Thursday Themes

I wasn't gonna blog, but I'm struggling with today's WORDL and an Ask Alan has dropped....

Plus, this bit of silliness...

The Match, A Highly Selective Preview - Hey, something to do on a Saturday night...But seems like they're over-selling, no?

Despite his latest health-related setback, Tiger Woods will play golf this Saturday. We repeat: Tiger Woods will play golf this Saturday.

And while it's not in a real-deal, 72-hole tournament, it will be Woods like you've never seen him before—under the lights, in primetime, alongside teammate Rory McIlroy and the opposing two-man squad of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. It will be the seventh iteration of Capital One's The Match, a series of made-for-TV match-play events that has previously featured Woods facing off with longtime rival Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka going head-to-head amid their "beef," and, in the most recent edition, NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers teaming up to defeat Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen

Including those back in the day with Duval, Sergio and even Annika, I think we've seen this movie many times, the unifying theme being that they've all pretty much sucked.

If you wanted the dreariest format available....

The format

The format is best ball, meaning each player on each team plays his own ball throughout the round and lowest score of the two players counts as the team score on each hole. For example, if Woods makes a 4 and McIlroy a 3, McIlroy's 3 is their score for the hole. The team with the lowest score on a hole wins that hole. It is only a 12-hole match, which means if one team takes a 3-up lead after 10 holes, the match is over.

I know you can use that primer on best-ball, but can you say "boring"....  This is the extent to which they'll mix it up:

The challenges

There will be five special challenges that will generate donations from the players. On the third hole will be a closest-to-the-hole competition sponsored by DraftKings Sportsbook for up to $1.1 million. At the ninth hole there will be another closest-to-the-hole challenge sponsored by UnitedHealthcare for up to $1.1 million. There also will be a one-club challenge (every player can only use one club on the entire hole) at the fourth, which is sponsored by Capital One, for up to $750,000. Finally, there will be two hole-in-one challenges at the fifth and eighth holes, one sponsored by USAA Insurance and one by Tito's Handmade Vodka. If an ace is made on either hole, $2.5 million will be donated on the team's behalf, and if no hole-in-one is made, $250,000 will be donated on behalf of the team that wins the hole.

Smeels like an insufferable amount of DraftKings promos, no? 

I think they're over-estimating the appetite, don't you?

How to watch

Coverage will begin live on TNT at 6 p.m. ET, on Saturday. Simulcasts also will be available on TBS, TruTV and HLN, in addition to expansive content available across Bleacher Report's platforms leading up to and during the competition. Programming will begin with "The Conversation presented by Deloitte," a roundtable discussion with Woods, McIlroy, Thomas and Spieth hosted by Brian Anderson, who will be calling all the action along with NBA legend Charles Barkley, former Masters winner Trevor Immelman and sports reporter Kathryn Tappen. Preview coverage for The Match will begin immediately after the roundtable dicussion at 6:30 p.m. ET.

For fans looking to check in even earlier, the "Hot Seat Press Conference" will be available at 5:30 p.m. ET on the Bleacher Report app. It will be hosted by former tour pro Smylie Kaufman feature questions field from fans across Bleacher Report's social channels and the B/R app.

I'm sorry, when do they start playing golf?  Because they seem to be copying those World Cup shysters, thinking we'll tune in for an hour of fluff....  I'm guess they won't tee off until about 7:00, though that still requires confirmation.

Will it entertain?  Yeah, why start now?

Hopefully, The Match itself is better than the pre-tournament press conference.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are set to take on Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas on Saturday evening under the lights at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. On Wednesday, a Zoom call with all four players failed to create the hype often associated with a boxing match; this was more of a meeting of a mutual admiration society — with a few subtle digs.

“If you told myself and JT in 2012 when we were in college that we’d be playing against these two in a match, that would be a really, really cool thing,” Spieth said. “We want to win it because of how much these guys inspired us.”

Wow, that's some incendiary trash talk there, buys!

There's only one of the four has any bark worth note, though he gets put in his place here:

If you wanted trash talk and bulletin-board material ahead of the 12-hole match, it was sorely lacking from this gabfest. When asked to name the best trash talker of the bunch, McIlroy jumped in and said, “I know who thinks he is the best trash talker, JT.”

We all might be overinterpreting his snarkiness during that second installment, the one during the pandemic.  Then again, there's always this issue:

That may be the case, but Thomas has done battle with Tiger enough to know that he and Spieth are at a significant disadvantage against Woods and McIlroy in terms of on-course achievements.

“It’s kind of hard to trash talk them,” Thomas said. “I feel like on the first tee Jordan and I just need to get it out in the open that, OK, you guys have more majors than us, you have more FedEx Cups than us, you both have an airplane and we don’t, let’s just get that out in the open that way we don’t get it used against us in our match.”

“They’re both quick and witty,” Spieth added. “I was saying to Justin that we might have to take the nice guy route, which isn’t normal for us in these type of matches.”

“Either way, it won’t work,” Woods piped in.

If it makes you feel any better, JT, since 2015 Jordan and you have six majors to Tiger and Rory's one.

I thought I had heard that this guy wasn't on the broadcast:

Fortunately, Charles Barkley returns to the broadcast to add some spice and keep the players on their toes — and hopefully draw out some good barbs between a foursome of competitors that are just a bit too chummy. Tiger noted that in previous years Barkley has had a tendency to speak directly into their earpieces while a player is mid-swing.

“Charles was saying something probably very inappropriate for most of the viewers but it’s going directly into our ear and we can’t respond to him,” Tiger said. “The chatter is good but it’s not quite the chatter we’d normally have amongst ourselves. In this day and age, there are certain words you can’t use. As most of these guys know, my vocabulary is very limited in that regard. Certain words are verbs, nouns and adjectives … and I use the same words for all of them.”

That helps, although I would expect him to have way too much dead air to fill....

The venue might be a reason to tune in, although it's hosted its share of LPGA events.  That is, if you're not put off by the strained attempts to compare it to Augusta National:

If, while watching the latest edition of Capital One’s The Match on Saturday, you’re noticing some similarities between the host layout—Pelican Golf Club—and Augusta National, you’re likely not alone.

The Tampa-area layout’s complicated history spans nearly 100 years, as Donald Ross laid out the initial 18 holes in 1925. First known as Pelican Golf Club before being renamed Belleview Biltmore Golf Club, the course was bought by the town of Belleair in 2013. In 2017, the Doyle family—founders of the Tampa-based DEX Imaging—bought the course with the vision of turning the dilapidated public layout into an exclusive private club.

They called on Beau Welling—a former associate of Tom Fazio and a senior consultant on Woods’ design firm—to revitalize the course, which they billed Pelican Golf Club once again. Finding little information on Ross’ original vision, Welling opted to redesign the course with the characteristics of Ross and other Golden Age architects in mind.

The result is a return to a more classic style of course design that demands proper shot placement to navigate the prominent contouring. The similarities between this West Florida parkland course and Augusta National Golf Club, 480 miles to its north, are numerous.

Like the home of the Masters, Pelican is a second-shot golf course. On the front side, most fairways are at least 40 yards wide, and the back nine opens up even further, with many landing areas 60 yards from edge to edge. Pine straw sits at the base of the few trees that line the fairways, creating a similar aesthetic to Augusta.

Which sounds promising until you look at the accompanying photo and see that the terrain is flat as a pancake.....You know what else is a second-shot golf course.  Yeah, pretty much all of them...

