Midweek Musings - Homebound Edition

With only 2" of fresh snow this morning, time to get the heck out of Dodge.....  heading home tomorrow and I'll see from the other side, most likely on Monday.

Keyword Search - The key word, as you'll quickly discover, is "global":

‘Going global’ continues to be all the rage among players looking at pro golf’s future

Fire up the flux capacitor Dr. Brown, we're apparently headed back to the 1990's.... Seriously, for those of us of a certain age, this takes us right back to Nurse Ratched's creation of the World Golf Championships.  The signature moment related hereto was the decision to hold the WGC Match Play at iconic Royal Melbourne, only to have all of the foreign players elect to stay home.  Whatya know, they live in Orlando just like the Yanks do.

Rory kinds kicked this push off late last year, with these comments:

"If we can create a perfect golf calendar, what would it look like? And I don’t think it would look like it looks right now," McIlroy said at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, where he is

competing in this week’s final event of the season. "I think there would be changes made.

"Look at what Max Homa and Justin Thomas did last week, going down to South Africa (where Homa won and Thomas finished fourth at the Nedbank Challenge). They had a really good time. They played in a different part of the world where they had never played before. If more of that sort of stuff could happen, I think it would be really good for golf."

It's not that he's wrong, it's just so naive that it sounds to this observer like John Lennon imagining no countries.... You may say Rory's a dreamer....

There's a world full of golf-mad countries that can and will support events, and we'd all like to see that demand tapped.  That said, events held outside the U.S. have mostly fallen flat on their faces over the years, so some acknowledgement of that might be nice.... Or, yanno, we can just put our hands together and sing Kumbaya, and pretend that we've accomplished something.

But the utopianism aside, there isn't much there there:

Quizzed on what he feels would be the ideal scenario coming out of the high-profile talks currently taking place, Scott had seen McIlroy’s suggestion that a “world tour” emphasizing the historic national Opens around the world is the way to go. That, he felt, would be “ideal,” but maybe “not realistic” in a game where changing American attitudes is “one of the biggest hurdles going forward.” Although, in mitigation of that point, the former Masters and Players champion did paint a more optimistic picture when speculating that the next generation of American players are likely to be more open to using their passports than some others have been in the past.

I'm sure that Latvian Open is going to rock them, but the European Tour has been pretty much maxing out their National Open card, and we see how well that's going.

The bigger issue and the reason for that over-interpreted JT-Max Homa trip has little to do with LIV/PIF, it's the change in the Tour's treatment of the Fall ass-end of their schedule.  With no FedEx points on offer, the guys can go play some new events, though we should note that not too many have taken the opportunity.  But the problem historically has been as much about getting the foreign players to travel, as about the xenophobic Americans.

Keith Pelley has submitted an unconvincing audition tape for visionary status:

The complexities of McIlroy’s “dream” didn’t get litigated during that press conference, but they were illustrated at an intimate gathering Tuesday between outgoing DP World Tour chief Keith

Pelley and a gaggle of reporters. Pelley is bound for Toronto, where he hails from, to become the CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, but not before April 2, and certainly not before the next couple of months provide a clearer picture of how the game’s leading tours chart a future either with or without billions of dollars from the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Asked simply about what he would like to see moving forward, Pelley was prescriptive.

“I think the growth of the game is global. I think that’s where the focus needs to be,” he said. “I think with the emergence of [Fenway Sports Group], which owns Liverpool, you know, they understand the importance of global. PIF certainly understands the importance of being global. This is a global game. Every business now that is growing wants to be global. You see that here in Dubai. You saw that last week with the Dubai Invitational. I think for me, what I would like to see is the game becoming unified with a global strategy.”

Global, global, global. Pelley used that terminology relentlessly during the 40-minute sitdown — 18 times in total — but an interesting turn came from the immediate follow-up question.

Does the PGA Tour view it that way, too?

“I think the PGA Tour is coming to the realization that globality is the key for growth,” he said. “They have heard me say it once or twice.”

Oh yeah, that Dubai International is the ticket, a sixty-player field including a guy from Michael Jordan's club that finished 72 strokes behind the winner....  

The calendar is a cruel mistress, and this utopianism doesn't seem to accommodate any of these harsh realities.  You have maybe a forty week year (because even LIV doesn't want to compete against the LIV juggernaut and the top players will peg it maybe twenty times a year.  Do the math!

Strange Bedfellows - I have been reliably informed that golf is a game for gentlemen, and certainly I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.  And like me you've probably taken to the cut of Yasir's jib, so perhaps a reminder of who these folks are?

