Monday, February 7, 2022

Weekend Wrap

Damn those Saudis!  We all instinctively recoil in horror at the event, then it's won in dramatic fashion by that guy everyone loves....  In fact, I find the event obnoxious, which seems to have become the word of the week.

Though we'll opt for Stillwater Cove over the Red Sea as our lede.

The Eleven Year Itch - I've shared with you many times that, watching professional golf, I invariably root for the guy that needs it more.  So, let's see, once Andre Putnam and Joel Dahmen had played themselves out of contention, that left:

'I’ve waited 11 years for this:' Tom Hoge outlasts Jordan Spieth for first PGA Tour win at 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

On the grand stage named Pebble Beach, in the final-round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with fan favorite Jordan Spieth owning the spotlight since his high-wire act on a cliff’s edge the day before and his pace-setting ways on the back-nine on Sunday, Hoge broke through for his first PGA
Tour title.

With three birdies in his final five holes, Hoge overcame Spieth with a final-round 4-under-par 68 to finish at 19 under to win by two shots.

Hoge, who played in the final group in last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Spieth before fading to a tie for 12th, joked shortly after winning that he hadn’t won anything in so long that he forgot how to celebrate.

“It’s incredible,” Hoge said. “I’ve waited 11 years for this. It was a tough grind out there. The wind was really tricky today. But I hung in there really well.”

What wind?  Asking for a friend named Tom Kite....

Golf.com puts it down to Spieth "Sputtering", but does this approach Xander territory:

The most clinical version of Jordan Spieth was on full display all weekend long, as he ball-striked
his way around the iconic cliffside design. Through 70 holes, he held a one-shot lead over Tom Hoge, a 32-year-old pro who has never won in 200-plus starts on the PGA Tour. With one swing from Spieth and one swing from Hoge, mere minutes apart, the Pro-Am was upended from Spieth’s 13th-career Tour win to Hoge’s first.

Spieth “flushed” his approach into the par-3 17th, coming up one yard short of clearing the bunker — according to broadcaster Colt Knost — leaving a tricky up and down. Hoge, one shot and one hole back, nearly holed his approach into the 16th, leaving a tap-in for the tie. Spieth missed his par putt on 17. Nine minutes later Hoge made his birdie putt on 17.

For those with short memories, the X-man is still insisting that he "flushed" his tee shot at No. 16 at The Masters, the one that easily got within 25-yards of carrying the water...

But this always amuses me because, as you may have noticed, Messrs.. Spieth and Greller are a tad deliberative in pulling clubs.  So, you discuss the curvature of the earth and sun-spot activity and their effects on relative humidity, then pull the wrong damn club.  Unlike Xander, though, Jordan at least seems to have gotten within one of the correct club.

I'm no doubt in the minority on this one, as I actually think watching Tour rabbits seizing their first wins is good TV.  And we've now had two straight of this ilk, with 37-year old Luke List winning his first tourney last week at Torrey, and the 32-year old Hoge gettin' it done at Pebble.  The C-Suite hates it, but that just makes it win-win, baby!  This is golf, which I encourage you to bear in mind as those other stories ebb and flow.  At the risk of agreeing with Brooksie, golf isn't just about 48 guys.

That said, golf is about three guys to our friends on the Tour Confidential panel, as can be confirmed by this week's questions, not least this one:

4. Back on the PGA Tour, Tom Hoge birdied three of the last five holes to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by two. Coming up just short was Jordan Spieth, whose solo-runner-up finish was his first top 10 on the PGA Tour since the 2021 Open Championship. Time to hop back on the Spieth train?

Sens: He’s fresh off another swing change. That’s tough. But the pieces sure appeared to be holding together this weekend. I’m aboard. Especially at certain venues. Silly not to have him in your pool anytime he plays at Pebble. Or Augusta. I think you can bank on him being in the mix at the Old Course this summer, too.

Zak: From now until he quits, Spieth will be a ball-striker who needs to get hot with the putter. When it happens, he’ll contend! But he’s still a bit too close to that last place finish in the Bahamas and a pretty poor showing in Hawaii for me to think he’s made some gigantic leap.

Colgan: Hard to hop on the Spieth train when you never hopped off it! Faith — in the parlance of my beloved Syracuse football coach Dino Babers — is belief without evidence. I have a ton of faith in Spieth right now. I’m not sure I have a ton of evidence to support that belief. But hey! This week was a start.

Bamberger: I was never off it.

Piastowski: As long as the train doesn’t fall off a 70-foot cliff, I’m aboard. His Saturday 63 was real, real good.

Meh!  Not just the putter needs to cooperate, but he needs to avoid those big misses, or get away with them.  He's done well to elevate himself back into the mix, which kind of started at this event last year.  That said, he's certainly struggled to finish off events, just something to keep in mind.

I'm already a little tired of this bit:


To the best of my knowledge, no one has asked him about the tee shot.  There are many that call this the best shot in all of golf, and one can see their point.  But it's a bizarre tee shot straight into the hill, and most players end up laying back substantially.  I actually would have been interested in his thoughts on the tee ball, because he was close to the edge again on Sunday and seems to play it more aggressively than his peers.

The TC gang didn't come up with much here:

5. In one of the wilder shots you’ll ever see, Jordan Spieth’s drive on Pebble’s par-4 8th hole in the third round came to rest just inches from a cliff edge, setting up an approach that required every ounce of Spieth’s sure-footedness. (Spieth survived the shot, missed the green, but still saved par.) Can you think of a more dangerous/angst-inducing shot that you’ve witnessed from a Tour pro?

Sens: Sergio has had a couple. That time he climbed the tree to hit a shot at Bay Hill. That time he hit around a tree at Medinah. But John Daly hitting a ball that teed up in David Feherty’s mouth has to be the diciest one I’ve seen.

Zak: Patrick Reed’s greenside pitch Saturday at Torrey gave me a lot of angst last year. But in all seriousness, nothing feels as dangerous as what Spieth pulled off. Jim Furyk made me nervous with his heels hanging over the hazard on Sawgrass’ 18th a couple years ago.

Colgan: Like, perhaps the time Jordan Spieth nearly ran off a cliff and into Lake Michigan at the Ryder Cup like, three months ago?

Bamberger: He was a slip away from death. The ground was downhill, toward the cliff. Even great athletes can lose their balance. Vertigo is a real thing. It was reckless. No, can’t think of anything like it.

Piastowski: Nope, that was it. Spieth wins. Craziest shot I can remember. Runner-up, Spieth at the Ryder Cup. Something about cliffs and that dude.

He is and has always been quite the drama queen.  I do think it a good call to not use the Gary Player step-through on that one, though.  I don't get Sean Zak's PReed reference, but it would be fun to see the reactions, not to mention the PointsBets odds, were Mr. Reed staring down that 70-foot cliff.

One thing I di like was the use of the reclaimed tee on the tenth hole:


Doug Ferguson had the details in 2014:

Pebble Beach officials were rebuilding the ninth green last year when they discovered from photos of the 1929 U.S. Amateur a tiny sliver of land just to the right of the green. It was a tee box of the par-4 10th hole along the ocean. The tee box never went away, rather it was buried beneath high grass.

R.J. Harper, the executive vice president of golf and retail, figured it was the perfect time to put it back.

