Friday Fragging

Only 6" of fresh snow, though that's not important right now...  It's just hard to be upbeat when the name on everyone's mind is...Pat Perez?

Enemies, A Love Story - Smart people, foolish choices....  though as to the former, I recommend a second opinion.... We live in a world where Pat Perez has a radio show....  Just let that sink in for a while...  OK, it's on Sirius/XM, but still...  It's called Out of Bounds, so you can readily guess what they're going for...

Let's just dispense with the money quotes:

“He knows he can’t beat anybody. He’s got this new corporation he started so he has to keep his name relevant to keep the corporation going. So he’s going to show up to a few

events, he’s going to try to play, he’s going to show the Monster bag, he’s going to show the TaylorMade driver, he’s gonna get on TV. He’s got the Nike clothes, he’s gotta keep that stuff relevant. 

“But the bottom line is he knows he can’t beat anybody. He knows it. He shot 77! That guy can’t shoot 77. What does he do the next day? ‘Aw my backs gone.’ He knows he can’t beat anybody!” 

“Personally, I don’t think you’ll see him again this year. The guy can’t show up to an interview!"

OK, you see the issue.... but let's also cover a little background.  First, Tiger and Pat go all the way back to SoCal junior days. and he probably had some personal uquity with Tiger to spend.  Whether that's because Tiger liked him, or that he simply wasn't a threat I'll leave to the reader to intuit.

Secondly, if you listen to the audio, he does start with some Jacksonian (Reggie, not Andrew) rhetoric along the lines of, "He's still the straw that stirs the drink."  None of the print accounts I've seen captured that bit, which seems designed to inflame you-know-who.

 Here's a bit of Shack's take:

Tiger might normally have tolerated this as Pat being Pat except for the suggestion that Woods has been playing just to give sponsors some appearances.

That's not even the worst of the implication, as we now know that Tiger's endorsement deals pay per start...  Showing up to benefit his sponsors would be exculpatory, showing up to trigger payments to his fine self has a distinctly darker hue....  But there was also the bit about faking an injury in Dubai to avoid any further embarrassment.   Since when has Tiger required a doctor's note to stay horizontal?

But here's Geoff's conclusion:

While that may be somewhat true, I'm fairly certainly suggesting that the tone Perez chose will move him to some place between Stevie and Brandel on the GolfDigest.com Tiger Enemy list.

Is that above or below Hank?  What about Dan Jenkins?  Or Sergio for Chrissakes....In addition to the linked Dolf Digest piece, there was also this Golf.com list.  The former dug deeper, but the latter had this amusing photoshop:

What's now apparent is that this is very much a moving target and, like the OWGR, we need a weekly update.

But I've omitted the funniest part of the Perez interview.... Not only do neither Pat nor co-host Michael Collins know where the Open Championship is being played this year, they don't even seem to consider that something of which they should be informed.  Before reacting, Tiger, perhaps you should consider the source....

More Is Better - Rex Hoggard, who certainly should know better, reports on a players' meeting that sounds like quite the food fight.  It turns out that the players want more money, go figure:

Now consider the USGA’s reported 12-year, $1.1 billion deal with Fox Sports that began

in 2015. Two weeks ago, the association announced a purse increase to $12 million for this year’s U.S. Open, making it the game’s most lucrative event. 

Even with that bump, however, the men’s cut of the Fox Sports deal is about 13 percent annually. Remember, there were many who weren’t pleased that the players’ portion of the new NBA deal remained at roughly 50 percent but accepted it because of the massive increase in TV rights. 

With this backdrop, the topic was brought up at the PGA Tour’s first player meeting of 2017 last month at the Farmers Insurance Open. According to numerous players who attended the meeting, the idea of purse equity was simply a talking point, not some sort of line in the sand or action item, and the focus wasn’t just on the USGA. The association’s recent deal with Fox simply made for an easy starting point considering that under the USGA’s old TV deal with NBC (parent company of Golf Channel) and ESPN – which was reportedly around $37 million annually – about 24 percent of that income went to the U.S. Open purse. This doesn’t include revenue from the foreign TV rights. 

