Thursday Threads - Snow Deprivation Edition

I know it's been some time, so perhaps I should introduce myself?

My time in Utah is winding down, as a wonderful visit from my nephew concluded yesterday.  Zack and a college friend hit town on Saturday, and it's been a whirlwind of activity since then,  The snowpack in the Wasatch is at something around 50% of average, so snow is desperately required (though not to be found in the forecast).  Notwithstanding the lack of snow and associated limited terrain openings (not to mention 50 mph wind gusts), we found enough to play in at Snowbird and Deer Valley to declare the visit a success.

At the present moment we have a warm front taking over, and Lee and I will be in our sunglasses enjoying mid-40's temperatures and the resulting spring corn.  Oh, it's not at all what they need given the thin base, but it will make for pleasant groomers for the two days of skiing I have left.  Saturday is getaway day, so I'll likely see you again on Monday, when we can wrap the Charlie Woods Show.

I have been in a bubble here, though did catch some of the festivities on tape last evening...

The Slowdown - Yeah, you know I'll not be all-in on this kind of thing:

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.....

I did love the pre-match jousting, in which our Rory demonstrated his on-brand cluelessness:

"I'd like to try and get him back for what he did to me at the U.S. Open," McIlroy said.

DeChambeau then interjected: "To be fair, you kinda did it to yourself."

That prompted roars from the gallery.

Even the aforementioned Scheffler could be seen in the background cracking a smile.

"I don't really know where to go from there," McIlroy said.

As a first take, pretty much spot-on, Bryson.  But, while we all understand that when a mic is shoved in your face what comes out might might be less than profound, I still have to ask, WTF, Rory?  The premise being that if Rory gets him in the Crypto-whatever that they'll be even?  Does that perhaps explain the last fourteen years....

A couple of the Golf.com writers take on this very question:

Was The Showdown actually a win for golf?

The first obvious question I would ask is whether anyone actually tuned in, by my Googling hasn't revealed any ratings data....

Weird!  I read the above-linked piece on my iPad with no issues, but the piece is now paywalled.  Annoying, because it seemed an even-handed take on what worked and what didn't.... I'll have to go elsewhere, first with this cryptic (cryptic, crypto, see what I did there?) take from Shack:

While we’re on the subject of stilted, awkward, chilly and talking about things no one ever needs to see again, someone gave out a lot of crypto out Tuesday night at Shadow Creek. The preferred “currency” of drug and arms dealers had never been given to golfers for winning before and may never again if the presentation is even half as dreadful as this disaster. Oh, that’s harsh. Tom Fazio’s chef d’oeuvre has never looked better. Maybe that’s because it was pitch black for most of the back nine.

This screen-capture of Bryson and his compression boot jacket captures the event’s verve.

That was such a weird look....and I say that as I write from the land of puffy jackets....

Let's see what Golfweek thinks of it all:

Rust is a thing, even in an exhibition

McIlroy and Scheffler came into The Showdown winning their last two starts: McIlroy last month at the DP World Tour Championship and Scheffler nine days ago at the Hero World Challenge. DeChambeau's last competitive reps were at the LIV Golf Team Championship in late September while Koepka's came at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in early October.

Advantage PGA Tour, and that was apparent most of the competition. The LIV pair lost three of four four-ball holes, lost in alternate shot and only won a solitary hole in singles. And while Koepka and DeChambeau had their fair share of good shots, McIlroy and Scheffler provided more entertainment with theirs.

I would say especially in an exhibition, as that U.S. Ryder Cup team discovered in Rome.  

It's actually an interesting issue, because the quality of the golf was a bit ragged.  That said, part of that was the cold and darkness, and challenging these guys with such firm conditions is one of the few ways to make these things interesting.

Here's a twofer:

Format was better

It seems the format for every past version of The Match and now The Showdown had had a slightly different format, but this one seemed to work well. Essentially, it was three six-hole matches, starting with four-ball, then foursomes then singles. One point was awarded for winning a session, and the team to 2.5 points first wins.

All in all, the four golfers ended up playing only 14 of the 18 holes at Shadow Creek, and even that took a little more than four hours, which leads into this...

It takes too long

Yes, it's a made-for-TV event with dozens of sponsors willing to fork over millions for advertising (or $10 million in crypto as the prize). There are going to be lulls in the action when commercial air or ads happen in competition, or when a fan is chosen from the crowd to hit a putt for a paid excursion to Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri (he missed the 10-footer but got a $1,000 certificate to Bass Pro Shops). But from the first tee shot to the time the event was over, it took more than four hours to play 14 holes.

Whether a golf sicko or someone tuning in casually, that's too slow, and that's a theme for the made-for-TV events. And that's not good when considering this next point.

Look, they're struggling with all the reasons no one actually watches golf.... 

I agree the format had positives (I only watched through the first hole of singles), especially alternate shot.  Fourball (and singles, I assume) just move too slowly, though the tough conditions at least made the fourball potentially interesting (I say potentially because in this one case it just wasn't competitive).

But now we get to the tragic flaw, the reason these things never really work:

Where's the banter?

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of The Showdown was the lack of banter between the four.

Sure, DeChambeau had everyone making fun of him early when he pulled out his winter coat that

looked like he was spending a weekend in the Swiss Alps, but once those jokes wore off, there was hardly any trash talk between the groups. Even the banter between the groups was limited. One of the best conversations captured of the night was about creatine (and no, it wasn't Koepka and DeChambeau).

Especially with DeChambeau's comfortability with YouTube golf and commentating on camera, he was tame by his standards, which was a massive disappointment. No jabs at McIlroy for the U.S. Open. In the heat of competition, these guys are locked in, even if it's a silly-season match for fun. But for viewers who aren't familiar with the golfers, it makes for a difficult TV product in certain spots.

If you're expecting Brooks and Scottie to carry a show with their bon mots, you'll end up disappointed....  This is always and ever the fatal flaw of these matches, and stay tuned to see whether the TGL can solve this issue....

This falls into that "necessary but insufficient" category:

Charles Barkley remains best part of broadcast

TNT should be thankful it employs Charles Barkley. He once again was the best part of the broadcast team, with his co-hosts throwing jabs at him and even McIlroy joining in on the banter at points.

Barkley even went on a rant about the LIV Golf and PGA Tour needing to merge, which, in typical Chuck fashion, got off the rails. "I can say what I want to cause I ain't worried about getting fired," he said.

He made me laugh exactly once, with his take on the guy with the unfortunate nickname "Cupcake", though that was about it....

Golf Digest also noticed this obvious miss:

Biggest whiff: The "banter," or lackthereof

That last point got me thinking how much better it would have been had Koepka actually verbalized what he was thinking to DeChambeau. Now THAT would be electric television. Smack-talking your own teammate. So, too, would smack-talking the opponent. But that just never really happens in these events. We forget these guys are professional golfers, not NBA or NHL players who study their opponents entire family trees in order to find the most cutting chirps for one another. Yes, guys like Koepka can be killers on the course, but they aren't going out there trying to show each other up. Your own golf game is hard enough to focus on as is. The best banter in these made-for-TV events comes from Charles Barkley. Without him, I'm not sure how much legitimate chatter there would be.

When the indispensable man at a sporting event is an announcer, that might serve as a red flag, no?

This was far from the worst of these made-for-TV events, but it's just naïve to think that such a flat, disjointed broadcast could appeal to non-golfers.... And even the PGA-LIV frisson didn't turn out to have any real juice, at least to this observer.

