Thursday Themes - Lonely At The Top Edition

Whattya know, suddenly actual golf news presents.  If only you knew someone who'd muse upon it for you.....

Of Commissioners - Funny how these things play out, but there's legitimate threads involving all our favorite players.... and by players I, of course, mean piñatas.  This hit on Sunday:

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan unexpectedly steps down

Unexpectedly?  I guess they didn't watch the Solheim Cup over at Golf.com....

Shall we allow Mollie herself to put the best face on her tenure?

Marcoux Samaan’s unexpected departure comes in the wake of the 2024 season, which saw purses rise to a record level and Nelly Korda’s ascent to global stardom but also moments of angst among the membership and a logistics debacle at the Solheim Cup in September.

In the interim, Marcoux Samaan will be replaced by Liz Moore, the LPGA’s chief legal officer.

“I thank Chairman John Veihmeyer and the rest of the LPGA Board for trusting me to serve as the ninth Commissioner of the LPGA,” Marcoux Samaan said in a statement. “In this role, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside a remarkable community of athletes, teachers, partners, tournament operators, industry colleagues, media, fans, volunteers, and staff who share a deep commitment to growing the LPGA and using the organization’s unique platform to empower and advance women and girls.

“I am proud of the unprecedented growth the LPGA has enjoyed since I began my tenure. The strategy we have built for growth and impact along with the infrastructure we have added to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity ahead will serve the LPGA well in the coming decades. With the LPGA positioned for continued growth, it’s time for me to have more time to cheer on our three amazing children as they live their dreams while I continue to pursue my passion for building leaders, uniting communities and creating value through sports, particularly women’s sports.”

Sweet that she wants to spend more time with her family, but were there any warning signs?

Despite her successes at the head of the organization, Marcoux Samaan’s final months were marked by hard questions that face the women’s game.

While the popularity of women’s sports at-large grew at a rapid rate in 2024, the LPGA did not see marked increases in television ratings. As Beth Ann Nichols reported for Golfweek, factions of the LPGA membership have been uncertain about Marcoux Samaan’s vision for the tour. During the last week of the season, CME Group CEO Terry Duffy talked openly about why his company sponsors the LPGA, adding that the third round broadcast coverage, which was on tape delay, was “bulls–t,” and that he was challenging Marcoux Samaan to do something about it.

There was also the Solheim Cup transportation debacle, which saw thousands of spectators waiting for hours at a shuttle bus lot for access to one of the biggest golf events on the calendar. Marcoux Samaan held an impromptu press conference following the issue, blaming “miscalculations” and insufficient planning on spectator transportation.

“At the end of the day, I’m the leader of the organization and I have to own it,” she said. “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.”

Grading on a curve, I see, as mentioning Terry Duffy proves that the issues weren't only in Marcoux Samaan's final months....  There was a famous dinner where she produced exactly zero players for their most important sponsor....

But is the metric above fairly presented?  Of course not, as the growth in the popularity of women's sports seems related to exactly, checking notes, one basketball player.  People don't watch golf and they seem completely locked down in that position as relates to women's golf, so hard to understand why Caitlin didn't drive the hordes to the LPGA.

Here's another take, including a reference to a warning shot across the bow from Beth Ann Nichols a month back:

Biggest disappointments? Where did everything go wrong?

This answer will be a little lengthy, though there were some insights provided by Golfweek’s

Beth Ann Nichols in mid-November in an account of Marcoux Samaan’s rocky tenure. For starters, Marcoux Samaan was not perceived as a deft communicator; she didn’t stand out in a room and seemingly failed to convey her overall plan and mission for the tour. Again, she was there for more than three years. There was enough time. If that was an issue that didn’t draw much attention from the public, those circumstances changed in September when the transportation fiasco at the Solheim Cup caused those watching the association from afar to wonder if she had control of the organization. It was an embarrassment.

Critically, toward the end of 2024, players, officials and media alike had begun to question whether the LPGA fully capitalized on having an American star in Nelly Korda dominate the tour by winning seven times, while having feel-good stories such as Lydia Ko winning the Olympic gold medal to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, and Thitikul taking home the biggest prize in women’s golf—the $4 million being more than is handed out in three of the four men’s major championships.

But your humble blogger wonders if perhaps one of these issues wasn't a factor:

Finally, Marcoux Samaan was not proactive regarding difficult topics that players were passionate about, such as the LPGA’s gender policy, a potential merger with the Ladies European Tour and its stance on a relationship with Golf Saudi.

Because she seemed to go out of her way to duck that one issue, yet in the immediate wake of her resignation comes this news:

LPGA, USGA alter gender policies, barring players assigned male at birth

The LPGA and USGA announced updates to their respective gender policies Wednesday, placing new restrictions on transgender athletes in competition.

Beginning in 2025, golfers must be assigned female at birth or undergo gender reassignment before puberty to compete on both the LPGA Tour and in women’s USGA events.

