Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Tuesday Tastings

A wacky day at Bethpage yesterday, one in which biblical rains miraculously cleared in time for the Met. Golf Writers to experience the ritual abasement at the hands of the Black.  Though maybe the biggest miracle was the absence of traffic on the way home... was it a Jewish holiday or something?

I was going to tread lightly on the LIV stuff, at least until this 15,000 word tome from the New Yorker dropped.... 

To state the obvious, you'll need to read this in its entirety and draw your won conclusions, because it's quite the hot mess.  Though the combination of cheap shots against Greg Norman and the lack of actual familiarity with golf makes each individual paragraph amusing to parse.  Let's start with this that should have been left on the cutting room floor, but provides a mirror into the roiling conconction of grievances that is Greg Norman:

Generally, the players who cared most about prestige and legacy aligned with the P.G.A. Tour. Its tournaments offered history and gravitas but no guaranteed income; you earned what you won in
prize money. Golfers viewed it as the American-individualist ideal—“the purest form of meritocracy,” one golfer said. But the fault lines were idiosyncratic and difficult to untangle from old resentments. Whether a person stayed or left could be explained by some combination of political leaning, culture-war affiliation, sensitivity to peer pressure, and, most of all, naked self-dealing. “They don’t really care what the Saudis’ interest is,” the old hand told me. Sometimes it was a matter of a personal grudge. Did Woods stick with the Tour to protect his records or to snub Norman? They’d been at odds since at least 2006, when Woods moved to Jupiter without giving Norman a heads-up. (Last year, Norman sold his Jupiter spread for fifty-five million dollars to Leslie Wexner, the mogul with ties to Jeffrey Epstein.)

Is your head spinning yet?  It's of no import, but that Woods-Norman bit is comedy gold, because on what planet would Tiger be expected to give Norman said "heads-up"?  I'm sure the Shirtless One is clinging to the grudge, but I'm equally sure that Tiger's reaction to the Aussie is more accurately characterized as aggressive indifference.

Of course, there's fun to be had in the Norman Wayback Machine, including this:

"I never feared anything or anyone on the course, and I wasn't afraid to fail. So I think I'd do pretty well against Snead, Hogan, Tiger (Woods) and Phil (Mickelson) - whoever," Norman told the publication. "Tiger's a tough guy, but I was a tough guy on the course, too. I probably would have beat him."

Yeah, that's the ticket!  The man that couldn't beat Bob Tway or Robert Gamez when it mattered...

But the piece is most interesting for its introduction of the Saudi officials involved:

Today, Saudi golf operations are within the purview of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the wealth fund and the chairman of Aramco. Rumayyan is polite, with wavy black hair and well-cut suits. In 2015, he was running a bank when M.B.S. offered him a job as an adviser. Later, M.B.S. named him head of the fund. Terms were not discussed. “You will do it,” M.B.S. said. An American analyst who has dealt with Saudi officials told me that Rumayyan “is known as being sort of obsequious.”

Why it's almost like MBS is....what's that term of art, a scary motherfucker.  Memo to the New Yorker, everyone in Saudi is obsequious....well, either that or dead.

Forgive the lack of discipline in my blogging, but if you'll read the piece in its entirety you'll see its shotgun approach (pun intended), there's stray voltage everywhere.  For instance, in a piece allegedly about this rival golf league, the New York reported goes the the Bedminster event and stays entirely on 
topic:

I went looking for Ivana Trump’s grave. The family had buried her on the grounds the previous week. It struck some people as strange. Who would want to spend eternity at her ex-husband’s golf club? On Twitter, rumors circulated about how the property was, technically, a cemetery, which would eliminate the club’s obligation to pay state property, income, and sales taxes.

In case you might have forgotten, Orange Man remains bad.  

But they can't just report on a golf story without resorting to Das Kapital, can they?

liv appeals to the golfers who once identified with the white working class, or to the merely resentment-prone. “Guys who grew up a little hardscrabble, didn’t have country clubs to play at, that fought tooth and nail to play on the Tour, they say, Look, I’m gonna get what I can get,” the manager Mac Barnhardt told me. The P.G.A. Tour, meanwhile, is for the élite, the club crowd that likes to think there are things more important than money. Of course, it’s easier to look down on cash grabs when your cash was grabbed for you generations ago. The savvier golfers also have images to protect; rarefied dignity sells Rolexes and lands Goldman Sachs sponsorships. Nelson, the golf writer, told me that, if liv embodied Trumpism, “the P.G.A. Tour is not Abraham Lincoln, it’s Mitch McConnell—the power structure that says, Well, I don’t disapprove of élitist destructive behavior, but this is bad for business.”

Except when it doesn't:

Exceptions can be found on both sides, and, despite the exodus, the Tour is not wanting for Trump voters.

So your point is?  Seriously, Phil is working class but Tiger isn't?

But have you wondered what the Saudis are getting for their $2 billion large?   When their able to set aside their dialectical materialism, they actually go further than almost any media outlet to address the Saudi's objectives:

David Schenker, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, was in charge of U.S. policy and diplomacy in the Persian Gulf region from 2019 to 2021. He’s also a golf nut, with a fourteen handicap. “This is the intersection of my personal and professional lives!” he told me recently, of liv. Schenker believes that liv is best understood in the context of Gulf geopolitics: the budding rivalry between the Saudis and the Emiratis.

M.B.S.’s stated goal is to diversify the economy and wean it from oil, a program he calls Vision 2030. The P.I.F. aims to spend forty billion dollars a year to bolster new Saudi industries—coffee production, electric cars, tech. One main objective is for Riyadh and Neom, a megacity being built on the Red Sea, to supplant Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the region’s de-facto capitals. Schenker said, “There was this picture, perhaps mistakenly, that M.B.Z.”—Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi—“was sort of a mentor to M.B.S. But Saudi Arabia increasingly sees itself as the leader.” M.B.S. has plans to double Riyadh’s population in the next decade. The kingdom will require companies that conduct business with state institutions to establish a regional headquarters in the country. The problem has been that a desert with no cinemas or alcohol, and with a religious police force that harasses women, is not very attractive.

Ringing any bells, Dear Reader?  Again, the author commits journalism malpractice, but at least hints at the political divide in the Sunni Arab world.   They can't quite bring themselves to disclose fully the background on Jamal Kashoggi, who was a Qatiri intelligence asset.  There's a cold war (well, it went hot for Mr. Kashoggi) between the Emirates and the Saudis but, to admit this, would cast shade on their fellow travelers at the Washington Post.

The golf is a side show.  In a world with competent political leadership, we sould be working to untie the Emirates and the Saudis in an alliance against the Iranians, whom the Sunni countries fear most.  As you might have heard, significant progress was made in this direction up until January 2021, but now we have pushed the Saudis into a marriage of convenience with Putin.  Given this:


But the New Yorker is only worried about the location of Ivana's remains....