This bit sounds characteristically Rossian:

With expansive fairways and only a few water hazards in play, Pelican instead defends itself with its green complexes, which vary in size but are often large with significant undulations and numerous tiers. LPGA Tour player Brittany Lincicome has noted that the greens are shaped as if elephants are buried underneath.

This, not so much:

Perhaps no hole at Pelican better displays the course’s ode to both Golden Age architecture and Augusta National than the par-3 12th (below), which will play as the eighth hole during Saturday’s 12-hole match. The short par 3 plays about 150 yards over a pond to a Biarritz green that is angled away from the player like the famous 12th at Augusta. The hole made headlines in 2021 during the annual LPGA Tour event held at Pelican, when three players made a hole-in-one and each walked away with a two-year lease on a Lamborghini.

It may be an ode to Golden Age architecture, but I'm unaware of Ross building a Biarritz, and I certainly don't see any here.

It seems weird to me architecturally, as well.  The design logic of a Biarritz is to promote a low running shot to a pin placed on the back tier.  But that left-to-right angle seems to call for a fade, and fades don't run.   At least one reason to watch eight holes.

Alan, Asked - I'm just gonna move on the Alan's mailbag, supplemented where appropriate.  This very much follows my thoughts on Monday:

#AskAlan When is Viktor Hovland going to win a tournament that 1) matters and 2) is not on the water? @the_agrippa

It’s interesting that Viktor’s three PGA Tour victories have come in Puerto Rico/the Riviera Maya to go along with two World Challenge wins in Bermuda. Clearly Hovland plays his best in low-leverage events. I love the guy like everyone else, but it’s hard for me to shake the memories of his defensive and untidy play in the final group on Sunday at St. Andrews. It was the biggest moment of his career, and he retreated. Hopefully that was a hard lesson about winning on the biggest stages: It’s a lot more stressful than a B-list Tour event in paradise, and if you want to be a player who matters you have to embrace the grind.

Yeah, kinda weird and kinda amusing, given those Norwegian roots.  I remember calling BS when he got as high as third in the OWGR, just because those wins seemed so weak.

 But, since we've been agonizing over those OWGR issues, this from Bob Harig is worth noting:

1. Victor Hovland received 29 points from the Official World Golf Ranking for winning the Hero World Challenge. A year ago, he got 48 for winning the same event. The new ranking system that went into place in August has clearly shown that smaller fields—only 20 players in the Bahamas—are impacted with fewer points.

Zero would be better....

#askalan Could LIV have done any worse assembling its 2023 schedule? For a tour with deep pockets I was expecting substantially better venues. Also, why market your tour as international when 60% of the events are in classic U.S. golf markets? Mailed in? @zombo2zombo

Nah, it’s more like many/most desirable courses don’t want to get into bed with LIV. There has already been some private grumbling from the players about the mediocre venues, but no one seems to care enough to go public. To quote one of our great philosophers: It is what it is. As for the balance of domestic and international events, I think you’re looking at it the wrong way: Most of LIV’s biggest names are American, and they’re agreeing to go overseas 40 percent of the time. That’s a pretty high percentage for a group of parochial golfers.

I do so love the questioner's sense of profound disillusionment to learn that Greg Norman et. al. might not be fully as advertised....  The rest of us got there long ago.

But, Alan, what big names?  I'll grant you Cam and DJ, but it's pretty much rabbits form there down....

But isn't this the defining issue of the moment?

In your opinion how many more guys will go to LIV after Jan. 1? @KeithMcConnach1

Well, they need at least a couple more splashy signings, right? Otherwise it will feel like a letdown. But I think the number of attractive candidates is dwindling. Battle lines have pretty clearly been drawn, so if dudes with market value wanted to go they would be gone by now, for the most part.

As you'll know, that's my sense.  I've been saying no one else significant goes, or else they all go.  But, if Alan is correct, that makes LIV dead in the water, no?  Their fields are simply not credible as things now stand, no?

A couple of bits tangentially related.  First, one of the more strident voices in opposition to LIV has, perhaps, been outed:

That players name is Billy Horschel https://t.co/A99GKFFUQq

— LIV Golf Insider (@LIVTracking) December 7, 2022

 To be confirmed, but color me shocked that LIV would reject Billy Ho.... He seems such a perfect fit.

Folks are starting their year-end retrospectives, and this tweet form Alan belongs in them, especially for anyone, like that questioner above, that hasn't taken the full measure of Norman:

I still can’t believe this actually happened. Utter absurdity. https://t.co/lXdsUmIUJf

— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) December 7, 2022

That photo seems to have been cut off, what you're seeing is Greg Norman responding to Shipnuck's text, denying knowledge that a goon was physically removing Alan from a LIV presser, all while watching in real time:

I remain convinced as ever that we can trust all content from Greg Norman....

Just one last in this vein:

Who is going to spill the beans on what Mickelson did or said to Perez’s wife? @teefoat

I hate to be a tease—actually, I love it—but I go deep on this topic in the new afterword I just typed for the paperback edition of “Phil,” which comes out next spring. Buckle up.

It's not just the Perez bit.  Alan had three scandals, not sure whether Pat's was included in that subset.

But I still think I'm due a refund for the hardcover, so I won't be in the market for any additional paid content from Alan.

This certainly won't get him on Jay's Christmas card list:

As it’s impossible to care about “The Match” or what happened at the Hero hit and giggle, I’m more interested in having your absolutely definitive list of next year’s major champions? @DebitStan

Masters: Cam Smith

PGA Championship: Dustin Johnson

U.S. Open: Jon Rahm

Open Championship: Max Homa

I've always thought that playing in LIV exhibitions can't possibly be good preparation, not that those two guys aren't studs.  But, without new defections, they'd need something like this to continue to justify their existence.

This seems, well, naively premature:

The Ryder Cup is now less than a year away. What is your prediction for Rome? I recall you making an infamous prediction for the 2018 Ryder Cup. #askalan @that_is_a_stat

Well, the prediction in question was for long-term U.S. dominance and the Americans have, in fact, won two of the last three Cups after two decades of futility. But the U.S. needs a victory on European soil before we can proclaim this a new era of Yankee hegemony. It’s going to happen in Rome. U.S. wins, 15-13.

Pretty hard to envision given all the uncertainties, both in terms of potential defections, as well as the legal issues (probably a European issue mostly).  I'm just hoping we have a Ryder Cup.

Zero seems the call here:

How many times will Tiger and Phil play golf in the same group before they become ceremonial starters at Augusta? Zero? Maybe one random weekend pairing at a major? @afree8383

Well, Tiger clearly has no interest in being paired with Phil, and the Tour and all of the governing bodies are certainly going to honor that when arranging Thursday-Friday pairings. And both of them making the cut at the same major championship looks increasingly unlikely. So I’m going to go with zero.

But I’m not sure the premise of your question even works because Mickelson may have forfeited his chance to be an honorary starter at the Masters. A friend of mine recently stayed at Augusta National for a few nights, and he reported that many of the green jackets were highly dismissive of Mickelson.

I think Jack Nicklaus is on the verge of ending his era as an honorary starter, which means Gary Player is going to be retired, too. Ben Crenshaw-Tom Watson is an easy choice to hold things down for the ensuing decade, but then what? Nick Faldo has the credentials but not the accrued goodwill. Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal are both proud champions but not big enough names. I think Fred Couples is the answer. He would be a hugely popular choice, and Tiger loves him. If Mickelson gets back in the good graces of the green jackets, he can be the third wheel.

