Tuesday Topics

Sorry about missing you yesterday, but it remains steep and deep out here.  I just need to find a set of replacement quads....

Bay Hill - One of my favorite things about Utah is the magic of time zones.  For instance, I like being out here for the Super Bowl (didn't happen this year because they moved it back a week), because it provides a chance for me to see the finish.  That said, the one televised sport that doesn't work so well out here is golf, because it simply airs too early.

Sunday was an exception, because the mountain reported 20" and your humble blogger was on line an hour before the open.  Because of that early start, I was back here in time to watch the final round, I just decided to crash for an afternoon nap, secure in the knowledge that the event was taping (which I had confirmed before heading out).  You know how this story ends, it turns out that Xfinity is no better than Optimum, although it did tape the Puerto Rico Open.  Hey, a golf tournament is a golf tournament, right?

It seems I missed a wild day.  I won't belabor the rehash, just a couple of quick excerpts, first from the Tour Confidential gang:

3. Kurt Kitayama made a clutch par on the 72nd hole of the Arnold Palmer Invitational to win by one over Rory McIlroy and Harris English, but the leaderboard was loaded with big-time talent threatening all day on Sunday. Are you more surprised that Kitayama

picked up his first career PGA Tour victory, or more surprised by a certain pro who didn’t finish the job?

Berhow: I thought Scheffler would have played a little better. I would say I’m shocked by Jordan Spieth’s rollercoaster round, but we should be used to that by now. You have to give Kitayama a ton of credit. He’s no slouch — this was the third time he’s grabbed a 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour this season, and it’s barely March — but with a 54-hole lead and in an elevated event at a difficult course, it was hard to predict what he’d do today. Yet he got an unbelievably unlucky break on 9, made triple bogey and somehow still won a golf tournament over a bunch of proven thoroughbreds. I don’t think many people would have been surprised to see him bogey 18 and go into a three-way playoff after we saw where his drive landed, yet he almost birdied and took all the stress out of that winning putt. Who wins when they make a triple bogey on Sunday?! Nuts. Another really good elevated event that delivered.

Sens: The course was playing so tough that it wasn’t a shock to see some hiccups on Sunday though I wouldn’t have bet on Scheffler’s bogey from the fairway on 18, or Hovland’s water ball from position A on the 16th. A bigger surprise was Rahm’s tumble after an opening 65. That man has been making things look almost unfair of late. And, as Josh said, the biggest surprise of all was Kitayama. A triple and then a title? After that hole, I figured he’d take a quick exit, stage left.

Zak: Definitely more surprised that Kitayama got it done. I think he might sneaky be a baller but he woke up Sunday morning as a non-Tour-winner staring down a leaderboard of thoroughbreds. When he made that mistake on 9, that was a moment where non-winners crumble. We’ve seen it time after time. And then he pulled his tee shot on 18, and that was a moment where non-winners freak out. He didn’t freak out in either moment. Instead, he hit a fantastic shot on 18 and cruised to win. Stones!

Isn't that just so....well, golfy.  The thing about our game is that on any given Sunday....

With an extra 24 hours to contemplate, Dylan Dethier had this summary in his Monday Finish column:

Jordan Spieth was hottest off the blocks on Sunday morning, making every putt he looked at

including four birdies in his first five holes to draw within a shot of the lead. McIlroy’s bogeys at 1 and 2 seemed to doom his chances, but a stellar run of six birdies in 10 holes super-charged his Sunday. World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler lurked all the while, going backward and then forward, refusing to disappear. The Tour’s name-brand competitors hung around all day trying to assert themselves over 54-hole leader Kurt Kitayama, who was chasing his first PGA Tour victory. There was a moment that he seemed doomed, too, when his tee shot at No. 9 finished O.B. by three inches and he went on to make triple. But that would prove to be the last blemish on his card; Kitayama closed hard and wound up the deserving winner by one.

The new-look elite level of the PGA Tour is designed to pit the best players against each other all while mixing in the hottest players, ensuring the fields would reflect the Tour’s meritocratic ideals. Kitayama leapt to World No. 19 with the victory, by far the highest of his career. If the first three designated events highlighted thoroughbreds in form — Jon Rahm at Kapalua and Riviera, Scheffler at the WM Phoenix Open — this week’s winner highlighted the accessibility of these big-time events. There can still be life-changing wins at this level. Those are the stories that give the Tour character and texture and depth, after all. Kitayama’s win was a happy reminder that isn’t going away.