Back in February, they set out quite the aggressive business plan:

The changes meant that the player exodus was likely to stabilize. Sorour and I retreated to a private suite beside the eighteenth green. He sat on a couch, his arms spread on the cushions, and said, “We have many players who want to come in now. But I need to protect my people.” He felt a sense of loyalty to the early adopters. The first ten had signed before liv had announced its launch. Another group had been ready to sign. Then Mickelson made his comments about the “scary motherfuckers,” and the league, suddenly, was on the brink of folding. Sorour told me, “I called the boss”—Rumayyan—“I said, ‘Everyone’s walking away. Do you want to do it, or not?’ ” Sorour told Rumayyan he had a plan: “Get the biggest mediocres, get the ten that we have, get you and I, and let’s go play for twenty-five million dollars.” Rumayyan decided to press ahead and announce the launch immediately.

How's that for a slogan?  Golf, But With Mediocrities Being Louder™.

Here's the other a******e buddy of Phil, who make s great first impression:

The man wore pink pants and aviators. “They called me a scary motherfucker!” he said, laughing. It was Majed Al Sorour, the C.E.O. of the Saudi Golf Federation. He had a genial bearing, but seemed bothered by some of the press coverage. Unprompted, he said to me, “We don’t kill gays, I’ll just tell you that.” (As recently as 2020, an activist advocating for equal rights for L.G.B.T. people in the kingdom was arrested and tortured.)

Let me see if I have this right...those publicly behe4aded were all cis-gendered?  Noted. 

Everyone and their brother craves a deal between LIV and the PGA Tour, but one hopes the heads of the Five Families are listening:

liv’s other pressing issue is that its tournaments don’t yet earn golf ranking points, making it more difficult to qualify for the majors. There was speculation that the Masters might ban liv players. “For now, the majors are siding with the Tour, and I don’t know why,” Sorour said. “If the majors decide not to have our players play? I will celebrate. I will create my own majors for my players.” He went on, “Honestly, I think all the tours are being run by guys who don’t understand business.”

So you paid Phil $200 million and it's the other guys that don't understand business?  This is how they think they'll recoup their $2 billion:

Sorour said the P.I.F. had funding for liv through 2025. By then, he imagined, they would begin to cash out by selling off ownership in their twelve teams. The franchise model is how liv plans to recoup its investment. Sorour envisions owners building home golf courses, like a stadium for a football team. liv had given certain players equity stakes in their teams. (Some of the reported compensation figures, such as the seven to eight hundred million allegedly offered to Woods, included equity and potential sponsorships. Of the Woods offer, Sorour said, “It’s not straight-out money. I never offered him that money, not even close to that.”) There have been conflicting reports about the valuations that liv puts on its teams, which consist of four players: a hundred million, half a billion, a billion. Sorour told me it would vary by team. Outside liv, the numbers are treated skeptically. McIlroy told me, “People have to remember, golf is a niche sport. All you’re getting is four golfers. And I get it, some M.L.S. teams are worth seven hundred million dollars. But it’s all tied to the economics of the league, and right now that league doesn’t have any economics.”

Of sure, but meanwhile back here on Planet Earth:

Wow, that many!  And this from the deceased Peter Allis:

I've got lots more teed up for you, but need to get on with my day.  Due to the chilly forecast, the Wednesday Game™ has been moved to the afternoon, so we'll cover that stuff tomorrow morning.

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, October 14, 2022

Your Friday Frisson

I slept far later than usual and was sorely tempted to skip blogging, but for three things:

  1. I'm headed to Bethpage on Monday with the Met. Golf Writers, so our usual wrappage will have to wait until Tuesday;
  2. Phil went in front of a microphone...
  3. Geoff saw Phil in front of said microphone and, well, you'll just have to wait a bit....
An Appeal to Authority - Famous quotes for $200, Art:

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, you'll quickly see why this quote popped into your humble blogger's mind:

In a lively press conference on Thursday at LIV Golf’s event in Saudi Arabia, Phil Mickelson defended his new home tour’s home turf with a prolonged victory lap from the lectern.

“I firmly believe that I’m on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf,” Mickelson said. “I love the way they involve us and listen to us in decisions. I mean it’s so inclusive, it’s so fluid that things, LIV Golf is leading. Whether it’s shorts, whether it’s other aspects of professional golf that are going to change and evolve, those positions will be led by LIV.”

“I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards,” he said. “I love the side that I’m on. And I love how I feel. I love how I’m reinvigorated and excited to play golf and compete. I love the experience. I love the way they treat us.”

Sure, I totally get it.  When I think of the Wahabis the first thought that pops into my mind is of their inclusiveness, because when those plane shit the tower they killed all 3,000 people without regard to race, gender or national origin.

There are exactly 200 million reasons that Phil loves how he's treated, but I'll leave you to suss that out on your own....

The commentariat reacted as you'd expect, though with a range of colorful analogies:

Perhaps we should view Brandel as a compromised observer, since he's a defendant for saying mean things about Phil's a*****e buddy Patrtick?  More on that below (I think).

But Phil also went in a really strange direction:

Q. You made some comments about this country last year which you've apologized for. I wondered how you feel about now you're here? Have you changed your opinion?

PHIL MICKELSON: So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck. And I find that my experience with everybody associated with LIV Golf has been nothing but incredibly positive and I have the utmost respect for everybody that I've been involved with.

 Got it, you did not have sex with that woman.... Totally believable.

Here's the funny bit, at least to a guy that doesn't get out much.  Mike Bamberger has a defense of his buddy Alan Shipnuck, and he goes the same direction as the guy writing this blog:

Phil: “I will reiterate: I never did an interview with Alan Shipnick [sic]. And I find that my
experience, with everybody associated with LIV Golf, has been nothing but incredibly positive. And I have the utmost respect for everybody I’ve been involved with.”

He adjusts the stand-up microphone in front of him, which almost obscures his sunglasses perched on his black golf shirt, as he says reiterate.

He opens the fingers on his right hand at incredibly positive.

He punctuates utmost respect with an itty-bitty karate chop with his right hand.

Really, it’s such a good delivery you stand in awe. We’re talking Clinton-level.

You're never going to win this kind of argument with a reporter, because they take notes.  Having been routed on this subject in February, though, the question is why revisit it now.  In fact, at the Quad Geoff suggested an alternative answer to that interview question:

Golly it’s amazing to be here in Saudi Arabia. The Red Sea is so tranquil. I get a great night’s sleep in the amazing offshore yacht our hosts from the Kingdom have provided. Also, it’s remarkable to see so many women out at restaurants. Speaking of, did anyone notice? Not one mass beheading in months!”

