I don't know, perhaps we'll stumble over some pockets of sanity, but from my keyboard it looks like golf has embraced the big crazy... Of course, there's lots of that going around, so perhaps they just want to fit in.
The Norman Conquests - Greg Norman's last flirtation with golf relevancy would have been in 1996, so he seems the perfect man for the job. And, just as the rest of us are awakening to the threat of Chinese hegemony, The Shark has aligned himself with an even more popular backer:
At an extremely select media briefing in New York in the coming days, the Saudis will break with anything that has come before and expand – albeit to hand-picked outlets, of course – on their plans for the professional game’s ultimate disruption plan. Industry insiders believe Greg Norman will be confirmed as the public face of a series – possibly involving a dream of 10 events on the Asian Tour – as obvious, direct competition to the European and PGA Tours. Saudi Golf and the Asian Tour are already in alliance for the Saudi International in February. Norman is understood to have been busy on behalf of the Saudis in the corporate world.
The excerpt above is from The Guardian, so you'll be shocked to learn that they may not have gotten each particular quite right. For instance, this Sports Illustrated account says the selective briefing has already taken place:
- The new tour was detailed in a private session with "golf media members" Oct. 27 in New York. No organizer or attendee has confirmed, officially, who was there. Golfweek said it was not invited.
- The information given to those media members was embargoed; they agreed to not report on it until next week.
So, back to the fact-intolerant Guardian, who perhaps fills in a detail of why DJ and others are so unrelenting about supporting Saudi golf:
Some players have already signed on for multiple appearances in the Saudi International, as was once the domain of the European Tour. It remains improbable that Dustin Johnson and others will be prevented from being released by the European or PGA Tours for the 2022 staging of that event, despite calendar clashes with other tournaments. Yet the European and PGA Tours have shown no willingness whatsoever to engage with a Saudi breakaway. This makes the issue of multiple releases for any extended series highly problematic. It may also prove a legal minefield.
Improbable? Both the PGA and European Tours have announced that no waivers will be granted for play in the Saudi event, though the calendar is quite the McGuffin. It might have more to do with the Saudis trying to put those tours out of business, as opposed to a scheduling conflict with another event. Just spitballin' here...
But the Guardian has taken time out from its core function of supporting Communists and terrorists, to pen this ode to the Saudi's championing the rights of man:
Saudi Golf has always believed golfers are independent traders and can play wherever they choose.
Does that include women golfers? Driving their own carts? Playing with men who might not be family members? But this seems counter-factual:
Quite rightly, neither the PGA nor European Tour will publicly address the issue of releases for now. If they do so, it both acknowledges a legitimate threat that may not seriously exist and gives the Saudis a position to challenge.
Both tours have issued clear statements that releases will not be granted. Publicly.
That SI piece had some further details and/or speculation:
- Greg Norman will be announced as the commissioner of the league. Norman proposed a breakaway World Golf Tour in the 1990s that drew the ire of the PGA Tour and led to the World Golf Championships.
What exactly does the Shark bring to the table? For him it's another bite of the apple, but he's a laughingstock of the game. From his need to show off his naked torso to the pimped-out golf cart that was going to put the USGA out of business, he's the Joe Biden of golf. So I guess it makes perfect sense that we'll let him run golf, though we should wait until the dementia kicks in fully.
And just a reminder of the players being targeted:
- In May, Morning Read's Alex Miceli reported that the Saudi backers were willing to spend a billion dollars to bankroll the league and that Phil Mickelson was offered $100 million to join the new tour. Other high-profile players, including Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott and Rickie Fowler, were offered $30 million to $50 million each to defect. How this new proposal affects those financial numbers is unknown.
The curious Twitter activity of Patrick Reed
I'll spare you the granular details, opting instead for this brief summary of the account:
The parallels were noteworthy due to year-long speculation that the “useGolfFACTS” account is affiliated with Reed, his family or team. A look into the account’s replies show heavy activity in defense of Reed from various allegations throughout his career. However, the account has done more than defend Reed, making numerous critical and disparaging remarks toward Reed’s fellow competitors and the PGA Tour.
The really curious bit happened at Zero Dark Thirty earlier in the week, when this Twitter account channeled its inner Abraham Zapruder:
The latest curious activity occurred Tuesday evening when the "useGolfFACTS" handle shared a theory that live TV might've altered the footage of Reed's infamous bunker incident at the 2019 Hero World Challenge. The account replied to an Eddie Pepperell tweet from January, claiming that an expert in forensic videography spent 180 hours studying the footage. The conclusion, according to the account, is that the Golf Channel broadcast "digitally altered" the images to "publicly smear" the nine-time PGA Tour winner.
Well, we are coming up on the two-year anniversary:
Yowzer! Let me guess, was the Trilateral Commission involved?
And we're apparently reviving and defending the man against every allegation since his college days:
The obvious question is why now, and neither Shack nor Joel speculate on that.
But 180 hours of video analysis? Two years after the fact? But that bit above about disparaging the Tour and other players? Here's some details on that:
In addition, the “useGolfFACTS” handle has routinely knocked other players, including Justin Thomas. Among the complaints is that Thomas didn’t deserve to be on the cover of the PGATour’s 2K21 video game, that Thomas “is a taker,” and that Thomas shouldn’t get his $2 million Wyndham Rewards bonus because he didn’t play in the Wyndham Championship. There was also a shot at Thomas’ temperament. “His bad attitude and actions were on full display and it was disrespectful to Niemann-his playing partner,” the account asserted on Jan. 4, 2020.Xander Schauffele was another of the account’s targets. Also on Jan. 4, 2020, under a Golf Channel headline on Schauffele’s odds to repeat at the 2020 TOC, the “useGolfFACTS” handle replied, “Someone should check his new driver to make sure it is conforming,” alluding to Schauffele’s driver failing R&A compliance at the 2019 Open Championship. The account also alleged Schauffele patted down the rough at the 2020 TOC, attaching a video of Schauffele making practice swings.
