Thursday, June 8, 2023

Betrayal

That the announcement broke on June 6th seems to this observer a delicious irony.  On a day where we celebrate those that would pay any price or bear any burden (I know that specific phrase came later), we see those in charge of professional golf eagerly capitulating for thirty pieces of silver.... Judas, at least, didn't have an endorsement deal with Nike when he took the filthy lucre.

I'm actually happy that I was otherwise engaged yesterday, because the 24-hour delay might mitigate the anger....  Don't worry, it's still pretty white hot, as we're about to determine how much ponding a keyboard can take.  But where does one start?

Overview - So, let's start with that which they actually announced, which is thin gruel indeed:

In a statement, the circuits said the parties have signed an agreement that "combines PIF's golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses
and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game's best players."

The circuits said the agreement ends all pending litigation between the parties.

The three tours said they will work "cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to reapply for membership with the PGA Tour or DP World Tour following the completion of the 2023 season."

Gee, maximum excitement, that sounds promising until you remember that we're talking about golf...

The details are thin on the ground, but one first has to accommodate the cognitive dissonance that said details are coming to us from those simultaneously acknowledging that they've been lying to us for two years.  So, even in that short excerpt above we seem the long con perpetuated, the vague outline of which can be seen below:

According to the release, a board of directors will oversee the new entity's golf-related commercial operations, businesses and investments. The groups will work to establish a cohesive schedule. The PIF will be the exclusive investor in the new entity and will have the "exclusive right to further invest in the new enterprise, including a right of first refusal on any capital invested.

The PGA Tour will remain a 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organization, according to the release, and will retain oversight of the sanctioning of events, administration of competition and rules.

Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, will join the policy board of the PGA Tour, which continues to operate its tournaments. Al-Rumayyan will be chairman of the new commercial group, with Monahan as the CEO and the PGA Tour having a majority stake in the new venture. The PIF will invest in the commercial venture.

Are you familiar with the concept of a fig leaf?  It's roots are Biblical, so by now it's probably a hate crime:

The expression "fig leaf" is widely used figuratively to convey the covering up of an act or an object that is embarrassing or distasteful with something of innocuous appearance, a metaphorical reference to the Biblical Book of Genesis in which Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nudity after eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.[2][3] Some paintings and statues have the genitals of their subjects covered by a representation of an actual fig leaf or similar object, either as part of the work or added afterward for perceived modesty.

It's a merger, guys, just take our word for it..... Except, do the Wahabis strike you as being content to be passive investors?  Not to mention that niggling detail that precious little comfort is to be derived from the man that just betrayed us still having a job....

What's really going on here?   

Frauds, all of them. But frauds now united in the only thing that actually matters to the world of professional golf: Making money.

In the end, it didn’t actually matter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan that the money came from a country, Saudi Arabia, that treats human rights like an inconvenience. The tradition and history of the PGA Tour, in fact, didn’t matter all that much to those who argued that LIV Golf was an unworthy, unserious rival whose guaranteed money and 54-hole events were mocking competition.

And as for the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Greg Norman, they did not, in fact, care all that much about growing the game. They wanted to own it. Now they do: The PGA Tour, brought to you by Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

They sold out. Professional golf will never be the same.

The key bit to understand in all this relates to that right-of-first-refusal on future financing at the new corporate entity, combined with the financing at the Tour level.  Jay and his cabal have just ceded global control of professional golf to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, without seemingly consulting with any of his members.  A hero for our time, no?

We'll get to the hypocrisy angle for sure, but this is Jay at an earlier time:

A year ago, Monahan stood up in front of the world and argued that the way Saudi Arabia treats women, gay people and journalists should matter in a player’s decision whether to jump at the guaranteed payday that came with a LIV invitation.

“I would ask any player that has left or any player that would consider leaving, have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”

Today? Not so much.

Apparently he had his fingers crossed behind his back, because this is today's Jay:

And together, we’re going to move forward and we’re going to take efforts to grow and expand this great game and to take it to new heights. And so what’s happened today and to your earlier question, is we’ve recognized that together, we can have a far greater impact on this game than we can working apart. And I give Yasir, great credit for coming to the table coming to discussions with an open heart and an open mind. We did the same and the game of golf is better for what we’ve done here today.

Hey, he's not the first guy to confuse a heart with a checkbook....

You're probably curious that Eamon Lynch hasn't yet put in an appearance.  Not to worry, he's in the building:

The statement announcing peace in our time was flush with the kind of boilerplate banalities that corporate ciphers usually hide behind. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the bag man for MBS, declared himself “proud to partner with the PGA Tour.”

“A momentous day,” cheered Keith Pelley, whose European outfit could charitably be described as non-essential to the new alliance, but was brought along for appearances’ sake.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan forgot his prior reservations about the source of LIV’s financing and praised Al-Rumayyan’s “vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach.” The deal is “transformational,” he announced, though a cynic might suggest that his new partner’s bonesaw has proven itself pretty transformational too.

There was no chance that that infamous bonesaw would make an appearance, but these are the people we've just entrusted our professional game with.

I personally have always struggle with the sportswashing thing, just cynical that any actual benefit is derived.   I've repeatedly made the case that with LIV all they've accomplished is to put Saudi human rights abuses on an endlessly looping mix tape.  That said, I seem to have been tragically wrong about all of this:

Since its creation, LIV Golf has largely been viewed through four lenses, with some overlap. The most traditional and least significant prisms are whether its competition has integrity and if it is consistent with the values golf imagines itself to uphold. For me, and many others, the key lens is that of morality: should the sport allow itself to be leveraged for reputational repair by autocratic human rights abusers? But for plenty of folks – frankly, most everyone inside the sport – the only perspective that matters is commercial: is LIV good or bad for business? From that myopic viewpoint, if someone is offering them money, how can that not be good for business? No need for a little dismemberment to impede commerce.

That is the message that Jay has just delivered, putting our professional game at the beck and call of nice folks with open hearts...

I do think Eamon is painting with too broad a brush here, or at least he should wait to see how folks react:

For Monahan and Pelley – and for players, agents and assorted hangers on – the problem has always been where the money was going, not where it was coming from. The Saudis were eager to dump billions of dollars into golf, and no matter what disputes arose between the establishment and the upstart, there was a desire to ensure the money be redirected rather than rejected. Morality, like the families of September 11 victims and Jamal Khashoggi, was merely a convenient posture to adopt until the time arrived when space was cleared at the trough.

I think the players found themselves in a morally convoluted place.  They're obviously competitive animals, and money can also be viewed as respect, so they want what others are getting.   I think quite a few of them tried to do the right thing, they just find themselves sold down the river by their leaders.

Shall we trash a few souls?   It is what we do....

Ownership, Devalued - One of the most aggravating memes is this:

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on 'owning his hypocrisy', lack of transparency, 9/11 family concerns

And exactly what does it mean to "own' it?

Monahan on 'owning his hypocrisy'

“I understand the criticism I’m receiving around the hypocrisy and me being hypocritical given my commentary and my actions over the last couple of years. As we went forward and reached a compromise, that was one of my great considerations. Any hypocrisy I have to own, nobody else. That’s on me. It shouldn’t be directed at the membership, that’s on me. As we sit here today, I’m confident we did the best thing for the game and the best thing for all of our members.”

And hopw will you own it?  Are there consequences?  Are you going to make good to those that believed you and acted accordingly....  No, this is empty moral preening..... 

And on the T-word?

