Monday, February 27, 2023

Weekend Wrap

Greetings from the Wasatch Range.  They've had plenty of snow, 49" in the last seven days, but yesterday proved quite the disappointment.  A warm Saturday was the culprit, subjecting all this wonderful white stuff to the dreaded thaw and refreeze cycle.

More snow is coming, although I am headed up to Sun Valley, ID today, road conditions permitting, to spend a few days with my brother.  Alas, 33" of freshies are projected for Park City but only 11" for Sun Valley.  The old saying is that there are no friends on powder days, although there's seemingly a sibling exclusion to that adage.

The laptop will not be making the journey, so this will be it for a few days (not sure whether I'll come "home" on Thursday or Friday.

The Honda - I watched exactly none of it, so will just grab some notes from Geoff for you:

FWIW, this was Geoff's header:

Weekend Wrap: Kirk Returns To The Winner's Circle And Heads To The Masters

It's OK.  I've stolen so much content from Geoff over the years that I can't begrudge him stealing this from me...

Jack seems sanguine about the event's prospects:

Well, the field would almost have to be better... But, even with a week between it and Riviera, it's still going to be a have-not event.  The bigger aspect that may improve its field is the reduction in field size at the designated events, which ensures that all those guys from 70-156 on the pecking order will need another place to peg it, and for some of those guys its a home game.

Charles In Charge - God, life is funny.... The man perhaps most famous for making bank on the PGA Tour without winning, runs away from the suspect LIV field.  Sorta proves what we've been saying all along.  Geoff doesn't have much on the actual golf:

  • Charles Howell cruised to a 4-stroke victory in the LIV Mayakoba season opener. His Crushers also captured the team title, holding off the 4 Aces by nine strokes. The pair of victories made Howell $7 million richer.

Let me confess that I actually taped the LIV broadcast and made it through a good twenty minutes.  Geoff had this on the broadcast:

The LIV product reached a hundred million American homes but remained a tough watch. That’s assuming your market carried the telecast. A Quad reader reported how the Sacramento CW affiliate opted for a 2006 masterpiece, The Last Kiss, staring Zach Braff and Casey Affleck. Their loss.

LIV still delivers Twitter content and comic relief. Though you won’t be shocked to learn that the following Tweets failed to make the telecasts that were constantly interrupted with carefully cultivated missives from the bots and wannabes…

But, like Geoff, I did catch this bit (and had about the same reaction):

This sportswashing thing is just da' bomb.  It allows us to play the Jamal Kashoggi murder and dismemberment on an endless loop, and now we can add the final round of the '96 Masters.... You'd think those paymasters would we curious as to what they're getting for their billions, but they're much smarter than we are.

So, can you feel the game growing?  Because apparently Geoff and I were about the only ones tuned in:

Didn't McKinsey mention that no one watches golf?

I found the broadcast painful to watch.  Feherty and Foltz were in obvious used-car salesman mode, but the more curious bit was the music that at times intruded into the broadcast, not that drowning out Jerry Foltz is ever a bad thing.  I just couldn't tell if it was ambient music being blared on site, or something intentionally fed into the broadcast audio.  

The Tour Confidential panel has become almost a parody of itself, but let's see what they have on LIV:

3. While the PGA Tour kicked off its Florida swing with the Honda Classic, LIV Golf opened its second year at Mayakoba, which up until last year was a former PGA Tour stop.
Now with a beefed-up schedule, TV deal and one year under their belts, what do you see as the biggest Year 2 goal for LIV as it tries to gain traction?

Dethier: Viewers and sponsors, I suppose. The two are connected — if there are plenty of viewers, sponsors are presumably more likely to follow — and they have the same end result: cash flow. This week, we saw the first signs of corporate involvement, which feels like a big first step. But not all of it feels like a final product, down to the mismatched team uniforms. Still, they’ll be in plenty of households on the CW, so on PGA Tour down weeks like this one (the Honda Classic had a remarkably weak field and zero star power in the mix on Sunday), I would think some golf fans would flip over to LIV. We’ll see how many. And we’ll see whether major advertisers follow.

Melton: More legitimacy. LIV is still somewhat of a punchline in the golf world, but if they can put on some compelling tournaments, sign more big name players, and draw in new eyeballs this year, they’ll be trending in the right direction.

Barath: Traction. So far LIV has created only the slightest amount of interest outside of the golf world, and considering their TV deal constricts their distribution compared to the previous free stream on YouTube, getting casual fans to tune in is still going to be a challenge. Maybe this is a stretch analogy, but at this point, LIV is like the XFL going up against the well-established NFL. Sure you have a TV deal, and you are going to markets that want golf, but if the audience doesn’t have any clarity for what’s at stake, how do you build any long-term interest and gain traction?

Gee, thanks guys.  Asked what LIV needs to do to gain traction, Ryan Barath answers "traction".  I guess that's why he gest the big money....  That's not even his worst bit, because he thinks the move from YouTube to TV "constricts" the audience.... 

I just want to point out that what follows below was drafted on Sunday morning, so any gaps in continuity or repetition is unfortunate.  

LIVing Its Best Self - They're back.... can you just feel the game growing?

Your humble blogger has faces a dilemma..... a couple of scathing articles present but the choice of the led is daunting.  In one corner I find the incendiary Eamon Lynch, who always has a handy shiv to stick in Greg Norman's back.  But competing for primacy is a WaPo piece by Sally Jenkins, about whom I know next to nothing except for one interesting tidbit, that she's the daughter of the late and lamented Dan Jenkins.  So, ladies first?

The airborne toxic event called LIV Golf is slowly dissipating, and soon all that will be left is the mere faint scent of its portable toilets. The failures are piling up so fast that the PGA Tour may
not even need lawyers to beat LIV. It’s going to beat itself with its own sour-smelling hustle, its jinks-on-the links-for-clinks gutter golf.

The news value of its debut last year, championed with patent unease by Phil Mickelson, has long faded. What’s left is just the militant fruitcakery of Greg Norman, whose emanations from his empty luminescent head never quite form into actual substance. To hear Norman tell it, LIV 2023 would begin with a “momentous” TV deal and seven more top-20 player signees. As the second season opens this week in Mayakoba, Mexico, it’s got a laughably desperate TV pact with the CW Network, which also boasts “World’s Funniest Animals,” and no new big names. It was just more blowharding that evaporated into a few lower-level defections such as Dean Burmester and Danny Lee.

Top that lede, Eamon!  But, Sally, Dean Burmester changes everything, no?

But you could almost think she's got something against these guys:

“Golf, but louder” is one of LIV’s slogans, but all that apparently refers to is Ian Poulter’s pants by Pixar. Poulter is at least a likable star, more audience-friendly than laconic burnout cases such as Brooks Koepka or that aging inveterate scrounger Mickelson, who apparently would take checks from the slaughter of dolphins to get whole. Starting Friday in Mexico, all of them will resume crapping around in an incoherent, noncompetitive, no-cut, drama-repellant 54-hole format with locked-in appearance fees.

Crapping around?  Though I would like to see the actual evidence that Poults is actually likable....

