Tuesday Trifles

Really, I'd like to ignore LIV for a day, but that would entail not blogging....  Unless you stopped by for a Mayakoba preview....

I Saw It On TV - I left a couple of thoughts hanging, but let's use this exhaustive ESPN piece to dive back in, first with their use of last weeks team event to frame LIV's status:

The light-hearted banter seemed like a lot of fun, but it also was a microcosm of one of the biggest criticisms of LIV Golf during its inaugural season. While golf has indeed been (much) louder on the

tour being funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with music blaring from speakers on the driving range and musical acts like Nelly, Snoop Dogg and The Chainsmokers entertaining fans at tournaments, how serious are LIV Golf's (very) highly paid players about the actual golf?

With $50 million, the largest purse in professional golf history, on the line at the inaugural team championship, the players displayed a jarring dose of levity during the news conference. Three years ago, while Koepka was trying to win a third straight PGA Championship or U.S. Open, his intensity might have burned holes through reporters who asked about his chances of winning. He once said other PGA Tour players didn't like him because of his confidence.

Louder?  Well, perhaps on site, but for something so loud, not many seem to be hearing it:

A recent survey of golf fans by Golf Datatech, which provides market research to the golf

industry, found that only 12% of respondents watched the LIV Golf event outside Chicago on Sept. 16-18. The poll found that 80% of the respondents, which included 641 "serious golfers" who averaged 70 rounds per year, hadn't watched any of the LIV events. The poll was conducted Sept. 20-25.

According to data obtained by ESPN, the LIV Golf tournament outside Boston in early September averaged 114,000 concurrent viewers on YouTube in the final round. The average dropped to 20,000 concurrent viewers for the final round of the Bangkok event and 26,000 for the tournament in Saudi Arabia. By comparison, the final round of PGA Tour events this past season, excluding the majors, averaged about 2.6 million viewers on network TV.

About 72,000 people were watching on YouTube when Johnson made a short putt to win the team championship Sunday.

I can't hear you....

So, where do things stand on that front... Well, they're talking to folks:

Various published reports have noted that LIV Golf was unable to secure a media rights deal with multiple TV networks and popular sports streaming platforms such as ESPN+, Apple TV+ or Peacock. The TV networks that have traditionally broadcast professional men's golf -- ESPN, CBS Sports and NBC Sports -- struck a nine-year, $6.1 billion deal with the PGA Tour in March 2020.

On Sept. 27, Golfweek reported LIV Golf was close to finalizing a deal with Fox Sports 1 to purchase airtime to broadcast its events in the U.S. Two weeks earlier, Norman told an ESPN radio station in Chicago that the circuit was still talking to four different networks. In a statement, LIV Golf called the Golfweek report "incomplete and inaccurate."

At the CAA World Congress of Sports in New York on Oct. 11, Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks told Sports Business Journal reporter John Ourand that there was "not a lot of heat" around a potential media rights deal with LIV Golf.

I've done a Google search and the words "heat" and golf" do not appear anywhere in proximity on the World Wide Web, which fact the Saudis might have learned had they done any basic due diligence.

But there's lots more on this subject, none of which leads this observer to think there's a pot of gold to be had:

Sources told ESPN that purchasing airtime on a cable sports network to broadcast a golf tournament on the weekend might cost as much as $900,000 per hour. That doesn't include production costs, which are considered some of the most expensive in sports because of the number of cameras and personnel required to broadcast 18 holes. Sorour, the Golf Saudi CEO, suggested to the New Yorker that LIV Golf would create its own network if it couldn't find a partner in the U.S.

"If it was up to me, I'd make it in-house," Sorour said.

Khosla told ESPN that LIV Golf was still having conversations with linear and non-linear TV and streaming outlets in the U.S., and that the process would play itself out over the next few months. DeChambeau said LIV Golf didn't yet have a broadcast partner because of "strategic reasons," but didn't detail why.

"By next year, I wholeheartedly believe we will have a television partner," DeChambeau said.

Don't ya love that non-linear bit?  But perhaps now we understand the importance of the shotgun start, because shortening that broadcast window saves them $900,000 an hour.   But if loud is their M.O., this will generate suitably loud guffaws:

"There's entities out there in the U.S. that had to pay for their broadcasting at first, and then it's grown into something," Watson said. "We can sit here and name the entities that have done that and we all know who they are. [LIV Golf] is broadcast in many countries; people are loving it. I think we'll get there."

