Thursday Threads - Inclusivity Edition

Just a few things to mull over, then I'll send you on your way.  Fortunately, we have a Shipnick mailbag on tap, so I shan't even need to break a sweat.  What, you thought Phil was the only one that could intentionally mangle his name to maintain plausible deniability?

Phil In Phull - While every bone in my body demands I trash the guy, that was quite the performance at Augusta.  But where do I go to seel him short?

Watch out, world. Phil Mickelson is feeling himself again

Kind of reminds me of the fauxpology.... You remember, he went off to work on being the an he wanted to be.  Alas, he already was, so didn't need to break a sweat.

But give me a second to turn off my BS detector, because the constant beeping is driving me crazy:

Phil Mickelson has a tell. When he’s feeling good about his form, he’ll often take that positivity and heap praise on others. That might mean complimenting a host course’s grounds crew, calling out the

fine play of an up-and-coming amateur in the field or, as happened Wednesday at the LIV event in Singapore, gushing about a head of state.

“I think one of the greatest leaders in history was Lee Kuan Yew,” Mickelson said of Singapore’s late prime minister; Mickelson was responding to a question about why Singapore appeals to him. “I love many of the things that he has done here and many of the policies he’s implemented. I feel really good when I get here. It’s such a clean, beautiful city. The people treat us with such respect, and the golf course, it’s as well maintained a golf course as I think I’ve ever seen. It’s just incredible.”

Mickelson wasn’t done. Later in the press conference, he was asked a follow-up about how he came to admire Yew. And here, the six-time major winner really dug in, flexing every bit of his political-science acumen.

To think, I had been reliably informed that he was not a politician.....  I know, good times.

But can you point me to even one person that is buying what he's selling?  OK, make that one guy not name Bryson or Pat...

But, Phil, I gotta say, that's really quite on brand:

You might feel inclined to quibble with that last point — for all Kew’s successes, he also was viewed by some as a “benevolent dictator” who limited press freedoms, labor rights and his citizens’ right to assemble — but Mickelson is entitled to his opinion. And we’re not here to parse it. The larger point is that Phil is increasingly starting to act and sound more like Phil again. Opining. Quipping. Pontificating. Letting golf fans back in. His improved play surely has something to do with that openness but perhaps there’s more to it than that.

How did Kew come down on the mass-beheading thing?  Come to think of, how does Phil?  Alan Bastable's premise is that Phil is back on form, and on that narrow point I'll remain skeptical, and his T11 against the Adelaide field doesn't overly impress.

More substantively, Phil and his BFF Bryson are still whining about OWGR points:

“It’s going to all iron itself out because if you’re one of the majors, if you’re the Masters, you’re not looking at we should keep these guys out,” Mickelson said Wednesday ahead of LIV Golf Singapore. “You’re saying to yourself, we want to have the best field, we want to have the best players, and these guys added a lot to the tournament this year at the Masters.”

The Official World Golf Ranking, which is currently the main entryway for pros to earn exemptions into major championships without going through qualifying, has been reviewing the Saudi-backed league’s application for ranking points since the summer. Meanwhile, LIV members have seen their rankings plummet as a result, jeopardizing qualification into future majors for those who do not hold exemptions by other means.

I've always found that men like Fred Ridley and Mike Whan love to be told what their objectives are and what they should do....Of course, they're not going to be listening to Phil. because Phil's actions will have them listening to their lawyers...

But take the example of last week’s winner, Talor Gooch. Gooch was No. 35 in the world in May

2022, before joining LIV Golf. Since then, he has played in just six OWGR-recognized events and fallen to No. 59 in the ranking. Assuming he falls out of the top 60 by June, which is likely, he won’t play in any more majors this year without participating in open qualifying.

“You should realize that the OWGR is not accurate, one,” said Bryson DeChambeau when asked specifically about Gooch Wednesday. “Two, I think that they need to come to a resolution or it will become obsolete. It’s pretty much almost obsolete as of right now. But again, if the majors and everything continue to have that as their ranking system, then they are biting it quite heavily.”

Yeah, but that's what comes of listening to Greg Norman.

This is what has me doing spit takes with my morning joe.  Isn't this something you'd want to work out, yanno, before you invested that $2 billion large?

The usual rules apply, never trust content from Bubba:

“To keep [top LIV Golfers] out or to make them lose World Ranking points is not the right way to go,” added Bubba Watson. “I’ve said it, and I’m going to say it again. I believe we’ve just got to focus on the tours and our league, and the top players; if that means the PGA Tour gets 60 to 75 guys from there to be in every major, great. And if that means ten to 15 of our guys, at the end of the year, whoever has the most points get in the majors, great.

“Forget World Ranking points, just who is the best in your tour and our league and go from there. That’s how you do it. It’s simple math.”

The right way to go for whom?  Gee, I don't know, Bubba, perhaps this is something you might have thought through beforehand.

What I remember is guys like Lee Westwood acknowledging that they might be forfeiting their chances to play in any future majors, which makes Mr. Westwood a genius compared to Bubba....  

We live in an era of empty virtue signaling, but this might be the worst appeal to the DEI gods that I've yet seen:

“They’re going to have to find a way to get the best LIV players in their field if they want to have the best field in golf and be really what major championship is about,” Mickelson said. “If the World Golf Rankings doesn’t find a way to be inclusive, then the majors will just find another way to include LIV because it’s no longer a credible way.

Shack with the tip-in:

The post-Masters lull has set in but we still have major championship news. There is continued groveling from the LIV set over access to the biggest events and calls for inclusiveness from guys representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

I'm actually on the fence as to how the OWGR issue will resolve itself.  I see legitimate grounds from denying their application, mostly that a tour of 54-hole events with a 48-player field seems unworthy to this observer.  On the flip side, there will be lawyers involved.  I can see the logic for granting them points, under the theory that the strength-of-field metrics will be so low as to ensure that their world rankings will decline inevitably, just at a slower rate.

Ladies Day - The Faux-Dinah had some late drama, though it was mostly the girls screwing up on that finishing hole, so color me skeptical that it was actually helpful.  But I must admit, i was shocked by the ratings:

But first some fantastic news for the women and their opening major: the Chevron Championship peaked at 1.54 million viewers on NBC and rewarded the network for staying with the action despite a rain delay and playoff sending the event well past its allotted time. (Lilia Vu won the event in dramatic fashion and discussed her career-defining win with The Quad here.)

The Chevron story is all the more amazing given how just two years ago this was the same network leaving the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open mid-playoff during its hard, hypocritical “Women Worth Watching” push. The Olympic Club debacle was followed a few weeks later by moving the U.S. Amateur final over to NBC Sports Network (RIP) as the thrilling match reached the 34th hole.

While it’s nice to see numbers validate the decision to stay with live golf, as James Colgan noted in reporting the numbers at Golf.com, “we’re not celebrating NBC for not hanging viewers out to dry. It is both the network’s job and its responsibility to cover its tournaments through to completion.”

But for those who love the game and want to see the women’s majors thrive, it’s nice that a large viewership stayed around to see a thrilling finish and didn’t have to go searching for the remote just as things got interesting.

