Weekend Wrap - Seasonally Affected Disorder Edition

In case you haven't noticed, those days are getting really short, and include precious little golf content...

I don't have much for you, but fortunately Geoff went long on the Aussie thing.

Aussie Rules - I'm old enough to remember when Australia had its own golf season in December, which was real and spectacular.  This version?  Not so much, but they did at least have Kingston heath:

Ryggs Johnson Wins The ISPS Handa Australian Open

Ryggs Johnston toiled this summer in PGA Tour Americas stuff like the Centreport Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open and the Elk Ridge Saskatchewan Open Presented by Lake Country Co-Op.

This fall he entered the first of three DP World Tour qualifying stages seeking a place to play in 2025. Johnston entered the fifth and last round of Q-School finals three strokes off the qualifying mark. But the 24-year-old from that golf haven of Libby, Montana, posted a final round 65 to earn his card on the European-based circuit. He immediately flew to its season-opening events in Australia as a player ranked two spots inside the world top 1000.

Two weeks later, Johnston experienced everything but snow flurries en route to a an unlikely Australian Open victory. By holding off several budding Australian talents and Sandbelt-experienced veterans, Johnston’s 18-under-par, three-stroke win over Curtis Luck makes him the first American to capture the coveted title since Jordan Spieth in 2016. The former Arizona State golfer also gets to see his name on the Stonehaven Cup alongside Sarazen, Palmer, Nicklaus and Watson.

Not bad for a kid named after a deranged Lethal Weapon detective. Yep.

Vanna, I'd like to buy a vowel....   So much for the value of preparation:

Between the wacky weather changes, the persistence of talented pursuers, and the pain of enduring 18 holes with the psychotic-adjacent antics of Lucas Herbert (74, T5), Johnston earned the coveted title.

“It was definitely a little stressful,” Johnston said. “The weather was kind of up and down. It was really nice for 15 minutes and really bad for 15 minutes and I knew I was right in it and just had to come about towards the end.”

With his girlfriend’s dad on the bag and zero Sandbelt experience, Johnston opened his DP World Tour career with a T43 before arriving at glorious Kingston Heath by not getting in any practice rounds.

“I turned up pretty tired from all the travel and Q-School and everything,” he said. “Didn't get a practice round here with the weather. I didn't really have any expectations which probably helped me in the end.”

So much for local knowledge!

I'd like more on that Lucas Herbert bit, but I suspect he'll leave us hanging there....

Some familiar names got a boost from the event:

With top 3 finishes, Johnston, runner-up Luck and Marc Leishman qualified for The Open at

Royal Portrush via the Australian Open’s traditional spots in the Open Qualifying Series. Both Johnston and Luck will be making Open debuts. Luck is a previous Asia-Pacific Amateur and U.S. Amateur champion.

Leishman claimed the last qualifying place courtesy of his higher position in the Official World Golf Ranking (575th to start the week!). He tied for third with 2023 Asia Pacific Amateur champion Jasper Stubbs at 14-under-par 273. Stubbs started the Australian Open week ranked 1486th.

Leishman lost in a play-off to Zach Johnson at St Andrews in 2015 and also scored Open Top 6 performances in 2014 and 2017.

Didn't Leishman used to play professional golf?  What?  Really, well I guess at least the check cleared....

Distaff Doings -  One of the desperation ploys has been to contest the Women's Australian Open simultaneously, which like equal pay is one of those things that probably sounded great in the boardroom, but here on Planet Earth has challenges:

Jiyai Wins A Second Australian Open

Two of the planet’s pre-eminent links specialists—male or female—faced off in Sunday’s wild ride of an ISPS Handa Australian Open. Jiyai Shin, a two-time AIG Women’s Open winner and runner-up this year at St Andrews, held off defending champion Ashleigh Buhai, the 2022 Open winner at Muirfield.

Links masters tend to find Sandbelt golf to their liking. Even in a wet year like this one, Shin flashed her signature smile throughout no matter the outcome of a shot or how the weather

turned. There aren’t many golfers more enjoyable to watch given the mix of constant joy and creative shotmaking. There also aren’t too many whose pair of victories are 11 years apart.

While the women’s edition of the Australian Open started out close, it morphed into into a runaway only to grow close at the very end thanks to Buhai hanging around with her own spirited play. But Shin probably put this one away early on at the fourth (when world No. 6 Hannah Green was very much in it before swelling to a 79, T4).

