The New World Order

I've had some bad predications, most notably in thinking that it was pretty much over the week of Riviera.  But one predication is proving out, to wit, that the steps that Jay would take to hold the Tour together would make it a less meritocratic and, therefore, less interesting place.   It's even worse than I imagined...

But first, this victory lap form....well, Alan Shipnuck:

Tiger and Rory Save The Day…For Now

Like Arnie and Jack a half-century ago, the two most influential names in the game have joined forces to reshape the PGA Tour

Which the author seems to think is a good thing.....

In this tense, fraught moment for the sport, the wee lad from Northern Ireland has become a towering figure. But McIlroy has not been going at it alone. In fairness to Monahan, he displayed

an impressive nimbleness in remaking the Tour just eight days after a closed-door, players-only meeting gave him the mandate for change, and he brought the right resolute tone to his presser. However, his rightful title should now be co-commissioner, alongside McIlroy and another figure who loomed large in absentia: Tiger Woods.

In these eight days that have shook professional golf, Rory and Tiger have further emerged as the faces and voices of the Tour, evoking the activism of Jack and Arnie when the Tour was born of rebellion in 1968 as the players broke away from the rigid bureaucracy of the PGA of America. There is more than a passing resemblance between these linked pairs of legends. Nicklaus and Palmer were born a decade apart, while Woods is 13 years McIlroy’s senior. On the golf course, Jack was tactical and Arnie daring, just as Tiger is a plodding strategist compared to the freewheeling Rory. The personable Palmer connected intensely with the fans in the same way McIlroy does, while Nicklaus and Woods have always been more remote figures. But this battle for the soul of golf has stirred something deep within Tiger.

A week ago he jetted to the first FedEx Cup playoff event, in which he wasn’t competing, to convene a meeting with 22 of the biggest names on Tour. Trudging onto the tarmac in Wilmington, Del., Woods had the air of a disappointed dad cutting short lunch with friends to return home and scold his quarreling children. Once he was in the room, the other players felt the weight of his presence. “Any time I see Tiger I feel a little electricity,” Max Homa says. “It’s always weird to be in a room with Tiger Woods. I don’t think I’ll get over that one.”

The hero worshiping is fine I suppose, but what have they wrought?  Not sure I instinctively know the implications of this, though the usual question presents, should it have taken a crisis to investigate:

The mind-melding of Woods and McIlroy went to another level in recent weeks as they held a series of exploratory conversations with the Raine Group, a venue capitalist firm that has had a hand in various blockbuster sports deals, including the $4 billion sale of the Ultimate Fighting Championship league. Tiger and Rory have been investigating the benefits of the Tour renouncing its non-profit status and privatizing, which would lead to an eight-figure tax bill but allow for billions of dollars in outside investment. It is the kind of big, bold thinking that may be required to fend off the continued encroachment of LIV Golf. The Tour is paying for its newly announced slate of mega-tournaments with cash reserves—Phil was right!—and by squeezing existing sponsors for extra millions. Neither source is inexhaustible. On Wednesday, Monahan affirmed that he wants the Tour to maintain its 501(c)6 status but signaled an openness to creative work-arounds, saying, “Can you create for-profit subsidiaries? Are there other things you can do to create value as you go forward for the members? Yes.”

The Raine Group?  Really, though they're the only ones more pissed at the Saudis than Kubla Jay, because they started this whole mess and had their concept stolen by the Saudis.

But in what might they be investing?  Because I've seen the ratings and they don't exactly scream, "cash cow".

Alan's piece works as hagiography, but he never actually gest around to the Tour structure being created.   Shall we peak under the covers?

I'm old enough to remember when every Tour event was created equal, but the Sponsor Wars, they have begun:

The 12 “Elevated Events” are official.

