Thursday Themes - Lite Blogging Edition

Not gonna break a sweat this morning, but we'll try to amuse nonetheless.

Shall we start with an evergreen?

Dogs, Food - Sometimes you simply can't make the dogs eat the food on offer, as per this:

The ratings are out, and less than 100K people tuned in for LIV Golf's individual championship finale

Amusingly, a friend told me he actually turned on the final moments of the event, and didn't hate it too much.  I'm guessing he didn't realize the selective company he was in....

Is it communicable?

Gloomy TV ratings hang over LIV Championship, PGA Tour fall debut

They call it the big boy tour, but the boys are the only part that might be big:

We’ll start with the PGA Tour, which recorded 69,000 average viewers during Sunday’s final round at the Procore Championship in Napa, less than a quarter of the audience that tuned into Sahith Theegala’s final round victory in the same event last fall.

Per Ian Faith, this is a good thing because it means their appeal is becoming more selective....

I've been noting the irony for some time, that in the early stages of the Tour v. LIV cage match there was a curious lack of criticism of LIV's exhibition match format, for reasons that are now blindingly obvious.   To wit, that the top players envied those miniscule field sizes and lack of cuts, yanno, guaranteed paydays.  So their attempt to mimic LIV on the PGA Tour has been wildly successful, including its television ratings (or, more accurately, lack thereof).

But there was one bright spot in golf TV ratings:

In a year that the news on television viewership for golf hasn’t always been the best, there was a big positive coming out of last weekend. As noted on X by the Sports Business Journal’s Josh

Carpenter, ratings for the Sunday singles in the American win over Europe in the Solheim Cup saw a massive gain over Spain last year and significant progress from the last time the matches were held on American soil.

Sunday’s viewership for the 15½-12½ American victory—their first since 2017—had an average viewership of 657,000 on NBC. That’s more than double the 277,000 who watched on Golf Channel in the earlier coverage window in 2023, when the teams tied 14-14 as Europe retained the Cup. Three years ago at Inverness, where Europe won on Labor Day Monday, there were 588,000 viewers on Golf Channel.

Upon further review, perhaps that should have been brightish:

The numbers are good, but not what they used to be. In 2021, NBC televised the first two days of the Solheim on the weekend (with the Monday finish on Golf Channel) and drew 634,000 viewers on Saturday and 878,000 on Sunday.

Purses and other forms of compensation are exploding while viewership numbers are tanking.  Sounds like a viable business model to me....  The only good news is that the network contracts are locked in until +/-2030, so the Tour can continue to lose three-quarters of its TV audience each year with no financial ramifications until then.  The saddest bit being that they seem committed to doing just that....

LIV Stuff - As I teased Monday, I hadn't blogged this bit:

Jon Rahm's victory in season-ending LIV Golf event adds $22 million to his bank account

If each of those 100,000 viewers  kicks in $220 to watch the broadcast, that'll cover the $22 million large to Rahmbo..... A bit of a disconnect, no?

This is also telling:

But LIV’s place within golf’s ecosystem remains a puzzle that it needs to solve. Niemann, second on its standings, is not in any of the four majors next year because the league does not receive World Ranking points for its 54-hole events.

Something the promising young talent might have considered before taking the easy money....

Do these clowns think this is a good look?

Only big rocks for Rahmbo 😤#LIVGolf @LegionXIIIgc pic.twitter.com/gdjx6YcaY1

— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) September 15, 2024

Nothing says Serious Athletic Competition quite like a blinged-out pinky ring.... Now, Jon, I dare you to show up for Tuesday dinner at Augusta with that.

Rahm keeps pining for those Tour events he's missing and wants more than anything to play for Europe in next year's Ryder Cup....  Well, strike that "more than anything", because Rahmbo doesn't write checks:

Report: DP World Tour rejects LIV Golf's offer to pay fines for Jon Rahm, others

Here's some background:

Former DP World Tour golfers competing for LIV Golf are in violation of the DP World Tour’s

conflicting events policy, which requires a release to play elsewhere. In April 2023, the Tour won a U.K. arbitration case that allows it to enforce the penalties. That means if players want to compete on the DP World Tour, they’ll have to pay a fine, among other penalties.

Jon Rahm, who Sunday won LIV’s season-long individual championship and the $18 million prize, as well as others like Tyrrell Hatton, want to compete in at least the minimum required events on the DP World Tour to be eligible to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. However, to do so, they must pay up.

Rahm and the DP World Tour have been in a somewhat back-and-forth, with an appeal coming from Rahm and his side last week of the sanctions, allowing him to play in events like next week’s Spanish Open.

So, what's the problem?

A DP World Tour player must compete in a minimum of four events, excluding majors, to remain a member. The Olympics count, leaving Rahm three events to go this year. Next year, it’ll be the same process.

“I’m entered into the tournament,” Rahm said last week at LIV Golf Chicago. “We entered a long time ago. Whether they let me play or not is a different thing. I’m not a big fan of the fines. I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.

What a remarkable coincidence.... he's not a fan of the fines and we're not fans of his, so win-win, baby!

Then he tries to hide behind his mother's Spain's skirt:

“I’ve said many times, I don’t go to the Spanish Open for the glory or anything else. I think it’s my duty to Spanish golf to be there, and I also want to play in Sotogrande.

“At that point, it would almost be doing not only me but Spanish golf a disservice by not letting me play, so yeah, that’s why we’re trying to talk to them and make that happen. I would also love to play the Dunhill. I have a good friend who asked me to play, and Johan has been a great, great ambassador for the game of golf. I would love to be able to play all those events.”

I'm sorry, Jon, but who did this to Spanish golf?  This was all known when you took that big check, so perhaps some cheese with that whine?

Now, things have gotten a little weird, first with this:

LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan made an unannounced visit Tuesday to the Fields Ranch East course at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, on the same North Texas property that houses the PGA of America’s new headquarters.

Al-Rumayyan, who also governs the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which funds LIV, is in town for the season-ending LIV Team Championship at nearby Maridoe Golf Club; the reason for his PGA Frisco visit is unclear.

A PGA of America executive told GOLF.com in a brief phone interview that he had “no idea” why Al-Rumayyan was on site and that he was unaware of any scheduled meetings with him; the executive said that he did not know who, if anyone, had arranged Al-Rumayyan’s course tour. Omni PGA Frisco director of golf Paul Earnest was among the Frisco staff professionals who were off property Tuesday at the Northern Texas PGA sectional championship in Dallas.

If we show up unannounced, we get the Scottie in Louisville treatment....see if you're buying any of this:

The PGA of America official and an Omni representative said, respectively, that neither the PGA of America nor the resort has had any discussions with LIV about any kind of partnership. Al-Rumayyan’s visit was characterized as social in nature.

