Weekend Wrap

Lots to cover and never enough time, so forgive me if I don't enquire about your weekend...

Rahmbo In Full - As the 2022 season kicked off, your humble blogger was watching to see if Jon Rahm could separate himself from the chase pack. The answer for 2022 was a resounding "no", but perhaps I was just a tad early:

Is Jon Rahm the best golfer in the world?

The computers at the Official World Golf Ranking may say no, but it’s difficult to argue for anyone other than Rahm at the moment. With four wins in his last six worldwide starts, including

a one-shot victory at The American Express on Sunday, Rahm seems to be moving from a great player to a dominant one.

Chased all day by rookie Davis Thompson and a flock of other players, Rahm managed to steady a shaky back nine with a birdie on the 16th hole to regain sole possession of the lead on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West. Solid pars on the final two holes gave Rahm a 27-under winning score for his second win in The American Express in the last six years. It also was the Spanish star’s second victory on the PGA Tour in three weeks and his ninth overall PGA Tour title following his win at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions.

“Body’s been feeling great. My swing’s been feeling really, really good. And it shows, right?” said Rahm, who is expected to move from fourth to third in the new world ranking on Monday. “Even when I’m saying I may not be as comfortable as I would like, I’m shooting 64s because everything is just firing when it needs to.”

Yes, he benefited from that Morikawa collapse at Kapalua and here he was up against an untested rookie, but I also get the sense that he's not playing anywhere near his best.  Not that I watched much of it at all....

The Tour Confidential gang had thoughts as well:

4. On the PGA Tour, Jon Rahm continued his sensational run, holding off Davis Thompson to win the American Express tournament by a shot. With Rahm owning two wins already in 2023, we’ll set his win-total number at 4.5, and ask you if he goes over it, or under.

With two in the bank, isn't it more important where he wins than how many times?

Sens: We’re seeing the Rahm we saw in 2021, in the runup to his U.S. Open win, when the only

thing that slowed him was a bout of Covid at Muirfield Village. He will win five or six this year. You can currently get him at 11-1 at Augusta. The betting favorite. Which seems about right.

Marksbury: When Rahm finished the first round trailing by two in La Quinta, he said that he was filled with confidence because he was scoring well even when he didn’t have his A-game. Reminded me of Tiger. When a player of Rahm’s talent gets in that zone, the sky is the limit. Given the start he’s had this year, I think five is his number, so I’m definitely betting the over.

Dethier: We’ve seen a bunch of players hit hot streaks in recent years. But finding a second peak is rarified air, and now Rahm feels like he’s doing exactly that. I still think four wins is probably more likely than five — in golf, “under” is always the smart money — but I sure wouldn’t be shocked if he finished the year with seven wins, either. He’s currently one of the three best golfers in the world — and he’s not third.

In golf you always take the field.... I wish I had a direct line to Josh Sens, because I wouldn't bet on anyone to win four more times....  maybe not even Peak Tiger.

On to Torrey, though I haven't heard a peep about their field.  Just a reminder that this is a Wednesday- Saturday affair, as the Tour has discovered that NFL Conference Championship Sunday is a TV kill zone.

Lockergate In Full - A/k/a The Lake Nona No-No:

When you reach a certain level of accomplishment on the golf course, you become known by only your first name. Tiger. Jack. Arnie. Annika. The practice is undoubtedly endearing, and it’s

reserved for an elite group of players.

After Sunday at Lake Nona, Brooke Henderson might be next in line for the first-name-only treatment.

Henderson ran away with the title Sunday at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, besting Maja Stark and Charley Hull by four shots to earn the crown. The win is the Canadian’s 13th overall LPGA victory, and her third over the past seven months.

“It was kind of the dream start, which is really exciting,” Henderson said. “[I’ve] always really wanted to win this one, so happy I finally got it.”

Yowzer, what a lazy-ass piece of sports journalism.  Brooke has, to this observer, been a major under-achiever, and a dominating win such as this make one curious about what's to come.  But do you know what Brooke has in common with Arnie and Jack?  yeah, absolutely friggin' nothing.....

The TC gang apparently couldn't move on from lockergate:

3. Brooke Henderson won the LPGA’s season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on Sunday, but the event’s locker room situation — or lack thereof — made headlines earlier in the week. Some players, however, were miffed the controversy took away from the first event of the year. Where do you stand with all of this? Was it a big deal? Blown out of proportion? Something in-between?

