Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Bonus Tuesday Content

You may have noticed that the traditional Monday Wrappage post didn't actually publish until Tuesday morning, dreadful tradecraft on the part of your favorite blogger.  I did hit the "Publish" button, just didn't have the attention span to wait to see that it actually posted.

There is some actual news on our favorite topic, but it might be better if you read the post below first, if you missed it.

Wahabi Hijinks - Forgive me, but I am having more fun with this ongoing soap opera than is seemly, about which I feel trace elements of shame.  But it's the gift that keeps on giving, not least because of the extent to which Phil and the Topless Shark deserve each other, each manifesting the same psychological need to show us how smart they are.  

Today we have the latter being interviewed by ESPN's Mark Schlabach, which I think you'll find a target-rich environment.  perhaps we should sponsor a pool to guess which of these juicy sound bites will prove the most troubling:

Greg Norman's new golf league was prepared to launch the same week in February that Phil Mickelson's controversial comments about the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia were published, which caused many committed players to back out.

At the time, Norman told ESPN on Monday, at least 30% of the top 50 players in the world had committed to play in the new league.

That would presumably be the week of February 17th-20th with the circus at Riviera, when it all came undun (a Guess Who reference for those who truly have no lives).  Fifteen seems to be the magic number, though this prior iteration is of the top fifty so, if true, it's a more impressive roster than the fifteen of the top 100 that have allegedly either applied to play in London or have requested waivers from the PGA Tour.

If you'll recall, the players were quite harsh about St. Phil, who I've been reliably informed was just trying to grow the game of golf, but perhaps that makes more sense now:

"There's no question [Mickelson's comments] hurt," said Norman, a two-time winner of The Open and CEO of LIV Golf Investments. "It hurt a lot of aspects. It hurt the PGA Tour. It hurt us. It hurt the game of golf. It hurt Phil. So yeah, across all fronts. It wasn't just specifically to us. But it definitely created negative momentum against us."

It was certainly a body blow to the game of golf because....are you done laughing yet?  As for hurting the PGA Tour, that's perhaps even more of a spit take, since it played right into Jay's hands, at least temporarily.  Now it was certainly bad for Phil and Greg, but that's win-win, baby!

So, what went wrong, Sharkie:

Norman said the proposed league, which was being financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment
Fund, was prepared to launch its 14-event schedule and roster of committed players during the week of the Genesis Invitational, Feb. 17-20. But author Alan Shipnuck published an interview related to his upcoming unauthorized biography of Mickelson on the website FirePitCollective.com on Feb. 15.

In the interview, which Shipnuck said took place in November, Mickelson called the Saudi Arabians "scary motherf---ers" and said he was only willing to get involved with the new league to have leverage with the PGA Tour.

A couple of curious bits there, but let's allow Greg to further violate the first rule of holes:

"Quite honestly, we were ready to launch on the Tuesday or Wednesday of Genesis," Norman said. "We had enough players in our strength of field, or minimal viable product, ready to come on board. And when all of that happened, everybody got the jitters, and the PGA Tour threatened people with lifetime bans and stuff like that."

I'll give you a second to enjoy the jargon, I mean shouldn't MVP be in caps?  But the Shark's chronology displays the fealty to the truth that we've come to expect, as the Shipnuck piece actually dropped without warning on Thursday February 17th.  They might have been prepared to announce that Monday or Tuesday, but it wasn't Phil's comments that derailed that.

But Great White Pilot Fish (that's Eamon Lynch's sweet diminutive), what do you mean by "come on board"?

Norman said a handful of the players who had previously signed with LIV Golf have remained committed to play in the series, which now includes eight events -- including five in the U.S.

"To this day, we still have players under contract and signed," Norman said. "The ones who wanted to get out because of the pressure of the PGA Tour gave back their money and got out. Guys had money in their pockets."

Well, now, isn't that a juicy tidbit?   This, to my knowledge, is the first we've heard of money actually changing hands, with the obvious exception of the recent James Corrigan reporting about Phil.  So, due to Phil's verbal incontinence, guys had to return money.... Can you see why Phil might be avoiding locker rooms these days?

To repeat, this is the world according to Greg Norman, so your mileage may vary.  Interestingly, the OWGR website allows you to view rankings from prior periods, and those for February 13, 2022 indicated that most of the name slinked to the Saudis, Westwood, Garcia, Kokrak, Na and Louis, were inside the Top 50.  Poulter was buried in the 60's, but it's always a surprise that he's even that high.