She does kind of nail it, though.....Her old man would be proud:

Koepka and Poulter allowed the cameras to follow them especially closely and gave revealing interviews that show just how hollow-eyed and desperate they were over downturns in their careers and fears that they had become second-rate. Their motives for jumping at LIV’s cash are there for all to see; they say it all straight into the cameras. They didn’t leave the PGA Tour because they wanted to play better golf against the best in the world. They left because they couldn’t anymore.

Koepka had lost his edge physically and mentally after a string of injuries, and he knew it. The cameras capture his recognition of that fact as Scottie Scheffler stormed past him to win at the Phoenix Open, what used to be Koepka’s favorite tournament. “I probably lost confidence, if I’m honest,” Koepka told the filmmakers. Jena Sims, then his fiancee and now his wife, acknowledged, “He’s hearing voices in the back of his head, ‘You can’t do this; you can’t do this.’ ”

This is the fatal disconnect, no?  Golf without the grind, as first articulated by Graeme McDowell, isn't of much interest to the rest of us.  Heck, golf with the grind barely draws an audience.

But she's got more on Brooksie:

At the Masters, he horseshoed short putts to miss the cut while Tiger Woods ground out a limping resurgence on his surgically repaired leg. Puffy-faced and peroxided, Koepka finally admitted, “I’ll be honest: I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.” It didn’t seem to occur to him that defecting to LIV for the money wasn’t the cure to his bored, vapid and anchorless existence.

Not sure they come any more vapid than Jenna, unless it's Paulina.

 But, Eamon, I do hope you're taking notes:

From the outset, LIV was a home for buttercup-bellied moral cowards clutching at cash from a murderous regime, but it quickly has evolved into a refuge for guys who have lost their taste for competition. Who cares who “wins” more money among such a scrabbling bunch? Only the torrent of blood-spattered Saudi coin made Norman’s follies viable in the first place, and now the best young guys are turning down the money. LIV’s incursion is failing, and eventually all that will be left is the unpleasant smell of its corruptions.

That was good fun, but Eamon has his own thought son the matter, including his own strong lede:

While traveling to LIV Golf’s season-opening event in Mexico, Greg Norman posted to social media two photos of himself on a private jet, one as he read, the other while gazing meditatively
through the window. The accompanying caption read: “Books are the training weights of the mind — Epictetus.”

In keeping with the custom of his every waking hour, it was carefully staged image-building, suggesting a swashbuckling captain of industry on another successful sortie. With the time spent curating selfies, Norman could have scrolled to another quote from Epictetus — or, more accurately, from his transcribing student Arrian, since the Greek Stoic himself left no writings: “Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.”

Norman’s LIV Golf has a solitary anchor that prevents it from being dashed on the rocks of commercial reality, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. When it comes to an ability to throw good money after bad, the PIF is an enviable ally to have. But as Norman opens LIV’s second season with his trademark delusional enthusiasm masquerading as unstoppable momentum, he must worry that legal developments in California’s Northern District might prompt that affluent anchor to cast him adrift.

Got to admit, I didn't see Epicetus coming.... though Greg Norman reading any book without pictures seems dubious.

Eamon seems inclined, at least per his header, to pin the recent legal setbacks on our Greggy:

The Saudi reluctance to submit to America’s permissive discovery process hardly requires explanation. Even if the court placed strict parameters on discovery, the process carries huge risk as PIF investments — known and stealth, commercial and political — are subjected to scrutiny and potential exposure. That might strike Al-Rumayyan as an awfully high price to continue underwriting Norman’s folly.

This litigation exists for one reason: to make real the fantasy that Norman sold his players — the PGA Tour had no right to ban them (it does), and that they would be permitted to play LIV events and whatever Tour stops they wish to cherry pick (they won’t). Players who bought his bill of goods must by now realize that Norman’s vows dissolve quicker than those of Zsa Zsa Gabor (Google her, kids).

Was Zsa Zsa another of the Greek Stoics?  Not sure Epicetus will be flattered to share the billing with Zsa Zsa, but perhaps it's Sally that should be taking notes.

 But Eamon's got one more bit for us:

Sharks have a blind spot right in front of their snouts, so it’s unsurprising that Norman swaggered into federal court and declared victory before the ink was dry on his specious claims. But even he must by now grasp the predicament in which he has placed his employer. Thanks to Norman, Al-Rumayyan is learning that the U.S. judicial system doesn’t grant MBS’s agents the kind of untrammeled latitude they are accustomed to at home, or for that matter in Turkish consulates.

Why, did something happen in a Turkish consulate?  Thanks to LIV we get to revisit that on an almost daily basis, so remind me of how this sportswashing thing works?

Mind you, I don't think his article, amusing as it is, delivered its header:

Lynch: Saudis have Greg Norman to thank for their U.S. legal nightmare

I don't think that's actually right.  In fact, it conflicts with the court ruling on sovereign immunity, which basically confirmed that the Shitless One is a figurehead, that all significant decisions are made by the Saudis.   

So, how are things going in Mayakoba?  I wanted to insert comparative leaderboards, but my laptop doesn't save screenshots and I've forgotten the workaround I created in Scotland.  So let's just say that Mayakoba and Honda leaderboards look equally dreadful.  The LIV folks want to take comfort from that, but it's a pretty low bar given that the Honda is a dead man walking.

There's been some Twitter bot action that might amuse:

Yeah, OK....  But what time on Sunday?  First group out I'd guess, but even if true it's a low bar.  And Alan Shipnuck provides clarification:

Eleven?  Wow, these guys are really growing the game right before our eyes....

Of course Alan also had this about one of those guys he followed:

Again with the low bar.... What's the second most electric moment?

This guy wasn't impressed either:

They're at the height of the tourist season, so I'd be surprised if they didn't get a few folks out there.... 

Of course, both fields pale in comparison to that for the first major of the year:

But let's see what we think of this:

Selling LIV Golf: Inside the upstart league’s campaign to build a fanbase

This should be good:

At the Dye Preserve, the ads and social-media snippets all hammer at the notion that the teams, and the individuals on them, are cool. The captains themselves speak to this, too. In sit-down
interview after sit-down interview, Bubba, Bryson and Co. sound similar refrains (an exception is Mickelson, who declines to be interviewed) when explaining their decision to join LIV. The lavish contracts didn’t hurt, they concede. But they were also lured by the prospect of playing for a team while expanding golf’s appeal.

In DeChambeau’s account, “It’s so cool hearing ‘Go Crushers’ out there. And it’s not just me. I feel like I’ve got a band of brothers out there.”

As Watson tells it, he was inspired to join the circuit last year when, while sitting at home rehabbing his knee, he wound up tuning in to a LIV event on YouTube with his kids.

“And that’s what hit me,” he says. “A 10-year-old and an 8-year-old are watching this, and they know the Aces. They don’t know the people. But they know the flip-flop of who’s winning, who’s losing. I called my manager right from bed and said, ‘Hey, man, is it too late? I know they asked me, and I’ve been dragging my feet. I want in now.’”

So, Bubba was the guy watching on YouTube?  Is there anybody that believes this nonsense?  

They continue to insist that these teams will have market caps of a billion each, and after hearing about King Louis victory dance I totally get it.  Now, about Martin Kaymer as a captain... remind me of what he's done since 2014?

