Weekend Wrap - Aerification Edition

There's nothing quite like aerated greens to remind your humble blogger that it's ski season....

But we'll cover a couple of bits until my mountain actually opens (though, amusingly, they're already reporting 13" of snow).  I know, numbers as suspicious as those from inner Philadelphia precincts.  Too soon?

Mexicali Blues - Anyone catch that Grateful Dead reference?  The event itself is little import or interest, but talk about finishing strong:

Behind a ridiculous 11 birdies, Austin Eckroat wins World Wide Technology

Eleven birdies is pretty good in mini-golf.

See if you can suss out the irony here:

Video-game numbers. From a video-game player. A day earlier, after he shot a six-under 66 during Saturday’s third round of the World Wide Technology Championship to move within a shot of the lead, Austin Eckroat was asked how he would ready for Sunday. Margs? They’re playing in Mexico this week, after all. Rest?

Neither, Eckroat said.

“Play some more video games, he said. “That’s how I kind of take my mind off things — you can’t think about anything else. I’ll get back, eat some food and play some video games.”

Any one in particular?

“They came out with a new ‘Call of Duty’ — that’s been my obsession of recent,” Eckroat said. “It always changes, but that’s the one right now.”

The only thing I remember about this event is that it's on a Tiger-designed golf course, ironic in that Tiger himself is a Call of Duty kind of guy....

A couple of minor bits.  I've been conscious of Eckroat since his Oklahoma State days, and he could well be poised for a breakout, though I do wish we could moderate the hyperbola:

The takeaway

Something special could be coming from Eckroat. On the Golf Channel broadcast, analyst Johnson Wagner said he wouldn’t be surprised if he made a Scottie Scheffler-like run going forward. Watch out.

In the last twenty-five years, the only players meeting that bar are Tiger and Scottie, so maybe dial it down to 8 Johnson?

The only other bit of note to this observer was the leaderboard of young talent in desperate need of a breakthrough:

Justin Lower, Nico Echavarria and Carson Young start the final round in a share of a one-stroke lead. Lower, Echavarria and Young are at 16-under, Joe Highsmith, Austin Eckroat and Max Greyserman are at 15-under, and Ben Griffin and Maverick McNealy are at 14-under.

Just my way of noting that, had I been watching, I'd have been rooting for any and all of those over Eckroat, for the simple reason that they need it more.  Specifically, we have follow-up on Lower and Greyserman, the latter being the subject of an epically silly Tour Confidential Q&A:

3. Austin Eckroat won the World Wide Technology Championship, besting Justin Lower and Carson Young by one and Max Greyserman by two in Mexico. Greyserman talked earlier in the week about his close calls, and with his third-place finish here, he’s now placed in the top five five times in his 27 career starts (including three 2nds) and still hasn’t won on Tour. Is he the best current PGA Tour player without a victory? Or does someone else hold that title?

Are you finished laughing yet?  Do we think they read the competition?  Because this is a piece that Golf Digest simply refuse to take down:

You won’t believe how many golfers have earned $10 million on the PGA Tour without winning an event

Now, there are some shockingly marginal names on that list, Briny Baird and Jeff Overton as examples, but nobody names Max.  Shall we see how they handle this silliness?

Piastowski: I’ll cheat here a bit and go with Tommy Fleetwood — the seven-time DP World Tour winner and multiple-time Ryder Cupper has stunningly never won on the PGA Tour. But if we’re playing things straight up, gimme Denny McCarthy, maybe the Tour’s best putter. Golf is a hard game. This all being said, Greyserman’s too talented not to win, and I’m thinking he jumps off this list quickly.

Zak: I think Greyserman needs to do it more than just one season to earn that title. It’s definitely Tommy lad, as Nick points out. And it might not be close? Cameron Young comes to mind, too.

Dethier: Let’s get more specific: He’s on the hottest current run of anyone without a Tour win. There’s no guarantee one will ever come, but Greyserman seems to be the total package. He’s high on every watch list for 2025.

As a reminder, Greyserman was the guy that Matt Kuchar tried to convince to wait until Monday morning to finish his final round when  birdie would have put him into a playoff.  That was an iffy decision, but five Top-5's doesn't doesn't require an Hall of Fame bust just yet.

In fact, though, he might need to send a Christmas card to one of his fellow competitors....

Upon Further Review - This story is just bizarre, given that we all know what's going on.

Maverick McNealy figured out the inequity of FedEx Cup points. Now his methodology is a vote away from being adopted

Yeah, many of us have figured it out....

A few months ago, he was perplexed at what appeared to him to be an inequity in the FedEx Cup

points given for majors, signature events, regular events and opposite field events. It was a topic that caused plenty of heartburn among players – particularly the rank and file trying to keep their card – and best exemplified by Lanto Griffin who told Golfweek last fall, “Give them all the money they want but when you start giving them the points, I’ve got a problem with that. Do you know what fifth in an elevated event next year makes in FedEx Cup points? 300. It’s 110 for a normal event. So I go play Torrey Pines with 156 players and a cut and Rory goes to L.A. the next week in a 78 players, no-cut field, and he gets nearly three times the points for the same finish. How is one going to compete with that?”

Griffin knew intuitively that something was out of whack; McNealy went a step further and did the math.

“It was a personal exploration,” McNealy called it. “I didn’t think the points were equitable and a bunch of guys felt the same way.”

I'm going  way out on a limb to take a wild stab at what happened.  As crazy as it might sound, I'm gonna guess that Cantlay and buddies kept all those FedEx Cup points for themselves....  Yeah, it's a gift.

What he found confirmed his beliefs and he eventually shared his findings with the PGA Tour and the Player Advisory Council, who proposed an adjustment to the FedEx Cup points distribution table that, if approved at the Tour’s upcoming board meeting on Nov. 18, would take effect in 2025.

The Tour’s focus in determining the points distribution across a variety of events was solely on creating a system that matched historical retention rates across the top 50, 70 and 125. It’s a small sample size but the system seemed to achieve that goal, but as McNealy illustrated, it simply wasn’t rewarding play uniformly.

McNealy, a 29-year-old Stanford graduate, said it was looking at the results of Canadian pro Corey Conners that initially sent him down this rabbit hole.

“In back-to-back weeks, he finished sixth at the RBC Canadian Open and had a two-way T-20 at the Memorial. So he earned 100 points at Canadian and he got 97.5 at the Memorial. I was like, ‘Hold on a sec. That doesn’t seem right,’” McNealy said.

The good news is that they actually listened and seem prepared to make an adjustment.  The bad news is that said adjustment will render the system only slightly less rigged.  The Tour Confidential panel took on the larger subject of those substantial changes to Tour membership:

1. Last week, the PGA Tour notified members of several proposed changes that could take place in the 2026 season, a couple of which would be handing out fewer Tour cards and reducing field sizes for some events. “I hate all the changes they’re making,” Justin Lower

said last week. “Seems like anytime I do something good they make a change.” Lower, due to his ranking, would be one of the players most likely affected if these changes go through, but with all the Signature Event tweaks, field-size adjustments and constant change in the men’s game lately, does he have a point about the Tour changing too much and even running the risk of confusing the average fan? Is the Tour’s constant change good, bad, or inevitable?

