Thursday, July 7, 2022

Thursday Threads

Bonus Thursday content for you ingrates.  But an easy day of blogging, so keep your expectations in check.

LIV Until You DIE - A Billy Ho tirade is hardly newsworthy, though he does make some rather obvious points:

Following a hearing before Sport Resolutions on Monday, bans imposed on Ian Poulter, Adrian Otaegui and Justin Harding were lifted and they were added to the field at Renaissance Club, with more set to follow.

But while Horschel insisted he harbours no ill will towards such players, the world No 15 made his feelings on the divisive topic abundantly clear.

‘I believe they made their bed,’ said the American.

‘They decided to go play on that tour and they should go play there. They shouldn’t be coming back over to the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour.

‘To say that they wanted to also support this tour, whether the DP or PGA Tour, while playing the LIV tour, is completely asinine. Those guys made their bed. They say that’s what they want to do, so leave us alone.

‘They keep talking about how the PGA Tour doesn’t listen. I’ve been really frustrated by it because there’s a lot of guys that are hypocrites, that aren’t telling the truth and are lying.

‘I just can’t stand to sit here any more and be diplomatic about it.’

Personally, I'm just relieved to learn that he harbors no ill will....

But he's hitting on some points that seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle, most notably the damage done by defectors to sponsors and the Tour.  And, perhaps more importantly, there's no logical way in which the ambitions of the Saudis can be squared with the PGA and DP World Tour, so that happy talk requires a strong rebuttal.

Far more troubling for the Ponte Vedra suits, however, might be these musings from their stalwart, the antithesis of that strong rebuttal prescribed above:

Until this point, the PGA Tour has taken a black-and-white stance on the matter and its top pros
have supported that stance. Pros who teed it up in the first LIV event were considered to have crossed a line in the sand. They were suspended, immediately and indefinitely, from playing in future Tour events. Commissioner Jay Monahan has continually expressed no interest in partnering or cooperating with Greg Norman’s new Saudi-backed venture.

So when McIlroy suggested to BBC Sport this week that golf’s governing bodies ought to cooperate to find a solution, that marked a significant change in messaging.
 
“I think so,” he said at the JP McManus Pro-Am. “I think that needs to happen.”

Yowser!  Alarms should be ringing at The Global Home.... 

“Yeah it’s unfortunate, it’s messy, I wish it hadn’t have got that messy and in hindsight I think there were probably steps that were missed that wouldn’t have made it that messy,” McIlroy said.

“I said this back at the very start in 2020, I think in the long term it will make the game better because I think it will force the tours to adapt and change and make the product better, and focus on maybe the fan engagement side of things and focus on maybe some stuff that they’ve been neglecting over the years,” McIlroy said.

Ummm, funny, but I don't remember you saying anything remotely like this....

“Look, there’s so much chat about where the money’s coming from and Saudi and everything else, look — they sponsor so many other things and they’re all over sport,” he said. McIlroy is among those who has been critical of pros accepting the Saudi money in the past, so this was him striking a different note.

“Aramco [the Saudi government’s oil company] are big sponsors of Formula One, the Aramco Ladies Series in golf, which has actually been really good for the ladies in terms of big prize funds and so on, so I understand people’s reservations with everything,” he said. “But at the same time, if these people are serious about investing billions of dollars into golf, I think ultimately that’s a good thing.

Rory, I'm confused, is it blood money or not?   

Another point that's been left on the cutting room floor is that, it's one thing to allow the Wahabis to stage an event such as an F1 race or golf tourney, it's quite another to allow them to control the game's major professional tour.

The problem at Fortress PVB is that they've lost control of the arguments.  For instance, this guy projects as a dead ender loyalist:

“Personally, I believe there’s room in golf for lots of tours and lots of competition,” Harrington said at this week’s JP McManus Pro-Am. “The more the merrier, if you ask me.”

It’s a stark difference from what many of the non-defectors have stated in recent weeks, but for Harrington, he believes the disruption the Saudi-backed league presents might turn out to be a positive for the sport. In his view, competition breeds innovation — and that is a very good thing.

“At the moment, there is disruption, there’s no doubt about it, but disruption is not bad at times,” he said. “It looks at the moment like as I said, the PGA Tour look like they have strengthened their position and European Tour are strengthening their position. I feel there is plenty of room and time will tell.”

When you've lost Paddy....Of course, it's a bit of a freebie for him at this point, as compared to Poults, Weesty and Henrik (while the latters' 2023 captaincy was reportedly secured, there have been recent rumors):

Harrington said he hadn’t considered how the future of the Ryder Cup will be impacted by these decisions, but he did say that his time as a part of the European team is behind him.

“I had my chance,” he said. “As much as I loved the experience of being Ryder Cup Captain, and I really did, it was a tough call, and I don’t see myself going back into that arena again. It’s just the nature of the business. It’s a one-and-done, and it’s a bigger event than the individual.”

Innovation, eh?  Well, if that's all you got:

“I would have said, ‘You’ve got to think about it,” Els said. “I understand that the guys

go because of the money — it’s just a ridiculous amount — and you get to a certain point in your career, you have to consider it. But—”

And this is a big but for Els.

“—it’s not golf as we know it anymore. It’s a very different product.”

Much of LIV, of course, looks exactly like golf as we know it. Clubs and balls. Birdies and bogeys. Fairways and flagsticks. But that’s not what Els was driving at. It’s LIV’s format that he can’t get past: the absence of the pure meritocracy — beat half the field or go home with nothing — that is an inherent and integral part of virtually every other major tour.

Yeah, it's a pretty dreadful product, and he hasn't even touched on the field size.

“If it was a 72-hole system, then you’d have to look at it,” Els said. “But it’s 54 holes, no cut, shotgun start. It feels like it’s silly season golf.” Els said he would be fine with the major tours coming together during the off-season to play an unconventional style of golf like LIV has conceived, but he can’t get his head around LIV’s everybody-gets-a-trophy format as a credible way to test and identify the best golfers in the world.

“Go play this kind of format for three or four months and have your fun,” he said. “But then go play real golf after that. That’s how I feel it probably should have gone down but it didn’t.”

Sure, it's perfect for the Fall or Silly Season, but that doesn't net Phil $200 million large....

Gary Van Sickle has a good piece up at Morning Read under this header:


In less than a month, LIV Golf has changed the pro game for years to come. But will it stand up as a product? Gary Van Sickle takes a closer look.

The best thing about it's product is how bad the PGA Tour's product has become, so let's see what Gary's got:

10. The unplayable lies.

Nobody looks good wearing greed. Any number of golfers have proven remarkably un-savvy when it comes to the media. Sergio Garcia, the man-child with a long history of petulance — spitting into a cup and intentionally damaging greens, among others — had rewritten his legacy as a Masters champion and now replaced it as golf’s SuperBrat. (That’s spoiled kid brat, not bratwurst—this explanation for potentially confused Wisconsin readers.) He ripped the PGA Tour earlier this year when he drew a slow-play penalty and last week, The Daily Telegraph reported Garcia lost his cool when he heard the DP World Tour fined players $120,000 for competing in 54 Tour events without getting a release and said, “You’re f----d!”

Brooks Koepka blamed the media for overshadowing the U.S. Open by asking about the 54 Tour and then joined the defectors a week later. He didn’t lie, he claimed, just changed his mind. Sure. Bryson DeChambeau was an early rumored defector, reportedly offered $130 million. He said that wasn’t true … but he eventually joined. Who’s next to backpedal? I don’t know but somebody will tire of watching monster $4 million paydays go to the likes of Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace and weaken.

