Thursday Threads - Dog Days of February Edition

Appreciate your acceptance of the limited blogging schedule....  I know, it means we won't give the Mexico Open at Vidanta the flood-the-zone coverage it deserves.... Let me know when you're done laughing and we'll continue.

No need to tax ourselves today, so we'll cover a few bits and then use an Alan Shipnuck mailbag to keep from breaking a sweat.

Dueling Headers - Our Brave New World has arrived, though one notices a bit of a schism in the reactions thereto.  This piece was referenced in a Tour Confidential panel:

The PGA Tour changed this week. Here’s how it looks

Perfect, apparently.....

Is the PGA Tour in a slump, or is this a new reality?

New?  That's a good one...

The first is a breathless James Colgan piece into which he does at least interject a modicum of reality:

If there is a city worthy of stress-testing professional golf’s exclusive, star-focused, image-obsessed, high-priced, overtly capitalist new business model, it is, for obvious reasons, Los Angeles.

In some ways, the PGA Tour’s Signature Events series was built exactly for Hollywood’s pro golf tournament, the Genesis Invitational. There’s a huge, high-profile sponsor (Genesis); a living legend tournament host (Tiger Woods); a historically exclusive and highly-regarded golf course (Riviera Country Club) and one of the best fields in all of professional golf. If the Tour’s new format for Signature Events — starry fields, limited (or no) cuts, lots of money — can’t work here, it’s hard to imagine where it can.

That thinking is what got a lot of the golf world to train its attention on Riviera at the beginning of the week. Tiger’s return to the sport mattered deeply, of course, but his presence was emblematic of a bigger shift on the PGA Tour — a world where the best compete against each other more often and, in theory, more interestingly.

 Did anyone tell James that Bogey no longer sits by his eponymous tree?

Did the smaller field or better starpower have any effect on the week’s crowd sizes? It seems

unlikely. Even for those watching the main event (Tiger Woods), good vantage points could be had on all but the most claustrophobic holes. Sunday grounds tickets could be had on the eve of the tournament’s final day for $110, face value, and clubhouse tickets for $175. That isn’t a red-alarm issue, but considering the Tour’s efforts at taking the Signature Events big-time will at some point require enticing the interest of ticket-buying golf fans, it qualifies as notable.

We won’t know for a few days how the tournament did with those watching from elsewhere, though expectations are high. The West Coast hours mean primetime viewing in much of the U.S., and the quiet sports schedule means limited competition. Annually, the tournament’s ratings are some of the best of the year.

Since James wrote that piece late Saturday, the requisite "few days" have passed, so prepare to be underwhelmed:

According to recent reports, ratings for the Sunday round television coverage fell 5% from the previous year, when Jon Rahm took home the victory. The overall number of viewers for the final round of 2024 was 3.2 million, whereas the total number of viewers for the final round of 2023 was 3.4 million.

Of course, with Tiger going down.....What?

It is worth noting that the opening round of the Genesis Invitational, which included both Tiger Woods and Jordan Speith, did not perform well either in terms of television ratings. They received just 450,000 viewers, a significant decrease of about 51% from 2023.

The counterpoint like above is from Joel Beall, who provides quite the summary of the Tour's vaunted West Coast swing:

The West Coast Swing is ostensibly the PGA Tour at its best, opening its year with good fields at entertaining venues while the rest of the country is buried in the malaise of winter. But as the circuit heads east, it's fair to wonder if the tour began its 2024 season in a slump or if what was seen was a harbinger of what is to come.

That may seem like a cruel assessment of the past seven weeks, particularly to the tournaments in this stretch and the players who won them. In themselves, these weeks had their moments: redemption stories (of varying degrees) in Chris Kirk and Grayson Murray; breakthroughs in Nick Dunlap and Matthieu Pavon; Wyndham Clark cementing his big-game status; a playoff in Phoenix; Hideki Matsuyama’s sensational closing 62 to win Riviera. Collectively, however, the first two months have lacked juice, and a depleted field at this week’s Mexico Open at a resort course does not promise to instill much-needed verve.

