Tuesday Tidbits

We'll try to throw enough your way that you'll not notice my absence tomorrow....  Bobby D. has arranged a road trip here for our semi-regular Wednesday game...  

Opinions Are Like... - You know the rest, everyone has at least the one.  First up the Golfweek staff, with their views of the late night sensation:

Novelty is a good thing 

Our favorite moment came on the 7th when the main cast was joined by world-class rugby players for a two-man scramble. (Tokyo is hosting the Rugby World Cup this month.) Hideki Matsuyama drained a 35-foot putt for birdie and was hoisted off the ground by his partner, former South African player Bryan Habana. “He’s my partner. I’m with him,” Habana yelled.

All right, here's that moment which required Googling to find:

So, the best moment from a golf event was created by a bunch of rugby players?  Shouldn't that be of concern?

Shack is the source of this one:

Low-level stakes, lackluster golf 

So the GOLFTV production wasn’t what we are used to week to week, but the on-course interviews were a good diversion. (We heard Tiger really wants to play in the Olympics next year. Rory wasn’t offended by Brooks Koepka’s comments on their non-rivalry last week.)

But the quality of golf by the four big names wasn’t enough to carry our interest through the middle of the night. Perhaps it was the lack of big-time stakes for these guys (McIlroy won $23 million last season, which included his $15 million from the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title) or the lackluster golf, particularly those first few holes. 

Whatever the case, the appeal of watching the skins game in Japan was entirely about Tiger and particularly this being our first look at him swinging a club since his latest knee surgery two months ago. On that front, it appears he’s not as good as he wants to be, but that’s no surprise to anyone. It is October after all.

Usually we forego actual drama for an inflated purse....  here we skipped all of the above for large appearance fees, and we know how exciting those can be....

I don't know this gent, but I'm thinking he nailed it:

More like a 7:00 a.m. tee time, but still...

Yesterday I was wondering about the absence of a Tour Confidential panel, which was delayed 24 hours presumably in the hopes that they'd have something on which to opine...  Funny thing is they don't do that when a Tour event spills over into a Monday finish.  But the ink-stained wretches used their extra day to good effect:

1. While the majority of the U.S. was either sleeping or getting ready to call it a night, the much-hyped Japan Skins featuring Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama aired on Golf Channel beginning at 11 p.m. ET. (If you missed any of the action you can catch up here.) So what did you think? Did the event live up to the hype? What highlights/lowlights stuck out? 

Sean Zak: It was going to be difficult to live up to the hype, but I was genuinely entertained. This was much better than The Match, and probably always was going to be. The course was a highlight as we watched elite pros play shots for the first time. Tiger was a lowlight on the first four holes (rust, perhaps) and then started flagging it. Rory wilted after putting on a ball-striking display, and Day’s putter reigned supreme. The only lowlight was the man unmentioned thus far. Hideki really never got it going.

But that guy that didn't get it going was the most important of the four?  Or at least second after Tiger, no?  And "better than The Match" seems like faint praise for sure. 

Luke Kerr-Dineen: Unlike intrepid golf journalist Sean Zak, I did not stay up to watch this. I was fast asleep. The highlights and delightful Drop Zone podcast about it were fun to wake up to, though, and it certainly seems this is a more promising format than The

Match. Did it live up to the hype? It’s hard for us to say, because this event wasn’t for us. You don’t broadcast a live event through the night if you want to penetrate the U.S. market. This was an international play aimed at Asia specifically, and from that perspective, it seems quite successful.

Dylan Dethier: I think it fell short of the hype but still exceeded expectations, if that makes sense (if it doesn’t, that’s because I’ve been awake for far too long). The skins game started slow, but once the players eased into the format they hit plenty of great shots and got into some compelling moments, too (not just canned “needling”). It can be easy in promos to make it seem like a skins game is a heavyweight bout when it’s really just a slightly more fun version of golf. 

Michael Bamberger: It looked like a practice round on a course that would never be the site for a PGA Tour event, here in the lower 48. I should say I fell asleep before the gents reached the fourth green. It was just guys playing golf and spreading good cheer. They weren’t raising money for war bonds, but it was still a good time and at times a good cause. What’s not to like? 