Yanno, for what it's worth, I could get behind a few, highly-selective beheadings....

Mike and Dylan Dethier get into the long grass of what it means to speak to a reporter in that context, and you can read that at your leisure.  Mike actually thinks he's disingenuously trying to convince low-information fans that he didn't speak to Alan and say those very words, though does that strike one as a useful argument for Phil at this late date?

I'll include this from Alan as well, if only because of the new word that can be added to your lexicon:

Shouldn't bullshittery have two "Ts"?  The funny thing here is that Shipnuck remains far more favorably disposed to Phil than I would have expected, not least because of this attack on his journalistic ethics (yeah, I know, it should have come with an oxymoron alert).

It is all bullshittery for sure, but funny bullshittery.... Not least because of Geoff.  Are you, Dear Reader, familiar with ClubProGuy?  A fromer Mexican mini-tour rabbit, he's carved out his own unique social media space to some amusing effect, including this that I posted back in the day:


So, it's over to you, Geoff:

The major champ is back to his wacky press conference ways and increasingly shares a lot in common with Club Pro Guy.


It's not merely a physical resemblance:

Consider what these two veterans appear to have in common:

Compete in a shotgun-start exhibition league? ✅

Consistently drag down their teams with mediocre play? ✅

Well-known gambling issues leading to questionable decisions? ✅

Propensity to wear sunglasses indoors? ✅

Own regrettable tattoos received in a foreign land? ✅

Tendency to hold strange press conferences? ✅

Sponsored by multiple brands? Oops, Club Pro Guy owns this one.

That's gonna leave a mark.... 

Patrick's Torment - Another LIVster that needs to be kept away from microphones would be Patrick Reed, A Hero of France.  But first, that venue change:

The nine-time PGA Tour winner-turned-LIV golfer was in the news again late last month when a defamation suit filed in his name against Golf Channel and Brandel Chamblee was withdrawn from federal court in Texas, only to be refiled in federal court in Florida.

In its refiled form, the suit expands upon the list of defendants (Golf Channel commentators Shane Bacon, Damon Hack and Eamon Lynch have been added), but its thrust is pretty much the same: It seeks $750 million in damages for injuries it claims Reed has suffered to his reputation as a result of “calculated, malicious, false and/or reckless attacks.”

Otherwise, the biggest change is geography: Florida instead of Texas.

Why the switch?

 Well, there was that little bit of misfortune in landing a judge that actually knows the rules of golf:

When Reed’s case was first filed in Texas, it was assigned to Alfred H. Bennett, a federal judge who also happens to be an avid golfer and a reported stickler for the rules of the game. Given Reed’s reputation and the judge’s fondness for playing it as it lies, it is not unreasonable to believe that Klayman felt that he and his client had gotten an unlucky draw and thought they’d stand a better chance in a different court.

This would not be unusual. Attorneys often seek out judges and jurisdictions that they believe will be favorable to their cases, says Matt Jacobs, a former federal prosecutor and partner at DLA Piper, an international law firm. In the absence of another explanation, Jacobs says, “it looks to all the world that (Klayman) is shopping around.”

You can't make this stuff up, but doesn't Patrick play with absolute fealty (yeah, that word again) to the rules of our game?

 You'll  not be surprised that there's other issues:

About a month ago, on Sept. 15, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals — the highest court in the District of Columbia — upheld a recommendation that Klayman be suspended from
practicing law in D.C. for conduct that was deemed unprofessional in a different case, unrelated to Reed’s — a sexual harassment suit, initially filed more than a decade ago, in which Klayman was representing the plaintiff. (You can read the court’s report on the matter here, which includes violations of the professional code that Klayman was found to have committed; Klayman told Reuters that the ruling was a “political hit” and that he had been unfairly targeted because of his support for former President Donald Trump.)

Though the 18-month suspension was handed down in D.C., it carries wider implications, because the federal district court in Texas where the Reed suit was filed has its own local rule stating that any lawyer “suspended or disbarred by another court shall immediately cease to practice before this court.” At this point, in other words, even if Klayman wanted to keep the case in Texas, he wouldn’t be permitted to represent Reed there, experts said. In the Florida district where the Reed suit has been refiled, the local rule is more lenient: An attorney can have a suspension stayed by petitioning the judge for relief.

Translation: Klayman appears to stand a better chance of being able to represent Reed in the district where the case has been refiled.

Nothing says "Righteous tort" quite like using a suspended lawyer, no?

But the funnier bit is what follows because, like Phil, Patrick seems to have trouble sticking to a story:

Patrick Reed, whom multiple outlets reported as saying his treatment at a DP World Tour event
last month was “a slap in the face,” said Thursday those stories were “false reporting.”

Since LIV started in early June, Reed has played in five of six events, though with the Saudi-backed tour awaiting word whether they’ll receive OWGR recognition, he has continued to play tournaments on the DP World Tour. And he’s made headlines. Ahead of last month’s French Open, multiple sites reported that Reed told Journal du Golf that he was displeased with how he was treated at the event.

“It’s a slap in the face not to invite me to do a press conference here, or as happened in Wentworth, not to have me play the pro-am and all those things,” Reed told Journal du Golf, according to the Telegraph.

First professional golfer in recorded history to complain about not playing in a ProAm....

I guess that didn't play well in the focus group:

In a press conference ahead of this weekend’s LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia, Reed also said he did not play in another tournament because he “got decommitted,” though he had told one site that he withdrew after hurting his back due to a mattress being too soft. He then ended his session with reporters by saying that the Official World Golf Ranking was “not a true system if you’re not counting all the events and having points for everybody.”

Decommitted?  Yeah, that's the ticket....

Three weeks later, on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, Reed then had this exchange:

“I was reading that you were a bit unhappy about some of your treatment at the French Open,” a reporter said.

“No, that was false reporting,” said Reed, who has resigned his PGA Tour membership. “Had nothing to do with the French Open. When I went over there, the players, the fans, the tournament, they treated me amazingly. It was an unbelievable time over there. Obviously I wish I had played better and did something, but no, they treated me really well, and that’s just something that is unfortunate about how the media tried to spin that that week, because when I was over there, everyone was excited to see me. It was great there, being with the guys, being with the players, and seeing fans I’ve seen in the past.

“No, it was a great week based off of fans, players and the people there at the golf course.”

It never made any sense... Given how poorly Patrick played and how divisive his comments and Justine's tweeting was, why wouldn't the French welcome him back with open arms?

At the very least, the defendants in his defamation suite seem terrified:

But relaying Patrick's comments verbatim is now "False reporting", the saddest part being that I totally agree.