My guess?  1.54 million Yankees fans averting their eyes in horror....

This at a venue that Shack justifiably called vibe-free.  I don't get it, but I'm happy for them for sure.

Interestingly, per Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish feature, this week the ladies go to a venue with actual vibe, though it's of course not a major:

2. Wilshire Country Club, Hollywood Host.

Building off the Chevron’s momentum, the LPGA will take center stage in Hollywood as the JM Eagle LA Championship tees off at Wilshire Country Club. The iconic venue — which doubles as the old stomping grounds of Lilia Vu — should serve as an exciting backdrop for a deep field now fully immersed in major season.

Wilshire would have been a boss venue for the reimagined Dinah....

Shipnick, Delivered -  Shall we?

Should the Champions Tour change the age minimum to 47 so Tiger can start now? @rgen_hle

This is the best idea I’ve heard in ages. Who would say no? The Champions Tour is already struggling and the parent company, the PGA Tour, is clearly looking to cut costs: A few years ago it had three feeder tours (China, Latinoamérica and Canada) and, as of today, it’s down to one. The Tour has pushed all of its chips to the middle of the table to thwart LIV Golf, which means fewer resources (and diminished enthusiasm) to keep the Champions Tour going. Tiger playing out there in a golf cart would change everything. Of course, first he has to get healthy. But Jay Monahan will give Tiger a foot massage every morning if it will help get him to the Champions Tour sooner.

I think folks are way over-estimating Tiger's interest in playing against the round-bellies... Although Phil not being there probably increases the odds.  

Not sure this is actually the right guy:

Can somebody get Rory a phone number for Butch Harmon? @tdshambaugh

McIlroy is clearly going through a little funk, but he doesn’t need a new swing coach, he needs an exorcism. As always with Rory, the issues are mostly metaphysical. Fighting for the Tour’s honor last season clearly fired him up, but he now appears to have an emotional hangover. His annual letdown at the Masters was another kick in the teeth. Hopefully he can find a spark—the remaining major championships are about to come rat-a-tat and then Europe will need McIlroy to carry a heavy load at the Ryder Cup in September.

The obligatory Bobby Jones reference aside (you know, the one about golf being contested in an area 5-inches wide), the weaknesses in Rory's game are wedge distance control and putting, not necessarily Butch's strength.  Plus, our Butch is no longer a young man and isn't traveling, so I don't see Rory spending any time in Vegas.

Is Pat Perez back? @fakePOULTER

Form is temporary but class is permanent, which may or may not account for PP’s renaissance. Perez heard all of your jokes—not just you, Fake Poulter, but everyone—and he is even more fired-up than usual. Lock up the women, children and hair products.

N, he's actually in Singapore at the instruction of his new masters.....  So, yanno, dead to the rest of us, for which I remain grateful.

What forces Jay Monahan’s hand more: LIV looking viable commercially with events like Adelaide or LIV players finishing well in majors and forcing change in the qualification mechanisms? @MColorusso

Neither. The only things that will bring Monahan to the table to negotiate with LIV are: 1) a significant number of title sponsors abandoning the Tour, putting the operation under intense financial pressure, 2) Rory, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Tiger demanding the Commish broker a compromise. The latter seems unlikely as the top PGA Tour players are making more money than they ever dreamed of while enjoying the juice of the new elevated events (and not having to deal with the likes of Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez and other pungent personalities who went to LIV). The other scenario is more likely as the Tour continues to squeeze its sponsors harder and three-quarters of the events, the non-elevated ones, are now officially second-class. We’ll see in the coming months what the 2024 schedule looks like. The center has held during this topsy-turvy transitional season, but what the Tour looks like next year and in ’25 will tell the tale.

Everybody's favorite parlor game.  I think Alan veers deep into LIV-Saudi apologist mode, but here does a reasonably good job of briefly laying out the state of play, though the reference to 2025 amused.

I think he is spot on about not understanding the state of PGA Tour economics, though doesn't obviously get into the long grass of what happens to the vast majority of non-designated events.   For instance, Zurich just tried to solve their problem with John Daly and David Duval, so there's gonna be fall-out.  

But what is this deal that everyone thinks is out there?  The PGA Tour can't be what it's been with LIV syphoning off talent, so it kinda has to be a war to the death, no?

This probably should have been above:

#AskAlan Has the move of the LPGA’s first major completely taken away all the prestige that it once had? @TommyAPhillips

The loss of identity is the bigger issue. The Dinah Shore was synonymous with a time (early spring to kick off the season) and place (a lush course surrounded by harsh desert mountains). I didn’t think Mission Hills was a thrilling test, but it had the perfect risk-reward 18th hole with a greenside pond that birthed one of golf’s most iconic celebrations. The recreation of Poppy’s Pond in Houston felt forced and Carlton Woods looked bland on TV, but golf fans didn’t seem to mind—the ratings were fantastic. So hopefully this is the start of a successful era and the tournament can forge another identity.

What he calls identity I call history.  Then again, none of their top players really contended and the course looked featureless, yet folks tuned in.  

Would you jump in the lake? @sapolicious

Eventually, but that’s what caddies are for: I’d definitely send mine in first to see if any alligators were hiding in the muck.

Two words: Alligator nets.

Is Greg Norman owed an apology for identifying flaws with the PGA Tour and opening up a whole new market and possibilities for golf? Whether you personally like him or not, surely it’s time for people to admit he’s made some smart business moves that are benefiting golf globally. @_Azzarati_

Well, Norman did have the idea for a world tour way back in 1994, although he was pretty light on the details. The framework of what became LIV Golf was birthed in 2014 by a London financier/golf obsessive named Andy Gardiner. He had some very smart lieutenants who eventually switched teams and helped the Saudis fine-tune the LIV model. Everything was more or less in place when Norman was hired to serve as the frontman. He has little power—the head of the Public Investment Fund, His Excellency Yassir al-Rumayyan calls all the shots. But Norman’s energy and salesmanship have certainly helped launch LIV into the public’s consciousness, and the players love having an equal who listens to and understands their concerns. He has been an important part of LIV, but I don’t think Norman will be getting too many personal apologies.

My record on calling out Norman's BS speaks for itself, but he is a figurehead at best.  But the questioner has it backwards, he didn't identify weaknesses in the PGA Tour, though he may be triggering them to destroy themselves, so well done, Sharkie.

Did you get the sense Adelaide was a watershed moment for a lot of the players? It felt like they were able to perform much more freely without all the hate and that showed in the standard of play and excitement for everyone watching. @leeky8acow

No doubt the big crowds (below) and palpable excitement were a huge morale booster. There had been a lot of grumbling at the start of the year among the players over changes to the team compensation model and some of LIV’s belt-tightening measures, and then the Orlando muni was embarrassingly bad. Adelaide washed away a lot of that, and good crowds are expected again this week in Singapore. It’s increasingly clear that LIV will be a big draw in overseas markets starved for golf. The tournaments in U.S. cities that have been ignored by the PGA Tour, like Portland and Chicago, have been lively too. LIV would be wise to avoid Florida and Arizona and other places where fans are accustomed to Tour events. Adding tournaments in Japan, Korea and South Africa is a no-brainer. If LIV evolves into a true world tour, it’s a more appealing product that becomes significantly different from the PGA Tour.

