Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Weekend Wrap - Tuesday Edition

I hadn't planned to grab an extra day off from blogging, but then those winds kicked up at Pebble.... Perhaps bad form considering an even longer blogging outage is coming, but I'll keep that bad news under wraps until later in the week.

Everything's Coming Up... - Been a while for the Englishamn:

An overnight break in the middle of his final round couldn’t stop Justin Rose at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Rose built a two-shot lead as play was suspended Sunday evening after weather delays plagued the third round of the tournament Saturday.

He came back out on Monday and picked up right he left off, making birdies on 11, 13 and 14 to build his lead to three. His final-round 66 put him at 18 under for his first PGA Tour win since 2019 and the 11th of his career.

His last win came at the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open when he was the No. 1 player in the world and the reigning FedEx Cup Champion.

“Time flies doesn’t it?” Rose said to CBS’ Amanda Renner after the round. “It’s amazing how long it’s been.”

Your humble blogger spaced out and forgot to tape yesterday's conclusion, though it seems Rose removed all drama from those proceedings.  Still, the cynics among you will note that the PGA Tour finally presented a sufficiently weak field to allow Rosie to grab another "W".  

He was at the literal center of the storm on Saturday, which broke in his favor:

Rose’s win caps a wild week on the Monterey Peninsula as winds forced the suspension of play for much of the day Saturday, pushing the finish of the final round to Monday. The logistical issues were only compounded by the pro-am format of the event, requiring three courses for the first three rounds.

Rose himself was at the center of the delay Saturday when his ball slid across the 9th green at Monterey Peninsula Country Club in the high winds. But he said it was all part of the “beauty of the tournament.”

“You should only come and tee it up here this week if you’re willing to kind of have that attitude this week,” He told Renner. “There’s a lot going on. There’s amateurs, there’s the odd bounce on the greens or bobbly putts or forecast that doesn’t make sense. There’s a lot that can be thrown at you, but it’s a wonderful tournament. And I hope this tournament still continues to go from strength to strength because it offers something different to the rest of the schedule.”

I mostly agree with him that this week offers a different kind of experience, and that only those willing to embrace those 6-hour rounds should play it, though that decision has been rendered obsolete.  Guys like Justin (who had fallen outside of the Top-50 can't afford to not play) so that strength-to-strength bit seems to miss the point.

In fact, the Tour Confidential panel, which convened in its usual Sunday evening slot, led with this very issue:

1. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which will finish on Monday due to a weather delay, is played at one of the world’s most famous courses and alongside celebrities, but it’s
struggled to bring in marquee fields the past couple of years. This year, for example, it has just three top-20 players and about one-fifth of the field is in the top 100. What gives, can this be fixed, and does it bother you that one of the world’s best courses isn’t getting the love?

Sean Zak: Pebble gets plenty of love from its exorbitant greens fees. But this is a scheduling issue, a distraction issue and an elevated events issue. Players don’t seem to want to play anything more than three events in a row (or even three out of four). Players don’t seem to have huge desires for the 6-hour rounds with amateurs. It’s a different kinda event and it feels unsurprising that it earns a different kinda field.

Josh Berhow: There are lots of factors here, and the new designated events schedule certainly doesn’t help. For the guys who skipped this week and have secured spots in those big-money designated events, that means they’ll play two of the next three weeks and four of the next five. That’s a lot of golf and something has to give. And while the celebrity angle is fun for viewers at home, the fact is most of the amateurs playing are more on the business side of things and not necessarily featured on TMZ every week — and PGA Tour players tee it up in pro-ams enough as it is. It is kind of a bummer, though, because it’s fun to watch some of the best in the world play courses that we can too. (Side note: The U.S. Women’s Open there this summer should be a blast.)

Alan Bastable: Right, it’s currently in no-man’s land on the schedule, followed as it is by back-to-back designated events, and with the same-week Saudi International luring away potential Pebble commits with princely appearance fees. But Pebble’s woes extend far beyond just its spot on the calendar. Even in its heyday, it drew among the weaker fields on Tour, on account of the long rounds, unusual format and hullabaloo that at least some players have considered a distraction. The Monterey Peninsula’s highly unpredictable early-February weather hasn’t helped matters, either. Nor has Pebble’s less-than-perfect Poa greens. The easiest fix would be to designate the event, but as Jordan Spieth pointed out earlier this week, the ams-tagging-along-for-the-ride format doesn’t really lend Pebble to designated status; some kind of format shakeup would likely be required. So, yeah, Pebble’s in a quandary, and yeah, as Berhow says, it’s a bummer. No matter the conditions on site, for fans at home, it’s still always a treat to see the iconic links in high-def. The Women’s Open can’t get here fast enough!   