The 10th hole goes out to the farthest point at Pebble Beach, a par 4 that is 448 yards for PGA Tour competition, and 495 yards for the most recent U.S. Open. With this tiny tee box directly to the right of the ninth green, Harper said the hole measures 349 yards.

Since it was restored, the tee has been used only for a couple of special occasions. It's a traffic issue. To use that tee, players could only exit to the left in front or behind the ninth green, which would hold up play on the ninth hole.

But it's a cool shot – directly over the ocean, with players able to take on as much as they want. And with the U.S. Amateur coming in 2018 and the U.S. Open the next year, one thought is for the tee to be used for one round. With a helping wind in summer months, big hitters might be tempted to go for the green.

I had thought that Chandler Egan had added that tee in preparation for the famous 1929 U.S. Amateur, although James Colgan says it was part of the original Neville0Grant routing.   Oddly, neither of these pieces includes the actual 1929 photo, nor can I find it with a Google image search.

As long as I'd done the search, while we've had these photos before, this was the 17th green in 1929:

I don't have time to get into it now, but it would be hard to find a more significant event in golf history than that '29 Amateur, in which Bobby Jones shockingly loses in the first round of match play to the unknown Johnny Goodman.  (Goodman wasn't a hack, he later won a U.S. Open, but no one knew him in 1929 when he was only twenty), then filled in his free time with Cypress Point, Pasatiempo, MacKenzie and Marion Hollins.   Think I heard talk that Jones and MacKenzie collaborated on a golf course somewhere...

This doesn't seem to go anywhere useful, either:

6. The little-employed (but fun!) alternate tee on Pebble Beach’s 10th hole was put into play on Sunday. Put on your design cap and suggest another alternate tee you’d like to see added to a PGA Tour/major venue.

Sens: Have them hit from the grandstands on the 16th at the Waste Management Open. What could possibly go wrong?

Zak: I’m all in favor of Boss Level tee boxes. Let’s have the 1st tee at Riviera moved back even further and put that sucker on top of the clubhouse. Bombs away.

Colgan: Put a tee box on the other island on the 17th at Sawgrass. Then make ‘em row a boat from tee-to-green. Would be AWFUL for pace of play, but terrific content.

Bamberger: On 18 on Sunday at Augusta National: Play it as a drivable par-4, like 310, up the hill. Make a 2, win from the house. Too many winners come from the day’s last twosome anyhow. It would be a nod to 18 on the Old Course, Jones’s ANGC inspiration in the first place. Maybe Friday and Sunday up, Thursday and Saturday back. Tell the players ahead of time of the plan in year one. They’ll know forever more. Chances of this happening? Zero point zero.

Piastowski: Have any final-round leader pick their tee boxes and pins among five or so choices. Big driver? Fourteen drivable par-4s! Good putter? Put the pins in diabolical spots knowing that you can make ’em from anywhere. I will say Michael’s idea of 18 at Augusta as a drivable par-4 would be fantastic.

Funny that Mike would come up with that when recent news indicates that the Lords of Augusta are going the other direction, pushing the tees further back on a hole that already seems plenty tough.  

Desert Drama -  The actual golf tournament was the least interesting aspect to the week in the Kingdom, or at least it was until this:

Varner is on a short list of guys I like, including Joel Dahmen, Peter Malnati and the like, where the sad reality is that they're just not as good as I hope them to be.  

It was also one of those great golfy scenes at the end:

Judging the pace and line perfectly, Varner made what is surely the unlikeliest winning putt of his life to reach 13 under par, claim the title and the $1 million first prize. Bubba Watson, who ran
from the scorer’s hut to congratulate his close friend with a warm hug, was the unlucky victim of the new champion’s brilliance. But the two-time Masters winner has no need to berate himself. Like Varner, Watson finished birdie-eagle, posting a six-under 64 to seeming pull out an unlikely Sunday win. Really, he could do no more.

Typically, Watson was also effusive in his praise for Varner, the 31-year-old North Carolina native’s biggest win before this coming at the 2016 Australian PGA Championship. The pair had eaten every lunch and dinner together over the course of the week, as well as pairing up for a Tuesday practice round and the opening 36 holes.

“Harold is a dear friend of mine,” Watson said. “He's a guy I truly love. He’s a guy that I want to help. It took me five years to win my first [tournament]. So this is a guy that's just starting to play better and better each year. We see his name a little bit more. He's getting comfortable. This is the best field in the world this week, the highest points. For me to pull out the shots that I pulled out under pressure and then for him to do it, too? This is what you want. This is what golf's all about. I'm not mad at him for beating me. I'm happy for him. I applaud him. I cheer for him.”

Some great reaction shots from Varner.... How can you not be happy for the guy?

On the broader issues, what did we learn this week?  Let's see if that TC panel can make any sense of it:

1. This week, the Saudi International, sponsored by the group that is expected to back a proposed new Tour, was played, and let’s begin with the off-the-course news. On the eve of
the Saudi International, Phil Mickelson, in a scathing interview with Golf Digest’s John Huggan, ripped the PGA Tour’s media rights policy, saying the Tour’s “greed” is “beyond obnoxious.” Mickelson said: “It’s not public knowledge, all that goes on. But the players don’t have access to their own media. If the Tour wanted to end any threat [from rival leagues], they could just hand back the media rights to the players. But they would rather throw $25 million here and $40 million there than give back the roughly $20 billion in digital assets they control … There are many issues, but that is one of the biggest.” Fair point from Mickelson? And do you suppose he speaks for many of the top players?

Josh Sens: It wasn’t clear to me where Mickelson was getting the $20 billion figure from. But that aside, as someone who freelanced for more than 25 years, I would simply say, Welcome to life as an independent contractor. You don’t like the terms. Don’t sign the contract. (I would also say, I don’t know any other freelance gigs that come with such a sweet retirement package). I’m sure the media rights issue frustrates other top players, too. It’s hard to feel too sorry for any of them.

Sean Zak: I think Sens presents some very fair points! The term independent contractor cuts both ways, both in players’ favor when they’d like to skip an event and not in their favor when they don’t have a lot of control over the true value of their play. Phil’s surprising victory at the PGA has certainly proven to be monetarily valuable to him — and not just from the purse — so him doubling down now makes sense. Just feels a bit greedy himself.

James Colgan: Rights are generated by players, but the value of those rights is nothing without an apparatus advancing their brands, personalities and financial interests (as Phil seems to miss). If the Tour ‘handed back the rights’ to players, the onus would then fall upon those same players to negotiate the same media deal … and then they’d subsequently have to fund near-everything else that comes with it (social media, marketing, video, licensing, etc.) What Phil should have said is that the Tour needs to be more flexible with its constituents about the terms of its deals, and that it needs to do more work to meet players where they are. He missed the mark with his comments, and even if he (and many others) are very right in some parts of their criticism, ‘obnoxious greed’ wasn’t quite the right tune.

Nick Piastowski: It’s a fair point from Phil — why wouldn’t he seek more money for his brand? But James sums it quite well. (And you should read his weekly media piece, Hot Mic!) I would wonder about the fallout with the current Tour-wide deal when every player is negotiating their own and keeping the return. (Though, the content available for our site to report on would explode.) But, if what Phil is saying is true, there should be more flexibility as media evolves. If a player is operating a YouTube channel — i.e., Bryson — they should reap the rewards.

