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. 

Weekend Wrap - LXXII Golf™ Edition

Tough time of year for many things, including a certain blogger's motivation.  Our greens were punched last week and, while I greatly enjoyed Saturday's round in shorts, a cursory look at the long-term weather forecast provides no cause for optimism....

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch- Changes - Have you stopped laughing yet at this news?

With LIV changing formats, what does ‘LIV’ actually stand for?

It seems like that's really two separate questions.  What did it stand for versus what they'll now tell us it stands for....

Who says LIV hasn't united the golf world?  After all, it has each and everyone of us making the same joke:

LIV Golf’s announcement that it’s switching its tournaments from 54 to 72 holes was greeted with mixed reactions — and an easy joke.

“So it’s LXXII Golf now?”

They are for sure laughable....

You get the idea. Since its inception, LIV’s name had worked as a Roman-numeral reference to its number of holes — 54, three rounds of 18 — which was a key piece of its disruptive identity in a

world of 72-hole stroke-play tournaments. But LIV has also always had a second meaning, too; the chairman of its board and of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, has referenced 54 as a “perfect score” in golf, the score a player would shoot if they made 18 birdies on a par-72 course. (This ignores eagles and par-71s, among other things, but we get the idea.) There’s also a $54 million prize awaiting any LIV golfer to shoot that number. Bryson DeChambeau has gotten the closest with 58. So there’s a part of “54” that will continue.

The Tour Confidential panel went deep here, so shall we allow them to do the heavy lifting?  Yeah, rhetorical, but I appreciate your thoughts all the same:

LIV Golf announced its 2026 tournaments will be played as 72-hole competitions, a major

change for a league that not only had previously been 54 holes but used that unique trait as a pivotal part of its identity. While the press release didn’t mention this move as a way to improve LIV’s chances of receiving World Ranking points… we know better. Are you surprised by the sudden shift? And more importantly, will it ultimately work?

Sean Zak: Definitely a little surprised! Only because of all the ’54’ branding. LIV was quietly launched by an agency originally called Performance 54! But for new management, who didn’t create these structures, it probably felt fruitless to continue banging the OWGR drum without trying to make as many changes as possible to actually be granted those points. Will it ultimately work? What does “work” even mean? Garner more audience on FS1 in early June? No. The amount of holes wasn’t keeping golf fans from watching.

Nick Piastowski: Yes, the announcement was surprising, though, as Sean noted above, the surprise really was just for LIV’s previous promotion of the number 54 — which led to folks scrambling to figure out what 72 was in Roman numerals. But I think the move works, as long as world ranking points come LIV’s way. I’ll be also curious as to what an extra day of play looks like for LIV in terms of potential revenue (or loss of it) — and what an extra day of play looks like for LIV in terms of player satisfaction.

Dylan Dethier: I’ll point out that 54 also has been cited by LIV as the “perfect score” in golf — birdieing every hole on a par-72 course. (Ignoring eagles, par-71s, etc., but whatever.) I think 72 is a nice number of holes for stroke-play tournament golf. But 54 holes was also a big part of what made LIV a “disruptor.” Now that it’s just another league staging 72-hole stroke-play golf tournaments, it just feels in direct competition with the DP World Tour. Maybe that’s the point.

That bit in the question about the golfing press is quite the tell, no?  It's the golfing press confirming for us the value of that same golfing press....  Good to know how seriously we should take you guys.

It's all laugh-out-loud hysterical, as Norman's strategy to take his ball and go home to pout doesn't seem to have panned out.  Yeah, I know, who coulda seen that coming?

Of course LIV's lameness is far larger than Roman numerals can convey, as they have field sizes so small as to induce envy in Patrick Cantlay, and those small fields are dominated by stiffs.

Rory McIlroy was asked about the news while playing in this week’s tournament in Abu Dhabi, although he said he didn’t think playing 54 holes versus 72 was holding LIV back from receiving World Ranking points. What say you? Does LIV still have larger hurdles to leap or was this the main one?