“There was absolutely nothing arranged [business-wise],” the hotel official said.

LIV representatives did not immediately reply to a GOLF.com inquiry about Al-Rumayyan’s drop-in.

Al-Rumayyan arrived in the pro shop in the afternoon and asked if he could see the Gil Hanse-designed course and perhaps play a few holes. In a black LIV polo shirt, he motored around the East course with an Omni staffer, with one of Al-Rumayyan’s aides trailing them in a second cart.

Had he booked it on Golf Now?  The LIV swag is indeed a nice touch, but apparently Yasir is now stalking Seth Waugh.

We're getting some mixed signals, but I'm only human and simply can't take any more of Rory McIlroy.  It's not as if he hasn't effed everything up already, but get this bit which the header called "optimistic":

With that out of the way, McIlroy was inevitably quizzed on the latest developments (or lack

thereof) in the seemingly never-ending PGA Tour/PIF negotiations. Asked for what he felt was holding back a resolution, the Northern Irishman identified the U.S. Department of Justice and the wide range of views prevalent on both the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League.

“I'd say maybe half the players on LIV want the deal to get done; half probably don’t,” he said. “I'd say it's probably similar on the PGA Tour. Everyone's looking out for themselves and their best interests. It would benefit some people for a deal not to get done, but it would obviously benefit some people for a deal to get done. When you have a members-run organization, it complicates things a little bit, especially when players are having to make decisions on the business side of things. The tours want it to happen. The investors certainly want it to happen because they can see the benefit for themselves.”

“It seems like the people that are really making the decisions are all rowing in the same direction, which is a really good thing,” he said. “That still doesn't mean a deal may get done because it's just a very complicated set of circumstances. But yeah, from what I hear, there's optimism there, and that's good to see.”

Yes, Rory, isn't it great that Tiger, Patrick and you are rowing in the same direction.  And those nasty Tour rabbits are being so damn selfish.  I mean, could you guys be better to them?  You actually let them play in a few events., though it's events without actual cash purses.  Don't those plebes know their place?  have they not kissed your ring?

As the late Grayson Murray famously said to Rory, "F**k You."  

he goes on and on about young talent emerging in a Ryder Cup context.  Oscar Wilde famously said that irony is wasted on the stupid.  Rory has done more to keep young talent from emerging by elbowing them out of the Signature Events (not to mention the PIP program), that they now hate him as per the Murray bit, as well they should.  He's allowed Cantlay and others to use him to turn the PGA Tour into a LIV equivalent, and he remains totally clueless.

If he keeps missing three-footers I'll welcome the day when he gets shut out of the big money events.  Of course, he's taken care of himself to such an extent that it won't matter much any more.

We're at a point where I don't much care whether deal gets done or not, because I won't be among those 69,000 souls tuning in.

I'll leave you here and wish you a good weekend.  I'm sure there will be something to talk about next week.

 

Weekend Wrap

Hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful Fall weekend....Perhaps you were even smart enough to not ruin it with any golf.

Holding Serve - I got to watch quite a bit of the event, so thank God for DVRs and team match play.  Shack has some thoughts:

Another cup, another classic. Unless you were one of the thousands trying to catch a shuttle.

The 2024 Solheim Cup delivered the glorious range of dramatics that we’ve become accustomed to spoiled-by in team events: brilliant shots under the gun, weird decisions (by the losing Captain), embarrassing four-ball pace of play, a cringeworthy caddie display (not their fault), a former President adding to the first tee buzz, an LPGA display of logistics ineptitude for the ages leading to Friday morning’s funereal first tee, and, after a struggle to get stories straight about what went wrong, an apology from the LPGA Tour Commissioner.

Did I mention there was incredible golf in between all the madness?

In spite of all the weirdness, the United States team Captained by Stacy Lewis arrived at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club only a year removed from a heartbreaking loss in Spain and this time dominated the first two days, before watching Europe close with a strong singles performance to tighten up the final score, 15½-12½.

The three-point difference gave America its first Solheim Cup victory in seven years and the first Cup win by either team of more than two points since 2017. 

We'll get to that Friday fiasco in a sec, but first more from Geoff:

Sunday’s thrilling last-minute run by Europe started with Charley Hull’s shocking 6&4 drubbing of Nelly Korda despite the match starting with the duo all square through five holes. And the late tightening of matches to make the final four duels important served to highlight the least-appreciated element of biennial professional matches: 28-points.

The system’s ingeniousness works so well in so many ways. It makes a pre-Sunday singles clinching win nearly impossible. And even with a commanding lead—think Brookline!—usually gives a sense that a few matches can flip the entire thing in that weird way cup matches can turn with a slight shift in scoreboard color. It gives us different mediums for the artists to paint and requires different mentalities in a condensed, ultra-intense three days. It rewards stamina and smarts. So, in other words, obvious it’s not a format devised by the same people behind the 12-or-so iterations of the FedExCup.

Sunday saw America needing just 4½ points out of 12 up for grabs to regain the Cup in what is traditionally USA’s best format. (You know, the whole nation-of-golf-narcissists factor.) Yet even with everything working against the Europeans, including amazing crowds with brilliant spirit and by all accounts a wholesomeness that will be missing in Long Island next fall if the PGA of America insists on selling booze at 7 a.m., the USA’s Solheim victory was not solidified until the fourth-to-last match out. That’s when Lilia Vu earned the win with a brilliant approach shot and tap-in to solidify the key half-point.

This one had a slightly different feel in that the U.S. always had it kinda sorta under control, though they did struggle to come up with the final daggers.  But still wildly entertaining, as it puts players under a different kind of pressure, where closing out matches can be excruciatingly difficult.  Geoff does a deep dive into the 28-point system in use, cribbed from the Ryder Cup, that you can sort through on your won.

As for the dark underbelly?

The 2024 Solheim Cup delivered the glorious range of dramatics that we’ve become accustomed to spoiled-by in team events: brilliant shots under the gun, weird decisions (by the losing Captain), embarrassing four-ball pace of play, a cringeworthy caddie display (not their fault), a former President adding to the first tee buzz, an LPGA display of logistics ineptitude for the ages leading to Friday morning’s funereal first tee, and, after a struggle to get stories straight about what went wrong, an apology from the LPGA Tour Commissioner.

