Sunday, January 29, 2023

Weekend Wrap - Conference Championship Edition

If the Tour wraps on Saturday, you'll be expecting my trenchant insights on Sunday, right?

Fortunately, your humble blogger has been preparing for this eventuality since Friday, when I began drafting the non-game story items below.  My friends at Open Snow had me on alert for snow this weekend, and we awoke yesterday to a surprise 10" of freshies, which were dutifully shredded.  This morning remains in doubt, as we await the snow report and assess the state of your humble blogger's quads....

The good news for you, Dear Reader, is that blogging puts almost no stress on said quads....

Synchronicity - When CBS stuck an Air Pod into Max Homa's ear on Friday, he was hanging around the leaderboard, though emitting no vibes that spoke of actually winning this thing.  We do have more on CBS and Homa below but, while the interview is drawing raves for CBS, it didn't seem to actually help Max's play, although we are parsing the smallest of sample sizes:

He was also asked about how to decide whether to go for the green in two or lay up and what would go into his decision.

Homa decided to go for it in two, and he pulled his ball left, saying he hit it off the toe. When he got up by the green, Homa called for a rules official when his ball became embedded and he got a free drop. His second shot landed above the front left bunker by the green.

“I’m sure this is just in a peach of a lie,” Homa joked when walking to the green. And one he got to his ball? “I’m not going to touch it.”

He hit a pretty dreadful shot, which is amusing only because we all know how much he wanted to hit a great one with the eyes of the world on us and that Air Pod in his ear.  That last bit has been deemed a piece of comedy gold, given the embedded ball follies at this very venue by a certain man who shall not be named, at least for now.

On Sunday Max seemed focused completely on business, although CBS deserves credit for more of that synchronicity involved.  One question Trevor Immelmann posed on Saturday was about his attentions span, to which Max admitted that he couldn't focus on golf for 5- 5 1/2 hours straight, though the joke he threw in about coveting Trevor's accent won't win any improv awards, the bit about his young son was more genuine.

So, what was he thinking about Sunday.  The expected and the unexpected, first the latter:

It could be said that the Torrey Pines golf complex now represents something of a life-and-death
circumstance for Max Homa when he's competes in the Farmers Insurance Open. Not literally, of course. But on the same grass, the popular Californian has both absorbed the loss of his childhood idol, NBA star Kobe Bryant, and the joys of cooing at his 2-month-old baby boy, Cam, as the newly crowned tournament champion.

As Homa fiercely battled a handful of major champions and a hopeful journeyman late in the fourth round of a Saturday conclusion on the Torrey Pines South Course, he said his mind did drift to thoughts of Bryant, of Kobe's competitive tenacity, and of his tragic death three years ago this week in a helicopter crash. That day, on Sunday at the Farmers, news of the Los Angeles Lakers great’s passing drifted out to players either during their rounds or when they’d signed their cards.

“This place … I have a weird feeling towards it,” Homa said. “I love it, and it has like a weird sadness to it.”

OK, didn't see that one coming, but Max is a SoCal guy, as you heard ad nauseum during the broadcast.  But this might strike some as over-sharing, although I think it makes him an even more appealing for it:

Homa became a first-time parent on Oct. 30, but it was not without its fretful moments. Lacey
underwent complications during Cam’s birth, Homa has said, requiring multiples surgeries and time in the ICU.

“She had a horrendous birth, it did not go well,” Homa said during his winner’s press conference. “It was the scariest – hard to say because it was an amazing day, get a new son, Cam. It was the worst day ever at the same time.”

Homa credited his wife for being “a rock star” as a mother, allowing him to practice and focus on his play, and he wanted to pay back her for those efforts.

“I feel like I’ve almost worked harder for this because I want to spend as much time as I possibly can helping her and being with Cam and doing all the cool things, catching some smiles here and there and getting screamed at,” he said. “But I also want to be the best golfer on the planet and she knows that and she just does an amazing job letting me do both…I work hard at two things now, so it feels a little bit more difficult but it’s a million times more rewarding.”

There's an inherent decency in Max that folks seem to pick up on, and I think is a big positive for the Tour.  That simple gratitude for the blessings that life have bestowed on him has, have you noticed, been in short supply in our game for the last year.  

As for the golf?  This header is a bit over the top:

Max Homa’s heroics lead to Farmers Insurance Open win

Said "heroics" being limited to that 16th hole birdie, though that is the nature of Torrey's South Course.  Of course Homa deserves all sort of credit for putting himself in position, though the dispositive event was more Sam Ryder's predictable collapse, which is always hard to watch.  