Zak: I think if there are three or four criteria for LIV earning points, the 54 vs. 72 element was one of them. I think the concurrent team competition is an odd sticking point, when the OWGR is all about individual’s performance. But the biggest thing is just the mostly closed-circuit nature of the tour. I know inside LIV HQ they’re expecting to be granted acceptance by the OWGR by the end of 2025, but they’ve also been saying that for a long time.

Piastowski: I think two other moves LIV made this week should also be noted here. LIV’s Q-school will now award two spots into LIV play for 2026, and the top two finishers in the International Series will also now receive playing privileges for next year. Both had previously handed out one spot, so this presumably helps with the ‘closed-shop’ thought that has held LIV back in the world rankings fight.

Dethier: Yep — I think Nick P’s cited moves were the bigger ones here from an OWGR perspective than the 54-hole thing. LIV’s closed shop is cracking open its doors. I’d expect them to get OWGR points relatively soon. I don’t quite understand the timeline. But I do think it was a massive miss for LIV to withdraw its application originally; if it wants to play in the same sandbox as the other tours it could have cooperated earlier.

I don't want to go all technical on you, but the fundamental problem with LIV is that it's..... well, it's a clown show.  The only thing serious is the number of zeros on the check.

Interestingly, Nick focuses on Q-School, to wit, how new guys can qualify onto their Tour.  To me, the bigger issue as always been that they're locked into their dead wood, they signed a bunch of guys who were no longer competitively relevant (Phil, Westwood, Stenson, McDowell, Poulter, et. al.), and are stuck with them clogging up their tiny fields.  

And their biggest recent signing, Anthony Kim, shockingly didn't seem to work out.

But get a lad of this question:

LIV’s Tyrrell Hatton said only a few players were in favor of the change when it was put in a questionnaire a year ago. If you’re a LIV member, are you annoyed or excited about the tweak?

Zak: If I’m a LIV golfer and I now have an extra work day each tournament, I’m annoyed! If I’m a really good LIV golfer, 31 years old and have dominated the circuit since I arrived — (cough, cough Jon Rahm) — I would be excited about getting an extra 18 holes to remind the average players around me who is boss.

Piastowski: I’ll add this. You’d think that 72 holes should get LIV players in a better mindset for major championships. So whether you’re annoyed that you’re working an extra day or not, the thought that you could be better prepared for the biggest events of the year should soothe any sore muscles.

Dethier: This really feels like a big win for Rahm, who shredded the 54-hole format before he ultimately signed up for LIV. Because he finished inside the top 11 every tournament this year but didn’t win any of ‘em, with a fourth round he definitely would have picked up a couple. Anyway, I think it’s nice for major prep and it’s nice for LIV golfers who are sick of hearing 54-hole jokes. But it’s a bummer for guys who were enjoying the shorter tournament weeks — especially given their international travel schedule.

Gee, they went to LIV to avoid the competitive rigor of the legitimate tours, so why exactly would we care what they think?  I'll bet they're also in favor of being paid more....  again, who coulda seen that one coming.

Geoff took some time earlier in the week to throw some shade at everyone:

Wet blanket alert: this week’s News & Notes features more talk of ranking points and LIV’s neverending quest for legitimacy. Apologies. Especially after a sensational 2025 season of pro and amateur golf at incredible venues with impressive winners. But The Quad’s editorial team agreed that it’s vital to acknowledge LIV’s move to 72-holes if, for no other reason, the chance to celebrate another of Greg Norman’s brainless post-playing career decisions. Might even be his single worst moment of hubris-driven stupidity! And this is a man who said he was going to revolutionize the game via…a golf cart that played music.

Working back then as LIV Commissioner before deciding to spend more time with what’s left of his once-vast portfolio of overcompensatory purchases, Norman’s leadership decided to withdraw LIV’s application for Official World Golf Ranking points recognition of its “Golf, But Louder” 54-hole get-rich gatherings. The apparent protest move likely cost the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia’s sportwashing enterprise at least two years of tournaments without the legitimacy of ranking points. Norman and friends—most of who have since been replaced—took a foot off the peddle and eliminated any pressure on the five family-run OWGR to find a solution for LIV’s absence from a ranking that acknowledges an astonishing number of tours no one’s heard of.