Nick Piastowski: From the fan’s perspective, I think it depends on what you like about the pro game. Do you enjoy watching the stars and mostly familiar names week in and week out? Or do you prefer the occasional underdog? In a sentence, then, the dark horses might get squeezed out — but there’s the strong possibility that the quality of play will improve, as it’ll be harder to keep a Tour card. As for me, I’m a fan of stories — and telling them! — and I think we’ll lose some here.

Let me see if I follow, Nick.  Play will improve by virtue of a smaller field?  Big, if true, but kind of cuts against the grain of our game. 

Sean Zak: Lower definitely has a point, but he’s gonna have to work pretty hard to earn a ton of sympathy. He’s just not one of the 40 or 60 or even top 100 golfers in the world. The truth these days is you need to be a top player to have the system always working in your favor. That is earned by really good golf.

Dylan Dethier: He definitely has a point. And there’s definitely a cost to these changes. But the PGA Tour — and its big-time new consultants — have made this decision with fans and with simplicity in mind. I think this adds clarity to a confusing system, which is a good thing. Still work to do, of course …

Fans and simplicity, Dylan?  The guys making the decisions are also the biggest beneficiaries, but nothing to see here....

2. Another one of the proposed changes was tweaking the pathway to the Tour, and 20 Korn Ferry Tour grads will now receive PGA Tour cards instead of 30. The DP World Tour will once again award 10 cards. In an interview last week following the Tour’s proposed changes, DP World Tour chief Guy Kinnings said it wouldn’t surprise him if more Americans started to consider joining the DP World Tour. Do you agree? And are there advantages and disadvantages to this scenario?

Piastowski: Yeah, I could potentially see that. On the DP World Tour, the purses are bigger, and the locations are more exotic. You can make a good living and travel the globe. But if your goal is the PGA Tour, 20 cards is still greater than 10. I’m questioning how much things change.

Zak: Totally agree, but it’ll be in reverse. As in those who finish outside the top 125 on the Tour first, then head to Europe, rather than those coming from college to Europe on their way to the Tour ranks. But as long as the purses on the KFT are somewhat comparable, the proximity to home is going to be a better fit for most.

Dethier: This week’s DP World Tour field was a reminder that it’s tough to put this circuit in a box — it’s an epic global tour that’s also a feeder tour, an outlet for LIV guys and a part-time stop for some of the biggest stars in the world. I’m all for incorporating it more fully in the PGA Tour system … but there are still big-picture identity questions it has to confront. But as Rory McIlroy said this week, it’s a tour with its options open.

What is to become of the Euro Tour is a bigger topic than can be covered today, but it is little more right now than a feeder tour for the Korn Ferry Tour.  But the larger picture from 30,000 feet is that the ability of young talent to rise in the game has been severely degraded.  Of course there are always ways to break through, take a bow Nick Dunlap, but what we see is the guild protecting its own.

Arnie and Jack were always focused on ensuring that those that came behinds them had greater opportunities.  Tiger and Rory, by way of contrast, seem only focused on ensuring that Patrick Cantlay makes bank.

Methuselah Lives:  All credit to him, but there's something significant missing in these answers:

4. Ageless wonder Bernhard Langer won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Sunday in Phoenix, extending his senior-circuit winning streak to 18 years and giving the 67-year-old pro his record-extending 47th win on PGA Tour Champions. Given Langer’s talent and longevity and the mass sums being made on the PGA Tour these days, is his PGA Tour Champions win record (which could still be added to) something that will ever be broken?

Piastowski: No. Unless that dude who wears red on Sunday — who turns 49 next month! — commits to a full Champions schedule.

Ummm, Nick, the guy never played a full schedule on the big Tour, so how many 54-hole events do you have him penciled in for?

Zak: It will not be broken. It’s ridiculous. I see that level of pro golf only developing more parity moving forward, too. Langer’s records are safe.

Dethier: The PGA Tour Champions is funny because your age works against you from the moment you make your debut. For everyone else, that is. Remarkable stuff and a testament to his discipline.

You know what other record was never going to be broken?  Yup, Hale Irwin's senior win total....

That irony aside, does anyone appreciate that this tour is on the Endangered Species List?   This round-belly tour exists and survives only because of large subsidies from the PGA Tour.....  Hmmm, anything change there recently?  Now on a for-profit model and with Vulture Capitalists requiring a return on their invested capital, one assumes that these subsidies should not be taken for granted.  Enough said?

Then again, if it were to be cancelled or curtailed, would anyone notice?  

That's it for today, kids.  Thanks for dropping by and, while a reduced blogging schedule is to be expected this time of year, we'll cover anything of interest that presents.  Have a great week.

Thursday Threads - Mourning In America Edition

So, how's your week going?  My own has been shockingly good, including playing Old Oaks yesterday in shorts with Employee No. 2.  Oh, and there was this:

America Unburdens Itself From What Has Been https://t.co/MElsQSK1sE pic.twitter.com/8OpkkqK9Jc

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 6, 2024

Although, given my slightly elevated A1C, I'm a little worried that the tears of liberals might be a little too heavy on the carbs....

Very little golf to cover, but I do promise to stop gloating...notwithstanding the intersection involved below.  As you might recall, on Monday we featured a report for The Sun that a merger deal between the PGA and LIV was done, or at least doneish.  But what has followed is radio silence, excepting this from Front Page Sports:

Not So Fast: PGA Tour–LIV Merger Not Done Yet

Multiple sources say reports of professional golf’s unification are premature; heavy internal pressure remains to ink a peace treaty before the end of the year.

Well, to be fair, it's been almost 18 months since Neville Jay announced Peace in our Time.   

Alas, there's little there there, with no details on where the fault lines in the negotiations might be:

British tabloids reported Saturday that the two sides have a deal at last. But multiple industry sources say the reports are premature.

One of the few things you can say with absolute certainty about the PGA Tour–LIV deal is that everyone working on it is bogged down in the details—details that will allow them to quell antitrust concerns, prevent players who turned down the rebel tour from mutiny, and keep golf fans happy.

That is quite the needle to thread, and the lack of publicly available details speaks to the sensitivities and difficulties of piecing everything together to finalize a deal.

There has been heavy internal pressure, sources tell Front Office Sports, to ink a peace treaty before the end of the year to avoid making future scheduling more complicated than it already will be. The PGA Tour has already released its 2025 schedule, while LIV has released only four international tournament dates.

Though this 'graph might induce a spit-take:

Whether you believe pros wearing shorts and tournaments with no cuts is truly a radical development, players who defected to the team-based competition are largely happy with their decision based on reduced workloads, equity in the franchises they represent, and a novelty that is yet to wear off. The majority would, however, like the opportunity to play in majors as well as see an end to the fractured landscape.

