Late-Week Lamentations

The first of those being my late arrival to the keyboard, cause by a 14-lb. mass of feline protoplasm setting up shop in my lap.... A lovely way to start my day, just hell on blogging.

Tiger v. Sharkie, The History - Brentley Romine goes deep to share all the trifling manspats between these two, teeming with perceived slights and the prortypical Sharkian need to remain relevant:

The two were also matched up in 2011, Woods again as a player and Norman as the International captain. In the leadup to that Presidents Cup, Norman went on record saying that he wouldn’t have picked Woods to represent the American squad had he been in Fred Couples’ shoes.

“I can understand the name of a Tiger Woods and his history of what he's done on the golf course,” Norman said. “But I pick the guys who I think are ready to get in there and play and have performed to the highest levels leading up to it.”

Woods went on to earn the clinching point that year at Royal Melbourne.

Bulletin board material, for sure....

Of course, our Sharkie sticks his nose in where it's sure to get cut off:

Norman hasn’t been shy expressing his other opinions on Woods, especially when it comes to major championships. Multiple times in the past decade or so, Norman, a two-time major winner, proclaimed that Woods wouldn’t win another major following his personal scandal and injuries.

“Tiger, when he dominated, had a single-shot approach,” Norman said in 2011, when Woods was still stuck on 14 majors, having not won one since the 2008 U.S. Open. “It was only about the golf. Now there are so many distractions, and people are looking for things that are wrong with Tiger now, so he's got to deal with that on a day-to-day basis, like every other mortal has to do, right? In our lives, in our business, we all have to be responsible for our actions. It's very hard for him to have that focus. And the more he shuts people off, the worse it gets.”

Norman then added in 2015: “He will win again. He will win other tour events. But a major? I don’t see it.” 

In his defense, he is the go-to expert on the subject of not winning majors....  

Although this has always seemed ground zero:

In an interview with Men’s Health in 2019, Norman told a story of how he had hand-written Woods a congratulatory letter following Woods’ landmark win at Augusta National and then delivered it to Woods’ home in Jupiter, Florida, himself. Norman never heard back.

Here's him telling it:

“Very few people know this: when Tiger won the Masters this year, I wrote him a handwritten note and drove down my road, maybe a quarter of a mile, and hand-delivered it to his guard at his gate. I said, 'Hey, this is Greg Norman here. I’ve got a note for Tiger – can you please hand-deliver it to him?' Well, I never heard a word back from the guy. When I won my first major championship, Jack Nicklaus was the first person to walk down out of the TV tower and congratulate me. I don’t know – maybe Tiger just dislikes me. I have no idea. I’ve never had a conversation with him about it.”

He just thinks you're a self-absorbed buffoon...Yanno, like the rest of us.  But note that he thinks he's of the same stature as Jack, 

Although I think Brentley missed the best bit, this little snippet from 2013:

"A lot of people ask how I'd stack up against today's players if I had use of modern equipment. Listen, it's not about the gear. Winning is about what's in your heart and in your head. Equipment dictates how to play the game in an era, but the physical and mental skills are the same. And I had them. I never feared anything or anyone on the course, and I wasn't afraid to fail. So I think I'd do pretty well against Snead, Hogan, Tiger and Phil -- whoever. Tiger's a tough guy, but I was a tough guy on the course, too. I probably would have beat him."

If he could have stopped after "whoever", the quote would be entirely unremarkable.  But he can't or he won't, and that's why he's a boon to blogging.

Ironically, and I'd love to think it intentional, Romine uses this early in his piece:

The two first met when Woods was 15 years old, and he and Norman played a round of golf together at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida. Norman is also believed to be an influence in Woods working with instructor Butch Harmon. Later, Woods and Norman would play practice rounds together at the Masters, in 1995 and ’96.

Remind me how that 1996 Masters played out?  Oh, yeah sure, I guess that's you meant about those physical and mental skills....Of course, ironies abound, but had ne not spit the bit on that Sunday in 1996, he could have bonded with Tiger as he helped him into a Size-42 green jacket....

As is to be expected, there's been a closing of ranks behind Norman, including from the Earl of Expectoration:

Add Sergio Garcia as another player coming to Norman’s rescue. During an interview with the

Spanish outlet Marca, Garcia had this to say:

“They (Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy) say that Greg Norman has to go; and Monahan has to stay or go? It’s very easy to say those on the other side have to go. And those on your side? There are also people who have done things wrong.

“You have to look at everything. Greg Norman is our CEO and we support him. We all wish we could come to an agreement. There are people who could have done wrong in both places, but it seems that there are only bad guys on one side.”

Strange bedfellows, indeed.  Are you aware of the history there?

At the start of this year, it seemed Sergio Garcia was poised to finally elevate himself into a major championship winner.

He had, after all, won the 2008 Players Championship, seemingly conquering his putting demons, and he was coming off some serious near misses at the 2007 British Open and the 2008 PGA Championship.