My only issue with the above is that the degree of difficulty is so low that it's hard to post a good score.

More incredibly, the OWGR has become hard to respect given its inflation of the PGA Tour after years of kvetching from the Global Home. Which meant LIV’s application withdrawal led to a collective, “hey, they pulled out of the process, so the ranking is doing its best at identifying good play.”

LIV’s newly announced plan to play 72-hole events in 2026 means the enterprise can fine-tune its format and then pray for points to deliver desperately-needed legitimacy for the enterprise with cartoonish franchise names and schlocky tournament presentations. But never forget: this is a grievance-based operation that appeals to the aggrieved. The move to 72-holes with ranking points won’t satisfy LIV and His Excellency’s desire for respect.

(Also never forget that the tour’s prime benefactor prefers to be called His Excellency.)

Gee, Geoff, I was hoping for a status update on His Excellency's Augusta National application.  That seems to be about the only objective of LIV.

But, Yasir, what's the plan?  There is no obvious plan to make this work, yet the Saudi's have basically walked away from negotiations with the PGA Tour.  So, sign a bunch of big-ticket name players?  Maybe, but this guy seems uninterested:

Last year young phenom Tom Mckibbin turned down a PGA Tour card to join LIV. The year before, it was Jon Rahm who shocked the world by moving to LIV.

This year is no different. And one player in particular has been the focus of many rumors: Australian pro and recent PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee.

But in recent comments to the Australian Associated Press, Lee put to rest any rumors that he was leaving the PGA Tour.

But now we see them doing that which would have been a far better strategy"

LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler wasted no time delivering something his predecessor wouldn’t — a deal with Golf Saudi.

The LPGA has announced that the tour will return to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas in 2026 for the new Aramco Championship, a co-sanctioned event with the Ladies European Tour that features a $4 million purse and a 120-player field. The event will be part of the PIF Global Series, which also includes stops in Saudi Arabia, London, Seoul and China. Purses for the five events total $15 million.

“The Aramco Championship, part of the PIF Global Series, at Shadow Creek reflects exactly where we’re headed in building the global schedule for our tour,” Kessler said in a press release. “We often talk about routing, courses and purses — and this event checks every box: a spectacular West Coast setting, an iconic course and a purse that continues our momentum in raising the bar for our athletes. We also recognize that partnerships like this — built on the LET’s longstanding collaboration with Golf Saudi and PIF — can help strengthen the women’s game on a global scale and elevate opportunities for our athletes.”

Helping the ladies would actually have substantively helped their image, but that would have been far too clever for those who think money gets access to anything.

But I can barely contain my excitement, as we now have four rounds at each LIV event to ignore.  Win-win, baby!

Color Me Surprised -  I was very skeptical here.  Not only do I not see the upside for him, individually, but I also fail to see how this helps them groom future captains:

Luke Donald is still enjoying the afterglow of becoming a two-time victorious Ryder Cup captain after Team Europe did just enough in Sunday singles at Bethpage Black to secure a 15-13 victory at the biennial competition.

Donald, who turns 48 next month, became the first captain since Tony Jacklin, who served as European Ryder Cup captain from 1983-1989, to win back-to-back. It didn’t take long for the question to be asked if he’d be willing to do a third tour of duty, and so far Donald has been very close to the vest with his responses.

“I feel like I have climbed the mountain so to speak and I certainly have nothing left to prove. I love what it represents and am thankful for the opportunity to do it,” he said. “If I do it again I will probably put a hard cut that I won’t do it a fourth time. I do want to play Champions Tour in two years. Timing-wise, it does work. I have to talk to my family and whether it takes too much time away from them. That’s a possible reason [to turn down the captaincy], and whether someone else is better suited for the job. It wouldn’t be from a fear of losing. If you approach anything in golf like that you’re never going to get too far ahead. I’m a big believer in taking opportunities when they come your way and I’ve taken these last two by the scruff of its neck and done very well. I have to think things through a little more. That’s kind of my personality.”

