Year-End Wrap

In so many ways it's been a kidney stone of a year, so no sepia-toned, wistful reminisces to be found.  We don't focus on statistics much here at Unplayable Lies, but this will be my 164th post of the year (and final, presumably), which seems not half-bad for a guy fighting blogger burnout.

We'll spend just a little time amusing ourselves with the various year-end efforts of the golfing press, with a preview of 2022 in certain cases.  I'll hope to be with you on Monday (content permitting), but then I'm off to get my ski season started.

The Year That Was - We seem to have moved past the big picture, sweeping odes to 2021, with the most recent offerings being more personal recollections and notebook dumps.  Shall we sample a few?  First, from the AP's Doug Ferguson, including this from the "Don't Know Much About History" files:

Any trip to Torrey Pines is sure to bring memories of the Junior World Championship, no matter the pedigree of golfer.

David Winkle of Hambric Sports, who manages Dustin Johnson, was 14 when he played the Junior World at Torrey. He missed the cut, but a friend from Dallas was a top junior and in contention, so Winkle stayed to watch. His friend played the final round with Nathaniel Crosby, whose father was in the gallery.

Winkle scrolled through his phone and found the photo of him standing next to Bing Crosby, looking smooth as ever in a red cardigan.

The photo made the rounds in the media center at the U.S. Open, and one of the younger scribes showed his age. After he finally recognized Winkle with a full head of hair, he asked, “Who’s the guy in the sweater?”

Dissing Der Bingle around the holidays seems so very wrong....  But couldn't you have included the photo, Doug?

Eamon Lynch also has some vignettes, but have very much a 2022 focus to them:

A few weeks later, the PGA Tour faced a reckoning with its new reality, even if the organization shows no outward sign of having grasped the importance of what happened that Sunday afternoon at Torrey Pines. It was hardly shocking that Patrick Reed acted as his own rules official on the way to winning the Farmers Insurance Open, lifting a ball he claimed was embedded before an actual rules official could arrive to deliver a verdict. Video evidence was inconclusive, but far from exculpatory, so PointsBet—an official gaming partner of the Tour—refunded wagers.

The scrutiny that comes with legalized sports betting is at odds with the Tour’s generous attitude to questionable on-course conduct by its members, a benevolence long personified by the now-departed rules honcho Slugger White, the Mrs. Doubtfire of the nanny state. An insistence that concerned parties are gentlemen, or a reliance on artful wording about intent, is no defense against punters who are convinced that video evidence tells a different story. When it happens again—and it will—the Tour is woefully ill-equipped for the firestorm. Reed’s ball drop will have ramifications that linger well beyond that other ball drop next week in Times Square.

Fair enough, although I think this is actually a twofer.  The Tour in general has long taken a position that the public has no right to know of any disciplinary actions taken, most famously captured by the infamous DJ Jet-ski accident/coke bender.  I'll spare you the rant here, but the logic seems to be that we should take their word that the players re all gentlemen (an improbable assertion as relates to PReed), and ignore our own lyin' eyes.

I do agree with Eamon that legalized sports gambling is an awkward fit with the game, and that PointsBet story should absolutely be setting off alarm bells in Ponte Vedra Beach, though I still think the bigger risk going forward is the unique proximity of golf fans to the action and the resulting ability/probability of attempts to influence outcomes.

He points his considerable intellect at the biggest pending story in the game as well, though I can't help but think that he's missing the bigger points:

One thing changed this year with the Saudi Arabian government’s effort to hijack professional golf. They recruited a front man, Greg Norman, who drops vapid jargon and false equivalencies as freely as his employer does missiles on Yemeni civilians. But two things haven’t changed: the proposed Super Golf League still hasn’t signed any players, and the scheme is still solely about normalizing the image of a regime that exhibits contempt for human rights.

This reckoning will continue in 2022 and beyond. Oil grants the specter enviable staying power. If nothing else, the Saudis are offering a reminder that the values on which golf prides itself—integrity, honor, respectability—are not immutable, but must be defended against charlatans and chiselers, some of whom are card-carrying members of the PGA Tour.

The problem with critiquing this initiative based upon character references for the Saudis and/or Greg Norman is quite obvious, to wit, that those two entities could be removed from the mix and the same problems remain. The Premiere/Super/Bonecutter League is a horrible vision for our game regardless of whether it's fronted by Brits or Saudis or topless Aussies, and if you disagree then tell me how it differs from twenty years of WGCs?

Mike Bamberger trods the same ground in his offering:

Thirty years ago, the 1992 field at the Pebble Beach AT&T Pro-Am included Mark O’Meara (the

winner in a playoff), Jeff Sluman, Steve Elkington, Paul Azinger, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Fuzzy Zoeller, Payne Stewart, Lanny Wadkins — and Greg Norman.

Yes, of course, all these name players were in the field. It was Pebble Beach, golf’s most celebrated pro-am. You couldn’t make more money playing anywhere else that week, and you might get some good business advice along the way. They came because they were professional golfers. There aren’t many job titles that are preceded by an adjective, but professional golfer is one of them. Pro golfers have followed the money forever.

And that’s what will be happening in five weeks, when the Saudi International will be played the same week as the AT&T at Pebble Beach. The Saudi International will look confusingly like a PGA Tour event. The PGA Tour, not happily, has given releases — permission slips, really — to an extraordinary number of name-brand Tour pros to play in the event.

Among the American players in the Saudi field are Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Dufner, Dustin Johnson, Jason Kokrak, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Na, Xander Schauffele, Harold Varner and Bubba Watson.

He goes on and on in this vein, and it's all fair game up to a point.  But there's a whole world of things omitted that bear on those circumstances in February.  First, mike completely ignores what's become of the Clambake, featuring 5 1/2 hour rounds with C-list celebs and worse.  

But secondly, this is also an inevitable result of Jay (and Nurse Ratched before him) extending the PGA's calendar beyond reason, leaving no recognizable off-season or room for other tours to operate.  

This is also a little silly:

Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, is fighting fire with fire, for now. The Tour has announced that the total purse for all PGA Tour events in 2022 will be $60 million higher than it was in 2021, up to $427 million, from $367 million.

(The Tour did not say where the money is coming from, except to say it was in the Tour’s “reserves.”)

Everyone but Mike is aware that new TV contracts have kicked in, so purse increases have been in the cards for some time.  

And here he veers dangerously close to a significant point, though pulls back before saying anything dangerous:

In professional golf, money always leads the way. We, the community of golf fans, pay all the bills. There’s nothing really new here.

But you could also make the case that a bomb will drop on professional golf before too long here. Because when it’s all said and done, golf is a niche sport with a small following and small supply of elite professional golfers. There’s just not that much supply to go around. How many active, male professional golfers are there in the world that ordinary fans have some kind of emotional investment in? Not more than 100 and likely not even close to that.

Tiger Woods likes to say that Father Time is undefeated. Supply and demand is, too.

A much deeper dive on the demand side might be interesting.  Because, even with the backing wind of the pandemic driving us to the golf course, golf remains a truly niche sport.  You look at those puny ratings and think about the Saudis pumping $200 million into the woebegone Asian Tour, and the payoff seems... well, dubious?   Stay tuned.

We touched on gambling above, and in a year-end freebie Quadrilateral post, Geoff has truly depressing news for those already burned out by the commercials, including this excerpt from The Information's Sahil Patel (just realized it's paywalled):

“What’s gonna happen in the next few years is you’ll see a push by sportsbooks to get more efficient with their marketing spending,” said Raphael Poplock, senior vice president of business

development and strategic partnerships for Bleacher Report, a sports media site owned by WarnerMedia. “There is a reason why a lot of these books are acquisitive, and it’s because they want to build their own ecosystem…and be less dependent on media companies to drive scale and audience.”

Sports betting companies will spend $1.2 billion in the U.S. on marketing designed to sign up new customers in 2021, up from about $500 million last year, with that figure expected to grow to $2.1 billion next year, according to a top sports media and marketing investor. Such customer acquisition–focused marketing typically involves performance advertising, which is designed to get users to perform an action, such as downloading an app or clicking affiliate links within editorial content, leading to betting services.

I guess Mike Bamberger can stop wondering where the cash is coming from.... But so much for watching golf live.  Here's Geoff's bottom line:

So what does this mean for golf? I’ve lost track of the Tour’s various betting partnerships and certainly am not privy to how media deals work with the major organizations. But to date we’ve only seen Augusta National keep gambling ads off its surrounding broadcasts. Or maybe CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel just assume it’s wise too not poke a Green Coat until Fred Ridley’s seen playing the Laughlin slots and praising the joys of Pai Gow Poker. Call it wacky, but something tells me that’s not happening.