The USGA’s Competitive Fairness Gender Policy was established with the aim of maintaining equity in USGA women’s competitions, without allowing an unfair advantage for athletes who have received the performance benefits of male puberty. According to a USGA press release, the policy is supported by current scientific and medical research which shows that sports performance differences exist between biological sexes and such differences begin to occur during the onset of puberty.

Ironically, that issue presents a binary decision for the LPGA's leadership, at a time when anything binary is out of vogue.   But, you either want to have a women's professional tour or you want to virtue signal about inclusiveness and other such nonsense, but the Venn diagram involved allows for no overlap.  If that puzzles you, I'll refer you back to Monday's post and Robert Conquest's First Law of Politics.

I won't belabor this much further, but you can peruse this if you so choose:

Who could be the LPGA's next commissioner? Here are six speculative names (and a wildcard)

The wildcard is suitably wild (and interesting), but four of the six are women, which I think will strike most folks as appropriate.  That said, see how you react to this: 

Here is a list of previous commissioners: Ray Volpe (1975-82), John Laupheimer (1982-88), Bill Blue (1988-90), Charlie Mechem (1991-95), Jim Ritts (1996-99), Ty Votaw (1999-2005), Carolyn Bivens (2005-09), Mike Whan (2010-21). Bivens, the LPGA’s first female commissioner, was ousted by players after struggling with relationships and losing some of the tour’s key, longstanding events. 

I can also virtue signal, and I feel it incumbent to express that I believe women can do just about anything in this world, although I do prefer my women to not actually be men, especially not men that go out of their way to beat up on women.  But I'm having trouble getting past a certain date point, to with, that the LPGA's two most disastrous commissioners were also their only two female versions.  How does one rationalize that?  Given my longstanding support for the ladies, I'll posit that it's attributable to the small sample size.

Commish Redux - Eamon Lynch can't resist a parting shot:

Lynch: Greg Norman finds himself in a perilous place — he’s outlived his usefulness for the Saudis

I think this is what they mean by punching down....  Not only is Greggy no longer relevant, he wasn't even relevant the day he landed the gig.  At first read, though, Eamon's screed tells us more about Jay than about Greg.  But let's enjoy the ride:

Optics matter in business, and even moreso in our current polarized moment when believing is seeing, when any detail can be twisted in support of a bias we already hold. So it is with Jay

Monahan’s compensation, which Sportico reported was just over $23 million in 2023, per PGA Tour tax filings. Nothing turns ardent capitalists into Bernie Bros quite like revelations about executive salaries, and reactions to Jay’s pay didn’t disappoint. Whether Monahan actually deserves that money is a matter for the board that approved his package, and which presumably signed off on the bonus structure that accounts for the bulk of it. But to casual observers, it fits a drearily familiar narrative: people who bear at least some responsibility for the lousy state of golf (chiefly players, with executives a distant second) are earning more than ever while their business woefully underperforms by almost any reasonable metric.

Does Patrick know?  Go on, Eamon:

It would be easy to also cite optics for the reportedly imminent departure of another industry executive — Greg Norman, as CEO of LIV Golf — given his Comical Ali-style bluster in the face of failure that only grows more glaringly obvious with each flip of the calendar. But that would be a disservice to the flaxen-haired finger puppet, who has undeniably been successful in ways that his Saudi benefactors required.

Sure, objective reality says Norman has failed to deliver a significant audience, serious commercial sponsorship or a meaningful media deal for his product. But his dexterity in signing someone else’s checkbook gave LIV the only market share it needed — enough competitively relevant players — and his inability to feel shame made him the ideal frontman to brazen out the initial disgust about sportswashing by authoritarian regimes. But while the Shark imagined himself a visionary, to his bosses he was a mere functionary. Like many a Saudi apparatchik before him, Norman has seemingly outlived his usefulness, though unlike others his severance probably won’t be literal, via bonesaw.

You knew we wouldn't get through this without a bonesaw reference, though it's pretty much what Eamon has been saying all along.  I don't think it's been productive, especially when Tiger and Rory joined in, but it may also have served to distract from the damage done to the Tour's membership.

But where are we with this deal?  here's where Eamon is a bit more interesting:

Norman’s eventual ouster will have nothing to do with job performance. It’s simply preparatory for the next phase of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s golf project. If there is a deal between the PIF and the PGA Tour, Norman is too toxic a personality to lead LIV into whatever cooperative new ecosystem takes shape. And if there isn’t, well, it’s not like he’s been doing an outstanding job anyway. By comparison, his reported replacement, Scott O’Neil, is viewed as a sober and respected sports business leader, a chap without baggage who can work within any new arrangement.

So why would O’Neil take a position that might not exist in a couple of years? Either the pay is sufficient to justify the gamble, or the gig won’t be defunct. Bet on the latter.

Given antitrust concerns — regardless of who occupies the White House — LIV won’t be binned as part of a definitive deal between the PGA Tour and PIF. There will probably come a day when the Saudis cease funding their folly, but that isn’t imminent. So, just as one must offer a chair to the most objectionable family member at Thanksgiving, a place will need to be found for LIV in whatever new reality emerges.