Oh, sure, they're happy as clams, at least if you ignore all of Jon Rahm's whining.... That being on actual TV gets old, so I suppose it's a relief to them to not have witnesses to their desultory play.

Some of the background music is just plain hysterical.  For instance, apparently Norman père has made such a hash of things, that the fils is handling the clean-up in Aisle Six.  Here's the set-up, which itself is worth a chuckle:

As a result, both sides are continuing on their own separate paths. The PGA Tour, for example, is considering a bevy of changes to reduce the field sizes at tournaments to a more manageable size. The changes are currently before the Player Advisory Council, awaiting its decision.

Among the strategies to reach their goal of smaller tournaments is the elimination of Monday Qualifiers at some tournaments, and the reduction of spots available at Monday Qualifiers at other events.

Is their goal to make their events smaller?  Because I must admit, these guys are good!  

But what's the brainstorm?

But now that could largely be coming to an end. Enter the son of current LIV Golf CEO Greg

Norman, Greg Norman Jr.

Upon hearing of the potential changes to PGA Tour Monday Qualifiers, Norman Jr. took to X to share a wild idea for LIV that he has “been preaching for a while.”

The idea? Run weekly qualifiers at LIV events to make up a “People’s Team” that would compete against the pros like Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.

“For what it’s worth… I’ve been preaching for awhile that LIV should absolutely open up weekly qualifiers for a People’s Team, a team that anyone can qualify for,” Norman Jr. wrote on X. “If you play well, you stay on the team, and the general public can participate in shared ownership and governance.”

Does he know that Dad is being kicked upstairs?  I didn't think LIV could be a bigger joke, but perhaps I need to be more unburdened by what has been.  Although my strongest reaction to attempts to make LIV appeal to actual golf fans is along the lines of, "Why start now?"

But now we get to the intersection of LIV/PGA Tour and the larger news cycle, as apparently the sock has fallen out of the mouth of a certain Ulsterman.  Though it's amusing to hear him admitting that he's out of the loop:

McIlroy, speaking Wednesday ahead of the DP World Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, the tour's penultimate event of 2024, said he was unaware of the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund having already come to a deal, reported last week by The Sun, calling it a surprise. “It’s the first that I’ve heard of it,” McIlroy said of the alleged pact. “I know [PGA Tour commissioner] Jay [Monahan] was in Saudi Arabia last week at the FII and was having some meetings. I think I would’ve heard if there was.

“He’s briefing the transaction committee tonight, so maybe some news comes out of that. But as far as I’m aware, I haven’t heard a thing.”

Oh sure, Rory, you'll be the first to know....

But here's his hot take:

However, McIlroy pointed to Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris as potentially facilitating peace between the two sides.

“Given today’s news with what’s happened in America, I think that clears the way a little bit,” McIlroy said. “So we’ll see.”

Trump is heavily involved with LIV Golf, with the Saudi-backed circuit hosting several of its events at Trump properties.

In a separate interview, McIlroy was asked about Trump’s previous claim that he could end the game’s civil war “in 15 minutes.”

“He might be able to,” McIlroy told Sky Sports. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.

“Yeah, I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?"

Yeah, that would be enemy of The People Elon Musk?  Have they locked him up yet?  We can't be able to express our opinions in public, can we?  I had been reliably informed that Free Speech and Democracy were mutually exclusive.

Please do bear in mind that I've been hoping for Rory to shut his pie hole for some time now, as he's become quite pathetic in his need to be relevant.  So, I think as always he should duck such questions, but I also believe that this Eamon Lynch piece will include some howlers:

Lynch: Rory McIlroy should have answered the Donald Trump question with a shrug. But he didn’t

But Eamon is always interesting and amusing, so let's allow him to beclown himself:

The first Wednesday of November during leap years is a perilous time for public commentary as U.S. Presidential election results are debated in a manner just as partisan as the campaign that preceded it. This one is no different. Depending on whom you ask, one political party peddled faux populism and racism while displaying an astonishing appetite for conspiracy theories, while the other is woefully incapacitated by its indulgence of identity ideologues, Hamas groupies and gender jihadists. Which is to say there was already plenty to pick over without wondering if the election of Donald Trump would help professional golfers get paid more.

During a Wednesday press conference at a tournament in Abu Dhabi, Rory McIlroy was asked about progress in talks between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. “Given today’s news with what has happened in America, I think that clears the way a little bit. So we’ll see,” he offered, before adding that it would be “a huge moment” if the Department of Justice under Trump was more amenable to green-lighting a deal than Biden’s DOJ might have been.

It's not even clear to me that we fully understand what a Biden Justice Department would do,  as this is a bizarre application of antitrust law.  

In our hyper-polarized moment, even comments that are both bland and obvious can be construed as endorsing the election outcome, something McIlroy didn’t actually do. But those three words — “clears the way” — earned a pointedly sour reception. McIlroy gave the impression of welcoming the prospect of Trump interfering with a regulatory process to benefit a coddled group of golfers who’ve already alienated legions of fans weary of their entitlement and greed.

Eamon, are you suggesting that the Biden Justice Department isn't politicized?  Really, do you know Merrick Garland?  More importantly, did you see yesterday's announcement?

Justice Department and special counsel in talks about how to wind down Trump prosecutions

Gee, Eamon, any thoughts on why they would do this if they were strong, righteous cases?   But Eamon wants us to believe that the "regulatory process" under Trumps predecessor was somehow unsullied by temporal life.

But here's where Eamon reveals what a profound buffoon he can be:

Even leaving aside the generous encomium for Musk, who has spent months amplifying racists and antisemites in his social media sewer, McIlroy knows better — a fact he quickly admitted. “I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously, Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows? But I think as the president of the United States again, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”

He just slurred Trump voters as anti-Semites.  Obviously, according to Eamon, we can't have democracy with free speech rights, because some of those folks use spe4ech of which Eamon doesn't approve.  Of course, he'll call those Twitter posters conspiracy nutjobs, ignoring that the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth is, checking notes, fifteen minutes.

Eamon is having a bad morning, as liberals will when their ability to control outcomes by calling normies racist is taken away from him.  Eamon, there are all sorts of allegedly serious organizations offering milk and cookies for those distraught by Tuesday's results, I suggest you go find a safe space.  I's gonna be a long four years for you...

But here's where he appeals to the broader intifada:

Instead, what McIlroy inadvertently did was reinforce a widespread perception of myopic entitlement among Tour players. Millions of people awoke this morning with leaden uncertainty about things that actually matter — economic stability, support in times of war, global alliances, civil rights, basic healthcare, immigration status. That environment is sufficiently fraught without a golfer idly speculating on whether the election might be a treat for those impatient to get their hands on some Saudi riyal.

Notice that buried "Immigration status"?  Eamon, let me explain the world to you, using this from your sainted Beeb:

The Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly criticised the government's record on the border, claiming - without providing evidence - that "Kamala Harris has allowed 21 million illegals to pour in from all over the world.”

Do you see that number, Eamon?  We're not talking about a few folks' immigration status, we're talking about an invasion force.