According to Sports Business Journal, the NFL has caved to gambling ads this year but restricted its partners to showing no more than one betting spot per quarter, one during the pregame, and one at halftime. Given golf’s Nuke LaLoosh approach to betting so far, don’t expect to see NFL-like restraint.

 Can you say TIVO?

Lastly in this vein, Golf Digest's year-end quiz.  Your humble blogger got 18 out of twenty correct.

Care for some actual news?

We Have A Winner - More accurately, we have a guy claiming that he's won the Big Kahuna:

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) December 29, 2021

Maybe, as Eamon throws a little shade:

 Among the issues this presents:

Jay is seeding the revolution that will inevitably oust him.  Want to know who the first member of that anti-Jay coalition is?

Meanwhile, Collin Morikawa is a dream-demo Open Championship winner, dignified user of social media, and player-of-the-year candidate who will reportedly finish 11th and miss out on last place’s $3 million. Millennials rise up!

Yeah, we don't do dignified any more.... That full top ten will be an eye-opener.

New Course Preview -  We're not building many golf courses these days, but both Golf Magazine and Golfweek have articles previewing new courses to open in 2022.  You'll be shocked...shocked, I tell you, to know which one has your humble blogger's attention:

THE LIDO

Nekoosa, WI

The allure of the Lido, a long-lost Macdonald-Raynor masterwork on the shores of Long Island, has inspired two projects. The first, Ballyshear, a Lido tribute by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, opened to member play this fall in Thailand. For State-side golfers, though, the simpler trip will be the Sand Barrens of central Wisconsin, where Chris and Mike Keiser Jr. (the siblings behind Sand Valley), have commissioned Tom Doak to build a faithful reproduction, a clone of the original, complete with all the template holes but minus the ocean. Thirteen holes will be open to member play July 1 and all 18 by fall for member and resort guest play. (Note: though the course is private, limited times will be set aside for Sand Valley resort guests.)

Seemingly the only one on either list not a Coore-Crenshaw project...

Given the timing, seems like a must for 2023.

That's it for 2021, friends.  Have a great New Years and we'll do it again all next year.

Weekend Wrap

And a lovely weekend it was, although golf played absolutely no role in that.  Got some year-end stuff for you today, but if you found last week's blogging low energy, be prepared to move those goalposts yet again.

Year-End Wrap, Tour Confidential Edition - Golf.com's éminences grises took time out from Dallas pummeling the WFT to offer thoughts on the season just concluded.  of course, we could point out that only in the tortured logic of those living in the 904 area code would we be in the middle of the year, but that's not important now.

1. What a golf year! Among the highlights: Hideki won Japan’s first green jacket; Phil became the oldest-ever major winner; Nelly won a major and gold; Tiger spent most of the year in recovery before a nearly triumphant return in December; and, of course, Brooks vs. Bryson. When you look back at 2021 a couple of decades from now, which story is most likely to most resonate?

More like annus horribilis, no?  

Alan Bastable: Tiger’s romp with Charlie at the PNC was a blast to watch on many levels (it’s also

still so fresh in our minds), but I give the nod to Phil’s win at Kiawah. What’s easy to forget about that week is how poorly he was playing, relative to the field, coming in. In the six primary Strokes Gained categories, Mickelson ranked no better than 120th. That PGA Championship was a reminder of the blessed nuttiness of this game: on the right course, over the right four days, age can become nothing more than a number.

First, can we agree that it wasn't much of a year in the majors?  In the case of both Hideki and Phil, the wins were historically significant but aesthetically lacking.  To a large extent that was due to the challengers (though Hideki certainly scraped it around), as I'm still trying to figure out who was impersonating Brooks Koepka at Kiawah.  Unless, of course, you believe that a result of Phil's explanation from the commentary booth at The Match.

Michael Bamberger: Phil’s win was the most unexpected thing, but this was the year that Tiger’s life, athletic and otherwise and by his own admission, changed forever. Very likely the greatest golfer to ever play the game will not enjoy the long sunset that Arnold and Jack and even Hogan did. It was a soaring, incredible thing he did at the P-and-O (parents and offspring) with his son Charlie in December, but the underlying event was what happened on a quiet Los Angeles road on Feb. 23.

Funny you should mention Hogan, Mike, because the comparison speaks volumes about Tiger.  We're supposed to ignore (I'm not actually sure where Mike is on this) Tiger's own agency in his accident, as if it's OK to imperil the public when you're late to a photo shoot.  Hogan, in contrast, was truly a victim of bad luck, but instinctively threw his body in front of wife Valerie, thereby demonstrating that toxic masculinity that we're fortunately banishing from polite society.

Josh Sens: Those were the most captivating for me as well. But the story that is likely to have longer-term implications involves the rival tours, which raise all sorts of legal, ethical and practical questions: about the strengths and weaknesses of the PGA Tour; about how, where, when golf will be played around the world; about the character of players and other participants, and on.

So, the biggest story in golf in 2021 was the PIP program  God help us all...

Nick Piastowski: The Tiger story jumps out — if this is it, then the moment in February will be forever frozen in time, but if he somehow slips on another jacket or hoists another jug, then we’ll look back and wonder how he, as he termed it a few weeks ago, climbed the mountain. Again. But I’m going to agree with Josh. I’m not so sure we’ll see any real resolution on the rival tour fronts by the end of next year. But I’m betting the PGA Tour takes more steps to ward off any and all in 2022. And I think there’s a good chance that, in maybe about two or three years, we’ll look back at this year as the one where pro golf began to seismically change.

Oh yeah!  But including PIP, Live Under Par™ and the ubiquitous and unseemly embrace of sports betting, is there any of this that's improving the experience

Is there a chance I'll like the answers to this one any better

2. Conversely, which story from 2021 did not get the attention it deserved?

Not if I know our writers...

Bastable: Tiger’s crash would be high on the list. Obviously, the accident itself was covered with great intensity, as was his recovery when Tiger made details available, but so many questions still linger — including why he was driving so fast and how Woods truly feels about having altered the trajectory of his career. We may never get those answers. Also, for all the buzz around Phil, shoutout to 47-year-old Stewart Cink, who did not get enough credit for picking up two titles in 2021. Raise your hand if you saw that coming. 

I actually like Alan's instinct, though he can only take it so far.  Yes, the Tiger story, specifically the crash, didn't get the attention it deserved, at least the portion involving the actually crash.  Of course, what Alan elides, is that he and his fellow golf writers refused to perform any actual acts of journalism to inform us of what actually happened and why.  

Cink was actually a nice little one-day story, though the son on the bag would seem an important part of that.

Bamberger: Mickelson’s win at the PGA. How on earth did he do it? We saw the shots. But what was happening that we could not see? Astounding, really, given where his golf had been, given his age, given how long he has been at it.

So, why didn't you write that story, Mike  Though I've been reliably informed that it was all because Phil was nice to Brooks....

Sens: I’m with Alan on Tiger. The accident gave rise to all sorts of raw and honest moments from Woods. But as always seems to be the case, there seemed to be so much more to it than any of us will know.

But why is that Josh?  Don't you know anyone capable of chasing that story

Piastowski: All good answers. But Jin Young Ko’s 63 straight greens in regulation to close the year and help her win the CME Group Tour Championship. was ridiculous. And underappreciated.

That's an oddly specific answer....  admittedly, 63 consecutive GIRs is pretty sick, though I'd have thought the larger picture of Nelly v. Jin Young an obvious answer with merit.  Of course, if an LPGA member cuts down a tree in a forest..... 

3. For sheer entertainment, which 2021 tournament do you think delivered the most value?

I know you think you know what's coming... 

Bastable: The women’s Olympic golf event was a seesaw thriller that I was glad I stayed up to watch — with two titans in Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko battling against the homeland hero, Mone Inami, and India’s short-hitting Aditi Ashok, who impressively contended despite wearing out her hybrids. It was a fascinating blend of players and styles. With the gold medal in the balance, a late-in-the-round weather delay ratcheted up the tension even more. Korda ultimately prevailed but I was on the edge of my seat (bed?) until the final putt dropped.

Do the writers get PIP points for promoting the Olympics?   I'm not even sure that was the most interesting bit at the Olympics, as I might have gone for the 7-for-1 playoff for the Men's Bronze Medal.  They still can't make Olympic golf matter, but it was the first time in our game that anything besides winning mattered.