This tweet from Alan Shipnuck is still open and somewhat applies here:

It benefits everyone when the a******es self-quarantine, but we shouldn't be surprised that the Wahabis got traction with the whiners and malcontents, no one being more whiny than Sergio, who made such a great initial impression in Saudi Arabia.

 But Harig connects the dots for us, as they're not merely whiny:

2. Surrender, Dorothy.

For many of 54 Tour migrants, leaving is a tacit admission that, “I can’t win anymore” or “I don’t want to work hard enough to compete anymore.” It is a white flag. A few months ago when the LIV Tour was still a tangled web, I mentioned something positive about it and got a reply from an adamant Twitterati, “But where’s their pension plan?” The 54 Tour IS a pension plan, buddy. They’re retiring with this sack of money. The young amateurs, however, had no direct path to the PGA Tour. So it made sense to take the money when the alternative was, if you made it through qualifying school, you spend a year as an indentured servant on the Korn Ferry Tour. The rest of you guys just gave up.

Graeme McDowell was at least honest when he told us this is golf without the grind.  Which might be quite nice for them, but eliminates any reason for the rest of us to give a rat's ass.

Yeah, we noticed:

3. The Weakest Link.

The artist formerly known as the European Tour has been exposed. In a new working agreement-but-not-quite-a-merger, the top 10 players on the ET’s Order of Merit will earn PGA Tour cards. The ET is now a feeder system for the PGA Tour. If you’ve been following closely, most ET events this year have had such weak fields, they earn only the minimum Official World Golf Ranking points. Take the money … please. Recent ET events such as the Magical Kenya Open, ISPS Handa Championship in Spain, Betfred British Masters and BMW International offered first-place prizes between $310,000 and $385,000. The LPGA Tour’s Cognizant Founders Cup paid $450,000 to the winner while the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major that upped its purse, paid more than those ET events paid to its first four finishers.

Which has now become Jay's biggest headaache, with the next bailout scheduled in 3,2,1....

Lastly, this obviously belonged above with the Billy Ho story:

As I noted above, of course they're angry.  Not only have they been lied to by their peers, but their ecosystem is being damaged by the defections, so why would we be surprised that they're taking it rather personally?

Links Season - It's the favorite portion of the golf calendar for your humble blogger, so hopefully you'll tolerate any excess of enthusiasm.  To celebrate the season, Golf Magazine has released a first:

Top 100 Courses in the U.K. and Ireland: Our raters’ first-ever ranking of the golf mecca

Including this lovely map:


 The winner is preordained, especially this year:

1. St. Andrews (Old)*
Fife, Scotland

The birthplace of golf features hidden pot bunkers, huge double greens, iconic holes such as the Eden, Road and Long and strategic options galore that change with the day’s wind and hole
location. On calm days, the course can appear innocuous but when the breeze picks up, the Grand Old Lady requires some of the game’s deftest shots. The Old Course, which this month plays host to its 30th Open Championship, might well possess the fastest, best turf in the sport (despite, or perhaps because of, its constant use) and no design possesses the flexibility in allowing golfers of all ages and abilities to enjoy themselves. Modern architects, take note!

The old girl deserves her due, though many of us are worried about how low the scoring might go.

I encourage you to at least scroll the list, as there's no shortage of eye candy (and, it should be noted, it's not exclusively links).  On Tuesday I posted video of North Berwick, noting that you should see the hole known as "pit".  Here I'll just include this phot of the green:


Personal scorecards are silly, but your humble blogger has played nine of that elite top ten, having never made it to the Kent coast.

To me, the rankings get more interesting as you get past the name brands, including this gem about which I'll have more below:

19. Prestwick*
Ayrshire, Scotland

This site of 24 Open Championships (including the first 12) features an irresistible combination
of quirk and muscle. The lumpiest/bumpiest ground is near the clubhouse and yields such marvels as the 1st, with a stonewall and railroad line hard down the right of the fairway, the Narrows 15th and the famous Alps 17th. Meanwhile, a brawny collection of two-shotters defines the stretch from 6-10. Add all the asks together and you have a historic course like no other. The more you travel, the more you appreciate Prestwick’s unique charms. Its influence on the direction of architecture is undeniable, thanks to the impression it made on designers from C.B. Macdonald to Pete and Alice Dye, who, a few years after their 1963 visit, included railroad planks at Harbour Town.

I simply can't see how a golf course could be more fun, and I hear talk that the club has some history.  Speaking of which, have you spent much time on this enduring mystery?


The Scottish club hosted the first Open in 1860 and 23 of the next 59. So what happened in 1925 that caused the R&A to say goodbye forever?

It was kind of a big deal back in the day....

It’s been almost a century since the endlessly eccentric links on the shore of the Firth of Clyde held its 24th—and last—Open. There is nothing directly linking the Open’s departure to inadequate acreage, although that immutable fact would have led to the course becoming the museum piece it is today. While Prestwick remains close to the hearts of those who cherish eccentricity and quirk, it would hardly provide an appropriate test for the modern “bombers” who populate the sharp end of professional golf. Drive-pitch-and-putt would be the order of the four days.

Still, it most certainly was not lack of challenge that saw the championship depart for good in the wake of “Long” Jim Barnes’ 1925 victory. Winner of the first two PGA Championships in 1916 and 1919, as well as the 1921 U.S. Open, the transplanted Cornishman hit his ball 300 times en route to claiming his fourth and last major title and the £75 first-place prize. George Duncan, 1920 Open champion, had the best score (73) in a final round in which only 28 of the 68-player field broke 80. Prestwick back then was no pushover.
The original Open Championship Belt and the Claret Jug photographed on the commemorative cairn that is placed where the first shot in Open Championship history was hit on Oct. 17, 1860.

But it's a bit of a darker tale:

More research, however, would suggest the catalyst behind the demise of Prestwick as an Open venue was likely the popularity of an ex-patriot Scot named Macdonald Smith. At least for that
one week, Smith was the 1920s equivalent of Tiger Woods in terms of fan appeal.

A quick glance at his record makes it clear that the Carnoustie-born naturalized American was one of the best players of the era. Although without a victory in any of what are today golf’s four most important men’s events, Smith won 24 times on what is now the PGA Tour (an impressive fact that has so far failed to gain him entry to the World Golf Hall of Fame) and recorded 17 top-10s in majors. That includes five top-fives in the U.S. Open, seven top-fives in the Open Championship (and no lower than a T-18 in nine total starts). In his one Masters, he was T-7. Strangely, he never played in a PGA Championship.

A bit hard to contemplate from today, but it all went bad:

Smith started his final round 30 minutes later alongside Tom Fernie and so knew with certainty that a round of 78 would be enough to clinch possession of the claret jug. And the round began
well enough with pars on the opening two holes. But soon things started to unravel, courtesy of a crowd that, by all accounts, was largely out of control. Despite it being a Friday workday, the lack of an admission charge was too much of a temptation for many fans. Hundreds took the train from Glasgow and hopped over the wall from the Prestwick station onto the first tee. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 people were in attendance that afternoon, the vast majority watching Smith.

“They wanted the Scotsman to win and all that was wrong was that too many of them wanted it too much,” wrote Bernard Darwin. “It was a fatal misunderstanding and I doubt if he ever got over it.”

