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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