Weekend Wrap

We're in no-man's land at this moment.  It's unclear whether there's any more golf to be played and, more importantly, whether there will be a ski season... We do have a couple of major stories to discuss, so we'll do the best with what we have.

It's a Monday, so our bias is always to lede with after-action reporting...

The Match III - The reviews are in, and it seems that folks....well, didn't hate it?

It was the perfect day-after-Thanksgiving viewing. No one wants anything too serious when they’re still digesting the previous night’s feast, and this third edition of these made-for-TV matches—this one officially dubbed “The Match: Champions for Change”—never promised to be anything more than pure entertainment for wonderful causes.

It was certainly entertaining. Despite giving up some 16 shots in combined handicaps—at least allegedly, more on that in a second—the team of Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley dominated Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry on the type of cloudless late-November Arizona day that has you wondering why you don’t live out West.

Most importantly, the broadcast raised $5,455,000 for historically black colleges and universities, and will result in more than 3.7 million meals donated to those in need.

Perfect?  Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations.... But I realize now that these guys are really quite brilliant, playing three-dimensional chess to our checkers.  Specifically, I can now see where that initial installment was deliberately dreadful, necessary to lower the bar for the future iterations...  Well played, Phil!

Daniel Rappaport has six takeaways, so let's see if he's captured the zeitgeist:

PGA Tour pros are really, disgustingly, insanely good

This is not new information, of course. We know damn well that PGA Tour players are among the best golfers in the world. Moreover, we know that Mickelson is a legend of the game. And yet, Mickelson and Barkley were underdogs coming into this match. We’d guess the oddsmakers’ reasoning went something like this: The modified alternate-shot format (also known as Pinehurst) meant Mickelson would have to play more than a few of Barkley’s shots, and Barkley is an absolutely horrible golfer, while the other team features two pretty darned good golfers.

Turns out, if only one team in a golf match has a PGA Tour pro, you should back the team with the PGA Tour pro.

Mickelson did indeed have to play a number of Barkley’s shots, but it didn’t matter. He was able to limit the damage and often put Barkley in spots where he just had to lag a putt close enough for Phil to make it. Granted, Curry played pretty awfully for a plus-handicap, and Barkley did hit some good ones. And, of course, hindsight is 20/20. But looking back, those pre-match odds were something of a headscratcher.

I think we can all readily see that Dan needs to get out more.  Not least because, as well-chosen and entertaining as the format proved to be, it's not a Pinehurst (as my readers will well know, a Pinehurst requires they play two shots before picking one ball to play into the hole).  And it might be nice if our major golf publications knew something about the game...

This was always going to be the issue, especially since this guy didn't show up:

One bad round doesn’t mean Stephen Curry can’t play to his handicap

Curry did not play well. That much is indisputable. What’s also indisputable is that one round does not a golfer make. In other words, just because Curry played awful on Friday does not mean he’s some sort of vanity handicapper. Who knows how much he’s been playing lately? Recall that Curry broke his wrist just 13 months ago, and you have to think the doctor cautioned against playing a bunch of golf during the rehab process.

The odds are Curry hasn’t been playing as much as he had in the run-up to his two starts in professional events. In those events, he shot 74-74-71-86. He clearly has game, even it didn’t show up on Friday.

By all appearances Curry is a good guy and a good stick, but the lopsided nature of the outcome falls pretty squarely on his shoulders.  The flaw here was clearly the need for him to carry Peyton...

But does anyone think Dan is right with this bit?

Tiger was missed

There was one notable absence from this Match, as it relates to the first two: namely, Tiger

Woods.

Now, the first iteration of this series was the $9 million match between Woods and Mickelson at Shadow Creek. That broadcast was dripping awkwardness, the golf was subpar, and it seemed the entire operation didn’t know if it was a serious golf match or entertainment. The second edition, which pitted Woods and Manning against Mickelson and Tom Brady, was a huge hit—largely due to Tiger.

Surely Woods brought at least half the eyeballs, because any time Woods plays, people watch. But it’s more than that—Woods’ interplay with Mickelson, his greatest rival throughout his career, was fascinating, as were his conversations with two of the best quarterbacks of all time. Plus, he played extremely well that day, which is always extra nice to see at this stage of his career. You can’t fault this broadcast for not having Tiger, but you couldn’t help wishing he was there.

OK, Daniel, as long as you never provide any of us with a medical diagnosis, because Tiger was at best the fourth most interesting participant in Match II...  Check that, make it fifth, because JT easily was the more entertaining, even in that cameo role.  There's little doubt that Tiger will bring some eyeballs... It's just equally true that he's ill-suited to entertain us with anything but his sticks....

But I'm most amused by how ill-considered that first installment was.  I'd encourage the reader to keep that thought in mind for our next item as well, as it's not always clear that we, the golfing public, actually know what we want...

Dylan Dethier takes his own shot at the bigger picture, anointing ten "winners" from the event, including this most obvious candidate:

1. Phil, the anchor

This was the first in this Match series without Tiger Woods, and while we certainly missed thegravitas of the world’s most famous golfer, this was a chance for Mickelson to go full Phil. He seized the opportunity.

It’s hard to narrow it down to one or two things Mickelson did, so let’s buzz through them: He served as Barkley’s sensei. He hawked his “Coffee for Wellness” brand. He nearly called his shot on a must-make hole-in-one. He dropped the line, “I loved this club so much, I bought it!” And he channeled all that attention and energy into some truly impressive play, all while coaching his once-hopeless partner to respectability.

It’s okay to admit that you liked Mickelson’s role. It’s also okay to say that you’re mystified by him. There’s an element of ridiculousness to a guy who can take his partner’s meaningless putt for double-bogey 6 so seriously when it comes in the middle of the back nine of an exhibition match. But that’s exactly the sort of thing you need to glue this place together. Mickelson was brash, he was strange, he was funny and he bought all the way in. All he needed was someone to counter that energy on the other side.

I've long separated the world into Good Phil vs. Bad Phil, but this is the role he was born to play.  Again I'm amused at how misguided the first match was, but set him loose on Tom Brady or Sir Charles, and it will be entertaining...   But remind me, Dylan, what of Tiger did we allegedly miss?

Of course, this is the crux of why this version worked:

2. Charles Barkley, resurrected

Perhaps Mickelson’s greatest accomplishment was helping Charles Barkley play respectable golf in front of millions of viewers on TV. Remember, this is a guy who is famous for his inability to swing actually through a golf ball. But we didn’t see Barkley’s hitch a single time all Friday.

Of course, Barkley is the one who truly deserves credit for overcoming a massive obstacle, both mentally and physically. When he striped his opening tee shot, he looked so happy and relieved that it was impossible not to be happy for him. Barkley’s inability to play golf was, in some ways, the selling point for this edition of the Match. To his credit, he actually got so good that the storyline never quite bore out.

That yellow caution flag is waving, though, because how many Barkley's can Phil find?  He's pretty much a one-off, and now that he's "fixed" he's much less interesting...  This item captures it pretty well, including his best bits:

7 more reasons why Charles Barkley is the best bad golfer

I don't think he actually delivers on his header, but it's some combination of a world-class athlete becoming so tormented by our game that he can't take the club back... Who doesn't dig a resurrection?

Back to Dylan with this key point:

4. Modified alternate shot

The format was a big-time winner here. If there’s one thing we learned from The Match 2, it was just how much better the action got when every shot counted. Moreoever, alternate shot acts as a multiplier. There’s the normal tension of a best-ball match, and that gets amplified when you suddenly have to count every shot, and it gets amplified again when you have to play your partner’s golf ball.

You could see Manning and Curry struggle with the format, and that’s easy to understand — it’s harder to get comfortable when you don’t get in the rhythm of playing your own ball. The format also made it more fun watching Mickelson work his mental magic on Barkley. The choice of two tee shots added strategy; alternate shot the rest of the way added tension.

 I thought it was Match II?  better yet, Dylan didn't call it a Pinehurst, so we've got that going for us...

But this was the key bit from Version 2.0, where the better ball was a dud.... Good on them for making this work with only the one Tour pro.  

And while I hate that this is true...

6. Golf carts

At first, you’d think golf carts would be a bad idea. They’re not. In addition to satisfying social distancing requirements, the carts allow for some interaction with the broadcast booth. They eliminate the awkward tee-to-ball walks that we loathed from The Match 1.0. And they ensured that the match actually finished while there was still sun in the sky — although if they’d had to play 18, they’d have been putting with iPhone flashlights on.

