Thursday Themes - Equity Edition

For any younger readers, not THAT kind of equity..... 

The Rich Get Richer - One of society's marginalized groups is finding that they've not been forgotten:

The PGA Tour informed players Wednesday of their individual grants in the tour’s new equity program and some of the game's biggest stars reportedly will get hefty checks.

The tour does not plan on publicly releasing the amounts, but the Telegraph reported earlier on Wednesday that Tiger Woods was set to receive a $100 million grant, with Rory McIlroy getting $50 million, and Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth receiving $30 million each.

The first $930 million of grants were distributed Wednesday, with players getting a note from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan (who also holds the CEO title of PGA Tour Enterprises) detailing their award. Tyler Dennis, the PGA Tour’s chief competitions officer, later went on Golf Channel’s “Golf Today” to explain the process.

“There’s no other sports league in the world that has this significant number of their athletes as owners of their own sports organization,” Dennis said. “And we’re really excited about it because, ultimately, we want to do what’s right."

You'll note immediately the tenuous correlation between award size and actual golf ability, at least in this present moment.  What they seem to forget is that these guys are transitory, even the guy pictured above.

But fortunately we have this helpful reminder of how that elite player putsch will be for the good of all players....  Yeah, you can stop laughing now, because you know there are table scraps for all the other guys:

The grants were divided into four categories:

• Group 1 consists of $750 million in aggregate equity based on career performance, last 5-year performance, and Player Impact Program results. A total of 36 players were in this group.

• Group 2 consists of $75 million in aggregate equity and was granted to 64 players based on last 3-year performance.

• Group 3 consists of $30 million in aggregate equity and was granted to 57 players that have earned certain fully-exempt PGA Tour status categories.

• Group 4 consists of $75 million in aggregate equity and was granted to 36 players who were instrumental to building the modern PGA Tour, based on career performance.

Yeah, they are literally awarding equity based on PIP results, adding a few zeros to Jay's slush funds.  The only good news is that these are fairy tale numbers, all valuations based upon this ironclad guarantee:

Players were told they would receive equity into PGA Tour Enterprises, which the tour says has a valuation of $12 billion.

For those unfamiliar with high finance, the tour saying the entity is worth $12 billion isn't exactly the same as the entity actually being worth $12 billion, but I'm sure Letitia James will be all over this.

This is not cash, and I've seen no discussion of how it will convert to cash, which it seems would require continued further investment from some combination of SSG and you-know-who.  But just to pick names, they're awarding sizeable equity stakes to JT and Jordan at the very time their games seem to be in remission, though I do hope someone asks JT whether Bones gets a taste.

Ryder Cup Musings - Sean Zak apparently covets Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column, because he's now peddling  his own Tuesday Takes, from which we will sample a few bits, including two bits related to the Ryder Cup, lateness being the connective tissue:

1. The Ryder Cup is behind schedule (pt. 1).

Tiger Woods is probably going to be the Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage. He’s discussed it with

the PGA of America. He acknowledge at the Masters he was going to be discussing it with the PGA again after the Masters. Even Jim Furyk, captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team, was talking about Woods as a shoo-in for the RC role during a press conference last week.

Even if it feels like a done deal, we’ll hold tight. But the one thing we do know is that we’re wayyyy behind on making that decision. The last decade’s-worth of American Ryder Cup captains have, at the absolute latest, been announced in February of the preceding year. Meaning at least 20 months early. Sometimes they’re announced even earlier than that, because the marketing and promotion and scouting and team building and site-visits — it all takes time. A lot of time. And currently, the Bethpage Ryder Cup is just 17 months away. The captaincy is at least three months behind schedule. Which would never be much of an issue — we probably care too much about this event during its off-years — except the American team has once again been put on notice by what appears to be a European juggernaut. It’s time to get on with it.

On the one hand, Tiger's Greta Garbo act is quite silly.  You know he's going to be the captain, he knows he's going to be the captain and he knows that you know.... They've collectively let it get to the point where no one else would even take because there'd be such a letdown.

That said, the case that it has to be resolved because of marketing or site visits to Bethpage is just awfully silly, no?  Though, given my take above on certain former stalwarts of the U.S. team, perhaps Tiger is merely concerned about fielding twelve competitive players.... He barely eked out that Prez Cup win at Royal Melbourne, sure would be a tough "L" in a Ryder Cup home game.

That Furyk reference is to this bit:

Undoubtedly, that hasn’t changed. But a question from a media member in Canada wanted to know if Woods would be an active participant of the U.S. contingent in attendance at the 15th Presidents Cup in September at Royal Montreal.

“What are the odds we'll see Tiger Woods there in some capacity?” asked Bob Weeks of Toronto Sports Network.

Responded Furyk, “Uh, I wonder what the odds in Vegas would be on that right now?”

The 53-year-old captain then caught himself. “Probably not even allowed to talk about that, Bob, because it would be odds in the gambling side of things,” he said. “But, you know, I'm curious, what are the odds he's gonna be the Ryder Cup captain? What do you think about that? Can I turn it around and ask you, is he gonna accept that position?”

Your first reaction is undoubtedly shock at the very fact that Jim Furyk is the captain of our Prez Cup team, though that's perhaps secondary to being reminded that the Prez Cup is still played.  Of course our Tiger, who presents himself as being a team player, couldn't be bothered getting his butt to Italy for a Ryder Cup, so the chances of him showing in Montreal are approximately, checking notes, zero.  And strike that "approximately"....

But it does allow me to grab this photo of Tiger's prior trip to Montreal, during which Sunday didn't turn out as planned:

On a more substantive note, I'm old enough to remember when the Ryder Cup Task Force was to save us, one element thereof being to use the Prez Cup to train future Ryder Cup captains.  Yet here we are recycling former Ryder Cup captains into the Prez Cup, most amusingly bad and unsuccessful Ryder Cup captains at that.  Confirming, as if we needed further evidence, that all of professional golf is about taking care of the self-designated cool kids.

Sean's second RC bit is of less concern, at least on this side of the Atlantic:

2. The Ryder Cup is behind schedule (pt. 2).

We know Bethpage is hosting in 2025, Adare Manor’s hosting in 2027 and Hazeltine’s hosting in 2029, but we’ve got nothing finalized about the next Cup after that. The European host two Cups from now. And while that may not seem to matter, we are once again behind schedule. The event has typically announced host venues at least eight years out, which means we’re six months behind on hearing which European country will follow Ireland as RC host.

Why? Well, the answer is complicated. In order to host the Cup, generally local governments need to get involved — as was the case with the extremely successful ’23 Cup in Italy — to approve building permits and orchestrate plans for a global sporting event landing on their turf. Spain’s Catalonia region was a front-runner for the honor until local government got in the way. Now, it’s looking like England is in the lead, but which English region will it be?

There’s a cohort who want to bring the Ryder Cup to Manchester, to a place called Bolton, endorsed by Tommy Fleetwood. There’s a separate group vying to bring it to the London area, to a place called Luton Hoo, the owner of which seems to desperately want to create “the Augusta of Europe.”

My initial reaction: good luck with that. Put me down with the Bolton party and Team Fleetwood. But I don’t call the shots. I just keep track of how long it’s taking for someone else to make ’em.

I'm having difficulty working up any concern about which dreadful venue the Euro Tour will choose, not least because, Sean's charming tale of government cooperation aside, it's determined exclusively by the number of zeros on the check.

I've long given up hope that we could have inspired Ryder Cup venues, though we are at least rewarded with many of those for the Walker Cup.

LIVing The Good Life -  As dreary as Tour life has become, I simply can't stop laughing at the clown show doing business as LIV.  But you have to embrace the schadenfreudalicity involved herein:

On Wednesday at LIV’s latest event in Adelaide, commissioner Greg Norman was asked about these changes specifically — and he delivered a surprising response.

“I think from LIV’s perspective, we’re very open-minded about [moving to 72 holes],” he said. “But you’ve got to understand there’s economic impact about putting television on for 72 holes.”

