Weekend Wrap - Bifurcation Blues Edition

Lots to discuss, but rather than grind over a cold open, how about we just grab Geoff's link-rich open with the intentionally-buried lede:

Just another eventful weekend in golf.

Two LIV players won national Opens.

Scottie Scheffler did not three-putt en route to winning the Hero.

Tiger Woods finished 72 holes looking like he can be competitive in 2024.

Phil Mickelson continued his Elon-ish descent in liking a Tweet implying Woods is on a Lance Armstrong-inspired diet.

Matt Fitzpatrick reported Excel stablemate Collin Morikawa and his caddie for committing a yardage book violation.

The player portion of the PGA Tour Board sent out a rosy memo making clear they want the kind of private equity that’s not plundering nursing homes and Toys R Us.

A high-energy particle headed toward earth to the bafflement of scientists.

Up to the reader as to whether or not to click through on that last one, as sometimes it's just better not to know.... And, based upon events of the last few years, I sometimes think of Earth as needing a gut-rehab...

But as for that buried item:

And if it’s not clear by now, I’ve buried the lede long enough: Masters champion/YouTube golf historian Jon Rahm—who would never go to LIV—might be headed to LIV for hundreds of millions in a move that may implode the history-rich PGA Tour and confirm it’s an American entity while ceding the globe to LIV.

If that doesn't depress sufficiently, there's a second buried lede that might be the most significant of all.  We'll get to that second one, but we certainly won't have the bandwidth for Rahmbo today. 

So, shall we start with some actual golf?

A Hero For Our Time - As always, it's the guy that finished 18th that draws the pixels, but I do want to give props to the guy that won the thing in a manner that could be portentous:

Scottie Scheffler put a bow on his season before the holidays with his first win since March, and put the PGA Tour on notice that he may have figured out his putting woes.

The world No. 1 shot a bogey-free 4-under 68 at Albany to win the Hero World Challenge on Sunday by three strokes over Austria’s Sepp Straka, who closed in 64.

Scheffler followed up last year’s four-win season, which included the Masters, by defending his title at the WM Phoenix Open in February and winning the Players Championship in March, but he finished second twice and recorded 17 top-10 finishes as a balky putter held him back from possibly having a historic year. Despite ballstriking that rivaled some of the best seasons of Tiger Woods, Scheffler ranked 162nd in Strokes Gained: putting. Robert Damron, a former Tour pro and commentator for PGA Tour Live, followed Scheffler at the Charles Schwab Challenge and Memorial, which both were held in May, and where Scheffler finished a stroke out of a playoff in each.

“He putted like hot garbage,” Damron said on PGA Tour Network’s Sirius/XM Radio broadcast of the Hero World Challenge. “The ball striking was something I’d never seen before and I’ve seen a lot of golf in my day.”

These magical fixes don't necessarily last in a linear fashion, but this one is unique in that we've never really seen a disparity quite like Scheffler's, where he only needs to be an average putter to win regularly.

Not a betting man, but hard to imagine Scheffler's 2024 will disappoint.

Shall we speak a bit of the host?   Props to the Tour Confidential panel who, notwithstanding their decades-long Tiger sycophancy,. actually led this week's installment with the ball rollback.  But, that's not binding on us, so shall we see what they thought of the Striped One?

3. Tiger Woods returned to action for the first time since he withdrew from the 2023 Masters, finishing 18th in a 20-player field at his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas (Scottie Scheffler won). What did you learn after watching Tiger walk 72 holes the past few days?

Barath: First off, I learned that the man truly has no quit. He’s reached the top of the game more

than once and has records that will likely stand the test of time, but even after multiple injuries and surgeries, he refuses to give up trying to compete and at this point, you really gotta hand it to him. Secondly, I never realized just how much people care about Tiger’s (or any golfers’) shoes. And finally, he still has game. I think that if the stars align and you give him conditions that play into his hand and current skill set, he has a chance to maybe win once more.

Berhow: That he’s aging, like all of us do. Albany is relatively flat and there are lots of birdies available on this course, but that’s also why it’s a perfect spot for Woods to return. He looked good at times and made some rust-induced big numbers as well. I think it was kind of expected. But based on all his injuries, surgeries and just his body simply getting older, this is the norm we should get used to seeing.

Sens: That he still can still compete but that, more than ever, he will have to pick his spots. He himself said it. The most recent surgery has forced him to make all kinds of compensations, which increase strain on other parts of his body. How long before another one of those parts wears out?

You mean, like the left knee, Josh?

Kind of an unfocused question, but the week was unquestionably a home run for Tiger, but one that couldn't remove many of the4 nagging doubts.  Let's see where else these guys go?