Has Alan been reading my criticism, because I find him much more even-handed in this mailbag installment.  I agree with his take that, as encouraging as it undoubtedly is, the Adelaide crowds were more about a golf-starved region than it was about LIV.

The problem, though, is obvious.  Remember when they took the Match lay to Melbourne?  A world tour sounded great, but nobody wanted to make the trip, including the international players.  It's hard to make anything economically viable without the U.S. TV market, so the longer they stay in Australia and Asia, the further out of mind they are.

To me, this equates to their Masters success.  It was a home run for them, but mores the pity because it doesn't really change anything.  They're still stuck with a model that doesn't work.

Geez, somebody give me a warning if we're gonna get all existential:

Why do you think people play golf? @DavidEmerick3

Because they’re gluttons for punishment. And hopeless romantics. For the camaraderie, the trash talk, the money games, the beers, the cigars. The chance to walk in some of the most beautiful settings on the planet. Because the sound of a ball rattling around the bottom of the cup is still thrilling even after a lifetime of making putts. For that elusive but life-affirming feeling of the middle of the clubface. Because golf is the the perfect mind-body test, requiring power, grace, concentration, confidence, coordination, focus, belief, strategy, daring and so much more. People play golf because it is the greatest game ever invented, and nothing else is even close.

Not bad, Alan.  I especially liked this:

For that elusive but life-affirming feeling of the middle of the clubface.

The camaraderie and the competition, for sure.   But the older I get, the less invested I am in the numbers but the more needy I am for that feeling of solid contact.  

No plan as to whether I'll blog tomorrow or not, post-Masters lull and all.  Worst case, we'll catch up on Monday.

Tuesday Teasers - Microblogging Edition

I wasn't sure whether I'd blog today, as it's a fairly content-free moment in the golf metaverse.  But, have you seen the Yankees lately?  So, just a couple of bits for your delectation....

The Year That Was - Alan Shipnuck has replaced Geoff Shackelford as the most-cited source on this blog, amusing in the sense that I would seem to be the last guy on the planet to make common cause with two such archetypes of SoCal lefties.... But, in my defense, that Mailbag of Alan's sure is some sweet, low-impact blogging...

In any event, Alan has scrutinized his navel and decided that the world needs to revisit his last year, and I'll admit there are some juicy bits.  Of course, there is commercial interest involved, as this becomes the addendum to the release of the paperback edition of his Phil biography.  I'm sure you'd be clicking on that Amazon link, though just a reminder that Alan has admitted that the juiciest bits he knows aren't in the book.  Rather a weird sales pitch to this observer...

So, Alan has this piece up at his new home:

Me and Mickelson, Revisited

In this exclusive excerpt from the new “Phil” paperback, the author reflects on the turbulent last year for himself and the protagonist of the book

I didn't realize that English isn't Alan's first language, because I assume each and every one of my readers recoiled in horror, screaming, "It's Mickelson and Me, you bloody ignoramus"....

Alan ledes with his last-minute decision to head to London to cover that first LIV event, including this story that still amuses:

After the round Mickelson journeyed to an interview area outside the press tent. I had my credential scanned to gain access to this roped-off spot, like every other reporter. I arrived just as Mickelson stepped to the microphone. Reporters and cameramen were already standing two- and three-deep against a metal railing, so I took my spot in the back row. Just as Mickelson began answering the first question, I felt some jostling to my right. I ignored it, assuming this was a persnickety cameraman trying to squeeze into the front row, which happens. Then a meaty hand squeezed my arm. Annoyed, I pulled it away without even looking back. Then someone grabbed my other arm. That was when I realized that I had been bracketed by a pair of neckless security goons. “We need to scan your badge,” one of them said.

I kept my eyes on Mickelson and said, “I’m good. It just got scanned two minutes ago.”

They tried to pull me backward, but drawing upon the swim move taught by my high school basketball coach, I wriggled free and stood my ground. Now these ear-pieced thugs grabbed me harder.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I growled.

This worked, momentarily, and they loosened their grasps. But the balder, uglier of the two gents elbowed his way directly in front of me and said, with some heat, “We’re going to need to scan your badge. Right now.”

Bet you didn't knw that golf was a contact sport.  But what I find interesting and amusing is that he thinks he needs to explain n detail why he went along with the goons:

I suddenly became aware that some reporters were ignoring Mickelson and now watching my antagonists and me. In that split second I ran a quick cost-benefit analysis in my mind. The preceding four months—from the publication of the excerpts and then the release of this book and corresponding hoopla—had been an exceptionally turbulent time. A reporter’s job is to tell the story, not become it, but the revelations in this book and the upheaval it wrought for Mickelson put me at the center of the storm. The last thing I wanted was to make more headlines by rolling around in the dirt with a couple of security guards in front of the global golf press, so I decided to play peacemaker. I walked on my own volition about 20 steps to the nice young woman in charge of scanning the badges; the security henchmen shadowed my every move. My credential got zapped and it confirmed what each of us already knew: I had every right to be in the interview area. I strode back toward Mickelson, but the shorter, fatter security guard stepped directly in front of me, blocking my path.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” I said. “Who told you to pull this shit?”

“I don’t have to answer that,” he said, his breath reeking of tuna and onions.

This is a recurring theme, Alan insisting that he doesn't want to be the story, then immediately making himself the story (and every time he does I revert to that grammatically inaccurate header).  Including, in this case, an eerily specific account of the goon's prior meal....

Forgive the long excerpts, but it was quite the show:

We stood there talking in circles for a few more minutes. To his everlasting credit, the Welsh sportswriter James Corrigan—a frequent antagonist of mine on Twitter—wandered over and began heckling the security guards. About then Mickelson ended his press conference and exited stage right. The security dudes suddenly became unconcerned with the state of my media credential and skulked away.

I was pissed. I didn’t get to listen to Mickelson’s comments or ask him a question. I texted Greg Norman: “Are you aware that I just got muscled out of Phil’s press conference by a couple of your goons?” He didn’t respond immediately.

I retreated to the press room to put the final coat of polish on my dispatch about the debut of golf’s new world order. I didn’t mention the incident with the security guards because I didn’t want to make myself the story. After filing the article, I caught an Uber back to my hotel, closing my eyes for a few minutes at the end of a long, crazy day. When I connected to the wifi at the hotel, my phone began dinging like a slot machine. A video had begun making the rounds of my confrontation with the security guards. Shot by Alex Thomas, the sports anchor for CNN International, it captured the moments when I was being obstructed by the meatheads after having my badge scanned. Its Zapruder-like value comes from what can be glimpsed in the background: Standing directly behind me was Greg Fucking Norman. His face was contorted into such a scowl he looked like the Grim Reaper, only more devoid of a soul. I had no idea he had been standing right there, a witness to the tomfoolery of his security lackeys.

