Late-Week Lamentations

Today will be a bit of an experiment, as I'm blogging with my recording of last night's Giants-Dodgers game playing in the background.  We'll see if you notice any lapses in concentration...

Desert Doings - Caught a coupe of minutes of the Golf Channel broadcast yesterday, just enough to see the sea of red:

Tour pros carve up Summit Club, Rickie gets right, and Spieth magic returns on Day 1 of the CJ Cup

 Early reports from the CJ Cup at this first-time PGA Tour venue said to expect plenty of birdies, especially at the start of rounds. Boots on the ground, both reporters and players, have been hinting that this strong field would post plenty of low numbers at The Summit Club, a tony still-in-development model of American golf excess outside of Las Vegas. The first hole was reputed to be an extremely gentle handshake, with the challenge not dramatically increasing over the next five.

That’s not to say the Summit Club can’t pop you in the face if you get too far afield with driver and wind up in some junk or the natural landscape portion of the property, the desert waste. But you have to work for it, and the top players in the world carved it up in the first round ... just maybe not the top players you expected.

Robert Streb, playing in the fourth group out on the day, demonstrated the birdie bonanzas that we heard would come early in the day. In truth, his kind of run is unlikely to be replicated this week, or anytime soon. This was more than a bonanza—this was an unconscious seven-under-through-six-holes start. It was an outrageous run that made the unlikeliest of players in the field the main show in the morning draw.

Best start evah, as long as you carefully define that term:

— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) October 14, 2021

Amusingly, the last twelve holes , which he played in four under, constitutes a bit of a disappointment...

But much was promised in that header, so shall we see if he pays it off?  I mean, Rickie getting right would be quite the scoop, but you'll quickly note that the sub-header qualifies that quite substantially:

Rickie Gets Right For a Day

You’ve heard of the “get right” game in the NFL, where a talented team with expectations draws a soft opponent to figure some things out on a Sunday to get a season back on track. Perhaps the

CJ Cup at The Summit Club will be that for Rickie Fowler, who shot a smooth 66 on Thursday to start the event inside the top 10.

Fowler missed the cut last week at the Shriners, then went to Butch Harmon’s facilities in the area for some extra practice while waiting to get it going at Summit. There is no cut this week to miss, but Fowler, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, did say that the close call last Friday at the Shriners gave him confidence and he could see a round like Thursday’s coming.

It’s just one round but maybe this is the week to get right for Fowler. This wasn’t a smoke-and-mirrors number, either, as he was second in strokes gained/tee-to-green when he walked off the course. That’s more than just some hot putter that could quickly cool off the next day and is an encouraging and fundamental sign of game. Last year became known as the year of the comeback for so many players with lengthy droughts that ended in both the men’s and women’s game. Perhaps Rickie will get on that train this year.

At the very least it's a week that he won't have to worry about making the cut...  But one good round in mid-October as a proxy for the state of his game?  The biggest surprise might be that he's even in the field...

 As for that Jordan reference, he does seem to do this more than most:

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 14, 2021

Small field, no cut and a golf course that they'll pummel... One can only guess how low the winning score will be.

The Angry Inch -  In which Phil plays Hedwig, no?  Some follow up on the USGA-R&A initiative to limit the length of golf clubs, specifically drivers, to no more than 46 inches.  

A number of threads to follow here, first this from Golf Digest gearhead Mike Strachura, indicating that this doesn't affect many players:

After understanding the feedback received from the golf manufacturing community, we also undertook a survey of usage of clubs in use across the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour and found that a very small number of players either have used or are currently using clubs greater than 46 inches. The PGA Tour Player Advisory Council recently reviewed the subject and we have concluded that the PGA Tour will implement the Local Rule on Jan. 1, 2022.

Geoff has a second deep dive on this subject up at the Quadrilateral, and summarizes the reactions of golf's five families:

• Augusta National did not comment but the club’s opening soon and it’s all hands on deck to get the wine cellar ready. 

• The European Tour had no comment.

• The PGA of America is mulling the news and will find a way to get some attention out of this. 

• The LPGA Tour said they were on board pending a few consultations. 

• Rugged individualists and big USGA haters Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas turned predictably first world whiny, peddling the usual “grow the game” nonsense while expressing general ignorance that a version of the game is played beyond their insular PGA Tour world. Future Bobby Jones Award winners, they are not. (More on the curious case of Phil in a moment.)

That bit on Phil turns a bit dark, but first let's segue to this amusing complication:

1 potential headache that could come from the 46-inch driver rule

Only one? But I'll bet it's one you didn't see coming, because I certainly didn't:

Unlike the PGA Tour’s current driver testing protocols — overseen by the USGA — measuring

the length of a driver build at a tour stop is far more cut and dry. Or so you’d assume. According to True Spec Golf’s VP of Tour and Education, Kris McCormack, “unless you’re using the exact same measuring device at every single event, there’s going to be discrepancies.”

“There is no machine out there that measures exactly the same every single time across the board,” McCormack said on GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast. “Depending on how you measure, there’s companies out there that will measure a golf club differently than another company. So you may take a TaylorMade golf club, measured at TaylorMade, and it comes out at 45.75 inches. Now you take that club up the road to Callaway and it measures out at 46.125 inches on their device.

“It’s just interesting that, as of right now, there’s not a standardized way to measure anything. Just like there’s no industry standard for flex, loft, grind or bounce — or how you measure any of that. It begs the question of if you’re going to do these restrictions, what’s the accepted, uniform way to measure.”

Oh, yeah, those Tour driver testing protocols are a paragon of clarity... still, you'll be excused for thinking that length is easier to measure than the more nebulous Characteristic Time.... But how typical of our regulatory bodies to propose a limitation without knowing how to measure it.

So, what's up with Phil, who's been a tad cranky lately?  He is one of the few to use a driver longer than 46", so one can understand a certain pique.  I wonder, however, if he was similarly concerned about his buddy Keegan when they banned anchored putting.... But what really fries my beans about Phil is his transactional relationship with the truth,  an aspect of his personality long on display.

For instance, that original tweet that came out of the blue back in August:

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 27, 2021

The implication being that the USGA will make the game less "fun" for amateurs, which is simply not the case, as this a local rule for professionals and elite amateurs.

 Now comes this, eerily reminiscent of the whoppers he told from that dais in 2014:

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) October 13, 2021

So, when Phil says players weren't consulted, he means they didn't consult me:

Rory McIlroy, however, contradicted Mickelson’s account. Speaking to the press at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas on Wednesday, McIlroy said, “I was in all those meetings when we discussed it for quite a while, and I think the majority of players are on board with it.”