As the guys note, this event has become a tough sell for many players long before the advent of those elevated designated events, but you can see the extra strain caused by Ponte Vedra Beach.  Those top, PIP-eligible players almost couldn't play here if they wanted to, given how packed the schedule is going forward.  It's not just that the next two are "designated," but as the nice folks at Honda would remind us, it's four of the next five weeks.

That covers the fallout that can be anticipated, then come those unanticipated consequences:

But Monday also happens to be the qualifier for the $20 million WMPO at TPC Scottsdale. Blixt, who shot 72-72-64 over the first three rounds and will start the final round 7 under and tied for 13th, will cash a paycheck on the PGA Tour for the first time since last July at the 3M Open but he’ll miss out on a potential blockbuster payday at the Phoenix Open, where the winner will get $3.6 million.

Thems the breaks, as they say.

“It’s unfortunate that some participants are going to miss out of the WM Phoenix Open Monday Qualifier due to the weather issues they have been experiencing at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am,” said Bill Ibrahim, the COO of the Southwest Section PGA. “With a Monday finish now slated for that event, a large number of the 31 participants registered in both are inside the cut line and thus will not be able to be here. With the WM Phoenix Open the first designated event of the year, I assume it hurts a little more missing out on trying to qualify with the uncertainty of these designated events in the future.

“It’s just bad luck for these gentlemen but as the old saying goes, ‘you can’t control mother nature’. Hopefully it stings a little less since those making the cut are at least making a check this week.”

No, but it wouldn't sting quite the same had the purse in Phoenix not been artificially enhanced.... 

Joel Beall has a deep dive on the decline of this event:

Jordan Spieth is playing this week. So is Viktor Hovland and reigning U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick. The high-profile attractions end there; they are the only players in the World top 20
competing in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am … and Spieth and Hovland are here in part to satisfy their respective sponsors. Widening the circle to the top 50 doesn’t add many more names (Seamus Power, Tom Hoge, Kevin Kisner and Kurt Kitayama, for those scoring at home) to the list. There are just 21 in the top 100 and more than half the field is ranked outside the top 300.

Shocking as those figures are, they aren’t an aberration. According to the Official World Golf Ranking, Pebble ranked 38th out of 47 PGA Tour events last year in strength of field. The season before that it was 41st. For a tournament whose history is intertwined with celebrity and fame, it’s a tad ironic there’s a shortage of golf stars who warrant marquee billing. And it begs the question of why the pro-am has lost its luster? Or, perhaps more importantly, can the tournament regain its shine?

Obviously the key player is to be found in that pin flag above.  They've continued their sponsorship as the fields have deteriorated, but the path ahead seems problematic.  Beall does a pretty good job of laying out all the issues, including this particular sponsor's importance:

Though the current PGA Tour season has seen the advent of designated events, the schedule
moving forward is likely to undergo drastic change, multiple sources familiar with the tour’s planning told Golf Digest this week. “The biggest thing about 2023 is that it gets us to 2024,” one player said—a nod to the alterations made last August against the emergence of LIV Golf. Multiple sources with the tour insist the schedule for 2024 and beyond remains a work in progress.

What seems to be universally acknowledged is that AT&T, the sponsor at Pebble Beach as well as backer of the Byron Nelson event played in Dallas in May, will be taken care of. The company has been a loyal partner to the tour since 1986, and its former chairman, Randall Stephenson, is on the tour’s Board of Directors. There’s an obligation to reward this loyalty, multiple sources around the tour suggest.

The assumption seems to be that Pebble will be a designated event in 2024, though that guy pimping for the sponsor seems to sense that it's, at best, an awkward fit:

On Wednesday Jordan Spieth expressed his desire to see the pro-am get some love, but acknowledged the challenges in doing so.

“I don't know exactly how it could work because I don't even know how it's all going to work in any elevated event going forward. And that's trying to be figured out soon,” Spieth, who is endorsed by AT&T, said. “This is the unique one where it's a pro-am. Most of the tournaments are going to want to be an elevated event. I would imagine even if that requires a little more of a [financial] commitment, I don't think AT&T would shy down from that. … It’s a little trickier than your typical elevated event, given the format. But I think something can be done. I think it's extremely important that it does get done here.”