I think we can all agree that the cluster-eff that was the Wasted can be accurately summed up and explained by noting that there was a playoff.... Mrs. Lincoln could not reached for comment....

But, excuses:

Those thinking these past seven weeks were an aberration have evidence in their corner, starting with the weather. The climate is historically problematic at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, yet what Mother Nature threw at the tour at this month’s Clambake was downright biblical. Scottsdale, an area which receives roughly seven inches of rain a year, was hit with more than an inch and a half during the WM Phoenix Open. The flu knocked out Tiger Woods from his own event after 24 holes; Jordan Spieth, arguably the second-biggest draw on tour after Woods, was disqualified at Riviera for signing an incorrect scorecard … a flub that might be correlated to Woods' illness. Most of the major headlines from this stretch were other oddities, and some were self-inflicted. The Phoenix Open has long walked a tightrope with fan behavior, only to fall off in public fashion that could have lasting repercussions. After his 54-hole win at Pebble, Clark acknowledged he had been in talks with LIV Golf, adding he eventually chose legacy while prefacing his loyalty to the tour was only good until the end of this year. The tour announced it had agreed to private equity investment from Strategic Sports Group, a deal that is seemingly consequential … yet a deal that featured no press conference or media appearance from tour leadership, the agreement revealed only in a release with scant details, leaving fans to wonder what exactly this means for them.

Does anyone understand that bolded phrase?  The last bit is also quite curious, no?  I don't think that private equity deal itself mattered, though the fact that each and every one of these players has acted like an entitle a****e might.... Just spitballin' here.

So, Joel, what you're saying is that their plan to create a series of exhibitions guaranteeing match-ups of marquee talents has laid an egg.  Then, amusingly, you note the depleted field in Mexico, but you don't seem inclined to connect those rather obvious dots.  The Tour, in promoting its Signature Money Grabs™, has ensured that other events can't possibly attract many top level layers.....Cause, Effect.

So, why the long face?

Conversely, the bigger, overarching worry from the past seven weeks is what fans didn’t see. Rory McIlroy was a tour de force in the Middle East but has been so-so in his two tour starts. Reigning FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland has struggled. Max Homa usually feasts on the West Coast but hasn’t posted a top-10 in five appearances. Collin Morikawa hasn’t done much, and an expected Sunday battle between Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay at Riv turned out to be a dud. Then there is Scottie Scheffler. The two-time PGA Tour Player of the Year is posting the best ball-striking numbers since in-his-prime Tiger … but that performance has been weighed down by his continued putting woes, which have prolonged to the point they can no longer be classified as a funk. Scheffler knows it too; this weekend alone featured images of Scheffler tossing his putter like a baton after missing a putt and dropping to his knees after another, the normally stoic Texan unable to hide his indignation at his flatstick’s betrayal. The putter has single-handedly kept him from a generationally-great 18-month stretch, and as golf has sadistically proved over and over the present (in this case, Scheffler’s tee-to-green game) is no guarantee of the future.

But, Joel, it's the Tour that has tried to convince us that only the guys you mentioned matter....  It actually gets even weirder when he segues to LIV:

Seven weeks is a small sample size. In that same breath, the tour is nearing the quarter mark of the season, and the very stars tasked with keeping the lights on have been dimmed. Which brings us to LIV Golf. For the first two years of LIV’s existence there has been a general belief from tour headquarters that the tour’s depth was its hydra: When one star leaves he would be replaced by another. Generally, that held true. But Jon Rahm's defection seemed to be a tipping point of sorts. LIV has now taken both a significant portion of the tour’s frontline firepower (Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith) along with a sizable bite out of the second- and third-tier rank. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that five of the tour’s seven winners in 2024 were outside the top 50 in World Ranking … but maybe it’s not. That Rahm won three times during this stretch last season only exaggerates the perceived power void.

