Saturday, March 4, 2023

Catch-Up Blogging

Bot, a fellow takes a couple of days off to ski with his bro, and everything changes... even the ratings?

When last we spoke, your humble blogger was explaining whining about driving away from the snow for a brothers retreat.  Well, the first day seemed to confirm that state of affairs, as Park City reported 16" as compared to Sun Valley's 4".  But when we got to the mountain that 4" seemed quite the understatement, as there was no shortage of soft stuff in which to play (although it was a little firm underneath it).

But it was the next day when prayers were answered by this gift from the gods:

Nothing had been forecast and it was all mountain effect snow, with only an inch or two in town.  Which is fine, because we rarely ski in town.  A fun few days for the brothers, who have not skied together much in recent years.

I'll throw in a couple of photos, but they don't quite do the place justice.

So, anything happen in golf while I was off in Idaho?

LIV Lite? - Did I nail it or what?  You've no doubt heard the highlights:

According to the memo, eight select designated events in 2024 will consist of 70 to 80 players and won’t have a cut. This year, except for the Sentry Tournament of Champion and playoff events, all non-major designated events are full-field tournaments.

With the new change, fields will be comprised of the top 50 players from the previous year’s FedEx Cup Points List and the top 10, not otherwise eligible, from the current year’s list.

There will also be opportunities for golfers not already eligible to play their way into these designated events. For example, the Tour will space out its designated events and full-field events, and the top-five players who earn the most FedEx Cup points in the tournaments between the designated events will earn spots in the next designated event. A win during the 2024 season is also an automatic promotion to the designated events. The final spots in those fields will be made up of PGA Tour members in the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking, plus four sponsor exemptions for Tour members.

 They're shrinking the field to 70 players, but a full four of those will be sponsor's exemptions?  As long as John Daly continues to get his fair share, what could go wrong?

I see little good news in this, though I guess this qualifies as a silver lining:

Additionally, players have been required to play in 16 of this season’s 17 designated events, plus three more non-designated events, to receive their full Player Impact Program payouts. Next season, that requirement will be lifted, but the new structure is designed to “incentivize top performers to participate in the designated events.”

I never saw the need for that attendance taking, as the purse differential is of such a magnitude that the guys will mostly show up regardless.

 Any guesses as to the reaction in Riyadh?

Yeah, you almost can't blame them....

In fact, it's spurred this cottage indistry:

Critics say new PGA Tour events copy LIV. Are they right?

Perhaps not so much an exact copy as a deferential homage... 

But Sean Zak's first point continues to miss the, well, point:

No cut?

Among the critiques lobbed at LIV Golf was the fact that none of its events feature a cut. All 48
competing players take home a check north of $100,000, even if they finish dozens of strokes behind the leader. Where are the stakes in that?

The same critique can sort of be made for the Tour’s recent decision. There will be eight mega-millions no-cut events in 2024. That will only make up about 20-25% of the PGA Tour’s annual schedule load, despite dominating headlines earlier this week. LIV events, on the other hand, feature no cuts across the board, which is a major distinction. The absence of a cut has been a major point in the debate over LIV gaining world ranking points. That will be a slightly tougher argument to make, now. Defenders of the PGA Tour’s system will argue that the cut happens in advance of the tournament; pros will earn their spots in the limited field. But how should points get distributed for the 2024, no-cut AT&T Pebble-Beach pro-am? Any differently? (By then, we may have our answer with LIV’s points anyway.)

Which would lead one to conclude that if those 48-player fields had a cut they'd be fine.... The cut is the second order consideration, the primary issue is field size.  Not only does it render the events less prestigious, but it cedes what should be their strongest argument against LIV in the battle for hearts and minds.  It's hard to tag the LIV events with the "Exhibition" label when your own product is a knock-off.

Sean does trot out some better stuff:

Who’s invited?

There’s been plenty of talk about meritocracy in response to the Tour’s decisions. Pro golf itself is mostly a merit-based endeavor. The PGA Tour is at the top of the pyramid, and now it has chosen to build another tower on top of its pyramid that hadn’t previously existed. But no single player will benefit without actually playing great golf. If Rory McIlroy starts playing three shots worse per round, he’s not going to be in the designated events next year. Every spot in the designated events is earned (with the partial exception of sponsor exemptions, which will be limited).