He gets a characteristically lying text from Norman later, but then uncritically allows LIV to dodge blame and drops it at Phil's feet:

In watching the video snippet, I had noticed that standing in the background, simpering, was Mickelson’s swing coach, Andrew Getson. At one point he leans in and whispers something to Norman, looking a little too pleased with himself. After subsequently unwinding the events with various involved parties, I believe that it was Mickelson, or his people, who sent in the clowns, not LIV. Sure, Norman could have interceded, but, charitably, he might not have grasped what was happening until it was too late. I confronted Mickelson’s manager, Peter Davis, with my theory. With his preppy wardrobe and slicked-back hair, Davis has the vibe of the punchable bad guy from every teen movie. He denied any culpability, but his smarmy smirk told a different story.

The whole kerfuffle is noteworthy not because one brave and hardworking reporter was mistreated but for what it apparently said about Mickelson and those around him: Despite the carefully worded press releases and cloying public statements, they still felt the rules didn’t apply to them, and that they could warp their reality, and public opinion, through bullying. When Mickelson returned from his exile, he paid a lot of lip service to being a changed man. The early returns suggested otherwise.

Do I have the slightest problem with him laying this at the feet of Phil?  Of course not, but can you see the extent to which he's going out of his way to absolve LIV of blame?  Remind me, Alan, whose event was it?  Are all the players allowed to bring no-neck thugs?  Or just Phil?  If it happened on Greg's watch, he's responsible...

Or perhaps you too find these scary mofo's and are more concerned about your personal safety....

I wasn't aware of the first part of this, but boy do I go a different direction on the back end:

A couple of weeks after the Open, Mickelson did enjoy rich vindication: Forbes named him the highest paid athlete in the world, estimating he had earned $138 million in the preceding 12 months. (Tiger Woods, who in his heyday topped the list 10 years running, was surpassed by four LIV golfers despite weighing in at $68 million.) Professional golf had never been awash in so much funny money, and then the spigot was opened even further. At the Tour Championship, in August, embattled commissioner Jay Monahan announced that in 2023 the PGA Tour would roll out a super schedule of “elevated” tournaments with $20 million purses, double or more what these events had previously been paying out. Some would not bother with 36-hole cuts. It was LIV Lite, and in the wake of the announcement one veteran golf writer tweeted simply, “Phil was right.” OK, that was me. With more nuance: Mickelson had long nursed the suspicion that the PGA Tour was not giving the players their fair share of the revenue. He cited the Tour as having cash reserves of $800 million, an exaggerated number that hinted at the truth, especially with a new TV contract kicking in for the 2022 season. Faced with the LIV threat, the Tour created the nebulous Player Impact Program as a way to funnel money to the top players, and in less than a year the pot has ballooned from paying 10 players $40 million to distributing a whopping $100 million among 20 players. (One of the Tour’s best selling points had been that it is a pure meritocracy versus LIV’s corrupting guaranteed money, but the PIP now offers lavish compensation that is not directly tied to on-course performance.) Asked at the Tour Championship where all this fresh money would come from, Monahan said existing tournament sponsors would help defray the costs, but he also cited the primary source of this new largesse: “Reserves.” Phil was right, and even his shrillest critic begrudgingly admitted it. “As much as I probably don’t want to give Phil any sort of credit at all,” said McIlroy, “yeah, there were certain points that he was trying to make. Some of these ideas, did they have merit? Of course they did.” Mickelson had resolved not to publicly discuss Tour matters and was clearly trying to shed his smart aleck tendencies, but he couldn’t resist noting, “The guys on Tour are playing for a lot more money—that’s great that they magically found a couple hundred million.”

I think the fight over the reserves vindicates Jay.  He anticipated a threat to the Tour's business an ensured that his organization had sufficient resources.  Perhaps the only thing he missed is to not anticipate, per the horror movie cliché, that the calls would come from inside the house.

But Alan does at least add some piquant details about our boy Phil, for whom sincerity isn't his strongest suit:

The sense of vindication, or righteousness, finally put a little pep in Mickelson’s step. He had looked utterly lost on the golf course since returning from exile, including woeful missed cuts at the U.S. and British Opens. But he tied for eighth at LIV Chicago and 15th at LIV Bangkok, and then he flew from Thailand to Saudi Arabia for LIV Jeddah. This was Mickelson’s first visit to the Kingdom since he had been quoted calling its people “scary motherfuckers.” He channeled all that anxiety into a relentless charm offensive. A fellow LIV golfer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says, “If you think Phil is a bullshit artist normally, this was another level. You’ve never seen anyone kiss so much ass with that kind of enthusiasm and skill. He was ‘on’ from the second he got off the plane and never broke character. I’m pretty sure by the end of the week he could have been elected mayor of King Abdullah City, if they actually held elections over there.”

Mickelson ramped up his rhetoric in his pre-tournament press conference, saying, “Pretty much all the best players played on the PGA Tour, at least for the last 20 years. That will never be the case again. I think going forward you have to pick a side. You have to pick which side you think is going to be successful. And I firmly believe that I’m on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf.”  

 Does he know how they feel about gambling?  But I would argue he breaks character here:

Those were fighting words, but another question in the presser offered a chance at reconciliation: “You made some comments about this country last year which you’ve apologized for. I wondered how you feel about it now that you’re here? Have you changed your opinion?”

This was the ultimate softball, a chance for Mickelson—who at that moment was adorned with a temporary henna tattoo he had received the night before at a tournament party—to wax about the wonders of Saudi Arabia and the hospitality of its people. Instead, he responded, “So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnick. And I find that my experience with everybody associated with LIV Golf has been nothing but incredibly positive and I have the utmost respect for everybody that I’ve been involved with.”

there's a seeming typo in the above that certainly missed, but Alan explains: 

Once again, Mickelson was trying to be too cute by half, suggesting in this little semantic game that our hour-long phone call that informs a crucial chunk of this book had not been an actual interview. At least, that’s how I took it, but fans and reporters less learned in the black art of Mickelsonian misdirection thought he was claiming I had made up the whole thing. (If that was the case, what the heck was he always apologizing for?) Instead of some warm, fuzzy remarks about his host nation, Mickelson touched on another frenzied news cycle about his weirdness and duplicity. He was forced to clarify his remarks the next day to Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated: “We agreed multiple times that I was not going to be interviewed or a part of the book. He obviously took a conversation differently and we’re going to have to agree to disagree.” This was utterly nonsensical. Not be part of the book? He is the book! We had no such agreement that he wouldn’t be interviewed; that’s why I kept asking him to sit for questions. And then he called me.

A funny and ridiculous postscript came by way of a phone call from someone very close to Mickelson, who told me, “When he said your name wrong in Jeddah, I know him well enough to know that he intentionally mispronounced it. That way he has a technicality he can fall back on: ‘I didn’t say Shipnuck, I said Shipnick.’ I know it sounds crazy but that’s how smart he thinks he is.”

If you go back through my arc hives you would find that I've often made a similar point, that Bad Phil was often the result of an over-estimation of his own cleverness.  But the thing is, I think Alan is as well....And, like Phil, he keeps saying it's not about him, then making it all about himself.

But the whole thing is weird, including Alan's role in it.  I found this interview with him that has some curious bits as well:

Were you surprised by how honest he was?