Sens: Subpar locker room storage is what is known as a very privileged problem. So in that sense, overblown. But not overblown in the sense that this would never happen to the men, and if it did, can you imagine the whining?

Marksbury: Something in between. The belated locker delivery seemed a bit clunky. It wasn’t the lack of the physical lockers themselves that was the main problem, but rather the lack of onsite private space for the female competitors. But the event is a unique one on the LPGA schedule — a pro-am with both male and female competitors, and the venue simply didn’t have the accommodations that the players are accustomed to week-in and week-out. So I find myself agreeing more with the players who shrugged it off as a blip on an otherwise cool tournament week.

Dethier: I think the locker talk was merited, but I think everyone involved would have preferred it stayed in-house — and that that energy were redirected to the competition, which featured a head-to-head showdown between a couple of the game’s most compelling players (Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda) plus an appearance from rising star Maja Stark. Hopefully this gets the LPGA to double down its focus on its players and we chase compelling golf-related storylines.

There's an old saying in politics that applies here, to wit, if you're explaining, you're losing.  Yes, Jessica, this is an unusual event, but it also includes a tiny field of LPGA players.  Is it too much to except Lake Nona to have both a men's and women's locker room?  

More importantly, if you're desirous of losing your reputation as a second-rate, rinky-dinky tour, perhaps it's advisable to stop providing rinky-dinky accommodations?  Just spit-ballin' here...

But, upon further review, perhaps Sgt. Schultz wasn't the best choice for commissioner?  Because the "I know nothing" defense is a tad over-used lately.

I Saw It On TV, LIV Edition - Stay calm and carry on, you still have a month to figure out where the CW is on your cable system.  Or not...

A couple of pieces of commentary on the LIV-CW-MOUSE TV contract that have amused your humble blogger, first the take-no-prisoners Eamon Lynch.  See if you can suss out his take from this completely non-judgmental header:

Lynch: With LIV Golf’s new TV deal, the desperation is in the details

Sigh!  If only we could get Eamon to tell us what he really thinks....It's common to speak of cold opens, but this seems more of the tabasco-infused variety:

Given his talent for recasting excruciating humiliations as bold victories, it’s surprising that Greg Norman doesn’t present himself annually at the gate of Augusta National wearing a green jacket

and insisting that what happened in 1996 — or ’86, ’87, ’89 and ’99 — was actually a triumph worthy of a place setting at the Champions Dinner.

“A momentous day for LIV Golf,” is how Norman described his league’s just-announced broadcast deal with The CW, the nation’s 25th most-watched network, or 29th if you’re chasing the 18-49 demographic who might be drawn to “golf, but louder.” (To be fair, the CW’s average viewer is 58, so they watch every show louder).

 Good one, Eamon.  But of course he's got more:

Alert to an opportunity to impress his boss, LIV’s chief media officer, Will Staeger, conjured a version of events that would have even George Santos calling for narrative restraint.

“Following a competitive bidding window with multiple U.S. networks and streaming platforms, the sports story of 2022 has just moved into pole position for the top story of 2023,” he wrote in a social media post.

Staeger’s comment raises two questions for those among us predisposed to cynicism: did autocorrect change “begging” to “bidding,” and how does a competitive process among multiple parties result in giving away the product for free to the worst-case option?

  I don't know about worst case.... I understand that PornHub was very interested.

Eamon does point out one area of possible (likely?) future embarrassment for the bone saw crew:

Nexstar Media Group is The CW’s parent company and owns roughly one-third of its TV stations. The rest are affiliates and can choose whether or not to clear scheduled programming — be it teen drama reruns or local sports — to broadcast LIV’s tournaments. The announcement omitted mention of how many stations have committed to airing LIV. Pity the factotum who might one day be called upon to explain to MBS why some markets preferred repeats of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to his $2 billion folly.

Do we think LIV can outdraw those Buffy reruns?  Certainly the latter has more inherent drama....

Joel Beall has his own curious, "what's it all about, Alfie?" take, under this header:

What LIV Golf's TV deal means

Which includes a gaggle of howlers....though he does fill in some background, such as this about Fox:

Nearly all of the major television subsidiaries in the U.S. showed little to no interest in LIV Golf in its first few months of launch, sources told Golf Digest. The one wildcard was the Fox Corporation due to its ties with the LIV operation. Fox founder and media tycoon Rubert Murdoch has a personal relationship with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman; the two attempted to create a “World Golf Tour'' in the mid-1990s, with Murdoch’s Fox Sports securing the TV rights.