That the marshals were unable to cope is clear. “There were occasions on which the players were left with such narrow lanes to play along that some could not see the flags,” was Arthur Leonard Lee’s verdict in The Guardian. The instructions advising marshals to “endeavor to keep the spectators always to the right hand side of the course both going out and coming in” were sadly lost in the confusion.

Amateur golf may have been for gentlemen, but the professional game was rough trade indeed, as anyone knowledgeable about the challenge matches of the era would know.  Though this seems more an abundance of enthusiasm combined with simply too many folks:

“Smith was quoted saying the spectators got in the way many times,” says Andrew Lockhead, Prestwick Golf Club’s archivist. “There were holes where he had to play over the heads of the people. So the crowds clearly overran the playing areas of the course. The stewards couldn’t hold them back.”

The irony, Lockhead notes, is that the spectators were all on Smith’s side. “They were just over exuberant. They thought they were cheering him on. Sadly, he didn’t seem to realize that fact and his concentration was gone.”

Just as damaging was Smith’s loss of control on the greens. Three putts at the seventh, eighth and 15th holes led to double bogeys. But his was a steady disintegration rather than a sudden and dramatic exhibition of the dark art of choking under pressure. After his promising start, Smith was three over par for the next three holes and on his way to what was surely the biggest disappointment of a distinguished but unfulfilled career.

Feels like a silly reason to have abandoned their original venue in hindsight, not that Prestwick's could have survived into the modern era.  But nice to know they were Living Under Par long before it was cool...

That's all for today, kids.

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Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Tuesday Trifles

That long holiday weekend seemed especially...well, long.  But we're now deep into links season, as this week is the Scottish Open in East Lothian.  And four weeks from today Employee No. 2 and I head to the auld sod...

Long LIV The King - We've been over the rules several times, but I'll provide a quick recap all the same.  When they say it's about the money, it's about the money.  But when they say it's not about the money, well, they say a lot of things.  As promised yesterday, Alan Shipnuck has taken a deep dive in LIV money, including this strong lede:

LIV Golf is about many things: disruption, sportswashing, vengeance (in the case of frontman Greg Norman) and, uh, golf. But more than anything, it’s about cold, hard cash. As with many other
issues surrounding this upstart tour, the details around all the money are shadowy. In an effort to get more granular, the Fire Pit Collective spoke with four agents who represent LIV golfers; they were granted anonymity to facilitate candor.

“What you have to understand about professional golfers is that they are all whores,” Agent A says. “That is the starting point.”

Yeah, they're making that fact hard to ignore.  The word that remains in dispute is the "all".

It also includes an appropriate caveat to not believe the numbers being bandied about:

As with team sports, the guaranteed money on LIV varies from player to player, based on age, starpower, current form and projected performance. “Every deal is different,” Ian Poulter says. “There hasn’t been a lot of talk about the money [among players] because that’s personal.” Some of the numbers that have been floated in media reports have been fantastical: $200 million for Phil Mickelson, $150 million for Dustin Johnson, $100 million for Bryson DeChambeau. “You have to take that with a grain of salt,” Agent B says. “Who does it benefit to inflate those numbers? LIV, obviously, because they’re trying to generate buzz and recruit more players. But it also benefits the agents who are trying to sign new players or nudge other clients to make the jump.”

But that sword would have a second edge, in that players will expect their deals to match those telephone numbers being bandied about.

But knowing my compassionate readers, you'll be wondering how the 10%-ers are fairing in this era of Bidenflation:

Though it is subject to negotiation, the standard arrangement in professional golf is that players keep all of the money they win on the course but agents take 20 percent of appearance fees and endorsement deals. LIV’s upfront money is treated like the latter, and as a result, the player representatives are getting a fat cut. (Because there is no cut in the events and players are guaranteed a check, some agencies are taking a commission on the first $120,000 of a player’s winnings, treating it as a de facto appearance fee.) One veteran caddie to a top player who has remained loyal to the PGA Tour says in a text message, “I honestly think that one of the backstories to this LIV thing are agents who desperately want the biggest payday of their lives.”

A key player in the building of LIV Golf is GSE Worldwide, a New York-based outfit that represents seven players who have made the jump: DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Brendan Grace, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Eugenio Chacarra (who just turned pro). On Thursday, Norman told me, “We still have some big announcements coming.” Speculation has centered around another GSE client, Sam Burns. (Andrew Witlieb, the head of the company’s golf division, did not respond to a request for comment for this story.) GSE’s aggressive business model dovetails nicely with LIV’s desperate need to sign players. “We call it pushing paper,” Agent A says. “Those guys buy clients. They go in and say, ‘We’ll guarantee you X millions of dollars in income to sign with us.’ That means if [GSE doesn’t] land some big deals, they get their ass handed to them.” But Agent C pushes back on the notion that he or any of his colleagues have steered their players to LIV despite the risks of being banned from what was their home tour, to say nothing of the blowback attached to LIV’s funding coming from Saudi Arabia. “Our job is to present all the options to the player, but they always make the final decision,” Agent C says. “If you push a player to do something that is not in his best interests long-term, you’re not going to be in this business very long.”

At these numbers, how long do you NEED to be in the business...

Amusingly, the one GSE client that's apparently beyond the pale to GSE is the odious Grayson Murray, so good to see that the Saudis have standards.

Lest you think Kooch is an outlier:

How are players taking care of the rest of their “team” in this era of inflated purses? Most caddies and swing coaches to LIV players are getting the same percentages as always, which means 10 percent of a victory this week is worth a cool $400,000 to the looper. “I’ve heard a little grumbling from the players,” Agent D says, “but there has been so much talk about quote unquote player greed that I think they are sensitive to not squeezing anyone right now. I do expect that at the end of this season some percentages will get adjusted.”

$400K and they only have to hump the staff bag for LIV holes, so win-win, baby!  But, no, the players, having cashed a nine-figure check, will squeeze the loopers.

Like me, you've likely been agonizing over the issue of whether the guys got their checks all up front.  The answer is, it depends:

Perez signed with LIV for four years, which will take him to age 50, when he will be eligible for
the Champions Tour … if golf’s warring bureaucracies ever make peace. Like other players with relatively modest upfront money, he received his haul in one chunk. “Mine is in,” he says. “I got it all. It’s fucking incredible.” According to Agent C, the contracts that run into high-eight and nine figures are paid in annual installment across the three-, four- or five-year deals. Every player with a long-term LIV deal is compelled to play every event on the schedule, even as it potentially expands from eight tournaments this year to 14 in coming years. There are clawback provisions should a player miss a significant amount of time for injury. Interestingly, there is also a “morals clause” by which LIV can cancel a contract and recoup the upfront money. This covers incidents of on-course cheating and legal troubles, and particular attention has been given to consorting with or being influenced by gamblers. “With so many guys getting guaranteed money,” Agent C says, “there is the concern that a player could be more tempted to do something during the competitive rounds, which might not mean as much to them. Where there is money there is always corruption. That’s just how humans are.”

I'm sorry, a morals clause?  I though I was Vice President -Irony at this establishment.... Does that clause cover.....oh, never mind, we can do without a gratuitous bonecutter reference.

But that last bit should get wider coverage, mirroring this from yesterday's post:

As I perused the driving range ahead of Thursday’s shotgun start, one particularly flushed 3-wood stopped me in my tracks.

“Yeah, that’ll work,” I muttered to one of 48 LIVers at Pumpkin Ridge this week.

“Yep, it will,” he replied. He then nudged another ball from the pile into hitting position and turned around again. “But, who the f--k cares if it doesn’t?”