Alan Shipnuck: I didn’t make it to the back nine. The golf was sloppy, the course uninspired, the banter forced and cheesy, the money laughably small. But other than that…

Mrs. Lincoln was unavailable for comment...  I'm thinking that Josh nails it:

Josh Sens: Well, that was one weird show. The production itself was almost local cable 

Tiger to Jason: "Can you believe they're paying us for this?"

access quality — you could hear the players talking and then you couldn’t; the shot tracer worked and then it didn’t; the images glitched and jumped then steadied. It was like the Skins game version of Between Two Ferns. In that way it was almost endearingly bad. I kind of liked how unslick it was. Full disclosure: I nodded off after the first nine. In that time the golf itself was a long way from spectacular and the conversations the mics did pick up were a long way from interesting. But there were some high points, including a goofy moment where each guy got paired with a rugby legend and they played a two-man scramble. The rugby players themselves seemed genuinely thrilled to be there and there was a funny scene when Matsuyama drained a long putt and his hulking partner jumped into his arms in celebration. Matsuyama caught him and it looked like he might slip a disc. Bottom line: It was strange and pretty awful but it also sort of worked.

I went back and check the promos, and it turns out that "Endearingly Bad" is, in fact, what they were going for....

 They waited 24 hours, so why not a second question:

2. Was the four-player format more compelling than the mano-a-mano model we watched with Tiger vs. Phil last November? 

Zak: Undoubtedly. I think the PGA Tour, which proudly counts its depth as an asset, needs to do this every 10 months with a cycling cast, and in a new, exotic location. Perhaps South Africa could be next? I would sign up for a quartet of Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm. I know that wouldn’t sell quite as well without McIlroy or the Big Cat, but there seems to be a very deep group that would compel me to watch. 

Kerr-Dineen: There’s something so thrilling about a me vs. you, mano-a-mano match up. It’s a simple concept which makes it easy to hype up. It’s why we boxing tends to transcend into the national consciousness around its biggest fights. But sadly, I just can’t see it working for golf. The possibility is too high that one of the two players simply won’t show up on the day. A skins match is something golfers know and play themselves, and it’s probably the best option for events like these in the future. 

Dethier: Yeah, this was better. I wasn’t particularly swayed by the piles of cash awaiting Phil and Tiger, and having more players to provide compelling moments (and to avoid only two people interacting) was much less awkward. In golf, two is generally too few. 

Bamberger: Four did make it seem like a home game. Two is the best when the stakes are really high–Ryder Cup, U.S. Am, club championship. But if it’s just two rich guys playing to become richer yet, it leaves one cold and having four makes it more about the camaraderie. 

Shipnuck: This should be proof that meaningless exhibition golf doesn’t work no matter how many players are involved. 

Sens: It was much better but that’s a low standard. A static snowstorm on your TV screen would have been more interesting than that Phil/Tiger charade.

Shippy nails it, as these things have never worked.  Even the old Shell World of Golf matches were dreadfully bad, interesting only for their choice of interesting venues and awkward announcing.

That's why I'm pretty skeptical of the grandiose plans for streaming services and artificial matches such as these.  I know everyone has plans to make a fortune, I just don't get who they think will be watching....   In all the commentary, I've heard nary a word on the Japanese ratings for the broadcast.  It was, after all, for them....

ZoZo Doings - Standards have been lowered for the Skins Game, why not for this event as well:

PGA Tour's stop in Japan reaching blockbuster status

Show me one damn block that's been busted....

What’s not to like? 

Officials at the headquarters of the PGA Tour could not have envisioned the blockbuster status this week’s inaugural Zozo Championship at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan – the first official Tour event in the Land of the Rising Sun – would achieve so quickly. 

Nabbing Tiger Woods alone would have earned a call for champagne. 

But the game’s biggest star isn’t the only headliner. 

On Monday, the tournament launched with The Challenge: Japan Skins, which pitted Woods, the winner of 15 majors and the latest Masters, against world No. 2 and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, 2015 PGA champion Jason Day and Japan’s biggest star, Hideki Matsuyama, in an 18-hole Skins game for $350,000. 

All four are in the Zozo field and will be joined by major champions and past FedEx Cup champions Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, reigning U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, reigning British Open champion Shane Lowry and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott.

If you say so...  But the question that remains unanswered is how many of these folks will return next year with no Prez Cup inducement?  

