Midweek Musings - Hall of Slain Warriors Edition

They got the name of the golf club from somewhere, yanno.  Although Norse mythology seems an inapt fit with sultry Louisville...

Bye, Erica - Sad news, though one might note that it didn't affect his golf game last weekend:

Rory McIlroy has filed for divorce from his wife, Erica Stoll. Golfweek confirmed the news via online court records in Palm Beach County, Florida, as did McIlroy’s communications team.

The 35-year-old Northern Irishman filed for a dissolution on Monday, May 13, a day after his 26th PGA Tour win at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship and a day before he arrived on site at Valhalla Golf Club for the 2024 PGA Championship. McIlroy’s last major victory came 10 years ago here at Valhalla at the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

McIlroy and Stoll, a former PGA of America employee, became engaged in December 2015 and married in April 2017. The couple had a daughter, Poppy, in September 2020.

Pretty sure they still have the daughter....

Erica, you might recall, was responsible for getting Rory to Medinah for his singles tee time after he confused time zones.  The romance came later, but while I've often suggested that Rory clean house in his posse, I was thinking more of the childhood best friend caddie....

We never know how the players' personal lives affect their performance, but the two best players in the world both arrive at the PGA Championship with profound changes at home.  Stay tuned.

Bye, Jimmy - The act is curious, but the timing seems, well, curious.

On May 12, 2023, Jimmy Dunne was in Venice, Italy, meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, among others. Jay Monahan was there, too, looking to

establish an agreement between the PIF and the PGA Tour to reunify the sport. Exactly one year and one day later — on May 13, 2024 — Dunne issued his resignation from the PGA Tour Policy Board, due to a lack of progress with that agreement.

Dunne’s resignation arrived Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern time in the form of a 361-word letter to his fellow board directors, which was obtained by GOLF.com and first reported by Sports Illustrated. Ultimately, two words stood out above the others: utterly superfluous. That’s how Dunne described his role and the weight of his vote less than 12 months after reaching a Framework Agreement with the PIF and the DP World Tour.

“Since the players now outnumber the Independent Directors on the Board, and no meaningful progress has been made towards a transaction with the PIF, I feel like my vote and my role is utterly superfluous,” Dunne wrote.

“It is crucial for the Board to avoid letting yesterday’s differences interfere with today’s decisions, especially when they influence future opportunities for the Tour. Unifying professional golf is paramount to restoring fan interest and repairing wounds left from a fractured game. I have tried my best to move all minds in that direction.”

Rory hardest hit?

That bit about the 6-5 player majority seems to be putting this all in Tiger's lap (after all, he's the sixth man and has the unlimited term), though Jimmy seems to have left quite the mess for others to clean up.

The call for unification will get an "Amen" from Rory, it's perhaps a poker tell as to how things stand among those six players, making one skeptical that Rory's new committee will make any meaningful progress, assuming Cantlay will continue to play Dr. NNo.

A couple of key bits, at least top this observer:

But only a framework was signed into place — a deal to make to a deal — one that included both sides dropping their ongoing litigation, at a time when Tour and LIV executives, players, agents, board members, etc., were starting to be deposed. In his letter, Dunne noted, “a path was created for the Tour to remain in control of professional golf.”

Yes, a term sheet with no terms, as some of us noticed.  It's eye of the beholder stuff, with one take being that the only bits that mattered, the withdrawal of the antitrust lawsuit primary, were covered in the D-Day Agreement, and that the rest of the deal wasn't ever intended to be completed.

But I've been using the C-word for longer:

At the end of July, Tiger Woods was hastily added in what amounted to a coup. Forty-one of the best players on Tour demanded so in a middle-of-the-night letter to Monahan, and a day later it was enacted. They wanted equal representation between players and independent directors on the board and they got it. Woods remains the only player without a fixed term. In November, the head of Valero Energy, Joe Gorder, filled the empty board seat left by Randall Stephenson, who resigned in July saying he could not “in good conscience support” a deal.

The coup actually happened in Delaware, though Jay avoided Elba and St. Helena, at least for now.

Never shy, Shack had this take:

There was little chance to catch any of the range chatter because (A) the PGA of America no longer allows media on the range in addition to numerous new bizarro restraints on press access, (B) the Dunne letter only reinforced that the Tour is a directionless chaotic mess being run by a bunch of players who should not be running a business.

I'm not sure the issue is the absence of a rudder, but more the competing versions thereof.  That said, who is in charge? 

Geoff is predictably all over the timing issue, which I'll introduce with this note:

After Dunne’s Monday resignation, the PGA Tour’s Commissioner told players in a message that the organization would not be commenting out of respect to the PGA of America.

Well, that's very considerate..... at least until you realize that Dunne wouldn't have stepped on the PGA of America with the release of his letter without said Commissioner's approval... Hardly the first time we've been lied to by these clowns.

Dunne’s timing is curious, at best. While it could be seen as rude to the PGA of America by dropping this a few hours before most player press conferences, I sense more to this story we don’t know just yet.

And while Dunne might not have been the ideal choice for explaining the infamous June 6th deal on national television, when someone who loves the game and has nothing to gain from serving on the board declares this at such a sensitive time, Dunne seems to be reinforcing what a disastrous mess the Tour has become.

This is a message being sent.  Whether it's to the Saudis, Tiger or Rory,. I don't know, but the timing of this is quite intentional.

Update: The pushback on the "no progress" meme is in full swing, first Jay:

But PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan pushed directly back against that “no meaningful progress” narrative in a late-night text sent to players on Monday, insisting that “we continue to make meaningful progress behind the scenes in our negotiations toward a potential agreement with the PIF.”

The goal of negotiations, Monahan added, remains simple: “To deliver the best possible outcome for the PGA Tour, our players, partners, tournaments and fans.”

So, Jimmy must be dealing in some of that Russian disinformation, eh?  But, remind me Jay, who put Jimmy in charge of negotiating with Yasir?

This guy is the leader in the clubhouse in non-answer answers:

Tiger Woods addressed the discussions on Tuesday morning. Sort of.

“It’s ongoing; it’s fluid; it changes day-to-day,” he said. “Has there been progress? Yes. But it’s an ongoing negotiation, so a lot of work ahead for all of us with this process, and so we’re making steps and it may not be giant steps, but we’re making steps.”

Woods referenced the PGA Tour as “for the players and by the players.” He said there’s a place for the player directors and for the independent directors, too. He said he couldn’t get into too much detail on the state of negotiations. But he acknowledged general fatigue on the subject.

“I think the fans are probably as tired as we are of the talk not being about the game of golf and about not being about the players,” he said. “It’s about what LIV is doing, what we’re doing, players coming back, players leaving; the fans just want to see us play together. How do we get there is to be determined.”

For the players?  No quibble with the concept that it's for certain layers.... 

Spieth has been fingered as part of the Dr. No Troika, but he too is pushing back:

But we got slightly more from Jordan Spieth, who addressed the media an hour after Woods and was asked specifically about Dunne’s comments about the board shifting in the direction of

player control.

“I would say that I think that there’s been a shift that direction, but I think that we’re finding the appropriate balance going forward,” Spieth said. He referenced the natural motion of a seesaw. He insisted that based on the opinions of experts and lawyers they’ve worked with, the governance structure is in a good spot.

The subject clearly struck a nerve with Spieth, who took over Rory McIlroy’s vacated board seat last fall and has been working extensively behind the scenes on crafting a stable future for the Tour. But in recent weeks multiple reports have pointed the finger at him, Patrick Cantlay and Woods for slowing negotiations, blocking a potential merger and clashing with McIlroy’s vision for a deal. Spieth insisted on Tuesday that that’s not the case.

“I think we’re going to be at a really, really good place where the players on the PGA Tour can feel really good about it, as well as not having players making business decisions,” he added. “Like, that’s not — if you’re in the room, it’s very obvious that players are not dictating the future of golf and the PGA Tour. Like, you need to have everyone’s perspective on both sides of it, and everyone that’s involved within [PGA Tour] Enterprises. You have a lot of strategic investors that know a heck of a lot more than any of us players.”

“So that’s a false narrative that the players are determining all these things. That’s not even what Jimmy [Dunne] was saying. Jimmy was saying more of the balance of things, and I think that balance is being restored.”

Jimmy likely found himself irrelevant with John Henry and those big-hitters on board, but quite the tortured evasions from both Tiger and Jordan.  But it's all just about balance, because Jordan wouldn't lie to us.... 