I watched a bit of the Live From The Players last night on Golf Channel, and caught a whiff of the same triumphalism about the Designated Events to date.  It seems to this observer that they're ignoring the fact that this year's events are being played with far larger fields than they will be next year.  

This is apparently the qualification metrics for 2024:

• The top 50 players from the previous year’s FedEx Cup points list
• The top 10 players not otherwise eligible using the current FedEx Cup standings
• The top 5 players not otherwise eligible earning the most FedEx Cup points between designated events
• Current year PGA Tour winners not otherwise eligible
• PGA Tour members in the top 30 Official World Golf Ranking

The point that I'd hope would get through is that this week's winner, Kurt Kitayama would have qualified, but only barely, by being No. 42 on the prior year's FedEx Cup points list.  I know this might be a little subtle for folks in PVB, but isn't that a little too close for comfort?

To me, this is another manner in which the elites have taken care of themselves.  We'll likely at some see a bold-faced name fail to qualify, perhaps due to injury.  They'll be taken care of, either by their OWGR being slower to react, or by sponsor's exemptions (yeah, not on that list, but my understanding is that they'll continue to be on offer).

What will be hard to discern is the less notable talent that falls just beyond where the line is drawn.  here you can see those just outside the top 50, which as of last August included names like Keegan Bradley, Si Woo Kim, Mackenzie Hughes and Tommy Fleetwood.  We could discuss each of these and their relative worthiness, but as Kitayama shows, any one of these guys can find something and end up holding off Jordan, Scottie and Rory.  

I think that's the irresistible allure of our game, what Alan Shipnuck referred to as utter chaos recently.  But one can see why Jordan, Scottie and Rory want to exclude that body of talent from the big money events, it leads inevitably to more money for them.  Perhaps the money is the least of it, as it will insulate their world ranking and position in the game from the riff-raff, hence our concerns about it becoming more of a closed shop.

I've inadvertently segued from our Bay Hill game story into the new Tour protocols, so let's cover an interesting thought from Dylan:

A pre-tournament announcement confirmed that in 2024, eight of the Tour’s “designated events” will feature limited fields and no cuts. This was the logical extension of the Tour’s trajectory over the last year; its changes have sought to award more money to the Tour’s top performers and ensure its stars go head to head more often, too. Eliminating a cut for these 70-80 player fields felt, to me, like a miss — a Friday cut to 50 players plus ties would trim the fat and bring some urgency to the first two rounds — but the businesspeople involved in its planning believe guaranteeing weekend appearances from top stars is a game-changer for sponsors.

Have we learned nothing?

It so happens we have today a formal announcement of the demise of the last WGC, the Dell Match Play.  Some history on those WGCs:

The WGCs were created in 1999 by the International Federation of PGA Tours as official money events on both the PGA and European (now DP World) Tours. The events were also sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour, and PGA Tour of Australasia.

The WGC-Championship was last played in 2021 as the WGC-Workday Championship while the WGC-Invitational morphed into the first FedEx Cup Playoff event starting in 2022. Meanwhile, the WGC-Match Play was given Designated status for 2023 when the PGA Tour first announced the new $20 million mega events last summer.

We have more than twenty years of WGCs, which we can agree sucked.  has anyone asked themselves why those events were so forgettable?   I've bene reliably informed that the definition of insanity is to do the same old thing expecting different results.  Yet these designated events are mirror images of the WGCs, and we expect them to be great?  

As for Dylan's specific point, sponsors can be as stupid as anyone it seems.  One of the reasons the WGCs were so uniformly dreadful was the absence of a cut, which brings urgency to those weekday rounds.  I would argue that watching a bold-faced name struggle to make the cut is great drama, and well worth the risk that they sometimes slam their trunk.  These top guys don't miss too many cuts, and with a reduced field they'll miss even fewer cuts, but what is the value to a sponsor of Rory being in the first group out on the weekend? 

Eddie Pepperell had some thoughts:

The PGA Tour’s newest changes, one pro says, could instead change LIV Golf.

“Have been thinking a bit about these latest PGAT changes and what it could mean for LIV,” Eddie Pepperell tweeted Saturday. “And I’ve concluded that I think it might embolden them.”

“Next year, effectively 98 players across both LIV and the PGAT are guaranteed to be playing for a LOT of money!” Pepperell tweeted. “And a lot more than everyone else. We know the 48 on LIV will be fixed (which is just one reason why it sucks). The PGAT will have some access in as we know..

“If however, and I’m going to use him as an example because of his current PGAT ranking and profile, Tyrell Hatton finishes where he is currently ranked on FedEx, do you think he is now more or less likely to consider an offer from LIV? Given he won’t be in next years PGAT top 50.

