Weekend Wrap

Your humble blogger is safely ensconced in World HQs, though a wee bit short on time....

Sony Stuff - Not elevated, not designated and unlikely to compete with Super Wild Card Weekend:

Hayden Buckley looked like he was setting up a classic PGA Tour underdog story as he buried a birdie putt on the 70th hole of the Sony Open to reclaim a one-shot lead.

But moments later and just a hole ahead, Si Woo Kim had an answer.

Kim holed his chip from behind the 17th green and then hit the green in two on the par-5 18th. His two-putt got him in the clubhouse at 18 under.

The number proved to be enough for Kim’s fourth PGA Tour title when Buckley failed to get up and down from short right of the green. His birdie try from 12 feet hit a spike mark a few feet from the hole.

“So this is really exciting, and hopefully a lot of the season is left,” Kim said after the round. “Hopefully trying to get more confidence and then like hopefully get more wins.”

If they can't draw your humble blogger's eyeballs, whose can they?   I would expect ratings to be measured in particles per million, I'll almost be surprised if they draw any measurable Nielsen ratings.  Obviously, with Hayden Buckley topping the leaderboard all week, followed by names unlikely to be PIP contenders, welcome to our new two-tiered PGA Tour.

The worst news for Ponte Vedra Beach is that this event should have an advantage over many others due to the forced attendance last week at that neighboring island.... And yet....

Geoff was not amused:

Like other red-blooded Mericans who enjoy the royal and ancient action from Hawaii, I flipped

over from the Giants-Vikings game in time to catch the Sony Open conclusion. The second PGA Tour event of 2023 was a moribund affair for three days after so few stars turned up. But at least Seth Raynor’s crafty Waialae design was cooking up yet another fun finish.

Si Woo Kim holed out for birdie at the 17th to become tied with 54-hole leader Hayden Buckley, who hoped for a last hole birdie and his first PGA Tour title. The winner would earn an invite to the Masters, but we don’t discuss such nefarious matters since such blasphemy can cost jobs!

Upon flipping over, I quickly learned that last week’s common sense progress—when Callaway sponsoring the Sentry Tournament of Champions final hour—would not be replicated. Worse, the bean counters stampeded over any stock of goodwill with a shameless FU to viewers and Sony.

Do tell, Geoff:

As Kim approached the final green and Buckley teed off at 18, the Golf Channel broadcast left for a break featuring ads for State Farm, Srixon and a PGA Tour house spot reminding us that next week was the American Express Championship. The Sony “show” returned to inform us of Buckley’s odd lie in the rough and what he faced with his second shot into the par-5 18th green. Buckley played short right of the green, where he would need to get up-and-down to force a playoff with Kim who had two-putted for birdie.

Instead of setting up Buckley’s next shot with some Shotlink scatter chart data on recovery rates from his spot or something of substance to invest viewers in the difficulty of Buckley’s shot, we got another break with six ads from Ram, Srixon, T-Mobile, Comcast Business, Golf Galaxy and Golf Now.

When the broadcast returned from this avalanche, viewers were subjected to a recap of the 2023 Sony Open broadcast sponsors. Exactly zero of the names listed had had commercials running during the last two breaks.

Boy, these guys really know how to sell the product.  Glad I stayed with the Giants game, commercials and all.

And, just to pile on, there was this bit of brilliance from the lead analyst.  The background is that Adam Scott has joined the Tour's Players Advisory Council, with these intentions:

There’s been news on the PAC makeup, too. The latest 16-member panel has yet to be announced officially, but various outlets have reported that Adam Scott will be a part of it for the first time in the 42-year-old’s career. There’s some significance there. The 2013 Masters champion had been rumored to also join LIV at various points, and one would think that PAC membership would mean Scott has committed to the Tour.

Notably, Scott told the Associated Press that the move to join the PAC was more Tour-focused than LIV-driven.

“I’m more interested in what the Tour is planning on doing with the Tour, not how we’re fighting a lawsuit, because I couldn’t care less about that,” Scott said Friday at the Sony Open. “I’m more interested in what the future of the Tour looks like.

“And I think I convinced myself that it was worth diving into that.”

Now, you know I have my own deep-rooted issues with Tour governance, the extent to which the Tour is actually run by its members, versus the paid administrators, is a very fair issue.  But it's a complicated issue,. as you could interpret recent events as a hostile takeover of the Tour by Tiger and Rory....

But NBC's lead analyst has his own hot take, and he apparently doesn't do nuanced:

The former longtime player and current NBC analyst was watching Scott finish his final round at the Sony when Hicks asked his booth mate about the PAC. Below is the full conversation.