But they don't seem to get that indifference cuts both ways.  The players no longer need to grind, which they love in the short-term, but they don't seem to have put much thought into the issue of why anyone else should give a rat's ass....

In channel-flipping last night I came across the J.P. McManus Pro-Am from Adare Manor, surprised to see LIVsters such as Koepka and Poulter there.  The economics of that event would be its own interesting subject, as I assume each and every A-list pro there got an appearance fee, so what was left for charity?  But, that segue is just to warn you that we'll see some of these guys this week as well:

Litigation over the controversial LIV Golf league has officially begun — and the defectors have scored their first victory.

According to a release from the DP World Tour, the suspensions of Ian Poulter, Justin Harding and Adrian Otaegui have been temporarily stayed as their case works its way through the appeals process. The trio of players were among those suspended and fined by the DP World Tour last month after they competed in the LIV Golf Invitational in London without a conflicting event release form. They will now be eligible to compete in this week’s Scottish Open.

DP World Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley, who is at the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland this week, declined to give a detailed response on the matter while at Adare Manor, but he did say he was “disappointed by the outcome of [the] hearing.”

“It is important to remember, however, this is only a stay of the sanctions imposed, pending the hearing of the players’ appeal as to whether those sanctions were appropriate,” he added.

Interesting, because this event is now co-sanctioned by those folks in Ponte Vedra Beach....

Apparently this guy wants in:

Quite the mess for sure.  

As a palate cleanser, shall we focus on some more pleasant things?  Could you use some linksy goodness?

The Auld Grey Toon Awaits -  Shack has lots of coverage up, but let's lede with the quote heading his blog right now:

St. Andrews still retains its pristine charm. I doubt if even in a hundred years’ time a course will be made which has such interesting strategic problems and which creates such enduring and increasing pleasurable excitement and varied shots. ALISTER MACKENZIE

Reporting back to the Good Doctor from almost one hundred years later, and I have both good news and bad.  His assessment is spot on for the 99% of golfers who don't carry it 340 yards off the tee....  However, depending upon the wind and the firmness of the turf, there remains a possibility that the world's best players will do a flyover of those strategic problems and pleasurable excitement.   

We'll have more quotes in a sec, but first Shack has an author Q&A that's worth our time, specifically of this new offering:

Here's his lede question with Steve Finan:

GS: What prompted you to undertake this project?

SF: My job is to “monetize” material in the DC Thomson archive. In other words, find ways to create books. I had been, for 40 years, a journalist in Scotland with a special interest in newspapers of the past and the way events such as big football matches, golf tournaments, or momentous news events were reported 50, 60 or 70 years ago. DC Thomson own the regional newspapers in the east of Scotland.

This means I have spent a lot of time in the company archive in Dundee, which has copies of newspapers and magazines going back 250 years.

While researching various projects, I would find – here and there – fantastic photos of President Eisenhower at Turnberry in 1959, or Ben Hogan at Carnoustie 1953, or Sam Snead at St Andrews 1946. It didn’t take genius-level intelligence to work out that these photos deserved a wider audience.

Another part of my job is to visit Memories Groups around Scotland, giving talks and showing old sporting photos (the groups are for older people beginning to suffer memory problems, the photos get them talking about the old days). My own long-since-passed father suffered vascular dementia towards the end of his life but I know he would have enjoyed attending one of these memories groups. During one visit I “tested” the material on the Golf Memories Group in Carnoustie and was blown away by the response. They loved the photos, and these are men who have been immersed in the history of the game. They grew up with it, they are the craggy old guys who know every last nook and cranny of golf courses. They liked best photos that showed wider-angled views of tournaments. They liked close-focus photos of the players of old too, of course, but their attention was really grasped by photos showing spectators, the course set-up, the way they remember watching the game. They were looking at photos of their own experiences.

The photos are quite amazing.  First of the Old Course:


That's quite the different vantage point for the old girl, which is basically a sand bar.

Regular readers might recall my love of British Rail posters, as the rail system was a major factor in the growth of the game.  So of course I love this bit:

GS: What were some your favorite finds?

SF: I particularly like photos that cannot now be taken. A railway line ran alongside The Old Course at St Andrews until 1969 and the course played differently when trains would rattle by. There was the noise, clouds of steam from the engines, or the danger of landing a drive on the railtrack. The railway had to be part of your game management. The line, for instance, passed perilously close to the 16th green so a wide approach shot was risking trouble. I love photos that show the old track in place. Indeed, I think they should bring it back.

No. 16 is still quite the great driving hole, but much more atmospheric with an operating train line....

This is the kind of poster I was lauding above:

Geoff has always had an appropriate quote heading his blog, with today's paying homage to North Berwick, home to the venue for this week's Scottish Open as well as the far better know West Links:

Take a narrow tableland, tilt it a little from right to left, dig a deep bunker on the front side, approach it diagonally, and you have the Redan. At North Berwick, of course, all these things were done in the beginning by nature. The only original thing that the greenkeeper did was to place the tee so that the shot had to be played cornerwise, so to speak, instead of directly down the tableland. C.B. MACDONALD

Alas, they're not playing the West Links this week, they're playing Tom Doak's Renaissance Club next door, but lets' not obsess over details, as he also posts this flyover of all 18 on the magical West Links:


I don't imagine many of you will watch all thirteen minutes, but for anyone that doesn't get the appeal of links golf, I would watch a bit of it.  It's just a magical place, nestled between town and the sea, with the dunes and surf combining to great effect.

The most famous hole is the above-referenced Redan, which is No. 15, which is hard to appreciate from overhead, which flattens the contours.  But the shot is virtually blind to the player on the tee, which is hard to discern from the video.  More interesting perhaps to the casual viewer is No. 13, called "Pit".  All I can add is that it's very hard for your body to aim where your caddie is pointing on the second shot....

Geoff has another Quad post up with his 33 top St. Andrews one-liners, but he of course does not mean one-lines of the Henny Youngman ilk.  Here's one with which I completely agree:

No. 32

The Old Course at St Andrews rarely appeals at first sight, and it not infrequently takes years before scoffers succumb to its many virtues.
ALISTER MACKENZIE

 I consider that part of its charm, though it can be off-putting to the traveling golfer.... 

 Of course, this is the poster boy for Old Course love, having walked off (he's reputed to have ripped up his scorecard, though that's likely apocryphal) after being humbled by the Eden hole:

No. 28

There is always a way at St Andrews, although it is not always the obvious way, and in trying to find it, there is more to be learned on this British course than in playing a hundred ordinary American golf courses.
BOBBY JONES

Since we've touched on Jones, Steve Finan's series of B&W photos allows Geoff to revisit a moment in St. Andrews lore that always brings a tear to your humble blogger's eyes:

The other photo that I think carries great poignancy is from 1958, showing the ceremony granting Bobby Jones the freedom of St Andrews. This is termed “being made an honorary burgess” in Scotland. Bobby was, from that point on, allowed to graze his flock of sheep on the town’s common lands (should he wish to do such a thing!) It is the greatest honor St Andrews, as a town, can bestow and is done very rarely. The previous American to be granted the freedom of St Andrews was Benjamin Franklin in 1759.

After that 1958 ceremony a crowd that had gathered outside St Andrews University’s Younger Hall spontaneously serenaded Bobby with the sentimental old Scots air Will Ye No Come Back Again. It brings a lump to my throat to think of the townspeople paying respect to their old hero in such a way. Believe me, that sort of thing doesn’t happen often among a crowd of dour Scotsmen.