The Tiger & Charlie Show - With a crazy crowded sports calendar and Saturday being a travel day, I'm unclear as to how much of it I'll see.  That said, here's the Tour Confidential guys' take:

Tiger Woods returns to the course this week for the first time since July when he’ll team up with his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship in Florida. Will we learn anything about Woods’ form and health this week — or should we just sit back and enjoy some family golf?

Dethier: We’ll see him swing and we’ll see him walk and we’ll even see him hit some pressure putts! Let’s not get carried away — not by Woods’ form nor by his son’s. But yeah, I think what we see this week from Woods will give us some sort of hint at what to expect from his 2025.

Sens: To borrow from Bobby Jones, there are two types of golf, tournament golf and hit-and-giggle father-and-son golf, and they are not at all alike. For one thing, Tiger will be allowed to use a cart. You can’t do that at Augusta. That’s just one of many reasons why we shouldn’t use this as a barometer of anything more than what it is.

Colgan: It’s Tiger playing in a televised golf event. Can we convince ourselves we’ve learned something? Obviously yes. We will, whether we should or not.

Give it up, we know everything we need to know about Tiger's 2025 season, to wit, he's toast.  The reason to tune in is to assess Charlie's development and potential.

PGA Tour Follies - It's a clown show for sure, not that I've been following the story at all, because who really cares about Ponte Vedra suits?  This header gives you the gist of it:

PGA Tour's second-highest paid executive retires; Jay Monahan announces search for new CEO position

This has Geoff on an epic rant, so buckle in and enjoy:

“Everything is on the table.”

It’s the new Live Under Par! But before the full campaign is approved, a new nine-figure CEO job has become available in Ponte Vedra Beach (PGA Tour) to go with openings in Frisco (PGA of America) and Daytona Beach (LPGA).

Yet only one of these outfits went public with its search and did it in totally weird fashion.

We learned this week that the lucky recipient of a newly opened/created/something CEO position will report to a PGA Tour board featuring the guy who held the job for a few months. One who is also letting it be known he will continue to have a vote on his successor’s salary while continuing as PGA Tour “Commissioner.”

Fun!

Now, this is a newsletter about the majors and best Cup events. But it’s so hard not to have a giggle or twenty at the PGA Tour’s expense after the latest weirdness. After all, this is also an organization that wants to run grow the game and they can’t even run a basic internet campaign in a world where your neighbor is probably better doing on-camera YouTube how-to’s about getting out olive oil stains (dish detergent it turns out).

The same PGA Tour lobbies against most Rules of Golf because, you know, that written code which governs the game can be so mean, cold and unfair for asking someone to hit a shot in under 40 seconds. The same Rules that became evil and in need of eradication if one player (or corporation) whines often and loudly enough.

In sharp contrast to the state of other leading organizations, the Tour appears to be a mess of boards, committees, subcommittees, subcommittees of subcommittees, and now a new CEO search committees. This after years of almost never hearing about any governance news that might distract from the “product.” Undoubtedly, there are plenty of people on this army of committees cringing at the latest scheme revealing a CEO search in public fashion instead of through a headhunter.

But for some silly reason—maybe one last holiday gift to content creators—the Tour launched a two-pronged video attack using grown men who are not good on camera to tell us everything is peachy in PVB. The sight of leadership; blatantly reading off prompters discussing the future of the PGA Tour only reinforced an ongoing authenticity black hole.

First, there was Jay Monahan’s attempt at a hostage video where the (kind of?) maybe-demoted CEO but still Commissioner hyped the upcoming season. He had to be edited for misidentifying a tournament. Media and Twitter users noticed and many asked the same question: you couldn’t do another take? Oh right. Just because one receives a $23 million package does not guarantee basic media competence.

After the tournament name slip, Monahan seemed to be testing a desperate new slogan (“everything is on the table”). And somehow it’s still better than Live Under Par! Then, Monahan buried the lede by announcing a PGA Tour search for a new CEO. That’s when you really felt like someone was off camera pointing a pistol. Because you may recall—and for the sake of your mental health I hope this detail long left your sphere—Monahan was bequeathed a CEO title in a May press release when a new board chairman was announced.

The Monahan rollout video posted at PGATour.com and YouTube was accompanied by embargoed stories attempting to explain what the new C-Suite occupant will be doing. And because fans are dying to know details of corporate governance, they learned the captivating holiday news that Monahan is taking a seat on the Policy Board to go with his other board Tour board seat.

What a merry mitzvah for the fans! Shame they didn’t tell us where he likes to sit at the meeting table and if he likes ice in his water.

Random question: if Monahan’ll be working under the new person as the Commissioner, won’t the CEO atop the whole operation need a salary higher than Monahan’s recently reported $23 million package?

I digress.

“We’re bringing new perspectives onto our team to realize the incredible opportunities ahead for our sport,” Monahan said as he held up a copy of today’s St. Augustine Record. “We can learn so much from the world of sport and entertainment, and I’m excited to meet candidates for this important new role.”

In memo sent to players, Monahan expanded on the news: “The CEO will report directly to the PGA Tour policy board & the Tour Enterprises board of directors. In addition to my role as a director of the Tour Enterprises board, I will join the Tour policy board & serve [on] the search committee.”

What a relief.

Meanwhile, the Tour’s new Chief Marketing Officer Matt Weitz, made a couple of genuinely awful appearances on CNBC and Golf Channel. The apparent goal was to excite tiny business and golf audiences with news of a CEO search committee headed by Arthur Blank. One hitch: the CMO said all of this as his pupils appeared to move back and forth like he was reading off a teleprompter. Or he needs to see his optometrist ASAP.

The whole State TV thing has been coming and it’s as pitiful as feared. There was a time not long ago when all parties involved would never have resorted to such ungainliness. Still, the shabby rollout left grizzled cynics of the Tour aghast at the amateur hour vibes as YouTube and Twitter commenters pounced.

Was that a long enough excerpt for you?  Just remember that Jay  was paid $23 million to orchestrate this mess.... 

The Year That Was - The inevitable year-end wrap pieces are out there, but I'll just sample a couple of bits from this take:

The 13 funniest screenshots of the year in golf, ranked by recognizability and meme usage

Never mind.  I'm struggling with embedding Twitter memes, and just don't have the time and inclination to work through the issues.  Give it a scan, including the honorable mentions.

Other year-end summaries can be found here:

2024 Newsmakers of the Year

And here:

55 things that happened to Scottie Scheffler in 2024

I shall leave you here and prepare for my ski day.  As noted above, we'll meet again early next week from Unplayable Lies World HQ.  Have a great weekend.

Thursday Themes - Wasatch Front Edition

I'm very happen to have provided that bonus weekend post, given how things went to hell-in-a-handbasket when I arrived in Utah.  Nothing too serious in the long term, just the same nobody can do their day job stuff we see all around us these days.

Fortunately it didn't affect the ski schedule, only the blogging..... But, and stop me if you've heard this before, we need snow.

Tiger Scat - So, this is the man to lead us out of the wilderness?  If you say so, but did you catch his awkward booth appearance from the Hero World Challenge?  

Tiger Woods says 'we'll see' when asked whether he, Charlie will play 2024 PNC Championship

Tiger Woods didn't tee it up this week in the 2024 Hero World Challenge, saying in his pre-tournament news conference he wasn't tournament sharp yet.

