Midweek Musings

I need to keep my Thursday morning free so, despite that long post yesterday, got time for a little this and that?

Sophie's Choice - This hit in time to be included with yesterday's Saudi Frisson, yet a part of me thought it better to leave for a deeper dive.  One of the more amusing chaps on Tour faces quite the choice, but first your daily recommended dosage of schadenfreude:

While there have been discussions over reappointing Thomas Bjorn, the victorious 2018 captain, in response to the record defeat in Wisconsin four months ago, it is understood that the role now lies between Stenson, Luke Donald and Robert Karlsson.

Normally, the decision by the selection panel – which includes the three most recent Europe captains – would be made this week in Abu Dhabi, but sources have revealed that the decision will be delayed until late next month.

A main factor in this apparent procrastination – you have to go back almost 20 years to when the unveiling will have been so late – is the ongoing review by Ryder Cup director Guy Kinnings in the wake of the 19-9 humbling at Whistling Straits, America’s biggest win yet.

I've seen this movie, it ends with Phil hijacking the effort in the form of a Task Force....  But that guy that's top-left in the photo has been asked to choose between his children:

Henrik Stenson has been told he must choose between the Saudis’ Super Golf League and the Europe Ryder Cup team if he wants to become his continent’s next captain.

Stenson, the 2016 Open champion, has a contract with the Saudi International and will again be paid six figures to appear in the Asian Tour event next month. Wentworth HQ is reluctantly allowing players to take centre stage at King Abdullah Economic City. It is what happens next that will be crucial.

After months, if not years of speculation, the Saudis are finally expected to launch their Super Golf League, with all eyes on the heavyweights receiving seven-figure sums. Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have already expressed their intention to remain loyal to the traditional tours, both of which have warned would-be rebels that they will face lifetime bans should they accept the sheikhs’ millions.

Along with Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, Stenson has been linked with the SGL, with reports indicating he has been offered $30 million. So will he opt for the Saudi gold or the blue and gold? “It is a heck of a decision,” an inner member of Stenson’s coterie said. “It’s complicated not only by the huge amounts on offer.

That's one heck of a dilemma, even your humble blogger must admit.  Complicated, for sure, by the fact that the captaincy isn't a done deal:

“This [captaincy] could be his one and only chance with so many big Europe figures about to come into the picture for future matches. But then, it’s far from guaranteed he will get it this time anyway, with Luke obviously having a strong shout and the case for Karlsson seemingly strengthening by the day.”

Donald has acted as a vice-captain in the past two matches, and as a player was in four winning teams. But his chances may be weakened by the fact it would mean four Great Britain and Ireland captains from the last five editions.

Yet more than this there is a growing sense within the tour that the captaincy should not simply go to the next legend on the rank, but to the most qualified candidate, as Paul McGinley was in 2014. Karlsson is being cast in the same light, with the 52-year-old Swede apparently mightily impressive in his two vice-captain stints.

Shockingly, your humble blogger has a few comments.

First and, perhaps, foremost, Stenson only became the heir apparent when a certain Englishman indicated that he wanted to spend more time with his family caddie.   CTRL-F: Westwood yields zero results, so Curmudgeonly James Corrigan seems to auditioning for a gig with the NYTimes or WaPo based upon his highly selective exclusion of that little factoid.  Westwood omission from that list of four names is equally curious...  I may not know what it all means, but my Spidy sense indicates we're being played.

Second, what does it mean to be offered $30 million?  I don't think there's a check payable to H. Stenson in the mail, but how are these offers being structured?  What I'm driving at is, how are these "offers" being structured?  Signing Stenson for $30 million large would create a stir, but you wouldn't be getting anything for your money unless you had another twenty to thirty guys signed.  So, they must be highly contingent, leading me to wonder how much might be guaranteed and what would have to happen for Henrik to see all the coin.

As regular readers know, this is the fatal flaw of the efforts, I continue to struggle to see any manner in which they can secure a critical mass of the A-list players.  The problem is that, if Henrik is worth $30 mil large, what does Jon Rahm think he might be worth?

Lastly, just a point I've made several times, but the Saudis seem to feel that Henrik Stenson is a hill worth dying on.  Right, Henrik Friggin' Stenson, a man who is currently ranked 184th in the world...  One obvious aspect we've seen is that greatest receptivity to these offers (and we really shouldn't limit our thoughts to the Saudis, as Jay's worst nightmare is that such offers come from a more palatable country, i.e., almost anywhere else) is from the older players, Phil Lee and Henrik most notably.  While I completely get why the has-beens are enamored of that one last mega-payday, why are the Saudis interested in these geezers?  