“By the way, Scott among 16 players, Zing, appointed to the Players Advisory Council for this year,” Hicks started. “The PAC is that first step toward consulting the PGA Tour board and the commissioner on issues dealing with the Tour.”

“I was on that PAC for 13 years,” Azinger said. “I thought it was a colossal waste of time. But you think you’re achieving things, but …

“Really?” Hicks said, laughing,

“Ah, you know,” Azinger said.

“Well, you’re sitting in that chair to be honest,” Hicks said.

“It might be different nowadays,” Azinger said, laughing too.

“Jeeeeez,” Hicks said.

It might be different these days?  You might think that NBC's lead analyst would know something about Tour governance, given our obsession with such issues in the last year, and might have some keener insights.  But no, we Zinger is happy to parade his laziness and cluelessness, and to demonstrate the impulse control of...well, Nick Faldo.

 Zinger flew all the way to Oahu to phone it in.  Hard to see why millions of folks weren't tuned in.

Desert Doings - Surprisingly, at least to this observer, the moribund event formerly known as the Hope, appears to be generating a respectable field:

The American Express is back in the desert for the 64th year in a row this week.

But it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. It’s time to talk about the impact LIV golf is – or isn’t – having on the desert’s PGA Tour event.

The defending champion of the American Express, Hudson Swafford, will not be in the field this week because he left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf last year. Also missing for the same reason will be three other past champions: Patrick Reed, Pat Perez and, most notably, Phil Mickelson.

Man, they got Hudson Swafford?  That's kinda game over, no?  Of course, that guy pictured was their host, so that's slightly awkward.

But they're doing better than I thought possible, especially as I thought this event was going the way of the dinosaurs a few years back:

Reed is a past American Express winner and a past Masters champion. But the reigning Masters champion, Scottie Scheffler, is in the La Quinta field as are past Masters winners Danny Willett and Zach Johnson.

One of the game’s hottest players, Jon Rahm, is also back this week. The 2018 American Express champion, Rahm just won his eighth PGA Tour event, is coming off a year of winning on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour and seems primed to make a run at a second major title this year.

Patrick Cantlay, one of the game’s top players, is entered this week as are Xander Schauffele and Will Zalatoris. Rising stars such as Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim and Tom Hoge, accomplished veterans like Stewart Cink and Justin Rose and more rising stars than you can name are in the desert, too.

I have no clue why those guys are in the field, given what's to come shortly. 

The Tour Confidential panel had no interest in anything that might have happened on Oahu, how Jay must seethe at that, but did have a thought for this event:

4. Next week’s American Express field is loaded with 10 of the world’s top-19 players, including five of the top seven, despite the fact that it’s not one of the Tour’s 17 big-money designated events. There was some concern, at least from the outside, that the tournaments that weren’t designated for 2023 would see less-than-stellar fields with fewer stars, but that’s not the case next week in La Quinta. Are you surprised, and will we see more of this with other non-designated tournaments?

Loaded seems a bit of an overstatement, but much better than expected, for sure.

Barath: If you look at the big picture, I’m not surprised. My reasoning is regardless of the purse, these non-designated events still reward the same amount of FedEx Cup points, which for top players (playing well) actually provides a potentially easier chance to stack up points compared to the “big events” with more higher ranking players. I also think that because it’s an event at the beginning of the year, a lot of these top players who didn’t play as much in the fall want to get off to a good start. The real question is what happens to the smaller events come the dogs days of summer.

Melton: I’m a bit surprised the AmEx has such a strong field, but a lot of the top stars haven’t played much meaningful golf in several months. They’re itching for competition. I’d expect we’ll see some of the non-elevated events in the non-major season have unexpectedly strong fields, but during the grind of the summer, top stars will likely stick to the status quo.

Hirsh: The AmEx seems to have a stronger field than in years’ past, but I think that has more to do with where it is on the schedule than anything else. After the Sentry, there isn’t another designated event until the Phoenix Open the second week of February. January is also the only month until July with just one designated event. Once Phoenix hits, however, there are four designated events in five weeks. Most of the big names playing Palm Springs will probably take Torrey and Pebble off before that gauntlet stretch. The other part is all the top players have a quota to meet for non-designated FedEx Cup events. Someone like Rahm, who played the CJ Cup last October, needs to add only one regular event to his schedule for the rest of the year.

Dethier: Good points from everybody here — schedule and location are both in the AmEx’s favor — and I’m guessing some sponsors have found ways to make it worth the players’ while to attend, too.

True enough but, given that some of those guys were in Maui, you'd have thought the Sony a more logical add-on.  But I can also see that this is a far better spot on the calendar than, say, the Honda, which well and truly has no chance of a single PIPster teeing it up.