We've covered Max's Friday participation on the broadcast, but am the only one that thought the more important walk-and-talk was the one with Sam's mother, who seemed to be way too far ahead of the facts on the ground.  You've heard of the announcer's curse, well was the outcome a result of his Mother's curse?  

A couple more possibly amusing bits.  I've sampled some of the Twitter trash talk between the revolutionaries and the republican old guard.  This one just struck me as fairly feeble:

It was a weird final day, for sure, but that no-name leaderboard included Rahm, Finau, Morikawa, Bradley and young talent such as Theegala and Im (not to mention a Rickie sighting, without his trademark orange outfit).  For a non-elevated event, that's pretty good news for Ponte Vedra Beach, methinks.  

But laugh-out-loud funny for them to criticize the viewership numbers because they seemingly appear clueless to the inconvenient fact that no one watches golf.  Rather a significant omission in that McKinsey Report, but not an issue as long as the checks clear.

If you sense a callous indifference to Mr. Ryder's fate, you are spot on.  I have little knowledge of the man's career, although he's apparently demonstrated a startling mediocre consistency.  But life is harsh, and the man deserved to implode for one very simple reason:


You show up with 4" of ankle exposed, your place in golf oblivion is assured....

This opinion uncomfortably aligns me with a man with whom I've not shared much common ground lately, though he fortunately went where he shouldn't have:

Two words: Mizzen + Main!

Dubai Doings - We had teegate to amuse us earlier in the week.  There was a report floating the premise that Rory and Reed were to be paired, though at least this bot admitted that they got it wrong:

Actually relived for Rory to not have Patrick given that kind of platform.  They're not going to finish until Monday, but there is a pairing that's in a certain way even better than Rory-Reed:

Until the dispute between LIV Golf and the DP World Tour is settled in court, tension will riddle the range at most events throughout the season.

Exhibit A: Henrik Stenson, who lost his position as European Ryder Cup captain once he joined the Saudi-backed LIV Series, will be paired with Tyrrell Hatton, a Ryder Cup veteran, and Luke Donald, the man who replaced Stenson as captain, on Sunday for the third round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

Deliciously awkward, no?  Whatever will they talk about?  Uniforms?  Captain's picks?

When the day of reckoning comes for the LIVsters, Henrik is unfortunately due quite the harsh penalties.  He's always been one of the more likeable personalities out there, but he did sign that contract committing to not do what an hour-and-a-half later he went and did....  Sorry, Henrik, but you chose badly.

The Squeeze - Deep Throat is no less of a journalistic scandal than Russiagate, though his alleged guidance to "Follow the Money" is never a bad call.  Sean Zak tells us that the PGA Tour has finally heeded this advise and is going after the paymasters:

In a significant legal move, the PGA Tour is pivoting the focus of its countersuit against LIV Golf to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
According to court documents filed Tuesday, the Tour is moving to add Al-Rumayyan and the PIF itself as counter-defendants in the case.

Why? The Tour argues that instead of LIV Golf and Greg Norman having autonomy, it’s Al-Rumayyan and the PIF that have ultimate power over LIV’s business, inclusive of recruiting players, approving contracts, determining payout structures and even promising to indemnify them from financial responsibility in lawsuits. (LIV Golf is a subsidiary of LIV Golf Investments, which is funded entirely by the PIF, which owns 93% of LIV.)

All of these alleged actions, the Tour argues, are tortuous interference of the contracts the defecting players signed with the PGA Tour, as well as the contracts between the Tour and players who stayed (but LIV actively recruited).

Ask yourself a simple question: would you trust Greg Norman with $2 billion?  

The lawsuit at hand is a countersuit waged by the PGA Tour against LIV Golf in response to a separate antitrust suit LIV filed against the Tour for anticompetitive practices. In short, everyone is suing everyone and we’ve reached the point where other industry leaders are being pulled into it. (On Monday, both sides filed a joint statement on whether or not LIV can gain access to communications between PGA Tour policy board directors and dozens of Augusta National members.)

As for this suit, the main point remains: The PGA Tour believes that Norman is simply an acting CEO and must retain approval for all meaningful decisions from Al-Rumayyan and the PIF. “It is Al-Rumayyan who functions as LIV’s chief executive,” the Tour alleges, adding that LIV’s leadership understands Al-Rumayyan to be “de facto CEO,” and that Al-Rumayyan micromanages “LIV’s day-to-day operations both while in the United State and abroad.”