Spieth makes a valid, politically correct point. The “am” of the pro-am is not loved by all, so requiring everyone to play that format if the tournament becomes a designated event seems unlikely. Likewise, amateurs are part of this tournament’s heritage, and multiple tournament officials assert they will not sacrifice that element to chase designated status. The tournament’s focus on celebrities is occasionally ridiculed, particularly when they’re shown more than tour pros on the television broadcast. Yet, as one tournament official pointed out Thursday, two of the biggest galleries were seen following actor Jason Bateman and football star Gareth Bale. During lean years like this, A-list amateurs are part of the on-site sell ... sometimes more than the players.

All sorts of things are thrown at the wall, including a date swap with the Farmer's, which might at the least consign the most painful day of televised golf to a Friday, assuming they keep the Saturday finish), as well as shrinking to two courses, so they'll get three rounds on Pebble, though the latter would limit field size.

Quite the mess you've gotten us into, Jay!  That sound you hear is Der Bingle spinning in his grave....

The Stone Age - Easily the funniest story of the last few days, though your humbler blogger is suitably chastened that his laziness allowed the scandal to be resolved before I could cover it here.  The story broke on Saturday as I was in the air:

One of St. Andrews’ most famous landmarks seems to have undergone changes

With Chief Inspector Dawson safely put out to pasture, what have they done now?

So, some history first:

Originally constructed at least 700 years ago, the bridge helped shepherd livestock over the burn, but has taken on added significance at the “Home of Golf.” It’s customary for winners of tournaments at the Old Course to stand and wave at the crowds from the bridge as they walk down the final hole.

It’s also been the setting of famous farewell moments for Open champions such as Jack Nicklaus in 2005, Tom Watson in 2010 and most recently Woods last July.

Needless to say, it gets a ton of traffic, the Open being the least of it.  During normal play, you should assume that a group of Japanese tourists will hog the bridge for photos between every group and on Sunday, Old Tom's day of rest for the course, a line forms for photo ops.  So, of course:

There are three other crossings for the burn on 1 and 18, but the Swilcan bridge is by far the most popular method for those chasing their tee shots on 18. Given the traffic the bridge receives, the patio approaches were likely added to ease the wear and tear on the turf surrounding the entries to the bridge.

The turf issue is very real, but so is that 700 years of history, and we'll turn things over to Geoff, who has much to remark upon:

  • The language would suggest this was a violation of taste, if not code: “Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.”
  • Aerial views will now turn the famous landmark into a phallic symbol. Pray for those looking out from the Old Course Hotel only to be greeted by, well, you get the idea. But I’m sure their General Manager is on top of the situation once he wraps up this week’s Official World Golf Rankings tabulations.
  •  The work mirrors that of the approach to the Old Course bunkers, which is generally too circular, clean, unnatural and battling nature in often unimaginable ways.
  • The Old Course is an ancient course deserving an approach carried out by stonemasons with a sense of place and creativity. It’s disturbing that this did not happen.
  • There are so many non-stone solutions to high traffic areas today. And while the Links Trust statement notes how some of these have been tried, a visit to the upcoming Golf Industry Show might be a good idea for those in charge. This is how the entry looked last summer to a bridge crossed by every golf great (except Hogan!):

Yeah, and this is the promised photo showing the typical turf condition:

What folks typically don't know is that fescue is actually very fragile, and doesn't hold up well to heavy foot and/or cart traffic.  

But the memesters are gonna meme, and it got nasty very quickly.  We haven't heard from Lumpy in a while, so good to know he's still bringing the goods:

This looks more in keeping with Old Tom's vision:

Just don't look to the right, otherwise you'll see what they've done to Old Tom's shop.

And this I suppose was inevitable: 

I hate to draw conclusions from such a small sample size, but you could almost get the sense that folks hate it.   Shockingly, the Links Trust came to the same conclusion and, even more shockingly, they seem to have cared:

I got here after the fire had been put out, but the TC gang got there in the middle, and not sure they come off all that well as a result:

5. One of the most famous bridges in golf was trending over the weekend as photos were snapped of a stone pathway leading up to the historic Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews’ Old Course. The St. Andrews Links Trust clarified on Sunday that the project, while not complete, has not touched the bridge and is to fix a spot that receives heavy foot traffic throughout the year. Your thoughts on the newest potential addition to the Old Course?

One of?  Folks will jump in with the named Augusta bridges, but this is the most important bridge in golf, hands down. 

Zak: Get over it, folks! Your photos are going to look the same. Having seen the lines of people stomping around the bridge all summer long, this makes plenty of sense to me. It’ll look better every month that passes.

Berhow: I feel like it would be naive to think a little standard maintenance wouldn’t be needed here and there. I won’t lose sleep over this.

