That long holiday weekend seemed especially...well, long. But we're now deep into links season, as this week is the Scottish Open in East Lothian. And four weeks from today Employee No. 2 and I head to the auld sod...
Long LIV The King - We've been over the rules several times, but I'll provide a quick recap all the same. When they say it's about the money, it's about the money. But when they say it's not about the money, well, they say a lot of things. As promised yesterday, Alan Shipnuck has taken a deep dive in LIV money, including this strong lede:
LIV Golf is about many things: disruption, sportswashing, vengeance (in the case of frontman Greg Norman) and, uh, golf. But more than anything, it’s about cold, hard cash. As with many otherissues surrounding this upstart tour, the details around all the money are shadowy. In an effort to get more granular, the Fire Pit Collective spoke with four agents who represent LIV golfers; they were granted anonymity to facilitate candor.“What you have to understand about professional golfers is that they are all whores,” Agent A says. “That is the starting point.”
Yeah, they're making that fact hard to ignore. The word that remains in dispute is the "all".
It also includes an appropriate caveat to not believe the numbers being bandied about:
As with team sports, the guaranteed money on LIV varies from player to player, based on age, starpower, current form and projected performance. “Every deal is different,” Ian Poulter says. “There hasn’t been a lot of talk about the money [among players] because that’s personal.” Some of the numbers that have been floated in media reports have been fantastical: $200 million for Phil Mickelson, $150 million for Dustin Johnson, $100 million for Bryson DeChambeau. “You have to take that with a grain of salt,” Agent B says. “Who does it benefit to inflate those numbers? LIV, obviously, because they’re trying to generate buzz and recruit more players. But it also benefits the agents who are trying to sign new players or nudge other clients to make the jump.”
But that sword would have a second edge, in that players will expect their deals to match those telephone numbers being bandied about.
But knowing my compassionate readers, you'll be wondering how the 10%-ers are fairing in this era of Bidenflation:
Though it is subject to negotiation, the standard arrangement in professional golf is that players keep all of the money they win on the course but agents take 20 percent of appearance fees and endorsement deals. LIV’s upfront money is treated like the latter, and as a result, the player representatives are getting a fat cut. (Because there is no cut in the events and players are guaranteed a check, some agencies are taking a commission on the first $120,000 of a player’s winnings, treating it as a de facto appearance fee.) One veteran caddie to a top player who has remained loyal to the PGA Tour says in a text message, “I honestly think that one of the backstories to this LIV thing are agents who desperately want the biggest payday of their lives.”A key player in the building of LIV Golf is GSE Worldwide, a New York-based outfit that represents seven players who have made the jump: DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Brendan Grace, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Eugenio Chacarra (who just turned pro). On Thursday, Norman told me, “We still have some big announcements coming.” Speculation has centered around another GSE client, Sam Burns. (Andrew Witlieb, the head of the company’s golf division, did not respond to a request for comment for this story.) GSE’s aggressive business model dovetails nicely with LIV’s desperate need to sign players. “We call it pushing paper,” Agent A says. “Those guys buy clients. They go in and say, ‘We’ll guarantee you X millions of dollars in income to sign with us.’ That means if [GSE doesn’t] land some big deals, they get their ass handed to them.” But Agent C pushes back on the notion that he or any of his colleagues have steered their players to LIV despite the risks of being banned from what was their home tour, to say nothing of the blowback attached to LIV’s funding coming from Saudi Arabia. “Our job is to present all the options to the player, but they always make the final decision,” Agent C says. “If you push a player to do something that is not in his best interests long-term, you’re not going to be in this business very long.”
At these numbers, how long do you NEED to be in the business...
Amusingly, the one GSE client that's apparently beyond the pale to GSE is the odious Grayson Murray, so good to see that the Saudis have standards.
Lest you think Kooch is an outlier:
How are players taking care of the rest of their “team” in this era of inflated purses? Most caddies and swing coaches to LIV players are getting the same percentages as always, which means 10 percent of a victory this week is worth a cool $400,000 to the looper. “I’ve heard a little grumbling from the players,” Agent D says, “but there has been so much talk about quote unquote player greed that I think they are sensitive to not squeezing anyone right now. I do expect that at the end of this season some percentages will get adjusted.”
$400K and they only have to hump the staff bag for LIV holes, so win-win, baby! But, no, the players, having cashed a nine-figure check, will squeeze the loopers.
Like me, you've likely been agonizing over the issue of whether the guys got their checks all up front. The answer is, it depends:
Perez signed with LIV for four years, which will take him to age 50, when he will be eligible forthe Champions Tour … if golf’s warring bureaucracies ever make peace. Like other players with relatively modest upfront money, he received his haul in one chunk. “Mine is in,” he says. “I got it all. It’s fucking incredible.” According to Agent C, the contracts that run into high-eight and nine figures are paid in annual installment across the three-, four- or five-year deals. Every player with a long-term LIV deal is compelled to play every event on the schedule, even as it potentially expands from eight tournaments this year to 14 in coming years. There are clawback provisions should a player miss a significant amount of time for injury. Interestingly, there is also a “morals clause” by which LIV can cancel a contract and recoup the upfront money. This covers incidents of on-course cheating and legal troubles, and particular attention has been given to consorting with or being influenced by gamblers. “With so many guys getting guaranteed money,” Agent C says, “there is the concern that a player could be more tempted to do something during the competitive rounds, which might not mean as much to them. Where there is money there is always corruption. That’s just how humans are.”
