Following the PGA Tour’s controversial merger with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, players demanded more transparency from Tour leadership. On Tuesday, the players got their wish, in a move that involves the biggest name in the sport — Tiger Woods.The PGA Tour announced it has agreed with its players on new governance and transparency measures while also announcing Woods as its newest policy board member. This comes after the Washington Post reported that 41 players — including Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and several other stars — sent a letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Monday and demanded to have more say in the future of the PGA Tour and for Woods to have a seat at the table.Woods has now been added as a sixth player director, joining McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson. The board also consists of five independent directors (chairman Ed Herlihy, Jimmy Dunne, Mark Flaherty, Mary Meeker and a to-be-announced replacement for Randall Stephenson) and PGA of America director John Lindert.
Can you say astroturfing? I thought you could....See if this fits?
the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.
I can only guess that the 51 foreign policy officials that asserted the Hunter Biden laptop to be Russian disinformation were unavailable at this time.... though this letter seems likely to be just as spontaneous. The original reporting seems to be from WaPo, though they only go this far with the list of names:
Monday’s letter was signed by many of the tour’s top players, including Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott, Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau and Justin Thomas. It also was signed by the five player directors on the policy board: McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson, Charley Hoffman and Peter Malnati.
Let me guess.... Hammm, would Davis Love be involved? How about Jim Furyk? Remind anyone of a certain Task Force.... In any event, Peter Malnati will be at a table for one, it seems.
So, the man who has had nothing to say since that June 6th bombshell, now has platitudes to share, and we're assured that this is SIGNIFICANT:
There are Woods’ quotes in the press release, his first statement of any kind on the planned PGA Tour/Saudi PIF partnership:“I am honored to represent the players of the PGA Tour. This is a critical point for the Tour, and the players will do their best to make certain that any changes that are made in Tour operations are in the best interest of all Tour stakeholders, including fans, sponsors and players. The players thank Commissioner Monahan for agreeing to address our concerns, and we look forward to being at the table with him to make the right decisions for the future of the game that we all love. He has my confidence moving forward with these changes.”
Let me see if I follow... Jay has your confidence to see through those changes that he completely sucker-punched you with? Brave Sir Tiger, standing up for the common man.
Of course, the best part is that accompanying photo with Tiger in his silly hat and Jay looking like he just cut a deal with the devil.... Yeah, the irony, she burns!
That sound you hear is the barn door being locked, after....
Some meaningful bits in there: Players came together and elevated concerns to Monahan. He heard them. As a result, Monahan has a vote of confidence — on paper, anyway — from the biggest voice in the golf ecosystem. That matters.Finally, there are the stipulations that were agreed to, also covered in the press release:Players will work with Monahan to amend the governing documents of the policy board so that no major decision can be made without prior involvement and approval from player directors. In other words, no surprise mergers.
I don't mean to be churlish, but has anyone else kept a scorecard. Tiger steps up and asserts himself with Rory at that famous Derlaware meeting, and Jay pulls the rug out from under him.... Unless, yanno, he was informed all the time, which would only make it worse...
Anyone but your humble blogger wondering what the price was for Tiger to save Jay's bacon?
I do love that last bit above, because they're all joping to join handsm sing Kumbaya then lacquer the lipstick onto that pig, leaving all those that violated the spirit and law of PGA Tour governance, checking notes, lavishly rewarded for their fine work.
Far be it for me to harsh your mellow, but this is evocative of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic:
The plan might just be accepting exactly what Tour players want. Right now, that means a weighty presence for Tiger Woods. The game’s greatest player now owns a designation he has never held before. If Woods is able to commandeer unanimous support from his fellow player directors, they are bound to get more of what they want when they want it. (At this point, those desires are unclear, but one of the main points of the PGA Tour’s negotiations hinge on a Player Benefit Program that will reward Tour members for their loyalty the last 15 months.)
Optically, Woods’ positioning can be viewed as simply as a basic math equation. A balancing of the expressions. The policy board included just nine people in 2016, four player directors, four independent directors and the director of the PGA of America. Then, in 2017, a fifth independent director joined. During more contentious times, in March 2022, Patrick Cantlay came aboard, balancing the equation a bit more. And now Woods. Six players and six non-players. An even split…for now.
Which sounds great until you read this 'graph, which is sandwiched between those two above:
Jimmy Dunne, one of the independent directors on the board, said during a senate hearing last month that he would not vote in favor of something the player directors did not approve. There is no precedent for the policy board to push forth a decision that player directors were unanimously against. (Just one big one pros knew very little about, bringing us to where we are today.)
Remind me again of the definition of "is".... If it's such a good deal, why the endless lies.... he wouldn't vote in favor of anything the players didn't approve, though he's sure comfortable pulling a fait accompli that technically didn't involve a vote... and then, he'll only concede to not pushing something that the players are "unanimously" against, notice the movement of the goalposts.
And Dunne's tieless work for the 9-11 survivors? Nothing means anything when there's a deal to be done. Because, yanno, nothing grows the game quite like those kooky Wahabis.
What's most egregious in the press accounts is that this is presented as a response to the "players' or as a means pf the amorphous "players" retaking control of Tour governance, as if all players have the same interests. This is par of a coup be the elite players, and this will cement their control, necessary to ensure a maximum payout from the loyalty fund. Which we can all agree is the most pressing issue in our game today....
