The bride and I are both under the weather, hence my early return from Utah. This will pass, though I do fear for the adequacy of our Strategic Kleenex Reserve. I just ask that you attribute any delusional comments to the fever...
I Saw It On TV - I remain the '62 Mets of fantasy golf, but this one I nailed (this is a rare Sports Business Journal piece that's not behind a paywall, so do give them a pageview):
The next big media deal is about to hit, one that has the potential to reset the sports rights marketplace over the next several years. CBS and NBC have agreed on the broad termsof new deals that will see the PGA Tour reap a sizable rights fee increase of around 60%, multiple sources told me. The Tour also has agreed to terms with Golf Channel, which will see its rights fee more than double -- not a huge surprise since Golf Channel’s last deal was cut in 2006. It is not known if the Tour will take an ownership stake in Golf Channel as part of the deal.Nothing has been signed yet; but the Tour and networks essentially have agreed on terms with only a few minor sticking points remaining. The PGA Tour did not take the short money here, opting instead for long-term deals that will run for nine years from 2022-2030. By early estimates, it’s likely that the PGA Tour could bring around $700 million per year with these new deals, compared to its current deals that were worth around $400 million.CBS and NBC essentially will keep the same regular-season packages. The big difference will be seen with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. CBS and NBC will produce all three playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship, in alternating years. As part of the nine-year deals, NBC will carry the playoffs five times and CBS will carry them four times. Previously, NBC and CBS shared these rights, with NBC producing most of them each year.
There were months of head fakes, indicating bidders ranging from A to.... well, A. That being, of course, Amazon and AT&T. Given that the average age of golf viewers is, with apologies to Tom Lehrer, dead for three years, it made little sense that the broadcasts would be anywhere but on the major broadcast networks.
The long-term nature of the deal, nine years, might surprise folks, but there are those of us who expect a realignment in the sports rights market. Admittedly my reading comprehension skills are illness-impaired, but I can find no mention of the status of Golf Channel in the various reports on these negotiations.
Left unresolved are the final resting place for the streaming rights:
An official announcement is not expected to come until early next year. The big hold-up is with digital rights, which are currently held by NBC Sports as part of PGA Tour Live and are still being negotiated. ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live, includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally. After initial interest, it appears that Amazon has dropped out of the bidding. Sources said it was too difficult to handicap a favorite for the digital rights.
As noted above, are these rights before the Networks, meaning CBS and NBC, or before Golf Channel's early coverage?
Shack's post on this news is well worth your time, and he also has this follow-up on the digital rights:
ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live,includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally.While we have no idea what the deal terms look like, what the coverage windows might entail and what the PGA Tour’s goals are for their streaming coverage, news that ESPN is relegated to bidding on pre-network coverage and PGA Tour Live begs this question: will the PGA Tour learn from the mistakes of the USGA?
As long as the checks have cleared, I don't think the USGA feels it erred....Here's Geoff's premise:
Even rival executives shake their head to this day at the stupidity of cutting off ESPN, which, even with fewer homes and ratings declines since 2013 when that decision was made in Far Hills, remains immensely powerful. They can decide how much to cover and promote a sport while still establishing the sports conversation. The USGA has presumably learned their lesson after falling off the relevancy cliff by shunning two hugely powerfully companies with their deal. So will the PGA Tour find a way to invest ESPN in the PGA Tour, or go with a unproven entity in Discovery’s GolfTV Powered by the PGA Tour?
But a couple of points need to be made. First, we're not talking coverage on ESPN's basic cable channel, but streaming coverage on ESPN+, a paid subscription service. Yes, ESPN is a force in the sports world, but it's the old big fish-little pond dilemma with no clear logic in either direction.
Second, and perhaps of greater import, we're discussing content about which no one cares. The is pre-network coverage, the high point of which is Tiger's arrival in the parking lot. I know, in the great future ahead of us this will be significant, but how about we revisit this issue in, say, nine years?
In further TV news, the shake-up at one of those "winners" continues:
CBS Sports' overhaul of its golf broadcast continued on Monday.
The network announced that Lance Barrow, who has served as the golf division's coordinating producer since 1997, will step down following the 2020 season.
“For over 40 years Lance has embodied the tradition and history of CBS Sports golf and set the standard of excellence in golf production,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. “He is a golf institution and has been a tremendous ambassador of the sport on behalf of CBS Sports. We can’t thank Lance enough for his many contributions.