No, he was far too ill and travel was too arduous for him to return, but he made his feelings known with this:

"I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St Andrews and I would still have a rich, full life." Bobby Jones

Apparently Jack is to receive the same honor, though I have no information on his intention to graze sheep on the common lands of the town.

This one is interesting as well, both because of the year he ventured over, but also because I just can't imagine what he thought when he first arrived:

No. 27

Until you played it, St Andrews look like the sort of real estate you couldn’t give away. SAM SNEAD

Snead made the trip in 1946, which seems inconceivable in hindsight, given the recently-concluded war and the nature of travel.

On Twitter, Geoff has been posting longer quotes on the Old Course, including this:

One must take time to know the Old Course in all its moods. One must study the subtleties of its terrain and its curiously shifting winds. One must find its hidden snares and one must approach it without preconceptions of what a golf course should be. To be down the middle may mean nothing there; that may be quite the wrong place. To be long may mean nothing in less length is shrewdly used. To be able to play a few shots perfectly is not always enough; one must at times have the full repertoire. ROBERT HUNTER

I'll exit on this wonderful photo:

Folks have asked whether we'll be able to play the Old Course while there in August, the answer being that we hope to but will need some luck.  One of the charming aspects of the Home of Golf is that there's a lottery for tee times, known as the Daily Ballot.  We have had success in the past, although this is not your normal year, both because of Revenge Tourism as well as the fact that the course will have been shut down for at least a month to host the 150th Open Championship.  

The good news for us is that we have many days available to play the ballot.  the bad news is that we're not the only ones who know of it.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July, and we'll catch up again later in the week, though not tomorrow.


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Monday, July 4, 2022

Weekend Wrap - Truncated Edition

Just a wee little facsimile of a Monday morning post.  Nothing that puts too much strain on your humble blogger.

LIV v. PGA Tour, Round II - The Deere has always been a weak sister, with only Jordan Spieth going out of his way to visit the Quad Cities,.  I wonder how that 2015 bad call looks in the rear view mirror, though that's not of the utmost importance right now.

But lost in the shuffle is that the Deere was always going to be further hit by the co-sanctioning of this week's Scottish Open by the U.S. Tour.  Those willing to endure an additional week of Sottish weather (Shhh....don't tell them it's actually grand) are further disincentivized to head to backhoe country the prior week.

The Tour Confidential panel gets right to the nub of the matter:

1. The PGA Tour v. LIV battle took its much-anticipated turn this week, when the upstart circuit played on American soil for the first time, going head to head with the Tour. Let’s start with the broader picture: What was your takeaway on having two men’s tours
squaring off against each other? Could competition be good? Could it water down the product? Something else?

James Colgan: It did not help the PGA Tour to have the John Deere — annually one of the weakest events by field strength — up against LIV’s maiden voyage on U.S. soil. Now, I didn’t think the LIV event proved much of anything (other than it is perhaps a good idea for Talor Gooch to sit the next few pressers out). But I’m not sure it did the Tour’s “best players, tournaments and fields in the world” argument any good to stare down Bryson, DJ and Brooks with … J.T. Poston.

Sean Zak: How about three! The Irish Open was happening, too. Competition in this sense is just watered-down fields. The LIV field isn’t good. The PGA Tour’s field isn’t good. The DP World Tour’s field wasn’t good. The J.P. McManus pro-am would blow them all out of the water. The takeaway is that it’s OK to not have pro golf on every single week.

Josh Sens: Agreed, Sean. There’s not a market for that much golf, at least not one that justifies the money that many players would argue that they deserve. In terms of the two events that were happening in the States, my main takeaway was they underscored the extent to which fault lines in golf fandom appear to be solidifying, with two sides shouting insults back and forth. The parallels with our politics are as disheartening as they are plain.

J.T. Poston might have cemented his role as poster child for golf's civil war, as folks will have to choose whether they want to live in a world where such players win big-time events.  The LIV folks were crowing:

Greg Norman wanted to share some “interesting facts” with you. His tournament this week in
Portland, the LIV Golf CEO wrote on Twitter earlier this week, had 21 players from the world’s top 100. And 17 of the past 50 major winners. And 10 of the past 24 major winners. And the competition had less. It’s here where we’ll note that he probably didn’t scrape through the data on his field, the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic field and the DP World Tour’s Irish Open himself, but you never know. Let’s continue.

Anyways, one of Norman’s newest employees summed it all up rather quickly.

“And how many major winners do you have here compared to John Deere?” Pat Perez said. “It’s not even close. The Tour wants to keep talking about strength of field and all that kind of stuff; the strength of field is here. So whether everybody wants to talk about it or not, that’s what it is.

“Facts are facts.”

"Field Strength less awful than Quad Cities" seems the perfect rallying cry for the age, and Nick Piastowski offers this rebuttal via a friend's text:

“A big reason I like to watch these guys play the John Deere this week is because a win for them is career-changing! Two-year exemption, huge amount of cash, get in Masters, etc.

“To watch a guy have to hold (or take) the lead in final round is lots of drama.”

I texted back that he had formed quite the take. Really, the John Deere?

“It’s true! To make a birdie or par on 18 or whatever to win is HUGE. Difference between exhibition and real competition.”

I actually strongly agree with Nick's buddy, heck I'm the guys that's been arguing that the Tour's Fall schedule was better when the big boys weren't invited, for exactly this reason, seeing young men fighting for their professional lives.

But one of the sub-texts is that the folks they're buying haven't done them any favors when in front of microphones.  This unscripted moment kind of says it all, no?

As I perused the driving range ahead of Thursday’s shotgun start, one particularly flushed 3-wood stopped me in my tracks.

“Yeah, that’ll work,” I muttered to one of 48 LIVers at Pumpkin Ridge this week.

“Yep, it will,” he replied. He then nudged another ball from the pile into hitting position and turned around again. “But, who the f--k cares if it doesn’t?”

He’s got a point. LIV Golf covers travel and accommodations for all 48 players, their caddies, agents and coaches. With no cut, you can shoot eight over par each round and still net $120,000 for the week. Andy Ogletree literally did that. Winning the tournament does no more for your World Ranking than finishing middle of the pack. (No points, and no points.) There is, of course, more money to be made for high finishes. But the “worst possible” scenario is not bad. There’s only upside.

Come to think of it, "I Got Paid!" is even a better slogan than the one above...

2. As for the actual play, Branden Grace won and cashed the biggest check of his life ($4 million), and the team of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez won the team portion of the event, with Perez winning around a cool million, despite shooting a Saturday 80. What do we make of all this? While there’s something to be said for playing for a boatload of cash, could the quality of play diminish if players are still taking home a huge sum, regardless of their finish?

If your field is only 48 players deep, you're not going for quality of play...

Colgan: I think there’s something to the team format, even if LIV’s current usage is wonky and inauthentic. Almost every other major professional sport thrives based on fans’ allegiances and rivalries with certain teams. Why wouldn’t it work in golf?

Pat Perez agrees.... 

Zak: Dustin Johnson said he’s more motivated to win LIV events than normal Tour events, given the purse size. Hmm! So perhaps it’s about the money? It always has been. But I’m still not buying what DJ is selling. I’ll bet he grinds harder at home this week before St. Andrews than he was for LIV Portland.