On the LIV Tour, many players are locked in due to the massive contracts they signed to help launch the league. Their performance doesn’t affect their future playing prospects, and their initial inclusion was determined by an invite from Greg Norman. LIV plans to include a slight promotion and relegation system at the end of 2023, which will allow a few new faces into the league. So it’s not an entirely closed shop, either. But if Bryson DeChambeau starts playing three shots worse per round, he will definitely still be playing in every LIV event in 2024. Is that a big deal? Depends who you ask. But it is distinctly different than the PGA Tour.

Sean is mostly right, and this has been a failing of the LIV model from Day One, as I've noted previously.  Ironically, the biggest albatross they have is the contract of the guy that was indispensable, that Phil guy.  

But I'm struggling with that first 'graph, because they may have created a problem for themselves.  In Sean's example, Rory suddenly starts posting 72s instead of 69s, and finds himself without a tee time, but is that what we want?  Think about how the tour has operated to date, with players getting 5-year exemptions for majors and two years for winning tour events, which to me seems mostly fair.  Obviously a certain percentage of those thus qualified will be off their games for whatever reason, but the award seems commensurate with the achievement.  As I see it, though, you can carry those guys in a full filed of 144 or 156, but you see what happens when you shrink down to 70 guys (and, as an aside, didn't many players win events that came with multi-year exemptions that will now not be honored?).  

This is the exact terminology I've used over the years, first for the WGCs and now for these events:

Closed shop?

The PGA Tour currently has a membership of more than 200 pros. About 150 of them can play in almost every event they desire. This week’s announcement cemented that only 50 players will be able to play every single event on the Tour schedule. Those pros will get to set a juicy schedule, and they’ll be joined in each designated event by a selection of the hottest players not already qualified — some through season-long play, others through a recent hot streak. In other words, the rest of the Tour will still have access. It may not be the kind of access members enjoy this year, but it’s a differentiator against LIV, with as many as 25-30 spots per designated event up for grabs.

On the LIV Tour, on the other hand, there is no weekly option to play your way in. There are 48 players, set in stone, with a couple reserves traveling along in case of injury. I’m not telling you that’s a good or bad thing. It’s just a difference between LIV’s approach and the Tour’s. LIV’s field strength will remain relatively constant, and well behind that of every designated event. Forty-eight players compared to a deeper field of 70-80 presents a completely different challenge.

I guess they're going to replace Live Under Par™ with Not Quite as Dreadful as LIV™, which we all can agree is a killer motto.  Well, maybe "killer" shouldn't be used in the same sentence with LIV....

Although Sean limits his analysis to the events at hand.  To this observer it's more important what happens next.... That is, in allowing these top players to hog the money and FedEx/OWGR points to themselves, they further insulate themselves to challenges to their positions on those all-important lists.  That's what I mean by a closed shop.

They've trotted out all the usual suspects to laud these changes, including good-guy Max Homa, who offers this hot take:

“I love the new changes,” he said, beginning a lengthy, uninterrupted answer on the subject at the
Arnold Palmer Invitational. “The product is important. I think it’s easy to frame these changes as a way to put more money in the top players’ pockets. But it has been made to make it easier and more fun for the fans. I know it’s low-hanging fruit to jump on, Oh, this is just a money grab. This is to make it better for the fans. It is a guarantee on who will be at events and leaning more on the more there.

Here's the thing I've always been told, Max.... If a money grab looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, you can fill in the rest.

This is his silver lining:

Homa says he recognizes that golf’s much-bandied “meritocracy” will suffer under these changes. The best players will inherently have an advantage in earning the largest sums. But Homa wonders if the new schedule could have the unintended benefit of helping those in the PGA Tour’s middle class.

“The non-designated events are the same purses with, on paper, weaker fields,” Homa says. “There’s a lot of room for growth throughout that. You can play your way into the designated events.”

 Same purses as the Designated Events?  I don't think so, isn't that the whole point?

I've heard this argument bandied about as well:

If by competitive you mean easier, sure?

