Midweek Musings - Pre-Tryptophan Edition

I wasn't actually planning on blogging this morning, but that damn news cycle just featured too many giggles to leave unblogged.

TGL, Delayed - Whatever will we do with our Monday nights?

Following last week’s roof collapse of the TGL’s dome arena, Tiger Woods’ forthcoming golf league will not kickstart in early January, as scheduled. The league will now look to launch on a 12-month delay, circling early 2025 as its new goal.

It was always going to be a tightrope walk to make schedules of 24 players fit nicely on Mondays and Tuesday nights during the PGA Tour regular season and finish before Masters week in early April. Any significant delay would cause a disruption with other aspects of the construction, or even primetime television schedules.

“The postponement brings mixed feelings of disappointment and excitement,” said Rory McIlroy, fellow player-investor in the product. “Above all, we are happy that no one was injured. We are looking forward to the launch of TGL. Given the circumstances, while the delay is disappointing, the postponement will allow us to regroup, refocus and return stronger.”

Return?  I know Rory's had a tough stretch, but the time-space continuum remains pretty basic stuff.  To wit, to return one needs to have been there in the first place.... Just sayin'.

More importantly, is this one of those commitments that caused Rory to resign as a Player Director?  Because he's now got some free time on his hands.... Oops, too late.

The biggest loser might be ESPN, which suddenly has lots of TBD on its programming schedule:

Last week’s dome collapse was due to a temporary loss of power. On a windy night in southern Florida, the air-supported canvas roof deflated, leaving behind a tattered skeleton of what is ultimately a very expensive roof membrane. Dome specialist company Broadwell Air provided GOLF.com with an estimate of what total replacement would cost: $2.1 million.

More costly, in this scenario, was the time it would take. Broadwell estimated a total replacement would take three months. And while TGL had a unique repair/replacement to take on, it did not have three months. It did not have two months. It had seven weeks.

The league was going to host 18 different matches between its six teams, and get all of them completed between January 9 and the end of March. Even starting the league a month later would have pushed the timelines into a conflict with the major championship season, when players are most particular about their schedules.

Instead, golf fans who were anxious for the mixed-reality golf league will have to stay patient. Officials of the league have already coordinated an optimistic attitude about the situation. Take this quote from Rosalyn Durant, Executive Vice President of Programming at ESPN, which had signed on to broadcast the league.

But how will the game grow without this essential component?   Might as well shut down the entire Tour, no?

Dylan Dethier had this take:

1. TGL Down!

A realist might point out that the sudden one-year postponement of the TGL following the collapse of its stadium is … not a great scene, either. An optimist might point out that the delay is actually good for the league long-term, and that it’ll be huge for the league to have an extra year to craft the vision rather than trotting out a half-baked product. But it’s hard to resist the instinct to sit back and chuckle at the whole thing, marveling at the ways in which golf’s leagues continue to step on larger rakes with every passing week, undermining themselves in the process.

As I've admitted, I certainly couldn't resist, nor did I see any particular reason to even try.  It's just another poorly disguised money grab on the part of the top twenty players, none of whom I feel a deep need to see more of.  The Tour is force-feeding us LIV at Riviera, so LIV on a simulator seems a tough sell.  I guess Tiger can set that tampon aside for a year, as we'll just have to do without his sophomoric humor until 2025.

Alex Myers with the tip-in:

Even Aaron Rodgers' first season with the Jets lasted longer than TGL's first season. https://t.co/YlJfKw19JS

— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) November 20, 2023

Say It Ain't So, Schmo - Seriously, you can't make this s**t up:

Patrick Cantlay is looking for … a hat sponsor

Are you sure that it isn't just that none fit him and his swollen noggin?

Say what you will about the good folks at Goldman Sachs, but at least they have a sense of

humor.

