Thursday, March 28, 2024

Midweek Musings - Back In The Saddle Edition

Sorry for that hiatus, though truthfully only a little bit sorry.... Just not enough going on to warrant profound grief.  Ski season is officially over, so my heightened level of grief is reserved for that especially, since I've already missed one powder day.

Additionally, today is opening day for my Yankees.  Given the already bountiful injury reports, I'd better keep some grief in reserve for them.   

So, what's going on in our little golf fishbowl?  Not much, so we'll not tax ourselves too much...

The Malnati Effect - Always a guy that I instinctively liked, he seemed to strike a chord with his win in Tampa last week:

First there was the crying, and, boy, was Peter Malnati doing some good crying in the wake of his two-stroke victory Sunday at the Valspar Championship, his second win on the PGA Tour. His
first came 3,059 days and two children ago. And then there was his rallying cry; the lone player director on the tour’s policy board who truly represents the little guy used his temporary platform to remind anyone who would listen that the game is full of little guys who cherish signature moments as much or more than signature events.

And then Malnati, a 36-year-old journeyman ranked 184th in the world, was his most charming, authentic self unwittingly walking the walk. His victory at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla., earned him his first invitation to the Masters Tournament. A childhood dream. He didn’t want to assume he’d be invited, but, he said, laughing, “I'll probably accept that invitation and go play the Masters. Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, that's cool. It hasn't sunk in yet at all because, I guess I'm going to be there in … when is it?”

Is that last bit perfect, or what?   I'm guessing that whatever is on his calendar for that week will be shunted aside, but who knows?   Of course the wife flying in wit the children completes the scene:

Thanks to Dylan Dethier, we can even celebrate it with a Venn diagram (bet you didn't see that one coming):

Golfers that wear bucket hats (3) and golfers that play yellow golf balls (4) are winners thanks to Peter Malnati’s (5) victory at the Valspar Championship. If stats guru Justin Ray doesn’t have the data on this one, I certainly don’t, but it’s not clear to me there’s been a non-white-golf-ball winner on the PGA Tour since Jerry Pate used an orange ball at the Players Championship in 1982. What better tournament to add a splash of color than the one sponsored by a paint company?

Pretty sure Dylan wouldn't have been born in 1982, so good on him for the history lesson...

Malnati himself takes a crack at why his reaction generated its own strong reaction:

“We can all probably remember when we were kids, and we were all kids at different times, but the things that moved us that we watched,” he said during his Wednesday press conference in
Houston. “I remember watching [Michael] Jordan and the ’97 Bulls, I remember watching Tiger in the 2000 Masters. I didn’t care one iota what Jordan’s contract was. I didn’t care one iota what the winner’s check at that U.S. Open was. And I think people are sick of that. I think people are just sick of the narrative in golf being about, you know, contracts on LIV, purses on the Tour, guaranteed comp on the Tour. I think people are so sick of that. They want to see sport, they want to see people who are the best in the world at what they do do it at a high level and celebrate that, celebrate the athleticism, celebrate the achievement.

“Obviously this is a business and to the top players who drive a lot of the value in this business, we’ve got to compensate them fairly, we’ve got to make that happen. But I think we’re doing that above and beyond, and the narrative, the storylines, the conversation needs to come back to the product on the course and what we do.

“I think for me that was like I just, I just feel like no kid dreamed when they were watching Jordan dreamed of having his salary, they didn’t care about that. They dreamed of being in that moment, hitting that shot. I think that’s what our fans care about too and that’s what they want to see.”

That's pretty good, though I'd really like him to articulate what he means by those three bolded words, because he's not just any Joe in the current moment.  In fact, he's in quite the impossible position.... The same Dylan Dethier has penned this item, and he asks this threshold question:

The multi-billion dollar question, then: Is he right? Is a story like Malnati’s the sort of thing fans crave? And should the Tour be structured to prioritize those stories?

I think Dylan has it backwards.... the Tour should not be structured to prioritize any specific outcome, but the recent effort is to preclude such stories, at least as relates to the big money events.  I would blue pencil Dylan's statement to reflect that the tour should allow for such stories.  Patrick, alas, begs to differ...

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that Dylan actually gets it:

On one hand, connecting Malnati’s emotional moment to the tournament’s sagging TV ratings misses the point. On Sunday, his coronation (which ran up against NCAA hoops) came just moments before the broadcast went off-air; viewers wouldn’t have known that his win is what they were waiting around to see. And it was pretty clear that the win did resonate with those who were watching, marking a win for the Tour, as it’s nice to leave your audience on a good note. They might consider coming back.

