Tuesday Trifles - Catch-Up Edition

Yesterday's premature ending is matched by a delayed arrival at the keyboard this morning....  But let's get to that which we left hanging yesterday.

Let's Hold A Rent Party - Sportico has updated it's listing of compensation of athletes and it turns out that those underpaid professional golfers remain frightfully over-compensated.  The whole premise of Phil and Sergio's anger is that they've been disrespected in only being billionaires, notwithstanding the inconvenient fact that their game is merely a niche sport.

Your humble blogger is an odd bird because, when I hear Phil mewling about his subsistence-level compensation, I expect to see some data to back up the claim.  I previously blogged the original Sportico story and have subsequently referred to it many times since, because it is not at all what you'll expect.  In fact, it's rather embarrassing for Phil & Company, exposing one humongous lie.

The basic premise jammed down our throats is that Tiger has been dramatically under-compensated, and people just accept that this has to be true.  Again, trust the science, kids:

Does he look underpaid to you?  The big lie is that they focus exclusively on tournament purses, excluding the bifurcation of golf's compensation system.  Professional golfers have always made more money from their endorsements, as the juice in our game comes from recreational golfers, as opposed to TV contracts.  

Buried in my pictures folder is this from my original blogging of Sportico's work, significant because it goes just beyond that top ten to capture a formerly familiar name:

We've gotten lots of further information on that guy in 11th place, from the Shipnuck biography to those Billy Walter revelations, bt this might be the most damning.  Before anyone could spell LIV, Mickelson was the 11th highest compensated athlete of all time, yet burned with a white-hot anger at his treatment.  Tells us a lot about the man, methinks, none of it favorable...  Notwithstanding that billion dollars in compensation, he was ready to burn it all down....

Golfers, at least those at the top of the food chain, have done pretty damn well:

Golfers represent the next biggest contingent with eight entries in the Top 50, including Tiger Woods (No. 2, $2.66 billion), Arnold Palmer (No. 4, $1.76 billion) and Phil Mickelson (No. 11, $1.43 billion). Like Jordan, their biggest paydays have been off the course; Woods has made $121 million in PGA Tour prize money, and Palmer made just $3.6 million on the PGA and Champions tours; Mickelson benefits from a nine-figure payout from LIV.

Can we dispense with the assumption that these guys have been underpaid?   That doesn't change our current situation, for sure, and I'm not at all questioning that the only way to grow our game is to get Patrick Cantlay paid....

He's Back - It's only one round, kids, but commence the overreaction:

5. Anthony Kim made five back-nine birdies and shot 65 on Sunday at LIV Hong Kong, recording by far the best round of his six since he returned to pro golf. He now heads to Macau to compete in the International Series on the Asian Tour. Does this Sunday surge change your thoughts regarding his prospects going forward?

So you're saying that it's really only nine holes?

Zak: I think so? It wasn’t the best round of the day, nor the second best. But it was fifth best out of 54! Which is really good, and inspires some hope that this won’t be a sad state of affairs by,

say, LIV Houston. But there are truly thousands of pros who could shoot that score in one out of six LIV events. It’s about doing it more than once and doing it with more than a hot putter. Kim made just about everything he looked at Sunday, which is good. His stroke looks great! But his ball-striking has been pretty horrible since his return started, and that’s where the majority of your successes lie in pro golf. He’ll need to straighten it out if he wants to shoot more rounds in the 60s.

Piastowski: I’m kinda thinking we shouldn’t have drawn conclusions after his tournament last week — and I’m kinda thinking we shouldn’t draw conclusions after one good round. But since you asked, yeah, let’s be encouraged. I like the idea of someone on the comeback trail tapping into what previously made them great. That’s why we like sports, right?

Colgan: Awesome story, and I’m pumped for AK personally, but I’ll reserve judgment until he does it on a course longer than 6,700 yards.

Fair enough, but what the guys don't mention is that Kim took the easy way back.  Guaranteed money and guaranteed tee times doesn't indicate a strong belief in his own game....  The good news is that he's playing in the LIV Cone of Silence, so we don't have to pay it any mind.