Yes, because everyone goes over to Saudi Arabia and takes their money. But there’s a script and if you stay on script, you’re only there to grow the game and you’re a golfer, not a politician. The

rest of us roll our eyes because we know it’s all BS and all about the money, but Phil actually said the quiet parts out loud and he was brutally honest about it. I was impressed by his candor.

I knew in that moment that what he was saying was going to spark some controversy. But Phil has spent his whole career talking his way out of controversy. I never imagined it would send him into exile. But I guess like Phil, I kind of underestimated the emotion around Saudi Arabia, especially for Americans. It wasn’t so much his words, it was his actions. He was actively colluding to subvert the interests of the PGA Tour. That’s really why the players closed ranks and were so harsh in their criticism.

Phil?  Honest?  Surely you jest....The whole of his bio of the man demonstrates a transactional relationship with the truth, but now we're crediting him as a truth teller.

But what is this truth?  It was white-hot anger at the organization to which he belonged and that had made him a fabulously wealthy man, yet he spewed contempt.  Then a willingness to use the Saudis, the firggin Saudis, Alan, as leverage against his own peers.  Did that not set off some alarms, Alan?  

Plus, and this is a relatively minor point, but I love the misdirection Alan provides and abides in that first 'graph.  Yes, many players before Phil went and played an event In the Kingdom and took the blood money.  But LIV's business model was always one that would destroy the PGA Tour if it succeeded, so no one wants to talk about Phil conspiring to destroy the place where his alleged friends wanted to play.

But tis is really rich:

What kind of feedback have you had from players, agents and PGA Tour staff?

Universally, the reaction I got was thank you for showing the world who Phil really is and thank you for putting all the cards on the table with the Saudi stuff. There’s always been a gulf between the public and private Phil. People in the game have always known the real Phil, but the fans haven’t so I think there was some gratification for everyone getting to see the real Phil.

Obviously the interviewer has missed what an apologist for the Wahabis Alan is.  May I remind all of this:

I still haven’t found out if you are for or against LIV? @ReneSchaufuss

Good. Why do I have to pick a side? The golf world, and the golf media, has already become too tribal. I am intrigued by LIV, and exasperated and amused. The new league has made some monumental mistakes and gotten some things right. The players can be obnoxiously self-righteous and comically oppressed, but they also make a lot of good points. The tournaments are kind of ridiculous but also sort of fun. The Saudi Arabian government has done, and continues to do, abhorrent things, and the outcry around the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi undoubtedly stoked the sportswashing campaign that birthed LIV. But from the genocide of the Native Americans to the internment of Japanese citizens to the treatment of Blacks during the Jim Crow years to the torture at Abu Ghraib and the policy of “extraordinary rendition,” the U.S. government has often been on the wrong side of history. The source of LIV’s money is extremely uncomfortable, but it’s also true that we all happily burn Saudi oil and many American politicians (and business leaders) are in bed with the Kingdom, so it seems weird to hold golfers to a higher standard than public servants. I know nuance is unfashionable in these polarized times, but that is what I aspire to.

That's not nuance, Alan, it's carrying water for one of the most reprehensible regimes on the planet...

Think about the disingenuousness of Alan's presentation.  Oh, he throws out Kashoggi, so he can't be accused of failing to acknowledge their abuses.  But, and here's where the mental illness that is modern liberalism comes to the fore, we can't criticize the Saudis because we too have sinned.... and because, get this, we put gas in our cars.  Alan lives in a world where he doesn't have to deal with governments that don't meet his exacting moral standards, which is little more than empty virtue signaling.

But, what is the end result of this mindset?  Alan is free to criticize his government, but has he asked himself what might happen to a Saudi citizen that mentioned Kashoggi?  He's going out of his way to nullify criticism of those he calls abhorent, and in doping so he is doing the Saudis the same favor that Phil is and that so outraged us all.

And, in doing so, he feels smug and self-satisfied, because, yanno, Abu Ghraib.  And, to repeat myself, he's seems all in the Saudis destroying the premiere golf tour on the planet.  I guess he just wants to grow the game...

Udder Bits - Just a few things on an expedited basis.  This I think could actually be fun:

The idea of a Ryder Cup- or Presidents Cup-style event for senior tour players has been bandied

about for years. And, in fact, the inaugural playing of such a tournament was supposed to take place in late 2022. That didn’t happen, but many of the same organizers have kept pushing forward, and the event will become a reality later this year.

PGA Tour Champions and sports event and marketing company Intersport announced on Monday that the first World Champions Cup will be held Dec. 7-10 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. The competition, chaired by Peter Jacobsen, brings together teams from the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, with six-man squads representing the U.S., Europe and Internationals. Jim Furyk will captain the Americans, Irishman Darren Clarke leads Europe, and South African Ernie Els helms the Internationals.

Fun, as long as you keep your expectations in check.  Though speaking of expectations....

“We're about to launch here in December an event that we think's going to be a 100-year event. This is going to go on forever," said Charlie Besser, founder and CEO of Intersport.

Remind me, how did that thousand year Reich turn out?

Is there anything that could make the LIV events less credible?  You in the first row:

LIV announces teammates will play together for first time, Golf Twitter responds with Patrick Reed jokes

I don't know Chris, but I found this an enjoyably droll reaction:

Nothing like having teammates playing together. Should have some low scores.
cc: @ClubProGuy

— Chris (@GolfGuy77) April 19, 2023

Yeah.  I'm guessing the pencils will have erasers.

I can't resist one Patrick jab.  Hey, I'm only human:

May have to get Daniel Berger on the 4Aces immediately https://t.co/8ztsRWjDYx pic.twitter.com/GyIjA6SS4i

— Eric Patterson (@EPatGolf) April 19, 2023

Have you heard the DJ-Pat Perez story?  

On Sunday evening, close watchers of the professional game might have paused when they saw quotes critical of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan attributed to LIV golfer Dustin Johnson.

“We don’t give a damn how he feels,” the Australian Associated Press reported Johnson saying of Monahan, after Johnson’s team, the 4Aces, won the LIV team event in Australia. “We know how he feels about us, so it’s mutual.”

When the report surfaced, it seemed odd that Johnson would take such a pointed shot at the Tour. In the months following his departure for LIV, Johnson has avoided speaking ill of the Tour or its leadership, lending only that he felt his decision came down to money and a lighter playing schedule. (Johnson reportedly received a $100 million signing bonus with the new league.)

And, indeed, by Monday morning in the U.S., it had become clear there was a problem: Johnson said he didn’t deliver the dig.

In a statement to the media Monday morning, Johnson’s agent, David Winkle, wrote, “I spoke with Dustin from Singapore this morning at which time he emphatically denied making any such statement. He elaborated by saying his actual response to the question was ‘no comment.'”

Look, DJ doesn't say much of anything, so the story strained credulity when it broke, and it later came out that the comments came from Pat Perez.  Yeah, that's the thing, have you ever cared about anything that came out of Pat Perez' mouth?

