Thursday Thoughts

Just a couple of bits for you all today, as I fight my blogger burnout.  

Hall Pass - The new inductees have been announced, though they'll have to wait until June at Pebble for their ceremony:

The World Golf Hall of Fame will welcome five new members next June at Pebble Beach Golf Links when it formally inducts its Class of 2019. Retief Goosen, Peggy Kirk Bell, Jan Stephenson, Billy Payne and Dennis Walters all earned the minimum 75 percent of the votes from the 16-member Selection Commission to become part of golf’s elite. 

Each of the four living inductees (Kirk Bell died in 2016 at age 95) were notified via phone on Tuesday. 

"I was standing on the putting green hitting a few putts and then this number rings, which I didn't recognize, but thought maybe I'd pick it up, and it was Gary Player on the phone," Goosen said. "It's always great hearing Gary's voice, but he sounded extremely excited, and when he told me, yeah, I sounded very excited. So it was a great moment, and I felt shaky after that. Missed a lot of putts, but it was very exciting."

 Shack's post on this news carries this header:

Is It Time To Just Start Ignoring The World Golf Hall Of Fame?

I'm thinking we hit that mark right about when they engraved Monty's bust....

Let's let Geoff make his case:

That’s the question I’ve grappled with on the news of the World Golf Hall of Fame’s latest induction class announced today.

The short answer to the above question is a simple, lamentable and painful yes.

This is not a reflection on the current class, all fine contributors to the game who at various times were, are or will be worthy inductees at Pebble Beach next year. The problem lies in the increasingly clubby edge to who does get inducted. I’ve grown bored with the blatant, almost incomprehensible disregard for anyone who might have contributed to the game prior to 1990. Or, anyone who might have crossed former the long list of executives and former players whose feathers are easily ruffled.

Fortunately I feel less need than Shack to be polite, as it should be a reflection of this class, which objectively kinda sucks.  Let's take a look at the profound contributions to our game of these inductees,  beginning with the strongest case:

After winning the 1949 Titleholders Championship as an amateur, Kirk Bell was a

charter member of the LPGA who went on to become a renowned golf instructor and the matriarch of Pine Needles Lodge and Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. Before her passing, she got to see Pine Needles host three highly successful U.S. Women’s Opens in 1996, 2001 and 2007.

Of course, the disgrace here is that they couldn't do this while Peggy was still with us.  But she was truly a pioneer, and contributed to the game in so many ways....

Next, I'm lukewarm on this one:

In his 11 years as chairman of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament (2006-2017), Payne oversaw a series of initiatives aimed at broadening the appeal of the sport

to grow the game in the U.S. and around the world. He helped establish premier amateur tournaments in Asia and Latin America that gave the winners invitations into the Masters in an attempt to create golf heroes in those regions. He also helped establish the Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship hosted at Augusta National the Sunday prior to the Masters. And in 2012, he oversaw the admission of the first female members into Augusta National.

Of interest to me here is the rush to en shrine his, as compared to the prior inductee.  I do think the measures cited are significant and speak well of Billy, but wonder how history will judge his stewardship as relates to the changes to the golf course.  

Here is Shack's take on this issue:

Because, heaven forbid, someone designed a bunch of brilliant courses, wrote profound books that documented the game’s charms or broke ground in the instruction world. Those core professions vital to “growing the game” mean nothing to golf’s Hall of Fame. Remember, this group only took A.W. Tillinghast after much kicking and screaming, then inducted him with tributes from esteemed historian Harris English and other tour players. A man who gave his life to the game on multiple fronts, who had more golfing soul than most of the Hall members combined, and continues to influence the sport decades after his passing, could barely get in the Hall.

A long list of visionaries, revolutionaries and dreamers who gave their life to the sport has been shunned by the Hall either due to ignorance, politics or the laziness of not grasping how those people influenced the sport. The structure of the Hall also does not help recognize anyone outside of players. Sheer ignorance of what it means to contribute to the sport claims plenty of other victims, too.

he's certainly right as relates to Tillie, who was so much more than just an architect.  Though I do wish he had offered up some names....

I'm also of two minds here:

Goosen, a South African native, won a combined 19 PGA Tour and European Tour events, and 33 worldwide tournaments during his professional career. His most noted victories came in the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Opens. He also played on six International teams in the Presidents Cup and was twice the European Tour Order of Merit winner in 2001 and 2002.