Sens: DJ cried after he won the Masters. I don’t doubt that the money motivates him, but playing for meaningful trophies clearly does, too. Whether guys like him get to continue doing both in the long run will be a huge factor in how this fight shakes out. As for whether guaranteed fat paydays hurt or help the quality of play, I dunno. The more important question is whether it makes things more interesting for fans. In my opinion, it does not.

I used to call the Match Play the upside-down tourney, because it peaked on Wednesday and became progressively less interesting as the week went on.  LIV ups the ante here, as their events peak with the pressers, as the guys are far more interesting when sullen and unresponsive than on the golf course.

3. Two events in, is LIV working?

For whom?  

Colgan: If your definition of success is ‘creating a legitimate rival to the PGA Tour’s product for players,” then yes, LIV has been a success through two events. There are actual events, paying big money and drawing legitimate pro players. If your definition of success is “creating a legitimate rival to the PGA Tour’s product for fans,” then no, it has not been a success. Through two events, there hasn’t been a single compelling reason to watch the product on the course.

Zak: LIV London was all about getting to the finish line. Getting an event completed. LIV Portland was about momentum, opening up the content wheel, and apparently Greg Norman becoming much more visible. Normalization is working to an extent. The biggest story of the week is that LIV is kicking off its 14-event season an entire year ahead of schedule. That means they know they’ll double their amount of contracted players in the next 6-8 months. That’s a huge piece of evidence that they think it’s working.

Sens: I’m with James in the first definition of ‘working,’ and it will continue to work in that way as long as the Saudis keep the spigot open.

Hard for this observer to think anyone saw it or cared very much, confirmed by this from Geoff:

At what point does the money become obnoxious to people? As Branden Grace was picking up $4 million for winning the Portland stop, the final round got just under 700,000 YouTube views, up from 408,645 for the London inaugural but about half of a good French bulldog meltdown (Walter Geoffrey or Griffin are pretty fine examples in the 1.4 million territory). Plus, given the number of Twitter bots now populating everyone’s LIV Tweets, the views could be just about anyone goosing the numbers. Either way, media and fans do not like bots. Or lavishly rewarding mediocrity.

 Yeah, nobody.

What a Stupid I Am! - There were two bizarre moments in Portland that deserve their own plaque in the Hall of Fame.  LIV has taken a quasi-interesting approach and presented their players to the press in threesomes, here including DJ, Branden Grace and Carlos Ortiz.  It's opening question that amuses:


PointsBet has a line on the probability that DJ knows the meaning of "conditional", making him a prohibitive underdog.

Then there's the above-referenced Talor Gooch, continuing what Geoff calls a torrid stretch of stupidity:

This was Geoff's pont:

Talor Gooch continued his torrid stretch of stupidity by saying he can’t imagine much difference between LIV’s event atmosphere and a Ryder or Presidents Cup. Barring a major change in policy, he’ll have to keep imagining.

Ummm, isn't policy the least of it, Geoff.  This guy has never played well enough to even be fitted for the team kits, so we all understand why he cashed the check.

Lastly, it's been some time since we've seen Sergio self-identify.  Feels like months since he's spit in a cup or defaced a green... Remind me again, where wa sit that he damaged those greens?  That's right, it was in...wait for it...Saudi Arabia.

As you likely know, the Euro Tour penalized their defectors, though to this observer it seemed that it wasn't much more than a short time out.  One mystery to this observer is why folks cashing huge checks don't look happier, though admittedly this guys is pretty much never happy:

“The news [of the ban] came out during last week's BMW International [in Munich]," a leading player, who wished to remain anonymous, told Telegraph Sport. "Sergio flew off the handle, shouting 'this Tour is s***, you're all fucked, should have taken the Saudi money'. Bob MacIntyre was there and was disgusted."

MacIntyre and his management company declined to comment when approached by Telegraph Sport - as did Garcia's representative - but later in that tournament the Scottish golfer posted a tweet. “Amazing how fast you can lose respect for someone that you’ve looked up to all your life,” MacIntyre, 25, wrote.

The ugly incident has been the talk of the range at the Irish Open, that finishes at Mount Juliet in Co Kilkenny on Sunday. There was enough ill-feeling even before the “Sour 16”, as they are now being labelled, sent in their letter to Wentworth HQ, giving an ultimatum for the sanctions to be lifted, a demand to which the DP World Tour has steadfastly refused to cave in.

You stay classy, Sergio!  

I don't know Robert, seems you haven't really been paying attention.... He's been quite the dick for some time now.

One last amusing bit: 

Here's where not being on TV is a very good thing indeed...

We'll have more tomorrow, including an Alan Shipnuck deep dive into the $ side of LIV.  

Fun Stuff -  Just a bit of this, a bit of that, mostly Scottish-themed.  Four weeks from tomorrow we leave for Scotland, and Employee No. 2 found this website offering photos of Pittenweem, our home for two weeks:

To orient you, we are where the North Sea merges into the Firth of Forth, what they call the East Neuk of the Kingdom of Fife:

I had wanted to stay here in 2019, mostly because I like the name, but ended up in the next-door village of St. Monans.  We had rented in Pittenweem in 2020, but you'll recall how that movie ended....

More to come on this subject as we get closer to departure, but it seems forever since we've been there.

Our trip takes us first to the Highlands, where we'll be the guests of our dear friends Elsie and John, with whom long-term readers will be familiar.  Golf Digest has released their updated international course ratings, and it's strange to see heaven in third place:

3 [4] ROYAL DORNOCH G.C. (CHAMPIONSHIP)Scotland
Old Tom Morris (1892), George Duncan (1947), Donald Steel (1993), Tom Mackenzie (2013)
6,704 yards, par 70
Score: 8.553

Herbert Warren Wind called it the most natural course in the world. Tom Watson called it the most fun he'd had playing golf. Donald Ross called it his home, having been born in the village and learned the game on the links. Tucked in an arc of dunes along the North Sea shoreline, Dornoch's greens, some by Old Tom Morris, others by John Sutherland or 1920 Open champion George Duncan, sit mostly on plateaus and don't really favor bounce-and-run golf. That's the challenge: hitting those greens in a Dornoch wind.

We're hoping that, thanks to Elsie and John's considerable efforts, that we'll play there, though in this year of Revenge Tourism nothing is taken for granted.

As off-putting as events in Oregon were, this is a better look for these guys:

Wow, actually having fun on a golf course.  is that even allowed?  And, for what it's worth, there are few golf course that are mor efun than Lahinch, so good on him.

More tomorrow.  Happy 4th.

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Friday, July 1, 2022

Late-Week Lamentations

Lots to cover, little of it good....

Sadly, this first item might be more depressing than the LIV nonsense...

Lucky Thirteen - In 2017 Augusta National purchased a plot of land from adjoining Augusta Country Club and this became inevitable:

The purchase initially allowed for an access road’s installation, leaving room to extend the 530-yard 13th once two holes were re-worked at ACC. Construction crews have now begun opening a gap, suggesting the tee will be in play for the 2023 Masters.

The work signals an unwillingness to wait for proposed equipment rule changes not expected to make an impact before 2026.

This should liven up those wild and crazy Five Family gatherings at The 150th! Then again, anything will be more fun than discussing world ranking algorithms to keep Greg Norman and the Sword Wielding Sponsors Of Al-Qaeda at bay.

“Fred, ye of so little faith?” would be an understandable reply from a blue blazer, Scotch in hand as ancient portraits of golf pioneers look down on the assembled banterers.