On Tuesday morning, the New York Times reported that Goldman will not be renewing its hat sponsorship agreement with Patrick Cantlay after a four-year partnership. According to the Times, the bank has pivoted away from its consumer-focused online banking service “Marcus” in recent months, making Cantlay’s hat sponsorship with the bank no longer a primary focus.

And why, exactly, is Patrick Cantlay’s now-defunct partnership with Goldman Sachs newsworthy information? Well, because it leaves him without a hat sponsor.

Yes, folks, you’re reading that correctly: golf’s most-famed (and perhaps infamous) hatless competitor is now in the market for a hat sponsor.

If only we could say the same about our Patrick, who will never be known for leaving them laughing in the aisles....  But just a change in business direction?  It's not out of the question, but see how you react to this speculation:

At the time of the incident, many golf fans noted dryly that the true bummer of Cantlay’s situation was that his hat sponsors at Goldman wouldn’t be able to profit off the increased airtime. For what it’s worth, the Times report doesn’t mention anything about Cantlay’s performance in the split, pointing instead to Goldman’s recent direction. The company has laid off more than 4,000 employees in 2023, and its stock is off by more than 11 percent from last year. Cantlay, meanwhile, has ascended into mainstay status in the World Top 10 and is fresh off arguably the best performance of his playing career at the Ryder Cup.

The good news? While the relationship won’t be public-facing anymore, Cantlay could continue his relationship with the brand as a speaker or celebrity endorser at company events. The better news? The hat change should be lucrative for Cantlay, whose forehead is now unquestionably some of the golf world’s most eligible real estate. That is, assuming he wants to wear one at all.

Four thousand employees is a drop in the bucket as compared to Patrick's need to be paid, but still....

But, while James Colgan's facts are not in doubt, I find his conclusions highly speculative.  Yes, Patrick is a top ten mainstay and I'll stipulate that his Ryder Cup performance was his best event ever, for the simple reason that the category isn't all that competitive.  For instance, here's his recent major championship record from Wikipedia:

 

I agree that Goldman didn't get much of a benefit, but those kind of finishes don't get the hat much visibility in any event.

The guys on the Korn Ferry Tour get hat sponsors, so somebody will pony up for sure.  But I certainly don't see it as the prime real estate that Colgan does for two important reasons.  First, given the Tour's propensity to shoot itself in the foot, the only events I'm confident will maintain their value are the four majors, and he's a non-entity (or at least historically has been) in those most important of events.

But more importantly, is this the guy you want to tied to?  Would Goldman have wanted to be associated with Patrick at the Ryder Cup, because they're already accused of putting money above all else.... If there's one guy I personally would steer clear of it's our famous terrific penis... Can you imagine if he and X-Man did actually skip the Ryder Cup as they threatened?  

As far as potential sponsors are concerned, I think Dufner's DudeWipes remains the leader in the clubhouse, but I'm thinking Patrick in a Trojan swag hat would be comedy gold!

They Can Have Him - Who doesn't love a little blue-on-blue action?

IV Golf’s Instagram account has been highly visible this offseason. Its 2024 schedule, on the other hand, has not.

While the league’s handles have taken to sharing early and often into the upstart tour’s second-ever offseason, the league’s executives have apparently been coy with the details of the season schedule for 2024.

That seems to have frustrated one of the league’s biggest stars, Brooks Koepka, who has taken to the social media battleground against his employer. Over the weekend, the five-time major champ and former World No. 1 went to Instagram twice to express his frustration with his home tour for the way it has handled the league’s 2024 schedule, which evidently remains a mystery to just about everyone involved in the league, players included.

The situation started on Saturday, minutes after the league posted a mock Instagram DM inbox with the caption, “Who’s DM are you replying to?”

“The DM with the schedule for next year would be nice,” Koepka said first — a comment he later deleted.

The next day, after the league’s official handle posted a second picture of Koepka, he fired another shot.

“We don’t know what course cause we haven’t seen the schedule,” he said.

Gee, maybe you shouldn't have jumped into that clown car?  Just spitballin' here....