Open-minded! Sure, it’s not “enthusiastic about” or “changing to” — but Norman’s comments nonetheless mark a noticeable territorial shift for the league in its public-facing comments. Even if shifting to 72 holes would result in a relatively palatable solution for all parties involved, Norman and co. have been reticent to comment publicly about changes that could bring the league more in line with its PGA Tour counterparts. Norman’s decision to comment publicly about it on Wednesday — in the same presser LIV competitor Jon Rahm named PGA Tour events he would enjoy competing in — indicates the league is thinking seriously about a future that looks different than its present. 

 “It’s a great conversation to have. We will continue to have that conversation going forward,” Norman said. “But we sit back and say, what value do we get on putting on television on Thursday? Now, how do we build out in the future? How do we get more people to the golf course? Maybe it is Thursday and you allow another 30,000 people coming in on a Thursday.”

Hey, given that you're not on actual television on Friday, why sweat the Thursday thing?  Also, when you are on TV, no one is watching...

 Of course, as I've been cackling over since day one, there is that uncomfortable anme issue:

LIV Golf has a bit of a thing with the number 54.

The name LIV, you might remember, is derived from the Roman numeral for 54, which also happens to be the number of holes played by the Saudi-backed tour in its competitions. This has been a central piece of LIV’s “revolutionary” identity from the beginning — the idea that tournaments were too long and stars were too often removed from those fields with a cutline. And so, the league’s theory went, by removing the cutline and trimming tournaments to 54 holes with a shotgun start, we could remove all of the worst parts of golf tournaments and keep all of the best.

Now, it seems, that love affair has grown a bit stale. As the league ponders a future that could include a treaty or even reunification with the PGA Tour, LIV’s executives are also coming to grips with the suggestion that some of the league’s core tenets could be changed as part of that reunification. One of the biggest of those suggested changes has been extending the league’s tournaments to 72 holes, which some players have advocated for as a means of helping LIV achieve OWGR status or, more broadly, for keeping the tour in line with the remainder of golf’s biggest events, which are also contested over 72 holes.

Can you feel the game growing?

It's all quite hysterical, but they don't have a viable product and have no obvious path to viability.  I'll just add that the rejection of their OWGR application was less about 54 vs. 72 holes, than it was about their closed ecosystem.  But that their cleverness with the LIV name would come back to bite them was blindingly obvious, so I think I get to take a bow, no?

But LIV's biggest problem might be that none of their players seem content:

When pressed further, Rahm revealed which PGA Tour events he’d still “love to play” should those starts become available to him again.

“Right now obviously it’s 14 LIV events that I want to play, so that, majors, Ryder Cup for sure, and then after that, yeah, there’s some PGA Tour events that if it’s not conflicting with my LIV schedule I’d love to go play,” Rahm said. “I’ve said numerous times and I’ll say it again, Palm Springs [the American Express], Torrey Pines [Farmers Insurance Open], Phoenix [WM Phoenix Open], LA [Genesis Invitational], if I’m allowed to be able to play, the Players [Players Championship]. Those are events that if I could, I would love to play.”

Said with Greg Norman sitting next to him.

I hear a note of desperation in this:

But he also expressed confidence that some kind of agreement would result in the best “product” for golf fans.

“We all want to see this resolved,” Rahm said. “Like I’ve said many times, we have the opportunity to take golf to the next level in the global markets, and I think if done properly we can come up with a better product for anybody, and putting golf as a bigger product in general as a worldwide sport.”

Really?   Because your buddy Phil said that LIV's revolutionary product was going to revitalize the game of golf.  Was that all just BS?  Yeah, you mean it might have been about the money?

Lastly, how about a boo-frigging-hoo moment:

Why the LIV Golf Adelaide winning payout will likely be cut by nearly 50 percent

Likely?  If by "likely" you mean a dead certainty.

For most folks, $2.2 million is more than enough to make ends meet. You can buy all the cold

cuts you want from the grocery store, pick up your dry cleaning and even treat yourself to a new golf club or two with that chunk of change. Still, the math is the math … and $2.2 million is a lot less than $4 million.

At this week’s LIV Golf event in Adelaide, one lucky (and very unlucky) golfer will learn the true difference between those two numbers the league’s most popular event from a fan-attraction standpoint has one fatal flaw: Australia tax laws.

If form holds from 2023, the winner of the upcoming event is expected to see his winnings spliced by nearly half due to the Land Down Under’s tax regulations. Last year’s champion was Talor Gooch, found that out first-hand and had a very reasonable take on this mishegas. It’s a real bummer.

“It was a little bit disheartening seeing 47½ percent because Australian taxes [do] not enter the account,” Gooch said on the “Fore The People” podcast after his 2023 win. “It comes, you know, sometimes it’s like 48 hours, but it’s usually 24 hours after the direct deposit hits.

Great.  Now do California....   

Today In Entitlement - We can speculate about why golf TV ratings are down, but it's so illuminating how our modern professionals feel unconstrained by their actual popularity.  For instance, this young lady:

Why Nelly Korda was right to call out TV coverage after historic victory

Yeah, we'll see about that.

Shortly after notching a historic fifth-straight win at the Chevron Championship, Nelly Korda offered a friendly (but stern) message to golf’s TV networks:

“We need a stage. We need to be on primetime TV, and we need to showcase the talent we have out here, which is a lot. We need the support from not just the crowds but the television networks.”

Korda’s message was clear, even if she risked igniting another round of whataboutist retorts from the “nobody cares” segment of the golf internet: For women’s golf to succeed on television like men’s golf, it needs to be shown on television like men’s golf. As for that insipid argument about floundering ratings on small cable networks being proof of women’s golf’s inherent inferiority, Korda seemed to be arguing that the solution to women’s golf’s popularity woes was neither the chicken (major TV networks) nor the egg (women’s golf), but rather the frequency of the two working together.

That's great, at least if you believe that men's golf is succeeding on TV, which this year's ratings seem to rebut.

But sometimes you just can't make the dogs eat the dog food:

As Nelly Korda won her fifth straight event, NBC drew 936,000 viewers for the final round of LPGA Chevron Championship on Sunday, one of the circuit’s five majors. But that figure was down slightly from 941,000 viewers last year, when Lilia Vu won in a playoff. Two years ago, the final round was on Golf Channel and drew 349,000. Sunday’s LPGA round went head-to-head with the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage with Scottie Scheffler in the lead, but that telecast had large chunks of no golf due to rain in South Carolina. The LPGA also went head-to-head with NASCAR on Fox, the NBA playoffs on ABC and Stanley Cup Playoffs on ESPN.

That's with Nelly en fuego and the RBC in a weather delay.... Reality is a bitch, but approximately no one watches women's golf.  

This is true for sure:

EXCUSE ME?

That message might have sounded strange, particularly on the heels of NBC carrying two straight days — and at least 7 hours — of nationally televised tournament coverage from the “Chev.” But anyone watching the telecast knew the coverage was badly wounded relative to a traditional men’s weekend tournament round.

There was hardly any technology worth showing, and only a handful of camera crews were on site to cover the action — a pittance next to the coverage CBS gave Scottie Scheffler’s victory in Hilton Head. On Sunday, flipping channels from CBS’s coverage to NBC’s was a bit like going from 1.5x speed to .5x.

Thankfully, Korda was in the final group and leading come Sunday afternoon, so NBC’s cameras didn’t miss much. But the investment was clearly lacking.

To his credit, James Colgan doesn't let the girls completely off the hook:

NBC’s DEFENSE…

Is salient. Carlton Woods, which hosts the Chevron, is a spread-out tournament layout, which creates all manner of challenges for TV productions utilizing miles worth of fiber optic cable and strike crews needing to set up tower coverage. It’s hard to get set up for tournament play in the best of circumstances, and adding additional layers of production glut adds further cost and time to the NBC team.

NBC is also not in control of pace of play, which — at a shade over six hours on Sunday — was horrendous and surely contributed to the slow-motion feel of the Sunday telecast. Also, the fact that Korda was so far distanced from the remainder of the rest of the field for most of Sunday’s round, and the historical context with which she was competing, left the broadcast giving her Tiger-like levels of airtime. Considering she was quick to play, that meant plenty of waiting.

Nelly is a participant, so of course we understand her desire to promote her tour, but one is reminded of the chicken and the egg.  Her basic premise is that the ladies should be given the platform, as opposed to earning the platform.  You'll be shocked to know that I beg to differ there....

