Tuesday Teasers - Microblogging Edition

I wasn't sure whether I'd blog today, as it's a fairly content-free moment in the golf metaverse.  But, have you seen the Yankees lately?  So, just a couple of bits for your delectation....

The Year That Was - Alan Shipnuck has replaced Geoff Shackelford as the most-cited source on this blog, amusing in the sense that I would seem to be the last guy on the planet to make common cause with two such archetypes of SoCal lefties.... But, in my defense, that Mailbag of Alan's sure is some sweet, low-impact blogging...

In any event, Alan has scrutinized his navel and decided that the world needs to revisit his last year, and I'll admit there are some juicy bits.  Of course, there is commercial interest involved, as this becomes the addendum to the release of the paperback edition of his Phil biography.  I'm sure you'd be clicking on that Amazon link, though just a reminder that Alan has admitted that the juiciest bits he knows aren't in the book.  Rather a weird sales pitch to this observer...

So, Alan has this piece up at his new home:

Me and Mickelson, Revisited

In this exclusive excerpt from the new “Phil” paperback, the author reflects on the turbulent last year for himself and the protagonist of the book

I didn't realize that English isn't Alan's first language, because I assume each and every one of my readers recoiled in horror, screaming, "It's Mickelson and Me, you bloody ignoramus"....

Alan ledes with his last-minute decision to head to London to cover that first LIV event, including this story that still amuses:

After the round Mickelson journeyed to an interview area outside the press tent. I had my credential scanned to gain access to this roped-off spot, like every other reporter. I arrived just as Mickelson stepped to the microphone. Reporters and cameramen were already standing two- and three-deep against a metal railing, so I took my spot in the back row. Just as Mickelson began answering the first question, I felt some jostling to my right. I ignored it, assuming this was a persnickety cameraman trying to squeeze into the front row, which happens. Then a meaty hand squeezed my arm. Annoyed, I pulled it away without even looking back. Then someone grabbed my other arm. That was when I realized that I had been bracketed by a pair of neckless security goons. “We need to scan your badge,” one of them said.

I kept my eyes on Mickelson and said, “I’m good. It just got scanned two minutes ago.”

They tried to pull me backward, but drawing upon the swim move taught by my high school basketball coach, I wriggled free and stood my ground. Now these ear-pieced thugs grabbed me harder.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I growled.

This worked, momentarily, and they loosened their grasps. But the balder, uglier of the two gents elbowed his way directly in front of me and said, with some heat, “We’re going to need to scan your badge. Right now.”

Bet you didn't knw that golf was a contact sport.  But what I find interesting and amusing is that he thinks he needs to explain n detail why he went along with the goons:

I suddenly became aware that some reporters were ignoring Mickelson and now watching my antagonists and me. In that split second I ran a quick cost-benefit analysis in my mind. The preceding four months—from the publication of the excerpts and then the release of this book and corresponding hoopla—had been an exceptionally turbulent time. A reporter’s job is to tell the story, not become it, but the revelations in this book and the upheaval it wrought for Mickelson put me at the center of the storm. The last thing I wanted was to make more headlines by rolling around in the dirt with a couple of security guards in front of the global golf press, so I decided to play peacemaker. I walked on my own volition about 20 steps to the nice young woman in charge of scanning the badges; the security henchmen shadowed my every move. My credential got zapped and it confirmed what each of us already knew: I had every right to be in the interview area. I strode back toward Mickelson, but the shorter, fatter security guard stepped directly in front of me, blocking my path.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” I said. “Who told you to pull this shit?”

“I don’t have to answer that,” he said, his breath reeking of tuna and onions.

This is a recurring theme, Alan insisting that he doesn't want to be the story, then immediately making himself the story (and every time he does I revert to that grammatically inaccurate header).  Including, in this case, an eerily specific account of the goon's prior meal....

Forgive the long excerpts, but it was quite the show:

We stood there talking in circles for a few more minutes. To his everlasting credit, the Welsh sportswriter James Corrigan—a frequent antagonist of mine on Twitter—wandered over and began heckling the security guards. About then Mickelson ended his press conference and exited stage right. The security dudes suddenly became unconcerned with the state of my media credential and skulked away.

I was pissed. I didn’t get to listen to Mickelson’s comments or ask him a question. I texted Greg Norman: “Are you aware that I just got muscled out of Phil’s press conference by a couple of your goons?” He didn’t respond immediately.

I retreated to the press room to put the final coat of polish on my dispatch about the debut of golf’s new world order. I didn’t mention the incident with the security guards because I didn’t want to make myself the story. After filing the article, I caught an Uber back to my hotel, closing my eyes for a few minutes at the end of a long, crazy day. When I connected to the wifi at the hotel, my phone began dinging like a slot machine. A video had begun making the rounds of my confrontation with the security guards. Shot by Alex Thomas, the sports anchor for CNN International, it captured the moments when I was being obstructed by the meatheads after having my badge scanned. Its Zapruder-like value comes from what can be glimpsed in the background: Standing directly behind me was Greg Fucking Norman. His face was contorted into such a scowl he looked like the Grim Reaper, only more devoid of a soul. I had no idea he had been standing right there, a witness to the tomfoolery of his security lackeys.

He gets a characteristically lying text from Norman later, but then uncritically allows LIV to dodge blame and drops it at Phil's feet:

In watching the video snippet, I had noticed that standing in the background, simpering, was Mickelson’s swing coach, Andrew Getson. At one point he leans in and whispers something to Norman, looking a little too pleased with himself. After subsequently unwinding the events with various involved parties, I believe that it was Mickelson, or his people, who sent in the clowns, not LIV. Sure, Norman could have interceded, but, charitably, he might not have grasped what was happening until it was too late. I confronted Mickelson’s manager, Peter Davis, with my theory. With his preppy wardrobe and slicked-back hair, Davis has the vibe of the punchable bad guy from every teen movie. He denied any culpability, but his smarmy smirk told a different story.

The whole kerfuffle is noteworthy not because one brave and hardworking reporter was mistreated but for what it apparently said about Mickelson and those around him: Despite the carefully worded press releases and cloying public statements, they still felt the rules didn’t apply to them, and that they could warp their reality, and public opinion, through bullying. When Mickelson returned from his exile, he paid a lot of lip service to being a changed man. The early returns suggested otherwise.

Do I have the slightest problem with him laying this at the feet of Phil?  Of course not, but can you see the extent to which he's going out of his way to absolve LIV of blame?  Remind me, Alan, whose event was it?  Are all the players allowed to bring no-neck thugs?  Or just Phil?  If it happened on Greg's watch, he's responsible...

Or perhaps you too find these scary mofo's and are more concerned about your personal safety....