But facts are facts, and it's now Tuesday morning, and this is the Golfweek home page as of when I sat down at the keyboard:

It's been more than 24 hours since those comments were attributed to another player, yet Golfweek isn't seemingly interested in clarifying things.  I'm a believer in Occam's Razor, so I'm perfectly happy to attribute it to laziness and/or incompetence, but that's probably worse, no?

I'll see you later in the week.

Weekend Wrap - Dog Days of April Edition

With my own golf rained out and the Yankee offense on life support, I watched more golf than I'm comfortable admitting publicly.  As I scanned the Zurich and Chevron leaderboards in vain for a familiar name (also factoring in the Talor Gooch juggernaut), I had an amusing thought.  If golf handicaps come in both +'s and -'s, do Nielsen ratings as well?

Where to begin?

We Gave up Dinah For This? - Got text from a friend who moved to Hawaii last year, bemoaning the move from Mission Hills.  When I responded that he should direct his opprobrium to Fred Ridley, he didn't know the backstory.....  Gee, if only there were a place he could go on these interwebs to stay apprised on such subjects....

The winner does at least have an appealing history:

When you look at Vu’s resume, it makes sense that she adds her name to the Dinah Shore Trophy. She’s a former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world. She was once named Pac-12 Player of the Year.

She won a whopping eight tournaments at UCLA. Her list of amateur accomplishments is on par with some of the biggest stars in the game, and a successful pro career would be the next logical step.

But the road to success is rarely linear.

In her first year on the LPGA Tour in 2019, she made just one cut and netted only $3,830. She felt lost playing the game she loved. Away from the course, things were no better. Her grandfather died early on in the Covid-19 pandemic, and she even contemplated giving up her pro-golf aspirations and going to law school.

“I was just in such a bad place,” Vu said. “Everything was life or death. I just saw everybody that I’ve competed with being successful, and I just compared myself all the time.”

If she’d quit, Sunday at the Chevron would’ve been much different.

Let me see if I follow Zephyr Melton's logic here....  If you take the winner out of the mix in some It's a Wonderful Life fever dream, then Sunday would have been different.  I can only hope Zephyr's parents didn't pay too much to send him to journalism school.

Strangely, Melton missed the best part of her background, not that almost giving up the game isn't also noteworthy.  But why leave this on the cutting room floor?

Lilia Vu felt an unusual amount of anger bubbling up inside this week over little things. Upset by

the way she handled that anger, there were times during the final round of the 2023 Chevron Championship that Vu thought about her grandpa, Dinh Du, and how disappointed he’d be if she didn’t get her act together.

Standing at the podium soaked in champagne and cloaked in a white robe and slippers, the shiny Dinah Shore trophy by her side, Vu told the story of how her grandfather built a boat to help his family escape a war-torn Vietnam. How he’d go off in the countryside for months at a time, trying to literally build a better life for their family with his bare hands.

Vu’s mom, Yvonne, and her siblings ran through the forest the day in 1982 her father told them it was time to go. The boat was meant to hold no more than 54 people, but as others swam out to meet them, the number swelled to 82.

“He took them all,” said Yvonne.

After two days, the boat sprang a leak. They shot off a flare and were. soon rescued by the USS Brewton, a Naval ship that was decommissioned in 1992.

The back story of how they got a flare might be even better, but I doubt we'll ever hear it.

The Tour Confidential panel has one of their ADD weeks, yanno where they fixate on that one guy, but managed to work in a question (we're back to avoiding numbers for the questions, because...) this event that used to be of interest:

Lilia Vu beat Angel Yin in a playoff to win the Chevron Championship and claim the LPGA’s first major of the season, which took place at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, the first time since it began in 1972 it wasn’t held at Mission Hills following Chevron’s new title sponsorship. What are your thoughts on Year 1 of the new host venue?

Berhow: As someone who is not always big on change, I liked a lot of what I saw. Sure, the leap into Poppie’s Pond is no more and the alternative they cooked up on Sunday was fine, and word is the spectator shuttles took a little longer than desired, but it’s hard to find negatives about a sponsor that wants to invest in the women’s game. If I’m Chevron, it makes sense to move this event to their backyard. That’s their right. I also saw on Twitter there was a HBCU Career Panel taking place on site, and this was also the first time in this tournament’s history players who missed the cut received a $5,000 stipend. We’ll get used to the course in time, but seems like there’s lots of good to build on here.

Hirsh: While I’d love to see more events played at more interesting golf courses, I’m kind of indifferent on the venue change. I agree with Josh about it being great Chevron wanting to inject money into the LPGA, but it does suck it requires moving the event from where it’s developed a history at. I also hope the alligator netting actually works!

Sens: This was a tough, long course, with small greens and all sorts of trouble, and I loved Vu’s composure on it during what was a pretty packed race for a while. As for breaking with tradition, as my colleagues note, a small price in exchange for a solid sponsorship. I’m sure every player would take that guarantee over a jump into a pond.

I love that Jack Hirsh cold open, because you can see the effort necessary to avoid brutally trashing just another featureless Nicklaus design.  Of course, you can admit it, once you heard that this event was decamping to Houston, the writing was on the wall....

I do find Josh Berhow's comments interesting, because there's much effort expended to avoid that 600 pound elephant in the corner.  All that stuff he cites is good, well excluding the dreary backyard Chevron happens to inhabit.  But Jack avoids any thought of what's been lost (even though we understand the LPGA didn't start this chain-reaction), the severing of any connection to the history of women's golf and the chaotic, borderline tawdry, origins of this event.  

If I could make a suggestion to the LPGA Commish Mollie Marcoux Samaan, it would involve the LPGA's forthcoming Founders Cup event, which is to be held in May at Upper Montclair Country Club.  That's a nice homage to the LPGA's founders, but I'd be in discussion with the folks at Mission Hills and try to get the LPGA back there with that specific event.  I know, it makes far too much sense to ever happen in this lifetime....

One last bit about this date from Geoff.  As I noted above, the Dinah was a dead lesbian walking (Yeah, you knew I'm a hater, but I do actually like that part of the history) once Augusta National announced their amateur event, which concludes the Saturday of what used to be Dinah week.  The first thing you'd expect is that the Dinah would change dates, but they were jammed in by the Coachella Festival and the end of the season, so there was nowhere to move.

But this new date has to be better for everyone, right?  Because we want to maintain the tradition of amateur participation, right?  

While everyone is going into this one blind, a few of the amateurs exempted into the Chevron will tee up Thursday without benefit of a practice round (Nichols/Golfweek) after playing their conference championships. Admirably, World No. 1 amateur and recently Augusta National Women’s Amateur winner Rose Zhang passed on the Chevron to compete for Stanford in the Pac 12 Championships. She set several records in winning Wednesday including the lowest score in relation to par (-12), lowest overall score (204) and largest margin of victory in conference history (seven strokes). Zhang has also now spent 136 weeks as the world’s leading female amateur golfer, surpassing the record total of 135 weeks set by Leona Maguire of Ireland.

So, we really want the kids here, but not enough to figure out a date when they can actually make it....

But this is perhaps the harshest bit about that venue:

Someone forgot to tell a pair of southern California natives that Chevron moved the local major championship 1451 miles east to rural Houston. And in a vibe-free setting that made the final Mission Hills years seem like a Beyoncé set at Coachella, SoCal’s Lilia Vu (Fountain Valley) and Angel Yin (Arcadia) finished in a playoff to decide the season opening major.