Michael Bamberger: Phil has all the best words. But a fact-checker is needed here.

Where did he get that $20 billion number?  From the same place he got all his other nonsense, from his need to show us how smart he is.  But he's now declared war on the third of the five families, so I'm thinking he and the Saudis deserve each other.

I'm open to a sober discussion of digital rights from just about anyone besides this guy....

2. More generally, what do you read into the pointedness of Mickelson’s remarks?

Sens: I don’t think it’s a secret that the Tour is out to squeeze every potential dollar out of its players and its products. But, as Mickelson showed before with his whining-from-the-yacht
complaints about taxes some years ago, he has a special knack for making his points in a uniquely tone-deaf way. That the comments came as he was collecting a paycheck in Saudi Arabia only sharpened the self-parody. I don’t believe he was there to attend a Bernie Sanders-led forum on wealth redistribution.

Zak: It feels like Phil is stepping up to the podium that so many other players seem afraid to do. In the all-talk battle between rumored startup leagues and the PGA Tour, no other players have actually derided the Tour. They have offered extremely soft arguments for changes. Phil has had enough of that, it seems. My popcorn is popping.

Colgan: Sure seemed to me like the kinda fight you picked with your teenage girlfriend so you had a reason to break up with her the next week. No?

Bamberger: Phil wanted to blow-up the PGA of America’s strangle-hold on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and he did. Now it’s player-driven. He wants to blow-up the balance-of-power on the PGA Tour away from its worker-bees in favor of its stars. He might be successful again. But he is of course long past his peak as a player. That doesn’t mean he can’t make more money in his 50s and 60s than he did in his 30s and 40.

Piastowski: I’ll say this: It’s better than the parade of comments of “I’m growing the game” and “I’m not a politician.” If he’s going to join the new league, he just laid out why in black and white — or green? — terms.

Remind me, who owns the Tour?  Isn't that kind of lost in the shuffle here.... It wouldn't be the first organization captures by those antithetical to the members' interests, but isn't this just a governance issue?  Shouldn't he really be angry with...well, himself?

Eamon Lynch can't resist the tip-in, and who can blame him?

It’s difficult to ascertain exactly which character trait—Hubris? Hypocrisy? Indecency?—
motivates someone to furiously demand the freedom to exercise his rights while being applauded by benefactors from a regime that dismembers its critics for doing just that. Or to pause his guzzling from the teat of Middle Eastern royalty only long enough to denounce the “obnoxious greed” of an organization that made him an enormous sum of money (which is not to presume he still has it).

For all the moments that have defined Phil Mickelson’s estimable career—the emotional first major victory at Augusta National, the improbable last one at Kiawah Island, even the fumbled finish at Winged Foot—it’s his intemperate comments in Saudi Arabia this week that risk defining his enduring reputation. At best, his words suggest that what he possesses in self-regard, he lacks in self-awareness. And at worst? That he’s a willing dissembler for a government bent on using golf to sportswash its human-rights depredations and war crimes.

Mickelson’s next moves will determine the extent to which one of the sport’s great legacies will be indelibly stained.

And this surprises you, why?  No, it doesn't surprise Eamon, he's just reminding folks:

Mickelson’s greatest liability is a burning need to be the smartest guy in the room, hence the provenance of his “Figjam” nickname. But the smartest guy in the room doesn’t get soaked for $500,000 by a mobbed-up Michigan bookie. The smartest guy in the room doesn’t have to repay the government more than $1 million in ill-gotten gains because he was winged in an insider-trading prosecution. Heck, the smartest guy in the room doesn’t even stoop to slapping a moving ball in competition then brazen it out by insisting (incorrectly) that it was a clever use of the rules.

Now the smartest guy in the room is cozying up to a repressive regime to gain “leverage”—a word he used repeatedly—over the PGA Tour to settle his personal grievances, which he shamelessly casts as a good faith bid to prevent rampant profiteering off the back of his fellow players.

Now Eamon, all good shots, but any chance I could get you interested in the fact that Phil doesn't like to actually pay of his gambling losses?  That remains for this observer the most interesting aspect of our Phil.

 Phil has, however, done the impossible.  He has me nodding my head at Brooks Koepka...

A couple more bits and then we'll get on with our days...

Tree In The Forest - I don't quite understand the media blackout, but this might be the most significant tournament of the week:

Inevitability finally gave way to reality for Leona Maguire of Ireland on Saturday, when she won the LPGA Drive On Championship for the first victory of her LPGA career and likely not her last.

Maguire, for whom professional stardom was expected following a remarkable college career at Duke, entered the final round at Crown Colony G&CC in Fort Myers, Fla., tied for the lead, then pulled away from the field on the back nine, leading by five at one point, before winning by three. It was not only her maiden victory, it was also the first LPGA victory by an Irish player.

“Relief is one of the big emotions right now.”

She posted a five-under par 67 to complete 54 holes in 18-under par 198. Lexi Thompson, who closed with a seven-under 65, finished second, while Sarah Schmelzel, with an eight-under 64, was third, the best finish of her brief career.

After Mike Whan's fetish about network coverage, it's passing strange to see an LPGA event with no TV coverage.  But, as she showed at the Solheim Cup, she's a monster talent and might even be good enough to challenge that Korda-Ko duopoly.

Bryson's Owie -  So, we had Bryson's WD last week, after his appearance fee check had presumably cleared.  the man himself tells us it's not how it seems:

“Everyone needs to chill. Yes I hurt myself but not from hitting it far. I slipped and fell this week on Tuesday unfortunately. I know people probably won’t believe me, but that is the truth. I will be back stronger and better than ever in a few weeks. Thank you for the hospitality @saudiintgolf. Thank you for your concerns and keep hitting bombs!! I will be back …”

Daniel Rappaport has some thoughts that are similar to your humble blogger's:

The irony hits you like a clubhead traveling at 135 miles per hour: While he is reportedly mulling a $135 million offer to front the Saudi-backed golf league, Bryson DeChambeau withdrew from
the Saudi International with multiple injuries. The two clauses could well be related. DeChambeau’s bulk-up has keyed his emergence as perhaps the biggest story in golf this side of Tiger Woods. It is the reason he’s been featured in made-for-TV matches, the reason his list of sponsors stretches a full paragraph, the reason he perturbed so many Winged Foot members, the reason an upstart golf league would target him as a potential needle-mover. It also could be the reason he couldn’t hold onto the club at the Farmers Insurance Open, the reason he limped onto a private jet in the Saudi desert after shooting three-over 73 last Thursday.

On Saturday, DeChambeau took to Instagram to say the injury was the result of an early week fall, not anything to do with his training. It is, however, curious that last month he also withdrew from the Sony Open in Hawaii before the tournament started and looked visibly hobbled at the Farmers before missing the cut by a shot. He cited his wrist as the problem at Sony, but he also seemed to be grabbing at his back at Torrey Pines. And as Woods often reminds us, the body is connected in a kinetic chain. It can only handle so much force. Just ask Tiger. Or Jason Day. We don’t know if this is that moment for DeChambeau, but we also don’t know for sure that this isn’t that moment.