Bamberger: The Solheim Cup. Loved the course, the swings, the teams, the camaraderie. It was all about the golf. There’s not enough of that.

It was certainly more interesting than that comparable men's event held a few weeks later, and team match play does rock.  But it's an event that poses troubling existential questions, because the best women players in the world are excluded.

Sens: The U.S. Open. For all the grief that Torrey took for the architecture set, it delivered yet another electric finish.

Meh! How was that week any different from watching King Louis kick away any other tournament?   

Piastowski: All good answers again! To add to the conversation, I’ll add the two-man, six-man playoff between Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship back in August. Some of the best shot-making and putt-making in sudden death you’ll ever see.

But was that even the best playoff on Tour this year?   

More importantly, how is it possible that there wasn't a single vote for the PNC as the most exciting (maybe entertaining is the better adjective) tournament of the year?  

That this guy gets his won Q&A confirms that it was a kidney stone of a year:

4. We can’t talk about 2021 without talking about Bryson DeChambeau, who between his speed training, UFO sightings and feud with Brooks Koepka may have found himself in more headlines than any other player. In your mind, has DeChambeau’s impact on the game been overstated or understated?

Bastable: I’ll say understated when you consider that he has forced every one of his opponents to reconsider what is possible in terms of distance. Exhibit A: Rory McIlroy who admitted that chasing Bryson’s numbers drove Rory out of his comfort zone and ultimately derailed his game. And that’s the thing: Bryson’s distance is not just about swinging hard. It’s about swinging hard and controlling his clubhead and a hundred other things. Turns out hitting 400-yard bombs in the heat of competition is a difficult formula to master.

That's actually a cogent case, though it would have more resonance had it been written in late December 2020.  Alas, Bryson didn't play well enough in 2021 for it to feel like it matters right now. 

Bamberger: I’ll say overstated when you consider that it is very unlikely that other golfers are going to do what he has done to his body, to the conventional notion of how to swing a golf club or even choose your golf clubs. He’s a one-off. The UFO thing is cool.

Sens: Was there a day in golf this year that didn’t yield a Bryson headline. No doubt he’s one of the more compelling characters in the game, but I don’t know how you could say that we in the media didn’t wring him dry for every possible shred of what we now call ‘content.’

Piastowski: In the present, a bit overstated. Like Josh mentioned, Bryson’s exploits do get plenty of pub, quite possibly more so than golfer going right now. But, I think when we look back somewhere down the line, how he’s both changed his body and emphasized a go-for-broke style will be remembered as pivotal. Yes, it’ll still take talent to make a score, but, as Bryson has tried to do in other avenues, he’s shaved that difficulty down just a fraction, and the next generation is taking notes.

Nick makes a good case, with which I tend to agree.  The bigger issue is whether 2022 is a bounce back year, which I'm thinking it will be.

5. What was your most memorable interaction with a Tour pro or other golfing notable in 2021?

Bastable: Remember Hunter Mahan, one-time Next Big Thing? He’s had just one top-10 finish since 2015 but he’s still out there grinding and chasing the dream. Earlier this year, I was trying to reach Mahan for a story I was reporting on the 10-year anniversary of the Golf Boys. He was happy to oblige. Mahan called me from the Honda Classic, and gave me 25 minutes of Golf Boys gold. Then it was back to the range.

If only they had included the word "current in the question...  If "Golf Boys gold" isn't an oxymoron, then the word has no meaning.  For what it's worth, Golf.com has a compendium of eighteen feature stories from 2021, including the aforementioned piece:

‘It was ridiculous how bad we were’: 10 years later, the Golf Boys revisit the video that rocked the golf world

 My reaction?  Take a look at those Golf Boys:

The career arcs of all four are identical, asymptotically approaching milk carton status.

Bamberger: Jim Thorpe, at the PNC. I was asking Thorpe about his swing–he took it slightly outside and held on with all his might. No release at all. He said, “This one time, I’m hitting 4-irons next to Tiger, on the range. Tiger says, `Thorpey, hit me a hook 4-iron.’ I say, `Tiger, I don’t hit hook shots.’”

Thorpey?  Give it a rest, Tiger!

Sens: Driving around Stillwater, Oklahoma as a passenger in Viktor Hovland’s car, listening

along with him to death metal and other stuff he calls music. He was frank, funny, thoughtful —a great conversationalist with wide-ranging interests in politics, philosophy and, of course, the science and mechanics of the swing. He even had a carefully considered argument for why death metal is better than rock. I wasn’t buying it. But at least he had his reasons.

He does seem like an especially engaging kid....  But I'm not sure what's worse, the death metal or the Stillwater thing...

I like this story from Nick as well:

Piastowski: Debbie Blount is no doubt notable — at 62 years young, she’s playing golf for the Eagles of Reinhardt University. Back in March, we talked for over two hours, over two phone calls, about golf, life, rap and country, and she told me a joke or two, of which I could not include in the story I wrote — for censor reasons.

And their rousing coda for the year:

6. The single best shot you saw in 2021 was…

Bastable: Sergio’s walk-off ace at the WGC-Dell Match Play was about as baller of a shot as they come. But for sheer magnitude, tough to beat Jon Rahm’s putts on the 71st (25 feet) and 72nd hole (18 feet) at the U.S. Open. Both were left-to-right snakes — the hardest kind of putts for a righty — and he knew he needed them for U.S. Open glory. Clutch city.

Bamberger: Charlie Woods, at the PNC on Sunday, on 17, a par-3, at the Ritz-Carlton course in Orlando. Perfect swing, a 5-iron from 170 yards, breeze in his face, flag left, water left. On the stick all the while, Charlie staring. He made the next one, from four feet. All the father had to do was watch.

Shocking that, given this panel's myopic focus on Tiger, that it took until the last question for Charlie's name to come up.   

Sens: Rahm’s back-to-back putts on 17 and 18 at Torrey take the prize for me. But I’ll give the silver to Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele. That wedge from the fairway that he needed to save par wasn’t the most demanding shot if you stripped it of the context. But that’s the thing about big shots. You can separate them from the moment, and Schauffele came up huge.

Piastowski: I’ll go with two, if that’s OK. The Bryson drive over the lake at Bay Hill (speaking of question four) — and then Lee Westwood not cutting the corner in the same pairing with DeChambeau the next day, but still celebrating like him afterward. Both were great.

Lee's game has always been lacking in certain areas, but is there a guy you'd rather have a beer with out there

Just a few more nits and to pick.  A few posts back I linked to this item:

The Bryson vs. Brooks feud dominated PGA Tour chatter, but was it good for golf?

In an episode of blogging malpractice that I still regret, I let you explore that on your own, but perhaps it's not too late to remedy that.   It is, after all, the estimable Brendan Porath and he makes some interesting observations:

It illustrated the tension between the pro game’s persistent thirst to broaden its tent, make a splash, live under par … with the constraints of a member-run organization sensitive to its stars' sensitivities. That sensitivity undercurrent was particularly strong this year, with renewed reports of disruptor leagues looking to exploit some top stars' feelings that they’re not getting a commensurate piece of the pie.

Combined, their out-in-the-open feud made them the biggest active stars in the game. So it was no surprise to hear both of their names bandied about in reports of a Saudi-backed disruptor league offering $20 million and $30 million up front for commitments. And it was no surprise that one of the tour’s counter-measures, the Player Impact Program, or PIP, pushed this beef into a different realm. Koepka clearly leaned into it, bringing an element of competitiveness to his social-media tactics, so much so that he boasted by the end of the year that he “won the online battle.” Bryson, well, he was less surgical on social media, but the output was there, no doubt. The endpoint of this year-long tension was not a Sunday showdown with the stakes at their highest, but a processed-beef match on the Vegas strip, served with the produced elements that may be part of the alternative golf product being pitched as … entertainment … or maybe it’s competition? … by these disruptor league proposals.

I have no problem with an entertaining sideshow helping to broaden the tent, it's just that I wonder when we get to the entertaining part?

I like his "processed-beef" analogy very much, but I fear folks are ignoring how close that event is to the Premiere/Super League concept.

I've exhumed that piece because we have another take on the issue, from the previously-unknown-to-me Riley Hamel at Golfweek, who is apparently easily entertained:

The real question: Was the petty feud between the two U.S. Open champions good for the game

of golf?

The short answer, yes.

It brought more eyeballs. It brought drama. It then culminated with a made-for-TV match between the two in Las Vegas that ultimately ended in an old-school classroom spanking of the muscleman.