In the past, there have been examples of brokered programming in sports, in which leagues paid a TV network for airtime, including Major League Soccer, various iterations of professional football leagues not named the NFL, auto racing and professional wrestling. But none of them were paying the exorbitant salaries LIV Golf is doling out -- or the enormous purses. During next year's 14-tournament schedule, LIV golfers will compete for $405 million, $150 million more than they did this season.

These guys are a riot.... To be fair, they are putting their money where their mouth is, following that USFL playbook faithfully.  Fortunately, they seem poised to win their antitrust lawsuit around, checking notes, 2034, whereupon they can collect their $1 in damages.... And really, who doesn't love that USFL call-out with Herschel Walker back in the news?

Sponsor This - Obviously, the world's most prestigious companies are lining up to have their names linked to the bonecutters:

As far as sponsorships, Khosla said LIV Golf has entertained various potential partners at its events. Up until this point, the circuit had just one presenting sponsor: ROSHN, Saudi Arabia's leading real estate developer, which is also largely funded by the Public Investment Fund. As part of the Saudi Vision 2030 campaign, which seeks to reduce the country's dependence on oil and diversify its economy, ROSHN hopes to bring home ownership to 70% of the population by 2030.

"It takes time to convince people that this is here to stay, which I believe we have done," Khosla said. "We are launching the league next year with 12 teams. Those are all fundamentals that we have to establish. And then I think brands come on board because they see what the product is."

Gee, the product is, checking notes, golf.  Strike that, the product is meaningless, exhibition golf, so the sky is the limit...

Econ 101 - They are spreading it around with alarming haste:

MONEY HAS BEEN flowing on the LIV Golf circuit this year. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which reportedly manages $620 billion in assets, was prepared to dump at least $784 million into its new sporting venture in its inaugural season, according to an LIV Golf news release earlier this year.

But LIV Golf president and COO Atul Khosla, a former executive with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, told ESPN that total expenditures have actually been much more than that. The $784 million total includes employee salaries, build-outs at tournaments and production costs for broadcasting LIV events on social media and its official website.

Haven't they spent more than that on just their broadcast team?  I mean, you think Feherty comes cheaply?

But the commitments dwarf that paltry sum:

That total does not include the guaranteed, multiyear contracts for players, which might be at least one-third of that. Along with DeChambeau's whopping contract, the PIF has reportedly bankrolled as much as $200 million for six-time major champion Phil Mickelson, at least $150 million for Johnson and at least $100 million for reigning Open Championship winner Cameron Smith. LIV Golf officials declined to provide details of the players' contracts.

Aside from the headliners, enough money was offered to lure former major championship winners Sergio Garcia, Reed and Louis Oosthuizen away from the PGA Tour. Chile's Joaquin Niemann and Mexico's Abraham Ancer were ranked among the top 25 players in the Official World Golf Ranking when they defected to LIV Golf.

Spending so much to lure players away from the PGA Tour was the cost of doing business, Khosla said.

"I'm not sure if everyone has sort of understood that when you have a startup, when you disrupt a space, it's no different than I would imagine, you know, decades ago, Amazon coming in and disrupting the book industry at that point in time, or Uber coming in and disrupting something else," Khosla said. "There is capital required. There's a burn rate required. There's a tenacity that's required to work through the first couple of years. That's what we are, that's what we're doing."

But this is all just business, right?

Khosla insists LIV Golf isn't some sort of college football NIL collective wildly spending millions of dollars for players with no financial concern. Majed Al Sorour, CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation and a high school friend of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, told The New Yorker that the PIF had funding for LIV Golf through 2025. At some point, Khosla knows, the Saudis will expect a return on their investment.

"We report into a board, and that's the expectation," Khosla said.

Yeah, and how do they ever see that?  

Obviously the reason there's little network or sponsor interest is that there's no return to be realized, a huge caution flag the Saudis are ignoring.  Although, before getting to their yield expectations, they actually go here:

Will the Saudis play with their new toy for a couple of years, lose interest and move on?

"I don't believe that at all," Khosla said. "You know, they are prudent investors. They've made investments all over the world, many in the United States, with great American companies. We are clearly viewed in that lens."

Oh yeah, even more amusing than their fever dream is that the ESPN reporter added this little nugget:

Just in August, the Public Investment Fund spent another $7.6 billion on shares in U.S. companies like Amazon, Home Depot, Microsoft and Zoom.

Oh, I get it, LIV is just like Amazon.  

