Late Week Logorrhea

 Still no shortage of crazy out there, so have that tin foil hat handy... 

Mayakoba Musings - I did watch just a couple of minutes of the broadcast and, despite the sponsorship upgrade, it seems very much an event made for November.  My interest in the event is asymptotically approaching zero, yet there were a couple of bits of note.  The first and most obvious comes from the leaderboard, triggering the typical "Is he back" storyline, to which we have this dissenting opinion:

Despite tying his career-low round to lead in Mexico, Matthew Wolff doesn't think he's back. But he's confident.

Seems like that which we like to call a distinction without a difference, no?  Of course, you should be wondering who this "we" I speak of is...

On a day where low numbers were the theme, nobody was better than Matthew Wolff. After his well-documented struggles over the last year, the former star at Oklahoma State tied his career low with a 61 on the par-71 El Camaleon Golf Club at the Mayakoba Resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to take the early lead at the 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.

In his first two starts of the new PGA Tour season, Wolff finished T-17 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and solo second at the Shriners Children’s Open. He’s been under par in each of his nine rounds this season, with eight rounds in the 60s.

“I feel like I’ve definitely gone through some stuff in the last six or seven months, but to be able to come out of it, have a really good attitude and, you know, everything did go right today,” explained Wolff, who hit 11 out of 14 fairways, found the green in regulation 14 times and made 10 birdies and no bogeys for a steady, care-free round. “But even on the second hole I think I landed it a few feet from the hole and it ripped off the green. Or on 11, my second hole. I think just my attitude about making good swings is all I can really control, it’s definitely helped me out a lot and probably a good reason why I’m playing so well right now.”

 A decent run of play for the young man.  It's just more fun with that goofy swing in the mix...

On Sunday I birdied the first hole, and then bored my playing partners with my experience that an opening birdie hasn't typically been an augur of a good which, which is exactly how Sunday played out.  Not sure how I'd react to this opening hole (which can only happen on rare occasions):

Driving to the course, everyone has visions of the perfect start to their round. For most golfers, that means a solid tee shot, nice approach into the green and then holing the putt for birdie. For

the most ambitious among us, their dreams might stretch to carding an eagle on the 1st, but that borders the line of greed.

On Thursday at the World Wide Technology Championship, Chris Kirk took it to another level.

With clouds in the sky and the sun just peeking over the horizon, Kirk pulled out his 6-iron and took aim for the green at the par-3 10th hole (his first of the day) at El Camaleón Golf Course. He drew the club back and fired his ball directly toward the pin.

The ball landed just short of the pin and started rolling toward the hole. But in the low morning light, the group did not see where it finished up.

When they approached the green, there wasn’t a ball in sight.

“It’s either in or just over in the rough,” Kirk said.

Sure enough, when Kirk’s caddie checked the hole, his player’s pearly white ball was staring back at him. A hole-in-one on the first swing of the day.

“Made me feel a little better about my 4:30 wake-up call this morning,” Kirk said. “It was pretty cool.”

He was five under after four holes, but then cooled off considerably (yeah, who wouldn't?) and shot 64.

That pretty much exhausts my interest in the event though, should you crave more, I'll just link to this piece on the defending champion, James Hahn and Danny Lee playing musical drivers.  I'm used to them being far more protective of their gamers, but it all seems to have worked out.

Shall we move on to more interesting things?  Or at least stories where we can make fun of certain folks, and by certain folks I of course mean Greg Norman.

Can't We All Just Get Along? - You say Premiere League, I say Super League, let's call the whole thing off.... Or at least the wraparound portion.... win-win, baby!

As earlier in the week, let's lead with vitriol over substance, really just because we can.  It's said that, if you want to know about someone's character, ask those that know him or her best.  I don't know if there's an history between these two, but Peter Fitzsimmons writes this encomium to his famous countryman in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Norman’s true colours coming out in yet another Saudi sport-wash

This is not an especially insightful offering, as his history of sportswashing is by the book, as is his characterization of Jamal Khashoggi as some brave journalist.  But it's lively writing and he does a particularly good job of exposing the fatuousness of Norman:

Golf Digest asked Our Greg about it this week: “Do you have any concerns as to where the money is coming from, and specifically the Saudi Arabian connection?”

Norman replied: “The PIF (Public Investment Fund), which is our majority investor, they’re obviously a commercial operation. They’re very autonomous. They make investment decisions all around the world. They’ve invested in major US corporations because of commercial reasons. They invested in LIV Golf Investments for a commercial opportunity. They’re passionate about the game of golf.”

One amusing aspect of all this is that, each time you read the nonsense, something else jumps out as significant.  We had this GD interview earlier in the week, but it's the last bit that hit me today.  If you know the least little bit about Wahhabism, you'd know that it pretty much excludes the possibility of enthusiasm for the more temporal aspects of life.  But today is for Peter's rant, not my own:

Translation? There is none. Instead of the journalist in question saying what needed to be said – “Oi, dickhead. I didn’t ask for commercial gibberish that no one cares about. I asked how can you take money from a regime that engages in murder and torture, all for something so ephemeral as golf?” – he moved on.

’Cos Greg doesn’t want to hear that kind of talk. He’s been to Saudi Arabia many times, and they never showed him any bloody torture chambers, so what are you mob on about?

Tell ’em, Greg.

“I’ve been going to Saudi Arabia now for three years,” he told the journal. “I was invited to do a golf course design project there. Unless you actually go there and see and understand exactly what’s happening there, you [can’t] sit back and make judgmental calls.”

Exactly! What is it with all you human rights organisations, with all your documented atrocities and whistle-blower reports? What makes you think you know more than Greg when he goes there on business trips? Keep going, Greg, please.

Yes, lease let Greg never stop sharing his unique worldview, as it makes for easy blogging.

“I made the journey there to look at what was happening in Saudi Arabia before I made any decision on anything because I’m not a person who makes judgement calls. I make sound decisions on sound facts and information that is presented to you. So, when the PIF wanted to become a majority investor, I knew what was happening in the country.”

See? I told you! Greg knows! You jerks from Amnesty International who think you’re so smart – when you probably never even played at Augusta – have got nothing on Saudi Arabia, or Greg!

The self importance is off the charts, although I still believe the world would be a better place if we didn't use professional athletes to support our own belief systems.  I've never been a fan of criticizing the players who go to Saudi Arabia, because their tours have chosen to run events there.  If it's beyond the pale to play in Saudi Arabia, isn't that less Dustin Johnson's issue than it is, say, Keith Pelley's?

So, regular readers will know that my opinion of Justin Thomas has taken several body blows in recent times, No time to rehash it all here, but he's come across to this observer as increasingly entitled and whiny lately, and this next piece won't repair any of that:

Justin Thomas explains how the PGA Tour’s new rivals have already spurred change

Is this alleged change for the better?  You'll be shocked to know that the answer is yes, but probably only in the sense of being better for JT, and then perhaps only in the short-term.  So, what is this change he speaks of?

Nobody is silly enough to underestimate the value of a blank check, particularly not the Tour. Which is precisely why the organization has been moving proactively to implement changes that will better endear itself to its highest-earning clientele. Of course, the Player Impact Program (PIP) is the most public example of that shift. The $40 million annual popularity contest — erhm, prize pool — just finished its first year of payouts (ironically, the winners of the program were not announced publicly). Elsewhere, the Tour has bolstered its strategic alliances (notably with the European Tour), and has grown its incentive program to better benefit players.

Ironically?  I don't think you understand irony, James.  What you describe is outrageous and maddening, but is exactly what we expect from these clowns.