The ladies need to force NBC to have to cover them, and Nelly herself might be able to do so.  But the supporting cast seems wanting in the present moment, and those six-hour rounds will repel viewers.

I wish them the best and I do actually watch some women's golf, I chose the Chevron over the RBC unaware of the weather issues at Hilton Head.  But, as intriguing as Nell herself can be, it's not like they put on a great show.  They need to up their game dramatically, so let's not blame NBC.

Gotta get moving with my day.  Probably will see you next on Monday.

Tuesday Tastings - TGL Preview Edition

Mostly kidding in that header, though we do have an item....

Gonna start with this from Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column, in which he does a side-by-side homage to those two dominants forces in the professional game, beginning with Nelly:

Late on Sunday night I got a call back from Nelly Korda‘s coach Jamie Mulligan. He was at the Houston airport, sipping on a celebratory beverage, dried off from his plunge into (the new)

Poppie’s Pond but still soaked in the secondhand satisfaction of a dream delivered. That’s what Korda’s Sunday win — her fifth in a row and the second major of her career — amounted to. A dream.

“It’s everything that I’ve always wanted as a little girl, to lift that major trophy,” Korda said Sunday evening.

Mulligan has worked with Korda for several years, which is why I’d messaged him asking a simple, impossible question: what’s the difference? Korda was an excellent golfer a couple years ago, but she wasn’t like this. What’s changed?

He paused.

“There isn’t really a difference,” he said. “More simplicity in her own bubble is all. But it’s the same thing. Cleaner, more efficient.”

He cited Korda’s shots coming home, protecting a dwindling lead. The short iron into the par-3 17th. The drive and second into the finishing par-5. The way they’d demanded different things and the way she’d delivered.

“Imagine a ship,” Mulligan continued. “She’s been throwing stuff off the ship. Anything she didn’t need. And right now the ship is cruising along pretty good.”

Ya think?  There is the little matter of being healthy, but that bubble was all Nelly would speak of all week.  Of course, being in Houston will make a person retreat into their bubble....

Dylan had this on that other player on a tear:

MULLIGAN’S LINE REMINDED ME of a different description from a different person about a different golfer. That was Max Homa on men’s No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who was on the doorstep of victory at the RBC Heritage before play was called for the day on Sunday night.

“Scottie is tremendously talented and a hard worker and sadly, a better person,” Homa said. “I wish I could hate him. But it’s not utterly shocking what he does. He just does it over and over and over again. That’s amazing. I feel like he almost makes it seem very realistic that we should do that. He just seems like he’s playing on the driving range every day.”

There’s more to be said of this current professional golfing moment, particularly the two golfers — Korda and Scheffler — in the midst of historic runs. There’s more to be said of the fact that Korda has won five in a row and Scheffler has won four of five and finished runner-up in that fifth. Of the way this very rarely happens on either the LPGA or PGA Tour and right now it’s happening on both. Of the way it’s happening against the backdrop of a pro game mired in toxic discourse, with our focus too often centered on money and ratings and that dreaded phrase the product and not often enough on excellence. Of the way they’re making their competitors look flawed and ordinary. That’s what excellence does. This weekend was excellence continued. That’s worth celebrating. That’s golf stuff we like.

Yeah, I also don't love the "product" stuff, though the bigger issue is that the guys insist on believing that they're the product.   Also that it somehow helps sell the product to be rich beyond measure and angry about it.  Just sayin'

Scottie is a welcome respite from that, though he's perceived as being too milquetoast to move the needle.  It's probably a fair rap, but I like him all the more for it, as if somehow Patrick Cantlay is the more engaging personality.  

The always-interesting Mike Bamberger takes his own shot at these two dominant players, though it's his offhand comments that caught my eye, beginning here:

When your swing is the envy of the free world — when it is rhythmic and repeatable, with tried-and-true sequencing — unflappability can be your ultimate superpower. (Check out the Tiger

highlights, circa 2000.) When you have all that, you can take you-do-you to the mountaintop. The actual competition part of it becomes less of an issue. Mickey Wright lived her golfing life that way. Wright’s wins were ultimately a tribute to her superior technique, her spectacular swing. That’s what we’re seeing in Nelly Korda. Her older sister, Jessica, now out of action with a back injury, has a similar approach.

This kind of mentality is not what you would instinctively expect from two golfers raised by two successful tennis players. Tennis is closer to boxing. In a match of equals, the over-the-net smackdown always lingers. Golf, at match play, often has that, and one of Korda’s five victories this year was at a match-play event. But it’s not baked into the DNA of all winners of all 72-hole stroke-play events. You could say that of Korda, and you could say that of Scheffler, too. A clear mind is a beautiful thing.

Mike, I'll have to take your word for that last bit.  That's where good parenting comes in, because I suspect the senior Kordas allowed their kids to try all sports and gravitate to that which suits them best.  And, going way out on a limb, I'll posit that Nelly has indeed found a game that suits her.

Mie continues:

In golf — because its playing fields are so varied, because any single swing has so many moving parts, because the amount of time it takes to play is so long — it’s hard to keep it all going. Dark thoughts and bad luck are often lurking.

And what if your bad luck is having so many dark thoughts?  Asking for a friend....

This is a misfire:

Also, every time Nelly Korda plays, she faces the best golfers in the world, from all over the world. (Elite, global men’s golf is simply more spread out, and always has been.) Korda sees the likes of Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson and Rose Zhang and a dozen or more golfers with similar profiles 20 or so times a year. Scottie Scheffler, in his PGA Tour life, cannot say that. It’s not his fault that he can’t, but he can’t.

Are you done laughing?  Wow, how does one even take the club back with Brooke in the field?  And exactly what has Rose done to date?

The point is that there's a point to be made, but Mike doesn't see it.  The asterisk (how was your Masters week, Talor?) it deserves isn't because Jon Rahm isn't there, regrettable as that may be.  The issue is the 70 players that Scheffler didn't have to beat because they weren't invited to Hilton Head, just to keep Patrick from whining.

But then Mike has to morph into a social justice warrior:

Nelly Korda has made $2.4 million on the course so far this year. With his win at the RBC Heritage (that was worth $3.6 million), Scheffler has made more than $18 million this year.

Something is out of whack.

Great, Mike.  Now do the relative TV audiences.....  Maybe it's not so out of whack after all?

But what a crazy moment, with the two best players on the planet on impressive heaters.  When will it end?  Who knows?  Is anyone watching?  Not on a Monday morning, that's for sure.

Hilton Head Leftovers -  Patrick Cantlay, you might have noticed, isn't my cup of tea, but this seems quite bizarre, though admittedly he probably found himself in an awkward spot.  Alan Bastable sets the scene:

When the RBC Heritage was suspended due to darkness at 7:50 p.m. Sunday, the tournament’s winner already had been all but decided. With a three-shot lead with just three holes to play,

Scottie Scheffler was not going to kick away his fourth title in his last five starts, because, well, he’s Scottie Scheffler.

But further down the ’board, other business still needed to be settled.

From that group, Cantlay’s Sunday-evening decision-making at Harbour Town was particularly intriguing, because when the horn blew he had only half a hole left to play. To finish his round, or not to finish his round? For Cantlay, that was the question. Under the rules, if play is suspended for darkness after a player already has teed off on a hole, the player may elect to complete the hole or mark and finish out when play resumes. Players generally shudder at the thought of having to come back on Monday mornings, especially if they have only a few shots left to play, so if they’re on the 72nd hole under these circumstances, they’ll make every effort to hole out. Then again, when millions of dollars are on the line, rushing or fighting the darkness is not always the wisest tactic.

See the inherent tension?  We know how players feel about coming back Monday morning but we also know how Patrick feels about millions of dollars..... But, for the record, wasn't Scottie five up with three to play?  It kind of matters...

So, we're in the 18th fairway when the horn blows:

Cantlay had hit a good drive at the par-4 18th, but when play was suspended he still had 214 yards left into a stiff wind and light rain and over marshland — not the most comfortable shot even in the best of conditions. Decision time: mark and come back the next morning, or swing away. Cantlay talked over the options with his caddie, Joe LaCava, and made the call: they would forge on with a 3-wood into the gloaming.

“It got dark,” Cantlay would say later. “But yeah, I could see okay.”