Scenes From Valhalla - Elvis is in the building:

After answering questions for the better part of April on the pending birth of his first child,

Scottie Scheffler officially became a father. He and wife have Meredith welcomed son Bennett to the world last week.

“It’s a pretty amazing feeling,” Scheffler told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis. “It was fun times at the Scheffler home, for sure.”

The world No. 1 won the Masters and RBC Heritage back-to-back in April before shutting it down and heading home to Dallas as to await the birth of their first child. While Scheffler hasn’t announced publicly the date of the birth, he was on site at Valhalla Golf Club on Monday just as PGA Championship week is getting underway with a field of 156 golfers gathering for the season’s second major.

Good for them and he'll have the full week to prepare (though much of that might be indoors. It's passing strange that we don't have a name or date of birth, but good to see Nike getting their money's worth.

Everybody Talks About The Weather...- But someone really needs to do something about this ne:

Except for Rory, who likes things on the soft side.   I'll just add that the Sunday forecast is perfect, so they might be playing 54 holes that day.

Himself - Shack's Tiger notes:

• Tiger Woods played the back nine early and appeared in good form. As with recent majors he shows no signs of mailing in his preparation. Woods appeared to have his old Valhalla notes and hit most putts one-handed as he consulted his paperwork.

• Woods is using the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS putter he first put in play in 1999 and the putter for 14 of 15 major wins. He asked a couple of us watching the round how many players in the field are younger than his putter. I’m still researching this vital factoid.

• Woods stopped behind the 18th green to sign autographs for almost ten minutes. He even squatted down to pose for a few photos and that’s not normally his style. So I’d say he’s in good spirits.

• Woods is scheduled to meet with the media Tuesday at noon ET.

Glad he's in good humor, but this place is a bit of a long walk.  Let's see how the humor is on Saturday.....

Geoff's Notebook -  First, a busier Monday than usual, due to the above forecast:

Last year on PGA Championship Monday, Rochester fans kept asking where all the golfers were?

I explained how most players like to take it nine holes at a time, prioritize manage rest, and let

“teams” do a lot of the course strategy work.

“But it’s a major!”

I’d just shrug and acknowledge their viewing pain.

Monday at Valhalla provided an entirely different story. With an ominous forecast for most of Tuesday, the course looked like most of America’s tee-sheet-full courses: groups on every hole. One key difference: most courses are devoid of flunky entourages out helping the rugged individualists unlock Valahalla’s secrets.

It’s a burgeoning modern tradition unlike any other: more people inside the ropes than outside.

These reports keep whispering "Rory":

What did they see? A huge golf course still drying out from 2.23 inches of rain last week. Add on the new zoysia fairways and surrounds that give off a cushioned sensibility, and players should be ready to hit plenty of drivers while firing at greens holding their glorified Top Flites. Even with a surprising amount of poa in the surfaces, it should not affect putts. The ball is rolling beautifully and superintendent John Ballard’s team has the place in perfect shape.

Everything else looks like a traditional Kerry Haigh PGA Championship course setup, including:

• Fairways narrowed somewhere between 26-28 yards wide.

• Rough recently topped off around 3 inches that seems unlikely to get more mowing, meaning a healthy 4 inches by week’s end.

• A second rough height outside the ropes has once again been allowed to, well, prosper! While most of it will be mashed down by spectators, players are going to find some occasional (nasty) hack-out lies far off the fairways.

• If you are coming here to spectate please watch out. There are plenty of bad steps out in the tall stuff and undoubtedly a few burrowing animal hole rulings in our future.

More than 2" of rain before that dreadful Tuesday-Saturday forecast, leaving me happy that I don't have plans for Monday.

Geoff shows some begrudging respect for a venue purists love to hate:

Just in case we have a boring 10-shot runaway winner, I thought I’d explore what has made Valhalla work so well as a tournament venue. I’m happy to hear dissenting views, but after Monday’s re-acclimation, I’ve whittled it down to vibe, freedom to hit all shots, plenty of drivers and Louisville fans.

This 1986 Nicklaus design came on the major scene just ten years after opening. that alone turned much of the golf world against it—guilty as charged here—because it became the PGA of America’s latest nepo-baby venue. Soon after opening teh PGA of America took an ownership stake—since relinquished—in the latest twist that might explain why this week could be the last for a while.

Scheduling also fueled a negative perception. In the old August date, Valhalla majors finished off the Grand Slam season in summer heat and after the other majors visited stalwarts: 1996’s Oakland Hills and Royal Lytham, 2000s Pebble Beach and St Andrews in 2000, and 2014’s Pinehurst and Hoylake.

OK, suddenly Lytham and Hoylake are top drawer stuff?  But it's that 2000 version that jumps out, because after runaway wins at Pebble (15 shots) and the Old Course (8 shots), he had to fight off a journeyman at Valhalla.  Hard to explain, except that maybe by then the other guys had put their Pro-V1's into play?

Then there is the scale and look of the place. On many front nine holes the land is gentle and idyllic (other than the high power lines). It plays through woodlands, along and over creeks, and even a rocky stretch adding another element of character. It’s overshaped in places with needless mounding and other rolly-polly excess that was popular in the 1980s. But it also has some wonderfully understated greens with gentle tilts accentuated in difficulty by uneven fairway stances.

Then there is the scale of it: Valhalla is built over 450 acres. It features some huge climbs yet manages to put the pieces together well enough to make the walk fairly seamless.

“It’s a big test,” says CBS’s Dottie Pepper, who has covered multiple events here.

Huge climbs?  I know they can use their lasers, are they giving them carts as well?  If not, I don't much like HIS chances....

Big rarely translates to producing fun golf to watch. The best tournament venues are on a more

intimate scale for players and fans. They should have clusters of holes where roars reverberate, where players can feed off the energy or where decisions are made based on seeing what competitors are doing nearby (think 16 and 17 at TPC Sawgrass).

Valhalla offsets its spread-out nature with multiple amphitheater settings which have produced some of the loudest Ryder Cup and PGA Championship roars this century. I was reminded again on Monday just how many greens sit in bowl settings:

“You’ve got elevation changes which I think add to it,” says Pepper of the routing. “You’re coming up to the peak at No. 9. You’ve got a really cool first hole that has a great arena the way they build it out and there’s such great natural noise there.”

Even the island green at the 13th can be seen by fans from many different vantage points.

As anyone who remembers Tiger’s seesaw playoff battle with Bob May, many loud moments happened because of Valhalla’s natural amphitheaters. Like a great music hall where a band hears themselves well and the acoustics only heighten the music’s power for both audience and performer, Valhalla is a warm room. Throw in passionate Louisville fans happy to see the brats, and fan energy has carried it through several wet and weird tournament days. Valhalla achieves the same sensation many TPC courses hoped to create and that so few outside of Scottsdale and Sawgrass manage to capture.

That's the 16th green pictured above.  But this might be the larger point:

There is also the undeniable but unquantifiable idea that players are free to hit driver here. For all the hill climbing and trouble, players feel encouraged to attack. And attacking golf is way more fun than plodding.

“There’s a sense of drama building,” says Pepper. “You’ve got a pretty tough par-4 (17th) getting to that par-5 finishing hole. You definitely have excitement with the par-5 finishing hole.”

Curiously, the 18th has one of Valhalla’s less-comfortable tee shots. It’s elevated, bends left-to-right, and has water down the right. It’s big and open, which may not be comforting. But that peculiar sensibility has also fueled some of the final hole zaniness.

Which water Rory almost found off the tee in his haste to finish in 2014.

The ability to hit driver is another reason that Rory will likely never find an opportunity to get No. 5 that suits him better than this weeks combination of course and conditions.  Though that puts the lad under a wee bit of pressure....

But talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations:

The par 3s, while disappointingly all 190 and up to 250, at least play in different directions. They are interesting enough without overtaking the rest of the course as the Postage Stamp or Island 17th at Sawgrass do (in their charming way).

OK, admittedly that's something that the architect of Fairview Country Club didn't factor in, but it's a quite the low bar in golf architecture.

Many purists have long struggled to understand the relationship between great architecture and elite professional golf, an awkward pairing in many circumstances.   In this case there's no pretense of top level design, but the ballpark has produced entertaining events with top level winners and contenders, though you might want to stick with the big-hitters this week.  