I wasn't aware of the first part of this, but boy do I go a different direction on the back end:

A couple of weeks after the Open, Mickelson did enjoy rich vindication: Forbes named him the highest paid athlete in the world, estimating he had earned $138 million in the preceding 12 months. (Tiger Woods, who in his heyday topped the list 10 years running, was surpassed by four LIV golfers despite weighing in at $68 million.) Professional golf had never been awash in so much funny money, and then the spigot was opened even further. At the Tour Championship, in August, embattled commissioner Jay Monahan announced that in 2023 the PGA Tour would roll out a super schedule of “elevated” tournaments with $20 million purses, double or more what these events had previously been paying out. Some would not bother with 36-hole cuts. It was LIV Lite, and in the wake of the announcement one veteran golf writer tweeted simply, “Phil was right.” OK, that was me. With more nuance: Mickelson had long nursed the suspicion that the PGA Tour was not giving the players their fair share of the revenue. He cited the Tour as having cash reserves of $800 million, an exaggerated number that hinted at the truth, especially with a new TV contract kicking in for the 2022 season. Faced with the LIV threat, the Tour created the nebulous Player Impact Program as a way to funnel money to the top players, and in less than a year the pot has ballooned from paying 10 players $40 million to distributing a whopping $100 million among 20 players. (One of the Tour’s best selling points had been that it is a pure meritocracy versus LIV’s corrupting guaranteed money, but the PIP now offers lavish compensation that is not directly tied to on-course performance.) Asked at the Tour Championship where all this fresh money would come from, Monahan said existing tournament sponsors would help defray the costs, but he also cited the primary source of this new largesse: “Reserves.” Phil was right, and even his shrillest critic begrudgingly admitted it. “As much as I probably don’t want to give Phil any sort of credit at all,” said McIlroy, “yeah, there were certain points that he was trying to make. Some of these ideas, did they have merit? Of course they did.” Mickelson had resolved not to publicly discuss Tour matters and was clearly trying to shed his smart aleck tendencies, but he couldn’t resist noting, “The guys on Tour are playing for a lot more money—that’s great that they magically found a couple hundred million.”

I think the fight over the reserves vindicates Jay.  He anticipated a threat to the Tour's business an ensured that his organization had sufficient resources.  Perhaps the only thing he missed is to not anticipate, per the horror movie cliché, that the calls would come from inside the house.

But Alan does at least add some piquant details about our boy Phil, for whom sincerity isn't his strongest suit:

The sense of vindication, or righteousness, finally put a little pep in Mickelson’s step. He had looked utterly lost on the golf course since returning from exile, including woeful missed cuts at the U.S. and British Opens. But he tied for eighth at LIV Chicago and 15th at LIV Bangkok, and then he flew from Thailand to Saudi Arabia for LIV Jeddah. This was Mickelson’s first visit to the Kingdom since he had been quoted calling its people “scary motherfuckers.” He channeled all that anxiety into a relentless charm offensive. A fellow LIV golfer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says, “If you think Phil is a bullshit artist normally, this was another level. You’ve never seen anyone kiss so much ass with that kind of enthusiasm and skill. He was ‘on’ from the second he got off the plane and never broke character. I’m pretty sure by the end of the week he could have been elected mayor of King Abdullah City, if they actually held elections over there.”

Mickelson ramped up his rhetoric in his pre-tournament press conference, saying, “Pretty much all the best players played on the PGA Tour, at least for the last 20 years. That will never be the case again. I think going forward you have to pick a side. You have to pick which side you think is going to be successful. And 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.”  

 Does he know how they feel about gambling?  But I would argue he breaks character here:

Those were fighting words, but another question in the presser offered a chance at reconciliation: “You made some comments about this country last year which you’ve apologized for. I wondered how you feel about it now that you’re here? Have you changed your opinion?”

This was the ultimate softball, a chance for Mickelson—who at that moment was adorned with a temporary henna tattoo he had received the night before at a tournament party—to wax about the wonders of Saudi Arabia and the hospitality of its people. Instead, he responded, “So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnick. 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.”

there's a seeming typo in the above that certainly missed, but Alan explains: 

Once again, Mickelson was trying to be too cute by half, suggesting in this little semantic game that our hour-long phone call that informs a crucial chunk of this book had not been an actual interview. At least, that’s how I took it, but fans and reporters less learned in the black art of Mickelsonian misdirection thought he was claiming I had made up the whole thing. (If that was the case, what the heck was he always apologizing for?) Instead of some warm, fuzzy remarks about his host nation, Mickelson touched on another frenzied news cycle about his weirdness and duplicity. He was forced to clarify his remarks the next day to Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated: “We agreed multiple times that I was not going to be interviewed or a part of the book. He obviously took a conversation differently and we’re going to have to agree to disagree.” This was utterly nonsensical. Not be part of the book? He is the book! We had no such agreement that he wouldn’t be interviewed; that’s why I kept asking him to sit for questions. And then he called me.

A funny and ridiculous postscript came by way of a phone call from someone very close to Mickelson, who told me, “When he said your name wrong in Jeddah, I know him well enough to know that he intentionally mispronounced it. That way he has a technicality he can fall back on: ‘I didn’t say Shipnuck, I said Shipnick.’ I know it sounds crazy but that’s how smart he thinks he is.”

If you go back through my arc hives you would find that I've often made a similar point, that Bad Phil was often the result of an over-estimation of his own cleverness.  But the thing is, I think Alan is as well....And, like Phil, he keeps saying it's not about him, then making it all about himself.

But the whole thing is weird, including Alan's role in it.  I found this interview with him that has some curious bits as well:

Were you surprised by how honest he was?

Yes, because everyone goes over to Saudi Arabia and takes their money. But there’s a script and if you stay on script, you’re only there to grow the game and you’re a golfer, not a politician. The

rest of us roll our eyes because we know it’s all BS and all about the money, but Phil actually said the quiet parts out loud and he was brutally honest about it. I was impressed by his candor.

I knew in that moment that what he was saying was going to spark some controversy. But Phil has spent his whole career talking his way out of controversy. I never imagined it would send him into exile. But I guess like Phil, I kind of underestimated the emotion around Saudi Arabia, especially for Americans. It wasn’t so much his words, it was his actions. He was actively colluding to subvert the interests of the PGA Tour. That’s really why the players closed ranks and were so harsh in their criticism.

Phil?  Honest?  Surely you jest....The whole of his bio of the man demonstrates a transactional relationship with the truth, but now we're crediting him as a truth teller.

But what is this truth?  It was white-hot anger at the organization to which he belonged and that had made him a fabulously wealthy man, yet he spewed contempt.  Then a willingness to use the Saudis, the firggin Saudis, Alan, as leverage against his own peers.  Did that not set off some alarms, Alan?  

Plus, and this is a relatively minor point, but I love the misdirection Alan provides and abides in that first 'graph.  Yes, many players before Phil went and played an event In the Kingdom and took the blood money.  But LIV's business model was always one that would destroy the PGA Tour if it succeeded, so no one wants to talk about Phil conspiring to destroy the place where his alleged friends wanted to play.

But tis is really rich:

What kind of feedback have you had from players, agents and PGA Tour staff?

Universally, the reaction I got was thank you for showing the world who Phil really is and thank you for putting all the cards on the table with the Saudi stuff. There’s always been a gulf between the public and private Phil. People in the game have always known the real Phil, but the fans haven’t so I think there was some gratification for everyone getting to see the real Phil.

Obviously the interviewer has missed what an apologist for the Wahabis Alan is.  May I remind all of this:

I still haven’t found out if you are for or against LIV? @ReneSchaufuss

Good. Why do I have to pick a side? The golf world, and the golf media, has already become too tribal. I am intrigued by LIV, and exasperated and amused. The new league has made some monumental mistakes and gotten some things right. The players can be obnoxiously self-righteous and comically oppressed, but they also make a lot of good points. The tournaments are kind of ridiculous but also sort of fun. The Saudi Arabian government has done, and continues to do, abhorrent things, and the outcry around the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi undoubtedly stoked the sportswashing campaign that birthed LIV. But from the genocide of the Native Americans to the internment of Japanese citizens to the treatment of Blacks during the Jim Crow years to the torture at Abu Ghraib and the policy of “extraordinary rendition,” the U.S. government has often been on the wrong side of history. The source of LIV’s money is extremely uncomfortable, but it’s also true that we all happily burn Saudi oil and many American politicians (and business leaders) are in bed with the Kingdom, so it seems weird to hold golfers to a higher standard than public servants. I know nuance is unfashionable in these polarized times, but that is what I aspire to.