Vibe-free?  Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark...

NOLA Witness Protection Program News - There were a few show ponies in the field, though they mostly failed to show.  I think it's always fun to watch these guys play alternate-shot, but I can't imagine Nielsen finding a measurable audience for this event:

At last year’s Zurich Classic, Nick Hardy’s rookie PGA Tour season was derailed.

He suffered a left wrist injury, forcing him to miss two months and eventually have to re-earn his PGA Tour card at the Korn Ferry Finals.

In contrast, his partner this week, Davis Riley, had a tremendous rookie season in 2022, nearly making the Tour Championship at No. 36 in the FedEx Cup standings. But he didn’t get a win.

This week though, Riley and Hardy each collected their first PGA Tour title after the pair shot 65 Sunday in alternate shot to finish at 30 under and win the Zurich Classic by two strokes. Riley and Hardy are the second and third players to win their first Tour title at the Zurich since it became a team event in 2017 when Cameron Smith did in the format’s debut.

I was bouncing among the Chevron, the Yankees offensive futility and this, and missed their tear on the back nine that sealed the deal.

That Tour Confidential panel did at least acknowledge the face plant this week, but the sequencing of their Q&A's can't improve Jay's mood.  Let's reverse the order and get their view from 30,000 feet first:

Speaking of the Zurich Classic, Davis Riley and Nick Hardy won, closing with a seven-under 65 in alternate shot on Sunday to best Canadians Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor by two. But you’re in charge next year. What tweaks are you making to the event, either with how teams are picked, the formats played or both?

Berhow: Since it’s a team event that’s not the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup — and honestly if we are inviting aging sponsor’s exemptions — we might as well embrace the weirdness and go all out. Fourballs is boring. Let’s go four days, four formats. Make one day a scramble, but if you go three holes without a birdie you are eliminated. Make the next day a worst-ball scramble. Round 3 you get only four clubs. Then, for the final round, alternate shot. Wait a few years and this is the formula for a fifth major.

Hirsh: For starters, I’d move it to a different part of the schedule. Maybe toward the end of January or February so it doesn’t get swallowed by the Masters. I could also see an argument for the new Fall series, but I kinda like the idea of this event counting for the FedEx Cup. It really is great to see the unique format and I’d love to see it get some more big names regularly. Next I’d drop fourball. Make the whole thing alternate shot, the true team format that doesn’t allow you to hide a poorly performing partner. That would really make things interesting with the added bonus of speeding up play.

Sens: I’m with Jack: make it all alternate shot. On a more outlandish note, I’m still waiting for the team event where each team gets one opportunity during a round to pick a fan from the crowd to hit a shot for the opposition. I suppose you’d have to institute a Really Silly Season for that to happen. But I would watch.

OK, that got silly in hurry....

First and foremost, the format to me is OK, as I particularly like that they play alternate shot on Sunday (and on cut-day as well).  I do agree that fourballs is slightly boring, they're just so damn good (not to mention playing a soft, easy-for-them venue), but at least it's medal play and big numbers can be in the mix.  The real problem with fourballs is in the cup events, where match-play renders them mere putting contests, albeit extremely slow putting contests.  But, hold that thought for September, shall we?

There may be scheduling issues, but I certainly would not overreact to this year, where it's jammed into a stretch of four weeks where it's the only non-designated event.  Next year we're led to believe that there will only be eight (including, I think, the Players Championship), so I thin they'll have a reasonable chance at landing some of the guys that enjoy a week featuring camaraderie with a side of Etouffee.

But now the weeks beclownment, first the TC gang:

John Daly, 56, and David Duval, 51, received sponsor’s exemptions into the Zurich Classic and missed the cut at 14 over, which was 12 behind the next-worst score. While it’s an event’s right to use its exemptions how it pleases, do you have an issue with this one in particular, given both players are well past their primes and rarely play competitively anymore?

Berhow: It really was a tough look when those guys struggled so much in alternate shot, but the truth is the majority of these pros make that format look so easily when it’s in fact so incredibly hard. In a way inviting them did exactly what it was supposed to by drawing attention to an event that lacked star power, but it’s unfortunate they didn’t play better.

Hirsh: Yes, this was a joke. It was likely born out of a necessity to help fill the field given the Zurich’s place in the schedule, but there were guys on the alternate list — while not the biggest names — who could have used the opportunity. The tournament typically requires one member of each team to be exempt and then the second can be a sponsor’s exemption. This was the case when 66-year-old Jay Haas made the cut while playing with son Bill last year. But Jay Haas is a PGA Tour Champions stud with 18 wins, albeit the last coming in 2016. Daly and Duval have combined for just one victory on the over-50 circuit.

Sens: I’m on the fence about this. I understand the obvious objections and the unlikelihood that Duval and Daly were going to be in the mix. But, as in Dumb and Dumber, even if the odds were a million to one, there was still a chance. It’s easy to knock the move in retrospect. But what if Duval and Daly had played out of their minds in the opening round and posted a decent score? Then the event would have had the best of both worlds: a crowd-pleasing pairing with an entertaining underdog story. And in the end, this is entertainment.

Let's be clear, I didn't wait for it to be in retrospect to trash it.....

And let's be even clearer, I have an open mind about this event giving sponsor's exemptions to 56-year old players, but my mind is long closed to PGAS Tour exemptions for THIS 56-year old:

Details from John Daly‘s PGA Tour disciplinary file were made public Tuesday -- and they’re not flattering.

According to the Florida Times-Union, which obtained the 456-page file through a libel lawsuit against one of its former columnists, Daly has been suspended from the PGA five times and has been cited 21 times for not giving his best effort. In addition, he was placed on probation six times, ordered to seek counseling or alcohol rehab seven times and has been fined nearly $100,000.

Of course, none of these revelations should come as a shock. Many of the incidents included in the file were previously reported, including Daly’s trashing of a hotel room during the Players Championship in 1997.

Can you imagine how badly you have to dog it to actually get fined by the Tour?  To do that 21 times is beyond comprehension.  But there is one thing harder to believe than that disciplinary file, to wit, that this same miscreant would be eligible for further sponsor exemptions....

Thought experiment:  What would you have to do to be permanently banned from the PGA Tour?  The obvious answer is "Be Phil", but when the day comes isn't this his best affirmative defense?  If you didn't ban Daly, how can you ban anyone?

As you might expect, Eamon Lynch has thoughts, although the gratuitous swipe at LIV in his lede seems a tad forced:

The criteria by which fields are assembled on the PGA Tour is considerably more byzantine than over on LIV Golf, where competitors require only the blessing of Greg Norman and amoral ambivalence about the abuses and butchery of their princely benefactor.

First some useful backgrund:

The Tour’s official list has 39 exemption categories, ranging from the obvious (winners of majors and the FedEx Cup) to the arcane (PGA Section champions, players with 300 career made cuts). They’re ranked by priority and not every classification is used at every event. The Zurich Classic, for example, used 20 categories to compile its field, a trickier construct than usual since the tournament is comprised of 80 two-man teams.