Barrow, who joined CBS Sports as a reporter in 1976, has earned 12 Emmys during his tenure at the network. However, while Barrow presided over a successful transition from legendary producer Frank Chirkinian, the CBS golf telecast has come under fire the past few seasons for a stilted, out-of-touch presentation. Barrow's exit is the latest move, following the firings of Gary McCord and Peter Kostis and additions of Davis Love III and Frank Nobilo, to reconstruct the network's approach to the sport.
Fine. Just wake me up when they defenestrate the 18th hole tower....otherwise we're all best off watching their broadcast with the sound off.
Though Shack did get to the question that's top of all minds:
And the most pressing question of all should settled soon: is the CEO mid-final round interview a thing of the past?
With our luck, they'll move it to the closing stretch...
Prez Cup, Patrick Reed Edition - Shack plays aggregator-in-chief for a roundup of items on Captain America, first from Eamon Lynch with a Faustian analysis:
Eventually the wins will begin to ebb and the losses will start to flow, and like lousycasino bets the occasional positive won’t cover the many negatives. You’ll still receive more grace than you give though. And in those moments of loss, people will know you stood firm against headwinds that flipped weaker men. Others will perform better, and represent better, but the team won’t break ranks while its interest and yours remain aligned. And that interest is winning. Who will bench Captain America for fear an unproven alternative delivers less?
It’s like you always say: you make birdies, you don’t hear much.
Investing in Captain America comes at a cost, of course. Everyone understands that accounting. Longtime allies will melt away. Reputations built on probity will be blemished. Men of character will sit on the sidelines while one with none takes the field. But payment for that will be due someone else. Captain America’s end, when it comes, won’t be amid the raucous cheers and backslapping that defined his victories. It will be a somber affair, decided in some nondescript office when powerful men, an eye trained on their disillusioned core supporters, say simply, enough.
Thanks for cheering us up, Eamon.... Though the concept of benching Captain America comes with a potentially fatal flaw, to wit, what if he's an automatic qualifier?
Next up here (Geoff presents in a different order) is ESPN's Bob Harig:
No, perhaps it is time for some reflection, some introspection. Reed is a unique talent, a guy with plenty of moxie.
But his brashness has gotten him into trouble, and the way he doubled down on the rules incident without acknowledging remorse only served to make things worse. Seems the next few weeks, prior to the start of 2020, might be a window to sort some of that out, perhaps returning with a new perspective.
Reflection? Introspection? You're a funny guy, Bob.
Last up is Ryan Lavner, who captures the team dynamics well:
Next month he’ll test that theory when he returns to the PGA Tour, when the lone wolf figures to be even more isolated after being embroiled in a rules fiasco. The moment he stepped off the U.S. charter he exited the protective cocoon of team play. No more captains and teammates shrugging off his misbehavior for the sake of team unity. No more reporters being held at arm’s length. No more hiding behind a red, white and blue banner. It’ll be Reed, alone, facing fan criticism and absorbing daggers from his peers.How Reed navigates the next nine months, until the 2020 Ryder Cup, will be an insight into the rest of his career – and to this point, he’s shown zero remorse or any interest in image rehabilitation.
Though he was an easy target for Australian fans – especially after a few International team members encouraged the crowd to razz him – Reed didn’t do himself any favors at Royal Melbourne, or the week before in the Bahamas. He insisted that he didn’t intentionally break the rules. He offered excuses that were both absurd (only one camera angle) and ignorant (that if he had really improved his lie, he would have stuck it close).
When the situation called for contrition and humility, he instead sounded indignant.
Contrition? Heh, that's as off-the-wall as introspection... But it's a useful reminder that that Ryder Cup is a quick turnaround.
I do feel for the U.S. Ryder Cup team and the necessity of defending the indefensible. poor Webb Simpson, especially, who one assumes drew the short straw. Presumably he's taken enough showers by name to wash away the shame...
And now w eget into the crux of the matter at least to me. The role of one Eldrick Woods in this matter:
U.S. Presidents Cup captain Tiger Woods was criticized in some corners for bringing Reed back into the fold so quickly after the 2018 Ryder Cup debacle, but at the time the gamble was defensible. After all, Reed was one of the few U.S. players who had competed deep into the fall, trying to keep his game sharp, and Woods and Co. could always fall back on Reed’s body of work and passion for team play. It’s no different than when a general manager acquires a troubled player, hoping that the team’s culture and a change of scenery will inspire a return to greatness, or at least good behavior.