That's not nuance, Alan, it's carrying water for one of the most reprehensible regimes on the planet...

Think about the disingenuousness of Alan's presentation.  Oh, he throws out Kashoggi, so he can't be accused of failing to acknowledge their abuses.  But, and here's where the mental illness that is modern liberalism comes to the fore, we can't criticize the Saudis because we too have sinned.... and because, get this, we put gas in our cars.  Alan lives in a world where he doesn't have to deal with governments that don't meet his exacting moral standards, which is little more than empty virtue signaling.

But, what is the end result of this mindset?  Alan is free to criticize his government, but has he asked himself what might happen to a Saudi citizen that mentioned Kashoggi?  He's going out of his way to nullify criticism of those he calls abhorent, and in doping so he is doing the Saudis the same favor that Phil is and that so outraged us all.

And, in doing so, he feels smug and self-satisfied, because, yanno, Abu Ghraib.  And, to repeat myself, he's seems all in the Saudis destroying the premiere golf tour on the planet.  I guess he just wants to grow the game...

Udder Bits - Just a few things on an expedited basis.  This I think could actually be fun:

The idea of a Ryder Cup- or Presidents Cup-style event for senior tour players has been bandied

about for years. And, in fact, the inaugural playing of such a tournament was supposed to take place in late 2022. That didn’t happen, but many of the same organizers have kept pushing forward, and the event will become a reality later this year.

PGA Tour Champions and sports event and marketing company Intersport announced on Monday that the first World Champions Cup will be held Dec. 7-10 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. The competition, chaired by Peter Jacobsen, brings together teams from the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, with six-man squads representing the U.S., Europe and Internationals. Jim Furyk will captain the Americans, Irishman Darren Clarke leads Europe, and South African Ernie Els helms the Internationals.

Fun, as long as you keep your expectations in check.  Though speaking of expectations....

“We're about to launch here in December an event that we think's going to be a 100-year event. This is going to go on forever," said Charlie Besser, founder and CEO of Intersport.

Remind me, how did that thousand year Reich turn out?

Is there anything that could make the LIV events less credible?  You in the first row:

LIV announces teammates will play together for first time, Golf Twitter responds with Patrick Reed jokes

I don't know Chris, but I found this an enjoyably droll reaction:

Nothing like having teammates playing together. Should have some low scores.
cc: @ClubProGuy

— Chris (@GolfGuy77) April 19, 2023

Yeah.  I'm guessing the pencils will have erasers.

I can't resist one Patrick jab.  Hey, I'm only human:

May have to get Daniel Berger on the 4Aces immediately https://t.co/8ztsRWjDYx pic.twitter.com/GyIjA6SS4i

— Eric Patterson (@EPatGolf) April 19, 2023

Have you heard the DJ-Pat Perez story?  

On Sunday evening, close watchers of the professional game might have paused when they saw quotes critical of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan attributed to LIV golfer Dustin Johnson.

“We don’t give a damn how he feels,” the Australian Associated Press reported Johnson saying of Monahan, after Johnson’s team, the 4Aces, won the LIV team event in Australia. “We know how he feels about us, so it’s mutual.”

When the report surfaced, it seemed odd that Johnson would take such a pointed shot at the Tour. In the months following his departure for LIV, Johnson has avoided speaking ill of the Tour or its leadership, lending only that he felt his decision came down to money and a lighter playing schedule. (Johnson reportedly received a $100 million signing bonus with the new league.)

And, indeed, by Monday morning in the U.S., it had become clear there was a problem: Johnson said he didn’t deliver the dig.

In a statement to the media Monday morning, Johnson’s agent, David Winkle, wrote, “I spoke with Dustin from Singapore this morning at which time he emphatically denied making any such statement. He elaborated by saying his actual response to the question was ‘no comment.'”

Look, DJ doesn't say much of anything, so the story strained credulity when it broke, and it later came out that the comments came from Pat Perez.  Yeah, that's the thing, have you ever cared about anything that came out of Pat Perez' mouth?

But facts are facts, and it's now Tuesday morning, and this is the Golfweek home page as of when I sat down at the keyboard:

It's been more than 24 hours since those comments were attributed to another player, yet Golfweek isn't seemingly interested in clarifying things.  I'm a believer in Occam's Razor, so I'm perfectly happy to attribute it to laziness and/or incompetence, but that's probably worse, no?

I'll see you later in the week.

Weekend Wrap - Dog Days of April Edition

With my own golf rained out and the Yankee offense on life support, I watched more golf than I'm comfortable admitting publicly.  As I scanned the Zurich and Chevron leaderboards in vain for a familiar name (also factoring in the Talor Gooch juggernaut), I had an amusing thought.  If golf handicaps come in both +'s and -'s, do Nielsen ratings as well?

Where to begin?

We Gave up Dinah For This? - Got text from a friend who moved to Hawaii last year, bemoaning the move from Mission Hills.  When I responded that he should direct his opprobrium to Fred Ridley, he didn't know the backstory.....  Gee, if only there were a place he could go on these interwebs to stay apprised on such subjects....

The winner does at least have an appealing history:

When you look at Vu’s resume, it makes sense that she adds her name to the Dinah Shore Trophy. She’s a former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world. She was once named Pac-12 Player of the Year.

She won a whopping eight tournaments at UCLA. Her list of amateur accomplishments is on par with some of the biggest stars in the game, and a successful pro career would be the next logical step.

But the road to success is rarely linear.

In her first year on the LPGA Tour in 2019, she made just one cut and netted only $3,830. She felt lost playing the game she loved. Away from the course, things were no better. Her grandfather died early on in the Covid-19 pandemic, and she even contemplated giving up her pro-golf aspirations and going to law school.

“I was just in such a bad place,” Vu said. “Everything was life or death. I just saw everybody that I’ve competed with being successful, and I just compared myself all the time.”

If she’d quit, Sunday at the Chevron would’ve been much different.

Let me see if I follow Zephyr Melton's logic here....  If you take the winner out of the mix in some It's a Wonderful Life fever dream, then Sunday would have been different.  I can only hope Zephyr's parents didn't pay too much to send him to journalism school.

Strangely, Melton missed the best part of her background, not that almost giving up the game isn't also noteworthy.  But why leave this on the cutting room floor?

Lilia Vu felt an unusual amount of anger bubbling up inside this week over little things. Upset by

the way she handled that anger, there were times during the final round of the 2023 Chevron Championship that Vu thought about her grandpa, Dinh Du, and how disappointed he’d be if she didn’t get her act together.

Standing at the podium soaked in champagne and cloaked in a white robe and slippers, the shiny Dinah Shore trophy by her side, Vu told the story of how her grandfather built a boat to help his family escape a war-torn Vietnam. How he’d go off in the countryside for months at a time, trying to literally build a better life for their family with his bare hands.

Vu’s mom, Yvonne, and her siblings ran through the forest the day in 1982 her father told them it was time to go. The boat was meant to hold no more than 54 people, but as others swam out to meet them, the number swelled to 82.

“He took them all,” said Yvonne.

After two days, the boat sprang a leak. They shot off a flare and were. soon rescued by the USS Brewton, a Naval ship that was decommissioned in 1992.

The back story of how they got a flare might be even better, but I doubt we'll ever hear it.

