Weekend Wrap - Refocused Blogger Edition

I'm having some difficulty deciding how many lies I've packed into that there header.... Certainly the opening word, as the weekend was more Packers-Broncos than Grant Thornton.  My last local ski buddy is a diehard Packers fan, so todays skiing may feel more like a Shiva call.  Perhaps not the most tasteful joke with the weekend news from Sydney and Providence, not to mention California.

It's strange days here in Utah.  I won't bore you with all the condo and car issues that hit me upon arrival, but the larger issue is the warm, dry weather.  When I arrived, the Canyons side of Park City had all of one trail open, expanded to three for last weekend.  We're skiing in temps up in the high 40's, not conducive to snowmaking or the preservation of what little snow exists.  The only reason I got the plane was that my nephew is expected to come through with a college buddy for what's become an annual visit.  Somehow I'm guessing that the former competitive mogul skier will be frustrated with skiing green groomers, but that's about all we have.  I expect we'll hit every ski shop in the Wasatch Front.

After my long absence, I expect about five pageviews for this post, but shall we?

The Times, They Are A-Changin' - As I understand the current state of play, we are combining a non-golfer and a notoriously self-interested egotist to redefine the Tour.  What could go wrong?  It's harder than you might think to home in on what is actually under consideration, but here's a Tiger-centric snippet that amuses with the change in tone:

“You’re chairing the Future Competitions Committee,” a reporter began. “l’d like to know, personally, what is your motivation to contribute heavily to the strength of the PGA Tour?”

It’s a question central to the present and future of men’s professional golf. Woods has enough money, prestige and time to do just about anything, of course — but he’s chosen to fill his days

with Zoom calls and strategy meetings in an attempt to reinvent a tour on which his own competitive days are numbered. Is Woods careless with his time? Nobody thinks that. But nobody knew how carefully he’d thought about his decision to moonlight as a golf bureaucrat. Not until Woods answered the question.

“Well, the PGA Tour gave me an opportunity to chase after a childhood dream,” he said. “I got a chance to hit my first ball in my first PGA Tour event when I was 16 years old. I know that’s what, 33 years ago, but I’ve been involved with the PGA Tour ever since then.

“A little kid from Cypress, California, growing up on a par-3 course got a chance to play against the best players in the world and make it to World No. 1. I got a chance to be involved in a lot of different things on our Tour. This is a different opportunity to make an impact on the Tour.

Woods’ monologue hit on a theme we haven’t heard much recently: That the PGA Tour isn’t a [winces] product in need of [winces again] optimization and [bangs head on desk] profit maximization. It asked us to remember that the PGA Tour is also something else entirely: A place where childhood dreams come true.

Gee, I had been reliably informed that it was Product v. Product.  So hard to keep up....

But, I hear you asking, what exactly might they do?  Well, depending upon Tiger to share his thoughts is fruitless, so how about an AI-generated summary of changes under consideration?  yeah, that was rhetorical:

Key Proposed Changes (For 2027 & Beyond)

Shorter, Focused Season: Moving from the current large schedule to roughly 20-25 events, featuring the best courses and biggest markets.

Post-Super Bowl Start: Delaying the season's main events until after the NFL Championship game to capture more viewership.

"Scarcity" & Simplicity: Creating more high-stakes, high-value events (like Signature Events) where top players are guaranteed to play, reducing the current elevated/regular event divide.

Bye Weeks: Introducing designated weeks off after majors for top players.

Strategic Event Placement: Considering moving or cutting certain events (like Florida tournaments) to fit in West Coast swings and avoid conflicts.

My favorite bit is that ChatGPT, or whatever AI model Google uses, hasn't learned to close quotation marks.... that sound you here is my mother the grammarian spinning in her grave.

The first thing that jumps out at your humble blogger is that a spot-Super Bowl start eliminates so many of the "best courses and biggest markets".  And, perhaps more importantly, some of those early-season, prime time TV opportunities.  Can they really jam Riviera, Pebble, Torrey and the Wasted in with a later start?  

The objective of a more streamlined Tour seems superficially worthy, though I feel compelled to remind folks that the impact on playing opportunities of a 20-25 event schedule can't be judged until they share their proposed field sizes for said events.  With the Tour seemingly controlled by a cabal featuring Patrick Cantlay, I naturally assume the worst.  Doesn't seem to be the best moment to be a Tour rabbit, eh?

Last week's Tour Confidential panel couldn't resist the siren song of the Striped One:

Tiger Woods spoke to the media for the first time in several months when he held his annual press conference at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas (won by Hideki Matsuyama). Tiger touched on a variety of topics; which was most interesting to you?

Dylan Dethier: I was most intrigued by Woods’ involvement in the future vision for the PGA

Tour; I wrote about that here but what’s fascinating to me is the pairing of Woods — the ultimate insider, and at this point one of the Tour’s longest-tenured figures in any position — and Rolapp — the ultimate outsider with admittedly very little golf-specific knowledge — as the shapers of the Tour’s future.

Josh Berhow: I don’t think anyone anticipated this particular presser getting so into the rumored schedule changes, but I thought Tiger speaking about it added some legitimacy to it. The health update was both unsurprising and disappointing. I don’t think Tiger can come back and contend regularly these days, but it would be fun to see him healthy and play a few times a year. The watch is on for the Masters.

James Colgan: I was most interested by Tiger’s comment about YouTube. He indicated he felt the infinite video library of swings on the internet was helping to turbocharge golf’s youth movement. Every so often, you’ll hear Woods say something that reflects he thinks about golf on a wholly different plane from most mere mortals. One example was when he started talking about the “cut” and “draw” spin necessary on chip shots at Augusta National. This was another.

I have a simple question.  Tiger has allegedly been so involved for quite some time, including in the negotiations with His Excellency.  Can anyone point to anything positive that has happened due to Tiger's involvement.

We know he's used his involvement to beg off the Ryder Cup captaincy, setting in motion the chain of events that led to the Keegan Bradley Hail Mary.  How'd that work out for everyone?

As the chair of the Future Competitions Committee, Tiger also indicated the Tour is looking at creating a shortened schedule (and avoiding the NFL) that could begin in 2027, although he was light on details. There’s been much talk about the potential for a new Tour schedule in the future, but what’s the biggest hurdle from making it all happen?

Dethier: Ironically one of the things the Tour wants to change is the same thing preventing it from making that change. There are so many [buzzword alert] stakeholders, so many separate deals with so many different tournaments that it’s challenging to get everything just right for everyone without crossing a dozen can’t-cross lines. Put another way: the Tour is a big boat, and it’s tough to turn a big boat around.

Berhow: Wow, love the boat analogy, Dylan. Good work. But the answer is there’s a lot in the way of making something like this happen. I’d love a schedule that takes the best 70-some players and puts them in the same 20 or so events a year (including majors) and all of a sudden we have some simplicity, continuity, distinction and burgeoning rivalries. But what about the middle class? How many members are there? How does the Korn Ferry Tour factor in? What about the smaller events? It’s frustrating we still don’t have a great way to do this, but I am also happy I’m not the person in charge of this. Because it can’t be easy.

Colgan: Every so often, the history of a major professional sports league comes down to the brute force capacity of its leadership. For baseball, this happened with the pitch clock. For basketball, with the first and second “aprons.” For football, with the 2011 lockout. I think brute force is the biggest hurdle facing the PGA Tour, and we’ll know if Woods and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp have the gumption for it soon enough.