McIlroy added of the new local rule: “I think it’s more of a preventative measure. I think if this is as far as they want the ball to go, I think we’re too far past like trying to roll it back, but if this is sort of setting the limit, I think it’s just a preventative measure for the future.”

At that 2014 Ryder Cup presser, Phil told the world that none of the players had been involved in Tom Watson's decisions.  The reality was just the opposite, that Watson had caved to Phil and Keegan and played them in the Friday afternoon session, and watched them get crushed.  

So, what do we think Phil's game is?  Over to Geoff:

There are multiple layers to Mickelson’s Tweets on this matter and we can’t possibly understand what he’s up to. But that won’t stop me from speculating.

As No Laying Up pointed out, the above social media missive is merely the latest in a series of hostile-by-golf-standards jabs at the Global Home. (A few also came up in this podcast with Gary Williams.)

So why is Mickelson so irritable? I’d say he’s acting as rudely to the game’s governors as any all-time great player ever has (though please make other nominations in the comments section). Making it all the more bizarre, Mickelson should be pleased that the Players Championship’s purse is rising to $20 million next year, apparently. Plus, the Tour’s secret PIP fund will feed him a few million more. Fourth by this estimate.

Mickelson’s feeble claim of looking out for the everyday man—while also a victim of Jay Monahan’s supposed authoritarianism—feels like he’s laying the groundwork to break from the PGA Tour. After his historic PGA win and the major championship exemptions going with it, Mickelson’s exempt to the four most important tournaments at this point in his life.

I do remember an item from years ago arguing that Tiger had no need to be a PGA Tour member, that he could play the majors and Tour events on sponsors exemptions, but I think it a more complicated subject than Geoff considers.  But here's the dark place that Geoff goes:

This also frees him up to take a massive disruptor golf league check if he so chooses. Mickelson can say the PGA Tour made him take his 47-inch (driver) shaft to the Middle East where Super Golf League Co-Commissioners Greg Norman and Mohammed bin Salman will not invoke the Model Local Rule. You know, because they want to grow the game.

I have no doubt that he craves that check, and there are always the rumors that he actually needs the money.  But I don't think this can happen, and I actually don't really think that Phil can burn this bridge, however emotionally satisfying it might be.

As we've discussed previously, the fatal flaw in the Premiere Golf league concept is that you need all of the biggest names to sign on, not just a handful.  Mention of the PIP program above reminds us that Jay will always get a chance to outbid the usurpers, so the Empire will always Strike Back.  But how funny is it to think of Phil, at age 51, would be an important cog in an alternative to the PGA Tour?  He's yesterday's news, and even he has to know it at some level...

But the other issue is that he still needs the folks in Ponte Vedra Beach, if only for the opportunity to parachute in and beat up on the round bellies.  There's also his seeming desire for a career in the booth, where I suspect he'd rather not be in an 18th hole tower in Saudi Arabia.  Our Phil has a deep need for respect, but I suspect even he isn't ready to break with his peeps.  At least I think he's smart enough to do that....

Today In Prospective Ryder Cup Venues - In that same Quadrilateral post, Geoff link to this amusing piece on a bidder for the 2031 Ryder Cup .  If you were inclined to think that it can't get any worse than The Belfry, hold that thought:

Peel L&P, the Manchester-based development giant, are ready to spend vast sums transforming an 800-acre, historic estate on Bolton’s rural border with Wigan.

They have already drafted in renowned designer Ross McMurray to draw up plans for an 18-hole championship course, along with a hotel and cabins for players, like at Augusta.

Planning permission has been obtained, but, following opposition from some locals, new proposals will go before the town hall in January. The Government have given the scheme — which includes 1,000 new houses — the green light, as long as the Ryder Cup bid is successful.

In short, by May or June’s decision day, what sounds like a dream may become a reality.

A trip to the site quickly reveals the idea as far from outlandish. Behind long walls and an innocuous gate, a rolling expanse of mature woodland appears ready made for a course.

You already know it looks horrible from that image above, a virtual clone of Le Golf National.   Lord knows that will undoubtedly have great appeal to the Euros, who will inevitably over-interpret the U.S. futility in 2018.  Of course, European Ryder Cup venues are determined by a systematic evaluation of the architectural quality of the proposed venues.... Kidding, it's the number of zeros on the check.

As bad as it looks, the experience might be far worse than that:

‘The aim is to host what we’d call the People’s Ryder Cup,’ says PGA professional Pete Styles, who runs an academy at the nearby Peel-built Trafford Centre and who has been closely involved in the project.

‘We’d be looking at 75,000 people a day (around 45,000 attended each day of last month’s US romp at Whistling Straits). This golf course can house an awful lot of people.

‘It has the connectivity, it’s close to international airports and it will have the hotel beds in and around, with Manchester down the road. As long as Ryder Cup Europe have the appetite we think we can get to 100,000 a day, but we want to make sure it’s still a good viewers’ experience.’

To clarify, that's 75,000 people with four groups on the golf course.... Should be great, no?

Dreadful, right?  So, why do I consider it amusing?  Because this is the property today:

 It is, literally, a cow pasture.... 

That's it for today, kids.  have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday.

Midweek Musings

I had taken the day off yesterday since no Wednesday game was contemplated.  That's changed, the weather is simply too good not to sample, but we've some rare Tuesday afternoon blogging will fill that void.

Gambling On The Future - This whole gambling thing is getting interesting, as per this L.A. Times deep dive on the subject.  It's focus is football mostly, but shall we see whether there's any cautionary tales for our little game?  First, let's set the table with the current status:

Times have changed dramatically. Since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting, the practice has moved out from the shadows and into the limelight faster

than just about anyone would have predicted.

Legal sports betting is now available in more than two dozen states and the District of Columbia, though some allow only in-person wagers rather than online play. (California has not yet legalized sports betting.) Over half the adult population in the United States is in a state where some form of sports betting is legal. By 2023, that could grow to more than 80% of adults in the U.S., according to executives.

Global digital betting revenue is estimated to exceed $43 billion in 2025, up from $25.5 billion this year, according to research firm H2 Gambling Capital.

OK, that obviously sounds like what we used to call an BFN, but that leads nicely to our first surprise:

Lee Berke, president of the consulting firm LHB Sports, Media & Entertainment, said sportsbook companies are putting 80% of their revenue into marketing. Sports betting has exploded as an advertising category for NFL TV rights-holders Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN.

“Let’s just say that our fans are really interested in sports betting,” Bob Chapek, chief executive of ESPN parent Walt Disney Co., said last month. “Let’s say that our partners with the leagues are interested in sports betting. So we’re interested in sports betting.”

Attitudes have changed.