On Sunday, he was asked about whether his next time teeing it up could be in two weeks at the 2024 PNC Championship, where he and son Charlie have played the last four years in the season-ending event at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida.

"We'll see," Woods told NBC's Dan Hicks during the final round coverage.

This is an interview that took place on December 8th about an event to be held on December 21st to 22nd, for an event in which "tournament sharpness" isn't required....  Do we think he really didn't know his plans?  Because, not much time has elapsed until this:

Tiger Woods commits to play next week’s PNC Championship with son, Charlie

In 2030 Tiger will expect Comcast/NBC to up their rights fee payments, but will anyone remember him unnecessarily being a Dick to Dan Hicks?  I found him insufferably smug during that interview, not that I ever find him engaging when he deigns to duck questions.

Might as well excerpt the Tour Confidential panel's take on this State-of-the-Big-Cat update:

Tiger Woods spoke to the media at his Hero World Challenge, calling last season a wash and still unsure about how healthy he’ll be to play consistently in 2025. What was your biggest takeaway from Tiger’s time with the media, and how much longer do you think he’ll approach each season hoping but unsure if he’ll play a few majors before he decides to hang it up for good? Are we close to that?

Josh Berhow: It’s like deja vu at this press conference every year. Tiger seems to always be

frustrated with his health and unsure of what he’ll be able to do the coming season. When he said he hoped to play once a month it turned out that wasn’t even close. But none of this is surprising at this point; it’s just reality. The guy’s body has been through a lot. That said, I think this will be the status quo going forward. He’s still competitive and is going to play as much as he can and I don’t think a full-fledged retirement is coming soon unless things get substantially worse. But I’m also curious how much (if at all) he’ll play on the Champions Tour when he gets to cruise around in a cart. That day is approaching quickly.

Josh Sens: Agreed, Josh. Tiger famously plays things close to the vest. But for a long while now, I don’t think he’s known much more about his plans than the rest of us have, and those plans have been to play as many majors as possible, along with a tiny handful of other events. All of the majors are available to him for pretty much as long as he’s willing to hold out hope. And I don’t expect him to give up on them entirely anytime soon. But as Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy said when he became a broadcaster: we’re all day to day, even GOATs.

Zephyr Melton: Tiger is always going to say he’s hoping to play the majors (and a few other select tournaments), but the reality is his body isn’t going to allow that. The day his car veered off the road in 2021, his career effectively ended. It remains to be seen how long it will take him to accept that fact.

 Isn't the bigger issue when the writers at Golf Magazine will accept that fact?

Which might not matter if we hadn't put all our hopes and dreams in his hands.....

Status Update - Via Geoff, an update on where things stand:

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is nearing a deal to acquire a minority stake in PGA Tour Enterprises, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The sovereign wealth fund is in advanced talks about taking a roughly 6% stake in the PGA Tour’s commercial arm, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. An agreement, if reached, would come after months of negotiations, and follow a deal inked earlier this year with Strategic Sports Group, which can invest as much as $3 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises.

Only 6%?  Obviously missing from this accounting is the extent of their investment, but we've seen a billion dollar number from other sources.  Of course what I'd most like to know is how much of SSG's initial $1.5 billion large has been burned through....

Enjoy the howlers in this 'graph:

A fear among those involved in the deal is that the Saudis walk away, refocusing on growing LIV and luring more PGA players. The fracturing of golf, which used to see the top names tee off against other, has helped cause a drop in viewership for flagship events on the PGA Tour, while LIV has failed to consistently attract large scale audiences.

Obviously, you'll have done a spit take at that last bit.... I mean, it's technically true as presented, since they've failed to attract large scale audiences everywhere (with the exception perhaps of Western Australia).  But maybe the more significant obfuscation is that causality subtly implied above.  Are we not watching PGA Tour Signature Events because Bryson and Brooks aren't there?  Or is there perhaps a deeper cause... Because they pretty much sucked, just like the WGCs sucker and LIV events suck, so of course the idea of turning the Tour's premiere events into LIV/WGC events is nothing short of strategic brilliance.

Shack has this reax:

Depending on how you feel about giving the Big Bodychopper His Ownself a 6% stake, these latest details from a credible outfit seem (A) surprisingly minimalist after all this time, or, (B) like one last lethal injection into the Tour’s inconsistent response to an existential threat. If the Bloomberg report turns out to be accurate, a 6% stake and continuing independence of PIF’s LIV feels galaxies away from the original “framework agreement.” Especially if the same Bloomberg crew’s report of a possible LIV-DP World Tour partnership pans out.

The original “framework agreement” looks like the Declaration of Independence compared to the details in the latest report. You may recall that the FA’s parameters were ironed out by Jimmy Dunne and friends with an eye on returning non-major championship control of pro golf to the PGA Tour, and, as a byproduct, likely adding His Excellency to membership rolls at places he’d otherwise spend centuries hoping to join.

Ah, those were the days.

So how does this continued existence and independence of LIV cause the best players to compete against each other more often?  Although perhaps reminder of this thread:

LIV is also considering a potential tie-up with Europe’s DP World Tour, Bloomberg News reported last month. The talks with DP World Tour are separate from the investment discussions between the PGA Tour and the Saudi wealth fund, the people have said.

The PGA Tour and DP World have a strategic alliance which guarantees prize money growth to events run by the latter, and some reciprocal memberships.

Geoff ties it into the event next week:

The struggle to merge massive egos ignorant of cratering viewership numbers became even more clear when grounded golfers named Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau gathered for a conference call to plug next Tuesday’s crypto-funded match at Shadow Creek. The made-for-TNT showdown will pair the PGA Tour’s Team McSheffler against LIV defectors Team DeKoepka. The call revealed that McScheffler eventually got a release to play from the event after Global Home groveling—according to McIlroy—and overall, the PGA Tour is staying as far from the thing as possible without getting their usual $1 million-plus vig. This unusual distancing from Ponte Vedra could be a result of how the crypto match came together and might even be a wise move at staying clear of the promoter’s shady past. And I’m not referring to his paling around with Phil Mickelson.

“The showdown is a great showcase for bringing the two tours a bit together,” DeChambeau claimed.

A bit.

Bryson continued, “And I think what we’re doing to do next year, all of us aligned, is bringing something a little bigger and badder, so we can have a couple of times—at least one more time—where we can see most of the best players on both sides competing.”

At least we have those weeks called The Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open and The Open.

The Vegas quadrilateral of major winners acknowledged the sad state of seeing the best get together only four times a year. Yet as long as LIV keeps hiring and trying to grow, a split-status quo seems set. That might be fine for PGA Tour locked into a solid media deal while LIV searches for its CW replacement in hopes of drawing over 100,000 average final round viewers in 2025.

The PGA does have those good media deals, but can't meet the demands of its alpha dogs with investors willing to fund such losses, so they kind of need each other.  But hard to make any real sense of how this unites the game (not that I miss any of those guys that left).  But Geoff doesn't seem high on letting the bonecutters combine two moribund, failing tours:

A more disastrous scenario sees the Public Investment Fund taking some NEOM slush fund money to buy the DP World Tour with hopes of creating a world-versus-the-U.S.A. scenario. This seems likely to set up a Ryder Cup-alternative floated by Koepka this week.

“Let’s be real — wouldn’t you want to see a LIV versus PGA Tour Ryder Cup-style thing?” he asked. “That is what it is. This is growing into a big thing. That’s what will draw the fans.”

