Weekend Wrap Deja Vu Edition

 As always, the alternate reality yields the more satisfyingly result:

Sunday At The (Mixed) Presidents Cup

International team rallies to end U.S.A.'s hold on the Cup.

Last hole. Last match.

“Just the way we scripted it,” said Commissioner Jay Monahan, smile emblazoned on his face after a week that may end up as career-defining after switching the Presidents Cup to a mixed-team

event. Following two decades of minimal worldwide interest, International team futility, and an overall sense the event is a Ryder Cup knock-off, The Presidents Cup now stands alone in the team event world.

Even when lacking Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and several notable International players who lost eligibility after taking Saudi Arabia’s millions, the Cup’s combination of men and women provided high-quality golf, (generally) wise decision-making between co-Captains, a dreamy level of tension, plenty of passionate play, a traditional uniform controversy, and most revealing of all, impeccable sportsmanship increasingly rare in a world of excessive celebrations.

As with any team match, the fans and dignitaries who flew from around the world were not deprived of a few ego-driven tussles or the enjoyable second-guessing that comes when successful individuals are forced into a team environment. Still, count on the inevitable post-match airing of grievances and revelations that will be too good not to share. But for now, the focus should be on the unprecedented intrigue of seeing men and women compete on the same global stage.

Here are your Sunday Singles results:

Although, given how Hideki played back here on Planet Earth, that win over the X-man seems as unlikely as Tom Kim making up offenses... what?

Shockingly, Geoff uses his typical "Quotable" section to settle scores.  Anyone remember that UseGolfFactsNow hashtag?

Jim Furyk on whether an analytics divide with Stacy Lewis might have cost the Americans. “Please. First and foremost, credit the Internationals for an amazing comeback. As for AI, algorithms, analytics, whichever one it is, I want you to listen to me carefully: they’re all bull*&%$. I can say this now that I’m done as a Captain. Now I know how the stats geeks think their formulas are gospel. They aren’t. It’s golf with golfers, not robots. These things still come down to finding compatible personalities for pairings, good ball striking, making some big putts, a little luck, and not having Patrick Reed or his wife around your team room.”

Personally, I miss Justine, though your mileage may vary...

Geoff ran with the joke all week and certainly highlighted what the event could be, not that it's so terribly awful in it's actual manifestation.  It's just not competitive, which is no small thing.

Did someone say non-competitive?

U.S. continues Presidents Cup dominance, wins for 10th straight time

Ten straight is all the more overwhelming when you remember that it included five away games, not that this away game was very away.  Paul McGinley spent his week in the Golf Channel studio at Royal Montreal explaining Ryder vs. Prez Cup performance as a home game vs. road game bifurcation, forgetting that it's a distinction without a difference.

And while the INT's have their new shield around which to rally, they seem to inevitably lose the close matches and therefore the close cups (can you say Korea and Royal Melbourne), so good luck fixing that.

Shall we riff on the Tour Confidential panel?

The 15th Presidents Cup concluded on Sunday in Montreal just like many of the previous editions: with the Americans winning yet again. This time it was 18.5-11.5 to give the U.S. its 10th straight win over the Internationals. What was the difference?

Jack Hirsh: Let’s not fool ourselves, this was a lopsided fight. The Americans had five players in

the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking while the Internationals had just Hideki Matsuyama. It goes the other way too as Max Homa was the worst ranked American at 25th, while Mackenzie Hughes is 62nd. Plus the International team is hurt a lot harder by LIV defectors without Cam Smith, Joaco Niemann and Co., while the Americans are just deeper and can replace Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau with other top-25 players. This is all to say the talent disparity may just be insurmountable over the course of 30 matches.

Sean Zak: The difference, if there was one, was that it felt contentious, which I think is important. Of course the Americans want to win, but it’s good for the event if they want to beat this International team. It’s good that Wyndham Clark and Ben An became soft-enemies. It’s good that Si Woo Kim taunted the Americans and that Tom Kim was running his mouth a bit. Creating a bit of a rivalry, even if the result is the same, makes for some staying power for this event.

Zephyr Melton: The Americans were just the deeper and more talented team. They didn’t do anything special or need any heroics. To use a football cliche, they just went out there and ran their stuff. When you have such a talent advantage, that’s all you need to do to come out victorious.

Not sure that Sean Zak actually understood that he was being asked for the difference between the two teams.  Zephyr's answer is quite reasonable (though he ignores the overwhelming U.S. advantage on the back nine/finishing holes), at least until one realizes that on could say the exact same thing about a Ryder Cup.  Yet those, at least the road games, play out a little differently...

I do think the matches, at least in the team portion, were subjectively closer than in prior iterations, but maybe that's just perception.  But the INT's were pretty horrible at closing out those matches, so that's a decidedly mixed blessing.

Who is taking home MVP honors for each side, and whose performance was most disappointing?

Hirsh: For the American side, it’s hard to argue against either Patrick Cantlay or Xander Schauffele, especially when they played together twice. I’ll give the nod to Schauffele because

his first point in the opening singles match was exactly by the book. For most disappointing, despite a 3-2-0 record, I’ll go with Scottie Scheffler. He just didn’t seem like the guy who won seven times this week and I had higher expectations for him, especially losing a 1 Up lead on the back nine.

For the Internationals, as much as I think Si Woo Kim really rose to the occasion this week, it was Tom Kim’s energy that brought the Internationals back in it Friday despite not even playing. He had the moxie all day Saturday and Sunday, too, even starting a few controversies! Most disappointing was Min Woo Lee for the simple reason of him playing just twice all week.

Zak: Xander Schauffele was the top man for the red, white and blue. Furyk would have never considered sitting him, and could pair him with anyone. He pulled Tony Finau — who was one of the worst performers of the week, possibly most disappointing! — along for a couple wins and then waxed Jason Day in the opening Singles match.

As for the INTs, it was Si Woo Kim. Best performer analytically, one of the best putters all week, the pot-stirring, etc. He showed out just like he did at Quail Hollow. I look forward to watching him shush the crowd in Chicago in two years.

Melton: I’ll give some love to Team USA’s other top-scorer in Collin Morikawa who joined X and Cantlay with four points. He’s now 10-5-1 in team events for the Americans. Brian Harman was an obvious disappointment for the Americans as he was the lone man without a point.

For the Internationals, Hideki Matsuyama was impressive if only for taking down Scottie Scheffler in Sunday singles. As for biggest disappointment, Sungjae Im only scoring one point in five matches is a tough look.

Mike Weir is going to take some deserved heat, which we'll get to in a second, but his Saturday pairings were about as bizarre as we've seen.  I'll just note that in a pre-event presser Weir was asked to predict a breakout player from his roster, and he went with the talented Min Woo Lee.  After that answer, it's more than a little strange to see the guy sit all day Saturday....  You can't break out from the bench.

Any second-guessing for captains Furyk or Weir? What letter grade would you assign them for their performances this week and why?

Hirsh: I’ll start with the low hanging fruit of Weir sending out the exact same players Saturday afternoon as he did Saturday morning, something no Presidents Cup captain had ever done. It totally backfired when, toward the end of the 36-hole day, the Internationals let a couple close matches go the other way, clearly feeling the fatigue. He gets a D- from me.

Furyk gets a solid B+ as he successfully rode his hot players, allowing them to carry struggling players like Tony Finau and hide others like Brian Harman and Max Homa.