But how is it that, with years to plan the event's logistics, they do this to their fans:

Emily Donohue and Maureen Conway flew in from Ireland earlier this week to watch the Solheim Cup, the crown jewel of the LPGA. They arrived at the Jiffy Lube Live parking lot at 6:45 a.m., keen to spend the morning on a raucous first tee at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it through the gates until 9:15 a.m. The father and daughter who were standing in line in front of them left after waiting for 30 minutes. An untold number of fans turned around, never to return, after hearing that wait times for the shuttle buses were two to three hours.

The first tee at the Solheim Cup on Friday morning, which seats 2,000 this year, was a shell of what it has been for decades. It’s arguably the best place to be in women’s golf all season. But not this time. The fans who’d waited for months, even years, to be part of what’s been billed as the biggest Solheim Cup ever, were left stranded in the parking lot.

To make matters worse, the porta potties in the parking lot were locked. And they paid for parking – $30. On top of the tickets, airfare, lodging and time away from work.

“People with disabilities, people with small children, it’s not fair on them,” said Donohue. “You want a big crowd here. I don’t know how they didn’t anticipate this.”

 And then the go to ground:

Transparency and accountability are paramount for a failure of this magnitude. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux-Samaan should’ve met with the media on Friday and answered questions. She should’ve gone out to the parking lot and talked to fans, with water bottles and trinkets in hand. Maybe even shuttled a few back herself.

But the world requires leadership, so see how you think this putative leader performed:

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan met with the media on Saturday morning and owned the transportation disaster that took place on opening day of the 19th Solheim Cup. Fans were stuck in the Jiffy Lube Live parking lot for hours on Friday, missing the first-tee experience and most of the morning foursomes session at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

“I don’t want to get into exactly who, the details of the responsibility,” she said when asked who was in charge. “At the end of the day, I’m the leader of the organization and I have to own it. We have a tournament team that runs all of this, but I’m sitting up here in front of you as the leader of the LPGA, and I need to own that.”

When pressed for specifics on how many buses were in circulation on Friday morning and how many were added for later in the day and Saturday, Marcoux Samaan said that was a “complicated question.”

So, if I understand you, you're only prepared to deal with easy questions?  Quite the admission against interest, although you have to love her parroting the therapeutic culture that tells her to "own it," of course only if there are no consequences.

Shall we3 check in with the Tour Confidential Gang?  Yeah, that was actually rhetorical....

The Americans reclaimed the Solheim Cup for the first time since 2017, beating Europe 15.5-12.5 on Sunday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia. What was the difference for the U.S. this time around?

Josh Berhow: The stars showed up. Back in 2019, Lexi and Danielle Kang (two of their top-three players) combined for 2 points. In 2021, that duo combined for 2.5 points. Last year, Rose Zhang only secured a half point, and Lilia Vu, who won two majors last season, earned just a point. This season? Zhang was 4-0! Lauren Coughlin, the hottest U.S. player entering the week, didn’t slow down, finishing 3–0–1 to secure 3.5 points. Throw in three points from Nelly Korda, whose only loss was to a dialed-in Charley Hull on Sunday, and that’s how you win on home soil.

Sean Zak: Sometimes, it’s as simple as what Josh says above. The best players on the U.S. showed up. An even more strict reading is that they simply held serve. They were the favorite, they have the best players, and they were playing at home. It’s never that simple, but the better team won. That’s not always the case.

Jonathan Wall: I concur with my colleagues. The big names showed up and put points on the board in bunches. The odds increase greatly in your favor when the big guns are firing on all cylinders. Thankfully for the Americans, it all came together this week.

You are supposed to be able to win your home games, so we shouldn't be all that shocked.

Who takes home MVP honors for each team?

Berhow: It’s easy to just pick the top point-earner… but I’m going to pick the top point-earner, especially since Rose Zhang went from earning just a half point last year to 4 this year. And Rose didn’t just win this week, she dominated — 3 and 2, 5 and 4, 6 and 4, and 6 and 4. She never played the final two holes this week, and three of her four matches didn’t make it past the 14th! I’ll give Hull the European MVP. She earned 3 points but, more importantly, took down Nelly Korda in the leadoff match of Sunday singles. If Europe was going to mount a comeback, that had to happen.

Zak: I’ll lean in Megan Khang’s direction for the American honors. She’s the lifeblood of the squad. She gets the best golf out of her bestie, Nelly Korda. She thumped Emily Pedersen in her singles match. And Berhow nailed the European honors. Charley Hull, playing five matches, did everything she could to squeeze out points for the team in blue. Man, she’s fun to watch play golf.

Wall: It has to be Rose Zhang. She continues to live up to the hype on the biggest stages. Team USA was always going to need their stars to step up when it mattered to break the Solheim Cup drought — and Zhang did so when it mattered most. She kept the possibility of an all-time Sunday comeback on ice.

Zhang or Khang for sure.  I thought the former was somewhat low-key (although I saw far more foursomes than fourball), but Khang's play Sunday with Nelly getting crushed in the match before hers seemed pretty important.

Whose performance were you most surprised by?

Berhow: Surprised might not be the right word, but Lauren Coughlin had a tough assignment this week. She won in each of the past two months and was playing what was essentially a home game, which only added pressure on top of lofty expectations. She delivered, and that’s not easy to do.

Zak: I think Esther Henseleit is the name to watch for 2025. She didn’t go undefeated and didn’t play five matches, but it felt like every time I saw her hit an approach, it was flagged. She never seemed to shy away from the moment, which you love to see from a rookie (and someone who was outside the top 100 in the world at the beginning of 2024). Add it to her silver medal from August, and this could be the summer that really launched a career.

Wall: I’ll go with the event organizers. With an event of this magnitude, you’d think every logistical scenario would have been discussed and analyzed before the opening tee shot on Friday. It was one of the biggest blunders I’ve ever seen.

I guess Jonathan Wall didn't get the memo that buses are complicated.  So judgmental!

Could European captain Suzann Pettersen have done anything differently? What changes or tweaks might you have made?

Berhow: I don’t think Leona Maguire was thrilled to play just twice after she was a key member of the last two Solheim Cups, but she also wasn’t great in an afternoon four-ball matchup on Friday, which led to her missing all of Saturday. Hard to second-guess too much here. Like I said before, the Americans’ best players did their jobs. And, as Rory McIlroy has told us, it’s really hard to win these team events on the road.

Zak: It’s funny. The majority of this European team was at last year’s Solheim Cup, where they won. So we’ve changed location and we’ve changed a few players and earned a slightly different result. What gives? Not much is the answer. I’m not sure she needed to do anything different. The Euros won 1.5 fewer points this year. That can come down to randomness.

