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 withthe 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:
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:
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 coldcuts 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:
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.
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