Zak: I like to call these events the Hindsight Olympics because you can always disagree with a move that ultimately ended in a loss. But that 36-hole Saturday call by Weir is as puzzling as they come. If it worked, we would have loved it. But it didn’t, so it’s a bit stunning. C-minus for Weir and a B-plus for Furyk.

Melton: SZ nailed it. Weir’s decision-making was strange at the time, and looks even worse after the fact. I’ll give Furyk a passing grade, but he didn’t need to push many buttons to come away with a victory.

Guys are using words like "unprecedented" to describe those afternoon foursome pairings, but I can't get past the insanity of it all, not least because he threw back out teams that played dreadfully in the morning:

“They’re playing well,” Weir said. “We like the matchups, we like the pairings, and we’re rolling with it.”

All three Canadians will be sent out for the afternoon – even though Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes were, statistically, the two worst players on the course on Saturday morning. Together, Hughes and partner Corey Conners combined to make just a single birdie in the morning fourballs.

They lost the session 3-1, and a couple of those guys looked like your humble blogger over three-footers, so it's a little hard to understand what he thought he was accomplishing (except, perhaps to have the three Canucks out there).   

As for Alas, Poor Furyk, well he got quite the mulligan, didn't he?  I think his pairings were just as bizarre as in Paris, for example playing Theegala in foursomes but not fourball), but the level of competition is quite obviously lower.

But I'm old enough to remember that Task Force that was goin g to save us, rationalizing the system to peak optimization, or some such mumbo jumbo.  There was always a shortage of meat on the bone when it came to specifics about said optimization, but see what you think of this answer to an obvious question:

Speaking on course immediately after the win, an emotional Furyk was asked what he did

differently this time compared to his Ryder Cup experience in 2018.

And as expected, there was some method behind his way of leading the team.

“I said it earlier in the press room; I don’t know if I can explain it, but I was ahead of schedule where I was in Paris. I think I was always a half a day ahead on my pairings on being prepared for the next step. What happens at the end of matches, last night we finish up in the dark, everyone is excited, now you’ve got 45 minutes to put a singles match out,” Furyk said.

“We were already working on that well, well ahead of time, so that 45 minutes, as fast as it went, I felt very prepared going into every match.

“I think most of what I took away from ’18 is just being a little bit more prepared, being a half a day, a half a step ahead of where I was in ’18, and it made me feel more comfortable about the groupings we were putting out.”

Apparently, the purpose of that Ryder Cup Task Force is to ensure that we have battle-hardened captains for the Prez Cup.  I'm sure glad we have that all figured out...

Keegan Bradley earned the deciding point to clinch the win for the Americans, beating Si Woo Kim 1 up. This was his first team event (dating back to the 2014 Ryder Cup) in a decade, and his next one is even bigger yet when he captains the U.S. Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black in 2025. How important do you think his experience this past week in Montreal will be to his captaincy a year from now: a little, a lot, or somewhat in-between?

Hirsh: It was almost poetic for Keegan to get the winning point when at the 2014 Ryder Cup, he lost the clinching point. It’s been a whirlwind of a year for him after he was left off the Ryder Cup team last year and then gets named captain for the next one. I think, if nothing else, his confidence may be at an all-time high, at least at the level when he won the PGA back in 2011. Going 2-1-0 this week makes me wonder what his odds really are of being a playing-captain at Bethpage.

Zak: It’ll definitely be important for his captaincy, but I’m not convinced it’ll mean great things. I think Keegan starring a bit is only going to embolden the calls for him to be a playing-captain next fall, which is exactly what Team Europe wants. It’s a truly chaotic event and that’ll only create more chaos in the run-up. Luke Donald had to be grinning all week seeing this result manifest.

Melton: It was certainly a neat scene seeing Keegan clinch for the Americans, but I’m not sure this week’s experience will mean much for Bethpage. The Ryder Cup is a whole different ball game.

An all-time high you say?  Did you not notice that, prior to closing it out on No. 18, he missed short putts to close it out on Nos. 16 and 17, with strokes that certainly didn't look ready for the Ryder Cup.  I certainly hope that puts to bed any thought of him being a playing captain, which is the only thing crazier than naming him captain in the first place.   Not that it matters, I don't expect Bethpage to be as close as Montreal.

The inevitable question:

The U.S. has now won 13 of the 15 Presidents Cups, and the Internationals haven’t won in over two decades. Does the Presidents Cup need fixing? And if so, how would you change it?

Hirsh: It’s tough to say “no” to that question, but it would also stink if there was no U.S. vs. The World match anymore. I think it’s clear this event needs to move to a co-ed model. There shouldn’t be any shame in it given how much the Ryder Cup was elevated by opening up to continental Europe.

Zak: It would be fantastic to see the Presidents Cup move to a co-ed model. It makes tons of sense. But the PGA Tour doesn’t always move in the direction of obvious, common sense. They’re the owners of this entity, so it would require perhaps the most progressive move the Tour has made in decades. I don’t see it happening. That said, ehhh, I think the event is mostly fine. The Internationals will win soon.

Melton: It definitely needs changing. It’s no fun watching a sporting event where the outcome is all but certain before it even begins. The co-ed idea is a popular one, but it feels like wishful thinking to hope for it to actually happen. Perhaps the Internationals should start the week with a three-point headstart? It wouldn’t be the first time the PGA Tour staged a handicapped event.

I would feel better if I actually thought Zephyr was kidding....  Yanno, Oscar Wilde famously said that irony is wasted on the stupid, so sorry, Zephyr, but you think the way to buttress a non-competitive event is to announce that it's not competitive on the front end?

The truly ironic thing is that the Prez Cup is almost exactly what the Ryder Cup was for fifty years, with one major difference.  That being there was no modern Ryder Cup to create such a tough comparison....  

The coed format is there for the plucking, but the writers don't seem interested in (or perhaps don't have the bandwidth in the TC format) to explore the forces affecting such a decision.  Jay's guys aren't eager to share the stage, but the bigger issue in the current moment might be the vulture capital funding the Tour has taken to fund Patrick's cash flow needs.  Does sharing this event with the LPGA enhance it's value?  Maybe, but it's a leap of faith, especially if one has ever looked at LPGA TV ratings.

Lastly:

Is there something the Presidents Cup does well that the Ryder Cup doesn’t (or vice versa) that players, captains or organizers could learn from?

Hirsh: Until this week, it seemed there was no controversy, no bad blood between the U.S. and International teams. Remember Tom Kim partying with the U.S. team two years ago at Quail Hollow? I don’t think that will happen again this year. We were all glued to the Ryder Cup last year because of “Hat Gate,” and then this year, people became more intrigued when you raise questions of sportsmanship. So, for organizers, I’m not sure there’s much to do, as it really comes down to players going at each other and really caring about winning at all costs.

Zak: I’m not sure Royal Montreal is the best example of this, but the Presidents Cup has at least visited/or planned to visit a few more of the best courses. European Ryder Cups are more focused on parking, space, and global cities than invigorating golf courses. It’s not a big deal, but it is some deal that the Prez Cup has been to Royal Melbourne multiple times and will visit Kingston Heath and Medinah for its next two iterations.