This is also getting excessive coverage:

Tiger Woods tests eye-catching new TaylorMade putter at Japan Skins

Yes, this putter did very much catch my eye:

What?  Oh, I guess he didn't use that putter, but rather this one:

But he went back to his trusty Scottie for the main event....So, much ado about nada.

Back to our trusty TC panel for their take on what to expect from the Striped One this week:

3. Speaking of Tiger, he’s in the field for this week’s Zozo Championship, his first start since the BMW Championship and an arthroscopic procedure to repair minor cartilage damage in his left knee at the end of August. What should we expect from Tiger, and how much do you think his play this week will influence his decision to make himself a playing captain at the Presidents Cup? 

Shipnuck: Expectations are low but the stakes are high – this is Tiger’s audition for himself and would-be teammates to see if he’s ready for the Prez Cup. It’s okay if he’s rusty with the scoring clubs but he needs to look relatively spry and have some speed. Tiger’s old-man creakiness helped torpedo the last U.S. Ryder Cup team; we don’t need a sequel at Royal Melbourne. 

Bamberger: This is the week that can break the 2019 Presidents Cup. If Tiger plays really poorly, he can’t defend picking himself. And it’s a much better event if he’s the playing captain. He hasn’t played well after long layoffs all year. But he rises to occasions as few others have, ever. I think he’ll play well enough. There’s only, what, 78 in the field, and no cut? He’ll beat 50 guys anyway. 

Dethier: One subplot from Monday’s skins game is that this course can stand up to some seriously good players. Jason Day was hitting a 3-wood into a par 4! If Woods can string together four reasonably good rounds (and I expect him to) he’ll cement playing-captain status. 

Sens: I expect a “getting-in-his-reps” kind of performance — solid if unspectacular by Tiger standards. But I don’t think that makes or breaks the Presidents Cup. What comes close to breaking it — or at least pushing it further toward irrelevance — is another American rout. An International win would be a very good thing for this event. 

Zak: Based on how shaky he was to start the Skins, I’d expect some more rust. I don’t think he finishes in the top 20 this week. He’s competing against a lot of folks who have been playing on Tour the last few weeks. That’s worth something.

Kerr-Dineen: Expect what we usually see from Tiger upon his return: Rust, discomfort, and a finish underwhelming. In his post-peak years, Tiger’s form really does seem dependent on getting enough prerequisite tournament ‘reps.’

No clue, but the good news is we'll have his opening round to dissect on Thursday morning....How about we agree to overreact then?

Tiger, The Book -  Mike Bamberger is one of my faves in golf press corp, an interesting mixture of stubborn traditionalist and new age mystic.  But all in on Tiger, with a mile-wide blind spot methinks:

A caveat, painful though it is to type. Many, if not most, of my predictions about Tiger

Woods, over the last 24 years, have been when wrong. And yet: I believe Tiger Woods announced his retirement this week. It’s in the subtext of a press release about a book he is writing. 

There was no announced publication date for the book. If the publisher, HarperOne, had one, it would have been trumpeted. The guess here is the book will be excellent, and that it will come out on the last Tuesday in April in 2022, after the Masters and before the PGA Championship, when Woods will be 46. Jack Nicklaus was 46 when he won the 1986 Masters, his 20th and final major, professional and amateur titles combined. 

You can imagine Woods using the occasion of the book’s release to announce, with a sly nod to Nicklaus and one of his best phrases, that henceforth he will be a “ceremonial golfer.” At a minimum, he’ll have 18 majors himself then, professional and amateur combined. His professional career, the guts of it, will be a nice, neat quarter century.

At a minimum?  Care to specify which majors you see him bagging?  Because at the present I see 18 surgeries as the more likely achievement than 18 majors... 

The book, coupled with his new status as a ceremonial golfer, will pave the way for the rest of Woods’s public life, as course architect, team captain and assistant captain and advisor, golfing elder statesman, philanthropist and restaurant owner, all while enjoying the freedom that comes from being unchained from the secrets of one’s past. You can expect Woods to explore his complex feelings for fame, wealth, the game that made him and nearly broke him and made him again, his management team, Augusta National, other players, his caddies, his own body, his drug and alcohol use and the media spying that turned his private life inside out in 2009 and 2010. 

“This book is my definitive story,” Woods said in the press release. He is now under obligation to make those words true.