That bolded bit is true, I only wish the Tour believed it.  Because every action of the Tour (or, perhaps more accurately, of the cabal of elite that have seized control) has been to inhibit the rise of new talent:

In altered PGA Tour landscape, rookies are facing tougher road to rise up the ranks

The author goes event by event adding up the reduced playing opportunities, which even include the alleged full-field events.

I don't agree that Rahm was some sort of tipping point, viewing it as more of the same.... In fact, LIV hilariously bungled the announcement and roll-out, and they have received no actual benefit from the signing that can be discerned:

LIV Golf is struggling to attract golf fans to tune in on broadcasts of the controversial breakaway circuit despite spending big money on new acquisitions like Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.

Hatton became the latest big name from the PGA Tour to defect after reigning Masters champion Rahm joined the controversial breakaway league last month. The Saudi-backed series league secured Rahm’s services by inking him to a deal worth up to £450million - and Hatton followed suit with a £50m move of his own.

However, the star power has failed to attract fans. The final round of LIV Las Vegas drew 297,000 viewers on the CW, with the telecast ultimately finishing 51st for all sport programs that day - level with the Golf Central pregame show ahead of PGA Tour coverage.

I hope you read that last bit carefully... They were the 51st highest rated sports broadcast THAT DAY!  My God, they were competitive with Golf Channel's pregame show.... Can you feel the game growing.

Here is Joel's Cri de Coeur, and I'd like you to see if you can suss out its internal inconsistency:

This sentiment may seem demeaning to this year’s winners, and one of the tour’s alleged assets in golf’s civil war was maintaining the ideal of meritocracy compared to the closed and limited fields of LIV. The problem, however, is that while most sports love underdogs, golf often lives in fear of them. Once in a while, sure, crowds want to pull for the little guy. Every week, not so much. There’s a reason the tour implemented the Player Impact Program: this is a universe that revolves around stars. Worse, three of the seven tournaments (Sentry, AT&T Pebble, Genesis Invitational) have been signature events and six of the next eight are merely “full field” competitions. It doesn’t mean that what’s to come will be anticlimactic; it’s just this was the stretch that was supposed to deliver. This was supposed to be what mattered.

Again, it’s only been seven weeks, and there have been bright spots. Dunlap’s win was a revelation. Justin Thomas is looking like his old self. Spieth and Schauffele have played well. Weather has been bad all over the country, and as for the aforementioned oddities … well, it’s golf, oddities happen. But this slate is supposed to provide us with storylines for the rest of the year, and as the tour leaves California, the biggest one to watch is what product the tour is ultimately presenting.

I completely agree that JT is looking like his old self, that old self being one of only seventeen players to miss the easiest cut line in golf at Riviera....

He says in the first 'graph that golf fans won't abide underdogs but then he characterizes Dunlap as a revelation.  I don't know about your personal experience, but I got more reactions after Dunlap's win that for every other event on the 2024 calendar.  Is it possible, Joel, that you've mindlessly absorbed the nonsense from those perfect peni and are selling golf fans short?  Because to be a golf fan is to understand that fickle, maddening nature of our game and to embrace it.

Perhaps, Joel, you might want to think through the failure of the WGCs....  because these newfangled money grabs are the mirror image of those lifeless events.  

Let's review the video tape.... when LIV first sprung up we were assured that the issue was the tainted source of the money, whereas it's now blindingly obvious that the only issue is the recipients of said tainted money.  

Now they're telling us that the changes re necessary to ensure that we know that Riviera will have a good field, as if it ever had a bad field.  But what's blindingly obvious now is that Signature Events aren't about whose in the field, they're about excluding the riffraff to enhance the winnings of the cool kids.  Nice work if you can get it...