Monahan on his lack of transparency

“There’s no question that yesterday was a setback, and I’ve had setbacks before and in terms of rebuilding the trust it begins with having conversation like I had through the night last night and being here in the morning and talking to players and explaining to them this deal and how this is a great outcome for every PGA Tour member and the game. I don’t expect everybody to understand right off the bat. I think this is going to take some time but when you look out over the horizon I’m entirely confident when I talk to our players that this is where I’m going to take them. That’s essentially where we are right now.

Let me see if I have this right.... You're admitting that you lied to your players for two years, but now you commit to rebuilding trust.....for what purpose?  So they'll believe this new set of lies?  Wow,  These Guys Are Good™.

Because the lies commence in the very next paragraph:

“The PGA Tour is in a control position. We have a lot of flexibility in our business. We have an opportunity through productive capital to reinvest in our Tour and our membership and reinvest in our game. When anyone looks 3, 5, 10 years down the road, I’m confident that those results will be delivered.”

Really, Jay?  because my mother once told me the following:

he who pays the piper calls the tune

To believe Jay, you have to believe that the Saudis are passive investors..... Have you ever noticed anything passive about those Wahabis?  What Jay is selling us can best be captured by a guy that died in 1950:

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

― George Orwell, 1984

Nailed it, George!

Monahan on rewarding 'loyalty' of PGA Tour players

“Their loyalty will be rewarded. I will spend every single waking hour as we move forward here that the players that have created this PGA Tour, that have created this pro-competitive, legacy driven juggernaut, that have articulated and supported the direction that we are going in. Ultimately the decision we made I believe is going to make it better for all of our players. Loyalty ultimately in a leader is something that must be rewarded. How it manifests itself is something I’m going to spend a lot of time working on and when we’re having this conversation down the road that’s something I look forward to having more specifics about.”

Legacy, Jay?  That was a good line a year ago, but has been superseded by events....

Maybe you could tell us it isn't about the money....

Rory McIlroy, Useful Idiot - My computer is jammed with browser tabs chronicling Rory's angst, shall we sample a few?

Oh, poor bubbeleh, this must be so hard for you.  Though I can't help but notice that you're a bit of a feckless idiot, no?  I hope you appreciate the wide range of sources quoted herein, because we'll now segue from Orwell to....checking notes, Otter:

Flounder, you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f***ed up. You trusted us! Hey, make the best of it! Maybe we can help.

Come to think of it, Flounder is the perfect nom de guerre for Rory, both in his anti-LIV leadership and his golf game.

Rory McIlroy: 'I still hate LIV Golf'

That's nice, though what you think doesn';t seem especially relevant in the current moment....

Rory McIlroy believes LIV Golf players should face punishment despite new Saudi partnership: 'There still has to be consequences to actions'

Good luck with that.... there will be a, what's that expression, a fig leaf, but there will be no punishment, unless you consider cashing large checks such.  Having cited Orwell and Otter, you had to have known this guy would pop up:

“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”

― Vladimir Ilich Lenin

The Saudis are now long on hemp....

I just want to lay a couple of markers as I'm already eyeing the clock.  There are a series of comments that appear quite curious in hindsight, leading me to believe that this has been on the table for some time.  

First, a while ago both Tiger and Rory started musing about a potential deal, when the part line was that this was a war to the death.  The terms they threw out included the elimination of Mr. Norman and the withdrawal of the lawsuits.  It seemed strange at the time that these moral arbiters in our game would punch down to Norman, but now it feels like they were negotiating the terms of their surrender.

The second bit that mystifies me were Rory's comments about players potentially skipping majors if those purses aren't dramatically increased.  Rory maintains that he fond out about the deal with a call from Jimmy Dunne this Monday, but I simply refuse to accept that those comments could have been coincidental.  To me, they can only mean that, having ensured the flow of riches through the PGA Tour (with Saudi money), as direct threat against the legacy events in our game.  

One last bit about Rory.  Not only is he a dupe, but he's quite the a*****e as well:


And per a report, it did get heated between two players: Rory McIlroy and Grayson Murray.

Per Golf Channel, a player said when Murray yelled at PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan — something like, “We don’t trust you, Jay! You should resign right now! You lied to our face!” — McIlroy responded with a dig.

“Just play better, Grayson,” he reportedly said. That led to Murray telling McIlroy to “[expletive] off.”

Rory, F**k Off!   I have little use for Grayson Murray, but he sure nailed this one.

This is the go-to response whenever anyone complains about anything, and is Rory telling Grayson that he should know his place.  Rory, shut the Ef up, because you helped create this mess, redirected Tour riches to an increasingly elite group of players and it is time for you to withdraw from the public and concentrate on your core responsibilities of flying greens with wedges.

A Long Island native and Notre Dame graduate, Dunne got his foothold on Wall Street by working at Bear Stearns before leaving to co-found the investment banking firm Sandler O’Neill
& Partners in 1988. The firm later took up residence on the 104th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center, where 83 of its employees reported to work on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dunne would have been among them, but he had traveled to Bedford, New York that day in an attempt to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Sixty-six of his coworkers, including his longtime friend Christopher Quackenbush, died in the attack on the south tower. Golf, quite literally, may have saved his life.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Dunne and his firm were repeatedly profiled by media outlets who spotlighted their resolve as they began to rebuild. “(Osama) Bin Laden set out to kill me and my colleagues,” he told Newsday in 2002. “What would he like us to do: Build a new business, or to quit and run?”

In the years since, Dunne has drawn the letter “Q” on his golf balls to honor Quackenbush, whom he met when they were both teenagers working as caddies at a Long Island golf course.

That sound you hear is Christopher Quackenbush spinning in his grave....

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is, because only 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi.....

Nothing to see here:

Strada and 9/11 Families United have long been among the loudest critics of LIV Golf, which has become a source of controversy and division in the golfing world since its emergence last year.

The 9/11 families group has pointed to LIV as a blatant example of sportswashing – an attempt by the Saudis to use golf to deflect attention from their wide-ranging record of human rights abuses, including the government’s involvement in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Strada has also repeatedly cited Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks, including that Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks were Saudi citizens.

“The President’s declassification order uncovered new evidence – which was not available to the 9/11 Commission – that officials in the Saudi government provided material and financial support for a U.S.-based network of assistance that the hijackers relied upon in order to carry out the murder of nearly 3,000 Americans on U.S soil,” she wrote to Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley earlier this year, in a letter urging the course to exclude LIV golfers from the Masters.

At least the Saudi government isn't involved in LIV....  What?  That might prove a little awkward.

I'm going to leave this here, mostly because I don't have enough time to dive into the many assessments of winners and losers in this.  Needless to say, those are a target-rich environment.

I certainly don't think the rancid aroma of this deal has dissipated in the 48 hours since it became public, though we will see folks accepting it to our horror.  We've already seen that from most of the Golf Channel talking heads, Chamblee and Lynch excepted.  

I hope to be back tomorrow, although I do have some work starting at our house in the morning.  The larger issue is whether your humble blogger will have any interest in professional golf.  My Magic 8-Ball says, "Outlook Cloudy", though that seems quite optimistic.

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Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Tuesday Trifles - Longest Day Edition

Caught just a few minutes of those playoffs for slots at LACC last night, a unique day of golf that partially restores our faith in mankind.  Not in elite professional golfers, as it's hard to ignore the events of the last 18 months, but close enough to avoid despondency for a day or so.

