In an exclusive interview with India’s WIO News, Norman chatted for 15 minutes with journalist Digvijay Singh Deo about anything and everything LIV. Norman hit all the normal talking points (growing the game, innovations in golf, etc.) during their sit down, but he also used the opportunity to yet again lobby for LIV to secure World Ranking points — and he wasn’t subtle about it.“By degrading the strength of field by not allowing LIV players to get OWGR points, it’s not doing the game of golf any good,” Norman said. “Rise above it all. It’s good for the players, it’s good for the game of golf, it’s good for production, it’s good for corporations, it’s good for OEMs, it’s good for fans, it’s good for everybody. Just because you have a negative viewpoint and you’re one of the voting members of an independent organization, that you hate LIV and you vote against it. Grow up.”
Grow up? Let me see if I have this right, but the man that was going to revolutionize the game by selling a pimped-out golf cart wants Augusta National to act like an adult?
Shack had a longer take up at his Quad, leading thusly:
A sexagenarian addicted to posting shirtless selfies has called upon other adults to “grow up.” And that is just one peculiarity coming out of Greg Norman’s latest regrettable interview attacking golf’s Five Families.Speaking on Friday to India’s “World Is One News,” the 67-year-old LIV Golf Commissioner hurled more gripes after a sneak effort to join forces with the mothballed MENA Tour, his latest ploy for world ranking legitimacy.
Ah yes, I sometimes go as long as ten minutes at a time without referring to him as the Shirtless Shark. Although, while Geoff is enjoying the target-rich environment, his accompanying photo might have us missing his bon mots:
But isn't this kind of an admission against interest:
“It’s not a setback,” Norman said. “It’s a setback for [the OWGR] because quite honestly, my players should have [points]. There are 22 tours that have world ranking points and there’s only one that’s equal to, or superior to, what LIV is. Only one.”
But isn't the interesting thing how he continues to be surprised that that one tour (and yeah, I'm ignoring that "equal to")might, yanno, defend its interests? He's not the quickest learner, is he?
Back to Geoff:
Placing such constant importance on the majors suggests the Shark is feeling some heat from players or his Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia sugar daddies. Or both.His MENA Tour failure prompted a statement from the OWGR to point out the obvious—some advance notice helps—and motivated Norman to revert to his anti-Dale Carnegie ways. (He briefly played nice this summer after placing Masters chairman Fred Ridley and friends in a “cabal”).
As relates to the majors, we parsed this in detail during the initial wave of signings, and the discouraging aspect was that the players, while hoping that aspect would "work out", were more than willing to assume the risk. Makes sense to this observer, because those early signees, Lee, Poults, etc., were mostly in the wind-down phase of their careers.
And this:
So after failing with the MENA move, Norman and friends are reverting to a mix of shaming and griping. Select players are joining the bluster. Bryson DeChambeau was the loudest in absurdly claiming LIV “hit every mark” of their ranking points request. While a victimhood play excites LIV’s base of trolls, bitter bros and a few loony personalities lobbying for a job, it’s hard to see the grievance approach winning over the OWGR’s Barzini’s and Straci’s.Making Norman’s latest rant all the more bizarre: LIV’s case for points would have been a strong one over a full season played under the Rules of Golf and without constant format tweaks seen in the “beta” year. Assuming the appropriate parameters were met (cuts, qualifiers, average field size, etc.), points denial would have been tough to pull off.
As a blogger, I can't help but love the stupidity on parade. The Saudis (this predates Norman's involvement) seem to have bought into the concept that they could steal the top forty-eight players in the world from Jay Monahan, without a competitive response from the Tour. Was that McKinsey or Bain that did the business plan?
But would you have thought, as the smartest guy in the room, that they would have a plan to qualify for OWGR points? It seems to this observer that Norman had no clue this issue was coming, and that Menafuge is just humiliating, although I do recognize it might be part of a larger lawfare strategy.
Now the hard part is that, inevitably, he makes some valid points about the effect of the fragmentation, though of course he's the cause thereof. That the golf ecosystem created an organization to measure performance seems logical, but the fact that said ecosystem controls said organization and will not immediately capitulate to the Aussie seems to hit the Shark as something of a surprise. Not very smart, our wee Sharkie...