The Tour Confidential panel has one of their ADD weeks, yanno where they fixate on that one guy, but managed to work in a question (we're back to avoiding numbers for the questions, because...) this event that used to be of interest:

Lilia Vu beat Angel Yin in a playoff to win the Chevron Championship and claim the LPGA’s first major of the season, which took place at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, the first time since it began in 1972 it wasn’t held at Mission Hills following Chevron’s new title sponsorship. What are your thoughts on Year 1 of the new host venue?

Berhow: As someone who is not always big on change, I liked a lot of what I saw. Sure, the leap into Poppie’s Pond is no more and the alternative they cooked up on Sunday was fine, and word is the spectator shuttles took a little longer than desired, but it’s hard to find negatives about a sponsor that wants to invest in the women’s game. If I’m Chevron, it makes sense to move this event to their backyard. That’s their right. I also saw on Twitter there was a HBCU Career Panel taking place on site, and this was also the first time in this tournament’s history players who missed the cut received a $5,000 stipend. We’ll get used to the course in time, but seems like there’s lots of good to build on here.

Hirsh: While I’d love to see more events played at more interesting golf courses, I’m kind of indifferent on the venue change. I agree with Josh about it being great Chevron wanting to inject money into the LPGA, but it does suck it requires moving the event from where it’s developed a history at. I also hope the alligator netting actually works!

Sens: This was a tough, long course, with small greens and all sorts of trouble, and I loved Vu’s composure on it during what was a pretty packed race for a while. As for breaking with tradition, as my colleagues note, a small price in exchange for a solid sponsorship. I’m sure every player would take that guarantee over a jump into a pond.

I love that Jack Hirsh cold open, because you can see the effort necessary to avoid brutally trashing just another featureless Nicklaus design.  Of course, you can admit it, once you heard that this event was decamping to Houston, the writing was on the wall....

I do find Josh Berhow's comments interesting, because there's much effort expended to avoid that 600 pound elephant in the corner.  All that stuff he cites is good, well excluding the dreary backyard Chevron happens to inhabit.  But Jack avoids any thought of what's been lost (even though we understand the LPGA didn't start this chain-reaction), the severing of any connection to the history of women's golf and the chaotic, borderline tawdry, origins of this event.  

If I could make a suggestion to the LPGA Commish Mollie Marcoux Samaan, it would involve the LPGA's forthcoming Founders Cup event, which is to be held in May at Upper Montclair Country Club.  That's a nice homage to the LPGA's founders, but I'd be in discussion with the folks at Mission Hills and try to get the LPGA back there with that specific event.  I know, it makes far too much sense to ever happen in this lifetime....

One last bit about this date from Geoff.  As I noted above, the Dinah was a dead lesbian walking (Yeah, you knew I'm a hater, but I do actually like that part of the history) once Augusta National announced their amateur event, which concludes the Saturday of what used to be Dinah week.  The first thing you'd expect is that the Dinah would change dates, but they were jammed in by the Coachella Festival and the end of the season, so there was nowhere to move.

But this new date has to be better for everyone, right?  Because we want to maintain the tradition of amateur participation, right?  

While everyone is going into this one blind, a few of the amateurs exempted into the Chevron will tee up Thursday without benefit of a practice round (Nichols/Golfweek) after playing their conference championships. Admirably, World No. 1 amateur and recently Augusta National Women’s Amateur winner Rose Zhang passed on the Chevron to compete for Stanford in the Pac 12 Championships. She set several records in winning Wednesday including the lowest score in relation to par (-12), lowest overall score (204) and largest margin of victory in conference history (seven strokes). Zhang has also now spent 136 weeks as the world’s leading female amateur golfer, surpassing the record total of 135 weeks set by Leona Maguire of Ireland.

So, we really want the kids here, but not enough to figure out a date when they can actually make it....

But this is perhaps the harshest bit about that venue:

Someone forgot to tell a pair of southern California natives that Chevron moved the local major championship 1451 miles east to rural Houston. And in a vibe-free setting that made the final Mission Hills years seem like a Beyoncé set at Coachella, SoCal’s Lilia Vu (Fountain Valley) and Angel Yin (Arcadia) finished in a playoff to decide the season opening major.

Vibe-free?  Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark...

NOLA Witness Protection Program News - There were a few show ponies in the field, though they mostly failed to show.  I think it's always fun to watch these guys play alternate-shot, but I can't imagine Nielsen finding a measurable audience for this event:

At last year’s Zurich Classic, Nick Hardy’s rookie PGA Tour season was derailed.

He suffered a left wrist injury, forcing him to miss two months and eventually have to re-earn his PGA Tour card at the Korn Ferry Finals.

In contrast, his partner this week, Davis Riley, had a tremendous rookie season in 2022, nearly making the Tour Championship at No. 36 in the FedEx Cup standings. But he didn’t get a win.

This week though, Riley and Hardy each collected their first PGA Tour title after the pair shot 65 Sunday in alternate shot to finish at 30 under and win the Zurich Classic by two strokes. Riley and Hardy are the second and third players to win their first Tour title at the Zurich since it became a team event in 2017 when Cameron Smith did in the format’s debut.

I was bouncing among the Chevron, the Yankees offensive futility and this, and missed their tear on the back nine that sealed the deal.

That Tour Confidential panel did at least acknowledge the face plant this week, but the sequencing of their Q&A's can't improve Jay's mood.  Let's reverse the order and get their view from 30,000 feet first:

Speaking of the Zurich Classic, Davis Riley and Nick Hardy won, closing with a seven-under 65 in alternate shot on Sunday to best Canadians Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor by two. But you’re in charge next year. What tweaks are you making to the event, either with how teams are picked, the formats played or both?

Berhow: Since it’s a team event that’s not the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup — and honestly if we are inviting aging sponsor’s exemptions — we might as well embrace the weirdness and go all out. Fourballs is boring. Let’s go four days, four formats. Make one day a scramble, but if you go three holes without a birdie you are eliminated. Make the next day a worst-ball scramble. Round 3 you get only four clubs. Then, for the final round, alternate shot. Wait a few years and this is the formula for a fifth major.

Hirsh: For starters, I’d move it to a different part of the schedule. Maybe toward the end of January or February so it doesn’t get swallowed by the Masters. I could also see an argument for the new Fall series, but I kinda like the idea of this event counting for the FedEx Cup. It really is great to see the unique format and I’d love to see it get some more big names regularly. Next I’d drop fourball. Make the whole thing alternate shot, the true team format that doesn’t allow you to hide a poorly performing partner. That would really make things interesting with the added bonus of speeding up play.

Sens: I’m with Jack: make it all alternate shot. On a more outlandish note, I’m still waiting for the team event where each team gets one opportunity during a round to pick a fan from the crowd to hit a shot for the opposition. I suppose you’d have to institute a Really Silly Season for that to happen. But I would watch.

OK, that got silly in hurry....

First and foremost, the format to me is OK, as I particularly like that they play alternate shot on Sunday (and on cut-day as well).  I do agree that fourballs is slightly boring, they're just so damn good (not to mention playing a soft, easy-for-them venue), but at least it's medal play and big numbers can be in the mix.  The real problem with fourballs is in the cup events, where match-play renders them mere putting contests, albeit extremely slow putting contests.  But, hold that thought for September, shall we?

There may be scheduling issues, but I certainly would not overreact to this year, where it's jammed into a stretch of four weeks where it's the only non-designated event.  Next year we're led to believe that there will only be eight (including, I think, the Players Championship), so I thin they'll have a reasonable chance at landing some of the guys that enjoy a week featuring camaraderie with a side of Etouffee.