The most opaque criterion has always been sponsor invites, in which those who write the checks are granted tremendous latitude in deciding who gets the call for a handful of spots. As a general rule, that’s fair. Sponsors ought to have a say in drawing attention to their tournaments and not be hostage to filling tee times from a pre-determined pecking order of pedestrian pros, even if the basis for extending invitations appears parochial.

Yes, it's hard to argue against sponsor's exemptions, well, except when it is.  For instance, that D-squared team wasn't the only sketchy one:

But an exemption category intended to benefit a tournament can also be a detriment when improperly applied.

When two-time PGA Tour winner Michael Thompson was added to the field at the Zurich Classic, he chose as his team partner Paresh Amin, a 43-year-old military veteran with a beggarly record on mini-tours, and who shot 42-over-par in Q-School for the Mackenzie Tour.

“He’s become my really good friend,” Thompson explained to my colleague, Adam Schupak. “I haven’t had any success with a partner in the team format. If I was going to play a team event, I wanted to be with someone I really liked. He’s trying to play professionally and I wanted to give him a chance to experience a PGA Tour event, meet the equipment reps, meet the caddies.”

I have no specific problem with Thompson getting an invite, as the most recent of his wins was in 2020 and he finished T29 at Harbor Town.  But that the invite gives him the right to pick a single-digit handicap and the world is fine with this so the guy can meet the caddies?  Have you all lost your bloody minds?  Do you have any idea how many thousands of guys would kill for that slot?

But, good news for Paresh, the race to the bottom was extremely competitive this week:

Thompson and Amin were spared the indignity of last place only thanks to another pair of sponsor invites: David Duval and John Daly. Zurich presumably hoped the name recognition of these former major winners would draw eyeballs to an event that sits in no man’s land on the calendar, wedged amid majors and designated stops. The tournament could boast some quality names — Cantlay, Schauffele, Fitzpatrick, Morikawa, Homa — but too many others who would be recognized only by job-seeking caddies or alert process servers.

The problem is that Duval and Daly are woefully uncompetitive even on the PGA Tour Champions, much less a more demanding stage. Duval is 0-for-25 in cracking the top 10 in his senior career, while Daly has done so just once in his last 33 attempts. Predictably, their performance was execrable: rounds of 75-83 secured last place by 12 shots. Perhaps the few spectators who were imperiled by the team’s wayward shots enjoyed seeing the old timers, but there are ample reasons why some of their fellow Tour players might not.

That 83 might jump out at you, but I would argue that for two alleged professionals to shoot a 75 best-ball on that easy track might be the bigger indignity.

So I went with the caddies, but Eamon is on the same track with this:

FedEx Cup points are the currency of the PGA Tour, and have never been more valuable. Only the top 50 in points will guarantee access to all of 2024’s lucrative designated events. Only the top 70 will secure playing privileges for next season, down from 125 in years past. Fewer players have guaranteed status as more fields are reduced in size. Points are precious, and so too is the opportunity to earn them. There is less room than ever for veterans who fancy a couple of days in the Big Easy and friends Michael Thompson wants to introduce to equipment reps.

As I understand the zeitgeist, the PGA Tour is in an existential struggle for survival against the forces of evil, and is dramatically restructuring their schedule to head off this challenge.  Apparently, they think the way to do this is with John Daly, David Duyal and Paresh Amin.  Are there an adults in the room?  Because allowing Joh Daly to beclown this event tells me that Jay Monahan isn't actually up to the moment.

Tiger-Centric Much? - I understand the Tiger obsession, but I don't understand letting that obsession loose when there is absolutely nothing to be said on the matter.  In that vein, as note above, the Tour Confidential panel devoted their first two Q&A's to this drivel:

Tiger Woods underwent a procedure on his right foot and released a statement saying the surgery was successful, but it now casts serious doubt on his status for 2023. Will we see Woods make any more competitive starts this year?

Josh Berhow: From everything I’ve read, it seems unlikely he’ll be able to play any majors, and I don’t think he planned to play much beyond that anyway. Here’s hoping he can jump in a cart and play the PNC Championship with Charlie in December. Then, after that, maybe Riviera and the Masters. Baby steps.

Jack Hirsh: Does the silly season count? Maybe, but that’s a big, all caps, italics and stars *MAYBE*. Who knows what he’ll be able to do with the golf swing after this surgery, which involves fusing together a joint in the ankle. I’ve heard that if it was his left foot, the surgery would be career ending. If the issue remains walking, and his recovery goes as scheduled, it sounds like we could see him at the PNC and then maybe for the start of his virtual league with Rory McIlroy, the TGL. But I don’t think we’ll hear from him at all again until the Hero World Challenge.

Josh Sens: He’ll absolutely be back for the PNC. Unless he isn’t. That old line about people planning and god laughing applies to any of us trying to forecast Tiger’s health. Raise your hand if you saw plantar fasciitis coming? Neck. Back. Knee. Foot. Ankle. The only thing I think we can say for sure is that it wouldn’t be a shocker if some other body part gave out next.

So, he might play the PNC in a cart.  Thanks, guys, kinda had that one sussed out all by my lonesome....

Looking beyond this season, as Woods’ injuries and surgeries continue to stack up, at what point does he decide enough is enough? Are we approaching that?

Berhow: Based on his schedule prior to this setback — the majors, maybe one or two more events — he’s really already in that second (or whatever number) stage of his career. I think he’s still several years away from officially “retiring,” since in a sport like golf — and with his lifetime exemption — he would be able to take advantage of a healthy stretch and enter an upcoming event or major to try and catch lightning in a bottle. I don’t think he’s anywhere close to giving up on those potential healthy starts yet.

Hirsh: I’m with Berhow on this. Obviously, just being able to walk pain-free is first and foremost, but if there’s any chance he can continue to play at a high level, he’s going to try. Whether that’s the right thing to do or not isn’t up to us to decide.

Sens: Agreed. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become like the knight in Monty Python (It’s just a flesh wound!), where everyone knows it’s over except the guy who wants to keep on fighting. This being Woods, and this being golf, which allows for more lives than any sport, I’m sure we’ll be on Tiger-watch for a large handful of majors to come.

There are some interesting threads that we could explore here, but ones they go to pains to avoid.

First, it's silly to be asking them for their medical opinions or insights into Tiger's mind, because they know no more than we do.  The interesting threads might be these:

1.  I have no criticism of Tiger playing where he's played in 2022 and 2023, but I think it's fair to ask going forward how we feel about him using a spot in the field at those three majors (ignoring Augusta, where no one will take his slot) if he can't walk for four days.  It's a tough one for sure, but worth thinking through ahead of time.
2. Josh mentioned his lifetime exemption, but he actually has a second exemption from that 2019 Masters.  Do we feel any differently about him hogging a spot in the field under that exemption versus the former champion exemption?  

I just don't see the logic in devoting two questions to that subject, when the questions are focused on areas about which they know nothing.

I'll have to leave you here, though you might have noticed which event the TYC panel ignore tis week..... Of course, I'm ignoring it as well, at least for now.