Perhaps the more interesting take is to wonder whether this affects the U.S. decision process.  Obviously, that process will be driven by the one guy, who will decide based upon his own individual needs.

Obviously my sub rosa speculation is that Tiger refused the Bethpage gig out of deference to his buddy JP McManus, the implication being that Tiger would somehow be compensated to add his buzz to his buddy's 2027 event.   I couldn't understand why Tiger would prefer a road game, but it now sets up for Tiger to play the hero, assuming he'll give up a week of Call of Duty.

Included in that post, Geoff had these stylish photos of the Euro Ryder Cup team on their great New York adventure:

They're just far more playful than our bores.

Greatest Bunker in Golf? - I dragged Employee No. 2 here on our way to Wales a decade or so ago, and it is truly an epic bunker:

Clyde Johnson restores legendary St Enodoc bunker

The Himalayas bunker complex on the sixth hole at St Enodoc in Cornwall is one of golf’s most fearsome hazards. Now, it is even more fearsome, after being restored to a single bunker and its 1930s shape by architect Clyde Johnson of Cunnin’ Golf Design, who was supported on the project by agronomist Chris Haspell.

Johnson first went to St Enodoc in 2016 with his mentor Tom Doak; Doak had been hired by the club, of which he has long been an outspoken fan, to report on its design and offer suggestions for improvement. “The idea was that Tom would come up with ideas, and I would help with implementing them,” says Johnson.

The Himalayas bunker has gone through many different iterations since the club was founded in 1890. “At the start of the twentieth century, it was really open and sandy,” says Johnson. “By the mid-1930s, it was fairly formalised as a single bunker with a long tail – that was the inspiration for what we have put back. It shrank over the years, and when we visited in 2016, the lower tail had been split up and turned into a pot bunker. It was very difficult for a lot of golfers – especially ladies – to get out of it, and foot traffic going past the complex on the left caused all sorts of problems with the turf.”

Here's what it looks like today:

And this dramatic version from 1938:

Did I drag my wife halfway out the Cornwall Peninsula just to see one bunker?  Well, you'd have to agree that it's quite the bunker, no?

Today in Edifice Complexes - We took a spin up there ion our 2024 trip, just to see what they had in mind:

Was tearing down the clubhouse at this Scottish masterpiece a huge mistake? Or progress?

Now, though, the old clubhouse with its 116 years of golfing heritage and distinctive clock tower is weeks away from being demolished, with a towering new sandstone clubhouse set to take its place.

Soon locals will venture inside for the last time to salvage what souvenirs they can before the building – a feature in countless golfers’ photographs down the years - is lost forever.

But if the demise of the distinctive old Royal Dornoch clubhouse is tinged with a little sadness, its gleaming $18.5 million modern replacement has ignited some very different emotions.

With its construction scaffolding now gone to reveal its three stories of pale sandstone blockwork and tall chimney stack with retro-style square clock, lively debate has ensued over whether it’s a bold step into the future or a brutal mistake.

 Brutal, you say?  he reader can make his or her own call:

The old clubhouse didn't have much to recommend it beyond that clock tower, and there's little doubt that the club had outgrown it.  The club's recently released plans are quite ambitious, including a substantial upgrade to the Struie and a third course.  But the architecture strikes one as unnecessarily, well, brutal is a good word for it, isn't it?  Staliniesque also come to mind....

That said, there's far worse pieces of brutalist architecture being unveiled, and this one also has a golf connection:

I'm guessing that the Obama library is on the right, but I could be convinced that the two photos are of the same structure.

That's it for today, kids.  Have a great week and I'll blog should anything of interest arise.  