Cantlay’s effort cleared the penalty area but came up just short and left of the green, from where at least one observer — and surely others, too — assumed Cantlay would have elected to finish up his round. But Cantlay didn’t. Instead, he marked. He would sleep on his up-and-down attempt.

“Can’t believe my eyes watching Patrick Cantlay,” tweeted Ian Woosnam, the 1991 Masters champion, “why on earth would you hit your second shot then mark your ball absolutely crazy, maybe says a lot.”

It seems to me that the threshold question would be, did he have any kind of chance to win?   That's why it matters whether the lead was three or five, because at lesser margin there's always that outside chance.

Here was Cantlay's take:

But on Monday Cantlay explained his decision, saying: “I really did want to finish last night, so I felt like if I could get the ball up there maybe in an easier spot, maybe I would have finished. But as I got the ball up near the green, I realized it would be easier to finish this morning. Just thought it might be easier to get the ball up-and-down this morning.”

I'll not object to any professional grinding to the finish line, but it just seems odd to play the second shot Sunday night into that cold, wet breeze.  Could it be that LaCava wanted to get home, but then found out why Patrick is called a Terrific Phallus when he refused to hole out?

What, you think Bones is the only caddie reconsidering his career decision?

In case you're wondering why the Tour didn't move up the Sunday tee times, Dylan has a brief explanation:

Monday Finishes

Unlike this column, Monday Finishes on Tour are best avoided. So why didn’t the PGA Tour move up tee times to dodge impending bad weather? How’d we get here? Some combination of preferred TV window and overly optimistic meterorology. Here was the explanation from Gary Young, the Tour’s SVP of Rules and Competitions:

“The golf course was really very dry. We felt that could handle it easily. It actually held up very well through the rain that we got, but it was really the thunder and lightning that put us down. We did not expect that. Our meteorologist Stewart Williams felt that the front would be to our south when we came in in the morning, so we would be on the cooler side of the front, and it would keep the probability of thunderstorms down quite a bit.

“Unfortunately when we arrived this morning, the front had stalled to our north, which kept us on the warmer side and allowed for the temperatures to warm up, and of course late in the day we saw the thunderstorms develop.”

They sure did.

There was a longer piece on this at Golfweek, but I'm just too damn lazy to find it.  The forecast they had available on Saturday, when they would have had to decide, called for a 30% chance of thunderstorms during the afternoon window.  The problem, of course, is that morning play and an afternoon rebroadcast is ratings euthanasia, a tough call given the run of dreary ratings.  

A skeptic might note that they're putting civilians in harm's way, at a time when golf fans are feeling abused already.  I'll also note that this is a further argument against the Tour's new format, under which we've already seen two money grabs undermined by weather.  Rory tells us we need to know when he's playing, but that also alerts the weather gods....

Chevron Leavings - Has anyone seen Chevron ratings?  Nelly has been transcendent, but why do I suspect that about a dozen people saw it?

Given that, I was remiss in not posting this craziest of good breaks:

Wait for it..

Jasmine Koo BOUNCES it out of the water 🤯 pic.twitter.com/JCkiAW9fOf

— LPGA (@LPGA) April 21, 2024

She doesn't exactly bounce it out of the water, but how lame is that Chevron float?  Not exactly putting money into their signage, are they?

Has Jim Nancy-Boy reached his sell-by date?

Let me be the first to congratulate Kelly Norda 🔈🆙 pic.twitter.com/SETh5onTiL

— robmillertime (@robmillertime) April 21, 2024

The good news is that he was, in fact, the first to congratulate Kelly.... 

Hasn't He Done Enough Damage? - You're either a cool kid or you're not, and they're not accepting new applications:

A week ago, Rory McIlroy was once again emphatically squashing rumors that he was leaving

the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, saying he would play on the American-based tour for the rest of his career. On Monday, it was reported that McIlroy is doubling down on that promise by once again returning to the PGA Tour’s Policy Board.

The Guardian reported the Ulsterman is expected to return to the board as a director for both the Policy Board and PGA Tour Enterprises as a replacement for Webb Simpson, whom, the Guardian said, offered his resignation with the request that McIlroy take his place. McIlroy is expected to be re-elected onto the board this week ahead of playing in the Zurich Classic.

This is beyond outrageous at this point, not least that Webb Simpson should be allowed to designate his successor, but also that he would designate for Rory, who has most recently argued that the money grabs should have even smaller fields.

Imagine you're a Tour Rabbit, and these are your player directors:

Tiger Woods

Patrick Cantlay

Rory McIlroy

Adam Scott

Peter Malnati

 Do you feel that your interests are going to be well represented?

Do you see why I've been calling it a coup?  Do you see how they take care of themselves?  Remember, those last two guys have been compromised by sponsors' exemptions.  

I think Rory and Yasir will get on famously.

Anticipation... - Wow, this is gonna be lit:

Tiger Woods is fired up for the start of TGL: 'It’s starting to feel real'

Hey, it's golf without walking, so no surprise that he's excited....

He's the man, so I expect his roster will be loaded, no?

Q: How did Jupiter Links GC come together?

A: “TGL league policy was to prioritize player schedules first so that all the guys could commit to and play their normal, desired PGA Tour schedule. Last thing we wanted was a player to not play in an event due to a TGL match.

“With that, I have three guys on my team that I enjoy being around, that I know are going to work hard and grind as team members, can talk a little trash and will have a great time. If I compete in something, I want to win. Jupiter Links now has one of the top all-around players in the world in Max Homa, one of the fastest-rising young stars in Tom Kim and I’ll put Kiz up against anyone in team play. So while I didn’t hand pick this team, I’m thrilled at where Jupiter Links Golf Club stands.”

Tom Km and Kiz?  Really?  Was Webb Simpson already taken?  

But don't ignore that first 'graph, in which I detect a certain defensiveness.  The untold story of the TGL is how challenging it is to get these guys together on Monday nights, and I suspect it will have an effect on playing schedules.  Which means that the Tour is competing with its own sponsors, and you know those with non-Signature events will be further impaired.  This is just SOP with the Tour, as the nice folks at Honda could testify.  Hey, they had only sponsored the event for 42 years, so they had it coming.

Tiger has perfected the art of the non-answer answer, so enjoy his tradecraft:

Q: What do you like about how each players’ game fits the TGL format?

A: “I think each player is going to bring a lot of game and personality to Jupiter Links. TGL’s format, which includes a shot clock, time outs, and both team and individual match play, is really going to highlight our players’ talents and bring a fresh, modern, and fast-paced twist to the game we all love so much.”

Which talents are those?  I mean those K-boys haven't shown much of anything recently, but never mind.

Homa almost single-handedly saved the last installment of the Match, but I'm unclear whether this be more or less dreadful than that franchise.  I imagine many of us will tune in for the first broadcast, but don't we think yet another ratings implosion is the most likely outcome beginning in week two?

That'll have to do you for today.  See you later in the week.

Weekend Wrap - Five-peat Edition

Quite the dilemma for the golf viewer yesterday, Scottie or Nelly?  I settled the battle of the diminutives in Nellie's favor, as the ladies at least had the sense to get their weather issues out of the way on Saturday....

Seriously, is either of them ever going to lose?

Nelly, Ascendant - This is the Nelly they've been promising us, admittedly derailed by some non-golf issues, including that untimely and scary blood clot.

It's all good now, though what are we to do about this event?

Nelly Korda's record-setting run reaches next level, collecting fifth consecutive victory and second major title

With a leap and a splash, Nelly Korda cemented one of the great runs in LPGA history. After winning the Chevron Championship Sunday with a final-round 69, she continued the tradition of

jumping into the pond next to Carlton Woods’ 18th green. Korda’s two-stroke victory over Maja Stark makes her one of three in LPGA history to win five-straight starts, joining Hall of Famers Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05).

"It's an amazing feeling because all the hard work and the doubt that I had in my head from 2021," said Korda, who shot 13-under-par 275 total. "I worked through it, and it's been an amazing feeling these past couple weeks knowing that I can go on this stretch and that if I stay in my bubble and I keep golf in a sense simple and let it flow, then I can have so, so much fun out here. It's just been an amazing time.