Maybe Eamon didn't get the message, but baggage is no longer an issue... But Eamon has more, including this on that report from earlier in the week:

Several scenarios seem feasible. It could continue as a standalone tour; its teams could be folded into a new team golf component on the PGA Tour schedule while LIV’s player contracts fade out; or a combination of both. If a deal is struck and LIV continues as a separate circuit, then it’s likely to do so as an ex-U.S. enterprise, aligned more with the DP World Tour schedule and not competing with the all-important FedEx Cup season. Against that backdrop, consider a Bloomberg report (albeit one dismissed privately by some in Europe) claiming the DP World Tour and LIV are discussing a possible cooperative structure. Such talks would make sense as part of a three-way deal with the PGA Tour. Outside of a trilateral agreement, a LIV-European alliance would pose an existential threat to the PGA Tour. If the Saudis are platformed by a tour with world ranking points, legacy standing and a global presence, what’s to stop every player unafraid of his passport from choosing to compete for huge purses at a select few DP World Tour stops?

Give them the Euro Tour, and throw in Phil and PReed as a bonus.

But apparently this is how Jay earns his ginormous compensation:

In the absence of clarity in PGA Tour-PIF negotiations, everything is presumably on the table.

The continued existence of LIV isn’t the ultimate prize for PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. He wants access to team franchises with real value in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL when rules are eventually loosened on sovereign wealth funds buying ownership stakes. It’s not difficult to see how Al-Rumayyan and the PGA Tour’s existing investors in Strategic Sports Group are incentivized to be in business together. Greg’s dream is merely Yasir’s vehicle. In time, LIV will be viewed as no more than an inconvenient junk asset that needs to be parked until it is finally shuttered.

But optics also matter a great deal to Al-Rumayyan. For now, someone has to spare his blushes over having flushed several billion dollars on a farce. Someone has to facilitate a respectable disengagement over time from the LIV debacle. Someone has to provide an alternative avenue for his ambitions in golf. That someone is apparently Monahan, who finds himself having to simultaneously hold together a fractured boardroom, an underachieving organization and grousing members long enough to build Al-Rumayyan’s off-ramp. Perhaps he’s actually earning his money after all.

Are we in good hands, or what?

Did Someone Mention LIV? - Fueling those Euro rumors earlier this week was the surprising withdrawal of Big Tone from the year's fifth major.  Now comes clarification:

Tony Finau shoots down LIV rumors, says Hero WD was injury-related

Perhaps you might have mentioned that?

"They're not true," Finau said of the LIV rumors, adding that the sources who were speculating

on the matter were "random people" and "not credible."

"I'm more than happy where I'm at on the PGA Tour and looking forward to 2025," Finau told Schupak (you can read that full story here). "When I tee it up in Maui [at The Sentry], it will all go away, so, I don't worry about it one bit."

Finau told Golfweek the actual reason for his withdrawal from Tiger Woods' event at Albany this week is injury-related. The six-time PGA Tour winner underwent surgery in October to repair a torn meniscus and remove cartilage in his left knee. It was an injury Finau says bothered him much of last season despite the fact he was still able to rack up 13 top-20 finishes in 2024, including a T-3 in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

Don't much care, Tony, but hard to see why anyone would jump in the current moment, especially with those that previously jumped looking so happy with that choice.  

It's Kiz - We have a weiner:

NBC Sports has named Kevin Kisner its lead golf analyst for the 2025 PGA Tour season. “I’m humbled and grateful to have the chance to sit in the seat that many legends like Johnny Miller

and Paul Azinger have sat in before me on NBC,” Kisner said in a press release. “I’m looking forward to offering a different voice and adding a new dynamic to the broadcasts, hopefully reaching more fans and telling things like it is. That’s what I think I do best. I’m also excited to continue to compete on the PGA Tour amongst my peers, which I think will help me to tap into what these guys are really feeling on the course.”

NBC used a rotation of names in the booth this year as it tried to fill the void of long-time analyst Paul Azinger, who departed at the end of 2023. Kisner debuted with the network at the Sentry in Maui in January and worked several other tournaments including the WM Phoenix Open, the Players Championship and FedEx Cup playoffs, receiving strong reviews for his performance behind the mic.

I like Kiz, though when paired with Smylie the down-home Southern folksiness can become grating....

But the bigger issue is the effect of Comcast spinning off Golf Channel will have on NBC's coverage.  I've been joking about Rachel Maddow eventually calling golf, but it's quite the hot mess ahead.  The coverage quality has already taken many hits, and Golf Channel looks to be a wounded animal gut off from the NBC teet.

But welcome aboard, Kiz.

That'll be it for this week.  Monday is my first trip out West and Tuesday is already complicated, so I expect we'll next visit on Wednesday.  But it's never too early for you to start praying for snow.  Have a great weekend.