I Saw It On TV - The Confidentialistas led with Netflix, though not much added value, methinks:

1. Netflix released its trailer for its much-anticipated PGA Tour docuseries, modeled after the popular F1 Drive to Survive. It will also apparently feature Rory McIlroy, which wasn’t known until the trailer came out. Dubbed Full Swing, it premieres Feb. 15. What are you most looking forward to seeing in this docuseries, and do you think it will succeed in attracting the non-golfer or viewer who doesn’t watch pro golf already?

Ryan Barath: As a hardcore golf fan, I’m excited to get more of an inside look at professional golfers, their views on the state of the tour as a whole, and in general, a behind-the-curtain look at the majors.

The issue that this show will create for new fans is an old one: how golf is presented on TV. Between TV windows and how some golfers are playing, no matter how many people love seeing Joel Dahmen at the Waste Management, trying to see him on a normal broadcast is next to impossible. This is where F1 still has a big advantage, since every race is every driver, though with the new designated events, I guess that’s what the Tour is trying to accomplish.

OK, but there's about twelve of us hardcore golf fans....  But what Ryan is actually saying is that there's way too many PGA Tour events so he, like Azinger, will likely be getting a nasty phone call from that 904 area code.

Zephyr Melton:: I’m most excited to see my coworkers’ cameos! A handful of GOLF staffers were mic’d up at various events last year, and I’m stoked to see how they’re featured in the show. As far as attracting non-golfers, I’m sure the LIV-PGA Tour rivalry should be an intriguing storyline. Drama sells, and there was nothing more dramatic in pro golf last season than the Saudi saga.

Yes, it's quite certainly all about the writers.  You guys aren't all that interesting in print, your home field, so I'm not hanging on how you'll do with your cameos....

Jack Hirsh: I’ve polled some of my friends who are either just getting into golf or not into golf, and most are at least intrigued. I haven’t gotten to watch the F1 series, but when that came out, I feel like I knew a lot of people who all of a sudden became F1 fans. I’d be surprised if it had the same impact, but I think we can expect a good number of people to be introduced to the game by it. I’m most looking forward to seeing the players react to LIV in real-time. So cool they got Poulter!

Wow, a Poults dead-ender.  How does it feel to be o the endangered species list? 

Dylan Dethier: Will it have an effect on non-golf fans? Of course — it’s Netflix. It’s hard to think of a better way to reach new audiences than to tap into their enormous list of content-hungry subscribers. What am I most looking forward to? Peeking behind the curtain as several stars make life-changing decisions about launching to LIV.

Really?  Because Netflix is molting subscribers lately, not to mention market capitalization?  So, golf seems just the ticket to stem that outflow.  Also, they just released a tennis version, which one assumes will capture the vaccine issues, whereby players were excluded from majors.  I don't know, it has a pasta against the wall feel to it, so I'm not expecting much.

They did, to their credit, also give a moment top that Harry Higgs issue:

2. Harry Higgs told Golfweek he thinks the PGA Tour may have a problem with its TV product now that several big personalities have jumped to LIV. “We joke back and forth, [LIV] took all the a**holes,” Higgs said. “They took all the villains. And that’s a problem.” What do you think about his assessment?

Because Harry thinks the TV product was great before we lost Poults and PReeed?   How much of it does Harry watch, given that he should be out there playing?

Barath: Sports are popular because they are entertaining ,and as much as it might become easier to engage casual fans with rivalries and ‘good’ vs. ‘bad,’ I think most golf fans tune in to watch golfers at a high level try to win events. So overall I don’t really agree with Harry on this.

Melton: I think Higgs has got a great point. Every sport needs its heels, and the Tour has lost most of theirs. Having no true “villains” takes a little bit of juice away from the Tour’s product.

Hirsh: Every sport has its villains. The NFL has the Patriots and the Cowboys. The MLB has the Yankees. The NBA has the Lakers. People love to have something to hate. That’s always been a little tougher in golf, but there were definitely guys who played the role at least. I think losing certain guys hurts a little, but given the way golf is, I think it’s more of a positive. I stand with RB’s more optimistic view.

Dethier: The Player Impact Program essentially ranks players by their value to the Tour — and LIV claimed five of the top 10 players from the 2021 PIP. (Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson.) That’s not good! The Tour depends on the storylines of its personalities and now several of those personalities are gone. More will replace ‘em, of course. But that will take time.

This is bizarre, because while extolling the existence of villains, they seem to have forgotten that the Tour has expended considerable effort to coddle these villains and assure us that they're all gentlemen.  That seems to have backfired in epic fashion, as those most coddled, DJ, Reed and Bryson pop into mind, were the quickest to cash those outsized checks.

Yeah, so about those disciplinary files?

Unfortunately, I need to leave you nice folks here.  Tomorrow is not looking good for blogging, so hopefully Wednesday looks good for you.