You see the problem in those first two answers, as Josh Berhow has succumbed to the appeal of 70-player fields.   But, Josh, why be a piker?  If you want Scottie v. Rory every week, why not just go to 20 player fields?  As I always ask, where is the limiting factor?  

We need to ask a simple question of everyone involved.  If 70-players fields are elite athletic competitions, why do the majors have 156-player fields (obviously excluding the one)?   Are we comfortable devolving the PGA Tour into a closed-shop of exhibition matches?

Wither LIV - Does it feel like the elite Tour players are continuing to use the risk of defections to LIV to create a more LIV-like PGA Tour, notwithstanding that LIV itself is floundering mightily?  

Shall we drop in to an interview with new LIV majordomo Scott O'Neill?  Again, rhetorical:

Scott, I’ve heard you refer to yourself a few times as a “change agent.” What did you think needed to be changed about LIV Golf when you took the job?

Yeah, I would say any four-year-old business in a very mature industry needs to be nimble, hard-charging, relentless. Needs to be on the journey of evolution, if you will. What the group went

through here to build and break through in golf — I don’t know if we’ll ever see it in our lifetimes again, and I think it’s somewhat spectacular.

What I’m coming here to do is to take that foundation and build the business. There are a whole host of paths that may lead us on. One is clearly on the golf side — on the golfer side. When you start to see faces like Tom McKibben, Josele Ballester and David Puig and Caleb Surratt — when you start to see an emerging next generation of talent, it should give us confidence that this is going in the right direction.

But I came here to complete, not compete — and, philosophically, that’s quite a shift and a change. How do we partner with the institutions that are becoming [our] very good friends at the majors? The USGA and the R&A are our agronomy partners; I’d imagine that was unthinkable four years ago. To think that those two organizations would open up pathways for us and recognize LIV? It’s wonderful.

I’d say getting on broadcast television was another one. Getting on one of the big four networks and launching on Fox; adding a handful of household names as marketing partners like HSBC and Salesforce and Qualcomm; and having endemics like Ping and Callaway raise their hand and say, “Oh yeah, some of the best players in the world are there.”

That’s the kind of stuff that we talked about achieving early on, and we’ve had a fair amount of success.

I'm still laughing at that "on the golf side".  What other side is there?

But my BS detector is in the red zone.  Yeah, they have a deal with Fox, but FS2 ain't exactly the mothership....

But I hope you have room to laugh some more:

Something I’ve always been a little perplexed by is that LIV doesn’t often publicly state its goals. It is very hard to know what LIV thinks about LIV’s performance to date. I’ve noticed you changed that a bit. You announced $500 million in new sponsorships earlier this year, and have been a little bit more transparent about bigger goals, like the OWGR. But before I get into the details, I wanted to ask you a simple question: If your time at LIV is a success, what will it look like?

I would say that we are the dominant global golf league and are recognized as such outside the U.S. I think that would be successful.

Well, they do own the Riyadh market, so they've got that going for them.

Going back to his first answer, it's more than passing strange that he would focus on the emerging talent, given LIV's ability to turn those careers stillborn.  There is no mechanism for those players to get into the majors, except perhaps by maintaining Euro Tour membership.  I don't understand those youngsters' decisions, because LIV can't provide a path to the next career step.

But again, the BS detector flashes red:

What are some of the general sports principles that you’re applying to LIV?

LIV is different from other tours. First of all, it’s a league, not a tour. But one thing I’ve noticed is that we have extraordinary talent who we’ve asked to make a commitment, and they have. Bryson [DeChambeau] has led the way on social media, but so has Phil Mickelson, who’s 55 years old. Our players are shaking hands, taking selfies, signing autographs when the cameras aren’t on them — that matters. They’re showing up for extra media sessions. They’re engaging in a broadcast. They’re my business partners. You know, these guys are out hustling for sponsorship deals.

Focusing on the product and the player is one thing that’s universal across sports. Sometimes everybody gets distracted by the everything else. But we have the product right, and we have a commitment from the players that matter most in the world.

Oh, it's a league that no one cares about, as distinct from a Tour that no one watches.  Got it.

But these guys still seem to be in a Product v. Product battle, and I'm guessing that is the more realistic take.

So, are they doing anything that will change the direction forward?  There might be this:

Is LIV Golf on the verge of making its biggest signing since Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton joined

the league?

Si Woo Kim is in "late-stage negotiations" to sign with LIV Golf, Tom Hobbs of Flushing It Golf reported Wednesday morning.

Kim joining LIV Golf would be another big gap to fill for the International team in the Presidents Cup. Kim is a four-time PGA Tour winner, including the 2017 Players Championship, and has played in the last three Presidents Cups. He's ranked 47th in the Official World Golf Ranking and finished inside the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings following the 2025 season.

Clearly that changes everything....But, the news isn't all good:

For the past few months, speculation has swirled that Brooks Koepka is looking for a LIV Golf exit ramp. The assumption was that Koepka might move on when his contract expires at the end of the 2026 season, but new reports now suggest the five-time major winner has already made his last appearance on the Saudi-backed tour.

Sources told Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter that Koepka may not play on the LIV tour in 2026, forfeiting nearly $20 million but remaining eligible to play on the DP World Tour and in the year’s majors thanks to his 2023 PGA Championship win. Furthermore, it has been suggested that Koepka may use this gap year to serve out a 12-month PGA Tour suspension, potentially rendering him eligible to return to the sport’s (still) premier golf league in August 2026.

Actually, Brooksie's unhappiness goes back far longer than the referenced few months.  In fact, he's been a malcontent since his arrival on the Tour League.

Additionally, this other South Korean has shot down rumors of his defection:

Sungjae Im has a two-word response to reports linking him to LIV Golf.

PGA Tour star Sungjae Im has firmly dismissed speculation linking him to a move to LIV Golf, responding with a two-word message: "Fake news".

Do you see the irony in that rumor?  Sungjae is the guy that didn't even have a home in the States for a long time, because he played every single week.  Doesn't make him an ideal fit for LIV, given that the rationale was mostly about wanting to play less.

Udder Stuff - The sun is up in Utah and I'm eyeing the exit.  How about we use this week's Tour Confidential for some quick call-and-response blogging.  yet again, rhetorical:

As we count down the final days of 2025, let’s take a quick moment to reflect on the year that was. Who were the most important golf figures of 2025?

Jack Hirsh: Important? I think it’s got to be new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and new LPGA

commissioner Craig Kessler. Both have taken over legacy properties badly in need of fresh ideas and new perspective. Already we’re hearing talks of massive changes for the PGA Tour schedule as soon as 2027. Whether you like them or not, the Tour is clearly looking for something that will put its LIV Golf problem to bed. With Kessler and the LPGA, a new TV deal seems like it could be the spark to get the Tour to ride this new wave of interest in women’s sports around the world. There are certainly more important names in the golf world right now, but none will have more pressure to achieve their goals in 2026 than these two.

Zephyr Melton: Jack laid it out well, but I’ll go ahead and give Tiger Woods his obligatory mention. The popularity of the sport still ebbs and flows with Tiger — as evidenced by the heaps of coverage when he so much as posts a swing video. His competitive career may be behind him, but his influence on the game remains unmatched.