I have one small addition to this subject, but it compels me to remind you that I'd prefer that we not impose our virtue signaling on professional athletes.  Again a reminder that the event in Saudi Arabia was, as recently as last year, a legitimate European Tour event that no one had any objections to.  Suddenly, with Jay and Keith's feed lots under siege, it's beyond the pale....

Yesterday, we had Eamon Lynch's rant against the players going to Saudi, but the pushback below, including the pushback against the pushback, shows there's always one guy more virtuous than thou:

That first weekend in February is going to be lit.

Play Better - The joke in that header needs to be explained, whereas Blogging 101 tells us not to make jokes that require explanations, for all the obvious reasons.

So, dear reader, how do you feel about Kevin Kisner?  Nice enough guy, it seems, and he can roll his rock, but not on that A-list we referenced above.  Kisner had some curious comments around this time last year, which you might recall:

Not that Kisner seems too disappointed; he admits he can’t win on some of those layouts

anyways.

“Probably not,” Kisner said when asked if he could win anywhere. “I’m not going to win at Bethpage Black or Torrey Pines.”

Naturally, a follow-up was made: So, why play?

“Because they give away a lot of money for 20th.”

Like me, you're probably involuntarily nodding your head while expressing your surprise that a world class athlete would dismiss his own chances so gratuitously.

So, keep that in mind as we come to this current story, in which Kisner whines about being left off Ryder Cup teams:

“I don’t know, man. They don’t like me I, guess,” Kisner told GOLF’s Subpar podcast. “I’ve had the same phone call for about four [Ryder Cups] in a row from about every captain. ‘Man, you were on the team and then you didn’t play well in the playoffs.’ OK, bud.”

If match play resume is part of the criteria, Kisner certainly has an argument. In five starts at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, between 2016-2021, he’s 16-6-2, including a victory at the event in 2019.

“I don’t know. I didn’t give a s—,” he said. “It’s too political for me, I didn’t really care, and I don’t really get caught up in that s—. I love Stricker to death, but he didn’t pick me this year, which I get — I didn’t play worth a s— in the playoff.”

Now, let me explain that joke.  We've had many stories over the years about access to events, some involving sponsors' exemptions, and they all follow a predictable pattern.  Someone complains about such exemptions or about how spots are allocated, and their told by their betters to "Play Better".  I've always found that annoying, because in the vast majority of cases the argument is being made for allocating the slots to deserving others, not the individual involved.  

But in this case, Kevin, Fookin' Play Better!

I have actually made the case for Kisner's inclusion, much along the lines of Geoff's thoughts:

It’s not a huge surprise to read of Kevin Kisner’s frustration over getting passed over in recent Cup Captain’s picks. After stellar play in 2017’s Presidents Cup, Kisner seemed like a wise candidate for Paris the following year. Especially given the likelihood of the European’s narrowing landing areas and nullifying long driving. He was passed over for Royal Melbourne’s 2019 Presidents Cup despite being a strong fit for the course and format. And as he continued to emerge as an incredible match play golfer, culminating in a 2019 WGC match play win, his game was seen as less suited to the (ultimately successful) plan for Whistling Straits: bomb’s away!

And, by the way, I agree with his argument that it's too political, although that's not quite the right concept.  But with Phil's hostile takeover it's certainly controlled by a cabal of cool kids, and not for the better.

But Kis needs to give up the pity party.  A guy that admits he's not competitive on half the Tour venues, has to know in his heart that he's not done nearly enough to lock up a spot on any of these teams.  And if you've left yourself in that grey area, you can't be complaining when you're not chosen.

So, Kiz, with love, Play Better!  Oh, and would you care for some cheese with that whine?

It's A PIP World Now - For reasons that aren't immediately obvious, the Grayson Murray-Kevin Na pillow fight continues to engross and amuse your humble blogger.  Hey, I'm not proud of it, but Golfers Behaving Badly is often the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning.

Dan O'Neil, writing at Sports Illustrated's First Read, has his won thoughts, but first fills in an addendum not included in yesterday's post:

As the smelling salts were applied from that haymaker, others began throwing indiscriminately. “Someone please call an ambulance for Grayson here,” tweeted fellow Tour pro Byeong Hun-An.

Of course, that brought another from Murray, who has now fired more shots with his keyboard 2022 than with his golf clubs. “Hahah love it little guy! Would never tell me that to my face.” (that was quickly deleted) and “if they penalized you like they should for slow play you’d never make another cut either.”