Weekend Wrap - Lazy Blogger Edition

Sorry, kids, just having an awfully tough time working up enthusiasm for this blogging thing....Low motivation combined with a moribund new cycle leaves the Reader craved for content.

Hard to imagine it'll get much better any time soon.

Old Dog, New Tricks - Remember that old Paul Azinger quote?

“The Old Course at St Andrews, the home of golf, is different, because the course isn’t as long and the greens are pretty easy to putt and don’t have nearly as much slope,” Azinger said. “Augusta’s greens are frightfully fast, and they can stick the pins two paces from the edge.

“Augusta can always be defended. St Andrews is in trouble.”

And by "Old" I mean from way back in 2018.

So, how will the Old Girl be defended in 2027?

The R&A and Links Trust of St Andrews revealed the most significant wave of Old Course modifications in almost two decades.

As a previously announced irrigation system upgrade gets underway this week, the announced architectural work commences next week with the timing of various changes to depend on which holes are closed to play.

The mix of additions, restoration work, and subtle tweaks came about after the R&A and Links Trust commissioned Mackenzie & Ebert to analyze the Old Course in advance of the 2027 Open Championship.

“We believe this work is important in ensuring the Old Course continues to evolve and challenge the world’s best golfers in the years to come while enhancing the experience of local and visiting golfers,” said Mark Darbon, Chief Executive of The R&A. “Working with St Andrews Links Trust we have commissioned Mackenzie & Ebert to carry out a carefully planned programme of work to enhance and restore the challenge of the Old Course in a few key areas.”

Darbon said the “approach is grounded in deep respect for the course’s unparalleled history.” While some of the refinements are correcting the effects of wear, tear, and maintenance, key elements of the work are obviously inspired by how the course plays for Open contestants in the juiced equipment era. We’ll never know if these alterations would have happened had the original plans for a 2026 start to new golf ball regulations had been in place.

A total of 132 yards will be added on six holes, bringing the maximum yardage to 7,445 yards from 7,313.

That's the reimagined 16th fairway above, with the Old Course Hotel providing the background.

It's hard to get worked up over 132 yards, though we've already seen them grab portions of the adjoining golf courses for added yardage.  The 17th tee for Opens just happens to be OB, or is that splitting hairs?

Before ducking behind his paywall, Geoff helpfully provides a summary of the substantive changes:

• The 16th hole will see a “historic playing route” restored to the left of the Principal’s Nose and Deacon Sime bunkers, along with the addition of two bunkers to add risk on the left-hand side of the extended fairway. 

• Added length on six holes: the 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, and 16th. 

• Two right-side drive length bunkers will be relocated farther down the second hole “to make them more relevant to the line of play.” 

• New bunkers at 6th and the 10th. 

• The right side approach bunkers at the 9th will be extended slightly toward the line of play, including Boase’s Bunker, which will be restored to its previous size. 

• The championship tee on the 12th will be realigned and improved. 

• The daily play tees at the 14th will be realigned and repositioned. 

• The Road bunker will see some restoration efforts to reduce the surrounding build-up.

I am personally most interested in that first bullet, No. 16 being an underappreciated hole in my humble estimation.  In fact, I still laugh when I think of the starting line my caddie suggested last time we hit the daily ballot, it being most notably....err, how do they put it?  Oh yeah, out of bounds.

Unfortunately, Geoff's dissertation on the 16th is deep behind his paywall, so let's ignore fair use and I'll excerpt his full examination of the changes to the second hole (the only one before that paywall):

Second Hole - Dyke

Two bunkers down the right side will be shifted closer to the play and the existing location filled

in. The Open’s second hole yardage of 452 yards remains thanks to a temporary tee placed out-of-bounds on the Himalayas putting green.

In an ideal world: The fairway down the right would be expanded, and the bunkers would not have to be shifted. But the new positioning will surely bring the deadly Cheapes into play (even more) because of the difficulty lining up from the Open tee. With the New Course first tee down the right, safety concerns appear to have made fairway expansion down the right a no-go.