And, in that vein, wouldn't you think LIV would have accommodated the OWGR guidelines in establishing their tour?
Making Norman’s latest rant all the more bizarre: LIV’s case for points would have been a strong one over a full season played under the Rules of Golf and without constant format tweaks seen in the “beta” year. Assuming the appropriate parameters were met (cuts, qualifiers, average field size, etc.), points denial would have been tough to pull off.
But.... Fresh of their Mena fail, we now learn that LIV is undertaking a serious effort to meet both the spirit and letter of the OWGR guidelines. Yeah, I'm lying. Fresh of their gamesmanship blowing up in their face....
This status could change to “winner” as soon as this week, I suppose. But thus far, LIV’s end-around strategy to acquire world ranking points has just thrown things into further disarray. Its “strategic alliance” with the shell of the MENA Tour seemed to be trolling the process, essentially taking over an existing mini-tour to exploit a loophole in the system while alternating $20 million purses (LIV events) with $75,000 ones (MENA events).
That's from Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column, wherein he demonstrates that he hasn't exactly kept up. We've been informed that every LIV member has joined the MENA Tour, so of course w expect DJ and PReed to show up at those $75,000 events, which will put them at about 45 events per year, so how's that playing less thing working out for you?
Wiping the egg from his face, this is the next serious, totally legitimate initiative to meet the concerns of the OWGR:
While the OWGR said it would have to review LIV’s attempt for points via MENA, in an interview with journalist Hugo Costa, Chacarra said there was a plan afoot to add a 36-hole “cut” to LIV events that would check that box of the world ranking board. (Shoutout to my translation consultant, Tomas.) The cut he described would only eliminate the lowest three competitors from final-round individual competition and they would still be allowed to play for their team scores.While LIV has made no final decisions on instituting a cut, the idea of eliminating just three players from the field — going from 48 to 45 — would obviously fly in the face of the spirit of an actual 36-hole cut. LIV seems determined to gain access to the world ranking system or to further undermine the institution that upholds it. Maybe it’ll do both. Stay tuned!
The cut is a red herring.... these are glorified exhibitions because they're only 54 holes (making 54 the name of the tour may ultimately prove to be the single stupidest move they made, a highly competitive category) and, most importantly, because of the small fields. It makes no sense to cut a 48-player field, but it makes even less sense to take such an event seriously.
So, what do we make of this? It's good fun and easy blogging to snark at the Shark, but where are we in this saga? I think the following:
- LIV is Unsustainable - Greg has to sense that the clock is ticking, and that his 2023 schedule, as currently envisioned, will underwhelm. For all his apparent success in stealing players, his fields are woefully weak and offer precious few reasons to tune in. he and his Saudi funders seem to have ignored the realities of golf, to wit, that it's boring and that no one really cares.
- More Defections? - It's a bit scary to write those sentences directly above, because things could change in a hurry. It would be easy to draw a scenario where a few more defections creates a preference cascade, but that hasn't happened yet and positions seem to be hardening. I still think Jon Rahm is the guy to watch, we'll just keep him on permanent "Fealty Watch".
But there's a lot going on here, and his flailing on the OWGR presumably isn't lost on the players that haven't yet jumped. They've seen that Norman's assurances that the players couldn't be suspended by the PGA Tour proved false, and who could have seen that coming, so they'll likely want to see that he can deliver on OWGR points, at least those that don't have major access guaranteed.
There's more going on in this vein, including this from Dave Dusek on the fallout with equipment and other sponsors. Oh, the inhumanity of sponsors dropping players that violate the terms of their contracts....
- Hail Mary Possibilities - We've said that the MENA ruse could be a lawfare strategy and there's a pending antitrust lawsuit, so is there a path to salvation for our Sharkie? It's at the very least ridiculously complicated, as it juxtaposes with geopolitical consideration.
I don't see that antitrust suit as helping The Great White Pilotfish, as it smells to this observer as USFL v. NFL Redux. Such lawsuits are typically measured in decades, and their attempt at injunctive relief yielded devastating results, as the trial judge accurately noted that the litigants hadn't suffered any actual harm. They had that which they were suing for, access to the FedEx Cup, and willingly traded it for that large check.... Isn't there an adage about having your cake and eating it too?
