Weekend Wrap

It's a sad time in our game.... No, I can live with the Brendan Steele news, it's leaving those great iconic venues of California for, checking notes, The Bear Trap that has me down....

Never Wrong, Occasionally Early - As I've fessed  previously, I started the 2022 season curious as to whether Jon Rahm could separate himself from the pack.  The answer at that time was a resounding "No", but the question seems a bit more relevant in the current moment.  Of course, this reference goes right over my head, as well as that of my readers:

There are a series of numbers that begin to explain Jon Rahm’s recent run of golfing brilliance. We’ll get to some of those. But it’s far more fun to describe how it feels, and in that department, algorithms only go so far.

The only issue, perhaps, being that Augusta is still 

And so we look to Max Homa, Sunday’s second-place finisher and one of the best analogy-makers in the game. Homa fought as hard as he could, all week, and even stole the lead from Rahm in the middle of the back nine. But there’s an inevitability to this version of Rahm we’re seeing. Give him 72 holes and he just emerges.

“Yes, he’s probably Thanos,” Homa said, citing the Avengers super-villain so strong it requires an entire universe of heroes to topple him. “He has a lot of the [infinity] stones in his toolbox. He’s a tremendous golfer, he has zero weaknesses. He’s been this dude for a long time.”

He really has been. But Rahm is also playing the best golf of his life and is finally comfortable admitting it. He has officially ascended to World No. 1 but doesn’t seem to care specifically about that honor; he’s comfortable knowing he’s been atop the eye-test rankings for weeks and months, as Homa alluded to. He’s won five of his last nine tournaments worldwide, and in the four he didn’t win he finished in the top eight every time. So Homa’s comparison fits. Rahm is always going to be there, and it might take 130 players to beat him. Rory McIlroy captured the mood of the field on Thursday, admitting when he saw Rahm was six under and atop the early leaderboard, he rolled his eyes (at least figuratively) and thought, “Again?!?” Thanos was back for more.

The only issue perhaps being that Augusta is still two months away.... with many elevated designated to be played between now and then.

In his Quad post, Geoff bullet points (what, you didn't know it was a verb as well?) the accomplishments:

In holding off Homa, Rahm recorded some impressive feats:

• Returns to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking and extends his lead in the FedExCup standings to 426 points
• Records the most wins on Tour in California since the start of the 2016-17 season (5)
• Earns his third win in his last six starts and fifth in his last nine starts.
• He is 93-under-par since January 1.
• Rahm becomes the first player to reach three Tour wins in calendar year before March 1st since Johnny Miller in 1975 (Phoenix Open, Tucson Open, Bob Hope)
• Holds the most wins in California since the start of the 2016-17 season (2023 Genesis Invitational, 2018/2023 American Express, 2021 U.S. Open, 2017 Farmers Insurance Open
• Improves to 4-for-9 when holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour.
• $9,864,750 in 2023 earnings.
• Gained 11.92 strokes Approaching The Green (1st)
• Gained 4.520 strokes Putting (12th)
• Averaged 302.1 yards a drive, All Drives (12th)
• Averaged 314.5 yards (6th)
• Made 2 eagles, 22 birdies, 9 bogeys
• Played Riviera’s par-3s: -8

That last one might just be the craziest, give how difficult these Par-3's are.  In fact, later in the post Geoff does a deep dive on No.4, which Mr. Hogan once thought highly of:

Riviera’s 4th is not seen as the greatest par-3 in America. Ben Hogan’s endorsement of the one-shotter came under more scrutiny than normal this year. With the greens so firm and the kikuyu still acting like its usual spongy self, the 238-yarder played especially tough downwind three of the Genesis days. Just 63 of 388 tee shots (16.24%) hit the green in regulation. The number rose to 20% for Sunday’s final round playing into a slight sea breeze. While there is the tendency of players to believe they are entitled to play directly at a hole and hold the green under any and all conditions, the 4th’s righthand approach still kicks balls left and down the slope if landed on the sidehill slope. Is there a fix? One option is to replace the approaches and collars with a different turf. However, because the kikuyu roots run so deep, Riviera would need to remove at least 12 inches of soil, then sand-cap the areas in question, and try to grow Bermuda. Not an easy task.

Not exactly sure what that graphic speaks to, but I also suspect that it's the first Rothko that I've posted.

But that strokes Gained: Approach might actually be the biggest tell because, as I understand Rahm's game, that's been the comparatively weakest statistical component.  When a guy already among the elites dramatically improves his biggest weakness.... Of course, any one week is a small sample size, so we should probably just go ahead and play the Masters in any event...

By the relevant statutes, we are required to cover Tiger:

4. Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour for the first time since his missed cut at the Open

Championship seven months ago, pulling double duty as player/host at the Genesis Invitational, and he made news for his play — he shot rounds of 69, 74, 67, 73 — and for a prank that he apologized for a day later. Do you think this version of Woods can contend at the majors?

Rogers: Being on-site this week, my biggest takeaway will be that this course is a really, really hard walk and Tiger was able to play solid golf with a bad leg. His limp got a lot worse after his round each day, so props to him for getting in four rounds this week. I think he can absolutely contend at majors in 2023 and I’m excited to see how it all unfolds.

Colgan: In a word: yes. He’s swinging it well enough. Walking well enough. Even thinking well enough to hang around in a major. It’d take lightning in a bottle to hang in for four straight days (particularly if his putter is as balky), but we’ve seen that before.

Sens: It’s kind of like my swing producing a straight shot. It could happen. But I wouldn’t wager on it. It would just take too many moving parts syncing up.

The week was a huge home run for Tiger, and will likely fuel all sorts of unrealistic expectations for what comes next.  That's probably a very good thing for the game, though your humble blogger tires of dealing with the incessant "Do you think he can do it?' questions from the dead-enders.

No question he was walking markedly better than anything we saw last year, even with the lingering plantar fasciitis.  That allows any and all to dream big, although I do think Josh Sens nails it.  Four days is a lot to ask, especially on a course as difficult to walk as ANGC.  

Do Women Know About Elevation? - There's been a confluence of folks declaring victory that to this observer seems, at best, premature.  For instance, this coda from the TC panel:

5. Also at the Genesis, Jon Rahm won again, shooting rounds of 65, 68, 65 and 69, and Max Homa almost won again, finishing second, as the two went back and forth in a memorable final round. As the PGA Tour heads to its Florida swing — and LIV Golf begins this week — how would you rate the Tour’s ‘changes’ and its designated events?

Colgan: An A+++. Three designated events into the Tour season and we’ve seen three highly competitive, highly intriguing tournaments. The Tour couldn’t have scripted a leaderboard any better than what it’s gotten the last two weeks. It almost makes you wonder why we ever bothered with the old setup.

Rogers: Between last week and this week, I’m totally sold on designated events. They just feel bigger. Between the leaderboard, the fans and the atmosphere around the course, the Tour seems to have just gotten it right.