Takeaway: If 300-yard drives were on the high side for average Open tee shots, the relocated bunkers would be putting a huge premium on starting a tee shot at Cheapes. But with the relocated bunkers a carry of 265 yards or so from the Open tee, they are likely to only become a nuisance into a stiff wind. It would be nice to expand down the right to show off ground features and reward taking on a right side that’s hard to see or hit to from the back tee. It would also get rid of a hideous straight line running down the right.

But this hole more often plays downwind.... Geoff provides these before-and-after visualizations from Makenzie & Ebert:

Hard to discern that difference for sure.  Not sure how far along they'll be by August, but hopefully we'll have better luck with the ballot next year and I can report back.

Before moving on, I'll add this graphic from a Golf.com article on the changes, one showing the effect of the solid core ball and providing context for that Azinger comment:

Nothing to see here.....

This week's Tour Confidential panel was asked about these changes:

The most revered links golf course in the world, St. Andrews’ Old Course, will add bunkers and be lengthened by 132 yards ahead of the 2027 Open Championship, a move R&A chief governance officer Grant Moir said is “appropriate” to “properly” adapt to the way the modern game is played.” Does adding length to a historic course like this worry you?

Berhow: I think there is something jarring about the Old Course making announcements like this. If a 60-something-year-old country club has to lengthen its course due to modern equipment, so be it, but when you hear of some of golf’s greatest cathedrals essentially saying “what we currently have ain’t it,” it gives you pause. We don’t like changing classic things — golf courses, cars, recipes, you get the picture. I’m interested to see how this looks on the property, where there isn’t a ton of room to work with. Makes you wonder if these tees will stay for future post-rollback Opens in St. Andrews.

Zak: It’s just not easy to see where the new tee boxes will be placed on certain holes. The lengthened Old Course starts to eat up space within itself. But ultimately, it’s mostly just for Open Championship week, so we won’t talk about it more than one month every five years.

Schrock: I don’t know if it worries me, but it speaks to the broader issue professional golf is facing with distance and equipment. We want to see the world’s best play meaningful tournaments on historic courses. And we want to see them play the course the way it was meant to be played. When I was at the Truist Championship at Philly Cricket Club this year, the difference in how the course was played on the first day in no conditions compared to the second round when it was raining and windy showed how these golden age courses can still present a challenge when the ball doesn’t fly for miles. We won’t talk about the Old Course changes except for one week every five years, but it speaks to the bigger problem.

First, quite the framing in that question, no?  I would call the Old the most revered golf course in the world, though the Golf.com limit said reverence to only the subset of links courses..... methinks these kids need to get out more.

I don't think the three guys added much to our understanding, especially given that to add prior yardage required them to grab real estate from adjoining links.  but to me the easiest way of understanding the issue is to think through what scoring could look like if they get soft, windless conditions.  When we see a 59 or 58 in an Open, will that get folks' attention?

While we're in the Auld Grey Toon, shall we deal with a tab that's been open for some time, one that may well explain our lack of recent Daily Ballot success:

St Andrews Links Trust lands huge revenue figure as investment plans set out

Golfers playing at St Andrews in 2024 generated £48.5 million in revenue for the Links Trust, resulting in a surplus of £10.8 million.

The surplus has been reported on the back of a total of 281,554 rounds - similar to a post-pandemic high of 2023 - being played on the seven courses that come under the Links Trust umbrella.

The total revenue generated in 2023 was £43.85 million while the surplus for that year was just under £11.5 million.

Too many damn people, for damn sure.

Phil Being Phil - The key bit today is to close browser tabs.  We have a new bit about our old friend Phil. and, since there was unfinished business elsewhere, shall we?

Report alleges Phil Mickelson received inside information on offshore company

Hmmm, Phil and insider information?  It's deja vu all over again.....

A report from the financial publication Hunterbrook alleges Phil Mickelson received inside information on an offshore oil company and distributed that information to a private group of

company shareholders. Mickelson responded on X Friday afternoon, calling the report “slanderous.”