Which might be an issue if we had a Commissioner worried about anything more than increasing his gambling vig:
Why does this matter? In addition to ensuring some awkward tournament pairings, proof of Reed's direct involvement with a Twitter account that disparages the tour and other players would appear to be in breach of a section of the player code of conduct that addresses such public criticism. A PGA Tour spokesperson told Golf Digest the tour has no comment on the matter. As of writing, Golf Digest has not received a response for comment from Thomas or Schauffele.
But the most curious bit comes in a denial found in the penultimate 'graph:
But to those who believe Reed’s tweet on Saturday is the smoking gun, Reed’s attorneys say that’s not necessarily the case. In response to a Golf Digest email about Reed’s Saturday night Tweet and his connection with “useGolfFACTS,” Reed’s lawyer, Phillip B. Costa, replied “Please be advised that the person who manages Patrick Reed’s Twitter and Instagram accounts does not run the @ use GolfFACTS account.” As of writing, a direct message to the “useGolfFACTS” account from Golf Digest has not been returned.
Isn't that the most curious of non-denial denials?
Wouldn't you think that the best strategy for the PGA Tour would be to push Patrick into the arms of the Saudis.... Really, doesn't that solve all of Jay's problems in one clever move?
The Hard Work of Saving Golf - Your humble blogger clings to an important delusion, to wit, that golf is better because it doesn't resemble other sports. Yet a couple of commentators seem quite convinced that our road to salvation (or is it survival?) lies in copying other sports....
The most recent of these is from Sean Zak:
Can the PGA Tour gain popularity by following Formula 1’s footsteps?
This oughta be good...Sean riffs off this:
What I found were The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Sports…
— ✏️Jacob Feldman (@JacobFeldman4) October 26, 2021
As you may have heard, Jay is trying to copy that Netflix model, though I don't much like his chances. So, what should golf do?
2. Make events BIGGERThis one feels less important, but the Tour is certainly thinking about everything it can do to draw fans to events. After a year with limited or zero spectators, that’s millions of dollars in ticket revenue that disappeared. Can the Tour double down and have concerts at every event? Concerts every night of the tournament? There are probably many events to make this a reality. But the concerts definitely exist at a number of events already. Does that mesh well with this sport? Does that even matter?
OK, that superficially sounds like good advice, though there's a slight problem in that Jay doesn't own the actually big events and his and Nurse Ratched's track record of creating bigness needs a rework.
If I were writing a parody, I would use this, what Alan Shipnuck called Jay Monahan's Katrina:
— Adam Stanley (@adam_stanley) March 10, 2020
I'm still waiting for the media to share a death count...
What's most depressing is that I'd settle for a Commish that actually loved the game, as wasn't going off chasing new shiny objects all the time.
Shack has his own savior complex:
I have a general rule of thumb when it comes to big ticket matters in golf: the sport is at least fiveyears behind most trends and societal shifts. Make that a decade if something slightly “edgy” is involved. You know, something like people expressing opinions or using the screen for informative stats.So it would be foolish to expect CBS or NBC executives to sit down this fall with the major golf organizations and say, hey, this ManningCast thing ESPN has been doing is just the kind of thing we should do with all these alternate feeds. You know, instead of another Featured Group channel with analysis by C-listers looking to curry favor.
Of course, Geoff does note this one little problem:
I realize the Mannings are special talents. They’re self-deprecating humor and brotherly bond adds a dimension generally lacking in sports. Adopting this format would not come as easily to a lot of athletes.
So, the anti-Faldos? Seriously, has anyone ever used self-deprecating in the same sentence as Faldo? Come to think of it, the same goes for "humor"....
Although, Geoff does get my attention here:
The Manning’s play golf. Maybe we should see if they are available for a golf version during the PGA Championship? The MNF ManningCast is on ESPN and the Worldwide Leader has streaming rights to the PGA Championship’s alternate feeds. Maybe the Manning brothers would volunteer to jumpstart the concept during the weekend rounds? They could single-handidly speed up golf’s (inevitable) languid approach to the next big concept. The one viewers will be demanding sooner rather than on golf’s maybe later timetable.
Really, any CBS event will do....
Fixing golf broadcasts should be a high priority for the Commish, but Geoff explains he has higher priorities:
The ManningCast is problematic for traditional football broadcasts and maybe all sports sticking to their normal formats. Because after you’ve watched the Mannings, the usual play-by-play/analyst combo feels terribly dated. The Mannings have highlighted how much most sports broadcasting analysis consists of time-killing, fluff and avoidance of humor. (Scientists have proven provocative humor leads to thinking!)Why have that “content” when we can discuss how the FanPointsDuelBet pregame odds were -172 on a quarterback throwing a touchdown pass?
That's why both efforts seem so hollow. Sean and Geoff are looking for su to be saved, whereas all we really need is a leadership focused on the actual golf, as opposed to placating their FanDuel masters... Am I the last guy that turns the broadcast on to see the golf?
Good NIL - I'm saddened by the changes to the amateur world, as I don't expect it'll be a good look or work out as intended. But this is one monetization I can get behind:
Have a few years of eligibility and some game left in the tank? There’s name, image and likeness money to be made.Just ask 63-year-old Debbie Blount, the nearly-senior-citizen sophomore member of the Reinhardt University women’s golf team. Blount joined the team as a freshman walk-on and has since received a partial scholarship and her first NIL deal with Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux as their “Walk-On of the Week.” The program aims to highlight the underdogs in sports and support collegiate walk-on athletes across the country.
Maybe I need to reconsider....
That's it for today's crazy. Have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday.
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