Report: Head of LIV Golf accused of campaign involving 'wrongful kidnapping and detention'

Wrongful is a very subjective term.....

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the de facto head of LIV Golf, has been accused of “having carried out the instructions” of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince

Mohammed bin Salman with “malicious intent” according to a lawsuit filed in Canada. The story was first reported by the Athletic.

Dr. Saad Aljabri, a former intelligence officer with the country who fled and has since defected to Canada, is attempting to bring the suit regarding the treatment of his family. Two of his children were arrested in 2020 for “security reasons” before both were scheduled to continue their education in the United States. Aljabri’s son, Omar, received a nine-year sentence while Aljabri’s daughter, Sarah, is serving a sentence of just under seven years; neither had the chance to be present for their trial or to cross-examine witnesses. The family has had no contact with their children since their imprisonment.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain I remember somebody referring to these guys as scary mofos.... anyone remember who that was?

According to the suit, Aljabri accuses Al-Rumayyan of direct involvement in a number of allegations. “These include taking steps to orchestrate an alleged campaign which include ‘wrongful kidnapping and detention,’ ‘misappropriation of property’ and the ‘expropriation’ of companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars into PIF hands,” according to The Athletic. The outlet also reports that Al-Rumayyan took steps to bring the criminal proceedings against the Aljabri children as punishment for Dr. Aljabri’s defection.

Or, maybe like Hillary, they just think it takes a village....

The article concludes with a review of that sovereign immunity dust-up from the antitrust litigation, which seems of limited relevance given that this seems both a criminal allegation as well as being in the judicial system of a different country.  That said, this concluding 'graph caught my eye:

News of the lawsuit comes as the PGA Tour and PIF attempt to finish a deal before April. Though the PGA Tour maintains it controls LIV Golf’s destiny as part of the proposed deal, Al-Rumayyan has asserted to LIV Golf members and staff that the league will continue, and documents released by Congress contain language in the framework agreement that may give Al-Rumayyan final say over the matter. Al-Rumayyan is also expected to be the chairman of the new for-profit entity created by PIF, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

The highlighting is my own, but I thought the entire Framework Agreement had been publicly released, and contained nothing binding besides the withdrawal of the lawsuit and that famous non-disparagement clause.  To the extent that bold section is accurate, it would appear to be just another instance in which Jay has looked us in the eyes and told us things that just aren't true.....  I know, it's so disillusioning...

But the Framework Agreement only precluded disparagement from the Tour.... fortunately Yasir and the Saudis remain free to self-disparage, which seems to happen every time a rock is turned over.

The Murray Moment - I still think the game of golf teaches us valuable lessons, though the time for lectures from golf's leadership is long past.  Joel Beall is venturing into a strange spot with this, methinks:

On forgiving, but not forgetting, Grayson Murray and his controversial past

OK, Joel, but who's on the jury?

A discussion on extending grace is complicated when the subject has displayed a conspicuous

absence of it.

For almost his entire professional existence, Grayson Murray is a man who has existed as a knucklehead, whose massive talent was always outweighed by trouble. He picked fights with his fellow players, exhibited uncouth behavior on the course, had a caddie part midway through a round, spewed hate and conspiracy theories on Twitter and was caught making an inappropriate comment towards an underage woman. There were certainly times where Murray seemed sympathetic, such as when he was involved in a serious scooter crash, the reveal that two family members had been murdered and his very public cry for help regarding substance abuse and his mental health. Yet whatever empathy was there tended to be muted due to the aforementioned foibles and a lack of penitence. His story was also never fully unpacked, because ultimately golf is a sport where one is judged by the score next to your name, and for the past five years the numbers next to Murray usually translated to the letters “MC.” Because Murray lived on the fringes of the sport, his plight could often be ignored.

I tried to deal with this issue on Monday, and have no problem with Joel reciting Murray's tortured history.  I did it a few times myself.... I don't view it as forgiveness, just more like acceptance, because he's tried to change that trajectory.

I wonder how Joel responded to Phil's famous fauxpology two years ago, because to me this more what an apology looks like:

“It took me a long time to get to this point,” Murray said on Sunday evening. “I'm a different man now. I would not be in this position right now today if I didn't put that drink down eight months ago.”