Garcia had vaulted himself to the No. 2 ranking in the world behind only Tiger Woods.

But instead of riding the momentum, Garcia has been in an utter funk this year.

This week, Garcia conceded that he believes his downward spiral has been a direct result of his March break-up with Morgan-Leigh Norman, the daughter of Greg Norman.

Norman’s daughter broke up with the 29-year-old Garcia, who a few years ago had a relationship with Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis, and that news subsequently sent him reeling.

“It hurt,” Garcia, now ranked fourth in the world, told the Times of London. “It was probably the first time I have been really in love. It took me a while to get over it.”

Love hurts, though even being happily married didn't seem to deter him from damaging those greens at the Saudi  event a few years back.  Whether Sergio in your corner is an asset or liability, well he's be there until you need him.

Question answered:

Will the lengthy holiday pause help ease tensions between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf? Don't count on it

War makes for better blogging, so do I get a vote?

“I’m not optimistic,” said PGA Tour Policy Board member Charley Hoffman when asked if the upcoming break in golf could give both sides a chance to breathe deep and reflect on any possibility for conciliation. “I don’t see how you partner with them at this point in time. They don’t have a sustainable product.”

Kevin Kisner, who will end his current term on the Policy Board at the end of the year, was even more blunt.

“No … I don’t think that’s the future,” he said.

We all instinctively want this to resolve itself, though I am unable to identify a framework that could be sold to both sides.  But this seems, well, way off the mark:

The main issue LIV Golf critics have is that it’s backed by Saudi oil money and a government that still restricts basic civil rights for women, criminalizes homosexuality and has the death penalty for offenses such as theft, adultery and protesting against the government, according to Amnesty International.

Critics?  The main problem with LIV is that they decided to try to drink Jay's milkshake, the blood money funding it is just one obvious cudgel to use in beating them off.  In a sense, Jay caught two huge breaks, that this happened as those new TV deals kicked in, but also that the source of the money was so compromised.  Obviously the source of these plans was in the U.K., and it's easy to see how much more difficult that might have been to fend off (though of course unclear whether the Brits could have funded it).

I'm still sorting through my reaction to Tiger's presser, but this seems a good summary of the current state of play:

Hoffman, who is serving a two-year term on the Policy Board, agreed with Love’s characterization that LIV Golf is acting like a corporate raider.

“Davis nailed it,” he said. “I don’t see how you partner with them at this point in time. I’m not that optimistic. As long as they have the play money they’re going to be in the game as long as they want to spend it. I don’t think they’ll ever be able to deliver a product better than the PGA Tour but if they want to keep losing money …”

Do the Saudis think they're getting anything for their money?  I keep coming back to that subject, because it's a lot of scratch for the trouble.

One last bit, an amusing rumor of a meeting of golf's secret cabal:

Telegraph Sport has learned that as well as Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley, the PGA Tour and DP

World Tour heads, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers will also attend the Pelican Golf Club, along with Mike Whan, the chief executive of the US Golf Association and Seth Waugh, the chief executive of the PGA of America.

It is as yet unclear if Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National, will also be at the upscale course near Clearwater, but with the other three majors all sending their top brass, the Masters may not want to miss out. They will not be there to watch the 18-hole made-for-TV encounter featuring Woods and McIlroy versus Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, but instead to draw up plans on how to respond to the Saudi-funded circuit.

Props to Geoff for the accompanying photo, but I assume Fred Ridley is too smart to be anywhere near Pelican...

 Here's Geoff's snark, reprising his long-running Five Families bit:

Call me crazy, but a meeting of the Stracci’s and Corleone’s seems highly doubtful since it would go against the advice of most upright, non-comatose council in a world where LIV’s lawyers are hunting for any evidence of collusion. But if the meeting happens, I hope they can present Tiger with a deck explaining how the new OWGR works.

Honestly, I’d rather see this meeting televised than The Match. Even if it made Sir Charles Barkley doze off and everyone ignored Amanda Balionis’ interview requests.

Don’t you think Capital One’s Five Families Meeting At Pelican Golf Club has a ring to it?

Hope those Capos aren't showing up expecting to see 18 holes, because the guys are only going 12....

Mikey Bams, Unhinged - I've called Mike Bamberger the conscience of our game on multiple occasions, though his recent efforts are, well, unfocused and meandering.  This is the header of his latest:

Our Addiction to Tiger Woods

As we wait for the next shoe to drop, all eyes remain trained on every move of the biggest name in the game

Your mileage might vary, but I can quit at any time.... he at least starts on topic:

Our addiction to Tiger continues. We should be through the withdrawal stage by now, carrying on as golf fans, one day at a time, what with all this new talent. (Scottie Scheffler! Sam Burns!) But

we’re not. Tiger is to golf what Steph Curry is to basketball. You can’t look away.