Wall: I hate second-guessing the captains in the aftermath of defeat. They’re trying to make the best decisions at the moment, even if they seem like the wrong ones after the fact. As Josh mentioned, only trotting out Leona Maguire twice in three days is an odd one. She was a key cog in the last triumph for the Europeans and could’ve helped stop the bleeding when things went sideways during team play. Her comments on social media confirmed she wasn’t happy with the decision. I don’t blame her.

I didn't see that Friday afternoon fourball, but benching a player made for this event is more than a little strange.  Pettersen laid it on Leona's form, but the player got the last word:

Form is temporary, class is permanent
💪🏼🇪🇺 🦁 https://t.co/xRAYLx15mW

— Leona Maguire (@leona_maguire) September 15, 2024

And on busgate:

Friday’s first day was marred by transportation issues, which left hundreds of fans stranded for hours in the parking lot and forced them to miss the opening tee shots. What’s your take on the snafu and the LPGA’s reaction to it?

Berhow: We covered this extensively here, but it sounds like the weekend was much better. How this happens on the first tournament day of the LPGA’s biggest event of the year is still a head-scratcher, but I’m glad things were fixed for Saturday and Sunday and it wasn’t a storyline.

Zak: It’s really unfortunate. It made me really sad to see photos and videos stream across social media of thousands of people who wanted to watch women’s golf but couldn’t. Clearly, the LPGA made appropriate changes over the weekend, but you simply cannot make a mistake that big and kill one of the greatest vibes in all of golf: Friday morning on the 1st tee.

Wall: Before last week, the worst transportation debacle I ever witnessed was the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. It took over two hours to go 10 miles on a media shuttle. Some tournament-goers got so frustrated, they decided to walk to their cars. The Solheim Cup debacle was on another level. How the LPGA allowed things to go from bad to worse on Friday is baffling. I feel bad for everyone who showed up and waited in line for hours, only to watch the opening tee shots on their phone. That should never happen at an event of this magnitude.

Unfortunately, clicking through that link in Josh Berhow's answer above will just confirm that the LPGA is run by clowns:

Dethier: So — what on Earth happened? Was there some unexpected twist that organizers couldn’t have seen coming? Or was this just a big-time miscalculation?

Melton: It seems as though it was a pretty huge fumble on the part of the organizers — but the snafu isn’t a surprise for many who have been here throughout the week. After the opening ceremony yesterday there were similar troubles for folks trying to get back to their cars. If this were a course hosting a big-time event for the first time, it’d be a little easier to show some grace. But RTJ Golf Club has hosted events like this plenty of times (four Presidents Cups and one PGA Tour event). The playbook for success was there, it seems as though they just didn’t utilize it.

Are you shocked that there's gabling in Casablanca?  I would pair this with Jay Monahan's performance at that 2020 Players Championship, where he kept mumbling about how golf is played outdoors over 200 acres,  ignoring that fact that his fans are packed like sardines on buses and in grandstands.  There's a contempt obvious for the paying customers, it's just that the one tour can get away with far more than the other.

But my bottom line takeaway is that it's so awfully complicated.... I just don't see how we could have expected Mollie to think of buses.... 

Stop Me If You've Head This One Before - The only downside to the Solheim Cup is that it pushed the Irish Open onto Peacock, not a problem except for it being held at iconic Royal County Down.  I caught some early week coverage, but missed this rousing coda, which includes a delightful new idiom:

A cat amongst the pigeons. It’s a British idiom that just feels vivid. A person or thing brought in

and causing commotion or havoc. A menacing cat, the poor pigeons.

It was the phrase the Sky Sports broadcast invoked continuously Sunday afternoon as various players mounted a charge at Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman leading the Irish Open about an hour from where he was raised. There were a handful of cats — Daniel Brown, Matteo Manassero, Grant Forest, Bob MacInture — and thousands upon thousands of pigeons — the Irish faithful tracking their man.

McIlroy seemed to hold control of the tournament for the entirety of the weekend. When he birdied the first two holes Sunday, he created a three-shot lead. Shortly after making the turn, it was a two-shot lead. As the group of cats leveled off at six under par, it felt like it was only up to McIlroy to close it out in orderly fashion. But as can happen on the final day of golf tournaments, we were all focused on the wrong cats. No one seemed to be tracking Rasmus Hojgaard, playing two groups ahead of McIlroy.

It seems the error was more forgetting which pigeon was involved....

And, drumroll please, here was the defining moment:

McIlroy had matched Hojgaard with a birdie on the 16th, but three-putted from just 26 feet on the 17th. You could hear the groans from across the Atlantic, an all too familiar feeling for McIlroy fans, the putter letting down the rest of his game. After being in control of the tournament, he suddenly needed eagle on the par-5 18th just to make a playoff.

The three-putt is hard to ignore, evoking all sorts of memories from Pinehurst.  Although, given my frequent comments, perhaps this is actually the more critical bit:

With the majority of the tournament looking his way, McIlroy hit a 342-yard drive and a 190-yard 7-iron to just 10 feet — which he later called the two best shots of his week. Keen McIlroy fans will remember the epic drive and iron shot he played into the 17th green at the Old Course in the 2022 Open Championship. It came on the most famous hole at St. Andrews, the Road Hole, when he needed birdie the most. Those two shots were among the best of his week, given the moment. They, too, led to a very makeable putt when he needed it most. But like the 17th hole in 2022, McIlroy’s putt on 18 Sunday slid by the hole, leaving him and his caddie confused by the lack of break.

Obviously grammar is a low priority at Golf Magazine these days, but remind me who that unnamed caddie might be....   Are we supposed to be shocked that the childhood best friend, the one with no experience in golf until he landed this cushy gig, misread a putt?  He's there to keep Rory comfortable, not because he has any qualifications that would allow him to improve the player.  It's how Rory rolls, and those three-putts are just something that they'll have a laugh over in the bar later.

And we can eagerly anticipate which events Rory will cough up in 2025.....  Good times.

There's talk that Jon Rahm won something over the weekend, but do we really care?  Blogging schedule is to be determined, so check back early and often.  Most importantly, have a good week.

Thursday Threads - Solheim Cup Edition

Lots of worthwhile golf to watch this weekend, just not involving the PGA Tour.  The ladies have their Solheim Cup kick off tomorrow, and the Euros are at Royal County Down for the Irish Open, which comes on in an hour.  

The Fourpeat? - I'm more of a win-lose kind of guy than one of those win-retain pansies, but there is one obvious takeaway to the Euros quest for a Fourpeat, to wit, that the Americans haven't won this thing in a while.  Which renders this hagiography quite lame:

If this is Lexi Thompson’s last Solheim Cup, she'll exit as the heartbeat of the U.S. squad for more than a decade

If?  Damn, were you trying to run my day?