Down boy, down!

Okay, maybe the moribund Presidents Cup becomes LIV vs. the USA. Anything will be better than another blitzing of the International squad. But it’s hard to see the PGA Tour going very far to support what will still be a competitor even after getting $700 million to buy Pebble Beach or whatever the for-profit does with the blood money.

It’s remarkable to think that these four players are the ones left attempting to broker increased competition. The bizarre state of affairs, combined with shrinking fields and eliminating cuts in big events, speaks to how much the PGA Tour has lost the plot. Because it’s still all about the competition and who puts out a “product” of integrity. Not some watered-down mess or something built around what the CMO-du-jour thinks is campaign-worthy.

Even more remarkable is that Rory,  a man whose made a hot mess every time he's opened his mouth, is one of those four.  But Geoff, we really can't credit them with promoting greater competition when they're limiting those money grabs to 70 players with no cut.  You're not pro-competition when you're excluding half the competitors at each event....

The good news?  They haven't figured out how to destroy the four majors....  Yah, I know, Tiger is still working on it.

It's Kiz - Color me lukewarm, I like the guy but think he'd do better in Smylie's role.  in fact, has anyone actually seen Smylie Kaufman and Kevin Kisner in the same room?  because they seem very much the same guy:

Behind the scenes of NBC Sports’ Kevin Kisner hire

Yeah, not sure I need to deep a dive, but the issue seems to be that Kiz still wants to play, despite the obvious shortcomings in said game.

Flood, Cordella and Roy arrived in Aiken in the fall to find Kisner feeling open-minded. The

clock was ticking on the 40-year-old pro, who now had just one year remaining of PGA Tour eligibility courtesy of a lifetime top-50 earners exemption. He would get into a dozen or so Tour events in 2025, but would be mostly relegated to weaker-field events. If his play improved — unlikely for a player of Kisner’s age (40) and length (181st on Tour in 2024) — his playing schedule might fill, but that was uncertain. On the other hand, if his play kept with its recent trajectory, he would be available for most weeks of NBC’s PGA Tour coverage in 2025, and his playing career would be over in 2026.

In other words, if NBC was willing to work with him on the details, Kisner was open to taking the gig.

“I have a great relationship with Sam Flood. I like the way he talks about things. He’s very straight up, and that’s the way I am,” Kisner said. “My wife and I sat down with [Flood, Cordella and Roy] for three-and-a-half hours and just discussed life. We talked about the future — what we felt like was good, bad, how to make golf better, how they thought I could fit into their team.”

At the end of the conversation, the decision was made. Kisner would take on 10 events in 2025 and the permanent title of NBC Golf lead analyst while maintaining part-time PGA Tour playing privileges. If his playing career got in the way of the arrangement, NBC would be flexible, and if not, NBC would be the beneficiary.

I think I have as good a chance of playing my way into those money grabs as Kiz does, given that he hits it about 260 off the tee.  But apparently, per Geoff, this doesn't avoid the most awkward part of NBC's presentation for 2025:

Hopes have been dashed that NBC’s gabby “four-wide” experiment would be going away. It seems the cluttered format used during NBC’s 2024 golf broadcasts will be back, according to Golf.com’s James Colgan, who detailed Kevin Kisner’s hiring as “lead" analyst” on the U.S. Open, The Open, and Ryder Cup.

By the time Kisner signed his contract, the network had already decided to bring back a big broadcast experiment from 2024, the “odd-even” format, splitting play-by-play and analyst

duties between teams designated to odd and even-numbered holes. The goal of the strategy, Flood and Roy said, is to facilitate a conversation between broadcasters that fans can “eavesdrop” in on, rather than having broadcasters speak to the audience at home. NBC hopes the shift to “odd-even” will make life easier for Kisner as he switches to golf TV. It will simplify preparation, for example, and create fewer, more targeted speaking opportunities.

That the format is suggested as a way to keep Kisner from doing too much work or preparing to back a pointed take, seems like a pretty sad statement about where the once-vaunted NBC Sports has landed. For golf fans, it’s especially sad given how thoroughly Johnny Miller prepared every time he donned a headset.

I have no idea about the photo either, but that odd-even bit was beyond bizarre.

On LIVsters -  We like folks who can admit when they're wrong, though perhaps an exception should be made here:

'I was wrong': Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau open up on the evolution of their relationship ahead of The Showdown

The fun is in reliving some of the silly bits in this spat:

"I've always had respect for Brooks and what he's done, and how many majors he's won,"

DeChambeau said. "It's been quite impressive, and even the tour events he's won. Obviously, early on, we didn't really understand each other. Pretty rocky relationship."

To say the least. It was a feud so publicized that it produced its own "controversy timeline" in many online spaces including this one. It's easy to forget that the saga began back in 2019, complete with slow-play callouts, "he doesn't even have abs" callouts, fire ants jokes, etc. After they both made the jump to LIV, the rivalry began dying a slow death, understandably.

"We had our spats," DeChambeau said. "But we realized when we both went to LIV we had quite a few things in common. Kind of like stepbrothers in a sense. And we've developed a pretty solid relationship and have good respect for each other now."

 Though this comes with some buried terms and conditions, perhaps:

Of course, one could argue they are both in promotion mode before their LIV vs. PGA Tour tilt with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy next Tuesday at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. They have to be cordial for this shindig to work. Judging off their back and forth Tuesday, though, DeChambeau and Koepka have come a long, long way since SpikesGate at Kiawah Island in 2021.

To sum up, Brooks now says he was wrong about Bryson, but we're not so on Brooks.... As I noted above, I don't miss the LIV golfers when I watch PGA Tour events.

I always hate these defections:

The No. 1 ranked player in Korea has withdrawn from PGA Tour’s qualifying school to sign with LIV Golf.

Yubin Jang, 22, was supposed to be in the field for Q School’s final stage that starts on Thursday, Dec. 12 at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club., earning his spot as the top earner on the Korea Professional Golf Association’s money list. Jang won twice and had five second-place finishes the KPGA circuit while also leading the tour in scoring, grabbing Player of the Year honors in the process. He also scored the gold medal for Korea at the 2023 Asian Games.

At No. 135 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Jang was the second-highest ranked player in Q School behind Kensei Hirata, who captured the Order of Merit in Japan this year. But on Tuesday Jang dropped out of Q School, followed by LIV Golf announcing that Jang had joined Kevin Na’s Iron Heads team. There are no alternates for the final stage, meaning Jang’s exemption will not be filled. The field tops out at 170 players, with five PGA Tour cards on the line.

I've never heard of the kid, so I have no opinion on his potential.  But this can't be the way to build a golf career, and I suspect we'll never hear of him again, his golf career will be limited to cashing the one check.

And this delicious schadenfreude:

Sergio Garcia is willing to jump through countless hoops for chance to play in one more Ryder Cup

In terms of LIV, the DJ and Phil signings were the more significant.  But in terms of acting like a spoiled child and pissing on both tours, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger jerk than Sergio.  

But get this from the miscreant:

Amidst such outward optimism, Garcia will surely be aware that his chances of participating at Bethpage—where he finished third in the 2002 U.S. Open amidst his notorious battle with countless re-grips of the club prior to swinging—remain slim. But whatever happens, in at least one area he stands united with his fellow Europeans. Under no circumstances will he be asking for financial compensation should he make the team.