And while I loved watching Rory and DJ carry their bags at Seminole, it killed the broadcast simply on account of the time it took to get to their balls.  The bigger problem is that the length of time for a full eighteen is also quite the buzzkill...

The weekly Tour Confidential confab had this angle on the franchise:

3. The Match III is in the books. Charles Barkley and Phil Mickelson defeated Steph Curry and Peyton Manning 4 and 3. There was some golf. There were some laughs. Charity was also a big winner, with Historically Black Colleges and Universities the beneficiaries. We’ve now seen three iterations of this high-wattage exhibition: one only with golfers (Tiger vs. Phil), one with two golfers (Tiger and Phil) and two celebs (Manning and Tom Brady) and one with one golfer (Phil) and three celebs. Which formula works best, and why?

Hear Sean Zak confirms that GMTA:

Zak: The Match II had the best format. At times, it’s great to see celebs struggle, but not for four or five hours. Get on with it! With two elite pros involved, there’s plenty of teaching, the match feels as level as can be, and you can actually see great shots be responded with … other great shots.

The one constant from all these contrived matches is that the golf itself disappoints... This one was a reasonably successful iteration, but even then it wasn't close to enough amusement for the time involved.  

Did someone say that GMTA?

Shipnuck: I like the Match II format as long as Tiger isn’t involved — he’s too stiff, serious and brooding for these things.

We may have seen the last of Tiger in any of these, the only exception being if we pair him with Charlie...  What?  OK, well, let's see how that one foes.

Sens: Match III gets my vote. But that was because of the personalities, not their status as golfers. Of course, we don’t want to watch entirely awful golf by everyone involved. But one pro, two pros. I don’t think it matters as long as the other players can get it airborne and have something entertaining to say.

Piastowski: Any Match needs both Sir Charles and Phil in it, either announcing, coaching or playing. Or all three at once. They’re two of this generation’s — maybe any generation’s — best sports entertainers. They’ve made these things pretty damn fun to watch.

That last bit might just be the final word on these things.  I've no problem with Sir Charles behind a microphone, but who do you have as interesting as him to play?  I think we can all agree that it's a short list.... a very, very short list.

You Say Potato... - No doubt, as an astute observer of the human condition, you know the purpose of the traditional Friday afternoon news dump.  But like everything else in this world, there are Friday news dumps and then there are Black Friday news dumps.... 

We don't believe in coincidences here at Unplayable Lies, so one assumes the timing of this news is significant:

EUROPEAN TOUR AND PGA TOUR ANNOUNCE LANDMARK STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

 * Historic move brings golf’s two leading global Tours together in partnership

* Alliance allows for further collaboration on scheduling and commercial opportunities

The European Tour and PGA TOUR today heralded a significant new era for global golf with an historic announcement of a Strategic Alliance.

The landmark agreement will see golf’s two major Tours explore all facets of collaboration, working together on strategic commercial opportunities including collaborating on global media rights in certain territories.

This will come through part of the agreement which sees the PGA TOUR acquire a minority investment stake in European Tour Productions (ETP), the European Tour’s Media Production company, which produces and distributes content internationally.

OK, ETP is a plucky little operation that has garnered worldwide attention for the Euro Tour, but we can all agree that this deal has little to do with a minority stake in a money-losing social media operation.

Shack has been blogging up a storm on this subject, including this basic premise:

That’s the lead news in this? I mean, we all love ETP and they certainly do a fine job but uh, ok. More likely it gets top billing because this was the easiest way for the PGA Tour to send a check that keeps the lights on in Wentworth.

Which is a perfect segue into the second point of significance, which is that the Euro Tour was most certainly not in trouble:

Of course, as we've noted often, when they tell you it's not about the money, it's about the money...And when they tell you it's about the money?  Yeah, it's about the money, though they're not telling us how much.

Other factors of note include this little bit:

One element of the partnership which can be confirmed today is the fact that PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan will take a seat on the Board of the European Tour.

Naturally, since it's a partnership of equals, Mr. Pelley will have a seat on the Ponte Vedra Boards as well, right?  

So, what really happened, I hear you ask, especially since the Euro Tour was quite obviously not in financial duress?  It turns out that our favorite guys triggered this, and that those prior reports of their demise were exaggerated:

The historic alliance announced Friday between the PGA Tour and European Tour came after

months of tense negotiations, and fended off a rival bid to take a stake in the European circuit by the private equity group fronting the Premier Golf League, multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek.

Negotiations between the world’s two largest professional golf circuits had been taking place for months but had been complicated by a rival proposal submitted to the European Tour by The Raine Group, a private equity firm that has fronted the proposed Premier Golf League. The PGL concept—a breakaway circuit featuring brand-name players in highly-lucrative, limited-field tournaments with a team element—emerged in public earlier this year.

The proposed splinter Tour was dealt a blow in March when Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka — at the time the top three ranked players in the world — all publicly rejected the PGL, with McIlroy saying he objected to its source of financing, which was an investment fund controlled by the Saudi Arabian regime.

I was always a PGL skeptic, but one can readily see where Jay Monahan would wants to freeze that existential threat, especially when it supports his other objectives.  But I dare you to read the press releases and analysis and tell me what this partnership will involve, because it's all  a bunch of hot air, as per this example:

Specifics of the partnership agreement between the Tours remain vague, but multiple sources told Golfweek it is likely to eventually include some marrying of schedules, most likely in the period from September to November, after the conclusion of the FedEx Cup, with a number of prestigious European events awarded FedEx Cup points to attract U.S.-based players to compete. It’s also believed a deal would include a pipeline to allow European Tour members to play their way on to the more lucrative PGA Tour.

Got that?  The cooperation will be limited to that portion of Jay's schedule that's expendable, a large portion of which isn't played in the U.S.  That last bit might prove awkward for Jay, to the extent that it's perceived as detrimental to those toiling in the Korn Ferry miasma, but that just probably means that nothing much will be on offer.

We know the two tours have been talking for ages, as per this bit from Eamon Lynch:

The historic alliance announced Friday between the PGA Tour and European Tour came after months of tense negotiations, and fended off a rival bid to take a stake in the European circuit by the private equity group fronting the Premier Golf League, multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek.

Alistair Tait has some fun Fisking Mr. Pelley's comments, beginning here:

“You might ask, why now?” Pelley acknowledged. “Jay and I have been talking about working closer together for the last four and a half years. I've always said golf is very fractioned with four major championships and two professional organisations. This was just a moment in time when everything aligned.”

 OK, but we can't help but note that after 4 12 years of talk...

You’d have thought after four and a half years of talking to PGA Tour counterpart Jay Monahan they’d have laid out some basic plans of where this strategic alliance was going to take the game. No. Just airy-fairy stuff cobbled together over 72 hours. Why the rush?

I've been reliably informed that it has nothing to do with financial distress:

“We are categorically not in financial difficulties. That is simply wrong. We are in robust financial health with a very strong balance sheet, strongest ever, and a strong support of networks of partners.”

Best balance sheet evah!  Methinks he doth protest too much....

But the mad rush to a deal combined with the profound absence of any coherent benefits to the partnership lead exactly to that conclusion that Mr. Pelley is warning us off.  Here's just one example of his vagueness as to the nature of the deal he just struck:

“The detail is still to be worked out. We have been talking and there are some concepts that we have discussed with some of our current members.”

Keith, at the risk of harshing your mellow, you're now Jay's bitch.  

Paul McGinley is on the Euro Tour Board, and I wonder if he didn't inadvertently give too much in this Sky Sports interview, beginning with this:

In professional golf you have the PGA Tour at the top of the tree, the European Tour just beneath that, then there's the Sunshine Tour, Asian Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and other Tours around the world.

Just?  In the sense that the U.S. is just a little bigger than Liechtenstein, perhaps...

The idea is that we become a little bit more international in terms of the schedule of the world's top players, so they're able to visit other places and play in other events on the European Tour.

Three of the four major championships are played in America every year and a lot of the World Golf Championships have migrated back to the USA. I think the players can eventually expect, hopefully from a European point of view, a more international flavour to the world's best events.