Sens: From a fan’s perspective, the best thing about the past year’s tumult is that it shook the Tour out of its complacency and its wrap-around season snooze-fest. Even though these elevated events have pumped-up purses, it hasn’t felt as if money is the sole motivating force behind them. Maybe it is. But it hasn’t felt that way. There’s been an electricity to them that you don’t get just by piling huge prizes at the end, as so often happens at the Fed Ex Cup. The flip side is, what’s the Tour going to feel like during all its non-designated tournament weeks this year? That vulnerability remains.

OK, at least as far as it goes.  LA had already been "elevated" into an "Invitational" and I'm just not sure how much stronger the field actually was this year.  Not that we can't enjoy this bit of toothless snark from our favorite bonesaw bot:

I was a member at Riviera for years. Had to leave because the course was too easy. After my 4th hole in one on #6 it was time to go. The attendance out there today rivals my nephew’s CYO game. No shock with another lifeless leaderboard.

It’s obviously no #LIVGolf venue. 5 days📈 https://t.co/miaEz1GKhs

— LIV Golf Insider (@LIVTracking) February 19, 2023

Heh!  I mean shall we keep our powder dry and see the relative "lifelessness" of this week's Mayakoba leaderboard?

There was also an Eamon Lynch piece that I can't find right now on Google in which he described Phoenix as a successful proof of concept for these designated events, which seemed an early call at best.  The problem with the designated events has always been just outside one's field of vision, but since we're headed to the Honda, it should come into focus pretty clearly.  Just the fact that Honda, the longest continual sponsor of the Tour, has walked away in a huff should make the issue clearer...

But the other obvious issue with declaring Phoenix a success is that next year it likely will not have designated status.  Don't you want you want to see what that looks like before declaring victory?

Netflix In Full - Employee No. 2 and I have watched about five episodes, and it's really quite the silly undertaking.  The TC gang wastes a lot of pixels, so shall we sample?

1. Netflix released its highly anticipated “Full Swing” docuseries on Wednesday, which included eight episodes featuring about a dozen of the game’s biggest names with cameras following them on and off the course. Now that you’ve had time to digest all eight episodes, did the series live up to your expectations? And could hardcore golf fans and non-golf fans both enjoy it?

James Colgan: The problem ‘Full Swing’ faced from the second cameras started rolling last winter was that it would never be able to live up to expectations. Golf fans are so exacting, and

the show was made for non-fans. That central paradox was always in conflict with expectations. That said, I enjoyed the show. It was a compelling look into the life of pro golf. It was not revelatory, or astonishing, or mind-blowing. But it was interesting and fun to watch for both fans and non-fans. I’d give it a B+ for season one, with plenty of room to grow.

Claire Rogers: As much as I enjoyed the show, what I’m enjoying, even more, is hearing from my non-golfer friends who are watching it. I’ve spent a full year trying to explain LIV, and a handful of years trying to explain characters such as Brooks Koepka and the friendship that JT and Spieth have. The show finally allows people who don’t follow the Tour week in and week out to get to know some of the players, which is why I think it’s the perfect show for people like my sister. I also really enjoyed the storylines and definitely learned a lot in terms of what life is like off the course for these guys.

Josh Sens: I was prepared to be really bored by this show, mostly because the single-mindedness it takes to play golf at the highest level doesn’t naturally lend itself to multidimensional characters. But Netflix chose its subjects well and hit the jackpot with its timing. I thought it was terrific. Mostly for the reasons Claire says, it was a brilliant introduction to the current state of golf, with enough inside-baseball material not to be entirely old-hat to serious fans. There were people you could root for, and people you could roll your eyes at. Which every story needs. Watching it with my wife, who has no interest in golf, was especially entertaining. She was into it. Just one complaint: not nearly enough Dylan Dethier.

They certainly chose well in many of their subjects, Joel Dahmen most notably to this observer.  Although the absence of Jon Rahm seems telling at least it does this morning.

I was prepared to be bored and I had been forewarned about the Golf 1012 tutorials, I just didn't think I'd have to be lectured that there's a 36-hole cut quite so often.  I think they've found that sweet spot where the hard core golf fans won't see anything new and the non-golfers will be stifling their yawns...

2. Who, or what, do you think won the series? Were there any losers?

Colgan: Joel Dahmen is the unabashed winner of the series. Brooks Koepka offered the most compelling testimony, but also the most personally damaging. LIV must be furious their star addition showed himself in such a defeated light.

Rogers: I agree with James! Joel and Geno stole the show (series?). Brooks Koepka is the loser because he said he didn’t know who won the Masters. No further comment from me.

Sens: No doubt about Dahmen and Koepka. But for a self-parody of the pampered athlete, Poulter made a pretty good bid for top honors, complaining about the hardships of missing cuts while hopping a private jet back to his estate to sort through sunglasses. On the upside, it was baldly honest, which made it interesting.

I agree more with Colgan than Sens on Koepka.... Not least because Jenna Sims came across (at least to me) as vacuous as I assumed her to be...

The bride expressed some intrigue about Brooksie showing himself to be vulnerable, with which I agree in part and I know others have embraced.  I don't love the frat boy so I found myself rolling my eyes at those bits, but I have to acknowledge that it's the perfect synecdoche for the LIV moment.  What Brooks makes clear is that he grabbed the cash on offer when he thought he couldn't compete with these guys.  But feeling healthier now, we saw in Saturday's post that he has buyer's remorse.  Doesn't that tell us all we need to know about LIV?

But Josh nails it with Poulter, who seemed to be reading for the part of whiny bitch in the Real Housewives of Jupiter.  This is from Golf.com's recap of Episode 3:

Episode 3 of “Full Swing” — “Money or Legacy” — features just Ian Poulter, but it introduces LIV Golf, and it focuses almost exclusively on the decision Poulter faced last year, between signing on with the Saudi-backed series, or staying with golf’s established brands and potentially building upon Ryder Cup successes.

Where LIV stood early last year — the rival golf league is coming, it will be fronted by Greg

Norman, big money is being offered to players to join, Poulter could be one of them — starts the episode, then it digs into Poulter. He’s painted as a personality. (“My name is Ian Poulter and my profession is a wannabe golfer,” he says early on.) He’s touted as a Ryder Cup legend. (At one point, a narrator asks him: “Do you love playing in the Ryder Cup?” — to which he responds: “Do bears s**t in the woods? Ah, dear, do I love playing in the Ryder Cup? Oh, my god, is the pope Catholic?”)

And that name recognition is why he’d be attractive to LIV. The episode, though, spends most of its time looking at the other side: What would make Poulter want to leave, a move that would both ban him from the PGA Tour and potentially cost him future Ryder Cup spots, as both a player and a captain. The episode centers on Poulter’s play at the time — it shows him missing cuts at the Players Championship and PGA Championship, and failing to advance out of pool play at the WGC-Match Play — and his family.

With LIV, the money is also guaranteed.