But JT isn't extolling the PIP program.... No, this is the home run caused by competition:

“I know for one, my first couple years I felt like I didn’t necessarily have the place or the voice to

go to a Jay Monahan, to go to [chief tournaments and competitions officer] Andy Pazder to say how I feel about what things are going on in the Tour,” Thomas said. “In reality, it sounds disrespectful to say, but they work for us, you know what I mean? It doesn’t matter if you’re the 120th ranked player on the FedExCup or the second, if you have a problem and you think it should be changed, you should go voice that opinion to the Tour and that’s their job to try to fulfill that or at least give you an answer.”

In recent months, Thomas said, Tour leadership has been much more proactive with its constituents.

“I think that’s kind of been the main thing that’s come out of this is, look, we can better our product and we can get better because of stuff like this, we can learn from it,” he said. “I just think that a lot of it was honestly the players not knowing and also maybe the Tour not understanding that it could be done differently and that the players even felt that way.”

Wow!  In order to keep you from defecting, Jay is actually pretending to care what you think?  Contrast this with the reality:

In that sense, Thomas sees the proposed tours as a good thing. For one thing, they provide an influx of new ideas into a sport that could use the inspiration. The new tours are rumored to be team-based concepts involving guaranteed salaries, 54-hole tournaments and even ownership stakes for players.

What is that reality?  The only "improvements" that have come out of Ponte Vedra Beach have involved imposing sports betting nonsense on the broadcasts and encouraging fans to consume copious quantities of alcohol and to act out on camera....  Gee, thanks, Jay.

Daniel Rappaport writes the same article, but a far more honest version thereof:

Upstart golf leagues give top PGA Tour pros an invaluable commodity: leverage

I'm quite certain that these players will only use their new-found leverage in the service of the game, right?

But Daniel reminds us that our game to date has been rigidly meritocratic:

The common denominator in both proposals is a white whale tour players have coveted for decades: guaranteed money. It’s the reason these proposals remain alive despite the PGA Tour’s repeated attempts to squash them, and at the heart of a debate that seemingly is only getting more heated.

Professional golf is perhaps the most meritocratic of professional sports, at least in terms of money doled out by the league itself. How much a player makes per week is a direct result of his on-course performance. It’s been that way for decades and it’s part of the game’s appeal; every man is equal on the first tee Thursday morning.

Though what Daniel elides is the inherent bifurcation in our historical model.  As far as the league (Tour) is concerned, players make what their scorecards determine, full stop.  But obviously omitted from this discussion is what players make elsewhere (endorsements, appearance fees and the like), which is where the alpha dogs eat.  

The premise here is that the elite are underpaid....  But, are they?  There's no answer to this question, but here's evidence that brings it into doubt via Sportico:

Is Tiger underpaid?  Perhaps compared to Michael Jordan, who I hear was pretty good at his day job as well....

Joel Dahmen is one of my favorite guys out there, but he seems to be missing the point here by a rather wide margin:

And yet in golf, 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods and one-time winner Joel Dahmen receive the same paycheck for finishing 10th. Which, according to Joel Dahmen, is patently ridiculous.

“On course, the top guys don’t get enough,” Dahmen said on Wednesday ahead of this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. “Look, I’m not selling a single ticket. Maybe to a couple buddies, but I probably gave them free tickets anyway. I’m not bringing anyone here. I’m not adding a ton of value outside of maybe some Twitter stuff. The top guys who actually move the needle, who get people to watch, absolutely do not make enough.” Indeed, the player who received the most money directly from the PGA Tour—$7.6 million plus $15 million more for winning the FedEx Cup—during the 2020-21 season was Patrick Cantlay, a top-10 ranked player but not a global superstar.

Have people lost the ability to think?

First and foremost, analyzing the issue through one hypothetical 10th place finish is pretty faulty logic for sure, because Tiger had a few more higher finishes than Joel.  The same goes for the Cantlay example, as we've been ridiculing the FedEx Cup for this very reason since its inception.

But the bigger issue, Joel, is that, if you want to make the case that Tiger is underpaid, make the case based upon what he's actually been paid, not an isolated case of a bad week.  He's the second-highest paid athlete of all time, which superficially seems to argue he's done very well, especially sinc3e golf doesn't generate the revenue of many of these other sports.

As an aside, Dahmen does make the case that the Tour might have been sitting on their riches (there's also new TV contracts that have kicked in, so I'm not knowledgeable enough on this subject to opine):

The PGA Tour responded to these flirtations by creating the $40 million Player Impact Program, a way to compensate the 10 biggest stars for something not directly related to their on-course performance. The tour is also giving each player who competes in at least 15 events this season a $50,000 bonus. Dahmen believes there is much, much more where that came from.

“The PGA Tour has really deep pockets. They magically come up with $40 million for PIP and then there paying us all 50 grand to play 15 events, which is another X million dollars. That’s like, $50 million that they just magically found laying around overnight. The money is there. There’s a way to do it.”

So, increase purses.

What continues to amaze this observer is that these self-important idiots don't see the danger.  The important thing to me is that the Tour limit itself to running events and that players get money from the Tour solely by virtue of their performance on the golf course.  Why?  Because the alternative will very quickly devolve into madness...

What have we learned?  jay Monahan has created a $40 million slush fund that's been distributed to players with no accountability or disclosure of methodology.  Justin Thomas thinks this is the best thing since sliced bread, so one assumes he got a nice check.  But, how is the increasingly whiny Justin Thomas going to feel when he's no longer one of Jay's faves?   Ultimately this lack of accountably will devolve into warring fractions, and good luck holding it all together then....

That meritocracy is a critical element of golf's DNA, and we dispense with it at our peril.  I don't even think this is an actual problem, though of course the nest players will inevitably feel they are underpaid.  But for those that think what golf needs is more guaranteed money (though those making the argument tend to ignore all the guaranteed money in play), I hope you like golf with stars such as Jacoby Ellsbury.

Be The Ball - This is an interesting development, if only because the manufacture of golf balls is far more concentrated than most folks realize:

With its worldwide golf ball market share increasing, TaylorMade made a strategic acquisition on Wednesday with the purchase of Korean-based Nassau Golf Co. Ltd for an undisclosed amount.

Nassau has been a key cog in TaylorMade’s ball supply chain for 15-plus years, making urethane and ionomer balls, as well as mantles for the TP5 and TP5x facility in South Carolina.

With Nassau in the fold, TaylorMade announced the creation of TM Golf Ball Korea, the company’s “third vertical integration” to go along with TM Golf Ball South Carolina and TM Golf Ball Taiwan. (TM Golf Ball Taiwan was formed in 2019 after TaylorMade acquired Foremost Golf Co. Ltd.)

The addition of Nassau allows TaylorMade to meet the global increase in demand for all of its ball products, including TP5/TP5x, Tour Response and Distance+.

TM locking in its supplier probably makes sense given the world of supply-chain issues we see across all industries.  But, if there's an issue, these are the parties whose business might be threatened:

Chances are, even if you’re not keenly aware of it, you are familiar with Nassau Golf. The South Korea-based ball factory has produced numerous TaylorMade balls over the years. It’s also the factory responsible for the original Kirkland Signature four-piece golf ball (the one where the covers didn’t rip) and, perhaps most notably, it produces the MTB Black and MTB X for Dean Snell.

We covered the issues with the Kirkland balls, the originals resulting from the sale of excess Nike cores, but the later production cycles involving inferior materials.