These arguments are always amusing, in that they ignore the actual reality, which is that the top Euro players also live in Florida... It wasn't just the U.S. players that failed to show up for the Match Play in Australia.... 

This is a way of working together to get everyone back to playing under one umbrella, which will help bring a little bit of a better narrative to what golf is all about.

It's a simplification of the sport to try to create a real top tier of professional golf, Premier League style if you like, with gateways for the players underneath that to then get into that style of event.

The thing is, I don't even agree with the basic premise of McGinley and the PGL that the best players don't play together sufficiently often.  They play in the four majors, the four WGCs, The Players and a few others.  How many do you think we need?

It may seem off topic, but this is what I meant above about the linkage.  We all crave those epic match-ups of great players, Jack v. Arnie and Tiger v. Phil, as obvious examples.  Problem is, it needs to happen organically in the context of a meaningful event.  When you drop Tiger and Phil into a contrived event at Shadow Creek, though, it doesn't achieve the objective for the simple reason that it doesn't mean anything...

And, while Andy Johnson is an astute observer of our game, i think this is wrong:

I don't think the product that the PGL envisions is interesting in the least, nor do I think it was ever a viable concept.  I've explained the former above, glorified exhibitions that would quickly be perceived as money grabs for the elite players.

The premise assumes, however, that the PGA and Euro Tours  (not to mention the four majors) would sit back and let them grab the cream off the top.  Obviously these entities will protect their turf and, even if you could roll out a few events, you'd need a constant reshuffling of players to maintain the premise of having the best fifty or so players on your upstart tour.  Did you think Jay Monahan would roll over and play dead?

My concern is now about the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach controlling the entire elite men's golf world, which I don't find a pleasant thought.  To me, their events are a dreary lot, and the Euro Tour is a bit of fresh air for us all...  I guess we can kiss that goodbye....

I'm sure we'll have more to mull on this as we see how it unfolds in the future, and at least we'll always have Augusta...

I'm going to leave you here and we'll leave some browser tabs open for later in the week.

Midweek Musings

I guess Hump Day was actually yesterday, at least for those those who work.  What's that these days?  A couple of hundred at most, right?

No firm plans for a return to the keyboard, so expect me when you see me...  And have a joyous Thanksgiving, if only because of how it will piss them off.

Did It Now? - As you well know, I'm not at all reluctant to take an unpopular or minority position, so put me down for "Time will tell":

The year that changed everything

As my late mother always noted, beware the early call...  It's Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde, so let's see what he's got:

We’ve all talked about the quality hours and days we’ve spent with our families. Hanging out with our kids— especially grown kids who have moved back home—we took long walks, we cooked meals, we conversed like friends, we watched Netflix, we did board games, and we even played golf together. Boy, did we play golf!

Yes, you played golf, because there was literally nothing else you were allowed to do...   As long as that remains the case, our game has no worries.  And not belabor it, but for every parent delighted to have his or her adult children home, I'll provide an affidavit for those relieved when they again moved out...

“I’ve heard people say, ‘It’s been the greatest summer of my life,’ ” Dr. Bob Rotella says. “Not getting on planes, not traveling, working from home, spending more time with my wife and kids. Even when we play golf, we just play. There’s no 19th hole, no lingering, just four hours of clearing your mind.” It’ll be the year we look back on that changed everything.

I've heard that from exactly no one.   I've no issue with the healthy instinct to escape the world around us on the golf course, but that world is just as depraved at the end of our loop...

As the pandemic forced us to quarantine and wear masks, golf became our great escape. “Men never talk about mental health or wellness,” sport psychologist Jonathan Fader told me. “Ninety

percent never go to a therapist. They deal with their mental health through an activity, usually sports. Golf is the only sport you can do in groups and do it safely. We deeply need to be together. The real pandemic victims are the people who have tragically been affected by death. But for more of us, it’s been a pandemic of isolation—a loss of control. Golf helps you regain control. If you’re depressed, the two best things you can do is walk every day and be around people.” That sounds like a sport I know.

“Golf has helped reboot our mind,” says Rick Sessinghaus, a performance coach best known for his work with Collin Morikawa. “The game gives us a wider horizon to look at—simply being outdoors in nature shifts our perspective. Getting away from golf and then coming back has made us more grateful. ‘Gosh, I missed it so much.’ The message is about appreciating something taken away and given back.”

Yes, but that only triggers the outrage about how they've tried to take it away from us, and are doing so again in places like Scotland and Ireland.  And why?  Simply because they can...

But who's to argue with science?

One of the more beguiling studies was conducted by Golfsupport, a British sporting-goods retailer: Based on a survey of 6,500 sports fans worldwide in September of this year, golf was found to be the happiest sport. Golf fans scored the highest “happiness ratings,” followed in order by fans of track and field, tennis, Formula 1 racing, cricket, baseball, boxing, basketball, football and soccer. I don’t know if I actually believe the science of this study, but why not.

So what is golf’s secret sauce? The best answer I heard was from Dr. Fader (the perfect name for a golf psychologist): “There’s a mindfulness about the game,” he said. “It requires focus and a willingness to engage. What separates golf is the amount of time it takes.”

Profoundly silly on so many levels, my first reaction being whether there are similar results from pre-pandemic, to understand whether this is an actual change..  Might be interesting to see longitudinal data on that, no?   Tarde is making a good point here, the irony of long golf rounds having suddenly become a virtue, simply for maximizing the escape value from the s**t that is the rest of our lives in 2020.  

As for your humble blogger, I'm most amused by that comparison with other sports fans.  Let's see, a "golf fan" probably chases a little white ball on his weekends.  Does a Formula 1 fan similarly jump in behind the wheel of a Lotus on his day off?  How about that boxing fan?  Shall I go on, or do you see the rather stark difference?

I don't know to what extent these changes are permanent, for the simple reason that I don't know what life look like when this is over, if it's ever over.  So, Jerry, can we revisit this in a year?

The Match III, An Unenthusiastic Preview - There sure ain't much to muse upon, but will I be that bored by Friday afternoon?  Magic 8-Ball says, Outlook Cloudy.

I do think this bit from Phil is a good fit for the current political moment:

Lefty was involved in the first two Matches. He defeated Tiger Woods in 2018 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, but when he teamed up with Tom Brady earlier this year, they lost to Woods and Manning, a defeat that Mickelson jokingly questioned.

“We really should’ve won that match,” he said. “There were a couple things down the stretch, I mean, Peyton’s iron shot on 16 to 3 feet. I don’t know if that was legit. I don’t know what happened. I missed something. I couldn’t see the green … and somehow his ball is three feet from the hole when it’s all said and done. I don’t know, I question that.

“So I don’t wanna like, file lawsuits, you know, question the outcome or any of that stuff, but I do have a question on that one.”

OK, Hillary.

But this is a puzzler as well:

Mickelson will likely have to carry plenty of the weight on Friday. Curry is a talented player, and Manning has shown he can swing the stick a little bit himself. As for Barkley, well, we’ve all seen that swing.

“At Stone Canyon, we actually have Chuck tees,” Mickelson said. “They’re a little bit further up.”

Mickelson described Stone Canyon as “pretty penalizing in spots because of the desert but it’s also got a great mixture of fun holes, like drivable par 4s, reachable par 5s.

“Our sixth hole is a spectacular par 3 with waterfalls and such. It’s only about a wedge. But it’s a very demanding shot.”

Mickelson then described part of the strategy that he and Barkley plan to deploy later this week.

“If I can hit the green, and let him putt, that’s our strategy on that. Same thing on the drivable par 4s. We saw what happened in Match II where we were really getting beat up pretty good and then Tom and I, on 11, I drive the green and he rolls the putt in for eagle and it just turns the whole match the other way.”

Well, not completely the other way...

But does anyone know what format they're playing?  It sounds like alternate shot, which was the best part of that prior installment.  But alternate shot is a bit weird with the one touring pro in the field, so maybe they could share that with us at some point?

 But do you have the stomach for this deep dive?  

‘It wasn’t for lacking of trying’: An unauthorized history of Charles Barkley’s tortured golf swing

Your call... The Page Down key will be on your far right.

 The most interesting bit is that it wasn't always this way:

At 63, the former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Roy Green has been around a while and seen lot of things, but if he looks back long and hard, through the misty rings of time, he can still make out a picture most people can’t imagine.

He remembers when Charles Barkley had a buttery swing.