4. As for what’s next, Woods will play the PNC Championship in a couple of weeks but said his goal for 2024 is “maybe a tournament a month.” Do you see this type of schedule at all feasible? And based on what we saw and heard from him in the Bahamas, does he have any chance to contend?

Barath: I think Tiger’s chances of week-to-week contending are slim to none but that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to put himself into a position to do it if, and it’s a big if, he is able to stay healthy. He had a few moments that week, like when he stepped out of the bunker on 9 in the final round and winced pretty hard toward his caddie, and that’s not a great sign for long-term outlooks. So with that in mind, I think playing once a month is still a pretty unlikely scenario.

Berhow: His comment about a tourney a month seemed like a lot, but in reality, it’s probably just him trying to play the Genesis, the Players and then the four majors, which seems like a good goal. As long as he doesn’t have any long-term setbacks, I can see him playing the majority of these, but probably not all of them given his injury issues. I don’t see him contending much, but that doesn’t mean he can’t put together a really good round, or tournament, here or there. I mean, did we really expect him to win the 2019 Masters?

Sens: if he is healthy enough to play, no reason he can’t be in the mix. But that’s a big if. Playing once a month strikes me as a big ask. It would be great to see him in all the majors. What seems more likely is that the wear and tear of high-level competition will force him to take a longer break at some point in the season. We will obviously have a much better sense after he’s had to walk a bunch of rounds on those hilly grounds at Augusta.

As Josh B. circles around, that "monthly" comment from Tiger was quite the red herring.... Optimistic for sure, but to me the only added bit was the head fake at the Players, telling us that maybe one set of reps in February isn't sufficient to have him honed for Augusta.

I do think the week went about as well as it could have for him, and he seemed to recover sufficiently each day and even within each round.  That said, walking a full course still seems to take it out of him, and it's hard to compete with elite players when you're humping just to get to the green.

The man himself seems happy:

Tiger Woods optimistic after walking, finishing 72 holes at Hero

He had this as well:

Then he will prepare for the 2024 season. He still believes, as he claimed in his pre-tournament press conference, that competing once a month is a realistic goal.

“I think that if you asked me right now I'm a little sore, but once a month seems reasonable,” said Woods, who had TGR executive and close friend Rob McNamara on the bag but hasn’t figured out yet who will caddie for him next year. “I think that having a couple of weeks off to recover, a week to build up, there's no reason why I can't get into a rhythm. It's just a matter of getting in better shape basically. I feel like my game's not that far off, but I need to get in better shape.

“That's what the plan was going into next year and I don't see why that wouldn't change.”

He's never going to be completely healthy and we should start a pool on the next body part to require successful surgery, but he's certainly looking stronger than he has at any time since the car accident.

And this one last bit on the bigger picture:

5. The Hero was also the first time Woods has fielded questions from reporters in months, and he touched on a variety of topics — his health, the PGA Tour/PIF merger, the golf ball and more. What’s the one subject or answer that stood out to you?

Barath: With so much talk about the golf ball, Tiger’s take on bifurcation was interesting and talked about the difference between wooden and composite bats. He also talked about how the same technology that brought others closer to him now allows him to keep up with younger players. “I think I was saying to you guys yesterday that I’m hitting the ball further than I did when I first came out on Tour,” he said. “I’m slower, but tech, I’m still able to hit the ball in the middle of the face so there’s always an advantage to do that.”

Berhow: His “that can’t happen again” comment about players being left in the dark with zero involvement regarding the merger was telling. He’s on the board now and I’m sure will be a big part of everything going forward, but I can’t imagine any big decision happening in the future without the game’s most important player being a part of it first.

Sens: His comments about how his body hurts “everywhere.” It’s only natural that he’d be sore in his first tournament back. But Tiger himself said that other parts of his body are bearing more brunt than they used to. Obviously, tomorrow is promised to no one. We are all day-to-day. But Woods’ description of his own modified swing — and the soreness it is causing — is another reminder: Enjoy watching him now because who knows what’s next.

He's go himself into the middle of the vortex on the two biggest issues of our timer, so we'll see what kind of field general he is.

I'll leave you to dive into that bizarre Collin Morikawa penalty on your own.....  at least for now.  Just a mess of a rule that is perhaps worth our time later.

No Bifurcation For You - Do we love professional golfers or what?  The USGA and R&A are certainly to be criticized for letting the issue fester for some twenty years, but this latest switcheroo has me cackling at our entitled pros.