Some may disagree, and that’s fine. To be honest, this answer is coming from someone who simply can’t stand anything DeChambeau does. Cupcakes on the first tee, man — really?

However, anything that helps grow the game works for me, and the Brooks vs. Bryson feud had people talking who have never watched a Tour event before. It’s as simple as that.

But, inquiring minds want to know, where is the evidence that the feud grew the game?  Now do we understand the evolving backlash against using GTG to rationalize just about anything?

I'm open to the concept that golf could use more feuds.  It's just that the professional wrestling business model should prevail, with an obvious good guy and bad guy.  A feud between two juvenile, barely literate frat boys?  Not for this observer, but your mileage may vary.

Ok, one last bit of housekeeping and I'll leave you to start your week.  Last week, in blogging some thoughts of Geoff's related to the evolving international environment, I included this image from his post:

However, in another instance of blogging malpractice, I neglected to include the rather interesting caption:

The earliest known golf Christmas card (1843) with a not particularly charitable message. By John C. Horsley (From Great Golf Collections of the World, Jack Dezieck Archives)

Hmmmm, really?  Because I happen to remember this very interesting treatise eon that subject:

"That's Good": A History of Conceding Putts

 Which makes me wonder about that 1843 passive-aggressiveness:

The phrase itself, “concede putts,” was first mentioned in the Rules of Golf in 1909. Interestingly, the USGA was strongly against it. The section Special Rules for Match Play Competitions reads, “The Rules of Golf Committee recommends that players should not concede putts to their opponents.” This was mentioned in each subsequent Rules book until 1933.

At one point, conceding a putt was used as a way to play around the “stymie rule,” which was in existence until 1952. On September 1, 1920, the USGA added a provision that allowed the stymied player to concede his opponent’s next putt, and it was incorporated into the 1921 Rules of Golf: “If the opponent lay the player a stymie, the player may remove the opponent’s ball; the opponent shall then be deemed to have holed in his next stroke.”

More than a decade before, the December 1909 issue of the USGA Golf Bulletin featured two articles on the practice of conceding putts. Horace F. Smith, president of the Southern Golf Association, wrote that conceding putts was newly popular among golfers attempting to show good sportsmanship:

Were they conceding putts in 1843?  I'm not actually sure, but on the greens they putted back then, I wouldn't recommend conceding anything longer than a foot.

I'll catch you later in the week, as content presents.

Your Friday Frisson - Christmas Eve Edition

In the mood for some low-energy Christmas Eve blogging?  You've happened upon just the place...

The Wahhabi Watch - Strange days in our little game for sure, with the existential threat to our New World Order originating form a spot on the glove that seemingly clings to the 16th century.  Ironic for sure.

There's nothing that's actually new on this front, as it's not like the Saudis have ever shown any disrespect to the baby Jesus.  What?  Well, not since Crusades, for sure.... But in his final freebie Quadrilateral post of the year, Geoff has a deeper dive on the Asian Tour/R&A dust-up:

Meanwhile over in St Andrews, the R&A appeared to show support for the legacy tours in a peculiar power play that undercuts their mission claims. The organizers of The Open stripped the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit champion’s traditional Open Championship exemption with only the Hong Kong and Singapore Opens left on the 2021 schedule. The R&A will still rely on three 2022 Asian Tour events to serve as Open Qualifying Series feeders, but ending the Order-of-Merit move seemed to be in anticipation of a Saudi Arabia-backed tour sending a “defector” to The Open. This, even though a schedule for a Saudi-backed superstar league has not been announced. This seems more like a 2023 issue. At the earliest.

“We review and update our exemptions from time to time and any changes are considered carefully by our championship committee,” the R&A said in a statement to The Telegraph.

I for one find the "ordinary course of business" explanation to be be entirely logical and consistent with the R&A's previously established business practices.  Abd if you believe that, i have some swampland in which you'll be interested....Because, well, the timing:

Maybe it’s something Wayne Ormsby said? He’s the current Order of Merit leader with two events left. Otherwise, it’s a headscratcher. The move tosses out a longheld merit-based exemption and seemingly runs counter to the R&A’s mission of bringing the world to its championship. The last ten Asian Tour Order of Merit leaders—from 2019 back to 2010—were Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond, India’s Shubhankar Sharma, Malaysia’s Gavin Green, Australia’s Scott Hend, India’s Anirban Lahiri, America’s David Lipsky, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant, the Phillipines’ Juvic Pagunsan and South Korea’s No Seung-vul.

That’s a diverse group adding to The Open’s international appeal.

OK, the diversity and inclusion angle is a good bit....  By the way, haven't heard any updates as to progress on the construction of ladies' rest rooms in the R&A clubhouse.... A fast track progress if ever there were one, given the absence of trees on that locality.

But it does seem that they've allowed these players to compete for that place in the field for the entirety of their season, only to pull a "Not so fast" with two events remaining....  By all means, these are just the folks to write our rules and administer our most important championships.   

Shall we allow Geoff to rant on?

Back in May I wondered why the other bodies in golf were not doing more to help their friends at the PGA Tour and European Tour. I thought the governing board of the OWGR might impose a

72-hole requirement to receive points since the disruptor plan 54-hole events? Or perhaps require at least 50 players in a field to earn full points (sorry Hero World Challenge). Instead, the Saudi’s will put $200 million over 10 years into the Asian Tour for key co-sanctioning cover. So as long as the Asian Tour remains a recognized Official World Golf Ranking operation, they will have answered the biggest question players pondering a jump should: how will I qualify for a major if I’m not already exempt?

Responding to the R&A’s move, the Asian Tour has made a desperate appeal to reconsider what amounts to penalizing players currently finishing up their season and who have nothing to do with this turf war. Yanking the exemption is not a particularly intimidating move if you’re the Saudi’s LIV Golf Investments trying to woo players. This only weakens The Open and the R&A’s case for wanting to welcome the world.

At some point the major championships and the OWGR board they control may figure out a way to strip the Asian Tour of those precious Official World Golf Ranking points so vital to filling the Grand Slam fields. But even such a move may be impossible if the Saudi league poaches enough top players. And given the weak tour sauce out of Ponte Vedra this week, the majors may want to avoid further taint by sitting the rest of this spat out.

It's a head-scratcher all around...  I mean, the players currently plying their trade on the Asian Tour are not the targets of the Saudis, the very definition of collateral damage.  Some of them could be at a future date, but gratuitously screwing them seems a silly and unnecessary move, especially given that the R&A isn't much at risk.

 Not to worry, Geoff has a full ammo clip in reserve for Jay:

Commissioner Jay Monahan delivered a strangely flaccid response to players seeking Saudi International waivers and did so two weeks before he needed to. And all after threatening suspensions and bans for jumping ship to another tour like the one the Saudi’s are preparing. Yet Monahan granted waivers to thirty whose appearance fees reportedly start at $400,000 according to Golfweek.

Besides giving the players a chance to test their games out at storied Royal Greens, the releases undermine a huge PGA Tour event propped up by one of the Tour’s most loyal sponsors and on one of its most-watched weekends. (This year, the AT&T finishes the coveted weekend between the NFC/AFC Championship games weekend and Super Bowl Sunday.) Yet Monahan could only muster up the lightest condemnation possible: the abject cruelty of playing the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am once or twice down the road, assuming the game-growers are still PGA Tour members in 2023.

This was his best solution even though “the Commissioner may deny any particular request if he determines that such a release” would “otherwise significantly and unreasonably harm the PGA Tour and its partners.” This is easily the biggest threat to its existence the Tour has ever faced.

Maybe Monahan has reason to feel confident the Saudi’s won’t pull off the league concept. Or he figures his fellow Five Family members will figure out ways to make defectors think twice. But after folding so easily on the Saudi International, Monahan comes off more like Fredo than Michael. If he’s going to fold that easily, the other Families may be forced to make some high-risk moves to protect the pro golf model they’ve each declared preferable to the coming alternative. But the other Families, holders of the impregnable quadrilateral that has never been stronger, also need to avoid debasing themselves or their storied championships.

As I follow Geoff's logic, that "strangely flaccid" reaction was Jay's best option, which is an amusing turn of events, and I personally need a moment to enjoy the associated schadenfreude.

 But allow me to leave you with some markers for the coming battle.  The decision to grant those waivers is neither intrinsically good or bad, it's what I think will prove to be a minor skirmish in the coming Golf Wars.  The problem is more one of personal credibility, because Mr. Monahan beat his chest and bragged that he had the biggest d**k in golf, asserting that these very waivers would not be granted.  