Mike, have you considered the possibility that Tiger doesn't do complex feelings?  or at least share them....

Anyway, Mike hopes that this book lives up to Andre Agassi's, though his reasoning seems a tad.... well, that word "naive" keeps rattling around in my brain:

Retirement was a pathway to candor for Agassi and looming semi-retirement may loosen Woods in a similar way, or so his publisher might bet and the reading public might hope.

Woods would not be bothering to write a book if this were a quick cash grab. The 1997 Masters: My Story, despite some interesting passages, lacked depth, breadth, candor and passion, at least for this reader. It did not sell well and had no cultural impact, not in golf and certainly not beyond. 

There would be no point in Woods going down that road again, and no publisher would pay him a serious amount of money to write such a book. The book about the 1997 Masters was written in a difficult period in Woods’s life, with his back often out and his future in the game impossible to predict. Of course, Tiger is often impossible to predict.

So, the guy that cashed a big check to phone in his prior book wouldn't do that again, because "there would be no point."   I guess Mike has never heard that that which gets rewarded, gets repeated.

The Tour Confidentialistas got a crack at this one as well:

6. Tiger Woods announced he’s working on the release of his memoir, Back, which he says will be his definitive story. “There have been books and articles and TV shows about me, most filled with errors, speculative and wrong,” Woods said in a release. If you were Tiger’s ghostwriter, which part of his career/life would you most encourage him to open up about? 

Bamberger: What he’s learned. As a player, as a father, as a husband, as a boss, as a son, as someone with addiction issues, as someone who has tried to find a place in the world. If he can somehow share with us what he has learned, and we can figure out a way to apply it to our own lives, the value of it all is incalculable. He’s led a remarkable life. There’s so much for him to take pride in, and so much for him to be bitter about (tabloid spying, for starters). I hope he can go deep, take off all the chains, and write a book for the ages. 

Sens: If he can strip away the press conference politeness and other sponsor-friendly speak, it would be interesting to hear him go deep on almost anything, because there’s always been the feeling that he’s held back on almost everything. Any resentment toward his dad for hoisting that “he’s-gonna-change-the-world” expectation on him? What was he thinking/feeling when Billy Payne lectured him about his personal life — and the broader context of that lecture? Tiger has willfully avoided wading into those areas in particular. Let’s hear the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. 

Shipnuck: I just hope he’s raw and real. Otherwise, what’s the point? 

Dethier: Yeah, some true self-reflection would go a long way here. One example: We’ve heard him talk generally about the rough times, but I wonder: When he allegedly thought he was done with golf forever, what was he thinking of doing?

Zak: I’d be fascinated to hear Woods discuss his thoughts on race and culture and his place in it all. Do I think I could guess the bland answer? Yes. But he cares about certain things — his foundation will tell you that — and not so much about others. I would like to hear him go deep on what he aligns with, and perhaps what he doesn’t. And to have him explain Cablinasian in modern, more sophisticated terms.

Kerr-Dineen: His formative years — those countless hours on the range in his youth that forged his identity and made Tiger, Tiger. The pressure, the expectation, the fear of failing in front of the world, the love of the game, the race-based scrutiny amid it all. It was in those years that all the faults and triumphs in his character were seeded, and when he was first plopped into the media fishbowl. Everything since then is merely a result of it.

All good stuff, but all of the wishful thinking variety.  As for Dylan, he's young so perhaps the short memory is excusable.  But Tiger has previously given us the answer when, during a previous hiatus, he spent his days playing Call of Duty....It could be that he's just not all that interesting except, you know, for being the best golfer we've ever seen.

Frisco Kids - Picture yourself as a struggling assistant golf professional at Goat Hills Muni (apologies to the late Mr. Jenkins), dutifully sending your dues checks into the PGA of America, the organization charged with protecting your interests amid the shifting sands of the golf world.

Today you walk to the curb to grab the local paper, and are treated to this story of use of those dues:

PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh and PGA of America Chief Operating Officer Darrell 

The future home of American golf.

Crall both call it “the future home of American golf.” 

Frisco mayor Jeff Cheney prefers to go with “the Silicon Valley of golf.” 

No matter which buzzy term you decide to adopt, the landscape of golf in the DFW area (and beyond) is going to change when construction of PGA Frisco completes in June 2022, which organizers say is still on track to happen.