On Friday, Hunterbrook published a story that included a series of private messages allegedly shared by Mickelson with a group of investors for the Houston-based oil startup Sable Offshore. In the messages, Mickelson, according to the report, shared material non-public information gleaned from interactions with Sable Offshore CEO Jim Flores — a decision that could have legal ramifications for Mickelson, the company’s chief executive, or both.

The article centers on the latest actions of the embattled oil company Sable Offshore, which reportedly paid $988 million to assume control of a troubled oil field from Exxon off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., and quickly attracted investors seeking a potential moonshot.

The article does remind us of this from Phil's CV:

Mickelson’s own past with insider trading is well-documented. In 2016, he paid more than $1 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations that he had traded on inside information gleaned from the legendary gambler Billy Walters.

That's a wee bit cryptic for my taste.  To me, there are two aspects worth noting, including that the only reason Phil wasn't prosecuted was that his illegal trades were at a time when legislation made the burden of proof higher than prosecutors could likely meet.  Had he made those trades a year later, we might have had the pleasure of seeing Phil in an orange jumpsuit.

To me the bigger issue is that Billy Walters obviously felt that he needed to share this inside information with Phil to get him to pay his gambling debt.  There are at least three such instances of Phil stiffing his bookies, one in which Callaway paid it off and the third involving the Detroit mob.  Nice guy, eh?

Read the full article for the detailed nature of the allegations, it certainly sounds as if, best case, Phil is flirting with the rules, even if you take him at his word.  And, why would anyone take Phil at his word?

So, those two open tabs...  This we don't need to spend much time on:

Will Phil Mickelson ever be Ryder Cup captain? Analyst says it’s hard to envision

Look, Phil is a jerk, so easy enough to acknowledge that he's persona non grata in such matters.  But my wish would be that his actions in 2014 and thereafter would be reexamined, because his model for the Ryder Cup was always complete BS.  Pods, right, that's the ticket.  In light of U.S. results since 2014, how lame was that Task Force?

This was the more interesting open tab:

Phil Mickelson could have been modern-day Arnold Palmer. He chose another route

It's a Michael Bamberger piece, and I've in the past called Bams the conscience of our game, but not sure this is his best stuff:

When Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship at age 50 at Kiawah Island in 2021, it was all teed up for him, to be Arnold II. Do you remember the crowds that engulfed him? He had, by dint of his golf, declared an end to the pandemic. You could breathe again. You could take your mask and trash it.

Golf was never going to have a second Arnold. But at 50, Phil Mickelson, with his raised thumbs and marathon autograph sessions and enduring game, was the closest thing the game had to the man.

It didn’t happen. Phil went LIV and that changed everything. He took the PIF money and thereby helped open a door to LIV Golf for Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Cam Smith and others. Phil helped make LIV legit. Along the way, he got himself exiled from the tour he came up on, the tour Arnold did so much to make. The PGA Tour has been weaker for it.

I think where Mike misfires is that, in his core, Phil simply isn't Arnold Palmer.  I used to divide the world into Good Phil and Bad Phil, and the former was the bit that has Mike saying that Phil could have been a elder statesman such as Palmer.

But Mike only notes that left for LIV, eliding the HOW of his leaving He burned with a white hot anger that demanded retribution, somehow discerning disrespect from being the 11th highest compensated athlete in history (notwithstanding that he's not even the eleventh best golfer in that period).

To repeated, he didn't merely take the money, he attempted to damage the tour on which he made tens of millions of dollars.  And he expects the guys that attempted to hurt to still respect him.

No, Mike, he was never going to be Arnie, because he's only about himself.  

Udder Stuff - This week's TC panel isn't much, but it does have the benefit of being easy blogging.  Not that I'm all that interested in their primary focus:

It was recently reported that Dustin Johnson re-signed with LIV Golf, and Bryson

DeChambeau has also been transparent about his contract. While some of the exact contract details of other LIV stars aren’t public, what’s more important for LIV this offseason: keeping current stars, or does it need to make another Jon Rahm-like splash and sign a big name like it last did a couple of years ago?