Now there's only three players left in that suit, but LIV has joined it as well, a different kettle of fish entirely. But here's where it gets so very interesting, at least to your geekish humble blogger, because the USFL was in the business of staging football games. Remind me again, what business is Saudi Arabia in? It's a serious question, because if you're offering the 51-year old Phil Mickelson $200 million to play golf, we might reasonably conclude that you're not doing this to make a profit. But the larger pint here is that this action is unlikely to yield any benefit in a timeframe helpful to LIV.
I can't speak to what might happen in the UK or Europe on this subject, relevant because the OWGR are headquartered in Wentworth (with the Euro Tour). It seems to me at the very least that LIV can be delayed on the OWGR, both through their normal review process of 1-2 years, as well as the one-year probationary period. Could they get injunctive relief in Europe? That seems a high bar, and we don't know how the U.S. entities, including those that run the three U.S.-domiciled majors, would react to that.
- Geopolitical Ramifications - To me, this is laugh-out-loud funny, at least until I need to fill up my gas tank. As you'll recall, Joe Biden went to the Kingdom to beg the Saudis to pump more oil in July, and just by coincidence his Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into the PGA Tour. Now, I'm quite shocked, we haven't heard much about said investigation recently, have we?
More recently, Biden made a plea to OPEC+ to not cut production by the planned 1 million barrels a day. Apparently, Biden was so convincing in his plea, that OPEC+ rescinded their plan to cut production by 1 million barrels a day, and instead decided to cut it two million barrels a day. I guess this is what Biden meant when he told us he would restore our alliances around the world, which we can all enjoy as we read by candlelight this winter.
The funniest bit is that Norman could likely get anything he wants from the Justice Department is his Saudi paymasters would only play ball with Biden. Problem is, that ability likely expires on November 8th, no?
It's a huge mess, but what's LIV's path forward? If you're telling me that it's buying time on Fox Sports, color me skeptical. But I do have one last LIV item, and it's just perfect. Because for all their silly bloviating about reimagining and growing the game, it turns out that they're every bit as stupid as the guys in Ponte Veda Beach:
Dustin Johnson won LIV Golf’s individual crown before the series made it to the Kingdom.As the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fundprepares to host its regular-season finale in Jeddah later this week, Johnson left little to play for after claiming the individual title and its $18-million prize following his 16th-place finish at last week’s event in Bangkok.LIV’s season-long individual competition awards points to the top 24 finishers from each event. Johnson, who bagged five top-10 finishes and a win over the first six events, has 121 points to his name, 42 more than Branden Grace in second. This week’s event in Jeddah offers 40 points to the winner and 30 points for second place.“Locking up the individual competition is big. It’s an honor to be LIV’s first individual season champion,” Johnson said via a release. Over six events the two-time major champion has earned $9,758,600 for his individual performances and $3,000,000 for his 4Aces team performances for a whopping total of $12,758,600.
They say it's Golf, But Louder, whereas it seems more akin to the tree that falls in the forest. Is it louder if no one hears it?
I might have lied, but I might as well throw in this from the Tour Confidential gang:
Speaking of world ranking points, are they even needed? Some have argued you could get rid of them entirely. Is it plausible the professional golf world could scrap them and function just the same or better? Why or why not?Sens: As much as a complete free-for-all of qualifying would be good, mad fun, I think there has to be some kind of system for the majors. But there’s no reason that the system has to be the OWGR. I’ve heard suggestions for a more fluid point system within the Tours (PGA / Korn Ferry, etc. ) where guys could/would move up or down from week to week to fill out fields. Someone smarter than I am would have to figure out the math but that seems promising, possibly fairer as a reflection of current form and definitely entertaining, allowing young stars to move up faster etc. The recent changes OWGR made to base points on entire field strength seems smart but the organization itself is opaque, which only creates skepticism about how it operates. Whatever happens, things should be more transparent.Hirsh: Is the OWGR becoming the next BCS? Is there going to be a professional golf playoff? Oh wait! We already have that. As a snakebitten Penn State football fan, I’d love to see what would happen if the BCS formula was used to select the CFB Playoff. When it comes to formulas to determine rankings, I don’t think there’s really a way to make everyone happy, but I do think there does need to be some way of comparing pros from across different tours. I don’t think that could be done with a panel, there has to be some formula, and it was my understanding there would be no math, so I will differ in the creation and critiques of said formulas.Colgan: Fortunately, golf isn’t cliquey, exclusionary or slow to recognize its stars, because those things would make abolishing the OWGR brutally bad for the sport. (Oh, golf is these things? Well then, perhaps we should stick with it!)Dethier: No. This is an interesting thought experiment but ultimately a bad idea. One of golf’s chief crowns is the World No. 1 ranking. And there’s a legitimate value to comparing all top pros. The LIV issue will reach some imperfect resolution eventually. The World Ranking needs to endure.