“That is unfortunate,” he says of the possibility that the American team will be paid. “It takes away everything that the Ryder Cup stands for in a way. It’s never been an issue for the European players. But the Americans seem to be making it one. And now it seems like they will be getting something. Hopefully they are happy about that. But it doesn’t help the Ryder Cup. We Europeans don’t care if we get paid or not. That’s not our priority. Our goal is to play as well as possible and for Europe to win.”

So, let me see if I have this straight.  Sergio is lecturing others on why it's wrong to excessively focus on money.... Pretty rich from a guy who's signature move is spitting in cups and destroying greens.

But I'm torn.... If he wants another Ryder Cup I instinctively want to deny it to him, for being such a jerk on his path to LIV.  But, I'm conflicted, because there's a certain appeal to the image of allowing those Bethpage crowds another go at Sergio.... Could be good fun.

That will be all for today.  The schedule will be a bit tough, as my nephew and a friend of his coming here for a few days of skiing.  That will inevitably affect blogging early next week, so please bear with me.  I'll cover any actual developments as best I can.  Have a great weekend.

Bonus Weekend Content - Departure Day Edition

So, I was feeling some guilt over leaving you hanging early next week, then a couple of follow-ups to Thursday items appeared, so here's a bonus post for your delectation.  We shan't go long....

Breaking The Bank - With the resignation of LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan announced last week, one anticipates that dirt will appear.  This Beth Ann Nichols piece was linked on Thursday, but I left this section on the cutting room floor:

Promise of growth not being achieved

It’s not that the LPGA is struggling to stay afloat – which has been the case in the past – it’s that the tour’s not experiencing the transformational growth Marcoux Samaan preached.

The departure of Cognizant, a Fortune 100 company that was bullish on the LPGA from the start – signaled a red flag. The hope was that Cognizant’s leadership would sing the LPGA’s praises to other blue-chip companies and lead to organic growth.

Instead, they’re out after title-sponsoring four editions of the event, leaving the tour scrambling to back its own Founders Cup as the LPGA celebrates 75 years.

In addition, stops that have been on tour for decades in Portland and Toledo have been on life support now for several seasons. For reference, the inaugural Portland Ladies Classic dates back to 1972. The Toledo stop began in 1984.

As the LPGA looks to add to the number of events it owns and operates, it has become increasingly clear that the tour lacks the resources needed to make what it currently runs – such as the Solheim Cup and Founders Cup – a success. The tour has invested heavily in boosting its staff in recent years.

Sponsors are gonna come and go, and the ladies will struggle here, but obviously an event that has been aggressively promoted hasn't panned out.  But that last bit didn't make much of an impression on me at the time, but now comes a Beth Ann follow-up:

LPGA to lose $2 million in 2024 after adding staff, attempting to increase exposure

Exposure?  Say, can I put you nice ladies into a PIP program?  I mean, look at all it's done for the men's game...

The grade of an LPGA commissioner is largely attached to one thing: the schedule.

How many tournaments are being staged and how big are the purses?

But there’s another bottom line that’s important and less public, and that’s the tour’s operating

budget. Multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek that the tour is slated to lose around $2 million this year. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said two weeks ago in her annual address that the tour’s total staff had increased by 35 percent in recent years.

The commissioner, who announced on Monday that she’s stepping down on Jan. 9, invested heavily on increasing exposure for the tour but, so far, has come up short in the return. The former Princeton athletic director said she was “building the infrastructure in order to build our global fan base.”

That the tour could lose money at a time of unprecedented growth in women’s sports – especially during a lucrative Solheim Cup year – set off alarm bells for some.

I'm a bit skeptical of this women's sports boom, but that's not the only aspect of this that suffers from a concentration issue.  But even the process by which these staffer could drive revenues eludes me, as those TV contracts are locked in and gates receipts are likely the property of the local organizers.

LPGA Player Director Ashleigh Buhai wasn’t too concerned about the loss, however, saying “you’ve got to spend money to make money.”

“Everybody who comes into a lead position is going to try to do things their own way to make their own mark,” said Buhai, “and sometimes you pull it off, and sometimes you don’t.”

Given the starry headlines of 2024 – with the dynamic one-two punch of Nelly Korda’s seven-win season and Lydia Ko’s fairy-tale run into the LPGA Hall of Fame – some players were surprised to see a schedule come out that showed little growth. Official money for 2025, thus far, is up $3.6 million from last season.

“We’re moving in the right direction all the time, but the schedule is very much major heavy,” Ireland’s Leona Maguire said two weeks ago at the CME Group Tour Championship.

“The purses in the majors do disguise some things, I feel like, and the gap between us and the men seems to be growing rather than us catching up. … There couldn’t possibly have been any better golf played. I’ll just say that.”

The corollary to Buhai's Rule is that sometimes you're better off just burning the money, because at least you get some heat....

That concentration reference above was specifically about the increase in purses, which are largely a result of the USGA and R&A subsidizing the two Opens.  

I've long called this the Tour That Can't Shoot Straight, but it's worth revisiting that Solheim Cup transportation issue, of which we can say that unforced errors don't get much more unforced.  It demonstrates contempt for your paying customers and quite obviously over-shadowed their premiere event, but it happened in the context of a major staff increase, and yet folks go our of their way to assert that, of course, this wasn't Mollie's fault.  Well, then whose faulty would it be?  Especially given this:

When there weren’t enough buses on Friday morning to transport fans at the Solheim Cup, resulting in wait times of more than two hours, the tour’s communication with the public and media was virtually non-existent for most of the day. It wasn’t until late Friday evening that the tour publicly addressed the issue with a plan (that was quickly deleted and replaced with a scaled-down statement). The commissioner didn’t take questions until the following morning.

What started out as a bus shortage turned into a crisis of leadership.

No, Beth Ann, that's not how any of this works.  It was always a crisis of leadership, it's just that we may not have known it until; they forgot to arrange for buses....  This is consistent with what we see in the larger world, where no one has any residual interest in their day jobs.  So, you look pretty incompetent when you staff up but are left with no one to do the blocking and tackling.  Then Mollie consults her Crisis Management 101 textbook, but she apparently reads at a remedial level, and didn't get to that chapter on taking ownership until it was too late to be credible.  So, yeah, she wasn't up to the job.

A Rebuttal - Ripped from the headlines:

Trans golfer Hailey Davidson furiously hits back at LPGA after bombshell ban

 Hell hath no fury like a biological male scorned...

I have far more sympathy for her than may be apparent from my writing, but that's the essence of the day, that we should govern ourselves based upon people's feelings....  It sounds promising, until you contemplate whose emotions will govern.

First some background on Hailey:

The 31-year-old had hoped to break into the top ranks of women's professional golf, trying to earn status on the tour over the past year.

She had competed in qualifying for the US Women's Open before playing in Q-School this fall where she earned status on the Epson Tour - the feeder circuit for the LPGA Tour.

The 31-year-old missed qualifying for the US Women's Open this year by one shot and came up short in LPGA Q-school.

Davidson last competed as a male golfer in 2015, after which, she began hormone therapy treatments and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2021.

The first point I want to make is the Orwellian language employed, something the left could give master classes in.  We used to call this condition gender dysphoria, which was commonly considered a debilitating psychological condition.  As I heard from a commentator somewhere, when something needs to be normalized that means it's not, checking notes, normal.  Hold that thought as we let Hailey speak:

'Can't say I didn't see this coming. Banned from the Epson and LPGA,' Davidson wrote in an Instagram Stories post. 'All the silence and people wanting to stay 'neutral' thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of all your silence.