“My whole life is about trying to work hard and provide,” Poulter says. “I’m sure LIV had offers out there to numerous people. The fact of there being guaranteed money at play is obviously an attraction. People ask all the time — don’t you have enough already? But that’s all relative. I treat my golf as a job, and I want to obviously maximize every bit of my potential over the coming years. And I’m 46 years old; I’m not getting any younger. There’s so many deciding factors in all this. I love the Ryder Cup, and if one day I get the opportunity to be Ryder Cup captain, I would absolutely love it. If you do play for LIV, would it be a factor in not being able to be a captain down the road? It would be devastating if it were taken away. That would be really disappointing.”

 Devastating?  Then why would you do it?  

The larger question, at least to this cynical observer, is whether that locker room meltdown was performance art?  Because they know the cameras are there and my nature is to assume he's trying to convince us of how much he cares?  Yanno, just before taking the easy check.

More importantly, who is the guy in the foreground with his nose in his phone as Poults explodes?  he's my hero and needs to be featured in Season 2.  But the jarring bit was nailed by Josh, the on-course emltdown followed by the private jet tells us all we need to know about these pampered, entitled a****es.

3. Filming for Season 2 is already underway. What would you do differently, or like to see more of, for the next batch of episodes?

Colgan: I think there are ways to build tension and intrigue beyond money. The show’s all-consuming obsession with cash grew to undercut its most interesting storylines. In season two, the show’s producers and editors should search out the most interesting stories in each of its characters, and then see if they can find throughlines between them, not the other way around.

Rogers: I want a Max Homa episode! As well as a guy who hasn’t made much money on Tour in order to highlight the struggles that we don’t see with top-50 players.

Sens: A where-are-they-now and what-are-they-up-to-now episode or two wouldn’t hurt, catching up with a guy like Hunter Mahan, who had it then lost it. Track someone on the outside looking in and desperate to get back. Or who left and is trying to adapt to a new life, stripped the ‘golfer’ identity he’s always lived with. Anthony Kim would of course be the white whale.

I couldn't agree more about their odd treatment of money.  It's certainly important in relationship to the LIV plotlines, but flashing their winnings was just bizarre, especially when it was a $500,000 type number for a top ten.  I had no clue why they were doing that or what the message was supposed to be.

My sense is that, in trying to appeal to everybody and to make each episode work as a stand-alone storyline, they've diluted the drama to the point where it will appeal to few.  My immediate reaction is to tighten the focus.... fewer players and stories in greater depth.

Upon Further Review - When last we touched base with everyone's favorite despots, we were on pins and needles over LIV's delay in releasing their final team rosters.  There was a thought that the announcement was delayed because Tiger had sucked the oxygen dry, but your humble blogger correctly deduced that they were setting us up for some surprising additions to their rosters.

I nailed it, boys!  Although, if this is the best they can do, it's profoundly sad, first this guy:

Belgian golf star Thomas Pieters is headed to LIV Golf and will be announced as one of the new members of the league on Monday, Sports Illustrated has confirmed.

The former standout at the University of Illinois who played for Europe at the 2016 Ryder Cup will be one of the last players added to the 48-player field that will compete in the first event of 2023 next week at Mayakoba in Mexico.

The news was first reported by the website handicap54.golf.

Pieters, 31, had expressed dismay last week on social media about not getting in this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, calling it one of his favorite tournaments of the year.

A pretty loose definition of the word "star", no?  Geoff nailed this for sure:

So Pieters' whining about not getting (another) sponsor's invite to the @thegenesisinv turns out to be performative grievance 🐂💩. A natural fit for LIV! https://t.co/zEDZD46pg6

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) February 18, 2023

Yes, he'll fit right in whining about grievances with Poults and  Sergio...

But think about all those new viewers he'll bring to the CW.  Actually, I thought Pieters would prove out to be quite the talent, but he's not done much in recent years, obvious from that fact that he's not made a Ryder Cup team since 2016.

But this will send shock waves through the golf world:

It was early December at the media day for The American Express PGA Tour event in La Quinta, California, and Brendan Steele was giving some very specific thoughts about the LIV Golf League.

“For me, I’m fine if guys want to go,” Steele said by telephone to a gathered group of media and tournament officials. “I think they just have to make the best decision for them. But don’t expect to come back and play on our tour.”

Ten weeks later, the 39-year-old Steele, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, has apparently made the choice for himself. ESPN reported Saturday that Steele is among three golfers — along with Thomas Pieters and Danny Lee — making the leap from the PGA Tour to LIV in time for LIV’s season-opening event in Mexico on Feb. 24-26.

Danny Lee?  Wow, that changes everything....

I don't even know why you'd want these guys (Steele is obviously at least borderline relevant), as all it does is drive up the burn rate.  That these are the best players they can attract at this point seems humiliating.

Can this still look viable to the Saudis?  Or is it just hard to walk away from $2 billion in sunk costs?

That's it for this morning.  Catch you later in the week.

Back In The Saddle

We are home after a most excellent Florida getaway.  Very grateful to out generous hosts for our golf adventures, and I don't blame them a bit for the case of the shanks I developed.  

Of course, the timing was curious, in that Tiger's announcement that he was pegging it at Riviera came too late for me to blog until he'd completed 36 holes.  Fortunately it seems there will be another 36 to blog (although we know how he likes those early Saturday tee times), and even more fortunately he's unlikely to be paired with JT again.... 

There's a ton of LIV news, but let's deal with The Riv first...

Riviera Ruminations - Game story stuff to lede:

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Max Homa described his second round in one word: scrappy.

“It was pretty fun to rely on my short game and have it bail me out,” he said. “I’ve been working hard to make a weakness to at least be average. To have it be a strength today was awesome.”

Homa made six birdies en route to shooting 3-under 68 at Riviera Country Club on Friday, his 13th consecutive round at par or better at The Genesis Invitational. He improved to a 36-hole total of 10-under 132 and a one-stroke lead over Keith Mitchell and Jon Rahm.

Should be a fun weekend at our last great venue for a while, especially since the leader seems to feast on home cooking.  This guy has a claim to being the best in the world, though there's no doubt that he's the hottest player on the planet:

Luckiest bounce of Rahm’s life

John Rahm can’t wait to be in the next compilation video of luckiest bounces.

“I will be in it, yeah. I hope it’s in it,” he said. “If anything beats that, I’ll be very surprised.”

Rahm tried to cut a 5-wood from 270 yards up the hill at the par-5 17th hole and ended up flaring it out to the right and into the grandstand that surrounds the green. His ball banked off the railing and skirted on to the green and stopping inside 4 feet from the hole to set up his second eagle of the day.

“I was just hoping it would bounce off into the bunker and give myself a decent chance of an up-and-down for birdie. Obviously I got very fortunate to get that bounce not only to go on the green, but to have basically three feet straight up the hill. That’s arguably the best bounce I’ve seen in person my whole golf career and it would be hard to beat in the future,” he said.