Darwin Rules - It's a good contrast with that Rory fever dream....  He's worried that the guys already in can't be bothered showing up to compete for a $2.6 million winner's purse, but the Kevin Streelmans and Stewart Cinks of the world are kicking and clawing for a tee time.  That doesn't mean that Rory is wrong.  Oh no. it's far worse than that.  He's hanging with Cantlay and Schauffele, et. al., and the most depressing aspect is that he's likely offering an accurate assessment of their state of mind.  It's enough to make a fellow check the TV listings for cornhole tournaments....

Summary data from Golfweek:

  • Nick Hardy had the round of the day with a 61 on his second 18 at Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ohio. Preston Summerhays and Samuel Stevens each shot a 62 at their qualifiers.
  • Five of the 10 locations needed a playoff to settle things.
  • Thirteen amateurs made it through. Five of those ams won or tied for the top spot in their respective qualifiers.
Only five?  Damn, I had the over....

Some college studs made it through as well, though only a couple familiar to this observer:

 Insane?  Only if they win the damn thing....

The most watched of the sectionals is always Columbus, OH, which is specifically located to be convenient for those lucky souls with weekend tee times at Jack's place (which might be in Detroit nest year).  Here's how that sectional played out:

Columbus, Ohio • 103 players for 11 spots

Olin Browne Jr., whose father qualified for the U.S. Open in 2005 with a sterling 59 and won the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, reached his first U.S. Open at the age of 34 by leading a group of 11 qualifiers.

Browne, of Hobe Sound, Fla., followed up a morning 66 at The Lakes with a 67 to earn medalist honors at 11-under 133, one stroke better than PGA Tour player Davis Thompson, who scorched Brookside in the afternoon with a nine-under 63. Six players tied at nine-under 134, including 50-year-old Stewart Cink, and Eric Cole, who qualified for his second U.S. Open.

Can you see any of those terrific peni we've been lambasting out there at age 50 grinding for a tee time?   

Any interest in a feel-good story?

The feel-good qualifier is 28-year-old Corey Pereira of Cameron Park, Calif., who has taken nearly all of the year off from golf to care for his girlfriend, Leah Bertuccelli, who is battling cancer. Pereira, who fell short of retaining Korn Ferry Tour status last year, has competed in just two events this year, the local and final qualifiers for the U.S. Open. He sank a 15-foot par putt on the 18th hole at Brookside to avoid falling into a playoff.

“Golf has taken a step down for me,” Pereira, a University of Washington product, said. “I want to be with her. She’s on her 10th round of chemo, and it’s my biggest priority is being there to support her. I was thinking on the back nine today that I’m so lucky to just be out here competing and knowing if I hit a bad shot, it might cost me a bogey, which is nothing compared to what Leah deals with. It’s given me a huge amount of perspective.”

Whatya know, he just became my favorite Pereira in golf....  

Not to be confused with the artists formerly known as Thunderbear, this kid will hit your radar soon:

Canoe Brook Country Club

Summit, N.J. • 67 players for 4 spots

In a field that included multiple former and current PGA Tour pros, it was amateur Michael Thorbjornsen who earned medalist honors with rounds of 66 and 68.

Thorbjornsen, the No. 3-ranked male amateur in the world, made 13 birdies against five bogeys. At just 21 years old, this will already be Thorbjornsen’s third career U.S. Open appearance, the Stanford standout having qualified in 2019 as an 18-year-old and again last year. He made the cut in his U.S. Open debut at Pebble Beach but missed last year at The Country Club at Brookline.

Lastly, does Viktor Hovland seem like a good guy?  He's always smiling and I'd be up for a beer if he's so inclined, but I'm guessing you'll like him even more when you see this: 

What's the big deal?  He was already in the Columbus area, so no airfare required....

OK, I lied, that wasn't actually my last bit.  So, supposing you were on your final hole of the day and you needed to get up-and-in to play in the Open.  These guys are so good it might not be a big deal.  Unless, of course, your ball ended up here:

Jordan Spieth, call your office.  Michael Brannan is a Wake Forest guy, but see what you think of his short-game skills:

A much-needed palate cleanser for or game, and LACC is gonna be great.

Rose In Full - First the business end.  Despite being granted immediate LPGA membership, the girls still has girlie things to wrap up:

It’s easy to forget that Rose Zhang is 20 years old. The California native has rapidly ascended the women’s golf ladder and is now one-for-one when it comes to winning LPGA events as a
professional. What she’s doing is unparalleled in the sport. She knows this. The world knows this. And yet, none of this matters when it comes to finals.

After besting Jennifer Kupcho on the second hole of a tense playoff to win the Mizuho Americas Open, Zhang won’t have much time to soak in the glory and celebrate the remarkable win. She has places to be, tests to complete and a dorm move-out to accomplish. That sounds almost as difficult as taking on Liberty National.

Appearing on ESPN's "SportsCenter" Monday, Zhang echoed what she said late Sunday after her historic victory: “I did turn down next week’s ShopRite LPGA just because I have to get back on campus, I have a couple of tests to finish. Finals … I have three finals to take. Got a paper. Have a problem set for CS [computer science] class. It’s just going to be a really hectic week not on the golf course.

Including some more hang time with her teammates.  She'll play plenty of golf this summer, but even at age 20 she can afford to focus on the majors.

Beth Ann Nichols as as consistent an advocate for women's golf as any, though is this wise?

She seems oblivious to the cautionary tale involved, but can't get past the lede without it rearing its ugly head:

The LPGA has been desperate for a moment like this. There hasn’t been a player on the LPGA with the potential to move the needle in the United States like Rose Zhang since a prodigious Michelle Wie West.

And how did that work out?  

This is true, but only to a certain extent:

Several players have risen to the level of “household name” on the LPGA in the past two decades, but those were households outside of the U.S. Ariya Jutanugarn, for example, became the first Thai player to win a major and ascend to No. 1 in the world. Her face was on a Gatorade bottle in Thailand, but her name never resonated here in the U.S.

Ai Miyazato rivaled Tiger Woods in popularity in her native Japan. No one on the LPGA did more media than Miyazato during her time on tour, but that daily attention came almost exclusively from Japan. Yani Tseng had the same security detail as Lady Gaga when the LPGA came to Taiwan for the first time.

Beth Ann, it seems to me that you're working the crowd, because those ladies flamed out pretty quickly....  I think she's on less solid ground here:

Lydia Ko’s youngest-to-ever resume was significant, but it didn’t revolutionize the tour.

Not even Inbee Park’s attempt at winning a fourth consecutive major in a calendar season could capture the attention of golf media in the U.S., let alone the greater sports landscape.

Annika Sorenstam, the greatest player in the modern era, won 46 times in 124 LPGA starts from 2001 to 2006. But not even her sustained dominance could break out of Tiger’s shadow.

I'm sorry, the knock against Annika is that she failed to become as popular or well-known as....Tiger?  really, are you aware that everyone you've mentioned played women's golf?  It's possible, and I'm just spit-ballin' here, that you're setting the bar a tad high.

 And she just doubles down on this nonsense:

There isn’t a player on the LPGA right now who can be considered a household name in the United States. To become a household name, one must be well-known among those who aren’t golf fans. For example, people who don’t watch a single hockey game any given year know of Wayne Gretzky. Plenty of people don’t read Stephen King but know of his work. Sports fans might not watch tennis all season but would tune in to watch Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

These are household names.