In January 2022, LIV Golf hired former Fox Sports President David Hill to help with production, and the right-leaning Fox News had a heavy presence at LIV Golf’s third event in July, held at former President Trump’s Bedminster property. In the fall, reports emerged that Fox Sports was in discussions with LIV Golf. However, multiple sources told Golf Digest talks broke down over rights fees, as LIV Golf viewed a media deal as a revenue generator while Fox Sports insisted on being paid for showing the product similar to an ad-buy.

So, the network most aligned with LIV and its majordomo will only ship on a C.O.D. basis....noted.

Shall we get to the funny bits?

The deal is not without its drawbacks for LIV. The league will no longer be streamed for free on Facebook or YouTube, and its Friday rounds will only be shown on CW’s app, which has limited use. Staeger does say that, over the long term, LIV is looking to find a live linear window during its first rounds. “Whether that comes later this year or in other seasons, we’ll develop more unique ways in how it’s presented,” he says.

Other seasons?  These guys slay me....

LIV also will be handling the production coverage, which, while adding to the associated cost of the operation, gives the league control over its presentation. Unlike last year, when the golf was aired without commercial interruption, there will be ads in 2023. Staeger says they will mostly come before and after rounds, with a few mixed in around LIV’s “halftime” of its shotgun start format.

Odd, no?  I checked my style book which confirms that:

1. There is no crying in baseball, and;
2. There is no halftime in golf.

At the risk of taking them seriously, they seem to be saying that they'll quarantine the precious few paid ads before and after the action, thereby ensuring that nobody will see them.  I've always found that the advertisers love when their ads go unseen, so I take that to mean that any ad revenue is expected to be insignificant.

But wait, they're not done beclowning themselves:

LIV’s on-air announcing team will carry over from the end of 2022 with Arlo White doing play-by-play alongside analysts David Feherty and Jerry Foltz. Dom Boulet, Su-Ann Heng and Troy Mullins will provide on-course coverage. Staeger said the team’s chemistry is “palpable,” and points to TNT’s popular NBA crew as a barometer for LIV’s ambitions.

“We love our announce team. It’s the most diverse team in golf,” Staeger said. “We’re trying to foster something special with our team. We have a jump start because we handle our own production. We have the opportunity, we have a chance to reinvent how the sport is watched.”

I'm quite sure that you, like your humble blogger, choose your golf programming exclusively based upon the diversity of the announcing team.  What could be more annoying than Greg Norman and LIV?  Yup, an uber woke Greg Norman and LIV...

But see if you can follow the tortured logic of Joel's numbers:

According to Nielsen’s metrics, The CW was the 25th most-watched network in the United States in 2022. That is a far cry from the PGA Tour’s broadcast partners, NBC and CBS, which rank first and second, respectively. Because it’s not a network with sports-centric shoulder programming like ESPN or Fox Sports, it’s unlikely LIV Golf will receive audience bumps from CW’s lineup of shows. For the PGA Tour, the outcome, sources say, is considered a sigh of relief.

In that same breath, the deal should not be discounted. Ranking 25th seems low, but not against the fact there are hundreds of channels available to the American consumer. CW’s rank also far outweighs the Golf Channel, which came in 94th.

That sound you hear is the palm of my hand striking my forehead.... yes, fewer people watch GC, but they've tuned in for the specific purpose of, yanno watching golf.  Didn't you just get done telling us that those Gilmore Girls viewers aren't going to stick around when the LIV opening credits come on?  

But that bit about them having all sorts of time is a recurring theme:

“If this were something that younger people were eating up, then you would want to keep it on a place where people are likely to watch like YouTube, where younger people are going, right?” Rishe notes. “But that's not necessarily the case. We know that golf does trend with an older demographic and therefore I'm sure they were looking for a different dance partner.”

Since its inception, LIV has stated its focus is on a younger crowd. The problem is the type of companies that are involved in the golf business tend to target the older, affluent audience. Even with bringing in new sponsors that haven’t been in the space before, LIV Golf will need to tap into those existing advertisers. CW gives LIV that chance; though its programming is filled with teen dramas, its average viewer age is still 58 years old, according to Nexstar. Additionally, Rishe said one of the biggest wins for LIV in the deal is the opportunity to prove itself to other potential networks for future deals.