Lexi Thompson is approaching the likely curtain call of her Solheim Cup playing career. While the reality of the end has been dawning on her captains since Thompson announced in May that this

year would be her final full-time season, it has been a challenge to imagine filling the void Thompson will leave behind. The Solheim Cup is her favorite event, with Thompson always praising the honor of wearing her country's colors.

Even while wrestling with the decision to announce her retirement, making the U.S. team to play on American soil again at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club was at the top of the star's goals for 2024. Four top 10 finishes helped Thompson earn a captain's pick from Stacy Lewis for her seventh Solheim Cup. But hearing Lewis describe Thompson's impact on the team, she may have made the team regardless of how she played.

"I think it is her legacy, is her and the Solheim Cup," Lewis said. "Just the way she is with the crowd and the fans, this event is Lexi to a T."

I don't about that, but I'm willing to concede that it suits her to an "L".... Yanno, literally.

This seems to be the best they can come up with from the modern era:

Even mired in a struggling 2023 campaign before the matches in Spain, Thompson played beyond her poor form with an impressive 3-1-0 week. While her performance may have been overshadowed by Thompson's response to a shank on the 18th green during Friday four-ball, she answered numerous critics with a crucial 2-and-1 victory in singles against Emily Kristine Pedersen as the final match on the course to tie the Solheim Cup at 14 points apiece.

When the high point of your week is a shank.... 

I find Lexi so emblematic of the struggles of this tour, wherein the hype bears no relationship to the underlying play.  We're constantly inundated with talk of her greatness, but not the kind of greatness that leaves footprints, apparently.

It's a good event, not least because some bad blood has arisen over the years between the teams.  This Golf Magazine piece captures some of the controversies the event has triggered, including this personal fave:

Mulligan

During a four-ball match on Saturday of the 2000 Solheim Cup in Scotland, Annika Sorenstam thought she chipped in for birdie to tie the match, only to find out she played out of turn since American Kelly Robbins was actually away. The future hall-of-famer had to replay her shot, failed to chip in and Sorenstam and Janice Moodie lost the match 2 and 1 to Robbins and Pat Hurst.

Did you know that golf did hot mics?

Hot mic

At the 2007 Solheim Cup in Sweden, Dottie Pepper was a member of the TV squad and thought the broadcast had paused for a commercial break when she said that, ahem, Americans Laura Diaz and Sherri Steinhauer were “choking freaking dogs.” Pepper apologized, and six years later she served as a Solheim Cup assistant captain for Meg Mallon.

 Trust is not always a defense, as Dottie found out....

Of course, the most famous incident involved a certain protagonist that is making her return this week:

Nine years after Solheim Cup concession controversy, Alison Lee back on U.S. team

The week was a historic one for the Americans as they stormed back from a 10-6 deficit to win

the Cup in Sunday singles, thanks, in part, to a crucial point from Lee. But the day before, the American rookie had unwittingly found herself at the center of controversy.

Paired with Brittany Lincicome in a pivotal four-ball match in the final session before singles, the duo came to the 17th hole tied with Suzann Petersen and Charley Hull. After the Europeans holed out, Lee faced a putt to put her side 1 up. Her attempt slid 18 inches past the hole.

Lee, thinking she’d heard the Europeans concede the short putt and seeing Hull walking off the green, picked up her ball. That’s when Pettersen returned from off the green and asserted that the hole had not been conceded. The ensuing moments were equal parts emotional and tense, with both Lee and Hull shedding tears.

Nine years after the fact I remain convinced that Suzanne Petersen has no idea what she was apologizing for, mostly because Tim Rosaforte so botched that interview.  It was actually just a horrible etiquette violation.  Silly not to concede the putt, but nothing requires you to concede anything./  But Suzanne was already off the green playing her games, and Charley Hull rushed off creating crowd noise while Allison was supposedly left to putt that 18-inchers.  If you want to see it, stand with your arms crossed and watch.  But if you're storming off to the next tee, you can't tell us you wanted to see it...

It's a great event, so give it a look.

Hold on, let me interject just this header, which I'll pay off below:

U.S. captain Stacy Lewis centers entire Solheim Cup week around remembrance of 9/11 and those who serve

 

County Down - What a great venue, as Shack tees up:

In Northern Ireland majestic Royal County Down hosts the Amgen Irish Open for the second time in a decade. And while this event should have been slotted into a links season run during the summer months—assuming a world where the Operational Joint Venture Partners at the PGA Tour and DP World Tour were actual in sync—we still get elites testing the old gem and making your morning coffee taste that much better (assuming you have a Sky or Peacock subscription).

“Playing the Irish Open on arguably one of, if not the best golf course in the world, in my eyes, is a real treat,” said Rory McIlroy on Wednesday after getting reacclimated with a course he played in the Walker Cup and in the 2015 Irish Open. “We don't get to play this caliber of golf course on tour, so to be able to play somewhere like this is amazing.”

Watching the golf from RCD will require some work for American viewers since Golf Channel and NBC are understandably prioritizing the Solheim Cup. The weekend portion of the Irish Open will stream exclusively on Peacock and the NBC Sports app (with a cable subscription):

That argues first and foremost for catching Thursday's coverage, and hopefully we get lots of coverage of RCD's other-worldly front nine.  

LIV Stuff - Time is not our ally, so just some quick notes.  Apparently cashing those big checks comes with consequences, first this guy's plaintive whine about being at Bethpage:

Jon Rahm’s Ryder Cup future is murkier than ever — just ask him

The Ryder Cup is more than a year away but Jon Rahm’s involvement remains murky as ever. He’s alone in this endeavor, and he knows it.

Rahm has set his sights on playing three DP World Tour events in the next six weeks, which might normally be an easy schedule addition, but this isn’t a normal time. Also in his next six

weeks, Rahm has two LIV events and a new baby set to join his family. But before any of that happens, Rahm needs to do something about the fines he’s facing from the DP World Tour. Either pay the fines or appeal them, like Tyrrell Hatton recently did. Otherwise, Rahm will not be playing the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black next fall. (Mandatory asterisk: We live in fluid times. Regulations can change. Rory McIlroy basically asked for things to change the instant Rahm committed to LIV Golf.)

It’s been discussed at an increasing frequency as the summer has gone by. Rahm needs to play four tournaments this season on the DP World Tour to maintain his membership for 2025, which is his mandatory ticket to becoming a Ryder Cup team member. Thus far, he’s only played one, the Olympics in France, which counted towards his total. According to Rahm, he’s signed up for three tournaments to meet this minimum, beginning with the Spanish Open in three weeks, the Dunhill Links a week later, and the Andalucia Masters, also in Spain.