“It’s almost like an experiment, because you don’t know how the body will react,” says Dr. Ara Suppiah, founder of the Functional Sports Medicine Institute and a Golf Digest contributor. “You do all the calculations, and you make all the assumptions about where you want to go, what swing you want to create. He thought about it the right way in terms of nutrition and training and working at overspeed and building strength. But this is the nature of testing the boundaries. Sometimes when you want to push the boundaries, the boundaries will push back.”

We've seen a series of stress injuries from the guys that have bulked up, so color me skeptical.  Of course, since he refuses to speak to the media, it's a bit hard to ask him about it.  

Why does Jay enable him by allowing him to stiff the media, which to me is a core obligation of the job?  Well, have you heard about these competitive leagues?  These guys make me root for the Saudis...

Have a great week.  I seem to be back to a M-W-F schedule, which works in the early days of the year.  We'll pick up the pace when we're into the glide path into Augusta, but this seems good for now.

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, February 4, 2022

Late Week Lamentations

Am I the only one that sees the parallels between the Canadian truckers convoy and the brave freedom fighters currently manning the barricades in <checks notes> Jeddah?  remember, you have only your chains to lose.

Scenes From The Class Struggle - It's a battle for the means of production, though the application of such terms to golf amuses your humble blogger.  But Phil wants Rosa Parks to hold his beer, as per his remarks from Wahabi Central:

Mickelson, speaking with Golf Digest at the Saudi International, where he is receiving a seven-figure appearance fee, said the PGA Tour’s ownership of media rights, among other issues, has him looking elsewhere.

“It’s not public knowledge, all that goes on,” Mickelson told Golf Digest. “But the players don’t have access to their own media. If the tour wanted to end any threat, they could just hand back the media rights to the players.

“But they would rather throw $25 million here and $40 million there than give back the roughly $20 billion in digital assets they control. Or give up access to the $50-plus million they make every year on their own media channel.

OK, there's a lot to unpack here, though we might as well start with the fact that Phil is trashing the member-owned PGA Tour.  There's no shortage of organizations that have been captured and no longer serve the interest of its members or owners, but seems like a governance issue to me.

The first question that needs to be asked is, WTF?   We've been bandying this about for some time now, and this is the first I've heard Phil or anyone raise this issue.  But see what you think of this specific case that he cites:

There are other examples of what Mickelson clearly sees as golf’s equivalent of “intellectual property.” During the 2010 Masters, he famously hit a shot from the pine straw to the 13th green at Augusta National. Later, someone wanted to use seven seconds of that clip. They had to pay $30,000 per second every time it aired. The total cost was $3.5 million, which was three times what Mickelson earned for winning the tournament.

I'd love to know whether those numbers are real, because my BS meter is in the red zone.  But this is his cherry-picked claim to document the "obnoxious greed" of the PGA Tour, and one assumes he logically picked his strongest claim, though there's this itty bitty little issue that Phil elides:

(Editor's Note: Although the Masters counts as an official PGA Tour event, the event and its media are not owned by the PGA Tour.)

As far as I understand the issue (and I haven't found anyone actually addressing this subject), organizations that stage professional golf tournaments retain the rights to the broadcasts thereof, and that seems to this observer about as controversial as Friday following Thursday.  If Phil were uncomfortable with said arrangements, he wasn't legally require to play in the events.

His second substantive complaint is this:

“There are many issues, but that is one of the biggest. For me personally, it’s not enough that they are sitting on hundreds of millions of digital moments. They also have access to my shots; access I do not have. They also charge companies to use shots I have hit. And when I did ‘The Match’ – there are have been five of them – the Tour forced me to pay them $1 million each time. For my own media rights.

“That type of greed is, to me, beyond obnoxious.”

What jumps out at the sentient reader is the claim that he personally paid the Tour $1 million large for each installment of The Match, and I'll require copies of cancelled checks from his joint account with Amy before I believe a word of that.  This is actually a complicated subject, and the most I can find is this little bit of background from Geoff:

It is well known that the organizers of such silly season events pay a fee to cover everything that comes with official Tour sanctioning of the event and support services like rules, scoring and promotion.

It's far more complicated than that, as they required Tour approval to host the events, most famously when the Tour insisted that the winner-take-all purse from the first dreadful installment be reduced from $10 to $9 million, presumably to not cast an unfavorable light on the FedEx Cup payout.

This is, to me, the most interesting aspect of the relationship of Tour to its members, along with the waivers required to play elsewhere.  It has quite the whiff of restraint of trade, though it's equally true that there's a case to be made that it protects the Tour and its events, which forms the consideration paid for the waiver of rights.  It seems obvious, but also perhaps helpful, to remind that membership in the PGA Tour is optional.

So, what do we think of Phil's jihad?  Since at least 2014, your humble blogger has noticed and blogged Phil's transactional relationship with the truth, and this is hardly the first of the five families with whom Phil has feuded.  But the operative issue seems to be nothing more than Phil wants to get paid.  And, lucky for him, there's a party that seems willing to pay any price, bear any burden to have Phil on board, so this seems a marriage made in heaven:

Yup, those two guys are so very deserving of each other.  I just hope that The Shark is sporting the Kevlar, because that hand Phil has concealed behind his body is assumed to hold a shiv.  Just ask Tom Watson.

Before we get to the reactions, Phil said one more highly curious thing.  Strike that, Phil said two more curious things, beginning with this one:

“Why hasn’t golf had cameras and microphones on players and caddies?” he asked. “Because the player would not benefit, only the tour [so players resist wearing them]. Take this Netflix project that is underway. None of the players are getting paid. But the tour is getting paid a lot of money. As is Augusta National. As is the USGA. But if the players had their own channel, maybe they put up their own content and we start to see golf presented a bit more intimately.

“If I had access to my own channel and access to my own media, I would have a camera and microphone on my hat,” he went on. “And on my [caddie] brother’s hat. And on my golf bag with a 360 view. And I would bring the viewers in. They would see and hear what is going on. But none of that happens [currently] because why would any player do that? To make more millions for the tour? They already make enough. The tour only understands leverage. And now the players are getting some of that. So things are changing and will continue to change. I just hope the leverage doesn’t go away. If it does, we’ll be back to the status quo.”

And that would be the tour that's owned by its players.  Sounds like Phil has a governance issue, though he's not the kind that would deal with that through the obvious channels.  

But should the players be directly compensated by Netflix?  I don't know, but they've seemingly gotten everyone they wanted to participate without direct payments?  When it suits his purposes, Phil is happy to elide that portion of reality that undermines his case.  But the institutional arrangements in golf allow players to monetize their own brand (NIL, if you prefer) to a far greater degree than in other sports, which explains why they typically limit their arguments to on-field earnings.

A wide range of words come out of the man's mouth, but all I hear is "Me! Me! Me!." But Phil has been promiscuous in his use of the L-word, but doesn't this just undermine his leverage:

The resolutions to those issues, as of right now, remain unknown. But one thing can now be revealed. Should Mickelson end the most frustrating aspect of his storied career, put those infamous six runners-up finishes behind him and finally win a U.S. Open, he will call an immediate halt to his playing days.

“If I win the U.S. Open, I will retire,” he told Golf Digest in an interview on Wednesday. “That would be my last tournament. I will have achieved the career Grand Slam and I won’t have anything more to prove.”