The simple fact is that there are precious few facilities that manufacture golf balls, so the second tier players, including Kirkland, Snell, Vice and others, may find their supply chains unreliable in the future, obviously dependent upon demand.   

This feels like a good place to wrap....  I will see y'all on Monday.

Just Another Manic Monday

Perhaps the first Bangle shout-out in the blog's history for those keeping a scorecard of pop culture references.  I really hadn't planned on blogging this morning, but then, "I read the news today, Oh boy."

The USGA in Winter - Today's news triggers an existential question for your humble blogger.  As you no doubt know, politicians are famous for their Friday afternoon news dumps, releasing anything unfavorable at the time of week guaranteed to minimize its exposure.  But if golf is your business, when is the optimal time of week for a bad news dump?  Gotta be a Monday, no?  Maybe Sunday night to bury it among tournament results, but that's gotta be your news cycle of choice (although we have two items, in one the USGA is a passive player, which might be the more damning of the two items).

As you're no doubt aware, Fox punted the USGA TV rights back to NBC in 2020.  Covid no doubt played a role, but the reality is that Fox dramatically overpaid for those rights and was well rid of them.  This was its own cock-up, given that we went through the learning curve with Fox and they were at that point arguably the best golf production to be found.  Of course, we'll now look back at Chambers Bay through rose-tinted glasses, wistfully nostalgic for the one instance in which Greg Norman had nothing to say....

So, no doubt you're thinking that, at the very least, those rights didn't go to CBS.  Yeah, we dodged that bullet, and with NBC and Golf Channel under common ownership, we can anticipate a normalized TV schedule for future USGA events.... It's like the old joke in which a Marine Corp. drill master instructs all troops whose mothers are still alive to take one step forward, then says, "Not so fast, Roberts."

SBJ’s John Ourand wisely stuck with the headline news—NBC’s Premier League coverage is moving to the home of Law and Order reruns—but golf fans will be in for a shock: Golf Channel is losing early round coverage of the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, The Open and AIG Women’s Open to USA Network.

(Pausing here to let stateside Quad readers find USA on your cable menu. Unless you’re a big rerun or wresting viewer, or sentimental for the network that gave Peter Kostis his golf broadcasting start over thirty years ago, then finding USA may take a while.)

The Premier League shift Ourand led with is in response to the shuttering of NBC Sports Network, but the inclusion of USGA and R&A coverage opens up a number of questions about Comcast and NBC Universal’s commitment to Golf Channel and other non-PGA Tour golf coverage.

I can answer that question: the commitment is winding down.

I'm wondering is the use of the present tense is appropriate...

Maddeningly, Geoff appears to be making the case that this portends the demise of Golf Channel, though he does so behind The Quadrilateral's pay wall.  I'd very much like to hear his thoughts, though obviously not sufficiently to pay him for that.  But I agree that this is quite the shock, though there's not a sniff of this news on any of the major golf sites (most especially not at GolfChannel.com).

But let's try to follow their thought process.  You've just repurchased the rights to the U.S. Open, and of course need a home for the Thursday-Friday action, as well as some early weekend action.  Let's see, where shall we place it?... Ummmm, we have this marginal property that's called Golf Channel, we could give it a try there.... Nah, no one watches that.

What they seem to be saying is that whatever value this has to us on USA exceeds the value of broadcasting it on our own, golf-centric channel.  So, the first question we should logically ask is, what will Golf Channel broadcast instead?  It has to be an off-field PGA Tour event, a Euro Tour event, an LPGA event or, most likely a rerun of Bagger Vance right?  Whatever value that might drive in ad sales will obviously be substantially diminished by the fact that it will compete against the live U.S. Open broadcast.  It's basically a capitulation, Golf Channel forfeiting their place in the golf eco-system and begging the question of their survival.  

There's a couple of follow up bits where I try too hard to show you how clever I am.  The first concerns Mike Whan, now the USGAs majordomo.  For years I've been critical of Mike's fetish of pushing small network broadcast windows for the LPGA, arguing that the cost of confusing the audience as to the location of the coverage wasn't worth whatever aura being on the big networks conveyed.

Mike, alas, has jumped out of that frying pan into...well, you know.  Because he's now gone from fighting to get the ladies on network TV to watching impotently as the world's most important men's golf tournament is banished from Golf Channel...  The irony, she really burns this time.

The second bit isn't especially golf-centric, but who among us isn't a fan of B-school gibberish?  This is from that John Ourand SBJ item breaking the news:

Later this week, NBC Sports Group formally will announce the specific sports properties that will migrate from NBCSN to USA Network, including many NASCAR and IndyCar races, USGA and R&A golf championships and Olympic sports. “The strategic and intentional move of sports content to USA was a long and collaborative process with our corporate cousins at USA,” said NBC Sports Programming Exec VP Tom Knapp. “It has created the cable version of a broadcast network, with the exception of news.”

NBC Sports execs believe the move will lead to USA becoming the top-rated sports and entertainment channel on cable. Knapp cited this summer’s Tokyo Games, which positioned USA at the top of the cable ratings list throughout the Games. USA, of course, will keep a big schedule of entertainment programming, too. “The entertainment viewer will be exposed to these sports properties in ways that they haven’t been before,” Knapp said. “And the sports fan will be exposed to entertainment properties in ways that they haven’t before. We believe that cross-pollination will be good for everybody.”

Yanno, I'm just a struggling blogger, and have trouble understanding sophisticated concepts like synergy.   But, as I understand the complexity of their worldview (bonus points for any reader that can identify that pop culture reference), that 86-year old woman that tunes to USA for a rebroadcast of Murder, She Wrote will stay and be entranced by early round coverage of the U.S. Women's Junior Amateur....  Yeah, that's the ticket, let's use golf, which has no discernable audience where folks expect to find it, to drive new viewers to our tired reruns.

Our second news item of import comes from Brian Wacker:

— Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) November 1, 2021

Yowzer!  Don't get me wrong, you can't read that without realizing that enforcement could be one hot mess, but actual Tour players acting independently of the USGA to maintain the integrity of golf skills... Hmm, maybe there's hope for humanity after all.

I do agree with Geoff here, though somewhat guardedly:

This one is a little embarrassing for the USGA and R&A, who tried to limit green reading books by reducing their size and only prompted players to the silly cheat sheets closer to their face. But in a rare and welcomed moment of product introspection, the PGA Tour Advisory Council took bold action to all but limit their use in PGA Tour events.

The untold story in this is how badly the USGA and R&A botched those 2019 rules revisions, many of which have subsequently walked back.  But their failure here is truly troubling because this one should have been such a lay-up, with no entrenched and powerful equipment manufacturers to object.  Obviously reading greens is a golf skill, and they simply couldn't see their way to protecting the game.

Geoff doesn't go too deep into the compliance issues, offering only this obvious bit:

Enforcement of this should be interesting as players tuck books into leather covers and spotting “Committee Approved Book” may be tricky. But otherwise, it’s a welcome change and one that should have happened sooner in the name of protecting skill as well as pace of play.

Daniel Rappaport dives deeper, and the book inside the leather cover seems like the least of it:

The most interesting, and perhaps complicating, part of the memo reads as follows: "Handwritten

notes that could assist with reading the line of play on the putting green will continue to be allowed in the approved book. However, such notes will be restricted to only those made by the player or caddie and must be derived from the experiences or any observations of a ball rolling on a green. This includes observations from a TV broadcast. Transferring prevoius handwritten notes that also meet the new restrictions into the approved book is allowed. No devices, levels or other technology may be used to gather information to be kept as notes, and no information may be copied from another source into the approved book."