If anyone could reincorporate Reed, it’d be Woods, but the captain couldn’t have known that his controversial pick would have backfired a few days before they departed for Australia, creating a firestorm that cast a pall over the entire event. For the first time the Americans won in spite of Reed, not because of him, and that doesn’t bode well for his participation in team competitions moving forward.
It was some fifteen months ago that we all universally opined that Mr. Reed had best automatically qualify for such events, because he'd never be the recipient of a Captain's pick. And especially from one Tiger Woods, who has a history of responding harshly to perceived affronts (see, Ames, Stephen; Williams, Stevie and Haney, Hank).
And yet, despite that deplorable behavior in Paris, Tiger's affection for the man continues unabated. I'd like to take you on a trip down memory lane in view of Patrick's behavior, revisiting a story that's eerily similar. I'm not sufficiently presumptuous to offer this as an explanation, but the similarity is to me striking. The context is the 2013 BMW Championship, in a year that included at least four significant rules imbroglios for Tiger:
Tiger Woods was penalized two strokes after his BMW Championship second round because officials ruled that his ball moved as he moved nearby loose impediments before his third shot on Conway Farms’ first hole.
Woods hit an approach over the green and into brush on that 360-yard hole. He chipped short, chipped on and missed a putt, making what he thought was a double bogey. But Slugger White, PGA Tour vice president of rules and competitions, informed Woods in the scoring trailer after the round that video review showed that the world No. 1 player’s ball moved as Woods moved a stick before that first chip.
After White and Woods reviewed the video together in the scoring trailer behind the 18th green, Woods remained adamant that his ball oscillated in the same spot rather than moved, White said.
“But this video was at the site, and the ball did, in fact, move,” White said of the footage, which can be viewed on the Tour’s website.
A reporter standing outside the scoring trailer said there was a loud thump against an inside wall before Woods walked outside. The reporter’s sense was that Woods punched the wall in frustration, but White would neither confirm nor deny.
“Let’s just say there was frustration,” White said. “He was a little disbelieving.”
This was a tough one, even borderline unfair. One could not see the ball move in real-time replays, but the determination that the ball moved was equally clear cut on high-speed video. Yet Tiger's refusal to admit it struck me at the time as stubborn petulance, which isn't a good look for any of us. I don't mind in the least the punching of a trailer wall, as we all can understand the frustration of a competitor. But we all can see the ball move, so what exactly was Slugger to do?
But isn't that the very same reaction of reed to shovelgate? Bad camera angle, oscillation, whatever? Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?
If I were a reporter, the guy I'd want to interview right now is Steve Stricker. Well, after Webb Simpson, of course....
One last piece, a little Twitter spat that goes to Brad Klein, 6&5:
Wait. I was reliably informed that the caddie's primary obligation is to protect his player, yanno, physically. The longer this goes on, the more comfortable I am with the use of the C-word.
Prez Cup, Non-Patrick Edition - Some reflections on the event, first from Dan Rappaport:
2. What a joy it was to see Tiger Woods take apart Royal Melbourne with masterfulprecision. Of the 24 players who played in the Presidents Cup, Woods was middle of the pack in distance, if not slightly below average. But on a course where distance was secondary to guile, strategy and variety, Tiger wasn’t just the best player on his team. He was the best player in the competition.
I never saw Woods play live at the height of his game in the early 2000s—well, I did, but I wasn’t yet 10 years old, so perhaps my golf analysis wasn’t yet refined. But it’s hard to think it was all that different to watching him from Australia. Woods was in complete control of all aspects of his game, and able to call on most any shot knowing he could pull it off. Seeing it first-hand is an experience I’ll never forget.
Yes, for sure. This is a huge issue for our game in the era of bomb-and-gouge, because along with knee-deep rough and tiny greens, how else do we challenge the best players on the planet. Tiger put on a master class of iron play, but he's long been the best iron player in the game.
Amusingly, Dan argues for a change in our lexicography:
16. How many times did we hear the term “firm and fast” this week? A thousand? A thought experiment: Is it possible for a course—not just putting greens, but the whole course—to be firm but not fast? Or fast but not firm? Why don’t we just save ourselves some keyboard clicks and combine the two words: “This course is firmandfast.”