Those who know me, will instinctively understand that Sean's last sentence will have my blood boiling... Fortunately, before I could let the snark fly,  one of his fellow writers called him an ignorant slut:

Melton: Not sure Medinah is quite in the same tier as Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath, but I understand (and agree with) your point, Sean.

Oh, I think you're pretty sure, you just couldn't humiliate your fellow writer publicly.   Obviously Sean Zak has heard of Medinah, so that must mean it's great, otherwise why would they go back there?  Which is a really good question....  Especially given it's primacy in U.S. Ryder Cup PTSD.

I'll wrap with a Joel Beall piece that attempts to deal with the existential struggle of this event.  he does a decent job, despite this 'graph that lands with a dull thud:

To them, the Presidents Cup is not broken, because that implies it once worked. Yes, it makes the PGA Tour a ton of money, but the past three years of strife in professional golf has underlined that success is not measured by dollar signs. In sports, in events that matter, the end is never guaranteed. With one lone International win over 30 years, the Presidents Cup is as much a competition as grass against a lawnmower.

Joel, have you and I been watching the same game the last three years?  Because the powers that be, those same powers that control this event, have told us that the game cannot survive unless Patrick gets paid.  That seems to be the only metric that matters, so if they don't care about their own events, why should I?

Though Joel has an even more out-of-the-box suggestion than the Co-ed format:

It’s not just a lack of competition inside the ropes. A true rivalry requires sports animus towards the opposition. There is no real hostility between the Americans or Internationals. Even Tom Kim’s antics—from chirping at Scottie Scheffler on Thursday to crying about his treatment from U.S. players after some bush-league celebrations of his own on Saturday—were viewed as a little brother attempting to get under a big brother’s skin. Anyone with a little brother knows they don’t know what they don’t know. Go home school boy, the Americans seemed to sneer, you don’t belong here.

These detractors do have to acknowledge the fire of the week. Still, they could preface it by noting the excitement is not inherent to the United States versus the world but because of the vagaries of match play. And while the Presidents Cup was better than it usually is, it’s still nowhere in the ballpark of the Ryder Cup—in terms of relevance or care or standing—which is what this event ultimately aspires to be. It’s worth wondering if this is the most actualized version of this event, what is it trying to accomplish? Whether that’s changing formats to a mixed-gender event, or, sacreligious as it might sound, making the Ryder Cup annual, these are debates worth discussing. Considering this is a time of upheaval in the sport, now is the time for experimentation.

The actual solution is perhaps so simple as to be missed by all.  Since it took fifty years for the bad blood to appear in the Ryder Cup, how about we adjust our expectations accordingly and enjoy the simple pleasures of four days of team match play?  There was some great stuff, especially Thursday and Friday, and there's nothing actually wrong with an exhibition....  

The bigger issue is that, whatever its limitations, this is the last golf of any significance until April.  That has me quite despondent, so I'll catch you later in the week, though I'm unclear what there might be to discuss.  

Have a great week. 

Thursday Themes - Royal Montreal Edition

 It's a rainy Thursday here in the New York area, so nice of them to give us some golf to watch....

Shack's Fever Dream - Given the lack of traction the Prez Cup has demonstrated, it's long been obvious that it was the perfect vehicle through which the Tour could throw a bone (probably not the most sensitive analogy available) to the ladies, securing Jay's position at all the right cocktail parties.  

The fact that this solution never got oxygen tells us all we need to know about Tour leadership, or perhaps we can just do that which we do in such situations, and blame Patrick Cantlay.  Oddly, Geoff devotes his newsletter this week to rolling out this premise, and I call it odd timing because his effort to promote this idea comes at a time when the Tour is no longer Master of Its Domain.  Here's his lede from Tuesday:

Nearly two years since the PGA Tour announced a long-overdue Presidents Cup format change, teams from the United States and the non-European world are descending upon Royal Montreal for the revitalized matches.

USA Co-captains Jim Furyk and Stacy Lewis will send out lineups taken from their 16-player team and up against the International team fronted by Mike Weir and Karie Webb. Each side is bringing just four Vice Captains after a U.N. decree to limit the role of assistants in world team golf matches. And while some of the Presidents Cup changes will take getting used to, optimism is high for proceedings unlike anything else on the crowded golf calendar.

He even reimagined that logo above, which has the added benefit of guiding folks to the proper restroom...

When doing such a alternative history, I think it's important to stay as close as possible to the real world, so I think Geoff errs in  imagining Jim Furyk as U.S. Captain, given that his face-plant captaincy in 2018 ensures that he would never be given such responsibility again.  What?  Really?  Alas, Poor Furyk! as Captain of an actual team?  Did they waive the IQ test again?

Geoff has the format and the whole week planned:

Before highlighting signs of massive success before the tee shot is struck Thursday afternoon, here is a word about the team make-up in case you’ve been comatose

• The two squads are composed of six male and six female points qualifiers.

• Two captain’s picks per gender have bolstered each team, bringing the total to 32 players competing.

• Sessions over the Presidents Cup’s traditional four-day schedule will include mixed foursomes and fourballs on Thursday and Saturday.

• Friday’s sessions will consist of men’s and women’s foursomes matches

• A bold singles format will debut Sunday with only 12 of a team’s 16 players getting to play. The gender dispersion is determined in the chess match-style “snake draft” format long employed at the Presidents Cup but bound to make the role of Captains more vital than ever.

Each gender?  Just how many genders are we planning on?  And, isn't that a hate crime?

Kind of crazy how much thought he's put into this, and here's his acknowledgement of the source of his logo:

The online Presidents Cup Shop has already sold out all items featuring USA’s clever logo, a retro update of the former JC Penney Classic’s insignia that was put on rope caps, golf shirts, t-shirts and more. A robust bootleg market on Pinterest and eBay has forced the PGA Tour to issue an array of DMCA claims to little avail.

 That JC Penney reference will go right over the heads of any readers under forty....

In Wednesday's post, Geoff has the "actual" pairings:

That's actually pretty good, with the exception of leaving me wondering whether Brooke Henderson is playing well enough to grab a spot on an event in Montreal, but the brother-sister pairing was a lay-up.

He even settle some old pace-of-play scores:

The match draft got off to a chippy start when Captains Mike Weir and Karrie Webb slow-played their opening pick by taking the entire three minutes allotted. Apparently going for some kind of dramatic effect, Weir announced a long-planned leadoff start for Canadians Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners.

“Great to see you’re playing as fast as ever, Mike,” chirped USA Captain Jim Furyk. He countered with Nelly Korda and Patrick Cantlay, dashing some hopes of a leadoff combo featuring World No. 1’s Scottie Scheffler and Korda.

Lots of good stuff here, and it really works (at least for your humble blogger) because of a combo of great women's events (their Open at the Old Course and Curtis Cup, especially), plus the Caitlin Clark effect that has us imagining people actually watching women's sports.

But I'm guessing that Geoff's vision is a day late and a dollar short, because of Phil.  The Tour is no longer self-financed, and those hoarders and kulaks require a return on their investment.  I'd love to see the analysis underlying this:

SSG will invest up to $3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises with an initial input of $1.5 billion for a valuation of over $12 billion. Players will receive equity into PGA Tour Enterprises; these grants, made over time, will be based on playing accomplishments, future participation and tour status.