It was the early 1990s, and Barkley had just moved from Philadelphia to Phoenix, in a deal that sent him from the Sixers to the Suns. Stars from different sports with a shared interest in golf, Barkley and Green became close friends and frequent playing partners.

Buttery?

At Gainey Ranch Golf Club, one of Green and Barkley’s favorite Scottsdale-area courses, then director of golf Jim Murphy, who is now the club’s general manager, became part of the hit-and-giggle-at-the-other-guy gaggle.

Barkley, Murphy says, “was a solid all-around player,” with sound tempo, soft hands and a sharp tongue.

“He and Roy were as thick as thieves, always giving each other lip and just about the funniest people you could ever be around,” Murphy says. “It was basically free entertainment.”

I'm gonna need video.  You'll of course be asking the obvious follow-up question:

“My brain’s got so many voices in it,” Barkley acknowledged earlier this year on GOLF’s Subpar podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.

In his own telling, Barkley’s woes began when he moved to Phoenix, and found that every functioning adult, from the barber to the banker, was either a Tour pro or a Tour pro-wannabe. He felt pressure to improve.

“I started taking lessons from every Tom, Dick and Harry,” Barkley told the Subpar hosts.

But this guy it seems should be paying reparations:

In Green’s recollection, a dark turn in the plot came about two decades ago, when he and Barkley

visited San Diego for a Nike-sponsored event, one of those corporate shindigs built on fancy late-night dinners and long days on the links. Crossing paths with a golf pro, Barkley, inevitably, asked for input.

“This pro got Chuck to make a slight pause at the top,” Green says. “And the next couple of rounds, man, he was smoking it. He was playing the best golf I’d ever seen from him, shooting 75, 76. We all said, ‘You got it, Chucky! This is it.’”

Until the pause became a stall, which morphed into a stutter.

“It was all downhill from there,” Green says.

Is there a reason we're protecting his reputation?  I'm sure this isn't at all frustrating:

Perhaps the most frustrating part — puzzling to non-golfers but perfectly relatable to anyone who plays — is that Barkley can pure it on the range; his swing only palsies when he’s in performance mode.

Well, that's easy, he just needs to avoid the spotlight...  What?  Friday?  Is this wise?

 That in a nutshell would seem to be the case for watching the event.  This, not so much:

McCord, 72, said the offer to work this event, which will be held within driving distance of his home at Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Ariz., “came way out of left field.” He agreed to participate for one simple reason. “Well, I’m doing OK, I’m not dead, but I am kind of bored,” he said. “I’ve had a year off, so … you know that whole deal. This should be entertaining.”

We all are, Gary, that fact being one of the few reasons to tune in.  But these things go South when the participants try too hard:

“That’s what we’re waiting to hear,” McCord said. “You know Phil is going to be in the middle of it. I was texting Charles during the telecast in May [Barkley was part of the broadcast crew] and told him he nailed it when he said, ‘We all have that friend who’s annoying; that’s Phil.’ So my deal is to prompt Phil when Charles drives into the desert and then just let him go.

“I’m not there to tell you, ‘Wow, he’s got an 8-iron from 180 yards.’ I’m there to step into the chaos and keep it going. I can still do that. I can do that all day.”

Yes he can, but whether he can do so without it feeling forced and contrived is the issue.  As a pro tip, I'd advise eschewing any references to bikini wax and body bags..

Phoenix On My Mind - As we've discussed, fans are not likely at be allowed at PGA Tour events until the Florida swing, at the earliest.  Which leaves The Wasted in an awkward position:

The annual event at TPC Scottsdale is known for its raucous, jam-packed crowds. It can feel like

a tailgate party, rock concert, beer festival and sporting event rolled into one. It is a defining event on the Valley’s social calendar, an excuse even for non-golf fans to head to the course and bask in the sunshine.

But no one knows what elements of Phoenix Opens past will be visible the first week of February, when the tournament is scheduled to take place.

For now, organizers expect to go forward with the event. They say it will be scaled down in every respect. Gone will be many of the temporary structures that ran parallel to the course. Organizers hope to have fans, albeit nothing close to the 200,000-plus who typically turn out on Fridays and Saturdays.

They are making no assurances. Rather, they are planning and they are hoping. It is the best they can do.

I'm quite sure that The Chainsmokers might have availability for those dates...

Most folks don't realize it, but that build-out on No. 16 is quite the big projext:

During a typical November, construction would be more than a month old on the course’s dozens of venues. The work takes four-plus months to complete. Last year, the event featured 28 venues, including the three-level, coliseum-esque enclosure that surrounds No. 16, the event’s iconic hole, and the Bird’s Nest, the event’s party hot spot.

This year, Jenkins said the number of venues might be closer to four or five, intimating that the focus would be on the final three holes. Most likely, that means no Bird’s Nest and a more restrained version of the build at No. 16.

I have Zero on my fantasy roster...

They are still hoping to have some folks on site at the People's Open, but planning for the worst.

Brora On My Mind - A special place for sure, but one that we knew to be in trouble due to the pandemic.  This four minute video offers up a nice Holiday portion of linksy goodness, combined with the news that the wider golfing community has supported the club:

It's every bit as memorable as the video notes, but the feature that most captivates a foreign audience is that one shares the golf course with the livestock:

Low-voltage fences keep the animals off the greens, but otherwise everyone mingles well.  We've only played it the once, a deficiency that cries out for rectification.  Elsie and John, keep a light on for us...

That's as good an exit piece as I'll find, so I'll send you on your way and wish you a joyous Thanksgiving.  

Weekend Wrap

A depressing time for sure, as this post figures to spend more time promoting future Silly Season events than wrapping actual competitive golf...  The worst part by far being that, given the shape of things out West, I might actually have nothing better to do than to watch said Silly Season golf.

Dateline: St. Simons Island, GA - This is always a nice, low-key finish to the season, though the revised Tour schedule still has a stop in Mexico after Thanksgiving.  I've always had a soft spot for this guy:

After a crushing three-putt par on the par-5 15th hole, it seemed to be quite clear that this wasn’t Robert Streb’s day. While the rest of the contenders at the RSM Classic were throwing up 62s and 63s, Streb was plodding along at one under. That wasn’t going to get it done on a day when there was virtually no wind on Sea Island.

But Streb stayed in it, even after watching his three-shot lead vanish and seeing that he was now going to have to do the chasing. Up ahead at the 72nd green, Kevin Kisner had posted a 63 to reach 19 under. Streb needed to make something happen.

He did exactly that at the difficult par-3 17th, stepping on a 6-iron and drawing it in to the back right pin. His tee shot came to rest 11 feet from the hole, and he poured in the birdie putt to tie Kisner.

The shot that closed it out will get plenty of air time, but obviously wouldn't have mattered had he not made his par from that tough spot in the fairway bunker on the first playoff hole:

A par at the 18th put them in a sudden-death playoff, and Streb began the playoff by hitting his tee shot in the left fairway bunker. His week appeared dead again, but yet again he stayed within himself, grinding out a par and watching Kisner’s birdie effort for the win just slide past the hole. On the second playoff hole, the 18th once more, Streb found the left rough and pulled off hero shot No. 2 to all but end the tournament.

So, why the soft spot for Streb?  Anyone remember this?

That's Streb at the Greenbrier putting with his sand wedge...  And not just putting with it, but making everything with it:

Robert Streb admitted he was a little frustrated after he missed a 12-footer for birdie at the ninth hole on Sunday afternoon at The Old White TPC.

But it wasn't like he grabbed the offending putter and gave it a whack over his knee or anything. Streb simply tossed it toward his golf bag as he walked off the green.

"(I) meant to lightly land it next to the bag, and it didn't make it quite far enough, hit the bottom of the bag and the head flew off," Streb said. "So I was like, huh, that's not good."

Streb and his caddie had to think fast and figure out which club to use as a replacement "putter" for the rest of the final round of The Greenbrier Classic. They chose the 56-degree wedge because it seemed to have the straightest edge.

"And it worked out pretty good," Streb said.

Indeed, it did. Streb ended up shooting a phenomenal 32 on the back nine, making five birdies and just one bogey, to earn a spot in the four-man playoff with Danny Lee, Kevin Kisner and David Hearn.