Fun, Avoided - Ironically, I still have this browser tab open:

Transgender golfer hits out after tour ban

Hailey Davidson has taken to social media to express their disappointment after being banned

with immediate effect from playing on the NXXT Golf Tour.

Davidson made headlines in January after becoming the first transgender golfer to win on the circuit, formerly the East Coast Women’s Pro Golf Tour.

The Scots-born pro’s win at the Mission Inn Resort and Club moved them to the top of the NXXT Tour standings.

It also prompted a widespread backlash from the likes of Piers Morgan, Olympic silver medallist Sharron Davies and Caitlyn Jenner.

In response, NXXT Tour officials requested Davidson undergo additional testosterone testing to “ensure compliance with the appropriate guidelines”, whilst also polling players to gather their opinions on the circuit’s gender policy.

Which is why this item caught my eye:

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson missed qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open on Monday by one stroke. Davidson finished in a three-way tie for third in the 36-hole qualifier at Bradenton (Fla.) Country Club with rounds of 70-73, emerging as the first alternate from the event. She tied two-time LPGA Tour winner Jasmine Suwannapura and Louis Olsson Campbell of Sweden. Suwannapura is the second alternate.

Only the top two players advanced from the 58-player field. Amateurs Amelie Zalsman from St. Petersburg, Fla., and Pimpisa Sisutham of Thailand claimed the two spots available to compete at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club later this month. Zalsman medaled at one-under 141 with a 66-75, while Sisutham carded a 68-74 to take second place at even par.

I have more sympathy here than it may seem, though I also know one thing that others seem determined to ignore.  To wit, if you want women's sports to be a thing, you better ensure that it's for women.   Harsh, but necessary.

That's it for today, as I await word on whether the Wednesday Game™ is a go.  I'll catch up with you down the road.

Weekend Wrap - Leaderborad Separation Edition

For once some PGA Tour alpha dogs delivered the goods.  Maybe that should have been in the singular, but both major tours featured a lone 2-ball separated by a touchdown from the rest of the field.  One deliver an epic finish, the other had Xander....

Owning Charlotte - Horses for courses, I guess, but perhaps peaking a week early:

Rory McIlroy waited for his moment Sunday at Quail Hollow. And when the moment came, he didn’t stop.

McIlroy went on a tear through the middle of the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship, making two eagles to play an eight-hole stretch in eight under and turn a one-shot deficit to Xander Schauffele to start the day into a five-shot win. According to stats guru Justin Ray, it’s McIlroy’s 14th come-from-behind win, six more than any other player since 2010.

The World No. 2 finished at 17 under after a final-round 65 for his fourth career victory at Quail Hollow. It’s also McIlroy’s 26th PGA Tour victory and officially his second in a row after he won the Zurich Classic team event with Shane Lowry two weeks ago.

“Quail Hollow, Charlotte in general has been really good to me over my career and this is just another great day to sort of add to all the rest of them,” McIlroy said. “I feel like these people have sort of watched me grow up from winning here as a 20-year-old to being the ripe old age of 35 now. They’ve sort of seen my progression throughout my career, and I’ve been lucky enough to win here four times. The support that I get here is absolutely amazing.”

The last time McIlroy won his last two starts heading into a major was before his most recent major title at the 2014 PGA Championship, played at Valhalla, this year’s host site.

More importantly, that 2014 PGA Championship is the last time your humble blogger successfully picked the winner of a major...  Rory was on a tear, and Valhalla in August couldn't help but be soft enough for his needs, plus he was on that tear.

Eight holes in eight under is just sick, but there's no player whose heaters are as impressive as this guy's, it's just that he seems to play his worst when he wants it the most.

The Tour Confidential panel tackles this event, but in quite the odd manner:

2. Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele battled it out in the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship, with McIlroy winning by five shots after an impressive six-under 65. A good confidence boost (for both) with the PGA Championship up next, or not quite so with the World No. 1 not at Quail Hollow?

Barath: Both players separated themselves this week on a long and firm golf course, and it

would be hard not to come away from this event without a lot of confidence heading into the PGA Championship. Sure, Scottie wasn’t in the field this week, but you can only beat those who are in the field. Rory went ballistic on the back nine while Xander stalled, and hopefully this continues for Rory at the PGA.

Dethier: Massive confidence boost! Nearly every good PGA Tour player teed it up at Quail Hollow and Xander Schauffele beat them all like a drum. All of ‘em except for Rory McIlroy, that is, and he proved to have far more offense when it mattered on Sunday. These guys both know winning the week before a major is no guarantee of anything — their most recent individual PGA Tour victories came at the 2023 (McIlroy) and 2022 (Schauffele) Genesis Scottish Invitationals, the week before the Open, which neither won. Still, short of Scheffler, who’s playing better golf?

Piastowski: Very much so, especially for McIlroy, the World No. 2. Everything seemingly clicked, against 67 of the PGA Tour’s best, on a course that next year will host the PGA. But I’m also wondering about the Zurich and his win with pal Shane Lowry. McIlroy talked this week of being freed up now. That can mean a lot of different things. But maybe this is the result for McIlroy. And yeah, there are good vibes at Valhalla, where he last won a major.

They seem to think that both Rory and Xander walked off Quail Hollow feeling similarly, yet I'm guessing that Rory's dinner tasted better than X-man's.  The latter hasn't won in two years and got run over yesterday, so finishing seems to be an issue.  He squandered a meaningful 36-hole lead, which has become a pattern, and hasn't won in two years.  Yet these guys think he's heading to Valhalla walking on air....

I've been a Rory skeptic for a while, and this dominating win doesn't really change anything.  But I've checked the Louisville weather forecast and, combined with those 2014 vibes, it smells like the kind of week that's up Rory's alley.  Almost no wind and humid conditions with a stray thunderstorm, which feels very much like Valhalla 2014 or Congressional 2011.  It couldn't set up better for him, now he simply needs to do it on demand.

Rose In Full - This game will baffle us, as the young lady wins her first start, then goes on an extended walkabout.  Hard to explain, but it sure seems as if she intends to stick around this time.  The header is a bit odd, though:

Rose Zhang wins Founders Cup as Nelly Korda’s streak comes to unceremonious end

I'm pondering what a ceremonious ending would have looked like for Nelly.  A marching band, perhaps, but does she belong in the header?  I know she was justifiably the story heading into the event, but two girls separated themselves from the pack by a touchdown and two field goals, then Rose wins with a late sprint, so Nellie wasn't a story after the third round...

If there was to be a two-player Sunday duel at the Cognizant Founders Cup fueled by hot putters and world-class ball striking, most would have guessed it would have included Nelly Korda

. After all, Korda had started the weekend just four off the lead and as the winner of her last five events, including the season’s first major at the Chevron Championship

Instead, it was the final pairing of Madelene Sagstrom and 21-year-old Rose Zhang who separated themselves from the pack, including the World No. 1.

Then it was Zhang, who fell behind early but closed the gap and flipped the script with four birdies over her final five holes, who won the Cognizant Founders Cup by two over Sagstrom.

“I’m still shaking right now. I think I never gave up. I always knew I had something in me to just grind it out, enjoy the time,” Zhang said on the 18th green after the win. “Madelene is an extremely solid player, she was basically hitting every single shot next to the hole, making putts. I had to prepare myself for the toughest challenge.”

Nellie is incredible and no doubt the only lady that can draw viewers right now, but she's gonna need a rival, and Rose might be the best bet.

Alas, this might be an even sillier question that the Rory/Xander bit:

5. Nelly Korda tied for seventh at the Cognizant Founders Cup — Rose Zhang edged Madelene Sagstrom to win — to end her streak of consecutive wins at five, which tied the all-time record. Korda’s remarkable run often evoked Caitlin Clark comparisons, or at least the conversation topic of if she could help elevate women’s golf like Clark did for women’s basketball. But do you think those comparisons were fair?

Barath: Women’s golf needs more mainstream coverage if it wants to break further into the general sports landscape, and unfortunately it still gets second billing to things like the PGA Tour Champions circuit. I think with the right investment, the best LPGA Tour players could be just as recognizable as the best PGA Tour players, which is still miles behind other sports like the NBA.

Dethier: I think the Caitlin Clark comps are well intentioned but misinformed. Korda has no team, no rival, no built-in fanbase, no March Madness tournament. I wrote about this earlier this week, but Korda has been right to point out that all she can do is keep playing top-tier golf — the sort she’s been playing — and let any boost happen naturally.

