Thursday Threads

Thanks for allowing me that late-season golf yesterday...  In what, I assume, will be my last round of the year in shorts.  So, where were we?

Eye On CBS - This story continues to evolve, first with another of the victims grousing about his fate in a long interview with Rick Young:

Peter Kostis is not bitter. He doesn’t sound angry or upset about how he and Gary McCord were dismissed by CBS Sports. But make no mistake: He is disappointed.

You can hear it in his voice. 

Closing in on 30 years in the broadcast booth and on the fairways as an on-course reporter, Kostis’ loyalty to CBS and the reciprocation of it has been the mortar of what had been a strong relationship. In a one-hour interview at the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey in 2015, the Emmy Award winner spent considerable time talking about loyalty and its importance to him. 

“There is limited loyalty in the world today,” he said. “I’m pleased that CBS and I have been loyal to each other for 27 years.” 

Things change, evidently.

I don't know, but bitterness vs. disappointment strikes me as a distinction without a difference.  Ask to speculate about the reasons for his (and buddy McCord's) non-renewal, Kostis proceeds to throw crap at the wall:

“The timing and the reason for mine and Gary’s departure are the ongoing negotiations

with a new television contract,” Kostis explained. “That’s involved here. I don’t know how exactly or what it could be but I do believe the next television contract is going to be radically different. I don’t have any basis for saying that other than my gut instinct. I do know the tour is gearing up to be able to handle gambling. I think it’s one of the ways they’re hoping to grow their fan base with younger people.” 

This begs an obvious question: Does growing a younger fan base through the gambling activation require younger voices to promote it? 

Impossible to be certain but a youth movement — if you can call it that — is afoot.

OK, we all know there's a long game at play here, but perhaps Peter doesn't know any more than thje rest of us....But here's a unpleasant fact...  Old guys get canned in favor of younger guys.   Young actually goes so far as to add this:

Without any clarification for their dismissal and if you rule out age discrimination in this matter (Kostis is 72; McCord is 71) that was legislated into the United States Employment Act in 1967, the only thing the two announcers can engage in for why CBS cut them loose is speculation.

And I am so very glad that you ruled out age discrimination, otherwise we might be treated to the pleasure of them keeling over on camera.  Here's a news flash for Mr. Young and everyone else following the story.  When guys get fired they get pissed, and that's the most normal thing in the world and means absolutely nothing.

Equally amusing is Peter's recitation of his exit interview, in which there seems to be an assertion of a constitutional right to a satisfying explanation of the reasons therefore.  never considering, seemingly, that Lance Barrow simply didn't want to tell him he's become a laughable old fool....  

But here's where Peter brushes up against reality:

“There’s a fine line between familiarity and staleness,” he said. “What we’ve been hearing over and over from fans since this happened is, ‘You guys are the voices of my weekends watching golf and we’ve grown to love it.’ There’s a familiarity for the viewers with the CBS team. Having said that, I don’t think it was the announcers that were stale. I believe the production has suffered over the last few years. That’s all I’m going to say. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Yeah, that's the interesting thing, no?  Peter is not self-aware enough to know when he's on the mark, but this is a movie we see repeatedly.  Is CBS, like Hack Golf, Greg Norman's pimped out golf carts and other millennial-driven initiatives, risking the ire of the traditional audience in pursuit of new viewers?

Like Peter, I don't think McCord and he are the cause of CBS' dreary broadcast, and the replacement thereof doesn't seem likely to help much.  I think as long as you have the treacly Jim Nantz and the incoherent Sir Nick in the tower, nothing else matters much.  Or they could start to show us some actual golf action...  Nah, that's crazy talk.

But, put yourself in the shoes of Lance Barrow, with a desperate need to appeal to millennials...  You're sitting around the shop and brainstorming how to those young men in their parents' basement, and suddenly the solution presents:

On Tuesday, CBS announced that Davis Love III is joining as a full-time analyst for the Masters, PGA Championship and PGA Tour coverage. Golf Digest's Dave Shedloski

broke the news on Monday that Love, who is close friends with CBS golf producer Lance Barrow, was in the mix for a position.

