A Blogger's Existential Crisis

I've been battling Blogger's Burnout, a devastating condition deserving of its own Me4dicaid billing code.  Add in the run of technical issues, and it's been very frustrating.  Monday especially so, as I first attempted a notebook dump, then ad-libbed the start of a normal Weekend Wrap post that also ran into technical issues.

There are some fun stories for your humble blogger to dissect, from the LIV death rattles to Wyndham Clark, well it's whispering my name.  So, let's ty6ry again, shall we?

LIV, A Most Unfortunate Name - The gift that keeps on giving.  It's name was schadenfreudalicious form inception, as it locked them into their 54-hole format that was always problematic.  Now LIV is awkward for being an homonym of the word "live", yanno, a thing it's unlikely to continue doing.... 

The Tour Confidential folks have some thoughts, not that they run very deep:

1. LIV Golf ended its 2026 on Sunday with Michael La Sasso winning the season finale at LIV Indianapolis, which became the league’s final event of the season after its team championship in Michigan was canceled. There’s been much rumored and reported about

LIV’s future over the past couple of months, including this past week from reporters on-site. Based on the latest developments, what do you think is next for LIV Golf now? And do you think we’ll see it next year in some fashion?

Josh Sens: I’d wager that it exists in some ghostly form, or, to borrow a phrase from our colleague Sean Zak, that it stumbles on as a kind of zombie league, with moving parts but no real life at its center.

Nick Piastowski: Talks. Talks with players. Talks with those around the teams. Talks with those within the league. Talks with tournaments cities. Talks with the investor. Talks with other investors. There’s maybe a deadline for some. Maybe a soft deadline for others. Then LIV takes stock of who’s all in and who’s all out. My guess is it returns next year. But that prediction could change tomorrow. And maybe change back the next day.

Josh Berhow: I think it plays on next year, but the next couple of months will be really important to see which (star) players are there. I know there are contracts involved here and it’s not like some guys can just get up and leave, but we’re entering a weird period where it’s hard to predict anything right now. It’s difficult to rule anything out. The biggest thing is the league needs investors, but the investors need stars in the league. So, what are the stars — Bryson and Rahm — thinking right now? For what LIV has gotten wrong, it’s actually done a great job establishing itself in some international markets (like Australia) so it’ll be interesting to see how much that blueprint continues to develop.

I simply can't stop laughing over the outcome of what might be the last LIV-branded golf tournament ever.  There's only two players on LIV that affect the golf ecosystem (and, even there, not actually to any great extent), and one of those made a horrible final-hole bogey to make La Sasso a trivia-night answer.

As for the actual query, on what basis would anyone care?  Maybe the real question is whether there's any scenario in which the two guys are playing something called LIV next year?  I can't imagine anyone funding this hot mess, although I have to concede that I was skeptical of outside PE investment in the PGA Tour, as well.

2. What was the most interesting nugget or bit of information you learned from LIV Golf Indianapolis?

Sens: Just how much denial remains at the heart of the enterprise, at least in the way LIV reps discuss the league in public. Lots of talk of potential investors and player equity stakes and a rejiggered calendar, etc. Zero acknowledgement of the fact that they don’t have a compelling product — at least not a product with anywhere near the appeal to justify the crazy sums of money its players want and expect to be paid. This is a challenge across professional golf, but the PGA Tour has a better chance of addressing it because it has a product it can actually sell.

Piastowski: I was interested that LIV CEO Scott O’Neil said he hasn’t talked with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp in recent months. I was also interested in that O’Neil says the LIV Goal is to “complete, not compete.”

Berhow: O’Neil was not happy with the DP World Tour. I think he felt somewhat betrayed there. The league is already in trouble and that was an important lifeline for his guys. It was like more walls just continuing to close in.

I'm sorry, Nick, what exactly would Rolapp discuss with O'Neil? I've little doubt that there's been Tour contact with reps for Bryson and Rahm, but Rolapp can merely ensure the adequacy of his popcorn supply, just like the rest of us.

The interaction with the Euros is more interesting, though it does amuse to think of certain guys, cough** Sergio**cough, expecting lifelines.....I'm sure a lot of tweets were deleted, but it's not like we're going to forget.

