Friday, February 9, 2024

Your Friday Frissson - Deep Stuff Edition

For my last ski day this trip, Park City Mountain resort just reported 12" in the last 24 hours....  Might need to get me some of that.  Here's the snow stake:

If you like that sort of thing....

Scenes From The Wasatch - I'm past taking too many photos, but let me shar what I have.  First, a sunrise from my condo from early in the trip:

And from Wednesday, ski buddy Lee preparing to shred the eponymously-named Lee's Trees, a line he discovered a few years back (first time in it this season):

It's wet, heavy snow, but no one had been in there for a while.... Our tracks have filled in by now, so one might find us there later.

As hinted at above, I fly home tomorrow.  

Scenes From The Wasted - We typically only look for ski beanies at the Scottish or the Open Championship, but this week in, checking notes, Phoenix, we've been rewarded:

One can only hope that he doesn't remove the beanie on the 18th green and try to cover his receding hair line....

And while your humble blogger continues to exert his influence to ban the dreaded hoodie, we now have this appearance of the metro-sexual fanny-pack:

Do they know people are watching?  Admittedly, only a handful for a Thursday broadcast, but still...

As for the golf, the early starters were the only ones to finish:


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sahith Theegala is ranked No. 22 in the Official World Golf Ranking but he may be more proud of his chess ranking.

“I’m at my all-time Blitz rating right now. Like, I don’t want to play, because I know I’m going to drop a bunch,” he said.

“It’s not often where kind of every part of the game actually kind of clicks during the course of the round,” Theegala said. “It felt like through the bag I did something good with every club.”

Theegala birdied six of his first 13 holes, including a pitch-in for birdie at No. 2.

Amusingly, Golfweek seems to be featuring photos of players exclusively on the 10th tee.... Perhaps their photographers forgot their beanies and stayed close to the clubhouse.

For some reason I find this behind the scenes look charming:

Theegala made his lone bogey of the day at No. 5 right before play was suspended due to unplayable conditions.

“I was relieved when the horn blew, yes,” said Theegala, who enjoyed lunch with his parents and played some chess puzzles during the break and then made birdie at No. 6 when play resumed.

Even more amusingly, the Face-Plant Tour™ continues: 

Valley of the Sun it was not on Thursday

On Sunday, the wind was so fierce at Pebble Beach that the final round was canceled and the
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was shortened to 54 holes.

On Thursday, remnants of the storm made its way to the desert and a band of rain that already had dumped more than an inch of rain earlier in the week led officials to institute preferred lies on Thursday. A steady rain fell sideways, leading to multiple greens that turned into giant puddles. Play was suspended for 3 hours, 30 minutes and called for the day due to darkness at 6:10 p.m. local time, marking the third straight year the opening round of the WM Phoenix Open has been suspended due to weather and/or darkness.

The entire afternoon wave has yet to complete their round. Those players will be back in position Friday at 7:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. ET).

The temperature dipped into the high 40s during the afternoon, and the morning forecast is for more chilly weather, which means there could be a frost delay Friday.

Recently I penned an Ode to Crosby Weather.... Perhaps I should have mentioned that I prefer my Crosby Weather at, yanno, the Crosby.  Perhaps it's time to sacrifice a virgin?  

Lastly, the Wasted brings out all kinds, but I'm thinking there must be a back-story here:

Wyndham, Hold My Beer - The folks justifiably struggling over whether that 60 shot at Pebble under lift, clean and cheat now have bigger issues:

The name Cristobal Del Solar might not be familiar to many golf fans, but after Thursday's performance, he'll be more known by his new title: Mr. 57.

The 30-year-old Chilean fired a 57 to set a new record for the lowest-ever score in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. Del Solar's 13-under-par round came on Day 1 of the Korn Ferry Tour's Astara Golf Championship.

It's been my experience that a 57 will not hurt you in this game.... Shockingly, the granular details are off the charts:

You know there's a "But" coming:

OK, now to a couple points of clarification. Del Solar's round came at the Pacos Course, the easier of the two courses being used at the Country Club of Bogota in Colombia. And in addition to it being a par 70, it also was playing at 6,254 yards, which is very short for men's pro golf. And it played even shorter considering the course is located nearly 9,000 feet above sea level.

Yeah, and not only did I need to correct typos for Golf Digest in that excerpt, but shouldn't they have told us this as well?

Rainy conditions in the days leading up to the tournament meant players were permitted to lift, clean and place golf balls under preferred lie rule.

Kind of an important detail, no?

This may be the funniest bit:

Hey, Wyndham lagged his eagle putt for 59, so why not lag your putt for 56?  

Obviously 6,200 yards at 9,000 feet with a course so soft that L,C&C is necessary deserves a triple asterisk, but that 57 should still send shock waves through the game.  For some time the opponents of tightening equipment and ball regulations argued fairly that the increased distance wasn't reflected in reduced scores on professional golf tours.  With guys we've never heard of throwing up 57's, I think we can dispense with that argument going forward.

Wither LIV - Good times, right?  Lots of commentary from which we'll sample, including this shocking prediction:

Are you sure about that?  because I was reliably informed that golf could only grow if Patrick gets paid...

Joel Beall writes as if from a prior decade?  Maybe that should century?

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely this is the solution, because greed, self-preservation and entitlement are not financial issues. They are issues of the heart and soul, and no dollar sign fixes that. Eventually the sense of privilege returns because it is a demon that can never be fed. Besides, there’s another entity that holds the key to this fight, and it’s a party both sides seem brazenly obtuse to its power. For a second, put aside that the tour remains in competition with a foreign kingdom capable of sending fleets of Brink’s trucks to any golfer it wishes, or that Wednesday’s deal likely signaled peace isn’t coming anytime soon, and focus on privilege. Because for the better part of two years, the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, players and most of the constituents involved with both have taken for granted the privilege of your investment, of your attention and time and passion. It’s not capital or leverage or legacy that’s important; what makes any of this matter is you.

