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.