Jean van de Velde could not be reached for comment....

And a couple of rabbits that look like they survived the cut:

Thanks to a bogey-bogey finish on Friday morning, Tiger Woods has been sweating out the

cutline and while his chances look good, he’ll have to wait for 14 players to complete their second rounds when play is scheduled to resume at 7:10 a.m. Saturday.

Woods is currently T-60 with 10 other players. Top 65 and ties will advance to play the final 36 holes.

Xander Schauffele looked to be heading home for the weekend but he holed out from 173 yards for eagle at the par-5 17th and made par at the last to shoot 74 and should be safe, too, projected inside the cutline at 1-over 143.

Guess he had to stay around until Sunday anyway, but how is it starting on No. 10 at zero dark thirty?

Before we get to his newest scandal, a made cut in his first event in six months should be a home run, especially given the venue.  But while Thursday (of which I saw a little) was a home run with a strong finish, Friday was quite the letdown.  The bogey-bogey finish isn't especially significant except to the extent that it reflects fatigue, because this is undoubtedly his only start until April.

But he's the event's host and has assumed the roll of elder statesman, yet shows the maturity level of a pimply high-schooler:

Some of that razzing came on the 9th hole, where Woods had blistered a 323-yard drive past both of his partners. As he walked off the tee, Woods cozied up to Thomas and covertly slipped a

tampon into Thomas’s right hand — just not covertly enough, because the moment was captured by Cliff Hawkins, a senior field photo editor for Getty Images. One of those photos soon made its way to Twitter — that tweet, from golf-betting expert Rick Gehman, now has more than 10 million views — and by Friday morning Woods’ off-color prank was making international headlines.

Many commenters on social media had no problem with what had transpired — LOL, just guys being guys, right? — while others found it unfunny, sexist and offensive. But given Woods’ place in the golf world, it’s hard not to look at the pre-meditated stunt as a head-scratcher. What was he implying? That JT drives it like a girl? That would have been a tone-deaf message in 1923, let alone in 2023. When asked for an explanation of the prank, Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, did not immediately respond to an email from GOLF.com. Presumably Woods will be asked about it after his second round Friday at the Genesis. He also might not.

I think we all have the same mixed reaction, it is boys being boys at a certain level, but it's also simply crude and juvenile and, perhaps most importantly, just not all that funny.

Most of you will know that your humble blogger has never much loved the man, even before the events of Thanksgiving 2009.  Kind of a dick in my humble opinion, though we've been reliably informed that currently on display is the kinder, gentler Tiger, making this all the more noxious.

There was a fuaxpology of the kind that isn't much better than his BFF Phil's from exactly a year ago:

Yeah, it was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn't turned out that way. If I offended anybody, it was not the case, it was just friends having fun. As I said, if I offended anybody in any way, shape or form, I'm sorry. It was not intended to be that way. It was just we play pranks on one another all the time and virally I think this did not come across that way, but between us it was -- it's different.

How hard was it to see how this would be taken?  You just have to be completely clueless or not give a rats ass to willfully ignore the obvious reaction.  Fortunately, it's not like women hold a grudge against Tiger or anything....

The excerpt above uses the P-word, which I quite agree makes this far worse than the tampon recipient's spontaneous outburst that cost him his Polo contract.  This is spot on, alas:

No, he employed basic misogyny to insult his good friend Thomas, a knee-slapper of a dig against female athletes: You hit the ball like a girl!

I’m curious. Do all male golfers carry tampons onto the course, or is it just Woods? We know women golfers do, but maybe it’s a male golfer thing now, too. Who knew? Tiger, that trendsetter.

In all fairness, there are a group of science-deniers trying to convince us that men can menstruate, so he can hide behind that....

It's not a scandal of any note and we can let it go quite readily, but what it tells us about Tiger, in a moment of some importance for the game and his chosen tour, is quite unflattering.

I actually thought the best commentary came from Employee No. 2.  In watching the Round 2 highlights, we saw Tiger miss a short putt badly, fanning it to the right.  Quite appropriately, the bride noted that that putt was as tampon-worthy as anything that happened on Thursday

LIV Nation - There is an abundance of news from the fledgling tour, though I am going to begin with the least newsy but perhaps most significant item, the team rosters:

Second day of LIV Golf roster reveals feature four more teams with zero new players

 It's edge-of-your seat stuff:

LIV Golf’s second day of roster reveals featured three new teams, with two teams returning all

four players from last year’s team championship.

Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC remain unchanged with Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Eugenio Chacarra filling out the roster. Same with Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, featuring Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri.

Bernd Weisberger, formerly on Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC, replaces Laurie Canter on Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks GC, with Graeme McDowell and Richard Bland returning for season two.

Cam Smith and his newly-named Ripper GC will return Marc Leishman and Matt Jones, with Jediah Morgan replacing Wade Ormsby to break up the all-Australian side.

On Wednesday the team rosters for Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC, Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC, the Majesticks GC and 4 Aces GC were announced. All 12 team rosters will be official on Friday with the reveal of the HyFlyers GC (Mickelson), Iron Heads GC (Kevin Na), RangeGoats GC (Bubba Watson) and Stinger GC (Louis Oosthuizen).

Clearly this changes everything.... I don't what's funnier, that we're sweating that Laurie Canter doesn't have a team or that Martin Kaymer, who hasn't done a thing in the game since 2014, is important enough to be a captain.

The reason I'm leading with this is that last bit in the header above, that LIV's new player acquisitions begins and ends with Mito Pereira and Sebastian Munoz.  Now this had me suspicious that perhaps there was something in the works on that score:

The announcement of the four undecided teams in the LIV Golf League has been delayed till next week. The four final teams were scheduled to be announced on Friday. However, the announcement was pushed to Monday, a mere four days before the tournament commences in Mexico.

But no, it's presumed to be a matter of oxygen availability:

Tiger Woods' is believed to be instrumental in this delay. He has seemingly redirected the spotlight from the newfound league's upcoming season onto himself with his departure. His admission into the Genesis Invitational this past week seems to have grabbed a great deal of attention.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of bonecutters....

If it is the case that they have enticed no additional top-level talent to their exhibition series, they would seem to be in a world of hurt.  There is simply no way to characterize that gaggle of has-been and never was players as a top-flight tour.  More importantly, what would compel someone to actually tune in?  

Remember when McKinsey advised them to sign the top twenty players in the world?  They have exactly one.... There are two further items of a most discouraging note for LIV, but each would be manageable if they were building something viable.... 

First, a litigation setback:

The latest development in the LIV-PGA Tour courtroom battle could spell trouble for the Saudi-backed upstarts.

On Thursday night, a federal judge ruled that PGA Tour lawyers could depose the Saudi Public Investment Fund, including PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, for documents related to the fund

and its involvement as LIV Golf’s principal financier. Al-Rumayyan and the PIF had sought protection from the Tour’s legal probes — which threaten to unearth information about the highly secretive fund — on the grounds of “sovereign immunity,” a premise rejected by judge Susan Van Keulen’s ruling.