I'm sorry, a morals clause? I though I was Vice President -Irony at this establishment.... Does that clause cover.....oh, never mind, we can do without a gratuitous bonecutter reference.
But that last bit should get wider coverage, mirroring this from yesterday's post:
As I perused the driving range ahead of Thursday’s shotgun start, one particularly flushed 3-wood stopped me in my tracks.“Yeah, that’ll work,” I muttered to one of 48 LIVers at Pumpkin Ridge this week.“Yep, it will,” he replied. He then nudged another ball from the pile into hitting position and turned around again. “But, who the f--k cares if it doesn’t?”
But they don't seem to get that indifference cuts both ways. The players no longer need to grind, which they love in the short-term, but they don't seem to have put much thought into the issue of why anyone else should give a rat's ass....
In channel-flipping last night I came across the J.P. McManus Pro-Am from Adare Manor, surprised to see LIVsters such as Koepka and Poulter there. The economics of that event would be its own interesting subject, as I assume each and every A-list pro there got an appearance fee, so what was left for charity? But, that segue is just to warn you that we'll see some of these guys this week as well:
Litigation over the controversial LIV Golf league has officially begun — and the defectors have scored their first victory.According to a release from the DP World Tour, the suspensions of Ian Poulter, Justin Harding and Adrian Otaegui have been temporarily stayed as their case works its way through the appeals process. The trio of players were among those suspended and fined by the DP World Tour last month after they competed in the LIV Golf Invitational in London without a conflicting event release form. They will now be eligible to compete in this week’s Scottish Open.DP World Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley, who is at the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland this week, declined to give a detailed response on the matter while at Adare Manor, but he did say he was “disappointed by the outcome of [the] hearing.”“It is important to remember, however, this is only a stay of the sanctions imposed, pending the hearing of the players’ appeal as to whether those sanctions were appropriate,” he added.
Interesting, because this event is now co-sanctioned by those folks in Ponte Vedra Beach....
Apparently this guy wants in:
Reed no longer in field. DP World Tour issued statement earlier today saying he “has been withdrawn from the entry list.” https://t.co/eektcU8cyV
— Bob Harig (@BobHarig) July 4, 2022
Quite the mess for sure.
As a palate cleanser, shall we focus on some more pleasant things? Could you use some linksy goodness?
The Auld Grey Toon Awaits - Shack has lots of coverage up, but let's lede with the quote heading his blog right now:
St. Andrews still retains its pristine charm. I doubt if even in a hundred years’ time a course will be made which has such interesting strategic problems and which creates such enduring and increasing pleasurable excitement and varied shots. ALISTER MACKENZIE
Reporting back to the Good Doctor from almost one hundred years later, and I have both good news and bad. His assessment is spot on for the 99% of golfers who don't carry it 340 yards off the tee.... However, depending upon the wind and the firmness of the turf, there remains a possibility that the world's best players will do a flyover of those strategic problems and pleasurable excitement.
We'll have more quotes in a sec, but first Shack has an author Q&A that's worth our time, specifically of this new offering:
Here's his lede question with Steve Finan:
GS: What prompted you to undertake this project?SF: My job is to “monetize” material in the DC Thomson archive. In other words, find ways to create books. I had been, for 40 years, a journalist in Scotland with a special interest in newspapers of the past and the way events such as big football matches, golf tournaments, or momentous news events were reported 50, 60 or 70 years ago. DC Thomson own the regional newspapers in the east of Scotland.This means I have spent a lot of time in the company archive in Dundee, which has copies of newspapers and magazines going back 250 years.While researching various projects, I would find – here and there – fantastic photos of President Eisenhower at Turnberry in 1959, or Ben Hogan at Carnoustie 1953, or Sam Snead at St Andrews 1946. It didn’t take genius-level intelligence to work out that these photos deserved a wider audience.Another part of my job is to visit Memories Groups around Scotland, giving talks and showing old sporting photos (the groups are for older people beginning to suffer memory problems, the photos get them talking about the old days). My own long-since-passed father suffered vascular dementia towards the end of his life but I know he would have enjoyed attending one of these memories groups. During one visit I “tested” the material on the Golf Memories Group in Carnoustie and was blown away by the response. They loved the photos, and these are men who have been immersed in the history of the game. They grew up with it, they are the craggy old guys who know every last nook and cranny of golf courses. They liked best photos that showed wider-angled views of tournaments. They liked close-focus photos of the players of old too, of course, but their attention was really grasped by photos showing spectators, the course set-up, the way they remember watching the game. They were looking at photos of their own experiences.