OK, so you want a twenty-year old girl to consider herself a failure if she doesn't supplant Stephen King in the American psyche?   Hard to see what could go wrong here....

Would you believe her logic hasn't hit bottom yet?

Wie West became a household name because she contended at LPGA majors as a kid, competed in PGA Tour events and tried to qualify for men’s majors. Sharing a stage with men ­– as Annika did at Colonial – skyrocketed Wie West’s global appeal. She was magnetic.

Magnetic?  OK, for a brief moment in time, and then she became a laughingstock, because she kept trying to play with the men without actually accomplishing mush among the women.  So it's hard for me to think of a worse role model for Rose....  

But, Beth Ann, who are you speaking of here?

Of course, there’s more to it than winning. Female athletes have to put in more time outside the ropes than their male counterparts to move the needle even a fraction of the way. There are American stars on the LPGA right now who don’t want to put in this time. They frequently turn down the requests of the national media and their own organization, even at majors, and sometimes shut it down after big victories rather than take advantage of the moment. This, of course, hurts not only their brand, but the overall growth of the tour.

 I think we're gonna need names....

Pete Dye had a funny bit that might apply here.  He said that anytime he faced a dilemma in his work, he would ask himself what Trent Jones would have done, and would do the exact opposite.  Notwithstanding her friendship with Wie West, she should use her predecessor's career as a cautionary tale.

The good news is that I see little chance of Rose going down that same path, for the simple reason that there's a huge difference between to two women.  Fact is, Rose doesn't seem to hit the ball very far, and if there's any red light flashing about her prospects, that would be the cause.  But no one will watch Rose and wonder how she might do against the men, and thank God for that.

Lastly, while Beth Ann is obsessing about Rose becoming a mononym among U.S. fans, Dylan Dethier files his Monday Finish column from the Front Door Pub in Galway, Ireland, including this endearing scene:

GALWAY, Ireland — It was just before 11 p.m. on Sunday night when a TV in the back room of
the Front Door Pub flashed a graphic across the screen.

NEXT UP: MIZUHO AMERICAS OPEN, ROUND 4

One member of a group of four women in a corner booth stirred, catching a glimpse of the screen over the shoulder of a navy-shirted man standing mostly in the way. She gestured at the Stanford-hatted young woman whose photo had just appeared on the Sky Sports broadcast.

“There’s that girl,” she said, voice rising above the pub’s delightful din. “Rose.”

Chill, Beth Ann.  The Kids are all right...

Down Goes Wolff -  One of my thoughts yesterday was that the aforementioned Viktor Hovland might be playing the tortoise to certain hares.  Collin Morikawa's career arc seems uncertain in the current moment, but this guy seems down for the count:

It’s been a rough go recently for Matthew Wolff.

The 24-year-old withdrew from U.S. Open final qualifying at Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Monday as rumors continue to swirl about his current status on the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf League. At a U.S. Open qualifier last year, Wolff also left early after he walked off the course following a poor drive.

Last week No Laying Up was first to point out that mention of Wolff was removed from the social media accounts of Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC.

After a T-7, T-10, T-5 start to the season, Wolff has struggled for the last two months with finishes of T-44, T-41 and T-30 in the 48-player field events, and most-recently withdrew after two rounds of 73-78 at LIV Golf Washington D.C. In seven events he’s earned $2,821,667 so far this season.

Did that header read, as intended, in the voice of Howard Cossell?

Lots to learn in that excerpt.  First, he's a bit of a jerk, as walking off the course and withdrawing late indicates.  But who put him on Koepka's team, which seems a bad fit?  Given his entitle petulance, he'd be perfect for Sergio's team, no?

But it does raise an under-reported issue about LIV, one that's a factor in the ongoing OWGR deliberations.  The OWGR recognizes tour, not individual events, but requires a method of qualifying onto such tours, which is where it gets problematic for LIV.  With their low cap on field size, there's no way to play one's way onto that tour, but we've also wondered if it was possible to pay one's way off the tour

But here's te awkward part for LIV (as well as for the OWGR folks).  Wolff apparently can play his way off, though it's unclear whether he's played any worse than, say, Phil or Westy..... But Phil and Lee have their tee time guaranteed in his contract, so they're there for the duration.  Kind of messy at best, and not at all the vision for golf being articulated.

But can you feel the game growing?  Because $2.8 million large for sucking at golf is a pretty sweet deal.

That's it for today.  I'll see you folks next on Thursday.

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Monday, June 5, 2023

Weekend Wrap - Mononym Edition

I suppose the weekend's headline is that your humble blogger actually watched quite a bit of golf yesterday.  The oddity is that it was June 4th and we had a fire going....  I'm liking this latest version of global warming best...

The Name Of The Rose - What took so long?

In stunning pro debut, Rose Zhang keeps rolling — right into history books

Just before the sun set over the New York City skyline Sunday night, golf’s next superstar officially arrived.

As cheers rained down from from the grandstands looming over Liberty National’s 18th green, Rose Zhang fished her ball out of the hole and raised her hands over her mouth in disbelief. Just more than a week after the Stanford wonderkid announced she was turning pro, she put the finishing touches on her first professional title at the Mizuho Americas Open.

“I just can’t believe it,” Zhang said.

With her playoff victory over Jennifer Kupcho, Zhang becomes the first player to win an LPGA title in her professional debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951. She’ll also receive a check for $412,500, immediate membership on the LPGA Tour and eligibility to compete in the Solheim Cup this fall.

This might well be a nit that could go unpicked, but pretty sure it was well after that sun had set that things were resolved, as they don't like leaving much time for playoffs.

When have we ever seen a player win without a single birdie on Sunday:

Although Zhang made no birdies during her final round, she held firm as the pace car. Through
17 holes, she’d dropped just one shot, a bogey on the 4th. But, as so often is the case, finishing off the tournament was not so simple.

Her drive off 18 sailed left and rolled into the fairway bunker, limiting her chances of hitting the green in regulation. After blasting out to just short of the putting surface, Zhang spun a wedge to within 10 feet of the hole. One putt and the title was hers. The ball rolled end over end true to its line, but drifted right at the last moment, ensuring bogey and a playoff against Jennifer Kupcho.

Despite the disappointment, Zhang did not panic.

“I’ve done this before, especially at ANWA,” she said. “Even though playoffs are never comfortable, I felt like it was such a familiar position that I’ve been in before.”

Did I hear someone say "Faldo"?  Yup, very good, though I give Rose the nod because she played twenty holes without a birdie to Sir Mumbles' eighteen.

I love the shout out to Beverly Hanson, though you might be amused to know that that 1951 win in her first professional start also happened to be her second LPGA win.  Yeah, let that rattle around in your brain for a while, as she won the Texas Open while still an amateur.  

Many are the times when I relate the absence of coverage of the women's events at the major golf sites, but today they've given this young lady and the women's game the respect and pixels called for, as Rose's win tops each webpage, and they haven't stinted on sidebar coverage as well.

Also paying homage is the Tour Confidential panel, leading with two Rose-related Q&A's:

Rose Zhang, at just 20 years old, beat Jennifer Kupcho in a playoff to win the Mizuho Americas Open, making her the first player to win in their professional debut on the LPGA Tour since Beverly Hanson in 1951. She was a decorated amateur prior to turning pro this week and much was made about her first pro start, but still, did we expect this?