Piastowski: Points well made by my colleagues. The comparison is convenient, as we’re also in the midst of Clark fever. But it’s on the shoulders of Korda’s tour, and the broadcasters of Korda’s tour, and the advertisers of Korda and Korda’s tour to get her name out there — because it sure seems like she’s doing her part.

But if Ryan thinks the LPGA will ever be competitive with the PGA Tour, I have some swampland for him to look at.  That's actually dangerous thinking for the LPGA, because for them success comes through understanding their place in the golf ecosystem and carving out an audience where available.

It's easy to blame the networks and certainly checks off your virtue signaling requirement, but there's one niggling detail to factor in, to wit, when the girls are on, nobody tunes in.  There, I've said it out loud, but they have to earn their viewership.  They put on a good show yesterday, but it was maddingly hard to find on Golf Channel.  Unfortunately, the need to keep it up and make the show sufficiently important to deserve a better time slot.

Valhalla On Our Mind - We'll gear up slowly for the fourth of four this week, first with the TC panel's thoughts:

1. The 2024 PGA Championship begins on Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., where Scottie Scheffler will be the betting favorite and Brooks Koepka will defend his title. (There’s no word yet if Scheffler’s baby was born, but he’s on the interview schedule for Tuesday.) Any reason to think three weeks off could hinder Scheffler’s chances?

Ryan Barath: At this point with Scottie’s game, I don’t think three weeks off, even when it includes the birth of your first child, will do any harm to his golf game. If he can come out and win the RBC Heritage the week after winning the Masters, and deal with the whirlwind whiplash from that, I think he’s going to come out ready to go at Valhalla.

Dylan Dethier: As someone who just became a dad for the first time, I would say that’s the sort of thing that would throw off anybody’s golf game, even the World No. 1 — but I’m guessing we have different childcare setups. It certainly wouldn’t be a shock to see him contend. But we could forgive him if he showed up at Valhalla with something slightly less than his best stuff.

Nick Piastowski: The three weeks off won’t be an issue. The child, though? Quite possibly. Thoughts will be elsewhere, understandably so. Then again, if he wins, days after becoming a new father, his legend grows even more.

What these guys seem to be saying is that Rory's win at Quail Hollow should come with an asterisk, no?

It's simply impossible to know whether Scottie will be there and be on his game, so I see no value in the speculation.  But we have a full field  in Louisville, and we don't get to enjoy that very often these days, so I'm looking forward to watching some of them grind to make the cut on Friday.

And questions that no one is asking:

4. The PGA will also be the first time we see Tiger Woods since he finished 60th at the Masters, and he’s returning to a course he won the PGA on in 2000. Does Woods finish better or worse than he did at Augusta?

Barath: I hate counting Woods out, but Valhalla is very long, and the field as a whole is a lot stronger than the one he faced at the Masters So with all that factored in, I would be more surprised if he makes the cut, rather than missing it.

Dethier: Better! Stop doubting this guy.

Piastowski: I’ll go in the middle. Worse than the Masters, but only slightly and he makes the cut. The temps seem good — for the fans, for achy joints.

Did that which we saw at Augusta leave us wanting more?  Yeah, not so much....

6. Let’s wrap with one final PGA preview question. What’s a juicy storyline no one is talking about right now?

Dethier: Jordan Spieth seems injured and out of sorts — but he’s still going for the career grand slam! Don’t worry, though, nine good holes on Thursday and you’ll hear plenty about this.

Barath: Wow, even I forgot about Spieth’s career grand slam chance here until you mentioned it, Dylan, but I’m gonna go with Rahm. He’s still searching for an individual win on LIV and he didn’t play that well at the Masters. If the PGA isn’t going well, we could be in for a very angry and frustrated golfer come Friday afternoon.

Piastowski: This will get some run during the week, but club pro Tracy Phillips will be making his PGA Championship debut at the age of 61. But his story gets better. He once quit golf for 20 years, before being drawn back. Wild.

 Twenty years off from golf?  Don't tempt me....

I agree that Rahm is an interesting case, and I'll just add Talor Gooch.  A man who's done nothing in the game believers it owes him a living, but this will be his only major of the year (unless he wins it), and he's never done anything in big events.  If the golf gods are on their game, he'll be slamming a trunk on Friday....

Tour Stuff - A few bits on Tour governance and the like. before I get on with my day.  First, this on the Rory board seat grab from the TC gang:

3. One story that dominated the pre-tournament chatter was the status of Webb Simpson’s seat on the PGA Tour Policy Board. Simpson previously tried to step down, but only if McIlroy would take his spot. That, however, didn’t happen, and Simpson is serving the remainder of his term. “There was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on, for some reason,” McIlroy said. Reading between the lines, why wouldn’t some feel comfortable with McIlroy coming back on? Could he help golf’s division? And, finally, do you have any issue with him rejoining after he resigned his spot months ago?

Barath: A couple of things here. First off, even as someone who pays close attention to the men’s professional game, all of this is just an absolute slog, and at this point, I just want someone to wake me up once this whole thing is sorted and done with. Secondly, when it comes to people being uncomfortable, I believe there is a big schism between those who are OK with letting some of the PGA Tour history die so that there can finally be a true world tour, and those who still want to keep the PGA mostly structured the way that it is now. Saying that, I think Rory has made it clear that he’s on the side of the world tour, and is ready to negotiate with the Saudi PIF and bring all of the best players back together, while others aren’t quite ready to lose out on their share if that happens. As for coming back, Rory appears to be thinking a lot longer term, and for that reason, if he wants to come back in some capacity, he should be able to.

Dethier: As it turns out, though, McIlroy is a member — albeit a non-voting member — of the transactions subcommittee, which [pause for yawn] is actually doing the meaningful negotiating with the Saudis. It would have been sort of weird to reinstate McIlroy on the board after he’d stepped away just months ago. But he still seems a key figure in the process.

Piastowski: Bunch of light questions here! Let’s try to answer ’em, though. The uncomfortability? Tough to say without hearing from the sources. Maybe it’s that McIlroy once left the board and his commitment is still questioned. Maybe it’s a situation that Barath describes, where McIlroy wants a world tour, and others don’t. All good theories. Could he help golf’s division? You bet — and as Dethier notes, he will be, as part of the transactions committee. (Lots of committees these days!) The move is a good one, should you want an agreement. McIlroy has previously said he has at least some sort of relationship with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Any issue with him rejoining? Maybe a little. If it’s as simple as Simpson wanting McIlroy his spot, and McIlroy accepting, I think that’s OK.

I think it's a remake of Mean Girls, with Cantlay in the Wynona Ryder role.... But that my predication that we'd end up hating all these guys is looking pretty good, as the tearful resignation followed by the extrajudicial swap with Webb Simpson looks pretty needy on Rory's part.

Given his starring role as a useful idiot, I actually don't know why anyone would care what Rory thinks at this point.

Eamon Lynch has what seems to be an overly-optimistic take on the current state of play:

Lynch: The PGA Tour’s new committee will be mocked, but it’s the last hope for grown-ups to take charge

Grown-ups?   I thought I had heard that Rory was on it?

Eamon always has the best ledes in the biz:

Committees often have about as much utility as ashtrays on motorcycles, and in golf usually serve only as a mechanism to butcher great courses and honor the milquetoast. On occasion, however, they can be impactful. The three-man panel that negotiated the PGA Tour’s Framework Agreement with the Saudis last summer certainly made an impression, not least because other Policy Board members didn’t know of its existence nor much care for its output.

Ashtrays n motorcycles, eh?  Missed that one on my bingo card.

The backlash to that secretive process sparked a time-consuming and overdue governance review

that is essential as the Tour shapeshifts from an indolent non-profit with complacent members into a modern league with shareholders and investors. A handful of oversight committees have now been established at PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity that runs the business. Most are standard operating procedurals, but one panel in particular suggests the Tour is about to move beyond childish bickering and begin letting grown-ups shape its future.

The Transaction Subcommittee’s anodyne name belies its importance. It will handle talks with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia on a potential deal and make a recommendation to the full Policy Board — one the politburo is unlikely to reject from its hand-picked negotiators. Committee members include Enterprises chairman Joe Gorder, commissioner Jay Monahan and John Henry, the principal of Strategic Sports Group, which just invested a billion-five into the product. There are also four players: Joe Ogilvie (retired, and now a humble money manager), Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy. In short, a lot of people unaccustomed to making business calls by committee.