Two quotes that Eamon might want to consider, first from David Horowitz:

“An SDS radical once wrote, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” In other words the cause - whether inner city blacks or women - is never the real cause, but only an occasion to advance the real cause which is the accumulation of power to make the revolution.”

It's hardly about immigration status, Eamon, the revolution took a hit with Tuesday's results, so I understand that Eamon is in mourning.

The second might be the most frequently utilized quote in this blog:

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

― George Orwell, 1984

I'll exit on the meme, which I do hope Eamon sees:

 Have a great weekend and perhaps we can pic k up other golf news beginning Monday.

Weekend Wrap - Peace In Our Time Edition

Always a sad time on the golf calendar as we segue into ski season.  This weekend was our last with pristine greens, as the crews are descending upon Greenwich, CT and the punching will commence at daybreak.  

I spare you most details of my own games, though yesterdays round, played in cold, blustery conditions, began in amusing fashion.  I walked off our sixth green realizing that my card included five bogeys and an eagle....  Yeah, it's a funny game.  But there was a pure 8-iron to 3 1/2 feet whose memory will keep me warm all winter.

Shall we get to business.  I awoke thinking this would be a cobbled-together post with items of marginal interest.  On the contrary, it seems that our world is about to be rocked, but you wouldn't know it from any of three major golf websites/magazines.  Seriously, the lede is a photo of Charlie Hull and a camel:

I believe that's Charlie in the blue top....

Golf Digest has an item on using the rules to lower your scores, and Golf.com uses their Tour Confidential feature as the lede, but their writers are amusingly out of the loop these days.

You've seen the HE-Jay pairing (don't know what that "HE" means?  Stay tuned) at the Dunhill.  There apparently was another such pairing in Saudi Arabia, and this as well:

Another meeting between the PGA Tour and PIF leaders? Both just attended the same conference in Saudi Arabia

I shan't leave you in suspense any longer, per The Sun our long national nightmare is apparently about to end:

ON PAR: Golf’s civil war OVER as Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods help negotiate £1BILLION peace deal between PGA Tour and LIV Golf

LIV put on 14 events this year but their tournaments will now come under the PGA umbrella

Phil hardest hit?  If only....

Rebel tour LIV’s Saudi Arabian backers are poised to cough up the staggering fee to become part of the PGA Tour circuit.

The money will give Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, who bankroll the breakaway LIV Golf, an 11 per cent share in the Tour.

In return they will get two places on the PGA Tour board — including the post of chairman.

Superstars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have played key roles in the peace talks.

The deal still has to be approved by PGA players but they are expected to agree.

Only $1 billion?  Kind of a distressed deal, no?

But, lest you be worried about how this will affect Patrick, no need to fret:

The sweetener for golfers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour is likely to be another massive cash injection into the £1.2bn fund created this year to reward those players.

The DP World Tour will also benefit, as their ‘strategic alliance’ with the PGA Tour will be reinforced, with extra cash diverted for prize money.

Yeah, I'm guessing they'll get Patrick's vote.

This is as good a time as any to allow the stenographers at Golf Magazine to show how out of the loop they are, from this week's Tour Confidential panel:

Amid golf’s continued divide, there was another reported meeting last week between PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan. How significant is this news in the interest of a deal being completed? A little? Or a lot?

Berhow: I’m bored with this. They have jets and can meet whenever they want.

Sens: Word is they were just trading casserole recipes. I read that on social media, so it must be true. Come to think of it, maybe they should try sharing a potluck meal. None of these other meetings seem to be leading anywhere

Bastable: Right. I think we’re all at or well past the point at which only an official announcement about the PGA Tour and PIF’s path forward together will get our attention. Fans are frustrated, jaded, disenchanted. Even when a deal is hammered out and presented, it’s going to take a long time to re-engage those fans who have walked over the past couple of years. I, for one, remain hopeful, though. There are too many smart people in the room — and the stakes are far too high — to screw this up.

So much for shoe-leather journalism....

To this observer, the $1 billion large is a yawn, but the most interesting bit is the one about turning LIV over to the PGA Tour, which would seem to invite Justice Department scrutiny, although they can't force HE to continue to fund LIV.  At least, I don't think they can, though after tomorrow all bets are off.

The only U.S.-based golf writer that has this story is our Geoff Shackelford, and he comes at it from a weird angle.  Geoff has always liked the ponies, but see how you take to this take:

The Pro Golf Horse Race 

With a deal close between the PGA Tour and PIF, can the two sides learn from the decline of another sport that put off-course business above the competition?

Happy Melbourne Cup to all QuadrilateralDownUnderians!

Last Saturday, America’s horse racing Super Bowl wrapped up two-days of races at Del Mar. Those who watched saw Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone capturing the $7 million Breeders Cup Classic. This traditionally well-run November gathering is played out in ever-more anonymity despite bringing together the best on a beautiful stage. And the once-wildly popular American version of horse racing continues to toil in anonymity on all but Kentucky Derby day.

The list of self-induced problems starts with an inability to jettison cheaters who maniacally sent out unsound horses, only to see some die while their jockeys broke collar bones (if they were lucky). The year-round sport also races too many days compared to other parts of the world. Beyond the bizarre inability to weed out twisted trainers and low-level claiming races where stuff happens, the sport revolves around the wildly lucrative breeding business over the actual racing.

This unhealthy prioritization of what happens off the track started when Middle Eastern interests took an interest in the sport a few decades ago. Since gambling is forbidden in places like Dubai and Saudi Arabia, the push into horse racing was primarily designed to westernize images. And now, to profit off the breeding business. But silly money on the breeding side has made the sport less relatable or competitive. American stakes races now seem to exist only to build a resume for peak stud fees or eye-popping auction sales of unproven horses.

Race purses are comically low, disincentivizing longer racing careers that would let fans get to know the sometimes-wild, often-heartwarming backstories of horses and their connections. As a result of the misplaced priorities, general sports fans have largely abandoned the sport and left it to bettors and the breeding industry. The average American sports nut could not give two, three, four, or five hoots if Into Mischief sired a winner. Or that he now commands $250,000 every time he hooks up with a chosen mare. 

Those prioritizing the breeding business think it’s all wildly fascinating. Even as the sport is dying after prioritizing commerce over safety and while waiting too long to reassure fans that integrity mattered.

Readers under forty will be sending me a TL:DR on that, and justifiably so.  But I think he's trying to hint that certain folks in the golf ecosystem might be overly focused on commerce....  Any thoughts, Patrick?

Here's where he ties it together:

I point this out because professional golf is veering toward the same lack of popularity as horse racing. The men’s pro game is struggling to uphold the integrity of its competitions after years of not enforcing slow play policies. The PGA Tour continues to resist regulations to keep golf's footprint from growing to unsustainable sizes. And now, tournament fields are shrinking to accommodate the bloat.

The pro game is solidifying a Middle East partnership with a government looking to replenish a sordid reputation. Saudi Arabia wants to use golf to open up new communication lines with business leaders and sell stakes in golf team franchises.

For the love of the game, this is not.