Al-Rumayyan and the PIF had sought exemption under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a 1976 law that defines the role of the U.S. judicial system in lawsuits against foreign nations and foreign citizens. Under the FSIA, foreign agents are immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. Courts spare for a few exceptions, one of them being when conducting commercial activity within the U.S. In the months preceding Thursday’s ruling, lawyers for LIV, Al-Rumayyan and the PIF argued that the fund was merely an investor in LIV — not a business partner — meaning the PIF was not conducting commercial activity within the United States. The ruling, which was handed down in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, rejected those arguments and asserted that Al-Rumayyan and the PIF were the “moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight and operation of LIV” and therefore not exempt from the Tour’s depositions.

Their act hasn't played to rave reviews in court, has it?  Here's their first feint:

Per an ESPN report, lawyers for LIV and PIF have indicated they will ask a different federal judge, Beth Labson Freeman, to review Van Keulen’s ruling. Golf fans might remember Labson Freeman’s name. Last summer, she dealt LIV another courtroom loss when she ruled that three LIV golfers — Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones — were ineligible to compete in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

She ruled no such thing.  What she ruled was that the players did not qualify for injunctive relief.  More importantly, she opined as a side note that she couldn't even seer where the players were damaged, because they had what they were demanding (the right to play in the4 FedEx Cup), and merely chose something they thought was better.  That thought is devastating to the Saudi's case, although I'm glad to know that they're just passive investors....

This isn't a whole lot better as far as legal analysis is concerned:

The ruling could mark a watershed moment in the ongoing legal battle between LIV and the Tour over the Tour’s purported monopoly status. Should Al-Rumayyan and the PIF agree to the depositions, Tour lawyers could compel truckloads of documents from the PIF and Al-Rumayyan, lifting the curtain on the actions and motivations of the secretive government-owned fund in golf and more broadly. Should the two parties fail to cooperate with the deposition, they could be held in contempt of court, a decision that could have grave consequences for LIV’s standing with the court in this case. A third option, of course, would be for LIV to withdraw the lawsuit altogether, ending litigation and any hope of the kind of legal discovery that could shift LIV’s standing with the Tour, which has suspended its players indefinitely.

One assumes that the Saudis will skirt the need to provide the invoices for the bonecutting machinery in the Istanbul consulate, but that will involve long, drawn-out fights over discovery, which is why these kind of cases take decades to resolve.  As we tick the years off,   Mito Pereira will be drawing viewers measured in the dozens to the CW.

But wait, it gest worse for the Wahabis.  Alan Shipnuck has a new mailbag up, and this wee little Q&A is sending up shockwaves through our wee little golf fishbowl:

Who’s the first LIV golfer to come back to the PGA Tour? And how would that work, etc.? Feel like this is inevitable at this point. @HighFades

I’m hearing a lot of rumblings that Brooks Koepka has buyer’s remorse. He took the money when his brittle body was still being put back together, and in private he has confided to folks he wasn’t sure if he would ever get fully healthy again. But now Koepka is feeling frisky and supposedly rethinking his career choice. The guy has one of the biggest egos in golf, and as the PGA Tour creates ever-increasing buzz with its elevated events and even the state-sanctioned TGL, Koepka has to feel like he’s on the outside looking in. As for the mechanics of returning to his old place of business, a lot hinges on the European Tour lawsuit that is being reviewed by arbitrators in the UK. If the players prevail, that opens the door for the LIV guys to have unfettered access to the Euro Tour, which will be a boon to a struggling circuit. It would also position LIVers to play for Europe in the Ryder Cup, all of which would put intense pressure on the PGA Tour to forge a truce with LIV. Secretly, Monahan would love for some big-name LIV guys to come home because it would be a p.r. bonanza for the PGA Tour.

In private, Alan?  As I understand things, that's basically the entirety of Netflix's Full Swing Episode 2 (which I've not sampled at all yet).   

This will take some time to process because, as much as Jay would like that PR bonanza, there's a lot of guys that will insist that no path home be available for the defectors.  It's also true that Jay might be able to milk those PR rewards from the mere rumor, without having to actually act on a request.

But I'm just not buying Alan's thoughts on that Euro Tour arbitration action, unless he thinks Brooksie will be jiggy with working his way back to relevance on a Tour with weaker fields than the Korn Ferry.  he also continues to assume that Jay will roll over and play dead should the LIVsters be allowed to play those Euro events, whereas I look at the forces arrayed and expect Jay to go for the jugular, and a road-game Ryder Cup might be a small price to pay.

Stay tuned, as the plot will likely thicken further.

Netflix And Swill - Geoff has a fun posting on our game's moment in the sun, though he went with a different rhyme:

Netflix And Shill

"Full Swing" is a visual triumph with moments of fascinating insider access. But the 8-episode series is undermined by Netflix's cynically formulaic approach.

Given that they've been rolling this formula out in every sport short of cornhole, that was certainly my expectation....

Exactly one year since filming began at Riviera, Wednesday’s 12 a.m. PT official “drop” delivers

all of Full Swing. (Episode 1 was released early after a Super Bowl mention and Scottsdale premiere.)

The result?

Full Swing is a visually-stunning storytelling hodgepodge cobbled together by some seriously talented editors.

The goal of becoming must-queue TV was a lofty one for a much more nuanced and slower sport than F1 and after viewing the show, there are glimpses of how the dream might have come true. But it’s hard to imagine most sports fans making it to the last episode or wanting more without Netflix freeing up producers to treat the audience with respect.

 In trying to appeal to everybody, they seem to have dumbed it down to repel the core audience:

The producers of Full Swing appear to have been saddled with a demand to make the show accessible to people who know nothing about…anything. The show repeatedly announces loudly, proudly and cynically that Netflix no longer trusts itself.

Yes, I’m well aware, I’m not the audience. As I’ve been told a jillion times since the show was announced. Nor is any other golfer, apparently. Even though there are 70 million of us globally and a few hundred million sports fans who subscribe and also know there are 18 holes in a round.

What would be so terrible about playing to those global numbers?

Throughout the early episodes, peculiar introductions to pro golf land randomly in between genuine inside-the-ropes treats. It’s not long before it’s obvious the Full Swing format is nearly identical to Netflix’s new pro tennis show. Eventually there is a sense that a lot of smarter and edgier stuff was left on the cutting room floor in favor of painfully scripted explanations geared toward people too clueless to even know how to sign up for Netflix.

Kinda what I expected....