There is simply no way to audit the source of a scribble in the yardage book, so we may well have to wait for each and every touring professional with an illegal green-reading book to die off.   How's that for my typically optimistic take on things?  

But I'm actually quite pleased with the PGA Tour's Advisory Board stepping up, notwithstanding that the solution is imperfect.  They see the governing bodies abdicating their responsibilities and step in to maintain the integrity of the game, which should (but apparently isn't) sending shock waves through Far Hills and St. Andrews.  Because if you're unable to see that detailed green-reading books are an issue, remind me of what exactly you're doing that actually helps the game?

Before we leave, that photo above accompanies the Rappaport item.  Do we think they chose it at random?  Would any photo of a recognizable Tour player reading his book have done just as well?  I'm not sure, but I am certainly reminded of Geoff's speculation when the Tour immediately supported the ban on clubs longer than 46 inches.  If the man is in search of a causus belli against the Tour (we take it for granted that he already has many against the USGA), we now would seem to have at least two... Over to you Phil, as the Saudi's have a rather large check made out in your name.

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off - Did someone mention the Saudis?  Lots to talk about here, but I'd like to ask for special dispensation to address the funniest bit before that which might have significance.  You'll be shocked... shocked, I tell you, to discern that the funniest bit involves a certain Aussie further beclowning himself, though this time presumably with his shirt on.

Yesterday we closed with a Tour Confidential Q&A about the significance of the Super League being funded with Saudi money.  The whole thing is a bit complicated and the PGL is actually back in the mix, but should the players be revolted by the source of the money?  I've always preferred a world where we didn't rely on athletes to be role models and make our ethical judgements for us, but that world ceased to exist in early November 2016, if not previously.

The CEO of Liv Golf Investments has graciously submitted to an interview, and can you say passive aggressive?

The initial announcement was for 10 events on the Asian Tour, but it seems the vision is for a more robust offering that is a tour of its own. Is the goal here eventually to compete with the PGA Tour for top-level talent?

I just wanted to create a bed where more great players [can develop] … In the ’80s, I went to play the Swedish Open. There was a gentleman, Sven Tumba, an ice hockey player. His dream was to create a platform that goes down to the grassroots to develop a generation of players to get on the PGA and European Tour. He did a phenomenal job of transforming golf from non-existent in the country to something where you had Swedish players coming through winning majors. It’s no different on the Asian Tour. My dream is to do the same with Asia … if we have an opportunity to invest and grow the game of golf through our investment dollars in Asia, God bless us. There’s nothing wrong with that, and no one should decry us for doing that. I just get a little bit miffed as to why people feel so against me wanting to do that through LIV Golf Investments.

Gee, what a riddle!   So, the issue isn't what the Saudi's, a country with no historic ties to golf, might be attempting to accomplish, but rather the issue is the haters criticizing Norman... Got it.

But do get yourself a fresh cup of coffee for this bit of delusional rationalizing:

Regarding the source of the money here, obviously, you considered this before making an extremely important decision for you. Do you have any concerns as to where the money is coming from, and specifically the Saudi Arabian connection?

The PIF (Public Investment Fund), which is our majority investor, they’re obviously a commercial operation. They’re very autonomous. They make investment decisions all around the world. They’ve invested in major U.S. corporations because of commercial reasons. They invested in LIV Golf Investments for a commercial opportunity. They’re passionate about the game of golf.

OK, we can't actually get more than a few words in without shouting, WTF!  Just to be clear, Mr. Norman is asserting that the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is autonomous.  Just let that rattle around in your brain for a while, because the Kingdom, we can all agree, has historically tolerated a wide range of belief systems and independent thought.

But perhaps the more outrageous assertion is that this is a commercial investment.  I have all sorts of follow up questions about the nature of these commercial returns, though the CEO quite clearly won't be sitting for those kinds of interviews.

I’ve been going to Saudi Arabia now for three years. I was invited to do a golf course design project there. Unless you actually go there and see and understand exactly what’s happening there, you [can’t] sit back and make judgmental calls. I made the journey there to look at what was happening in Saudi Arabia before I made any decision on anything because I’m not a person who makes judgement calls. I make sound decisions on sound facts and information that is presented to you. So when the PIF wanted to become a majority investor, I knew what was happening in the country.

Wow, the man clearly takes his due diligence obligations seriously.  I mean he's been going there for three whole years, so he obviously has absorbed the rhythm of the streets.   Did he do the same level of due diligence on his pimped out golf cart?  By the way, did he run the golf cart by the Saudis?  Because they might have a problem with the speakers, their musical taste being limited to the muezzin's call to prayers five times a day.  

But please put down your cup of coffee for this, as no one wants to start their day with a spit-take:

Women’s right issues—the women there now, I’ve been so impressed. You walk into a restaurant and there are women. They’re not wearing burkas. They’re out playing golf.

Do we think Greg Norman knows who Walter Duranty was?   Because, despite how compromised the sporting press is, even Golf Digest couldn't let that whopper pass without this rebuttal:

Editor’s note: Saudi Arabia ranked 147th out of 153 nations in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for 2021. And according to Human Rights watch, despite women’s rights reforms in recent years, “Saudi women still must obtain a male guardian’s approval to get married, leave prison, or obtain certain healthcare. Women also continue to face discrimination in relation to marriage, family, divorce, and decisions relating to children, including child custody.”

The man is so in thrall to his own ego and so desperate for relevance, that he can't even see how he's being played.   He's been a laughingstock of our game for years now, and I find amusement in the arranged marriage with the noxious Saudis.  The man is actually sacrificing what little remains of his reputation for the Saudis and their thirty pieces of silver, as pitiful an act as I've seen in some time.

Thanks you for allowing me that dispensation, but shall we now get to the actual news?  Just when we had finished reading their obituary, back from the dead comes...wait for it, the Premiere Golf League.  Shack has a non-paywalled item up that quite amusingly reads like a legal document, first defining the parties:

The PGA Tour Inc. (PGA Tour) - A 501(c)(6) tax exempt “non-profit” whose primary mission is to promote the sport of professional golf through the sanctioning and administering of tournaments for its members, while also taking most of the credit for charitable dollars raised by participating events. In recent years, the PGA Tour has placed an excessive emphasis on schedule-building around two moribund products: Olympic golf and the FedExCup. The Commissioner, Jay Monahan, is lavishly incentivized to raises purses and create playing opportunities and has vowed to retaliate against any defections to other enterprises by suspending or ending a player’s PGA Tour membership.

That one is quite obviously there for the amusement value and, perhaps, for those cheap shots at Jay and the FedEx Cup, not that there's anything wrong with that.

But the next one actually helps explain how we got to the complicated state of affairs:

The Premier Golf League (PGL) - Founded at least seven years ago under the World Golf Group name, this mostly-British contingent has been quietly attempting to alter the professional golf model. Previous PGL names have included Tour de Force and World Golf Series. The vision: a league-driven global elite tour with franchises, shorter tournament weeks, a Ryder Cup-style season conclusion and an overall fan-friendly reformation while working around golf’s major championships. For a brief time in 2020 the PGL was fronted by “global merchant bank” the Raine Group, which reportedly still holds a small stake. And at one time the PGL received funding commitments from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia until receiving criticism for ties to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s wretched Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Speaking of…

Wretched?  Geoff, haven't you heard the good news, there's now women in restaurants and playing golf without burkas?   Yanno, you really oughta get out more...

But there is actual news, a different business model, as Geoff explains:

The PGL is taking a different approach. They would like to present the PGA Tour with a revamped model that maintains the Tour “umbrella” and the various positives going with such continuity.