“I have long considered CBS Sports the gold standard in golf coverage,” Love said in a statement. “Whether playing or coaching, I have always loved the team aspect of golf, and I am thrilled to now be a member of the best team in television."

Maybe that gay millennial market, for sure...  So, why Davis?  Well, they sort of gave it awya up there....  Lance Barrow is hiring a friend, and that always works out, right?

So what kind of analyst will Love be? 

“That’s one of the first questions that came up,” he said. “I have opinions. I just have to learn when to say things. [Retired NBC analyst] Johnny [Miller] was really good at [what to say and when to say it]. I learned a lot by watching him. My only problem is that I have to get my thoughts more concise.” 

Don’t expect Love to be another Miller, though. Johnny was one of a kind. 

That doesn’t mean Love won’t be critical when a moment warrants it, though. 

“Even watching Tiger this past weekend [at the Zozo Championship], I was wondering why someone maybe didn’t say certain things,” he said. “And there have been times when I’ve called the truck when they missed something.”

Can't they even stay on script?  I've been reliably informed that CBS is the gold standard in golf broadcasts, but when the new kid is asked how he'll play it his reference is to the competitor....  But don't worry about streamlining your thoughts, Sir Nick has proven that Barrow will et you ramble on regardless of whether there's a point to be made.

That's Nice - Apparently Golf Digest has been ranking the nicest players on Tour for years, who knew?  This week's list of the top 30 is up, and Rickie wins gold:

Rickie Fowler is no stranger to what has become a tradition at Golf Digest—our ranking of the 30 nicest guys on the PGA Tour. In our first edition, in 2013, Fowler finished

third, and two years ago the California native was ranked fifth when Jordan Spieth took the top honor. Spieth credited several mentors for helping him navigate the pro ranks at a young age, including our inaugural winner, Steve Stricker. Spieth also singled out Fowler for praise, saying the five-time PGA Tour winner is “unbelievably generous with his time and has more energy than I can ever hope to have.” 

Apparently, widespread agreement abounds, because Fowler, 30, heads our 2019 survey, edging U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland and Spieth, respectively. “There are a bunch of good guys on tour,” Fowler says. “I’m just trying to treat people the way my parents taught me to. It’s cool to have my peers view me this way. Very cool, very humbling.”

OK, Rickie does seem like a great guy, and there's lots of them out on Tour.  In fact, much as we at Unplayable Lies love our Golfers Behaving Badly sub-genre, golf seems to mostly attract a better class of person.  Almost as if it's a game for gentlemen, or something...

The full list of thirty includes personal faves such as Joel Dahmen and Harold Varner III, but look who sneaks in at No. 25:

Really?  Hasn't he, you know, been in the news lately?  Here's how they handle the cognitive dissonance:

Now, name the golfer who joined Woodland and Bockerstette during their prearranged exhibition, and though he mostly stayed in the background, he, too, was seen offering Amy encouragement. He has been a perennial on our list, and, in fact, tied Fowler for third in our initial rankings in 2013. It was Matt Kuchar, who, after his somewhat checkered 2019, slipped to 25th this time. 

Kuchar’s good-guy image might have absorbed a hit after a few incidents this year in which he came off looking uncharitable. Months after winning in Mexico, he succumbed to public pressure and paid a healthy bonus to the local caddie who at first received an agreed-upon fee of $5,000 out of Kuchar’s winnings of $1.3 million. There also was a rules dustup with Sergio Garcia at the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship in March. Garcia was in the wrong for whacking an inches-long putt before Kuchar could concede it, but Kuchar’s churlish disposition amid the ensuing disagreement invited criticism. Then there was his interminable embedded-ball argument, which he lost, at the Memorial Tournament. 

Juxtaposed to those episodes is Kuchar’s longstanding reputation as a solid professional, someone who has exhibited a willingness to connect with fans, sponsors and players and talk to the media. Hard to figure.

Of course, the interesting aspect is how quickly he sundered that sterling reputation.  I do hope they're right, and he is the good guy we all thought he was....  Though that performance as an out-of-touch, entitled Touring pro seemed to be type-casting...

