Friday, March 24, 2023

Late-Week Logorrhea - Group Play Edition

Don't blame me for the late arrival at the keyboard.... Let's see you try to dislodge a 15-lbs. kitty from your lap....

Bracket, Busted - Can't be helped, as Bobby D. is the only guy I know who had Princeton beating Arizona.... What?  Oh, sorry, wrong bracket...

I've certainly enjoyed the first two days of the Match Play, though this is really the first time I've felt the absence of the LIV gaggle.  This comes in the form of surprise that certain players are even there, not mention shock at how highly ranked certain players are.  As an example, Kiwi Ryan Fox obviously belongs in the filed, but as a B-player?  He's seeded No. 29, which seems about twenty-five slots too high to this observer.

While your humble blogger strongly prefers the feral single-elimination format, the key day in pool play is Friday, so you'd think the major golf websites would be all over the iterations and permutations possible today, but you'd be wrong.  Of the big three, only Golf Digest can be bothered summing it up:

Here's where all 16 groups stand as we approach a frantic Friday at WGC-Match Play

Combine the deep-sixing of this event with the absence of cuts in those Designated Events next year, and we have a new count in the indictment against LIV.  To wit, they've ruined Fridays...

This one is more than a little amusing:

Group 3: Rory McIlroy's 18th-hole eagle closed out Denny McCarthy, leaving him 2-0 and needing a win or a tie vs. Keegan Bradley on Friday to advance. Bradley, who has struggled so mightily for so long at this event, got a massive 6-and-5 win over Scott Stallings on Thursday, eliminating Stallings in the process. That sets him up in a showdown match with Rory McIlroy on Friday, a rematch of their Ryder Cup bout.

That would be this eagle:

That's pretty damn good, though can't the FBI get Twitter to deplatform all those calling it the greatest drive in golf ever?   As a rule for life, the best whatever by definition cannot happen in group play of this event.... It's amusingly quite like that drive DJ hit in Kapalua a few years back, impressive yet insignificant.

But did you scratch your head at that Ryder Cup reference?  That was the famous incident in 2012 when Rory damn near missed his tee time, dusting Keegs without so much as a warm-up.... 

But when you say Keegan has struggled in this event, shouldn't we be revisiting that last year at Dove Mountain and that Best. Match. Ever?  That was the famous Keegs-Miggy consolation match in which a confrontation with the Spaniard over a drop ended with Keegan sulking in his courtesy car with his girlfriend's lapdog providing solace.... 

Lots of folks liked that terrific penis' chances, but if that lefty putts well (and when doesn't he?)...

Group 4: Here we have the simplest of scenarios: Patrick Cantlay and Brian Harman are both 2-0, and will face off for the group win. Should they tie, it's an instant sudden death playoff. There's history here too—in 2021, Cantlay beat Harman in group play in a red-hot match for both, but then lost to him in a playoff on Friday. The revenge narrative is real. Needless to say, K.H. Lee and Nick Taylor are both eliminated at 0-2.

That lack of depth referenced above can be readily seen here:

Group 7: Here we have a group with just one player at 2-0, and that player is Andrew Putnam (56), the lowest seed of the lot. Win or draw against Harris English, and he's through to the weekend. At 1-1, Ryan Fox (facing a lame duck in 0-2 Will Zalatoris) and English need to win and hope; both could win outright or meet each other in a playoff if Putnam stumbles.

Group 8: This is a classic "not how we drew it up!" situation, where the two lowest seeds, Si Woo Kim and Matt Kuchar, are the only two left alive. Kuchar had a brilliant chance to join Kim at 2-0, but blew it on the last hole against Chris Kirk to settle for a tie. Nevertheless, he's in with a win over Kim on Friday in their head-to-head battle, while Kim goes through with a win or a tie.

This ne as well, mostly because Matthew Fitzpatrick has been so off hisd feed:

Group 11: If you had 61-seed J.J. Spaun absolutely rolling Matt Fitzpatrick (5 and 3) and Sahith Theegala (5 and 4) in consecutive days to seize control of the group, well ... congratulations, because nobody else did. Still, Spaun is the alpha here, and has guaranteed himself a spot in a playoff at worst. If he beats or ties Min Woo Lee, he's through to the weekend, while Lee and Fitzpatrick both have to win and then fight through a playoff. This is Spaun's group, and we're all just living in it.

We've been big on epitaphs lately, and this group could serve that function for this event:

Group 16: After being absolutely waxed by Sungjae Im on Wednesday, Maverick McNealy fought tooth and nail against Tommy Fleetwood, but was eliminated on the 18th hole when Fleetwood's last putt fell. That means that 2-0 J.T. Poston will advance with a win or tie against McNealy, or if Im can't beat Fleetwood. Even if Im wins and Poston loses, the worst the Postman can do is a playoff.

You know how J.T,. Poston draws those eyeballs....