Josh Sens: Good answers above. To them, I’d add Rory McIlroy for providing the most compelling entertainment of the year at both the Masters and the Ryder Cup. And Tommy Fleetwood for best feel-good story. But that’s more about rooting interest than importance. Beyond those guys, some non-traditional golf figures come to mind, especially at a time when the game is stretching increasingly beyond its old boundaries. Caitlin Clark getting into golf. LeBron James going viral with every swing posted online. And though I’d rather get a root canal than watch a bunch of “influencers” knock it around, clearly people are interested, as we saw with the success of the Internet Invitational. Welcome to the future, for better or worse.

Zephyr Melton, take a bow.  What exactly did Tiger do in 2025?  His biggest contribution would seem to be playing Call of Duty during Ryder Cup week.  Tell me again, Zephyr, why he wasn't at Bethpage, if he's the straw that stirs the drink.

But I love Josh's answer.  I'm perfectly happy thinking of Tommy Fleetwood as the most significant golf figure of the year.  Not for the Tour Championship win which, while satisfying, involved beating only 29 other players.  No, what I liked most was his reaction to the disappointments at Hartford and elsewhere, where he was a consummate professional.  When asked why he talked to the press after crushing deafest, he said some delightfully simple, to wit, "It's my job."

Which makes him the anti-Rory, who in the aftermath of the career Slam turned into a self-interested jerk.  There's simply no other way to describe his summer hissy fit.   

And who — not mentioned above — might we be talking about in this space a year from now as a key figure of 2026?

Hirsh: I think it will be someone like Jon Rahm. His prominence in the game has seemed to diminish since his move to LIV, but he’s still played pretty well and I think will start making more of an impact in majors. He still hasn’t won one since the 2023 Masters.

Melton: How bout Brooks Koepka? Speaking of LIV, he’s long been rumored to want out of his LIV deal in order to get back to the PGA Tour. Could 2026 be the year we see a LIV star defect back to the Tour? If it is, BK is likely the first domino to fall.

Sens: Bryson. His impact shows no sign of slowing.

Yeah, not much to work with there.  Koepka will be of note for sure if he's the first to leave LIV, but it's not like he's been much of a player since Oak Hill.

 I didn't follow this, but sounds heartbreaking for Camillo:

Five players earned Tour cards for 2026 via PGA Tour Q-School Sunday at TPC Sawgrass. Which outcome — the good or bad — stuck out to you the most?

Hirsh: Sad to see one of the Tour’s great people, Camilo Villegas, come up one shot short of a playoff to keep full playing status on the Tour. He’ll still be around as a former winner, but I wouldn’t be surprised if former winners hanging onto fringe status is exactly what shrinking the number of exempt players from 125 to 100 is targeting.

Melton: Alejandro Tosti is headed back to the Tour — and the content gods thank him.

Sens: Villegas’ final missed shorty on 18 was painful. But it was touching to see him stick around to celebrate with his friend and countryman Marcelo Rozo. Personally, I was rooting for Spencer Levin, who has been around the block and then some and just didn’t have his best stuff today.

That will have to do for today.  I think I still have company coming, so you might not hear from me again until I'm home next week.  Then again, even then there might not be much to muse upon.  Have a great week and I'll see you when I see you.

Weekend Wrap - Tryptophan Edition

 I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and that the leftovers are long gone....

A few items of note, though we'll be pushing the boundaries of the Fair Use Doctrine pretty aggressively....  And, looking forward, not sure when we'll meet next, as one week from today is my first trip to Western HQ.

Da' Skins Game - If the skins game was so great, why did it, yanno, go on hiatus?  They gave us a clue....  In the midst of the event they tried to make a big deal of something that broke a "Skins Game Record", the key bit being it was a record held my....wait for it, Stephen Ames.  You see why the event died?  Of course, the obvious follow up question would be to assess whether this year's group of players exceeded that high bar?

Geoff leads with this rather over-played insight:

Bradley’s Skins Win Another Reminder Of What Might Have Been

Taking eleven skins and $2.1 million in the first Skins Game since 2008? It’s hard not to see a successful Black Friday piling onto Keegan Bradley’s post-Ryder Cup regrets. While it’s generally ridiculous to read much into a Skins win given how often the format rewarded someone for mediocre play until one right moment, the dominant performance will haunt whatever regrets he might have had for not attempting play in the matches as either a captain or by resigning the post. Bradley’s team lost by two points at Bethpage Black, a course the world No. 14 loves and knows well.

Yeah, no doubt Keegs enjoyed having a day in front of those guys, but did the original pairing make sense?  Tp me, the only frisson in evidence was the after-effects of the Ryder Cup, which worked with the 2-2 American-Euro split.  The original concept was for co-designer (more on that in a sec) Justin Thomas to play, and without a certain rotund Irishman, I'm simply unsure what they'd have spoken of.

Geoff reminds us that the c1983 Skins Game was a different animal:

Overall, the new Skins Game was much more watchable than any of the recent silly season garbage at Shadow Creek. Thank the proven format. But the live, 18-hole affair also provided a few reminders of what made the original Skins game work:

• It was tape-delayed and aired over two days with nine holes at a time airing on Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. By going live to plug Amazon’s lineup of Black Friday sports, the all-in-one approach put a lot of pressure on players and announcers to yap a lot without saying much (including way too many reminders that these guys are Lenny Bruce, Carlin and Pryor all wrapped in one sweet-swinging package. 

• Back in the dreaded day when Skins was new and produced by Don Ohlmeyer, announcers like Vin Scully didn’t have to remind us how amazing the guys were because they weren’t tacky jocksniffers. Plus, the golf was good, the key moments edited to fit the time slot, and the contestants were legends who needed no ego massaging. In a few cases, they were naturally gifted golf comedians (Trevino, Zoeller, etc.).

• The original Skins went to dramatic places that looked unlike anything people had seen in televised golf (Desert Highlands, PGA West). Nothing against Panther National, but between the litany of fairway catch basins installed to make the converted swamp drain, and its open, windy, and soulless setting, the course did not seem like a place anyone would desperately need to play. It was also a tad awkward finding out from guest announcer Justin Thomas just how little he had to do with the co-design bearing his name. But you gotta love the honesty!

• Sponcon stuff was certainly part of the original, but as with most stuff done to appease sponsors during a live broadcast we’ve gone from having a nice a hole-in-one car—that Lee Trevino famously won—to stuff like nails-on-chalkboard chats with Tommy Fleetwood about what driving a BMW means to him.

Much as we instinctively prize live broadcasts, the prevalence of silly season events has made us recognize the timing issues involved in televising one walking group of players.  The carts proved to be a necessary evil....

And, like Geoff, JT's booth appearance had me laughing out loud.  I guess JT did the coffee runs?  But, geez JT, you decide to apprentice as an architect and you pick Jack?  I guess Ben Crenshaw doesn't return your calls?

This week's Tour Confidential panel had this on the event:

The Skins Game returned to TV on Friday, as Keegan Bradley, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele battled it out on Panther National in Florida. What did you like? What didn’t you like? And was it enough to prove it has staying power?

Sens: My feelings about the event were like partially reheated turkey: lukewarm. The players were all likable and some of the banter, Xander’s in particular, was entertaining. But the sums they were playing for were obnoxious (unless I missed it, was there even a passing mention of any proceeds going to charity), and the disingenuousness of a broadcast that pretended we should be excited about how much each guy was banking – as opposed to being put off by it – gave me post-Thanksgiving agita.