This is new information for the unwashed masses, though one assumes all was known to Jay Monahan.  It's amusing to think of the heat that must have been brought to bear on Rahm and others, and the threats that must have been made.  One obvious question is how and when we'll know who the fifteen were or, alternatively, how much BS was in the Shark's presentation above.

On another thread of this story, Geoff takes on an issue that your humble blogger has given some thought to:

There are no sound reasons for the Masters, USGA, R&A and PGA of America to uphold possible player suspensions and risk legal exposure.

That faux mea culpa above aside, there are any number of interesting threads in this story.  For instance, Tour governance is an under-reported angle here, as there's no doubt that Tour pros will feel that the PGA Tour has ceased to represent their interests.   But Shack appropriately comes from this equally interesting angle, to what extent are the five families' interests aligned.  I'll remind that we originally (by the usual unnamed sources) were told that Phil had been uninvited to Augusta, which was directly rebutted by Fred Ridley.

Here's the gist of Geoff's thoughts, at least the gist that comes before the jump behind the paywall:

But could the organizations who run those events be harmed by a tussle between the established Tours and Norman’s Saudi-funded operation? Probably only if the non-PGA Tour Families actively choose to join the fight.


Yet at the Masters, Chairman Fred Ridley was asked to clarify his stance and mentioned stuff about the club’s mission to “always to act in the best interests of the game in whatever form that may take” while also talking about how
golf's in a good place right now.” Eventually he answered the question:


“We have been pretty clear in our belief that the world tours have done a great job in promoting the game over the years. Beyond that, there's so much that we don't know about what might happen or could happen.”

His non-committal tone was echoed in statements issued to Lynch when asking the R&A and USGA to honor Tour suspensions over what amounts to First World membership matters of little bearing on the U.S. Open or The Open.

Interesting, no?  The Shark and the bonecutters have indicated that the LIV Tour will operate cooperatively with the PGA Tour, which Jay quite justifiably finds laughable.  And, really, who can blame him, with their stated intention of syphoning off all the name-brand talent.  

But is LIV an existential threat to the majors?  That's a far tougher question to answer, though my knee-jerk reaction is to think that it's only in the most far-reaching, anything can happen sense.  Obviously LIV has no oxygen without eating Jay's lunch, but the risk-reward calculation seems to make the majors hills on which it would be foolish to die.  The most worried should be the PGA of America for what I think are obvious reasons, it's the weakest of the four and there's little business logic in the PGA of America running professional events.  But still, that's a fight that LIV would logically defer...

The way it looks to this observer, Fred, Martin and Seth will instinctively prefer the status quo, an environment in which they've grown comfortable metastasized.  But this isn't their fight, and Jay would be wise to not ask or expect them to fight his battles or take profound legal risks on their behalf.  I don't expect to see Phil or any other actor in this suspended from any of these events.

So, my operating assumption is that Phil has a tee time at Southern Hills, should he choose to peg it.  It just figures to be one lit Tuesday presser...

Lastly on this subject, Daniel Rappaport covers the same schedule ground that Eamon Lynch did, but adds in some useful details.  First, this color on that Saudi event:

To understand why, it’s important to note the distinctions between the LIV events—more
specifically where they’re being held and what tournaments they compete with on the PGA Tour—and how the PGA Tour bylaws treat them in different ways.

According to multiple sources, the PGA Tour, which has stayed silent on recent rumblings regarding LIV’s plans and declined to speak for this story, could grant releases for the first event because it is being held outside the United States. The PGA Tour granted all releases for the Saudi International in February, an Asian Tour event funded by the same group as LIV Golf (the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund), but did so with future requirements for the players and emphasized that the decision was not precedent-setting.

There were some other complicating factors, including the fact that this had been an Euro Tour event and certain players may have made multi-year commitments.  But this answers a question that many of us had:

The Centurion event differs from the Saudi International in that it is not part of an Official World Golf Ranking-sanctioned tour. In fact, it is not being run by a “tour” at all; while LIV and its CEO Greg Norman had an initial vision for a breakaway tour, this first event is being promoted as an independent entity. Additionally, LIV is not asking players to commit to any of the seven other Invitational series events scheduled for 2022. Their argument: LIV Golf is merely providing options for golfers, who are independent contractors and not employees of the PGA Tour, to ply their trade elsewhere.

I thought the investment in the Asian Tour was a clever ploy, a fig leaf to meet the need to have OWGR points available at the LIV events.  So, at Pumpkin Ridge, will OWGR points be awarded?  This might be moot to Jon Rahm (just to pick a name) but that guy in 48th spot needs to stay in the Top 50 to get to Augusta, so I'd think this rather a big deal.