Call me a cynic, but to get to $12 billion you'd have to believe a lot of things that aren't true or at least proven, and I'd guess you'd have to assign an inflated value to the Prez Cup (really, except for the fledgling TGL, what else is there to intentionally overvalue?).  Geoff imagines a huge media reaction to the mixed format, but is he familiar with women's golf ratings?  

This event is a pleasant four days, but has unfortunately been bereft of buzz and drama.  Of course, so was the Ryder Cup for fifty years, but I think the opportunity of the Tour to do the right thing may have passed.

Thursday Preview - The biggest difference between those two cups is in the header, specifically the Thursday play.  It certainly makes the event more user friendly, that other Cup featuring more golf than any one human being can watch (or play).

Golf Mag has a roundtable, so shall we jump in?

1. Hey there, team. Below you’ll find Thursday’s four-ball matches. What’s the best one — and what’s your predicted Day 1 score?

2024 Presidents Cup Thursday matchups, tee times (ET)

Match 1 (11:35 a.m.) : Jason Day & Byeong Hun An (International) vs. Xander Schauffele & Tony Finau (USA)

Match 2 (11:53 a.m.) Adam Scott & Min Woo Lee (International) vs. Collin Morikawa & Sahith Theegala (USA)

Match 3 (12:11 p.m.): Sungjae Im & Tom Kim (International) vs. Scottie Scheffler & Russell Henley (USA)

Match 4: (12:29)Taylor Pendrith & Christiaan Bezuidenhout (International) vs. Wyndham Clark & Keegan Bradley (USA)

Match 5 (12:47 p.m.): Hideki Matsuyama & Corey Conners (International) vs. Patrick Cantlay & Sam Burns (USA)

Dylan Dethier: I’ll take the electric duo of Sungjae Im and Tom Kim against the relentless ball-striking duo of Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley. A clash in personalities and styles of play? Bring it on. Looking forward to a gritty tie in this one as the Internationals jumping out to a 3.5-1.5 lead after the first session. This is a prediction mostly made on vibes (most of these are, to be honest) but I’ll take the International side in lousy weather on Thursday.

James Colgan: I have seen the future, and it is an absolute fire-breather between The Australians (Scott and Lee) and The Netflixers (Morikawa and Theegala). Both teams have one steady hand and one streaky player, and ultimately I think it might be the pivot point of the whole first session.

Nick Piastowski: James has the right answer here. Min Woo is my breakout pick on the International side, and Sahith for the American dozen. Should be fun. But to add another pairing to the mix, let’s go to the fourth match, where we’ll find Taylor Pendrith, the first Canadian out. If there’s home-country noise, it’ll be heard here. (And if there’s any lingering Patrick Cantlay thoughts, they’ll be voiced in the day’s final match.). And a prediction? Let’s gets nuts and say 3-2 … Internationals.

I expected more of a freak out about the non-pairings.  Specifically, isn't breaking up Cantlay-Schauffele kind of radical?  The same can be said for Scheffler and Burns, though they've not had any success together (admittedly a small sample size), and I'm not sure why Sam Burns is on the team excepting for his babysitting duties.

The Adam Scott pairing seems intriguing, though I do agree that that Im-Kim pairing will have to produce for Mike Weir.  But did anyone see Russel Henley with the best player on the planet?  To me, Furyk is pursuing high-risk pairings, which is more what we expect from underdogs?  There can be some upside if it all pans out, but this is a man whose 2018 pairings were a dumpster fire.... so, I'm sure it will all work out.

2. Tom Kim was this tournament’s breakout star two years ago. Is there anyone who fits that description this time around?

Colgan: In my mind, it’s not even close. Min Woo Lee is the exact kind of media-literate star the PGA Tour has been missing since Bryson, and while he’s got a ways to go before he’s Bryson’s caliber of player, this week could quickly vault him into Bryson levels of entertainer.

Piastowski: Man, I need to answer these faster; James is spot on again. But it may very well be Sahith Theegala, who can low with the best of ‘em, isn’t bashful and will, outside of the Canadians, have as much support as anybody. The Theegala family and friends group will be out, and they’re a hoot.

Dethier: He’s sitting the first session, so this could be a dumb prediction already — but Canadian Mackenzie Hughes is one of the best putters in the world. If he gets hot on the greens he could have a real moment on home soil.

Hard to get on a putting heater from the bench, Dylan.  That's the thing about a four day event, the four guys sitting (Hughes and Si Woo Kim for Mike Weir, Homa and Harman for the Yanks) are quite obviously not in the circle of trust.   After all, if you can't your own ball,. what are you doing on the team?

3. Give me your highest point-earner for each team.

Dethier: On the U.S. side I’ll take Xander Schauffele; he’s built for these. And gimme Adam Scott for the Internationals, mostly because he’s been open about how badly he wants to play well this week and watching him get, say, four points would be immensely satisfying. (Value plays: Henley and Pendrith.)

Colgan: Patrick Cantlay for the Americans, Tom Kim for the Internationals. We always undervalue the value of prior history in these events. Both of those guys have done it before, and they’ll do it again.

Piastowski: Dylan going with Xander is undoubtedly my favorite part of these exercises. It’s paid off this year, for sure. But I’m liking either Collin Morikawa, who’s shown good form over the summer, or Wyndham Clark, who played two weeks ago in Napa. On the International side, let’s go with Jason Day.

As Nick hints at, a lot of these guys haven't played since East Lake.  Sound familiar?  That was an issue for the Yanks in Rome, those it may well be true for both sides.  Hard to account for the relative rustiness of the two squads, give that they're all U.S.-based.

4. Everyone on both teams has now come through the interview room. What’s something you’ve seen or heard from in there that piqued your interest?

Dethier: I was fascinated to hear Tony Finau talking about being a parent. The gist was this: Growing up, Tony’s family didn’t have much in the way of money or built-in opportunity. His son, on the other hand, will have plenty of both. Tony’s life and career have been defined by his grit; now it’s clear he thinks a lot about how to instill that into his son. I thought that was fascinating.

Colgan: Min Woo Lee told me he stumbled into a barbershop in downtown Montreal and requested to have INT etched into his head. TEN minutes later, he walked out with a fresh haircut. He has more faith in a barber he’s never met than I do in my car.

Piastowski: I asked Kevin Kisner if he’s going to follow through on a tweet where he said he’d go tarp off if Max Homa were to hoop one (editor’s note: that means he’d take his shirt off if Max Homa were to hole out from the fairway) and he said he would. So there’s that.

Have your eyes stopped rolling yet?  Would someone please tell Kevin Kisner that he's not playing or announcing this week, and therefore he's not of interest to us?  Is he so clueless as to not understand that such a reaction can only work when it's spontaneous,. and that planning it make shim te4dious?

5. Who has the most at stake this week?

Dethier: U.S. captain Jim Furyk. He has a lot riding on this week, especially after his Ryder Cup captaincy in Paris ended in defeat. Look, he’s hardly the only one to lose an away Ryder Cup, so he’s hardly alone there. But it’s been a quarter-century since the U.S. lost a Presidents Cup. It won’t necessarily be his fault if they do lose, just like it wasn’t necessarily his fault in France — but he’s the guy at the helm. That means big-time pressure.

Colgan: Weirdly, Scottie Scheffler. I don’t expect he’ll play poorly, but the World No. 1 has struggled mightily in each of his last two starts in team events. If he makes it three, the questions could get louder about his match play makeup.