Udder Stuff -  Not unrelated, but did you catch the ladies playing that Aramco event at Ferry Point.  I've been arguing to keep a watchful eye on Jon Rahm, at the same time we'll need to watch the ladies.  I've ben thinking for a long time that the Saudis have screwed up in royal fashion (pun intended), that they could have done themselves a world of good sportswashing-wise at a fraction of the price by holding a few events for those in hijabs.  

We've seen the LPGA Commissioner indicate that she would take the call, as well as individual players almost pleading for such an opportunity as well.  So we see something like this and can't help but wonder if something might be going on behind the scenes:

Arc of history and all....

Gotta bring this to a conclusion, but wanted to leave you with this piece of historical importance.  Not so much for the actual incident, but it's always helpful to be reminded of who Greg Norman has always been:

The story of the mutiny at the 1996 Presidents Cup. Of course, it includes Greg Norman

That would be an incident that happened more than 25 years ago, when Graham, an Australian who won two majors during his Hall of Fame career was unceremoniously ousted as captain of
the International Presidents Cup team by his own players, just two months before the second biennial international team competition was to be held in September 1996. Some of what happened during a player meeting in July at a Grand Hotel conference room near Royal Lytham in St. Annes, England, where the British Open was being contested that year, still is a mystery but this much is clear: it damaged the reputation of a good man willing to give his time and effort to grow the fledgling event.

To this day, Graham is convinced Greg Norman, then the No. 1 player in the world and now the face of LIV Golf, and fellow Aussie Steve Elkington orchestrated what one participant in the proceedings dubbed “this mutinous act.”

They have the receipts.

Sharkie sticking the shiv in David Graham is the perfect accompaniment for Phil doing the same to Tom Watson in 2014, so put on some popcorn, because ultimately these two will go after each other, which will require exhuming that famous Henry Kissinger quote about the Iran-Iraq war.

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up on everything next week. 

 

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Tuesday Trends

I lefts some bits on the cutting room floor yesterday, so shall we dive back in?  Unless, yanno, you need another cup of coffee.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

LIV Long And Prosper - I can't recall, have I used that header previously?  I mean, this LIV era is all a blur... As always, where to drop in?  Sometimes the best we can do is to allow Greg to beclown himself:

In an exclusive interview with India’s WIO News, Norman chatted for 15 minutes with journalist Digvijay Singh Deo about anything and everything LIV. Norman hit all the normal talking points (growing the game, innovations in golf, etc.) during their sit down, but he also used the opportunity to yet again lobby for LIV to secure World Ranking points — and he wasn’t subtle about it.

“By degrading the strength of field by not allowing LIV players to get OWGR points, it’s not doing the game of golf any good,” Norman said. “Rise above it all. It’s good for the players, it’s good for the game of golf, it’s good for production, it’s good for corporations, it’s good for OEMs, it’s good for fans, it’s good for everybody. Just because you have a negative viewpoint and you’re one of the voting members of an independent organization, that you hate LIV and you vote against it. Grow up.”

Grow up?  Let me see if I have this right, but the man that was going to revolutionize the game by selling a pimped-out golf cart wants Augusta National to act like an adult?  

Shack had a longer take up at his Quad, leading thusly:

A sexagenarian addicted to posting shirtless selfies has called upon other adults to “grow up.” And that is just one peculiarity coming out of Greg Norman’s latest regrettable interview attacking golf’s Five Families.

Ah yes, I sometimes go as long as ten minutes at a time without referring to him as the Shirtless Shark.  Although, while Geoff is enjoying the target-rich environment, his accompanying photo might have us missing his bon mots:


Yup, nothing says serious golf tour quite like neon golf carts to take the players to their assigned hole in the member-guest.

But isn't this kind of an admission against interest:

“It’s not a setback,” Norman said. “It’s a setback for [the OWGR] because quite honestly, my players should have [points]. There are 22 tours that have world ranking points and there’s only one that’s equal to, or superior to, what LIV is. Only one.”

But isn't the interesting thing how he continues to be surprised that that one tour (and yeah, I'm ignoring that "equal to")might, yanno, defend its interests?  He's not the quickest learner, is he?

Back to Geoff:

Placing such constant importance on the majors suggests the Shark is feeling some heat from players or his Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia sugar daddies. Or both.

His MENA Tour failure prompted a statement from the OWGR to point out the obvious—some advance notice helps—and motivated Norman to revert to his anti-Dale Carnegie ways. (He briefly played nice this summer after placing Masters chairman Fred Ridley and friends in a “cabal”).

As relates to the majors, we parsed this in detail during the initial wave of signings, and the discouraging aspect was that the players, while hoping that aspect would "work out", were more than willing to assume the risk.  Makes sense to this observer, because those early signees, Lee, Poults, etc., were mostly in the wind-down phase of their careers.  

And this:

So after failing with the MENA move, Norman and friends are reverting to a mix of shaming and griping. Select players are joining the bluster. Bryson DeChambeau was the loudest in absurdly claiming LIV “hit every mark” of their ranking points request. While a victimhood play excites LIV’s base of trolls, bitter bros and a few loony personalities lobbying for a job, it’s hard to see the grievance approach winning over the OWGR’s Barzini’s and Straci’s.

Making Norman’s latest rant all the more bizarre: LIV’s case for points would have been a strong one over a full season played under the Rules of Golf and without constant format tweaks seen in the “beta” year. Assuming the appropriate parameters were met (cuts, qualifiers, average field size, etc.), points denial would have been tough to pull off.

As a blogger, I can't help but love the stupidity on parade.  The Saudis (this predates Norman's involvement)  seem to have bought into the concept that they could steal the top forty-eight players in the world from Jay Monahan, without a competitive response from the Tour.  Was that McKinsey or Bain that did the business plan?

But would you have thought, as the smartest guy in the room, that they would have a plan to qualify for OWGR points?  It seems to this observer that Norman had no clue this issue was coming, and that Menafuge is just humiliating, although I do recognize it might be part of a larger lawfare strategy.  

Now the hard part is that, inevitably, he makes some valid points about the effect of the fragmentation, though of course he's the cause thereof.  That the golf ecosystem created an organization to measure performance seems logical, but the fact that said ecosystem controls said organization and will not immediately capitulate to the Aussie seems to hit the Shark as something of a surprise.  Not very smart, our wee Sharkie...

And, in that vein, wouldn't you think LIV would have accommodated the OWGR guidelines in establishing their tour?

Making Norman’s latest rant all the more bizarre: LIV’s case for points would have been a strong one over a full season played under the Rules of Golf and without constant format tweaks seen in the “beta” year. Assuming the appropriate parameters were met (cuts, qualifiers, average field size, etc.), points denial would have been tough to pull off.