It reminds me so very much of the sainted Dr. Fauci telling us that lockdowns and masks are useless.  Isn't it fascinating how certain public folks are so easy to undermine their own authority and credibility?  The only psychological spin I can put on it is that they assume already that we don't take them seriously, to which I would say, if only...

Of course, the problem here for Jay is that this Saudi event is only, at this juncture, a former Euro Tour event currently in the portfolio of the Asian Tour, one into which he's previously offered waivers without it being an issue.  Jay personally raised this to a battle with Greg Norman and his sponsors, then caved ignominiously.  At the same time Jay also threatened a lifetime ban for any PGA Tour member that signed with the Saudis?  Is that threat similarly.....what's the word?, flaccid?  See the issue, Jay, when you're a spendthrift with your own credibility?

But who is Jay Monahan and is he up to it?  When he got the gig, he was the beneficiary of a rousing endorsement as to his people skills, but the source of that was Nurse Ratched?  Was there ever a human with less developed people skills than the humorless Tim Finchem?  Let me just leave you with the suggestion that Jay might be a glad-handing empty suit, perfect for schmoozing the sponsors, but not up to the trench warfare ahead.

Why do I suggest this?  because I've seen two existential crises during his term, and in both cases he fiddle as Rome burned.  Do you remember March of 2020 as Covid hit during the Players Championship?  Jay could only repeat his mantra that golf was played over hundred of acres, sensitivity ignoring his paying customers who were crammed into grandstands and shuttle busses.  He dithered indecisively, within hours allowing fans, banning the fans then ultimately cancelling the event, but not before leaving us with those warm memories of the super spreader Chainsmokers concert.  

In your humble blogger's opinion, the most prestigious golf tour on the planet will be going to battle against the Saudi billions being led by Chance the Gardner.  What more could a blogger want for Christmas?

The Year That Was - Everyone and their brother has year-end compendiums up, perfectly suiting my level of ambition.  When last we visited this countdown, they were at No. Six, which just happened to be the aforementioned threats to the PGA Tour.  I tend to view these things in terms of impact on the future, and therefore find that ranking absurdly low, but also I feel that the top five give quite the jaundiced and depressing view of the state of our game.  Shall we scroll through those top five.

No. Five strikes me as nonsense on stilts:

No. 5: Golf's Mental Health Awakening

But the lede?

There is an awakening to the mental-health challenges inherent in sports, with athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka bringing a subject that’s long lived in the shadows out into the light. Golf was no exception to the movement, and with good reason: Perhaps no game possesses as many cognitive and emotional obstacles, and despite the growing ecosystems and entourages around tour players, life in the professional ranks can often be a solitary existence.

Abd reacting to that solitary existence isn't mental illness, but rather just the opposite.  Anyway, what's their case for a mental health crisis in golf/  Basically, it's one guy that had a tough go but is now back out there playing up to his potential.  See how good Jay is?  He's already solved this crisis...

It's even more ridiculous, because they cite Lizette Salas' struggle with.... the pandemic.  By the way, have you notice that in most cases when folks talk about the negative reaction to the pandemic, what's mostly cited is the effects of irrational overreaction to Covid?

But even the Naomi Osaka story is annoying.  Allegedly, these folks are élite athletes, able to meet the rigorous physical and psychological demands of being the best in the world at what they do?  Isn't logical and hasn't it always been true that not everyone can meet those demands?  Moe Norman, anyone?  There's always been and always will be those that can't, and being a world-classa thlete is not a God-given right?

No. Four I'm completely OK with, barely:

No. 4: Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson had just one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour in 2021. But boy did he make it count. En route to victory in May at the PGA Championship, the then 50-year-old became the oldest player in golf history to win a major championship—not to mention one of the biggest underdogs. Not surprisingly, he did it in thrilling fashion, too, holing out from a greenside bunker on the fifth hole early in the final round at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course to take command against playing partner Brooks Koepka and culminating with rowdy supporters swarming him as he marched up the 18th hole

He spends half his time being one of the bigger jerks out there, but obviously the Golf Digest crew bought his Manningcast and Match performances more than your humble blogger.

This one I find curious, not least because it sets the bar awfully low:

No. 3: Solheim Cup/Ryder Cup return.

America’s Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup teams might have enjoyed the greatest home-field advantages in memory—or perhaps ever?—in their respective competitions in 2021 what with travel restrictions from the pandemic limiting attendance by European supporters. The results from the two events were eye-opening, though, for different reasons.

Eye-opening?  

Start with the more recently completed Ryder Cup, which was expected to be of the donnybrook variety and ended up a thorough drubbing as Team USA registered a record 19-9 victory over a European team missing its usual depth. Whistling Straits was not the equalizer some surmised, and the American team, youngest in history, had both motivation and mojo. And once it forged a lead, momentum was maintained with the help of a hungry crowd eager to see Wisconsin native son Steve Stricker, the American captain, cry with joy—which, of course, he did.

Let's see, if you consider fears of competitive balance and a series of dreadful venues on the calendar, I'll concede my eyes are open for sure.

A few weeks prior, at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, the story was the same for the Europeans

in terms of support, but the outcome was vastly different. Decided underdogs in the 17th Solheim Cup, Catriona Matthew's Euro dozen stymied the Americans and their fans with some of the most inspired golf played anywhere all year, on any tour. Though America had five of the top 17 players in the world to just one for Europe (No. 16 Anna Nordqvist), the visitors somehow fashioned a 15-13 upset. Success came from surprising places, Ireland’s Leona Maguire playing in the event for the first time and going an impressive 4-0-1, and Finland’s Matilda Castren, not eligible to play in the event until just two months prior, coming through with the Cup clinching point to cap a 3-1 performance. It was the fourth time in six meetings that Team Europe came out on top, but only the second ever when playing in the U.S. “Just an amazing team,” Matthew gushed in the aftermath, and the point was evident to all who witnessed the amazing outcome.

Confirming Dottie Peppers characterization of them as "Choking freaking dogs" is easily worth a bronze medal, no? 

You'll know how I feel about this one:

No. 2: The Feud

If it’s Newsmakers you want, well, nothing in golf owned more news cycles in 2021 than the feud between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. It sizzled and simmered throughout the summer, delighting and maybe even, at times, exhausting golf fans.

The genesis of this conflict did not occur this year; there had been quips, sub-tweets, one-liners and putting-green confrontations prior to 2021. In fact, all had been mostly quiet in the Brooks v. Bryson quarrel for most of the first half of the year.

Then came the PGA Championship leak seen around the world, and, well, this beef went mainstream. The outtake of Koepka’s abandoned interview with Golf Channel, as the unsuspecting Bryson comes click-clacking behind, was an instant hit for this social-media moment. It showed up on some mysterious Twitter account and quickly racked up 10 million views before it was zapped. It all felt very new to golf: An out-in-the-open expression of genuine disgust, the affirmation of a real beef, some profanity, the thrill of thinking you were seeing something you weren’t supposed to and the birth of a meme that may last forever.

Suddenly I'm more open to the concept of a mental health crisis in golf... at least among the golfing press. I think this ranking says far more about employees of Golf Digest than about the golf world at large.

But just a last point connecting several of our threads.  Bryson for much of the year refused to meet with the press, something I would argue is a core requirement of a PGA Tour member.  Our hero Jay Monahan has been perfectly happy to let him off the hook because he's "Going through things", thus informing each and every Tour member that they can also stiff the media.  So, incentives being what they are, aren't we creating this alleged mental health crisis?  

I know he stirs the drink and I enjoyed the PNC, but isn't this profoundly silly:

No. 1: Tiger Woods

Two words and three seconds. That’s all Tiger Woods needed to catapult himself out of an

ominous silence and back into the fishbowl he’s called home for 25 years. (And ensure a runaway victory in the Player Impact Program, but that’s a separate conversation). The words were “making progress,” the three seconds filled by a syrupy swing and the delicious thwack of a flushed iron. Just nine months after doctors considered amputating his leg, oddsmakers posted odds on him to win the Masters.

That Woods tops this list is rather remarkable, given he didn’t play a single golf tournament and spent three-quarters of 2021 out of the public eye. The only images we saw from Woods were Bigfoot-like cellphone productions. The only words we heard from him were ones that we didn’t hear at all, carefully chosen quotes in vague updates and official statements he probably had little to do with. But this is Tiger Woods, and Tiger Woods will always occupy prime real estate in the golf market—especially when he bookends the year with two flurries of activity whose sheer drama border on Shakespearean.