'What a great birthday present for 2024. Having the greatest achievement I've earned in my life taken from me,' she added.

We can all appreciate how devastating this must be, and we can and should feel profound sympathy for her.  That said, how do we feel about that first 'graph?  If you distill liberalism as practiced to its constituent parts, this is what you find, the inability or refusal to even acknowledge alternatives views of the world.  There's lots of people that think differently on this issue, Hailey, as you might have noticed, and you might want to consult a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing on this...

But then Hailey has to add this:

'And somehow people are surprised the suicide rate for transgender people is around 50%. Situations just like this are part of the reason.'

I'm sorry, Hailey, but are you saying that we have to allow you to beat up on women or you'll off yourself?  The first question I asked myself was, is that 50% number real?  Admittedly, asking myself wasn't very productive, so asked Google:

A new study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that 81% of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, 42% of transgender adults have attempted it, and 56% have engaged in non-suicidal self-injury over their lifetimes.

That's one data point and it's all self-reported, so I'm guessing that Hailey's number is a bit high, but I'll concede it's not crazy high.   the problem is that Hailey doesn't seem to understand that she's making my point above, which is that this population suffers from a debilitating psychological trauma.  And, Hailey, your reaction is exactly what we'd expect, and the emotional blackmail you will find to be counterproductive.  If you don't believe me on that last point, you might want to give Kamala a call...

At the risk of repeating myself, Hailey is calling out all those who stay "neutral" in this debate, the telling them they'll be responsible for the outcome of her life.  Does she actually believe that will win her adherents?  because she's actually ensuring the opposite.  She's too emotionally involved to understand that most us will respect (not understand, which is far harder) and support her decision as an adult to live the life she wants to live, by that I mean she can live it as a woman.  But that doesn't come with an entitlement to play women's professional sports, and they just won't accept that they can't compel us to require.

Because Hailey ignores several huge elephants over in that corner, first women such as this:

The tour's change came after months of pressure from female professionals who wrote to the LPGA, pleading it to take action.

And the decision was championed by players on Wednesday with retired LPGA star Amy Olson telling Dailymail.com that she was 'thrilled.'

'I think that the new policy goes a long way to protecting fairness in women's sports and making sure that women will continue to have the opportunities going forward that women have fought for for a number of years,' she added.

'It took a lot of courage by these organizations, but they did the right thing.'

Star?  No, but the retired bit I think is telling, because she can't be accused of protecting her own feed lot.

Not only does Hailey elide those who have different opinions, but she also can't engage honestly with the most important of those elephants.  Here's a telling vignette:

Women's golf tour owner reveals harrowing experience with trans golfer that sparked push for new LPGA ban

Forgive some long excerpts, but here's the background: 

Davidson's participation resulted in one of the sport's first bans of a trans athlete earlier in March

and provided evidence that doing so might be met with more praise than backlash.

This happened after venture capitalist Stuart McKinnon purchased and took control of the NXXT Golf Tour in January 2023, when Davidson was already a participant.

"I was advised that Hailey was a transgender, and I asked Hailey for some proof of verification that there's eligibility to play, and I had a partnership with the LPGA, so I'm following their rules, and I was provided with a letter from the USGA (United States Golf Association) and a letter from the LPGA by Hailey stating that Hailey was qualified to play in USGA and LPGA sanctioned events," McKinnon said during an X spaces conversation on Thursday with the Independent Council on Women's Sports.

McKinnon learned that trans athletes were very much permitted to participate in the tour he had just purchased. It was a purchase he had made because he wanted to create more opportunities for women's golfers, he said. However, Davidson became a part of that investment because of the institutional rules protecting trans athletes.

"I'm trying to help these ladies and I didn't want to break the rules with the LPGA because, ultimately, I was afraid," McKinnond said, adding that his specific fear was that of the tour's players missing out on exemptions to qualify for other LPGA events.

I'm old enough to remember way back when we cared about women, but here's what he saw:

McKinnon had to watch Davidson finish first place on the tour this past January, marking Davidson's third first-place finish at the event. The win put Davidson in the race to earn an Epson Tour exemption, which is the developmental tour of the LPGA Tour. The top 10 players of the Epson Tour graduate to the LPGA Tour.

After watching Davidson perform up close on the tour he had purchased, McKinnon had come to the belief that it was not fair.

"Davidson won an event… I wasn't at the event, but I was dialed in, hearing what was going on, and Hailey started to dominate," McKinnon said. "As a father of five daughters, I'm here to protect my daughters and protect females, and I can tell you, like, I'm the type of father, if I was watching my daughter playing soccer and there was a male that was playing against her, and he was 240 lbs, barreling down the field, I would have gone on the field and I would have stopped it.

"It's something that can cause, in certain sports, physical damage to a player. In this case, it's not the case in golf, but we clearly felt there was an advantage for Hailey Davidson."

McKinnon and NXXT banned Davidson from the tour in March. It was a landmark moment for the fight against trans inclusion in women's golf and sparked national controversy. At the time, Davidson was second in the mini tour’s season standings.

McKinnon simply could not stand to watch Davidson and the golfer's overpowering swings on his tour anymore.

Apparently Mr. McKinnon didn't get the memo that he's personally responsible if things don't work out for Hailey....

In my prior blogging of this issue I've tried focus on a more primal, existential issue for folks to sort through.  Most folks will instinctively want to afford the widest range of opportunities for all people, so there's a default position the leans towards inclusion.   But why do we have women's athletics to begin with?  If you answer that question with any candor, you come to an inescapable conclusion, that the inclusion of men will destroy women's sports.  So, Hailey argues for her own inclusion, whereas Amy Olson says that will destroy the opportunities for women.  I'm pretty clear who has the better of the arguments.

I want to revisit an argument I made in the past, one I made hesitatingly.  And really, when have you ever known your humble blogger to hold back on a hot take?  Let me use Hailey's own life story to frame my supposition.

We'll fire up the Wayback machine and go back to 2015, when Davidson is going nowhere as a male professional golfer, while struggling with gender dysphoria.  Here's one hell of a question for the world, did the ability to play elite golf as a woman play any motivational role in her decision to transition?

I was reluctant to make that argument as well, as there's a part of me that couldn't believe anyone so struggling could grasp at that.  But this is where the minimization of the condition is to me so dangerous, because we're talking about people struggling profoundly with their lives.  I think we have to at least acknowledge that it's quite the perverse incentive, and keep an open mind as to whether it plays any kind of role.

Besides the obvious existential threat this poses to women's sports, this is why I'm so adamant that the bans be put in place.  I can't know for a fact that it does motivate male-to-female transitions, but I'm really uncomfortable with the perverse incentive being in place.  And were it a factor in Hailey's transition, that's where I can get behind her anger.  Because sometimes saying "no" is actually more sensitive than saying "maybe".

I've gone quite long on that and it's a difficult, troubling issue.  Enjoy your Sunday and, as I note on Thursday, I'll be back around the middle of the week.  For those that care, there is little snow in Utah and nothing encouraging in the forecast, but my nephew is headed my way next weekend and I have a February adventure (more details as the winter progresses) for which I need to get this old body into ski shape.