ESPN has a preview of LIV's second season up that includes one bit that I found interesting, mostly because those that sponsor the players seem to have been mostly quiet.  Perhaps that's because they've been busy in the counting house:

According to representatives of a handful of apparel and equipment companies contacted by ESPN, their contracts with golfers include annual event minimums. For instance, if a player was
competing on the PGA Tour when he signed, he might be required to compete in 20 tour events. There are other qualifiers, including those tournaments not being a team event like the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, in which players wear team uniforms, and the event being recognized by the OWGR.

Once players jumped to LIV Golf last year, according to representatives of the equipment and apparel companies, most didn't meet the minimum event requirements and were paid only a fraction of what they would have been otherwise owed. One executive described last year as "Christmas" because his company was being promoted by a highly ranked player for "pennies on the dollar." Another equipment representative said it was difficult to make accurate evaluations of players because there was so little data available in terms of marketing and TV metrics because LIV Golf's events in 2022 were available only on YouTube, the tour's official website and a streaming service.

What am I missing?  They're gloating because they payed the guys less based upon the number of events, but they're also getting fewer impressions.... Seems to me that, if you think it worthwhile to have your logo on DJ or Bryson's shirt, that the guys descending into a black hole can't be good for business.  Left unclear is whether those streamed LIV events were treated the same as PGA Tour events on national TV.  I'd have thought there'd be a requirement that they play on the PGA Tour specifically, though it's quite possible the lawyers never conceived of this exact situation.

There's a minor legal follow-up in which the Tour lost this round:

Despite ongoing discovery disputes and the legal complications caused by recent rulings, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the antitrust case between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to move ahead as scheduled.

The case, which was filed against the Tour last August by a group of players who had joined the Saudi-backed league, is on an expedited schedule and set for trial in January 2024. That, the Tour’s attorney argued in a video conference call with the judge Friday, is untenable given how complicated the case has become.

On Thursday the Tour filed an amended motion to include the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and its governor as defendants in its countersuit against LIV Golf. The PIF plans to oppose that motion on multiple grounds, including sovereign immunity, but that, argued the fund’s lead attorney John Quinn, is “no reason to hold up this case.”

The key concept here is "for now":

Judge Beth Labson Freeman agreed with LIV Golf and PIF’s push to remain on the expedited schedule but appeared to warn that could change.

“I’m concerned that everyone is dragging their feet on discovery on both sides … [but] it’s premature to postpone the case now,” Labson Freeman said. “I know we all want this to move to trial as quickly as possible, but it has to be done in the right way.”

Yeah, to me the odds of this trial going forward in January 2024 are equivalent to those of your humble blogger qualifying for the U.S. Open....  There are years of discovery fights to come, the bigger question being, given those two devastating decisions from last week, is whether this trial ever happens.

In other LIV news, I'm happy to report that we've achieved peace in our time:

From ‘Brooksie’ to the free Michelob Light post, the two players have a complicated relationship. The conversation should have ended after Koepka beat DeChambeau in a 1v1 battle during The Match series at The Wynn in Las Vegas. Or after their hug at the Ryder Cup in September ’21.

However, during a recent Instagram Q&A with Smash GC, Koepka’s team on LIV Golf, the four-time major winner said the two players are all good now.

“Believe it or not, we squashed it,” Koepka said. “We’re good. I actually talk to him quite frequently because of what’s going on here at LIV. Pretty much on an every-other-day basis. So we’ve got a good open line of communication. We’ve figured it all out, and we’re good.”

If he's speaking to Bryson frequently then he has my sympathy....  

But how about those brave golf journalists?  they fed him this softball, but seemingly failed to asked about his reported case of buyer's remorse.  I'm sure they're now BFFs in the same sense that Tiger and Phil were.... it's just business.

We seem to have no shortage of bad headers today, as this is another that isn't supported by the underlying article:

Captains Luke Donald, Zach Johnson already pondering LIV golfers at Ryder Cup

Except, not really.... Oh, Luke Donald could find himself in an interesting situation, at least theoretically:

Luke Donald’s job as captain of the European Ryder Cup team is challenging enough without trying to figure out who is eligible — or doubling as a referee — while playing a full PGA Tour
schedule.

The bad blood between former friends and Ryder Cup teammates Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy, and the rest of the uncertainty surrounding players who have joined LIV Golf, could add another stressful layer to Donald’s job.

“If we get to a point where someone’s qualified from LIV and there are disagreements between players we’re going to have to figure it out before,” said Donald. “My job as captain is to create a great culture for the team to be successful. Whatever that may be, whoever those 12 guys, that’s my job.”

Notice how he limits it to those that have qualified?  This doesn't look likely, given how badly the guys have been playing in those Euro events.  The only LIVster with a high finish I can think of is PReed, and I'm pretty sure he's ineligible for that European Points List...

There is a crazier scenario out there... If the court rules that the Euro Tour can't penalize the players who went to LIV, does that included Henrik's captaincy?  Probably not, especially since it's a non-paying gig, but fun to think about.

But this is apparently the extent of Zach Johnson's "pondering":

“I’m not concerned about it right now at all, frankly,” Zach Johnson said. “There’s so much fluidity and uncertainty still involved.”

That's not so much pondering as ducking a silly question....

Still, I've yet to find anyone besides your favorite blogger that has pondered the Armageddon scenario, to wit, what does Jay do if Europe sends LIV players to Rome?

This last bit of equivalence from Mike Bamberger:

Fair enough, though if you're setting the Over/Under at 42 years, I'll take the under.

 Have a great week and we'll catch up later in the week as the circus heads to Bay Hill.

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Friday, February 24, 2023

Your Friday Frisson

Lots to cover on Honda and LIV, but also some schedule issues to warn of.  I head back to Utah tomorrow for what will be my last ski trip.  The issue is that it appears I'll be headed to Sun Valley on Monday, so the Honda may not get wrapped in the usual fashion.

I know it's not all about me, except when it is....

Tree, Forest - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.... OK, I lied with that first bit:

I think that's right, how could it be otherwise given the location.  But it's curious thing when this item about the future of the event devotes so many pixels to wallowing in a glorious past, Tiger v. Rory in 2012, that can never be recaptured.

Rendering this quite the abrupt segue:

But that was then.

Fast forward nine years to this week’s Honda Classic and just three top 20 players are in the field.
Jupiter residents and former champions Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas are taking the week off. So, too, is 2016 champion Adam Scott. Fast forward another year — to 2024 — and the Honda Classic won’t even be called the Honda. The PGA Tour’s longest-running sponsor, dating back 42 years, announced last year that it is not renewing its partnership.

Which raises the question: What is to become not only of the Honda but also other non-designated PGA Tour events in this new era? On the surface, the schedule now appears to be comprised of the haves (the 13 events that offer purses of $15 to $25 million) and the have-nots (the AT&T Pebble Beach and Honda Classics, which this year drew their weakest fields in recent memory)

This no doubt has been a good strategy:

That’s when the Tour recruited Kennerly, a veteran of the sports marketing industry since 1987, to lead a reimagining of the tournament. Kennerly saw an opportunity. The tournament, as he saw it, was lacking in one key area: community engagement.

“We focused our customer energy, enthusiasm, as opposed to an old-fashioned golf tournament,” Kennerly said. “We focused on the energy. Making it fun for families, so many of the things that have taken the event from where it was in ’06 to where it is now.”

