. It’s going to be great.”

That remains to be seen, of course. The threat of further LIV defections continues to hang over everything. But, perversely, that could be beneficial from a European point of view. The last word belongs to Fitzpatrick, tongue only slightly in cheek:

“It would be nice if the Americans lost another couple of guys to LIV.”

It seems to this observer that the article goes out of its way to avoid the most obvious threat to the event, judicial or administrative order to allow the LIVsters to play.   That risks is greatest on the European side of the Atlantic, as evidenced by the order that allowed them to play at Wentworth and Dubai.

What does Jay do if Europe is required to allow the defectors in?  On the American side, I don't think judicial intervention in that time frame is likely, but I'm still unclear as to why the Justice Department has stuck its nose in.

The Match - We'll be quick.... First, this from last Sunday's Tour Confidential panel (I don't think I used it, but who can remember?):

4. The latest iteration of the Match kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy taking on Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. What are you hoping to see from this one from an entertainment/production standpoint?

Sens: That Tiger plays without a wince or a hitch in his step, and that he and Rory wax the youngsters while delivering some good verbal barbs along the way.

Colgan: LIV has been at the center of every golf course conversation for the past nine months. This event is *supposed* to bring fans into a day on the course with golf’s top players. If it’s true to form, LIV will be on the minds of those in the field. Give me LIV discourse, or give me death!

Hirsh: I mentioned last week how I’m not too high on the Match series. That being said, these guys are all good friends so the trash talk should make this a little more interesting than the Brooks-Bryson snooze fest from last year.

Pretty that's a repeat, so bad blogging tradecraft for sure.  But, did someone mention Bryson-Brooksie?

The Match: Ranking all six made-for-TV matches from best to worst

Except for Brady splitting his pants,  not sure there's been a best...but the bottom is so competitive that this only placed fifth worst out of six:

5. The Match: Bryson vs. Brooks

For all the build-up, all the speculation, all the beef, Brooks vs. Bryson at the Wynn Golf Club, Nov 26, 2021, didn’t offer much drama. Koepka took down DeChambeau, 5 and 3, and you could argue the best part of the telecast was actually the guys in the booth. Putting Barkley and Mickelson together on the mic was a layup.

Koepka stuck it to just outside 10 feet on the par-3 6th, which resulted in 500,000 meals being donated under his name, due to winning the closest to the pin contest on that hole. DeChambeau missed his birdie bid, which was inside 15 feet from underneath the hole, opening the door for the four-time major champion to extend his lead. Koepka walked in the putt to go 3 up, then iced his nemesis: “Any questions?”

No questions, now that you've both mercifully gone dark.

So, what beat them?  Yeah, what a dreary affair this was.  Who coulda figured out that $9 million in a plexiglass box wouldn't be must see TV:

The Match: Tiger vs. Phil

The original $9 million, winner-take-all bout at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas was highly anticipated, and like many over-hyped events fell a little flat.

Sure, the match went to a playoff that ended on a makeshift 22nd hole won by Mickelson, but just because it was close doesn’t necessarily mean it was good. Technical issues plagued the broadcast forcing Turner and other providers to dish out refunds. Not a great start.

The front nine was bad, there’s no other way to say it, but as the match went on it got closer and more exciting. Much like the play, the hyped-up banter left something to be desired. The most damning criticism of the first match? Rickie Fowler called it a “pillow fight.”

They sucked.  Which mighta been fun in different setting.  The good news is that we no longer have to pretend that the bromance is real.  They're back to detesting each other, so I'm good.

That's it for now.  Sunday is a maybe, otherwise I'll see you from out West.