The Payoff -  The financial delusions are laugh-out-loud funny, as back here on Planet Earth we deal with economic reality as we find it.  I don't think you need my financial acumen to instinctively realize that you can't pay a 50-something year old Phil Mickelson $200 million large and generate a return on that investment.  Maybe if he was producing porn, but certainly nothing that involves a golf club in his hands will accomplish that.

So, what financial alchemy do they contemplate?

LIV GOLF'S VISION for 2023 and beyond is as bold as Saudi Arabia's. LIV Golf will transform into a league next year and play a 14-tournament schedule. The league will be built on a franchise model, in which top players will own 25% of their teams and the league will keep 75%. It will be the captain's responsibility to sell sponsorships for his team, while LIV Golf will also be seeking leaguewide partnerships with advertisers and sponsors of its own. Starting next season, LIV's teams will operate as independent entities, with LIV Golf providing some support for their operations, but teams will be responsible for their travel, lodging, physical trainers, coaches and other expenses. Teams can also generate revenue through their own merchandise sales and apparel deals.

Watson said he plans to build his team like a franchise in any other sport. He'll have a president, general manager and support team in place. Watson already plans to change the name of his team, which is currently being called the Niblicks, after the early golf clubs that were the equivalent of modern-day wedges or 9-irons.

The author is named Mark Schlaback, unknown to your humble blogger, but seems actually to be on the Saudi's payroll with that lede above.  Because that bold Saudi vision seems to still include mass beheadings and a deepening alliance with the Russinas.

But maybe I'm selling these guys short, because this is clearly some next-gen thinking from a noted visionary:

"We're gonna just start making a team," Watson said. "We're gonna start having our own logo, like the Yankees [and] the Lakers, all the teams that we're used to seeing with that logo. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to create a league just like the NBA, just like Major League Baseball, just like the NFL."

Watson, 43, also envisions a day when he'll step away from his franchise, sell his stakes and turn it over to another golfer.

OMG!  A logo?  Well, that changes everything....

And not just that visionary is on board:

DeChambeau has an even bigger vision for his franchise, which is currently called Crushers GC. His long-term plans include junior golf academies, fitness and sports complexes, and maybe even his own golf course. He believes having Anirban Lahiri on his team will open opportunities in India that he otherwise wouldn't have.

"One of the reasons why I picked Anirban is he's a huge player in the Indian market, and we want to help go over there and grow golf-build driving ranges, maybe even golf courses," DeChambeau said. "The real estate over there is very difficult to acquire because of how jampacked it is. There's opportunities to not only take certain players but utilize them in a positive way in their area of the globe."

I see no downside to Bryson fully committing to that Indian golf market, because no one ever thought of that.

Settling Scores - Everything old is new again, but it's always helpful to remind ourselves of who these guys are.  I'm simply going to excerpt this story from 1994:

It's not the first time the 67-year-old Australian, widely known as the "Shark," has attempted to convince golfers to break away from the PGA Tour. Before the Shark Shootout at Sherwood

Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, in November 1994, Norman invited the tour's top players to a closed-door meeting to hear his plans for an eight-tournament circuit that would begin play the next year. Fox Network had signed a 10-year deal with a management company to stage eight tournaments, in which 30 to 40 players would compete for $3 million purses.

Jacobsen, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, was among what he believes were 15 to 18 players in the meeting that day.

"My partner was Arnold Palmer," Jacobsen said.

"When we got up there, [Norman] presented us with a schedule of events around the world. Tournaments in places like Singapore and Hong Kong and Montreal and Johannesburg, places all around the world. He was talking about this series of tournaments and how we were all invited to play."

Jacobsen remembers someone -- but doesn't remember who, nearly 28 years later -- asking Norman how they were going to secure releases from the PGA Tour to play.

"Maybe you misunderstand, we're going to renounce our PGA Tour membership and join this tour," Norman told the players in the room, according to Jacobsen.

"The temperature in the room dropped by around 15 degrees," Jacobsen said.

Palmer, who won 62 times on tour, including seven majors, was the next person to speak up.

"How many times do you think we were offered the opportunity to leave the tour and create our own?" Palmer asked Norman.

"Probably quite a few times," Norman replied.

"And do you know why we didn't?" Palmer asked him. "It's bad for golf, bad for the players and I don't want anything to do with it."

According to Jacobsen, Palmer got up and walked out.

The obvious difference this time being the Saudi's willingness to fund all that guaranteed money.  Funny thing is that that same Peter Jacobson had this astute observation earlier in the piece:

"The world of golf is way overreacting to this LIV thing," said former PGA Tour player Peter Jacobsen, now a commentator for NBC Sports and Golf Channel.