But now we get to the amusing part, so perhaps a good time to top up your coffee.  You, Dear Reader, have apparently been misinformed.  It's not that the Public Investment Fund has hit the wall over its funding of NEOM or discovered that sportswashing provides no benefit,  it's that the players have failed to meet the Saudi's exacting standards of decorum:

On LIV’s way out of minds and memories, backers at the PIF handed a beauty to the Financial Times to distract the world from horrendous decisions made primarily by Al-Rumayyan. It’s the type of fun anecdote that enough idiots will gobble up and, in the PIF’s mind, briefly forget that a sovereign wealth fund is supposed to be good with money. The PIF will be doing everything possible to make the business world forget they spent $6 billion with zero return on investment.

So they blame Sergio!

In case you didn't pick up on it, this is from Shack and we'll certainly hear him out.  It's a dilemma, though, because I've been trained to never trust content from LIV.  Although, to the extent they're blaming Sergio, I might have to keep an open mind....

The anecdote given to the FT would be believable if the PIF had not already been signaling a major overhaul of its spending on the ridiculous NEOM development or other professional sports.

We also knew early on that Al-Rumayyan’s LIV goals included gaining access to American money interests and their control of memberships to places like Augusta National. But as the Saudis are prone, His Excellency had a funny way of showing his affinity for the clubs he apparently craved memberships at. Wanting to see Masters Chairman Fred Ridley deposed is really not the way to get a Green Jacket (so I hear).

Al-Rumayyan’s attorney, Amanda Staley, even reportedly demanded such a membership of the PGA Tour in negotiations, further highlighting how little the PIF folks understood the basics of golf.

In last week’s FT story by Sujeet Indap and Samuel Agini, they reported that LIV was ultimately done in by Sergio Garcia’s embarrassing second tee tirade at the 2026 Masters.

“People familiar with the matter say Rumayyan’s embarrassment at the sequence of events helped lead to his decision to pull the plug on PIF’s financing of the rival tour, as the fund focuses more on its huge domestic commitments in the kingdom.”

I'll give you a second to finish laughing.  Of course you'll be thinking that no one could possibly be surprised at this guy acting the spoiled brat, though it might even be funnier than you recall.   I'll just share the last of Geoff's ranting (at least the last before the paywall):

It should be noted that the FT tracks PIF closely and has been the first to report on the wealth fund’s thinking about several huge stories. And the idea that Al-Rumayyan was embarrassed and saw his non-existent Green Jacket membership dreams vanishing might be true. But as reflected in the golf world’s reaction to the Garcia revelation, no one is buying that (A) the Augusta folks thought, “oh Sergio’s acting out in the final round of the Masters and he never did anything like that before he went to LIV, so it’s all Yasir’s fault, and (B) the PIF had $6 billion reasons to pull the plug.

And I can’t believe I’m defending Sergio.

There are so many chapters to the PIF-LIF fiasco already documented. The league’s demise will be studied and lamented now that the sovereign wealth fund is doing what Saudi Arabia does when it pulls the plug on one of its many failed projects: stiffing the little guy. Not paying bills to bit players will tarnish the PIF far more than some cranky manbrat breaking his driver and denting some tee box turf in Georgia.

Do you remember my blogging of the McKinsey feasibility study?   That you could spend $6 billion based upon such comically inept due diligence is quite the shock, but do we think they as much as did a Google search of the players they were about to sign?  I'm gonna go with "No", per this 2019 story:

Sergio Garcia was disqualified from the Saudi International because of “serious misconduct” on Saturday.

Garcia was accused by fellow players of purposefully hitting his clubs into the surface of the greens causing damage. Garcia posted a 1-over 71 in the third round, but was ultimately disqualified by the European Tour via Rule 1.2a.

Garcia issued a statement following his disqualification, saying, “I respect the decision of my disqualification. In frustration, I damaged a couple of greens, for which I apologize for, and I have informed my fellow players it will never happen again.”

According to The Scotsman, it wasn’t just “a couple” of greens which Garcia damaged, but five.