Are they?  It just seems that spending 80% of one's revenue is quite the high price to generate business, and makes me wonder about sustainability.

This seems telling as well, perhaps not exactly in the manner they think:

The rise of regulated gambling gives viewers a literal investment in the outcome of a game, even if their home team isn’t the one playing, said Abraham J. Wyner, faculty lead of the Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative of the University of Pennsylvania.

“I’ve been a lifelong fan of my favorite teams, particularly the Yankees, and that keeps me interested, but I’m not about to go watch Red Sox-Rays if I don’t have a betting interest or some other kind of interest in the outcome,” Wyner said. “As people are becoming more removed from the actual playing of the game in their lives, betting is a great way to cultivate more interest and deeper interest in the broadcast.”

I assume the mention of the Red Sox-Rays was  meant to inflict emotional distress in your humble blogger, whose own interests align with the speaker's.

But while wagering may spur interest, are we quite certain that said interest is in the broadcast?  I get that it is a way of bringing more eyeballs to a telecast, but those don't seem likely to hang around.  Also ignored is that much of the betting is not on the outcome of an event, but on individual performance or other metrics.

As I've long noted, I don't think golf actually lends itself to gambling by others (as opposed to wagering on ourselves), but this might be the key bit:

Only the seven betting companies with NFL deals are allowed to advertise during pro football broadcasts. The league allows six ads per telecast: one per quarter and one during pregame and halftime.

While odds analysis can bring another level of sophistication to coverage, NFL executives are reluctant to have explicit gambling references during the regular live national broadcasts. Research indicated that audiences don’t want national broadcasts to explicitly include gambling chatter, according to Christopher Halpin, the NFL’s chief strategy and growth officer.

“The bettors say, ‘I don’t need to hear Jim Nantz and Tony Romo talk about sports betting,’” Halpin said. “‘It’s inauthentic. It’s not their area.’”

Hello!  need I remind the reader that that's the BETTORS speaking, not the core audience with no interest in gasmbling...

The NFL is smart enough to not risk alienating their core audience, but Jay Monahan has no such reticence.  Why do we think that is?  There's a couple of possible explanations, beginning with the differing sizes of audience.  It just so happens that Shack linked to the ratings from last weekend, and it wasn't a pretty picture:

Lots to laugh at therein.  Not only did the senior event (thanks, Phil) outdraw the Shriners, but Saturday at the latter outdrew Sunday (I know, those gambling-free NFL broadcasts).  We're talking audience sizes barely large enough to garner a rating, and good luck finding anyone in that coveted 18-49 demo.

But the other aspect of this is that our game's leadership doesn't seem to have much confidence in their product, despite a game that's survived and prospered for centuries.  We saw a similar thing with the dumbing down of the language in that 2019 rules rewrite, where they clearly believed that a term like "All Square" was off-putting to the masses.  The sense one gets is that Jay isn't happy with what he has, and is willing to burn his current audience in the hopes of growing it.  

Geoff had some thoughts on how this has played out, with which I am not remotely in agreement:

Golf’s foray has largely leaned on selling ads to the various authorized gaming partners of the Tours, with a scattershot and comically lame approach on the television side (to date). In reading about the above NFL findings, it’s hard not to think about the painful sound earlier this year of longtime CBS analysts Nick/Ian/Frank having to make their FanDuel picks for next week, or Golf Channel’s Jimmy The Greek, Paige Mackenzie, chiming in on a top parlay opportunity at PointsBet, currently available in four states. At least the CBS crew turned the sponsored bits into a chance to laugh a little.

Good news for the anti-gambling set: if the lazy, awkward and short-sighted integration continues, the whole thing will fizzle based on first impressions.

Inauthentic would be a kind description of that forced FanDuel promo.  Then again, the next humorous bit to come from the mouth of Mumbles Faldo will also be the first.... As for the potential fizzle, we should only be so lucky.

Follow The Money - I had promised a follow-up to Geoff's analysis of the USGAs public filings, and I'm a man who delivers.  Except, yanno, when I don't... First, on the revenue side:

The USGA members program brought in $14.9 million, down from $16.5 million in 2019. This is noteworthy since the organization quietly brought back Golf Journal and is making a hard push to restore revenues lost by winding down the members program earlier this century, a mistake I wrote about in The Future of Golf. This is important because…

Five corporate sponsorships brought in $19.5 million in 2020 revenue, down from $22.4 million in 2019. Meaning, if the members program was double its current number (thought to be in the low six-figures) or back to it’s turn-of-the-century, high six-figure total, the program could account for most of the corporate support. To put it more bluntly, the various “activations” could be shelved and shed the U.S. Open of excess commercialization. However, not listed in this report are dollar amounts required by these corporate sponsors to spend on advertising time.

That last bit makes it hard to have any feel for this, but the organization does seem more corporate-driven than historically.  But it's how they spend their money that could be most interesting:

Bryson DeChambeau won the 2020 U.S. Open and $2.25 million. But he did not make the list of five highest paid independent contractors.

Zambezi LLC is the Culver City-based ad agency hired by USGA’s former Chief Brand Officer Annis. They crafted the “From Many, One” campaign. Zambezi’s webpage page devoted to its USGA campaign can be viewed here, if you must. For those keeping score, that’s $2.25 million to “The One” who captured the 2020 U.S. Open, while $2.1 million marketed the qualifying to get there. The organization could not find the funds to have a writer, photographer and video crew to document the “From Many” stories, but they could dump $2.1 in ad agency coffers. Kids: stop hitting balls and start coming up with lame slogans.

USGA spending on “Golfer Engagement” was down $3 million in 2020 but still topped $10.1 million. Presumably, this includes marketing, mailers, ad campaigns, influencers and other efforts to sell the organization’s work, including the various “brand campaigns”.

I think the better story would be what they lump into this category, but I doubt we'll ever be able to conduct that forensic audit.  But don't cry for these folks, the R&A didn't cash the only Business Interruption check:

Insurance has paid $29.5 million, so far. The report says a USGA “event cancellation insurance” claim was filed for the 2020 U.S. Open. Based on the claim’s “validity”, the carrier paid $29.5 million but suggested future reimbursements are possible.

So, they held the event yet still got compensated... Boy, these guys are good.

Obviously, they weathered the pandemic with only minor hiccups, so now they have adequate resources to fight the distance battle... Yeah, just kidding.

But according to Geoff, they (presumably with the R&A) are prepared to make a major move in this area:

Any day now—maybe even tomorrow since Tuesday’s end in a y—the USGA and R&A are overdue on a decision about the proposed “Model Local Rule” capping non-putter club length at 46 inches. According to the proposal, lowering the limit from 48 inches would be geared toward “competitions limited to highly skilled players.”