Fair enough, although horse racing at least was once popular..... I know the appeal of professional golf is becoming, in the immortal words of Ian Faith, increasingly selective, but perhaps we might also acknowledge that, at its peak, no one was watching.

Since Geoff is mostly sole source at this juncture, I'm going to spit at the fair use doctrine and pretty much excerpt the whole damn thing:

The Sun’s David Facey reported Saturday that “Golf’s civil war is on the brink of a £1 billion peace deal,” with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund finally ready to hand over the lightly-watched, rarely-taken-seriously LIV Golf to the PGA Tour. This should not come as a surprise since it’s been well over a year since the “events of June 6th” rollout of a “framework agreement.” Comments from well-connected players in recent weeks predicted an impending deal between the adversaries—with the usual caveats about possible detours caused by the Department of Justice, Lina Khan, the Presidential election outcome, or if Mercury is in retrograde. We also know from reports by Bunkered and Golf Digest that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was in resplendent Riyadh last week and joined by select minions. All of this comes just weeks after October’s olive branch pro-am round at the Alfred Dunhill Links featuring Andrew Waterman Yasir Al-Rumayyan His Excellency H.E. and Monahan.

I know. You’re getting emotional thinking about those two hacking it around Carnoustie and brainstorming how to bring some Steamboat to the future slopes of Neom.

H.E. His Ownself confirmed last week that PIF was cutting back on international investments to focus on domestic stuff like the disastrously expensive and deadly Neom. But before cutting back, PIF is still going to cut a large check to the PGA Tour and, according to The Sun, let them figure out what to do with LIV Golf while having cash to possibly buy some stuff. Who knows what? But they can now afford the Ryder Cup or Pebble Beach.

For the headache and agony of figuring out how to assimilate the two tours, PIF will reportedly take an 11% share in the Tour. According to Facey, H.E. will get a “Chairman” title entitling him to tedious conference calls about slow play. The Tour will reportedly throw in an additional board seat since they do this a lot these days and have two bloated boards to prove it. But it’s not clear from Facey’s report if the Saudi seats will be on the for-profit or non-profit boards.

Who cares?

Yes, but what's also unclear is whether the for-profit entity can actually make a profit, rather a non-trivial query given that we'll now be at $2.5 billion of invested capital theoretically interested in a return above and beyond the pleasure of smelling Tiger's jockstrap.

Eventually the non-profit model will get swallowed up by the money maker. Arthur Blank already said the quiet part out loud back in February.

So it’s only a matter of time before the still-non-profit PGA Tour is touting its multi-billion valuation and sending more checks to players for (still) being in the right place at the right time. Emboldened golfers armed with a Tour card will continue to insist on TIO relief from every wire, imaginary fishing line, leaf, branch or plume of gassy air interfering with a direct line at the flagstick. But at least the rule-bending in golf is not nearly as grim as what happens when horse racing looks the other way. People and animals get hurt. Fans can’t flee fast enough.

Golf’s flaunting of the rules goes over almost as poorly with core fans who still value displays of sportsmanship and integrity. Casual fans are not turned on by much of anything other than major championship weeks.

I think we can agree on some core principals, most importantly that the game of golf is unable to grow until Patrick Cantlay gets paid.  That is the essence of the Brave New Golf World, and we've seen golf fans voting with their eyeballs.  Cornhole is drawing larger viewership, but nothing to see here....

I will leave you on that depressing note.  I just ask that everyone remember the involvement of Tiger and Rory in creating this effed up world, and their abandonment of the larger Tour membership.  At least that's my primary takeaway from the last three years.

I'll catch you later in the week as the story develops.

Thursday Themes - Bad Week To Quit Smoking Edition

And you thought they were done destroying the PGA Tour?

But get this as a mission statement:

The PGA Tour has undergone a dizzying array of changes in the last few years, some voluntarily, some imposed upon it. On Tuesday, however, it was made clear that golf's strongest circuit has further room to evolve. The tour’s 16-member Player Advisory Council shared a 23-page memo with the entire membership that outlined several proposed changes it’s asking take effect in 2026. They include everything from the reducing the size of tournament fields to whittling down the number of exemption categories, from tweaking FedEx Cup points distributions at certain events to reimagining its pace-of-play policy.

These proposed interconnected changes—to which PAC chairman Camilo Villegas foreshadowed were coming an Oct. 16 memo—are intended to streamline the competitive environment, create more drama and clearer storylines, and improve the overall PGA Tour product. It’s no exaggeration to say that what the tour Policy Board will be voting on when it convenes Nov. 18 is the most sweeping overhaul since the creation of the all-exempt initiative in 1983.

In my fevered imagination, i can hear Glinda telling Patrick that he's always had the power....

Here's where the rubber meets the road, and I pay off the header.  because it's a pretty awful time to be a Tour rabbit:

Smaller tournament fields. The proposal creates a new maximum field size of 144 players (down from 156) in an open tournament held on one course. However, fields can be reduced further to 132 or 120 to account for available daylight. Notably, the Players Championship would be trimmed from 144 to 120.

Yes, we can't have any of those pesky players taking food out pf Patrick's mouth:

 

Having completed the palace coup that keeps the riffraff out of those massive money grabs, the powers that be decided there were still too many pretenders   But, bear with me, as I repeat a few words from the excerpt above:

create more drama and clearer storylines

Do you feel silly?  You should, because I suspect that we have all been laboring under a naïve assumption that these are athletic competitions.  You see our mistake, though, as they're in this to control outcomes.

Shockingly, nobody does the math of the total reduced playing opportunities, but the fix is not even evident on the graphic, as it elides their biggest coup, those eight Signature Events.  The rabbits will know, as they're being warned to not ever expect entry into those moneygrabs.  Know your station, proles!

Are you ready for that next shoe?

The PAC is calling for significant cuts to the number of players who are exempt on tour each year, while also proposing to limit exemption categories and other qualifying avenues. First and foremost, the plan calls for a reduction in the number of fully exempt players who retain their tour cards off the FedEx Cup points list each year from 125—a number established in 1983 with the creation of the “all-exempt tour—to 100. The Korn Ferry Tour would see a reduction of 10 cards, from 30 to 20. The tour also would cap the Q-School graduated at the top five finishers (it used to be top five and ties) and either eliminate Monday qualifiers or reduce the number from four to two in others during the regular FedEx Cup season, depending on an event’s field size. This is all part of the tour redefining, to some degree, what it means to have a card and its significance. In some ways, the tour is strengthening its position as a meritocracy—drawing a clear distinction from the rival LIV Golf League—by challenge its members to play better in order to keep their tour status.

And as soon as they've choked off that supply of exempt players?  You know the LIV guys are coming back at some point....