But you'll notice that those initial howls of protest of been rather easily silenced, as the source of the money and ultimate control of professional golf are considerations understandably subordinate to ensuring that Patrick Cantlay feels respected. We were reliably informed that Tiger and Rory were the conscience of our game, though they seem to have accommodated themselves to Saudi involvement quite easily, just making sure that they get theirs....
Oh, as to that game of musical chairs? Well, guess who will be sharing those cozy Board meetings with Tiger?
One stipulation of the Framework Agreement stated that the PIF would have representation on the policy board. In the event that a definitive agreement is established, the 50-50 split will be disrupted by a new seat, to be owned initially by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the sport-shifting body that Woods has adamantly spoken out against. Whose voice will be the loudest? We will have to wait and see.
Wow, are you always that clueless? Because it ain't about the volume of their voice, it's about the number of commas on the checks, and that's already been decided.
But the rousing coda for this bit has to be this rather curious tweet from the outspoken Brandel Chamblee, who seems not to understand where are on the time-space continuum:
Tiger becoming the 6th player vote on the board is a reckoning to the fact that there are some things that money should not be able to buy and an absolute to the fact that we’re dangerously close to going from Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” to MBS’s invisible bone saw.
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) August 2, 2023
That's a good one, Brandel. Tiger's services have been retained for the purposes of ensuring that this deal gets completed, and everyone seems to understand that except you. There is no more resistance except, perhaps, for the Cantlay efforts, based on the premise that even the sums on offer from the bonecutters are insufficient to their desires. What could go wrong?
The Coup In Action - As noted above, the significance of Tiger's involvement is not that it empowers generic players, but that it cements control by those handful of elites. What do the elite players want? They don't want to have to share the locker room with the likes of Peter Malnati, as per the details just revealed about that 2024 schedule:
he PGA Tour has reversed course on its plan to alter the makeup of its three invitational tournaments in 2024, sources told Golf Digest who furthermore added that much of that is the doing of Tiger Woods—who only on Tuesday was given a seat on the tour’s policy board.The tour announced in March that the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament would be among eight no-cut designated events next year, but pushback from Woods—as well as from Jack Nicklaus and officials of the Arnold Palmer Invitational—has led to a compromise in which the three events will have a field of 80-90 players and a cut to the low 50 and ties and players within 10 shots of the lead. Woods is the host of the Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles. Nicklaus is founder and host of the Memorial in suburban Columbus, Ohio. The invitationals in recent years have had 120 players.Sources not affiliated with the invitationals said the three events, with purses of $20 million (or possibly higher), could still pay a stipend to players who do not make the cut, similar to the Masters, which also has a cut to low 50 and ties, but no longer has a 10-shot rule. The Players also will have a cut with a full field of 144 players.“The Masters was definitely the model for what eventually was decided,” said one tour player who has followed the discussions.:
Brave Sir Tiger actually gets the cut maintained at his event, obscuring that the field will be some thirty soils less than the prior year. terrific peni are rejoicing....
As for those other designated events Well, while we were sleeping, those fields shrunk even further:
Other designated events, which will have smaller fields in the range of 60 players and no cut, will be the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship and Traveler Championship.
And that's distinguishable from a LIV event how? Might as well go to 54-holes and shotgun starts, that's how beclowned these events have become...
I'm blogging this one sight unseen:
Gee, I wonder which golf fans are considered....
This is what passes for a winner:
Pebble Beach Pro-AmBeginning in 2024 the Pebble Beach Pro-Am will be part of the tour’s Signature Series, or what the tour called its elevated/designated events this season. As an upshot, the amateur portion of the event will end after 36 holes, but that’s a small price to pay for a guarantee that the sport’s best will return to Carmel.
To save this event you had to destroy it? So much for MPCC and the amateurs making the cut drama, no we can't fit that kind of week into our schedule, because Patrick needs to make bank. Nor can we fit a match play event, though we can only hope for some iconic Crosby weather.....
And this would seem to call out of the offsetting entrey:
Top players
The gettin’ was already good for golf’s best performers, and it’s about to get better. The tour’s new signature series will codify that station, turning its designated events into another iteration of the former World Golf Championships with limited fields and (mostly) no-cut formats. And unlike this year, players will not be forced to play in the series or face PIP penalties for not participating.
Funny how those guys losing access to the big-money events don't cross your radar.... Compromised much?
Can they find any losers? Well, Honda did well to get the hell out of Dodge:
Palm Beach Classic
One of the reasons Honda left as title sponsor was the tournament’s date on the schedule kept many of the stars—some who lived just minutes from PGA National Resort—from competing. Sources with the tour tell Golf Digest that discussions remain ongoing with potential financial backers for the event, but given the Palm Beach tournament is sandwiched between designated events (Pebble Beach, Genesis Invitational on the front; API, Players Championship on the back) field issues will likely remain.
Why would anyone do business with these people? Honda only sponsored this event for a mere forty-two years, so I'm guessing they never saw the shiv coming.....
I know, we still need to talk Ryder Cup, but is next week good for you? Have a great weekend....
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