“Our strategy when we took over the harbor again after 2006 was to really embrace our community, to embrace Palm Beach county, embrace the Nicklaus family,” Kennerly said. “The assets were there. The tools were in place. They just weren’t being utilized properly.”

All good, but there's still a golf tournament to be held....And it helps to have players whose names are somewhat familiar.... But they also fill in some background:

As the Tour began searching for four additional events to be given designated status, Kennerly said the Honda didn’t even apply.

“We knew that with Bay Hill [Arnold Palmer] and the Players after us and Tiger’s event [Genesis] being before us — this was before the Waste Management was elevated — we knew that even if we wanted to be elevated, the PGA Tour wasn’t going to have four elevated events in a row,” he said.

And remind me, who did that to you?  Though this is curious for sure:

There was also one other complication: Honda nixing its sponsorship.

While the timing of the announcement may have led observers to believe Honda’s decision was related to the restructuring of the Tour schedule, Kennerly said that was not the case.

“We knew Honda was not going to renew shortly after the ’22 event,” he said. “Forty-two years is a great run. We’re fortunate to have had Honda for that long, the longest-running sponsor in golf. And we’re going to celebrate 42 years this week with American Honda.”

Yeah, I know you're going out of your way to not piss off those guys in PVB, but have you considered the fact that Honda was heading for the exits because the Tour's schedule had made their event non-viable even before the "elevation" of events.

Not only did the Tour move the Players back from May to March (which I prefer, but is obviously relevant to this event), but they shoe-horned the Match Play in as well (it used to be part of the West Coast Swing).  So, yeah, this year's schedule left the Honda looking like Poland in 1938, but Honda had been sold down the river many years previously.

In perhaps a first in these pages, I'll give props to Billy Ho:

This week, Shane Lowry, Sungjae Im and Billy Horschel are all playing the role of Iron Man.

No, they’re not donning red and gold suits and flying high above PGA National, but the trio is in the middle of a run of five-straight Tour starts. They’re all playing the Honda this week after the Phoenix Open and Genesis. They will then go on to Bay Hill and the Players.

Lowry will sleep in his own bed this week while Horschel lives near the Tour’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra, Fla., and seems to have an affinity for the Honda. This is his 11th time teeing it up in the event.

“When I look at the Honda, I grew up 90 minutes from there,” Horschel said in a statement when committing to the event. “I’m born and raised in the state of Florida. My family’s been in the state of Florida for nearly 100 years now. There’s a big Florida Gator contingent down there. So there’s so many reasons why I just couldn’t have skipped this event.”

 It'll be news when Sunjae Im actually takes a week off, but this is the issue:

“The Tour needs to understand that, that when you have 40 guys here that could stay in their bed, hop in their car and drive 10, 15 minutes to a tournament, they need to make sure that they’re putting this in the right spot so they get all those top players playing here on a regular basis.”

Good luck getting the Tour to understand that, though it might have been preferable if that Eureka moment came before they burned off their longest continual sponsor.  I'm sure another sponsor will step in, they always have, but you'd think they would understand how they'll be treated once the ink on the contract dries.

LIV Follies - We've got some all sorts of fun stuff lined up, but we'll start with a semi-serious item.  To wit, the U.S. courts have seemed strangely hostile to these lovely Saudi folks:

The hits keep coming for LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund in U.S. federal court.

Last week a judge ruled against the “sovereign immunity” claim by the PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a serious blow to LIV and its financial backer in its antitrust case against the PGA Tour.

On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled the PGA Tour will be able to add the PIF and Al-Rumayyan as defendants in its countersuit against LIV, dragging the financiers deeper into the judicial weeds.

The Saudis seem to have believed that they could use the courts while somehow remaining above the fray.  Doesn't seem to be working so awfully well:

This is why this lawsuit was inevitably going to take a decade or more, rendering it a sideshow in our circus proceedings.   The better bet might have been that Justice Department antitrust investigation, though they don't seem inclined to play like the Chinese and Ukrainians and simply pay off the Biden family.   

It's Go Time in Mexico, so have you figured out where to find the CW?  Because there's comedy gold to be found, as they apparently will humiliate themselves and wear matching outfits:

If that amuses, Alan's got one more:

Egads, these guys are just clueless....

At one point LIV seemed to be muzzling the guys, which is quite the good strategy given the guys involved.  The very existence of LIV seems to this observer counter-productive in that it's triggered a consistent revisiting of the Saudis Greatest Hits Album of Atrocities.  Ironically, this comment does the same:

It doesn’t appear Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy will mend fences any time soon. On Thursday, ahead of the season opener for LIV Golf, where former Masters champ Garcia now plays, the
Spaniard said the breakdown of his friendship with four-time major winner McIlroy is a "sad" development.

“I think it is very sad,” Garcia told Telegraph Sport at the Mayakoba resort ahead of LIV Golf's season opener. “I think that we’ve done so many things together and had so many experiences that for him to throw that away just because I decided to go to a different tour, well, it doesn’t seem very mature; lacking maturity, really. But Rory’s got his own life, and he makes his own choices, the same way that I make mine. I respect his choices, but it seems like he doesn’t respect the ones I make."

Sergio, have you considered the fact that it's not your decision that Rory doesn't respect, but rather it's you personally?

You find Rory immature, but I just want to quickly review a few things with you and see your thoughts on the relative immaturity demonstrated therein.  First your incredibly gracious exit from the PGA Tour:

Last summer, Garcia left the PGA Tour, where he had won 11 times, for LIV Golf not long after a rules controversy in which he voiced frustration at an official at the Wells Fargo in May. "Can’t wait to leave this tour," he said at the time. "Just a couple more weeks until I don’t have to deal with you anymore.”

So, on the way out, you could resist s****g on the Tour that made you fabulously wealthy and that your friend Rory continues to support.  Just to be clear you worthless piece of pond scum, who is not respecting the other's decision.

 But Sergio didn't just crap on the one Tour that made him famous, he turned on the other one as well:

And according to Telegraph Sport, Garcia blew a fuse when news broke he was being disciplined.

"The news (of the ban) came out during last week's BMW International (in Munich)," an anonymous source told the broadsheet.

"Sergio flew off the handle, shouting 'this Tour is s***, you're all fucked, should have taken the Saudi money'. Bob MacIntyre was there and was disgusted."

So far, MacIntyre and his management team have yet to response to the Telegraph's story. But he did post a cryptic tweet.


"Amazing how fast you can lose respect for someone that you’ve looked up to all your life," MacIntyre wrote.

You looked up to Sergio?  Geez, what were you thinking?

I mean, surely you knew about this demonstration of Sergio's Maturity:


I love this one because it's so difficult to decide the worst of it, was it the act itself or the "nothing but net" defense?

 And this in Saudi Arabia, leaving us to wonder why they wanted him back:


Again not the worst of it, as the next day he intentionally damaged several greens in a fit of pique.  So, Sergio is the one guy I want to hear about on the subject of immaturity, because he has retired the Championship Belt in the genre.

I almost forgot this one, confirming that he's an a****e to pretty much everyone:

This reaction to the Adidas story made me laugh as well:

But...but I had been reliably informed that it was a Jet-Ski accident.... Heh!

Should we care about this?