Bastable: The extension is a little jarring — it looks as if the bridge is melting onto the turf — and also diminishes some of the structure’s no-frills simplicity. But I’d also assume St. Andrews’ minders know far more about bridge maintenance than I ever will. If visitors really abhor it, there’s a simple fix: crop it out of your photos.

This is exactly why we have social media, no?   Aren't we better off because folks didn't get over it?  

Now, how do I turn the social media Tartar hordes on Old Tom's shop, in which more actual golf history transpired than anywhere else on the planet without actual grass?  If we're going to preserve the game's history, how about restoring this wee little shop?

LIV Scat - You didn't think we could get through a post without at least a passing reference to the bonecutters, didja?  First, there's litigation posturing, as the Tour is dissatisfied with the fruits of discovery to date:

Attorneys representing the PGA Tour in its lawsuit against LIV Golf are seeking a new, later trial date along with an extension to the document discovery process.

The tour’s request, filed Sunday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, cites the additions of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and its governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan as defendants in the tour’s tortious interference counterclaim—and the tour’s accusations that PIF and Al-Rumayyan have gone to “extraordinary steps to avoid producing a single document or providing sworn testimony”—as the reasons for asking for an extension.

“The tour cannot—and should not be forced to—defend against the antitrust claims without receiving any discovery from the people who created LIV in the first place, and who continue to exercise control over every facet of LIV’s business operations,” the request reads. “By ignoring the reality that discovery from LIV’s owners and decision-makers is essential to resolving the antitrust claims, Plaintiffs confirm the unworkability of the current schedule.”

Document discovery is supposed to be completed by the end of March, but the tour is requesting a six-month extension. A tentative date for summary judgment in the antitrust case is set for July 23, where the tour will likely seek to dismiss the case. The trial date is expected to begin on Jan. 8, 2024, but in requesting an extension of the discovery deadline, the tour is also seeking to push back this date as well.

No surprise here, though they're calling out this guy as well:

The tour also alleges that some of the LIV Golf members who were formerly a part of the antitrust lawsuit against the tour have not fully complied with document requests. One of the players singled out is Phil Mickelson.

“Mickelson is the former lead plaintiff in this action, and he accepted service of a subpoena for documents in October. Yet, to date, Mr. Mickelson has produced fewer than 600 documents, some of which are materials the tour sent to Mr. Mickelson, copies of the complaint and discovery requests, and junk files with no content,” the request reads. “Text messages Mr. Mickelson has produced were initially missing important metadata. More importantly, Mr. Mickelson has failed to produce core responsive documents, such as those detailing his contract negotiations with LIV, communications with his agent, communications with the media regarding interviews in which he discussed his decision to leave the tour, and communications with his then sponsors following his decision to join LIV. These materials should have been produced long ago.”

You know they're gonna squeeze Phil to the maximum extent allowable, and for good reason.  And the LIV attorneys are apparently shocked to find gambling in Casablanca:

Lawyers for the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially supported by the Public Investment Fund argued “the Tour is exploiting litigation delay to choke off air to LIV and players” and that the current timeframes are “not only workable, but critical to the careers of the Player Plaintiffs and the viability of LIV as a legitimate competitor to the Tour.”

This is why antitrust suits take decades, so perhaps they want to simply comply with the Tour's requests to keep things moving?   

As I've pointed out since Day One, unless they can get injunctive relief (which was summarily shot down) or help from the Justice Department, it's hard to see where this suit could yield relief in a time frame that would help them, unless the Saudis want to fund this until the 2030's.

The TC panel threw out a question that's amusing given the results from the weekend:

2. Phil Mickelson made his 2023 debut at this week’s PIF Saudi International, called last year an “anomaly” but said this year he’s ready to play. “I’m optimistic to see a whole different outlook, a whole different game, a whole different competitiveness,” he said. Mickelson has also been much more active on social media, a far cry from what we saw from him last year. What does this tell us about Phil, and what do you expect from Mickelson in 2023?

It tells us that he's lying any time his lips move...

Zak: Hahaha, yes, ACTIVE on social. Phil and I had some social media fun this week. I think it’s extremely telling. He’s going to keep it up, too. And if I had to guess, he’ll probably stumble a bit and piss some people off in the process. I expect him to play better than 2022. It’s a low bar to clear. I hope he contends in a LIV event. I think it’d be fun. I hope it doesn’t happen at the same time as an exciting PGA Tour finish.