Outlook Cloudy - Alistair Tait with troubling trends from over there:

British and Irish golf club members are continuing to quit the game in worrying numbers, according to a survey published Wednesday.

KPMG’s Golf Participation Report for Europe 2019 highlights a drop in registered golfers and golf club members in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales between 2017 and 2018 that should have alarm bells ringing for golf administrators, and those running British and Irish golf clubs. 

Scotland saw a drop of 7,521 registered golfers, a 4% loss, between 2017-2018. There are now 180,281 golfers registered to Scottish golf clubs compared to 187,802 in 2017.

Wales experienced a 4.06% drop from 44,551 golf club members in 2017 compared to 42,743 last year. 

England, the country with the most registered golfers in Europe, had a 1.63% drop. There were 645,151 registered golfers in 2018 against 655,839 in 2017. 

Ireland remained largely static, with just a 0.58% decline. The Emerald Isle lost 1,063 registered golfers to take its participation rate to 182,398 in 2018.

I don't really know how significant this is, as the aggregate numbers of "lost" members are still fairly small.  We tend to forget how poor these countries are, even though the cost of membership is far lower.

Coincidence? - Who knows, but Shack seems certain he heard something from that grassy knoll:

What Is Delaying The Distance Insights Project?

Here's the press release:

Hey, those books don't cook themselves.....

Here's Geoff's musing:

Why another delay?

After all, it’s not expected that the report will provide a prescription to restore certain skills or to slow down distance. Instead, the report is expected to piece together data and insights from all sectors of the game while considering the role of a technological expansion and skill.

The delay is unfortunate given the growing groundswell demanding we have a discussion about how the elite game is played. Plenty more want to know if the governing bodies feel a need to cap or contract the scale of the sport in some way. While the percentages are still small, I’ve never sensed the sport was more open to the discussion. Particularly as an increasing number sees a bloated game due to the needed to maintain 18 holes.

Either way, any changes will not be implemented quickly, so the longer they drag this out, the harder it is to understand what the end game might be. We’ll have to wait another three months to see if there is an actual end game, or just new forms of procrastination.

Unless, you know, the data shows something that might be hard to ignore.... Stay tuned.

The Times They Are a'Changin' - Interesting times in our game, as I was taken by surprise at the speed of the NCAA cave-in:

The NCAA’s top policy-making group on Tuesday voted “unanimously to permit

students participating in athletics the opportunity to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model,” the association said in a news release. 

The release followed a Board of Governors meeting in Atlanta at which the group received a report from a special working group that had been appointed in May to examine the name, image and likeness issue.

There's a lot going on here, most of which isn't terribly relevant to our little game.  No doubt feed lots are at risk, as is the existing institutional frame work whereby two sports fund the whole gamut of intercollegiate athletics.  And the possibilities for abuse seem endless, so we've got that going for us.

This change seems unlikely to me to significantly reorder the world of college golf, as I can't imagine a college golfer's likeness and name having all that much value...  But this comes at a time when college golf is an increasingly important part of the broader amateur golf landscape, and when the USGA's vision for the elite amateur game is under attack.  here are some brief musings on this from you-know-who:

Given the erosion there of amateurism since players could start receiving free equipment and dress like corporate billboards, there may be sympathy for those receiving endorsement income. Ruling them ineligible for prominent amateur events may get chippy! 

However, given that golfers like Tony Romo and Lucy Li retained their status even after clearly endorsing products on the back of their golf ability, perhaps some clever lawyer will find a way to maintain the distinction between pro and amateur golfers. But right now, I’m struggling to see how that will work.

Perhaps I can help you there, Geoff.  Unlike you, I'm old enough to remember when there were only two genders...  It's not important whether the Romos and Lis of the world were born into one category or the other, it's that they identify as amateur golfers....  

There is a reasonably important issue of the nature of that elite amateur game, and what it should mean in the golf world.  Not that any of us have much remaining confidence in the USGA to sort through such matters.

Now a get a move on and do something productive...I'll see you tomorrow.