The PGA Tour has always had bigger events and smaller events. Now they’re more clearly defined. Here are the 12 “Elevated Events” which will have average purses of at least $20 million and feature the top 20 players in the PIP, as long as they’re qualified for the event:

1-3. Three FedEx Cup Playoffs events

4. The Genesis Invitational

5. Arnold Palmer Invitational

6. Memorial Tournament

7. WGC-Dell Match Play

8. Sentry Tournament of Champions

9-12. Four additional Elevated Events with at least $20 million purses

I lean instinctively towards full disclosure, though that moment when lies are revealed can be a bit awkward, as that sound you hear is chickens coming home to roost.  The Tour has created this problem by holding far too many events and thereby watering down its product, and in the bargain has been quite the dreadful partner to its sponsors.  Ironic, that, since they will now be asking them to dig deeper...

No love there for traditional Tour sponsors such as AT&T, Farmers, RBC and Travelers.  Yeah, Jay's got some at-large bids in his back pocket, but nowhere near enough to go around.  And what of those events that will remain unelevated?

The independent contractors must play 16 events, 13 of which are pre-determined. And if the players are exempt into the major championships, that’s a commitment of 20 starts. But there is a big but! You need to be likable…

I may be mixing issues, that twenty event minimum, which includes the four majors (but surely not the two Cups) is a lot of golf, especially since we thought that number would down in order to compete with LIV (although that less golf thing was always a fiction).

But if you're running the Old Bob Hope, Wyndham or anything on the Fall schedule, your field will be indistinguishable from a Korn Ferry event.  Those were not the facts on the ground when you signed your sponsorship contract, but good luck getting Jay to return a phone call.  You will be collateral damage, added to the list that includes the International, the Western Open and other decaying corpses buried where once viable tourneys were held.

But wait, it gest worse:

The Player Impact Program is getting jacked up.

There will now be 20 players instead of 10 who get PIP money. The announced $50 million PIP money has been doubled to $100 million, effective immediately — so the 2022 list will pay out $100 million and the 2023 list will, too.

There are some changes to PIP scores: Q-Score and social media will be removed and “awareness criteria” will be expanded. It’s not completely clear what that scoring system means but Monahan referenced the speed with which the social media landscape changes as one reason for the shift.

To receive their PIP bonus, players must compete in the Elevated Events plus three non-elevated events. 

Remember, this is the program that we golf fans weren't even supposed to know existed....yeah, sounds totally legit to me.  A $100 million slush fund for Jay to buy loyalty, which sound sgood until you review the videotape.

Half the guys Jay tried to pay off in secret didn't stay bought, so by all means let's double it.

Here are your updated 2023 criteria:

And Geoff's inevitable but thoughtful snark:

I did not cut off a part where they list FedExCup points, major championship finishes or Official World Golf Ranking points to produce this magical 20.

To recap, a tour that used to lean on Monday qualifying to fill half a field while hosting an annual Q-School open to all dreamers, is now rewarding how players fare in awareness surveys and focus groups?

Monahan conceded that a scenario exists where a player otherwise not eligible for some events will get starts off his PIP standing, a painful admission when the prior stance had been to brag about your merit-based Tour.

Then there is what this does to tournaments, the world rankings and other ways players get into major championships. It’s a sensitive subject made even more fragile by new questions about PGA Tour field make-up (pending the fine print reveals when they figure them out at the Global Home).

 This is the answer to a question that no doubt has troubled you, why hasn't Rickie Fowler jumped yet?

I have no real objection to these efforts, although it does seem to increasingly resemble the welfare state:

All fully-exempt Tour members will get $500,000.

The new “Earnings Assurance Program” guarantees that every fully exempt member of the PGA Tour will get $500,000, credited against their on-course earnings. Those who weren’t on Tour the previous season — rookies and returning members — will get the money upfront, helping with expenses. Other pros would get paid at the end of the year, minus their earnings. For instance, if a pro earns $450,000 in prize money, the Tour would fill that gap and give him $50,000 at year’s end. Pros must play 15 events to earn the minimum, effectively replacing the previous “Play15” program which also required 15 events.

“We believe it meets the challenging dynamic of how players manage and invest in their careers, and it’s comparable to how other leagues approach their athlete compensation,” Monahan said.

This is perhaps the more important part:

There will be stipends for all other Tour members.

Those who aren’t fully exempt but still have some PGA Tour status will receive a $5,000 stipend every time they play an event and miss the cut, which won’t affect tournament purses but will subsidize “travel and tournament-related expenses.” In other words, the Tour doesn’t want its fringe members losing money when they attend events.