Retief was a very nice player, but not one that screams Hall of Fame to this observer.  I view him as occupying that niceh just below immortal, but admittedly once you've enshrined Couples and Montgomerie (not to mention Lanny Wadkins and Bob Charles), whatcha gonna do?

As for this electee, what were they thinking?

Stephenson joined the LPGA Tour from her native Australia in 1974 and immediately made a mark on and off the course. She earned rookie of the year honors but also became famous for embracing her good looks and using them to help market herself—including famously posing naked in a bathtub, covered by a pile of golf balls. Her record, however, was something that marketed itself: among her 16 LPGA titles and 20 worldwide wins were three major titles (1981 du Maurier Classic, 1982 LPGA Championship and 1983 U.S. Women’s Open.

I agree that she was a better player than is remembered, but that's an awfully low bar.  Because she's essentially being inducted for that photo....

As for Dennis Walters, you'll no doubt need an introduction:

Walters was a talented golfer whose life took a harrowing turn when he was paralyzed at

age 24 in a golf cart accident. But it didn’t prevent him from staying involved in the game, as he would go on to perform thousands of golf clinics around the world, becoming an iconic figure to many fans for his trick shots as well as his lessons on life.

"Everybody has a story of how they got here, but I think my story is probably the most unlikely journey to get to any type of Hall of Fame that anyone's ever done," Walters said. "I was laying in a hospital bed 44 years ago, and I never thought I was actually getting out of that bed. I've done so many things I've never thought were possible, but it also gives me the opportunity to show others what's possible."

I like his life story as much as the next guy, but this isn't the purpose of a Hall of Fame.  By all means recognize the man with an exhibit or some such, but the guys with their busts on the wall should all be those whose contributions were to the game of golf.  If they ever build a Life Hall of Fame, by all means induct Dennis Walters....  

I'm Shocked... Shocked, I Tell Ya - Further confirmation, in case anyone needed it:

Justin Thomas came in support of Ryder Cup Captain Jim Furyk Wednesday in the latest development of a multi-tiered drama that has hung over Team USA since its drubbing in

France. 

Thomas said that he knew about the team pairings well ahead of the event, countering remarks made by Patrick Reed. 

“That was something obviously that had been talked about in advance, but all I was worried about was that I knew I was going to play with Jordan and we wanted to take care of our match,” Thomas told reporters prior to the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

 He added this:

“It’s so easy to look at the captains and say it’s their fault, but at the end of the day we didn’t play well enough,” he added. “The Europeans played exponentially better than we did, that’s why they beat us as bad they did.”

I'm thinking that exponentially understates the case.  Back to you Patrick....

Succession Planning - While we're on the subject of the Ryder Cup, there's news of an abdication:

Lee Westwood has ruled himself out of the running to be Europe's next Ryder Cup

captain and has backed Padraig Harrington for the role in 2020.

Westwood joined Harrington as part of Thomas Bjorn's backroom team in Europe's 17.5-10.5 victory at Le Golf National, having played on the winning side in seven of the previous 10 Ryder Cups.

 

A couple of points to be made here, the first by Westwood himself:

The 45-year-old had been widely regarded as a contender to take over from Bjorn in the role in two years' time, but has revealed his ambition to captain the side on home soil rather than at Whistling Straits.

"I won't be putting my name forward for this one, I'd prefer do it in Rome if possible," Westwood told Sky Sports News. "That would be great, I'd very keen on doing it there [in 2022].

One wag, sorry for forgetting who, predicted that the trend in the Ryder Cup isn't towards dominance of either team, but towards home team dominance.  Maybe he can clear the field, but Mr. Molinari will be 39 years old in 2022, when the cup will be played in his home country.   I would think that Lee will be hoping that his current form has legs...

The second point is to amuse ourselves at the U.S. trying to copy the European model, whereas the jockeying for position on that side of the Atlantic has been at times quite vicious.  It's no fun at all when they all line up behind the same guy.

I Saw It On TV - No word on Seth Waugh's involvement, but there is news on the TV front:

After 29 years, the PGA Tour will no longer appear on Turner Sports. 

The PGA of America announced on Wednesday that, starting in 2020, the PGA

Championship’s new cable partner will be ESPN as part of a new 11-year rights deal that will run through 2030. CBS, which has broadcast the event since 1991, will continue to cover the third and final rounds of the tournament while ESPN will host Thursday and Friday coverage. 

“We are thrilled to collaborate with two great partners in CBS and ESPN for the next 11 years to continue to drive innovation in the production and coverage of major championship golf television,” said PGA of America president Paul Levy. “I’m also extremely excited about what this partnership will do to continue to elevate the value of the nearly 29,000 PGA Professionals who are helping to move this sport forward every day.”