Jack Hirsh: Gosh, it’s hard to balance the hype she had coming in with the realization that players don’t typically play this well in their pro debuts. Rose Zhang clearly proved she’s just
different. On the broadcast, her amateur career was compared to Tiger Woods. Neither one of them played all that well in pro events before turning pro. But even Tiger took a couple of events (exactly two) before he started contending and winning in his fifth. Now it’s always difficult and borderline unfair to be compared to Tiger Woods, but Rose has already broken his Stanford wins record and now she won much faster at the pro level than he did. I certainly didn’t expect this, but at the same time, we shouldn’t have been surprised.

On a side note, have we ever seen someone become mononymous faster?

James Colgan: Man, I certainly didn’t. Rose entered the week as one of the most hyped young talents to enter the women’s golf scene in a long time. Now, seven days later, she’s one of the most hyped talents to enter golf in a long time. What an epic week.

Claire Rogers: Rose Zhang didn’t look like the new kid on the block when I spent a few days at Liberty National earlier this week. The junior golfers wanted to hang with her, but so did the pros. She had a lot of media to do, and she handled it all with grace. I expected that she’d make the cut. Maybe finish top-25 if she had a great week. But to win in her professional debut after a long college season? Incredible. This was the most fun I’ve had watching a golf tournament in a long time.

Contra Jack Hirsh, she's been mononymous  at least since matriculating at Stanford.... What I've been struck by though is how the other girls seem to generally like her.  Notably Rachel Heck, who won the NCAA Individual title the year before Rose arrive and who has been over-shadowed by Rose's arrival, but who appear to have become lifelong friends.

What is it about Zhang’s game that allowed her to win on the top women’s tour so soon? And how close is she to becoming the top player in the women’s game? What’s her ceiling?

Hirsh: She won in a fairly similar fashion to how she won three months ago at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur when she let a big lead slip away but came up clutch in a playoff. She did the same thing, albeit with a slimmer lead to start. Not only did her second shot on the second playoff hole prove she knew how to win, but I was more impressed by her par putt on the first playoff hole. It was the same line as the one she missed in regulation, but to remember how it broke is also to remember that you missed it, which is not the greatest thought process. However, she handled it expertly. There’s a difference between playing really good golf and then actually winning, but it’s clear Rose Zhang knows how to win.

Colgan: As with most of the great ones, it was composure that won her the tournament on Sunday. Rose’s game has all the pieces of greatness (her final six holes on Sunday more than proved that), but it’ll be her even keel that carries her there. It was striking how unbothered she seemed by the whole spectacle, particularly while I was clinging to the edge of my seat. To think she has all that at just 20 years old? Wow. Just wow.

Rogers: I think it was her patience. The birdies were not flowing for Zhang on Sunday — she didn’t make a single one all day. But she kept at it and made really steady pars until she could make her move on the second playoff hole. I don’t think she’s “close” to becoming a top player in the women’s game, I think she already is. No other Stanford golfer (male or female) won as many times as Zhang did. She already made history at Augusta National. She has already done incredible things and now gets to continue to do so at the professional level. There’s no ceiling for Zhang, and her NCAA career proved that.

Given that she just won with what might be her C-game, it's unknowable.  That said, the game is rarely linear and she's likely running on fumes by now, so I'd not be surprised if there's a slight retrenchment in the short-term.

But she's won everything and, perhaps most importantly, she's won when she's expected to win, which I'd submit is the hardest feat in our game.  And keep that thought in the back of your mind as we segue to Ohio.

Memorial Daze - The arc of The memorial matched that of the LPGA event, with a player coming to the 18th tee nursing a one-shot lead.  In both cases the leader missed the fairway and made an ill-timed bogey that left them in a playoff, but this ending was more of a downer:


Denny McCarthy had never come as close to winning on the PGA Tour as he did Sunday.

That did not lessen the blow of not closing the deal.

After leading the 2023 Memorial Tournament for most of the final round, McCarthy bogeyed the 18th hole twice – first in regulation to fall into a tie with Viktor Hovland at 7 under par and then in the playoff.

“I’m heartbroken right now,” McCarthy said. “It really sucks. I thought this was going to be the week.”

McCarthy, 30, has played 157 PGA Tour events. He had never finished better than third before Sunday.

This game can be too cruel for words.... He made absolutely everything, until he didn't....  But once we saw that shot-tracer on his drive on the playoff hole, we knew he had shot his load....

As for the winner, it's big:

The book on Viktor Hovland, or at least the opening few chapters that have been written this far, is that the young Norwegian needs a better short game to complement his ball-striking talents.

Apparently, the young man has been reading up.

Hovland wasn’t the best ball-striker this week at the Memorial Tournament. He wasn’t the best putter, either. But he was darn good at both. Throw in some respectable scrambling and you have a recipe for success, which is what the 25-year-old achieved with his playoff victory Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Enduring a 2022-23 season where he has come frustratingly close in several big events, including a share of second only two weeks ago in the PGA Championship, Hovland finally cashed in when he sank a seven-foot par putt on the 18th hole, the first hole of sudden death, to defeat hard-luck Denny McCarthy. The victory, Hovland’s fourth on the PGA Tour and his first on the U.S. mainland, was set up when he got up and down for par from behind the green on his final hole in regulation and McCarthy couldn’t do the same a few minutes later. They each shot 70 and finished at seven-under 281.

It's one week, so we should be a bit cautious about over-interpreting, but he does seem to be making consistent progress addressing his weakness.   

I was an early fan of Bill James, who drove the statistical and data revolution in baseball.  One of the bits I remember from James was about pairs of players arriving simultaneously, specifically about how our early assessment of talent could be faulty.  Examples I remember were Jose Canseco-Mark McGuire and Bob Horner- Dale Murphy, where the former made the loudest first impression but it was the latter whose talent held up over the long haul.

Viktor came out with Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff, each of whom enjoyed quicker success than the Norwegian.  But Wolff lost his game and mind and Morikawa has gone into remission, so I see perhaps the hare coming up on the outside.  If nothing else, we should appreciate the Ryder Cup implications, because Team Europe needs Viktor to be a beast in Rome.

If you watched yesterday's final round, there was that guy that went out early. threw up some birdies and waited in the clubhouse to see if -6 might be just enough.  Of course he couldn't quite get his round to that clubhouse, bogeying the final hole leaving him that one shot out of a playoff.  But if you like statistical oddities, we've got you covered:

Scheffler did not win the Memorial. Nor did he spend most of the weekend particularly close to
victory. He finished Sunday’s final round some two hours before the final groups followed suit. He ended the tournament some one stroke short of the eventual winner, Viktor Hovland.

And yet, as he charged up the 18th fairway at Muirfield Village, it was clear that Scheffler had just completed a week unlike any other in his career. In fact, it was a week unlike any other in PGA Tour history. But perhaps not for the reasons he’d hoped.

This week at the Memorial, Scheffler had the second-best ball striking performance of anyone in the last 20 years on the PGA Tour. And that performance came on the heels of the worst putting performance of anyone in the field at Muirfield Village.

Here's the yin and yang of that:

Indeed, the ball-striking is doing alright. Better than alright, it turns out. According to numbers guru Justin Ray, Scheffler’s 20.74 strokes gained: tee-to-green ranks as the second-best such performance in a week since the PGA Tour began tracking that data 20 years ago — just four-tenths of a stroke behind Vijay Singh’s 21.14 SG: T2G performance at the 2004 Deutsche Bank.