I'm not even sure what they're going for here. When Ben Hogan went to Scotland in 1953 he had to actually qualify into the Open Championship, but surely that's not what the questioner is suggesting, right?
Obviously they just released new metrics in response to concerns as to how events and tours were being awarded points, and I have interest in those debates in and of themselves. But obviously we want some kind of ranking system to pre-qualify top players into events, so there's always going to be something that looks like this. Although it's deliciously ironic to think of these overly-entitled guys demanding and receiving guaranteed money only to have to qualify into majors? Would they even try?
Tiger Sightings - I'm not all that interested in this subject, but he was at Pebble and there was this bit, which ties in to our larger issue:
Tiger Woods announced the star-studded field for the 2022 Hero World Challenge taking place on Dec. 1-4, but Woods was suspiciously absent. Seventeen players are currentlycommitted, but the host, per usual for this event, left three spots open for exemptions. What are the chances Tiger will use one on himself?Sens: If he’s feeling good — as in, he feels he has a chance of being competitive — he will play. I expect that will be the case.Hirsh: I’d find it surprising he’d tee it up in the PNC Father/Son with Charlie two weeks after the Hero, but not play the Hero. He’s said he doesn’t want to use a cart on Tour, but this isn’t a Tour event. It’s a flat golf course, he could definitely use a cart and it benefits his charity for him to play. All signs point to him teeing it up, if his body is up for it.Colgan: The chances are … pretty good! I think the bigger question is whether we’ll see Tiger utilize a cart (something he once stood unequivocally against) if he signs up to play.Dethier: Yeah, he’ll play. Why not?
Do these golf writers actually know what's going on in the world of golf? Because this event has an outsized importance right at this moment, and the one thing Tiger cannot do is use a cart in this event.
If the OWGR are to be the battlespace, the fact that this event, with its 18-player field (just to be clear, the field has now been expanded to twenty, but OWGR points were awarded for years when the field was 18 players) awards OWGR points is a major embarrassment. Your humble blogger misses a lot, but I've been calling BWS on this since it was announced. One doesn't need to be Nostradamus to see that awarding OWGR points to a gaggle of Tiger's buddies is just wrong...
You can see the problem is Tiger shows up in a cart, no? The obvious solution would be to stop awarding points, although that might be too public a stepdown for those involved. The same problem exists with the Tour Championship, but at least there you have a season-long process of qualifying to support the Tour's position, and here the OWGR folks did actually push back against the Tour, awarding pints based upon the scores actually shot and ignoring the staggered start (more importantly, showing that the organization is something more than just Jay's lapdog).
The other point to make is that, while seeing Tiger paid off in this manner is not attractive, at least Tiger had the good taste to stay bought.
Linksy Stuff - Always a good palate cleanser, no? There's a few retro bits over in linksland that your humble blogger would pay a king's ransom to experience, none more so than playing The Old Course in the opposite direction. But this one is pretty close on my wish list, though we lede with a history lesson:
In every other respect, it was just an ordinary October Wednesday in Prestwick 162 years ago.But down at the local links, a golf competition was about to be born. Three weeks prior to Abraham Lincoln being elected the 16th president of the United States and only months before America would indulge in the ultimate oxymoron, a Civil War, eight competitors, seven Scots and an Englishman, were readying themselves to tee off.The tournament was played over 36 holes and there was no halfway cut (so no World Ranking points were awarded). But this was the beginning of what is today golf’s most historic event, the Open Championship. Which was, at least for that first playing, a misnomer. No amateurs were allowed to enter, only professionals.Not until the night before the second playing of the event in 1861 was it resolved that moving forward the event would be open to all the world. That reference is still to be found in the Prestwick Golf Club minutes book and probably led to the expression “the Open.” The first event, however, was actually not an Open. It was invitational, a bit like the Masters and merely an effort to find a successor to Allan Robertson, the so-called “champion golfer of Scotland” who had passed away the previous year.