Piastowski: Any of the six U.S. captain’s picks. It’s still stunning to me that Justin Thomas, who lives for team golf maybe more than any of the 24 players here, will be watching on TV.

Dethier: That’s wild to me, too, Nick!

As for Scottie, this is a strange time to drop the Tiger references...  We expect the top player to be the top player, but an 18-hole match is a coin flip.  Tiger was a match-play force of nature, until he turned pro.  

Obviously the takeaway is that their answers are 100% on the American side.  The International Team has little at stake because nothing is expected of it, which could make them dangerous, no?

I agree about Furyk, though I'm having trouble caring or even understanding why he got the gig.  We're allegedly using the Prez Cup for Ryder Cup battle prep, yet our Prez Cup captains seem to be more about mulligans for Ryder Cup failures (Davis Love, anyone?).  Jim Furyk will never be a Ryder Cup captain again, so the purpose in having hi captain this team is what?

I would have answered the question with either the PGA Tour or SSG.  This event has to produce revenues and buzz, and another U.S. blowout would be a very bad thing.

6. Okay, gimme a final score.

Dethier: The analytics favor the road team, but let’s get crazy: I think this is the year for the Internationals. This team’s extremely cohesive. Adam Scott is setting the standard. I like their entire leadership team. The U.S. team has its weak spots. And if Quebec’s finest hockey fans show up ready to tear down the visitors, it could happen. Let’s ride with the home squad. Internationals, 16-14.

Colgan: U.S. wins. Again. 17-13.

Piastowski: Having walked all 18 this week, having stuck my foot into the water where Woody Austin face-planted here in 2007, it’ll be the team that birdies the most. Scores will be low. That favors the US of A. Make it 16.5-13.5.

Alas, I must leave you here. It would help all concerned for the International team to break from the gate well, and at the very least keep this competitive through the weekend. But does Jay do irony? This event desperately needs an International victory, but that could be a death knell for ratings....

At worst, it's four days of team match play at a worthy venue with an appealing cast of players.  At best?  I'm hoping for a dramatic Sunday afternoon.

Weekend Wrap - Prez Cup Week Edition

How about those Yankees?  They're not actually all that good, but fortunately that bridge isn't the only thing that's collapsed in Baltimore....

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before - Another week, another.....well, here's how Geoff charitably puts it:

The agonizing loss once again forced McIlroy to reflect on a cruel pattern of playing extraordinarly well for 70 or holes only make a late mistake or to watch a competitor to pull off the extraordinary.

“Look, it’s golf and I’m playing well,” the 35-year-old is quoted as saying by The Guardian. “These things happen. It’s just the game is testing me a little more than it has done in the past but that’s fine. All I can do is keep showing up and trying to play the golf that I’ve been playing and sooner or later it’s going to end up in a win.

“The nice thing is there’s next year and the year after and the year after and the year after. If you think of my career as a 30-year journey, it’s only one year in a 30-year journey, and hopefully the other 29 are a little more productive or a little bit better. I have certainly had years where I’ve felt worse.”

I believe that "Wait 'Till Next Year" bit originated in Brooklyn, though when Rory hits 1955 is anyone's guess.  Though Geoff seems a bit naive here:

McIlroy took another tough less in his usual classy manner.

“Two weeks in a row, I've played well,” he said in reference to a one-shot loss at the Amgen Irish Open. “Just not quite well enough. But you know, happy with where my game is and happy where it's trending.”

Since he's made his peace with the Saudis, Rory seems also to have made his peace with all those near misses.  He's happy with how he plays when losing, and keeps his childhood best friend on the bag, confirming his choice of comfort over being challenged.

Backstopping has receded from the news but, while Billy Ho deserves credit for going over to Europe and playing there, wassup with this?

Besides robbing the home crowd of a win by their favorite golfer, there was also Horschel’s harried attempt at enjoying a backstop.

On the first hole of sudden death, McIlroy finished over the green in two while Horschel landed in the right greenside bunker. After Lawrence hit a third shot on to the par 5’s water-guarded green, Horschel appeared to play faster than normal with hopes of using Lawrence’s ball as a backstop. But as the eventual champion was over his ball set to take the club back, referee Mark Litton called out Horschel’s name. Horschel turned in disbelief only to be advised to wait until Lawrence could put a coin down behind the ball.

It was Justin Thomas (ironic, since he's sorta in the news this week) who famously said that he has a God-given right to play quickly in order to use an opponents ball as a backstop.... OK, I might have added the God-given, but he did say the rest out loud.

The Tour Confidential gang got around to this in their weekly confab:

Rory McIlroy’s latest close call came at the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday, as he lost in a playoff to Billy Horschel. This followed a runner-up finish at the Irish Open last week and, dating further back, his heartbreaking U.S. Open loss. He hasn’t won since May. Any reason to worry about what’s happening during this stretch?

Marksbury: A little bit! I can’t help but feel there are some definite mental-game problems at play, when a player of Rory’s caliber crumbles down the stretch more than a few times in a season. But we’ve seen him bounce back in the past, and this has been a trying year for him personally and professionally. I’m inclined to give him some grace, and hope he can get some significant rest in the off-season.

Melton: No reason to worry — closing out golf tournaments is hard! The only reason we are talking about this is because he continues to put himself into contention. It’d be more worrisome if Rory were missing cuts each week. He’ll be back in the winner’s circle soon enough.

Sens: I agree that he’ll be back in the winner’s circle soon enough. But I also think Rory fans have reason to worry about him sealing the deal in the events that matter the most to him, which are obviously the majors. A 10-year drought is a long dry spell, and there have been a number of agonizing near-misses along the way.

Hirsh: Pump the brakes! Are we forgetting 2013, 2017 and 2020 when he didn’t win at all? He’s won twice on the PGA Tour this year (OK technically once) and has been in contention a boatload of other times. I would say he’s winning at a more prolific rate than at any time in his career. He’s just not winning the big ones! It will happen.

Ummmm, Mr. Hirsh, while the question technically limited itself to a four-month window, that not winning the big ones thing goes back to 2014....  maybe Rory should skip those Signature Events, perhaps they're too big for him, and limit himself to the full field events?  Kidding, maybe.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before, Part II - LIV wrapped up its third season of play, and rumor has it that twelve people tuned in.  OK, that might be slightly low, but only slightly.

Cameron Smith's Ripper GC wins 2024 LIV Golf Team Championship, claim $14 million top prize

As a public service we're pleased to provide this proof of life for Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert, who you might otherwise consider deceased.

Jon Rahm had been forced to withdraw due to flu symptoms, but I can't be bothered with that as the clock moves on.  That TC panel had some strange queries on this subject:

LIV Golf wrapped up its season with its team championship on Sunday in Dallas, and some of the league’s team captains hinted at potential changes in the future. What did you make of their comments? And how would more “team play” figure into LIV’s future (and mean for the pending PGA Tour vs. LIV merger)?

Marksbury: Without world ranking points — and a wider context for each tournament’s

meaning in the world of pro golf — the individual stroke-play portion of LIV events lacks the drama of the PGA Tour events they’re up against on the weekend. LIV’s team aspect has always been a differentiator, and making that part of the league more engaging and exciting from a fan perspective would be a big positive.