The R&A and USGA are currently awaiting comments on hefty distance proposals, with a September deadline. If the proposals not watered down by whiny manufacturers, the changes would put a premium on certain ballstriking skills and chip 8-10% off of elite-level drives.

I'll admit that I always have trouble making out what's involved from these satellite images, but the intent here seems pretty clear.  

Geoff and others have been revisiting Chairman Fred's comments from back in April, most notably this:

“There's no timetable. Nothing to announce at this time. That's something that certainly we have considered and will continue to consider. Admittedly, and I've said this before, the 13th hole does not have the same challenges that it has historically, and, I mean, I can just remember as a young guy watching the Masters, you know, some of the triumphs and tragedies. And while we still have those, the fact that players are hitting middle to short irons into that hole is not really how it was designed.

“Having said that, my reluctance to date has been that it's such an iconic hole. And probably along with 11 -- or 12, rather, and maybe 15, probably the three holes where the most history has been made at Augusta National.

“So that probably has been a counter -- a counter to doing anything. But at some point in time it's something that we likely will do. We just don't have anything to say about it right now.

He's not wrong for sure, and he further made it clear that he doesn't foresee sufficiently aggressive action to address the magnitude of his issue:

“So we really can't make any predictions as to what's going to happen, but I think if there are some marginal modifications to the equipment rules, from what I have observed over the past few years with the players and their athleticism, their strength, their size, the efficiency of their golf swings, I don't think that we are going to see courses being shortened.

“So perhaps the two sort of factors might converge, but I don't think that what the governing bodies do is going to have a direct impact on what we might do at 13 or any other hole on the golf course.

“What I'm saying is, is that I think the likelihood of a ball going 50 yards shorter is not very great. My point is, we don't really know where it might come out. There's going to be a process -- there's going to be a lot of input from constituencies.”

Your humble blogger would have gone a different direction, preferring instead to leave the hole as it is and merely change the par from five to four.  Not going to dive too deep into that logic, but the dogleg is so severe that from fifty yards back I'm unclear as to whether the players can clear it.  Could be some awkward lay-ups, but we can revisit that in April.

Augusta As Proxy - This will veer dangerously close to architectural geekdom, so you've been forewarned. if you're inclined to risk a few shekels on that forthcoming 150th Open Championship, this guys has a betting model you might wish to consider:

Here's his conclusions:

In short, all four Open Championships held at St Andrews since the turn of the century have absolutely confirmed the Augusta National link.

Crucially, the vast majority of high finishers on the Old Course had already shown they could thrive at Augusta so Masters form can be a predictive tool for this year's Open Championship.

In fact, throw in Jack Nicklaus' two wins at the Old Course in 1970 and 1978 and seven of the last nine Open champions at St Andrews had already won a Green Jacket.

Starting from 1963, only three of the last 10 Open winners at St Andrews hadn't already tasted Masters glory.

However, Oosthuizen would go on to lose a playoff at Augusta National in 2012, 1995 Open winner John Daly was third at the 1993 Masters and Tony Lema was runner-up at the 1963 Masters before winning the Open a year later.

 Why is this interesting?  Because ANGC claims genetic ties to the Old Course:

On first glance, Augusta National and St Andrews are like chalk and cheese: one a tree-lined parkland track in the United States and the other a wide-open links on the windy Scottish coast.

But golf historians will be aware that Augusta's creators, Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie, had strong connections with St Andrews.

Golf writer Geoff Shackleford noted in a 2010 feature for Golf Digest International that St Andrews "influenced the genetic code of several key holes" at Augusta National and when the Georgia layout was designed and constructed, the Old Course was very much on their minds.

Shackleford quotes two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw, who says of Jones and Mackenzie: "They created so many shots that remind one of how you think and play your way around St Andrews."

It was very much on both of their minds, and the Good Doctor even wrote this homage to the old girl.

Where it gets interesting is the extent to which the club has in the last few decades departed from the original design intentions, frequently through the planting of trees to narrow playing corridors.  Simultaneously, the Old Course is a different animal these days for elite players, who can carry much of the trouble, which mostly means bunkers.

My sense is that the strategic overlap has significantly lessened over the years, and that these two golf course are now at opposite ends of the spectrum.  As Paul Azinger notably and presciently said:

“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.”

They will place tees on the adjoining course, but there's no land to purchase to add length.  If the wind is down, there is no limiting principal as to how low these guys can go.

LIV Long And Prosper - Since we last met, the big news was this:

Wars involve alliances.

And on Tuesday, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour moved to strengthen theirs, marshaling forces in their escalating conflict with a Saudi-funded circuit that is fast reshaping the professional game.

In a joint press conference, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and DP World Golf Tour CEO Keith Pelley detailed a new 13-year joint operational agreement between their organizations, a deal designed to provide a fresh pathway for players onto the PGA Tour while increasing prize money in DP World Golf Tour events. As part of the arrangement, the PGA Tour will increase its ownership stake in European Tour Productions from 15 percent to 40 percent, providing a cash infusion to boost purses. The arrangement also guarantees that, starting in 2023, the top 10 finishers on the DP World Tour will receive a PGA Tour card for the following season. Because the DP World Tour also has alliances with the Sunshine Tour and the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, the partnership will open pathways toward the upper echelons for players from around the world.

Yes, and alliances can get expensive, as Jay is no doubt finding out.  Those ten PGA Tour cards strike me as quite the get for the guy in blue eyeglass frames, though the unknown is whether Jay has locked the Euros down, or whether we'll see this resurface again.

Buried in this announcement is this substantial change:

As part of changes to the PGA Tour qualification process announced Tuesday along with news of a strengthening of the PGA Tour’s alliance with the DP World Tour, there will now be PGA Tour cards awarded to the top five finishers and ties at final stage of Qualifying School beginning next year.

The last time the PGA Tour awarded access to top finishers at Q-School was in 2012. That year, 26 players earned PGA Tour cards, including Patrick Reed, Billy Horschel and Chez Reavie. Since then, only Korn Ferry Tour cards were given out through that pathway.

The first revamped Q-School will take place beginning next fall for the 2024 season.

The Tour's effect on the amateur game is its own important subject, one that we won't have time for today.  But I'm pleased to see them retreat to a form of the status quo ante whereby top level college talent can qualify directly to the big tour, although the concern is that it's only five slots.

I caught the commissioners' interview on Golf Channel, and was struck by Pelley's adamant assertion that they're not a feeder tour for the PGA Tour.  That's of course belied by the fact that his big get, in addition to a slug of cash, were those ten PGA Tour cards.  But the starker reality is that being a PGA feeder tour would be aspirational, because right now they're barely a Korn Ferry feeder tour.

This weakness is partially attributable to the relentless expansion of the PGA Tour under Nurse Ratched, but the Euros weakness is now one of Jay's biggest headaches.  And listening to the players from Portland won't make Keith and Jay any happier...

Shack had a blog post up on the presser, in which he focused on those recent American defections.  Although there's what appears to be a typo:

From Bob Harig’s account of this LIV Portland prick conference.

Asked if there was something the PGA Tour could have done to thwart the LIV Golf effort or improve, Reed said: “Listen to the players for once.’’

I've listened to Patrick Reed, which has reinforced the wisdom of, yanno, not listening to that particular player...