Today is the last fun day of match play for....well, apparently, forever.  The weekend drags for this event, the only hope being that we get a couple of match-ups of sufficient interest to justify tuning in.  We've got enough of the show ponies on form that we can enjoy it for that which it is, but also as an indicator of prospects in a couple of weeks....

Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out - Bob Harig pens athisode:

Twenty-four years after their inception, the WGCs will end with the Match Play at Austin Country Club.

What's that in dog years?

Of course, this subject requires an irony alert, because of that Aussie still raging against the machine:

The WGCs date to 1999 and their origin has a current-day tie-in with Greg Norman, the World Golf Hall of Fame member who is now the commissioner and CEO of LIV Golf—which at the very least has had an indirect impact on the PGA Tour and its move to the designated events.

Norman, when he was in the prime of his career, had proposed an alternative tour in 1994 that would have brought the top players in the world together in a series of big-money tournaments with no cuts.

Called the World Golf Tour, Norman had financing, network TV and a plan for eight tournaments to begin in 1995. Those events would have 40-player fields with the majority taken from the world rankings, then sponsored by Sony. There would also be 10 sponsor exemptions.

Make sure to have a hankie at the ready for this one:

“He hung me out to dry," Norman said then. His last Tour victory came at the 1997 NEC, which two years later was turned into one of the WGCs which eventually became the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Hey, at least he didn't propose a meeting at the Istanbul consulate.... 

What Harig avoids is any discussion of how dreary these events were, making this all the more curious:

“Obviously we’ve got big changes coming next year. And it sounds like it will replace that. At the end of the day, you want the best players in the world playing week in and week out and those are going away right now."

 I had been reliably informed that anything what walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

The WGCs were limited-field events with no cuts that attracted the best players in the world because of their outsized purses.  The Designated Events are limited-field, no cut events that will attract the best players in the world.... The definition of insanity remains doing the same things and expecting different results. 

Be Rory's Ball - I certainly have issues with the changes to Tour events that he's spearheading, but you have to credit the man for considering the wider implications:

“I’ve been pretty adamant that I don’t really want the governing bodies to touch the recreational golfer because we need to make this game as not intimidating and as much fun as possible,” he
said, “just to try to keep the participation levels at an all-time high. So, I’m glad in this new proposal that they haven’t touched the recreational golfer.

“But for elite-level play, I really like it. I really do. I know that’s a really unpopular opinion amongst my peers, but I think it’s going to help identify who the best players are a bit easier. Especially in this era of parity that we’ve been living in these past couple of decades. You guys (at No Laying Up) use the term ‘golf has been dumbed down a little bit at the elite level,’ and I completely agree. I think you’re gonna see people with more well-rounded games succeed easier than what the game has become, which is a bit bomb and gouge over these last few years.”

Ya think?  I think he's right about this as well:

“Selfishly, I think it helps me,” he said. “I think this is only gonna help the better player. You know, it might help the longer player too, in some ways. But I think it’s going to help the overall professional game. I think making guys hit some long irons again, and some mid irons, and being able to hit every club in your bag in a round of golf. … I can’t remember the last time when I’ve had to do that. I don’t know if this change in the ball will make us do that, but it certainly is a step closer to that.”

But this was the most interesting bit....  While I don't necessarily think he would do so, it does show the logic by which the Tour will likely come to:

“Honestly, for me, the major championships are the biggest deal,” he said, “so if the PGA Tour doesn’t implement it, I might still play the Model Local Rule ball, because I know that that’ll give me the best chance and the best preparation leading into the major championships. And again, this is personal preference and personal opinion at this stage of my career. I know that I’m gonna be defined by the amount of major championships that I hopefully will win from now until the end of my career. And that’s the most important thing for me.

“If that gives me the best chance to succeed at the major championships and feel as prepared as I possibly can be, then that’s what I would do.”

There's nothing that requires the Tour to play under USGA rules or to employ that Model Local Rule.  But it's hard to imagine that the governing bodies would recommend it for elite players and the Tour would demur.... effectively denying that their players are elite.

 Geoff had some pointed comments:

This left room for Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth or some other generational major winner to make the case and quickly shame the PGA Tour and PGA of America for stupendous point-missing. Spieth failed. Big time. But McIlroy delivered the dagger via No Laying Up where, unlike the major media outlets still hoping to score ad deals with the companies, the upstart influencers have staked out a credible safe place where a guest will have have their sensitive views spliced, diced or bookended by gibberish about planting more trees.

As I noted here, McIlroy delivered an unassailable case to anyone who isn’t on a manufacturer payroll or hoping to save ad deals with companies never happy even when they get their way. McIlroy craftily embarrassed the long list of complainers and confused corporatists who’ve been in full pretzel mode since last Tuesday, making asses of themselves to keep the flow of free custom logoed golf balls coming their way. Gosh, grown men can be so shallow.

But I have great news for those on the losing side of this debate: the big companies already have researched, developed and patented balls that should pass the test whenever they get over themselves and make the Model Local Rule ball. Even better, the companies will sell a ball that passes the new tests in January 2026 and might even make money doing so. They’ll even still have the ability to stamp your stupid nickname or special number. Mitzvah!