On the one hand, who gives a damn about honorary starters.  But, it's really kind of startling the extent to which Phil has s**t where you'd think he intends to keep eating, so I'm sure he'll be content to be an honorary starter for LIV.

Not a great post, I'll agree, but not half-bad for a day on which I had no intention of blogging.   

Midweek Musings

A few bits we need to catch up on, then who knows where the currents will take us....

Another Elevated Event - I'm reminded of this Churchill quote about the U.S.:

Winston Churchill once famously observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.

You'll understand why Winnie popped into mind as relates the this news:

At long last, a mixed-team event will return to the LPGA and PGA Tour schedules, with the QBE Shootout adopting the format beginning in 2023, the Associated Press has reported. The AP ‘s Doug

Ferguson notes that players were informed of the change at a meeting last week in the Bahamas during the Hero World Challenge.

John Daly and Laura Davies won the final staging of the JCPenney Classic at Innisbrook in 1999, the most recent mixed-team event that was sponsored by the LPGA and PGA Tour. Brittany Lincicome remembers it well. She grew up not far from Palm Harbor, Florida, and worked as a standard-bearer at the event from ages 12 to 16.

This year, both Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson are participating in the QBE at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, site of the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. The purse this week is $3.8 million, with each team splitting the $950,000 winner’s check. There are 24 players in the field.

The obvious reaction, as captured in that quote above, is what took them so bloody long.  Obviously it would be better to do this during the season, but that triggers all sorts of FedEx Cup issues, maybe the singular would be more apt, given that the guys just won't show up without them.  

So, if you're going to diss the ladies and only hook up (perhaps not the best choice of terms) with them in the Silly Season, couldn't you have defused this minor issue by doing it five years ago?

But, while that JC Penny event had some history to it, at also had the one regrettable instance of the patriarchy inflicting emotional harm among those most vulnerable.  It's actually hinted at here, but without the requisite photo:

The history of the mixed-team event dates back to 1960 with the Haig & Haig Scotch Foursome. The great Mickey Wright won it with Dave Ragan in both ’61 and ’63. Notable winners of the JCPenney include Curtis Strange/Nancy Lopez (1980), Tom Kite/Beth Daniel (1981) and Fred Couples/Jan Stephenson (1983). Daniel also won it twice with Davis Love III (1990 and 1995).

Kelli Kuehne made a memorable pro debut at the 1996 version at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course when she paired with Tiger Woods (in matching red and black Nike outfits).

It was those very matching red-and-black outfits that was so triggering:

It might have been appropriate to put Tiger and his partner in matching outfits, had Nike actually made women's golf clothing.  As it was, we can only wonder why they hate women so....

Doug Ferguson, who broke the news, had this on the timing:

The PGA Tour had been working on converting the World Cup of Golf into a mixed-team event, but progress was slowed when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.

Yeah, you mean that's the excuse they gave the ladies....  Of course, the next question is blindingly obvious, who will play?

Money will be an incentive for LPGA players. The key is how many top PGA Tour players are interested, though not many of them play now in the QBE Shootout. The field of 12 teams this year has nine of the top 50. Max Homa at No. 16 is the highest-ranked player.

Participation of top players is what contributed to the demise of the JC Penney Classic.

Jay will somehow have to produce a credible coterie of his guys.  Though that's harder given how many events they will now be required to play during the January-Augusta season, though we still don't know what he intends for that Fall period.

Higgs In Full -  Harry has always seemed an engaging sort, as long as he keeps his shirt on, that is.  He had some recent comments on a podcast that I think are worth considering, first on the recent changes:

“I think the Tour is doing a better job,” he said.

Higgs’ comments came on the heels of a host of changes made by the Tour and go in effect next

month. In short, 20 players will be defined as “top players;” the device in which the Tour will define those players will be the Player Impact Program, and it will receive a $100 million purse to reward those players; and the 20 players will play in 12 so-called “elevated events” — with purses that have increased to between $15 million and $20 million — the four majors, the Players Championship and three other tournaments, for a 20-event schedule.

“Basically those events need to generate a s**t ton of revenue to offset the cost of pumping money into purses, pumping money into bonuses,” said Higgs, who last season lost his Tour card, but will still play in some events. “If those events generate a ton of revenue, more than what we are putting into every pool, with purses, bonuses, all this stuff, all the money that is being shelled out, then we’re cool, we’re fine. We’re going to be just great. Every event is going to continue to run.”

Say what?  If I understand Harry, these events have to generate enough additional revenue to justify the increased purses AND the PIP bonuses?  Is that a reasonable expectation, given that these events already had the strongest fields?  Given that the rights fees are a done deal, how much additional revenue can they generate from tickets, concessions and merchandise?

But that last sentence is really curious, no?  If these elevate events "work" then the non-elevated events will necessarily be fine?  That seems odd logic to this observer and I would posit that the nice folks at Honda seem to agree with my take.

But his logic gets even more curious:

And if they don’t ‘hit?’ Higgs believed the Tour would consolidate its money into just the aforementioned 20 events.

“If they don’t generate the revenue we think, or we’re hoping, then there is no way that there is anything other than a 20-event PGA Tour schedule starting probably year 2031,” he said on the podcast. “And then the rest of the events kind of, I would imagine, mix in with European Tour and Korn Ferry Tour, and there’s some kind of hybrid tour that’s just underneath that that feeds X amount of players into the big tour every year. And whatever number that may be, who knows.”

 Does he know that the sponsors get a vote?

What's interesting to me is that that 20-event schedule sounds very much like what the Tour should have been all along.  The best players won't play any more than that, so they've been peddling inferior product for a long time.  I always anticipate sponsor pushback and desertion, though they do seem to keep finding willing suckers.

I have no problem with Tour running additional events that allow players to enhance their status, though the branding thereof gets problematic.  In fact, I liked the old Fall Finish which served exactly that purpose, and showed us Tour-level talent fighting for their professional futures.  Harry makes exactly that case:

“So if we got a … elevated schedule and the lesser ones are not elevated, but if you play good golf in those, you can get into the elevated ones, that’s awesome. That’s something I’m sure you would watch, I’m sure almost every listener would love to watch and follow along. But they make it too f***ing hard to follow along. I don’t trust them to tell the story the way that it should be. I cannot wait to watch — I hope I’m not playing in it — I cannot wait to watch Q School next year. To just see the difference in like the top five guys — the top five finishers get to the PGA Tour. That adds a zero to every check that they make for the next year. It’s a f***ing zero. It adds a zero. And I don’t trust any of them to portray to me in the appropriate way to captivate me to stay and watch for four days. I just don’t trust them to tell the story the way that it should be.

That should be compelling (and, indeed, I thought it was), but the reality is that, absent prominent players, no one will watch (heck, not too many watch even when the alphas are playing).  

Before we move on from Harry, he took some potshots and some of our favorite punching bags:

“I want to be kind in the way that I say this because I have played on Tour for now this is my fourth year, I see the amount of work that goes into showing us play golf, and it is ridiculous,” Higgs said on the podcast. “And I really, really appreciate all the work that they all go through to do that. But at the end of the day, they do a s**t, s**t job of telling the story of what’s going on.

Really, what could be kinder than telling folks that they do a s**t job?  Strike that, telling them they do a s**t, s**t job?  Mind you, I completely agree...