On the other hand, ratings have dipped fairly consistently in 2024. A story like Malnati’s is terrific as a part of the fabric of the Tour, but the Tour can’t be built around Cinderella stories; fans respond to meaningful tournaments at familiar courses featuring leaderboards comprised of players they know. When some of golf’s well-known players departed for LIV, it hurt the Tour they left behind, and even feel-good stories can’t immediately fill that void. This is the big leagues, after all, and Malnati himself recognized that on Wednesday: “Four days ago no one cared if Peter Malnati was in their field or not, really,” he said.

So what can we take from Malnati’s moment? It’s pretty simple, really, and it’s the same lesson we keep learning: Sports work when they matter. And they can’t matter to a viewer unless they matter to the competitors. LIV has big money and big stars and a reimagined format but has not produced many resonant moments. The Tour’s big-money Signature Events haven’t flopped but they haven’t soared, either. Outside of the majors, golf’s biggest events still need to feel bigger. Bigger consequences. Bigger meaning. Bigger moments on bigger stages that can inspire kids to want to imagine themselves in those moments on those stages. Moments that can be earned and aspired to and celebrated when achieved.

That’s Malnati’s lesson, then, as the Tour keeps thinking bigger: The little guy can still play an important role.

Dylan gives us a pretty lucid description of what's wrong with LIV, but then can't make the leap in logic to understand that turning flagship PGA Tour events into similar exhibitions will render them similarly lame.  

But while extolling the Big Leagues, Dylan forgets that the best stories on Tour this year are the Nick Dunlap and Malnati wins....  Now, they're more powerful stories combined with Scottie Scheffler remembering how to get the ball in the hole, but the Tour is committed to scripting outcomes, and that will be a spectator repellant.

It's Malnati's role as a Player Director, however, that adds juice to our current malaise.  He seems to get that we're over-compensating the elite guys as per this Sportico analysis, but he will inevitably be out-voted and intimidated by his fellow Player Directors.  

In a constant effort to close browser tabs, here's a Shack item from Links Magazine that should be a warning shot across the bow, but of course will be ignored:

Here's a taste:

The more pro golfers squabble over obscene amounts of money, the less the public will care. And that’s just fine.

The verdict is in. A sport played in some form by 70 or so million around the globe does not hinge on the popularity of the few hundred or so professionals who believe they are centers of our universe. The numbers do not lie. Even with terrible weather in key regions, according to Golf Datatech, U.S. rounds played are up 3 percent over 2022 with magnificent spikes in female and junior participation. An unexpected pandemic bump has turned into a steady bounce even with offices demanding that workers return and less time-consuming threats like pickleball competing for recreational time.

Everyday golf has proved to be resilient, unmoored from the fortunes, grievances, and neuroses of those who play it for a living.

Geez, Geoff, I don't know know... What you say sounds logical, but I've been reliably informed that golf can only grow if Patrick gets paid, and I'm pretty sure those guys wouldn't lie to us, would they?

Professional golf should be one of the tent poles of the game, but not if the guys act like the flamers they've been the last three years.  Of course, the money grab is by the top twenty or so players, and it's those very guys that Jay & Co. think will draw us to our TV's.... You see the disconnect?

On a related note, Eamon Lynch had a recent piece under this header:

This is an interesting piece, though on that basic premise I don't think the estimable Eamon really delivers.  The obvious problem is that, if not the players, who would decide?  Jay still has his job because the powers behind the throne find it useful to allow him to play human lightning rod, but still...

While making good points, Eamon is undermined by bits like this:

The equity being distributed to players is an opportunity to reset the parameters of their role in Tour governance. They are shareholders, not owners.

Gee, Eamon, not sure how to break this to you, but what exactly do you imagine a shareholder to be?

Now, he does make some good points about their convoluted motivations:

If you ask John Henry — the leader of Strategic Sports Group, which just invested $1.5 billion in the Tour — he might argue that his product would be measurably improved if the aforementioned defectors were in the fold again. But despite the pablum about unifying the game and seeing the best compete together again, many Tour members are disincentivized to see that happen. Which is why active players should not be on this jury. What’s best for individual members — even a large constituency of them — isn’t necessarily best for the Tour’s commercial prospects. But convincing members of a “member-led” organization that their interests are not the same as the Tour’s interests is akin to persuading Irish republicans that their best future lies in allegiance to the British monarchy.

You really do want to read the whole thing which is chock full of good bits.  But this is really naive:

Ask folks if they’d rather see Jay Monahan or Patrick Cantlay make decisions about the direction of a multi-billion dollar enterprise, you’d likely hear a chorus of ‘Neither!’ Players will be compromised in many future decisions, executives were compromised by past calls. But at least executives don’t have their own competitive skin in the game.