Greens can certainly be firm and slow, though he's probably right about the rest of the course.
I also completely agree with him on this guy"
6. We’ll continue with some nuggets on the International team members. Let’s start with their best player, Sungjae Im. I can’t say enough good things about this golfing machine,who seems rather content to live a simple life of eating, practicing, playing golf and sleeping. Rinse, repeat. He demolished Gary Woodland in singles on Sunday, and Woodland didn’t play poorly at all. “I played great, and got steamrolled,” Woodland said. Just 21, Im has the potential to be an anchor of International teams for decades to come, and he’s as good a bet as anyone to win multiple majors in the 2020s. I’m buying every available piece of Sungjae Im stock.
I have callouses older than he is.... But what a talent.
On this guy, I'm still on the fence:
12. Tony Finau has become a fixture in recent years on leader boards at golf’s most important tournaments and a member of the last two team-play competitions. His game travels and holds up on the biggest stages. It’s one of the weirdest things, then, that he still has only one victory: the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. Having just turned 30, it’s fair to say that it’s time for Finau to start cashing in on his all-world talent by winning some freakin’ golf tournaments already. He’s past ready to make the leap from exciting newcomer to established champion. He’s extremely overdue.
The surprise was his putter, a she seemed to make everything. If he can continue to channel his inner Bobby Locke, there's nothing holding him back.
As for this, we all agree, it's just impossible to make it work in the real world:
17. There is nothing like the momentum shifts in match play. At one point on Friday afternoon, the International side held a back-nine lead in all five matches of the foursomes session. It legitimately looked like it would sweep and take a ridiculous 9-1 lead on the Americans. About an hour later, the U.S. had a legitimate chance to sweep the session. Things happen so, so much faster in match play than they do in stroke play.
After every one of these team events, I have the same takeaway: pro golf needs more meaningful match play than one team event and one buzzless WGC each year. I’m not sure what that looks like. Maybe the Tour Championship/FedEx Cup should incorporate some match play? Perhaps a stroke play aspect to narrow it down to eight players, then have them square off for $15 million? I’m spitballing here, but the point is these guys clearly love going head-to-head, and it feels like casual fans can identify more with a putt to win or tie a hole than a putt to save par and keep place in a competition against 150 other players.
Dan, it's really team match play that has you agog. Individual match play can be a dreary thing, as events typically end with Tour Rabbits playing lopsided matches.... It doesn't work for TV, and not much more for the rest of us. Let me know when you come up with something, because pretty much everyone else has thrown in the towel.
How about these dueling headers:
Presidents Cup is real winner as Ernie Els' Internationals breathe life into event
Did Team International squander its last, best chance to end its Presidents Cup losing streak?
I actually consider it an historically weak International team, what with those seven rookies. Two of the last three have been nip-and-tuck affairs, so the gnashing of teeth seems unnecessary. But I'm looking forward to that 2023 installment, when Captains Patrick reed and Cam Smith do battle.
This will shock no one, but Freddie spills the beans about Saturday:
On his Sirius XM Radio show, Fred Couples explained the assistant captains’ surprise when Woods said he was sitting out in the afternoon.
“At about 10 o’clock, he said, ‘Guys, my body is not going to let me go,” Couples said. “I’m not going to play this afternoon.’ Of course, [Steve] Stricker hopped on and said, ‘Tiger, please, can you go in right now and get loose and warm?’ He said, ‘Strick, I can’t do it.’ Zach [Johnson] said, ‘Tiger, are you sure, you sure?’
“And [Woods] said, ‘I believe in the team,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, so do I, but I believe that you need to be playing Saturday afternoon.”
Asked to justify his decision to sit the entire day at the time, Woods said “You have to do what’s best for the team, and I’m getting ready for the singles tomorrow.” He was asked a follow up if he was injured and said “No.”
A couple of reactions. First, Tiger told us ad nauseum that he trusted his teammates, though his assistant captains apparently didn't partake of the Kool-Aid.
But how do we feel about the bold-faced lie? This has always driven me crazy about Tiger, and I know that it's inconsistent with the Tour's embrace of legalized sports betting, but it just seems so unnecessary. And really, why should we believe anything else the man tells us?
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