“There will be some very good players with high profiles who won’t finish this season in the top 50 on the FedEx. So if they want to *ensure* they are playing for the top dollars, they will likely give LIV more consideration, IMO.”

This is exactly the point I was making above using Kitayama.  That said, I'm guessing that the guys on the outside looking in will mostly not move the needle, and there's a serious limiting factor as per this from Alan Shipnuck's mailbag:

Your mention of a LIV Q school and relegation seems to imply that LIV is more or less satisfied with its current roster. Does that mean they no longer plan to aggressively court PGA Tour players? Not sure if they have room for both at this point. @baldeag06487004

The rosters are set in stone for 2023. I recently asked a LIV executive what would happen if Rory McIlroy demanded a contract, and the dead-serious answer was that there is simply no mechanism to sign him now that the season has begun. (A handful of extra players are already on-call to fill out the field in case of injury, which is why Laurie Canter teed it up in Mayakoba as Martin Kaymer continues to rehab a surgically repaired wrist.) At year’s end, LIV folks and the various captains will try to recruit new talent to fill the spots of the four relegated players and a handful of expired contracts; there are not as many multiple-year deals as widely believed. Expect a push for some higher-profile PGA Tour players. After LIV’s chaotic, beta-test season in 2022, it’s understandable why no top Tour players wanted to make the jump. LIV is counting on becoming a more attractive destination after this season plays out, with a full international schedule and a TV deal in place and a much more defined and promoted team component. We shall see.

But to me the failure is more profound.

While everyone has been decrying the Saudi blood money, I've been a lonely voice trying to reinforce how bad LIV's vision is for the game of golf.  They are holding exhibitions, albeit big money exhibitions, with golfers chosen for their Q-ratings or moral indifference, but there's no sense that they can attract a world-class field.

The Tour should be touting the integrity of the elite competitions.  Instead, they've decided to focus on their "product", ceding their most conspicuous advantage to the bonecutters.  Very strange, and just to placate (and, quite obviously, to retain) their pampered elites.  They're risking taking a binary choice of us vs. them into one that includes the increasingly attractive, None of the Above.

And did you hear the news about Pebble?  Not my favorite event of the year, but again we see the Tour spit on their own history (anyone but me remember the Western Open).  This event started as the Crosby Clambake, and you'd think the Tour would treasure that connective tissue.  But you'd be wrong when the paramount issue is to put more money in Jordan and Justin's pocket:

Bill Murray may have made his final appearance on the weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Golfweek has learned that the PGA Tour is expected to make the annual stop at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California, one of the eight designated events, beginning in 2024. As a result, the Tour is considering shortening the amateur portion to 36 holes played on Thursday and Friday only over two courses, rather than all 72 holes over three courses with a 54-hole cut to the top 30 teams. So long, celebrity Saturday.

Think about the dilemma the Tour put upon AT&T.  You can either play your historic event without any of the top players, or you can destroy a tradition 75 years in the making.  Well played!

The good news is that we have an actually elite golf tournament this week, one who it seems will feature a full field in the foreseeable future.  I'm sure they'll come up with a way to ruin it, but I'll be hoping for a tour rabbit winner, just to stick it to those elites.

Udder Stuff - Just a couple of tweets for you.  First, who's copying whom, LIV?

🚨 LIV Golf Adelaide will have a party hole set up on the 12th, similar to the 16th at WMPO #LIVGolf @7NewsAdelaide pic.twitter.com/gQ2v70QnQc

— LIV Golf Latest (@LIVGolfLatest) March 6, 2023

Welcome to the past, LIV!

Color me skeptical about this:

LIV says that two-thirds of its viewership is under 45. That’s a monumental development given the Tour’s geriatric audience and golf’s long-standing obsession with somehow attracting younger fans. The big question now is if LIV can expand its modest audience. https://t.co/ZR7Ygltp4o

— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) February 26, 2023

So you're saying that a bunch of kids tuned in to watch a gaggle of geriatric players well past their prime?  I'm sorry, I'm just not buying it...

 If so inclined, you can read this on your own:

LIV Golf executive explains delay in reporting Mayakoba viewership, why early reports were ‘incomplete’

OK, so what's next for LIV?

LIV will return to the U.S. for its second event, Marc 17-19 at the Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona.

And how are they getting on?

Arizona course set to host LIV Golf event under fire after cutting cactus down to make way for hospitality tents

 Does the equipment used to cut human bones also work on cacti?

Catch you later in the week.