The best part is he names names:

“Well, it’s like, I didn’t particularly care to turn on my TV and listen to Nick Faldo,” he said on the podcast. [Faldo, CBS’ main analyst, retired from broadcasting this and has been replaced by Trevor Immelman.] “I don’t really know him that well. I’m sure he’s a decent guy. I didn’t particularly care. The reason I didn’t particularly care is I never saw the man. Like, he’s there Wednesday to Sunday. Just come out on the driving range. Now whether people talk to you or not, who knows. But listen to what’s going on. Trevor Immelman is taking his place — I see the man everywhere.”

 Don't forget the marbles in his mouth....

Calling out Faldo is fine, your humble blogger has never had a good word for the man.  But how is it that Harry is only tacking Sir Mumbles to task after he's left the booth for good?  

Admittedly, some of this is generational, as Trevor is far closer in age to these guys than Faldo is.  But I'm not sure this is the objective:

“Everywhere. I think he’s going to do a great job,” Higgs said. “Colt [Knost, a CBS analyst], obviously he’s easy. Colt is everywhere. And Colt has the relationship with a lot of the current top-level guys. And even some of the not-so top-level guys. He has a relationship with them. It’s going to be easy for him to tell the story.

“Now when it comes to n**-cutting time and the story needs to be told, everybody needs to stop talking and let Colt talk. Because he’s the one that has the story. Just stop. Just stop talking. We’re going to listen to Colt for an hour, for the end, because Harry is about to win, and Colt knows him really well. Or whomever it may be.

“Any time one of those Presidents Cup guys from the International team is about to win this next year, Immelman should be the only one talking for an hour. Because he has all the detail. He spent two years cultivating relationships with those guys. And then a very, very spirited week with them. He knows those guys. Everybody stop talking. Let’s listen to Trevor.”

I don't think you need a personal relationship with each player to call a golf tournament.  In fact, it would raise issues.... 

But, really, all I want CBS to do is show some actual golf and shut the eff up.  

OWGR, A Deep(er) Dive - Your humble blogger's mind keeps drifting back to that Tiger presser at Albany, which I found to be an unmitigated disaster.  I've never been the man's biggest fan on a personal basis, but the praise for his candor seems really inapt, given the whopper he told about Tour finances.  Pro tip:  Any time you lose a fact check to Phil, you effed up big time... Totally an unforced error.

But his comments on the OWGR were equally bewildering, maybe more so.  I think he's dead-ass wrong on the merits of his argument (which mirrors Jon Rahm's comments from Dubai), which I'll get to in a minute, but which casts Tiger in an unflattering, elitist posture.  He seems to think only the very top players matter, which is quite strange given that elsewhere in his comments he articulates the need to allow new talent to emerge....

It's also just bizarre in the context of the LIV threat.  The Tour runs mostly full-field events, and that's an obvious distinction with LIV.  We'll get to the merits in a sec, but why is Tiger arguing on LIVs behalf?  Is a little message consistency too much to expect?  Because the OWGR fight is a two-step process.  I don't think that a Tour featuring 48-player field in 54-hole events should get OWGR points, though I suppose reasonable folks could differ.  But even if the good guys lose on that one, that only raises the secondary issue, which is how their fields should be rated ona relative basis.

I don't know Joseph LaMagna, but he's written the definitive takedown of Tiger and Rahm's position:

Up until a couple of months ago, the system ranked fields mostly based on how many top players were in the field. The system also provided some tournaments with Minimum Point Totals, which boosted the points players received in many tournaments in Asia and in Europe.

Some people didn’t like this system.

They argued that the system was biased towards tours like the European Tour and the Japan Tour. They argued that if a purer system existed, one that thoroughly evaluated the entirety of a field and did not provide points floors to tournaments, the Official World Golf Rankings would more accurately reflect golf performance around the globe. They looked at leaderboards and realized that many non-PGA Tour players, whose world rankings were propped up by playing non-PGA Tour events, tended to finish near the bottom of tournaments like the World Golf Championships.

Yeah, we all kinda noticed that....as well as this:

Rahm voiced his displeasure in advance of last week’s DP World Tour Championship, a 50-person field that included seven of the Top 25 players in the world by OWGR. The PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, on the other hand, had 155 players and included zero of the Top 25 players in the world. Yet, the RSM Classic delegated significantly more points to its winner than the DP World Tour Championship delegated.

While there are some legitimate criticisms with respect to the new OWGR methodology, overall the system is doing a fine job at evaluating performance and assigning points values across tours. The RSM Classic had depth in talent. It bears mentioning that in the DP World Tour Championship, five of the seven aforementioned Top 25 OWGR players finished in the top six of the tournament. And Jon Rahm won. That’s pretty vindicating of the new system.

The new system said, “Hey, this field isn’t very deep and there are only fifty players. Many of these names are not that difficult for a Top 25 ranked player to beat.” And then four days later, the leaderboard agreed.

That's a pretty big tell.

And this one is even bigger:

LIV players have sent this signed letter to Peter Dawson, chairman of the governing board of the OWGR, pleading for world ranking points. pic.twitter.com/iM8TXu3SEO

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) September 20, 2022

Because:

If you’re trying to prove you have strong, deep fields, “Mr. Dawson, Dustin Johnson finishes in the Top 5 in all of our tournaments” isn’t a line I would have included!

Anyway, is the new Official World Golf Rankings system good? Depends on what you think the OWGR should represent.

If you think the OWGR should be a strict representation of exactly how each player stacks up globally, then the new system is a dramatic improvement upon the previous system.

There were other howlers in that letter, in which they cite wins and second places in majors without detailing when those occurred.  I know you have King Louis and he's won a major, but that was rather a long time ago and shall we discuss all that he's won since then?  We just did...

The most important realization is how bad the strength of field metrics were and how long it took to change them.  It may be that this revision doesn't get the balance quite right, but at least it's attempting to accommodate the depth of field.

This would also seem to be a subject that Tiger specifically should stay off, given his obvious conflict of interest as relates to the hero.  As a matter of OWGR hygiene. twenty player fields shouldn't ever get OWGR points, for the obvious reason that its' an unconscionable handout to the have of the world:

Let me just post this involving Jordan and JT:

In a tweet posted by @flushingitgolf, it read: "Spieth’s last again at the Hero and will get 2.0886 OWGR points for his effort. Players need to come 3rd in the Indonesian Masters this week to get that many. The new system is going to crush the chances of “international” players getting into majors and it’s completely unfair."

In response, Thomas gave a straight up answer, with the two-time Major winner stating: "An event with 15ish (sorry not sure the exact number) of the top 20 in the world? It’s all about the quality of the field. The new system is hurting events like this more than it does that. Like anything in golf, play well enough in big events and you’ll be rewarded."

As with Tiger's comments, this is both wrong on the merits and wrong in the context of the LIV battle.

the awarding of OWGR points for this exhibition just makes it harder for those slugging it out on the ancillary tours to qualify for those big events.  It's little more than a protection racket for those who already have status, just as the WGCs are.  This is exactly what's wrong with the LIV model, it's just that the Tour's alpha think they're entitles to a LIV-like environment, just one without that pesky Saudi blood money.

It's just not a good look for these guys...

I'll just leave you with this comedy gold.  We've seen Phil and Patrick, among others, hide behind their wives skirts, always quite a manly look.  But what to make of this one?