Melton: Leaning more into the team aspect would certainly give LIV more of an identity than what they’ve established thus far. Through three seasons, the team aspect has been a bit half-baked, but if they were to make it more team-oriented, it would give them a clearer identity that is different from the rest of pro golf. Perhaps LIV will become the place to play for your team, while the Tour is where you play for yourself? I wouldn’t hate the idea.

Sens: You get the sense from the players’ comments that they realize things need shaking up. What to do exactly? LIV’s greatest weakness is that there isn’t a feeling that anything’s at stake. Leaning into the team aspect makes sense, but I would add more of a Squid Game element to it. Not with blood and guts but with the potential for real and immediate loss. Make it a lower bar for relegation. If a guy performs poorly a couple of weeks in a row, he gets a warning. If he doesn’t shape up the following, swap him out for someone else.

Hirsh: I really like that idea, Zephyr, just fully embrace the team aspect. I think the whole playing the individual and team tournaments at the same time is problematic in pro golf. It works on the college level because the individual event is secondary to the team event, not so much when there’s $4 million at stake for first place. I think the match-play aspect of the team championship was fun an innovative, but it was kinda confusing and hard to follow. But could be tweaked in the future.

As a public service, let me see if I can help out Josh Sens.  This vague ennui with which you're struggling is really quite simple.  That vague feeling of there not being anything at stake is caused by, checking notes, there being nothing at stake.  Something we might have expected McKinsey to have picked up on....Are you done laughing yet?

But the question demands bifurcation, because of the pending discussions with the PGA Tour, in which maintaining LIV as some kind of team league appears to be a face-saving move for His Excellency.  

Speaking of LIV, with Year 3 now a wrap, what’s next and what’s important? Creating pathways with the Tour? Signing away more top talent? A bigger, wider TV deal? If you are running the show, what’s on your offseason agenda?

Another dreadful question.... what would have been better would be to ask what they should do in the absence of a deal with the Tour.

Marksbury: A broader agreement has to be top of mind. It seems like the only way to give LIV the relevance it needs — and a way to add both intrigue and eyeballs.

Melton: They’ve got to get a better TV deal. It’s tough to take the league seriously when it’s drawing fewer eyeballs than the underwater basket-weaving world championship. With a proper TV partner, LIV will never garner broad mainstream appeal.

Sens: TV deal for sure. But I’d also be pushing for more LIV-vs.-Tour events, like the upcoming televised match with Scheffer, Bryson, Brooks and Rory. Grow that into a Ryder Cup-style competition, and you’d get some attention.

Hirsh: It’s the TV deal as my colleagues said, but also need to figure out to get their guys earning ranking points again and that means getting pathways to the majors again. There’s going to be a lot of big names missing majors next year.

I think they should spend whatever it takes to sign Jon Rahm, and then the world will have to pay attention.  What?  They already did and still no one watched?  Then I guess they're effed...

We'll send Zephyr Melton back to school to learn about the chicken and the egg.  Do they have no one watching because of their TV contract, or do they have a terrible TV deal because there's no interest in their product?  One thing McKinsey might have noted for them is how few people watch the PGA Tour's product, which one might have considered a ceiling for them....  But they're so much smarter than the rest of us, so how could anyone not watch a league that includes Patrick Reed and Sergio?   I'll give you time to stop laughing....

Stop Me.... Part III, Prez Cup Edition - I'll just say it, the Prez Cup is a perfectly fine event, as it's almost exactly what the Ryder Cup was until Seve,.  It can't match the passion of that other event, but it also allows us not to focus on how the U.S. underperforms.  

The TC gang had thoughts:

It’s Presidents Cup week! So let’s head to Canada, where the Americans take on the Internationals at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec. The U.S. has dominated this event and owns a 12-1-1 all-time record and hasn’t lost in two decades. If Mike Weir and the Internationals were to win this week, what needs to happen?

Jessica Marksbury: The U.S. would need to be seriously off their game to post an L this week. On paper, the Americans are just so, so strong. But, that being said, it’s match play! So of course

anything can happen (in theory). Playing on home soil can often be a big motivator. With a Canadian captain and three Canadians on the International team, maybe the unexpected will happen. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

Zephyr Melton: The entire U.S. team needs to oversleep their tee times? I’m kidding (kind of), but I really don’t see a path for the Internationals to win. Without the talent they lost to LIV, the International team just doesn’t have the firepower to keep up with Team USA. I expect another stress-free victory for the Americans.

Josh Sens: Weir could have Scottie Scheffler arrested, and when the U.S. team goes to protest, he could lock up the rest of them. As Jess says, it’s match-play. Nothing is preordained. But the oddsmakers have this one lopsided for a reason.

Jack Hirsh: The Canadian guys go undefeated. They only way the U.S. team loses this one is if the home crowd gets really fired up for the five Canadians mowing down opponents. As my colleagues alluded to, match play is the great equalizer!

For the Internationals to win, they'd need to score more points than the Americans....  Glad to clarify that for you.  They're gonna win one of these days and it's gonna be a home game (yeah, I know, what's home for this cobbled-together team?), so why not 2024?  One reason is that the International team looks especially weak, so it's likely on those five Canucks.

The Americans are without long-time team-event standouts Jordan Spieth and Justin

Thomas, and they are already of course without any LIV players (Brooks Koepka was on the last Ryder Cup team). Is this U.S. team more beatable than others we’ve seen over the years?

Marksbury: No. Even without those notables, the U.S. is still so deep! Scottie, Collin, Xander, Sahith, Keegan, to name a few, all in the midst of great seasons.

Melton: They might be a little more vulnerable than we’ve seen them in the past, but it’s still a very strong team. The U.S. has an extremely deep talent pool at the highest levels of pro golf. Although this team might lack some of the stalwarts of previous teams, they still have tons of talent.

Sens: All due respect to Spieth and Thomas, but neither has been lighting it up of late. I don’t see the U.S. missing a step in their absence. And it’s not as if the Internationals haven’t lost talent to LIV, too. No Cameron Smith. No Joaqium Nieman.

Hirsh: Sorry to sound like a broken record, but no. Americans have won the last seven majors, last two Players Championships and each of the last two Olympic Golds. And that doesn’t include guys like Morikawa, Cantlay, Theegala, etc. This team is by no means beatable.

Undermanned European teams have been humiliating U.S./ squads since the 1970's, so why not these guys?  The U.S. needs to move on from Spieth and Thomas, so it makes logical sense for them to do so in this cup first, but what happens is the U.S, loses?  Do the Internationals face off against the Euros at Bethpage?

Look into your crystal ball and predict the highest point-earners (for each team) and give us your winner.

Marksbury: Scottie Scheffler will put a bow on an already historic season by going 4-0-0 (four points) to lead the U.S. Tom Kim will scratch out three points to lead the Internationals, but the U.S will ultimately prevail 18-12.

Melton: Team USA: Xander Schauffele (3.5 points); Team International: Adam Scott (2.5 points). Team USA comes out on top 18.5-11.5.

Sens: I think–or at least hope–it will be closer. Team USA 16-14. Xander will nab 4 points to lead the way for the Americans, with fired-up Canadian Taylor Pendrith winning 3.5 for the Internationals.