That may seem hard to believe, considering how sidelined and hopeless many onlookers have felt in this stupid feud. But in one collective voice it is the fans who will ultimately decide how this plays out. Fans are the ones who give what’s going on consequence and meaning, and why companies are willing to spend millions to associate themselves with an ecosystem that emits an emotional pull. That’s why LIV Golf has been a failure, because, for all its claims of disruption, by almost every metric available, it has not gained your care. It is a circus without a crowd, the most expensive member-guest ever produced. And yet, the PGA Tour and many players are just as guilty, catering to their own membership over the common man. Why the stakeholders have missed this point—why they care more about themselves rather than where their actions are taking golf as a whole—remains a point of great frustration.

Yeah, but does Joel know that chivalry is dead....  Also, the deck chairs on the Titanic have been rearranged:

The good news is there’s hope. There are a number of astute players who hear and see you, who understand as bad as this craziness has been for them it’s worse for you. Mackenzie Hughes spoke about it eloquently earlier this year. Rory McIlroy has realized that the tour needs to be taking some of its direction from those outside the ropes, too. But it is a point that needs to be hammered home, which is what Collin Morikawa did on Tuesday. Morikawa went ahead and called out the very product that gives him his way of life and did so with an ease and candor that only comes when speaking the truth.

Joel, have you been away, because Rory is now pimping for the Saudis....So?  

That was Joel Beall back on January 31st.  Here's Joel in the here and now:

The LIV Golf question that the PGA Tour must answer

I assume that Joel is not especially financially savvy, though the math isn't that difficult:

Those hoping for long-awaited unification in the professional game were likely disappointed with
last week’s announcement that the PGA Tour would be partnering with private equity. The door remains open for future rapport with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, also known as the financial backer that spurred golf’s schism, although those talks have gone cold, multiple sources have told Golf Digest. While the deal with the Strategic Sports Group was made with future PIF involvement in mind some of the tour’s player leaders are telegraphing they’re just fine if PIF—and more specifically, PIF’s LIV Golf and LIV players—remain on the outs. And that is a problem, because a schism remains a schism unless the sport is made whole.

“I don’t think that it’s needed,” said tour board member Jordan Spieth last week. “I think the positive [of a deal with PIF] would be a unification [of PGA Tour and LIV players], but I just think it's something that is almost not even worth talking about right this second. The idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it's operating right now without anything else.”

Adam Scott was more blunt in his assessment: “We don’t need it purely from a financial standpoint.”

Financially they are not wrong. Adding $1.5 billion to its coffers, with another $1.5 billion in the wings, provides the tour a stability that wasn’t there just weeks ago. Although the $930 million in player equity shares will not prevent other players from eventually defecting—because greed and entitlement cannot be alleviated by any dollar amount—it should buy the tour some time.

OK, so tell me how this works, Joel.  The Tour takes in $1.5 billion large for the sole purpose of paying that sum to the players or, more accurately, the cool kid players.  That's great, but they are committed to spend at a rate far in excess of their revenues, so those famous jock-sniffers are funding losses.  Which I suppose is great for a handful of guys, but it only works until the money guys realize that jacking the revenues isn't so easy.

I do need to keep moving, but Joel sorts through the rising opposition to allowing the players back without penalty, and this is his rousing crie de coeur:

This is not PIF’s decision; for all the things money can’t buy, it can’t purchase a conscience. This is not Monahan’s decision; he put the tour in this can’t-win scenario. Ideally the fans would be
the North Star; alas, while fans will ultimately decide if golf is headed in the right way, they are not the ones behind the wheel. The choice belongs to the players who stayed on the PGA Tour. They are the ones who stayed, whose careers were and are on the line, who did what they believed was right, yet are now forced to judge those that wronged them.

Tour players may think their stance against LIV players returning is one of principle. In truth, it’s pride. Because it takes swallowing one’s pride to welcome back the prodigal son. To let others think they’ve won. To think your sacrifices were for naught. To risk the appearance of going back on what you originally stood against. But to not welcome back LIV players, to keep this war going … there’s a reason pride comes before the fall.

Everyone wants the game unified, but let's not forget that guys like Phil and Sergio went out of their way to damage the Tour.... I don't actually think a one-size fits all solution is the answer.  I don't have big problems with most of the guys, but there were some really bad actors out there.

One last bit on that PGA Tour Enterprises equity grants:

One week after announcing a landmark investment for $1.5 billion (or more), PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has updated the Tour membership on just how much equity value will be issued, and how many players will receive it.

It was one of the most pressing questions following the announcement — $930 million is great, but who is going to get it? On a players-only call last week, Monahan made clear that the number would be “near 200,” but Wednesday’s memo, which was obtained by GOLF.com, revealed more specifics: 193 players to be exact.

The lion’s share of the initial grants in PGA Tour Enterprises (a new for-profit entity) — $750 million worth, or more than 80 percent — will be going to a group of 36 players. You can comfortably assume that Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and players of similar fame and accomplishments will be part of what the memo called “Group 1.” These recipients are earning grants based on their career performance, their past five years of performance and results in the annual Player Impact Program, a system that measures positive impact on the PGA Tour.

Yeah, we know who the cool kids are, and the program is carefully designed to reward them.  There is one aspect that jumps off the page:


Oh, Joy!  The PIP program, which is little more than a slush fund for Jay to reward those that remain loyal under highly opaque parameters, will now be used to award equity stakes.  A circus without fans sounds just about right....

That's it from Utah, kids.  The weekend may have to await wrappage until Tuesday, so bear with me.  Have great weekend and I'll see you from the other side.

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