The likelihood of a rule change is strong since it will have very little impact on today’s game. The comment period, part of a study underway since 2016, ended in April after an extension was granted. Given how few “elite” players have been competitive with extended drivers or how few manufacturers stock shelves with anything longer than 46 inches, this Local Rule is more about hedging against innovation while setting an intriguing regulatory precedent.

Remember this odd outburst from Phil?

Geoff explains:

Ignoring Phil’s understandable self-interest in the matter—or maybe Brooke Henderson since she’s used a 48-inch driver for years—the USGA and R&A would only be inconveniencing .0000001% of current golfers. Manufacturers rarely have sold something longer than 46 inches, and unless you’re exploring a Long Drive circuit move or you’re Bryson DeChambeau feeling frisky heading into a fall Masters, few current players will be affected.

Henderson is an interesting citation, since she chokes down the grip several inches seemingly with every club in the bag.  But of course the most interesting aspect of this, which negate Phil's faux concern for the amateurs, is that it brings the B-word into play:

By invoking a Model Local Rule to (theoretically) regulate distance, this backdoor bifurcation would provide a noteworthy precedent when bigger-ticket topics are set to be considered this winter. (Remember manufacturers: papers are due November 2nd!)

Is Backdoor Bifurcation anything like a Backdoor Top Ten?  Asking for a friend named Rory....

The interesting thing here might be the reaction of the other governing bodies.  Shack picks the PGA of America as the most likely to break with the USGA, as they've done previously.  Much ado about nothing on this limited subject, but the bigger issues remain outstanding.

It Takes Money To... - I don't have much in the way of commentary, but did you ever wonder how much it costs to keep a PGA Tour professional on the road?  Even if you didn't, we have an answer for you:

Tips: $5,000

Locker-room attendants, baggage handlers, bellhops, housekeepers: Keeping the golf gods happy by keeping the service sector happy means digging deep into one’s wallet for generous tips in the range of $200 a week on tour.

Private chef: $25,000

Who says the game’s cash-machine stars aren’t still hungry? Few elite players have full-time private chefs — but they often hire them, and those services go for $3,000 to $5,000 a week. Mmmm-mmmm, expensive.

Trainer: $100,000

No pain, no gain. Now drop and give me 100K!

Physio/massage therapy: $150,000

At the game’s highest level, staying limber is priceless. Also, pricey.

Coach: $150,000-$200,000

There are all kinds of coaches: swing, short game, mental, even data. Contract structures likewise vary, from flat rates to commissions, but this is the (tony) neighborhood for the annual cost of coaching.

Accommodations: $200,000

Ballpark, because the price of rental homes and hotel suites vary wildly from one Tour stop to another. Still, in lodging, as with airfare, these guys don’t often stint, which makes for a hefty year-end line item.

Travel: $150,000-$400,000

Platinum-level players don’t fly coach, and first-class tickets and private jets don’t come cheap, especially when you’re winging around the globe to a couple dozen tournaments annually.

Caddie: $500,000-$1,000,000

Most loopers for top players earn a base fee of $2,500 a week, plus 10 percent of prize money on a win, 8 percent on a top-10 finish and 6 percent on everything else. Do the math — don’t forget to factor in the wind! — and you get a substantial sum.

Total: $1.88–$2.08 million

I wouldn't include the caddie here, because that's a profit-sharing expense that reduces net proceeds to the player.  But don't some of those numbers seem low?  Can you rent that house in Augusta during Masters week for less than fifty grand?   

Perhaps the more interesting analysis would be that of the costs for an aspiring Tour pro, one that hasn't yet made bank.  

To Bee, Or Not To Bee - On Monday I shared my modified, limited support of J.R. Smith's college golf career, which took quite the bizarre turn:

J. R. Smith’s NBA career had several wacky twists and turns, and just three rounds into his

college golf career, his second act is following a similar script.

After opening with rounds of 83 and 78 in the Elon Phoenix Invitational on Monday, Smith returned to Alamance Country Club Tuesday for the third round of his college golf debut with the North Carolina A&T Aggies. However, it would soon take a bizarre turn.

According to Twitter user Jared Bunder, Smith hit his ball into the woods on the par-5 12th and ventured into the foliage in search of it. He stepped on a beehive during the search, triggering the bees into a full-blown attack on the two-time NBA champion.

Talk about your buried ledes... they apparently played at the on golf course in America that hasn't removed all their trees.

 I haven't watched the videos on offer, but the man finished:

Smith went on to double bogey the hole, but he did break 80 for the second consecutive round, posting 79 in Round 3 to finish his first collegiate tournament in 81st place.

We can only wish that our golf leadership had the same love for our game as a washed-up former athlete....I know, a pipe dream.

An Inconvenient Narrative? - As we noted a while ago, the European Tour has severed ties to the nice folks at Golf Saudi, and the PGA Tour will no longer allow its players to participate in the Kingdom's flagship event, presumably partially related to the country's treatment of its female citizens.  So this seems, well, curious:

Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson among LPGA stars set to compete in Golf Saudi's Aramco Team Series in New York

 You have to dig into the item a bit, but the contrast is there to be seen:

Last year, several of the LPGA’s biggest stars traveled to Saudi Arabia for the country’s first women’s golf events. Pedersen won back-to-back events in Saudi Arabia to claim the Race to Costa del Sol title.

Top male players drew criticism for teeing it up in the men’s Saudi event in 2019 and 2020, particularly in the wake of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

Dustin Johnson, who ultimately won the inaugural event, said, “It’s my job to play golf.” Justin Rose, who competed in 2019 but not in 2020, added, “I’m not a politician, I’m a pro golfer.”

Hey, I was critical of the noxious Saudis long before it became cool, but this is quite obviously hypocrisy on steroids.  Apparently DJ and JR are morally bankrupt for taking those thirty pieces of silver from the misogynist Saudis, but the women players are free to do so. 

But great progress has been made:

While some of Saudi Arabia’s discriminatory laws against women have relaxed in recent years – women can now drive cars and travel abroad without permission from their male guardian – it remains one of the most gender-segregated countries in the world.

So, as I understand today's crazy kids, it's all about a woman's choice as relates to her body... which the Saudis now respect, as long as the woman chooses to have her body leave the country.   Or something...

But it's more important to understand why the Euro Tour suddenly broke with the Saudis.  Their treatment of women is a longstanding disgrace, and the Kashoggi murder, shocking as it was, breaks no new ground (except in the propaganda sense, in which calling Kashoggi a "journalist" makes a mockery of that term, as well as of his "employer").  No, the Euro Tour break was something far more primal.... It was Jay Monahan (vis his loyal manservant, Martin Slumbers), protecting his feedlot.  