Then why should the Saudis pay you $30 million large?  Oh yeah, because we all know you're not going to win that U.S. Open....

Shack's Quadrilateral post is paywalled, so no need to click, but in the tease he helpfully proposes contractual language to cover this contingency:

If you, Phil Mickelson, should win the United States Open and retire, you will refund the money we paid you or end up chopped to pieces and incinerated, never to be traced again.

Anyone understand that reference?  Because Greg Norman reliably informed me that Saudi Arabia has made great progress, and he would lie to us, would he? 

So, reactions?  Is Phil underpaid?  It will always be a matter of opinion, but you'll quickly see why he keeps the conversation on those on-course winnings:

For context, Mickelson, 51, has earned over $95M on course during his Tour career. And according to Forbes, Mickelson’s career money earned from sponsorships and other off-course endeavors to be around $750 million.

Tip of the iceberg, right?  But I've had to turn off that BS detector because the constant buzzing is annoying:

“I’m not sure how this is going to play out,” Mickelson said. “My ultimate loyalty is to the game of golf and what it has given me. I am so appreciative of the life it has provided. I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know where things are headed. But I know I will be criticized. That’s not my concern.

“All that would do is dumb down one of the most intricate issues in sports. It would be so naive to not factor in all of the complexities. The media rights are but a small fraction of everything else. And it is the Tour’s obnoxious greed that has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere.”

Which translated into the original English comes out as, "Nice little tour you have there.  Sure would be a shame if something happened to it."

I'll end this segment with a reaction from the blonde-American community:


Brooksie, it's called projection.

I'll just leave you with this header from Mike Purkey at SI's Morning read:

Grace left town a long time ago, if it was ever in residence. 

In Other Saudi News - I told you this week would be lit.  I'm waiting for Patrick Reed to stick his nose into it, but Derek Lawrenson broke this alleged news:

Bryson DeChambeau has been offered a staggering £100million to be the face of the Saudi golf revolution , Sportsmail can reveal.

The news comes on the day that all players offered tens of millions to join the proposed Saudi Golf League (SGL) were made to sign non-disclosure agreements, indicating perhaps that an announcement is close as to when the global tour is to be launched.

Any golfer who does join could face a lifetime ban from the PGA and DP World Tours.

Interesting because, of all the players most frequently tied to offers from the Saudis, Bryson is the only one plausibly at the peak of his career (although his play since Winged Foot would be of concern to your humble blogger).  All of the others, Phil, Stenson, Westwood and Poulter, are just a wee bit long in the tooth.   But, like me, you've undoubtedly played America's favorite parlor game, If Poulter is worth $20 million, what is Jon Rahm or Patrick Cantlay worth?

Of course, the subject of that story has offered an elegant rebuttal:

What, it was more?

Bryson has been known to believe that cameramen are obligated to protect his brand, whereas he himself is not:

DeChambeau declined to speak to the media following his first round at the Saudi International, but on his official Instagram account he replied to the report as "wrong."

I assume his $135 million contract will include a clause that relieves him of the obligation to ever speak to the media, so win-win, baby!

Of course, he's making a great impression over there, pocketing an appearance fee and...

Bryson DeChambeau WDs from Saudi International with hand and hip injuries

One can only assume the wrist injury was a result of endorsing that appearance fee check.... Obviously he was already hurting, but flew to Saudi to make bank and phone it in.  What a great group of guys.

I'll leave you with a couple of Golf.com items to sort through at your discretion.  Zephyr Melton tries to group players on a spectrum of interest, though it breaks down rather quickly:

Seemingly interested

Phil Mickelson (world rank: 38)

Has he played in Saudi Arabia? Yes — in 2020, 2021, 2022.

What he’s said: “I don’t know where things are headed, but I know I will be criticized … That’s not my concern. All that would do is dumb down one of the most intricate issues in sports. It would be so naive to not factor in all of the complexities. The media rights are but a small fraction of everything else. And it is the Tour’s obnoxious greed that has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere.”

Is he interested? Mickelson went scorched-earth on the PGA Tour as he aired his grievances to Golf Digest in an exclusive interview this week. It seems that after three-plus decades on Tour, he’s open to the possibility of teeing it up elsewhere.

Dustin Johnson (world rank: 5)

Has he played in Saudi Arabia? Yes — in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

What he’s said: “I think it’s a really good concept. I think it makes it a little more interesting for the fans and for the players. Yeah, I like the concept.”

Is he interested? Based on these comments, it’s safe to say the two-time Saudi International winner would be open to the idea of playing in a super league if given the opportunity.

For Phil it's Festivus, a time to air a full career's worth of grievances and s**t on pretty much every one of the five families.  DJ, on the other hand, sees people that want write him big checks and finds that "interesting", and I find it hard to blame him.

If you're going to go this route, the blindingly obvious point is that those most interested in blowing up the existing arrangements are mostly at the tail end of their careers with the least to lose.

Also strange is that Rory is characterized as "Seemingly Not Interested", whereas he's directly said that he doesn't like the source of the money, so "seemingly" seems rather timid, no?

Dylan Dethier seems to think his readers are incapable of understanding the issues involved, and offers this helpful guide:

The Saudi golf league isn’t going away — so here are your options

I wasn't even aware that I needed options.... But he's got a Chines menu for us?  

1. Moral High-Grounder

Standard-bearers: Brandel Chamblee, Rory McIlroy

Your take: Look, it’s one thing to play tournament golf in a country with a problematic government. But it’s morally reprehensible to take tens of millions of dollars from a government with a noted history of human rights abuses when you’re being specifically paid to improve that government’s image to the world. And as a consumer, you won’t support that sort of behavior by watching a Saudi-funded tour no matter the participants.

Endorsement (from Rory McIlroy): “People can see [the Saudi-backed tour] for what it is, a money grab, which is fine if what you’re playing golf for is to make as much money as possible. Totally fine, then go and do that if that’s what makes you happy.”

Phrases to deploy: “Right side of history,” “Don’t like where the money’s coming from,” “Philosophical, moral, ethical issues.”

Dylan has some amusing bits and his characterization of DJ as an "Intrigued skeptic" seems far more accurate than Zephyr's take above, but I can't help but feel there's a big disconnect involved here, and it's hard not to blame to golfing press.

To me, the Super Golf League's underlying vision for the sport is God-awful but, while players such as Rory and Brooks have made some actual arguments along this line, this very important point seems underdiscussed.  Their vision comes with some bells and whistles (and lots of zeros), but how does it fundamentally differ from the WGCs?  And is there anything about those WGCs that you think should be repeated?

Here's a piece from back when golf was shutting down in 2020 that at least puts the arguments in print:

“I am out of the PGL. I’m going with the PGA Tour,” Koepka told The Associated Press. “I have a hard time believing golf should be about just 48 players.”

Rory McIlroy, who replaced Koepka at No. 1 in the world a month ago, said last month in Mexico City that he was not interested in the new league. He said he valued his freedom to decide when and where to play instead of the proposed schedule of 18 tournaments, not including the majors.

The players are human and who doesn't feel they're underpaid or underappreciated?  I get all that, I just don't think their Brave New World is appealing at all.  And when their vision leads them to believe that Phil or Poults or Westy are key players in the game, this just isn't for me.  