But now the weeks beclownment, first the TC gang:

John Daly, 56, and David Duval, 51, received sponsor’s exemptions into the Zurich Classic and missed the cut at 14 over, which was 12 behind the next-worst score. While it’s an event’s right to use its exemptions how it pleases, do you have an issue with this one in particular, given both players are well past their primes and rarely play competitively anymore?

Berhow: It really was a tough look when those guys struggled so much in alternate shot, but the truth is the majority of these pros make that format look so easily when it’s in fact so incredibly hard. In a way inviting them did exactly what it was supposed to by drawing attention to an event that lacked star power, but it’s unfortunate they didn’t play better.

Hirsh: Yes, this was a joke. It was likely born out of a necessity to help fill the field given the Zurich’s place in the schedule, but there were guys on the alternate list — while not the biggest names — who could have used the opportunity. The tournament typically requires one member of each team to be exempt and then the second can be a sponsor’s exemption. This was the case when 66-year-old Jay Haas made the cut while playing with son Bill last year. But Jay Haas is a PGA Tour Champions stud with 18 wins, albeit the last coming in 2016. Daly and Duval have combined for just one victory on the over-50 circuit.

Sens: I’m on the fence about this. I understand the obvious objections and the unlikelihood that Duval and Daly were going to be in the mix. But, as in Dumb and Dumber, even if the odds were a million to one, there was still a chance. It’s easy to knock the move in retrospect. But what if Duval and Daly had played out of their minds in the opening round and posted a decent score? Then the event would have had the best of both worlds: a crowd-pleasing pairing with an entertaining underdog story. And in the end, this is entertainment.

Let's be clear, I didn't wait for it to be in retrospect to trash it.....

And let's be even clearer, I have an open mind about this event giving sponsor's exemptions to 56-year old players, but my mind is long closed to PGAS Tour exemptions for THIS 56-year old:

Details from John Daly‘s PGA Tour disciplinary file were made public Tuesday -- and they’re not flattering.

According to the Florida Times-Union, which obtained the 456-page file through a libel lawsuit against one of its former columnists, Daly has been suspended from the PGA five times and has been cited 21 times for not giving his best effort. In addition, he was placed on probation six times, ordered to seek counseling or alcohol rehab seven times and has been fined nearly $100,000.

Of course, none of these revelations should come as a shock. Many of the incidents included in the file were previously reported, including Daly’s trashing of a hotel room during the Players Championship in 1997.

Can you imagine how badly you have to dog it to actually get fined by the Tour?  To do that 21 times is beyond comprehension.  But there is one thing harder to believe than that disciplinary file, to wit, that this same miscreant would be eligible for further sponsor exemptions....

Thought experiment:  What would you have to do to be permanently banned from the PGA Tour?  The obvious answer is "Be Phil", but when the day comes isn't this his best affirmative defense?  If you didn't ban Daly, how can you ban anyone?

As you might expect, Eamon Lynch has thoughts, although the gratuitous swipe at LIV in his lede seems a tad forced:

The criteria by which fields are assembled on the PGA Tour is considerably more byzantine than over on LIV Golf, where competitors require only the blessing of Greg Norman and amoral ambivalence about the abuses and butchery of their princely benefactor.

First some useful backgrund:

The Tour’s official list has 39 exemption categories, ranging from the obvious (winners of majors and the FedEx Cup) to the arcane (PGA Section champions, players with 300 career made cuts). They’re ranked by priority and not every classification is used at every event. The Zurich Classic, for example, used 20 categories to compile its field, a trickier construct than usual since the tournament is comprised of 80 two-man teams.

The most opaque criterion has always been sponsor invites, in which those who write the checks are granted tremendous latitude in deciding who gets the call for a handful of spots. As a general rule, that’s fair. Sponsors ought to have a say in drawing attention to their tournaments and not be hostage to filling tee times from a pre-determined pecking order of pedestrian pros, even if the basis for extending invitations appears parochial.

Yes, it's hard to argue against sponsor's exemptions, well, except when it is.  For instance, that D-squared team wasn't the only sketchy one:

But an exemption category intended to benefit a tournament can also be a detriment when improperly applied.

When two-time PGA Tour winner Michael Thompson was added to the field at the Zurich Classic, he chose as his team partner Paresh Amin, a 43-year-old military veteran with a beggarly record on mini-tours, and who shot 42-over-par in Q-School for the Mackenzie Tour.

“He’s become my really good friend,” Thompson explained to my colleague, Adam Schupak. “I haven’t had any success with a partner in the team format. If I was going to play a team event, I wanted to be with someone I really liked. He’s trying to play professionally and I wanted to give him a chance to experience a PGA Tour event, meet the equipment reps, meet the caddies.”

I have no specific problem with Thompson getting an invite, as the most recent of his wins was in 2020 and he finished T29 at Harbor Town.  But that the invite gives him the right to pick a single-digit handicap and the world is fine with this so the guy can meet the caddies?  Have you all lost your bloody minds?  Do you have any idea how many thousands of guys would kill for that slot?

But, good news for Paresh, the race to the bottom was extremely competitive this week:

Thompson and Amin were spared the indignity of last place only thanks to another pair of sponsor invites: David Duval and John Daly. Zurich presumably hoped the name recognition of these former major winners would draw eyeballs to an event that sits in no man’s land on the calendar, wedged amid majors and designated stops. The tournament could boast some quality names — Cantlay, Schauffele, Fitzpatrick, Morikawa, Homa — but too many others who would be recognized only by job-seeking caddies or alert process servers.

The problem is that Duval and Daly are woefully uncompetitive even on the PGA Tour Champions, much less a more demanding stage. Duval is 0-for-25 in cracking the top 10 in his senior career, while Daly has done so just once in his last 33 attempts. Predictably, their performance was execrable: rounds of 75-83 secured last place by 12 shots. Perhaps the few spectators who were imperiled by the team’s wayward shots enjoyed seeing the old timers, but there are ample reasons why some of their fellow Tour players might not.

That 83 might jump out at you, but I would argue that for two alleged professionals to shoot a 75 best-ball on that easy track might be the bigger indignity.

So I went with the caddies, but Eamon is on the same track with this:

FedEx Cup points are the currency of the PGA Tour, and have never been more valuable. Only the top 50 in points will guarantee access to all of 2024’s lucrative designated events. Only the top 70 will secure playing privileges for next season, down from 125 in years past. Fewer players have guaranteed status as more fields are reduced in size. Points are precious, and so too is the opportunity to earn them. There is less room than ever for veterans who fancy a couple of days in the Big Easy and friends Michael Thompson wants to introduce to equipment reps.

As I understand the zeitgeist, the PGA Tour is in an existential struggle for survival against the forces of evil, and is dramatically restructuring their schedule to head off this challenge.  Apparently, they think the way to do this is with John Daly, David Duyal and Paresh Amin.  Are there an adults in the room?  Because allowing Joh Daly to beclown this event tells me that Jay Monahan isn't actually up to the moment.

Tiger-Centric Much? - I understand the Tiger obsession, but I don't understand letting that obsession loose when there is absolutely nothing to be said on the matter.  In that vein, as note above, the Tour Confidential panel devoted their first two Q&A's to this drivel:

Tiger Woods underwent a procedure on his right foot and released a statement saying the surgery was successful, but it now casts serious doubt on his status for 2023. Will we see Woods make any more competitive starts this year?

Josh Berhow: From everything I’ve read, it seems unlikely he’ll be able to play any majors, and I don’t think he planned to play much beyond that anyway. Here’s hoping he can jump in a cart and play the PNC Championship with Charlie in December. Then, after that, maybe Riviera and the Masters. Baby steps.

