At first glance, it looks like we'll be covering two of the big three issues in the game today. The Distance Insights Report is the odd man out... But be bright of heart, we'll make for that with some incoming for Patrick...
Timing Is Everything - So, how about that week at The Riv? Not all was as it seems.... We at first wondered what might make Phil skip the adoring crowds in Scottsdale and head to Saudi Arabia? Well, turns out that perhaps that incredibly deep field was there for other reasons:
There have been widespread rumblings throughout the week about the proposed Premier Golf League splinter tour. A meeting Tuesday night at the nearby home of a Middle Eastern financier drew agents for most top stars and seven PGA Tour players, though Woods was not among those present. Outwardly, he remains focused on this week, this leaderboard.
This photo and caption I found amusing:
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| BROOKS KOEPKA AND PHIL MICKELSON WALK BY THE 13TH HOLE HOME WHERE A PGL MEET-AND-GREET WAS HELD. |
OK, did they all wear one of those "Hello, My Nam is...." tags? 'Cause I'm thinking that no introductions were necessary....
But the irony, she burns. Because the event about to unfold was everything the PGL has promised, and told us doesn't exist currently in our game. But a good call to get everyone together on Tuesday, because our Phil, that guy I had been reliably informed had rediscovered his form, was not on the premises over the weekend.
From Geoff's long post, Phil is twisting in the breeze:
On site rumors were flying that Mickelson was ready to reach a decision on the proposed league last week. Since he’d almost assuredly be a founding team captain and a major draw even as he nears 50, Mickelson’s verdict could make or break the proposed Tour.
When asked at Torrey Pines he was “intrigued,” before playing in Saudi Arabia with league officials in that week’s pro-am. Asked after missing the Genesis Invitational cut where he stood, Mickelson told those of us assembled he was “not really ready to talk about” his position.
“I’m going to play Bay Hill and Players, I’m going to guess by the Players I’m going to have a pretty good opinion. I would guess. I’m not going to promise that. I’ll probably have an opinion by then.”
Unlike rectums, Phil has no shortage of opinions.... Alas, most of them recently seem to come via the aforementioned orifice.
But this to me is a surprise, that they're at a point where Phil could say yea or nay....This has struck me one of those classic chicken or egg deal, where regardless of the underlying merits, it's hard to see how it can happen because:
- The players won't commit until the money is assured, yet:
- The money won't be committed until the players are on board.
And that second point has its own prisoner's dilemma contained within, as you can't get Phil without Tiger. But how can you get Tiger on board without Phil.... Strike that, Phil not on board might be more a feature to Tiger and less a bug....But you see the challenge, as does JR:
“I don’t see a situation where eight guys go, or four go. It’d be an all or none situation, and I don’t know how it gets to that point and I don’t even know if that point is good.”
And one assumes that money will have changed hands.... And if you need them all, as JR agrees, then that means a lot of money changing hands, long before any actual golf can be played.
If last week (or in a few weeks at The Players, and doing it on the Tour's home turf has all sorts of "I drink your milkshake" schadenfreude to recommend it), what happens next? It's a hard question to answer. Jay has made clear that it will be war, though he spoke in terms of once the competing league is up and running. Players will never be allowed to belong to both Tours, Jay feels very strongly about his own milkshake. But just an announcement of his intention to participate? Stay tuned...
But mostly it seems too early... That Jay would want to have this out now, because the PGL has far too many questions unanswered, such as:
One of Rose’s primary questions involves venues. The group’s documents pledge to take events to the best courses in the world and list several ambitious sites, including last week’s Genesis host, Riviera Country Club. But the combination of modern day tournament needs and a reduced number of classic courses capable of testing the world’s best, could be a limiting factor.“Venue quality is one of the most important things,” Rose said. “Whether the purse is $8 million or $9 million, that’s not how I’m choosing my schedule.“When I hosted the British Masters, golf course was everything for me so I think that’s a huge thing. Now we’re talking about 18 brand new events, the talk is the best golf courses around the world. I’d like to see a list.”
I can't find it right now, but apparently the PGL guys have been throwing out venue names, including that of Riviera Country Club. Again with the timing guys, because the Riviera folks have to be feeling in a good place right now, with field strength far superior to this week's WGC.
But even the things they're offering should have huge asterisk:
Rose is, however, bullish on many elements of the proposed schedule as an “international player” who is torn with the “loyalty question” of wanting to support both the PGA Tour and European Tour.“The attractive thing is the schedule,” Rose said of the proposed January to September schedule. “I always feel for me, taking time off and trying to play the European Tour as well, I don’t play much on the PGA Tour in October, November, December, January and I wake up 2000 points behind. You’re always playing catch up in the season long race, so to have something that was a bit more easy as an International player, would fit me better.”