I asked Martin Trainer, who finished No. 138 in this year’s FedEx Cup, what he thought of the changes.

“Sounds like the rich getting richer and the little folk getting some perks as well,” he said via text. Well said.

Jay will not and cannot be in the mercy business:

LIV pros won’t be coming back anytime soon.

Monahan was pretty clear when asked if LIV pros with buyer’s remorse could come back to the PGA Tour.

“No,” he said.

Why not?

“They’ve joined the LIV Golf Series and they’ve made that commitment. For most of them, they’ve made multiyear commitments,” he said. “As I’ve been clear throughout, every player has a choice, and I respect their choice, but they’ve made it. We’ve made ours. We’re going to continue to focus on the things that we control and get stronger and stronger. I think they understand that.” (Those suing the Tour for exactly that right may not understand it, but I see what Monahan was getting at.)

Hey, on the bright side, they'll be getting their student loans forgiven.... Actions have consequences, though one can only hope that they didn't jump thinking they could relying on Greg Norman's assurances.

By Monday I've typically watched enough golf, although these changes I would expect to free up a bit of your humble bloggers' time.  The real problem is that it sounds incredibly lame:

We’re getting Monday Night Golf.

This is worth its own exploration, but there’s an add-on competition coming to professional golf: The TGL! That stands for TMRW Golf League. (TMRW stands for Tomorrow and it also stands for TW and RM, which stand for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who own TMRW.)

The TGL will kick off in January 2024 and is a stadium-style team golf event. What does that mean? Hard to say exactly. But there will be 18 players in the league split into six teams who will go head-to-head over the course of 15 Monday nights throughout the season. It’s intended as a supplement to the PGA Tour and a way to bolster the profiles and pockets of top pros.

Really, just shoot me now.

Guess who also hates it?  That sound you hear is axes being ground, but first the relevant bit:

Westwood is similarly less than impressed by the path the PGA Tour is following in response to

all that LIV is doing.

“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,” he says. “It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is ‘not competitive.’ They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields. Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV. Hopefully, at some point they will all choke on their words. And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days.”

It certainly moves things in that direction, which is quite regrettable in the opinion of your humble blogger.  Of course, Lee, it's not an exact copy, for this rather important distinction:

Speaking of which, the elephant in the LIV room has always been the controversial source of the tournament’s funding, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. As has already been obvious at the first three LIV events, the players—Westwood included—struggle to answer questions on what many see as the appalling lack of human rights that prevail in the Middle East state. And nothing has changed on that front.

“The questions on the Saudi government and their policies are unanswerable,” Westwood says. “My response is just to try and not answer them. I’m not a politician; I’m a golfer. But I do know that sport can be used as change for good.

It's really just an inconvenient answer for you, but the question seems unlikely to go away. 

I'd encourage you to read the entire piece, which reveals much about Westy's mindset.  For sure, he's got some valid gripes about the Global Home:

“I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years,” he says. “There’s not been much ‘give.’ They have always been bullies and now they are getting their comeuppance. All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger came on tour is up the prize purses. In turn, that has taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour. They’ve had to play in the States, taking all their world rranking points with them. That was their strategy: ‘Put up the money. Get all the players. Hog all the world ranking points.’ Which becomes self-perpetuating. What we have seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has done for the last 25 years.”

So, if I understand Lee, those Euro playes (himself included) that gravitated to the U.S. Tour are evil, but he and Poults taking Saudi money is growing the game...Interesting, if true!.

But at the end of his dissertation, you're left with a conclusion that you had intuited yourself.  As a competitively irrelevant player in his late 40's, Westy was offered and accepted a large check with no questions asked.  I for one find it entirely appropriate that the game of golf should ne hijacked by a group players that are no longer competitive.

I'll leave you with this meme from Sharkie, one that brings this post full circle:

Just to be clear, shirtless one.  You're accusing Jay of stealing the format that you stole from the Raine Group?  Glad we were able to sort that out...

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.  Although Monday is D-Day, so that Tuesday morning post will be the more interesting, methinks.