Hirsh: Tom Kim was electric two years ago, I see him and Hideki Matsuyama earning 2.5-3 points for the Internationals but could hear an argument for Corey Conners. For the U.S., I see Scottie Scheffler and Max Homa (yes, this is exactly what’s going to get him out of his funk) going 4-0-0. U.S. rolls 17-13, close enough to make it interesting the whole week, but still not really in question.

Max Homa?  That's a good one.... They need a close one at least, but we'll see what Mike Weir has up his sleeve.

Eamon Lynch has an amusing column that won't make the Tour brass happy:

It’s a sobering measure of how uncompetitive the Presidents Cup has been that Mark O’Meara — who retired from the game this weekend at the mummified age of 67 — was the second-ranked golfer in the world when the United States suffered its last (and only) defeat in 1998. The last (and only) time that the Internationals managed a tie was in 2003, when the top 20 in the world rankings featured just two men not now on the senior tour: Tiger Woods and Freddie Jacobson, and Freddie receives his AARP card on Thursday, the day on which the 16th Presidents Cup gets underway in Montreal.

There’s a passionate audience for team golf that thrills fans and stress tests competitors. Just not all team golf delivers that. The Ryder and Solheim Cups do, but for multiple reasons, the Presidents Cup has struggled for traction. It’s not the dearth of history — the Solheim Cup is only four years older — but rather an amorphous team identity and a lack of competitiveness.

It’s tough to rally around the Internationals without suggesting an anti-U.S. vibe, a delicate balance made no easier by this year’s “away” match happening less than 30 miles from the New York border. (As the ProV1 flies, Royal Montreal is closer to U.S. captain Jim Furyk’s birthplace in Pennsylvania than to his Canadian counterpart Mike Weir’s hometown in Ontario). And for compelling competition, there must be the possibility that Goliath could lose, and the last time that happened R. Kelly was No. 1 in the Billboard charts and not inmate No. 09627-035 at a Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina.

Pretty confidant that this is the first instance in recorded history of Mark O'Meara and R. Kelly being name-dropped in the same bit.

This event has never quite captured the zeitgeist, so Eamon's speculation is interesting:

Next week will go a long way toward determining the future of the Presidents Cup. It’s profitable — the amount varies widely by location — but with every aspect of the PGA Tour’s business under scrutiny by private equity investors, another easy U.S. victory might force a rethink on how to better maximize product value. There are regular calls for the Presidents Cup to become a co-ed event, but it’s hardly outlandish to wonder if it will be repackaged as a bridge between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, should the Department of Justice insist the Saudi circuit not be binned as part of a deal between the Tour and the Public Investment Fund.

It seems likely that team golf will be a component in any definitive agreement with the PIF, whose governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, is apparently convinced that such franchises will become highly valuable. Even if he’s correct — a generous grant — realizing value is years off. Short term, it remains a tough sell, and not just because LIV’s laughably execrable product has poisoned the well when it comes to fan perceptions of team golf not organized around national loyalty.

I like the Co-ed version better than the LIV-infused version, but the latter wouldn't be sated by one late-season event.  The ladies make all the sense in the world, especially given where the balance of power is in women's golf.

But the impediments are also robust:

Any future team platform operated by PGA Tour Enterprises will probably be seeded from TGL, the simulator-based league backed by Woods and Rory McIlroy, even if it involves LIV teams competing too. But like every concept mooted in golf these days, that raises questions with no readily apparent answers. Will consumers who enjoy a biennial U.S.-Europe feast take to being force-fed team events more frequently? Will they embrace simulator golf as tightly packaged entertainment on Tuesday nights in winter? What about on nights when Woods and McIlroy aren’t playing? Will they care enough to invest themselves in team standings week to week?

And, trickiest of all, what will they sacrifice from their normal diet to accommodate team golf?

If team franchises are to gain value, they need a season that extends beyond a few winter weeks indoors in Florida. There has to be a green grass element too. And that’s where team golf collides with the brick wall impacting every aspect of the PGA Tour-PIF negotiations: the schedule.

Yasir can have his team league in a heartbeat, if only he's content to do it in the Fall, when no one will watch.  Of course, he's got those established credentials at promoting golf events that no one watches, so win-win, baby!

here's Eamon's rousing coda:

All of these unknowns exist against a backdrop of fan apathy. If there is an audience hungry for team golf, then LIV would have drawn greater numbers, even allowing for the garish theatrics and players who’d struggle to win a popularity contest if it was staged at Smith College and the only other candidate was J.D. Vance.

The best scenario we can hope for is a team product emerging that engages fans and taps into the passion we see around Ryder and Solheim Cups. The second best scenario is that if team golf fails, it should fail quickly. Because at this juncture, it seems more like an off-ramp being built to save Al-Rumayyan’s blushes and less like the gleaming new highway he imagines it to be.

Eamon elides the rather important distinction between team match play and a team event awkwardly bolted onto a stroke-play event, but whatever.

But, yes, this event has under-performed and it's hard to see it gaining traction if one of two teams never wins.  So I expect that within an hour of balls being in the air your humble blogger will instinctively find himself rooting for the...er, Washington Generals.  Or whichever team doesn't include Cantlay.

That's it for today kids.  Blogging schedule is TBD, but check back early and often.

 

Thursday Themes - Lite Blogging Edition

Not gonna break a sweat this morning, but we'll try to amuse nonetheless.

Shall we start with an evergreen?

Dogs, Food - Sometimes you simply can't make the dogs eat the food on offer, as per this:

The ratings are out, and less than 100K people tuned in for LIV Golf's individual championship finale

Amusingly, a friend told me he actually turned on the final moments of the event, and didn't hate it too much.  I'm guessing he didn't realize the selective company he was in....

Is it communicable?

Gloomy TV ratings hang over LIV Championship, PGA Tour fall debut

They call it the big boy tour, but the boys are the only part that might be big:

We’ll start with the PGA Tour, which recorded 69,000 average viewers during Sunday’s final round at the Procore Championship in Napa, less than a quarter of the audience that tuned into Sahith Theegala’s final round victory in the same event last fall.

Per Ian Faith, this is a good thing because it means their appeal is becoming more selective....

I've been noting the irony for some time, that in the early stages of the Tour v. LIV cage match there was a curious lack of criticism of LIV's exhibition match format, for reasons that are now blindingly obvious.   To wit, that the top players envied those miniscule field sizes and lack of cuts, yanno, guaranteed paydays.  So their attempt to mimic LIV on the PGA Tour has been wildly successful, including its television ratings (or, more accurately, lack thereof).

But there was one bright spot in golf TV ratings:

In a year that the news on television viewership for golf hasn’t always been the best, there was a big positive coming out of last weekend. As noted on X by the Sports Business Journal’s Josh

Carpenter, ratings for the Sunday singles in the American win over Europe in the Solheim Cup saw a massive gain over Spain last year and significant progress from the last time the matches were held on American soil.

Sunday’s viewership for the 15½-12½ American victory—their first since 2017—had an average viewership of 657,000 on NBC. That’s more than double the 277,000 who watched on Golf Channel in the earlier coverage window in 2023, when the teams tied 14-14 as Europe retained the Cup. Three years ago at Inverness, where Europe won on Labor Day Monday, there were 588,000 viewers on Golf Channel.

Upon further review, perhaps that should have been brightish:

The numbers are good, but not what they used to be. In 2021, NBC televised the first two days of the Solheim on the weekend (with the Monday finish on Golf Channel) and drew 634,000 viewers on Saturday and 878,000 on Sunday.