A Game of Honor - Mike Bamberger takes a deep dive in Phil's rules kerfuffle over the weekend, which seems to me an odd state of affairs, though not necessarily of Phil's creation.  But before we get to Mikey, let's take a look with Josh Sens as to the evolution of this rule:

What’s the relevance of 2004? That was the year the governing bodies eliminated Rule 18-2c, which levied a one-shot penalty if a player’s ball moved after that player touched any loose

impediment lying within a club-length of the ball.

Pebble. Pinecone. Pine straw. Name the object. It didn’t matter. Neither did your intent. If you moved something, anything, within a club-length of your ball and your ball moved afterwards, one shot was added to your score.

That rule was intended to keep things simple. But, as Craig Winter, Senior Director, Rules of Golf & Amateur Status for the United States Golf Association puts it, “really simple rules can sometimes seem unfair.”

 But now comes that 2019 rules revision:

In the years since, of course, many other rules of the game have changed.

One that has been mentioned on social media and in other press accounts of Sunday’s Mickelson incident is a 2019 modification to Rule 9.2, which applies to “all questions of fact about why a ball at rest moved.”

Prior to 2019, the standard used in this rule was “weight of evidence.”

As the USGA’s Winter describes it, prior to 2019, “you were basically looking at a 50/50 balance on the scale.”

The problem with that approach was that given all the potentially complicating factors (such as what the player did near the ball and how much time elapsed before the ball moved, to say nothing of wind, lie and other course conditions), you wound up with a lot of controversial “close calls.” It could be a headache.

In 2019, to minimize those headaches, the standard was changed to “known or virtually certain.” The upshot of this was to make decisions more clear-cut. If you were going to rule that a player had caused his or her ball to move, you had to be all but certain of it, as in 95-percent sure. If you weren’t all but certain that player or a caddie or some other outside influence had caused the ball to move, then you had to assume that natural forces were the cause.

I get that the status quo ante was unsatisfying, but if you wanted to draft a rule for the convenience of Patrick Reed, could you come up with anything better than this?  A player can't be absolutely certain about anything, so therefore the player can do anything he or she wants to around their golf ball.

That penultimate 'graph above is really quite clever, because the myriad of factors are all that which the player might have done to cause his ball to move.  What else might have caused it to move?  Pine straw is notoriously unstable and there might have been a gust of wind, but isn't the far likelier scenario that the player caused it?  

Now we get to Mike's take:

On 16, Mickelson, a famously left-handed golfer, shoved a drive into the left trees. He and his ball were in a veritable forest of pines. His ball was sitting up on a bed of pine straw like a down pillow at a better hotel.

Mickelson examined the lie and did some grounds-keeping, removing nature’s debris some inches from his ball and a pine cone further away than that. There’s Spanish moss on the forest floor at Timuquana, little leaves, pieces of bark. The usual, and what Mickelson was doing was SOP. Then, while standing away from his ball, Mickelson saw that it had moved from its original position.

A starting point of golf is to play the ball as it lies, and now the lie was different. He told Jimenez that he would be calling in a rules official.

Mike spends a lot of time rationalizing, or so it seems to me:

“Yeah, I know I didn’t [cause the ball to move] because the stuff I moved wasn’t around the ball. I just didn’t know what the new rule is. The old rule was–“

That’s when Satterfield described the only thing that mattered, the current rule.

“Yeah, it was a minute at least,” Mickelson said, describing the time between moving the pine cone and when the ball moved.

So, if the stuff wasn't around your ball, why did you move it?  But Mike, whose opinions on matters of honor I value highly, is happy with the result, a view I can't quite share:

Golf Channel’s raw footage showed that the ball moved 30 or 31 seconds after Mickelson moved the pine cone. That happens. Mickelson wasn’t looking at a stopwatch. The different between a “minute at least” and 30 seconds is life unfolding in real time, and not the ultimate issue here.

Golfers know that when you move anything on pine needles, you can sometimes start a game of tiddlywinks, where one pine needle moves another and a chain reaction begins and in the end a ball moves. That’s a real thing, but not, in the end, the most telling thing. The final question was this: could Phil Mickelson say he was “virtually certain” that he caused his ball to move?

No, was his answer. He could not say that he was virtually certain that he caused his ball to move.

In other words, this was an example of the weirdness that can happen when a 1.62-ounce golf ball is sitting on a bed of pine needles.

Nobody questioned Mickelson about his decision. Golf, after all, is a game of honor.

Isn't that second graph a rather significant admission against interest?

My problem, and I should disclose here that I haven't watched the videos, is what do we think was the most likely cause of the ball moving?  The answer is obvious...despite the removed objects not being near the ball and the passage of 30-31 seconds, golfers know that when you move anything on pine needles..... yeah, Mike filled in the rest.

I'm deep into the "Get off my lawn" stage of life, but that also means I'm old enough to remember when golfers played the ball as it lies.... How quaint.

 That'll be a wrap for today.  Enjoy the Indian Summer weather, and I'll most likely see you Friday morning.

Weekend Wrap

You know the drill... I offer authoritative insights as to golf events I saw none of, after which we remind ourselves that it's a mere 175 days until the Masters.  

Dateline: Las Vegas - He went on quite the heater, but who knew scorecards come in differing shades of red:

Sungjae Im rides bright-red scorecard to blowout Vegas victory

In Vegas, sevens are typically the number of choice. On the slot machine, three sevens means you’re a big-time winner. On the blackjack table, three sevens makes 21.

But on the golf course, threes typically get the job done. Sungjae Im made a whole bundle of ’em on Sunday at TPC Summerlin en route to a rout at the Shriners Childrens Open.

Im began his final round in a share of sixth place. He cut into the lead with a birdie 3 at the first. He parred 2 and 3 and then really got going, reeling off eight birdies in his next 10 holes to break away from a crowded field. He made nine threes in his first 12 holes. He was nine under par through 13 holes. And then he coasted to the house with five par for a final-round 62 and a four-shot win in the desert.

Im continues to be younger — and better — than you think. He plays so well and so often that we’re used to his name on just about every leaderboard, but Im is just 22 and he’s now a two-time PGA Tour winner.

Nine threes in the first twelve holes?  That's obviously pretty sick, but he had eleven threes for the day, which might be the more memorable stat...  Do they keep records of such?  Interestingly, when Jim Furyk shot 58 at Hartford, he had "only" seven threes....  Of course, Mr. Furyk had four deuces, only three of which were on Par-3's, so perhaps we've spent enough time on this?