“It is believed that Garcia damaged five greens during his third circuit, with players in the four groups immediately behind him all complaining to rules officials about the state he’d left them,” the paper reported.

He didn't just damage greens, he damaged Saudi greens.  You'd think they'd remember a thing like that, no?

And this just in:

LIV Golf to lay off majority of staff

Does that include that Garcia fellow?

A Game For Gentlemen - Good news, kids, I have permission:

‘People can think what they want’: Wyndham Clark responds to rules ‘scrutiny’

Given Wyndham's multiple storylines, he might want to not be so free with his permission structure.   We can avoid any discussion of locker and tee marker abuse, and this bit is way bigger than just the one guy.

Here's how Golf.com describes it:

– Clark grabbed an iron from his bag, placed it behind his ball, then took a practice swing just to the left of the ball. Twice more, he placed his iron behind the ball and took practice swings,

before going back to his bag for a different iron. At the time, Clark was tied for the lead with Rory McIlroy.

– CBS cut away to Gary Woodland on the 15th hole.

– When it returned, Clark was placing an iron behind his ball. He then took another practice swing to the left of it before his caddie, David Pelekoudas, moved between Clark and the camera, though another practice swing could be seen. Clark then went back to his bag for a different iron. Three times, he placed that iron behind his ball and took practice swings. At about this point, CBS analysts said the following:

Trevor Immelman: “He’s taking a long look at this. This is like the third club that he’s placed down behind the ball there.”

Frank Nobilo: “So the lie might be better.”

From there, Clark placed his 9-iron behind the ball and hit, finished the hole with a par and went on to win by three. But Nobilo’s comment, along with several similar remarks on social media, is interesting. Did Clark improve his lie? 

I'm going to go with "Yes."  I have never understood what knowledge the placement of a club behind the ball is supposed to impart, but am conversant with elementary physics.   You simply cannot place the clubhead in the position seen in the photo above, without pushing down grass and improving the lie.  This is our hero:

On Tuesday, Clark was asked the following question:

Wyndham, your drive on 14 Sunday went into the right rough, and there was a lot of scrutiny on social media but also even the TV announcers. Curious about you changing clubs and tapping down the rough multiple times. Just curious what you were thinking there, and there was a similar situation possibly at the U.S. Open, and if you’ve been hearing about this at all.

“I didn’t really hear much about it,” Clark said. “I know the shot that you’re talking about. I think any player, when they’re trying to judge a lie, takes out different clubs to see what it feels like.

“I never fully put the club down behind it. I don’t think anything of it.”

I'll refer to the very same photo above.  Is there any place further "down" for that club to go?

You've been reading these pages for a long time, do you think Geoff might have some thoughts on this matter?  Again, rhetorical, but that's not important now:

I can offer two solid reasons to watch this week’s Tour Championship.

A) To fill the gap in your undying thirst to witness meaningful competition after Tuesday’s crushing one-week postponement of Big Break x Good Good presented by Golf Galaxy, caused by the retailer backing out of its sponsorship.

B) To say you witnessed golf history by seeing how many times Wyndham Clark breaks the Rules of Golf and gets away with it.

If you listened to Commissioner Brian Rolapp’s Tuesday Tour Championship press conference, you’d also assume the Rules of Golf matter to Rolapp and the board.

“Rules only matter if they’re enforced,” he said at East Lake. “So accountability and discipline are essential to any organization, and certainly for the integrity of the Tour and for the game, especially in a game that prides itself on rules and integrity.”

Yeah, is that the same organization that refuses to disclose disciplinary actions to protect the miscreants?  

Clark’s antics at this year’s U.S. Open included pressing behind his ball in dicey lies and automatically smoothing his line on the green whether damage was evident or not. Since he received no warning or penalty for those actions, no wonder he hasn’t changed since his dual-wielding wedge nonsense caused his ball to move en route to winning the 2023 U.S. Open.

Various social media accounts highlighted Clark’s 14th hole shenanigans during the BMW final round. He went on so long and mashed so blatantly that CBS broadcasters and Frank Nobilo and Trevor Immelman had to point out the absurdity of his actions.