I expect that I will watch it, though I have not broached the subject with the aforementioned Employee No. 2.   It may be that I don't start it until I return to Utah a week from today, but I'll blog it if it seems interesting.  The best part of Shack's piece is that he concludes with this mini-review from Alan Tyers of The Telegraph:

In that spirit, and as a golf agnostic, let me say this: Netflix’s new series Full Swing aims to do for golf what Drive To Survive did for Formula One... but shanks it horribly off the tee, into a pond, tries to roll its trousers up and hit the ball out of the pond, falls over in the pond, gets into difficulty, needs rescuing by a frogman, eventually catches Weil’s disease and suffers massive organ failure and dies, horribly, propped up on an uncomfortable chintz banquette in a clubhouse being yelled at by a double-glazing salesman about how many miles to a gallon he gets in the Audi.

 I'm guessing he didn't like it, but it's hard t tell.

On that note I shall leave you until Monday.

Thursday Threads - Hiatus Edition

I did warn you, so none of that whining...  You'll be on your own for The Wasted, not that we won't have some previews below.  The bride and I are off to Florida tomorrow morning for a week of sun and golf.  There will be no blogging since the laptop is not invited along.... Actually, I'm smiling because I couldn't bring it even on the off-chance that I wanted to, for the simple reason that it's hanging in Utah for the winter.

Don't worry, you'll be fine....  And, if not, that won't affect our trip at all.

Wasted Away Again... - This certainly seems true enough:

The PGA Tour needs this week’s Phoenix Open to work. Here’s why

It always works in its own way, no?  Although this is kinda curious, also in its own way:

But this week’s event catches the PGA Tour answering even bigger, more existential questions. What’s the purpose of our existence? What are we doing here? How can we be better? (Enthusiastic tournament attendees may be asking yourselves those same questions when Sunday morning hits. Hang in there.) This WM Phoenix Open represents the Tour’s answer to those questions. It marks the Tour’s first full-field “designated event,” which means the WM has its strongest field ever. It’s offering its largest prize ever, too, a $20 million payday that would have wowed pros a year ago.

The Super Bowl is kicking off just down the road, offering untold celebrity/athlete crossover hype opportunities. And Sunday marks the debut of Netflix’s new docuseries, Full Swing, which the Tour hopes will boost interest from existing fans and attract new ones, too.

In other words, it seems like a good time for the Tour to launch its new product. How’s it gonna go?

I'm struggling to understand the importance of it being the first full-field elevated designated event, when they've let slip that future iterations will feature fields of only 70-80 players.  

Poor Dylan Dethier struggles with the physics of it all:

But the Tour hasn’t been completely consistent in its embrace of the change. What were first trumpeted as “Elevated Events” are now just lowercase “designated events.” At a tournament where Beer and Seltzer have both earned dubious capitalization (see above), this series of massive rotating events has not. This muddies the waters; defining “designated events” to non-golfing friends is a multi-step process.

If Tour leadership seems somewhat bashful about boosting up some events, that’s likely because elevating some means relegating others. Last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, for instance, got buried in the schedule, stuck the week before back-to-back designated events (this week in Phoenix plus next week’s Genesis Invitational). And it’s still not clear how different this year’s fall schedule — initially pitched as an offseason of sorts, inserted to make us hungry for star-powered golf tournaments come springtime — will end up looking.

But that’s the reality of the situation. Weakening some events only pays off if those that are strengthened more than make up for it. TV ratings never tell the full story, but there’s no question the Tour is hoping for improvement after sagging numbers at its January events. They’ll have this week’s CBS viewership number circled, no doubt. I’d argue they could still help themselves by further emphasizing the big-time events, though; fans will take their cues from the Tour’s messaging but it’s still not clear if we should be focused on a 17-event schedule or a 45-event schedule.

Even if the strengthened events "make up" for those weakened, you've burned some of your core sponsors, which for 2023 includes names like Honda, AT&T and Sony.  That's gotta come back to hurt them, one assumes.

They've certainly achieved their objective in terms of field strength:

Who’s here — and who isn’t?

Nearly every top PGA Tour player is in attendance at TPC Scottsdale. That’s no surprise, given the Player Impact Program mandates they play every designated event (with one skip each). But it’s still significant to have 18 of the top 20 players (missing only Cameron Smith and Will Zalatoris) in the World Ranking.

The whole objective of this exercise is to ensure that Rory and Rahm (or Scottie, JT or other alpha dogs) are going head-to-head as Super Bowl kick-off approaches.  But, there are 135 players in the field, and golf frustratingly remains golf, so one assumes they'll be lucky if anyone of those eighteen have an actual chance late on Sunday.  I'm assuming we'll get a Jason Duffner-Briasn Gay cage match, which should, but won't, disabuse the powers that be of this pretense.

One last amusing bit from Phoenix:

Scottsdale police remind drunken idiots that water hazards at the Waste Management Phoenix Open are not for swimming

All week long we've heard about this change at No. 16:

“All alcohol service on the 16th hole will be served in a plastic cup — commemorative cup for Beer and Seltzer drinks and normal plastic cups for mixed drinks.”

That’s the sort of shift we’ve gotten used to at this tournament. It’s a sensible one, too, after aluminum showers dominated TPC Scottsdale’s iconic par-3 last year. But these are the singular challenges of Phoenix Open week. Players wonder how they’re supposed to putt when all of that is going on. Fans wonder if they should make a mid-morning transition from tequila to High Noon. Tournament organizers wonder if they should add another bleacher and another beer tent to go with it.

Alcohol is such an integral part of this event's DNA, that you'd think the organizers would be more concerned about those water features being used for a different purpose..... yanno what I mean? 

LIV Nation - I guess this is the McKinsey way, but quite the admission from LIV's attorneys:

“The Tour’s motion to amend should be denied because the amendment would be futile, would cause unfair prejudice, was unduly delayed, and is obviously intended to inappropriately delay the case and resolution of Plaintiffs’ antitrust claims,” wrote LIV’s attorneys. “Delay will equally harm LIV because the Tour continues its anticompetitive conduct while the litigation is pending. The Tour has damaged LIV’s brand, driven up its costs by hundreds of millions of dollars, and driven down revenues to virtually zero.”

Down from what?  I'm sure the IPOs for the franchises are just around the corner, just as the cash will start rolling in from the CW... 

The same article did answer a question that struck me recently:

Eleven LIV Golf players, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in August of last year. Over the last six months, players have joined and dropped from the suit, and now just LIV Golf, DeChambeau, Matt Jones and Peter Uihlein remain.

I was curious as to which, if any, players remained in that antitrust lawsuit, and it's an odd threesome.  Two rabbits and the former Colossus of Rhodes....  It would be interesting to understand why he has stayed in, when the other long-established players all decided that they didn't want to sue the tour on which they became fabulously wealthy. 

Billy's Word - We can speculate on what we might learn, but this can't be good news for our fallen hero:

Mark your calendars for Aug. 15, golf fans.

A book by Billy Walters, the famed sports bettor who went to prison in 2017 for insider trading, is expected to include details of his relationship with six-time major champion Phil Mickelson that may not paint the Lefty in the most positive light. Co-written by Armen Keteyian, author of Tiger, Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk will be published by Simon & Schuster and be available later this summer.