Alan, Asked - Need to keep this an easy day, so we'll just riff on that certain mailbag feature, beginning with a question we should have been asking since 2019:

Is it time for Tiger to ride into the sunset? @rgen_hle

That is not for you or I to decide. Woods, 48, has certainly earned the right to wind down his career however he damn well pleases. But it is hard to watch his decline. For all the social media hyperventilating that accompanies every Tiger start, the primary emotion I feel is wistfulness, or maybe even sadness. When he was 32, he owned 14 major championships and was easily the most dominant and celebrated athlete on the planet. Every sports fan had the priceless thrill of being witness to a once-in-a-millennium phenomenon. The last decade and a half has been mostly a story of self-destruction. I admire the grit Tiger continues to show but, man, it didn’t have to be like this.

My problem is that there are so many dangling threads from both the Q and A that I want to pull.  let me attempt to show some discipline and limit myself to two.

First, while my MD is still pending, Alan makes an intriguing comment about the arc of Tiger's career, upended by scandal but more by injury.  My enduring is how much of Tiger's injury history is a result of the muscle mass he created in the gym.  I've said this many times, but the body Tiger came into the professional game with seems to me ideally suited to golf, affording flexibility most would die for.  Tie would say that he built up to avoid injury, but am I the only one that thinks it did the opposite?

My second point, again one I've made previously, is that a few years ago I'd have agreed with Alan that Tiger should do as he pleases.  But Tiger himself has compromised that laissez-fair attitude, in dramatically limiting the field sizes of the most important, most lucrative events.  It then looks completely different, dare I say hypocritical, when he himself takes up one of these precious spots and can't perform.... 

Of course, that begs the larger issue of Tiger's elevation to Player Director...  Because, we've been assured that he's our savior, but few seem interested in whose interest he's furthering.  

This an odd combination of Q with A, but also a warm and delightful trip down memory lane:

What is the “Hideki one-handed follow-through on a great shot” equivalent in sports journalism? @MRileyGolf

I recall a Sunday night at the Masters in the mid- to late-90’s, when Dan Jenkins (below) was still writing game stories for Golf Digest. He would still bang out the articles following the final round even though they wouldn’t appear in the magazine until weeks later, a nod to his old deadlines at Sports Illustrated. I took a little break from grinding on my story and bumped into Jenkins in the courtyard in front of the press building, where he would smoke cigarettes and hold court. “Don’t tell me you already filed,” I said. Jenkins took a drag and mumbled through the corner of his mouth, as he was wont to do, “Fooled ‘em again.”

I only wish we had been treated to Jenkins' take on LIV..... OI suspect he would have gone medieval, and that's I'd have lapped it up.

I could on at length here as well, though I did so already above:

Strange PGA Tour week. No questions. @santafelife

Well, I have a few notes. It’s been a messy season so far. A Frenchman and an amateur have won. Phoenix was a clown show. Pebble got washed out. Tiger and Jordan Spieth were unceremoniously bounced out of Riviera. Hideki is the only blue-chip player to get it done on a Sunday (though Wyndham Clark had one heckuva Saturday) but the TV ratings for the L.A. Open were abysmal. And now this week’s Mexico Open has only 3 of the top 40 in a World Ranking that has been badly watered down by LIV defections. Eek.

LIV may not be resonating with large swaths of golf fans but it has badly damaged the Tour by stealing headliners, grinding down those who stayed and creating a bifurcated schedule with so many starless fields. (Not for nothing, Jon Rahm won three times on the Tour’s West Coast swing last year.) There’s barely enough players we care about to sustain one tour; the game has been cleaved into two different circuits and each feels flat and lacking. No one loves the West Coast swing more than me but for once I’m looking forward to Florida, which always signals that the Masters is finally getting close. The only hope for the Tour is that is that its stars, who are suddenly making more money than they ever dreamed possible, can start playing with a more palpable hunger. Otherwise this whole season is going to be about the majors and the Olympics with a lot of uninspired filler in between.

I find it curious in the extreme that Alan attributes the dismal field in Mexico exclusively to LIV.   Has he not considered the effect of bifurcating the Tour into haves and have nots has on the latter?