Purses and other forms of compensation are exploding while viewership numbers are tanking.  Sounds like a viable business model to me....  The only good news is that the network contracts are locked in until +/-2030, so the Tour can continue to lose three-quarters of its TV audience each year with no financial ramifications until then.  The saddest bit being that they seem committed to doing just that....

LIV Stuff - As I teased Monday, I hadn't blogged this bit:

Jon Rahm's victory in season-ending LIV Golf event adds $22 million to his bank account

If each of those 100,000 viewers  kicks in $220 to watch the broadcast, that'll cover the $22 million large to Rahmbo..... A bit of a disconnect, no?

This is also telling:

But LIV’s place within golf’s ecosystem remains a puzzle that it needs to solve. Niemann, second on its standings, is not in any of the four majors next year because the league does not receive World Ranking points for its 54-hole events.

Something the promising young talent might have considered before taking the easy money....

Do these clowns think this is a good look?

Only big rocks for Rahmbo 😤#LIVGolf @LegionXIIIgc pic.twitter.com/gdjx6YcaY1

— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) September 15, 2024

Nothing says Serious Athletic Competition quite like a blinged-out pinky ring.... Now, Jon, I dare you to show up for Tuesday dinner at Augusta with that.

Rahm keeps pining for those Tour events he's missing and wants more than anything to play for Europe in next year's Ryder Cup....  Well, strike that "more than anything", because Rahmbo doesn't write checks:

Report: DP World Tour rejects LIV Golf's offer to pay fines for Jon Rahm, others

Here's some background:

Former DP World Tour golfers competing for LIV Golf are in violation of the DP World Tour’s

conflicting events policy, which requires a release to play elsewhere. In April 2023, the Tour won a U.K. arbitration case that allows it to enforce the penalties. That means if players want to compete on the DP World Tour, they’ll have to pay a fine, among other penalties.

Jon Rahm, who Sunday won LIV’s season-long individual championship and the $18 million prize, as well as others like Tyrrell Hatton, want to compete in at least the minimum required events on the DP World Tour to be eligible to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. However, to do so, they must pay up.

Rahm and the DP World Tour have been in a somewhat back-and-forth, with an appeal coming from Rahm and his side last week of the sanctions, allowing him to play in events like next week’s Spanish Open.

So, what's the problem?

A DP World Tour player must compete in a minimum of four events, excluding majors, to remain a member. The Olympics count, leaving Rahm three events to go this year. Next year, it’ll be the same process.

“I’m entered into the tournament,” Rahm said last week at LIV Golf Chicago. “We entered a long time ago. Whether they let me play or not is a different thing. I’m not a big fan of the fines. I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.

What a remarkable coincidence.... he's not a fan of the fines and we're not fans of his, so win-win, baby!

Then he tries to hide behind his mother's Spain's skirt:

“I’ve said many times, I don’t go to the Spanish Open for the glory or anything else. I think it’s my duty to Spanish golf to be there, and I also want to play in Sotogrande.

“At that point, it would almost be doing not only me but Spanish golf a disservice by not letting me play, so yeah, that’s why we’re trying to talk to them and make that happen. I would also love to play the Dunhill. I have a good friend who asked me to play, and Johan has been a great, great ambassador for the game of golf. I would love to be able to play all those events.”

I'm sorry, Jon, but who did this to Spanish golf?  This was all known when you took that big check, so perhaps some cheese with that whine?

Now, things have gotten a little weird, first with this:

LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan made an unannounced visit Tuesday to the Fields Ranch East course at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, on the same North Texas property that houses the PGA of America’s new headquarters.

Al-Rumayyan, who also governs the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which funds LIV, is in town for the season-ending LIV Team Championship at nearby Maridoe Golf Club; the reason for his PGA Frisco visit is unclear.

A PGA of America executive told GOLF.com in a brief phone interview that he had “no idea” why Al-Rumayyan was on site and that he was unaware of any scheduled meetings with him; the executive said that he did not know who, if anyone, had arranged Al-Rumayyan’s course tour. Omni PGA Frisco director of golf Paul Earnest was among the Frisco staff professionals who were off property Tuesday at the Northern Texas PGA sectional championship in Dallas.

If we show up unannounced, we get the Scottie in Louisville treatment....see if you're buying any of this:

The PGA of America official and an Omni representative said, respectively, that neither the PGA of America nor the resort has had any discussions with LIV about any kind of partnership. Al-Rumayyan’s visit was characterized as social in nature.

“There was absolutely nothing arranged [business-wise],” the hotel official said.

LIV representatives did not immediately reply to a GOLF.com inquiry about Al-Rumayyan’s drop-in.

Al-Rumayyan arrived in the pro shop in the afternoon and asked if he could see the Gil Hanse-designed course and perhaps play a few holes. In a black LIV polo shirt, he motored around the East course with an Omni staffer, with one of Al-Rumayyan’s aides trailing them in a second cart.

Had he booked it on Golf Now?  The LIV swag is indeed a nice touch, but apparently Yasir is now stalking Seth Waugh.

We're getting some mixed signals, but I'm only human and simply can't take any more of Rory McIlroy.  It's not as if he hasn't effed everything up already, but get this bit which the header called "optimistic":

With that out of the way, McIlroy was inevitably quizzed on the latest developments (or lack

thereof) in the seemingly never-ending PGA Tour/PIF negotiations. Asked for what he felt was holding back a resolution, the Northern Irishman identified the U.S. Department of Justice and the wide range of views prevalent on both the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League.

“I'd say maybe half the players on LIV want the deal to get done; half probably don’t,” he said. “I'd say it's probably similar on the PGA Tour. Everyone's looking out for themselves and their best interests. It would benefit some people for a deal not to get done, but it would obviously benefit some people for a deal to get done. When you have a members-run organization, it complicates things a little bit, especially when players are having to make decisions on the business side of things. The tours want it to happen. The investors certainly want it to happen because they can see the benefit for themselves.”

“It seems like the people that are really making the decisions are all rowing in the same direction, which is a really good thing,” he said. “That still doesn't mean a deal may get done because it's just a very complicated set of circumstances. But yeah, from what I hear, there's optimism there, and that's good to see.”

Yes, Rory, isn't it great that Tiger, Patrick and you are rowing in the same direction.  And those nasty Tour rabbits are being so damn selfish.  I mean, could you guys be better to them?  You actually let them play in a few events., though it's events without actual cash purses.  Don't those plebes know their place?  have they not kissed your ring?

As the late Grayson Murray famously said to Rory, "F**k You."  

he goes on and on about young talent emerging in a Ryder Cup context.  Oscar Wilde famously said that irony is wasted on the stupid.  Rory has done more to keep young talent from emerging by elbowing them out of the Signature Events (not to mention the PIP program), that they now hate him as per the Murray bit, as well they should.  He's allowed Cantlay and others to use him to turn the PGA Tour into a LIV equivalent, and he remains totally clueless.

If he keeps missing three-footers I'll welcome the day when he gets shut out of the big money events.  Of course, he's taken care of himself to such an extent that it won't matter much any more.

We're at a point where I don't much care whether deal gets done or not, because I won't be among those 69,000 souls tuning in.

I'll leave you here and wish you a good weekend.  I'm sure there will be something to talk about next week.