According to two sources, the PGA Tour has not acknowledged receipt of a PGL memo and deck sent in early September, 2021. Nor has the PGA Tour sought to have any discussions with the Premier Golf League at any point.

An outline of the latest proposal has been obtained by The Quadrilateral and reasserts the PGL’s stance of wanting to work with the PGA Tour while offering a merging of the current structure with most of the original PGL concepts. The PGL squashes any hint of a “breakaway” sensibility—“no member would suffer any loss of earning opportunity” according to the memo—with an end goal of presenting a more tangible product that should, theoretically, appeal to the PGA Tour’s disparate interests.

This seems a stretch, unless they're planning to hold their events on Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks, the only open weeks on the PGA Tour schedule.

Geoff has more details that you might want to scan, though I'll just leave you with this bit of happy talk:

With the heading, “Reformation Not Revolution,” the briefing note says: “The proposals follow the precedent created by the founders of the PGA Tour, and the PGL would reinforce and remain faithful to their founding principles.”

At various times throughout this saga and as recently as May, Monahan has reportedly said any player joining a start-up circuit will face suspension or possible expulsion from the PGA Tour.

Yet the PGL believes it has found a way around the ugliness of reinventing professional golf, as we could see any day now with player defections to the Saudi-back proposal. The briefing suggests “there would be no cliff edge, no bans and no threat to players’ pensions or OWGR points.”

And this silly little bit of editorializing:

Still, one element in this confusing maze of competing interests should now be clear: which of these disruptors is attempting a hostile takeover with backing by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and which is seeking to discuss a reformative approach minus the baggage of a totalitarian, Shari’a law-abiding regime.

The only question now? Why won’t Jay Monahan take the Premier Golf League’s call?

I can help you there, Geoff.  Why does the wraparound schedule exist?  It's purpose is to clog the schedule to preclude any other party or tour from creating a base from which to challenge Ponte Vedra  Beach hegemony.  I would think the PGL guys are especially threatening to Kubla Jay, because they're focused on actually making the golf interesting, mostly through introducing a team format.  Therefore, the must and will be crushed, while Jay focuses on important stuff like gambling odds and millennials letting their freak flags fly.

Just to make matters even more grim, the one party that consistently tried to innovate and improve the fan experience, the Euro Tour, has simultaneously hit the wall and been forced to capitulate.  And you wonder why I'm so depressed?

The Legend of The Pendrith - Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column ledes with an ode to the big bopper:

When Taylor Pendrith‘s name appeared atop the Butterfield Bermuda Championship leaderboard this weekend, I texted a few buddies from my mini-tour days. This happens from time to time — a name will pop up in the U.S. Open or someone who has gone through Q-school and we’ll marvel at the fact that that was the guy who ended up making it.

With Pendrith it was the exact opposite. Rather than “I can’t believe that guy made it” it was “I can’t believe he wasn’t out there yet.”

I played most of the 2015 PGA Tour Canada season alongside Pendrith. When I say “alongside” I mean that we were technically in the same field each week — he was contending for victories while I was missing cuts. But he quickly became an icon on the tour because of his ridiculous length. He would hit his 2-iron past other guys’ driver. He’d fly his driver 40 yards past the average pro. He led the tour in driving distance by a preposterous 13 yards.

“I remember him having a replacement driver delivered to him mid-round after twisting the head from the hosel after a nice send,” texted Brian Hughes, a former roommate who plays on PGA Tour Latinoamerica. “Still has gotta be the longest player I’ve seen to this day.”

He's just insanely long, at least according to the buzz.  What we crave, of course, is a pairing with Bryson to judge his length on a relative basis...

Now, I could have done without this paean to PReed:

Captain America had gone 10 starts in a row without a top-five finish. He got double pneumonia.

He missed the Ryder Cup. The faceless social media account connected with his team garnered more attention than his actual play. And then Patrick Reed nearly stormed to victory on the back nine in Bermuda.

“It just allows you to be creative because you might as well just throw the yardage books away today,” Reed said after playing his final six holes in four under, shooting six-under 65 and posting the clubhouse lead (he wound up T2 alongside Lee). It was a reminder that Reed’s style of golf is fascinating to watch. It was also a welcome reminder why this guy has spent several charging inside the top 10 on so many leaderboards. It’s also fun hearing a pro so explicitly embracing the idea of “playing golf” rather than imitating some version of what they did on a launch monitor between starts.

“When it gets tough or when it gets hard, I feel like it allows me to get away from kind of driving range golf swings and stuff like that. It allows me to get really creative, start seeing golf shots and playing golf rather than sit there and try to produce a golf swing.”

Whether you consider Reed a villain, an artist, a national hero, a pest or some combination of the four, professional golf is more fun when he’s involved.

Personally, I consider him a cheating a*****e who is a cancer in our game, where does that fit into your matrix, Dylan?   

I certainly understand the value of villains in an entertainment product, so Dylan has an obvious point, that he can render things more interesting as we root against.  The problem is that it forces the other players to accommodate his behavior, which takes us in the wrong direction.  The best instance of this is what he did to Tiger's Prez Cup team, forcing them to rationalize cheating.

Of course, I now know that that incident was fake news, caused by Golf Channel deliberately using misleading camera angles to besmirch an upstanding member of the golf community, and I look forward to each and every fellow PGA Tour member offering their opinions on those fake camera angles.  Because we can't move on from a slight that two years old.. What Dylan apparently finds interesting, I consider dispiriting and soul crushing. 

So, how did you enjoy the post?  I think it was awfully good for a non-blogging day, no?  Thanks for stopping by and we'll have more as the week progresses.

Weekend Wrap

We do have some actual golf action for you, though the real action remains the continuation of Friday's golf crazy.  Your calendar may say November, but golf seems determined to make every day Halloween.

Bermuda Blues - Not as blues as it might have been, as when I turned back to football it looked as though PReed was gonna back into a cheap "W".  So, coulda been worse:

It was only fitting, then, that Lucas Herbert missed a four-footer for birdie at No. 18, leading to an anticlimactic tap-in for par and a one-shot victory. This was a survival test, after all, and Herbert had done just enough to win.

“I love playing when it’s really hard,” Herbert told Golf Channel immediately after finishing up. “I think it makes you be that little bit better and it eliminates the guys who maybe aren’t as good who are hitting shots that don’t get affected by wind or rain as much. I just enjoyed the struggle out there today. There were times where we were nearly sitting on the ground behind an umbrella — and just embracing that was so much fun.”

Other contenders got eliminated, one by one, while several furious charges up the leaderboard fell just short. Scott Stallings shot the round of the day, posting a preposterous nine-under 62 that was nearly 10 shots lower than the field average. For a moment it looked as though he might contend for the win despite starting the day 14 shots back.

He was so far behind that he started on No. 10, adding to the surreal atmosphere.  Of course, this is the near miss to which I alluded above:

Patrick Reed had the day’s second-best round and he finished it off in style with birdies at 13, 14, 17 and 18. He signed for a six-under 65 that left him as leader in the clubhouse at 14 under. He said that he felt like he could play particularly creative golf on a day that “you could pretty much throw out the yardage book.” Reed added that the result — by far his best since missing time with illness at the end of last season — was a big confidence boost going forward.

“Ever since I got back from being sick it just seemed like the offense wasn’t quite there, I wasn’t making enough birdies and when that happens one little swing here or there turns a round you want to salvage into a mediocre round,” he said. “This week I had plenty of offense, just needed to take away a few careless errors.”