According to the DP World Tour, however, Rahm is currently ineligible.

But is it, in fact, murky?

“Jon has outstanding sanctions for breaches of the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament regulation,” a spokesperson from the Tour said. “Until those outstanding sanctions are resolved, he is ineligible to play in a DP World Tour event.”

Those “sanctions” are suspensions and fines lobbed his way for every start he’s made at LIV Golf. From the earliest days of pro golf’s civil war era, the DP World Tour has issued one-tournament suspensions and £100,000 fines for its members who play tournaments without conflicting event releases from the Tour. While it is understood that Rahm has enough open weeks in his schedule to find space for the one-week suspensions, he is clearly uninterested in paying the fines.

“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said from LIV Golf’s individual championship on the outskirts of Chicago, where he and Joaquin Niemann gave a joint press conference Wednesday.

And we're not fans of you jumping to LIV.  Pay or don't pay, but you've become tedious.  

We have some headers for you, mostly that guy that needs to stop opening his pir hole:

Rory McIlroy hopeful amid new PGA Tour-PIF talks

My day isn't affected by Rory's hopefulness or lack thereof, though I remain hopeful about Rory's next three-footer.  This as well about a certain exhibition match:

Rory McIlroy: Not sending message with PGA Tour-LIV match

We cared about your messages for a bit there, but it didn't exactly work out for either you or us.

As everyone knows, the Tour has been meeting with PIF this week, including Tiger.  But, Geoff has the needed perspective

Meanwhile in embarrassing gross are-you-%$#@&*!-kidding-me golf news with potential ramifications for the global schedule, the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudia Arabia have been engaged in two days of meetings this week.

In New York City.

On the anniversary of 9/11.

For those who’ve been in a very long coma: September 11th remains a solemn day of remembrance where millions of a certain American vintage carve out time to think about where they were on 9-11-01, the humans who were lost, and the sacrifice of First Responders who went into the Twin Towers and did not come out. Anyone alive and old enough to remember that day never forgets any detail of the day or the aftermath. The emotions rarely grow dull with any reminder of that awful day.

It’s also a date where, 23 years later, most with a pulse continue to ponder the question: why? Who would do such a thing? Why did these people hate themselves and our way of life to such an extreme? And to the point we have learned after much effort, that government of Saudi Arabia would be funneling money to the hooligans to carry out the attack in an inconvenient fact desperately masked to this day?

Geoff hasn't gotten the memo that it's all OK, now.  The financing of 9/11 and those 15 out of 19 hijackers are a small price to pay when compared to Patrick Cantlay's need to be paid.  he's got lots more snark, all of it justified:

Perhaps the sudden rush in having the “Transaction Subcommittee” meet with Saudi’s fund goons without Adam Scott, Woods and McIlroy was fast-tracked to coincide with the latter’s Irish Open appearance?

You know Rory, he might ask annoying questions!

“Yeah, it's certainly peculiar timing,” McIlroy said Wednesday at Royal County Down, likely referring to the awful 9/11 choice more than his possible role in any negotiations. “I don't know much about the talks that are going on. I know that there is but that's not something that I'm a part of. I know as much as you do at this point, and I'm sure news will start to trickle out here in the next few days.”

Let’s be clear: there is currently no truth to the rumor that the next scheduled meeting will be October 2nd at the Saudi consulate in Turkey on the anniversary of the Crown Prince turning a journalist into sawdust.

Nor are the sides reportedly planning to meet in Honolulu on December 7th or near Normandy Beach in June. At least as of now.

Again, I share this grimness in a major-focused newsletter because it’s an important reminder that these supposedly brilliant people want to grow and run the game on all levels. And they can’t even show the grace to respect one of the most solemn days on the American calendar. How embarrassing.

I guess the good news is that we can't blame this one on Rory.... But I can certainly feel the game growing....

before I leave you let me circle back to Geoff's far more accurate header on the Rahm kerfuffle:

Rahm Unwilling To Pay Fines For Ryder Cup Access

I'm shocked... Shocked, I tell you.

I famously predicted long ago that the result of the fissure in our game would cause us to hate each and every one of them.  Yeah, it's a gift. 

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up on Monday.

 

Weekend Wrap - Dog Days of Fall Edition

What would you like to talk about?  Sorry, trick question, as there's precious little to mull...

Solheim Cup Preview - It's a fine event that literally hundreds of people will enjoy.  It's got team match play and a healthy frisson of bad blood between the teams to sustain it.  That may not be enough to overcome the fact that, well, it's women's event and excludes the primary baskets of talent in the world, but why focus on the negative?

Golf Digest tees it up with this header:

What's on the line at the Solheim Cup? Analyzing what feels like a 'must' win for the Americans

 Gee, why the drama?

The U.S. Solheim Cup team travels to just outside Washington, D.C., on an historic cold streak, winless in the biennial match-play event in the last three meetings. American assistant captain Angela Stanford has had enough of it. The fiery six-time Cup veteran as a player was definitive when asked what was on the line in this year's competition.

"There's only one way this can go," Stanford proclaimed. "I mean, we have to win."

Well, why start now?

The only thing stopping Stanford from pushing this mantra onto the team? Her captain, Stacy Lewis, asked Stanford to reel it in until they reached Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., this week for the three-day Solheim Cup that begins on Friday. With a second playing of the Cup in 12 months as the competition moves to even-numbered years to avoid going up against the Ryder Cup, the Europeans are coming off a 14-14 tie in Spain in 2023 that allowed them to retain the Cup.

Both rosters are much the same as a year ago—19 of the 24 players return, along with Lewis and European captain Suzann Pettersen. Here's a look, then, at what's on the line at the 2024 Solheim Cup:

I thought I had read somewhere that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results....  Of course, they pretty much have to send the same team, because the bottom of the barrel doesn't have much in the way of scrapings left.

What happened last year?

A simple question that, oddly, would get you a different answer from each of the team captains. The 14-14 tie at Finca Cortesin was a first in Solheim history and a chance to set a precedent. The

Ryder Cup has had two 14-14 finishes that counted as ties in the record book, with the previous winning team "retaining" the Cup. The Solheim didn't deviate from the Ryder, so the Europeans kept the Cup in ‘23, thanks to their win in 2021.

Pettersen refers to this week as a chance for a Euro four-peat. Lewis mentions trying to get the Cup back for the first time since Europe started its streak in 2019, opening and closing her press conference for the Americans captain's picks with the unofficial slogan of "unfinished business."

I've never loved the "retain" nonsense, but you can tell from the photo that the Euros are calling it a win....

How much pressure is Team USA under this week?