Tour Confidential Wrap - In yesterday's rush I didn't get to this week's edition (linked above), a staple of Monday Wrappage.  I've been critical at times about their Tiger sycophancy, but this week they have me laughing for other reasons.  As you might have noticed, the top-ranked player in the world had been mired in a putting miasma, at least until this most recent event.  Given his other-worldly ball-striking and with the Masters looming, wouldn't you think that would be of interest to a golf roundtable?  But no, there is not a Scheffler or Bay Hill question to be found.... I just can't decide if that's a bigger dis to Scottie or to Jay?

Here's some of what they thought more important (including Anthony Kim, who they apparently feel is more important than Scottie Scheffler):

1. The PGA Tour’s marquee event, the Players Championship, kicks off Thursday at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., although it will be without a couple of big names, among them Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who were the latest batch of PGA Tour players who jumped to LIV over the past year. Long thought of as “the fifth major” with its stacked field and iconic golf course, is there any tournament that’s been hurt more over the past few years due to golf’s PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf battle than the Players?

Sean Zak: Yes. I’d argue that a number of the Signature Events have been hurt more, in part

because they’ve been forced into smaller fields with the promise of the best players in the world competing. And while that has largely been the case, a number of them have still pivoted to LIV Golf. The Genesis Invitational’s defending champion the past two years has been missing. The RBC Heritage made more headlines last year for Rory McIlroy missing it than for those who showed up. I’ve believed the Signature Events have been a good and important step for the Tour’s structure, but the Players still has a 144-person field. Scottie Scheffler is the defending champ. Justin Thomas is going to win this year. It’s still a damn good tournament, even with Tyrrell Hatton’s departure.

Nick Piastowski: Yes, I’d say it’s the Players. It had hung its hat on having “the best in field in golf” — where now, it’s essentially a Signature Event with a bigger field. It’s not as distinguishable as it once was when compared to events like the Travelers, the Wells Fargo and RBC Heritage, all elevated in the PGA Tour’s new world order. That being said, with more players than those events, the Players will have more storylines and the chance for an unknown champion — but that thought takes us further down the rabbit hole (golf hole?) and it’s probably a whole other Tour Confidential question. And I guess we could talk about whether this all kills the idea of the Players becoming the fifth major. Clearly a lot going on here.

James Colgan: Man, what about all the Non-Signature Events that lost their star power when the Tour shifted to this model? The Players has been hurt by its marketing strategy, but it remains relevant on the golf calendar. Not sure you can say that about some of the other Tour events.

Thank you, James.  At least one guy has noticed that the Tour has undermined some three-quarters of its own schedule....

And here's their thoughts on the guy who thinks he hasn't wreaked enough damage:

2. Rory McIlroy said he has no problem with the PGA Tour’s Signature Events being limited to smaller fields (69 players competed at Bay Hill) and added he’s all for “less players and less Tour cards.” Asked to expand on how many Tour cards the PGA Tour should award, McIlroy said, “I just feel like there’s a lot of categories on Tour that people are sort of still benefiting off what they did like five or 10 years ago. I feel like the most competitive professional golf tour in the world, you should have to come out and prove yourself year after year after year.” Do you agree with McIlroy?

Zak: Yes, I do. McIlroy really isn’t trying to chop down the total number of PGA Tour players by a lot. He’s just trying to thin the herd slightly (maybe 10-15 percent) and ultimately create an elite Tour that rests above the 40-week schedule that needs to cater to hundreds. He’s dreamed up a Champions League-style access to a Tour that covers the globe. That goes hand-in-hand with highlighting the best up-and-coming talent much more than players holding on to status from a victory they nabbed in 2019.

Piastowski: I do too. The most in-form players, and the guy above me here in the responses wonderfully broke down what that means, and you can read that here. Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch also tackled the subject, with this thought: If you’re going to be cutthroat, what exactly do you do with that Tiger guy, who hasn’t won in a while? That’s a helluva question, and you can read that story here.

Colgan: I think you let Tiger do whatever he wants, because he’s Tiger freaking Woods, and you cut the fields elsewhere. Golf’s pursuit of a meritocracy died the day they took $3 billion from the SSG — now it’s about finding where the big $$$ is hiding.