“And even once contracts are signed and debts accrued,” the Tour alleges, “PIF holds the purse strings: none of LIV’s partners or golfers gets paid until PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan agree to distribute the money.”

The only curious bit is that the Tour seems to have gotten to this rather obvious legal strategy on the late side.  It obviously makes no sense that the insular Saudis would use a Westerner as anything more than a beard, keeping important decisions within the family.

But this is also a way to impose a non-financial cost on the Saudis, as they're not great on the wirness stand...

The Tour has recently worked hard to subpoena Al-Rumayyan and the PIF for various documents about its actions toward players and agents in its efforts to get a golf league off the ground. Al-Rumayyan’s text messages and emails — with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and sports agent Casey Wasserman, among others — were included in the Tour’s presentation during a discovery hearing on Jan. 13. Presumably, those documents were acquired via discovery with players and agents, not Al-Rumayyan himself, who has evaded the discovery process to this point. Also presented during the three-hour hearing was a key document referred to as the Shareholders’ Agreement.

The agreement, as it has been shared with the Tour, was signed by Al-Rumayyan. In it, the Tour states, the PIF is “required to approve” the reported nine-figure contracts signed by the likes of DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson. During the Jan. 13 hearing LIV argued that the Tour was misinterpreting the agreement, but what’s clear is the Tour has quickly doubled down on what it believes to be the truth.

Isn't this the document that Phil boasted was drafted under his supervision?  This cheerleader, who teaches sports law at Brooklyn Law, presumably knows what of she speaks, though with an asterisk:

 Zak only hints at that asterisk:

Though wrangling Al-Rumayyan and the PIF into a U.S. court room has proven difficult for PGA Tour lawyers, if Balsam is correct, we could see swift changes in the trajectory of the lawsuits, pending an order on the amended counterclaim by Judge Beth Labson Freeman.

This will get very interesting, methinks.  It's exceedingly difficult for a U.S. Court to assert jurisdiction over foreign nationals, although in this case said foreign nationals are attempting to claim relief under U.S. law in U.S. courts, so you'd think it would be hard to hide behind sovereign immunity.  

The place to watch might well be the Biden administration.  The origin of that DOJ antitrust investigation remains obscure, as is the extent to which the Biden administration wishes to curry favor with the bonecutters.  Calling them a pariah state didn't help when they needed them to pump more oil, but I can't help but scanning back up to that photo above.  If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, what are bone saws and mass beheadings compared to that bad Orange Man?  

Slightly unrelated, but Sean adds this juicy nugget:

All of this comes following various structural changes to LIV Golf’s corporate hierarchy in recent months. COO Atul Khosla resigned from his post in the fall after LIV’s first season. According to reporting in The Telegraph, which was cited in Tuesday night’s filing, Khosla’s resignation came after a “confrontation” with Al-Rumayyan. Khosla’s role has been filled by a trio of directors from golf marketing company Performance54 — all of whom have all been tied to the idea of a rival tour for years. Then this week, Sports Illustrated reported that Majed Al-Sorour, who was a managing director for LIV, would no longer be in that position, and that Norman would now have more direct contact with Al-Rumayyan.

Maybe not so unrelated, because one assumes that deposition notices have already been served on Khosla, hopefully on Christmas Eve.  Or are they holding them for Ramadan?

The Nature of Rats - On a related note, apparently the origin if this fable is Russian, which is curious in the current moment, though not where I'm headed:

A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: "I am sorry, but I couldn't resist the urge. It's in my nature."

Shockingly, my intention is not to apply this to Patrick Reed, however apt it may feel.

Rory had this reaction to the executive shake-up at LIV:

Earlier this week the upstart circuit backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund confirmed
a Sports Illustrated report that Majed Al-Sorour, CEO of the Golf Saudi Federation and a pivotal player in getting LIV off the ground, would leave his position as LIV Golf’s managing director but remain as one of seven LIV Golf board members. The move points to Norman having an elevated role with LIV, which has lost both its chief operating officer and director of franchises over the last few weeks.

“I mean, if the Chief Executive doesn’t have an executive team, I don’t know how strong that is,” said McIlroy of LIV’s current situation ahead of this week’s DP World Tour event, the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. “I mean, he can’t do it himself.”