🚨#NEW: Pat Perez’s wife goes full ANTI-Tiger mode in the Instagram comments and takes a shot at the car accident. “I don’t feel bad for him” pic.twitter.com/cD7i4kDZyy

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) December 5, 2022

Just a reminder of Ashley's...well, let's go with Ashley's assets:

To the extent Pat uses Ashley for cover, I wouldn't expect that it's her skirt behind which we'll find him...

That was great, Ashley.  Now do Phil!

This actually might be a tad more significant than my snark implies.  I'm always happy for an excuse to run that photo, but Tiger and Perez go way back in Southern California amateur golf circles.  For Pat to allow her to call out Tiger seems to indicate that everyone is going to the mattresses, so should be fun blogging in 2023.  Because, it's not like she's wrong that there's never been any accounting of that accident...

That'll have to suffice for now.  But we'll have more down the road, especially since I didn't get to The Match preview as intended..

Weekend Wrap

We've got some actual golf to discuss, as well as some LIV-infused manspats....  But, just a reminder to readers that it's ski season, so we'll not grind too hard.

A (Repeat) Hero For Our Time - Our primary focus here remains Golfers Behaving Badly™, though golf publications beclowning themselves remains fertile ground, today being Golf Digest's turn:

You see the issue?  Even the PGA Tour isn't sufficiently shameless to call the Hero, with its massive twenty-player field, an official event.  Something we might have expected the folks at Golf Digest to actually know...

Golfweek's header has the benefit of actually conforming to reality:

Despite water ball on final hole, Viktor Hovland defends title at 2022 Hero World Challenge

I was flipping back and forth among two football games and the Hero, but I did see Viktor's shot into the final hole, which reminded me of Adam Scott at Sawgrass back in the day, with a similar result.

Victor Hovland saved some of his best golf for December yet again.

The 25-year-old Norwegian went wire-to-wire to win the Hero World Challenge at Albany Club in Nassau, Bahamas, and was handed the trophy by Tiger Woods for the second straight year.

“It was frickin nerve-wracking,” said Hovland, who held a five-stroke lead and nearly squandered it. “I didn’t play all that great on the back nine but it was good enough.”

Hovland is a serious young talent, though his early results has me pondering whether, despite that Norwegian DNA, he's some kind of Bermuda savant.  He has the three prior wins, one in Puerto Rico and two at Mayakoba, so he seems to be a warm-weather, late season kind of player (although his U.S. Amateur was won at Pebble).  Lost in the LIV shuffle might be that Viktor is hardest hit, losing that Mexican resort to LIV.

The Tour Confidential panel focused on Viktor's putter, which was en fuego this week:

5. Viktor Hovland, despite a scare on the 18th, won the Hero World Challenge for a second-straight year. Carrying him was putting — on Saturday, he had 23 putts, on Sunday, 24. If Hovland’s flatstick stays somewhere in that zone, what do you see from him going forward?

Sens: Putting is always a difference-maker. But giving a monster ball striker like Hovland a permanently red-hot flat stick would be like giving Sauron the One Ring. A large handful of wins. Probably a major. Possible global domination. Even Middle Earth would be in play. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It was one week.

Colgan: Man, it’s hard to know where Vik’s ceiling is until we see him win more frequently during the glut of the regular season. As of right now, fall season king feels fitting.

Hirsh: I’ll amend that title to “tropical paradise king.” Hovland has won in Puerto Rico, Mexico twice and now the Bahamas twice. As for his putting, you can kind of put him in the same category as Collin Morikawa. When they got the flat stick working, few are going to beat them. If they don’t, hitting iron shots can get you only so far when you’re missing the putts.

Yeah, it was one week against nineteen other guys in December!

Morikawa is a good comparison, especially since they came out as contemporaries, though the third of that troika is a name we can no longer mention, since he's gone to the dark side.  But there's 20-30 guys you can say the exact same about, superior ball strikers that are in the hunt when the putter cooperates.

The biggest issue from the week is the ultimate first-world problem:

Pros ‘infuriated’ after ‘muddy’ Hero World Challenge third round

 Why were 20 of the best golfers in the world uncharacteristically bad shots and complaining

about it Saturday at the Hero World Challenge? Mud.

For the third round, PGA Tour officials believed Albany, which had been soaked by rain earlier in the week, was dry enough to allow players to play the ball down and unable to utilize preferred lies as they had the first two rounds of the events.

After a round plagued by mud balls and bizarre-looking shots, some players did not agree.

“Absolutely shocked, yeah,” Kisner said of the Tour’s decision. “No. 4, [I] had a 4-iron in with mud all on the left side with wind off the left and lost the ball left of the green. Pretty hard to aim it in the middle of that. But the leaders aren’t having any problems, so wasn’t too hard for everyone.”

And I'm infuriated that they're infuriated.  Mudballs are always a tough issue, but here I think they're a victim of having it both ways.  This should be a hit-and-goggle exhibition, in which no one would care if you let them put their hands on the ball all four days.  But in an event that awards OWGR points, the rules officials are understandably concerned that the guys play actual golf.

Here's a bit that amused and somewhat puzzled me, because it's an iteration of something Bobby D. and I have been doing in our game, this being from Scottie Scheffler:

“I think with the Rules of Golf there might be something we can figure it out whether it's, I don't know, a lift, clean and drop or draw a line in the fairway where it's like hey, when you're inside this line up to the green, you don't clean your ball. That's what we do at home is like we'll clean our ball in the fairway, we don't clean it up by the green. That's just something we've done at home, Jordan and I and everybody's done it in the past and it works well. I don't know what works exactly in a tournament setting. It's nothing that anybody's really tried before.”

 But where is the line of demarcation?  

And on Tiger?  First, from that TC panel:

1. Set to return to competition at the Hero World Challenge, an event his foundation hosts, Tiger Woods tweeted on Monday that he developed plantar fasciitis in his right foot and

had to withdraw. Woods also admitted he had a couple of surgeries in the past year, but didn’t elaborate. Does Woods’ latest health update give you more pessimism about his future to compete than what you believed before?

Josh Sens: The clock ticks for everyone. Woods is no exception. Like a lot of people, I’ve underestimated his ability to bounce back so many times that I’m hesitant to short him again. But at this point, the house of cards that is his health seems just too fragile for any serious optimism. At this point, to expect him to play all four majors next year is to overestimate him.

James Colgan: I don’t think any short-term injury qualifies as “increasing” my pessimism in Tiger’s long-term health concerns. If something winds up being the final blow to his playing career, it won’t be plantar fasciitis.

Jack Hirsh: Agree with both my colleagues above. It’s hard to count Woods out and it’s also unlikely plantar fasciitis knocks him out for good. I will say knowing this injury was caused by the previous ones does not bode well for his improving durability to play more than he did in 2022.

Yeah, but the clock is the least of it.... Just a reminder that we still know nothing about that auto accident, why he was endangering the public by driving at a reckless speed in a residential neighborhood.  

And while conventional wisdom is that we're seeing a softer and gentler Tiger, that strikes this observer as wishful thinking.  For instance, Adam Schupak has these alleged revelations:

Five things we learned about Tiger Woods at 2022 Hero World Challenge

But, same old, same old:

Tiger reveals he's had a 'couple of surgeries' but little else

In addition to revealing that he was suffering from plantar fasciitis, Tiger disclosed rather nonchalantly that he had undergone surgery yet again. But when pressed for details, he offered little.