Reactions are bizarre, take this from two Golf.com writers about the reduced field sizes:

Dylan Dethier: Why? Because the Tour was sick of finishing their first rounds on Friday instead of Thursday and making the cut on Saturday instead of Friday! Because they were sick of players warming up in the dark and finishing in the dark! And, if you want to zoom way in, because they were sick of players finishing the ninth hole of their Thursday or Friday round and having to wait at the turn because there was a backup caused by 13 groups in a wave (current) instead of 12 (proposed). A fog delay would essentially derail the structure of the entire event. The status quo was getting bad for players, for staffers, for viewers, for broadcasts, for gamblers. Even for golf writers. Really bad. This is good. Sean?

Sean Zak: It’s the easiest way of making sure these tournament days finish on time, which had sneaky become a real issue for the Tour. Could you make players play faster? Sure. But could you just take a few players off the board instead? That’s going to be much more efficient.

Sure, Sean, it's more efficient, unless you're one of the few players involved.... And heaven forfend these guys get around in under five hours, but that's a lot to ask.

I have trace elements of sympathy for the early season events with their limited daylight hours, but we seem to have given up any sense that we remember what matters.   But it's quite the sequence of changes, because fresh off denuding those Moneygrabs of interest because of their comically small field sizes, they've turned their attentions to destroying the tour's remaining events.   Yanno, those events that they've already beclowned by making them Non-signature.

Now, in this case I do kind of agree with them, except we're forgetting who expanded to fill 52 weeks of the calendar:

2. TOUR SIZE

For decades the Tour has maintained full status for the top 125 players on its FedEx Cup list (and, pre-FedEx, its money list). In this proposal, they’re changing that to 100.

Why? And is this good or bad?

Dethier: It’s hard to call this “good” without seeming a bit heartless, but I think there’s a better way to think about it: these changes are protecting the sanctity of what it means to have a PGA Tour card. In recent years the Tour has added so many different side-doors into PGA Tour membership that you could have status and still not get into a lot of events. When you factor in reductions in field size, this isn’t necessarily “good” but it’s essential. And look, this isn’t a career-ender for those outside the top 100 — if you finish No. 105, say, you just get bumped down a couple categories and you’ll play a bunch of events. This is a more realistic reflection of what it should mean to have a full PGA Tour card.

Zak: I think it’s really solidifying the top part of the pyramid. I’ve written a good bit about the PGA Tour-As-Food Chain idea, and in this case we are moving to a very round 100 players with full status and a very round 50 with full Signature Event access. It’s turning the membership into a much easier to understand, more package-able entity. It’s cutthroat, to be sure, but it probably is necessary. Mr. 101 is still going to do just fine, but as always I would suggest they play just a little better.

Guys, I've got some swamp land in which you might be interested, because clearly you'll buy anything....

Having succeeded with their coup involving those moneygrabs, I agree this seems like petty cash.  But it's all about insulating the only players that matter, yeah all six, from any effects of the marketplace.  Obviously to make that stick you have to slow this train down.

3. PATHWAYS

The Tour’s “Pathways Subcommittee” determined that they needed to cut down the number of cards given out by 10 or so. While the Korn Ferry Tour was determined as the “primary pathway” to the Tour, spots given to KFT grads will cut from 30 to 20, Q-school will go from top five and ties to just top five, and the DP World Tour will still get 10 spots.

Why? And is this good or bad?

Dethier: Woof. Here’s where it’s tough to avoid the real-world consequences of these changes. It’s not “good” that there are only 20 cards coming from the KFT instead of 30; that’s a pretty limited number and a significant cut. On the other hand, I’m glad there aren’t cuts to the 10-card DP World Tour pathway, because 1. Those guys have played well on Tour, 2. It’s an important and tangible connection with the DP World Tour and global golf and 3. It’s smart and arguably essential for the PGA Tour to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the DPWT, given LIV’s looming presence in the global golf market.

It’s good from this perspective: If you make it through these pathways, you’ll have a better idea of where you stand. The KFT pathway is just slightly narrower than it was. I think I’d prefer keeping 25 KFT cards, though, and finding a few more mini-cuts elsewhere.

Zak: Overall, I think this is just creating a structure that actually aligns with the immense money atop the game. There’s going to be a lot of money up top — and it’s really not going away, given the spending in sports these days — and the people who deserve it most are those who earn the tee times. Who earn their spots in the fields. The journey to those spots is tighter than ever, but so be it. The prize at the end of the rainbow has become shinier than ever, too. (And let’s not act like the path to get there isn’t also pretty profitable)

Sean, you're an ignorant slut.  he just buys without any cognitive dissonance that there are only a handful of players that matter.  Yet, he wouldn't be able to answer why the Signature events sucked (and the Tours best moments came in those unscripted full-field events) or why twenty years of WGCs were so dreadful.

Focus if you will, on the italicized bit.  Yes, the KF Tour is and should be the primary gateway to the PGA Tour, but we've just reduced those cards by a full one-third.  Tell me how we're not sacrificing the next generation of players for the glory of Patrick Cantlay!

And if the DP World Tour gets ten slots, how can we limit the KF Tour to twenty?  Of course, with the reduced field sizes, we'll find that even the remaining twenty cards might not come with all that many tee times....  

Eamon Lynch is mostly a fellow traveler in these matters, though I think his current offering is missing some key points.  But you know his mind from his header and the photo at the top of his piece:

Lynch: The PGA Tour is right to cut players and fields, but the wrong guys are making that call

Eamon, you don't seem to like that guy.... 

His lede is fun, especially in the coming moment, but I'm not sure it advances an actual argument:

Pity the PGA Tour’s proletariat, who are now fretting about two votes in November that could jeopardize much of what they feel entitled to. Some of them might even be less wary of a former California prosecutor than they are of a prosecutorial Californian. After all, Kamala Harris doesn’t much care about reshaping the PGA Tour, but Patrick Cantlay sure does.

On Nov. 18, Cantlay and his fellow Policy Board members will vote on an extensive slate of proposals that will have an enormous impact on rank and file Tour members. Potential changes include reducing fields in most regular tournaments from 156 competitors to 144, and in many cases 120; cutting the number of fully exempt players from 125 to 100; slashing by one-third the number of cards earned via the Korn Ferry Tour; and reducing or eliminating Monday qualifiers, which award four spots most weeks.

Some players will see an unfair narrowing of pathways to make a living; others will welcome a toughening of competitive standards. Either way, it represents revolutionary change for an organization whose members revere Adam Smith but are accustomed to seeing their workplace run as though Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were the commish.

Capitalism for thee, socialism for me!

I think that's such a hot mess that I don't know where to begin.  He seems to be accusing the rank-and-file of being overly entitled, but it's that guy pictured above that has insisted on guaranteed money for himself, to the detriment of those clawing their way up.  Not just the PIP program (and Patrick isn't much of a social me4dia guy), but the limited fields and no-cut regimen, combined with the outsized purses, is nothing short of guaranteed money for Patrick and his homies.

He throws a coupler of punches that land, including this on a subject I haven't even gotten to yet:

The Tour’s longstanding raison d’être — creating playing opportunities for members, an objective on which its executives were bonused — is dead. Remaking a complacent product for a competitive market means it’s now about earning opportunities. Every proposal is defensible, if debatable. (Except the elimination of Monday qualifiers; that’s the ultimate meritocracy and ought to be expanded and streamed as additive to the Tour’s weekly narrative.) And while it’s easy to characterize these likely changes as another sop to top stars, the truth is that any reform is unlikely to ever discomfit the Tour’s one percent.