 But are the "adults" even on speaking terms with each other?

No one is on the panel to present moral arguments about being in business with a despot. Those who harbor any such reservations will check them at the door and treat negotiations as a matter of commerce, not conscience. But it is at least a committee of adults, something sorely needed in this sorry mess.

So the lack of moral reservations is a good thing?   Or will they just focus on ensuring that Adam Scott gets all the sponsors' exemptions he needs?

The PGA Tour has been consumed with dual crises, one internal, one ex-. The latter is obvious — the LIV threat, caused by the depth of Saudi pockets and the shallowness of character among the Tour’s own membership. The internal dispute mostly remained behind boardroom doors until spilling into the open this week when a faction of player-directors (Woods, Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth) blocked an effort to reappoint McIlroy to the Policy Board he left six months ago.

The rebuff wasn’t unjustified. There must be a legitimate and transparent process governing board appointments and having Webb Simpson nominate McIlroy as his successor ain’t either. Still, there was no hand-wringing when Woods was added to the board in the middle of the night, the only member without (still) an expiration date for his term. The Pope of Ponte Vedra serves at his own discretion, it seems. But the stiff-arming of McIlroy exposed how personal grievances have masqueraded as governance concerns.

OK, but by all accounts that Cantlay fellow doesn't want a deal, so do we think this Committee can prevail over the terrific penis?  And should we interpret Rory's attempted resurrection as a trial run in that conflict?

Here's Eamon's take on that:

There are ample misgivings about how the Tour is run and most are genuinely held and valid. But some guys just remain angry at being blindsided by the Framework Agreement, while others are pissed because they left LIV’s millions on the table and know their moment has passed. They want the heads of those who architected the June 6 deal — Monahan, Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne — and the thirst for retribution has paralyzed the organization at a perilous time.

That faction sees McIlroy as too close to their nemeses, but in balking at his return to the board they might have overplayed their hand. A public perception now exists that the Cantlay camp wields power, which means that credit for progress — or, more likely, blame for a lack thereof — is destined for the same desks.

Cantlay and Spieth (perhaps) seem to like the spot they're in right now, with Saudi-level money but no moral ramifications and fewer top players to compete with in the money grabs.  So, Eamon, tell me how this gets approved without those two votes.

This isn't exactly a rave endorsment of Rory's role:

Thus McIlroy now finds himself used by both sides. Having long been a proxy for executives in fighting the public battle against LIV, he is now seconded to the Transactions Committee as a convenient means of providing cover for the players who didn’t want him to have a board vote, but who fear even more scrutiny for having rejected him. The Tour is fortunate that he’s sufficiently toughened (or soft) to endure its maladroit bungling in his effort to contribute to a solution. McIlroy’s relationships with stakeholders on both sides will be useful to the committee, but not enough to single-handedly forge a settlement in golf’s civil war. Even a good-faith effort might still mean the Tour moves forward without a toxic association with the PIF.

I've been calling him an useful idiot since June 6th.  Now he seems willing and able to be used by both sides, so we've got that going for us...

Meanwhile, back here on Planet Earth, the Faceplant Tour™ continues to yield predictable results:

Long-standing sponsor issues ominous threat to PGA Tour

First reportedly by ScoreGolf.com, RBC is refusing to commit to a multi-year extension of its current deal with the mainly US-based circuit until such times as changes are made.

The Royal Bank of Canada is understood to have paid the PGA Tour an eye-watering $25m to be the title sponsor for last month’s BC Heritage on Hilton Head Island and the upcoming RBC Canadian Open.

It has bankrolled the latter since 2008, saving the event from possible oblivion, and added the former to its portfolio in 2012.

However, with both deals up after this year and until such times as it gets some guarantees on the future of the PGA Tour specifically and men’s professional golf more broadly, the bank is refusing to spend another dime.

Yeah, why would they?  The business is in freefall, and the Tour keeps demanding more an delivering less....

Although this is quite the slam:

“It’s like they’re flying the plane and building it at the same time,” added DePaoli. “If some of these outstanding questions can resolve themselves in the short to medium term, and we can start to put some of the static and changes that a lot of people were not too pleased with behind us, professional men’s golf can get back on track and going in a positive direction again.

I think they just got compared to Boeing, which seems pretty damn apt...

They also sponsor a gaggle of players, who have effed them pretty good.  DJ is often credited as having gone to LIV without trashing things on the way out the door.  But, while that might be true for the Tour, he left the week of RBC's flagship Canadian Open, so a nice way to treat them after cashing years of checks.

I'll just embed this as our final bit:

There are a lot of really great golf photos, but this may be the best ever. https://t.co/AqvIEkQ6W4

— Zack Z (@ZZGolfs402) May 11, 2024

That's it for today.  We'll have PGA coverage as the week unfolds. 

Your Friday Frisson - Mean Girls Edition

Much ado about Rory, Tiger and Webber, so I'll not pretend to care about the doings at Quail Hollow.  

It's Not You, It's Me - As you might have noticed, your humble blogger no longer has much use for these entitled brats.  Amusingly, many of said entitled brats agree with me, excluding themselves presumably.

You might have caught wind of Rory returning to the Board, curious given his recent resignation from said Board.  Yet, the latest is that Rory will not be returning to the front lines:

PGA Tour Policy Board member Webb Simpson had planned to step down from his role and have Rory McIlroy – who resigned from the board back in November – take his place. After some

“complicated” and “messy” discussions, Simpson will see out his term which ends in 2025 after players voiced their concerns about McIlroy returning.

“There’s been a lot of conversations,” McIlroy said with a coy smile, noting how the discussions partly reminded him of why he left the policy board in the first place. “It got pretty complicated and pretty messy and I think with the way it happened, I think it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before.”

“There was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason,” he added. “I think the best course of action is if, you know, there’s some people on there that aren’t comfortable with me coming back on, then I think Webb just stays on and sees out his term, and I think he’s gotten to a place where he’s comfortable with doing that and I just sort of keep doing what I’m doing. I put my hand up to help and it was — I wouldn’t say it was rejected, it was a complicated process to get through to put me back on there. So that’s all fine, no hard feelings and we’ll all move on.”

Hmmm, you know we'll have some fun with that "subset of people", but one wonders whether the plural is appropriate.

But we can only laugh at this from the Webber:

Simpson contradicted McIlroy no less than an hour later and denied any negative sentiment towards the world No. 2’s potential return to the board.

“I think the players on the board were very supportive of him being more involved, and in those conversations I think they all see the vital role he plays not only on the PGA Tour, but he’s a DP World Tour member and they’re such an important piece in the game of golf and our Tour,” said Simpson, who also noted he didn’t get any sense that McIlroy wasn’t welcomed. “So his perspective is tremendous to us. He’s a global player, always has been, so I just think his views are important, and the other guys feel the same.”

Yet he isn't returning to the Board, so perhaps Webb isn't being completely transparent here.

The first question you might ask is, why the heck did Rory resign in the first place?  Asking for a friend:

McIlroy, who has been on the front lines for the PGA Tour in its battle with LIV Golf, joined the board in 2022 and was supposed to serve out his term until the end of this year until he abruptly resigned late last fall. McIlroy was then replaced by Jordan Spieth via a board vote. After sticking up for the Tour for the better half of two years, his decision to bail on the board didn’t sit well with his colleagues.

“He was very clear that it was too much for him. He had business dealings, he has a kid, he wants to focus on his game. Trust me, I get it. But once you quit, you’re not getting back,” Kevin Streelman, a former member of the policy board who ran against McIlroy for Player Advisory Council chairman, told Golfweek. “I wouldn’t quit on something that you were elected to by your peers. To want back in is peculiar.”

Streel isn't Jewish and therefor may not be familiar with the term "Chutzpah", but if the shoe fits...

Of course we can't discuss this without letting Rory beat his chest:

“Golf and the PGA Tour has been so good to me over the years, I just feel like it’s my obligation or duty to try to give back and try to set the next generation of players up like we were set up by the previous generation,” McIlroy said of his reasoning to try and rejoin the board after stepping down. “I think there’s a responsibility with every generation to try to leave the Tour, leave the place that you’re playing in a bit of a better spot than it was before. That’s what it’s about.”