Oh, Patrick, the modesty does seem to suit you, as if your offensiveness ever takes a week off.  Now, Patrick, were there any Golf Channel camera angles or deceptive editing you'd like to comment upon?

This guy to me was the story of the week:

All of the strong work, and the rewards that come with it, seemed to be slipping away for Jim

Knous on Sunday in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Through nine holes, he was four over par for the day and looking at a worst-case scenario.

The 31-year-old, playing his last event on a major medical extension, entered the week needing to finish tied for 67th or better to retain conditional status on the PGA Tour for the 2021-22 season. He nearly didn’t make the weekend at Port Royal, but closed with a birdie on Friday to make the cut on the number. A solid third-round 69 put him at T-56, two shots inside the bubble.

In the rain and wind, Knous made three birdies against a bogey on the back nine, including a birdie on his 18th hole, to shoot one-over 72. That put him at one-under total and in a tie for 57th. Those who finished tied for 67th were three over.

“The greatest top-60 of all time,” an ecstatic Knous said after the round. “I'm going to celebrate with my caddie and my friends tonight and then my family when I get home. Then it's back to work; job's not done. Obviously conditional status—the ones I get in I have to be ready, and I plan to be ready and go low and have chances.”

If there's to be Fall PGA Tour golf, it should be about the Jim Knouses of the world (though Spellcheck has profound concerns with the pluralization of Knous).  In fact, that was the intent of the original Fall Finish schedule of a few years ago, one that I found far more compelling.  Watching struggling Tour wanabees play for their professional futures is compelling TV, if only someone would understand that.

The Tour Confidential panel had bigger fish to fry, but did manage to acknowledge that this event was played:

4. Lucas Herbert beat the field (and the conditions!) in Bermuda this weekend to earn his first PGA Tour victory. Herbert — like 54-hole leader Taylor Pendrith — is a Korn Ferry Tour graduate making his mark on Tour already. Is there an under-the-radar Tour rookie you have your eye on?

Zak: Cameron Young has played some extremely good golf in waves this year. It comes and goes for every pro at that level, but when it comes for him, it’s really good. I’d expect him to contend for a win sometime in 2022.

Bastable: There are no sure things in golf but it’s hard to not to buy stock in Sahith Theegala, who won virtually every significant college award during his days at Pepperdine and top-tenned is just his second start of his rookie season, at the Sanderson Farms. Kid looks groomed for greatness.

Sens: Mito Pereira first caught my eye at the Tokyo Olympics, where he nearly medaled. I’ll be looking out for the Chilean this year.

Dethier: The secret is out on Taylor Pendrith — sort of. I’m not sure how many people were dialed into the 54-hole leader in Bermuda, but he’s got big-time game and has massively improved his putting in recent years. He’s 30 years old but still a potential rising star, and I’m excited to see if he can use Sunday’s disappointing round as a springboard.

Pendrith is allegedly as long as DeChambeau and Cam Champ, so he warrants mention, though one could argue that neither he nor Cam Young is under the radar....

Did someone mention Bryson?  There was a seemingly funny bit On Saturday when Danny Lee, then in solo second, seems to have trotted out a Bryson swing impression for his 18th hole tee shot.  The announcers were on it, though I can't find anything about on these Interwebs.  I caught one brief mention on Saturday, differentiating on Lee swing as a mini-Bryson vs, his full-Bryson the prior day.  

Did I see what I thought I saw (and what Terry Gannon thought I saw)?  Crazy thing for a guy near the top of the leaderboard to do, but why no coverage?  On the other hand, anything that Danny does to make us forget this has to for the better, no?

Crazy Rich Saudis - Shall we get to the fun stuff?  We get only the slightest peak behind the curtain, but Geoff has a long Quadrilateral post on the Super-Duper League, with much to observe:

The Guardian first reported on a select press gathering to discuss Norman’s hiring, with more detailed stories about that session now appearing at ESPN, Global Golf Post, the New York Post and Golf.com.

In the reporting, you’ll have to scroll past the windbaggery from Norman about sacrificing his business empire for this new venture (while retaining his role in golf course design projects, including one in Saudi Arabia). The stories all confirm the most inconvenient truth: despite Norman’s effort to suggest multiple investors are in play, he’s reporting to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Well, gasbaggery is very much on brand for the Shark.  I recently referenced his prior attempt to remake golf from the ground up, which would have been considered a dumpster fire if anyone was paying attention.   But maybe it's worth parsing his actual statement, which is really quite delusional:

"In the middle second quarter of next year, I'll invite you guys down to my office. We will tell you exactly how we're going to break this cast iron that's been wrapped around golf for so long. We're going to shatter it. The institutions (USGA, R&A, PGA of America, PGA Tour) will eventually buy into it because they will have to buy into it. They won't have a choice," Norman told reporters last month at the unveiling of his latest design, the Greg Norman Signature Course at Vidanta Neuvo Vallarta, Mexico.

The grandiosity is just priceless.  Also delusional, for those keeping a scorecard at home.  But note how invested in the details he is...the date is hyper specific, the world will respond to his summons and he'll exert Jedi-like mind control over the game's governing bodies.   They will be forced to recognize the complexity of his worldview, in which he'll be treated as a liberator.  But now, reality intrudes, because the underlying premise that will shatter our game was a pimped-out golf cart.  Keep that foremost in mind each and every time Norman opens his mouth...

Which, of course, Geoff gets:

So why would Norman give up his role running companies he started and risk tainting the “living brand” for the closest thing to evil we have in the rapidly expanding authoritarian dictator sector?

Whatever the vain vintner’s motives—revenge, money, ego, boredom, attention, all of the above x 8—his full-time presence is not likely to convince reluctant star golfers to come aboard. Yes, he provides cover by discussing his favorite topic—himself. And Norman can push back at the PGA Tour by saying, you messed up the WGC concept that I instigated back in the early 90s, so move over because there’s a new Shirtless Sheriff in town!

Shirtless Sheriff isn't bad... 

Where Geoff is helpful is in the details:

Thanks to a lightly-reported Ryder Cup-week announcement, the Saudi’s joined up with the Asian Tour to sanction the former European Tour stop at Saudi Arabia’s Royal Greens G&CC. The latest reporting says they’ve since expanded the agreement into a $200 million, 10-event, 10-year deal with the Asian Tour to offer a rankings point-eligible feeder circuit. With that in place, golf league viability becomes clearer to potential fence-sitters.

Maybe, as explained by Mark Canizzaro in the NY Post:

This appears to be a brilliantly deft move on the part of LIV Golf Investors, because its affiliation with the Asian Tour would provide a gateway for its team series events to be sanctioned tournaments that dole out world ranking points, which are the most prominent determinant for players qualifying for major championships

I could go with deft or clever, though brilliantly deft seems more than a bit hyperbolic.  But, yes, this does at least superficially address one deal-breaker, having their events qualify for world ranking points.  But this is your classic static analysis, meaning that it assumes that the Five Families will allow that status to remain intact.  Though Geoff appropriately notes that the OWGR have blundered perhaps in recognizing marginal properties:

The points deliver legitimacy and bonuses while getting top players into majors (at least barring an emergency move during next week’s Asia Pacific Amateur when several Official World Golf Ranking board members are typically on hand). But the OWGR will have a hard time suggesting the co-sanctioned Asian/Saudi events are no longer an “Eligible Golf Tour” operation. Particularly when the OWGR recognizes biggies like the Abema TV Tour, All Thailand Golf Tour, EuroPro Tour, Alps Tour, Asian Development Tour, Nordic Golf League, Big Easy Tour, ProGolf Tour and the Thursday Night Men’s League. Disqualifying the Asian Tour would create instant legal and anti-trust concerns.