Remarkable?  Gee, pitiful was the word that jumped into my mind, but I've always resented being played.

We basically saw Tiger twice this year.  First in February, when he recklessly endangered the public by driving at 80-mph on local streets and destroying a sponsor's vehicle.  If that doesn't rack up the PIP points, I don't know what will.

Then he couldn't be bothered sharing anything with us until he had to make his sponsor happy at The Hero.... This is your Newsmaker of the Year?  And why would I want to get my news from you?

Golf Digest has some other offerings to wrap the year, let's hope they don't spike my blood pressure to the same extent.  Daniel Rappaport aggregates the quotes of the year, shall we take a peak?  This first one certainly laid a marker for the coming year or longer:

“We’re entering into the solution phase from an equipment-standards standpoint. This is the first step in re-engaging the manufacturing community in looking at possible solutions for the long-term distance challenges that the game is facing.” —Thomas Pagel, Feb. 2

Which took an eternity, and thus far has included only passing off responsibility to others on tangential issues through local rules.  I'm sure they're finally serious, because they keep telling us they're serious, so who am I to throw shade?

And this, of course:

“I lost my train of thought hearing that bulls*@%.” —Brooks Koepka, May 24

Any interest at how we responded to hearing your BS?

Not to mention this warning shot for the other guys:

“At 24 years old, it's so hard to look back at the two short years that I have been a pro and see what I've done because I want more. I enjoy these moments and I love it, and I want to teach myself to embrace it a little more, maybe spend a few extra days and sit back and drink out of this. But I want to—yeah, I just want more.” —Collin Morikawa, July 18

 I guess this guy didn't the Commish's memo that it's a PIP world:

"I think, unfortunately, it might be a symptom of a larger problem, which is social-media driven and which is potentially Player Impact Program derived. I think when you have people that go for attention-seeking maneuvers, you leave yourself potentially open to having the wrong type of attention, and I think maybe that's where we're at it, and it may be a symptom of going for too much attention.” —Patrick Cantlay, Sept. 1

It's simple, Patrick.  between PIP and Living Under Par™, Jay is making it plain that only a******es need apply.

Christopher Powers has a more interesting feature, at least it's new to this observer:

The most absurdly funny screenshots from an absurdly funny year in golf

Some forgotten some I never saw, and a few that deserve another moment in the sun... Of course we'll start with the world's best Slovakian golfer:

Jordan Spieth hits into Rory Sabbatini at The Players

The funniest bit being this from Powers:

Luckily, as Spieth said himself, he's one of the few people Rory Sabbatini actually likes.

Wow, wouldn't you think he'd be able to do better than that?

First, the far shorter list is of those that like Sabbatini....

More on point, is that this is the far funnier instinctive reaction from Jordan:

One of our sneaky favorite parts is when Sabbatini, a 44-year-old who’s been on the PGA Tour since 1999, ran out into the fairway—to make it clear to the guys on the tee box that he was still standing there. And of course, Spieth’s commentary: “Is that Sabbatini? Gawddddd, I couldn’t pick a worse person to hit into.”

I would say he couldn't have picked a better player to hit into, but we're making the same point...

I completely missed this one at the time, but I've always been big on protecting the field:

Daniel Berger keeps watchful eye on Patrick Reed in the woods at Harbour Town

 

That listing of quotes did have this one from PReed:

"It's an unfortunate situation, obviously but at the end of the day when you finish a round, and the head rules official comes up to you and has the video and shows everything that went down to the whole group and says that you've done this perfectly, you did this the exact right way, the protocols you did were spot on—at that point, I feel great about it." —Patrick Reed, Jan. 31

Daniel was just trying to learn from Patrick, I'm pretty sure.

Hopefully that will satisfy you for the moment,  Have a great holiday weekend and we'll reconvene next week.

Midweek Musings

Lots to cover, so perhaps put on a fresh pot of coffee.

PNC Leftovers - Are you still enjoying the afterglow?  The only thing missing thus far is a notebook dump.... What?  Oh, never mind then:

From Tiger to Trevino, 7 things I heard at the PNC | Final Entry, PNC Diary

 Even your cynical yet humble blogger has to admit he caught a few oddball sound bites, such as this one:

1. Petr Korda: “Do you want topspin or a slice?”

This came on the 7th tee on Sunday, as Korda stood behind his ball, driver in hand. This was a window into the way the former professional tennis star sees the golf swing — like hitting a tennis ball, essentially. A draw is a topspin forehand. A fade is a sliced drop shot. Athletes see golf in so many different ways.

Maybe Nelly and he were calling their shots?  That's something we would occasionally do back in my Willow Ridge day when we had all lost our will to live, and inevitably comedy ensues...

This was good audio as well:

2. Tiger Woods: “The audio. He still has the audio, and he still has the shape of shots. It just doesn’t go as far but no one has control of that golf ball as well as he has.”

This was Woods when asked about Lee Trevino, the 82-year-old legend who had doled out some swing tips — and some jokes to Tiger and Charlie on the driving range Friday evening. This quote caught my attention because “he still has the audio” is a particularly satisfying way of saying “he still makes good contact.” But it really stuck with me because Woods could have just as easily been talking about himself. (Although the yardages in question would be dramatically different.)

One more line on audio: “Just listen,” he said to the assembled reporters. “You guys know, when you walk the range you know which guys know how to hit a golf ball.” He might be giving us too much credit, but he’s right. Next time you’re at the range, keep your ears out.

Makes my mind wander to silly issues such as hoping that Charlie hasn't yet been on a TrackMan.... The data it provides is invaluable, but I'd imagine better still is to combine it with the aural and visual (ballflight) clues.

Tiger is quite right that Trevino is a ball-striking machine, but i found this whole scene bizarre, not least because of this from the (allegedly) Merry Mex:

3. Lee Trevino: “You’re not getting nothing from me.”

Sometimes Lee Trevino likes to talk and sometimes he doesn’t. When the subject involves Tiger Woods and he’s standing at a microphone, he seems to fall in the “doesn’t” category.

“See, now that I’ve turned 82, I’m in Vegas every week,” he said when asked about his exchange with Team Woods. “It stays in Vegas. We had a great conversation yesterday. It was beautiful. It would make headlines. You write about it and if it was visible, you figure it out.”

Errr...WTF?  Did they exchange the nuclear codes?  I think I mostly was perplexed by this because the estimable Michael Bamberger wrote this about it:

Why Lee Trevino’s talk with Charlie Woods is week’s most meaningful moment

Except that Mike doesn't actually know what was said and whether it was, in fact, meaningful.  All he really does is sideswipe those mystic chords of memory:

It’s a hoary old line, but worth trotting out, right about now. This is an event, like the Masters and not many others, where the game gets handed down, one generation to the next.

When Woods hosted his first Champions Dinner at Augusta, in 1998, Sarazen was in the room. Gene Sarazen, the man who invented the sand iron, who played elite golf 100 years ago, got to know Woods, and Woods got to know Sarazen. Maybe not well, but they shook hands and then some. People used to say, I shook the hand of the man who shook the hand of the man who shook the hand of President Lincoln. You know, history. Pass it on.

Trevino landed in the game when Arnold Palmer was at the height of his powers, amid golf’s glamor-boom, the swinging ’60s. Trevino can talk about Palmer all day and into the night — if he’s in the mood. That’s a notable if.

I'm still mulling over how I feel about that first bit....  I mean there's something there, but completely different.  Certainly the Masters brings together successive generations of elite golfers (mostly professionals but also those amateurs), but this event is about sharing the game with civilians, and here Charlie is quite the outlier.

Mike blathers on about Arnold and Trevino, capturing a few moments for sure.  But on the larger issue its all seems a stretch to this observer, though this might come as quite the surprise to some:

Trevino was done. Trevino was hungry. Trevino is ornery, or he can be. You know, geniuses aren’t easy.

Yeah, though that might come as a surprise to many.

Of course, this was by far the strangest thing he said:

You're not getting nothing from me. I know when he's going to play and when he's not. He already told me all that stuff. He and I are good buddies. We've been good -- I've known him since he was eight years old. Appreciate him very much. I know what he's going through. I've gone through these back operations and stuff and whatever time limit you give him, he'll beat it.

Given that I rather doubt that Tiger knows when he's going to play, this is a Normanesque cry in the dark, "Damn you all, I'm still relevant."  Kind of pathetic, no?