But.... Fresh of their Mena fail, we now learn that LIV is undertaking a serious effort to meet both the spirit and letter of the OWGR guidelines.  Yeah, I'm lying.  Fresh of their gamesmanship blowing up in their face....

This status could change to “winner” as soon as this week, I suppose. But thus far, LIV’s end-around strategy to acquire world ranking points has just thrown things into further disarray. Its “strategic alliance” with the shell of the MENA Tour seemed to be trolling the process, essentially taking over an existing mini-tour to exploit a loophole in the system while alternating $20 million purses (LIV events) with $75,000 ones (MENA events).

That's from Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column, wherein he demonstrates that he hasn't exactly kept up.  We've been informed that every LIV member has joined the MENA Tour, so of course w expect DJ and PReed to show up at those $75,000 events, which will put them at about 45 events per year, so how's that playing less thing working out for you?

Wiping the egg from his face, this is the next serious, totally legitimate initiative to meet the concerns of the OWGR:

While the OWGR said it would have to review LIV’s attempt for points via MENA, in an interview with journalist Hugo Costa, Chacarra said there was a plan afoot to add a 36-hole “cut” to LIV events that would check that box of the world ranking board. (Shoutout to my translation consultant, Tomas.) The cut he described would only eliminate the lowest three competitors from final-round individual competition and they would still be allowed to play for their team scores.

While LIV has made no final decisions on instituting a cut, the idea of eliminating just three players from the field — going from 48 to 45 — would obviously fly in the face of the spirit of an actual 36-hole cut. LIV seems determined to gain access to the world ranking system or to further undermine the institution that upholds it. Maybe it’ll do both. Stay tuned!

The cut is a red herring.... these are glorified exhibitions because they're only 54 holes (making 54 the name of the tour may ultimately prove to be the single stupidest move they made, a highly competitive category) and, most importantly, because of the small fields.  It makes no sense to cut a 48-player field, but it makes even less sense to take such an event seriously.

So, what do we make of this?  It's good fun and easy blogging to snark at the Shark, but where are we in this saga?  I think the following:

  • LIV is Unsustainable - Greg has to sense that the clock is ticking, and that his 2023 schedule, as currently envisioned, will underwhelm.  For all his apparent success in stealing players, his fields are woefully weak and offer precious few reasons to tune in.  he and his Saudi funders seem to have ignored the realities of golf, to wit, that it's boring and that no one really cares.  
  • More Defections? - It's a bit scary to write those sentences directly above, because things could change in a hurry.  It would be easy to draw a scenario where a few more defections creates a preference cascade, but that hasn't happened yet and positions seem to be hardening.  I still think Jon Rahm is the guy to watch, we'll just keep him on permanent "Fealty Watch".

But there's a lot going on here, and his flailing on the OWGR presumably isn't lost on the players that haven't yet jumped.  They've seen that Norman's assurances that the players couldn't be suspended by the PGA Tour proved false, and who could have seen that coming, so they'll likely want to see that he can deliver on OWGR points, at least those that don't have major access guaranteed. 

There's more going on in this vein, including this from Dave Dusek on the fallout with equipment and other sponsors.  Oh, the inhumanity of sponsors dropping players that violate the terms of their contracts....

  • Hail Mary Possibilities - We've said that the MENA ruse could be a lawfare strategy and there's a pending antitrust lawsuit, so is there a path to salvation for our Sharkie?  It's at the very least ridiculously complicated, as it juxtaposes with geopolitical consideration.

I don't see that antitrust suit as helping The Great White Pilotfish, as it smells to this observer as USFL v. NFL Redux.  Such lawsuits are typically measured in decades, and their attempt at injunctive relief yielded devastating results, as the trial judge accurately noted that the litigants hadn't suffered any actual harm.  They had that which they were suing for, access to the FedEx Cup, and willingly traded it for that large check.... Isn't there an adage about having your cake and eating it too?

Now there's only three players left in that suit, but LIV has joined it as well, a different kettle of fish entirely.  But here's where it gets so very interesting, at least to your geekish humble blogger, because the USFL was in the business of staging football games.  Remind me again, what business is Saudi Arabia in?   It's a serious question, because if you're offering the 51-year old Phil Mickelson $200 million to play golf, we might reasonably conclude that you're not doing this to make a profit.  But the larger pint here is that this action is unlikely to yield any benefit in a timeframe helpful to LIV.

I can't speak to what might happen in the UK or Europe on this subject, relevant because the OWGR are headquartered in Wentworth (with the Euro Tour).  It seems to me at the very least that LIV can be delayed on the OWGR, both through their normal review process of 1-2 years, as well as the one-year probationary period.  Could they get injunctive relief in Europe?  That seems a high bar, and we don't know how the U.S. entities, including those that run the three U.S.-domiciled majors, would react to that.

  • Geopolitical Ramifications -  To me, this is laugh-out-loud funny, at least until I need to fill up my gas tank.  As you'll recall, Joe Biden went to the Kingdom to beg the Saudis to pump more oil in July, and just by coincidence his Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into the PGA Tour.  Now, I'm quite shocked, we haven't heard much about said investigation recently, have we?

More recently, Biden made a plea to OPEC+ to not cut production by the planned 1 million barrels a day.  Apparently, Biden was so convincing in his plea, that OPEC+ rescinded their plan to cut production by 1 million barrels a day, and instead decided to cut it two million barrels a day.  I guess this is what Biden meant when he told us he would restore our alliances around the world, which we can all enjoy as we read by candlelight this winter.

The funniest bit is that Norman could likely get anything he wants from the Justice Department is his Saudi paymasters would only play ball with Biden.  Problem is, that ability likely expires on November 8th, no?

It's a huge mess, but what's LIV's path forward?  If you're telling me that it's buying time on Fox Sports, color me skeptical.  But I do have one last LIV item, and it's just perfect.  Because for all their silly bloviating about reimagining and growing the game, it turns out that they're every bit as stupid as the guys in Ponte Veda Beach:

Dustin Johnson won LIV Golf’s individual crown before the series made it to the Kingdom.

As the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
prepares to host its regular-season finale in Jeddah later this week, Johnson left little to play for after claiming the individual title and its $18-million prize following his 16th-place finish at last week’s event in Bangkok.

LIV’s season-long individual competition awards points to the top 24 finishers from each event. Johnson, who bagged five top-10 finishes and a win over the first six events, has 121 points to his name, 42 more than Branden Grace in second. This week’s event in Jeddah offers 40 points to the winner and 30 points for second place.

“Locking up the individual competition is big. It’s an honor to be LIV’s first individual season champion,” Johnson said via a release. Over six events the two-time major champion has earned $9,758,600 for his individual performances and $3,000,000 for his 4Aces team performances for a whopping total of $12,758,600.