Oddly, this is the photo running right under that sub-header:

I can see that they have their game faces on.

An immense amount. Beyond losing once again being the on-paper favorite, with the team averaging 26.8 in the Rolex Women's Rankings compared to the Euros at 40.5, the winning drought has already had a pervasive effect on the American program. The team is running out of past Solheim winners. The only two returning veterans who have won are Lexi Thompson, competing in her seventh Solheim, and Alison Lee, who won in her rookie Solheim in 2015 and hadn’t played on the team since.

If the U.S. doesn't take the Cup back this year, they could conceivably field a team with no past Solheim winners heading to the Netherlands in 2026. There are no clear corrective steps for the team to take after this year either. Lewis already pulled the lever of bringing analytics into her pairings decisions, thanks to having KPMG Performance Insights lead analyst Justin Ray run statistics to maximize the on-paper odds.

One could argue for more captain’s picks, with the women’s American program only using three compared to the men’s six, but there isn’t a fair roster construction philosophy question to really answer because of the lack of American depth. The only real decision Lewis faced was choosing between three-time Solheim veteran Angel Yin and Sarah Schmelzel. If there was a Justin Thomas equivalent (17-7-4 combined team record), he would never be left off the women’s roster like he was for the President’s Cup.

 Yeah, the bench is weaker than the Yankee's bench...

Not that the Euros are fielding Hall of Famers, it's just that they're not fielding Lexi....

Shall we see if the Tur Confidential panel has anything to add?

The 19th playing of the Solheim Cup gets underway Friday to Sunday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. Last year, the U.S. and Europe tied for the first time in the event’s history, allowing Europe to keep the Cup for the third straight meeting. Who wins this year, and why?

Josh Sens: Team USA. Partly thanks to home-crowd advantage, but also because– with Lexi

playing in what is very likely her last, and Korda coming off an epic season, and the team having a nice balance of youthful fire and experience–it just feels like the way the spirits of the game would want it scripted.

Sean Zak: Wow, Josh Sens — big spirits guy! Put your tarot cards down and look at who is playing well. As much as Charley Hull, Esther Hensleit and a few Euros may be flashing at the moment, the best player is on Team USA, and so is the second-best player in Lilia Vu. Andrea Lee played great in St. Andrews and Rose Zhang is on the cusp of another great run herself. Not to mention the dawgs that are Lauren Coughlin and Ally Ewing. Team USA is going to win, and I fear it may not be close.

Sens: Sorry. I promise to ditch the ‘shrooms before our next roundtable and stick strictly to shot data.

Zephyr Melton: I like the Euros to continue their dominance. The Americans may have some solid form, but that hasn’t helped them much the last few times around. When the lights shine the brightest in these team events, the Europeans always seem to come up clutch.

And when the lights shine brightest, Lexi runs for cover....

I love that Josh Sens rationale.... Lexi is playing he last for, well, reasons, and while Nelly had a season, the good parts of said season seem like they were during the Carter administration.  

Last year it was Spain’s Carlota Ciganda who stole the show, finishing 4-0 and beating Nelly Korda 2 and 1 in singles play. Who will be the most important player for each side come next week, and who will be the event’s MVP?

Sens: For additional feel-good purposes, I’d like to say Lexi. But I’ve got a sneaky sense about captain’s pick Jennifer Kupcho, in a fiery bounce-back from her rough showing in Spain. (The caveat is that records in this format can be deceptive, as they’re largely dependent on how both your partner and your opponents play. For good reason, the MVP is often the lead point earner, who isn’t always the player who performed the best or meant the most to their team)

Zak: Most important? Lilia Vu. She’s capable of winning five matches, and is in good enough form to do it. She went 1-3 last year, during the same season where she won two majors. That’s not cutting it. MVP is going to be Nelly Korda, who will play five matches and be favored in every one of them. She’s on the right path back to dominance after a weird summer, and it may all click this week.

Melton: Gimme Leona Maguire from Team Europe. She’s had an uneven 2024 thus far, but she’s been an absolute stud in this event the last two playings. I like her to continue that trend and improve on her 7-2-1 Solheim Cup record. As far as the Americans go, it’ll be tough for them to come away victorious unless Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu play well.

Zak with the tip-in.  If the U.S. is to show up, Lilia Vu will need to be in the heart of it.  The girl can actually putt and seems to embrace the pressure.  I have no clue what to expect from Nelly, though match-play could be helpful there.  As for Lexi, I expect she'll have a few moments early and she'll crave her Suzann Pettersen moment, then do a Rory impression at crunch time.  Sorry, as per that old adage about the scorpion, it's in her nature.

But it's a good event with some actual bad blood, so beats the hell out of any other golf that will be on the telly.

LIV Stuff -  In case you've not intuited it, we're not going to be here long.  Two LIV-infused items for your delectation, then the exit beckons.

There's a new version of The Match™ on tap, only we're not calling it The Match™:

Golf fans will finally get their first PGA Tour vs. LIV showdown.

As first reported by Golfweek and confirmed by GOLF.com, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy will team up as PGA Tour loyalists to face reigning U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and five-time major champ Brooks Koepka of LIV Golf in a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas later this year.

The match will air on TNT, which broadcasted the previous nine editions of “The Match,” an exhibition series that started in 2018 with a matchup of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and most recently saw McIlroy take on Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson this past February.

Per Golfweek, the match will be produced by Bryan Zuriff’s BZ Entertainment, the developer of “The Match” series and EverWonder, although GOLF has learned the matchup will not be aired under “The Match” branding.

Two things jump out at your humble blogger.  First, nothing promotes a golf competition quite like this explication of branding strategy.... the amusement coming from the knowledge of how God-awful those Matches™ have been, yet they're reluctant to sully their brand with this one.  perhaps not quite as compelling as it sounds in their little bubble.

The second reaction is about those participants.... Hmmm, Rory?  So, I guess we can conclude that Xander didn't care to play?  

Then there's this:

"We're leaning towards making it more like a Ryder Cup to develop it into a series that's completely separate from The Match," said Zuriff, whose producer credits also include the TV series "Ray Donovan" and the film "Steve Jobs."

Although the format is still being finalized, Zuriff anticipates elements from the Ryder Cup, which incorporates four-ball, alternate shot and singles matches. While he says The Match may still continue as more of a celebrity golf series, this new brand will be very different.

"This is intense, real golf," Zuriff said.

I guess Rory is hoping that everything inside three feet will be conceded....

Back to the TC gang:

Golf’s next made-for-TV match will see Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler face off against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in December in Las Vegas. What do you think of this matchup? And will the PGA Tour vs. LIV angle help with ratings?