And indeed, the putter has been poor. Scheffler’s -8.58 strokes gained: putting ranked as dead-last in the field at Muirfield Village, nearly nine strokes off the tournament average performance. The eye-test proved equally as damning on Sunday, with Scheffler missing birdie putts of 3 feet, 5 inches; 7 feet, 4 inches; and 12 feet, 3 inches on the back nine alone. He finished shy of a playoff with the tournament’s top two finishers, Hovland and Denny McCarthy, by just one stroke.

Does Scottie have Brad Faxon on speed dial?  If not, he soon will...

At one point there was one guy below Scottie in putting stats for the week, but it was this Saturday night header that had me saying "Rut-roh":

You guys know my Unifying Theory of All Things Rory, to wit, that the more he wants it, the worse he plays.  See Portrush, Augusta and St. Andrews for any needed clarification...

The TC panel had no time for Viktor or Denny, but asre blowing plenty of smoke here:

Rory McIlroy held a share of the 54-hole lead at the Memorial, but he stumbled to a final-round 75 and finished four shots out of a playoff (in which Viktor Hovland beat Denny McCarthy). Based on his recent results, including a missed cut at the Masters earlier this year, are you more surprised by this lackluster day, or concerned?

Hirsh: McIlroy surprisingly said he feels decent about his game and better about it than after a final-round 69 at Oak Hill. He had a noticeably different tune this week than he did at the PGA, which to me shows he’s getting closer to the form that helped him win three times last year. That said, he’s entering his toughest stretch of the season where he’ll play four weeks in a row, including the U.S. Open in two weeks. All that really matters to him right now is ending his major drought, so if the way he played this week leads to him peaking in L.A., then he’s on the right track. I’m not really surprised or concerned about his 75, which was the field average Sunday.

Colgan: Not surprised. His game isn’t fully there yet. But disappointed, sure. Sunday was a glimmering opportunity to get the kind of win that could set an uneasy season back on the right path. Rory missed that opportunity. Still, the arrow is pointed in the right direction for LACC, provided he can figure out his irons.

Rogers: I think this was a very positive step in the right direction for McIlroy. I’m not concerned that he didn’t get it done today. I’m deciding to “trust the process” when it comes to all things Rory McIlroy.

The very same Jack Hirsh wrote the Golf Magazine game story on Viktor and had this final 'graph in the piece:

But McIlroy struggled with his distance control on the firm greens and made five bogeys in eight holes midway through the round. He faded to a 75.

It's very amusing in the context of the reaction to Viktor, in which the golfing press is clearly watching him work to improve his short game.  Folks are so enamored of Rory's prowess with the driver (justifiably so), that they don't seem to realize he's been flying greens with wedges for years and doesn't seem inclined to address that weakness.  As for his putting?  He and Scottie seem to be in a race to the bottom, so that'll be fun, no?

Say It Ain't So, Jack - two items related to my Golfing God that have me cranky, although you might note that that is a preexisting condition.  The first might not properly be Jack's fault, though he should be telling Jay & Co. that they're bloody idiots:

The PGA Tour is strongly considering moving the Memorial Tournament farther from Memorial Day and closer to Father’s Day as it decides whether to push the 2024 event deeper into June, one week before the U.S. Open.

“I’d say it’s a strong possibility,” Memorial founder and host Jack Nicklaus said Sunday. “I would prefer to stay where we are. I don’t like being the week before the Open, but if it’s for the betterment of the Tour and what they’re trying to do then I would understand that, too.”

Nicklaus stressed that tournament scheduling dates remain fluid, sharing that Tour officials told him Wednesday no final decision on the Memorial had been made. So the Golden Bear may yet get his wish to maintain scheduling status quo.

“They’ve asked me about it,” he said. “I’m not in favor of it, but I would cooperate with the Tour.”

This is one of the premiere events on the Tour's calendar, so important that they granted it Invitational status a few years back along with Riviera and Bay Hill.  So, who would bury one of their best events the week before the Open when half the guys don't want to play?  Mental midgets, that's who.... If you were trying to destroy the Tour's schedule, what would you do differently?

Why do it?  Really, you're not going to believe the answer:

So why do it? Money, of course. Mostly to compete against LIV Golf’s Saudi-backed cash, the PGA Tour has designated eight tournaments to offer elevated purses. As one of the eight, the Memorial’s purse increased from $12 million in 2022 to $20 million this year.

Many of the top Tour players want a better schedule “flow,” meaning as many designated events scheduled back-to-back as possible. They don’t like one on, one off. In response, the Tour is committed to “bunching” designated events next year.

Did we enjoy this week?  Sure, because the course challenged the boys, rendering it a difficult and taxing week.  How many guys want that kind of challenge the week before Pinehurst?  Sure, let's go to the U.S. Open already exhausted and without time to prepare....  Then perhaps we'll get some typical memorial weather and push the final round to Monday.  Are you geniuses listening?

And for what events?

“The issue is not (the Memorial),” he said, explaining how the tour may have little choice but rework the schedule to make both sides – players and non-designated events and their sponsors – happy.

What that likely means is the Memorial giving its current schedule spot to a non-designated event, perhaps the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit or Canadian Open, while it moves to June 6-9 (in 2024), right before the U.S. Open, which immediately would be followed by a third consecutive designated event; maybe the Travelers Championship.

Such a move would allow two or three non-designated events – the Colonial and maybe Detroit, Canada or Houston – to take place over consecutive weeks while bunching three designated events after them.

It's OK guys, we've all lost interest in your Tour anyway.... In any event, Rory has told us that the guys don't care about the majors any more because the purses are too low, so maybe they'll play in  Columbus and skip Pinehurst.

This is the second bit from Jack that is a little maddening:

Which is great, especially given the Ohio roots of both Jack and Tom.  Except, that Tom won't be enjoy being feted by Jack because...

Weiskopf, who died of pancreatic cancer last August, was introduced to the game by his parents, Tom and Eva. The elder Weiskopf was a standout amateur in Pennsylvania while Eva was good enough to play collegiately on men’s teams at the College of Wooster and Mount Union. She twice was eliminated in match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur by future Hall of Famer Patty Berg.

I don't know if Jack knew of Tom's illness, but here's a list of recent honorees:

2023 — Larry Nelson
2022 — Ben Crenshaw
2022 (P) — Charlie Sifford
2020/2021 — Nick Price
2020/2021 (P) — Gene Littler and Ted Ray
2019 — Judy Rankin
2018 — Hale Irwin
2018 (P) — Jock Hutchison & Willie Turnesa
2017 — Greg Norman

The hurry to honor Norman was what exactly?  Nick Price?  Jeez, how about trying to honor folks before they die?  He has twenty years for some of these guys, but Weiskopf to me would have been a special case, given that he toiled in Jack's shadow.  And he would have relished it so coming from Jack, so a horribly missed opportunity.

Happy Longest Day - Most sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open is today, and Geoff has a long preview here.  One unexplored aspect of that move of Jack's event discussed above is that the mots significant qualification site is, checking notes, Columbus, OH:

Brookside Golf & Country Club and The Lakes Golf & Country Club
Columbus, Ohio; 120 players

Tegan Andrews, 21, of Agoura Hills, Calif., earned the last spot available among the 109 U.S. Open local qualifying sites on May 22 in Palmer, Alaska. Andrews shot a 72 in 50-degree weather with strong winds and was three strokes clear of the 16-player field at Palmer Golf Course. Andrews, a junior at Cal State-Fullerton in 2022-23, ended up in Alaska when he waited too long to file an entry to get into any of the Southern California local qualifiers. His grandfather, Gene, was a two-time USGA champion who competed in three U.S. Opens and was a member of the 1961 USA Walker Cup Team.