Jack Hirsh: Does the silly season count? Maybe, but that’s a big, all caps, italics and stars *MAYBE*. Who knows what he’ll be able to do with the golf swing after this surgery, which involves fusing together a joint in the ankle. I’ve heard that if it was his left foot, the surgery would be career ending. If the issue remains walking, and his recovery goes as scheduled, it sounds like we could see him at the PNC and then maybe for the start of his virtual league with Rory McIlroy, the TGL. But I don’t think we’ll hear from him at all again until the Hero World Challenge.

Josh Sens: He’ll absolutely be back for the PNC. Unless he isn’t. That old line about people planning and god laughing applies to any of us trying to forecast Tiger’s health. Raise your hand if you saw plantar fasciitis coming? Neck. Back. Knee. Foot. Ankle. The only thing I think we can say for sure is that it wouldn’t be a shocker if some other body part gave out next.

So, he might play the PNC in a cart.  Thanks, guys, kinda had that one sussed out all by my lonesome....

Looking beyond this season, as Woods’ injuries and surgeries continue to stack up, at what point does he decide enough is enough? Are we approaching that?

Berhow: Based on his schedule prior to this setback — the majors, maybe one or two more events — he’s really already in that second (or whatever number) stage of his career. I think he’s still several years away from officially “retiring,” since in a sport like golf — and with his lifetime exemption — he would be able to take advantage of a healthy stretch and enter an upcoming event or major to try and catch lightning in a bottle. I don’t think he’s anywhere close to giving up on those potential healthy starts yet.

Hirsh: I’m with Berhow on this. Obviously, just being able to walk pain-free is first and foremost, but if there’s any chance he can continue to play at a high level, he’s going to try. Whether that’s the right thing to do or not isn’t up to us to decide.

Sens: Agreed. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become like the knight in Monty Python (It’s just a flesh wound!), where everyone knows it’s over except the guy who wants to keep on fighting. This being Woods, and this being golf, which allows for more lives than any sport, I’m sure we’ll be on Tiger-watch for a large handful of majors to come.

There are some interesting threads that we could explore here, but ones they go to pains to avoid.

First, it's silly to be asking them for their medical opinions or insights into Tiger's mind, because they know no more than we do.  The interesting threads might be these:

1.  I have no criticism of Tiger playing where he's played in 2022 and 2023, but I think it's fair to ask going forward how we feel about him using a spot in the field at those three majors (ignoring Augusta, where no one will take his slot) if he can't walk for four days.  It's a tough one for sure, but worth thinking through ahead of time.
2. Josh mentioned his lifetime exemption, but he actually has a second exemption from that 2019 Masters.  Do we feel any differently about him hogging a spot in the field under that exemption versus the former champion exemption?  

I just don't see the logic in devoting two questions to that subject, when the questions are focused on areas about which they know nothing.

I'll have to leave you here, though you might have noticed which event the TYC panel ignore tis week..... Of course, I'm ignoring it as well, at least for now.

Your Friday Frisson - Chevron Edition

Given my late start, thought I'd try something a little different today.  I mentioned yesterday that I have a Shipnuck mailbag in the queue, so I'll dive into that and interweave other pieces on similar themes.

For instance, your humble blogger had thought the Euro arbitration decision had resolved the bulk of our outstanding Ryder Cup issues, but folks have pored over the fine print and it seems there's a technical opening.  But first, Alan is asked a question that harkens back to that certain prediction.  No worries, Alan, you'll always have Paris:

So with Fitzpatrick rising to give Europe a Big 4 and Zalatoris now out with injury, what’s the super early assessment of the Ryder Cup? #AskAlan@brianros1

Fitzpatrick has clearly gone to a different level, but he still has a lot to prove in the Ryder Cup: Dude is 0-5-0 in two previous appearances. I agree that him, McIlroy, Rahm and Shane Lowry gives

Europe four horses. Viktor Hovland is a stud too. But after that it gets pretty thin. Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren provide Europe some battle-tested veterans, though since January 2021 they have combined to win only one tournament around the world. The final four spots are very much up for grabs—if I’m Luke Donald I would be leaning toward Padraig Harrington, even though he’ll be 52!

The top nine for the U.S. is blue-chip: Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Cam Young, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele. The big question is what to do with the LIV guys. Despite various misconceptions, they are eligible to play in the Ryder Cup. Dustin Johnson is a no-brainer, and so is Brooks Koepka. It helps that both live in Jupiter, Fla., and mix often with other top Americans during their off weeks. I think DJ and BK will be on Team USA, which brings a lot of firepower and presence. For the final spot, Captain Zach Johnson can choose among Tony Finau, Sahith Theegala, Kurt Kitayama and sundry others. Top to bottom, the American squad is much stronger and I expect them to win in Rome, validating a great golf mind who long ago predicted long-term U.S. dominance.

I'm sorry, what planet has Alan been living on the last 18 months or so?  DJ is a no-brainer, eh?  Shall we but a few shekels on that, Alan, even money being pretty good odds for a no-brainer.

What's Alan smoking?  This just happens to pop up at Golf.com:

Yes, LIV players are eligible for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. But will any get picked?

Here's that technicality:

One of those factors is whether LIV players, who have been suspended by the PGA Tour, will even be eligible for captain’s picks. (LIV players’ only means of collecting Ryder Cup

qualification points is at the four majors, which will make it exceedingly difficult for any of them to land a spot on the team via that avenue; Koepka and Mickelson’s runner-up Masters finishes moved them into a still-distant 17th and 22nd, respectively, on the points list.)

Regarding eligibility, Johnson said: “Not to get overly in the weeds of all this, but in order to garner Ryder Cup points or be eligible for PGA of America Ryder Cup points and PGA Championship points, you have to be a member of PGA of America. Those individuals that have left the PGA Tour, to my knowledge, are still members of PGA of America. There’s a grace period involved there. I don’t know the specifics.”

Alas, those grace-period specifics seem important! When asked for further explanation on Thursday, a PGA of America spokesperson replied to GOLF.com with this statement:

“PGA of America membership is a requirement to be eligible to participate on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team. Under the PGA of America membership rules there are classifications that currently allow LIV Tour members to retain their PGA of America membership status. PGA TOUR members are considered A3 classification. Because the LIV players paid their membership dues before June 30, 2022, they will retain their membership through the end of June 2023 and then through a grace period that runs through the end of June 2024. After that, under our current rules, they may apply for PGA’s Reserve Member classification. A3 members who resigned or are no longer PGA TOUR Members (suspended) are still PGA of America members.”

OK, that's a curious hatch not bolted down, but still....  Alan Bastable actually frames his piece on the unsupported premise that Captain Zach Johnson will be watching the LIV event in Australia because, and do take a moment to appreciate the naivete, he thinks its Zach's job to watch and to select the twelve best players regardless of the tour on which they play.  Heh!  That's quite the good one...

If Johnson’s “no decisions have been made” response sounds like something you might hear from a hedging politician, that’s because he is indeed in a political quagmire. Johnson can’t come out with a full-throated endorsement of LIV players’ impressive form, lest he irritate his Ponte Vedra pals, but he also can’t dismiss LIV’s biggest talents, because, well, they’re talented, and Johnson’s duty is to construct the best, most cohesive team possible.

Really?  Serious question, Alan, has anyone told you about Santa Claus?  You might want to sit down for that one....