Are those that run the Tour equally clueless?  Of course, that's what makes this such a great food fight.  Do I love the Tour's mind-numbing schedule?  Do I like the PIP program?  Do I think the only thing important in golf right now are the Points Bet odds?  Those questions answer themselves, but there is comfort in the devil we know...

Context - I'd like to leave you with something that's theoretically unrelated to golf.  Except that, of course it isn't.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took it upon herself to offer the following words of advice to U.S. Olympic athletes:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned U.S. Olympic athletes on Thursday against protesting China’s human rights abuses while at the Beijing games, noting the high risk of retaliation from the regime.

“Make no mistake — our athletes should participate,” Pelosi said before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. “They’ve trained, they’re disciplined, they’ve dreamed, they’ve aspired, they’ve worked hard. But this year we must celebrate them from home as they compete in China.”

Her comments were first reported by the Washington Examiner.

“I would say to our athletes: You’re there to compete. Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless,” she added. “I know there is a temptation on the part of some to speak out while they are there. I respect that, but I also worry about what the Chinese government might do to their reputations and to their families.”

To their families?   The golf world has its knickers in a twist over the Saudis, but is in bed with a genocidal regime that slaughters its own citizens and has Nancy worried about the families of anyone critical of said genocidal regime.

I'm also old enough to remember when golf's future was in peril unless it jumped into bed the the same IOC that has taken two Olympics to Beijing.  Quite the world we live in, but our outrage seems very much of the selective variety.

Have a great weekend and I'm quite certain we'll have more juicy bits on Monday.  not to mention some actual golf, so don't be a stranger.

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Midweek Musings - Saudi Greens Edition

 Well, not only are they pegging it as Saudi Greens, but Saudi green is the dominant subject of the week.

The Little Asian Tour Event That Could - We have quite the commentator cage match for you, leading with a man I've occasionally called the conscience of our game.  Though he seems a tad more crdelous than I think advisable, especially considering the source:

At Saudi International, Greg Norman advocates once again for a global game of traveling international stars

Just out of the goodness of his heart, I'm quite sure...  Though, what would you guess is the over-under for "Grow the game" references?

The subject, really, when you get right down to it, was Norman’s ambitions for a golf tour without borders, though he wasn’t saying that.

From his opening remarks, Norman sounded that theme. “My responsibility as the best player in the world was to grow the game of golf as much as I could possibly grow it,” he said early in the press conference, being held in advance of the Saudi International, a golf tournament featuring Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele and other familiar names.

“And to do that, you had to be eyes wide open and ears wide open to see what was going on around the world,” said Norman, the CEO of a new company formed last year called LIV Golf Investments.

That explains way too much of his career... As just one example, his 18th hole bogey at Augusta in 1986 certainly provided an indelible memory for golf fans around the world, so perhaps I've misjudged the man.

The actual news conveyed was pretty minimal, including these steps:

The news of the news conference was that the Saudi-backed investment fund that funds LIV Golf is increasing its annual investment in a series of 10 Asian Tour events from $200 million to $300 million. Those events, called the International Series, will be played in Thailand, England, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, China, Singapore and Hong Kong, LIV Golf said in a press conference.

And that, Norman said, was just the start. “The International Series is not going to be geofenced,” Norman said.

Geofenced?  That's a new one to your humble blogger but, as per Alistair Tait, they have plans to set up shop in Keith Pelley's back yard:

Seems Saudi company Aramco is to stage an Asian Tour event in June at the Centurion Club, near St Albans, just north of London. Talk about close to home, it’s just 31 miles from Pelley’s office in Virginia Water to the Centurion Club. The Canadian should have that trip plugged into his car’s Satnav system: The Tour staged the 2017 and 2018 GolfSixes at Centurion.

Aramco appears set to run back-to-back men’s and women’s events at the course between St Albans and Hemel Hempstead. The $1 million Aramco Series London tournament on the Ladies European Tour is set for June 16-18, one of four Aramco sponsored tournaments on the LET along with Sotogrande, New York and Jeddah. The men’s tournament is pencilled into the week previous to the London date, clashing with the $1 million Scandinavian Mixed hosted by Henrik & Annika, a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and LET.

That'll be deliciously awkward, though I might argue that this week's one-upmanship is the more damaging.  Because....

The strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and European Tour, along with the latter forming
recent partnerships with the Australasian and Sunshine Tours, was supposed to see off the Saudi threat. The Saudis obviously aren’t going away. That much is obvious this week with the appearance money being paid to the likes of defending champion Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Shane Lowry, Paul Casey, Tyrrell Hatton, Kevin Na, Tommy Fleetwood, Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Jason Dufner and others to play in Jeddah.

Human rights? Sports washing? The above obviously don’t care. They’re voting with their wallets, not their consciences.

To add insult to injury, this week’s Saudi International is up against the inaugural Ras al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital on the DP World Tour. The $2 million event features Danny Willett, Bernd Wisberger, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Angel Jiménez, but it can’t compete with the star-studded $5 million Saudi International field, and its estimated of $20 million appearance fee fund.

 If my math is correct, they're being outspent $25 million to $2 million, so that'll get one's attention.

Back to Mikey Bams:

Norman, for years, has said that American golf fans do not have a real understanding of the vast appeal of the game’s most international stars, including Seve Ballesteros of Spain, Laura Davies of England and himself.

“Why do international players have to go to one location to increase their opportunity for success?” Norman said. “Why aren’t there multiple different places for the international player to be able to go to?

“And why isn’t the opportunity for maybe an American player to spread his wings and come and play on the International Series that is not geofenced and learn different cultures and different places and different corporations. … That’s part of growing up.”

A good question, but one with quite the simple answer.  No event has been able to maintain sufficient sponsors' commitments without U.S. television ratings.  

Anyone remember when they started taking WGSs overseas?  Anyone remember that riveting match-play from Royal Melbourne that nobody bother to go to?  Yeah, those international players all live in Jupiter as well...

Geoff has a long post at the Quad that's paywalled, though his header does have me instinctively nodding:

Then just when you think we've inevitably reached peak stupidity, comes this story:

Ian Poulter is being courted by the Super Golf League with the Saudi Arabians looking to sign up a quorum of big names for their breakaway circuit as soon as possible.

It is understood that Poulter has been offered between $20 million and $30m up front and like his good friend Henrik Stenson now has a decision to make. A life-changing sum of money or the Ryder Cup?

It is a question that would obviously weigh heavily on the deliberations of one of Europe’s greatest and most passionate team players.

The Englishman has expressed his desire to appear one more time in the blue and gold and has been considered a shoo-in as a future captain, perhaps for New York in 2025.

Geez, both putative captains for Bethpage are seemingly prepared to sell their birthrights for thirty pieces of silver....  A game for gentlemen, indeed!  And we again are faced with this seeming focus on has-beens (really, in the case of Poults, never-weres), added to Phil, Stenson and others.  Is this because those are the only names Saudis are familiar with, or is it that only at the end of ones' career would such an offer be entertained?

 This is the Sword of Damocles bit:

Yet he has been left in no doubt that should he take the Saudi dollar then he will face a lifetime ban from both the PGA and European Tours and, barring a u-turn in official policy, would be waving goodbye to the biennial dust-up which has essentially defined his career.