They say it's Golf, But Louder, whereas it seems more akin to the tree that falls in the forest.  Is it louder if no one hears it?

I might have lied, but I might as well throw in this from the Tour Confidential gang:

Speaking of world ranking points, are they even needed? Some have argued you could get rid of them entirely. Is it plausible the professional golf world could scrap them and function just the same or better? Why or why not?

Sens: As much as a complete free-for-all of qualifying would be good, mad fun, I think there has to be some kind of system for the majors. But there’s no reason that the system has to be the OWGR. I’ve heard suggestions for a more fluid point system within the Tours (PGA / Korn Ferry, etc. ) where guys could/would move up or down from week to week to fill out fields. Someone smarter than I am would have to figure out the math but that seems promising, possibly fairer as a reflection of current form and definitely entertaining, allowing young stars to move up faster etc. The recent changes OWGR made to base points on entire field strength seems smart but the organization itself is opaque, which only creates skepticism about how it operates. Whatever happens, things should be more transparent.

Hirsh: Is the OWGR becoming the next BCS? Is there going to be a professional golf playoff? Oh wait! We already have that. As a snakebitten Penn State football fan, I’d love to see what would happen if the BCS formula was used to select the CFB Playoff. When it comes to formulas to determine rankings, I don’t think there’s really a way to make everyone happy, but I do think there does need to be some way of comparing pros from across different tours. I don’t think that could be done with a panel, there has to be some formula, and it was my understanding there would be no math, so I will differ in the creation and critiques of said formulas.

Colgan: Fortunately, golf isn’t cliquey, exclusionary or slow to recognize its stars, because those things would make abolishing the OWGR brutally bad for the sport. (Oh, golf is these things? Well then, perhaps we should stick with it!)

Dethier: No. This is an interesting thought experiment but ultimately a bad idea. One of golf’s chief crowns is the World No. 1 ranking. And there’s a legitimate value to comparing all top pros. The LIV issue will reach some imperfect resolution eventually. The World Ranking needs to endure.

I'm not even sure what they're going for here.  When Ben Hogan went to Scotland in 1953 he had to actually qualify into the Open Championship, but surely that's not what the questioner is suggesting, right? 

Obviously they just released new metrics in response to concerns as to how events and tours were being awarded points, and I have interest in those debates in and of themselves.  But obviously we want some kind of ranking system to pre-qualify top players into events, so there's always going to be something that looks like this.  Although it's deliciously ironic to think of these overly-entitled guys demanding and receiving guaranteed money only to have to qualify into majors?  Would they even try?

Tiger Sightings - I'm not all that interested in this subject, but he was at Pebble and there was this bit, which ties in to our larger issue:

Tiger Woods announced the star-studded field for the 2022 Hero World Challenge taking place on Dec. 1-4, but Woods was suspiciously absent. Seventeen players are currently
committed, but the host, per usual for this event, left three spots open for exemptions. What are the chances Tiger will use one on himself?

Sens: If he’s feeling good — as in, he feels he has a chance of being competitive — he will play. I expect that will be the case.

Hirsh: I’d find it surprising he’d tee it up in the PNC Father/Son with Charlie two weeks after the Hero, but not play the Hero. He’s said he doesn’t want to use a cart on Tour, but this isn’t a Tour event. It’s a flat golf course, he could definitely use a cart and it benefits his charity for him to play. All signs point to him teeing it up, if his body is up for it.

Colgan: The chances are … pretty good! I think the bigger question is whether we’ll see Tiger utilize a cart (something he once stood unequivocally against) if he signs up to play.

Dethier: Yeah, he’ll play. Why not?

Do these golf writers actually know what's going on in the world of golf?   Because this event has an outsized importance right at this moment, and the one thing Tiger cannot do is use a cart in this event.  

If the OWGR are to be the battlespace, the fact that this event, with its 18-player field (just to be clear, the field has now been expanded to twenty, but OWGR points were awarded for years when the field was 18 players) awards OWGR points is a major embarrassment.  Your humble blogger misses a lot, but I've been calling BWS on this since it was announced.  One doesn't need to be Nostradamus to see that awarding OWGR points to a gaggle of Tiger's buddies is just wrong...

You can see the problem is Tiger shows up in a  cart, no?  The obvious solution would be to stop awarding points, although that might be too public a stepdown for those involved.  The same problem exists with the Tour Championship, but at least there you have a season-long process of qualifying to support the Tour's position, and here the OWGR folks did actually push back against the Tour, awarding pints based upon the scores actually shot and ignoring the staggered start (more importantly, showing that the organization is something more than just Jay's lapdog).

The other point to make is that, while seeing Tiger paid off in this manner is not attractive, at least Tiger had the good taste to stay bought.  

Linksy Stuff - Always a good palate cleanser, no?  There's a few retro bits over in linksland that your humble blogger would pay a king's ransom to experience, none more so than playing The Old Course in the opposite direction.  But this one is pretty close on my wish list, though we lede with a history lesson:

In every other respect, it was just an ordinary October Wednesday in Prestwick 162 years ago.
But down at the local links, a golf competition was about to be born. Three weeks prior to Abraham Lincoln being elected the 16th president of the United States and only months before America would indulge in the ultimate oxymoron, a Civil War, eight competitors, seven Scots and an Englishman, were readying themselves to tee off.

The tournament was played over 36 holes and there was no halfway cut (so no World Ranking points were awarded). But this was the beginning of what is today golf’s most historic event, the Open Championship. Which was, at least for that first playing, a misnomer. No amateurs were allowed to enter, only professionals.

Not until the night before the second playing of the event in 1861 was it resolved that moving forward the event would be open to all the world. That reference is still to be found in the Prestwick Golf Club minutes book and probably led to the expression “the Open.” The first event, however, was actually not an Open. It was invitational, a bit like the Masters and merely an effort to find a successor to Allan Robertson, the so-called “champion golfer of Scotland” who had passed away the previous year.

That OWGR bit is a little cheeky, but the first Open was, as described, the result of the passing of Allan Robertson, the greatest player of the Pre-Tom Morris era.

So, what happened?  A big upset:

The Prestwick club’s “keeper of the green and club and ball maker,” Old Tom Morris, had designed the layout nine years earlier and was a strong favorite to claim first prize, the red Moroccan championship belt that cost the hosts all of £25. But it wasn’t to be. With a score of 174—55-59-60—Willie Park Sr. of Musselburgh claimed the first of what would be his four Open victories, two shots clear of Morris.

Lots of good stuff, including this on how Old Tom designed his courses:

“Old Tom’s approach to course design was interesting,” Goodwin says. “There are two versions. In one, he went round with a pocketful of feathers. And in the other, a pocketful of sticks. He
went out and looked for good places for greens, which he marked with a feather or a stick, depending on which version you believe. Then he would wander off and find another one. And another. If there was a sand dune or depression in the way, it was up to the golfer to negotiate it. You either went over it or round it.”