“In addition to an against-all-odds American dream story, it reveals in granular detail the secrets of Walters’s proprietary sports betting system, which will serve as a master class for tens of millions of recreational gamblers in America and around the world,” according to a press release. “Walters also breaks his silence about his long and complicated relationship with Hall of Fame professional golfer Phil Mickelson.”

To this observer, the aspect of Phil that I think deserves more scrutiny is his reluctance to pay his gambling debts:

Alan Shipnuck, who authored a biography on Mickelson released last year, said on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz in May of 2022 that Walters elected not to speak with him in order to save his thoughts for his own book.

“Phil’s nervous about that book, and he probably should be,” said Shipnuck.

Mickelson’s connection to Walters – reports said he once owed Walters $2 million in gambling debts – was brought to light in 2017 when Walters was found guilty of insider trading. Walters was convicted on all 10 counts against him, fined $10 million and sentenced to five years in prison while Mickelson was ordered to pay back trading profits totaling $931,738 plus interest of $105,292, but otherwise skated free on a technicality.

He craves the spotlight, ensuring that we know about his gambling successes, such as that famous Ravens bet way back when.  But we have three examples in the public record in which he failed to pony up, including this one where Walters apparently believed that he would only get paid if he shared that insider trading tip with Phil.  He should be shamed for this reluctance to settle his losing wagers, no?

A Mismatch - While I think it's generally good practice to read an article before trashing it, I'll make an exception here:

The Super Bowl of Golf: Kansas City vs. Philadelphia

Here's a pro tip for you.  When one of the two cities has a school of golf architecture named for it, it's not gonna be a close call.  The names you need are Wilson, Crump, Fownes, Tillinghast and Thomas...

Local News - I've never been a fan boy of Tiger (I mean of him as a man, no quibbles with him as a player), and that predates Thanksgiving 2009.  That hasn't changed much recently, as his support of the tour comes with huge asterisks (again, see below).

But, while I call them as I see them, I'll also admit that his interest in golf architecture has seemed a bit more substantive than I might have anticipated, less Jack and more Crenshaw.  But who knew he would land a new design gig in my 'hood:

Pack your skis, goggles and golf clubs.

Tiger Woods announced Tuesday that he and his golf course design firm, TGR Design, would construct a golf course in Park City, Utah, at Marcella Club. It’s the first mountain design for Woods and will be the fourth golf course to bear his name, including Bluejack National in Houston, El Cardonal at Diamante in Cabo and Payne’s Valley in Hollister, Missouri.

There will be two 18-hole courses at Marcella Club, but the second will open after Tiger’s design is completed. His course is slated to be more than 8,000 yards from the tips.

Take the 8,000 yards with a grain of salt, as Park City sits at 6,500 feet of altitude.  This is part of a new ski resort being built overlooking the Jordanelle Reservoir, an attempt it seems to create a Yellowstone Club kind of private community.   

It's years from fruition and your humble blogger is quite unlikely to be there when it's completed.

TMI On Steroids - It started with a weird question, in response to which the Spaniard way over-shared:

The Spaniard first climbed to the top spot in July 2020 after winning the Memorial at Muirfield Village. It had been a long time coming for the former World No. 1 amateur, having already been 

athree-time PGA Tour winner and a six-time DP World Tour winner, not to mention a member of the winning 2018 European Ryder Cup team. With the win at Jack's place, Rahm became the second Spaniard after Seve Ballesteros to reach No. 1 in the OWGR.

While it wasn't quite a major win (Rahm would later get his first at the 2021 U.S. Open), it was still cause for celebration. On Tuesday at the WM Phoenix Open, where Rahm is looking to pick up his third win of 2023 already, the now World No. 3 was asked if he had any sort of souvenir outside of the Memorial Tournament trophy from his first time rising to No. 1. Without hesitation, Rahm delivered what could go down as the best, and most NSFW, quote of the golf season.

"I do. His name is Kepa," Rahm said. "He's almost two years old. Sorry, Kelley, but yeah. She can tell you the story more than me.

"We suspect that it was that night. Sorry," Rahm added while uncomfortable laughter ensued.

There's much that's curious here, not least why Christopher Powers thought it took him a long-time to get there, given that he was barely 25 years old.  More curious to me, is why anyone would ask quite that question.

But then Powers has a little fun with it and us:

Unfortunately, Rahm didn't last very long.

Of course, the bon mots come tumbling out, including that we should defer judgement to Kelley on that one, when he hastily adds:

At World No. 1, that is.

Well, we knew that was coming....

Alan, Asked - It's a merciful God that dumps an Ask Alan just when the need for an anaerobic day of blogging arises:

Who does what to headline this year’s WMPO after Harry and Joel’s performance last time around? @feralgolfer

Well, whatever they do, I hope it involves a lot less pasty flesh and doughy torso. The ceremonial removal of their polos by Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen was zany fun, but some things are best not repeated. It would be a refreshing change if this Phoenix Open is defined by stellar golf, not tomfoolery.

Remind me again of where I can go to unsee this image:

Isn't this kind of thing why we have LIV?  I mean, the juxtaposition of Dad-bodies and limited golf talent seems to be monopolized by LIV, offer the added benefit that it will only be seen by an audience measured in the low teens.

This is too much question for the venue, methinks:

‘Elevated’…can these tournaments be labeled anything else?! @nm_cantwell

Over-the-top? Indulgent? It is deeply ironic that as soon as Jay Monahan pronounced that the PGA Tour would not try to fight LIV dollar for dollar he began trying to fight LIV dollar for dollar. At least this Phoenix Open had a Monday qualifier for the dreamers and will feature a 36-hole cut. Behind the scenes, a civil war is brewing about what the elevated events will look like in 2024 and beyond. The top players want small fields and no cut…LIV Lite. The Tour proletariat want much bigger fields to maximize playing opportunities, which would necessitate a cut. The secret meeting in Delaware made it clear that a small cabal of players has all the power, so the elevated events are probably only going to get grosser.

We had a more thoughtful Eamon Lynch piece on this on Tuesday.  Alan does a credible job, although the focus on the cut seems misplaced, as the issue is field size.  To me, it seems that they've gone out of their way to keep this unresolved issue under wraps, and small wonder.  To this observer, field size is the killer point to be emphasized, as it's the logic for considering the LIV events exhibitions.  Of course, making yourself LIV- lite renders those product vs. product comparisons a push.

As a local, what is the prime month for playing Pebble? It sure isn’t February with all the weather issues. #AskAlan @david_troyan

Our best weather months are September-October-November, when the fog disappears and the days are clear and toasty. Regular visitors to the area know this, which is why all of the hotels and golf courses are packed. Under the old Tour schedule I always advocated for the Clambake to swap dates with Las Vegas, so Pebble could show off in October and Vegas could slide seamlessly into the West Coast swing. But the folks with the rapacious Pebble Beach Co. would never go for that because they don’t want to miss out on a week or more of tee times in the busiest time of the year. Alas, I don’t know what the solution is. We’ll have to see how the ’24 Tour schedule shakes out; I expect a lot of upheaval. Pebble could/should be a marquee event, so every option needs to be on the table for moving it to the spring or summer.