That OWGR bit is a little cheeky, but the first Open was, as described, the result of the passing of Allan Robertson, the greatest player of the Pre-Tom Morris era.
So, what happened? A big upset:
The Prestwick club’s “keeper of the green and club and ball maker,” Old Tom Morris, had designed the layout nine years earlier and was a strong favorite to claim first prize, the red Moroccan championship belt that cost the hosts all of £25. But it wasn’t to be. With a score of 174—55-59-60—Willie Park Sr. of Musselburgh claimed the first of what would be his four Open victories, two shots clear of Morris.
Lots of good stuff, including this on how Old Tom designed his courses:
“Old Tom’s approach to course design was interesting,” Goodwin says. “There are two versions. In one, he went round with a pocketful of feathers. And in the other, a pocketful of sticks. Hewent out and looked for good places for greens, which he marked with a feather or a stick, depending on which version you believe. Then he would wander off and find another one. And another. If there was a sand dune or depression in the way, it was up to the golfer to negotiate it. You either went over it or round it.”That fundamental strategy continues to apply today to the now 18-hole layout at Prestwick, which uses six of the original 12 greens. The course remains unashamedly old-fashioned, a quaint and quirky mix of humps, hollows and blind shots. And, happily, one hole has survived from Day 1. The par-4 17th (“the Alps”) that members play today is the one played in the first Open. The second on the 12-hole course, it is 385 yards and more manicured now than it was then. But golfers still play over the same hill. The Sahara bunker still sits in front of the green. And the green is still marked by an extreme slope. It is the oldest existing hole in major championship golf.
He'd walk the property and be at the bar by lunchtime, which is easy to poke fun at 170 years after the fact. Although, it has to be said, he left a series of courses that are treasure and fun to play even in the 21st century, so who's the joke on?
Why this thread?
Anyway, starting Oct. 10 and lasting for two weeks this month, the original Open layout, recreated as never before, is going to be available to a mixture of members, media and, on a couple of days at least, visitors.“We’ve always had a good idea where the greens were and that the routing was,” Goodwin said. “The big problem was we didn’t have the equipment necessary to get the job done. So the whole thing was really quite rudimentary. It took a long time to prepare. But now we have the equipment that allows us to cut back large swathes of rough. We’ve done that. Take the first/12th holes. A year ago, the fairway there was covered in grass 18 inches long.”Inevitably, some compromises have had to be made in trying to recover or retrieve the original course. At the short seventh, “Green Hollow,” where the semi-blind putting surface is in what was rough, the construction of a green was necessary. So it won’t be the same condition of the original. But even the worst green is probably better than the best green in 1860. And yes, the fairways are still a wee bit rough in places. But that is how it was back then. In those days, a lot of golf was actually played in winter. In summer, cattle and sheep were used to graze and keep the grass down as much as possible.One other 19th century feature will be in evidence this month. Rather than the usual flags, the pins will be topped by baskets, something that will be more than familiar to those who have visited Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, a five-time U.S. Open host.
I remember my caddie trying to explain the original 12-hole loop, though it was hard to absorb in that moment. But what a grand idea, I only wish I could be among those to experience it.
Here's what's going on from a better vantage point:
There's more there, including the very cute scorecard, which measure the holes to the inch. That first hole was 578-yards, which in the 1850's must have seemed to be miles. The concept of "Par" was not institutionalized until after the turn of the century, although the concept was used for decades previously, although it was mostly interchangeable with "bogey". Hence, this 578-yard, one-foot, nine-inch hole is reflected on their scorecard as a Bogey six. Of course, Young Tom famously made a three there, so I'm unclear as to whether that qualifies as an albatross.
That's all for now, but I'm sure I'll see you as the week progresses.
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