(Oh I was kidding on the Thursday Night Men’s League. The rest are all OWGR “Eligible Golf Tours”.)

The argument is solid, but why would Geoff elide the most compelling example?  In sucking up to Tiger, world ranking points are awarded to the hero World Challenge.  Geoff, the Thursday Night League bit would be far funnier if they weren't already awarding points to a far less serious event...  Just trying to explain how this humor thing works.

But have the Saudis looked into those OWGR?  Do they know who controls them?

The OWGR governing board includes several who may ask for emergency action to save the PGA Tour and European Tour from losing stars. Here is the current board, as of their most recent announcement regarding points system changes set to take effect in August, 2022:

Chairman – Peter Dawson

Augusta National Golf Club – Buzzy Johnson

European Tour – Keith Pelley

International Federation of PGA Tours – Keith Waters

PGA of America – Seth Waugh

PGA TOUR – Jay Monahan

The R&A – Martin Slumbers

USGA – Mike Whan

Buzzy Johnson?  Egads, Geoff, that's a name no one will recognize, nor should they.  The key guy there is still obviously Fred Ridley, and these guys show no signs of breaking ranks.

Now, let me interject an opinion or two, riffing off Geoff's coda:

Waugh’s the most intriguing figure since he makes clear the PGA Of America will fight for the PGA Tour. Waugh has long been close with Monahan and to show his organization’s support, has already declared an end to Ryder Cup eligibility for American and (probably) European defectors.

Is that any way to treat an independent contractor?

Waugh presumes today’s players will care two-hoots about the Ryder Cup when a life-changing advance is wired into their accounts, even if it’s blood and oil-covered money. To his credit, Waugh also sensed this situation was inevitable long before Greg Norman signed on and a rankings loophole was located.

“I think, look, I come from a world of disruption, and I think it's inevitable,” Waugh said of upstart leagues when asked during May’s PGA Championship.

“I actually think it's healthy. You either disrupt or you get disrupted. That's what this is.”

What I want to argue is that, not only is disruption healthy in a general sense, but there's no organization on the planet more in need of disruption than the PGA Tour (really golf in aggregate).  Not only is a dreary week-to-week slog with nothing but 72-hole stroke play events, but look at Jay Monahan's specific initiatives in reaction to this potential disruption.  Does he have anything in mind to improve the product?  No, all he's concerned with is his gambling vig, promoting unruly fan behavior ("Live Under Par") and creating a slush fund to bribe players to stay (Can you say Pip?).  

So, bring on the disruptors.... yeah, but not these disruptors.  I've seen enough of Greg Norman's naked torso, thank you very much, and his pimped-out golf cart doesn't move my needle.  The only worse than falling in line behind Greg Norman's vision is doing so funded by Saudi money....  After all, the Saudi's still seem to think that Phil and Henrik Stenson matter...

You're probably thinking that Eamon Lynch should be piping up on this, and you'd be right.  You're probably also thinking that, since the Ulsterman doesn't like much of anyone, that the Shark won't be his cup of tea:

Since it took the Saudis almost 10 years to sign a player to their global golf ambitions, we might

have expected someone more compelling than a 66-year-old retiree a quarter-century beyond his prime, whose unquenchable thirst for relevance has been laid (literally) bare-arsed on social media with an undignified frequency.

There are obvious reasons why Greg Norman is an appealing front man for LIV Golf Investments, the Saudi-financed outfit that has announced plans for 10 events to be held on the Asian Tour. For starters, he’s already contracted to design a golf course near Riyadh, so he didn’t need to be persuaded to overlook those pesky human rights abuses. Norman has already signaled that he doesn’t care about that.

He remains a brand name in the sport, though he might have finally jumped his own logo when he started slinging beef jerky. He’s no pied piper—attitudes toward him in the locker room have always been lukewarm—but for the casual fan who considers Norman’s catchpenny clothing line to be haute couture, his involvement confers legitimacy.

Legitimacy?  That seems an overly generous concession...

Eamon also takes on an urban myth and I think has it about right:

Finally, he has harbored undisguised animus toward the PGA Tour since 1994, when he launched a bumbling attempt at a world tour that was quickly squashed by then-commissioner Tim Finchem. Finchem was actually helping Norman save face, but Norman later accused Finchem of stealing his concept for the World Golf Championships. That appetite for avenging long-nursed grudges must have appealed to the Crown Prince when he was reviewing résumés of prospective patsies.

Yeah, he was an advocate, but the idea was out there since forever and he wasn't about to get it done with the major tours involvement.

 Eamon actually takes time out from his gratuitous (though highly enjoyable) Shark snark to identify why Norman might be the perfect patsy for the Saudis:

As a 20-time winner, Norman is a lifetime member of the PGA Tour. And while his fronting a Saudi investment in the Asian Tour is of little consequence, any subsequent announcement that he will head up the rival Super Golf League would virtually guarantee a PGA Tour ban. That would pose no practical problem for the former world No. 1, who hasn’t made a start in almost 10 years. Any other player who signs with the Saudis—say, Phil Mickelson or Bryson DeChambeau—risks being benched while lawyers fight it out, unwelcome at a Tour that does exist and unable to play one that doesn’t.

Which makes Norman a perfect guinea pig for the Saudis—a PGA Tour member who can test the legality of a ban in court while having nothing at stake.

That, in turn, poses an intriguing dilemma for Monahan. Does he ban Norman for what would be meaningless posturing as commissioner of a rival league that doesn’t yet exist—thereby setting him up to challenge the Tour’s standing to enact such a ban—or does he ignore Norman and force another player to step up and risk everything? Monahan is acutely aware that no player has yet shown the stomach for that gamble.

This is teeing up to be the threshold issue perhaps, can the tours (most importantly, can the Tour) ban renegade players?  Eamon had this earlier in his piece:

Numerous players have flirted with the Super Golf League but none have committed, not least because PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has made clear he’ll ban anyone who does so. One player told me he’s been assured by his attorney that the Tour can’t expel him. A Tour executive, on the other hand, told me they have a Manhattan office building full of lawyers confident they can.

You'd think that, if there were any doubt, that the Tour bylaws would quickly be redrafted.  In the short term, folks should be watching whether they take action against Norman (my guess is that they won't because the ambiguity works for Monahan) and the pending applications for waivers from eight players to cash those large appearance fee checks for the Saudi events.  In a legal sense, it's probably all or nothing... Though in a gamesmanship sense, Monahan could have some fun approving the waivers for the old times like McDowell and Stenson but denying it for relevant players like DJ.  

I'm just amusing myself with that last bit, so ignore it.  But Monahan has already indicated that the waivers won't be granted, so he can't possibly cave on that, can he?  

As alluded to above, this is the focus of that TC panel, begging at the top of the page

1. Greg Norman has been named CEO of LIV Golf Investments, a Saudi-backed group that promises to “holistically improve the health of professional golf on a truly global scale,” beginning with a 10-year commitment of at least $200 million to underwrite 10 new full-field Asian Tour events. What was your biggest takeaway from Friday’s announcement?

Alan Bastable: After years of rumors and speculation about various rival super leagues, I guess I was expecting/hoping for more juice than what was in this initial announcement. LIV’s investment in the Asian Tour is significant but what’s coming next — seemingly some kind of star-powered breakout tour — would send shockwaves should it come to fruition. Norman said it himself in the Friday release: “This is just the beginning.” My attention is piqued!