They've only held Monday qualifying since, checking notes, the year of the flood, but history is for losers.

But I think Eamon's last sentence is a pretty big misfire.  I think what he's missing is that these moves are necessary because of the coup already conducted, necessary to keep the riffraffish further removed from the gates to heaven.  

But here's where Eamon needs to be more cynical:

These proposals emerged from the Players Advisory Council, a 16-man committee made up of both superstars and journeymen, and they administer an overdue dose of reality. Players are fond of pointing the finger at HQ when it comes to bloat — not unfairly, it must be said — so there’s irony in the first announced layoffs being players themselves. Whether in the glass-walled offices of Ponte Vedra or the wood-paneled locker rooms on Tour, too many people are paid too much money for too little. More than 600 guys have made starts on Tour this year, and the average inside-the-ropes earnings currently stands at $2,030,418. That’s a lot of money for what is, comparatively speaking, a lot of mediocrity.

Finally, the Tour has reached the stage of making incremental changes to better its product rather than to slake the cash thirst of its stars. There’s a long way to go — not least in delivering a product that focuses more on fans than players — but the fact that proper improvements are imminent doesn’t necessarily mean the right folks are making the decisions.

The Tour has always boasted of being a member-led organization, even when it was only nominally so. Since the backlash to the Framework Agreement with the Saudis and the subsequent governance reforms, players are now absolutely calling the shots. In fact, three Policy Board members who will vote on the recommendations — Peter Malnati, Webb Simpson and Jordan Spieth — are perilously close to finding themselves at the mercy of the unforgiving new dispensation they could usher in.

I'm sorry, Eamon, did you take the summer of 2024 off?  Do you not remember who got the sponsor's exemptions into Riviera or how many such exemptions your Webb Simpson bagged?  Those votes are in the bag, having been purchased for sponsors' exemptions into the Signature Events.....  The Guild takes care of its own, the rest of us are merely nauseous at the sight.

What we are seeing is nothing short of disgusting.  The Tour has historically featured men such as Arnie and Jack that evidenced a desire to leave the Tour stronger for those that came after them.  Today the Tour's player-leaders, Tiger, Rory and Patrick, have renounced that commitment.

I watched far less golf in 2024 than in prior years, a trend line guaranteed to continue in 2025.  To me, the best moments in 2024 were the most unexpected, say Nick Dunlap at the AMEX, and the money grabs repel this potential viewer.  At least we have the four majors.

Sorry, I needed to get that rant out.  There's no golf being played this weekend, so next week's schedule will be made up on the fly.  Have a great weekend.

Weekend Wrap - Indian Summer Edition

Sorry about the schedule head fake last week.  I had a jammed Monday, but a late cancellation frees up time....Even though we can blog, there remains the issue of what to blog.

Dueling Headers - Shack has the proper take:

Weekend: Echavarría Earns A Masters Trip

Well, that's awkward.  I had been reliably informed that young golfers never win anything, so there's no cost to excluding them from the Signature Events money grabs.

Nico Echavarría captured the ZOZO Championship for his second PGA Tour win and first trip to The Masters. The 30-year-old Columbian held off Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman to win the sixth and possibly final playing of an event held since 2019.

Echavarría carried the 54-hole lead into Sunday, where he birdied the 18th hole for a 67 and stout 260 four-day score, his career-low by seven strokes. The mark also set a new tournament record previously held by Tiger Woods (261).

“It's surreal,” the former Arkansas collegiate golfer said. “This moment is very special. It's been a good year for me, I just haven't had that top result. I've been very consistent, I've learned a lot this year. To finish the year this way is, it's incredible, especially doing it here in Japan in such an amazing country.”

Most of the golf press focused on this guy's performance:

Why Justin Thomas’ latest ‘disappointment’ at the Zozo looked different

Gonna guess it has something to do with breaking 100....

Yes, Thomas’ loss at the Zozo sounded a lot like his losses at other tournaments this year —

events where his game has arrived for long enough to be in the hunt but not long enough to grab a victory. After those events, Thomas has told us about his pride in his performance, and about his faith that things are moving in the right direction.

But for once, at the Zozo, it looked like those platitudes might be headed toward something.

Thomas made just one bogey over the course of 72 holes for the week at the Zozo, ranking near the top of the field in strokes gained: off the tee and strokes gained: approach — two stats that were hallmarks of his career’s high points in ’20 and ’21. He managed the pressure of the lead on Sunday with a characteristic blend of opportunistic golf, gaining close to 2-and-a-half shots on the field over a long, bogey-free Sunday.

These were not the visions of Thomas who climbed to the world no. 1 spot, nor the visions of him that snuck into a PGA Championship victory in ’22 after Mito Perreira’s 72nd hole collapse. No, they were visions of a new JT — a player who is not self-evidently relevant, but who has seen down the chasm of obscurity.

Passive aggressive much?  What the author seems to be saying is that all you have to do to best JT is outperform, checking notes, Mito Pereira.... A low bar indeed.

But notwithstanding this result, JT will undoubtedly have a tee time in those money grabs (even if it requires a sponsor's exemption), whereas Echavaria will not.  That's because the guild protects its own.

As Geoff hinted above, this may be curtains for the event,:

The event at Narashino Country Club appeared to be the final ZOZO Championship based on questions to players. Last week’s playing completed a six-event contract that started with the inaugural won by Woods in 2019. No announcement of a renewal has been made as of this time.

If this is the end of the PGA Tour’s first sanctioned Japan tournament, runner-up Thomas spoke highly of the experience.

“It's not only an opportunity for us to play different golf courses in front of a different, you know, setting, and grow our brand and kind of have the opportunity to grow the game of golf,” Thomas said. “But it's an opportunity for us to travel and see some great places and compete in a completely different part of the world, so it's always a treat.”

The ZOZO’s possible demise comes on the heals of Gregg Robertson’s report confirming Shriners Children’s Hospital’s 18-year Las Vegas sponsorship coming to an end.

I've been a broken record since the exception of this blog, but the Tour's treatment of its sponsors is one small step above what happens to those Hamas hostages down in the tunnels.  The Tour has pulled the rug out from under anyone sponsoring a non-Signature event, so one assumes it'll be musical chairs going forward.  Although Barnum seems to have been onto something, because they seem to keep finding new suckers as needed.

The Tour Confidential panel did allocate a precious question to this event, but you'll understand the significance of the questions being unnumbered this week:

Nico Echavarria won the Zozo Championship in Japan, beating Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman by a shot. Thomas, who held a share of the lead at one point, is still winless since the 2022 PGA Championship, a drought of 49 starts on the PGA Tour. Was his performance and close call this week more encouraging or discouraging?