But this isn’t about a $24 million purse, because that’s not going to happen anytime soon. The concern among some Tour types is simply on the percentages, which saw the player’s take nearly cut in half from 24 to 12 percent under the new deal.

In case you got confused, Rex was comparing the U.S. Open to the recently concluded NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement...  So yeah, apples, oranges and maybe a few rutabagas as well.  Of course if you're following these kinds of news item, you'll know that the USGA did just increase the U.S. Open purse substantially to $12 million, making it the most lucrative tournament in the world.

Rex has all sorts of data about the revenues and operating costs of the USGA events that you're welcome to partake of, but the bottom line is that only one of their events makes money.  There was this from the players making clear that this isn't going anywhere:

One player who spoke at the meeting and requested anonymity because of the potential for future negotiations said the concern goes deeper than simply a fair share of the TV rights, and that players want a say in future venues and how the championship is run, pointing out last year’s rules snafus at both the U.S. Open and Women’s Open. 

It’s unclear how far the players would be willing to take a potential negotiation with the USGA or any of the game’s other ruling bodies. 

“Let’s be honest, we’re not going to boycott a major,” one player said.

We know.  perhaps I could suggest Pat Perez to represent you interests in deciding on future venues?  But this is the 'graph that had me scratching my head:

Instead, the players at the meeting focused on how the additional revenue could possibly be used, from additional funding for Web.com Tour purses, to rookie stipends or even a caddie retirement plan, which is currently a hot-button topic because of an ongoing lawsuit between the circuit and a group of caddies.

Guys, I hope you didn't spend too much time on this, because you're barking mad.  The subject is the USGA contract with Fox, an organization that has exactly nothing to do with your laundry list of worthy causes....  You touring pros play exactly one USGA event per year, so I don't think they care about your caddies....

But surely Rex Hoggard knows better, know?  Look at how he drops "circuit" into that last sentence above, where the whole article is about whacking up USGA revenues....  Weird.

Not Just a Pretty Face - Wesley Bryan has himself on yet another leaderboard, and we might be forced to admit that he's got game.  Tim Rosaforte details the transition from trick-shot artist to Tour player:

It turns out there’s a real connection between Wesley’s trick shot past and touring pro present. In fact, the trick shots are rooted in all the fairways he missed as a junior golfer. 

“I’ve always been able to shape the ball,” Bryan told me at the Safeway Open last fall, his first event as a card-carrying member of the PGA Tour. “I drove it so bad for so many years in high school and college that I had to learn a way to play it out of the trees. That’s where the creativity started.” 

Bryan finally figured out how to trick his mind after he began hitting balls out of the air as part of his show. “Half the time I’m thinking, 'if I could throw the ball up and hit it out of midair, I should have no problem hitting the fairway,'” he said, adding with a smile, “There’s something a little off about that.”

That's certainly why I miss fairways.....This Pete Madden interview with the young man is also worth your time, including this answer to the question on everyone's mind:

Your brother has been with you every step of the way. Are you expecting him to join you on Tour soon? 

He's been a great friend and supporter of mine, but he's got the game, so he's good enough to make it out on Tour as well. I'll just keep supporting him until he makes it.

Now, there was also this:

One thing I know for sure: A trick shot is all about the celebration. 

The majority of the shots my brother George and I pulled off came on the first five attempts. You have to make people think you've done something really difficult. That's partly why Tiger got so popular—he was winning and pulling off crazy shots, but he was also yelling, fist-pumping and celebrating. He sold it.

Oh son, that's so wrong...  Tiger didn't have to sell it, he was beating the other guys by fifteen shots.