Rory is all abut the next generation of players, and he demonstrates by keeping them out of the Signature Events and slowing their growth in the game.  A pity I already used the Chutzpah bit.

Back to that subset, because the man in black will enter on cue:

One veteran pro, who asked for anonymity because of his limited status – “I’m begging for

starts,” he said – claimed that Simpson will remain on the board for the remainder of his term. The veteran pro said he asked board member Patrick Cantlay at the Zurich Classic about McIlroy’s potential return.

“I asked Cantlay, Is Rory back on the board? He said, No. But Patrick is really smart so I thought about how I phrased the question,” the veteran player recounted. “Maybe he was just answering based on this very moment. I said, Pat, I apologize, maybe I asked the wrong question. Did Webb step down? He said, Webb has not stepped down from the board. Then I went higher up and got the full story. Now, it does sound like things change daily out here, maybe hourly, so you never know.”

Cantlay and McIlroy had been at loggerheads during their time on the Board. In November, McIlroy told Paul Kimmage of The Independent, “My relationship with Cantlay is average at best. We don’t have a ton in common and see the world quite differently.” And that was the nicest thing McIlroy had to say about Cantlay, who also described him using a four-letter word for male genitalia.

the specific word Rory chose begins with a "D" and ends with a "K", though that's far less elegant than our Terrific Penis moniker we stole from Alan Shipnuck.  But it may well not be only Patrick, as this bit from Golf Digest indicates:

The McIlroy-Woods relationship, sources tell Golf Digest, has also soured over the past six months. It remains cordial, yet their different views on the future of professional golf has led to a

falling out of sorts. As for Spieth and McIlroy, McIlroy removed himself from a player text chain following Spieth’s comments at Pebble Beach (where Spieth said the tour doesn’t need PIF after the deal with SSG), leading to an hour-long chat between the two. “My thing was if I’m the original [potential] investor that thought that they were going to get this deal done back in July, and I’m hearing a board member say that we don’t really need them now, how are they going to think about that, what are they gonna feel about that?” McIlroy said. “They are still sitting out there with hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that they’re gonna pour it into sport. And I know what Jordan was saying. … But if I were PIF and I was hearing that coming from here, the day after doing this SSG deal, it wouldn’t have made me too happy, I guess?”

The tension remained at the Players Championship, where Spieth and McIlroy played together in the first two rounds and featured combative moments in the first round regarding two of McIlroy’s drops.

Rory's about face is quite startling, but the bigger issue to this observer is what he's allowed to be done to the Tour's rank and file through limited field money grabs, and he's all in on even more of the same.  

But see if your eyes don't well up here:

According to NBC Sports analyst Brad Faxon (who also serves as McIlroy’s putting coach from time to time), McIlroy regretted his decision “almost immediately.” Also, as McIlroy alluded to in his Zurich comments, talks between the PGA Tour and PIF had stalled. While McIlroy has not moved from his anti-LIV Golf stance, the Ulsterman has conceded that golf’s schism is unsustainable and PIF’s participation in professional golf is inevitable. For McIlroy, the most palliative of avenues forward is one where PIF’s investment is diverted to the tour, which would likely welcome reunification of a fractured sport. McIlroy presumably believed his return to the board helps bridge the current gap.

He seems to be overstating his own importance, as it seems at least two of the five (Cantlay, Spieth) are against a deal with PIF, and Tiger's opinions remains unclear.  I've been characterizing this as a hostile takeover of the Tour by the elite players, and now we see further schisms among those elites.  So, buckle up, it should be a wild ride.

Update: But whatya know, before I can go to press, a bone is thrown:

Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott named to PGA Tour, Saudi PIF negotiating team

The PGA Tour has appointed Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott as player

representatives for potential negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as the two sides look to see if there’s an opportunity to work together inside the newly formed, for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises.

The news, first reported by Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, comes amid drama with McIlroy’s failed bid to return to the tour’s policy board. Previously it was reported that Woods would be the lone player on this team, but after his first round at the Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy told the assembled media he and Scott also would be involved in the discussions. The tour soon sent a press release confirming the news.

Woods, McIlroy and Scott will be on a “transaction subcommittee” for PGA Tour Enterprises. This team will hold discussions with PIF should the Saudi wealth fund ultimately join the Strategic Sports Group as equity investors. Woods was named as a sixth player director for the PGA Tour Policy Board last summer, his position the result of a petition from tour players seeking new governance and transparency measures with the tour following the surprise June 6 framework agreement with PIF. Unlike other player directors, Woods’ role does not have a term limit. Woods was additionally announced as vice chairman of the PGA Tour Enterprises board earlier this year.

Joining Woods, Scott and McIlroy on this transaction team are PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, John W. Henry of Fenway Sports Group (one of the primary investors in SSG), board chairman and Valero CEO Joe Gorder and former tour player Joe Ogilvie, who was appointed as a player director liaison after campaigning to advocate for players during the schism.

Am I ever relieved that Rory still has a seat at the cool kids table, though I suspect he may be a probationary cool kid.

The surprise on this negotiating team might be John Henry, given that the Saudis no doubt thought they'd be the only ones sufficiently stupid motivated to fund this hot mess.

It's Not You, It's Me, Part II - You've heard of the special exemptions into the PGA Championship, most of which were along these lines:

PGA Championship 2024: Numerous LIV Golf players receive invites into PGA Championship field, minus one glaring omission

The guy hasn't won a thing since 2010, so I didn't find it so very glaring to begin with. That said, I don't know how the narrative of a snub came about, though it does bear all the distinguishing characteristics of Russian disinformation.  The reality is way less controversial:

But now, thanks to the AP’s Doug Ferguson, we may have some insight into why Oosthuizen won’t be at Valhalla along with his fellow LIV compatriots.

Tuesday afternoon, Ferguson tweeted, “Turns out PGA offered Oosthuizen an invitation. He turned it down because of personal commitments. Not sure what those were.”

An Emily Litella moment.  Though it remains curious that he won't jump on another major playing opportunity...

The Bounce - Tiger and Rory are linked in one more way, their wins at the forthcoming PGA Championship venue.  Joel Beall does a deep dive into this enduring mystery:

Was Tiger Woods’ mysterious bounce at the 2000 PGA Championship caused by fan interference? Investigating one of golf’s greatest conspiracy theories

In case you don't remember:

It was odd, and the announcing crew had no idea what happened.  Here's the take from the booth:

Venturi: "What happened with that ball?"

Nantz: "Do you think someone either kicked it or threw it back in that direction?"

Venturi: "I don't know. It, it didn't ..."

Nantz: "It didn't react naturally, did it?"

Venturi: "No, it didn't at all."

Nantz: "I sure hope someone didn't slap it back."

Venturi: "It could have been someone jumped up and hit it with their hand."

It's a fun piece because he finds two guys on social media with very specific testimony as to what happened to Tiger's tee ball, but of course those recollections are mutually exclusive.  Fun times.

Good one, Joel, now do Rory in 2014.  Specifically, how his rush to finish in the gloaming almost  resulted in disaster, as his hurried tee shot almost found the water.

Geekery, Exposed - Your humble blogger doesn't get out much, but I've got something to amuse me.  I've long been in search of this, long out of print and available only for in excess of $1,000 until now:

It's the definitive biography of Charles Blair Macdonald by George Bahto.  Macdonald is widely known as the Father of American Golf Architecture, although there's an arguable case that he should be considered the Father of American Golf.  But it's a twofer, as the author himself is also a great story.  A dry cleaner, Bahto belonged to Knoll West, a Charles Banks design in New Jersey.  When the club lost its clubhouse in a fire, Bahto volunteered to recreate its history, and that process led him from Banks to Raynor and Macdonald, and this seminal work.  But not only did he become a golf literary presence, he boot-strapped himself into a golf design, role, collaborating with Gil Hanse on a restoration of Sleepy Hollow. 

The only downside?  This is a big, heavy coffee table book, not meant to sit on a human lap for extended periods, yet it will.  I know, first world problems... It's available for a reasonable sum because Tom Doak's Renaissance Golf has republished it, so a heads up to any similar golf nerds.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

Midweek Musings - Competitive Web Browsing Edition

Things that make your humble blogger laugh:

Firefox Power User Keeps 7,400+ Browser Tabs Open for 2 Years

Sheesh, I coulda been a contender!  I have some open for far longer than 2 years, but I'll have to up my game to get to that level.   