Of course it does, and I do hope Jay is taking notes.... It's almost like the Fall wraparound schedule is a joke or something...
But folks are talking about the Hero World and Australian Opens being part of the PGL schedule, and my calendar indicates December dates for those.
To me, the appeal comes down one thing... Oh, they'll try to distract us with misderection like this:
“Format wise it’s about seeing the top players playing against each other more regularly. I think we’d all like to see that but it’s often not as simple as that. There’s 100’s of questions that need to be answered, which don’t seem to be getting answered very quickly.”
Taken to its logical extreme, that means the ultimate in golf is the Tiger v. Phil Las Vegas cage match. Hey, you want to players in the world against each other? And I've been reliably informed that Phil is one of the best players in the world. A good thing, too, because had I not been so informed, it would be impossible to conclude from watching actual golf.
As I've occasionally cautioned, when folks tell you it isn't about the money...
Rose was referring to an increasingly problematic notion facing the PGA Tour. Namely, that top players see tournaments continually added where purses are funded by the same media rights pool that also funds lesser events. Meanwhile, when the people who do sell tickets, they aren’t paid.
This is, of course, true, because there wouldn't be any other way to organize a tour. The argument has to be about the relative allocation, but we can all stipulate to the fact that Tiger is underpaid.
But this also highlights to me the weakest part of the PGL proposal, the mechanism by which new talent will emerge.
I found Freddie's take amusing as well, when he was asked late last week about the PGL:
"I saw Jay Monahan's quote. That's how long I follow it," Couples said Thursday, where the two-time Chubb Classic champion was practicing for this week at The Classics at Lely Resort.
"You play there, you don't play on the Tour," he summarized Monahan. "Your choice. You want to win one of these things or you want to win the L.A. Open?
That in a nutshell is the prestige argument.... Though it comes with its own side dish of irony, because, as astute readers will quickly note, there is no longer an event called the L.A. Open. I would argue that all parties would be well served to call it the Genesis L.A. Open, but that's an argument for another day...or Invitational, but still.
Also ironic is that prestige and/or tradition argument is Jay's ace in the hole, but again and again we see the major organization unnecessarily shedding their ties to the game's incredibly rich heritage. For instance, how's business at the Tom Morris shop next to the 18th green at the Old Course? Oh right, Tom Morris is just a dead white guy...
Consider The Source - It seems I'm not the only old guy that's demonstrably in the "Get off my lawn" stage of life. Peter Kostis might want to see someone about that anger...
Obviously Peter is going to dish for us, and for that we are grateful.. Of course it presents an issue, because he's still obviously in the throes of his firing-triggered PTSD ... There's no surprise in his take-no-prisoners rant, but does it ring true? These comments were made on the No Laying Up podcast (which Geoff encourages us to listen to, but fails to provide a link), though your lazy blogger is merely copying-and-pasting from Shack's post, thus leaving him entirely on the hook for any errors in the jotting down thereof:
—On his non-renewal last fall from CBS. “I don’t think there was a plan in place.They had not signed other announcers. prior to not renewing Gary’s and my option years. So I don’t think there was a plan in place.”
—On who drove his non-renewal: “I honestly think, and this is my opinion, and it’s been corroborated by some anonymous inside sources, that media likes to use these days, that it was the tour that told CBS to get younger, I think the Tour had an issue with me not being a cheerleader, I think they had an issue with Gary sometimes…
Peter, I'd have advised you to skip that first point... It might even be true, but the fact that the only they were sure of is the need to be rid of you seems, as the lawyers would say, an admission against interest.
That second point seems entirely believable, as all of our major golf organizations have been caught pandering to the millennials.... Peter just doesn't seem like a Live Under Par™ kinda guy. But the concept that Peter wasn't a tour sycophant? That's a stretch.... Maybe they couldn't tell Gary and you apart?
—On his call with CBS Sports head Sean McManus: “I asked Sean McManus, why he was doing it, was it something I did or didn’t do. He said ‘Things had gotten a bit stale and we wanted to go in a new direction.’ He denies it now but that was the exact quote and that’s what he told Gary as well.”
The diagnosis was spot on.... The treatment, however, has been ineffective. He's correct that real problem with the broadcast is to be found in the 18th hole tower, but those guys are harder to swap out.