Basically, the governing bodies decided to go with the bifurcation strategy, minimally rolling back the ball only for elite players.  The logic was that, with Fred Ridley on board, they should have been in a strong position, controlling three of the four majors.  Not sure where this went awry, but here's an update on what's coming this week:

The expected rule change comes after a three-year “Notice and Comment” period with equipment manufacturers and other golf organizations, including the PGA Tour.

It is expected that a new standard for testing the conformity of golf balls would be introduced for elite players and competitions in 2028 and then for recreational players in 2030.

Riddle me this, Batman, but doesn't that sound like two years of bifurcation?  Obviously they're allowing plenty of time to exhaust my current TP5X inventory, but WTF?

But did you ever think that Tour players were whiny and entitled?  Keegan, take a bow:

Bradley, who already had to adjust his game to a change in equipment rules several years ago when the governing bodies prohibiting an anchored putting stroke, wonders how he and his peers will be forced to adjust their games further.

“I don’t know what the ramifications are going to be with the ball—what they're going to do, what direction they going to go,” he said. “It would have to be a complete overhaul of the equipment that I use, the shafts that I use. Yeah, I mean the amount of change that's happened just in the course of my career is insane.

“I think we constantly get penalized for mistakes they [USGA and R&A] make. Whether if they let the ball go too far, that's not our problem. They [are doing this] to punish not only the professional golfers, but the world of golf for something that they screwed up on. I really think it's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of.”

 Let me just interject that i do feel for Keegan on the anchored putting bit, but otherwise...

Let me just say that I'm the first to criticize the governing bodies for ducking the issue for two decades, but that's amongst the laziest excuses possible here.  But how about that whine about equipment?  The man is a professional golfer but apparently is unable to adapt?  If only he had someone to help him.....  Kind of forgetting also that his peers will all be in the same place....

Then there's Rickie:

Rickie Fowler is not a fan of the ruling bodies making any change to the ball at any level. “There are other ways of going about this,” he said, adding that they are "20 years too late" on the issue.

But he is especially opposed to a shorter ball for recreational players. “To take the game and knock it back when it's in the best position it's ever been in, I don't want to see it as the golf ball being necessarily the right move,” Fowler added. “I don't see how when we're at the best place the game has ever been. ‘Oh, you love the game? Yeah. Hey, thanks for joining us over COVID. Now we're going to make you hit it 20 yards shorter. Have fun.' I understand both sides. But looking at it as far as the game and everyone talks about growing the game, I think it's going to be a huge step back.”

So, what you're saying, Rickie, is that the Tour, which opposed bifurcation, is not being responsive to your opinions.  Gee, I happened to notice that on Friday you were paired with a Player Director, so I do hope you addressed this issue.

Let's get the Tc panel's thoughts:

1. In news reported on Friday by Golf Digest that was confirmed by GOLF.com through multiple industry sources, golf’s governing bodies are preparing to announce a golf-ball rollback (as soon as this coming week) for both professionals and amateurs. This comes after the USGA and R&A proposed a Model Local Rule option for tournament organizers in March, which would have required pros and elite amateurs to play a rolled-back ball while the majority of amateurs would see no change. That option, however, wasn’t well-received. While we’re still waiting to hear more details, what’s your general stance on a golf-ball rollback for everyone?

Ryan Barath: As someone who reports on equipment, I expect a lot of people would assume I would be against any sort of rollback, but my view is actually quite the contrary. I believe the governing bodies have the game’s best interest at heart and something needs to be done to curtail the way distance is having a huge impact on the game at both the professional and recreational level.

Josh Berhow: There are so many layers here, I’ve long struggled to come up with a proper rollback take, and it’s hard to make one here without knowing all of the details. But my general thought is golf is already stupid hard for 99 percent of the population and I’m against making it harder for your Average Joes. But what if a new ball — which we know little about — might actually help slower swing speeds and be better around the greens, even if it costs a couple of yards? That’s the kind of stuff I’m waiting to learn. I DO like weekend hackers and pros using the same balls, though, so I guess that makes me against bifurcation. I’ll close this rambling thought with something R&A chief Martin Slumbers told Golf Digest recently, which I think is a really smart way of looking at all of this, regardless of what side you are on: “Our responsibility is to the long-term future of the game. … We’re responsible for our period of time, something that has gone on for hundreds of years and will go on for hundreds more.”