LIV has yet to find that, as the apparent scramble around its ’24 schedule only underscores. Even as the PGA Tour and LPGA have released schedules, the only event currently cemented on LIV’s ’24 schedule is a trip halfway around the world to LIV Adelaide, site of the league’s most popular tournament in ’23.

It’s early yet to say the league is in crisis about its schedule. After all, LIV didn’t begin its 2023 season until late-February, nearly six weeks after the start of the Tour season. But it’s worth noting that Koepka’s criticisms are not nothing. By this point in 2022, LIV’s 2023 schedule had already been out for more than a month.

The man behind the criticisms only adds to the story. Even if he’s earned a reputation as a sometimes surly competitor, Koepka is unquestionably one of golf’s biggest voices. And, as his home tour’s only reigning major champ heading in ’24, you can bet his words hold an extra weight around LIV HQ.

Do his Instagram comments, too? We’ll soon find out.

I feel his pain.  It's critically important to know where those events no one will watch will be played....They're not in crisis, they're in something more like the cone of silence....

Do you have any crocodile tears left?

Cameron Smith faces a dilemma looming for all LIV golfers—how to qualify for the 2024 Olympics

But I'm thinking English must be a second language for him, no?

“I definitely want to be there, mate, 100 percent,” the 30-year-old said at this week’s Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in Brisbane. “I know the criteria, I don't know if that can change, but I’ve got these couple of events here [the Australian PGA and the Australian Open, which are co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and therefore receive world ranking points] and probably more looks again in the [2024] majors, so hopefully I can keep that ranking up and wear the (Australian national) coat of arms on the chest again, it’s pretty special.”

Gee 100% means that you would pay any price bear any burden..... Not, yanno, that you'd deposit any check.

If it were actually important to Smith, he would have ensured that he would be able to qualify after jumping.  I hate the be cynical, but I almost get the sense that it was all about the money....

Zing Goes Poof - I don't know if Patrick is over-playing his hand, though this guy seems to have:

Was Paul Azinger fired by NBC?

Many believed that was the case Sunday when it was announced that the 2008 Ryder Cup captain would no longer be the lead golf analyst for NBC.

According to sources, Azinger was not fired but was actually in the middle of contract negotiation on a new deal. Parties had agreed on both a schedule for the 2024 season and other terms on a new one-year contract before a formal offer that included the financial terms was presented to the broadcaster.

Those terms were less than Azinger’s current contract on an annual basis that he signed in fall 2018 when he replaced Johnny Miller as lead golf analyst. Azinger decided to counter the offer, which is when he learned from longtime agent Rich Braund that NBC instead decided to go in a different direction and not renew his contract.

Of course I find that even more depressing, because...well, this:

So, was this a cost cutting move by Comcast-owned NBC?

In the same period of time that the decision was made on Azinger, Comcast-owned Golf Channel let go of 15-year veteran producer Brandt Packer as well as a coordinating and field producer.

The high-profile departures of longtime analysts Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch last year turned out to be just the start of cuts at NBC and Golf Channel. Additional cost cutting in 2023 has included not sending production staff to the Ryder Cup in Italy and instead handling all production from its headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and cuts will continue in 2024.

“Everything they've done is to make the telecast less expensive,” said a source familiar with the operations. “They're not out to make it better for the viewer. There are more commercials, they're cutting speed cameras, cutting drones, they don't have a blimp or an airplane for overhead shots.”

Yeah, the broadcasts will deteriorate to the point where we won't be able to make out the logo on Patrick's cap.... Win-win, baby! 

Golf is ridiculously expensive to produce and the audiences are comically small, so something has to give.  Of course, the players have deemed themselves unconstrained by the value of the golf ecosystem, so we'll have to wait to see how that plays out for them and us.

That's pretty good for a day I hadn't planned to blog.  Have a great Thanksgiving and holiday weekend, and we'll catch up next week.