I'm guessing James Hahn will be changing shoes in the parking lot, as he won't be very popular among the cool kids:

“I mean, I hate them,” Hahn said during a phone interview with Golfweek that interrupted his
gym workout. “I’m gonna say exactly what 99.99 percent of fans said about players leaving for the LIV Tour. If our players just said, ‘We’re doing this for the money,’ I would have a lot more respect for them. But how they’re covering up what they’re doing and trying to make it a thing about sponsors and fans and saving opposite-field events. I think that’s all BS.

“All the big names that are talking about this ‘new product,’ if you just came out and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing this for the money,’ they want more guaranteed money and this is another way to funnel more money to the top players in the world, I’d have a lot more respect for them.

“Right now, they’re just covering their ass and saying everything that the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say, have taught them to say and try to make it not about money when everyone knows 100 percent it’s about more guaranteed money being funneled to the top players in the world. We’ve been talking about money for the last two years and for them not to say that that’s not the No. 1 reason why they’re making these changes —it’s very, very hypocritical.”

I thought they just did it so they could spend more time with their families.... or was it digital rights?  I'm so very confused...

And don't invite James and Peter Malnati to the same party:

“We’ve lost our power, the majority of the membership has lost their power to the elite running the show.” —James Hahn

Hahn served as a player director on the PGA Tour until the end of the year and was replaced by Peter Malnati to represent the Tour’s rank-and-file:

“When I see Peter I’m going to tell him exactly what Lanto Griffin told me when I was put in that position and my mind was swayed by the executives on the board. He said, ‘You were put there for a reason to voice the opinion of the majority of the players on the PGA Tour.’ If he doesn’t have enough balls to sack up and vote no against it then I don’t want him on the board. We picked the wrong guy. He was put there to argue our side of the discussion.

“It’s gonna pass regardless but if he doesn’t have enough balls to vote against it and take the stance that I did and stand up for what he believes in then he shouldn’t be on the board. We don’t need another person like that on the board, if you can’t stick up for us. Let’s be honest, it would have passed, they had enough votes to pass. It’s just a cop out to prevent the media, yourself, Alan Shipnucks of the world asking him why he voted no. If he doesn’t have the courage to go into the lion’s den then he should get out. We need somebody else in there. I did it, right. And everyone saw how I was treated.”

I'm sure that conversation will go well.

And making even more friends...

On voting against last year's increase $100 million PIP: 'It's just a $50 million mistake'

Buried in the last paragraph of PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s memo to players was the announcement of the reduction Player Impact Program (PIP) money from $100 million back to its original level of $50 million. Does Hahn feel vindicated for casting the lone opposing vote against the increase?

“Yes, 100 percent. We never should have gone to $100 million to begin with but that’s $50 million we just threw away on this experiment. And we knew that no one was really gonna go jump ship (to LIV). You’re just funneling money to this small group of people just because they were demanding it. They were literally negotiating with the Tour and they were saying that this is what they want or else. They basically said, not word for word, ‘We want $120 million in the PIP or else’ and we said, ‘OK, what if what if we give you 100?’ ‘OK, we’ll settle for 100.’ That’s not how a business is run. That’s not how an organization is run. That’s not how the PGA Tour should be run.

That sound you hear is Hahn being removed from Tiger's Christmas card list.  Thing is, he's right on just about all of this.

Mike Bamberger has his characteristically interesting take on all this, though there's this one clunker that had me concerned.  I'm with him on this for sure:

It causes me to wince when I hear Jay Monahan refer to golf as a product. Earlier this year, the
commissioner, making a pitch for his PGA Tour over LIV Golf, said, “We’re at a point now where it’s product versus product.”

Blech.

On Wednesday, McIlroy referred to professional golf as a “really compelling product.”

No, please. NO!

“At the end of the day, we’re selling a product to people.”

On Wednesday, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele also referred to the PGA Tour as a product. This cannot be a coincidence.

As Johnny Mac used to say, “You cannot be serious.”

When Jon Rahm was pledging fealty, it told us that the lawyers were in charge.  This?  The brand managers?