Thursday Themes - Lonely At The Top Edition

Whattya know, suddenly actual golf news presents.  If only you knew someone who'd muse upon it for you.....

Of Commissioners - Funny how these things play out, but there's legitimate threads involving all our favorite players.... and by players I, of course, mean piñatas.  This hit on Sunday:

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan unexpectedly steps down

Unexpectedly?  I guess they didn't watch the Solheim Cup over at Golf.com....

Shall we allow Mollie herself to put the best face on her tenure?

Marcoux Samaan’s unexpected departure comes in the wake of the 2024 season, which saw purses rise to a record level and Nelly Korda’s ascent to global stardom but also moments of angst among the membership and a logistics debacle at the Solheim Cup in September.

In the interim, Marcoux Samaan will be replaced by Liz Moore, the LPGA’s chief legal officer.

“I thank Chairman John Veihmeyer and the rest of the LPGA Board for trusting me to serve as the ninth Commissioner of the LPGA,” Marcoux Samaan said in a statement. “In this role, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside a remarkable community of athletes, teachers, partners, tournament operators, industry colleagues, media, fans, volunteers, and staff who share a deep commitment to growing the LPGA and using the organization’s unique platform to empower and advance women and girls.

“I am proud of the unprecedented growth the LPGA has enjoyed since I began my tenure. The strategy we have built for growth and impact along with the infrastructure we have added to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity ahead will serve the LPGA well in the coming decades. With the LPGA positioned for continued growth, it’s time for me to have more time to cheer on our three amazing children as they live their dreams while I continue to pursue my passion for building leaders, uniting communities and creating value through sports, particularly women’s sports.”

Sweet that she wants to spend more time with her family, but were there any warning signs?

Despite her successes at the head of the organization, Marcoux Samaan’s final months were marked by hard questions that face the women’s game.

While the popularity of women’s sports at-large grew at a rapid rate in 2024, the LPGA did not see marked increases in television ratings. As Beth Ann Nichols reported for Golfweek, factions of the LPGA membership have been uncertain about Marcoux Samaan’s vision for the tour. During the last week of the season, CME Group CEO Terry Duffy talked openly about why his company sponsors the LPGA, adding that the third round broadcast coverage, which was on tape delay, was “bulls–t,” and that he was challenging Marcoux Samaan to do something about it.

There was also the Solheim Cup transportation debacle, which saw thousands of spectators waiting for hours at a shuttle bus lot for access to one of the biggest golf events on the calendar. Marcoux Samaan held an impromptu press conference following the issue, blaming “miscalculations” and insufficient planning on spectator transportation.

“At the end of the day, I’m the leader of the organization and I have to own it,” she said. “We have a tournament team that runs all of this, but I’m sitting up here in front of you as the leader of the LPGA, and I need to own that.”

Grading on a curve, I see, as mentioning Terry Duffy proves that the issues weren't only in Marcoux Samaan's final months....  There was a famous dinner where she produced exactly zero players for their most important sponsor....

But is the metric above fairly presented?  Of course not, as the growth in the popularity of women's sports seems related to exactly, checking notes, one basketball player.  People don't watch golf and they seem completely locked down in that position as relates to women's golf, so hard to understand why Caitlin didn't drive the hordes to the LPGA.

Here's another take, including a reference to a warning shot across the bow from Beth Ann Nichols a month back:

Biggest disappointments? Where did everything go wrong?

This answer will be a little lengthy, though there were some insights provided by Golfweek’s

Beth Ann Nichols in mid-November in an account of Marcoux Samaan’s rocky tenure. For starters, Marcoux Samaan was not perceived as a deft communicator; she didn’t stand out in a room and seemingly failed to convey her overall plan and mission for the tour. Again, she was there for more than three years. There was enough time. If that was an issue that didn’t draw much attention from the public, those circumstances changed in September when the transportation fiasco at the Solheim Cup caused those watching the association from afar to wonder if she had control of the organization. It was an embarrassment.

Critically, toward the end of 2024, players, officials and media alike had begun to question whether the LPGA fully capitalized on having an American star in Nelly Korda dominate the tour by winning seven times, while having feel-good stories such as Lydia Ko winning the Olympic gold medal to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, and Thitikul taking home the biggest prize in women’s golf—the $4 million being more than is handed out in three of the four men’s major championships.

But your humble blogger wonders if perhaps one of these issues wasn't a factor:

Finally, Marcoux Samaan was not proactive regarding difficult topics that players were passionate about, such as the LPGA’s gender policy, a potential merger with the Ladies European Tour and its stance on a relationship with Golf Saudi.

Because she seemed to go out of her way to duck that one issue, yet in the immediate wake of her resignation comes this news:

LPGA, USGA alter gender policies, barring players assigned male at birth

The LPGA and USGA announced updates to their respective gender policies Wednesday, placing new restrictions on transgender athletes in competition.

Beginning in 2025, golfers must be assigned female at birth or undergo gender reassignment before puberty to compete on both the LPGA Tour and in women’s USGA events.

The USGA’s Competitive Fairness Gender Policy was established with the aim of maintaining equity in USGA women’s competitions, without allowing an unfair advantage for athletes who have received the performance benefits of male puberty. According to a USGA press release, the policy is supported by current scientific and medical research which shows that sports performance differences exist between biological sexes and such differences begin to occur during the onset of puberty.

Ironically, that issue presents a binary decision for the LPGA's leadership, at a time when anything binary is out of vogue.   But, you either want to have a women's professional tour or you want to virtue signal about inclusiveness and other such nonsense, but the Venn diagram involved allows for no overlap.  If that puzzles you, I'll refer you back to Monday's post and Robert Conquest's First Law of Politics.

I won't belabor this much further, but you can peruse this if you so choose:

Who could be the LPGA's next commissioner? Here are six speculative names (and a wildcard)

The wildcard is suitably wild (and interesting), but four of the six are women, which I think will strike most folks as appropriate.  That said, see how you react to this: 

Here is a list of previous commissioners: Ray Volpe (1975-82), John Laupheimer (1982-88), Bill Blue (1988-90), Charlie Mechem (1991-95), Jim Ritts (1996-99), Ty Votaw (1999-2005), Carolyn Bivens (2005-09), Mike Whan (2010-21). Bivens, the LPGA’s first female commissioner, was ousted by players after struggling with relationships and losing some of the tour’s key, longstanding events. 

I can also virtue signal, and I feel it incumbent to express that I believe women can do just about anything in this world, although I do prefer my women to not actually be men, especially not men that go out of their way to beat up on women.  But I'm having trouble getting past a certain date point, to with, that the LPGA's two most disastrous commissioners were also their only two female versions.  How does one rationalize that?  Given my longstanding support for the ladies, I'll posit that it's attributable to the small sample size.

Commish Redux - Eamon Lynch can't resist a parting shot:

Lynch: Greg Norman finds himself in a perilous place — he’s outlived his usefulness for the Saudis

I think this is what they mean by punching down....  Not only is Greggy no longer relevant, he wasn't even relevant the day he landed the gig.  At first read, though, Eamon's screed tells us more about Jay than about Greg.  But let's enjoy the ride:

Optics matter in business, and even moreso in our current polarized moment when believing is seeing, when any detail can be twisted in support of a bias we already hold. So it is with Jay

Monahan’s compensation, which Sportico reported was just over $23 million in 2023, per PGA Tour tax filings. Nothing turns ardent capitalists into Bernie Bros quite like revelations about executive salaries, and reactions to Jay’s pay didn’t disappoint. Whether Monahan actually deserves that money is a matter for the board that approved his package, and which presumably signed off on the bonus structure that accounts for the bulk of it. But to casual observers, it fits a drearily familiar narrative: people who bear at least some responsibility for the lousy state of golf (chiefly players, with executives a distant second) are earning more than ever while their business woefully underperforms by almost any reasonable metric.