"It's not a threat to the PGA Tour. It's a threat to the players' careers that are leaving. It's almost like they're retiring from golf. They're highly paid and highly skilled -- and the outcome is of no consequence."

Well, it's a bit of a threat to the ecosystem, though I agree with his competitive assessment.

Predictions Are Hard - Really, only the ones about the future.... So, whither LIV?

This guys isn't exactly an impartial observer:

When former U.S. President Donald Trump walked off the 18th green during Thursday's LIV Golf Pro-Am at a golf course he owned, he complimented the Saudis for what they're doing in men's professional golf.

"It's big time and it's big-time money," Trump said. "It's unlimited money."

Trump also suggested LIV Golf wasn't done luring away top PGA Tour players. He hosted LIV Golf's third event at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. There's also speculation another one of his courses, Trump National outside Washington, D.C., will join the LIV Golf schedule next season.

"A lot of other people are coming over," Trump said. "Big names, they're coming over. The star system is very important in sports. If you don't have the star system, you're not going to be successful."

I understand it's going to be YUUUGE!  But, are a lot of folks heading that way?  If the money is truly unlimited they just might, though there's a bit of a logjam, no?  

Even if true, and the rumor mill has bene fairly quiet, their best case scenario seems problematic for a few reasons:

• A few more $100 million contracts just pushes that return on investment further down the road;
• Can you say "relegation"?  I thought you could, but that 48 player cap gets awkward as well.

What I think we'll find is that certain players, can you hear me Phil, will have contracts that preclude relegation, and that will further undermine any sense of competitive relevance to their events.  There's all sorts of happy talk about relegation and transfer windows and the like, but just give me enough notice to have the corn popped when Sergio gets relegated....

Eamon Lynch has his own predictions, and Nostradamus' reputation isn't theratened:

Lynch: As LIV Golf's season winds down, the propaganda war is just getting started

You're way out on that limb here, Eamon.  He has some easy fun with the hostage videos:

Friday brought a deluge of social media posts by players declaring their happiness, excitement,

gratitude and amazement at LIV’s growth and game-changing impact. Their dispatches bore all the spontaneity and authenticity of hostage tapes, albeit from willing and well-compensated captives.

“What an amazing year it’s been. Game-changing,” wrote Sergio Garcia.

“Incredible to see LIV grow the sport,” added Louis Oosthuizen.

“This was an amazing year and can’t wait for the next years to come. I’m super honored to be part of Fireballs.” That from Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra. Fireballs refers to his team and not to the missiles his employer has been raining upon Yemeni civilians since the Spaniard was 14 years old.

I'm old enough to remember when this was one of the good guys out there:

“Making the jump into a start up product like LIV and seeing it grow so much, so quickly has been exciting and rewarding to be part of,” wrote Graeme McDowell. His followers seemed unconvinced. “Are they literally standing over you with the sabre when ‘you’ write this crap?” one replied.

 No, that's the great thing, seeing how easily these guys can be bought.  

Anyway, Eamon keeps dishing:

The worldwide viewing audience for LIV events is often comparable to the number of Super Bowl viewers who might die of natural causes before the halftime show, and that in turn is a multiple of the number of spectators on site. Tickets to the game-changing event that’s growing the sport this weekend in Miami were being sold—or, more accurately, were available—for $4 on the secondary market. There’s no TV deal, despite LIV negotiating to buy time on Fox Sports for its product, and no major sponsors eager to don a hazmat suit and climb aboard the Good Ship Shark. Those touting LIV as a rousing success are paid by LIV, or aspire to be. Beyond that congregation, believers are harder to come by.

A day may arrive when LIV becomes the success that its paid endorsers and would-be bootlickers claim it already is. But for now, the only storyline it has is money. That grants LIV staying power—so long as it suits the whims of its isolated, mercurial benefactor—but sports fans tend not to grant allegiance to cash-centric enterprises (Jay Monahan would be advised to note that this is as true of FedEx Cup payouts as it is of LIV purses).

I think Eamon actually tripped himself up there.   The FedEx Cup is a hot mess and deserving of Eamon's vitriol, but the target really is the guaranteed money.  As incoherent and silly as the FedEx is (and LIV's events as well), at least it's actually earned on the golf course.

But one could almost get the sense that Eamon isn't a fan of the Wahabis:

This weekend’s conclusion of the LIV season won’t herald an interval in the accompanying theatrics. Expect rumors of fresh defections, more threats of litigation, increased bluster, more frequent claims of conspiracies. But there will also be a steady drumbeat for a deal to end the rancor. It won’t emanate only from those with no stomach for a fight and who want an exit ramp to easy street, but also from industry figures who sense an opportunity to suction Saudi money and who need to first position their avarice as an act of conciliation for the good of the sport.