Hirsh: Meh, I found myself having it on in the background while I was doing some Black Friday Amazon-ing. I enjoyed Keegan boatracing everyone and showing what could have been at the Ryder Cup (holds back angry tears). Panther National looked cool as well. But I’m with Josh. It fills a sports void on Black Friday morning, which I guess is worth something.

Schrock: Like most of golf’s one-off attempts to grab eyeballs, it was meh. It had some good moments. The personalities were entertaining enough, but I once again think golf should steer into the do less, not more lane that Brian Rolapp seems to be heading toward. These singular events are OK every once in a while, but I don’t think they need to return as a Black Friday tradition ahead of the NFL or a loaded college football slate. As Tiger, Rory and others have previously pointed out, golf isn’t going to contend with football.

I mostly agree that it met the low bar of standards for Black Friday morning programming, but only because of Shane Lowry.   And this:

Wither Tiger - A post tile in active use since 2014, but today we'll have some fun with the Tour Confidential crew and their inability to move on.  Asking the question that's most on the lips of everyday Americans:

Tiger Woods will host (but not play in) his Hero World Challenge this week in the Bahamas, as he’s still recovering from his latest back surgery. Although with Woods’ 50th birthday

looming on Dec. 30, it has led to more speculation on whether or not we’ll see Woods play on the 50-and-over Champions Tour in the future. Woods has been mostly mum on the topic over the years, but has dropped some subtle teases. Is Woods playing the Champions Tour in any capacity actually realistic? And could he be successful?

Josh Sens: If he’s healthy enough to stand upright and swing, we will see him, sparingly, owing either to his competitive drive or a partnership deal or some combination of the two. I don’t see how he stays away from it entirely any more than Nicklaus did. And a healthy-enough-to-swing Woods would for sure have a chance to win.

Jack Hirsh: If he can get a cart (and others in the field as well), he will play. We know how competitive he is and if the biggest issue truly is walking (which all evidence supports) then we will see him on the PGA Tour Champions. He’s keeping us in suspense because he just doesn’t want opponents on either tour to know what his game plan is. As for his success … would you bet against him against the same guys he used to whip left, right and upside down? He used to win even with one hand tied behind his back. Now he will show he could do it with only one leg!

Josh Schrock: I think we could see him here and there on the Champions Tour, but I think if he able to swing and thinks he can play competitively, he will gear everything around playing the majors. Does playing the Boeing Classic help that? We might reach a point where Tiger just plays on the senior tour, but I don’t think he thinks he is there yet. But if he tees it up, of course, he can go out and be successful over 54 holes against guys he beat in his prime.

Word on the street is that he desperately wants to play on the Senior Tour, but is devastated that the intensive effort involved in the negotiations with the Saudis will not allow sufficient time for him to participate.  Yeah, I'll give you a moment to finish laughing....

But am I the only one to see the connection between the first two items.  Keegan didn't play at Bethpage because Tiger was deep into Call of Duty mode.... I can't imagine Tiger playing, though the Jack comparison is apt, at least up to a point.  I'm less interested in what Tiger will do than in why he'll do or not do it.  I don't expect him to play much, but he'll do as he pleases based upon his own estimate of self-interest.  The one thing I'm pretty clear on is that appeals based upon the needs of the tour or his fellow players won't yield results.

Just in case you thought that first question was inane:

Despite his struggles to stay healthy and his game dropping off over the years, Woods is still golf’s biggest draw. What do you think a Woods start on the Champs Tour would do for that circuit? Would it be bigger than that week’s PGA Tour stop?

Sens: There’d be plenty of excitement around it the first time and a ratings bump, but mostly as a kind of curiosity and a nostalgia tour. Kinda like a Bob Dylan concert now. You want to see it. You have to see it at least once. But whether you really need to see it often is another story. Personally, I’d rather remember Woods as the transcendent athlete he was than watch him go through the reps of a nostalgia tour. So yeah. I’m sure it would give the senior circuit a nice little jolt, but wouldn’t it be healthier for everyone – Tiger, fans, tournaments – if we eased up on any on-course hopes and expectations?

Hirsh: Depends on what that week’s PGA Tour stop is. I see him playing in Senior Majors with an occasional appearance at some of the more notable stops like the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach. That tournament doesn’t have any PGA Tour competition. I see him being hesitant to play in something like the Chubb Classic, the Tour’s first mainland stop, because it conflicts with the PGA Tour’s Signature event at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s going to be strategic about when he plays.

Schrock: I’m sure it would inject some energy and cash into the circuit when he does tee it up. It would probably make those events more popular than some lesser PGA Tour events because, as Lydia Ko said, even those who don’t know golf know Tiger Woods. But it would be more of a nostalgia, feel-good viewing experience than anything and that only goes so far.

Obviously I wish the writers were better at this game, or at least less encumbered in their opinions.  Because quite obviously missing from their answers are three important letters that highlight why the Nicklaus comparison might be short-sighted.  Those letters being TGL....  Just another example in which the Tour competes with its own events and their sponsors....

Wither LIV - I know, who cares, but a certain Ulsterman has opened his pie hole once more:

Speaking at the CNBC CEO Council Forum, Rory McIlroy made news by suggesting he sees little way out of the pro tour wars and expects LIV to have to keep spending if the sportwashing enterprise wants to survive.

“I think for golf in general it would be better if there was unification,” he said while speaking to reporter Scott Wapner and alongside TPG President and B-speak jargon master Todd Sisitsky. “But I just think with what’s happened over the last few years, it’s just going to be very difficult to be able to do that.”

LIV Golf has totaled billions in costs since beginning in 2022.

“As someone who supports the traditional structure of men’s professional golf, we have to realize we were trying to deal with people that were acting, in some ways, irrationally, just in terms of the capital they were allocating and the money they were spending,” McIlroy said. “It’s been four or five years and there hasn’t been a return yet, but they’re going to have to keep spending that money to even just maintain what they have right now.

“A lot of these guys’ contracts are up. They’re going to ask for the same number or an even bigger number. LIV have spent five or six billion U.S. dollars, and they’re going to have to spend another five or six just to maintain where they are.”

Anyone know where we are?  It seems that Jay Monahan pulled a fast one on HE.  Whereas those original discussions pre-D-Day announcement appeared to give the Saudis a glide path to control of the Tour, that $1.5 billion large from SSG left Yasir as just a moneylender (though ironic, that playing the role of Shylock at today's performance would be, well, Yasir).

But the question it leaves us mulling is, where does Yasir go with this now?  I'm sure that if hew just refers back to that Kinsey report....  Yeah, that and another $50 billion might wrap things up.

Fuzzy Logic -  Sad news, but also news that forces us to confront a little passive-aggressive ugliness.  Actually, let me reframe, as two incidents from the departed leave us mulling quite the Jekyll-Hyde dilemma.

From Geoff, with a nice take on a lovely moment:

Frank Urban “Fuzzy” Zoeller Jr. died on Thanksgiving Day, according to an announcement from

the USGA.

The two-time major champion, winner of ten PGA Tour events, and beloved figure, who whistled his way around the course before making disastrous comments as Tiger Woods was en route to winning the 1997 Masters, died at age 74.

The Indiana native continues to be most famous for winning the 1979 Masters in his first try, and perhaps equally as much for the 1984 U.S. Open when he waved a golf towel in mock surrender after Greg Norman’s long par putt at Winged Foot’s 18th. Zoeller initially thought Norman made birdie to take the lead at four-under-par. And after a moment of processing back in the fairway, the outwardly easy-going humorist waved the towel while smiling at Norman’s apparent victory 

putt.