That was plenty amazing, but what I loved most was what happened next, which requires a huge irony alert.  Streb had a back-up putter which he was allowed to swap in because a playoff is deemed a separate round of golf.  Take a moment to appreciate the cosmic absurdity of some of our rules.  A one-hole, sudden death playoff is a new round, but when Phil had to return to Baltusrol on Monday to finish his final round at the 2005 PGA Championship, that's considered the same round of golf (despite the rather severe storm that dramatically changed conditions, leaving Phil without a club to play the Par-3 16th.  One extra hole today: Do what you want.  Four holes tomorrow: No changes permitted... 

What amused me is that, after putting so well with the sand wedge, he had to decide whether to use the back-up putter in the playoff.  The irony arises from the the fact that, having decided to use that putter, he then proceeded to so butcher the Par-3 finishing hole at The Greenbrier, that he never got the chance to putt..

The Tour Confidential panel had this take on the event:

4. Robert Streb won his second PGA Tour title on Sunday, edging Kevin Kisner in a playoff at the RSM Classic. One victory on a player’s resume proves that a player can win on Tour. What is the significance of a second win?

That a player can win twice?   

Bamberger: That elite golf can be played without a golf glove and at a ready-golf pace.

I like Mike's take, I'm just a little uncertain about the "elite" bit...

Sens: The greatest significance has got to be for the player themself. In Streb’s case, it had been six years since his last win. At some point in that long drought, doubt has to start creeping in. For anyone who has pushed themselves hard enough to get to that level, cashing paychecks alone can’t ultimately be enough. Streb’s turkey is going to taste especially good this year, which is something I never say about turkey.

Josh, you got something against tryptophan?  Makes for sweet naps, so what's not to like?

Piastowski: Very significant. You’re not a one-hit wonder. You didn’t just get on a four-day heater. And now the win opens up the door to all kinds of additional opportunities, including the Masters. Streb did it impressively at the end, too. He hit a hell of a shot on 17 to draw back into a tie for the lead after he entered the day up three. He gave himself a good look on 18 in regulation. Then his approach on the second playoff hole, against one of the better players on Tour in Kevin Kisner, will go down as one of the shots of the year. Good stuff.

Kiz is one of the better players on Tour?   

Shipnuck: Well, there are plenty of guys who are rarely factors who then pop up and snag a second win (paging Jim Herman). But, for sure, it stamps a player as the real thing.

Dethier: There are a lot more one-time winners than two-time winners, so it basically means you’ve put yourself in the right spot at least a couple times — and answers the bell once you’ve arrived there. I was impressed to see Streb hold that three-shot lead. It’s difficult to play with a lead.

Got it, Tour journey man wins and there's not much of note to peck into our keyboards, excepting perhaps that it comes from nowhere:

Streb hasn’t finished in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings in each of the past three seasons, and his recent form didn’t suggest he’d earn his first title in six years. He had shot in the 60s only three times in his last 12 rounds entering this week, but posted four straight rounds in the 60s, including a 63 on Friday and closed with a 2-under 68 to finish with a 72-hole aggregate of 19-under 263.

And one can only assume that he'll now disappear again for a period of years, such is our game.

Dateline: Johannesburg, South Africa -  If you haven't heard of the mellifluously-named Wilco Nienaber, you might need to get out more.  What, oh yeah I forgot, over there one can only leaves one's home for a select list of government-approved reasons... 

Ironically, it seems to be a day of irony alerts:

Ironically, both of what proved to be the decisive moments in the final round of the Joburg Open

on Sunday were shots that flew too far.

Three days after hitting the drive that echoed around the world of golf—a 439-yard bomb off the tee at the 597-yard par-5 fourth hole on the Randpark course during the opening round of the European Tour event—Wilco Nienaber arrived on the penultimate tee tied for the lead with Joachim B. Hansen. Unfortunately for Nienaber, a 20-year-old South African, that was as good as things would get. His tee shot on the 223-yard par-3 17th finished inches from the water that runs behind and left of the putting surface. A bogey, his first of the day, was the almost inevitable result from the awkward spot, the dropped shot putting Hansen one shot clear.

 There's video of that 439-yarder, which is slightly longer than the average drive of our domestic beast, though there is altitude involved:

The former South African amateur champion’s gargantuan blast, one that finished almost exactly 99 yards past Bryson DeChambeau’s average tee shot on the PGA Tour, does, however, come with an asterisk. Sitting on the eastern plateau of South Africa known as the Highveld, Johannesburg is 5,751 feet above sea level, the thin air a hugely contributing factor in how far every shot travels.

His average, 336.81 yards, sounds Brysonesque.  My only point being that this isn't about the one guy.  Yanno, that evolutionary vs. revolutionary bit.

Le Sigh!

Dateline: Augusta, GA - Bryson, is that a 48" driver shaft, or are you just happy to see me?  No one was talking about this guy, though:

As we recently found out on our latest Fully Equipped podcast, Dustin Johnson, the 2020 Masters Champion, was also seriously considering a switch into a longer driver. Keith Sbarbaro, TaylorMade’s VP of Tour Operations, revealed that Johnson not only tested 47-inch drivers leading up to the Masters, but he actually played in a practice round with a long driver on Tuesday of Masters week.

Of course, Johnson ultimately decided to use his 45.75-inch TaylorMade SIM driver (10.5 degrees) en route to a record-setting performance; he drove the ball masterfully all week, averaging 306.5 yards off the tee and hitting 78.57 percent of his fairways.

 So, what's it all about, Alfie?  Speed, baby:

Sbarbaro says Johnson used the 47-incher in a Tuesday practice round with Mickelson, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy, but the long driver ultimately got filtered out of the rotation before the real competition started on Thursday. And that’s a good thing since Sbarbaro didn’t want to 47-incher going into play because it was screwing with his timing on the other clubs.

“The fact that he had a game [on Tuesday] where he was playing with other great players and had to play well I think that was a huge benefit to get that club out of the bag,” Sbarbaro said. “Sure enough by the end of that practice round the 47-incher was gone … He is intrigued by the 10 yards, but it just wasn’t the time to do it.”

For his long driver experiment, Johnson was using a TaylorMade SIM driver head with a 47-inch Fujikura Ventus Black driver shaft, and he was seeing up to 192-193 mph of ball speed (Johnson is typically around the mid-180s of ball speed with his standard driver).

I'm struck by the large differential with Bryson, who is pushing 200 mph of initial ball speed.  It wasn't the right time for it, but that time is rapidly approaching...

Ready for some silliness?

Dateline: Oro Valley, AZ - I've been trying to forget about this event, but they seem insistent on playing it regardless:

Who could forget Charles Barkley’s brutal assessment of the quality of golf Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson displayed in the first rendition of “The Match” two years ago in Las Vegas?

“This is crappy golf. Y’all know that,” the NBA Hall of Famer-turned-broadcaster drawled with his typical honesty to a pay-per-view television audience. “I could beat these two guys today.”

Welp, give Barkley credit for stepping from behind the microphone onto the tee box to bring to the franchise his own brand of golf—which through the years has been chronicled to be uniquely, um … oh, heck … crappy. On Friday, the Round Mound of Sound (nee Rebound) teams with Mickelson in “Capital One’s The Match: Champions For Change” at Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Ariz. Their opposition in the modified alternate shot competition is the duo of Stephen Curry, NBA All-Star, and Peyton Manning, retired NFL great.

 Does this make it sound any more appealing?

“Honest to God, I don’t know why he’s subjecting himself to this,” said Gary McCord, who will serve as an on-course reporter for the telecast, which begins at 3 p.m. EST on TNT. “He’s gone from talking about the chaos to stepping on the tee and creating chaos. He’ll be the agent of chaos in this thing, and it’s going to be really, really interesting.”

We'll be the judge of that, Gary, I mean assuming we tune in.  But am I the only one that feels them trying way too hard:

Gary McCord will come out of retirement to be part of the broadcast, saying earlier this week that The Match III is right up his alley.

“The format is four guys trying to get it in the hole while bitch-slapping each other verbally. That’s fun,” he said.

Yeah, maybe.  Or maybe it's four guys trying way too hard to amuse...

I've seen nothing on the format.  I'm probably taking this far too seriously, but my takeaway from the last installment was that the inclusion of the amateurs was the best bit, though that was mostly in the alternate shot.  In the best ball, Peyton and Brady weren't given enough shots to be relevant, a problem that compounds with three ams and one quasi-professional, methinks.