Before diving into things, I'd like to use this forum to wish friend-of-the-blog Bobby D. a Happy Birthday, though we shall eschew any quantification thereof.

LIV Reax - On Monday we had some particularly amusing and/or odious LIV triumphalism from two of our faves, and we have some reactions thereto.  First, a refresher on these Greg Norman comments:

One came from LIV commissioner Greg Norman, who doubled down on the idea that, merger or not, LIV is here to stay.

“My boss told me LIV is not going to go anywhere,” he told Bloomberg, referring to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who governs Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and also chairs LIV. “It will be well and truly in operation well past his death — and he’s a young guy. He’s asked me to just stay focused and deliver LIV. LIV is a standalone entity. He’s invested billions of dollars into this and we’re starting to see an ROI within this. So we’re gonna stay focused over here.”

Norman also mentioned to Bloomberg the idea of LIV teams buying golf courses to serve as their home venues, like an English Premier League team has in soccer or the Indian Premier League in cricket.

“And now you can build out around that,” he said. “It’s not just a golf course. You bring in education, you bring in hospitality, you bring in real estate, you bring in merchandise, you bring in management, you bring in all these other different opportunities that the game of golf has to deliver to a community, to a region. We are gonna be doing that.”

Dylan Dethier, in his Monday Finish column, had these thoughts:

As for Norman’s remarks? On the one hand it’s tempting to be dismissive of his over-the-top bombast; it’s easy to roll your eyes at someone guaranteeing a fledgling sports league will be around for decades to come. Nor has Norman’s track record been particularly spotless when it comes to grandiose claims; just think back to late 2022, when he claimed seven of the top 20 players in the world would come to LIV only to roll out a group headlined by Thomas Pieters.

But regardless of specifics, the subtext of Norman’s claims are significant and dismissing those would be foolish. Not just because the idea of home games is intriguing (LIV’s Adelaide event remains its proof point on this sort of stuff, including the power of untapped markets and cohesive team storylines) but because of the seriousness behind them. Take comments from Koepka, who isn’t prone to LIV hyperbole but sought to clarify a detail about the much-discussed merger this week.

“I mean, the merger is also between PIF (the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund) and the PGA Tour,” Koepka said at LIV Singapore. “I think that’s the difference. It’s not LIV Golf, it’s the PIF and the PGA Tour. I think that’s something that needs to be well known.”

LIV’s future has been a sticking point of negotiations and that only seems more true with time. Even as we wait to hear more about Rory McIlroy‘s reappointment — or lack thereof — to the PGA Tour’s board, his hopes for reunification run counter to everything LIV is saying. Monday marks 11 months since the surprise announcement of a PIF-PGA Tour-DP World Tour merger that would unite the golf world. It’s not clear in what concrete ways that merger has actually progressed since.

Yes, Dylan, the eyes are certainly rolling out of their sockets, especially since I'm still laughing at Norman's assertion a few years back that he was going to revolutionize the golf world with a pimped out golf cart...

Adelaide was different, but I've struggled to understand exactly why given that nowhere else have they exhibited so much as a pulse.  But how laughable is Greggie's assertion that LIV has nothing to do with and wouldn't be affected by a deal PIF/PGA Tour deal.  That's the ticket!  Of course LIV is the stumbling block to the merger, though we did hear previously that PIF had proffered $1 billion to soothe Patrick's rage, which has a way of smoothing out those tough negotiating points.

As for our Phil, reminder of his Goodfellas moment:

Take Mickelson’s first: probably not much. Koepka has talked all season, including during this week’s win, about using LIV events as major championship prep, and Cameron Smith said it was great to play well heading into a major. These guys haven’t forgotten where their legacies are made, and it’s tough to imagine the likes of Koepka, Smith or Jon Rahm passing up a chance at a major title. That’s kind of the point, y’know? It’s also tough to imagine LIV players receiving much sympathy from the general public should they strike. Still, Mickelson’s tweet was the latest in an increasingly escalating war of words in which LIV continues to double down on itself.

So, how did that tweet play among normies?

Phil Mickelson deletes strongly worded tweet warning major championships over lack of LIV players

Which is more pathetic, making a mafiosa-like threat or making such a threat and then being forced to delete the tweet?  I guess we can conclude that, how do the cool kids put it, that he f*****d around and found out.

On a related note, you can breathe again, as the PGA Championship has dodged the dreaded asterisk:

Defending champion Brooks Koepka – three times a winner of the Wanamaker Trophy – headlines a field that includes 16 PGA champions and 33 major champions as Valhalla plays host to the second men’s major of the year for the fourth time.

Included in the line-up are six LIV golfers who have received special exemptions to take part.

Talor Gooch let slip yesterday that he is one of the lucky lot.

The 2023 LIV Golf individual champion shared the news on social media, writing: “Looking forward to Valhalla next week! Thank you for the invitation @PGA. See y’all there.”

Receiving a similar invite are 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, Dean Burmester, Lucas Herbert, Adrian Meronk and David Puig. There is no place, however, for 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

 Yeah, I saw one source call that a shocking omission, but I guess some folks are just easily shocked.

Gaming The System -  The estimable Eamon Lynch takes aim at Webb and Adam, though the header is a bit of a hot mess:

Lynch: PGA Tour stars appear to be gaming the system. Is it true? Doesn’t matter

Pretty sure it'll matter to someone....

As always, Eamon's ledes are worth the price of admission:

The scorched-earth political strategist Lee Atwater has been dead for more than three decades, but one of his odious aphorisms has never been more alive: “Perception is reality.” One need only skim the scummy surface of social media to realize how many people require no evidence to support fiercely held convictions about the malfeasance of others. The prevalence of that sentiment in every realm of life means it’s unsurprising to see it bubble up in golf, but it does present yet another headache for the PGA Tour, since the problematic perception is emanating from its own board members.

OK, but are you certain it's merely a perception?  I'm not in love with that reality, but let's give Eamon a fair hearing:

There are numerous arguments why Webb Simpson warrants sponsor’s exemptions into tournaments for which he is not otherwise eligible, the latest of which he has received for next week’s Wells Fargo Championship. He’s a popular former major champion. He’s built sturdy relationships on a reputation for professionalism and keeping things moving on the golf course (OK, that’s only half true). He has been a diligent member of the Tour’s Policy Board as it tries to navigate shark-infested waters. He’s chosen well in the places where he has won (Harbour Town) and where he lives (Quail Hollow, the host venue for the Wells Fargo). You can see why he’d get a special invitation or two.

 Sure, especially for the home game, but is it only the one or two?

But four? And all for signature events, the most lucrative stops on Tour with excessively reduced

field sizes? That’s half of the eight starts Simpson has made in 2024. There have been 10 non-signature tournaments he chose not to play. Simpson doesn’t traffic much in profanity, so someone ought to explain to him the concept of taking the piss.

He isn’t the only player-director on the Policy Board whose schedule has been scrutinized. Adam Scott received free passes into three signature events this year. Two other player-directors each got one — Peter Malnati and Tiger Woods, who was ushered into the Genesis Invitational, where he was also the tournament host. So generously are golden tickets gifted to board members that one almost expects the panel’s chair, antediluvian attorney Ed Herlihy, to peg it in a signature event, too.

OK, it's true Tiger only took the one, but not only is he no longer a professional golfer, but he gave it to himself.  No self dealing to be found here.

One should be wary of picking a fight with Eamon, but I feel there's some confusion to be found herein:

Every invitation extended to player-directors has merit and is defensible, for those who care to defend them. None of those players is acting unethically by requesting and accepting exemptions since regulations permit members to use an unlimited number of them. But the pattern of invitations for player-directors creates a lousy perception that board members are gaming the system for their own benefit. It doesn’t matter if it’s the reality. The mere impression of self-dealing is perilous for an organization already running on fumes when it comes to goodwill among the rank and file.

Sponsors who dispense these exemptions aren’t breaking rules either. In return for anteing up a small fortune, events ought to be given latitude in how they deploy their limited number of invitations, even if it leads to jarring parochialism.

The Venn diagram of lawful and ethical will show areas covered by both concepts, but also the opposite.  I'll take Eamon at his word that they're all following the rules (of course, to some extent they wrote these rules), but is what they're doing ethical?  Well, this issue first arose at Riviera, and Peter Malnati has this reaction to the criticism he received:

"If the reason I got that exemption is because I'm on the board, that's not right.