Q: Can you elaborate?

TIGER WOODS: Nope.

Q. Can you say when?

TIGER WOODS: In the past.

Q: In the past?

TIGER WOODS: This year.

Thank you, Bones.

TIGER WOODS: You’re welcome.

A classic Tiger exchange when it comes to the state of his health. It was more surprising that he dropped that info at all than that he refused to share the most basic details – was it his leg? Foot? Knee? Before or after the British? Inquiring minds want to know. What he did reiterate was that he’s on borrowed time. Tiger added this about his 2023 golf plans.

 Same dick, different day....

This is a stretch, to say the least:

2. While Woods didn’t play the Hero, he’s still teeing it up the next two weekends. He also mentioned his goal for 2023 is to play in all four majors and “maybe” one or two more events. Two parter: What are those other one or two events he might be thinking of, and what’s the percent chance he plays four majors next year?

Let me see if I have this straight.  You're curious about the 5th and 6th event on the calendar of a man that can't get through one? 

Sens. After Augusta, you’d think the major he most wants to play in is the Open at Liverpool, where he won before. But as the last of the four, I think it’s also the least likely appearance for him. The longer the season goes, the greater chance of a health issue arising that even he can’t overcome. He’ll play the Masters, but I’m not banking on anything after that. I’m sure he’d love to play the Memorial, but that’s a tough walk. Bay Hill? It’s relatively flat and he’s won it a zillion times.

Colgan: 15 percent, and here’s a simple reason why: Do YOU want to go to Rochester in May? No, you don’t. Does a player with long-standing health issues related to cold weather want to go, either? No, they do not. I think we see him in Augusta, L.A. and Liverpool, though.

Hirsh: The PGA should have foreseen this when it moved the tournament to May! Keep the PGA in the southern states while the U.S. Open takes the northern states. Anyway, I’ll give him a 30-percent chance he plays in all four majors. I agree with James that the PGA is the one he’s most likely to skip this year. I think the biggest question on his schedule is whether he’s willing to risk his body to play at Riviera, where he’s also hosting. Could his duties prove too much to play and host? Will he risk getting hurt again two months before the Masters? Check back in February.

Rochester in May?  I know, what were they thinking?

He's not playing anywhere until Augusta.  Then, we'll see.

And one last inevitable bit:

4. The latest iteration of the Match kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy taking on Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. What are you hoping to see from this one from an entertainment/production standpoint?

Sens: That Tiger plays without a wince or a hitch in his step, and that he and Rory wax the youngsters while delivering some good verbal barbs along the way.

Colgan: LIV has been at the center of every golf course conversation for the past nine months. This event is *supposed* to bring fans into a day on the course with golf’s top players. If it’s true to form, LIV will be on the minds of those in the field. Give me LIV discourse, or give me death!

Hirsh: I mentioned last week how I’m not too high on the Match series. That being said, these guys are all good friends so the trash talk should make this a little more interesting than the Brooks-Bryson snooze fest from last year.

Entertainment?  Why start now?

It's silly, but it's a sort of make-or-break installment, because they need to prove that they can entertain without The Man Who Cannot Be Mentioned.   Problem is that, PIP results notwithstanding, none of these guys project as especially amusing.... My expectation is for lame trash talk and lots of dead air, but we'll see.

LIV Pushback - A little more color on those manspats, beginning with the Sharkie-pooh's killer riposte:

Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf, has responded to recent comments from PGA Tour stalwarts

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

According to a report in todays-golfer.com, Norman says: “I pay zero attention to McIlroy and Woods, right?”

He went on to say that the two “have their agenda for whatever reason. They’re saying whatever they want to say. It has no bearing or effect on me. I’m going to be with LIV for a long, long period of time.”

Hmmm, I'd probably have gone with "Your mother swims after troop ships",  but maybe that's just a stylistic difference.

Greggy puffs up his chest and tells us all is good among the bonecutters:

“When the monopolist’s territory is getting threatened, they’re going to rear their ugly head up and do what they do. But from my whole perspective, I’ve always taken the high road this year. I will continue to take the high road because I believe in our business model. I believe in our people, I believe in the players’ independent rights, and we’ve already seen a dramatic shift in our audience.”

What audience?  Or do you mean both of them?

“I’ve got the support of our investors,” he said. “Our ambitions going forward I can tell you are pretty significant and elevated from where we are in 2022.”

“I am not going anywhere,” he said. “I don’t care what anybody says. I’m not going anywhere. I am so proud of the position I am in and maybe, maybe, it’s my leadership that has them scared.”

Norman continued: “No matter where I go in the world, nobody – not one person – has said what I’m doing is stupid or wrong.”

Not one person?  I can think of a few, but has he checked his Employee Manual for his employer's termination policy?  It's with extreme prejudice.

But, of course, the funniest bit is in that middle graph, so pleas ehold that thought of Rory and Tiger being scared of his "leadership."

Rory has shed some light on his relationship with the shirtless one, which starts in predictable fashion:

The rift began, he said, in Feb. 2020, when McIlroy spoke out against a potential upstart league. He wanted to be on the right side of history, he said, like Arnold Palmer had been in 1994 — when he stood up against Norman’s proposed World Golf Tour.

“He wasn’t happy, and we had a pretty testy back-and-forth and he was very condescending, ‘Maybe one day you’ll understand,’ and all this shite,” McIlroy told Kimmage.

Don't you love the condescension?  But Rory actually tried to patch things up, a mistake he won't make again:

But McIlroy attempted to mend fences in early 2022 after watching an ESPN documentary, Shark, about Norman’s Masters heartbreak in 1996.

After McIlroy had suffered his own Masters meltdown in 2011, Norman had reached out and been “really helpful to me,” McIlroy said. After watching the documentary, he sent Norman a message.

“Greg, I just watched your documentary on ESPN. I thought it was fantastic. It must have been very tough to do that. Hopefully, it reminds everyone of what a great golfer you were.”

McIlroy thanked Norman for what he’d told him in 2011 and said, despite their differences, he wished Norman the best. McIlroy said he considered it “a bit of an olive branch.” Norman responded with a warm message of his own, and for a moment there was a detente.

Because, fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, and Shark's gotta bite:

“Then, a couple of weeks later, he does an interview with The Washington Post and says I’ve been “brainwashed by the PGA Tour,” McIlroy told Kimmage. “I’m like ‘For f— sake!’ We’ve had this really nice back-and-forth and he says that about me.”

It became McIlroy’s turning point.

“I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to make it my business now to be as much of a pain in his arse as possible,’” McIlroy continued. “And that’s basically what I’ve done since.”

Rory, maybe one day you'll understand that he's one of the biggest arses in our game.  Never mind, I think you figured it out all by your lonesome.

I still think that Tiger and Rory are not well served by this exchange, that they are punching down.  But, from Shack's Quadrilateral post came this bit of amusement, the Tour taking a position in their pleadings that your humble blogger has long argued:

LIV Golf lawyers are hoping to depose officials from the Tour Formerly Known As European and are making big claims about the Strategic Alliance Operational Joint Venture Partnership with the PGA Tour, reports Alex Miceli.

And in a motion filed Friday to compel the testimony of a key figure close to Crown Prince MSM, Miceli says the PGA Tour is claiming Greg Norman is a mere figurehead as the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund runs LIV’s day-to-day operations and signs new golfers.

