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.