In case you didn't know it, this is one of the funniest guys out there:

4. Henrik Stenson: “Let me guess, it’s your birthday, too?”

This was the week the world discovered Karl Stenson, Henrik’s hilarious, brutally honest 11-year-old son. But if you spend any amount of time near Henrik, you’ll hear exactly where his son gets it. One tiny example came on Thursday as the elder Stenson was making the turn of his pro-am and was flagged down by a man and his father. “Henrik, it’s my dad’s birthday,” the man said. “Could we get a picture?”

He obliged, posing gamely with the two interlopers. Karl shouted at him from the cart, eager to get to the back nine. “Papa, come on!” he said. “My dad can’t stop talking.” But when you’re a professional golfer, there’s a real risk in giving a mouse a cookie. Two more fans saw the photo and approached — could they have one, too?

“Let me guess,” Stenson deadpanned. “It’s your birthday, too?” Terrific.

No disrespect to Charlie, but Karl Stenson might actually be the cuter kid, though I recognize that in the current moment that probably constitutes a hate crime.   But this posted on Insty Saturday ight was awfully cute:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Henrik Stenson (@henrikstenson)

FWIW, I'm not the only one with a Karl crush:

3. Karl Stenson

Charlie Woods got a lot of attention at the PNC Championship over the weekend, but I would like to take a minute to highlight the star that is Karl Stenson. At 11 years old, he became the youngest player to tee it up in the PNC Championship over the weekend. He was draining putts to the point where his father, Henrik, literally bowed down to him.

Henrik Stenson: Bows down 😂 pic.twitter.com/Mw6xDor1a4

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) December 18, 2021

This might put that pesky Nature-Nurture issue to bed:

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) December 18, 2021

Not really, but the kid has comedic chops.  But you'll notice that it's OK for 11-year old Karl to answer a few questions, but 12-year old Charlie will be kept in the basement.   

One last bit as, like me, you're probably wondering about those ratings... Wonder no more:

So, with all that context in mind, how can the Tiger Effect be quantified in 2021? According to

television viewers (in addition to our good friends at NBC and Sports Media Watch), the answer is clear: in Woods’ grand return to golf resulting in the best ratings for the PNC Championship in two decades. On Sunday, NBC’s telecast of final round coverage of the event drew in 2.24 million viewers and a 1.3 rating — the second-highest rated and most-watched telecast for the PNC since it moved into this schedule slot in 2012. That number was behind only Saturday’s coverage, which (ostensibly with less competition from other sports leagues) drew in a 2.34 million viewers and a 1.4 rating. The numbers represented the highest viewership for a PNC telecast since 2001, according to NBC.

The final viewership tally marked a near 50 percent audience increase over last year’s version of the event, and nearly quadrupled the audience numbers put forth by the PNC Championship in 2019, before Tiger and Charlie competed in the event together.

 Context?

Now, that number still pales in comparison to network viewership for a big-time event. In fact, the closest comparison to the PNC from an eyeball perspective might be the Farmers Insurance Open or the Waste Management Phoenix Open — two respected (but hardly bellwether) PGA Tour events. In 2021, those tournaments averaged in the neighborhood of 2.5-3.5 million viewers, slightly outpacing the PNC.

That's not in the slightest "pale".... But notice what they don't do, which is compare it to a Fall wraparound event.  I can't resist:

'21 RSM Classic Does Not Draw An Audience, LPGA Finale Matches 2019 Numbers

The 2019 RSM Classic did not draw a rating of any kind, “surged” in 2020 with a barely discernible audience and reverted to anonymous status in 2021, failing to draw a rating for any day. Whether this is concerning to anyone at the Tours or ponying up the cash, I have no idea. But next time someone is moaning about Ray Romano getting too much air time at the Crosby, or just a golf pro who thinks he’s reinvented the game, just remember that IFC’s reruns of Everyone Loves Raymond are trouncing live PGA Tour golf. The show ended production in 2005.

The Sunday at Sea Island drew fewer than 350,000 sets of eyeballs to the TV.  Accordingly, my prediction is that Charlie Woods is offered a sponsor's exemption into the 2022 RSM.... 

Saudi Fallout - It just so happens that I have a Ray Romano segue for y'all....  No need to thank me, it's what I do.

As previously predicted in these pages, Jay Monahan successfully painted himself into a corner, and we're now treated to the schadenfreudalicious spectacle of watching him cave:

Golf’s biggest tour has granted exemptions into the controversial Saudi International in February, it announced Monday evening, but those exemptions will come to players at a price. As part of

the agreement to grant admission into the Saudi field, the Tour stipulated each player commit to a future start at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is the Tour event that will be held the same week.

“Players who have played in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at least once in the past five years were granted a release on the condition that they commit to play it at least once in the next two years (’23, ’24),” the Tour said in a release. “Players who have not played the historic tournament on the Monterey Peninsula at least once in the past five years were granted a release on the condition that they commit to play it at least twice in the next three years (’23, ’24, ’25).”

In total, 30 PGA Tour players requested an exemption in order to play in the event at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, including the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia, among others. As part of their agreement to play in the event, many players reportedly received significant entrance fees — with some players fetching as many as seven figures for their appearance.

Free at last, free at last.  So, this was the Tour's position as recently as late July:

Exclusive: PGA Tour will deny stars permission to play controversial Saudi International

 Compare and contrast with their current thinking:

In granting the exemption, PGA Tour leadership sidesteps an ethical quagmire: it has repeatedly insisted that its players are both owners and independent contractors, a theory the Tour would seemingly subvert should it deny exemption into the Saudi International. In the release announcing the decision, the Tour reiterated its guidelines “fully support denial of such requests” — but the legal boundaries of those guidelines remain largely untested. It’s a predicament not unlike the one facing Tour leadership should it decide to enforce the lifetime ban it has reportedly threatened those considering the rival tour with.

"The legal boundaries remain largely untested" must have Greg Norman giggling like a schoolgirl....  I mean, can anybody here play this game?

The face-saving comes in the form of these conditions that Shack calls "draconian":

Any player who has competed in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am event at least once in the past five years must commit to play at least once in the next two years (2023 and 2024). Players who have not competed at Pebble Beach in the last five years will need to do so twice in the three years until 2025.

A source familiar with the names of the 30 players who applied for waivers told Golfweek that 19 of them will have to commit to one appearance at the AT&T, while the other 11 will be required to play twice.

Well, there are those 6-hour rounds as well as Crosby weather, plus one unfortunate soul draws the aforementioned Ray Romano as a partner. 

Haven't those essentially been the rules all along?  Although I'm probably the only one to remember that Tiger still hasn't satisfied his obligation to play in Napa in return for ther waiver to play the Turkish Airlines Open a few years back.   

So, why do they want to play?  You might think it's about growing the game... No, you never though that, it's always about the Benjamins:

One source familiar with the situation told Golfweek that lower-profile players invited to compete in King Abdullah Economic City have been offered appearance fees of around $400,000, with mid-tier players receiving between $500,000 and $750,000. High-profile stars get seven-figure offers. Chartered private aircraft to and from Saudi Arabia is also provided.

I feel the game growing as we speak....  

In other fallout, apparently the R&A is happy to carry Jay and Keith Pelley's water (I'm including this tweet because the Telegraph article is behind a paywall):

— Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) December 18, 2021

Walkback to commence in 3,2,1....

Big Moe - Mixed feelings here kids, as there doesn't seem to be any way they can pull this off successfully:

Hollywood is finally ready to put Moe Norman’s life on the big screen.

Filming for a feature length biopic on the Canadian ball-striking enigma is set to begin early next summer.

Not to be confused with ‘The Feeling of Greatness: The Legend of Moe Norman,’ the in-production documentary by Todd Graves and Oscar winner Barry Morrow, this movie version of Moe’s life is being undertaken by Canadian-born filmmaker, David Carver.

I'm more interested in that documentary....

While the project’s producers sound like they’d be more adept for a ‘Tin Cup’ sequel or third ‘Caddyshack,’ there will be nothing comedic about the direction this movie is headed, said Carver.

Instead, Moe Norman, the movie, will be depicted on the big screen in a way that respects and is true to who he was as a person. Subtitling the movie is the caption, “It’s Not About Golf … It’s About Life.”

“There are a lot of golf stories about Moe, a lot of stories of his golf prowess, but I think his life story is globally appealing,” said Carver in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “He didn’t care if people got him or not. In today’s world that message of being true to yourself is so important. The bigger message is accepting people for who they are and trying to understand people a little outside the box. Moe’s life lessons are more important than his golf ability.”