Shack has a nice post up at his Quad in which he covers the dark clouds engulfing this reconfigured major, thank you very much, Mr. Ridley./  First, about that weather:

A rain delay situation was inevitable when Chevron decided to move to The Woodlands, Texas from Rancho Mirage. The old Dinah Shore was played for 51 years without a single thunderstorm delay.

That's just an aside in the midst of trashing NBC/Golf Channel, to which we'll return in a sec.  The other broadside was on pace-of-play, of which there was none.  The girl had no easy morning:

Sheesh. Nelly Korda had to grind to earn this one.

The wonderous woman deserves extra Hall of Fame points after the 2024 Chevron Championship put the resounding World No. 1 through a bit of everything.

Granted, finishing off a major is not supposed to be fun, easy or simple. With a historic fifth-straight-win and second career major on the line, her Sunday was already infused with way more pressure than any other player faced.

Korda’s day started with a 4 a.m. Sunday morning wake-up call to complete the delayed third round that soaked Carlton Woods with 1.5 inches of rain.

Crisp morning air greeted Korda early Sunday, never a fun thing for a player who has overcome well-chronicled injuries.

Yeah, ordinary course of business stuff for the kids.  This?  Not so much:

Then, finishing the morning restart having lost her lead and trailing Haeran Ryu by a stroke, Korda opened the final round with a 3-under-par 33 yet still had to fend off a few persistent chasers battling to the last and eagle-friendly last hole.

And most unnecessary of all? One of the game’s fastest players endured a ridiculous six-hour-and-five-minute final round pace.

Who's to blame?  I'm going to go with everyone.... But while approximately no one watches women's golf, you're pretty much guaranteed of losing those dozen viewers if all these see is Nelly munching on a sandwich in the fairway.

Shall we check in with the Tour Confidential gang?  Ummm, that was rhetorical....

1. Nelly Korda did it again, winning the Chevron Championship to claim not only her second major title, but tie the LPGA record with her fifth straight victory. What has most impressed you about her run over the past couple of months, and what’s a realistic number of wins Korda can get to this season?

Dylan Dethier: What most impressed me? Jeez. I guess the variety. Different courses, different regions, even different formats. The match play win sent her to a different stratosphere. And

different pressures! We’ve seen plenty of golfers get crowned and then wither. Nelly has done the opposite.

James Colgan: Lots of options, but perhaps the fact that Nelly was able to extend the streak at a major championship, even feeling all the pressure that came with entering the week on four-straight wins. That shows serious mettle, and not the kind many in the sport are blessed with. That she was able to do so while being the fastest player in the field by a long shot? Well, that was just gravy.

Zephyr Melton: It’s been impressive to watch her mental resolve during this run. In previous seasons, she likely would’ve let a couple of these get away when things didn’t go her way. But the Nelly of 2024 is just different. She’s got the mental game now to go with her sweet swing, and that should be very concerning for the rest of her competitors. As for how many she can win this year, let’s go with eight.

As someone said a week ago about that other Numero Uno, you're not supposed to win when you're supposed to win.

What I fond most interesting were her final four holes, after she had chipped in to build a four shot lead.  She wasn't impervious to that "Holy crap, I'm gonna win this thing" moment, but she was able to steady herself and those last two approach shots were a purity master class.

2. Before the tournament, defending Chevron champ Lilia Vu called Korda “kind of our Caitlin Clark,” adding, “she is bringing so much to the table — just win after win, just having it, having everything together. She’s done such a good job. So well-liked and loved out here. She brings a big following. She’s a great person.” Due to her success, is there more pressure on Korda to bring more eyeballs to the game, and should she feel obligated to do so? Or is there more pressure on the LPGA to take advantage of her run?

Dethier: Yeah, sure, there’s pressure on her to expand the LPGA’s footprint. But her primary job is to stay atop the game. To keep winning. Everything else depends on that. So I think the pressure to capitalize on Korda’s run falls on everyone else whose job it is to make these events feel big big.

Colgan: It’s Nelly’s job to be a voice and ambassador for the LPGA and the advancements the organization plainly needs to make — but she’s been doing that for quite some time now. She’s not responsible for making the broadcasts more compelling or the pace of play faster than (checks watch) six hours. Those are the things keeping the LPGA from having their Caitlin Clark moment.

Melton: There is certainly more pressure, but that’s part of the deal when you ascend to superstar status. And if she keeps winning, it’ll be in everyone’s best interest that she does her very best to elevate women’s golf as a whole. The Tour can do their best to capitalize, but unless Nelly is fully bought in, it won’t work.

If you read my post previewing this event, you'll know that the Caitlin Clark analogy isn't a bad one, but the harder issue is to identify the LPGA's Angel Reese.  In this current moment, there is no other woman golfer with any presence.  For instance, apparently this production line is struggling as well:

Is the South Korean golf boom over on the LPGA Tour?

Except for waiting on Rose Zhang, who else is there?  The aforementioned Lilia Vu is the second-ranked player in the world, and none of us could pick her out of a police lineup.

As promised, here's Geoff's rant about TV windows, echoing themes you've heard here repeatedly:

How low has NBC set its golf broadcasting bar?

Amidst the slog of a final day it felt miraculous that the once-gold standard of golf coverage even bothered to show a major final round championship past the allotted time. The schedule (above) called for signing off at 6 p.m. and covering what was left of the Chevron Championship on Golf Channel. This sad schtick of years past was previously caused by Olympic trials, other obligations, affiliate pressures or contractually committing to doing the bare minimum.

There were two caveats to Sunday’s “miracle” of covering a major sporting event to its conclusion. First, there were no Olympic trials to get to and only infomercials on the West Coast to show. (Sorry Jane Seymour skin care-secret fans. There’s always next week.)

And two, the Comcast-owned mess passed on covering Sunday morning’s third round restart. This, despite having the World No. 1 in quest of a fifth-straight win and second major. But at least this guilted network into sticking with the conclusion later in the day and well past the scheduled time.

This was an obsession of Mike Whan, and I just never understood it.  I get that network coverage is preferable, all other things being equal, except for the niggling detail that all things aren't equal.  There's something to be said for your audience knowing where to find you, especially when the size of that audience isn't sufficient to make the networks give you an appropriate coverage window.  And, needless to say, if the girls are taking 6:05 minutes to play, a three-hour window allows for five holes of coverage (OK, I exaggerate, but just a little).

But if you can't get to the finish line during NBC's window, what are you accomplishing?  When they make that jump you're molting viewers and making it a bit of a clown show.

Nelly should be bring eyeballs to screens, but look what they find when they get there.  Dreary weather, dismal Nicklaus architecture and endless waits between shots....  

Scottie, Deferred - It's an event that I like because of the golf courses, but I like it far more as a low-key post Masters family week.  It's just wrong as a Signature Event Money Grab, only because of where it is on the calendar.

But this guy can have a 36-hole Masters letdown and still lap the field:

Scottie Scheffler will have to wait until Monday to add another colorful jacket to his closet and

become the first reigning Masters champion to win the RBC Heritage the following week since Bernhard Langer in 1985.

One week after Scheffler slipped into the famed Green Jacket awarded to the Masters champ for the second time in three years, only Mother Nature could delay the 27-year-old Texan from winning the Heritage’s trademark Tartan Jacket on Sunday in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Inclement weather suspended play for more than two hours, preventing the completion of play before darkness. Play will resume on Monday at 8 a.m. ET.

“I’ll treat tomorrow like I’m playing 18 holes and do all my normal prep work and come out here ready to go for the restart,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler was 4-under through 15 holes in the final round and 20-under overall when play was suspended due to darkness, and five shots ahead of Wyndham Clark (65) and Patrick Cantlay (who is just off the 18th green playing his third shot) in his bid to win for the second straight week and for the fourth time in his last five starts. JT Poston (thru 17) and Sahith Theegala (thru 15) are also tied for second.

Not even a golf course you'd pick as suiting his game, but he's the best player by a lot on a massive heater, so what can get in the way?

Don’t worry, Scottie Scheffler is going to be humbled soon.

The dad ‘bed’ in the delivery room doesn’t care if you have 2 green jackets or have earned over $15 million in 4 months, it takes no prisoners. pic.twitter.com/HkG2uXXHZr

— Mark Harris (@itismarkharris) April 21, 2024

So, you're saying there's a chance?