To the extent that there's any interest in this story, it's ESPN getting back into golf coverage.  Or, perhaps, the most interesting aspect is Shack's unhinged analogy:

I had trouble not recalling the many apparent similarities with the USGA and Fox TV deal in reading today’s rollout of the PGA Championship’s CBS renewal/ESPN television deal.

There is the 11-year deal term, which remains confounding on so many levels given how much more lazily entities perform when not incentivized by an expiring contract.

There is the PGA of America turning to an organization—ESPN—that had all but given up doing golf except for the Masters rights, earned as much through their reach as their devotion to golf. 

There is ESPN primarily looking to lock up new content deals to fuel a new product. In the PGA’s case it’s ESPN+ coverage. For Fox with the USGA, it was Fox Sports 1.

There are the usual proclamations of getting special attention to under-covered events like the PGA Junior League which, as we saw with the USGA-Fox deal now just doing 8 of 13 USGA events with no front or back end coverage, fizzled out as the cost and rating realities led to altered intentions.

There are the usual vapid statements about better opportunities to grow the game, etc. The USGA and Fox promised unprecedented opportunities to raise the USGA’s profile for the betterment of the game. The USGA has never been more anonymous or underserved.

And then there is the PGA price tag: a rise from around $22 million annually for the PGA Championship to $70 million according to multiple sources who I spoke to after the deal was announced. Furthermore, CBS has insisted that ESPN pay a higher share of the rights fee, an amazing thing given that CBS gets the prime weekend coverage. So let’s use basic logic and assume ESPN is paying $40 million or so annually to CBS’s $30 million.

Geoff, that's just crazy talk.  This is nothing like the USGA's deal with Fox, because CBS is, as you might have noticed, very much still in the business of broadcasting golf.   Of course there are some superficial similarities in that it's a long contract and no doubt went to the highest bidder, but did any among us expect different.

But the essence of the Fox deal was that it was wholly from right field, this was all chalk, with the entrenched incumbent maintaining the rights.  His real analogy is between Fox and ESPN, and that's of second tier importance.

Geoff does lay out his concerns, which will have many of us nodding along:

So far, not a word has been uttered about how the extra cash in the coffers will benefit the PGA of America membership, nor was there any mention of reducing the horrible commercial and promo overload that has made the PGA Championship golf’s least appealing major on television.

Also intriguing to see will be how deep into the night both networks go for the PGA’s two West Coast playings during the 11 years. Will 60 Minutes have to wait on golf? Will NBA playoffs move to ESPN2?

I do think Geoff's legitimate concerns are, well, legitimate, I just think they're obscured by the comparison to Fox.  

I too see an organization that seems uncomfortable with (or perhaps it's more that they're indifferent to) its core mission and membership, and have no clue as to how they'll use their riches.  

Geoff does have an interesting take on the use of this programming to support the ESPN+ streaming platform:

ESPN+ also will carry practice rounds before the tournament, press conferences and driving range interviews. ESPN will produce “SportsCenter” from the event. Other aspects of the deal: ESPN will carry the PGA Jr. League Championship starting in Oct. ’20. “That could become a different version of the Little League World Series,” Waugh said.

Which seems to threaten the food lot of Golf Channel for that one week of the year.  But there's a reason Seth Waugh took the job, and it seems unlikely to relate to those 27000 members.

Please Sir, May I have Some Moe? - This is pretty interesting, methinks.  Here's the premise:

We plugged golf legend Moe Norman’s swing into a shot tracer app. The results were amazing.

Only two golfers in the history of the game ever owned their swings, according to Tiger Woods: Ben Hogan and Moe Norman. 

The former is an icon within the sport and beyond. Golfers pour over the countless hours of footage we have of his swing and design philosophies around his methods. His road to the top was a long one, but once he got there, his success was achieved in the spotlight — and he’s one of golf’s legends because of it. 

Moe Norman took a different path. Moe struggled to fit in socially and many today believe he may have been autistic. He spent one season on the PGA Tour but felt unwelcome, so he returned to his native Canada, where he went on to win 55 times on the Canadian Tour, made 17 holes-in-one, and shot 59 three different times. He dropped out of the limelight for years but resurfaced in the late 1980s in his 60s, where he traveled around the country putting on a series of ball-striking clinics.

I didn't know they could do that, but when do we get to see Hogan?  Or Jack, Arnie and Lee?