I did flip to Golf Channel during commercials and the leaderboard seemed compressed, until it wasn't:

This is a funny reminder of Im's vagabond lifestyle pre-Covid:

For Im, the win serves as a reminder of how much has changed since his last one. At the time of the 2020 Honda Classic, Im played so often he didn’t even have a home base — he just lived hotel to hotel, week to week. Now he has a new caddie, a new trainer, a new place of residence and a new trophy to store there.

“Buying a house in Atlanta, obviously hotel-to-hotel was not easy, but having somewhere to settle down, to have my house and Atlanta, it’s great to commute, it’s a huge airport, there are a lot of flights to everywhere, so it all came together very well.”

Yeah, when the powers that be order us to shelter in place in our holes, it's good to actually have a home.... 

I'm going to segue into a related item from one of our Monday staples, the  Golf.com Tour Confidential roundtable in a second, but it's worth making a rather obvious point.  This is the second straight week in which this feature, designed to recap the major golf news of the weekend, has ignored the PGA Tour event of the week.  All available evidence is that Jay Monahan is impervious to data that conflicts wit his worldview, but that might be a pretty good indication that the Wraparound season isn't working.  I've got more in that vein as well....

The most interesting aspect of  the 2021 Shriner's Children's Open might be... well, I'm playing you, because there really isn't one... But we do have a story peg, because 2021 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the last time this event was interesting.  One of my open browser tabs is this PGATour.com reminiscence of a manic period that was triggered by the exclamation, "Hello, World!":

Vegas Jackpot

The first week of October, Woods still on the hunt to earn enough to garner a card for 1997, he

showed up to the Las Vegas Invitational, and that was when everything finally would fall into place. Rested, he opened with 70 in the 90-hole event, then shot rounds of 63-68-67-64 (his 63 included a ball in the water, and instructor Butch Harmon said Woods “should have shot in the 50s”). Woods defeated Davis Love III in a playoff.

Said Love, “We were all trying to postpone the inevitable.”

The postponement wasn’t going to happen. As for the card he was chasing, Woods now had secured one, exempt on the TOUR for the next two seasons with his victory. Q-School is one tournament that Woods never did enter.

I do hope you're not triggered by how young he looks in that photo, but I've another means of reminding you how often the world has turned since then.  Davis Love was still using a persimmon driver that week.... 

That aforementioned Tour Confidential panel has no interest in the current event, but did riff off this anniversary for this bit:

5. This week marked the 25th anniversary of Tiger Woods’ first of 82 PGA Tour wins, at the Las Vegas Invitational. Many of Woods’ wins are burned in our memory banks — 1997 Masters, 2000 U.S. Open, 2019 Masters, et al. — but which of Woods’ more under-the-radar victories do think deserves more attention?

Sens: For some reason, his win at Cog Hill in ’97 comes to mind. Toward the end of his first full year on Tour. I’m pretty sure it was this fourth win of the season. They let the ropes down on 18, and a swarm of spectators rushed up behind Tiger as he played the final hole. An early sign of the coming madness.

Dethier: His most recent W at the Zozo Championship still doesn’t get enough love. The 2018 Tour Championship was his official return. The 2019 Masters was the completion of his comeback and the crowning achievement of this miraculous new chapter. But the 2019 Zozo was validation that that Masters win wasn’t a fluke — this cat could still play.

Reilly: Being the Long Island homer I am, I have to go with Tiger’s ‘02 U.S. Open win at Bethpage Black. I grew up 15 minutes away from Bethpage, and when the U.S. Open was announced, it consumed the area with excitement. The excitement was about getting to watch the world’s best struggle on our pride and joy. Bethpage is the epitome of New York tough, if you will. It lived up to the hype as 155 golfers finished above par for the championship. The only player who finished under par? Tiger. It was an equal testament to the greatness of Tiger and Bethpage.

Colgan: A win that deserves more attention from me: his victory at the 2009 Memorial. That weekend, I witnessed my brother win a dollar off my grandpa off their biannual “Tiger Woods vs. the field” bet. Andrew took Tiger and watched as he stunned the field with that famous chip-in on the 11th, and then birdied 17 and 18 to close out the win.

Kinda amusing to hear Tim Reilly wax nostalgic about that 2002 Open, given how miserable it all was.  A good portion of the field was unable to even reach the fairways on Nos. 10 and 12, and then there was the crowd taunting Sergio as he gripped and ungripped his club approximately 42 times before each and every shot.  Good times!  But under the radar?  Yeah, that's quite the stretch....

The only other bit from Vegas that's of interest to your humble blogger is this bad break suffered by the comeback kid:

Matthew Wolff hit his tee shot on the 13th at TPC Summerlin, it surprisingly stopped just a foot from the lip of a fairway bunker, and Jim “Bones” Mackay winced.

No stranger to caddying, Mackay is familiar with both the work of a good loop, and that of a bad one. And this?

“This is horrible,” the analyst said on the Golf Channel broadcast.

Wolff’s ball, Mackay saw during Sunday’s final round of the Shriners Children’s Open, had come to rest in a groove in the bunker left by a bunker rake and failed to trickle down into a more manageable shot. While you could successfully argue that Wolff shouldn’t have been in the sand in the first place, you could also make the point that he’d at least get the common courtesy of having the people in front of him clean up after themselves.

From his near-impossible position, Wolff hit hit his ball just 19 feet.

It looked like this: 

Here's a bit more:

“The reason this ball didn’t release back down in the bunker some 15 feet is it got caught up in a bad rake job,” said Mackay, both Phil Mickelson’s former longtime caddie and Justin Thomas’ new one. “So just a nightmare scenario for Matthew, who can’t get this ball back to the fairway.”

“Awful,” analyst Curt Byrum said on the broadcast. “He’s got to be frustrated right now.”

So, with cameras and spectators everywhere, why aren't they telling us whose bad rake job it was?

I almost forgot this bit, which actually covers last week's tournament.  Not sure what the Ponte Vedra Beach suits think they're accomplishing, but no one is watching.  Via Shack, here are the ratings for all televised sports for the week ended October 3, 2021:

Here's Geoff's deservedly snarky take:

I’ve seen golf lose out to pretty much all of Animal Planet’s programming slate and Everybody Loves Raymond reruns before—as happened last weekend—and did not expect any self-respecting American sports fan to tune into the 2021 Sanderson Farms last weekend with so much else to watch. We had the MLB season coming to a close, more great NFL games, and total fatigue having set in on the PGA Tour’s oversaturated “product.”

Still, a .15 and average viewership of 247,000 and only 17,000 in the 18-49 year old, is pretty shocking to see in print given the Sanderson Farms doing 450,000/.29 last year.