Are you ready for some legalese?  First this:

Monahan has maintained publicly and in private meetings with players that the tour, even as a 501(c)(6) non profit organization, is well within its rights to make rules for its membership. When it was believed that LIV would ask players to commit to a tour rather than individual events, Monahan said numerous times that any player who commits to the breakaway circuit would face a suspension and potential ban from the PGA Tour.

I had speculated last time that, based upon James Corrigan's reporting about Phil's contractual commitment to play all eight events, Phil had clearly crossed Jay's red line.  Now we have Greg Norman indicating that up to fourteen others did so as well, which no doubt was the basis of Jay's threats back in February.  "Fealty" remains the key word...

Daniel also fills in some important details about the Tour's waiver policy:

LIV’s strategic pivot has avoided that scenario, but its release of a schedule has shined a light on the PGA Tour’s conflicting-event release policy. That policy is clearly elaborated in the PGA Tour Handbook, and it is done in a way that allows the tour to consider each request on a case-by-case basis.

The PGA Tour Handbook reads: “The Commissioner shall consider, but shall not be limited to, the following factors:

(1) The overall makeup of the field from which the member seeks to be released;
(2) The member’s standing on the current and previous season’s FedExCup Points List;
(3) The number of tournaments that the member has played in, or committed to play in, for the current season;
(4) The member’s record of participation in the tournament from which he seeks to be released.

One of my previous speculations concerned Jay's ability to treat Phil's application for a waiver differently than, say Robert Garrigus'.  Shall we parse this list?

 (1)  This is the same for any applicant, but just reminder that the event against which the LIV London tourney competes is the RBC Canadian Open, and event that hasn't been held since 2019 due to Covid.  This is also a national open and longstanding event, and RBC is itself an important sponsor of many players, who one assumes will not be applying for waivers.  All I'll say here is that Jay has what seems a good-faith case to support this event, should he choose to do so.

 (2) Not sure why this is here, but Phil would have little standing on this year's list, though his PGA win would affect the prior year's list.

(3) Veddy Interesting.  Phil hasn't played since Saudi Arabia, and I've no interest in researching where he played before that.  But he has no announced plans to enter any PGA Tour events, which was the dog that didn't bark in his agent's recent statement.  That's certainly a red flag, no?   

(4) Funny story here, in that Googling this question yielded this 2013 item:

In Mickelson's personal story there is a message as well. Two decades ago he was a rookie pro playing in the 1993 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey. He was adjudged to have taken a bad drop and later disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. Details are fuzzy, but more than one source over the years has said that the manner in which Mickelson was DQ'd made it appear as though he was being sent home by the RCGA (now Golf Canada) and not the Tour. As such, it's not unreasonable to say that Lefty left town with something of a bad taste in his mouth.

Mickelson later told the media and tournament volunteers that he "hoped" to return and had no hard feelings for how things turned out.

Things have indeed turned out pretty well for Mickelson. Sunday's win was his fifth major title.

He's been back to the Canadian Open just twice.

Hard to know what it all means, but Jay has tools should he choose to use them.  The consensus elsewhere is that Jay will issue the waivers for London, but draw the line at U.S.-based events.  I think he would have cause to treat Phil's waiver request differently than others, although that doesn't necessarily mean that that would be the smartest strategy.

But we should know a lot more next Tuesday, which is the deadline for the Tour's response to the waiver requests for London.  A small lie, one last bit, as I've had this browser tab open for a while:

yes, it's of course a parody, unless you think that's how "Tuor" is spelled. 

Maybe a good time for a palate cleanser?

To Thy Own Self be True - Yeah, Shack also blogged this story, though his header was, shall we say, more to the point:

Wayne Player Speaks: I'm Still A Tool!

I know, not exactly breaking news....

The second incident arrived on the first tee at the 2021 Masters during the Honorary Starters ceremony. While one of the tournament’s most cherished traditions, the 2021 gathering was especially poignant as Lee Elder, who broke the tournament’s color barrier in 1975, was recognized for his courage and efforts as a trail blazer and joined Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player for the event’s opening tee shots. Touching as the moment was, in the hours afterward fans took to social media to express frustration at the perceived actions of Wayne—who was serving as his dad’s caddie—as Wayne stood behind Elder during Elder’s introduction holding a box of OnCore golf balls in a brazen attempt at guerrilla marketing.

“I had probably 50 texts after that, 40 of them said I'm a marketing genius, 10 were like, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’” Player says in a phone call late last month. “It wasn’t premeditated, but it was a tacky thing.”