These directors approved the unconscionable concentration of purses in limited field events, ones they couldn't qualify for on the merits.  Are we to believe that there was no winking and nodding going on?  Or, perhaps more likely, that those sponsors whose economic fortunes depend upon Signature status aren't aware who awards that designation?  In the legal sphere this might be passed off as the appearance of a conflict, but that's a whole lot more than a "perception".

Eamon works up a lather and offers a proposal, though I'm inclined to let these guys continue to reveal themselves:

Rank and file players are seeing their opportunities dwindle, a trend likely to continue as the Tour product is further streamlined in the coming years. There will be fewer tournaments, fewer cards available, fewer chances to make a living. That’s already painfully apparent this season to card-holders who earned status but lack privilege or seniority. It adds insult to injury for them to see sponsor exemptions into the most sought-after tournaments repeatedly used to prop up players who are not sufficiently competitive, whose best days are in the rearview.

Unlimited invitations to regular Tour events are fine, but the fast lane into signature events needs to be closed after a couple trips. The elevated events simply count for too much — particularly FedEx Cup points, the most meaningful currency now in determining playing privileges. But go further. For every exemption into a lucrative signature stop, the recipient should be required to enter a regular event that they haven’t supported in recent years. Players who take more from the business ought to have no issue with giving more, since they are now league owners.

In case it's escaped your notice, Eamon, these guys are world class at the taking and unranked amateurs at the giving but, just to be safe, let's make them play the regular Tour event first.  After all, I'm still waiting for Tiger to play his make-good for the waiver from the Tour to play in Turkey a few years back.

NBC The Excitement - The Peacock has taken many hits recently for the diminution of its broadcast, both in terms of personnel and technology.  There was much speculation about the analysts chair for U.S. Open, and Dylan Dethier shares the wide-ranging personnel announced:

GOLF STUFF I LIKE

We’re getting the band back together!

NBC announced its broadcast plans for this June’s U.S. Open — and it includes a few notables.

After months of speculation surrounding who will fill Paul Azinger’s lead analyst chair for Pinehurst and beyond, Brandel Chamblee and Brad Faxon will share that seat as part of a four-

man booth; Chamblee and Dan Hicks will take the even holes (including the 18th hole on Sunday) while Faxon and Mike Tirico will handle the odds. I know he’s polarizing but I think the addition of Chamblee is excellent; he’s sharp and intensely well-prepared and there’s no questioning his passion for the role or its subject matter.

Bones Mackay is joining the coverage as an on-course reporter; the golf world was curious whether he’d pick up a new bag or return to the broadcasting world following the legendary caddie’s split with Justin Thomas before April’s Masters.

And the tandem of Roger Maltbie (on-course reporter) and Gary Koch (analyst, working alongside Steve Sands) will join NBC’s coverage following positive reception to their return on Thursday and Friday of this year’s 50th Players Championship; this time they’ll be around all four days. The two were let go in controversial fashion at the end of the 2022 season after more than a quarter-century with NBC, but it’s clear the fans — and now the network — want more.

Golf viewers criticizing the broadcast is a sport in and of itself, so I don’t expect NBC to receive universal praise for this (or really anything else it does) but these all feel like wins. So, too, does the network’s promise of fewer commercials for the week. There’s work to do — that lead analyst chair still needs a long-term plan, for instance — but these specific additions will help the U.S. Open feel big. That’s golf stuff I like.

The Maltbie and Koch cameos are seemingly an admission that their dismissals were a mistake, no?  I find them like old shoes, a familiar presence that reminds of previous events.  

I like Chamblee, at least in measured doses, though that odd-even hole bit seems quite weird.  My concern would be too many voices trying to talk over each other.  My sense is that Chamblee has owned the studio work, so one wonders whether his presence will be missed on Live At and post-game shows.

 But at least I can agree with Dylan's last point, at this juncture we're just happy to see a little effort.

And just as I'm prepared to hit "Publish", this pops up:

NBC Golf chief dishes on ‘false’ allegations, analyst plans, broadcast strategy

Which doesn't happen every day:

Sam Flood would rather not be part of this story.

Over the years, Flood’s employer, NBC, has taken a cautious approach to making its top

executives available for interviews. Call ’em old fashioned, but the Peacock would prefer that its stars of the show be … the stars of the show. When it comes to the decision-makers responsible for hiring, firing, strategizing, budgeting and managing those stars? Well, their actions should speak louder than their words.

So when NBC offered up the head of its golf coverage at a U.S. Open preview day on Monday morning — the same day the network announced its official coverage plans for next month’s U.S. Open — Flood’s availability was noteworthy in itself. For the first time since assuming control of Golf Channel’s day-to-day operations last August and shifting into the de facto steward of NBC’s golf coverage, Flood, whose formal title is executive producer and president of production, was ready to speak on several thorny topics swirling around NBC Golf. And, for roughly 30 minutes with lead event producer Tommy Roy by his side, that’s what Flood did.

As a wise man said, if you're taking flak, you're over the target....

 But, irony alert, one of the biggest purveyors of fake news is going with the fake newqs defense:

NBC refused an interview request for the story in the weeks before it was published, which would have allowed Flood to defend his overarching strategy for the network’s golf telecasts and refute points in the reporting that both he and Roy now say are untrue. Like, for example, the charge that Flood doesn’t care about golf as a sport. (“I’m a golfaholic,” he said. “I belong to two great clubs, I love to play and I grind like maniac.”) But on Monday, Flood wanted to talk.

Flood, unsurprisingly, said he disagrees with the characterization of NBC Golf as a decaying, “penny-pinching” entity. From a restaurant table by the 18th hole at Pinehurst No. 2, he spoke about his in-motion plans to innovate golf television — and pointed to a glimmering new U.S. Open broadcast strategy as proof that money is the least of NBC’s problems.

“It’s a completely false narrative,” he said when asked about the allegation that NBC has been cheapening its golf product. “We are investing and looking at opportunities to grow the game and make the audience bigger. Tommy has had more assets and more resources than he’s had in the last few years.”

Since he works for the Peracock, the operating assumption is that he's better versed in Marx than Orwell, still it's the latter he evokes:

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

― George Orwell, 1984

Given how frequently I use that perennial, should I be paying royalties to the Orwell estate?

So, a completely false narrative, but isn't this an admission against interest?

Added Roy: “This narrative was accurate for several years about stuff being taken out of the broadcast. Sam has switched that around. We’re getting the toys back.”

Let me see if I have this straight.  The boss says that it's hogwash that they've defunded the endeavor but the guy that gets it on TV says we're getting back all the stuff they defunded?  Noted.

 So, put yourself in the position of a sponsor of a non-signature event:

One explanation is the network’s week-to-week golf coverage. Some of those events have had less tech in ’24, including fewer cameras and shot tracers, Flood said, pointing to a conscious editorial decision to place a greater emphasis on the biggest events. You might have noticed that NBC’s coverage from this year’s Players Championship, which received positive reviews, had more add-ons than any other Tour event this season. That was no accident. The U.S. and British Opens, which NBC also broadcasts, will have a similar big-time feel.

“We looked at the entire portfolio, and we decided to lean in where the audience is going to be bigger,” Flood said. “We use our resources smartly at the other events. You have to look at things through the lens that NBC tournament golf, Golf Channel tournament golf and the Golf Channel studios are one big bucket. You look at the whole bucket and you take advantage of the moment you can grow the game, engage the audience and give the biggest audience the best possible experience.”

No wonder Honda and Farmers Insurance found the exit....

You can read the remainder for yourself, but this one 'graph has a "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" vibe to it:

Flood said these decisions are not being motivated by a network ethos toward cost-cutting, even if in an earnings call in late 2022, Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts outlined a plan to cut some $1 billion from NBCUniversal in the coming years — a division of the company that includes NBC Golf. It does seem unlikely that NBC would dial back on spending on on-air talent at a time when sports networks, NBC included, are falling over themselves to sign broadcasters to big-money deals, knowing that quality on-air talent can mask other network flaws. (NBC pays host Mike Tirico, who regularly contributes to the network’s golf coverage, a reported $10.5 million annually.)

The problem is that their actions are predictable and logical.  The Tour has announced to the world that the vast majority of its schedule is of lesser quality, and NBC is delivering consistent with that valuation.  Said differently, no one will be watching regardless of the toys they employ.

That's it for today, kids.  Catch you again towards the end of the week, content willing.