Does Patrick know?  Go on, Eamon:

It would be easy to also cite optics for the reportedly imminent departure of another industry executive — Greg Norman, as CEO of LIV Golf — given his Comical Ali-style bluster in the face of failure that only grows more glaringly obvious with each flip of the calendar. But that would be a disservice to the flaxen-haired finger puppet, who has undeniably been successful in ways that his Saudi benefactors required.

Sure, objective reality says Norman has failed to deliver a significant audience, serious commercial sponsorship or a meaningful media deal for his product. But his dexterity in signing someone else’s checkbook gave LIV the only market share it needed — enough competitively relevant players — and his inability to feel shame made him the ideal frontman to brazen out the initial disgust about sportswashing by authoritarian regimes. But while the Shark imagined himself a visionary, to his bosses he was a mere functionary. Like many a Saudi apparatchik before him, Norman has seemingly outlived his usefulness, though unlike others his severance probably won’t be literal, via bonesaw.

You knew we wouldn't get through this without a bonesaw reference, though it's pretty much what Eamon has been saying all along.  I don't think it's been productive, especially when Tiger and Rory joined in, but it may also have served to distract from the damage done to the Tour's membership.

But where are we with this deal?  here's where Eamon is a bit more interesting:

Norman’s eventual ouster will have nothing to do with job performance. It’s simply preparatory for the next phase of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s golf project. If there is a deal between the PIF and the PGA Tour, Norman is too toxic a personality to lead LIV into whatever cooperative new ecosystem takes shape. And if there isn’t, well, it’s not like he’s been doing an outstanding job anyway. By comparison, his reported replacement, Scott O’Neil, is viewed as a sober and respected sports business leader, a chap without baggage who can work within any new arrangement.

So why would O’Neil take a position that might not exist in a couple of years? Either the pay is sufficient to justify the gamble, or the gig won’t be defunct. Bet on the latter.

Given antitrust concerns — regardless of who occupies the White House — LIV won’t be binned as part of a definitive deal between the PGA Tour and PIF. There will probably come a day when the Saudis cease funding their folly, but that isn’t imminent. So, just as one must offer a chair to the most objectionable family member at Thanksgiving, a place will need to be found for LIV in whatever new reality emerges.

Maybe Eamon didn't get the message, but baggage is no longer an issue... But Eamon has more, including this on that report from earlier in the week:

Several scenarios seem feasible. It could continue as a standalone tour; its teams could be folded into a new team golf component on the PGA Tour schedule while LIV’s player contracts fade out; or a combination of both. If a deal is struck and LIV continues as a separate circuit, then it’s likely to do so as an ex-U.S. enterprise, aligned more with the DP World Tour schedule and not competing with the all-important FedEx Cup season. Against that backdrop, consider a Bloomberg report (albeit one dismissed privately by some in Europe) claiming the DP World Tour and LIV are discussing a possible cooperative structure. Such talks would make sense as part of a three-way deal with the PGA Tour. Outside of a trilateral agreement, a LIV-European alliance would pose an existential threat to the PGA Tour. If the Saudis are platformed by a tour with world ranking points, legacy standing and a global presence, what’s to stop every player unafraid of his passport from choosing to compete for huge purses at a select few DP World Tour stops?

Give them the Euro Tour, and throw in Phil and PReed as a bonus.

But apparently this is how Jay earns his ginormous compensation:

In the absence of clarity in PGA Tour-PIF negotiations, everything is presumably on the table.

The continued existence of LIV isn’t the ultimate prize for PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. He wants access to team franchises with real value in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL when rules are eventually loosened on sovereign wealth funds buying ownership stakes. It’s not difficult to see how Al-Rumayyan and the PGA Tour’s existing investors in Strategic Sports Group are incentivized to be in business together. Greg’s dream is merely Yasir’s vehicle. In time, LIV will be viewed as no more than an inconvenient junk asset that needs to be parked until it is finally shuttered.

But optics also matter a great deal to Al-Rumayyan. For now, someone has to spare his blushes over having flushed several billion dollars on a farce. Someone has to facilitate a respectable disengagement over time from the LIV debacle. Someone has to provide an alternative avenue for his ambitions in golf. That someone is apparently Monahan, who finds himself having to simultaneously hold together a fractured boardroom, an underachieving organization and grousing members long enough to build Al-Rumayyan’s off-ramp. Perhaps he’s actually earning his money after all.

Are we in good hands, or what?

Did Someone Mention LIV? - Fueling those Euro rumors earlier this week was the surprising withdrawal of Big Tone from the year's fifth major.  Now comes clarification:

Tony Finau shoots down LIV rumors, says Hero WD was injury-related

Perhaps you might have mentioned that?

"They're not true," Finau said of the LIV rumors, adding that the sources who were speculating

on the matter were "random people" and "not credible."

"I'm more than happy where I'm at on the PGA Tour and looking forward to 2025," Finau told Schupak (you can read that full story here). "When I tee it up in Maui [at The Sentry], it will all go away, so, I don't worry about it one bit."

Finau told Golfweek the actual reason for his withdrawal from Tiger Woods' event at Albany this week is injury-related. The six-time PGA Tour winner underwent surgery in October to repair a torn meniscus and remove cartilage in his left knee. It was an injury Finau says bothered him much of last season despite the fact he was still able to rack up 13 top-20 finishes in 2024, including a T-3 in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

Don't much care, Tony, but hard to see why anyone would jump in the current moment, especially with those that previously jumped looking so happy with that choice.  

It's Kiz - We have a weiner:

NBC Sports has named Kevin Kisner its lead golf analyst for the 2025 PGA Tour season. “I’m humbled and grateful to have the chance to sit in the seat that many legends like Johnny Miller

and Paul Azinger have sat in before me on NBC,” Kisner said in a press release. “I’m looking forward to offering a different voice and adding a new dynamic to the broadcasts, hopefully reaching more fans and telling things like it is. That’s what I think I do best. I’m also excited to continue to compete on the PGA Tour amongst my peers, which I think will help me to tap into what these guys are really feeling on the course.”

NBC used a rotation of names in the booth this year as it tried to fill the void of long-time analyst Paul Azinger, who departed at the end of 2023. Kisner debuted with the network at the Sentry in Maui in January and worked several other tournaments including the WM Phoenix Open, the Players Championship and FedEx Cup playoffs, receiving strong reviews for his performance behind the mic.

I like Kiz, though when paired with Smylie the down-home Southern folksiness can become grating....

But the bigger issue is the effect of Comcast spinning off Golf Channel will have on NBC's coverage.  I've been joking about Rachel Maddow eventually calling golf, but it's quite the hot mess ahead.  The coverage quality has already taken many hits, and Golf Channel looks to be a wounded animal gut off from the NBC teet.

But welcome aboard, Kiz.

That'll be it for this week.  Monday is my first trip out West and Tuesday is already complicated, so I expect we'll next visit on Wednesday.  But it's never too early for you to start praying for snow.  Have a great weekend.