The moment remains one of the great acts of good-natured sportsmanship in the game’s history. A year later, the USGA gave Zoeller the Bob Jones Award.

It was a great gesture that seemed spontaneous, and it all certainly worked out there for Fuz (and, I assume from his full name above that you'll see where the nickname was sourced).

ESPN took the other approach, although their header seems to cleaned up from when I first viewed it.  They lede with bad Fuzzy:

Zoeller was the last player to win the Masters on his first attempt, a three-man playoff in 1979. He famously waved a white towel at Winged Foot in 1984 when he thought Greg Norman had beat him, only to defeat Norman in an 18-hole playoff the next day.

But it was the 1997 Masters that changed his popularity.

Woods was on his way to a watershed moment in golf with the most dominant victory in Augusta National history. Zoeller had finished his round and had a drink in hand under the oak tree by the clubhouse when he was stopped by CNN and asked for his thoughts on the 21-year-old Woods on his way to the most dominant win ever at Augusta National.

"That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. He's doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it?," Zoeller said.

He smiled and snapped his fingers, and as he was walking away he turned and said, "Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."

That moment haunted him the rest of his career.

Zoeller apologized. Woods was traveling and it took two weeks for him to comment as the controversy festered. Zoeller later said he received death threats for years after that moment.

 "Or whatever the hell they serve."

I don't know how you reacted, but mine was amusingly bifurcated.  On the one hand I thought ESPN over-interpreted that last incident, even including it in their original header.  No one, I thought, deserves at the moment of their passing to be remembered for their worst moment, right?

On the other hand, what the hell, Fuzzy!   You know I feel about Tiger and his treatment of folks like Stephen Ames and Abe Ancer over the years, he can be a complete dick in my humble opinion.  Here he famously refused to let Fuzzy off the hook, and I'm hard-pressed to blame Tiger....

Tiger was 21-years old that day, and must have seemed like a child to Fuzzy, who would have been 44 or 45 back in 1997.  But calling a black man "little boy" on national TV?  You simply can't pretend to not understand the meaning of those words, especially standing in Augusta, Georgia.  But the killer is the last bit, his pathological need to get fried chicken and collard greens into the fray, but I'd argue the killer was that "whatever the hell they serve."  My eyes usually glaze over when the Social Justice Warriors speak about "othering" folks, but isn't this just what they mean?

Mark this date in your calendar, it's the first you've ever seen me take Tiger's side in such a dispute.  I don't know if they ever kissed and made up, all I'm saying is that those comments were so beyond the pale that a typical non-apology apology wouldn't and shouldn't be sufficient.

That's it for today, and perhaps for the week, unless something impels me to the keyboard.  As noted above, next Monday is a travel day, so perhaps we'll catch up on the other side.  Have a great week.

Weekend Wrap - Phoning It In Edition

Yeah, I do feel bad, but it's impossible coming up with any motivation to blog.  Which has been drearier, the weather or golf news cycle?  Take a moment to answer, I'll wait.

Take The Rest of the Year Off, Ladies - Our ladies punched their last time card for the year, and at long last they record a repeat winner, admittedly a worthy one.  From this week's Tour Confidential panel:

1. World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul won the CME Group Tour Championship, her third victory of the season, which also locked up LPGA Player of the Year honors and set a record for the lowest single-season scoring mark in LPGA history (her 68.681 bests Annika Sorenstam’s 68.696 from 2002). Still just 22, did this season get as much credit as it deserved?

Nick Piastowsk: If we’re asking that question, that should go to show how much work is in front of new commish Craig Kessler. Because averaging — averaging! — 68 is pretty damn good. That said, that also illustrates just how deep the LPGA was this year. I’ll definitely be interested to see what Thitikul does next year. There doesn’t appear to be anything that will slow her down, and a few majors could be next.

Josh Schrock: I think it went under the radar because she won only three times. Had she not four-putted to lose the Kroger and been run down by Grace Kim at the Evian, we probably would have talked about it more. Think Nick makes a good point, though, about the task ahead of Craig Kessler. There was a lot of talk this week in Naples about the LPGA “building stars.” Jeeno’s talent is undeniable. The LPGA needs to make sure more people know about her.

Alan Bastable: Compounding all of these hurdles for Thitikul was that her incredible season came in the wake of Nelly’s seven-win 2024. How do you possibly follow that? It’s like taking the podium after Churchill or the stage after a Springsteen set. Tough acts to follow. I thought it was telling that Jeeno had no idea she’d broken Sorenstam’s scoring record. Shows you she’s laser-focused on the only thing that really matters: winning titles. As Nick says, Jeeno’s next mission: add some majors to her c.v.

Zephyr Melton: Unbelievable consistency to own a stroke average that low, but the win total is a bit light. Annika won 11 (!) times in her record-setting year, and while the depth of competition is much better these days, it still feels like Jeeno left some meat on the bone. You’ve got to rack up trophies to garner attention in the mainstream.

Did they play their season-ending event at Lake Woebegone, because it seems to these writers that everyone is above average?  So, it was Jeeno's third win of the season (only one other woman won more than once, but did you notice that dog not barking?  What exactly did she win?  I asked Google AI:

In 2025, Jeeno Thitikul won three events: the Mizuho Americas Open, the Buick LPGA Shanghai, and the CME Group Tour Championship. Her victory at the CME Group Tour Championship secured her second consecutive season-long title and the LPGA's Player of the Year award

I think Jeeno is a really talented player, and have quietly nursed a suspicion that her career might leave Nelly's in the dust.  I know she had a series of near-misses and that season-long scoring average is impressive, BUT.....  They seem to be carving a bust for her for Mt. Rushmore based upon her win at the, checking notes, the Buick LPGA Shanghai.  Guys, you're just way ahead of the facts on the ground.....

The TCers had one more bit on the ladies:

2. Craig Kessler has been the LPGA’s commissioner for less than a year but has already made some big moves for the league. Just recently he helped finalize a stronger partnership with Golf Saudi and, in the past few days, announced that beginning next year every LPGA round and tournament will be broadcast live on TV across the U.S. How would you assess what Kessler’s done so far, and what’s his biggest challenge come 2026?

Piastowski: Kessler has set the table. Now he just has to get people to sit down. (Hey, it’s

Thanksgiving week.) The TV deal can’t be overstated — exposure is key. But the job now will be to give viewers a reason to watch. Interestingly, this is pretty much the same issue the PGA Tour faces — both are battling the interest game. But if you present the stories well — be it the tournament itself, a rivalry, a personality — folks will stay. The LPGA product is a very good one.

Schrock: He has been commissioner for 120 days and has hit the ground running. The broadcast deal is massive for the LPGA. If they want to have their breakthrough moment, people have to be able to watch it live and be able to follow it when they can’t tune in. His biggest challenge is finding a way to elevate women’s golf to a broader audience and building the stars who do that. I think that starts with a dominant star or stars winning and winning a lot to grab eyeballs the LPGA wouldn’t normally get. Kessler can’t make Nelly Korda, Charley Hull, Lydia Ko or anyone else win 10 times, but it would help! Kessler lauded Korda and Hull for showing up outside the ropes and becoming cultural figures. The LPGA certainly needs more of that, but if they want people who aren’t watching to watch, they need a transcendent star or stars to do their part inside the ropes.