Compare Rory's thoughtfulness to this guy's reaction:

“It’s so bad for the game of golf,” Justin Thomas said before the Valspar Championship.

 A reminder, this was the guy that asserted a God-given right to play quickly in order to use a playing partner's ball as a backstop..... That's is actually bad for the game of golf, but do tell, JT!  Though perhaps this is something you might want to talk over with your new BFF...

LIV Scat - Uh, oh, the mean girls are at it again:

Documents submitted late Wednesday night in U.S. federal court include a LIV Golf accusation
that the PGA Tour intervened in its dealings with potential broadcast networks.

“Based on (PGA Tour) documents and other sources, LIV believes Mr. Pascal used illegal means to dissuade numerous broadcasters in international markets from signing broadcast contracts with LIV and even from reporting about LIV events in their news content,” LIV lawyers claim in the filing, referring to Thierry Pascal, the PGA Tour’s managing director for international media./

More from the filing: “Time and again, after the live meeting or phone call, the broadcaster did an about-face and informed LIV the negotiations (in one case, a signed contract) could not proceed. Because of his conduct and his efforts to conceal it, Mr. Pascal is a foundational witness whose testimony will inform later discovery in important ways.”

The lawyers for the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund did not mention the media company which signed a contract in the filing, but did state that because of the Tour’s actions, LIV was forced to sign “with a secondary network,” referring to the CW Network, which signed a multi-year revenue-sharing TV deal with LIV in January. Golfweek was first to report LIV was nearing a deal with Fox Sports last September.

So CW is a secondary network?  So, when you looked us in the eye and told us what a massive coup that rights deal was, you were lying?  Oh my God, this is so disillusioning....

Thomas Pieters was their big get this offseason, and the Belgian had some interesting comments about his decision.  Apparently he was a lonely boy in his time on the PGA Tour:

For Pieters, that wasn’t life on the PGA Tour. He loved his time in college at Illinois, where he won the individual national title in 2012, but he got lonely on the Tour.

“As a kid you obviously dream about playing on the PGA Tour, winning golf tournaments. I played a year on the PGA Tour. I did not like it,” he said. “I got very homesick, very lonely, so for me that was kind of like tick the box, I tried it over there, wasn’t my thing and then LIV came around right at the right time.

“Everybody who was playing on it last year that I talked to said it was very exciting, new and that was something that really spoke to me. You can’t lie about it financially, it’s amazing, and it was something as a family, father of two daughters, as well with my girlfriend, it’s awesome to have such good schedule, as well.”

Pieters made it clear he didn’t hate the PGA Tour and loved playing in events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, but when the round was finished, he was lonely, and never experienced that in Europe on the DP World Tour.

I wonder if the Euro Tour still features that level of camaraderie, but many of the guys struggle to adapt to tour life.  But is this helpful to his cause?

Pieters opened up while talking about his journey through professional golf and what his future may or may not look like, providing a unique perspective compared to those of his professional golf colleagues.

“I’ve done 10 years of being on the road and trying to achieve my dreams. I’m not Rory McIlroy, I’m not Tiger Woods, I’m not going to be in the history books or have a massive legacy, and that’s OK,” said Pieters. “I’ve made an unbelievable living out of golf, which is amazing for me and my mrs. and my kids. I don’t worry about that at all, actually. It’s just sport. It’s just golf. Happiness is so much more than just playing golf.”

If I'm the Saudis, I don't want my indentured servants talking like this....  It's a modified version of Graeme McDowell's comments about LIV featuring golf without the grind....  They seem to lose track of the concept that, if they're not grinding, there's little reason for anyone to watch.

But while I credit him for a certain honesty, look at the tortured logic on display here:

LIV Golf has long been criticized as another avenue for Saudi Arabia to sportswash its controversial human rights record, and when asked if he had any issues with the Public Investment Fund backing LIV, Pieters clapped back at those who are critical of the upstart circuit.

“I know my money comes from an American-based company,” said Pieters, referencing LIV Golf Investments, where PIF is the majority shareholder. Yasir Al-Rumayyan is the current governor of the PIF, and serves directly under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has controlled the fund since 2015.

Oh, well that's completely different, then....  Seriously, why do you even mention something like that, pretending that it's somehow exculpatory... You're taking Saudi money, you can at least own it.  Equally weaselly is this:

“I think the PIF is in about 150 boards if I’m not wrong, so anything you touch on a daily basis is funded by Saudi money, so I think it’s a bit hypocritical, some of the things that are being said,” Pieters continued. “Obviously the things that have happened, they’re horrible. I’m here to play golf. It’s not really something I want to go into. I knew that question was going to be asked, but I don’t really have an answer for that.”

So, he doesn't want to answer these questions, except to the extent that we might be willing to accept his squirrelly evasions.... offered presumably because he understands who he's enabling.

Enjoy your Match Play Friday and I'll see you on Monday.

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