Of course LIV has hurt the Tour, though the coroner is likely to rule it a suicide.  But the single biggest problem, as presciently predicted herein, is that each and every one of these guys has revealed themselves as overly-entitles and self-absorbed.  OK, maybe excluding this guy....

Alan handles this one quite well:

How long before the pros don’t have to keep their own score? I mean, every shot is tracked already. In 50 years, guys will still be writing their scores on paper? @ricksterps

But who is tracking the scores? Harried volunteers. Do we really trust them more than the players themselves?! Years ago I served as a Shotlink volunteer at the Crosby Clambake and it was intense. There was so much information to log and myriad distractions. I was stationed in the second fairway at Pebble Beach and if a player had a misadventure in the deep barranca near the green I wouldn’t have seen it. Most of the leaders’ shots are shown on TV but how much of Matsuyama’s front nine at Riviera did we get to see on Sunday? Only a smattering. There is simply too much happening all at once across a 150-acre playing field to entrust the official scorekeeping to anyone besides the players. Now, getting DQ’d for signing an incorrect scorecard is probably too harsh and should be amended to a two-stroke penalty; I expect it will. But I think the players will always be the official scorekeepers, and for good reason.

I'm not even sure how I feel about making it a penalty versus a DQ, because I cling to this naïve notion that reviewing one's scorecard shouldn't be an onerous burden.   

For this one, I'm inclined to believe his hat is too tight:

Why do you think Cantlay has had such difficulty in closing out 36/54 hole leads? @TheStroker83

Yeah, he’s now oh-fer-8 in converting 36-hole leads, having just frittered away a 5-shot cushion in LA. The easy answer is Cantlay is merely an average putter: 57th in strokes gained this year, and 129th in putts per round for the final round. (Last season he was 47th in strokes gained-putting.) He particularly struggles to cash in the mid-range putts that can turbocharge a round. But maybe the explanation is more metaphysical. Cantlay is a prickly personality who has rubbed a lot of his colleagues the wrong way. Behind-the-scenes, as a member of the board of directors, he’s been a muckraking figure in the LIV-Tour wars. Having a clear mind makes winning a lot easier; there always seems to be negative juju swirling around Cantlay and perhaps that creates just enough internal discomfort to prevent this mega-talent from winning more often.

It was in Alan's very mailbag that Cantlay was first crowned as the perfect penis, so Karma is probably the perfect explanation.  I can tell you that your humble blogger took inappropriate pleasure from his weekend face-plant, so we've got that going for us.

Something is up with Rory, what is it? @mark_cusack

Over the last decade the guy has won everything you can possibly win around the world: the Players, the Race to Dubai, the FedEx Cup, tournaments from China to Scotland to Canada to Korea to Ireland. Obviously the only thing missing is more major championships. Imagine the interminable wait for Rory from the end of the Open in July until the ensuing Masters in April. Torture! I’m sure he’s a little bored and antsy with all these ho-hum tournaments he has to slog through to get to Augusta. Can’t really blame him.

Granted, he's won everything except that which matters....  No small caveat that.

But funny to contrast the Cantlay and Rory answers.  Because Rory has major weaknesses in his game that he's failed to correct, and those vulnerabilities are exposed in the most important events.  Both because the set-ups at majors tend to exacerbate his weaknesses (Rory is notoriously clueless in wind and on firm and fast tracks), but also probably because of the increased pressure and scrutiny.

Folks remember his four majors from 2011-14, but tend to forget the unique specifics of those events.  Every one of those venues was as soft as can be imagined, even Hoylake.  If you had put Rory on  Hoylake as firm and fast as Tiger won on in 2006, he'd have missed the cut. 

That's it for today, dear Readers, and I'm unsure as to when you will see me next.  I'm headed West tomorrow and will be with my nephew, so morning blogging will suffer accordingly.  But bear with me and we'll pick up the thread in Florida.