And he just goes blissfully on and on beclowning himself:

Further adding to his conundrum is that, if the kumbaya vibe of Masters Week was any indication, there doesn’t appear to be any deep-seeded (or at least insurmountable) animosity between the leading PGA Tour loyalists and their LIV counterparts, and any lingering bitterness that does exist might well further dissipate over time. This could mean that by the time we get to late summer, if, say, Justin Thomas or Jordan Spieth think it’s a good idea to bolster the U.S. squad with the likes of Brooks or DJ, their captain likely will be inclined to take that endorsement on board.

On Wednesday, Johnson (Zach, not Dustin) said as much in terms of how he’ll approach the selection process.

“I’m going to rely heavily on the guys that actually make the team because it’s their team,” he said. “So I don’t know who those six are going to be, obviously, but their ownership and their opinions will weigh heavily into what I, what we, decide to do.”

It is true that the quality of the U.S. players drops precipitously after that ninth (really tenth because the injured Will Zalatoris is somehow in the top ten), which will feed the rumor mill.  But am I the only guy that understand that Jay Monahan will simply not allow any LIV players at the Ryder Cup?That would be like bugging out of Afghanistan and leaving behind billions of dollars i military hardware, and surely no one does that.

Next up, with LIV:

Has Greg [Norman] done such a good job forcing the Tour’s hand (with huge purses and incentives) that he’s essentially doomed his league from further growth since there’s a smaller incentive for any stars to leave??? @fakePOULTER

The final round at Harbour Town was the most-watched non-major golf telecast in five years. The top Tour players are raking in barrels of cash and have never been more aligned. As you say, there is almost no incentive to leave, unless LIV pushes its tournament purses to $40 million or $50 million and offers more nine-figure signing bonuses, which the bean-counters at the Public Investment Fund are suddenly loathe to do. The unknown is how long the PGA Tour can sustain this outlay of cash—it’s operating at maximum capacity right now. It can weather the departure of Dell and Honda, but how many more sponsors will be priced out? That’s a huge question that will get answered this fall with the release of 2024 schedule. But as Jay Monahan told me at Kapalua, it’s now product against product in this war of attrition. Even if LIV goes on a big spending spree this offseason, how much can change? Tiger moves the needle, as do Rory and Spieth. They’re not going anywhere. Rahm makes the needle twitch, maybe JT does a tiny bit. They’re entrenched with the Tour too, and no one else really matters. Even if LIV signed Morikawa and Cantlay and Schauffele and Burns—and there’s no indication any of them want to to jump or that LIV is willing to spend the $750 million it would take to sign all of them—would that encourage any PGA Tour honks to tune in? I doubt it. The battle lines have been drawn: Tour fans watch the Tour, LIV loyalists follow LIV (and do a lot of trolling on Twitter). I think your thesis is correct, but don’t give Norman the credit. Give it to Monahan and Woods and McIlroy, who reshaped the Tour on the fly.

Credit or blame, given how I detest that "reshaping".  Alan has made this point previously and I think it's mostly right, that we've achieved an uncomfortable stasis, but one where the Tour's product remains viable but those so-called LIV loyalists still number in the high single digits.

On a related note, The LIVsters are in Oz and the shirtless one is sounding some conciliatory notes:

Norman doubled down on previous comments and claims that the rebranded LIV Golf League will be around for the long haul and that, despite ongoing legal struggles with both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, that the entity financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund wants to “coexist within the golf ecosystem.”

“I do hope there gets to a position where there is resolution to this, because the game of golf doesn’t need to suffer,” said Norman on Thursday at the Grange Golf Club, the site of his first professional win. “These guys don’t need to suffer.”

Please don't fret, you've done more than enough already...

“PGA Tour has got a great tour. We’re happy for them. I’m happy for them. I grew up on the PGA Tour. So did Cam. We grew up playing on the European Tour,” said Norman. “I hope they exist and keep existing, but it’s their choice of what they want to do, and if they want to keep putting up road blocks, we’re not going to go anywhere. We’ve got a great product. We’ve got investment dollars there today, investment dollars into the future that will continue to be there because of guys like this.”

 And I'm sure that they're happy that you're happy for them....

“Because I’m the chairman and CEO of LIV Golf Investments, and that’s where I focus. I focus on golf. I stay focused on golf. My job is to build out LIV and the product we have on a global front,” said a perturbed Norman. “I’ve been involved with golf, like I said, as a player, as well as golf course design.

“I’ve built some golf courses in third-world countries. I’ve built golf courses in Communist countries. Golf is a force for good,” he continued. “It goes everywhere with the right platform because it delivers the right message, from education to hospitality to employment to tourism. Everywhere you go, golf is a force for good.”

Golf may or may not be a force for good, but could we say the same about Saudi Arabia?   Sure, unless you wanted your head to remain on your neck... These rantings remind me of a literary precedent:

Norman boasted that a number of players are still waiting to join LIV, but as for those who didn’t make the 2023 cut over the likes of Pieters, Pereira, Sebastian Munoz and Brendan Steele, those players may add depth to LIV’s 48-player fields, but wouldn’t move the needle.

“There is an incredible amount of interest. We’re full,” said Norman. “Our goal is to build those franchise values out.”

Norman and those at LIV truly believe in its franchise model and that its 12 teams can be profitable, so long as the league is given time to grow and establish its place in golf.

 Specifically, this one:

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

― George Orwell, 1984

Although here I think he is spot-on:

“My legacy of what I’m doing with LIV will be my legacy,” added Norman, “because it’s the right thing to do.”

No quibble there, as you own the Wahabi apologist space.

Good news, kids, the Cantlay pile-on continues unabated.  First Alan:

PGA Tour golf is now incredibly boring from a personality perspective now that all the heels went to LIV. Who are the new and emerging heels in the current Tour? #AskAlan@the_agrippa

The problem is none of them want the job! Cantlay has serious potential, but he’s too uptight corporate. Billy Horschel has the look and some heel-like tendencies, but deep down he aches to be loved. There’s not even another decent candidate. Sad.

Wait, I'm supposed to be sad that PReed and Bryson are in a cone of silence?  

But, since we brought up that terrific penis, a couple of items related thereto:

Is Patrick Cantlay actually a slow player? Here’s what he thinks

I'm not usually very interested in such things, but there's some actual candor and i does help frame the issue.  But we start with Fitzy's comments:

On Tuesday, the winner of the RBC, Matt Fitzpatrick, weighed in. Though he didn’t cite Cantlay by name, Fitzpatrick lambasted the “truly appalling” pace of play on Tour. In an interview with Jamie Weir of Sky Sports, Fitzpatrick asserted, “If you’re in a three-ball, in my opinion you should be round in four hours, four-and-a-half absolute maximum — it’s a disgrace to get anywhere near that.”

The Englishman could teach a master class on being ready when it's your turn, but it's these comments that caught my eye:

“Like I said, being on the PAC [Player Advisory Committee] has been interesting because the

times that it’s taken to play rounds has been pretty much the same for the last 10 or even longer years. So trying to speed it up, I’d be curious to know how they’d want to do that.

“I played the last two tournaments, and my group hasn’t been warned at all. So we’ve been in position the entire time. I don’t know how you would want even the groups that I’ve been in to play faster when our groups are in position and can’t go faster because the group in front of us is right in front of us.”

If that sounded like more buck-passing deflection, you’d be entitled to interpret Cantlay’s comments that way. But then Cantlay was asked a question that provided him less cover: Do you feel like you are a slow player, though?

“Yeah, I’m definitely slower than average, have been my whole career,” he said. “I definitely take my time. And when I hit my ball on a bulkhead, I’m definitely going to take my time to make sure I make the right decision and try to get the ball back into the right spot.”