Ya think?  Although I'd like a list of those forty folks that think Wayne is a genius.  But before considering his contrition genuine, a couple of points:

The rationale behind Player’s decision was simple: He believed people wanted to know what type of golf ball his dad uses. (Note: Wayne helped consummate the business deal between his father and OnCore.)

How delusional is it to think anyone cares what ball a guy uses for a ceremonial tee shot.  As for me, I'm still pissed that they don't use ShotTracer for these drives.  Don't we have a right to know their launch angle and carry distance?

Also mitigating any good will:

Player, 58, attempted to follow in his father's footsteps in professional golf and competed in 17 PGA Tour events but never made a cut. Following his playing career, he has been involved with various health and fitness endeavors, yet he’s known to most in the golf world for two recent incidents at the Masters, incidents that Player would like to forget.

The first came in 2019 when Player was arrested and charged with deposit account fraud/bad check stemming from renting a house for clients during the 2018 Masters. Player was involved in a civil suit related to a promotional package tied to the Masters with a man named Todd Feltz. The suit from Feltz claimed Player acted in bad faith, caused unnecessary expense and physically assaulted Feltz when he pried about the whereabouts of promised Masters badges.

Is this true?  And, if true, is it mitigating?

However, Player believes his case warrants forgiveness, especially since, according to Player, the man he upstaged already forgave him.

“I've got Lee's cellphone number. I called and I said, ‘You know, Lee, I love you guys.’ You know, everyone said I was disrespectful for a special moment in time for Elder. I said I was sorry, and I didn’t mean to take up his special time. And he said, ‘Wayne, you know how much I love you. Right?’ It didn’t cross his mind. That’s important for people to know.” Elder died last November at age 87.

Lee Elder was an extremely gracious man who absorbed far worse than anything Wayne Player could dream up, but you f*****d up his moment in the sun, and nothing you can say can give that back to him.   

 But anyone know this quote?

“History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain

It just so happens we have one of those signature effortless segues:

Speaking of which, watching from home provided Wayne the unique perspective when Gary Player found himself in a similar controversy for wearing a Golf Saudi logo at this year’s Honorary Starters ceremony. Echoing the situation he found himself in, Wayne doesn’t quite see what the big deal is.

“We can judge, you know, the Arab nation for traditions that they have. I mean, where women are not allowed to walk around like we know women can walk around, they've gotta have a cloak over their head. I mean, I don't know, it's not for me to criticize them, you know?” Player says. “I mean, look, they're very tough on law and order, you know, and they do all the stuff that would be considered barbaric there, right. That's what [Phil Mickelson] basically said.

“I just know that my dad was excited about, you know, being part of growing the game of golf in Saudi Arabia,” Player continues. “I mean he loves golf course design. He's always enjoyed that. He's designed over 170 golf clubs and he's a statesman. He's always trying to help everybody, so nobody should be criticizing Gary Player ever."

So, money didn't change hands?

But, Wayne, you're a bit out of the loop.  Greg Norman has assured us that everything has changed over there, that women can even eat in restaurants.  So, why the apology?

Yeah, as Geoff said, still a tool.

Women Hardest Hit - Despite being able to dine out on Saudi haute cuisine, they didn't get much respect here in our wrap post.  In what was a nice story, Marina Alex won her second LPGA event on Sunday in L.A.:

Marina Alex wasn’t sure how much competitive golf she had left in her. The 31-year-old from
New Jersey has been on the LPGA Tour since 2013. In 2018, she secured her first win. But on Sunday in Los Angeles, after enjoying a champagne celebration for winning the Palos Verdes Championship by a shot over World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, Alex admitted that a lot has changed since that first win nearly four years ago.

She’s open about the struggle.

“If you had talked to me last year or the beginning of even this year, I didn't think it was even a remote possibility that I was going to win ever again,” said Alex, who was three back at the start of the final round Sunday before shooting a closing five-under 66 to win with a 10-under 274 total. “I didn't know how much longer I really wanted to be golfing ever again.”

Marina grew up at North Jersey Country Club, a place I've visited twice in recent years with the Met Golf Writers, as it's the home club of sportswriter Hank Gola.  

I did actually watch a bit of it Sunday ight, and Lydia Ko was on the ground being manipulated by a Physio, and Jerry Foltz asked in her post-round interview whether everything was OK.  Needless to say, he didn't get the answer he expected, and it's simply a shame that we didn't have him in frame to catch the reaction shot:

And you thought that Lia Thomas's competitive advantage was limited to, yanno, being a dude. gee, I guess she must be one of those "Birthing People" I've heard talk of...

That's a wrap for today.  I'll catch you down the road, kids.


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