3. Just one week removed from his second Masters win, Scottie Scheffler is closing in on his fourth PGA Tour victory of the season, as he’s got a five-shot lead with three holes to play at the RBC Heritage, which will resume at 8 a.m. ET on Monday. Win or lose this week in Hilton Head, he’s continued to prove he’s on another level. When he’s at his best, is it better than anyone’s “best” since peak Tiger Woods? Or have some of his accomplishments been diminished since some top players left for LIV Golf?

Dethier: I know that everything is politics now and everything is divisive and kinda stinks as a result, but I’d love for us to keep Scottie’s current run outside that framework. That doesn’t mean

I want everyone to root for him — that would be really boring — but for at least a few days, I want to just stand back and admire the outrageous run he’s on without worrying about TV ratings, LIV rumors or what this means for the product. Anyway, he’s been really good.

Colgan: Comparison is the thief of joy. Rory had a great peak. Jordan Spieth had a great peak. Brooks had a nice stretch there. But what Scottie’s doing now — and the unbotheredness with which he’s doing it — is, well, joyful. And if he keeps this up, in a few more months, there may not be room for debate.

Melton: Yes he absolutely is. And the LIV argument would hold a little more weight if Scheffler hadn’t just dusted their top talent at the Masters last weekend. I don’t care who lines up against Scheffler these days, he’s probably going to beat them.

Forget LIV, the bigger issue is that, to placate Cantlay, Scottie had to beat seventy fewer players this week.

To this observer, the biggest PGA Tour story is that, having cleared to rubble for the Cantlays and McIlroys of the world, they haven't shown up.  The former is T2 before the tee off this morning, so they have continued to make bank, without the need to play very well.  Somehow, in their convoluted minds, that's supposed to appeal to viewers.  Instead, they're molting viewers....

What's It All About, Alfie? - Shall we try to explain to them how this works?

What do disappointing Masters final-round TV ratings actually mean?

 Just spitballin' here, but I think it means that fewer people tuned in....

Just to clear, it wasn't just the Sergio dead-enders that were crushed when he missed the cut.  They lost quite a few viewers:

CBS’s latest report showed that 9.59 million average viewers tuned in to Scottie Scheffler’s Sunday triumph. That qualifies as … well less than 10 million. And even if out-of-home viewing data was down, it doesn’t account for a drop of nearly 2.5 million viewers from Jon Rahm’s 2023 victory.

It's amusing to hear the guys whistling past the graveyard:

"I am surprised by that, to be fair," said Matt Fitzpatrick, the defending champion at Harbour Town. "Obviously you've got everyone playing together, like everyone wants, and the viewership's down. But, yeah, it's bizarre. I think, for me, speaking to people at home and stuff, people are fed up with hearing about the money. I think that's the biggest thing."

"See, I just find it really hard to believe that ratings are down," said Wyndham Clark, sounding a note of disagreement. "I think people that I do know that are watching it loved it. I think golf is growing. I think golf sales have grown. I know golf memberships are growing. It makes no sense at the professional level that the viewership would be down. In my thoughts, is it because everyone is streaming and people are watching it from different avenues than maybe the normal telecast? I think that's a little bit of a skewed stat."

Do we think Wyndham has ever heard of Pauline Kael? 

At least the author acknowledges reality, however begrudgingly:

Caveats aside, it’s hard to see the ratings as anything but bad news. Even if streaming is up, the TV deals with CBS and NBC are a major source of revenue for the tour (and for the majors), and infinitely more valuable than anything they get from streaming or social. If those networks can't sell as many ads, then the tour’s hopes of getting more than the $700 million deal it signed through 2030 when the next deal is being negotiated will be particularly challenging. In other words, considering the ultimate payoff, a hit to the actual terrestrial ratings is a big deal that is not offset financially by gains in other sectors. Sources tell Golf Digest that there's real concern at NBC/Golf Channel about declining ratings, and that CBS executives was extremely disappointed in its Masters numbers, particularly as the network broadcast weekend coverage of tour events for the next 12 weeks.

As you can tell by the layers of disclaimers that pile up each time you try to discuss ratings, it's extremely hard to quantify how "tired" fans have become of the PGA Toutr-LIV hamster wheel, or whether viewers are truly abandoning professional golf in droves (if they are, they're not going to LIV, whose ratings remain anemic). It passes the smell test, but the dozens of caveats that come with interpreting ratings end up introducing a kind of paralyzing effect when it comes to reaching any conclusions; the more you know, the more complicated it becomes. What's not complicated, though, is that numbers are down in relevant ways, and that’s happening during a time of unprecedented growth in recreation golf spurred on by the pandemic.

For five years we've been hearing that such-and-such was changed or ruined by Covid, when it really was ruined by our insane reaction to Covid, quite a different thing.

In this case they're blaming LIV, when it's more their money-grubbing opportunism that's ruining the Tour.  Put simply, the elite players think they are the product, when it should be the game itself that is on offer.  When you reorganize your events to present the dour, humorless Patrick Cantlay as the face of the tour, don't be surprised when the public has better things to do.  Sometimes, the food is so bad that the dogs just won't eat it...

The TC panel had thoughts:

4. The Masters’ TV ratings fell significantly in 2024, with CBS reporting 9.59 million average viewers — nearly 2.5 million less than last year — tuned in to watch Scheffler’s victory. Sunday, notably, was down around 20 percent, which is about the same trend the PGA Tour has seen this season. (For more on this, check out and subscribe to GOLF’s Hot Mic newsletter.) Should we be concerned about the ratings? And what’s to blame? PGA Tour-LIV Golf fatigue? Scheffler’s surgical play and even-keeled demeanor? Something else?

Colgan: Yes, we should be concerned. The reasons for it are varied, but the reality is pretty bleak: People are turning away from watching professional golf, and they’re not turning away from other professional sports. The folks who run the golf business can come up with 100 reasons behind that reality, but the simplest answer seems to be that after golf’s stakeholders spent three years telling fans they didn’t matter, a chunk of those fans actually listened!

Melton: The ratings drop seems to be in line with what we’ve seen across golf since the PGA-LIV spat began. Casual fans just don’t seem to be interested in watching a niche sport with so much infighting. Combine that with a Sunday afternoon when the result was all but decided (and with Tiger in the mix), and you have a recipe for some poor ratings.

Dethier: I guess we in the industry should be concerned. And golfers who get paid based on golf’s popularity should be concerned. But I resent the idea that being a golf fan means caring about TV ratings in such a granular way. Watch it if you like it!

Zephyr, in what sense was the Masters outcome all but decided?  You had those final two groups bunched and some bold print names lurking further back, not to mention Scottie hitting it all over the yard early in the day.

I have no clue what Dylan is going for.  Yeah, I get that the professional game is not golf, but it's still hard to see the Tour destroy itself.  The best stories in golf this year have been at the non-signature events, and that should tell them something useful..  But it won't.

I'll wrap things here and try to deal with the rest of the news cycle tomorrow.  Have a great week.

Thursday Threads - Masters Leftovers Edition

It's getting close to time to move on.... But not just yet.

Augusta In The Rearview Mirror - As we emotionally distance ourselves from Magnolia Lane, we may find time to consider the women's first major of the season, A/K/A The event that the Lords of Augusta destroyed.  But first, some last bits for your consideration, mostly from Shack and Dylan Dethier.

Two independent voices of differing generations that work as a Point-Counterpoint debate.  For Instance, their takes on our Eldrick, first Dylan:

6. Tiger Woods walked 72 holes.

After a terrific performance in the first two rounds to make his record-setting 24th consecutive Masters cut (with five shots to spare!), things took a negative turn on the weekend for Tiger

Woods.

That’s been the story in Woods’ recent major starts. At last year’s Masters he made the cut and then withdrew on Saturday night. At the PGA Championship in 2022 he withdrew on Saturday night, too. And although he gritted his way to a 47th-place finish at the 2022 Masters, he hobbled through the final round using his driver as a walking stick.

So in many ways Woods’ 82-77 weekend didn’t feel like progress. But in terms of his body holding up for four days? It’s at least a step in the right direction. We’ll see whether that trend continues.

OK, but a bit of a low bar, no?  Don't get me wrong, I'm OK if his time has passed, but the Tiger dead-enders can't be sated....