Norman has always been irrelevant,  and it drives him bat-guano mad.  he's very error prone, and I think the Tour is better served with him as the fall guy.

That's it for today's installment.  We'll blog as content demands, flooding the zone in advance of The Match VII.  Kidding about that last bit.

Late-Week Lamentations

The first of those being my late arrival to the keyboard, cause by a 14-lb. mass of feline protoplasm setting up shop in my lap.... A lovely way to start my day, just hell on blogging.

Tiger v. Sharkie, The History - Brentley Romine goes deep to share all the trifling manspats between these two, teeming with perceived slights and the prortypical Sharkian need to remain relevant:

The two were also matched up in 2011, Woods again as a player and Norman as the International captain. In the leadup to that Presidents Cup, Norman went on record saying that he wouldn’t have picked Woods to represent the American squad had he been in Fred Couples’ shoes.

“I can understand the name of a Tiger Woods and his history of what he's done on the golf course,” Norman said. “But I pick the guys who I think are ready to get in there and play and have performed to the highest levels leading up to it.”

Woods went on to earn the clinching point that year at Royal Melbourne.

Bulletin board material, for sure....

Of course, our Sharkie sticks his nose in where it's sure to get cut off:

Norman hasn’t been shy expressing his other opinions on Woods, especially when it comes to major championships. Multiple times in the past decade or so, Norman, a two-time major winner, proclaimed that Woods wouldn’t win another major following his personal scandal and injuries.

“Tiger, when he dominated, had a single-shot approach,” Norman said in 2011, when Woods was still stuck on 14 majors, having not won one since the 2008 U.S. Open. “It was only about the golf. Now there are so many distractions, and people are looking for things that are wrong with Tiger now, so he's got to deal with that on a day-to-day basis, like every other mortal has to do, right? In our lives, in our business, we all have to be responsible for our actions. It's very hard for him to have that focus. And the more he shuts people off, the worse it gets.”

Norman then added in 2015: “He will win again. He will win other tour events. But a major? I don’t see it.” 

In his defense, he is the go-to expert on the subject of not winning majors....  

Although this has always seemed ground zero:

In an interview with Men’s Health in 2019, Norman told a story of how he had hand-written Woods a congratulatory letter following Woods’ landmark win at Augusta National and then delivered it to Woods’ home in Jupiter, Florida, himself. Norman never heard back.

Here's him telling it:

“Very few people know this: when Tiger won the Masters this year, I wrote him a handwritten note and drove down my road, maybe a quarter of a mile, and hand-delivered it to his guard at his gate. I said, 'Hey, this is Greg Norman here. I’ve got a note for Tiger – can you please hand-deliver it to him?' Well, I never heard a word back from the guy. When I won my first major championship, Jack Nicklaus was the first person to walk down out of the TV tower and congratulate me. I don’t know – maybe Tiger just dislikes me. I have no idea. I’ve never had a conversation with him about it.”

He just thinks you're a self-absorbed buffoon...Yanno, like the rest of us.  But note that he thinks he's of the same stature as Jack, 

Although I think Brentley missed the best bit, this little snippet from 2013:

"A lot of people ask how I'd stack up against today's players if I had use of modern equipment. Listen, it's not about the gear. Winning is about what's in your heart and in your head. Equipment dictates how to play the game in an era, but the physical and mental skills are the same. And I had them. 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 and Phil -- whoever. Tiger's a tough guy, but I was a tough guy on the course, too. I probably would have beat him."

If he could have stopped after "whoever", the quote would be entirely unremarkable.  But he can't or he won't, and that's why he's a boon to blogging.

Ironically, and I'd love to think it intentional, Romine uses this early in his piece:

The two first met when Woods was 15 years old, and he and Norman played a round of golf together at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida. Norman is also believed to be an influence in Woods working with instructor Butch Harmon. Later, Woods and Norman would play practice rounds together at the Masters, in 1995 and ’96.

Remind me how that 1996 Masters played out?  Oh, yeah sure, I guess that's you meant about those physical and mental skills....Of course, ironies abound, but had ne not spit the bit on that Sunday in 1996, he could have bonded with Tiger as he helped him into a Size-42 green jacket....

As is to be expected, there's been a closing of ranks behind Norman, including from the Earl of Expectoration:

Add Sergio Garcia as another player coming to Norman’s rescue. During an interview with the

Spanish outlet Marca, Garcia had this to say:

“They (Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy) say that Greg Norman has to go; and Monahan has to stay or go? It’s very easy to say those on the other side have to go. And those on your side? There are also people who have done things wrong.

“You have to look at everything. Greg Norman is our CEO and we support him. We all wish we could come to an agreement. There are people who could have done wrong in both places, but it seems that there are only bad guys on one side.”

Strange bedfellows, indeed.  Are you aware of the history there?

At the start of this year, it seemed Sergio Garcia was poised to finally elevate himself into a major championship winner.

He had, after all, won the 2008 Players Championship, seemingly conquering his putting demons, and he was coming off some serious near misses at the 2007 British Open and the 2008 PGA Championship.

Garcia had vaulted himself to the No. 2 ranking in the world behind only Tiger Woods.

But instead of riding the momentum, Garcia has been in an utter funk this year.

This week, Garcia conceded that he believes his downward spiral has been a direct result of his March break-up with Morgan-Leigh Norman, the daughter of Greg Norman.

Norman’s daughter broke up with the 29-year-old Garcia, who a few years ago had a relationship with Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis, and that news subsequently sent him reeling.

“It hurt,” Garcia, now ranked fourth in the world, told the Times of London. “It was probably the first time I have been really in love. It took me a while to get over it.”

Love hurts, though even being happily married didn't seem to deter him from damaging those greens at the Saudi  event a few years back.  Whether Sergio in your corner is an asset or liability, well he's be there until you need him.

Question answered:

Will the lengthy holiday pause help ease tensions between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf? Don't count on it

War makes for better blogging, so do I get a vote?

“I’m not optimistic,” said PGA Tour Policy Board member Charley Hoffman when asked if the upcoming break in golf could give both sides a chance to breathe deep and reflect on any possibility for conciliation. “I don’t see how you partner with them at this point in time. They don’t have a sustainable product.”

Kevin Kisner, who will end his current term on the Policy Board at the end of the year, was even more blunt.

“No … I don’t think that’s the future,” he said.

We all instinctively want this to resolve itself, though I am unable to identify a framework that could be sold to both sides.  But this seems, well, way off the mark:

The main issue LIV Golf critics have is that it’s backed by Saudi oil money and a government that still restricts basic civil rights for women, criminalizes homosexuality and has the death penalty for offenses such as theft, adultery and protesting against the government, according to Amnesty International.

Critics?  The main problem with LIV is that they decided to try to drink Jay's milkshake, the blood money funding it is just one obvious cudgel to use in beating them off.  In a sense, Jay caught two huge breaks, that this happened as those new TV deals kicked in, but also that the source of the money was so compromised.  Obviously the source of these plans was in the U.K., and it's easy to see how much more difficult that might have been to fend off (though of course unclear whether the Brits could have funded it).

I'm still sorting through my reaction to Tiger's presser, but this seems a good summary of the current state of play:

Hoffman, who is serving a two-year term on the Policy Board, agreed with Love’s characterization that LIV Golf is acting like a corporate raider.