Murray said he’s been sober for eight months. His alcohol abuse stemmed from anxiety and depression. “I struggle with comparing myself to others, self-esteem,” Murray said. “There's a lot of issues that—I call them issues. I think they're common issues that we all endure. I got tired of trying to fight it alone, and I asked for help one day, and that's when my life changed.” He found a woman that helped him see the light, and they are now engaged. Murray also asserted he’s been more in touch with his faith.

But do we really need Joel's guidance here?

In a vacuum, it has the makings of a redemption narrative. Addiction issues are a beast so many battle in the shadows, and to do it on a public stage—and to come out the other side—is not only admirable but inspirational. Quick as sports fans are to judge, they are also happy to forgive, especially those who are contrite. Couple these serious affairs with the notion that golf loves its players who are able to return from a stay in the wilderness, Murray has all the makings of a tale worth rooting for.

In that same breath, it’s fair to wonder if Murray truly is a changed man. Did he find religion, did he find stability … or is he simply off social media, his abrasive, divisive and conspiratorial thoughts no longer amplified? It’s also easy to seem at peace after victory; will he still be the same guy we saw in Hawaii if he begins to miss cuts?

I think we all get that people trying to change what's wrong in their lives sometimes backslide, and it's fine to acknowledge that it's still early days for the guy.

That said, he showed quite a lot of poise and acceptance out there on Sunday, when it mostly looked like he would come up short.  What Joel is saying is time will tell, which is both true and unworthy of a Golf Digest byline.

The other interesting aspect of the Murray Moment is that Shane Ryan picks up on one of your humble blogger's threads:

Rory vs. Grayson: A nearly forgotten exchange takes on new meaning—and turns golf on its head

 I certainly never forgot about it, as you know if you here Monday.

Shane seems most interested in the Karmic Convergence of their Sundays:

Regardless, the McIlroy-Murray spat seemed a flash-in-the-pan story, juicy but with no real legs and destined to be forgotten as the drama in professional golf only became more pronounced with summer turning to fall. But it was brought back to mind this past Sunday, when in the kind of happenstance that would seem too strange for fiction, both men found themselves in contention to win a tournament, albeit thousands of miles apart.

At the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational, McIlroy lived out a nightmare, with a three-putt from two feet on the 14th hole and a tee shot on 18 that hooked into the water. What looked like a win became a collapse, and Tommy Fleetwood stole the victory. Meanwhile, at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii, Murray made the right shots at the opportune moments, and buried a stunning 38-footer on the first playoff hole to win his first Tour event since 2017. ("Play better," indeed.)

Here's where Shane takes his shot at the bigger picture:

Beyond his personal foibles, and his personal redemption, Murray is a stand-in for the PGA Tour everyman, insofar as you can use that word to describe people playing a sport for millions of dollars. The 30-year-old from North Carolina is the quintessential "mule," the low impact player who feels he has been left behind as the tour combats LIV Golf by giving more and more to its top players. Even as purses have grown, the move toward smaller fields with no cuts in certain events has led players such as Murray to feel that opportunities have dried up and that they're being treated by their own organization as afterthoughts. (Murray is among a group of 20 tour members who signed a letter in December seeking more information about the investment proposals that the tour was reviewing.) When he told McIlroy to "f*** off," it probably resonated on a gut level for those like him who feel ignored as professional golf races for the dizzying heights.

Shane is being overly kind here.  Rory and Tiger sold out these mules, and confronted with one of the victims, couldn't justify his actions with anything more substantive than, "go away son, you're bothering me."

What Rory and these top twenty or so players have told us is that they only way to save the Tour is pay them more.  Sorry, Shane, but some of us beg to differ:

And McIlroy, who was positioned perhaps incorrectly as the martyr carrying the tour's cross before being betrayed, has made out well for himself. His profile and his talent ensured that while the 34-year-old from Northern Ireland very much put himself out on a limb and likely subjected himself to stress that hurt his game, he wasn't about to emerge from the chaos with nothing. He still belonged to a class of athlete far beyond the Grayson Murrays of the world. The larger purses, the signature events, the surge in PIP money (in which McIlroy took first place), and the general flow of cash upward all benefited him, and along with leaders like Tiger, he had a major hand in creating them. (On the extreme side of the spectrum, there are emphatic quotes from current LIV players, including a former Ryder Cup teammate, essentially saying that Rory was out for himself just like they were, but that his money "came from the other side.") His defense of the tour, sincere as it was, came with opportunities even as he seems to be entering a reconciliation phrase, essentially saying that he's finished fighting the tide (having stepped down from the PGA Tour Policy Board), and positioning himself for whatever comes next.