Geoff trisects the world into Winners, Cut-Makers and (Point) Missers, and places the Striped One in that middle category (and, no, I can't explain the parenthesis):

Tiger Woods. A remarkable 24-consecutive cuts made sets the new record after a tremendous performance that required a rapid Thursday-to-Friday turnaround. But 82-77 on the weekend was painful to see. The stiff back and lack of golf conditioning remains an issue even as he appears to walk better, has all of the shots and can out-navigate the kids around a complex course. At least Tiger treated amateur Neil Shipley to a once-in-a-lifetime final round by making the low amateur feel welcomed while making Oakmont feel bad about all of the tree removal. Oh, and the Sunday Red Sun Day Red logo remains weird but good job jettisoning the S.D.R. initials that teed up the haters to hate.

Could someone explain the Oakmont reference?  

In a perfect world, this would be a learning experience for those running our game.  Here we are reveling in Tiger's made cut record and extolling is Friday grind in pursuit thereof, quite the shock when you realize the idiots in charge don't want there to be cuts any longer.... I completely understand that we cannot grow our game if Cantlay has to risk missing a cut.  It's just so maddening that to save golf we have to destroy it, but I'm sure Patrick has the fans' interest at heart.

But, and they both seem loathe to say it out loud, it's hard to retain any hope that the man can be competitive if he has to walk 72 holes.  Don't shoot the messenger....

Shall we see how they come down on the defending champion?

8. The defending champ didn’t like giving up the green jacket.

Jon Rahm is one of golf’s great competitors, so it’s not surprising that he’d be upset by the idea of giving up his green jacket. But as he put the finishing touches on a T45 finish he expressed some regret about not putting the fight to the World No. 1.

“There’s a lot of things that contributed to me not having my best week, and one of them I think was obviously on the greens, which is not easy. Never really had the pace of the greens, and a couple too many three-putts,” he said. Were there positives? Sort of.

“It’s been nice to have some receptions walking up to some tees no matter what my score was and seeing the appreciation. But when you don’t have your best week, it’s hard to have to stay now to put the jacket on somebody else and never really ever have a chance.”

I think they call  that a first-world problem....But I think Geoff came closer to the Spaniard's rage against the machine:

Jon Rahm. He came into the tournament embracing the perks of defending and put together what

sounded like an incredible evening. He earned raves from the past champions—until Ray Floyd had heard enough of Tom Watson and everyone called it a night. Then Rahm turned surly. “It's been nice to have some receptions walking up to some tees no matter what my score was and seeing the appreciation,” he said Sunday after a final round 76. “But when you don't have your best week, it's hard to have to stay now to put the jacket on somebody else and never really ever have a chance.” Coulda been worse Jon! You could have been enlisted to slap Pimento on white bread on the night shift. And while Rahm never looked as miserable as runner-ups forced to sit through cabin ceremonies of yesteryear—a cruel tradition now expired—it wasn’t the most jovial jacket awarding by outgoing champion Rahm. So much for $400 million delivering 24/7 happiness.

Neither mentions those passive-aggressive comments to Spanish media, the bigger issue being that their prize acquisition seems quite miserable with his decision, notwithstanding the $400 million large.

I'll add this apparent category error from Geoff:

LIV. Seven of 13 representatives made the cut, two managed to tie for T6, but only Bryson DeChambeau genuinely threatened the lead. Unlike last year when two players tied for second and made us question the PGA Tour’s run-up as the ideal Masters prep, cracks are turning into grand canyons after LIVsters Rahm and Phil Mickelson admitted expansion to 72 holes is just a matter of time. Not helping LIV’s street cred: DeChambeau suggested only Doral provided LIV players a big time prep test this year. And LIV dropping its OWGR application was highlighted by Chairman Fred Ridley in rejecting the league’s fantasy of seeing top players receive major exemptions.

How was this week anything but a disaster for LIV?  From chief clown Greg Norman's pathetic trolling from outside the ropes to Bryson's weekend fade, their thirteen top players weren't competitively relevant this week.  They can scream all they want about OWGR points, but this week doesn't make a case for that.

More importantly, the rumors of disaffection keep hitting, including Rahm, Smith and Koepka, among others....And no mater the extent to which Norman stalks Rory, literally, he just keeps saying, "You're not my type".

here's a couple that belong together.  Mid-Sunday, I got a text (you'll know when in the proceedings) that referenced the contenders throwing up on themselves, which isn't really fair (not that fairness and golf belong in the same sentence.  But I agree with Dylan's take on Max Homa:

4. Max Homa got a bad bounce.

I was behind the 12th tee for Max Homa’s tee shot peering over the shoulders of about 6,000 of my new best friends so it was a little tough to tell exactly what had happened when Homa’s ball flew the green other than it didn’t seem good. Once Homa started searching — and then measuring club lengths for a drop — it seemed extra not-good. But it wasn’t until I got back to the media center that I saw a replay of the bounce. What a rotten break! If it flies a yard further it hits the slope and comes back down. If it flies a yard shorter it doesn’t trampoline forward. A little left or right and it dodges that nasty patch of ivy. Brutal!

Turns out Homa felt the same way.

“The honest answer? Is it didn’t feel fair,” he said of the bounce. “I hit a really good golf shot, and it didn’t feel fair. I’ve seen far worse just roll back down the hill. But yeah, the professional answer is these things happen.”

These things do happen. That’s the game. But it’s tough when they happen while you’re in second place at the Masters on the back nine on Sunday, down one shot to the best player in the world. I’m not here to tell you that was the difference — even if you assume the bounce cost Homa two shots, he lost by seven — but it would have stretched the drama just a little longer.

I don't if "bad bounce" is the perfect term, but for Aberg as well it was a small mistake in just the wrong time and place, which to me is the essence of Augusta.  I was actually hoping to hear from Max as to club selection, because I suspect that he tugged it a titch as well....  

Shack had this related note:

Sharp edges. The Quad always supports the installation of graceful surface drainage to add interest over unnatural catch basins to move the heavy stuff into Rae’s Creek. This year we saw a

new swale around the sixth green similar to work at the 11th and 17th or even the since-softened 13th hole work of the 1980s. Naturalists Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones would recoil at the steepness of some of the slopes given how they largely discourage the ground game and force a lob wedge recovery instead of providing options. Rory McIlroy diplomatically described the biggest change he’s seen to the course over his 16 years: “There's a lot of sharpness to the edges of the green compounds that didn't used to be there, which makes it -- the right of the 11th green, which makes it just a little trickier to chip to and just penalizes the misses a little bit more, which ultimately, I think, is a good thing.” But “sharpness” is more Pete Dye than Alister MacKenzie. Steep slopes up to a green take away the skill of hitting a nifty little bump-and-run option adored by the original architects.

That explains much of what I saw during the week, but funny that it happens without any discussion thereof prior to the event.

Earlier this week we noted seemingly strong ratings for the early rounds.  But, upon further review:

Ratings. I wrote too soon. A 20% overnight ratings drop for the final round continues a season-long trend where—who’d a thunk it—entitlement, greed, the power game, heavy turnover, slow play, NBC/Golf Channel’s diminished reach and continued strong recreational numbers appear to have accelerated 2024’s narrative. There are caveats: the Masters streaming experience remains superior to anything in sports and is not accounted for in the ratings. This means many of those golfers playing might have had the telecast playing on their cell phones. CBS averaged just 9.6 million Sunday with a peak of 12.6 million as Scheffler clinched the win. Saturday saw a healthy 8.2 million average viewers. Also, SBJ’s Josh Carpenter notes that Nielsen’s numbers last year saw a bump due to “out-of-home” viewing, suggesting this year did not enjoy a boost from all of the heathens with one eyeball glued to the golf at Easter family brunch.

That's still a boatload of folks watching our silly game, but if you can't retain your audience at the Masters.....It's going to be a long, dismal year.

I agree with Geoff here, though for unexplained reasons this in included with the Cut-Makers:

Tinkerers, blamers-of-team-members, wannabe future captains of industry (with the initials P.C.), and current selectors of the next Ryder Cup captain. Rough week for the PGA Tour’s irreplaceable assets who’ve devoted too much time to board meetings and firing members of their “teams” in bids to avoid introspection. A bunch of guys should double down on what they’re not as good at these days: playing golf. Hopefully the rough week for the PGA Tour’s well-compensated but under-delivering stars humbled them into submission and will let grown-ups sort out the current mess.