This is why so many allegedly member-owned organizations lose their way.  The arguments about Patrick not having to take on Jon Rahm are perhaps unique to sports, but Eamon ignores how bloated and unresponsive the professional management team becomes over time.  Let's not forget that Jay cut a deal with the bonecutters (deal isn't the right word) without a single player knowing about it.  

But what may strike you most is how happy a certain defector seems:

Jon Rahm, one of Al-Rumayyan’s more expensive firestarters, offered a positive pitch for the Tour he left. “It was fun to watch, and what a finish. Jesus Christ, that was one that was fun to watch,” he said of the Players Championship, before admitting he has watched other tournaments that he’s no longer eligible to play, three of which he won last season. “It’s gut-wrenching to watch, but it made for great TV, and it was really fun.”

Picture the reigning Masters champion watching the action from home, then juxtapose that with the widely-circulated image of him playing a LIV event in Jeddah with not a spectator in sight. Asked about a subsequent LIV stop in Hong Kong, Rahm praised the people and the food. He is a competitor reduced to a concierge. His brave face notwithstanding, there was a poignant note in his comments about moving to LIV Golf. “It’s done. It’s past. It’s a decision I made, and I’m comfortable with it,” he said. “But I’m hoping I can come back.”

Rahm gives the impression of someone convinced he was going to be a one-man catalyst, that his departure would be a shock so seismic that every faction in golf would hasten toward reunification. By now, he must realize that a path back to the PGA Tour is not yet paved and that, bar four weeks a year, he will be competing before sparse galleries for the foreseeable.

Decisions, consequences.

A few more minor bits and we'll wrap this up...

I Need A Ruling -  Where did this come from?

That's the event that Nelly won last weekend, as per this lovely photo:


The thing is, I know a Se Ri Pak, as well as a Se-Ri Pak, but I've never heard of a Seri Pak.... So wassup with that?

Wikipedia supports my position on this important issue.

Memories - The Zurich is an OK event, and how lucky are they to have converted to a team event before the money grab nonsense.  Were they just another meaningless 72-hole medal play event, no doubt Zurich would have followed Honda and Farmers to the exit.

Much of the fun comes from watching the courtship rituals as the guys pair up, admittedly more enjoyable when we actually like the guys.  This is a good example of how to manage this process:

Would you have guessed that Rory was ever as jowly as Shane?  Of course, Rory's jowliness peaked with this Walker Cup photo with another recognizable player:


 Pretty much swapped out everything below the neck....

What Could Go Wrong With A Tent - Still laughing about the TGL's 2024 demise, but who says these guys don't learn their lessons?

The opening night for take two of TGL’s inaugural season has been set, with the new tech-infused
team golf league slated for a prime-time debut Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 on ESPN and ESPN+. TGL also has matches scheduled on the succeeding two Tuesdays as well as the league gets underway after its planned launch two months ago was scrubbed following damage to its stadium in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Week 2 of TGL’s season on Jan. 14 will air on ESPN following the network’s broadcast of the Monday Night Football Wild Card Playoff game. Week 3 then comes after ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Each week features 15-hole matches between two teams that include both singles and three-man competitions.

TGL, which consists of six four-man teams featuring many of the game’s top PGA Tour players, was created by TMRW Sports, founded by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley. Rosters have yet to be finalized for all six teams. It has not yet been determined which two teams will play opening night.

Color me skeptical about a simulator league getting traction, when no one is tuning in for actual golf.  But do those TV times sound as crazy to you as they do to this observer?  Are those early weeks coming on at midnight on the East Coast?  

It's actually quite the scheduling nightmare even getting the players to a common location on Monday and Tuesday nights, as this kicks off during the West Coast swing.  Amusingly, it will probably weaken the fields for certain non-Signature events, but this is what the Tour has always done to its sponsors.

All of which  would be amusing, except one suspects that this has outsized importance in the current moment.  The Tour has taken down $1.5 billion from SSG, and hopes and needs more from a combination of SSG and PIF (M-O-U-S-E), all of which contemplates sufficient cash flow to generate a return on investment for the lenders.  

One assumes that the budgeting involved included a healthy cash flow from the Tour's stake in TGL, so we'll see if the can get eyeballs on it.  But if it lays an egg?  At least John Henry and Steve Cohen don't need it to make rent.

That's it for today, kids.  I suspect you'll next see me on Monday.  Have a greta weekend.

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