More importantly, Jay hit a home run with his "Legacy vs. leverage" bon mot, which I'd guess Mike liked a whole lot more.  But products don't create legacies, so it's more than a little curious.

I do like this bit, though can you imagine baseball ever doing what he describes?

This came to mind on this gorgeous, still Wednesday night here because the PGA Tour, according to a Golfweek report, is making a move to appease the sponsors of some of its elevated events, starting next season. Instead of fields with 125 players or far more with a cut after 36 holes, there will be fields with 70 to 80 players, all of them playing all four rounds.

If you don’t follow golf closely, you may be wondering: What’s the big whoop?

Look at it this way. It’s starting the 10th inning of a baseball game with a runner on second base. It’s a rejection of all that we grew up on and all that we consider holy.

Fortunately I can't stay up late enough to see extra innings....

There are two truly elevated events: the U.S. Open and the British Open. There are a dozen or more ways into the fields of those events, including open qualifying. The greatness of the event comes from the size of the field (156 players) and the road to survival that is the 36-hole cut.

OK, I've occasionally called Mike the conscience of the game, and this is a really good point....or would be, if in playing insufferable purist Mike called that certain event by its correct name.   

Mayakoba Daze - Shipnuck has a really strange take on LIV, none more so than in this review of their first event of the season:

The controversial breakaway league is chock full of rascals, scoundrels, muckrakers and shit-stirrers. It can’t be an accident that LIV has attracted the most polarizing, piquant personalities in
the game; take a bow Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Ian Poulter and Pat Perez, to say nothing of Greg Norman. Last year, LIV thrived on controversy, its players fueled by grievance and self-righteousness as they were excoriated for throwing in with a disruptor funded by a Saudi regime that has brutally suppressed dissent among its citizens, including the grisly assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The launching of LIV was the biggest story in sports, featuring Shakespearean themes such as greed, vengeance and betrayal. But a worldwide professional tour cannot subsist solely on buzz. In the battle for the soul of professional golf, it is now “product against product,” to quote PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

With this as the backdrop, Howell was the perfect winner for this week’s season-opening tournament, LIV Golf Mayakoba. On a firm, fast, tight, twisty, windy course that long bedeviled PGA Tour players, Howell played the first 10 holes of the final round in 7 under par, roaring to an insurmountable lead. His bogeyless 63 was indisputably great golf, delivered with clinical professionalism. It’s hard to imagine anyone is mad at Howell, who was gracious and even a little overwhelmed after his first professional victory in five years. In the concurrent team competition, Howell led the Crushers to a lopsided victory, aided by a strong showing from Paul Casey (fourth place) and good-enough play from Capt. DeChambeau (24th). (Anirban Lahiri’s first-round 70 also helped the cause.) Howell, a teetotaler, didn’t exactly look comfortable during the champagne-soaked podium ceremony, but the top three teams were quite spiffy in their matching uniforms. If you looked closely, you might have spotted the identical Rolexes that DeChambeau recently gifted to his players, in Crusher gold and blue.

I don't know on what planet Chucky Three-Sticks would be the perfect winner, but I'm pretty damn sure we can strike Earth from further consideration.

You can read the rest on your own, as Alan seems fascinated by things like the allocation of travel expenses.  He pimps the team competition as if he's on the payroll, whereas it's hard to find anyone that much cares....  The only other piece worth is a modest new contribution to our collection of silly Shark photos:

My favorite scene is when the Wicked Witch grabs Toto out of the cute little basket....

In one of his mailbag features, Alan had this further thought on LIV v. PGA:

Did Chris Kirk and Eric Cole, accompanied by Ryan Gerard, in a tournament abandoned by the sponsor and left for dead…did they ruin LIV’s life? It seems a lower-tier PGA Tour event was still the more compelling product? @ZitiDoggsGolf