Pretty embarrassing, or would be if these folks were capable of embarrassment.  Though there was worse:

This also means the weekend’s European Tour event at St Andrews and the LPGA’s ShopRite did not draw a Golf Channel audience large enough to register a rating.

Ouch!

Dateline: West Caldwell, NJ - Perhaps it's a shame that, per the item just above, no one is watching, because this girl is actually pretty special:

Jin Young Ko dominated the Founders Cup on Sunday in New Jersey, claiming a four-stroke win with a final-round score of 68. But of course, that wasn’t a surprise. None of it was. Not when

your past three weeks have gone as well as Ko’s have.

To call the stretch Ko is on “a heater” would be a vast understatement. Rather, Ko is on an absolute scorcher. So hot is she that on Sunday, she tied an LPGA record for the most consecutive rounds in the 60s.

Yes, Ko has now shot 14 straight rounds in the 60s, a run of dominance unmatched by anyone not named Annika Sorenstam, who achieved the feat in 2005. Not since July has Ko recorded a round in the 70s in professional play, a stretch dating back to her five-over 76 in the third round of the Evian Championship on July 24. It’s been 60s ever since for the 26-year-old, and now, Sorenstam and Ko are tied in history.

I had wanted to watch some of this event, because the event was held at the iconic Mountain Ridge Country Club, a faithfully-restored Donald Ross classic, which my Wednesday Game visited last year around this time.

While Nelly Korda is a deserving top-ranked player, Ko could well be the challenger the ladies need.  This streak is amazing in its own way, but potentially even more impressive was that she won the ladies' season-long competition last year while playing in a mere four events.

As we did above, let's turn to a tangentially-related bit form that TC panel.  Scroll down to my prior post to see my epic rant on the subject, and compare and contrast to the rather muted reaction to the Dinah defenestration:

3. One of the LPGA’s majors received a sizable shakeup this week, as the tournament now known as the ANA Inspiration will move from Mission Hills Country Club in California to Houston in 2023 and to a later date in the spring (potentially avoiding a conflict with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur); it also will be renamed the Chevron Championship and receive a 60 percent purse increase. While the payouts and exposure are no doubt positives, the move will at least be somewhat bittersweet, as the event has been held at Mission Hills since its inception in 1972, with the winners diving into Poppy’s Pond since 1988. Good move overall?

Sens: Bad move for anyone inclined toward nostalgia or deeply wedded to tradition. But I doubt you’re going to hear any players complaining. I hope they find a way to keep the ceremonial winner’s plunge into a pond.

Dethier: TBD. If the Chevron is fully committed to creating an event with the atmosphere and depth of the setup at Mission Hills, absolutely. Avoiding the ANWA is smart, locking down an enthusiastic sponsor is crucial, and a pay increase is a big, big deal. Let’s hope the golf course can properly showcase the elite field, and let’s hope it’s here to stay.

Reilly: Dylan summed it up well. While it’s always a bummer to lose out on a historical connection to an event, it’s too soon to say if this will turn into a better play for the long term. The LPGA has forward thinkers running the show, and that’s what they’re trying to do. At the very least, moving the timing around is a wise decision.

Colgan: Tradition is great! Money and exposure are greater for the women’s game. The big questions surround Chevron’s involvement, for sure, but the number of zeroes attached to their financial commitment would seem to be a fairly good sign they’re into it.

They're into it until they're not.... that typically happens right around when they see the first TV ratings.  

But riddle me this, Batman.  How is the Chevron any different than the Evian?  Now answer the same question about the Dinah?  

Of course, I also love that bit about "avoiding" the ANWA.... Remind me, who had that date first?  And are we still crediting the Lords of Augusta with supporting the women's game after destroying their most important event?

Dateline: Jacksonville, FL -  The intersection of Phil Mickelson and the rulebook has long been an interesting place, but am I the only one that finds this more than a little dodgy?

Phil Mickelson, under a pre-2019 rule, may not have won this weekend’s Champions Tour event.

But this, of course, is 2021.

During Sunday’s final round of the Furyk and Friends tournament, Mickelson shot a four-under 68, finished two shots ahead of Miguel Angel Jimenez and won his third senior circuit tournament in just four overall starts. All of that, however, was in question on the par-4 16 at Timuquana Country Club.

There, after slicing his tee shot into the trees, he began to clear pine straw around his ball ahead of his second shot — only for the ball to roll a half-turn to the left as he stood to the right of it. Mickelson would plead his case to an official, arguing for an application of Rule 9.2, which had been revised in early 2019.

As you know well, my brains travels on a solitary course, so this triggers a recollection of how Phil benefitted from a change in insider trading laws, but I guess that's not important now...

According to the USGA, the rule now states: “A player, opponent or outside influence is found to have caused the ball to move if the player, opponent or outside influence was known or virtually certain to have caused it to move; otherwise it is assumed that natural forces caused it to move.” Prior to 2019, according to a USGA release, the ruling would have been based on “weight of the evidence/more likely than not.”

“And then later, the ball moved an inch or two,” Mickelson was heard telling an official on the Golf Channel broadcast.

“OK, you’re just going to have to determine if you caused the ball to move,” the official said.

“Yeah, I know I didn’t, but — because the stuff I moved wasn’t around the ball. … I just didn’t know what the new rule is. The old rule was … “

The official then described that rule.

“Yeah, it was a minute at least,” Mickelson said.

“But you’re just going to have to make that call whether you caused it to move,” the official said.

“OK, very good, thank you,” Mickelson said.

So, since we think golf is a microcosm of life itself, I see this in our future:

District Attorney: OK, you're just going to have to decide whether firing that bullet into his head caused him to die.

Suspect: OK, very good, thank you.

On a more serious note, our rules makers have long struggled with the concept of intent, and that 2019 Rules Revision is riddled with land mines such as this.  Will any player ever admit to causing their ball to move in the future?  Not bloody likely after this....  Thanks, Phil, you're contributions to our game are such that you can take the rest of your life off...

Today In College Golf - It's long been said that the plural of "anecdote" is "data", an amusing but tenuous premise.  But it just so happens that we have two examples of a trend for you, one that I kind of like.  The first is a story that broke a while back that I never got around to blogging:

JR Smith will get a chance to shoot his shot.

Smith, who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association before joining North Carolina A&T’s golf team this summer as a walk-on, will play in his first collegiate match next

week the school announced. The tournament is Elon’s Phoenix Invitational, being played at Alamance C.C. in Burlington, N.C.

Smith earned his tee time by advancing in the team’s qualifying tournament by a stroke.

Smith, who bypassed college in his basketball career when drafted straight from high school to the NBA, enrolled in school following his NBA retirement and was given a waiver by the NCAA to play on the golf team in late August. He was drawn to North Carolina A&T due to his interested in HBCUs.