Yeah, exactly.  I don't even think that Rory was in it for himself, I just think he's so clueless that he happily played the useful idiot role.  But, when confronted, he reverted to default a*****e mode...

The goods is that Rory has resigned from the Pac and can now dedicate himself to his core activities, such as three-putting from two feet.

One last bit from Shane:

That is what any intelligent person of his stature would do; there was real morality in the stance he took publicly while others were content to remain behind the camera, but there's an undeniable practicality, too. And it's a kind of practicality that isn't quite available to people like Grayson Murray, the forever outsiders, limited to shouting at men like Monahan, cursing at the upper crust, but increasingly without voice in the big fight of our time and ultimately dependent on the tour's mercies to secure their futures.

That's the realpolitik of the world as it exists in professional golf, and a reflection of forces that have seemed, for years now, inevitable. But what makes sport so fascinating is not the opaque business side, or class divisions, but the uncertainty of the game itself, and the meritocracy of the simple win and loss.

The tour's mercies an interesting concept, though it's more they're at the mercy of Patrick Cantlay right now.  Or Yasir, and it's not clear which is worse.

Meanwhile, In the Trenches -  PGA Tour sponsors seem to be emulating an Agatha Christie movie:

Farmers Insurance, title sponsor for the PGA Tour stop at Torrey Pines in San Diego since 2010, does not plan to renew its contract when it expires in 2026, according to a report from Sports Business Journal. The news comes three weeks ahead of the 2024 edition of the event will be played on Torrey Pines' North and South courses.

Farmers is the second company to decide to drop its title sponsorship with the tour in as many months. Wells Fargo announced in December that it would step away from its role as title sponsor of the tour event at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte after 2024.

Those two events seem similarly situated, having enjoyed some moments in the sun previously, but now without a chair as the music stops.  What's going on?

Title sponsorship costs for a regular full-field PGA Tour event have increased to between $13 million and $15 million. The PGA Tour has brought on two new title sponsors for events starting in 2024: Cognizant for the tournament at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and Texas Children's Hospital for the Houston Open. The tour also brought in CJ Group to take over the title sponsorship of the Byron Nelson event in Dallas.

That's a lot of spinach when, due to the bifurcation of the Tour's events, you've got zero chance of attracting any kind of meaningful filed.  It's even worse for Farmer's, which because it's NFL conference championship week, has bene forced to finish on Saturday.

This piece on the Sony Open is an interesting take on life as a PGA Mule (tournament version):

Sony Open in Hawaii tournament director Ray Stosik has spearheaded the biggest sports charity fundraiser on any of the Hawaiian Islands since 1998 and seeing the impact the tournament makes in the community never gets old.

But the task of matching that figure, let alone growing its charitable contribution, may be challenging beginning in 2025 when the Tour is expected to implement a new formula for determining tournament fees and revenue sharing. As first reported by the Sports Business Daily, events were told in December that they would be asked to pay an additional:

$125,000 (FedEx Cup Fall)

$250,000 (full-field)

$500,000 (signature events)

Those numbers will increase in 2026 to:

$250,000 (FedEx Cup Fall)

$500,000 (full-field)

$1 million (signature events)

How these amounts fit into that $13-15 million cited above is unclear, but the arrow is pointing in a very clear direction.

It seems pretty clear that the charities will take a hit:

Asked if the Sony Open is sustainable under the proposed changes the Tour shared with the

tournament sponsors during its annual meeting in Palm Springs, California, in December, Stosik said, “I would say between the Tour, Friends of Hawaii Charities, the state of Hawaii, we plan to make it work.”

But when pressed how he envisions doing so, he’s a bit more realistic.

“If all the charitable giving in the future rests on the host organizations without some PGA Tour subsidies in certain areas to help assist us with charity, then yeah, it could definitely have an impact on charities.”

Obviously.... Now you know I sometimes focus on idiosyncratic tangents, so no surprise this jumped out at me:

Stosik said most of his brethren expressed concern about the beefed up payments and whether the new for-profit commercial entity known as PGA Tour Enterprises will absorb the tournaments into the for-profit side of the business. If so, what will that shift from nonprofit to for-profit mean?

“That may affect the charities on how much is raised at each event,” Stosik said.

I've been slight abashed to admit to my readers that I have no clue as to whether the new for-profit entity is expected to include the actual tournaments.  I'm certainly relieved to know that an actual event director is similarly clueless.... Can't anybody here play this game?

That's it for now, kids.  I'll see from home next week.