Josh Sens: For golfers of my level or worse (that is, the vast majority of golfers on the planet), my hunch is that you could slip a rolled-back ball into any of our bags without telling us and we would never know the difference. The main problem here is optics, and it’s a real one for the governing bodies, who now have a serious PR headache on their hands. In an ideal world, the rollback would apply to the elite game only, but the USGA and R&A floated that idea and it was roundly rejected by everyone from the Tour to manufacturers to everyday golfers who say they want to play the same equipment as the pros. At first blush, this new proposal seems like the next-best option. It’s easy to get caught up in the fury of the moment, but this is meant to be a forward-looking decision, and just because it didn’t happen sooner, when it should have, isn’t a good argument for it not happening now. The catch is that now is the age of social media, where levels of outrage routinely distort any real-world impact (he says, flinching in anticipation of being called an idiot on the cordial platform formerly known as Twitter.)

In what sense was bifurcation rejected by everyday golfers, Josh?  Seems to me this is on the two PGAs and the equipment manufacturers, no?

We are a little blind here, as we really don't understand the kind of ball they'll be using, specifically how it'll spin.  I suspect that the recreational golfer, who uses his sweet spot sparingly, might find that his or her mishits are penalized more severely, though not until 2030, blessedly.

2. The golf-ball news has yet to be officially announced, but that hasn’t stopped pros (including Tiger Woods and Brandel Chamblee) from chiming in. Rory McIlroy added his feedback on Sunday, saying “people who are upset about this decision shouldn’t be mad at the governing bodies, they should be mad at elite pros and club/ball manufacturers because they didn’t want bifurcation.” He also added this will “make no difference whatsoever” to the average golfer. Do you agree with Rory’s comments?

Barath: I fully agree with Rory and also agree with the likely decision to not bifurcate the game. Although it’s speculation, I have a feeling that the impact is mostly going to be felt by those with the highest swing speeds producing the highest ball speeds. The best simple analogy I can think of works like car aerodynamics because the relationship is nonlinear — if a car with 100 horsepower goes 100 mph, it takes way more than double the horsepower for that same car to get to 200 mph because as the car gets faster there is greater air resistance. So for those average golfers with average to moderate swing speed, any loss of distance will be marginal comparatively. On top of that, golf has never been bifurcated, and I’m glad to hear that it’s likely going to stay that way.

Berhow: Rory could be right that most players might not see much of a difference, but it’s difficult to point fingers at anyone at this point. Parties always want what’s best for them, and it’s hard to blame that thinking. There’s a trickle-down effect here, though. If the ball goes shorter, I would assume courses are more conscious of where tees go. Everything here is linked.

Sens: I’m not going to tell people not to be mad because it’s not my place to deprive people of something that clearly gives them pleasure. But I do agree with McIlroy that a rollback is not going to make a tremendous difference in the average person’s game. Yes, as my esteemed colleague Mr. Berhow mentions above, golf is “already stupid hard” for most people, myself included. But the incredible challenge is a big part of the appeal. To the extent that a rolled-back ball has any real effect on my game, maybe it will help me learn a few new shots.

I don't know about that "no difference whatsoever", which awaits an actual proposal from the governing bodies.  But two guys were sold until recently as the conscience of our game, and here's the other guy's thoughts on this subject:

Tiger Woods is good with the golf-ball rollback. In fact, he says it’s about time.

“Yeah, we’ve been hammering the ball needs to slow down,” he said Saturday, one day after

news broke that golf’s governing bodies would, indeed, slow down the ball.

But Woods has a suggestion:

Dial back the ball for him. For Scottie Scheffler. For Brooks Koepka. For every pro.

And no one else. Amateurs can play with what they’ve been playing with.

Which is what the USGA and the R&A are not proposing: The rollback will be for everyone.

“As I told you guys,” Woods said, “I’ve always been for bifurcation.”

Veddy interesting, because that Tour you just took a leadership roll in rejected bifurcation.  And this is kinda weird, no?

Last one: Had he heard any reaction from other players?

No.

“Honestly, I haven’t talked to any other player yet,” Woods said. “I’m curious to see what the feedback is. I know the PGA Tour had their stance on it. [It had said it would not play a rolled-back ball when bifurcation was suggested.]

“But the ruling bodies are — they’re the ruling bodies.”

Gee, if only you had some influence with the PGA Tour, Tiger?

This is just weird.  Obviously the ball rollback is a threshold issue of our day,.and the man whose supposed to lead us out of the wilderness just shrugs his shoulders....

But the two biggest advocates for controlling distance, Tiger and Rory, will be tested on this issue as well.  I think this is an issue Tiger actually cares about, it's just unclear where it fits on his list of priorities.  And Rory's days of leadership would seem to be behind us.....

Stay tuned....

I shall leave you here.  I'm a week out from my first trip to Unplayable Lies Western HQ, but my week has gotten complicated.  I'll blog for sure, though the timing thereof will be a gametime decision, so check back early and often.