That fundamental strategy continues to apply today to the now 18-hole layout at Prestwick, which uses six of the original 12 greens. The course remains unashamedly old-fashioned, a quaint and quirky mix of humps, hollows and blind shots. And, happily, one hole has survived from Day 1. The par-4 17th (“the Alps”) that members play today is the one played in the first Open. The second on the 12-hole course, it is 385 yards and more manicured now than it was then. But golfers still play over the same hill. The Sahara bunker still sits in front of the green. And the green is still marked by an extreme slope. It is the oldest existing hole in major championship golf.

He'd walk the property and be at the bar by lunchtime, which is easy to poke fun at 170 years after the fact.  Although, it has to be said, he left a series of courses that are treasure and fun to play even in the 21st century, so who's the joke on?

Why this thread?

Anyway, starting Oct. 10 and lasting for two weeks this month, the original Open layout, recreated as never before, is going to be available to a mixture of members, media and, on a couple of days at least, visitors.

“We’ve always had a good idea where the greens were and that the routing was,” Goodwin said. “The big problem was we didn’t have the equipment necessary to get the job done. So the whole thing was really quite rudimentary. It took a long time to prepare. But now we have the equipment that allows us to cut back large swathes of rough. We’ve done that. Take the first/12th holes. A year ago, the fairway there was covered in grass 18 inches long.”

Inevitably, some compromises have had to be made in trying to recover or retrieve the original course. At the short seventh, “Green Hollow,” where the semi-blind putting surface is in what was rough, the construction of a green was necessary. So it won’t be the same condition of the original. But even the worst green is probably better than the best green in 1860. And yes, the fairways are still a wee bit rough in places. But that is how it was back then. In those days, a lot of golf was actually played in winter. In summer, cattle and sheep were used to graze and keep the grass down as much as possible.

One other 19th century feature will be in evidence this month. Rather than the usual flags, the pins will be topped by baskets, something that will be more than familiar to those who have visited Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, a five-time U.S. Open host.

I remember my caddie trying to explain the original 12-hole loop, though it was hard to absorb in that moment.  But what a grand idea, I only wish I could be among those to experience it.

Here's what's going on from a better vantage point:


There's more there, including the very cute scorecard, which measure the holes to the inch.  That first hole was 578-yards, which in the 1850's must have seemed to be miles.  The concept of "Par" was not institutionalized until after the turn of the century, although the concept was used for decades previously, although it was mostly interchangeable with "bogey".  Hence, this 578-yard, one-foot, nine-inch hole is reflected on their scorecard as a Bogey six.  Of course, Young Tom famously made a three there, so I'm unclear as to whether that qualifies as an albatross.

That's all for now, but I'm sure I'll see you as the week progresses.

 

 

 

 

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 10, 2022

Weekend Wrap

Sunday included the first frost delay of the season, so winter is on.  That used to be a far more exciting prospect for your humble blogger, but that's not important now.

The Legend of Tom Kim - I did watch some of the early coverage, flipping over during commercial breaks in the Dallas-Rams, but didn't see any of the concluding action.  It's for sure hard to win out there, though we can all likely agree that it's not quite as hard as Patrick Cantlay made it seem:

It took Tom Kim until the final regular season event of the 2021-22 season to nab his first PGA Tour win.

He wasted no time backing up that victory in his first start of the 2022-23 season.

Coming into the final round of the Shriners Children’s Open tied with a red-hot Patrick Cantlay for the lead, Kim fired a final-round-66 to finish at 24 under for the week and claim the title. The only thing Kim failed to do all week: make a bogey.

The win makes him the second youngest two-time PGA Tour winner since Ralph Guldahl in 1932 and the youngest international two-time winner since 1900, according to stat guru Justin Ray. The last player to win twice before their 21st birthday was Tiger Woods.

I haven't really come to a conclusion as to how good a player he is, though two wins, even given the depleted fields, gets your attention.  Not to mention that Prez Cup star turn, although by those standards Victor Dubuisson should be atop the OWGR, so perhaps a deep breath is the ticket.

So, what befell Patrick?  Well, just about everything:

Cantlay, who made the event his first of eight PGA Tour titles when he won in 2017, had
struggled early in the final round after sharing the 54-hole lead with Kim, making two bogeys offset by two birdies over the first eight holes. But with five birdies in his next eight, Cantlay found himself tied again with Kim at 24 under heading to the par-4 finishing hole at TPC Summerlin.

Using a 3-wood off the tee after having hit nine of 13 fairways during the round, Cantlay saw his good fortune run out when the ball turned harder to the left than he hoped. It eventually found an ugly place underneath a desert bush 162 yards from the hole, leaving a lie that on-course reporter Arron Oberholser quickly reported was too bad to play a recovery shot from back to the fairway.

You'll know what's coming, still it's hard to fault his logic:

Yet given the circumstances—Kim’s ball was safely in the fairway 123 yards from the green—Cantlay decided he needed to take the gamble. When in Vegas!

“I figured the only chance I had to stay in the tournament was to try to get it back in the fairway,” Cantlay said. “Obviously I couldn't get it back in the fairway.”

For those that like train wrecks, here's the video:

he really didn't have any viable options there, or so it seems from the video.  He did make a 35-footer to hold onto a T2.

Scenes From The Class Struggle - Having spent some time with the proletariat in the desert, shall we check in with the gilded class in Bangkok?

James Colgan apparently discovered something your humble blogger picked up on back in 2001 when, executing Greg Norman's vision for a world tour, they took the WGC Match Play event to Royal Melbourne, and nobody went (that Steve Stricker - Pierre Fulke final still sends a thrill up Tim Finchem's leg):

LIV Bangkok proves a truly ‘global’ tour is a double-edged sword

On Sunday afternoon in Bangkok, Eugenio Lopez-Chicarra — a 22-year-old Spanish-born pro — won his first-ever LIV Golf event.

It was a blowout win for Chicarra, the kind the folks at LIV have undoubtedly been waiting to see for some time now. Chicarra is one of the youngest members of an uber-talented crew of twenty-somethings for LIV — a group that league hopes will form the glut of its future core. His victory checked a few more boxes for LIV, representing a grand introduction to a foreign market and providing Chicarra’s team, the Fireballs, with their first-ever team win. In a rare feat for the upstarts, Chicarra’s $4.7 million winner’s check was not the main story, but only the cherry on top of a very sweet Sunday.

That is, if you were awake to see it.

The bars weren’t open in New York City when Chicarra’s final putt hit the bottom of the cup at 4:25 a.m. local time. Even the city that never sleeps had opted for shuteye. The ones out on the west coast, where it was 1:25 a.m., were prepping for last call. In London, where LIV hosted its first event, Chicarra’s win might have interrupted breakfast.