A family man, Poulter could well deem that sacrifice to be worth it for financial security. However, he will have seen the quandary Stenson is in and understood the difficulty of the choice.

Goeff has a muddle paragraph that touches on a fairly important point:

But we also know the sport is better off with a healthy professional game that gives back and inspires people. Yet in Norman’s LIV Golf world of trying to sell a new Saudi Arabia-backed golf entity, he’s rescuing touring pros from anti-competitive restrictions placed on them by stupid things like economic models. Free them with money from people who have no model other than to make you forget how awful they are, and voila, we have trickle down golf economics. At least in Norman’s world. Some of the time.

We blog golf ratings from time-to-time, and Geoff just happens to have another such item up right now:

It would have been a disaster had someone tried to compete against the NFL’s AFC and NFC Championship games given this year’s massive numbers and the almost non-existent numbers for sports going against the football.

Showbuzzdaily has all the Nielsen numbers, starting with those eye-popping NFL numbers: 23.35/50.2 million for the NFC title game on Fox featuring the Rams victory over the 49ers, and a 23.62/47.8 million average for CBS’s broadcast of the Bengal’s win over the Chiefs.

The 2022 Farmers final round wrapping on Saturday drew a 1.71 Nielsen rating with a 2.67 million viewer average.

Friday’s third round on CBS drew a .95/1.4 million average viewership.

The Masters in April was credited with 9.45 million viewers for the final round, and that's a pretty hard cap for golf (just ask the bozos at the USGA).  You don't have to be Hayek to understand that these economics make no sense, though Mike Bamberger seems to believe that this is all about Greg Norman's vision....

Ewan Murray of The Guardian tries to sort through the implications of the coming Ryder Cup stand-off, though I found this bit interesting as well:

Two discussions with high-profile players at last week’s Dubai Desert Classic resonated. One was adamant that, as a businessman, he is fully entitled to exert maximum value for professional services and provide for his family accordingly. When I pointed out the public perception that sportsmen of his standing already have sufficient wealth, the response was that nobody would choose to downscale their way of life if there was an alternative. I actually admired his candour.

Player two stated a belief that Saudi’s staging of golf tournaments increases focus on the kingdom and, in turn, should force them to improve upon behaviour and policies. Simply shutting a country off, under this theory, serves no actual purpose. Nonetheless, this notion of a force for good is contradicted by the unwillingness of golfers so far to speak out on Saudi’s hitherto appalling human rights record when in this very domain. While afforded a captive audience, golfers instead shuffle uncomfortably and trot out the wholly unsatisfactory line that they are “not politicians”. They are also being paid to front up the “new” Saudi Arabia. Altruism this is not.

That last bit sounds exactly like LeBron James justifying his jihad against the Houston Rockets GM that had the temerity to express support for the people of Hong Kong.  This response from Jim Gerahty always seemed spot on:

We’re Not Exporting Our Values to China — We’re Importing Theirs

 Pretty much.

But Murray is worried about the Ryder Cup threats:

Logically, the Saudis have pursued deals with individuals at the latter stages of their careers for whom a guaranteed payday of tens of millions of dollars triggers the rubbing of hands. Younger golfers are also known to be interested. Should, for argument’s sake, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood be tempted by this promised land then their future involvement in the Ryder Cup either as captains or players becomes almost impossible to square. The debate in this case would be a furious one; is it fair for players to effectively turn their backs on an event that has done so much for their profile, or would administrators on either side of the Atlantic be wrong to ostracise them? Even in the short-term, if Europe cannot or will not appoint Stenson as the captain for 2023 in Rome because of Saudi links then their Ryder Cup environment is undermined. And that, whatever the rights and wrongs, is a key issue.

And, it seems, at a time when they're least resilient.   Top tier Euro players have always been required to exert a significant effort to maintain Tour status, but what is the message to young talent if Stenson and Poults are banished for cashing a Saudi check?  

Mutual Assured Destruction is the term that pops into mind, but I can't imagine that Keith Pelley sleeps comfortably these days.

Lydia In Full - I dissed Lydia in not blogging her Sunday win.  Dylan Dethier had some thoughts in his Monday Finish column, so let's allow him to cover my laziness:

Lydia Ko’s latest chapter

It remains hard to fathom, but Lydia Ko — winner of this week’s Gainbridge LPGA — is still just 24. That’s difficult to comprehend because she became world No. 1 at just 17, which means
she has already played a lengthy professional career, but it’s also hard because that career has had so many chapters. Early success. Then some struggles. Caddie changes, coaching changes, team changes. And now, with 17 wins under her belt, Ko has validated her comeback tour and cemented herself among the top pros in the world. Since the beginning of 2021, Ko has made 24 starts, missing just one cut while logging 16 top-10s, nine top-threes and three victories. She’s solidly at No. 3 in the world behind the dueling duo of Jin Young Ko (back at No. 1 after this week) and Nelly Korda.

This bit was cute as well:

On Sunday, Ko held off Danielle Kang with a clutch up-and-down from a greenside bunker at No. 18. Post-round she reminded everyone that you can’t try to be a past version of yourself; neither life nor golf works that way. And she summed up her feelings succinctly:

“Three words: Excited, cocktail, sleep,” she said. “I’m a little — I could do with sleep right now, thank you. I had a cocktail. That’s why I said cocktail. I feel like my cheeks are getting red, too.”

Well earned.

Hard to imagine Lydia with an adult beverage, mostly because some of us have frozen her in our minds as a teenager.

I'm a bit surprised to find her at No. 3, because I don't really think she's the third best player in the world.  She can compete and rack up a bunch of top-tens, but I'm unclear on why Dylan thinks she's won three times since the start of 2021, whereas Wikipedia has her at two:

The bigger issue is that all of her wins since that 2016 ANA Chevron have been second or third tier events.  

If she's number three, there's quite the gap between Lydia and those top two, who were not in the field last weekend.

Pebble In Full - Will Jay show on the Monterrey Peninsula?  Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in any conversations between Jay and those nice folks at AT&T?  Obviously some external factors are involved, but being a Tour sponsor has long seemed akin to being a battered spouse...  Regardless of the abuse, they seem to always go back...

So, remember last week when we poked fun at their announcement of the field?  Yeah, given that they were pumped up over Maverick McNealy, I was surprised in revisiting that post that they failed to cite this guy:

2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am odds: Will Zalatoris among betting favorites this week

You know what's coming:

Will Zalatoris withdraws from AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after testing positive for COVID-19

As long as they don't lose any of their truly marquee players, yanno, someone like Ray Romano. 

There's also something very funny going on, which only Geoff seems to have noticed:

With Level 4 State Department status (“Do Not Travel”) you’d think going to Club de Golf de Panama might be low on the list of Korn Ferry Tour members. But every dollar counts when you’re trying to secure a PGA Tour card and money made at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am doesn’t mean a thing toward your season long effort so, not surprisingly, players are opting to take on the double whammy of crime and COVID over the Monterey Peninsula.

In that sense, this is a win for the KFT structure and speaks to the player determination to get their card. But passing up what was once a signature Tour event where the prominent and powerful gather is also quite surreal to see. Some good news: the worst crime areas cited by the Department of State are a decent distance from the KFT’s Panama Championship. They’ve got that going for them.