“For LIV, they can see if they can grow this relationship over the next two or three years, or they're going to use that two- or three-year window to hopefully prove to another network, ‘Hey, look at this. We've gained traction, we've gained support,’” Rishe said.

Guys, you have all the time in the world.  That three years to prove themselves to Fox will only cost MBS a mere $6 billion, so no urgency....

But this was my biggest belly laugh, although your mileage may vary:

Support and traction are imperative for LIV’s ultimate goal. Officials have touted the franchise component of the endeavor as a primary facilitator for future sponsorships and revenue. Twelve teams are expected to compete in a 14-event schedule beginning in late February. The 12 captains—who figure to be high-profile players such as Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Cam Smith—would have as much as a 25-percent equity stake in their teams. Each team would cover their own operating costs, using sponsorships, team prize money and merchandise to do so. To players and potential sponsors and owners, the number LIV Golf has forecasted has stayed consistent, sources tell Golf Digest: a $1 billion potential valuation for a four-man club.

If that valuation is delusional, is consistency a virtue?  Joel doesn't evidence any interest in what supports that valuation, but that's not binding on the rest of us.  They're getting bupkis from their U.S. TV contract, so remind of where this billion valuation derives from.

I had drafted the above discussion of the TV contract Sunday, prior to the TC dropping.  They had their own comments, which don't add much to the mix, but only require your humble blogger to copy-and-paste:

1. LIV Golf announced it had officially signed a “multi-year agreement” with the CW, granting broadcast and streaming rights to the network for its events beginning this season. The opening round will be available only on the app, with weekend coverage broadcast on TV. A source also told GOLF.com’s James Colgan that LIV is not paying the CW to broadcast its events. Finding a broadcast partner was paramount for LIV. Now that it’s done, what do you think of this deal?

Josh Sens: This can’t be the deal LIV was dreaming of from the start. Far from it. But elements of it do square with LIV’s current sales pitch. The league is pushing the team and franchise angle hard, with messaging that tilts toward a younger demographic. Throw in the team names (Crushers, Fireballs, Hy Flyers, etc.), and it all has a kind of a Ninja Turtles teen sheen to it that fits CW’s traditionally teeny bopper audience. One disconnect is that aside from Smith and Niemann, LIV’s biggest names skew older. And the overall golf market is of course much older, too. But it does seem like LIV is making a long play for a younger crowd, looking to build those team allegiances that it can sell down the road. How will it all play out? Anyone claiming to know the answer is full of it, I’d say. Lots of Brooks Koepka/Buffy the Vampire jokes floating around. But the other factor is that CW has new owners with a different vision of what they want the network to be. To accurately forecast, you’d have to know how successful they’re going to be in attracting a new audience, and then how/where LIV would fit in with that. The one thing I can predict for sure is that my own personal happiness will not hinge on how the Hy Flyers perform. But then, I thought Holey Moley was unwatchable, and I never understood why people bought pet rocks, so don’t go by me.

Those teeny boppers are, on average, 58 years old....  But, did you "unwatchable"?  There I think you nailed it.

Jessica Marksbury: Whether LIV paid for the TV time or not, it definitely seems like a step in the right direction. Maybe I’m becoming a bit of a dinosaur, but watching things on TV still seems like an upgrade from streaming-only, even if the audience is smaller than YouTube’s. At the end of the day, though, in terms of being a legitimate competitor to the PGA Tour, I feel like the TV home matters much less than the world-ranking points issue.

Right, which is why their weekday rounds being streaming-only is such a tell... 

Dylan Dethier: Like everything in our strange, divisive world, the CW deal has enough positives in it to give the pro-LIV faction something to celebrate — and the anti-LIV crowd plenty to make fun of. To Sens’ point, I think it’s hard to know how this will look until we know the future of the CW and the level of commitment to reinvention from parent company Nexstar. Overall, it feels like a win for LIV to be in so many households — especially given so many other broadcast opportunities were never going to happen. But the whole thing is still a bit surreal. A PGA Tour rival on the CW! Get your One Tree Hill jokes off while we figure out what’s going on.

Oh, I think we know what's going on.... In giving it way for free, they've gotten it on TV.  Now, if they can go into 5 million homes and point a gun at folks, perhaps they can compel folks to actually watch.  Perhaps....