That TC panels spent far too much time on this for sure:

1. The Match III is set for this Friday at Stone Canyon GC in Oro Valley, Ariz. Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley will square off against Steph Curry and Peyton Manning. Which of those four will most entice you to tune in, and why?

Michael Bamberger: Steph Curry. He looks like he could be about 22 years away, with a lot of practice and a lot of improvement, from a second career on the PGA Tour Champions Tour.

Which sounds like it could be interesting, in about 22 years.

Josh Sens: Of all the just-add-water Matches we’ve seen in recent times, this one has the best group chemistry, on paper at least. But of the individuals, Barkley, by far. He’s the funniest and most relatable of the group, and word is that he’s made huge off-camera improvements in his swing lately, so watching him under the spotlight should be good entertainment.

Nick Piastowski: Barkley. Not the most surprising take there. But I’m watching him not just for the funky swing, which, yes, will also be great. He’s one of the best entertainers in sports – if not the best. What will Charles say when Phil snaps one right? What will Charles say when Peyton duffs a chip? What will Charles say when Steph mishits an iron? Can’t wait.

Charles sucking at golf can be amusing, but I'm thinking it's amusing in small doses...

Dylan Dethier: Lefty. He’s the glue that holds these things together, and he’s only getting better — he was hilarious in the Match II, if that’s what we’re calling it. Without Phil, there is no match.

Alan Shipnuck: I agree with Mike – Steph is a hard-core and extremely talented golfer in his spare time. It will be fun to watch him do his thing.

Dylan, isn't there a more fundamental question at this very juncture?  To wit:

2. The biggest difference between this edition of the Match and the first two iterations is no Tiger Woods. How much does Tiger’s absence impact the watchability of the event?

Bamberger: No, not at all. You watch these things, if you watch them at all, because you’re looking for the pleasant numbness that comes from watching any of these essentially meaningless off-season golf events while the various complications of real life unfold elsewhere. They’re a holiday within a holiday, needed now more than ever.

Sens: Agreed. And as Michael has pointed out rightly before, these kinds of confections aren’t really Tiger’s thing. They showcase his weaknesses (televised banter), not his strengths (competing in meaningful events). It’s like watching Mozart play Chopsticks.

Piastowski: Not much. You might lose the curious, how’s-Tiger-looking fan, of which there are a few. But it’s a loose, fun event with seemingly four loose, fun golfers, which should more than make up for the absence of Woods.

Dethier: You’re all delusional. Tiger Woods not showing up for this edition is a huge loss for this franchise, even if the actual substance of his contributions left something to be desired. Once we’re watching, it’ll be just as fun if not more so — but in the golf world, Tiger still elevates everything to the next level.

Shipnuck: Everyone is right! We need/want Tiger’s star power, but when the lights turn on, his goes inward and is a bit of a buzzkill. So fewer people will tune in, but it will probably be more fun.

The problem to me is that without the complicated psychodrama that is the Tiger-Phil relationship, there's precious little her of interest.  Phil tweaking Steph Curry doesn't have much frisson, does it?

But Tiger had other options. 

Dateline: Orlando, FL -  The Father-Son event has long been a highlight of the Silly Season, nothing quite like humanizing legends by watching them nurture their kids and/or grandchildren.  But this took folks by surprise:

The news on Thursday wasn’t so much that Tiger Woods will play one more tournament in 2020. It’s who his partner will be in that event.

Woods announced that he and his 11-year-old son, Charlie, will team up in next month’s PNC Championship, an exhibition that features 20 major championship-winning golfers competing alongside a family member.

Formerly known as the Father-Son Challenge, the two-day, 36-hole scramble event begins Dec. 19 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando. Fans will not be permitted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the event will be broadcast across NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock.

Obviously this segue was teed up:

3. Speaking of Woods, he announced last week that he and his 11-year-old son, Charlie, will play together in next month’s PNC Championship, a team event that pairs major winners with family members. How much of a marketing/ratings boost will Team Woods provide to what is normally a fairly low-key affair?

Bamberger: Huge. Young Charlie’s swing is out of a dream. I’m looking for swing tips wherever I can find them, and in Charlie, I think we can see the golf-swing ideals that Tiger holds dear. As I type, I’m thinking of Charlie’s backswing rhythm, and Tiger’s own, from his days as a spirited junior golfer. Tiger started as a kid with clubs that were too heavy for him (he has said). I’m sure Charlie’s clubs are weight-appropriate for him, but he takes the club back like it’s a log. Like Boros did, like Fred does, like Tiger does still today, at least on the shorter clubs. Nobody talks much these days about backswing rhythm. It’s not part of the Brooks-Bryson-JT method. But it’s had a long history of success, and I think it’s one of Tiger’s ultimate keys. So I’ll be watching.

Sens: A big-time boost. We’ve watched Tiger in pretty much every golf permutation imaginable over his career. This is one we haven’t seen. And it’s one that he seems genuinely keen to be a part of, as opposed to those aforementioned Matches.

Piastowski: Big. Tiger in any tournament is a draw. Now add the curiosity around his son. How does a player with the genes of one of the greatest players of all time play? And add in the curiosity of Tiger as a coach. How does one of the greatest players of all time teach? And add in the curiosity of Tiger as a dad. How does he react if Charlie rolls in a birdie? Or mishits? But, please, let’s keep it in perspective for Charlie. Yes, I’ll be watching him and how he plays. But he’s 11. Let’s let him grow up, too.

Dethier: There’s always been a natural curiosity of what Tiger Woods, Dad, is really like. And there’s also a natural curiosity of what Charlie Woods, Tiger’s son, is like. But we’ve also tried to respect their privacy. Now that Charlie and Tiger are excited to share this stage together, we can get excited to watch ‘em do so.

Shipnuck: It’s a monumental boost. No joke, I think the Golf Twitter is more excited about Charlie than any player currently competing on the PGA Tour. It’s gonna be wild.

How many different ways are there to say huge.  Intrinsically it's just so much more interesting than the silliness of The Match, with all sorts of fascinating psychological overtones.

Though to me the far more interesting aspects are ignored in this confab, but hinted at in this Alan Shipnuck tweet:

Is that a good thing for an 11-year old?  Probably depends upon the 11-year old, but that's what will likely get us to tune in.  I would think the ratings for this would be off the charts, at least the first day.

I shall release you here and dive into my obligations.  I'll be blogging, though I'm unsure of how often and on which mornings.  Check back early and often, as you wouldn't want to miss any of these random musings.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Nothing too taxing on offer, just a few odds and ends to wind down our week.  I'll probably skip tomorrow, golf news permitting, and next see you on Monday.

Masters Leftovers - Is the hangover better or worse after a so-so Masters?  How about a so-so Masters in November?  I know, it's quite the small sample size...

We'll do a deep dive on this intriguing item:

How is Augusta National different on TV vs. in person? It’s always been complicated

Hey, we've got time... This was penned by young punk Dylan Dethier, so the broad sweep of televised golf history isn't something he has, you know, personal experience of...  But if you weren't aware of this bit of history, it's worth your time:

In 1953, George S. May did something radical: He put his golf tournament on national television.

May was the owner of Tam O’Shanter Country Club, just outside Chicago, and he’d been lavishly spending to put on “The World Championship of Golf” for several years. The tournament’s purse dwarfed the rest of the Tour schedule, so May attracted plenty of big names — Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Julius Boros are among the event’s winners — and plenty of attention, too.

May decided the time was right to take the event’s exposure to the next level. In 1952, when most Tour stops were paying the winner $3,500, May upped the Tam O’Shanter winner’s share to $25,000. He made an even bigger move the following year, when he elected to pay ABC to show an hour of coverage per day. That’s right: The host of a top golf tournament actually paid someone to put it on the air. This would be the equivalent of Jack Nicklaus paying CBS to air the Memorial Tournament. In 2020, that arrangement works the other way around.

Golf had appeared on television before, first at the 1947 U.S. Open, which was broadcast to local St. Louis audiences. But the 1953 World Championship of Golf became the United States’ first nationally-televised golf tournament.

With a national broadcast, I certainly hope something dramatic happened to reward that investment.  What?  OK, but how did they manage to arrange this?

The first-ever nationally-televised U.S. golf tournament was the World Championship of Golf at Tam O'Shanter in 1953.