The photos are quite amazing. First of the Old Course:
That's quite the different vantage point for the old girl, which is basically a sand bar.
Regular readers might recall my love of British Rail posters, as the rail system was a major factor in the growth of the game. So of course I love this bit:
GS: What were some your favorite finds?SF: I particularly like photos that cannot now be taken. A railway line ran alongside The Old Course at St Andrews until 1969 and the course played differently when trains would rattle by. There was the noise, clouds of steam from the engines, or the danger of landing a drive on the railtrack. The railway had to be part of your game management. The line, for instance, passed perilously close to the 16th green so a wide approach shot was risking trouble. I love photos that show the old track in place. Indeed, I think they should bring it back.
Take a narrow tableland, tilt it a little from right to left, dig a deep bunker on the front side, approach it diagonally, and you have the Redan. At North Berwick, of course, all these things were done in the beginning by nature. The only original thing that the greenkeeper did was to place the tee so that the shot had to be played cornerwise, so to speak, instead of directly down the tableland. C.B. MACDONALD
Alas, they're not playing the West Links this week, they're playing Tom Doak's Renaissance Club next door, but lets' not obsess over details, as he also posts this flyover of all 18 on the magical West Links:
I don't imagine many of you will watch all thirteen minutes, but for anyone that doesn't get the appeal of links golf, I would watch a bit of it. It's just a magical place, nestled between town and the sea, with the dunes and surf combining to great effect.
The most famous hole is the above-referenced Redan, which is No. 15, which is hard to appreciate from overhead, which flattens the contours. But the shot is virtually blind to the player on the tee, which is hard to discern from the video. More interesting perhaps to the casual viewer is No. 13, called "Pit". All I can add is that it's very hard for your body to aim where your caddie is pointing on the second shot....
Geoff has another Quad post up with his 33 top St. Andrews one-liners, but he of course does not mean one-lines of the Henny Youngman ilk. Here's one with which I completely agree:
No. 32The Old Course at St Andrews rarely appeals at first sight, and it not infrequently takes years before scoffers succumb to its many virtues.ALISTER MACKENZIE
I consider that part of its charm, though it can be off-putting to the traveling golfer....
Of course, this is the poster boy for Old Course love, having walked off (he's reputed to have ripped up his scorecard, though that's likely apocryphal) after being humbled by the Eden hole:
No. 28There is always a way at St Andrews, although it is not always the obvious way, and in trying to find it, there is more to be learned on this British course than in playing a hundred ordinary American golf courses.BOBBY JONES
Since we've touched on Jones, Steve Finan's series of B&W photos allows Geoff to revisit a moment in St. Andrews lore that always brings a tear to your humble blogger's eyes:
The other photo that I think carries great poignancy is from 1958, showing the ceremony granting Bobby Jones the freedom of St Andrews. This is termed “being made an honorary burgess” in Scotland. Bobby was, from that point on, allowed to graze his flock of sheep on the town’s common lands (should he wish to do such a thing!) It is the greatest honor St Andrews, as a town, can bestow and is done very rarely. The previous American to be granted the freedom of St Andrews was Benjamin Franklin in 1759.After that 1958 ceremony a crowd that had gathered outside St Andrews University’s Younger Hall spontaneously serenaded Bobby with the sentimental old Scots air Will Ye No Come Back Again. It brings a lump to my throat to think of the townspeople paying respect to their old hero in such a way. Believe me, that sort of thing doesn’t happen often among a crowd of dour Scotsmen.
No, he was far too ill and travel was too arduous for him to return, but he made his feelings known with this:
"I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St Andrews and I would still have a rich, full life." Bobby Jones
Apparently Jack is to receive the same honor, though I have no information on his intention to graze sheep on the common lands of the town.
This one is interesting as well, both because of the year he ventured over, but also because I just can't imagine what he thought when he first arrived:
No. 27Until you played it, St Andrews look like the sort of real estate you couldn’t give away. SAM SNEAD
Snead made the trip in 1946, which seems inconceivable in hindsight, given the recently-concluded war and the nature of travel.
On Twitter, Geoff has been posting longer quotes on the Old Course, including this:
One must take time to know the Old Course in all its moods. One must study the subtleties of its terrain and its curiously shifting winds. One must find its hidden snares and one must approach it without preconceptions of what a golf course should be. To be down the middle may mean nothing there; that may be quite the wrong place. To be long may mean nothing in less length is shrewdly used. To be able to play a few shots perfectly is not always enough; one must at times have the full repertoire. ROBERT HUNTER
I'll exit on this wonderful photo:
Folks have asked whether we'll be able to play the Old Course while there in August, the answer being that we hope to but will need some luck. One of the charming aspects of the Home of Golf is that there's a lottery for tee times, known as the Daily Ballot. We have had success in the past, although this is not your normal year, both because of Revenge Tourism as well as the fact that the course will have been shut down for at least a month to host the 150th Open Championship.
The good news for us is that we have many days available to play the ballot. the bad news is that we're not the only ones who know of it.Hope everyone had a great 4th of July, and we'll catch up again later in the week, though not tomorrow.
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