Josh Sens: Right. That was the elephant in the press release. The prospect of this super league, which is far more threatening to the PGA Tour than a 10-year, $200 million commitment to the Asian Tour. Alan’s phrase is apt: “Should it come to pass.” We’ve been down this road before. Will it end differently this time? How is the Tour going to respond? Will it be as successful as squelching a challenge from a rival circuit as it has been in the past? All related questions.

Sean Zak: My biggest takeaway is how soft these commitments from top 10 players really seem to be. Rumors about players interested keep floating around, but no one is ready to publicly take a stand yet. It’s a weird look to announce a league with all this hype…in waves without the names coming first.

Dylan Dethier: This press release was an answer that mostly led to more questions. (I listed 10 of ‘em here.) Until you have players, golf courses, something tangible…it doesn’t feel quite real. So it still doesn’t feel real. The only sure thing secured seems to be the money. But sometimes the money is the toughest part to secure, so maybe that’s enough.

Soft. Sean?  They don't exist, full stop.

I had forgotten Dylan's column, though ten seems an understatement, given that absolutely nothing substantive has been announced.   I mean, it's true that we know pretty much everything, with the minor exceptions of players, dates, venues, money, format, air rights and cart girls....  OK, maybe that last one isn't quite as critical, but it's not like golf draws an actual audience without some help.

2. As referenced above (and as reported by various media outlets), LIV Golf is also aiming to launch a global golf league this spring, likely to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, which would mean World Ranking points would be available to participants. Among the key details that are still unknown: which, if any, players have signed on and where the events would be conducted. For this upstart league to be successful, what element do you think is most essential for Norman and Co. to get right?

Bastable: Everything starts with the players. Some big names have been rumored to have been courted by LIV — and star power will, of course, be essential for this thing to succeed. Beyond that, who will broadcast the events and how will they be presented? Whichever TV/streaming partner steps in, there are all kinds of ways to outperform golf’s current broadcast models — beginning with simply showing more shots. I’d expect to see all kinds of fun bells and whistles and no doubt an emphasis on betting. I’m also intrigued to see the host sites. PGA Tour venues largely lack much sizzle. If this new tour is smart, it’ll make its host courses part of the show.

Sens: Right. First things first, it needs the buy-in of the players. Back in 1994, when Norman first proposed a world tour, it seemed like he had the stars lined up. But when it came time to act, the players backed off. This rival league will need big names fully on board to gain momentum. Beyond that, as Alan says, how it’s packaged/presented will be key. Even if fans turn a blind eye to the ethical concerns, will they find the events themselves compelling? Or simply another iteration of big-money exhibition golf?

Zak: Players matter! But a broadcast might be just as important. The rumored differences between this league and the PGA Tour are only different if people see them.

Dethier: Right. Is there as much demand for this product as this Tour’s organizers think? I think “legitimacy” is the most important and most elusive element. The PGA Tour is a known quantity with an established structure, and that’s comforting for players and viewers alike, despite various complaints about the product. Legitimacy is tough to create. Can LIV + Co. do so?

Yeah, Dylan kind of nails it, as who among us thinks that golf needs more tournaments?   Alistair Tate grabs this real estate:

How many reading this are hanging on every word written about the proposed new Golf League backed by Saudi Arabian money?

How many are wondering why you played 10 shots worse than your handicap last time out, when you hardly missed a shot your previous round?

Thought so.

News of a golf tour backed by Saudi money to challenge the hegemony of the PGA Tour has practically dominated the headlines of established golf outlets the last few days. First it was the Premier Golf League, now the putative Saudi Golf League with hints of holding tournaments at courses owned by Donald Trump.

Do ordinary golfers care? Probably not. The idea of multi-millionaires like Greg Norman or Phil Mickelson boosting their bank accounts with even more millions probably doesn’t hold too much interest for everyday golfers more concerned with their chipping or putting woes.

Well, perhaps not quite the real estate I was thinking of, but a valuable corollary.  We already have far too many professional tournaments, as evidenced by the events of this weekend.  If you hold a PGA Tour event and can't fill the field, perhaps supply exceeds demand?

I've been a lonely voice lately arguing the the Premiere/Super Golf League concept is highly flawed and would fail of its own lack of legitimacy.  Part of that is a misunderstanding of our game and the role of the PGA Tour.  Yeah, it's the world's elite tour, but with a huge frigging asterisk.  Remember, the Tour doesn't run the most important events in the world, it's there to fill in the other 48 weeks on the calendar.  That's a very important thing to keep in mind.

But so is the nature of our game, in which the greatest player on the planet might win 5% of the time he pegs it.  Folks crave head-to-head showdowns, but how did Tiger v. Phil at Shadow Creek go?  Can you even remember how dreadful it was....

Second thought experiment:  How many riveting head-to-head matchups can you remember from regular Tour events?   Precious few, no?  I remember Tiger v. Phil at Doral and a handful of others, but barely a handful.  We're all happy when it happens, but it only works when it happens organically.  Even the WGC's, the part of the Tour model closest to the Super League concept, fails to deliver on the premise.  And isn't it interesting to promote a WGC-like schedule when the WGCs themselves seem to have failed?  

One last bit:

3. LIV Golf is bankrolled by the deep pockets of Saudi Arabia’s authoritarian government — or, more specifically, by the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, who has been linked to the 2018 murder of Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. (Norman said in a statement to reporters that he is “happy to partner with this group of investors to bring the significant resources to bear that are necessary for the fundamental changes required for the greater good of the sport.”) How much, if at all, do you suppose the source of the would-be league’s financing could impede its ability to attract players, fans and sponsors?

Bastable: If the purses are as a rich as rumored, hard to imagine LIV will have much trouble lining up players. Look no further than the Saudi International, which annually attracts a host of big names. But, yes, LIV’s funding, of course, presents an inconvenient truth. When the Saudis bought the Premier League team Newcastle United earlier this year, human-rights advocates were aghast, with Amnesty International calling the deal a “clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to sportswash their appalling human rights record.” Presumably as this new league ramps up, it will face similar charges.

Zak: A handful of players will not be involved, no matter what. Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm are just a couple with no interest. But if there’s one thing I know about Tour pros, it’s that they follow the money ALL the time.

Sens: They will follow it, for sure. But they’ll also have to consider whether that paycheck is worth the potential financial blow of losing a sponsor or two? What happens when Company A, facing public outrage, decides it would rather not have its name on Player B’s hat? That’s going to happen at some point along the line. But Sean is probably right. The bigger paycheck will ultimately win out.

Dethier: It’s going to be extremely difficult to be the FIRST player to commit to this new league. This is one of those times that it’s unwise to be a trailblazer. But if several players announce their commitments at the same time, it’s going to be confusing for golf fans who feel some trepidation at the entire purpose of this new league. Some fans won’t watch for either reasons of morality or indifference. Others might shrug, say, “It’s hard to keep track of all this stuff, but I want to watch golf,” and tune in.

It's a gift to Jay Monahan.  If the UK effort was the one going forward, then the fight is much more on the merits.  because it's Saudi money, Jay gets to fight on far easier terrain.

But the most depressing aspect of all is that the disruptors seem to have killed disruption.  The only disruptors in our game were Keith Pelley and his Euro Tour, and the unintended consequence of the Saudi efforts (combined with teh pandemic) was to force Keith Pelley into Jay Monahan's loving embrace.  All those Euro innovations, shot clocks and irreverent videos, will continue only at Jay Monahan's suffrage.  That will be the worst outcome of this initiative, methinks.

Alas, we must part at this juncture.  But I'll be around this week, so check back early and often.