C'mon, Rors, the Sharkie-pooh is a can-do kind of guys.  I understand that he's watched instructional videos on YouTube and can now operate the bonesaws himself.

Amusingly, though, that was before this additional defection:

The changes keep coming for LIV Golf’s leadership.

Golfweek confirmed Thursday that Jonathan Grella is no longer serving as the upstart circuit’s chief communications officer. Golf Digest was first to report.

Grella is the fourth member of a senior leadership position to leave his role in the three months since LIV concluded its inaugural season in October, joining Majed Al Sorour (who will remain a board member), Atul Khosla (chief operating officer) and Matt Goodman (president of franchises).

Do take a moment to appreciate the art in that opening sentence.   Those changes would seem to all be going in the same direction, no?  Though I will concede that this an especially good example of PR flackery:

“As LIV begins our second year, we are grateful to the team that helped get us off the ground and launch such a successful start-up,” said LIV Golf via a statement. “We have a group of hard-working, dedicated staffers and we understand from time to time personnel will move on or decide to pursue other endeavors. In all cases, we are appreciative and will continue to assemble a world-class team to guide us through our second year.”

Continue?  When do you start?

But just remember that those deserting are only doing what's in their nature.

Update: This not technically an update, because I hadn't published the post yet.  But the above was written on Friday, and we now find that we've understated the executive outflow:

News of the latest departures come courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, which reported on Friday evening that chief marketing officer Kerry Taylor and chief communications officer Jonathan Grella had been removed from their posts this week. Per the report, the news comes as part of an effort for the league to make changes before its second season.

Removed by whom?  Kind of important, no?

That item linked is a James Colgan item that comes with some howlers:

The news marks just the latest organizational shift for the upstart golf league before a critical second season; one that could go a long way in determining its eventual fate in the golf space. Last week, LIV announced a crucial victory — a multi-year media rights deal with the CW — ensuring a broadcast partner and some form of media revenue (likely through shared advertising revenue) for the foreseeable future.

Got that, a crucial victory.... They're not being paid for their product, but apparently Golf.com is just copying and-pasting LIV press releases.  But it gets even better:

Now comes the harder part: convincing controversy-wary advertisers to commit huge sums to LIV’s product in a lukewarm economic environment. While the departures of the latest swathe of LIV executives (along with Norman’s promotion) could represent typical startup turnover, it could also represent some of the challenges faced by the league to that end.

A lukewarm economic environment?  Yeah, that's the issue.... But there's one more:

While LIV has seen struggles generating interest from the golf industry, it has had no problem attracting talent from the professional ranks, which could be the next piece of LIV staffing news we receive. The league has committed hundreds of millions to attract pro players to its circuit, and it is expected that another wave of defections could be upon us as soon as next week’s Saudi International. To date, the Tour has granted releases to four players to compete in the event, which is funded and staged by the same investors behind LIV Golf, the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

No problem attracting talent?  Sure, they've done great throwing eight-figure sums at players whose best years are long behind them, but there isn't much talent there right now.

To your humble blogger, one surprise in the current moment is that Norman and LIV have been noticeably quiet about future player defections.  As I've been warning, the critical moment on that score is ahead of us, as Colgan notes (though I'm unclear what those Saudi waivers mean).  But James thinks there's another wave of defections ahead of us, though I've heard no one else making that prediction.  But that is rather the critical issue, because unless they can move some alpha dogs into their orbit, it's going to be difficult to push folks to the CW to watch Pat Perez and Harold Varner.

I Saw It On TV - While Eamon Lynch's accent clearly indicates that he does not hail from Missouri, but this header seems uncharacteristically credulous:

Lynch: Better PGA Tour broadcasts are here, but it shouldn't have had to be at gunpoint

Hmmm..., this is the time stamp on Eamon's piece:

January 27, 2023 6:32 pm ET

The CBS broadcast window for that day was 5:00-8;00 p.m., so he quite clearly wrote his piece without the benefit of having seen a single broadcast, which seems that which a statistician would call a small sample size.  And by small, we of course mean none.

Eamon presumably wrote this without the benefit of seeing how it came off:

One of the Tour’s fledgling efforts to start small and act now was seen during Friday’s third
round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, when Max Homa wore a microphone for a ‘walk and talk’ with CBS Sports. The only players that viewers are accustomed to hearing during tournament action are those who washed-up in the booth or hobbled into a headset, so the shock of access to someone actually competing – heck, contending – might have been enough to topple every groaning barcalounger in The Villages.