It may have also been the best finish ever: Lew Worsham came to the 18th trailing by one shot and holed out from 104 yards for eagle and a walk-off win. pic.twitter.com/ET5Kejlakj

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) November 17, 2020

 This might be the last instance in which televised golf got strong ratings:

May couldn’t have picked a better year to launch. Two million viewers tuned into the final-round broadcast, and the event ended with unimaginable excitement: Lew Worsham came to the 18th trailing by one shot and holed out from 104 yards for eagle and a walk-off win.

2 million?  In 1953?  Here was a note from Geoff on Masters viewership Thursday:

The 2.2 million average nearly caught 2019’s 2.5 million played in the traditional April slot.

OK, it's cable vs. broadcast, but it's also 67 years later...

Dylan then segues into Masters coverage in those early years:

Golf’s television broadcasts grew in the years that followed. More cameras. More golf shots. More sophisticated, more comprehensive, more expensive, more expansive. But the fundamental goal remained the same: Cover the drama of this live sporting event as it happens.

The first Masters TV broadcast came a few years later after that first event at Tam O’Shanter. The powers-that-be at Augusta decided to sell the tournament’s rights, which were worth a pretty penny. But they didn’t want a big check. They wanted control. They wanted the ability to showcase the best possible version of Augusta National and its invitational tournament. In 1956, six cameras captured the action from the final four holes as Jackie Burke, Jr. took home the green jacket.

Dylan has the video of that first broadcast:

No one had more Masters heartache than Ken Venturi, who went to his grave convinced that Arnold Palmer had stolen a Masters from him... Maybe Greg Norman, upon further review, though so much of that was self-inflicted...

Dylan takes a crack at defining what has changed:

Even though the Masters was a one-of-a-kind broadcast, the fundamental goal remained the same: To cover the live sporting event as it happened. The tournament, like most sporting events in the 20th century, was being staged for the in-person audience. The cameras and microphones were there to capture the roars. The commentators were there to relay the atmosphere. The whole premise of the broadcast being exciting for viewers at home was that it was exciting for viewers on site.

Until this year.

It would be overly simplistic to suggest that 2020 was the year that live sports flipped from in-person events to television products. TV is king — that’s nothing new. Early-round March Madness games often play in front of empty gyms and massive TV audiences. On weeknights in the fall, sparsely-attended MAC football games take over ESPN. Plenty of golf events don’t sell out, either, but the hard-to-get-to Hero World Challenge still rates well on television and the Tiger-Phil Match had a tiny in-person audience, and heck, rights to live PGA Tour golf just sold for $680 million. If making TV the priority means the tail is wagging the dog, well, that tail has been wagging a while.

This might be where Dylan's youth is a fatal flaw, because the staging of golf tournaments has change rather dramatically over the decades to accommodate that TV audience.  For instance, it used to be the practice to sprinkle the leaders throughout the day, so that the spectators would have a meaningful group to watch every hour or so.  Because of that, as just an example, Ben Hogan was sitting in the Olympic clubhouse listening to the crowd reactions as Jack Fleck made two birdies to tie him and force a playoff the next day.  Why do the leaders now go out last?  It's all for television...

One last bit, just because:

But this summer, as each major sport figured out creative ways to restart its season, an essential question hung over the entire process: Can you even have sports without fans there to watch them? When golfers teed off at the fan-free Charles Schwab Challenge in June, the immediate answer was yes. Golf was less affected than many sports; there are no courtside seats, there’s very little booing and, with the exception of the 2018 Tour Championship, nobody ever rushes the field. The early events back were a godsend. Ratings were way up year over year, reflecting Americans’ collective desire for live sports.

I guess Dylan has never watched an Open Championship... He's desperately in search of deeper meaning, though to me it's mostly an unsuccessful outing.  I mean Jordan, really?

It’s just that the atmosphere was rather less than status quo. Think about a scene from the tournament any other year: If Jordan Spieth makes a putt, he acknowledges the crowd. He doesn’t wave to the cameras or the people at home, even though he’s fully aware that he’s on camera. At this year’s Masters, Spieth generally didn’t wave at all.

Of all the gin joints... Dylan seems not to have considered the fact that Jordan hasn't done much requiring a wave since about 2017...

I'm not seeing any threshold changes here, just a holding pattern until things get back to normal.  If there's a buried lede, this would be it:

All the while, the Masters was busy providing an unprecedented level of access to its viewers at home. Every single shot was captured on video and posted to the leaderboard. Every single shot! ESPN and Golf Channel had full on-site presence, and Masters.com offered five live channels plus the ability to customize groups you wanted to watch — in all, a dizzying array of viewing options. Even better, the course was far more visible and understandable; the way the holes connect from one to the next translated better from life to screen.

Perhaps of greater import, though I'm an old guy and a streaming sceptic, they seemed to have relaxed substantially some of the silly restrictions on the broadcast. There seemed to be far more shot-tracer employed, they used a drone for aerial footage and, shockingly, Dottie Pepper was allowed to function as an actual on-course reporter.  Will miracles never cease?

The strangest item, though, comes from Zephyr Melton, under this rather curious header:

This new Masters addition drove monster TV ratings

Egads, what has be been smoking?

It might have occupied a different slot on the schedule than golf fans are used to and been competing with the mighty National Football League, but the result was the same: the Masters was the most-watched golf tournament of the year, if only narrowly.

 According to a report from Front Office Sports, the Masters was the highest-rated and most-watched golf event of the year as CBS’ Sunday final-round broadcast averaged a 3.4 TV rating and 5.59 million viewers. The tournament barely edged out Collin Morikawa’s PGA Championship win in August, which averaged a 3.3 rating and 5.15 million viewers.

Gee, I do so hate to harsh your mellow, but we had this bit yesterday:

The Masters drew a 3.4 rating and 5.59 million viewers for Sunday’s telecast. It is the lowest-

rated Masters since 1957 and the least-watched tournament on record (counting goes back to 1995). That 3.4 mark is a 51 percent drop in ratings from last year’s triumphant victory by Tiger Woods at the Masters.

 I don't know your own personal experience, but I've found that most victories are triumphant...

But apparently shedding over half your viewership now constitutes "monster" ratings... But wait, it gets worse:

The Masters moved up its starting times for the final round in hopes of gaining more audience on NFL Sunday, but even that was not enough to lessen the impact of competing with Tom Brady and Co. When the U.S. Open competed with the NFL in September, NBC saw a similar decline in ratings.

Oh, is that why they were on the air earlier?  or was it because that was the only time of day that CBS would broadcast it.... Sheesh.

Lastly, what Masters addition?  I'm assuming that was intended to be "edition", but pretty much nothing in this piece is worth your time, except to enjoy my snark.

RIP, Leonard  Kamsler - A name unknown to most, but a significant contributor to our game has passed:

Leonard Kamsler, a ground-breaking golf photographer who for decades shot for GOLF Magazine and earlier this year received the inaugural PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism, died Tuesday. He was 85.

Kamsler’s library of images exceeded 200,000. He covered 40 consecutive Masters, 22 U.S. Opens and 17 PGA Championships; at Augusta National, he was the first photographer to position remote-controlled cameras behind the 12th and 15th holes.

Kamsler’s innovate style also extended to how he shot players’ swings. Pushing the limits of a Hulcher camera in the 1970s, he devised a way to shoot more than 200 images per second, capturing swings as they’d never been seen before. His archive of more than 400 swing sequences includes virtually every player of note, including Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Mickey Wright and Tiger Woods.

Golf Digest's tribute includes a selection of his most notable images, including this one that I suspect we'll see more of in April:

 And a couple of others that caught my eye:

You might have noticed the absence of Hogan's name above.  But, as this anecdote relates, he tried:

Kamsler shot all the greats, even the famously camera-shy Ben Hogan — well, sort of. According to one story Kamsler liked to tell, he was assigned to snap a swing sequence of Hogan in Texas. “Hogan would never, ever permit anyone to photograph him,” Dave Allen, a former GOLF Magazine instruction editor, wrote in a text message on Tuesday. “So Hogan was out on this one hole with a shag bag to hit balls. Leonard tried to camouflage himself as a bush and sneak up on Hogan. He went through some great pains to do this, hauling his heavy camera out there and then covering himself with some green plant life he gathered along the way. Well, there’s a reason they called Hogan The Hawk — he spotted Leonard nearly right away, picked up his bag of balls and moved on.