Bastable: Right, Josh, it’s pretty clear Kessler doesn’t just want talent — he wants talent that is willing to put in the extra hours off the course to help amplify everything that’s happening on the course. Having every round of every event televised is huge (even if CNBC isn’t exactly NBC), and I’m especially enthused by the efforts to improve the broadcasts themselves, with more cameras and better storytelling. The biggest challenge, as ever, will be finding ways to better bridge the divide between fans and players. Fans need to feel like they genuinely know the players. That’s how you grow engagement and loyalty and ratings.

Melton: I’m impressed by what he’s done so far, but there’s a long way to go. It’ll take more than a little more air time to bring in new fans.

Before I weigh in, here's a backgrounder on their new initiatives:

Kessler has been on the job for just four months but has already shown he understands where the LPGA needs to grow — and that he’s willing and able to make the necessary moves to push the Tour in that direction. The LPGA already announced a new tournament in partnership with Golf Saudi. The announced the relocation of the Chevron Championship to upgrade the event experience. And on Tuesday, the Tour announced a groundbreaking new partnership with FM, Golf Channel, and Trackman to improve and elevate the television broadcast in 2026. The investment from FM will make it so that every round of every tournament is broadcast live in the United States. The broadcasts will come with 50% more cameras, drone footage and improved shot-tracking data.

Judging form the photo above, these changes were implemented by hiring a 12-year old as commissioner....

It's deja vu all over again, as we have the very same conversations about the ladies each and every November.  I'm sure these changes will put them over the top, unlike the annual changes of the last few years.

To me, improving the quality of the broadcast is the more important step, as ensuring that their international events are televised live seems hard to credit.  Yes, sports should preferably be carried live, but when you can't produce an audience in prime time, will a rating be discerned at Zero Dark Thirty?

This article tries a bit harder to get at the crux of their dilemma:

‘Double-edged sword:’ LPGA’s big conundrum has no clear answer

The 2025 season has been a historic one for the LPGA. But that history has also brought a question that must be answered as new commissioner Craig Kessler looks to elevate the tour to new heights.

This season, the LPGA has flexed its depth and parity. Entering this week at the CME Group Tour Championship, there had been 29 unique winners. Until World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul mounted an improbable Sunday comeback at the Buick LPGA Shanghai last month, there had been zero repeat winners this season. One year after Nelly Korda won seven times, including five in a row, the LPGA experienced the inverse. There were 11 first-time winners. Star amateur Lottie Woad turned pro and immediately won the Women’s Scottish Open. Rookie of the Year winner Miyu Yamashita won the AIG Women’s Open and then joined Thitikul as the only other repeat winner when she captured the Maybank Championship.

Of course, they can only go so far with their thoughts:

Where the question becomes even stickier is when you consider the LPGA’s global reach. The Tour’s Asian swings show how popular it is worldwide. But with most tournaments played in America and a big chunk of television revenue residing in the states, perhaps superstars are needed to elevate the LPGA in America, while depth and parity boost it around the world.

“I think the Tour is the strongest it has ever been,” three-time major champion Minjee Lee said. “I think because our Tour, we play mostly in America, so I do feel like if we have one or two stars on the LPGA maybe then it can help us in a way.”

“We market ourselves to be a very global tour, and I think that’s what we see and that’s what we see, especially having [11] first-time winners this year, bunch last year and the year before,” Ko said. “It is a double-edged sword in that sense that you want the depth and the talent because you just want to see the whole game grow, but at the same time, if I was to market someone it’s much easier to market one person than 30 people.”

Lexi Thompson, who has been one of the Tour’s marquee faces for more than a decade, doesn’t think the LPGA’s growth strategy should be dependent on one or two players lifting a majority of the trophies. There is strength in numbers.

“It’s a global tour,” Thompson told GOLF. “These ladies come from everywhere around the world. It’s not a matter of winning multiple times. That’s great and all, but I think people love to see different winners and different personalities, you know, different ways you get around the golf course.”

We get it, it's a global tour.  But when you get done repeating that mantra, remind me of where the money is..... 

It's truly a dilemma, because theirs is a global game, one the Americans don't seem to be all that good at. But, please don't shoot the messenger, there's no denying that you can't make the economics of this golf tour work without strong U.S. support and viewership, and the foreign players have only occasionally resonated with the U.S. audience.

To this observer, the foreign players that have established themselves here and driven people to their TV's are a short list.  I would nominate Annika, Lydia and Inbee, all established one-name artists, but who else deserves a mention?  To me, it's not xenophobia, it's the simple fact that only those three maintained their performance over any extended period of time.

Other than those three estimable ladies, we've had a series of women break through, and here I'm thinking of Yani Tseng and Ariya Jutanugarn, who were world beaters, but only for a few hours.  Jeeno or a Minjee Lee are candidates to break through in similar fashion, but the half-life of a woman professional golfer seems way too short to make this process easy.

Calendar Blues - Did you know of the encroaching dilemma?  Having been reliably informed that our game can only grow due to Olympic Golf, we now find that we apparently have to give up our 2028 Open Championship as a sacrifice to this God:

The PGA Championship was supposed to pose the biggest scheduling nightmare for the Five Families trying to get golf back into the Olympic Games. That presumed nuisance at least opened the door to dreams of the PGA Championship going global every four years. But it was just a pipe dream. The PGA of America’s xenophobic wing would rather subject us to a housing development in DFW’s landing path instead of Royal Melbourne.

Now armed with a new May PGA Championship date that also freed up space for the PGA Tour’s meaningless “playoffs,” the PGA of America was able to lock up a healthy media rights deal. As golf heads toward its fourth Olympic appearance since returning in 2016, it’s the R&A's Open Championship feeling the scheduling squeeze.

At this year’s Open in Portrush, new R&A CEO Mark Darbon suggested a solution to the 2028 date dilemma would be decided over “the next few months.” An R&A spokesperson confirms the organization is still hoping to announce the 2028 dates and venue before the end of the year. The Olympics start on Friday, July 14th, 2028, forcing Wimbledon and The Open to move from the traditional dates they’ve grown comfortable with over the last decade

The 2028 Olympics land in the middle of the traditional British summertime sports calendar. One that became even more logjammed after the UEFA set its quadrennial Euro Final for Wembley Stadium on Sunday, July 9th, 2028.

What to do?

You got that?  We are actually screwing up the major calendar over a meaningless exhibition....  Wait until you see the options.