Engaging, honest and wry, Homa is a perfect guinea pig for this experiment. Regardless of how compelling the content was in the moment, it’s mere occurrence stands as evidence of two things: how little it really takes to elevate the golf viewing experience, and how long that enhancement was forestalled by the Tour’s corporate killjoy attitude.

He's making a fair point, because until very recently the Tour players were unwilling to do such a "walk and talk" because of, checking notes, reasons.  But what really makes me laugh is the absurd amount of pressure we put Max under to say something interesting or funny.  I'm not sure he actually met that test, but you should watch the video and make your own call.

But this is Eamon's killer point, and rings true, no?

This moment with Max didn’t happen now because those in charge of broadcasting golf have never considered how to better do their jobs, or couldn’t be bothered pitching fresh approaches to Ponte Vedra. Every executive involved in televising the Tour has a tale about how their effort to enliven telecasts was stonewalled. Chalk it up to a combination of factors —corporate complacency, a culture of arrogance, a milquetoast reluctance to inconvenience the very players they’re rewarding with millions of dollars annually.

I'll go with all of the above....

But I'm not sure that Eamon though this bit through fully:

Monahan has lately taken to framing the battle with LIV Golf as one of product versus product, a stance he can only adopt with confidence after the Tour belatedly grasped the extent to which it was shortchanging fans, never mind players. Even the commissioner’s loyalists know that it took a rival product – fortuitously for them, a lousy and amoral one – to force an upgrade of the Tour’s offering, both to members and consumers. Because change came at gunpoint – or, more accurately, at the point of a shamshir – it’s unsurprising that many golf fans greet progress with begrudgery and remain wholly unsympathetic to the business predicament in which the Tour finds itself.

Yes, they have a lousy product, one that actual golf fans should be revolted by.  But the measures taken by the Tout to fend off LIV have made them more, not less, like that "lousy" LIV product.  To the extent that the Tour's product has been improved for members, it's only a highly select group of such members, the implications of which we'll be absorbing long after LIV curls up in a fetal position and dies.

But Eamon, I wouldn't be holding my breath:

A time is nearing when even the biggest Tour stars will need to pump the brakes on what they think they’re entitled to and decide to be a little more like Max, giving a paltry something back to the fans who generate that revenue.

And why would they pump said brakes?  The more they whine, the more money has been thrown their way....  Nice incentive system we've created, at least if you're PIP-worthy.

Update:  The above was written before Friday's broadcast.  Having watched most of Friday's and all of Saturday's broadcast, it was the same old same old.  This piece I found unintentionally hilarious:

6 intriguing changes coming to CBS Golf in 2023

Spoiler alert:  This is another James Colgan piece and you'll be shocked to learn that he's more easily intrigued than your humble blogger.  For instance, this is intriguing why?

3. A bigger schedule

The biggest ever from a programming perspective.

In 2023, CBS will carry the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time, covering the three final events of the PGA Tour season. The network will also handle “designated event” coverage from the WM Phoenix Open, Genesis, Memorial, RBC Heritage and more.

In addition to the Tour schedule, CBS will continue its coverage of the Masters, PGA Championship and Scottish Open. In total, the network will cover 23 events, including two majors and four countries, in the new year.

“We have 23 events in ’23, and that’s a big deal for us,” Shy, CBS’ producer says.

 And for us?  Yeah, not so much....

You'll notice that on the subject we might actually care about there's little there there:

4. Tech enhancements

Drones and a “constant leaderboard” were two of CBS producer Sellers Shy’s most well-received changes among the golf-viewing audience. Expect to see enhancements to both properties, as well as an increased frequency of “Fly Cam,” “Boat Cam,” and Atlas super high-definition camera shots utilized throughout the course of the broadcast.

CBS will be far more watchable without the incoherent babbling of Sir Mumbles, who shall not be missed by your humble blogger.  Other than that, they do what they do.

Perhaps the broadcasts this weekend were a little tighter?  There's a bit in that article about lightening the commercial load, but I watched on tape so I've no sense of whether there was any improvement there.  But Nance seems as treacly as ever so, as the wise man once said, it is what it is.

That will be it for now.  I won't be able to blog Monday morning, hence the Sunday wrappage.  But I'd expect to be back with you on Tuesday, so lets look forward to that.  And enjoy the football.

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