Because, yanno, we haven't destroyed things sufficiently for Rory yet.... Rory gets a Woodie every time he thinks of the Premiere League, because he apparently hasn't noticed that golf isn't football.  The want to cut the fields further, yet also allow room for all the up-and-comers and all the old has-beens.... you can't do that in a 69-player field.

Rory is now in Patrick mode, where everything he suggests gets him paid more.  Thanks for your service, Rory.  

Maybe they'll do better on LIV v. OWGR?

4. LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman told LIV players that the league has withdrawn its application for accreditation from the Official World Golf Ranking, meaning LIV players will no longer have that avenue to qualify for major championships if they aren’t already exempt. “It is now clear that the best way forward for LIV as a league and you as LIV golfers is not through the current ranking system,” Norman said. “A resolution which protects the accuracy, credibility, and integrity of the OWGR rankings no longer exists.” Are you surprised Norman ended this battle? And with LIV Golf adding more talent (like Rahm), shouldn’t there be more pressure on the OWGR board to find a way to incorporate LIV? Or on the organizations that host majors?

Zak: Norman and his LIV golfers were incessantly whining about this and weren’t being taken seriously, so I’m not super surprised that he gave up. It wasn’t a good look! As for the pressure the OWGR should face, they’ve been pretty transparent about the formatting issues that LIV Golf has for its events and its seasonal turnover, so I think there should always have been more pressure on LIV to come to the table with a stronger presentation than a largely closed shop of 54-hole tournaments. I think the organizations that host majors could probably kick a few more invites LIV’s way, but it’s completely subjective and up to them. If, say, the PGA of America doesn’t love that Talor Gooch started his LIV career by openly mocking the Ryder Cup, they might feel right to consider that when assessing his ranking by an independent-analysis group such as DataGolf. LIV Golf was unprecedented, and I think the organizations were OK to treat it accordingly. (Keep in mind the lingering fact that all governing bodies were being brought into a frivolous lawsuit or investigations via LIV Golf less than a year ago.)

Piastowski: Whew. A lot here. First, I encourage you to read here what our Dylan Dethier wrote about the subject, and I very much agree with the points there. Am I surprised LIV punted? Can I say yes and no? They need the points for major invites, and there’s only one group that hands out points — and now you’re not applying anymore? Odd. Then again, would they have to change their format? Yeah, probably. Would the points they eventually get be small, simply because their players have tumbled down the rankings as this process has unfolded? Yeah, probably. So they moved on. Drew a line in the bunker sand. I now have a feeling there’s going to be a campaign on the majors. A lot more pitches like Talor Gooch’s, where he thought future Masters winners should get asterisks because not all of the best pros were included. Who knows where this goes. Can all the majors agree on an independent ranking and/or a somewhat unified way on how to treat LIV? Or do they believe their events are fine without? Stay tuned.

Colgan: I’m surprised he ended the battle because major championship eligibility still matters deeply to LIV. That said, it seems remarkably stupid to me that something called the Official World Golf Ranking could be leaving out the dudes playing in LIV. I understand the nuance and logistics required, and I do not think that LIV should be just “allowed in” on merit. But there has to be a solution to properly weight everything to allow LIV to be included. Feels like we’re losing the forest for the trees here.

James, it's you who are focused don the bark.... Who ya calling stupid here?  It's closed shop that keeps guys hanging on and clogging up their fields.... It's actually quite amusing because, responding the Rory's question, they extol the virtues of the Signature events grabbing the young talent and hot hands.  Yet, when they get to LIV, they completely forget that that's exactly what's wrong with the LIV format.

Should have put this above, but Eamon doesn't really need to worry about that slot for Tiger, as he's apparently retired:

Tiger Woods out of the 2024 Players Championship

As someone joked, when he told us he might play once a month, we didn't realize that the March event would be the Seminole Member-Pro.

Gonna leave you there and we'll pick up on the Players Championship as the week progresses.  It's possible that that won't be until Friday, so bear with me.