But that won't stop me from rooting for the man, and here's one of their greatest hits videos:

Sell - There's a recurring phenomenon in the business world where CEO's lose perspective on the nature of their business....  Sometimes it's falling in with the social justice warrior crowd, other times it's more serious...

So first the fun part of the story from Seattle:

With baseball season still six weeks away, 6,000 people cycled through Safeco Field over 

Presidents Day weekend to experience Topgolf — a global sports entertainment community that puts a different spin on golf and breathes fresh air into the sport.

It’s a fusion of bowling and darts at the driving range. Six targets are scattered across the field. The longest target is 140 yards away, the shortest is 40. The goal is simple: Hit the ball as close as you can to the center of the target. Players trade off with three swings apiece, as a screen behind them displays where the ball lands and how many points are earned.

This is all well and good, and Topgolf is on something of a roll, limited mostly by the incredible capital investment required for each new facility.  No word on what such a pop-up location costs, though I expect we'll se more of these, even perhaps at Tour events.

This quote, though, has me concerned:

“We are the place where millennials hit golf balls,” said Erik Anderson, Topgolf’s Co-Chairman and CEO. “You get to play the game, you can compete and trash talk with your friends, flirt with your girlfriend.”

You may be playing a game, but you're most certainly not playing the game....

Interestingly, in all previous Topgolf stories we've had, their people have made it extremely clear that they are not in the golf business....  they run bars and restaurants. 

Perhaps I'm over-interpreting this, especially given the hipster-friendly location, but he seems to be veering dangerously close to thinking this is golf.  Plus, any business targeting millennials, well good luck getting them out of their patents' basement.

Masters Stuff - It's coming for sure...  just a bit of a tease today.

Alex Myers has the ESPN previews, and hopefully you on't be put off by what appears to be the voice of Tom Rinaldi.... This ties into a larger subject, the use of off-putting language in golf contexts...  In this case, that last promo talks of The Bear Rising.....  Bears rising?  It just doesn't work, does it?

But there's also darkness ahead, as John Strege informs:

The flowery imagery often used to heighten anticipation in the run-up to the Masters best be tabled this year. The azaleas in Augusta and surrounding areas already have started to

bloom. 

Spring has arrived as much as three weeks early in the southeastern United States, according to the USA National Phenology Network and its Spring Leaf Index Map. 

“It’s just been so warm,” Tom Rapp, horticulturist for the neighboring city of Aiken, S.C., said on Wednesday. “And warm at night.” 

What does that mean for Augusta National? “They’re not going to have any color for the Masters,” he said.

Like you I'm sure, I only watch for the azaleas...  Seriously, though, I thought these guys keep them on ice as required to ensure visual perfection, and I'm not actually joking.

These Guys Are Good - Except, you know, when they're not....  Brooks Koepka was playing poorly and running hot, and you can see the ISIS decapitation video here.

But I like this photo as well:

I'm not quite sure of the meaning of those bizarre emojis, but a slong as he picked up his tee it seems all is well....

Don't Go There - Colt Knost breaks the first rule of Fight Club:

As the story goes, Knost wasn't planning on playing when he ran into Phil at Madison

Club in La Quinta one day, but was egged on by Mickelson. "I don't even have my golf shoes," Knost told Phil, who replied, "I don’t care. Grab your clubs. Me and you, nine holes for $1,000." 

Knost said he was 22 at the time and didn't want to look scared in front of him so he played. And predictably, he lost. Badly. But that's when the story took an unpredictable turn. 

"I hear you like to play cards," Mickelson said. "Alright, well, let’s go, I’ll give you a chance to win it back." 

According to Knost, he proceeded to win about $1,400 in 25 minutes playing gin against Mickelson, who then asked him to stick around for dinner and more cards.

Ummmm Colt, I have it on good authority, from Phil no less, that you're not supposed to talk about what you guys play for out there....  Or is that just to keep the kids in their place?

But if I'm going to take advice on how to win in gambling with Phil, I think Billy Walters is the go-to source.