Sens: It better help with the ratings because, really, is there any other reason for the match? This is designed to feed directly off golf’s civil war, and –outside of the majors, with a deal between the two tours nowhere in sight—it’s as close as the two circuits are going to get to giving people what they want. It helps, of course, that you’ve got four mega-names with lots of subplots/tensions in their relationships. But more than anything, this is an extension of the ongoing battle in the men’s pro game. Fans and media alike will assign all kinds of fabricated meaning to it as well, using the results as some kind of proof of which tour is more worthy. Birdies will abound. Ratings will be high. And people who already have a lot of money will make more of it by entertaining the masses with an event full of manufactured ‘meaning’. A perfect confection for our times.

Zak: It really is a compelling matchup, putting two of the Tour’s three best against two of LIV Golf’s best. You’ve got Mr. Entertainer in Bryson, Mr. Jock in Brooks, Mr. Worldwide in Rory and Mr. Best-Since-Tiger in Scottie. It’s as compelling a product as you can field without the names Woods, Mickelson and Spieth. I’m sure it will be marketed as a war of sorts, but I hope that isn’t the case. Because these guys don’t dislike each other. I hope it’s a proving ground for many things. Ultimately, it’s probably just 12 or 18 holes of fun match play.

Melton: I’m certainly intrigued by the event, and having a LIV-PGA Tour angle should do a great job adding hype to the match. Will that be enough to generate some much-needed high ratings? I’m dubious.

Mr. Worldwide?  Sheesh,  how about Mr. Missed Three-footer?  I'm going way out on a limb and predicting that this event will suck, if only for the practical reason that they always suck.  And if they're expecting it to work because of banter and trash talk, they've picked badly.  This may be the first of these Made-for-TV matches where they elect to not mic-up the players....  

Does the PGA Tour vs. LIV tie hint that the sides might be coming closer together on a deal? Or at least learning how to co-exist? How valuable might mini treaties like this be for the future of pro golf?

Sens: Does anyone, even the main actors themselves, have any idea how far or close they are from the deal? With so many moving parts and parties to appease, I get the sense even those directly involved aren’t sure what a final deal would look like. Meantime, a match like this does seem like a search for ways to profitably coexist. Purists might not see it as a great sign for pro golf, but if you look at the game purely as an entertainment product, it strikes me as a savvy way to go.

Zak: Let’s call this a mini-treaty then. I think it’s valuable in the sense that ratings will be improved from the last match: a skins game featuring Rory vs. Lexi Thompson vs. Max Homa vs. Rose Zhang. I think it’s valuable to put LIV Golfers on the same playing field as Tour stars in the month of December (when they might normally be absent from public eye). I think it’s valuable to do it all in a non-major championship setting, too. Will it bring any “nos” from the boardroom closer to “yesses”? I don’t really think so.

Melton: I’m a bit exhausted analyzing every little thing in golf in the context of the Tour vs. LIV battle. The truth is no one knows what’s coming next other than a select few on the ins of the negotiations. I’m not putting too much stock in this event being a harbinger of things to come.

More likely that the PGA Tour, which gets a slice of all this stuff, needs to be generating revenue to service that $1.5 billion investment.

But before we get all hyped-up that this means somethin g in relation to the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV discussions, here's one final LIV note:

LIV Golf announces first four events of 2025, but when they're scheduled says a lot

Late Tuesday night, LIV Golf announced its first four events of the 2025 season, which will be the fourth for the league. The four tournaments all have international flair, but it’s where they fall

on the calendar that paints a bleak outlook for what’s to come in the journey to have all of the best players play together again in more than the four major championships.

Seeing LIV Golf announce events for the 2025 season should be no surprise, as there has been hardly any traction toward a deal to bring the top players in the world back together to play on one tour, but the dates of LIV’s events are a stark contrast to anything seen in the first three years of the league.

LIV Golf has normally played its events opposite of the PGA Tour’s top tournaments, having some crossover but often doing what it can to avoid spots on the calendar like signature events.

Not next year.

LIV Golf Riyadh will be contested the same week as the WM Phoenix Open. Then, LIV Golf Adelaide will go head-to-head with Tiger Woods’ event, the Genesis Invitational.

Fast forward to March, LIV Golf Hong Kong is the same week as the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and LIV Golf Singapore will go head-to-head with the Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship.

If a tree falls in the forest.... You know the rest, as even the author of that linked piece acknowledges:

It’s important to note, with all four LIV events playing essentially a day ahead and overnight live in the United States, they won’t be competing directly with the Tour events. Nevertheless, the more and more time goes on, it seems less and less likely there’s traction for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to come together.

The schedule release for LIV Golf in 2025 shows the league doesn’t care what’s going on in the PGA Tour world.

Fair enough, though I'd add that, given LIV's ratings, PGA Tour world has shown an impressive lack of concern for anything LIV-related.

The TC panel had these deep insights:

Speaking of LIV Golf, it released its dates and venues for the first four tournaments of 2025, and while all of them will be played internationally, they also all will be played during the same weeks as some of the PGA Tour’s biggest events — the WM Phoenix Open, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. Why would LIV Golf schedule these to compete directly with the Tour? Does it matter?

Sens: On the face of it, you could read it as a flex by LIV, especially going up against the hard-partying Phoenix Open, which is probably the closest the Tour offers to the atmospherics of a LIV event. But I don’t think it’s worth assigning too much meaning to any of it, other than to underscore that LIV is soldiering on, propelled by an endless budget, and that those dates on those venues fit well enough. As a serious competitor for the Tour’s main audience, it doesn’t seem much more than so much spit into the wind.

Zak: LIV can’t compete with the Tour for eyeballs, but I suppose it can try to put a dent in the ratings the Tour is most proud of? It can also stage the best events it can and produce social clips of players drinking beers out of shoes during weeks where the PGA Tour is cool, calm and relaxed at Riviera. It won’t matter, ultimately, to field tournaments during these weeks because the international time zones where LIV will be playing means they won’t actually compete directly. And at the end of the day, there’s about 10- to 15 golfers at LIV who fans really want to watch. And there are at least twice to three times that on the PGA Tour.

Melton: Truth be told, it doesn’t really matter when LIV schedules their events as it relates to Tour events. While Tour ratings might be down, they still dwarf the number of eyeballs drawn by LIV. I’m sure there’s some deeper meaning to this scheduling decision, but ultimately it doesn’t change the fact that LIV doesn’t move the needle.

It's all cone of silence stuff.  But, Sean, could I have that list of 10-15 players?  Because my list goes maybe three deep.

That's have to keep you sated for today.  I'll be back later in the week, Thursday looking most probable.  Have a great week.