What happens to LIV golfers once they’re left off a roster?

Mostly not, though of course you can decide for yourself.  It's a tangled web, but I'll just excerpt this bit because I thought the youngsters made a horrible decision:

Since the end of LIV’s season, most of the above players (plus other LIV cast-offs) have spent significant time playing International Series events. Those are held on the Asian Tour, but they’re LIV-adjacent; in February 2022 LIV commissioner Greg Norman announced a 10-year, $300 million commitment to the seven-event series. The tournaments have world ranking points, unlike LIV’s 54-hole no-cut events. They have also attracted a significant number of LIV players in their offseasons, who have teed it up at International Series events in Morocco, Oman, Qatar and more in recent months.

That’s also where former U.S. Amateur champ Andy Ogletree finds himself. Ogletree received a berth into the first LIV event, finished in last place (at 24-over par, 31 shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel) and was suspended for the rest of the year by the PGA Tour. While he didn’t appear in another LIV event, he did receive an exemption into the International Series event in Egypt, which he won. Last week, he won the International Series event in Qatar, making him the current Order of Merit leader.

“It’s crazy to think about all that’s gone on the last year, it’s kind of been a roller coaster ride. I don’t know where to begin,” he said after his win.

But where does that get him?

We all kind of understood the end-of-career guys grabbing a last paycheck, although their whining has dissipated any lingering support.   But a young kid coming out of school that wants to avoid the grind?  I have little interest in that, and I suspect that foregoing the grind will prove to be a career-minimization strategy.

We'll see how their week goes, but I'm not seeing any reason to tune in.

Full Swing - As you'll know by now, I found the whole series quite lame, though I'm finding it difficult to put into words its failing.  My frame of reference is The Last Dance, and Mike Bamberger interestingly has the same touchstone:

You can shoot all day and into the night until you get (if you’re lucky!) Michael Jordan, looking heavy, his eyes yellow, drink in hand, suddenly giving you a face, with no advance warning, that
captures all of his disdain for Isiah Thomas.

But it’s a talkie, this famous documentary called The Last Dance, right? So you need audio too. You need spoken words. And not just any old words from a press conference. Words that will somehow give you more insight into the face you are watching. As for the director and the sound engineer and the boom-mic operator, that whole gang has one chance to get it right, if Jordan gives you anything worthwhile at all. Because you cannot say, “OK, Mike, but this time give us a beat after the word asshole, would you?”

Let’s go back to MJ and The Last Dance. You’re sitting there and he’s offering you, the viewer, a facial expression that you have never seen, not from him, but you’re going to use every bit of your life experience to read it. Nobody asked Jordan to produce this face, as a director does with an actor. A mood was created and it just showed up on him, washed over Airness like a wave.

Jordan’s words, the same. They’re not from a script. They’re from him. They come from deep within. And that combination, the one-two punch of words and pictures, advances our understanding of the subject—and ultimately some tiny part of the human condition. The gift of insight. We crave it in our lives.

Which is great stuff, except for the fact that he's not reviewing The Last Dance....  But amusing that he and I had the same reaction, essentially whining about what Full Swing isn't.  And he seems to have the same issue in describing what's missing:

In the first segment of the Netflix series, the subjects are Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and the episode is called “Frenemies.” It’s the only episode I watched and it did not make me want to watch others, although I have heard from reliable sources there are some good ones.

In “Frenemies,” the stakes are so low, and the problems of the two protagonists, as they were revealed to me, engendered no emotion. I did learn that Spieth tends to sit upright, with his seatbelt on, when flying in a private plane, while his lifelong friend and competitor, Thomas, looks as if he’s slouched on a sofa at home, playing on a Nintendo DS or something.

I wish the series well. I root for all serious storytellers.

Maybe someday, years or decades from now, other filmmakers will have another crack at this story.

Just doing some public note-taking here:

Both Thomas and Spieth were born in 1993. How does that biographical start, proximity in age, influence your connection to another person?

When did they feel closest as kids?

When did they feel most distant as kids?

How did each handle the agent recruitment process? Could they be open with one another, or was it the first time they had to keep things from each other?

In his deepest place, what was it like for Justin to watch Jordan win the Masters? The U.S. Open? The British Open? His blowup on 12 in the last round of 2016 Masters?

What was it like for Jordan Spieth, in the oasis of his lifelong home, Dallas, to be so far from the cool kids, as “JT and Tiger” became a thing, with Rickie Fowler riding shotgun?

How did it feel for Spieth to watch his buddy Thomas star on the 2019 Presidents Cup team, chest-bumping with Tiger and saving the day while Spieth, in a slump, neither made the team nor was chosen as a captain’s pick?

In “Frenemies,” we see and hear Spieth calling Thomas to discuss his role as the best man at JT’s wedding. It’s a neat moment.

It’s the tip of an iceberg.

We know who won the 2022 PGA Championship. We have seen the interiors of private planes.

What we want is an insight into the human condition.

Is that asking too much?

Apparently it is.  The first thing you'll note is that he watched that first episode and rendered a hard pass on the rest, which is pretty much all we need to know.

But the point he's making is that nothing interesting is seen or heard.  It's all trite clichés, repeated endlessly.  Golf Digest has this interview with Executive Producer Chad Mumm, in which he takes a victory lap.  Though I'm not seeing it:

Sam Weinman: We watched all eight episodes, and as we watched this, we wanted to know, who did you envision as your audience for this? You know, we're golf people. Was it us? Was it people who knew nothing about golf? Was it somewhere in between?

Chad Mumm: I think from the beginning, we always wanted to try to use this show to expand the audience for golf. I think it’s surprising that golf hasn't had a treatment like this before. We were trying to get inside golfers’ heads and understand who they are as people to build stakes for those big competitive moments. That was the goal, and we thought that if we did that right, it would satisfy the golf sickos. But I think the hope was always to do something you could watch with your friend who's not a golfer, or your spouse. My dream was my aunt calling me, being like, “I love the show. It was great.”

Yeah, but noted golf sicko Mike Bamberger couldn't be bothered with Episodes 2-8.... I don't think they did themselves any favors in screwing with the sequencing, not least because I lost count of how many times they used Mito's tee shot on the 72nd hole at Southern Hills.  I think those dramatic moments that they wanted to hype tend to be frustratingly less dramatic than they envision, which is one reason why the audience for golf is so tiny.

And the LIV stuff was a bit strange:

Alex Myers: There's been a lot of debate over whether LIV Golf was a blessing for you guys or a curse. I wonder where you fall on that.

Chad Mumm: When it first came down, it felt like maybe it was a curse in some ways because

we had amazing access. You'll see in the show Brooks Koepka is somebody that we've been working with for the entire history of shooting the show. He was one of the first two interviews we did. He had given us amazing access, along with his fiancee Jena. Same thing with Ian Poulter and Dustin Johnson. We invested a lot of time and resources in sort of telling their stories and we were afraid they’d shut us out.

But they didn't. And what was really interesting about it was that you have golfers who aren't really known for being that outspoken about anything, and now they're being asked these questions about geopolitics and even more importantly, about why they're even here. Is it to win? Is it for legacy? Has playing the PGA Tour been the dream their whole lives, or is it for money? Is this a business to them or is this passion?