Josh Berhow: You could argue LIV is due for a big addition. Anthony Kim joined in 2024, and although he hasn’t performed well, it was a surprising and splashy name. I wonder, though, if there are any current, established PGA Tour pros who would leave at this point, like another Rahm-level guy. Part of me thinks allegiances have already been cemented, and luring a big-name guy away would be much more difficult than it sounds. Bringing back some of those key guys should probably be the priority.

Sean Zak: LIV doesn’t need another star. It needs seven more stars. The league simply does not have enough elite player firepower to gain a substantial audience. Joaquin Niemann has been great; Cam Smith has not. Bryson DeChambeau has been great; Brooks Koepka has been up and down. Sergio Garcia has been quite good; Phil Mickelson has not. As I have said for three years now, all the money in the world can buy you big names, but it cannot guarantee they play great, compelling golf.

Josh Schrock: Everyone feels pretty entrenched in their respective sides now. As Zak noted, LIV needs several more stars to move the needle. I’m doubtful that those moves are out there. Their best move is to re-sign their big-name guys. If they lose one of their top guys or two, the air will really start to leave the balloon.

LIV has exactly nothing that works, so adding big names seems futile.  More to the point, given how unhappy Jon Rahm has seemed with his move, who do we think would follow him?

I agree that this guy was an interesting case:

One player who declined a PGA Tour invite and instead joined LIV Golf, Tom McKibbin, earned 2026 Masters and Open Championship invites when he won the Hong Kong Open on Sunday. This comes a couple of months after Augusta National and the R&A announced the winners of six national opens (Scottish, Spanish, Japan, Hong Kong, Australian and South African) would earn spots in those two majors. Still without World Ranking points, are these new exemptions good recruiting bullet points for LIV?

Berhow: They aren’t bad for recruiting, because it does offer additional chances for majors, but it’s directed at the wrong type of players. Yes, LIV can benefit from bringing in young talent, but a bunch of up-and-coming Tom McKibbins isn’t going to be what draws eyeballs. They need established stars; and those guys aren’t probably worried about these extra invites, because ideally they wouldn’t need them.

Zak: Not really. In order to gain major access through those events, you almost always have to win. As in be so good you beat everyone else in a big field. It’s definitely not much of a carrot.

Schrock: It’s better than not having any access, but it’s still so minuscule that it won’t lure the type of players they need to move the needle.

Yeah, if he doesn't win the event, he has no way to get into those majors.  To me, it's just a horrible choice for a young player....

When those exemptions were announced, it came with the caveat that the winners of PGA Tour Fall Series events will no longer receive Masters exemptions. Do you like the change? Or do you prefer fall-event winners earning them?

Berhow: I like this better. Have the fall focus on earning PGA Tour status. Plus, the Masters is more global than ever. This makes sense.

Zak: Doesn’t bother me that Fall Series events don’t get auto berths. I wouldn’t mind Augusta extending more invites via the year-end OWGR ranking, which is a greater representation of skill than a one-week heater in a weaker field.

Schrock: I prefer the invites go to winners of national opens instead of weaker PGA Tour fields. Golf is a global game, and the Masters has prioritized the global nature of the sport in recent years. Keep the FedEx Cup Fall about earning a card, and ask guys who want to earn a trip to Augusta National to play in the national opens.

Those Fall events are so lame now that major invites can't be justified, although the real takeaway ought to be that the Masters needs a substantially enlarged field.

Just one more that will have you laughing:

‘We’re ready’: Senior tour head says they’re prepared for Tiger Woods’ debut

Sure, he'll be out there for the good of the game.  Take as long as you need to stop laughing....

I don't know what he'll do, but I know it will reflect only his own sense of best interests... So, the round belly tour shouldn't get their hopes up.

That will have to keep you satisfied for now.  I'll be back....well, let's just say that I'll be back when I'm back.