Shin holed out a nifty blast-and-run shot from the left side waste area for an eagle two. Here’s how Martin Blake described the shot in the account of record:

A punched chip-in for eagle from 102 metres out of sandy lie at the par-4 fourth hole was the dagger that smote Australia’s Green, who had begun in second place, just two shots from the lead, in the final group with the Korean and defending champion Ashleigh Buhai.

The 8-iron shot pitched 20 metres short of the green, scurried up the ridge and on to the putting surface, trickled down toward the flag and barrelled in, perfectly conceived and brilliantly executed. Cue the Jiyai fist pump and a high five with her caddie. It was the shot that won the tournament. “It’s like a gift for me,” she said later.

It's an historically significant event played at a spectacular venue, but your humble blogger didn't do much more than flip to it during commercials in the NFL games.   I know, my only defense is to remind you of what you pay for this here blog....

But while I'll wax poetic about the Aussie golf season, it's a pale imitation of what it once was.  Jack famously used to make the long trip back in the day, yanno back when they actually needed to play golf to earn a living.  

It's an appropriate time in the zeitgeist to challenge the wokesters (after all, some 76 million people just did that), but no one seems happy with the format:

The future of the Australian Open remains unclear with player frustrations boiling over in Melbourne this week after three years of the mixed men’s and women’s format.

Before the national championship, Adam Scott, the 2009 winner – who chose to rest at his home base in Switzerland after a busy 2024 schedule instead of playing this year’s Australian summer – said: “There is a place for different formats, but your national Open is not the place for that.”

The Australian Open has been a mixed event since 2022, when a complicated format saw three tournaments – the men, women and Australian All Abilities Championship – held across two courses. South African star Ash Buhai won the first of her two consecutive Opens and had to share the stage, and a press conference, with men’s winner Adrian Meronk. Earlier that week, players had faced a 36-hole and a 54-hole cut, the latter of which Cameron Smith fell victim to and couldn’t play the final round. He was the reigning British Open champion at the time. The 54-hole cut was scrapped for the 2023 edition.

Well, when you've lost Adam Scott.... And it seems you've lost this lad as well:

But the 2024 Australian Open began with Smith, the biggest name in the field, teeing off about the “soft and slow” course set ups at Kingston Heath and Victoria as “disappointing” and not how the usually firm, fast Melbourne Sandbelt layouts play. He said heavy rain that fell in Melbourne on Sunday and Wednesday was “bulls–t excuse”.

Smith’s fellow major winner, Hannah Green, said the courses in round one had been set up easier to allow for men and women to play concurrently. “The pins were pretty generous today; I do think if the men played at this course, the pins would be much more tucked,” Green said.

Wow, talk about a buried lede, who knew that Cam Smith is still playing professional golf?

There are a host of problems in combining the events, but maybe it's helpful to list the benefits, which are pretty meager (at least to this observer):

The dual gender format has had some positives: the women’s field has competed for the same $1.7 million purse as the men. Fans have been able to watch Smith and Minjee Lee play the same course within minutes of each other.

I know we're supposed to accept that first bit as an unqualified good for society, but is it in fact so?  I think sports fans have been known to roll their eyes at the amount of money involved, but I think we instinctively understand that the games we watch draw massive interest in on-site and TV viewers, which translates into economic value.  So, in that sense, they earn it...

The problems here feed on themselves, because the women's purse is an obvious subsidy.  But, maybe of greater importance, is that putting the the respective games on side-by-side, the rather obvious comparison doesn't do the ladies any favors.  I haven't cited this in quite some time, but let's remember the first of Robert Conquest's three inviolable laws:

1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.

What that means in this instance is that the ladies need to earn their own audience.  They ne4ed to find their own markets and present their game in a manner that draws said audience.  If they want to be the men's game's mini-me, there will simply be no reason to watch, their version inevitably being inferior. 

Here's Geoff's rousing coda:

Australian Golf Digest’s Evin Priest considered the future of multiple Australian Open’s playing at the same time and came away feeling like no is happy with the format. The format of men’s, women’s and All-Abilities titles on the line has made for sensational viewing and worked better from the television perspective this year thanks to more separation between the men’s and women’s finishes Sunday. Slow play, course setup gripes and maybe matching purses have left players cranky. Priest says there “aren’t any known deals in place with any state governments to host the 2025 edition” but given all the complaining, Golf Australia may be forced to break-up the events. It would be especially sad if the equal purses were the real cause. But given the stories below, also hardly shocking.

Why does that give you a sad, Geoff?  They should have their own national championship that isn't diminished by proximity to the men's game and, if the purses aren't up to their standards, how about they work on building a bigger audience?  The problem no one seems to acknowledge is, an audience that they haven't earned, doesn't endure.