Cameron Champ, 27, of Sacramento, Calif., hopes to return to The Los Angeles Country Club where he was a member of the winning 2017 USA Walker Cup Team. He has played in three U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for 32nd in 2017 at Erin Hills. Champ has won three PGA Tour events and once on the Korn Ferry Tour. His father, Jeff, was selected in the Major League Baseball Draft by the Baltimore Orioles.

Kevin Chappell, 36, of Fresno, Calif., has played in eight U.S. Opens. He tied for third in 2011 in his first Open when he shot 66 in the final round at Congressional Country Club. His lone PGA Tour win is a one-stroke victory over two-time U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka in the 2017 Valero Texas Open. Chappell, who played at UCLA, won the 2008 NCAA Championship.

Stewart Cink, 50, of Atlanta, Ga., has played in 23 U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for third in 2001 at Southern Hills. He set the U.S. Open final qualifying 36-hole scoring mark in 2003 with rounds of 62 and 61 in Columbus, Ohio. Cink captured the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry in a playoff with Tom Watson. He has won eight PGA Tour titles, including the 2019 RBC Heritage.

Eric Cole, 34, of Delray Beach, Fla., finished second in the PGA Tour’s 2023 Honda Classic, losing in a playoff to Chris Kirk. He comes from an accomplished golf family. His father, Bobby, played in seven U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for 12th in 1970. Bobby won a PGA Tour event in 1977 and captured nine titles in his native South Africa. Eric’s mother, Laura Baugh, won the 1971 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She competed in 14 U.S. Women’s Opens and tied for eighth in 1979. Eric played in the 2021 U.S. Open.

Pierceson Coody, 23, of Plano, Texas, won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Panama Championship and has played in seven PGA Tour events in 2022-23. He and his twin brother, Parker, played at the University of Texas and are the grandsons of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody. Pierceson, a member of the winning 2021 USA Walker Cup Team, advanced through the Columbus, Ohio, final qualifier to his first U.S. Open two years ago.

Luke Donald, 45, of England, has played in 14 U.S. Opens. His best finish is a tie for eighth in 2013 at Merion Golf Club. Donald, the 2011 PGA Tour Player of the Year, has won five Tour events and seven DP World Tour titles, including two BMW PGA Championships. He also claimed the 1999 NCAA individual title while playing for Northwestern University.

Lucas Glover, 43, of Jupiter, Fla., won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course. In a Monday finish due to weather, Glover posted a two-stroke victory over Ricky Barnes, David Duval and Phil Mickelson. He has played in 15 U.S. Opens and tied for 17th in 2020 at Winged Foot, his best finish in recent years. Glover owns four PGA Tour victories, including the 2021 John Deere Classic.

Carson Herron, 20, of Deephaven, Minn., is attempting to become a fourth-generation U.S. Open competitor. His father, Tim, played in 11 U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for sixth in 1999. His grandfather, Carson, and great-grandfather, Clee, competed in 1963 and 1934, respectively. Carson tied for 15th in the Mountain West Conference Championship as a sophomore at the University of New Mexico in 2022-23. He advanced through U.S. Open local qualifying on his college home course.

Zach Johnson, 47, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has won two major championships, the 2007 Masters Tournament and the 2015 Open Championship. He has played in 18 U.S. Opens. His best finishes are a pair of ties for eighth place in 2016 and 2020. Johnson, who has won 12 PGA Tour events, was a member of five USA Ryder Cup Teams and will serve as the captain in 2023.

Geoff Ogilvy, 45, of Australia, claimed the 2006 U.S. Open Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club when he defeated Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie, and Phil Mickelson by one stroke. Ogilvy, who has played in 13 U.S. Opens, won eight PGA Tour and four DP World Tour events. He also was victorious in the 2008 Australian Open and 2010 Australian PGA Championship.

Patrick Rodgers, 30, of Jupiter, Fla., has qualified for all four of his U.S. Opens, including last year, through Columbus, Ohio. He tied for 31st in 2022 at The Country Club and also tied for 31st in 2021 at Torrey Pines. Rodgers, who has four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2022-23, was a member of two USA Walker Cup Teams (2011, 2013).

It's a great mix of old-timers and up-and-comers, but we can't obviously allow for such things in our pre-scripted games.  Most of those guys wouldn't be invited to the 2024 Memorial in any event, given the reduced field size, so goodbye Columbus.

Catch you tomorrow in all likelihood.  

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Thursday, June 1, 2023

Thursday Threads - Memorial Day Edition

No, not that Memorial Day.  This is the Dublin (OH) edition....

Houston, We Have A Problem -  Specifically, the problem is Houston, or at least the opening provided for them:

Just a handful of months after putting the final pile of dirt on the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, a fellow Texas tournament has slid back into the Austin event’s slot in the PGA Tour’s spring schedule.

Tour officials announced on Wednesday that the Houston Open will be held March 28-31, marking the first time since 2018 the event will be in the spring rotation. The Valero Texas Open in San Antonio is expected to maintain its position as the following week’s event, leading into the Masters.

According to an announcement from the Tour and Astros Golf Foundation, the tournament has also secured a long-term agreement with Texas Children’s, the largest pediatric and women’s health system in the nation. The agreement is for five years.

Although locking in additional pediatric resources seems a good call, given the maturity level on display in our game.... Just a shame that PReed won't be able to play, because the synergy of combining his skill set with the imaginative use of garbage cans by Mr. Crane's crew could be good fun....

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, they might need to do something about that restoration design credit:

The event moved from the private Golf Club of Houston to the municipal Memorial Park in 2020 after significant investment from Crane, who funneled enough cash into the muni track to get esteemed designer Tom Doak on board, with Brooks Koepka as a player advisor.

Memorial Park is a good story, it's really only the sacrifice of the match-play to the gods of money grabs that has me so cranky...

Dave Shedloski updates us on the status of that 2024 schedule, and it's never too early to stop watching:

What are the designated events for next year?

In addition to the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Players Championship, there are the three invitationals—the Memorial, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Genesis Invitational—and three others yet to be confirmed. Sources have identified the Travelers Championship and Wells Fargo Championship, which also were elevated this season, as well as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. The RBC Heritage and WM Phoenix Open were the other high-dollar events this year and they will revert back to "swing" tournaments in 2024.

To "elevate" Pebble, they need to first destroy it.  Say goodbye to Monterrey Peninsula and amateurs playing on the weekend, kids, because those traditions that go back the Der Bingle, Hogan and Nelson and The Match mean absolutely nothing when there's money at stake.

This is really rich, though:

How did the tour decide to settle on fields of 70-80 players in regular season designated events?

First of all, we're not talking about all designated regular-season events. The Players, the tour's
flagship event, will remain at 144 players. Meanwhile, the Sentry Tournament of Champions has a fluctuating field depending on the number of different winners and the number of Tour Championship participants who didn't win in the previous season.

Said Dennis: “When you studied the overall strength of each and every event, so all those 31 weeks going into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the smaller field size emerged as something that really lifted every tournament. And it has to do with how the eligibility system works and sort of the meritocratic way of guys who are playing the best either through a swing a full field events, or you know, at that point in the season, they can promote themselves into the designated events, and having that be something you're trying to strive to achieve. It really strengthened significantly all of the other full-field events, which as we said, top guys are also going to be playing in those depending on their own kind of personal choices.”