—Majors are off-limits. Kostis tells of interview a player on his first win, and noting that it came with two years of job security and a Masters invitation. “I got a call the next day from New York, they had gotten a call from the Commissioner, that he had won 500 FedExCup points and didn’t want me talking about majors.” He then mentions he did it again in another interview. “I did it again, because they told me not to do it, if you notice toward the middle of last year, I stopped doing interviews with the winners. They shifted it over to Amanda.It was me being told I wasn’t listening correctly.”
Which Commissioner? I sense the presence of Nurse Rtached....Utterly believable, though I frankly doubt it had anything to do with his firing...
—On where things are headed. “The Tour wants more control over what’s being said. I think they want more cheerleaders on the telecasts. More people that are going to “promote the Tour’s product,” you know which, we’re bridging into the stuff that people are really upset about: the quality of the telecast: I’ll say this, from the bottom of my heart, I believe this, no one in management of a network, or leadership of the PGA Tour, give’s a rat’s ass about the quality of the telecast. They don’t care about the quality of the viewer experience. They don’t care about anything other than promotion.”
See, this is where Peter isn't helping himself. The problem isn't that they don't care, it's more a combination of prioritizing their objectives and being out of touch with the actual audience.
And Peter seems ignorant of the real world here:
—”When the Tour keeps up and upping the rights fees, CBS has to get the money back somehow, hence, a gajilion commercials. The Tour goes to the Korn Ferry Tour, we’re going to give you pops, FedEx ex number of times…“So they use the telecast to pay off, if you will, people who bring money into the tour. It clutters up the telecast to no end.”
So, I'll just mark you down as a Bernie Bro then? peter, we completely gets that these are business, yet is seems to come as an unpleasant surprise to you.... Did you think CBS was a charity? Business will be conducted, Cialis will be hawked, the FedEx Cup will be mentioned...
Now here I think he's onto something:
—On the next model. “The word on the street, there is not going to be a CBS compound, NBC compound, but an Olympics world feed” and then later says, “Imagine what’s going to have to happen on the telecast…I’m not one feeling good about the tour taking over more control.”
Nor am I... And that's why Jay wants to dispense with the PGL threat now, before he invests in developing this capability.
As for this?
—Gambling. “Everything is going to revolve around gambling” in the PGA Tour’s future models for revenue growth.
Silly me, I thought it was all about golf.
Takeaways - Alan Shipnuck shares thoughts on that which we learned at Riviera, doing so under this amusing header:
7 things we learned at the new fifth major (aka, the Genesis Invitational!)
According to Kostis, this denigration of The Players, now relegated to the sixth of four, should get Alan fired.... Still, we like funny...
So, Alan, what did we learn?
1. Tiger’s back … is both a declarative and cause for concern. Over the final 63 holesWoods’ swing looked constricted and out of sorts, and he putted like a guy who was too stiff to practice. Chilly mornings, as in L.A. in February, are always going to be problematic. Florida heat and non-poa greens will surely help. But Tiger’s milquetoast play at Riviera was a reminder of how delicate this ongoing comeback remains.
Didn't we know that already from Prez Cup Saturday?
2. The distance debate is over … as long as we can play tournaments on Golden Age classics with firm, fast greens. Just as with Pebble Beach, petite Riviera more than held its own, thanks to a dry winter that allowed for a fiery setup. Alas, golf is an outdoor game and soggy Florida is on the horizon, with the ensuing spring and summer showers ensuring that bomb ’n gouge will once again reign supreme. Le sigh.
Everyone talks about the weather....
3. Adam Scott ain’t done yet. That’s now wins in back-to-back starts for the sweet-swinging Aussie. Scott has always said his goal is to win the career Grand Slam, which has manifold talent made seem realistic. It remains a tall mountain to climb but once again Scott is on the ascent.
Like Webb Simpson, I do give Scott all sorts of credit for working his way back from the anchored putting ban. But he remains as he ever was, a great ball-striker that struggles with the putter. Ultimately, such a good ball-striker (or more that he just has the prettiest swing out there), that his career seems a disappointment.
4. Rory is still gonna Rory. McIlroy’s best golf has never been more awe-inspiring but Riviera was a glum reminder that the world number one can still lose the plot at any moment. There’s no use pining for a Tiger-like grind because that’s simply not Rory’s personality. The key, I suppose, is not to overreact to these shockers, knowing that they are inevitable. The good news is that McIlroy is never far from finding from it.
Pulleaze.... you and your mates in press get the vapors when Rory has a Sunday collapse, as if he's suddenly found magic. The man is a horrible putter, and plays his worst golf when he wants it most.... I get the abundance of natural talent, but the boyhood friend on the bag tells me all I need to know about where his head is.