Tiger is not playing his own event this week, the Hero World Challenge. He says he has plantar fasciitis. Does he? It’s impossible to say. He has a 25-year history of not being candid about his health. But ask 100 golf fans why Tiger’s not playing and not one will say fear-of-DFL. If Woods is playing, he will contend. That’s the only TW playbook we know.

Can he play in the Father-Son event, the PNC, later this month? He says yes, with 13-year-old Charlie doing the heavy lifting. We shall see.

We shall see is itself proof of our addiction.

Can Woods play 12 holes in Match VII on Dec. 10? Well, he’ll have a sidekick for that, too: Rory McIlroy, his friend and now his business partner. That made-for-TV under-the-lights event is another way for Tiger to stick it to Phil Mickelson, as it was Phil who dragged a reluctant Woods into Match I. Tiger is always keeping score. It’s in his DNA, and a major element of his greatness. He takes no prisoners. In his prime, did it make him likable? No, and he did not care.

I feel like I should wait for the English translation, because what-the-eff is he saying?   DFL?  Beats me... I'm pretty sure he can play those other two events because he can ride, which seems rather the point.  I guess Mike's making the point that we'll tune in to anything involving Tiger, though I'd argue that Charlie is driving the eyeballs to the PNC.  As for The Match, we'll see if there are any eyeballs of which to speak.

But then he gets fixated on....well, Justin Rose:

Now it’s the Hero event in the Bahamas, the PNC event in Orlando, preceded by the prime-time show with the old guys, Tiger and Rory), against the young ones, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. A better match would be Tiger and Rory against Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, representing Team LIV, with Mickelson in the broadcast booth and Max Homa sitting beside him.

The golf world waits with bated breath to see who the next LIV signees will be. Here’s one name who seems like he’d be a perfect fit for LIV: Justin Rose of England, Orlando and the Bahamas. Ryder Cupper. U.S. Open champion. Past his prime but still good. Right at home with Louis Oosthuizen and Graeme McDowell and Cam Smith. There is a wrinkle here: Rose is represented by Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, presiding. As best I can tell, looking at the Excel website, the company doesn’t represent any golfers on the LIV payroll. Is that a coincidence? Survey says? Not a chance. Not so long as Tiger Woods is in the mix. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Team Tiger, there are two views of the world. You’re on his team or off it. Koepka and Johnson were never on his team. Tiger bigfoots everyone in the game.

OK, but weird....  What he describes about Tiger is actually true, witness the abrupt partings with Butch, Fluff and Stevie.  The problem is that he frames it in the context of LIV, but that, like it or not, is a binary, you're with us or agin us, situation, not exactly of Tiger's creation.

And he just continues to throw the word salad in our direction:

Woods and McIlroy are sharing a mantra these days: Greg must go. Greg Norman must leave his role as the commissioner of LIV Golf before there can be any sort of peace talks between the PGA Tour and the LIV people. Does that make any sense? No. The art of politics, the art of compromise, is all about sitting with people you don’t really like and meeting in the middle. This whole Greg-must-go thing is a stall tactic. It’s a red herring.

The math here is easy. LIV has the money. The PGA Tour has history. In this day and age, it’s not a fair fight. Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, noted that for the first time, in public, in June. This has been said before and most likely will be said again: The Saudis have dropped a money bomb on the game, and everybody who can is scurrying around for all this new money. That’s about 300 people, including a dozen or so agents,. MBS or some other Saudi billionaire pressed the GO button on this thing that has made a lot of money for a lucky few.

The PGA Tour schedule had grown stale and predictable, and now it is getting remade, in LIV’s image. All this money-for-nothing. (How fun would it be to give truth serum to Tiger and see what he really thinks about the PIP money?)

And your point is?  I thought this was to be about our addiction to Tiger?

There's something in the water at the Fire Pit Collective, or so it seems to this observer.

Closing Browser Tabs - Been having fun with this one in private conversations, such that I almost forgot to throw it up here.  I've never previously run across the World Golf Awards, but I think you'll agree that this will change your future travel plans:

Scotland has been named the world’s best golf destination in a prestigious award being held in the Middle Eastern City of Abu Dhabi.

The World Golf Awards, which is held annually, is in its ninth year and celebrates excellence in golf tourism with the winner selected by tour operators, golfing media, and fans from around the world.

Beyond winning the world’s best golf destination award, Scotland was also named Europe’s best location to play golf in.

This is the first time the home of golf has picked up both of these awards in the sport’s prestigious prize-giving event.

Scotland as a golf travel destination?  Yowzer, that's some seriously out-of-the-box thinking....although Elsie has warned me that it might explain my inability to get on Dornoch next summer.

The last bit amused, for the obvious reason that, having been named the best in the world, I'd have thought the similar citation for best in Europe to be assumed.  But that might indicate that I've put far more thought into it than they have...

But the list of prior winners is interesting as well.  It includes the expected such as Australia and Portugal, but I didn't see Viet Nam coming, did you?  One assumes that money changed hands, but still.

That's it for this week, but we'll wrap the Hero and anything else on Monday.  Have a great weekend.