It's been the story of the entire PGA Tour season.  We are reliably informed that professional golf is entirely about a handful of players, then said handful are conspicuously absent from leaderboards.  It may be that the product is the game, not Patrick, or is that just crazy talk?

Given Geoff's misclassification of that Perfect Penis, who is deserving of his contempt?  I agree this was quite the odd story:

Zach Johnson. The vulgar salutation to Amen Corner patrons applauding his triple bogey tap-in was unbecoming of a former champion. Funny, but unbecoming. And sure, there might have been

a few lubricated jeers mixed in with stock golf claps that are not ideal but no reason to tell patrons to F off. One dubious-sounding Reddit post claims the 2007 champion was heckled when arriving at the tee, but the one-liners cited sounded identical to February’s Scottsdale heckling that prompted his meltdown there (Johnson also gave a new spin on that episode last week). Unfortunately for Zach, the incredibly nice and golf-knowledgable people who attend the Masters, (A) would like to return year so they never heckle, (B) are generous in applauding anything short of someone falling on their face, and (C) Amen Corner patrons sit far away from the 12th green and often lose track of how many shots a player has taken if they are at all distracted by action on the 11th green or the 5 p.m. Crow’s Nest sales cutoff. Par putts at 12 sometimes get the same applause as a birdie putt. It’s the dynamic of the Corner. Still, Johnson put himself in position for quote of the year when, after the incident, he offered this beauty. “If I've said anything, which I'm not going to deny, especially if it's on camera, one, I apologize, and two, it was fully directed towards myself entirely because I can't hear anything behind me. Does that make sense?” Oh it does. Especially since it was on camera.

This gave drives us to madness, but his competitive prime is long behind him and he's supposed to an elder statesman of some sort, so the absence of class is noticeable...

I had heard about his histrionics, but not about the Sergio homage:

Tyrrell Hatton. Spitting on the greens? This isn’t a LIV stop. A T9 means you’ll be back but not before hearing from the Chairman’s office. Let us know what he says and be thankful Clifford Roberts is no longer around.

Did he use the "nothing but net" defense?  Amusingly, most of Hatton's vitriol was directed at on e certain hole, and Geoff seems to agree (on the substance, not the expectoration):

15th hole. Before the tournament we focused on the front nine’s increasingly defensive nature. But with this year’s extreme winds, the two back nine par 5s played much tougher than normal.

The setup crew kept the greens playable through Friday’s winds without calling in the hoses. That’s a tribute to the prep crews knowing the course, the weather and the data. But the 15th was all just a bit much. Even with more sunlight hitting the fairway after some selective right side pine pruning, the tee shot remains too difficult given a combination of narrowness, right-to-left fairway tilt and the left side’s fortified forest. The green complex has also grown too severe. The closer cut this year accentuated the pond’s influence and led to a lot of double bogeys. Throw in the crazy winds, extreme green speeds and pros hitting never-had-a-chance wedge shots and the hole was more of a survival test than risk/reward fun. Final stats: 5.007 average, 1 eagle, 37 birdies, 14 doubles and two others.

A couple last bits from Dylan.  I am not now nor have I ever been a gearhead, but this is probably of greater significance that we can appreciate:

5. Bryson DeChambeau’s irons story is insane.

Arguably the wildest storyline of the week. Let’s keep this very basic. As I understand it, for all of modern golfing history the faces on irons have been flat. Until this week.

In Bryson DeChambeau’s new iron set (more here), the irons don’t have flat faces; they have the bulge-and-roll profile you’d recognize from your driver. They weren’t approved by the USGA until the beginning of Masters week; DeChambeau’s team literally spent the weekend handcrafting them to pass inspection. And then DeChambeau — who has a poor Masters record — used these 3D-printed irons to shoot a first-round 65 to take the outright lead. He ultimately finished T6, which is significant for his career. But these irons feel like an even bigger story than that. And this week felt like the beginning.

How much of an advantage is that?  I'm still trying to understand how we should view Tiger's 15-shot Margin at Pebble in 2000, given that he was the only guy in the field playing a solid-core ball.  I suspect we'll hear more on this going forward.

I'm amused that Dylan's longest bit is this one that he doesn't know what to say about:

7. Rory McIlroy tried something different.

But maybe not as different as he’d have us think.

Rory McIlroy arrived on Tuesday of the Masters and was the final contestant to register. “I play 25 weeks a year, and there’s no point in doing anything different this week compared to other weeks, I guess,” he said. That was this week’s declared strategy.

The temptation, then, is to say that McIlroy tried not to take this week too seriously, but that’s not

quite right either. He flew to Augusta two weeks before the event for a scouting trip. He flew from Florida to Las Vegas just to get a golf lesson. He added an event, the Valero Texas Open, to play the week before the tournament. And when he arrived at the Masters, he came with a skeleton crew — essentially just his caddie and his agent — got his practice in and skipped the par-3 contest while his family stayed home.

By the time McIlroy wrapped his second round he’d faded to four over par, inside the cut line but fully 10 shots behind Scottie Scheffler, who’d played in his group. Their third was Åberg, who’d wind up second. A ho-hum weekend left McIlroy T22, which is where he’s been spending this season; five of his six PGA Tour finishes in 2024 have been between T19 and T24.

“I guess it’s more the same of what I’ve shown this year. It’s not as if it’s been a down week in comparison to the way I’ve been playing. It’s just a matter of me trying to get my game in a bit better shape going towards the rest of the season,” McIlroy said post-round. He doesn’t feel far off, he added, because “all these disappointing weeks are 20ths, 25ths. They’re not terrible weeks by any stretch, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

McIlroy was the subject of more headlines away from the Masters than at the Masters; on Monday various sites ran with a report that he was considering an $850 million offer from LIV that spread like wildfire across social media. His manager Sean O’Flaherty ultimately denied the reports to the Irish Independent. “Fake news. Zero truth,” he said.

Vanna, I'd like to buy a clue....  Rory will try anything, except actually addressing the profound weaknesses in his game or hiring a caddie that can actually read greens.  I'll make a bold prediction, to wit, that he'll continue to mumble about how close he is....  I know just call me Nostradamus.

Shall we give the ladies a moment?

Houston, We Have An Opportunity - It's a significantly diminished event, having lost its connective tissue to the early days of women's professional golf.  But there's the one lady that could bail them out:

5 things to know about the Chevron Championship, where Nelly Korda looks to extend her winning streak to five

I just have to note that, not only did the Lords of Augusta poop on the old Dinah and its pre-Masters date but, in making Harbor Town a Signature Event Money Grab, they've been further damaged by the PGA Tour.

Amusingly, Nelly is not one of her five items, but it's all anyone cares about at this juncture.  Yeah, this girl had a day on the big stage, but won't draw any eyes to TV's:

From Augusta to LPGA debut

Florida State’s Lottie Woad sent an email to her professors letting them know that she’d won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and would be headed to an LPGA major.

“I hope you can excuse me,” she wrote.

The Englishwoman, who birdied three out of the last four holes to win at Augusta National, is one of four amateurs in the field at the Chevron, and while she has no set goals for the week, she’s enjoying an up-close view of players she’s long watched on TV. Her putting coach also works with England’s Charley Hull, and they snapped a picture together.

Woad said it was cool how many pros reached out on social media to say they’d watched and offer congrats.

“There is a picture on Instagram of Justin Rose in front of the TV like with me holing the putt,” she said. “He’s definitely one of my idols, so seeing him watching it and supporting me was really cool.”

It's a nice story, but if you think PGA ratings have been dreadful, these will be measure in the dozens...

This would be great, if it weren't golf:

‘Kind of our Caitlin Clark’: Nelly Korda talk of Chevron as she chases history

Is there another player, perhaps besides Lydia, that moves the needle even slightly?

The ladies have to find their own audience, and I very much hate the woke calls for equal purses.  That said, Augusta National went out of their way to damage the women's best professional event, and have never been held to account for that.

That's for today and probably this week.  Enjoy your weekend.