As for his game, Smith has been playing for the better part of a decade and said earlier this summer his handicap hovered around 5.

I like it, but I also understand the argument that could be made against it, that he's already had his moment in the sun, and that therefore an opportunity has been denied to a younger person whose character is still being developed.  

See if you like this one any better:

WSJ’s Jason Gay profiles Debbie Blount, an underclassman and Georgeia’s Reinhardt University and playing on the golf team. The sophomore is 63.

Now she longed for a change. “After my husband passed away, I was getting stale,” Blount

said. “I love golf, but I’d lost my passion for it, and I was looking for something fun and different.”

Her path returned her to Reinhardt, a school she considered more than four decades ago. “It was the combination of golf and getting a degree,” she said. “I probably would not have gone back to school if I couldn’t play golf.”

It was a momentous choice. Blount’s the first person in her family to attend college.

“She’s doing something that she’s always wanted to do,” said Blount’s mother, Loraine Seidel, now 95. “Debbie, when she makes up her mind to do something, she does it.”

I don't know which detail I like more.... The 63-years young woman carrying her bag, or the 95-year old mother explaining her child's willful behavior.

Brooks v. Bryson - It's for sure reached its sell-by date, but since the TC panel went there...

1. The latest chapter in the Bryson–Brooks saga was written this week, as the rivals will try to settle their long-running feud on the day after Thanksgiving in the fifth version of the Match. Perhaps fittingly, the event will be played in Vegas, the Entertainment Capital of the World, over 12 holes at Wynn Golf Club. What’s the best-case scenario for how this event plays out?

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): Brooks out-drives him on every hole, but Bryson trounces him in the match, giving them both reason to be irked.

Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): They each decide to take the match itself very seriously, try earnestly to beat the hell out of each other, and at one point, one of ’em snaps at the other and it leads to a lengthy conversation about how this whole thing makes ’em all FEEL. And then Phil and Barkley come in for post-convo analysis.

Tim Reilly, Director of Social (@LifeofTimReilly): The best-case scenario is some real-life drama breaks out. A lot of this “feud” has felt far too manufactured these past few weeks. We need an authentic war of words to break out to keep this interesting. Outside of that, I’m hoping there is an awakening from course designers and owners who tune in to create more 12-hole courses. That’s the perfect length to satisfy the needs of hardcore golfers and keep those new to the game interested.

James Colgan, assistant editor (@jamescolgan26): Best-case scenario? We leave with fewer than 50 cringes. Worst-case scenario? The cringing never stops.

Those of you that have no lives might have noticed that I usually delete their titles and Twitter handles from the first Q&A.  In this case I didn't, only because Tim Reilly's title amused me.  I'm assuming that the word "Media"  =got somehow elided, but that's just a guess.

In reading the answers you might have cause to remind yourself that these are best-case scenarios...  It also might help to be reminded that there won't be anything else to watch, and the weather isn't likely to be conducive to actually playing golf, but the bar has been set awfully low.

But I do agree that the one interesting aspect is the twelve-hole match, which seems worth trying.  It might still be too long, though even eighteen holes is a complete crapshoot, so any concerns of competitive insignificance are already moot.  Just to head off the most obvious of rejoinders, am I safe in assuming that the winner gets a week in Philadelphia?

They go for one more on this topic:

2. The shorter length of this Match will separate it from previous iterations. How else would you like to see event organizers shake up the Bryson v. Brooks showdown?

Sens: Left-handed long-drive contest. Arm wrestling. Spelling bee.

Dethier: Let’s first acknowledge that the 12-hole thing is (at the very least!) a smart thing to test out. Previous editions of the Match have … kinda dragged. But I think Josh is on the right track. Throw a bench press on the 8th tee and see what happens?

Reilly: Let Bryson and Brooks choose who caddies for the other guy. I saw this brought up by a commenter on Instagram, and I love it.

Colgan: Love the above ideas, particularly the bench-off. Also, give us a Manningcast-style broadcast with Tiger Woods. Four hours inside his brain would be nothing if not illuminating.

James Colgan must not have seen the prior installments, because they confirmed one important fact, to wit, that there's not much of interest inside Tiger Woods.  deal with it, buddy!

As you no doubt observed, today features the most tenuous of segues, almost stream-of-consciousness pairing of stories.  In the vein, the aforementioned James Colgan provides the connective tissue here to a dystopian future:

PGA Tour’s big gambling announcement hints towards golf’s future on TV

And here is that "Big announcement":

“Sportsbook operator PointsBet will provide live betting odds during PGA Tour telecasts on NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock as part of a three-year content and marketing extension that also will include sponsorship of a free-to-play prediction game scheduled to launch in January.”

So, the broadcasts that can't seem to find time to show actual golf shots, will now add another distraction?   Here's Colgan's take:

“Sports gambling has arrived as part of golf coverage, and it’s here for good.”

It may or may not be here for good, but is it good that it's here? 

But see is you can suss out the flaws in this analogy:

At Caesars Sportsbook in Washington, D.C. last weekend, I watched as crowds of close to 100 people lined up outside the entranceway prior to the afternoon kickoffs on a college football Saturday. The interior was packed with people and the building was easily the busiest on the street. As the crowds gathered, the first-ever PGA Tour sportsbook, which is set to open in Arizona, seemingly took shape in front of my eyes.

But another small piece of that answer was revealed two weeks ago, when NBC Sports and PointsBet experimented with airing live odds information during the broadcast of the Fortinet Championship — an experiment the Sports Business Journal report confirmed will be part of our Sundays to come on Tour. For those who tune into the action with a vested financial interest, the news is welcome, perhaps even celebrated. Now, those fans will have access to betting information as it happens on their “first screen” — their television — presumably helping to seed more interest in wagering and helping to further inform those who already do. Moreover, the segment is likely to be one of the more palatable forms of sponsorship integration for the PGA Tour, whose telecasts have struggled with forced “activations” for years

The first and most obvious point is the vast difference in audience size between the two sports....  

But the larger point relates to the nature of the golf audience and their appetite for gambling odds.  This seems to me to be another example of our games leadership pissing on their core audience to chase a preferred demographic.  

The purpose of legalized gambling is to separate the rubes from their money, which seems an odd objective of the PGA Tour until one realizes that their in it for their own vig.  It also seems quite possible to this observer that they'll piss off the core audience only to find that the millennials would rather bet on football or basketball....And that doesn't even touch on the risk of having those with skin in the game close enough to the players to intervene in the proceedings.... What could go wrong?

OK, kids, that's a wrap for today.  I will see you down the road.