“Davis nailed it,” he said. “I don’t see how you partner with them at this point in time. I’m not that optimistic. As long as they have the play money they’re going to be in the game as long as they want to spend it. I don’t think they’ll ever be able to deliver a product better than the PGA Tour but if they want to keep losing money …”

Do the Saudis think they're getting anything for their money?  I keep coming back to that subject, because it's a lot of scratch for the trouble.

One last bit, an amusing rumor of a meeting of golf's secret cabal:

Telegraph Sport has learned that as well as Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley, the PGA Tour and DP

World Tour heads, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers will also attend the Pelican Golf Club, along with Mike Whan, the chief executive of the US Golf Association and Seth Waugh, the chief executive of the PGA of America.

It is as yet unclear if Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National, will also be at the upscale course near Clearwater, but with the other three majors all sending their top brass, the Masters may not want to miss out. They will not be there to watch the 18-hole made-for-TV encounter featuring Woods and McIlroy versus Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, but instead to draw up plans on how to respond to the Saudi-funded circuit.

Props to Geoff for the accompanying photo, but I assume Fred Ridley is too smart to be anywhere near Pelican...

 Here's Geoff's snark, reprising his long-running Five Families bit:

Call me crazy, but a meeting of the Stracci’s and Corleone’s seems highly doubtful since it would go against the advice of most upright, non-comatose council in a world where LIV’s lawyers are hunting for any evidence of collusion. But if the meeting happens, I hope they can present Tiger with a deck explaining how the new OWGR works.

Honestly, I’d rather see this meeting televised than The Match. Even if it made Sir Charles Barkley doze off and everyone ignored Amanda Balionis’ interview requests.

Don’t you think Capital One’s Five Families Meeting At Pelican Golf Club has a ring to it?

Hope those Capos aren't showing up expecting to see 18 holes, because the guys are only going 12....

Mikey Bams, Unhinged - I've called Mike Bamberger the conscience of our game on multiple occasions, though his recent efforts are, well, unfocused and meandering.  This is the header of his latest:

Our Addiction to Tiger Woods

As we wait for the next shoe to drop, all eyes remain trained on every move of the biggest name in the game

Your mileage might vary, but I can quit at any time.... he at least starts on topic:

Our addiction to Tiger continues. We should be through the withdrawal stage by now, carrying on as golf fans, one day at a time, what with all this new talent. (Scottie Scheffler! Sam Burns!) But

we’re not. Tiger is to golf what Steph Curry is to basketball. You can’t look away.

Tiger is not playing his own event this week, the Hero World Challenge. He says he has plantar fasciitis. Does he? It’s impossible to say. He has a 25-year history of not being candid about his health. But ask 100 golf fans why Tiger’s not playing and not one will say fear-of-DFL. If Woods is playing, he will contend. That’s the only TW playbook we know.

Can he play in the Father-Son event, the PNC, later this month? He says yes, with 13-year-old Charlie doing the heavy lifting. We shall see.

We shall see is itself proof of our addiction.

Can Woods play 12 holes in Match VII on Dec. 10? Well, he’ll have a sidekick for that, too: Rory McIlroy, his friend and now his business partner. That made-for-TV under-the-lights event is another way for Tiger to stick it to Phil Mickelson, as it was Phil who dragged a reluctant Woods into Match I. Tiger is always keeping score. It’s in his DNA, and a major element of his greatness. He takes no prisoners. In his prime, did it make him likable? No, and he did not care.

I feel like I should wait for the English translation, because what-the-eff is he saying?   DFL?  Beats me... I'm pretty sure he can play those other two events because he can ride, which seems rather the point.  I guess Mike's making the point that we'll tune in to anything involving Tiger, though I'd argue that Charlie is driving the eyeballs to the PNC.  As for The Match, we'll see if there are any eyeballs of which to speak.

But then he gets fixated on....well, Justin Rose:

Now it’s the Hero event in the Bahamas, the PNC event in Orlando, preceded by the prime-time show with the old guys, Tiger and Rory), against the young ones, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. A better match would be Tiger and Rory against Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, representing Team LIV, with Mickelson in the broadcast booth and Max Homa sitting beside him.

The golf world waits with bated breath to see who the next LIV signees will be. Here’s one name who seems like he’d be a perfect fit for LIV: Justin Rose of England, Orlando and the Bahamas. Ryder Cupper. U.S. Open champion. Past his prime but still good. Right at home with Louis Oosthuizen and Graeme McDowell and Cam Smith. There is a wrinkle here: Rose is represented by Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, presiding. As best I can tell, looking at the Excel website, the company doesn’t represent any golfers on the LIV payroll. Is that a coincidence? Survey says? Not a chance. Not so long as Tiger Woods is in the mix. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Team Tiger, there are two views of the world. You’re on his team or off it. Koepka and Johnson were never on his team. Tiger bigfoots everyone in the game.

OK, but weird....  What he describes about Tiger is actually true, witness the abrupt partings with Butch, Fluff and Stevie.  The problem is that he frames it in the context of LIV, but that, like it or not, is a binary, you're with us or agin us, situation, not exactly of Tiger's creation.

And he just continues to throw the word salad in our direction:

Woods and McIlroy are sharing a mantra these days: Greg must go. Greg Norman must leave his role as the commissioner of LIV Golf before there can be any sort of peace talks between the PGA Tour and the LIV people. Does that make any sense? No. The art of politics, the art of compromise, is all about sitting with people you don’t really like and meeting in the middle. This whole Greg-must-go thing is a stall tactic. It’s a red herring.

The math here is easy. LIV has the money. The PGA Tour has history. In this day and age, it’s not a fair fight. Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, noted that for the first time, in public, in June. This has been said before and most likely will be said again: The Saudis have dropped a money bomb on the game, and everybody who can is scurrying around for all this new money. That’s about 300 people, including a dozen or so agents,. MBS or some other Saudi billionaire pressed the GO button on this thing that has made a lot of money for a lucky few.

The PGA Tour schedule had grown stale and predictable, and now it is getting remade, in LIV’s image. All this money-for-nothing. (How fun would it be to give truth serum to Tiger and see what he really thinks about the PIP money?)

And your point is?  I thought this was to be about our addiction to Tiger?

There's something in the water at the Fire Pit Collective, or so it seems to this observer.

Closing Browser Tabs - Been having fun with this one in private conversations, such that I almost forgot to throw it up here.  I've never previously run across the World Golf Awards, but I think you'll agree that this will change your future travel plans:

Scotland has been named the world’s best golf destination in a prestigious award being held in the Middle Eastern City of Abu Dhabi.

The World Golf Awards, which is held annually, is in its ninth year and celebrates excellence in golf tourism with the winner selected by tour operators, golfing media, and fans from around the world.

Beyond winning the world’s best golf destination award, Scotland was also named Europe’s best location to play golf in.

This is the first time the home of golf has picked up both of these awards in the sport’s prestigious prize-giving event.

Scotland as a golf travel destination?  Yowzer, that's some seriously out-of-the-box thinking....although Elsie has warned me that it might explain my inability to get on Dornoch next summer.

The last bit amused, for the obvious reason that, having been named the best in the world, I'd have thought the similar citation for best in Europe to be assumed.  But that might indicate that I've put far more thought into it than they have...

But the list of prior winners is interesting as well.  It includes the expected such as Australia and Portugal, but I didn't see Viet Nam coming, did you?  One assumes that money changed hands, but still.

That's it for this week, but we'll wrap the Hero and anything else on Monday.  Have a great weekend.