Fair Use Doctrine be damned, I'm just going to copy-and-paste Geoff in full (at least down to his paywall):

I’m bullet-pointing the various hurdles to help keep your eyes open and brains from rupturing:

• The Los Angeles organizing committee recently made the 2028 competition calendar official with no changes to the expected golf schedule. The 72-hole, no-cut men’s competition begins on Wednesday, July 19th.
• This leads to a Saturday conclusion, followed by the Sunday-Monday playing of a new mixed competition.
• After a day off for women’s practice, the Olympics will feature the women’s 72-hole competition from Wednesday, July 26th, through Saturday, the 29th.
• Concluding either Wimbledon or The Open on Sunday, July 9th, means competing with the Euro Final excitement.
• Concluding July 16th, just days before the start of competition, means overlapping with The Games and depriving athletes of the chance to attend the Opening Ceremony or to practice at the venue (Riviera). The Open would also need a new television home in America since NBC’s rights go through 2028. For Wimbledon, top players would be asked to go from grass to hard courts in a matter of days. Spilling into the opening weekend of the Olympics is not happening for either championship.
• Playing The Open the week after the men’s competition will not be an option for plenty of good reasons. Several top players will qualify to play the mixed competition that spills into Monday, and it would be absurd to expect them to be ready for an Open just three days later. It may take them that many days just to get out of LAX. The traditional pre-Open week Scottish Open could go forward.
• The week after the Games (July 31-August 6th) seems like the obvious option for The Open and will require the PGA Tour and CBS to finish the vaunted PGA Tour Playoffs a week later.
• By 2028, the PGA Tour schedule may be radically different. No one knows exactly how. Including the PGA Tour! But with the recently floated possibility of starting its season after the Super Bowl, a reduced number of events beginning in late February still means there will be Olympics issues to sort through in Ponte Vedra. The 2027 Super Bowl is set to be played February 14th in Los Angeles. The 2028 date might be a week later if the NFL moves to an 18-game schedule.
• Moving The Open into August means the days are shorter with even less daylight for the AIG Women’s Open, when it presumably lands in August (no venue has been selected). The R&A might have to break out shot clocks to get the precious brats and their pre-shot routines moving a tick faster if they want to get 156 players around the yet-unnamed venue for the 156th Open.

I'll give you a moment to stop laughing... Why it's almost as if golf's leadership has no clue what really matters.  On second thought, strike that "almost."

Did Not Watch - I'll get back to watching golf by, say, April:

3. Sami Valimaki won the RSM Classic as the PGA Tour put a bow on the Fall Series. We now know the top 100 players who earned PGA Tour cards for next season (and Nos. 101-150, who received conditional status). This was the first fall the Tour shrunk cards from 125 to 100. Now that you’ve seen how it shook out (and who got in and who didn’t), what are your thoughts on the change?

Piastowski: Can I say I still want to wait? I think we need to see how smaller fields and less cards will play out. Will we like the emphasis on the bigger names that could come now? Or will we be robbed of a few out-of-nowhere players? The drama on Sunday, where players battled to finish in the top 100, was good theater — 100 is a tighter window than 125, of course, so some talented players were scrambling.

Schrock: I like the trim to 100 and honestly would like to see it trimmed a little more. It made the fall season have real stakes, but I think the PGA Tour needs to continue to tweak it so that zero players who are exempt can tee it up and the fall season becomes just for those truly playing for their jobs.

Piastowski: Dang, I like Josh’s idea.

Bastable: As a fan/spectating experience, I’m not sure it matters much whether the guys are playing for 125 spots or 75. The hook is that there’s something critically important on the line: the players’ livelihoods. Also, whether or not you like the reduction, you best get used to it, because this is where the Tour is headed: fewer cards, smaller fields and, most likely, fewer events. It all ladders up to Commish Rolapp’s scarcity plan: keep the fans wanting more.

Melton: I love the idea of churning out under-performing players. If you aren’t playing well, you shouldn’t be guaranteed a place to play. Golf is the only sport where you can coast off your accomplishments from a decade before. We need a little more ‘what have you done for me lately’ mentality in pro golf.

This is quite the serious issue, but do you notice what's missing from the discussion?  Yeah, the scarcity is the effect of the Signature Events.  Once you've limited those fields to a handful of players, of course you have to shrink the Tour's membership, there's little left for which they can play.

Does Zephyr Melton, for instance, understand the extent to which those Signature Events preclude ‘what have you done for me lately’?  How they guarantee money and FedEx/OWGR points for an entrenched aristocracy?

I know it's not much, but it will have to sate you for today and, given the encroaching holiday, the week. There's a reboot of the Skins Game Black Friday morning, but we'll catch up again in early December. Have a joyous Thanksgiving.

Weekend Wrap - DP Finito Edition

Yeah, I feel that I should blog at least once a week, regardless of how ugly it gets....  That, of course, places no obligation upon you to read said musings....

I could cheer you up with a reminder that the Masters is a mere five months off....

Hero Worship In The Extreme - Tiger sycophancy is so prevalent that it carries its own Medicare billing codes.  Though perhaps this guy is taking it just a bit far?

It will be awhile before we see Justin Thomas back in action on the PGA Tour.

The 32-year-old 16-time Tour winner announced on social media Friday that he had undergone a microdiscectomy — a surgical procedure to remove part of a herniated disc that is pressing on a

spinal nerve root — on Thursday, and will be out for the foreseeable future while he recovers. Thomas said the procedure was performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, and it went well, as he delivered the update with a personal video to his followers.

“I’ve had some nagging hip pain for a handful of months and after some time off and worsening symptoms, an MRI showed I had a disc problem that needed to be treated,” Thomas wrote in the video’s caption. “My next few weeks will be a lot of resting before the rehab process begins. I have a great team behind me who I fully trust to get me back to a better place than I was before!”

As for a timeline for a competitive return, Thomas said he’s not targeting a specific event.

You'll never catch up to your hero after waiting until Age 32 to have your first back surgery.  Rookie move.

Geoff added this little detail:

The world No. 8-ranked player had the surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the same facility where Tiger Woods underwent disc replacement surgery on his lumbar spine in October.

Hmmm.  At the time that surgery was announced, I don't remember it being called a disc replacement, which seems a higher order of  maintenance.

Thing is, back surgeries are like deer..... there's never just the one.

Like A Dog With A Bone - If you've been with us for more than a week, you'll have figured out that I don't give up my grievances easily.  Just mention the Western Open if you want to test that hypothesis...

With the ladies about to conclude their FedEx wannabee playoffs, the Tour Confidential gang allocated a couple of Q&A's that we'll get to in a sec to the girls, but somehow didn't touch this bit:

Big changes are coming to the Chevron Championship. The event is once again on the move, this time to a familiar location on the golf calendar. The first women’s major of the season is headed to Houston's Memorial Park Golf Course in 2026, multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek.

The event, slated for April 23-26, will be held one month after the PGA Tour's Texas Children's Houston Open at Memorial Park, a municipal track that ranks eighth on Golfweek's best public access courses in Texas.

Memorial Park first hosted the Houston Open in 1947 and enjoyed a long stretch from 1951 to 1963. After undergoing a $34 million renovation, funded by the Astros Golf Foundation and designed by Tom Doak, the tournament returned to Memorial Park in the fall of 2020.

Isn't that "familiar location on the golf calendar" an odd bit?  The location is familiar, it's the calendar reference that's out of lace.  I thought they meant that the event was returning to its pre-Masters calendar slot, but no sponsor will take on the Augusta women's event.  Hence the need to move the event after only three years at the dreadful Carlton Woods.

Here's your laugh for the day:

The Chevron Championship controversially moved from the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, to the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at the Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, in the spring of 2023.

Steve Salzman, the club’s CEO and general manager, told Golfweek several years ago that he hoped the tournament would be at Carlton Woods for the next 51 years, referring to the length of time the event was held at Mission Hills.

The club, when reached for comment, declined to comment. There were still two years left on the contract.

Missed it by THAT much.  Does Chevron have a pig on its hands, or what?  But the event that once kicked off golf's major season and offered a memorable venue that delivered exciting finishes, is now buried in late April with precious little chance of grabbing an audience.  Remind me again, Fred, of all you've done for women's golf.

The Euro Beat -  Those golf.com writers sure are ga-ga over Rors:

Rory McIlroy lost the DP World Tour Championship in a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick but

still won the season-long Race to Dubai title for the seventh time, capping a season in which he won three times on the PGA Tour — highlighted by his Masters title to complete the career Grand Slam — and helped Europe win a road Ryder Cup. Was this McIlroy’s best year ever?