And so that created these really interesting stakes that I think gave the show an extra boost.

Yeah, but you weren't able to extract much from that underlying drama, not least because those involved (Poults and Brooksie) come off as entitled jerks.

And what of our Poults?  That locker room meltdown was pure performance art, no?  I don't know this guy, but Shipnuck's tweet above generated this reaction:

One last bit on the Poults meltdown.  Are you familiar with the concept of an Easter Egg?

An Easter egg is a message, image, or feature hidden in software, a video game, a film, or another, usually electronic, medium.

It turns out that Poults gave us an Easter Egg in that clip:

The egg in question comes in Episode 3, otherwise known as the Ian Poulter episode. Many viewers probably went into that episode prepared to hate the Englishman, but it actually showed him in a new light. Except, of course, for his infamous locker room outburst at the WGC-Match Play, which featured him aggressively throwing multiple clubs into the ground after losing to Matt Fitzpatrick. One thing most of us didn't notice, though, was a handle of Tito's vodka in Poults' locker. Nice catch here by thegolfersgirlfriend on TikTok:

Potential unpopular opinion incoming ... this makes me kind of like Poulter more? Despite having made nearly $30 million in on-course earnings and who knows how much more off the course, Poulter is still sneaking vodka into the locker room for a post-round drink (we assume) like he's a sophomore in high school and his parents are away for the weekend. Why bother going to the 19th hole bar where the same vodka pour will almost certainly cost $15 or more when you can literally bring the 19th hole to your locker? Chess, not checkers, folks.

That presupposes that these guys actually pay for their drinks, which seems naive.

Poults is technically an adult and therefore legally entitled to purchase and consume alcohol, but this is still a bit weird....  None of it makes me like the man any more, that's for certain.

More importantly, several of the guys were given the opportunity to share their thoughts on the move to LIV and, spoiler alert, it seems that it was all about the money.  I don't know you, Dear Reader, but I am so profoundly disillusioned....

That's it for today.  Not sure when I'll get back to the keyboard, but best for you to check back early and often.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Midweek Musings

I'm a bit late to the keyboard, so forgive the absence of any pleasantries....  

LIV Scat - Can you feel the excitement building....  I mean, this is gonna change everything.

There will be little significance to the order of presentation, as there's a confluence of items related to the upstart tour, each of which is borderline insignificant on its own merits, though the connective tissue is fremescent of Doable-A minor league baseball.

But where to begin?  I suppose the top item on Greg Norman's To-Do list for the winter was that network TV rights deal, which he checked off barely a month ago.  As we explored at the time, it all depended upon what your definition of a rights deal was, as well as your definition of a network.... I'm often reminded of the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his useful formulation of "Defining deviancy down when thinking of LIV, because it requires mangling the English language for them to call the CW a network.


Don’t Blink! … or do. For those watching LIV Golf on TV in 2023, it might not matter very much.

In the first year of LIV’s television deal with the CW, Saturday and Sunday broadcasts of the Saudi-backed upstart league’s international events will air in the U.S. on tape delay, a spokeswoman confirmed to GOLF.

The international events, which represent roughly one-third of LIV’s 2023 schedule, will air on weekends from 1-6 p.m. ET on the CW, irrespective of the tournament’s actual start or end time. Those who wish to watch the action live will be directed to the CW app, which will stream the tournaments live for viewers.

Under the agreed plan, five of 14 LIV events in 2023 will be broadcast on a tape delay in the U.S., including those held in Australia, Singapore, Spain, England and the team championship held in Saudi Arabia. LIV events held in North America will also be broadcast on the CW in the 1-6 p.m. window on Saturdays and Sundays, but that window will overlap with the live tournament and therefore not require a tape delay. Friday coverage from all 14 LIV events will be exclusive to the CW app.

So classy.  It has all the intrinsic drama of a Shell's Wide World of Golf match from the 1960's.... This graph comes with a spit-take warning:

The tape delays will bring with them a whole host of operational challenges for the league, which is still learning how to leverage intrigue into legitimate interest, and legitimate interest into revenue. LIV must now figure out social and digital media strategies meant to attract maximum attention while not alienating or spoiling those who have chosen to watch on delay. In some cases, the results of an international LIV event will have been public knowledge for as many as 12 hours before the final-round broadcast is aired on the CW.

Intrigue?  You guys do know that that's not how you spell revulsion?

Amusingly, unless I missed it the article fails to inform us of the status of this very week's event.  While technically one of those foreign venues, Mayakoba would see\m to allow for a live broadcast...

Though the more amusing take is to ponder why they're not doing both.  Broadcast it LIV at zero-dark-thirty and then re-air it, no?  What it says to this observer is that those Buffy reruns at 2:00 a.m. will draw more eyeballs than Danny Lee.  You can't blame those CW/Nexstar folks....  Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?

If that one didn't make you laugh, this one comes with a money-back guarantee:

Greg Norman goes in-depth about LIV Golf: 'Some of my dear friends don't even speak to me'

There is little more to it than this:

“Some of my dear friends don’t even speak to me because of this,” Norman told host Steve Levitt, an economist at the University of Chicago. “That’s their choice. If you don’t want to talk to me again, happy days.”

So close, Greggy!  It's less that we don't want to speak to you, but more that we don't want to listen to you.... See the difference?

I don't even want to harsh his mellow by suggesting that they weren't great friends to begin with, excepting of course those love Saudis... who aren't using him at all.

Remember Graeme McDowell?  Yeah, he used to play golf.... He was a good guy who seemed to understand his role in the golf world, and he was at least quasi-honest about his reasons for leaving.  I'd contrast him favorably to a Talor Gooch, who I hope to never have to watch again.

What I liked at the time was that he basically admitted that he cashed the check because he sucked at the golf thing (at that time he called it golf without the grind), and he repeats that now:

His form at the time also led to him joining the Saudi-backed league, he said. McDowell, who is
now 43, said he was playing pretty well in 2020 but hit a wall.

“Honestly, I played 18 months of the worst golf I have probably my whole career right after Covid,” he said. “There are no guarantees in this sport. When something came along and offered me nothing but upside, it was a very compelling opportunity at that point in my career.”

McDowell said he talked with several people close to him before making his decision, but ultimately called it a great financial and scheduling opportunity for the father of three.

There's nothing I personally hate more than the guys that look us in the eye and tell us they went to LIV to play less, so I like this more.

Alas, Graeme, there's at least two substantive reactions to it.  The first is the obvious moral conundrum that faced the Ulsterman.  He became fabulously wealthy on the PGA tour despite limited talent, so there's a question of whether he owes anything to the next generation.  One subject that gets no attention is the damage the defectors did to the Tour and to major sponsors on the way out, but I'm not going any deeper into that morass.

The second reaction is that to me this is about as devastating a takedown of LIV as any opponent could muster.  You went to LIV because you suck and can't depend on your golf game to earn, so please explain why you think any of us should watch?  

But even among such relative candor, one of the nice guys makes it clear that it's all about ME, ME and Me:

Asked if it was hard to walk away from television analyst opportunities or a potential Ryder Cup captaincy, McDowell said nothing is guaranteed. The Irishman played in four Ryder Cups in his career (8-5-2 all time) and was a potential candidate for an upcoming captaincy. The 2027 Ryder Cup, scheduled for Adare Manor, would have been a home game for him.

