Midweek Musings - Back To The Wasatch Edition

I am back at Unplayable Lies Western HQ, to give this skiing thing another go.  That last trip didn't work out so well.... There is some snow in the forecast, though not the gaudy numbers of that prior trip.  But I know that's not what you want to talk about....

Wither Professional Golf - Peace is turning out to be far messier than those June 6th smiles would have led us to believe....  We're seeing continued aggressiveness form LIV, including this:

Tyrrell Hatton is listed among the 80 golfers in the field this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the second signature event on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule. He was one of 11 to be playing the event for the first time.

But there’s some doubt that Hatton will join the fun on the Monterey Peninsula. According to a report by James Corrigan in the Telegraph, Hatton has left the PGA Tour and made the jump to LIV Golf, signing for $63 million. He reportedly will make his LIV debut this week as a member of Jon Rahm’s team in the season opener in Mexico. The event in Mayakoba starts Friday.

Hatton, who just five days ago committed to the WM Phoenix Open, would then be with LIV in Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend instead of returning to TPC Scottsdale that same weekend, according to the report.

In the context of the Anthony Kim news there was commentary to the effect that LIV was being a little tighter with the moolah though, if the report above is true, we can assume there remains no limiting factor on the checks they'll write.

I don't much care about Tyrrell except for the fact that he's occasionally amusing, but I hate these signings more than anything:

One of the top amateurs in the world is joining LIV Golf.

Caleb Surratt, a sophomore at Tennessee, is turning professional and will join Jon Rahm’s LIV team ahead of LIV Golf’s season opener at Mayakoba in Mexico, which begins Friday. LIV Golf announced the long-rumored news Tuesday when it announced Rahm’s team Legion XIII.

Like Chacarra, Puig and Piot before him, I see a young man opting for the easy way out, which immediately leads me to the conclusion that they will fade into obscurity.  I actually think that the grind to get PGA Tour status makes them better players, and that those grabbing the LIV guaranteed money don't think highly of their own prospects.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Caleb Surratt apparently has no interest in playing any of the majors, the only four tournaments that actually matter.  Noted.

This hasn't gotten a lot of play, but seems kinda significant:

The future of professional golf remains uncertain, but according to a report, answers could be around the corner.

The Strategic Sports Group (SSG), an outside investment group headlined by Fenway Sports Group and comprised of several high-level U.S.-based sports owners, may begin its investment in the PGA Tour as early as next week, according to a Sportico report.

ESPN previously reported anywhere from $3 billion to $7 billion may be in play, but Sportico claims the total money for the new entity will be less than the $3 billion figure. According to Sportico, the SSG investment will cover the Tour’s domestic rights. The PGA Tour has yet to respond to Golfweek for comment. A Tour representative told Sportico the information it reported was “incorrect” but did not elaborate further.

Your humble blogger has long been skeptical that the private equity guys would invest into an active war zone, though the implication above is that they will.   

The bolding above is mine, but does anyone know what it means?  What domestic rights?  The media rights have been sold for the foreseeable future, so your humble blogger remains in the dark as to what assets will be in this for-profit Newco.

It's quite possible we'll have more information shortly:

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan invited members of all three tours to participate in “an

important” and “timely update” during a conference call scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET.

Golfweek also has learned that a Tour Player Advisory Council call is scheduled ahead of the larger update at 8 a.m.

A copy of Monahan’s memo also has been leaked on the internet. The memo didn’t specify what the topic of the call will be, but it is assumed it is to share details of a deal with Strategic Sports Group, a collective of several investors and firms, fronted by the Fenway Sports Group, which the Tour has been in advanced negotiations with for several months.

While the finalization of the deal with SSG might be announced, no one seems to know where the Jay-Yasir bromance stands:

It is unclear whether progress has been made in negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is the largest investor in LIV Golf. On June 6, Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan announced a framework agreement between the Tour, DP World Tour and PIF to create a new commercial entity. The Dec. 31 deadline to come to a definitive agreement was extended, with Monahan sending a memo to players that stated “active and productive” negotiations would continue into 2024 with the PIF based on the progress made to date. Monahan and Al-Rumayyan reportedly met last week in Saudi Arabia to continue negotiations.

I hear Saudi is lovely this time of year....

Wither The PGA Tour -  I love when a plan comes together.....

Of course these guys are excited:

Of all the alterations to the 2024 PGA Tour schedule, perhaps the most dramatic set of changes can be found at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The tournament once known as the

Crosby Clambake, having been started by famed crooner Bing Crosby, begins its run as one of the tour’s eight signature events, a designation not without irony. If there was one tournament that possessed its own signature, it was the celebrity-fueled golf spectacle on the Monterey Peninsula.

The field is profoundly stronger even though it has been whittled from 156 professionals (in a bygone era it had 180) to 80. Reinforcements arrive to bolster a roster that was short on marquee names beyond AT&T spokesman Jordan Spieth, though former U.S. Open champion Justin Rose was a welcome champion last year when the tournament featured just 21 of the top 100 players in the world. Probably has something to do with Instead of a three-course rotation that included Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course, the event is confined to Pebble Beach and Spyglass. Eighty amateurs will compete for only two days before a pro-am team is crowned, whereas in the past some could play up to four rounds if they made the cut of low 25 scores. Bing wouldn’t recognize the makeup of the amateur contingent; other than a few athletes, NFL elites Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers among them, there are few “celebrities.”a no-cut format and a purse that has been more than doubled—from $9 million to $20 million. FedEx Cup points are increased, too, with 700 going to the winner.