James Colgan: This was absolutely the greatest season of Rory’s career, but not for the reasons you’d think. Yeah, the Grand Slam was nice, and yeah, the road Ryder Cup win (something McIlroy himself called one of the hardest achievements in golf) doesn’t hurt. But for my money, the totality of these accomplishments is even better than the sum of the parts. This was the year that McIlroy solidified himself as the greatest player of his generation, and even if he goes on to win more or win bigger, this year will always be more important to his lasting greatness than the ones that came before or after it.

Josh Sens: For sure. It wasn’t just what he won but how he won. The wild ride on the way to winning the Masters, ending a 10-year major drought at a tournament that had given more heartache than any other. And then that showing at the Ryder Cup, backing up his prediction amid all that ugliness from the crowds. Those moments will sear into collective memory more than any other season achievements.

Josh Schrock: There’s no question. As my colleagues noted, it’s not just what he did, but how he did it and where he did it. He won at Pebble, TPC Sawgrass and Augusta National, vanquishing personal ghosts and avoiding what would have been a soul-shattering collapse. He navigated post-achievement depression after winning the Masters, had an inspiring week at his Open, won the Irish Open in thrilling fashion and then led Europe to an away Ryder Cup win. As James noted, he’s the greatest player of his generation and might have cemented himself as the greatest European golfer of all-time.

Josh, did you get the Bat-signal that we're OK referring to it as a depression?   Because that was an awfully weird few months there....

Also amusing is that greatest player of his generation bit, because to make it work you'll have to slot Tiger, Rory and Scottie into three separate generations, which is a tad generous.

But they're not done:

McIlroy’s seven Race to Dubai titles is just one shy of Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight, which McIlroy seems likely to tie or break. Does McIlroy receive enough credit for the worldwide success he’s had?

Colgan: I feel like Rory’s criminally underrated resume abroad is almost a running bit among golf fans today. But I think this goes back to what I was saying above: All those other accolades seemed a bit … empty in the face of the major championship drought. Now that the drought is over, we can see those achievements in their fullness.

Sens: Hmm. I dunno. He collected $1.2 million for second place in the event, and another $2 million for winning the season-long race, and his name appeared in banner headlines in every golf publication around the world. What are we supposed to do? Start erecting monuments in his honor? He’s accomplished a lot overseas. But he’s not exactly crisscrossing the globe at the clip of stars from generations past. He plays a select schedule and gets rewarded extravagantly for it.

Schrock: I think Colgan nailed it. Rory has been a consistent, worldwide great for more than a decade, but the major slump, countless heartbreaks and missing green jacket caused most to overlook the big picture.

Let's see, despite Montgomerie's lack of success in the U.S., he won his eight Order of Merits on the second most prestigious golf tour in the world, whereas Rory won his seven on the third strongest tour.  Kind of a significant difference, no?

Though at least they're focused on the important bits in the game:

Speaking of McIlroy, teams were announced for the Golf Channel showdown he’s headlining with Scottie Scheffler on Dec. 17. McIlroy’s team will consist of Shane Lowry, Haotong Li and Luke Donald, while Scheffler will have Sam Burns, Luke Clanton and Keegan Bradley in an event with all sorts of different formats and games baked into it. Do you think the unique spin will be enough to have it draw better than other made-for-TV matchups?

Colgan: I mean, I think it’s a little funny that we’re filling the quiet season for golf with … more golf. If there’s evidence that real human beings actually want to watch these events, I certainly haven’t seen it. But for those of us writing about the sport, these made-for-TV shenanigans are better than a black hole of nothing on the golf calendar, so … I guess that’s good?

Sens: Well said, James. It’s hard to get overly excited about an event like this. But complaining about them from this perch does seem a bit contradictory.

Schrock: Co-sign the above. New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp emphasized the importance of scarcity in improving the professional golf product. This is the opposite. I’m all for taking swings, but I have a hard time seeing this break through.

Rolapp is on to something there, though it's quite the tough time to scale back the number of events after allowing the elite players to implement their money-grabs with those micro-fields.  

Distaff Doings - The writers must have their heroes, though this one seems to mostly disappoint:

The LPGA season concludes next week with the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., and it will be Nelly Korda’s last chance to get a victory. Korda won seven times last year — how is she one week away from a potential winless season?

Colgan: Yeah, it’s shocking — and it’s disappointing, too, if you’re the LPGA — but I think the easiest explanation lies with the flatstick. Korda ranks 98th on Tour in 2025 in putts-per-final-round and 101st in three-putt average. Interestingly, that’s not too far off where Korda ranked in those categories in her seven-win 2024. But when you factor for variance — and regression in some of the otherworldly parts of her game last season — it’s not hard to wind up with a seven-win difference.

Sens: Golf is a beautifully fickle game where the tiniest margins can separate success from failure, nowhere more so than at the elite level. When the irons are just a hair off, when the putts that used to drop start grazing the cup — those little misses produce disproportionately lesser results. If anything, this year further underscores how insanely great her 2024 was.

Schrock: The answer lies in a little bit of everything. The putting has held her back when she has been in contention. She has been dealing with a neck injury that might be more of a pain than she initially let on. She also mentioned she’s been dealing with a swing issue where she has been dealing with a laid-off look at the top. It’s also hard to win. Her stats aren’t much worse than last year, but she just hasn’t been in a mix a ton and when she was in the mix at Erin Hills, the putter betrayed her.

Is it really all that shocking?  She's never been a great putter, and also seems to hit a lot of crooked shots, not perhaps the best combo.

This last bit is unfortunately the tell.  It doesn't matter which of these two provided the greater buzz, the issue is the realization that the only energy and buzz comes from ladies not integral to the actual event:

What was the more interesting subplot to this week’s Annika: WNBA star Caitlin Clark attracting monster pro-am galleries or the attention of Kai Trump, granddaughter of President Donald Trump, receiving a sponsor’s exemption and shooting 83-75 to miss the cut?

Colgan: There were an awful lot of people who rushed to defend the President’s granddaughter from allegations that she … might not have earned an invite on the merits of her golf. (No hate to Kai, whose TikTok megastardom made her a great fit for a sponsor exemption, but I didn’t realize this was up for debate!) If the LPGA can turn even 10 percent of those people into regular watchers, it will have been worth the effort!

Sens: While it’s fun to watch Clark shift from the court to the course, it’s always especially interesting to see a very good player try to compete at the next level. It’s an in-your-face reminder of the gap between the best and the rest. I guess you could say that the way people’s political allegiances colored their take on Kai’s exemption was also interesting. But mostly that was just depressing.

Schrock: The most interesting subplot was what the LPGA can do to try and retain the extra eyeballs Clark and Trump brought. It’s great that Clark is into golf and can expose her fans to golf. Televising the pro-am is a win! Giving Trump a sponsor invite is an opportunistic swing for the social media impressions, but if there is no big plan to capitalize on moves like this, then it ends up meaning very little. The LPGA should be applauded for trying things to increase viewership, interest, etc., but Caitlin Clark and Kai Trump aren’t the antidote to what ails the tour.

Would I be wrong to guess that the Pro-Am drew higher ratings?

That will have to suffice for today.  It's a busy week for your humble blogger, so not sure when we'll meet again, but have a great week.