2. How much will TV ratings tell us in Year 1? How much stock should we put in them?

Sens: I predict poor ratings this year, but that’s obviously not a deal-breaker to a circuit with bottomless funding. What I’d watch more closely is whether LIV can continue to attract big names, which in turn would drive interest. Which in turn gives them a chance at drawing TV sponsors. And so on. Meantime, provided the Saudis stay interested, there will be a year 2, and a year 3 and …

"Provided the Saudis stay interested" is rather a huge bug, no?

Marksbury: I’ll be surprised if ratings aren’t higher than what we saw from YouTube’s numbers. But I don’t think it will matter all that much either way. As Josh said, LIV seems determined to plug along for the foreseeable future.

Dethier: If we’re able to get exact ratings, I’d expect LIV to do fine. I’d be shocked if it was an overnight sensation — but there’s a large contingent of people who get the CW and there’s also a large contingent of people who like watching golf on weekend afternoons. I’m guessing they’ll find a few coins between the couch cushions to spend on marketing, too. What’s interesting to me is that by going from YouTube to broadcast TV, LIV seems to be playing on the PGA Tour’s turf. It is, as Jay Monahan said a couple weeks ago, “product vs. product.”

Didn't we have an item telling us that the CW doesn't cooperate with the Nielsen ratings?   To the extent that they're in the ratings game, I don't see where they'll draw a discernible audience.  

But Josh buried the lede.... can they draw players that will make us tune in?  So far, the answer is a resounding no....

Denial Is Not Just a River in Europe - I'll just grab a few bits from this piece that seems determined not to allow reality to rear its ugly head:

The DP World Tour keeps trying to find its way in the messy world of men’s pro golf

Messy?  That's a good euphemism....

“Shane Lowry” is the answer to the question many people are asking at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week. Although 19 golfers in the world are currently considered, statistically

at least, to be better than the Irishman, Lowry is the highest-ranked player in the field this week, four places ahead of runner-up Tommy Fleetwood.

That stark fact begs another question: Why has one of the biggest tournaments on the DP World Tour, a Rolex Series event boasting a $9 million purse, been ignored by 19 of the top-20 players on the planet?

And another:

Given the DP World circuit’s “strategic alliance” with the PGA Tour, why does the 17-strong list of its “designated” eventsb oast only one—the Open Championship—outside the United States?

And one more:

Given all of the above, should the DP World Tour be worried about the commitment of the PGA Tour to an alliance that exists only to combat the rise of the LIV Golf League?

There is little wrong with the Euro Tour these days, unless you think that's anything more than a feeder tour for the U.S.-based Korn Ferry Tour.

Of course, the defection of many other longtime European Tour standouts to the LIV Golf League contributes as well. “Those are the two main reasons we’re not seeing better fields here and at the Dubai Desert Classic next week,” Colsaerts said. “My feeling is that the tour is actually in really good shape. Look at the standard of golf we saw at the Hero Cup last week. And there are plenty of other players we are going to be proud of in the future. We play for more money than we ever have before. So we need to take a step back, look at where we were five or 10 years ago and compare that with where we are now. We’re doing pretty good.”

I didn't see that standard of golf, nor did anyone else.... the only reason you play for more money is the subsidy from the PGA Tour, and the only reason that Lowry was there was the Ryder Cup, so perhaps that should be kept in mind....

But they're still whining about that adjustment to OWGR points:

“I am playing here to collect World Ranking points,” admitted Wiesberger, who earns none from his LIV Golf starts. “But I don’t think the Rolex Series should offer half the points they are playing for in the States. That is troubling. I don’t think the guys out here are in a great place [in ranking terms]. They would have to have an outstanding season to make the top 100 and be able to play in the PGA Championship. The guys got devalued a lot to a point where I don’t think the balance is right, unfortunately.”

The only thing I heard him say was, "I don't think", which is quite evident from his comments.  I don't give a rats ass what eh thinks, but he doesn't offer any evidence except it being inconvenient for him, which garners  a trademark boo-friggin'-hoo from your humble blogger.

What we didn't know until the recent change was the extent to which Euro events were subsidized by the OWGR metrics.  It's a cold, hard world Bernd, but you made your bed with the guys wielding bone saws, so enjoy your sleep.

That's it for this wrappage.  I am headed West tomorrow, so I'll see you all on the other side on Wednesday.