DP Doings - If you'll recall, I had a major insight a while back, admittedly the equivalent of George Costanza coming up with the killer retort while in the car headed to the airport....

What came to me in a fever dream was that propping up the Euro Tour might have been the PGA Tour's biggest mistake, as they might well have just let the Saudis grab it.  The only issue there might be the Ryder Cup, but it's a bit of a slow-moving train wreck, no?

Now comes this:

Saudi-Backed LIV Golf Is Said to Weigh Deal With DP World Tour

Saudi-backed LIV Golf is considering a potential tie-up with Europe’s DP World Tour that may

result in a surprise end to enmity that’s plagued the sport, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

If successful, the deal would cement LIV Golf’s position in the golfing calendar and give the DP World Tour — previously known as the European Tour — significant financial heft.

The talks with DP World Tour are separate from the ongoing investment discussions between the PGA Tour and the Saudi wealth fund, the people said, with both deals still possible. Talks may end without an agreement, the people cautioned, asking not to be named discussing private information.

Representatives for LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the DP World Tour said: “We remain in discussions with the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Enterprises, SSG and PIF relating to the ongoing overall picture for men’s global golf, but no agreements have been reached.”

The talks between DP World Tour and LIV Golf may see the two entities merge, creating a shared schedule and allowing golfers to play in events hosted by both leagues. Any agreement with LIV Golf would provide DP World Tour with a stable source of funding. DP World Tour’s prize money is partly subsidized by the PGA Tour.

This makes so much sense that it can't possibly be true, right?  Geoff has a somewhat cynical take:

The report comes courtesy of “people with knowledge of the matter.” People who clearly wanted to liven up someone’s Thanksgiving.

The story claims talks with the “DP World Tour are separate from the ongoing investment discussions between the PGA Tour and the Saudi wealth fund, the people said, with both deals still possible.”

The timing of the report could mean someone wanted to push the PGA Tour and PIF to get going on a deal. Or, it could the first sign of a smart conclusion for all given the DP World Tour’s financials and the desire for PIF to sportwash globally and Europe far less influenced by 9/11 memories. There is also the apparent PGA Tour North America First philosophy driven by a television contract funded by U.S. networks uninterested in global events.

Unfortunately, a DP World Tour and LIV marriage could also leave half the Ryder Cup within the control of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and the occasionally batty Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

All parties declined comment on the merger possibility between the DP World Tour and LIV.

Isn't that a small price to pay?  It doesn't rule out an investment in PGA Tour Enterprises, but leave them funding the less-than-viable Euro Tour that's little more than a Korn Ferry feeder tour.  Win-win, baby!  Oh, and they get to keep Phil!

Hero Week - Yeah, I'm not feeling any great enthusiasm, and this was the best that the Tour Confidential panel could summon:

It’s Hero World Challenge week, and while the 15-time major-winning host won’t be teeing it up, we will hear from him in his annual pre-tournament press conference. What are you hoping to learn from Tiger Woods when he speaks to the media next week?

Berhow: We seem to constantly get no-update updates on the state of the pending merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but hopefully Tiger has a little more intel on current happenings and where everything stands. As a prominent figure in golf, if he voices any displeasure or skepticism, it will make waves. But maybe it’s wishful thinking that even his thoughts will have that much impact at this point.

Marksbury: I’m still not ready for Tiger’s full transition from player to elder statesman. An update on the LIV/PGA Tour proceedings would be great, but I also want to know how he’s healing from his latest procedure and if competitive golf is far away. A tentative schedule of when we can expect to see him tee it up next year would be nice too.

Dethier: At the moment the people really want to know if Team Woods will be taking on the PNC. I’m legitimately curious to take his temperature on the TGL, too — how invested and excited is he? But Berhow’s right that we should at least be able to read between the lines of whatever sidestep he offers on the PIF-PGA Tour relationship. Mostly it’ll be good to see Woods out and about; the world hasn’t seen much of him since The Open.

In thirty years Tiger has yet to say anything interesting, so my interest in his Hero presser is asymptotically approaching zero....  though color me shocked at the absence of a TGL teaser.  These writers are so in the bag for the Tour that I assumed they'd be humping Jay's leg by promoting his silly simulator league.

That's it for today and, well, maybe the week.  Unless there's actual news.  Pray for snow in Utah, as next Monday is my first trip to Western HQ.  Have a great week and we'll make it up as we go along.