“I had to reason with myself and say, ‘Would I love to be the Ryder Cup captain in Ireland in ’27, picture myself standing there on the stage giving the opening speech, looking at my team behind me?’ Beautiful,” he said. “I got a tear in my eye just thinking about it. But that wasn’t a guarantee; that wasn’t a given.”

McDowell said he didn’t think he was a lock for the 2027 captaincy, though. Lee Westwood, who went to LIV Golf, and Justin Rose also would have been options.

“Let’s say LIV hadn’t come along. [Westwood] would have turned Rome [in 2023] down, so now he was looking at ’27 because [Ian] Poulter was going to take ’25 at Bethpage Black,” McDowell said. “He said that eight years ago and wanted to get into a fight with Mickelson on the stage in New York City. [Laughs] I haven’t really thought about it. That may be one of the most fundamental things that may come out of this whole thing that we don’t get to see Phil versus Poulter at Bethpage Black. You know, that probably won’t happen now. … Westwood is one of the most decorated European Tour players of all time. … So I’m going against him and I’m thinking, ‘I’m not sure I’m necessarily winning this job,’ you know, so this is the type of reasoning that I had to go through in my head.”

You see how the mind of a pampered golfer works?  Although you probably haven't stopped laughing about Westy being one of the most decorated Euro golfers of all time.  Not sure how that happens when you haven't, yanno, won anything.... And, yeah, that sound in the background is Seve spinning in his grave.

This as all good stuff, though it might have gone unremarked upon had he not added this:

Also in the podcast, McDowell admitted he’d said some things he’d like to take back, likely referring to his “we are not politicians” comments at the league’s opening event at Centurion Club, for which he was criticized.

“I’ve said some things I’d like to take back,” he said. “Did I say them because they were the wrong things to say? No, I said them because I was trying to answer questions that when I look back were incredibly difficult to answer, impossible to answer, in fact, to the point where I shouldn’t have even tried. … I wouldn’t have changed any of my answers, I just would have said nothing.”

You'll notice he's not saying the question was unfair or inappropriate?  Yes, he admits, they're difficult questions and would you please go away and not bother me further.  I have good news, Graeme, you've decided to play golf in a black hole so we shan't trouble you with any further difficult questions.

 Lastly, George Costanza notwithstanding, we have the first mutual break-up in sponsorship history:

Adidas Golf has split with Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia ahead of LIV Golf’s second season. The news, first reported by ESPN, was confirmed to Golf Digest by an Adidas spokesperson.

Johnson and Adidas mutually decided to end the arrangement, according to a statement from Adidas Golf president Jeff Lienhart. "For more than 15 years, Dustin has been a great ambassador for the Adidas brand,” Lienhart said in a statement to Golf Digest. “We've had a front-row seat to see him win multiple major championships, ascend to the No. 1 ranking and cement himself as one of the best golfers in history—all while wearing the 3-Stripes. We wish Dustin nothing but success moving forward."

I have little knowledge of how these contracts are written, though you'd have thought that his leaving the PGA Tour would have triggered a cancellation.  There was also the bit about LIV requiring their players to wear LIV swag, but I'm unsure whether that covered everybody.

This piece only hints at DJ's betrayal:

RBC, one of Johnson’s sponsors and a partner of the PGA Tour, dropped Johnson following his departure to the Saudi-backed circuit last year. Johnson captured the individual and team championships during LIV Golf’s inaugural season.

Let's remember that DJ cashed RBC checks for years before unceremoniously jumping right before their most important event of the year, the Canadian Open.  Doing what I do best, shall we tie a couple of current memes together?  In that Netflix series, Paulina goes to bat for her man with this:

Episode 5 of the series, 'American Dreams', revolves around Matt Fitzpatrick and Dustin Johnson. DJ's part in the episode discusses his controversial move away from the PGA Tour. Backing her husband and his decisions, Paulina slams the people questioning him and says he is “still ready to show you who the f*** he is.”

See, Paulina, here's the thing..... In screwing RBC, your hubby showed us who the fuck he is, and we're revolted by the both of you.

Lastly, you might have noticed that LIV didn't exactly deliver on its promised player signings.  The thing is, they get a little touchy when you remind them of reality:

Yes, we know that Cam cashed your check, but as for those other accomplishments, they're not all that recent....  

This might even be a more feeble attempt to rationalize their fields:

I guess that's progress, in that they now acknowledge that last year's fields sucked.  I'm going to set a time for next year when they'll similarly concede that the 2023 fields lacked a little something.... or, yanno, anything.

Fallout - Good luck with this, folks:

What will it take to return the Honda Classic to its glory days? Here are a few ideas

Forget anything you might have heard from Garrison Keillor, they can't all be above average....

The basic gist of the argument is that there will be an extra week in the schedule goin forward (not sure if that's related to the NFL pushing back the Super Bowl a week):

The Tour is looking at different ways to make changes to help boost the field. The solution for the
next three years could be in the calendar that provides an extra week before the Masters.

The best outcome would be for the Tour to separate Honda, which commences the Florida Swing, from the Genesis Invitational, which marks the end of the West Coast Swing. That would allow golfers to play Honda and the elevated events around Honda without having to tee it up for five consecutive weeks.

“I think the extra week is important to this,” George said. “This is probably the toughest stretch in golf. They’re focused on that and separating (those elevated events). That extra week is going to help us.”

They've made some fair points about attendance and charitable giving (largely due to Jack and Barbara's involvement) remaining strong despite weakening fields.  Combined with the concentration of Tour members residing locally, this is an event that you would think they can make work.....  But that just makes their treatment at the hands of the tour all the more inexplicable.  Really, if the tour had the intention of killing this event, what would they have done differently?

But notice what's left unsaid:

  1. There's talk of what happens before The Honda, but seems like Bay Hill and TPC will be immediately after regardless.  Rather a problem, methinks.
  2. That week beforehand is awfully intriguing for whoever foolishly steps into Honda's shoes, but do we think the Tour will be taking that week off?  Of course not, it'll be another marginal event with which the Honda replacements will compete for players. 
That said, the Match Play is also a goner, so who knows whether they can find an opening....More substantively, the Tour has quite obviously diluted its product, but also quite obviously needs more playing opportunities given the intention to dramatically scale back the field sizes in the elevated events.  Quite the straddle to come.... one suspects the rank-and-file will be taking it in the shorts.

Alan, Asked - Time is getting away from me, so let me piggyback on Shippy's mailbag to give you a bit more to digest.  Obviously the tab has been open for a few days now, as this isn't exactly timely:

Chances that Tiger makes the cut at Riviera??? @steve520823

Oh, man, here we go. I thought the lesson of last summer was that Woods clearly has a dwindling number of swings his reconstituted body will allow him to make and we should collectively just
enjoy seeing him between the ropes and not fret about his scores. But Tiger is Tiger, and for three decades he has consistently been doing the impossible, so I s’pose it’s impossible not to wonder if he can rediscover the magic. Having not played a real tournament in six months, on one of the most exacting courses on Tour against a stacked field, I’d say Woods making the cut is a long shot at best. But then I remember he made the cut last year at both the Masters and the PGA Championship when he was even rustier and his body much weaker. So who the hell knows. The only certainty is that it is going to be fun to watch him try.