Colgan: I would say encouraging. JT played some of the best golf we’ve seen from him in a long time, and more importantly, he played some of the steadiest golf we’ve seen from him in a long time (just one bogey in 72 holes!). That’s the winning formula for him, he just didn’t get the win.

Sens: He put himself in contention to win a tournament. That’s no small thing, especially given his recent struggles. Encouraging. I don’t know how you could see it any other way.

Berhow: Encouraging. Winning golf tournaments is hard.

I'm OK with "encouraging", though let's remember that his next competitive round will be, checking notes, on a simulator.... 

But did someone mention the TGL?  You know what Tiger fanboys they are, that of course was their lede.

Counting Down - I know it's a slow golf news cycle and you're really missing Tiger, but aren't you supposed to pay lip service to actual professional golfers?  Sure enough, this is how they led:

TGL, the indoor, virtual golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, announced its TV schedule for 2025, with the first showdown airing in primetime on Tuesday, Jan. 7, on ESPN. Tiger Woods and his team won’t play on opening night — he’ll play the next week — but how important of a role do you think Woods will have when it comes to viewer interest?

James Colgan: Uh, Tiger’s role in this league is basically the only thing that matters for viewer interest in the early days. The TGL is betting — and hoping — that fans will enjoy the concept

enough that they’ll still feel compelled to watch during the non-Woods weeks. A lot depends on how the broadcast looks and feels, but my bet is they’ll steal elements from the ManningCast to expand player access (as basically every new sports telecast seems to be doing).

Josh Sens: This is not like the James Bond franchise, where you can swap out the leading actor without dimming public ticket sales. As James notes, Tiger is key to getting this thing kick-started. Though, long-term sustainability will likely hinge more on how compelled people feel to gamble on it.

Josh Berhow: Tiger will be a huge part of it, but the key will be using his name to get viewers in and then using the product to get them to come back. But this is a TV show, after all, so the golfers playing will need to be entertaining and carry the action when they aren’t hitting shots. I’ve always felt pros in The Match have struggled with that part, so we’ll have to see how it all goes down with TGL.

Sure, guys, but those Manning boys are actually entertaining....  Berhow has his kid gloves on in describing the shortcomings of The Match, but does he remember the least interesting player of all?  That would be that Woods guy, whose next interesting comment will be his first.

The venue for TGL, the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., seats about 1,500 and tickets start at $160. If you are a fan in the area, what’s your interest level of attending one of these in person?

Colgan: I would think pretty high! Some of the best players in golf, in a super intimate setting, in

an area that’s already golf-mad? Seems like an okay business proposition to me.

Sens: Sartre had it wrong. Hell isn’t other people. Hell is sitting in an arena with a ton of other people, watching grown men hit golf balls into a screen. If I have $160 earmarked for entertainment, I’m playing golf. Not watching it indoors.

Berhow: As someone who lives several states away, I’m not buying a plane ticket to head south and watch the TGL, but if I was in the area I’d definitely consider it, mostly due to the curiosity factor. There are lots of worse ways to spend $160, (other) Josh! Plus, holding only that many people, you won’t exactly be sitting in the nosebleeds.

I'm expecting this to suck big-time, for the simple reason that these guys are mostly humorless and overly self-interested.  And given that the Tour struggles to get folks to watch actual green grass golf, the hitting into a screen thing seems a tough sell.  

But your humble blogger fixates on idiosyncratic threads, so there's two aspects of this that have me curious.  The first is that $12 billion valuation of the Tour, that screams out for a deep dive.  I'm assuming that the Tour's ownership stake in TGL is one asset that they could wildly over-value, but the TV ratings will the point when they can no longer lie to themselves....  Unless yanno, Tiger morphs into Charles Barkley.

The second point is slightly more subtle.  The scheduling of the TGL is harder than anyone will realize, given that the Tour is on the West Coast in January and February.  Getting these guys to Florida on a Monday or Tuesday night has issues, basically pitting the TGL against that week's regular Tour event.  Do you see how the Tour treats its sponsors?

You might have heard that Farmers did not renew their sponsorship of the Torrey Pines event.  Can you blame them?  After the ink on their contract dried, the Tour has done the following to them:

1. Created the series of Signature events, essentially blackmailing sponsors to pony up additional millions to avoid have-not status.  Those that didn't or couldn't found themselves starved of top level talent, thereby seeing their event quite publicly devalued.
2. The TGL start-up further commits the Tour's top-tier talent away from the Tour's own green-grass events.

I keep asking, why would any new sponsor jump in with these thugs?

On the subject of ticket prices, this header makes a valid point:

What's the more egregious ticket price? $750 for the Ryder Cup or $160 for TGL?

Embrace the power of the ampersand.  They're both crazy numbers, but I've no doubt the Ryder Cup will sell out.  I'm sure the TGL will sell out early, especially that second week, but these guys better be funny...

Before we move on, they just can't help themselves:

Seventeen of the 20 spots were announced for the Hero World Challenge to be played in December in the Bahamas, although the 15-time major-champ host will yet again be a last-minute decision coming off his September back surgery. Given what we know so far, do you think Woods plays?

Colgan: I think he probably won’t play, considering the PNC Championship is just a few days later and would serve ostensibly the same purpose. Better safe than sorry.

Sens: Agreed. Granted, Tiger has shown a Deadpool-like capacity to bounce back from physical injury. But the agonies have now piled up to the point that I expect him to focus his energies on his hosting duties, while saving what remains of his back and knees and feet to play with his son.

Berhow: I disagree! I think he’ll play. We don’t know the specifics about his recovery, but the surgery was minor and he might very likely be healed by then.

 You might be the only three guys that actually care....

Wasted, Not Wasted - When you business model involves recreating the movie Lost Weekend, it's more than a bit odd to be asked to take this seriously:

Following a chaotic 2024 WM Phoenix Open, organizers announced changes for the 2025 edition in what they say will be a “better, not bigger” event come February. Among the changes: a new entrance and expanded walkways, a fully digital ticketing format, relocated food and alcohol vendors to reduce foot traffic and more. Do you think these changes will be enough to solve the tournament’s issues? Or will its reputation mean tweaks like this won’t go as far as one might think?

Colgan: I love the WM Phoenix Open, but I think it’s unlikely to change noticeably for as long as fans continue to attend in pursuit of getting absolutely sloshed.

Sens: Last year was a perfect storm, literally. Rain-soaked turf. Hordes of well-served fans. It was destined to turn into the Jackass Invitational. But I’m with James. Even in dry conditions, I don’t see how you alter the essential character of the tournament with these tweaks. The wildness is a feature, not a bug.

Berhow: This might improve some of the logistics but I have a hard time thinking it’s going to change much more than that. The tournament’s biggest issue is its perception, and that’s more difficult to change. You’re still going to get that same throng of fans who attend simply because they think it’s a free pass to act like idiots.

We all know how to stop it, you just cut off alcohol sales.  Wake me when they do that, but there's an irony in the mention of the Ryder Cup above.  That event may outdo the Wasted.

That's it for today, kids.  I'll resurface later in the week, assuming there's something worth blogging.  Have a great week.