You can see why the deletion was necessary, inferring a physical threat and all.  Though O'Neill amuses himself with the irony:

Besides a lack of proper pronouns and commas, the exchanges bring up an inconsistency. Murray chastises Na for not insulting Murray to his face — as he insults Na from somewhere other than his face. Perhaps the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Murray felt compelled to assert his physicality to the 5-10, 167-pound Na. Or maybe he is saying what so many dads who grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s say to their kids, i.e. “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Regardless, in the end, that is the beauty of social media jabs. They are never in your face, or even behind your back. They originate from places miles away, places that accept no responsibility and know no ramifications, shallow spineless places.

These days, Murray's gibes to Tour pros almost have to be from miles away, given his lack of status.  O'Neil has advise for both involved parties, this being the more curious:

But the game and those who practice it should rise above things like this. That’s why Murray should go back to the moment where he thought post a witty reaction to McCabe’s tweet was a good idea and re-think it. Thank about who he is, where he’s at and what he’s saying.

Fair enough but, Dan, perhaps you should consider the possibility that this is, in fact, who Grayson Murray is....  including the since-deleted physical threat.

But then this opaque advice for Mr. Na:

That’s why this memo goes out to Kevin Na.

Hank Williams Jr. says it best, speaking to Waylon Jennings in their musical duo, The

Conversation. When Jennings asks Williams if his famous daddy had really written all “them songs.”

The reply from “Bocephus” is terse and to the point: “That don’t deserve no answer, Hoss, let’s light up and just move along.”

Don’t keep dignifying the comments, Kevin Na. Act like you’ve been there before, because you have.

Just light up and move along.

Which, loosely translated into English, suggest that he not "punch down."  Good advice though, as O'Neil does note, the Tour seems to be incentivizing all sorts of aberrant behavior.  And, human nature being what it is, that which gets rewarded gets repeated.

You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat More Lipstick - Musing as I'm wont to do on a Wednesday, I'm amused by a particular aspect of the Tour schedule.  In general, that schedule suffers from a mind-numbing week-to-week uniformity.  If it's Tuesday, this must be Palm Springs....  Phoenix is one exception to the rule, but so are the two celebrity Pro-Am events, this week's as well as the one in early February at Pebble.  But, while Phoenix thrives, those other two events have become two of the weakest events on the Tour's schedule, rendering this header cirious to this observer:

American Express finally has a chance to put its mark on its PGA Tour event in 2022

 I'm still in a quandary as to why the wanted this weak sister.... But here's the gist of the case:

None of the things Finau loves about the tournament can happen without the backing of a title

sponsor like American Express. One of the largest financial corporations in the world, American Express has had two years as sponsor of the desert’s PGA Tour event, but those years have hardly been normal years by sports sponsorship standards.

American Express joined the desert tournament just four months before the January 2020 event, meaning most of the plans for that year were already in place. In 2021, the second of the five-year deal between American Express and the tournament, the marketing and hospitality opportunities a sponsor like American Express craves were wiped out when the event’s three-day pro-am was canceled and no gallery was allowed on the two courses used for the event because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sure, we blame everything on Covid these days, but this event was on life support long before the Chinese Flu got here.  So, how to pump up this event?  

American Express’ impact on the 2022 event can be seen in several areas. The purse for this year has been increased to $7.6 million, up $900,000 from last year’s event that was played with no ticket sales and no pro-am.

The concert series also has changed with an emphasis on attracting a younger audience. That series featured classic rock acts in 2018 and 2019 with Sammy Hagar and Huey Lewis and the News as well as Stevie Nicks and country star Luke Bryan in 2020. This year’s series includes rock act Maroon 5 with lead singer Adam Levine on Friday and country star Brad Paisley on Saturday.

 Sheesh!  Are they the only guys in America that didn't suffer through Maroon 5's Super Bowl appearance?

Maroon 5 at the Super Bowl: A Game Everyone Lost

I mean, does this scream massive golf audience to you?

We're in the best of hands, folks.  Nothing appeals more to golf fans than some mindless MBA-speak:

“When we became title sponsor of The American Express, we knew we wanted to bring exciting experiences to fans and cardmembers because creating these special moments for our cardmembers is how we show customers life is better with AmEx,” Spaeth said. “And we plan on providing great experiences at the tournament in the Coachella Valley for years to come. Between the concert series, on-site activations, and having some of the best golfers in the world participating, there’s something for all fans at this year’s event.”

Cardholders with American Express receive extra benefits at the tournament, from a 20 percent discount on tickets to special seating areas for the concerts.

Is there anything better to induce you to forego the NFL playoff games for this event than those "On-sight activations?"  As for world class players, they've got Rahm, Cantlay and Finau, but the lingering question will be comparing this field to the one at Pebble in three weeks.  Amex might have it over AT&T, though that's an awfully low bar.

But, as I head for the exit, do I get credit for not throwing in a Chainsmokers gag?  

See y'all down the road.