So, he covered himself with what Dottie Pepper calls organic matter...   Kind of reminds me of a scene from my own life, where I hung in the woods watching Employee No. 2 close out her Willow Ridge Club Championship.  She's a hawk as well, because she saw me, but still got it done despite my presence increasing her anxiety....

RIP.

The Ladies Have The Stage - There's still one major left before we kick 2020 to the curb, the U.S. Women's Open in early December:

The USGA announced the official 156-player field for the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, and it’s the

strongest contingent that any major has seen in 2020.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, players have faced the difficult decision as to whether or not they want to travel to compete in tournaments. Several top-ranked LPGA Tour players who live in South Korea have not traveled much of the 2020 season, instead staying in South Korea and playing in KLPGA events.

But the U.S. Women’s Open field features four of the top 15 players in the world who haven’t yet played on tour since the restart. That also means they haven’t played a major in 2020. World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, No. 9 Sung Hyun Park, No. 10 Hyo-Joo Kim and No. 12 Jeongeun Lee6, who is defending the championship, will all compete at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Dec. 10-13. Park and Ryu have both won the U.S. Women’s Open, in 2017 and 2011, respectively.

No question that's been a bummer for the LPGA.  Here's more on JY Ko:

The World No. 1 in the women’s game is returning to the tour of her greatest success. Jin Young

Ko decided to not travel when the LPGA Tour restarted competition following the coronavirus shutdown, choosing instead to stay home in South Korea and compete on the KLPGA Tour. Nearly a year to the day after appearing in her last LPGA event, the CME Group Tour Championship, Ko is playing this week in the Pelican Women’s Championship in Florida.

After spending a year away from the tour, which included missing her major title defense at the ANA Inspiration, the biggest question around Ko's return is, why now? Take a look at the schedule and you'll see the reason: Ko’s return comes four weeks before the the U.S. Women’s Open. The week after the last major of the season is the CME Group Tour Championship. Ko’s world ranking gets her into the U.S. Women’s Open, but having not played in LPGA tournaments in 2020, she doesn’t have any points to get her into the CME, despite being the LPGA's 2019 leading money winner (with four victories) and player of the year.

Of course, also in the field is Sophia Popov is in the filed for that Open, which only serves to remind us of the silliness of her exclusion from the ANA....  While folks are mourning the absence of these two Yanks, neither is actually relevant competitively:

There was some speculation that two star American past champions would make their 2020 debuts at the U.S. Women’s Open, but both Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie West are not participating in the championship. Creamer won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, making this year the last of her 10-year exemption. Wie West, who gave birth to her daughter, Kenna, in June, was reported to be considering playing in the championship.

Golfweek reported at the end of October that Wie West, the 2014 champion, had been sending swing videos to coach David Leadbetter and hoped it would be safe to travel with her daughter by December, but as the date approached, she’s become less sure. Creamer, who has battled numerous injuries, has not competed on the LPGA since October 2019.

 Former stars would seem, you know, more accurate.  

One last bit on the girls, as they announced a change as relates to the Solheim Cup, the motivation for which is quite clear:

The LPGA and LET today announced that the Solheim Cup, the world’s leading match-play

competition for female professional golfers, will move to even years starting in 2024. The 2021 and 2023 competitions will be held in their previously announced dates and locations in Ohio and Spain, respectively, with back-to-back playings in 2023 and 2024.

The Solheim Cup Committee approved the change to even years following the announcement that the Ryder Cup will move to an odd-year schedule, after the 2020 competition was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The specific dates and location for the 2024 Solheim Cup, which will be held in the United States, will be announced in the future.

That's probably for the best, as I'm not optimistic about this side-by-side comparison:

The 2023 Solheim Cup will be held Sept. 22-24 at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain. One week later, the Ryder Cup will be held in Italy, giving European sports fans a rare two-week spectacle of competition and patriotic fervor.

Through no fault of their own, the Solheim Cup is just the silliest thing imaginable, as squads of American and European women golfers battle for primacy.... OK, not so much primacy, because either team would be crushed unmercifully against a squad from the single country of South Korea.  Awkward, no? 

Scenes From The Big Tour - Just a couple of quick notes, and then I'll be on my way.  First, the McGladry/Sea Island Lovefest (as in Davis III) has been rocked by positive Covid tests:

Two more players have tested positive for COVID-19 at this week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga.

The PGA Tour announced on Wednesday that Henrik Norlander and Kramer Hickok both received a positive test result for the coronavirus during pre-tournament screening and have withdrawn from the tournament.

They are the second and third players who were slated to compete at Sea Island to test positive after Bill Haas also did earlier in the week. Norlander and Hickok will now self-isolate for 10 days.

 Perhaps "rocked" is a bity hyperbolic, especially for an event with a notably down-home vibe:

In that sense, Georgia’s barrier islands might be an even more relaxing locale for post-Masters decompression, since they feel less like a resort hub and more like entering a secluded haven. As

usual, Davis Love III hosts the event, though he’s now even more thoroughly a host since neck and back pain will keep him from playing. Of course, these are strange times for hosting, since a dinner at the new Love home or even a gathering at a restaurant are out of the question. Even that role is more limited, and constrained to tasks like sending Graeme McDowell to a restaurant called Crabdaddy’s and—this is not a joke—making snack mix with his wife because the volunteer who usually took on that duty can’t get across the Canadian border.

“I’ve already gotten guys dinner reservations and just got some guys some barbecue sauce from Southern Soul that were desperate because it’s closed today,” Love said. “So I’m doing the big things to get this tournament moving.”

Hey, I've cornered the Tour snack mix issues since 2014... Are you still awake?  

This is, in fact, a very nice little event, and a great way to finish the season, both in normal years and in 2020.  I just wish we could enjoy for what it is, an irrelevant home game, and not pretend it's a serious competition.   It's the Hero World Challenge with a larger field.

Lastly, this bit from the event formerly known as the Bob Hope:

Like most of the PGA Tour as well as other sports over the last six months, the American Express

golf tournament in La Quinta in January will be played without spectators.

The desert’s PGA Tour event confirmed Tuesday that the 63rd edition of the tournament will be played without ticketed spectators in 2021 because of state and Riverside County restrictions over health and safety regulations from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the tournament did announce the event’s pro-am format featuring 156 pros and 156 amateurs will be played.

“The health and safety of the La Quinta and Coachella Valley communities, as well as our players, volunteers and all other partners, has remained of utmost importance throughout the pandemic,” Jeff Sanders, executive director of the tournament and president of Sportfive Golf Events, the tournament’s management company, said in a statement.

This is not news, but see if you find this off-putting:

Under the county’s current purple tier for reopening, the most restrictive of four state color-coded tiers, live sports can be played but without spectators. The LPGA’s ANA Inspiration was played in September in Rancho Mirage under the purple tier. That women's tournament did allow fans who live in homes around the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club to watch the event from their backyards, something that will also be true at the American Express.

Let me see if I have this right, our compassionate overlords actually allowed people to be in their own backyards?   I guess that bit about inalienable rights granted by our creator has been superseded?

Anyway, a couple of other bits, including an invitation for the reader to insert his or her own Chainsmokers joke:

While the tournament statement made no mention of the two nights of concerts that are part of the event, no ticketed spectators means no onsite concerts, too.The two concerts in 2020 featured rock legends Stevie Nicks on Friday and country star Luke Bryan on Saturday.Crowd estimate were from 18,000 to 20,000 a night for the concerts, with tickets on those days selling for $50 each.

The tournament is still planning for the pro-am portion of the event to continue. That format features two pros playing with two amateurs in each foursome, with play the first three days rotating around the three tournament courses. Sunday is a pros-only day, with the exception of six top amateurs, playing at the Stadium Course at PGA West.

This event has fallen on hard times, and its Pro-Am feature is about all it has left.  We also all understand that the Pro-Am is what the sponsors fork over the big money for, so we can't go on too long without blowing up the ecosystem.

But, notwithstanding the presence of spectators at the Houston stop, it seems pretty evident that there will be no galleries until the Florida swing, at the earliest.  With the Masters a mere handful of weeks after the Florida events. how likely are we to see the return of fans patrons at Augusta?  Or, you know, ever...

On that depressing note, I'll bid adieu and see all you nice people down the road.