Berhow: It seems like he’s reverting back to his pre-February 2022 form on Twitter, but at 52, it’s fair to wonder how competitive he’ll be on the course (he missed the cut this week, by the way). It will be interesting to see how he plays at the Masters. Remember, he wasn’t there last year, so that’s a whole new storyline we’ll get, too. Course familiarity obviously helps, but he doesn’t have a top 10 in his past six starts there.

Bastable: Wild week. This time last year, in the wake of Mickelson’s incendiary remarks to Alan Shipnuck, we thought we might never hear Phil freewheel again. Now, he’s back on Twitter, popping off more takes than Stephen A. Smith, and using interviews and press conferences to hint at revelations that will soon set him free, presumably via LIV’s lawsuit against the PGA Tour. His candor in such a public forum is surprising given it’s his loose lips that landed him in golf purgatory to begin with, but then again … Phil gonna Phil. He was never going to restrain himself in perpetuity. As for his game, as Mickelson describes it, he’s been honing his shot-shaping with coach Andrew Getson and hasn’t felt as good about his form since he won at Kiawah in 2021. It would be outrageously fun to watch Mickelson, now comfortably in his 50s, mount another charge or two at Augusta, but against the likes of Rory, Rahm and Cam, it’s also really hard to fathom that happening.

He might be active again on social media, but only after blocking anyone who disagreed with him....Tree, forest!

Future Shock - As George Costanza famously asked, do they know about shrinkage?  Eamon Lynch previews the future, and it sounds like our unlamented past:

As your humble blogger has been saying for a year now, the changes made to fight off the LIV threat are going to hurt the Tour, ironically making it look much like LIV.  But let's allow Eamon to explain:

The quest to find opportunity amid insoluble problems has been turning Jay Monahan’s altar-boy
coif from silver to white as he tries to shape the PGA Tour schedule – designated events and not – around constituencies that are always competing but not always convivial.

Like the Goliaths, who understand the competitive need for Davids but who aren’t eager to share too much of the pot with them. And the Davids, who dominate a member-led organization. And sponsors, who object to the perception of a tournament caste system if theirs isn’t among the chosen. And tournament operators, whose financial benchmarks aren’t as flexible as the whims of Tour players.

The interests of all of the aforementioned factions collide at one intersection: field sizes at designated Tour events. Or more specifically, the reduction thereof.

It hasn't been a good year for the Davids, though 2023 will be a far better year for them than 2024, a bit that I had previously missed:

Since “designated” status was a late addition to the 2023 schedule, the Tour announced that field sizes at elevated stops would remain unchanged. That will not be the case in ’24, and the winnowing of that number is one of the more contentious and complicated issues Monahan must tackle.

The objective of designated events isn’t only to bring the best players together more often – that’s the consumer-facing rationale – but to ensure they’re paid more. That means dividing the $20 million purses among fewer pockets. It also means paying top talent, even if they miss the cut. Both concepts are under discussion for designated events next year. Try selling journeymen on the idea that they’ll have fewer playing opportunities while top tier guys make bank even if they can’t play well enough to make the weekend.

There are 135 players in the field this week, and Eamon documents the chaff in the filed, including the guy pictured above.  But the operative question is, how small are these fields going to get?

Numerous insiders say that top players initially suggested field sizes for designated events be capped at 70 but the actual number next year is likely to be around 80, something similar to the old World Golf Championships. Apply that to the traditional field at a WM Phoenix Open, and 50-odd guys would be getting an unwelcome week off work. And that’s just the visible fiscal impact of cutting field sizes. Tournament operators won’t relish a reduction either since fewer tee times throughout the day makes it tougher to meet food and beverage revenue targets. This is trickle-down economics in action.

Egads, they're going to turn their top events at their most iconic venues into glorified exhibitions.  The sponsors will be expected to kick in more money while losing revenue opportunities, and I just can't see this as helping the cause.

To me, this is all on Tiger and Rory.  OK, maybe not all, but I do think this is a looming disaster for the Tour, and I'm a little shocked that they can't see it coming.

To me, the blood money argument has always been a bit of a sideshow, which obscures that LIV's vision for our game is dreadful, comprising limited field events (54-holes is a disgrace, but of a lesser import) that are nothing more than exhibitions.  The Tour's position should be that it's top spot on a competitive pyramid, allowing new talent to rise through their performance.  To the extent that Jay starts dramatically curtailing field sizes and opportunities, the Tour turns into that which we've been justifiably criticizing with LIV.  Hard to see a reason to tune in...

We'll leave you on this depressing note.  I'll have more this week, including the bad news of a disruption to our blogging schedule.

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