Beware the approaching troupe of ethical acrobats who try to convince us that long-term commerce can’t be hostage to short-term concerns, like bonesaw murders and rights abuses. They represent the final push of Saudi propaganda, outwardly respectable moral ciphers whose aim is to exhaust doubters and critics to a point where accommodations can be reached and checks cashed. A long winter lies ahead.

And what happens when they tire of their new toy?  has anyone asked Phil?

LIV/Not LIV - An awkward segue to a non-LIV item, though of course it's LIV-influenced:

PGA Tour is looking at quicker routes for elite college players to reach the big leagues

I won't have time to do it justice, but one of the long-term grievances I have with Ponte Vedra Beach is the negative effect the Tour has had on the amateur game.  Most notably, the elimination of PGA Tour Q-School (what I've called indentured servitude on the Korn Ferry Tour), has pushed young players to turn professional earlier in the year, severely diminishing the U.S. Amateur most notably.

The reality doesn't quite live up to the header, because they're structuring this to have only the most limited impact:

In the first scenario, the No. 1 player in the final PGA Tour University Ranking, which identifies the top seniors in each class, would be eligible, following the NCAA Championship in June, to receive membership on the PGA Tour. He would be placed at the end of the Korn Ferry Tour category and be subject to reshuffle. The memo said the “benefits would commence this season with the class of 2023 with access for 2024 and beyond to be evaluated with the PAC and Player Directors.”

In the second proposal, which seeks to “ensure that a unique talent has an accelerated pathway to the PGA Tour,” top underclassmen could advance by achieving key benchmarks in the college, amateur and professional ranks. Points would be accumulated based on top collegiate awards, amateur wins, career-best World Amateur Golf Rankings position, and performance in PGA Tour events, including majors.

To provide context in its memo, the tour said that, since 2010, three underclassmen would have qualified via the second pathway. The tour did not identify the three golfers.

Sheesh!  Given that they just offered ten Tour cards to keep Keith Pelley's ragtag crew in the fold, this seems quite chintzy.

Splitsville -  No, not a Tom and Giselle story, but I thought those days were behind her:

Lydia Ko parted ways last month with instructor Sean Foley. The former world No. 1 took to Instagram to make the announcement, noting that they decided to go their own ways as a coach

and player for “logistical reasons,” but that Foley will always remain a close friend and mentor.

“When I first met Sean, I was in a place where I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself and in my game,” Ko wrote. “Over the past two years he has helped me evolve as a better player and person. Our time together was full of so much learning, laughter.”

Ko, 25, recently won at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea for her 18th career title, calling this her most consistent year yet. A two-time winner this season, Ko leads the LPGA in scoring, and she leads the Rolex Player of the Year race with 11 top-5 finishes in 20 starts.

Currently No. 3 in the world, Ko was ranked outside the top 50 when she began working with Foley during the summer of 2020.

Weird timing, eh?  She went through that period of firing everybody, though that seemed to be when things weren't going well.  But why now, and what the heck does "logistical reasons' mean?

So, just a brief history of her swing instructors:

Now, with a chance to become No. 1 again for the first time since 2017, she continues a new chapter with only a handful of events left in the season. Ko’s sister and manager Sura told Golfweek that Ko has been casually working with instructor Ted Oh again, but nothing is yet full time. Ko first started working with Oh ahead of the 2018 season.

Ko worked with Jorge Parada prior to Foley. Her list of former instructors also includes David Whelan, Gary Gilchrist and David Leadbetter. As an amateur, she worked with New Zealand’s Guy Wilson.

Perhaps it would have been easier to list those with whom she hasn't worked?  To be hired by Lydia merely starts the clock ticking towards your dismissal, but that seems to go for caddies, managers and pretty much everyone in Lydia's life.

So, perhaps I'm too cynical, but there was this news a few months back:

Speculation has swirled for about a month, but Lydia Ko has finally confirmed that she had gotten engaged. Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols saw that Ko spoke about her engagement during a press conference at a Ladies Asian Tour event in Indonesia.

The 25-year-old from New Zealand is set to marry Chung Jun, according to The Korean Herald. His father is vice chairman of Hyundai Card, a major credit-card company.

Mr. Jun, you should consider the position temporary.....

I'll catch you later in the week, although I'm not exactly sure when.  To be safe, check back early and often...