Of course, they're reactions were rather muted as compared to this golden oldie:

That's a truncated version that doesn't have all of Kostis and McCord losing their minds....Back to Geoff:

Clark claims he was just “judging” the lie and that “by no means did I take a bad lie and make it really good.”

But if you made a bad lie slightly less terrible, that’s still a violation.

But here is the killer point to this observer.  Clark is an unsympathetic protagonist with all of his other issues, but it's not just Wyndham.  I've discussed this at length with all sorts of folks, including our golf  professional staff, and there's typically a slack-jawed facial response when I mention the name of a certain repeat offender.  Gratifyingly, Shack names the same party:

It’s easy to pick on Clark because this keeps happening, but he’s hardly alone in the mashing work around a ball or on the greens. Scottie Scheffler is largely responsible for most players now approaching the ball in any type of lie and repeatedly placing the club to test the lie. And when the lie is especially dicey, we now have multiple practitioners of the patent-pending, Jumbo Ozaki-approved, Dual-Wielding artistry. This is where the combatant alternates clubs to give the impression they are utterly flummoxed by the circumstances even after hitting nine million golf shots over their lifetimes. Therefore, they just have to see how a 7-iron sits behind the ball versus the 6-iron. And maybe repeat the test a few more times to be totally accountable to their Teams.

Shack has the video of the BMW incident, watch it if you can.  I'll just add this longer video that is more Clark-specific.  He is for sure one of the worst offenders, but it's far more widespread than just the one guy.

It's really a simple question for Mr. Rolapp.  Does the PGA Tour compete using the Rules of Golf?  If so, why aren't they enforced?  Without answers there, it feels like they run exhibition events.

DVR Alert - As dreadful as Ryder and Presidents Cup venues are, the Walker and Curtis Cup venues have been uniformly beautiful and interesting.  I know, who saw that coming?

I'll just use Geoff's reporting:

The R&A announced that tickets for the 51st Walker Cup at Lahinch have sold out in advance of

the match between Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America.

Attendance has been capped at 8,000 fans each day of matches. Over 1,700 young people will be attending through The R&A’s successful ‘Kids Go Free’ initiative (free entry for under-16s when accompanied by a paying adult).

This is the first time the match will be staged at Lahinch.

The R&A is advising fans without tickets not to travel to the venue. However, the Walker Cup Opening Ceremony will take place on the 1st tee at Lahinch at 5pm on Friday, September 4th and fans can attend free of charge.

The matches will be televised by Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland and Golf Channel in the US.

So, the real news is simply, Holy Bat Guano, Kids, they're taking a Walker Cup to Lahinch.  Crack the bubbly!

It's one of my favorite places in golf, both the links and the town, which combines the worship of our game with an appealing suffer dude vibe.   It will be on Labor Day weekend, specifically Saturday and Sunday, the 5th and 6th.

I may dig out some of my old photos, but do you know who designed Lahinch?  It may well be my favorite design credit in the world (excepting the Old Course, because it's hard to top the hand of God):

The Old Course at Lahinch Golf Club was originally designed by Old Tom Morris in 1894 and later redesigned by Dr. Alister MacKenzie in 1927

What I love first and foremost, is that those two iconic names simply don't belong together, as the dates will imply (as it could only happen before the Good Doctor headed to the New World).

What I love most is that the golf course Dr. Mackenzie found was quite rudimentary and needed his considerable efforts, which resulted in a first-class links indeed.  I'd have it in my Top Ten, the only issue being whether I'd be able to limit said list to a mere ten entries.

While turning Lahinch into a proper links, Dr. Mackenzie found two of the most unique and perplexing holes in golf, on a par with the Road Hole.  While making Lahinch his Own, the Good Doctor did us all a great service and drew a line in the sand, saying effectively that these two holes needed to be saved for posterity.  God Bless him fr that.

I'll talk about those holes and all things Lahinch before the Walker Cup kicks off.

I know that no one will be looking for this post, as my readers will rightfully feel that they've been abandoned.  It's not quite so, as there's been much of the spinning of the wheels, without any useable output.  Have a great weekend and I will expect to be here on Monday.