Alan is quite right about Northern California in October, as I took man trips there in a prior lifetime.  But the Tour would never go to Pebble then and have 12 people watching on Golf Channel.... 

But the distinction worth making is how different conditions are in June, when the USGA occasionally visits.  I'm not a fan of taking majors to Tour stops (I'm through with you, Quail Hollow), but I make an exception here because the course is quite the different animal in June.

Would Pebble be a good course if it was in the Midwest? @ddavies2006

This is like asking, Would Derek Jeter have slept with so many models if he wasn’t captain of the Yankees? Some things just are. Let’s say the 8th hole doglegged over nondescript prairie grassland instead of the Pacific F’ing Ocean. It would still be a stout par-4 but would your heart pound the same way standing over the approach shot? Of course not. You can’t penalize Pebble Beach for being Pebble Beach. And I always submit that 11, 13 and 16 are underrated, and 2 and 3 are fun risk/reward holes that get no love. So deal with it.

I've long called Pebble to most overrated course on the planet, though I'm being deliberately proactive there for sure.   There's more weak holes than is generally recognized, and amusingly Alan named a couple of those.  

Should we feel good that “Golf Twitter” roasted the addition to Swilcan Bridge so much that they tore it up not even 24 hours later? @VeryAvgDad

No, the last thing we need is Golf Twitter to get any frisker or cockier, though I think we can all agree that the short-lived stone work was ill-conceived. Part of the outsized outrage was the long-simmering disenchantment over the R&A’s negligence in controlling distance gains for pros and how that has compromised the Old Course. I mean, during the Open the tees had to be placed in truly ridiculous places, just as the greens had to be cut too tight in 2015, leading to wind delays when every other course in that part of Scotland was unaffected. So people are sensitive to the R&A’s poor stewardship of such a beloved course and therefore we all lost our collective minds about a few stones at the foot of an old bridge.

Gee, Alan has been happy enough to stoke Golf Twitter to promote his book.... even to let us know after the fact that he left the juicy stuff out.

I suspect the linkage to the distance debate is a stretch, it was simply an ill-conceived project executed poorly, and the memesters quickly made them beat a hasty retreat.  They were sufficiently stupid to have installed the stonework, but not so stupid as to endure more abuse, so about the intelligence level of most of us.

Not sure this guy understands what's coming, but nor does the guy with the buyline:

The move has to be LIV players competing in DPWT events in between LIV events, right? It would be great for the tour and Ryder Cup, TV rights, sponsors and it solves the World Ranking point issue.@JerryB78champ

Oh, yes, I’m sure Keith Pelley is quietly praying that his tour loses the ongoing arbitration case and all of his most popular players who have defected for LIV are allowed to compete on the European Tour. As you note, this would be the way for LIVers to get OWGR points and many would flock to the Euro tour. The ensuing domino effect could be quite impactful, as these players qualify for the European Ryder Cup team and/or play well enough to warrant captain’s picks, with the entire season to mend fences with colleagues. If Team Europe is taking LIV players then Team USA would probably have to as well, for competitive and anti-trust reasons. That could open the door for a detente between LIV and the PGA Tour. So a lot potentially hinges on an obscure UK court case!

Alan has been down this road previously, but the scenario he and his questioner provide has to be considered unsustainable, no?  I know everyone in our game craves Jay coming home from Munich waving a piece of paper and declaring "Peace in our Time", but it's quite hard to see how that can be.  The business model of LIV destroys the PGA Tour as we know it, so how could we expect an accommodation with it.

I've noted earlier my uncertainty as to Keith Pelley's actual inner dialog, though we can all agree that his options range from the bad to the truly horrible.  But if you think that Ian Poulter is going to be fitted for a uni, and that Jay will then say, "Heck, we might as well allow DJ to play", I think you've perhaps over-sampled the mushrooms....

How big of a miss is it that the winner of the Waste Management doesn’t get a huge dump truck like the Genesis or the Schwab gives away a car to the winner? Imagine Jon Rahm posing in a giant green and yellow dump truck trying to figure out where the hell he’s gonna park it. Huge miss. @luke_peacock #AskAlan

This is the best idea I have ever heard. And might be enough to lure King Louis away from LIV.

Amusing to reference Louis' love of tractors, though two caveats:

1.  It would be a better gag for the Deere, and;
2. Do we want him back?

In his recent burst of communications, Phil said he’s never been injured. Is that true as far as you know? How many 35+ golfers can say that? Seems very rare. @SusanSSL

Well, Mickelson did break his leg skiing and miss three months of tournament play in 1994, and he popped his wrist in 2007 and had to sit out the U.S. Open. But he is correct in saying he has been remarkably injury-free. This is a credit to good genetics, Phil’s unseen work as a yogi and kickboxer and John Daly’s old maxim, “You can’t pull fat.”

If Phil got injured in a forest.... Yeah, as a wise woman once said, What difference does it make at this point?

Will the Green Jackets give Rory McIlroy the career Grand Slam by ignoring all protocols and pairing him with Patrick Reed every round at this year’s Masters (making victory a foregone conclusion)? #AskAlan @HenriDeMarsay

Those good ol’ boys are too polite for such a thing. I do miss the muckrakers at the old USGA, who often came up with mischievous pairings. Who among us will ever forget the heavyweight trio of Brendon de Jonge, Shane Lowry and Kevin Stadler?! The blowback on that one—Lowry called it a “mockery”—appears to have scared the USGA straight. So I’m afraid Rory is going to have win another major all on his own.

Egads, all that would do is give the green jacket to Patrick.

Remember, in holding on a few weeks ago, Rory had to tell himself to ignore Patrick's name on the leaderboard.... That told me everything I needed to know, but apparently the questioner (and Alan) didn't get the same memo.

But we can all agree that those early-round Masters pairings will be scrutinized differently this year, though it seems that the protocol has become to keep them in separate silos.  Of course, the Tuesday dinner traditionally only has the one table....

What are your thoughts on joggers? (The clothing item, not the humans.) @TeddyGreenstein

They’re fine but require common sense. In the spirt of my white belt rule—you can’t wear one if your age or waist size is over 34—I think joggers should had have a Rule 32: That’s the minimum inseam and maximum age of the person wearing them.

 I find that inseam comment especially hurtful.... But, I would, wouldn't I?

Who wins a PGA Tour vs. LIV Tour Ryder Cup style match? @JayVanesa

Oh, LIV all the way. Those guys would play with righteous indignation, fueled by grievance and victimhood. That’s a powerful cocktail!

Winner take all?   Meaning that, if the PGA Tour wins, we never hear from Greg Norman again?  Might just be enough to get a few LIVsters to tank....

That's it for a while.  Have a great week and I'll see you at the end of next week.