The AT&T has seen its field depleted by all the waivers granted to play the Saudi’s PIFSIPSIA stop on the Asian Tour. So with three courses and pro-am slots needing a pro, the opportunity exists to play Pebble Beach, Spyglass and MPCC like never before. Yet it appears the AT&T is headed toward a Charlie Beljan late-add at this pace. And some lucky big spender is guaranteed to get Grayson Murray for three rounds. Enjoy that!

A high finish on the main tour doesn't help in the Corn Fairy points race?  That seems wrong, no?  This bit of struggling to fill fields in Tour events is a new but repetitive phenomenon, no? 

Charlie, Where Have You Gone? - I find it hard not to like Charlie Rymer, who has penned a fun rant for the folks in Myrtle Beach.  He specifically calls out two aspects of Tour life, first the schedule:

But here’s the deal. I don’t cover the PGA TOUR anymore, so I can tell the truth and still keep
my job. I don’t have to sit in meetings where I’m told what I can and can’t say on broadcasts. By the way, most of it wasn’t a big deal and I didn’t have issues with it. But the fact that golf coverage now has zero editorial independence is a pretty big deal. For the fans, it makes the product more dull than it would be otherwise. And for the PGA TOUR, it allows them to control the messaging. And the argument is that it’s good for business. And maybe it is, up to a point.

I remember the days when the PGA TOUR began in Hawaii the first full week of every year. I was with ESPN and the Tournament of Champions was where the season started. We would interrupt programming to cover the opening shot at Kapalua and celebrate that golf has begun. Golfers were snowed in across most of the mainland and tuning in to see the PGA TOUR start its season on Maui at a balmy 82 degrees was an annual tradition.

It was special, and there was a sense that everyone was watching. Now, it’s just a mid-season event.

If you don’t know, this past year the 2021-2022 PGA TOUR season started in September, the week before the Ryder Cup. Yeah, that’s right. And I’m pretty sure ESPN didn’t interrupt programming to cover the first shot of opening day on the PGA TOUR live from Silverado in Napa (a very nice place, by the way).

So what’s the answer? Fall events on the PGA TOUR are very important … to the players. If I was still playing I’d bust my hump to get off to a great start. It can set up the whole season. But the numbers show that these events aren’t important at all to the fans. More folks watch mushy love stories on the Hallmark Channel or Emeril’s chicken air fryer commercials than fall events on the PGA TOUR.

So why force it? Let golf rest. Have the events and put them on pay-per-view or a streaming service for the friends, family, and hardcore fans who want to watch. Give the sponsors a break. Let announcers give real opinions like this that can lead to larger discussions, and maybe a creative solution will present itself. But in the meantime, the PGA TOUR (at least for me) starts in January in Hawaii.

I like the guy, but not because of his internal consistency... But the reason I like it is because he's correct on one point, that the wraparound scheduled has reduced the importance of and interest in the January portion of the schedule.  Just another set of sponsors screwed by Ponte Vedra Beach....

But his point about the events being important to the players is also worth noting, though perhaps he's forgetting how things used to be.  Back in the day, the so-called Fall Finish was not for the top level players, it was for that next tier to enhance their status.  I've long thought that a better model for fall golf, though that was before  Ian Poulter was worth $20 million large.  There is exactly zero chance that Jay Monahan would leave such a void for the bonecutters to exploit.

Charlie's second rant takes dead aim at the only party wasting more money than the Saudis:

FedEx. It’s a great company that has a wonderful relationship with the PGA TOUR. They obviously don’t have the relationship with the TOUR just because they think the executives are their friends. Hell, they might very well be great friends.

FedEx has the relationship with the PGA TOUR because it’s a good business decision for them. Somewhere in Memphis, a bean counter does all the fancy math counting up “impressions” and distributing the beans across silos and gives the deal a thumbs up. Because of that (and if you haven’t noticed), there’s a season-long bonus pool where PGA TOUR players get astronomical bonuses for their finish on the final list. They have this thing called the FedEx Cup Playoffs that end the season, and somebody gets $15 million and a really cool trophy. I’m pretty sure the winner doesn’t care about the trophy.

Players finishing all the way to 125 on the list get nice bonuses, too. Great for the players. Great for FedEx. Great for the PGA TOUR execs who put the deal together.

Problem is, the event has an awkward format that has evolved over the years and every few years has to get reinvented. When it was first announced by former commissioner Tim Finchem at a press conference in Atlanta, he indicated that the PGA TOUR has the deal and will now get to work figuring out the format. Fifteen years later, they’re still figuring.

The latest version involves a staggered start to the Playoffs’ final event, where the leader begins TOUR Championship Week at 10-under and the chasers start farther back based on their standing entering the finals. For the most part, it’s actually worked and has certainly produced drama.

But imagine the challenge if you’re in charge of selling the latest iteration to golf fans, and the manner in which you tell that story is dictated to you. For example, the race is based totally on FedEx Cup points. Most PGA TOUR events award the winner 500 FedEx Cup points. Bigger events get more points. Other points are awarded based on your finish in the event. Therefore, the better you play and the more events you win during the season, the more points you earn.

At the end of the year, you exchange those points for dollars. It’s sorta like playing Skee-Ball at the arcade. Win enough tickets and you go home with the giant stuffed heffalump.

Here’s the problem. FedEx Cup points mean nothing to golf fans. Dollars mean everything to golf fans. Dollars are relatable. What’s more dramatic: “This putt is worth 1.2 million dollars!!!” or “This putt is worth 219 FedEx Cup points”?

Let’s put this another way. I’m a big fan of Jersey Mike’s Subs. They make an awesome Italian sub. I have no idea how many subs I can buy with a single FedEx Cup point. I know exactly how many dollars I need to buy the #13 with chips and a drink.

Announcers want to cover the game in ways that are relatable to the fans. These days, in so many ways, that’s just not possible – and at some point, there will be a price to pay.

If you never hear from me again, you’ll know what happened. I hope there isn’t a dungeon under the new Global Home. But if there is, I’ll be playing cards and telling stories with Peter Kostis and Gary McCord.

I know, these excerpts are way too long.... But are you familiar with this famous Blaise Pascal thought:

“I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter. I didn’t have time to write you a short one.”

Makes sense, eh?

My favorite part of Charlie's ramblers is that bit about the beancounter in Memphis.  I'm sure such an accounting does exist, but I'm equally sure it's nonsense and I always wonder why there isn't more push-back from shareholders.  For instance, I found this on FedEx's current ten-year deal with the Tour:

Although the financial terms of the agreement, which runs until 2027, were not released, the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper reports that FedEx will be paying US$650 million to the PGA Tour over the decade-long deal. In addition, the PGA Tour confirmed that FedEx will commit an annual donation of US$1 million to selected non-profit organisations.

Do we think the various benefits FedEx derives, including those "impressions", adds $650 million to FedEx's bottom line?  Well, give it some thought when you stop laughing.... I mean, if you stop laughing.

But, yeah, $650 million, and we can't even come up with a format that can be explained without eye rolls.  

I'll leave you to your busy lives, and we'll have more fun as the week progresses.

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)