One of the big surprises was Pat Perez, just because he was among the strongest critics of Phil when the story broke.  But his check cleared, so he's now toeing the party line:

“For me, it’s real simple. I’m 46. I’ve played 515 events. I’ve been on the road since 1998. I’ve been on the road longer than Matt Wolff has been alive. I have an almost 4-year-old. I missed my son’s birth last year,” Perez said, when asked why he decided to jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf. “The bottom line is I’m tired of being on the road every day, and I don’t have to do it now. This opportunity [is] like winning the lottery for me.”

We can all understand the temptation to the older players, whether or not we agree with their decision.  But I had been reliably informed that these guys are all gentlemen, and this is how this alleged gentleman presented in Portland:


I know it'll be a moment before you can focus on Pat's shirt, but those are C-notes.  It's a really classy group of guys they've assembled, no?

And Brooksie accidently drops a dollop of truth while he's lying to us:

Koepka, the four-time major winner who two weeks ago at the U.S. Open scoffed at LIV Golf questions – his brother, Chase, had played in the first event the week prior – said his affiliation with LIV didn’t occur until after the tournament at The Country Club.

“My opinion changed; that was it,’’ he said. “You guys will never believe me, but we didn’t have the conversation 'til everything was done at the U.S. Open and figured it out and just said I was going to go one way or the other. Here I am.

“Like I said, opinions changed. And I feel very comfortable with the decision I made. I’m happy, and I did what’s best for me.’’

His tirade at the U.S. Open made me project him as the next defector, so sure.... But that last bit rings very true.

Dylan Dethier files a report from on the ground at Pumpkin Ridge, and it won't be easy reading for Jay:

To hear them tell it, the players are thrilled to be here. Whatever you may think of LIV, that’s crucial to understanding its future; the pros will be its most effective advocates and recruiters
going forward, and happy pros will attract others. One the one hand, it seems obvious that these guys are enjoying the party. Most have just secured enormous sums of money just for showing up, and life is good for those enjoying a sudden influx of generational wealth. On the other hand, given the controversial nature of the tour and the contentiousness at the upper echelons of men’s professional golf, it wouldn’t have been shocking to hear pros express buyers’ remorse, wondering what they’d gotten themselves into.

But this core group has gotten tight, and fast. That began at the inaugural event in London, when some pros spent Saturday’s afterparty recruiting fellow pros via drunken Facetime. It continued with early arrivals this past weekend, when pros made time for some off-course bonding. Pat Perez said he’d accomplished a career first on Sunday, grabbing a beer with Brooks Koepka.

Of course they do....  They can play a handful of exhibitions, cash nine-figure checks and be fat, dumb and happy.  It's just not a great model for the game.

Is it getting away from Jay?

It’s remarkable how quickly and seamlessly the who’s-who of tournament golf infrastructure have adapted to a new tournament run by a new organization. That means specific individuals like Slugger White, the ex-Tour rules official, who works for LIV now. It means big-name coaches like Claude Harmon III, Boyd Summerhays and Chris Como, who accompanied their players throughout practice rounds. It means agents, too, helping their clients navigate a new world filled with brand-new questions. Some player-agent pairings have strained or split over the Saudi question. Most haven’t. There was Dave Winkle, Dustin Johnson’s agent, rocking an “Aces” hat on Wednesday, repping his player’s team colors. The times, they are a-changing.

LIV has announced their intentions for 2023 as well:

The series will transition to the LIV Golf League next year and the events will grow from eight this year to 14 in future years with 48 contracted players on 12 teams. The number of events will be capped at 14.

The Saudi-backed series has grown faster than expected with eight of the top 50 players, and 20 of the top 100, in the current World Golf Ranking joining LIV to date.

Here's where the truthfulness of the defector's accounts will be tested.  To maintain PGA Tour membership they are required to play fifteen events, although I am unclear as to whether that includes the co-sanctioned majors.  The older players tell us that the appeal is a shorter schedule, but the commitment seems comparable to their prior tour.  It just might be that, when they tell us it's not about the money, we need to check what shirt they're wearing.

But they also hint at further signings to come:

It’s tough to say. LIV says it has more players under contract to make the leap directly after the Open Championship and is in talks with several more. By year’s end it will have all 48 players under contract for next year, when the tour’s 14-event schedule begins in earnest.

I'll close on this with an amusing item from Eamon Lynch, which mirrors some of my thoughts.  But his basic premise rings pretty true:

A couple hundred million for 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, a feckless overspend even if
exaggerated by a multiple. Something similar so Dustin Johnson can accomplish his stated goal of not actually playing golf. A stout backhander to soothe the blushes of Brooks Koepka, who had to perform an about-face that would be the envy of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Another nine figures for Bryson DeChambeau, whose surgically-repaired hand will find it easier to carry the check than his playing future. And that’s all before you tally ‘B’ tier guys like Sergio Garcia (best add a premium to cover tissues for his unceasing tears) and Lee Westwood (whose thirst for lucrative tinpot tournaments long predates his cushy landing, at age 49, on the Saudi scrap heap).

Seen through a clear business lens, these players would be classified not as assets but as liabilities, their peaks long past and their popularity severely diminished. But their pragmatic value bears no relation to their price when Norman is writing checks on MBS’s account. That’s why those who have managed to clamber aboard Greg’s gravy train can’t believe their luck.

Have they ever overpaid! I think they've thrown big money at guys who, if they're successful at continuing to recruit, wouldn't even make their 48-player roster.

Eamon goes in two interesting directions as well, first this:

A threadbare piece of armchair analysis says the Saudis have a bottomless purse and can finance Norman’s folly in perpetuity. That’s true, at a surface level. They can, but will they? Even the Saudis will reach a point of accountability, when some luckless bureaucrat must reconcile what has been spent with what has been returned. The LIV Golf ledger already shows an imbalance that is impossible to correct, and not just financial.

I think that's a good reminder.  As vast as the resources are, the $2 billion given to Greg Norman is $2 billion that can't be spent elsewhere, not that we might understand their objectives and assessments with any great accuracy.

That's important because of this.  Perhaps:

Even if one views it as an exercise in sportswashing where the only desired return is reputational, LIV Golf is proving a great white elephant, serving only to draw renewed attention to matters the Crown Prince might rather see forgotten. The dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, for example. Or his country’s links to the September 11th hijackers, as repeatedly pointed out by the families of their victims. Or the hit-and-run killing of 15-year-old Fallon Smart not far from Pumpkin Ridge, where LIV Golf is staging an event this week. A Saudi national faced manslaughter charges in her death but was whisked home before he could stand trial, and the regime has refused to return him to face justice. Until Norman found a willing stooge venue in Pumpkin Ridge, the death of Smart had been forgotten, except by those who loved her.

The logic of sportswashing is that it helps to improve their reputation.  But this effort to intrude on the golf ecosystem has led to what seems to Eamon and your humble blogger see as just the opposite result, giving new life to the accounts of their varied and sundry human rights abuses.

P.T. Barnum famously asserted the premise that there's no such thing as bad publicity.  And yet LIV seems to have garnered all sorts of publicity, little of it striking this observer as helpful to their interests.

Ironically, perhaps the worst of it has been the various public appearances of their advocates, the players that have cashed their outsized checks.  These guys, most notably Phil, have been sullen ad defensive, looking all the world as if they'd sold their souls to the devil.

As we stand, DJ, and No. 17, is the highest ranking player in the world to jump.  You don't need me to tell you that those top sixteen are where the action will be as, even with all the name brand additions, its' still not a credible field in Portland.  But can Jay keep those sweet sixteen on the reservation?  Stay tuned...

Have a great Fourth of July weekend.

  
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