Members of the media got their first look at the courses, which began light construction about three months ago, on Friday. Here are four key things you should know about the courses and the project.

 The first will come as quite the shock:

It’s huge

If you're an area golf fan, you’ve probably taken many trips to the TPC Four Seasons and Trinity Forest Golf Club -- the past and current homes of the AT&T Byron Nelson. For reference, the entire Four Seasons resort sits on a 400 acre plot of land. Trinity Forest is on a plot a little more than 200 acres. 

As for PGA Frisco? The entire project will sit on an 660 acre plot of land that was part of a larger 2,500 acre plot that belonged to the Estate of Bert Fields Jr.. That means it’s larger than both the TPC Four Seasons and Trinity Forest.

The golf portion includes two 18-hole championship courses -- the East Course and the West Course -- as well as a short course and practice areas. Organizers expect the new PGA of America headquarters to become the home of national player development and coaching programs. 

In total, the city of Frisco expects more than $2.5 billion in economic development over the next two decades, according to an economic impact study it commissioned.

Shockingly, they still haven't gotten to the benefits to that assistant professional above, though he's no doubt he'll be relieved to know that the Senior PGA Championship has a home in 2029.

This is why the term "Edifice Complex" was created.

Amateurism Today - Gary Van Sickle contemplates the effect of California's new Fair Play to Pay Act, though the hyperbole takes over the proceedings:

Feel that? The earthquake that California started is still rumbling. The world of NCAA athletics is still tumbling, and it’s not going to settle down any time soon. New York,

Pennsylvania and Florida are among states already considering similar laws. 

It is obvious that college sports and the NCAA will dramatically change in ways we can’t imagine if this revolution continues. This is why some NCAA officials and big-program athletic directors are whining and crying like little babies. Their gravy train has reached the end of the line. Their money machine is in jeopardy. 

In its long, money-grubbing history, the NCAA has done next to nothing to help student-athletes. So, I don’t feel bad for those pompous hypocrites. Maybe you see this new law differently. And maybe you booed when Luke Skywalker blew up the Empire’s Death Star, too. 

I don’t know what the NCAA’s next version will look like, but I know that fallout from the Fair Pay To Play Act, if it goes national, will give golf a bigger facelift than anything Kris Jenner has had … so far.

Some good zingers, but he hasn't exactly helped us understand how this might evolve and affect amateur golf.  Lost in the shuffle, it seems to me, is that the only value of any note to be found is in two other sports, and golf will be a mere sideshow.  Also missing from Mike's analysis is the extent to which the rules governing amateur golf have been compromised the last few years.  Not only have the kids beeen getting gear and apparel free for years, but Tony Romo and Lucy Li have made a mockery of the USGA's stewardship of amateur golf.

In fact, add this name to the list:

The Forecaddie noticed long ago that Steph Curry has been a Callaway fanboy, right down to his Warrior-themed wedges and visits to the company’s Ely Callaway

Performance Center. That makes news of an official partnership with the Carlsbad-based company a minor surprise. Nor is there much suspense in Curry’s real motivation for the endorsement arrangement: support for his various efforts to make golf more accessible for the underprivileged. 

The partnership includes Callaway support of Howard University’s launch of D1 men’s and women’s golf programs on top of Curry’s pledge to fund the university’s men’s and women’s programs for the next six years. The Callaway partnership will include co-produced content on top of his many efforts, including the new ABC mini-golf show “Holey Moley” and other Curry-endorsed efforts. 

“I am beyond excited for the opportunity to work with Callaway Golf,” Curry said. “Their ability to think outside the box on how we can collectively grow the game of golf is second to none.”

And yet, after his name comes that "a" signifying amateur status....

I'm not bent out of shape over the California statute, at least from a golf perspective.  The NCAA spoils system has long been begging for a renegotiation, but the benefit to golf is that there's no real value in the game at that level.

I am, however, concerned that we've lost our way in considering that status of the amateur in our game, and have allowed it to be compromised without any consideration of how it should evolve.  We also see it manipulated by those at the top of the food chain, which has me concerned.  I am unclear as to how we should manage the Romos and Currys, though I'm pretty sure the Lucy Lis of the world shouldn't be doing Apple commercials.

See you Thursday.