Pretty fun to read after the fact, methinks.  Because it was a fair take, but we saw a much physically-improved Tiger at The Riv.  I still think contending at the majors is a Herculean ask, but he certainly showed enough that folks will be licking their chops.

If Rory is Beyonce and Rahm is Rihanna, who does that make Scheffler? I think he has a Billie Eilish vibe, but I could be talked into an Ariana Grande argument. #AskAlan @luke_peacock

Nah, Scheffler is definitely Adele: Not glam but can hit notes unattainable to mere mortals.

I've heard of Beyonce, but I'll pass on further commentary.

When Sami Valimaki had a putt for birdie on the 18th at the Singapore Classic that would have forced a playoff, the camera did a close-up of his face the whole time while he hit the putt so that we didn’t see the actual shot … should I ask for my TV subscription fee back? @EatandSleepGolf

I don’t know, I think it’s pretty cool and cinematic. We all complain about how formulaic and predictable golf on TV is, so I support it if some of these folks suddenly go full Spielberg.

So you were the guy watching?  Why would you admit that publicly?

For those who have not been out on the West Coast for golf, how much can we glean from the winner/top finishers of Riviera this week and their chances at the U.S. Open at LACC later in the year? Or are they too dissimilar to really handicap favorites? @jameswoldbdc

Excellent question. Riv and L.A. North were both designed by George (the Captain) Thomas. They share the same DNA, demanding sound strategy, precise iron play and imaginative work around the greens. LACC is a bigger ballpark and will be set up tougher, but I think this week will be an excellent barometer of who is a threat at the national championship. And let’s not underrate the factor of which players can tune out the distractions of La La Land. It is an article of faith in the NBA that if a visiting team arrives in Los Angeles the night before a game it has almost no chance at victory because the players are going to go out on the town and be left in sub-optimal condition. I don’t think pro golfers chase it quite as hard as NBA ballers, but surviving L.A. is a real thing.

Yeah, Alan's a SoCal dead-ender, so we can ignore all that blather about LaLa Land.

The better question is what Riviera can tell us about Augusta.  Setting aside the George Thomas connective tissue, June is a long way away and Left Bank poa greens are so very different in the summer, I just can't believe there's much to glean here.  Except, of course, that Rahm will be a beast, but you knew that.

And today in oxymnorons:

Who’s your favorite gonzo golf journalist? @be_rosebee

All-time, it has to be George Plimpton. “The Bogey Man” took readers to places they had never gone in a wildly immersive way. All these decades later it still holds up. Among contemporary scribes there is not a lot of gonzo, but Bamberger is an easy choice. Honorable mention to Shane Ryan, who puts himself out there in a unique way.

The only guy maybe deserving of mention here would be Dan Jenkins....

This is a bit late as well:

Is the WMPO the Kentucky Derby of golf? Stampedes out of the starting gate, decadence/depravity, and fans more focused on the party than the sport. Could be a sequel to Hunter S. Thompson’s Kentucky Derby piece: “The WM Phoenix Open Is Decadent and Depraved.” You should do it. @ZitiDoggsGolf

That’s an all-time classic bit of gonzo journalism (defined loosely as writing that features the author as the protagonist and thus idiosyncratic reporting). Until last week I hadn’t been on the grounds at the TPC Scottsdale in a long time and I had forgotten how bonkers it is. I think you just gave me my first meaty assignment for 2024.

Strike that late bit, hold this question until we see how it works as a non-designated event... Might just be sad.

How do you feel about the most bonkers, gonzo, unhinged tournament of the year being won by the least exhilarating player out there? @JamesRamsden_

It had to be thus. There’s no way a cat on a hot tin roof like Jordan Spieth could prevail in such a chaotic environment; it took a pulseless player like Scheffler to get it done. What a strong performance! For all the debate about whether Rory or Rahm or Cam Smith is the real number one, I love that Scheffler expressed some pre-tournament red-ass and then reclaimed the throne.

 Agreed, though mostly because all the truly unhinged guys are in Mexico.

Has the 16th hole thing at TPC Scottsdale run its course? Enthusiasm seemed fake, stands not full… and didn’t look like the players liked it. #askalan @paulkaps

It may be a little too much of a good thing. The 16th hole used to be part of the show, but there was also a lot of focus on the thrilling risk-reward finish. Now it feels like the 16th overwhelms everything else about the tournament. Much like many of the female fans at 16, CBS would be wise to show less and leave a little to the imagination.

For sure, but it's OK as long as we don't generate copy cats.

I think this one goes the other direction:

With all the bad and mediocre results from the players lately, is Greg Norman nervous that the Masters will be a massacre for his players? And should he be nervous? @rgen_hle

There is sooo much golf to be played between now and then that I don’t think anyone is panicking, but for sure the Masters is going to be a referendum on LIV’s credibility, rightly or wrongly. Between last November and this Masters, only three LIV events will have been conducted, on a pretty good course (El Camaleon in Mexico), a mediocre course (The Gallery Golf Club in Tucson) and a bad course (Orange County National in Orlando). This is obviously not ideal preparation, although LIVers can and have been picking off starts on the Asian Tour. If a LIV player wins the green jacket it will provide much needed validation for the road less traveled, but if these guys collectively struggle the wonky preparation will be a topic that’s beaten to death. It gets even more challenging: In the month between the Masters and the PGA, LIV players will be compelled to cram in tournaments in Australia, Singapore and Oklahoma! So it quickly morphs from not enough golf to too much. The first two major championships of the year promise to be fascinating.

Look, he's signed a bunch of stiffs, so we shouldn't be surprised when they suck.

The problem is that it's golf and it's a small sample size, so he only needs one of his guys to catch lightning in a bottle.   Obviously Cam is the biggest threat, especially at Augusta, but i such a small field almost any of the guys in the field could do damage.

This is a good add-on the McDowell bits above:

Could Phil Mickleson have been the lead analyst at CBS if he didn’t light his PGA Tour career on fire? #AskAlan @MattWagers2

Oh, gawd yes! Who among will ever forget his riotous cameo in the booth at the 2020 PGA at Harding Park, when he basically sent Nick Faldo into early retirement? Phil has always been close to Jim Nantz and a lot of the CBS guys. So the job was certainly waiting for him and should also be mentioned alongside the other plum roles he has potentially forfeited, including being a Ryder Cup captain and an honorary starter at the Masters.

I could never imagine he wanted that job, just because of the grind involved.  But as we sort through the varied ways in which the LIV experiment could play out, it seems safe to assume that Phil will never be welcome back in polite circles.  \

Are you buying stock in Spieth after his iron play in Phoenix? @BritGrinerTrack

Definitely. I already sunk my life savings into crypto, so what can go wrong?

The delay in blogging  makes that modestly interesting.  Jordan does seem to have upped his ball-striking game, except for this most recent week as per ESPN:  


The Spieth roller coaster continued. After tying for sixth at the WM Phoenix Open, he missed the cut at Riviera. He lost more than a stroke to the field off the tee and about 3 strokes in putting. Not a recipe for success.

I shall leave you here and hope to see you later in the week.  We do have some scheduling issues ahead, but we'll deal with those as they occur. 

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