This feels to me like the film of Tommy's Honour, a well-intentioned project by serious people that's unfortunately doomed to fail.  Though I'd be delighted to be proven wrong...

A New Golf Friend - A few weeks back I was introduced by a golf buddy to Peter Kauffman, with whom I had a fun talk recently.  Peter, an investment banker by day, has accomplished what perhaps your humble blogger should have attempted, which is to convince actual golf publications to publish his writings on our game.

For me, though, the fun was that he picked oddball moments from golf's rich history that I could readily see my ownself tackling, None more so than this piece on John J. McDermott, perhaps the greatest American golfer lost to the fog of history:

Because it was McDermott who was the first, and today remains still the youngest, American to win the U.S. Open (19 years, 10 months, 14 days in 1911). And he won it again in 1912. He was the second-youngest player to win any of golf's four major tournaments, after Young Tom Morris.

And then, tragically, by the age of 23 he was gone from the game and public view, committed by his family to the State Hospital for the Insane in Norristown, Penn. With occasional stints at rest homes and at home with his sisters, he lived in that hospital until he died at age 80, almost 60 years after being committed.

Neither of his sisters married, and though their brother was consigned the rest of his days to Norristown, they would take him out on many weekends, almost always to play or watch golf. But history was not so kind, thereafter consigning him to its dustbin, his extraordinary and pioneering accomplishments sunk under the waves of oblivion all those years ago. And all the while, Francis Ouimet continues to be regarded as the fair-haired American golf pioneer.

You might find Peter's take on golden boy Francis Ouimet a tad harsh, but the slight of McDermott is very real:

I stumbled across McDermott’s story while researching young players with multiple majors. He won seven tournaments (two U.S. Opens, three Philadelphia Opens and a Western Open — then considered a major — and the Shawnee Open). His story touches me. White-hot genius that needed some care and feeding and instead received an official state designation of being a Lunatic and residing in an institution for almost 60 years. He is not enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame which, I submit, is an omission needing to be rectified.

As Peter documents, McDermott not only won the two Opens before the Ouimet-Vardon-Ray Open, but his intemperate and ungracious remarks hung over that 1913 Open.  That said, this was my favorite bit from Peter's piece, reminiscent of Mike Bamberger's point above:

The coda to McDermott’s life struggles came in 1971, when his sisters and some hospital attendants took him to the U.S. Open at Merion that was won by Lee Trevino, another star not to the manner-born and in 1971 at the peak of his powers.

One can only imagine how McDermott was beheld by the swells at Merion, how they might have wondered why this small, shriveled, old, oddly dressed man was allowed access to the Merion locker room and clubhouse — and they surely wondered who he was.

If they only knew.

But one man did know. As relayed by golf historian John Coyne:

“At Merion because of his dress and appearance, he was ordered out of the golf shop and told not to go near the clubhouse where he had hoped to visit the players. With his hospital attendants, he turned away and started to leave, to go back to the hospital when Arnold Palmer [the King was a keen student of golf history], of all people, recognized the old man, this two-time U.S. Open Championship winner, and put his arms around Johnny McDermott. They talked golfer to golfer, champion to champion, and Palmer then arranged for McDermott to stay at the tournament as his special guest, with all clubhouse rights and privileges.”

Arnie was himself "not to the manner born" (Ouimet, as well), but the Deacon made sure that Arnie knew his golf history.

This was the piece Peter referenced above:

Where Does Collin Morikawa Rank Among the Greatest 25-And-Under Golfers In History?

Mission impossible for sure.   I'll just ignore spoiler alerts and jump straight to Peter's conclusion:

And who are the best 25-and-unders of all time? One has to give a tip of the hat to Woods, Spieth, Nicklaus, McIlroy and Bobby Jones. The next tier could include McDermott, Seve and Sarazen. Does Morikawa compare favorably to that threesome? He’s in the discussion but it says here he isn’t quite there yet.

Let us close with a note about Young Tom Morris. Our recency bias makes it tough to properly categorize him, and there were no tours back then. But as a man of his time, he was head and shoulders above the rest, perhaps as few, if any, others have been in history.

That recency bias is no less a factor with Sarazen and Jones as well... 

But what strikes this observer is the amusing falacy involved with guys like Rory and Jordan.  Jack and Tiger and Seve just continued to burnish their credentials, but Rory peaked in 2014 and Jordan in 2015 or 2017, depending upon your metrics.  

I also enjoyed this item from Peter:

The Two Greatest Ryder Cup Upsets That History Has (Almost) Forgotten

I would argue that the entire history of the Ryder Cup pre-Seve has been lost to that fog of history, but Peter's two vignettes are worthy indeed.

 Anyone remember Brain Barnes?  Anyone?

The year: 1975

 The protagonists

Brian Barnes: An Englishman who passed away in 2019. Barnes played in six consecutive Ryder Cup matches from 1969 to 1979. He was one of the leading European Tour golfers in the early years after the tour was founded in 1972, and he placed between fourth and eighth on the Order of Merit each year from 1972 to 1980. He won nine events on the Tour between 1972 and 1981.

Barnes completed all four rounds of the British Open 16 successive years from 1967 to 1982 and had three top-10 finishes, the best being a tie for fifth in 1972. He never fared well in the U.S. — he played in the Masters in 1972 and 1973 and, like Allis, missed the cut each time.

Barnes was a character and an entertainer, often smoking a pipe when playing and sometimes marking his ball on the green with a beer can. He and alcohol were no strangers, sadly, as that relationship eventually hastened the loss of his game. Barnes was also a married-in member of British golf royalty, as his wife was the daughter of Max Faulkner, winner of the 1951 British Open.

Love the Faulkner connection, which is new to me.  That '51 Open was the one held at Portrush back in the day, the only time they played outside Scotland or England until 2019.

You don't need a backgrounder on Nicklaus or this guy, though his role is part of the fun:

Arnold Palmer: At 46, he was still a force at times, having held the 36-hole lead at the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot before finishing fifth. At this particular Ryder Cup at Laurel Valley, he was a non-playing captain. His relationship with Nicklaus had morphed over the years, starting as what can fairly be called rivals before evolving into frenemies as Palmer declined and Nicklaus became a superstar. Their relationship eventually became warm and respectful, friendly. The 1975 Ryder Cup took place in the frenemies period.

As in 1963, Ryder Cup Sunday featured singles matches both in the morning and the afternoon. Barnes and Nicklaus were paired in the morning round as the last match out. As Nicklaus recalls, “We talked about fishing all morning.” Whatever the conversation, it worked well for Barnes, as he crushed Nicklaus, 4 and 2.

Hey, Jack made it to the 16th hole.... is that a crushing?  

But this is what made it so memorable:

At the lunch break Nicklaus, hardly a smack-talker, very uncharacteristically lobbied his captain, Palmer, for another shot at Barnes. Palmer acceded to the request and, again, Barnes and Nicklaus went out as the last match.

In the afternoon, Nicklaus opened with two birdies before Barnes fought back to win, 2 and 1.

Jack considered the event an exhibition (think concession), but you'd have expected him to do to Barnes what Tiger did to Stephen Ames:

“When we went to the press tent after the morning round everybody acted as if I’d beaten Jesus Christ,” Barnes said in a 2012 interview with "Today’s Golfer." “He was Jesus Christ as far as golf was concerned, but he was still beatable.

“The Yanks only needed one or two more points to win and while I was still continuing with the interviews, Jack had gone to Arnold [Palmer, the U.S. captain] and said: ‘Look, there is only one match the punters want to see, and that’s Barnesy and I.’ That was the only time in the history of the Ryder Cup that the match order was changed at that late stage. While that was going on, I was asked ‘Would you like the opportunity to play ‘The Bear’ again this afternoon?’ I replied: ‘Well, lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.’”

Except that it did. Palmer could not help himself from taking a little jab at Nicklaus while accepting the Samuel Ryder trophy as the winning team’s captain.

“The American team did a very outstanding job, even if Jack did lose two matches today to Brian Barnes. He doesn’t mind, really,” Palmer said.

Nicklaus shouted back, “Oh, yes I do” with a sheepish smile on his face.

Yeah, they never like to lose.

Peter's articles for Morning Read can be found here.   Your humble blogger would appreciate if you'd give him some clicks.

That'll wrap today's proceedings, but we'll be back as bloggable stories emerge.