You see the issue, no?  There's no will to tackle this issue and the players will take full advantage, because that's what they do.....  Hard to blame them.

 Of course, golf fans will draw their own conclusions:

This is getting out of control @patrick_cantlay ⏰ pic.twitter.com/xUrRehTRGd

— Beer At The Turn 🏌🏼‍♂️⛳️ (@tap_it_in_golf) April 17, 2023

While we're young, Patrick!

 And before we move on from Fitzy:

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately: Is Matt Fitzpatrick much, much better than even the hardcore golf fans realize? @SamHick60072515

Before Fitzpatrick won—checks notes—the U.S. Open, the answer was a resounding yes. I think the golf world has caught on to what a tenacious competitor he is and how the toughest setups favor his precise, calculating brand of golf. Even so, I understand what you’re getting at. Golf, life pretty much every sport, favors the big and strong. That the wee lad Fitzy is summiting the World Ranking is a testament to his big heart and tremendous skill set.

I think we're all wondering how good he is.  Though he seems to be one of the few that has actually tried to get longer and has done so without devastating effects on the remainder of his game.  

I didn't quibble with Alan when he noted the Harbor Town ratings above, though elsewhere he mentioned Dell and Honda, but didn't feel the need to connect those dots.  On that loosely-defined thread:

Is it bad that I kinda miss the non-designated Harbour Town tournament that was super chill and a nice hangover remedy from the Masters? @MidwesternGator

No, I felt that too! The elevated events impose a certain uniformity upon the tournaments, with basically the same fields and the same Tour-generated hype. I guess it’s a small price to pay for a world-class slate of players, but for sure the individual events are losing a little bit of their identity along the way.

I'm glad they got boffo ratings, but the week after the Masters seems an awkward spot for a big-time tour event.  Wouldn't you say that Rory would agree with that?

The reactions to these designated events as been curious, with many noting that the Tour always had a two-class system.  But it was one in which the sponsors competed with each other and events like Harbor Town found a way to make that post Masters date work for them and the community.  It's the top-down approach that seems off-base, not least what they did to sponsor that had supported them for 42 years.  You speak of the importance of partnerships, Jay, and then you publicly screw you longest tenured partner....

And Zurich did the same, but let's not go overboard:

Will the Zurich ever be ‘elevated’? @justapedn_cob

I hope so! It would be so fun to get more heavyweight teams. The key part of your question is “the Zurich”—that banking conglomerate has been a stalwart for the Tour and the elevated events are going to have to be spread around to keep the sponsors happy. So the answer is yes, it’s just a matter of when.

I'm not sure as a team event that it can be, but I'm pretty sure after this it never should be:

What do you make of the Daly-Duval team? Any chance to be entertaining?@gsmitter

Entertaining? Hell, yeah! Competitive? Eh, seems unlikely. If they don’t mic up that group it will be a monumental missed opportunity, with Duval’s learned thoughts mixed with Long John’s down-home musings.

John Daly is a public disgrace, but i seem to be the only one that remembers the content of his Tour disciplinary file.   

I mentioned Rory above, and we have  atwofer:

Should we all not just give Rory a break after all he has done for the Tour the last year plus? Compare his absence to a corporate job: You don’t have the right to know when someone takes personal leave. @OTownPauly

It’s true, McIlroy could have had a sick kid or a minor injury or any number of valid reasons not to show up. The problem was the lack of information and context from both McIlroy and the Tour. Where your analogy breaks down is that no one buys a ticket or a corporate suite to watch an accountant tally numbers, but McIlroy’s supposedly guaranteed presence surely created a lot of excitement around Hilton Head in the run-up to the tournament. Jon Rahm’s admirable my-word-is-my-bond stance didn’t help Rory’s cause either. No doubt McIlroy has taken on a heavy burden over the last year as the spokesman for the Tour, and the strain is showing. I don’t have strong feelings about McIlroy’s WD, but it wasn’t a good look for one of the architects of the new schedule to suddenly go missing.

I don't have anything more to add, other than they're all a bunch of mental midgets.  But the funniest part is still to come, expecting all of these guys to drag their butts from LACC to Hartford the week after the U.S. Open.  Who thought that a good idea?

But your humble blogger was ahead of the curve on this one:

True or false: What Rory needs most right now is to say a polite “thanks but we’re all done here” to Harry Diamond and ask nicely to indefinitely borrow Joe LaCava from TW? I feel like a senior presence on the bag would have to free him up a little, yeah? #AskAlan@luke_peacock

Rory has never wanted that—his previous caddie, J.P. Fitzgerald, was not exactly an activist. Would it really change anything? Bones Mackay had all the numbers and all the angles and the confidence to speak up in any situation, but Phil Mickelson pretty much ignored everything he said and did it his way. Rory is just as headstrong, and I think he would play exactly the same way whoever is on the bag—a meddling, overbearing caddie would just be an annoyance. All that said, if McIlroy goes oh-fer the coming major championships and heads into next year a decade removed from his last Grand Slam win, maybe he will be desperate enough to shake things up, just for the sake of change. LaCava is a good call; a soothing veteran presence who would at least be a different voice in McIlroy’s head.

Yes, Rory has never wanted that, which of course is silent on the question of whether Rory needs that.... Perhaps it all comes down to deciding how badly he wants that Masters....

My own personal belief has always been that there isn't a player more in need of an assertive caddie than Rory, yet his default to comfort tells us so much about him.  We've seen Scottie grab Ted Scott and Cameron Young get hooked up with Paul Tesori, but Rors continues to hang wit his childhood bestie.... It should probably tell us all we need to know.

Admittedly, Alan is uniquely positioned to field this one:

Has there ever been a player of Spieth’s caliber who’s hit so many loose shots? And despite winning the Open in 2017, are the ghosts of Augusta still haunting him from his 2016 collapse? Harbour Town was his for the taking and he let it slip way.@opinionsvary328

Ummmmmmm, Phil? There is no question Spieth has a lot of scar tissue and the ’16 Masters is his Winged Foot. Mickelson needed four years to get over that debacle, while Spieth’s bounce-back came much quicker. But clearly Jordan is always going to be a cat on a hot tin roof. All the tournaments he boots away will just make it more joyous when he closes one out.

The questioner is obviously on to something, as Jordan sees quite a bit of the world.  Though, to be fair, Jordan's ball-striking numbers have improved substantially in recent years, so perhaps we should keep an open mind here.

I agree this was a great story, and I've been remiss in not reading that profile of Levin:

Alan, don’t forget to talk a bit about Spencer Levin coming through Monday qualifying to fire a final-round 63 to win the Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. A touch of the iconoclastic in the face of a slate of carbon copy bro dudes sure feels good. @caknox1

A touch?! Levin is an all-time character. The outpouring that followed his win was touching and inspiring. What a journey that guy has been on—too good to quit but never quite able to make it in the big leagues. Maybe middle age and fatherhood will mellow out Levin just enough to let his manifold talent flourish.

I'll admit that our (my?) LIV obsession does sometimes preclude other more interesting stories....  But do you, like me, have a rather obvious question about Levin?  For my non-Jewish readers the go to source for such issues is jewornotjew.com:

Dear Jewish golf fans,

Let it go. The odds of a Jewish golf champ are pretty darn low. Levin (sorry to get your hopes up) is not a Jew. The last name comes from a line of goyishe Swedes.

So what are you to do, Jewish golf fans?

Root for Daniel Berger and Max Homa?

But why do they think there are no Jewish golf fans?  Do they know we have our own golf clubs and everything, or do they still think we're only allowed to be menylenders?

See you all on Monday.