Sounds like a dreadful result for the LIVsters, who are bloviating about the strength of their fields in other contexts, yet deliver a winner that can only confirm the importance of the depth of fields, because when you're limited to forty-eight players, you don't have room for the rest of these up-and-comers.

But, James, what is this crew of twenty-somethings of which you speak?  To steal from Tom Lehrer, the average age of the LIV field is, checking notes, dead for three years.

These were expected outcomes, of course. LIV knew that bringing its tour to the other side of the world would blunt its signal with fans. This, after all, is what happens every time the PGA Tour heads to Europe for the DP World Tour or the Open Championship, or what happens each week for PGA Tour fans abroad who tune in at weird hours to see their favorite players.

“This is a global tour,” Sergio Garcia crooned in the wake of Chicarra’s win Sunday. “It’s not a Tour that is in the U.S., not a Tour that is in Europe. This is a global tour.”

To that end, he’s right. LIV is a global tour, but not everything that comes with a global tour is good for business. The viewing numbers and tepid interest represent also the other side of it, where the big, ambitious vision begins to run counter to any league’s primary business strategy: to best serve its fans. This comes at a time of particular business intrigue for the upstarts, who face a series of business decisions in the coming months that could significantly alter their long-term viability.

Fans?  Did they actually allow ans in, because it's not immediately obvious from the pictures I've seen:

Well, Jerry Foltz!  Yeah, there's a delusional strain in the hype that would be amusing in a different context.   

OWGR Maneuvers - Did someone say delusional?  I don't have to dig especially deep to mock them, all I really need to say is MENA Tour....  Yeah, Greg, that was a good one.  No great way to dro into this story, so let's just start with the Tour Confidential panel's take on all things MENA:

One day after LIV Golf announced a strategic alliance with the MENA Tour in the hopes of earning immediate world ranking points, the OWGR said it paused the league’s bid for them. A review of the changes is now underway. “I don’t think it really was much of a
response,” Brooks Koepka said. “I just hate when you sit on the fence. Just pick a side. If it’s yes or no, just pick one.” Are you surprised by the decision, and how much of a setback is this for LIV?

Josh Sens: This was like my patented heel-slice off the 1st tee: you could see it coming. I can’t imagine LIV was surprised. This felt more like an attempt by LIV to test around the edges and get a response out of the tight-lipped OWGR. Also quite possibly part of a longer-term legal strategy — evidence they might point to later to make a case that they’ve been treated unfairly. I don’t think LIV expected this end-around to work in the short run.

James Colgan: Doesn’t matter how nice the suit is if you weren’t invited to the wedding in the first place. This felt a bit like switching your tie at the last second in the hopes the bouncer will let you through the door.

Jack Hirsh: Not surprised at this at all. I have to agree with Josh here, if LIV Golf thought this was going to work … I don’t even know what to think. I guess why didn’t they try to do this earlier with their affiliation with the Asian Tour?

Dylan Dethier: I don’t think it’s a huge setback, but I think it’s still hard to get a full read on LIV’s attempt here. Was this aggression? Desperation? Laying the groundwork for future legal moves? I think LIV’s only risk here is a shot to its legitimacy — but perhaps they got an accelerated OWGR ruling in return.

I can only assume that this is part of a lawfare strategy, because I can't see any other logic that explains it.  Though Greg and his cabal seems to have a very high threshold for beclowning themselves, because don't they look a little foolish right now?  

We lost Peter Alliss back in 2020, and I'm a bit surprised that someone is still running his Twitter account, but this is spot on:

The provenance of Steve Flesch's Twitter account is far clearer, and he had this similar take:

It's quite amusing, no?  They're quite full of themselves as "disruptors", which I suppose makes sense, but then they seem quite shocked when those whose milkshakes are being drunk don't capitulate.  

But, faced with complex issues, I know I invariably turn to Bryson DeChambeau.  While I could handle the defenestration, it so happens that Eamon Lynch already has:

Who could have imagined that a low-speed collision with a gallery rope would occasion a loss of critical faculty? But then, that presumes Bryson DeChambeau had a firm grasp on logic or fact
before he banjoed himself in front of tens of spectators at a recent LIV tournament in Chicago. If nothing else, the resulting viral video finally brought eyeballs to the LIV product, and perhaps some comfort to its CEO to see someone else suffer an embarrassing choke inside the ropes.

The discombobulated DeChambeau didn’t seem to have all synapses firing at LIV’s latest event for guys who want to spend more time at home, this one held in Thailand, a dozen time zones from his bed in Texas. He was angered that the Official World Golf Ranking declined to award points to LIV’s Bangkok stop within 24 hours of the Saudi-funded enterprise announcing an alliance with the near-defunct MENA Tour, which is recognized by the OWGR but hasn’t actually staged a tournament in more than two years.

“They’re delaying the inevitable. We’ve hit every mark in their criteria, so for us not to get points is kind of crazy … we have the top players in the world … we deserve to be getting world ranking points,” DeChambeau said, with an air of entitlement more befitting a Crown Prince than one of his play things.

OK, that's a pretty good Norman slam in that first 'graph....

Of course, Bryson has picked up that Normanesque aversion to the truth, because they haven't hit any of the marks, have they?

In many cases, they seem to have intentionally avoided the marks, although this is admittedly not quite as black-and-white as any of us would like.  

LIV’s existing structure falls short of many of the conventions long-established for tours to qualify for world ranking points. Let’s leave aside the first requirement — embracing inclusion and promoting non-discrimination, a formidable impediment for misogynistic bonesaw enthusiasts and their apologists. On rules around format, cuts and average field sizes over the course of a season, LIV is non-compliant. Nor are LIV events accessible via a legitimate qualification process, since entry is determined largely by Greg Norman’s use of MBS’s checkbook. Defenders will point to LIV’s proposed relegation system but that is meritless since some players are contractually exempt from being demoted, regardless of performance.

Tours must be compliant with OWGR standards for a year before ranking points will be awarded, but LIV has shown no intent to become so. Instead, Norman has adopted a strategy popular with his puppeteers: insist that established rules don’t apply, allege that the application of said rules amounts to unfair and discriminatory treatment, and launch a bot-driven misinformation campaign to create a deceitful narrative of a conspiracy.

Yes, relegation is a straw man, and there's also a process involved, though that seems to have come as quite the surprise to Mr. Norman.

I've got more  this subject, including so snark from Geoff, but I'm also running up against the clock.  I'll leave you here and pick up at this juncture tomorrow, is that acceptable to you .  Also if it's not acceptable, though you're an agreeable lot.

 

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)