First, this field is not stronger.  The absence of 86 card-holding members of the Tour inevitably makes it a far weaker field, notwithstanding a greater turnout from the higher players.  

More importantly, this is another example of Tour's contempt for its own history.  The Crosby Clambake has actual history that resonates with fans, so naturally it needs to be sacrificed to the Gods, sharing a crypt with the Western Open, the Match Play and other valuable assets.

But sure, they're getting more of the top players, but not because these guys are playing more, they're just playing different weeks.  We've sacrificed other events to support this one, and anyone that can't see that is urged to review the field and leaderboard last week's event at Torrey.  Hence, Farmers Insurance is headed for the exit....

How's it working out for the rank and file?

Winter is bound to feel a bit colder this month for some of the best golfers in the world, because

there just aren’t enough spots in PGA Tour events to keep everyone happy.

This week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am kicks off a three-week stretch where the 35th-, 57th-, 88th- and 121st-ranked players in the world will have to look elsewhere to ply their trade. That’s Ryan Fox, Thorbjorn Olesen, Victor Perez and Ben Kohles, respectively. You could add No. 64 Robert MacIntyre, too. Most of the entire month of February will pass before those gents, who all have full status on the PGA Tour, can actually show up to play a Tour event. These are the trickle-down effects of the new Signature Event series.

Why does that surprise?  These guys have been sold down the river by Tiger and Rory.

But note those world rankings....  There's an 80-player field this week but they can't accommodate the 35th ranked player in the world, and a guy who was on Europe's Ryder Cup team that kicked the U.S.'s butts.

Field size matters.  If there's one point I'd like to hammer unmercifully, it is that the best events should have the best fields, and eighty players just doesn't cut it.

The funny thing is, the guy that done it now agrees with me:

Interestingly, McIlroy said that he had regrets about the plan that emerged from the player meeting in Delaware during the BMW Championship. The concept, he said, was a good one—to ensure the participation of top players in certain events. But it “weakened” the tour’s financial position, forcing its hand to seek a truce with PIF and seek out other sources of investment.

And in the end, it has altered his perception of this week’s signature event. He was asked if a win this week would be “cheapened” by the absence of Rahm, Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and other top players who will be competing this weekend in LIV’s season opener in Mexico.

He appeared pained to answer the question, but he did so honestly. Is it cheapened?

“I'd like to win here,” he said, “and stand up with a trophy on 18 green and know that I've beaten all of the best players in the world, so yeah.”

What a tool.  And please remember that Tiger and he were so full of themselves, that they wouldn't allow any of the lower-ranked players into the room.

Rory, you need to go away and just play golf.  You've ruined things enough already....

He's also babbling on about letting the guys come back to the Tour without penalties, which may well happen, but he's the last guy whose opinion I desire on any of this.

Not All Rabbits Are Created Equal - The item above about playing privileges included an interesting assortment of players, though did you notice that the accompanying photo wasn't of one of those guys?  This is a "You heard it here first" moment, because the guy pictured is not constrained by his low world ranking, for the simple reason that Tiger needs him:

'Collusion,' 'fishy' and 'shady' among PGA Tour players' descriptions of AT&T Pebble Beach's sponsor exemptions

 Ya think?

The AT&T’s sponsor invites also are a hot topic of conversation among players. Sponsor invites

were granted to four players. Three of the four exemptions to AT&T were handed out to members of the Tour’s independent Board of Directors – Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson – as well as local product Maverick McNealy, who last week fulfilled his medical exemption.

“It seems like collusion, a political game that should never happen on Tour,” said one veteran player. “It’s very shady, if you ask me.”

Given that Malnati, Scott and Simpson are on the verge of being three of the six players to vote on the Tour’s deals with private equity groups and potentially Saudi Arabia’s PIF, it could be perceived as a kickback for their unpaid efforts on behalf of the Tour or even as a way of buying their votes.

You'd have to be really cynical to think that Peter Malnati's exemption is an attempt to buy his vote.... Isn't it far more likely that his spot in the field is a reflection of the buzz he cerates and the additional viewers he'll bring?  Let me know if you're done laughing yet.

The craziness goes even deeper, because there's this whole kerfuffle about categories of status and the relative priority, but look who is in the field:

Multiple players reached out to Golfweek to argue players were originally told during a meeting at the Players Championship last March that winners would be automatically exempt into Signature events. That is still true, but the Swing 5 category, which was designed to give hot and trending players a shot to play their way into the big-money events, falls higher on the priority list than winning.

“Now it’s like, oh, no, winners are part of the Swing 5. That is allowing fewer players to qualify for these events,” a veteran player said. “It’s really disappointing that you’re under the impression that if you play well, you’re going to have the opportunity to get into one of these events and then you don’t. If there are an extra two or three players in this field, who cares at this point? There’s $20 million in the purse.”

Indeed, for the AT&T the Tour resorted to the “fill the field” category, admitting Nos. 62-69 on the 2023 FedEx Cup Fall standings to bring the field to 80 for the pro-am.

It's that last bit that's bat-guano crazy.  They're trying to create the illusion of being able to play one's way in, but to do that they're taking guys that posted results in tourneys that shouldn't even be PGA Tour events.  Then, because of the hard cap on filed size, they can't include guys like MacIntyre.

So, not only is eighty players a ridiculously small field size, but they're not even trying to get the best eighty players.  

I'm going to leave you here.  No specific plans as to the blogging schedule, but if anything pops form that call today we'll definitely flood the zone.