I don’t fully understand the need to constantly compare LIV to the Tour and vice versa. Can’t they co-exist as different but complementary entertainment products? I mean, some days I listen to hip-hop, some days the blues, some days alternative rock. It’s all music. The Honda was defined by hunger, with players on the margins desperately trying to advance their careers. In a tournament with basically no recognizable names, Kirk, Cole and Gerard were each compelling in their own way. LIV Mayakoba was a more freewheeling affair, featuring Hall of Famers, major champions, Ryder Cup stars and various big personalities you love to hate. It’s more about entertaining fans than offering hard-core, life-altering competition. During the first round I walked with the group of Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith and Abe Ancer—if you don’t get some enjoyment watching that trio play a tight, tricky, firm course, you must not like golf. Charles Howell III is not a brand name, but he made more than 450 cuts and $42 million on the PGA Tour; winning in Mayakoba was not going to change his life, but you could plainly see how much it meant to him. Some fans were much more interested in watching the Tour event, a smaller number preferred LIV. That’s fine by me—I don’t see it as a binary choice.

So, Alan, riddle me this.  There seems to be a consensus among LIV, Tiger and Rory that the moment demands that we create these series of exhibitions for the purpose of seeing the cream of the crop square off against each other more often (your humble blogger, for the record, dissents).  But that can't happen if those best players are on separate tours, can it?

And by the way, the word "former" should have been added several times by your editor....

One last bit about Mayakoba, though not sure I'm buying this:

On Friday morning, LIV Golf shared some new numbers that tell a different story.

Using iSpot, a TV ad measurement and analytics company, as well as CW and LIV Golf internal data, the upstart circuit financially supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reported an audience of 3.2 million viewers across all linear and digital platforms for its season-opening event in Mexico. With its new TV deal, LIV airs in every U.S. market via CW affiliates and Nexstar stations and reported 1.6 million viewers on Saturday and 1.3 million viewers on Sunday.

LIV’s report also stated an average linear viewership domestically in the United States of more than 537,000, which it claims is more than the current season viewership average of the MLS (343,000), NHL (373,000) and the 2023 Australian Open men’s tennis final (439,000).

OK, now do Honda under the same metrics.

Alan had a couple of other bits worth noting, including this amusing story about Phil:

What’s it like when you and Phil bump into each other? @TyWebb_11

After the messiness of last year’s LIV event at London (where a couple of rogue security goons tossed me out of Mickelson’s press conference before I got the chance to ask a question), I gave Phil a wide berth. I didn’t want to be part of any more sideshows. But last week I wanted to ask him a specific fact-checking question related to my upcoming book about LIV vs. the PGA Tour, and I am always loathe to lob any queries in press conference settings because if a player says something really juicy or interesting, the whole world has it. During one of the practice days I spied Mickelson leaving the driving range so I quick-walked to catch him. When he saw me his face went into a reflexive frown. I explained I wanted to check one thing with him real quick and he expressed a keen lack of interest. “Don’t you want to at least hear the question?” I asked, trying not to sound needy. He did not, never breaking stride while barking a few unpleasantries. So I’d say his vibe remains a little chilly, but I’m going to try to keep doing my job.

Gotta say, having read you're Phil biography, I'm just wondering when you started....

You are such a LIV fanboy, admit it! @arizonaguy71

This makes me laugh because another dude in this same batch of #Ask solicitations called me a “Tour shill.” I don’t think I’m either, but that’s up to the reader to decide. I do try to keep an open mind about LIV and treat it with some level of seriousness. In this hyper-polarized media environment, I s’pose that is grounds for being accused of being a fanboy.

What is going to happen if a LIV guy wins a major? @freedrop31

Total and utter chaos, which is my real rooting interest.

And that helps the game, how?

Twitter Bits -  Just a couple of funny things that crossed my Twitter feed.  Well, funny in the loosest sense possible... Pat Perez used to be modestly amusing, though less so after selling his soul to the devil.  But the LIV bots might want to review his playing record before going too far out on that limb:

The good news is that he's not even close to being in the top ten asshats on LIV.

Yeah, this guy is biased, but I had exactly the same reaction:

That's hardly fair, because he didn't have to listen to Feherty calling it the most recognizable paint on the planet....

And if ever there were a tweet to exit on:

What head covers?  I can't see anything because I'm blinded by those headlights.

That's all for now, kids.  Wanted to get this up over the weekend because I have a call scheduled Monday morning that will likely preclude our usual wrappage.  

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