5. Max Homa is more than Twitter star. It’s not an accident that his breakthrough last year came at a big-time course like Quail Hollow. Since then, Homa has made it a point to play well on the Tour’s best courses, with a strong run being the latest example. Prepare for DEFCON 1 on social media because it appears that Homa is going to be a consistent contender for a good long while.
I wouldn't know, because I watched the event on CBS.
6. Dustin Johnson remains diminished. Once the Tour’s most prolific winner, DJ has reached the one-year anniversary of his last victory. Now 35 and coming off knee surgery, Johnson could have made a statement at Riv but he retreated badly on Sunday. It’s still too early to panic but golf is a lot more fun when Johnson is in full flight. Here’s hoping he returns to form soon.
News flash: Rory is gonna Rory, and DJ is gonna DJ.... If Adam Scott isn't the biggest underachiever on Tour, then America will turn its lonely eyes to this guy...
7. The tournament was the most eloquent rebuttal imaginable to the PGL. You could see how much the victory meant to Scott, and how bummed the other would-be challengers were to not get it done. An iconic venue dripping with history is what makes a tournament meaningful. You can’t buy that no matter how many Saudi princes are your backers.
Who was it that said, The irony, she burns"? Oh right, it was me...
Cat Fight - This is juicy, and could easily eclipse the Bernie-Bloomie cage match:
In a town hall interview this week on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, Koepka said that Patrick Reed knew what he was doing when he was “building sand castles” in the bunkerat the Hero World Challenge.
When asked by host Sway Calloway if Reed was cheating when he improved his lie, Koepka said: “Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand. But you know where your club is. I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touch sand. If you look at the video, obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.”
It's time to check the adequacy of my strategic popcorn reserve...
Of course I love the cat fight aspect to this, and eagerly away Patrick's thoughtful response. And there's no shortage of Astros references:
Koepka compared the Reed situation to the Astros sign-stealing scandal and said that there’s “no room” in the game for intentional rule breaking. He said that most rules infractions are difficult to prove, unless the players are caught on camera.
This Golf.com item includes a great quote from Astros owner Jim Crane:
I guess the Astros are going through that right now. Jim Crane said it, when he got asked, ‘Is it cheating?’ And he said, ‘No, we just broke the rules.’ … If you play the game you understand the rules. You understand the integrity that goes on. I mean, there’s no room for it…”
Which is almost to the word how Patrick answered, though I'm thinking Patrick has more of a case than Crane. Let's see, we intentionally and repeatedly broke a rule to give batters a significant advantage, but why would you equate that with cheating? And how can you mean girls think we were still cheating in 2018 and 2019, when we gave you our word?
But as much as I encourage the squabbling, I'm thinking that this might be the more significant comment:
In fact, during a U.S. Open (he didn’t specify which year), Koepka said that he watched one of his fellow playing competitors blow a drive right, into 6-inch rough. He saw that player take out a 3-wood and pat down the thick rough behind the ball, only to then grab a wedge and hack the ball out 60 yards down the fairway. Koepka looked at the other player in his group and said, “This ain’t right.”
“It goes on a little bit more than people think,” he said, before adding: "I’ve been guilty of it. I haven’t opened my mouth. But now if I saw it, just because of where I’m at in the game, the stature that I have, I would definitely say something.”
What do you mean by "a little"?
I assume that his confession is to not speaking up, not that he's copping to have improved his own lie. And that reminds me that it can be all about the relative standing of the players. For instance, anybody but me remember Tiger's 2013 sequence of rules infractions? The worst of the bunch was actually a drop he took at TPC Sawgrass No. 14, after pulling his tee ball into the water.
To me the most interesting aspect of it was that awkward moment on the tee when Tiger had to consider where to drop. His playing partner that day was Casey Wittenberg, and that pairing accounts for a combined 82 PGA Tour wins and 15 majors.... Am I making my point clearly? Tiger asks or asserts that his ball crossed land so as to give him the more favorable drop, and what kind of reaction do we expect from poor Casey? He's gonna tell God that he can't drop where he wants to? I just don't think so...
Coming Attractions - It's all good. I love Brooksie spanking Patrick, and Peter trashing everyone. But is it possible the best is yet to come? I don't want to get your hopes up, but buried deep in Geoff's post (not so much deep as easy to read past) is this little nugget:
I finally had to pause though I hear the rest on Patrick Reed is also going to be blog worthy tomorrow
There was this as well:
Other Patrick incidents? Do tell....Can it possibly live up to my rich imagination?
I'll certainly be here tomorrow for that, and hope you will as well.
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