Ya got that?  The way we "lift" events is by weakening the fields.... Wow, that's some world-class rationalization....

Let me go on a tangent here, because I have this tab still open relating to the world's most famous club pro:

I always love when they pretend to know what we think, but see how you react to this 'graph:

However, there are two incontrovertible reasons for the Block backlash. The first is that golf does not have a sustained appetite for underdogs. While other games run off upsets, this one often lives in fear of them. It pulls for its Goliaths, and whatever stage given to the little guys is meant in small doses. And to an extent, that is true with Block. The story is warm, the story is endearing … now move aside so we can watch the big men battle it out. But the only way the Block Party wouldn’t end was for it to continue what started it in the first place. Specifically, his play.

Is he correct?  God, I hope not because, if you don't have an appetite for underdogs, then you don't have an appetited for golf.  Because the best players win so infrequently, they are now excluding all those pesky underdogs.  

Of course, they're doing it only for the best of reasons....

Look at the BS being thrown around:

What is the tour’s response to the notion it is creating a two-tier system or two separate tours?

“I don't think that's a fair comment,” Pazder said. “To me, the beauty of the schedule that you'll see next year is that it is one FedEx Cup competition. And the designated events are designed to be aspirational in nature. You always want to play against the best, right? You've heard us this year and years past—to be the best you gotta beat the best and all that. We know our top players want to play against each other more often. And these designated events, as I said, are aspirational. So if you're not in the top 50, on the prior your FedEx Cup lists, well, one of your goals, top of the list, you always want to win. But short of that you want to play your way into those designated events … to measure yourself against the best, the financial rewards of being in those, and so forth. And, again, the way we've stitched together this schedule, it allows every single week on the PGA Tour to have a massive chance of being very successful. I don't buy into this notion that somehow there's two different tours, not at all, not whatsoever.”

Of course they want to play against only each other, because that ensures they don't have to share the big money with the riff-raff.

There's also the minor detail about how they're screwing sponsors, who signed up under the old system.  They then go to said sponsors saying, "Nice little event you have here.  Sure would be a shame if anything happened to it."  What might happen to it?  Te Tour decided to favor other events and, unless the sponsor is willing to pony up further, you'll have no chance of any top players showing up.

Think that's an exaggeration?  No reason to worry about Honda, after all they only supported the Tour for 42 years.... Nope, we don't need their kind, when out top dogs need to get paid.

While these guys are pounding their chests, is anyone watching how this is playing out in the real world?  I don't know, but maybe we might want to know where the viewership has gone?

You’d think in the hours after more concerning ratings were posted showing big audience year-over-year declines for the Charles Schwab Challenge to make it 10 of the last 12 weeks were fewer people watched the PGA Tour, today’s athletes would be wondering what’s going to be done to make them more interesting. Or watchable. Or, something besides manufacturer lapdogs who can’t even keep their stories straight!

The triumphalism over the Designated Events would be well justified, if they had a clue what to do with those other 31 weeks.  This, though, is interesting:

What are the chances that future tour schedules will look roughly similar to the 2024 slate? Initially, there was a plan to rotate designated events.

Said Pazder: “Our intention is to have consistency from year to year in the schedule, which means designated events specifically having blocks. That's important from a membership standpoint. From a fan standpoint, though, we'd like for our fans to begin to understand and follow the flow of our schedule to know roughly the timing of when the designated events will happen, and we think that, generally, will elevate the entire schedule. And that is our objective.

“We looked at all sorts of different models over the last couple of years: Do you rotate? Which events in which sponsors are designated events? There's some plusses to that. But I think there's more negatives. It would create isolated weeks. Putting the schedule together, as you all know, it's very complicated for weather and agronomics, and a million other factors. So having designated events rotate from year to year, on paper, it sounded good initially, because we kind of dove into it. And it quickly became apparent that the best path for me to identify strong events on good golf courses. That would be our plan.”

It probably is better that way, because at least the sponsors will know what they're signing up for.  But it also means you're signing up for permanent, institutionalized second-class status, and good luck with that.

Can anyone tell me what hell is up with Rory McIlroy?  Not only is the man pushing the Tour in what I consider a horrible direction, but he's unable to maintain any message discipline.  I don't know what to make of this latest fever dream:

Should the major championships, including the U.S. Open and Open Championship, find a continual proliferation of purse increases unsustainable, McIlroy said it wouldn’t stop him from competing in golf’s four biggest tournaments, but the organizations that run those championships might risk losing other players. And they can’t afford to do that.

“It wouldn't stop me from playing a major, but at the same time the major championships basically rent the talent for a week from the PGA Tour, and you could argue from LIV and DP World Tour and wherever else,” he said Wednesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club. “So, the major championships aren't going to be the product that they are without the top players in the world.

“So, would that mean that I would, or anyone would, go to the lengths of not playing a major championship to make a point? No. But that's just having a reasonable conversation with the governing bodies and the people that run those tournaments and try to come up with a solution.”

The solution being more money? It appears so.

Say what?  

Nevertheless, he believes golf overall is in a position to continue to increase financial incentives for players.

Based on exactly what, Rory

“You have a new entity [LIV] coming into the game offering 25-million-dollar prize funds and other entities feel the pressure to keep up,” he said. “You think about the four most important tournaments in our game, the prize funds aren't in the top 20 of prize funds. You think about that, right? That doesn't quite add up. So whether there needs to be some sort of correction in that or—I don't know.

Wow, does he not hear the words as they come out?

What's crazier?   That after telling us for two years that it's not about the money, he's worried that it is about the money for everyone else but him?  Don't worry, Rors, we noticed..... and you seem to have assumed Sergio's position in this matter, that you're getting what you deserve.

But maybe even crazier is that the LIV money now seems a normal part of the golf world to him.  This isn't an extraordinary influx of money from a party attempting to repair their geopolitical reputation, but rather this is now part of our entitlement.  It's now seemingly win-win for Rory, because he gets the buckets of cash but without the stain of Wahabi human rights abuses.  Glad it all worked out for you, Rory, because you played golf fans for suckers.

One more Rory bit, just one of life's enduring mysteries:

Opinion: Why is it that Rory McIlroy hasn't won a major in nine years?

Ummm, because he sucks when it matters most?

Which brings us back to McIlroy. It remains a puzzler why the Northern Irishman, now fully acclimated to living in southern Florida, cannot seem to win a fifth. His last major came in 2014 at the PGA Championship.

For a player whose swing comes close to perfection and whose short game is top shelf when it is on, failing to come away with a major trophy for almost a decade is akin to Rafael Nadal constantly coming up short in the tennis Grand Slam. It should not happen, and in Nadal’s case has not happened.

No one can explain it, not even McIlroy. Though he tries. Ahead of the Memorial Tournament on Wednesday, the No. 3 golfer in the world addressed the state of his game, explaining how three weeks ago at the PGA Championship his swing felt more uncomfortable than it has in a long time. Yet he still tied for seventh, a testament to his talent.

I've explained it repeatedly.  Rory's game features two blindingly obvious weaknesses, distance control with his wedges and his putting.  He's 144th in Strokes Gained: Putting, yet his major drought is compared to the Loch Ness Monster and Bigffot.

Here's a prediction.  Rory's major drought will continue for as long as Harry Diamond retains his job carrying Rory's luggage.

As In Sherlock? - Did you ever wonder what the J. B. stands for?  When last we saw the man, he was doing a spot-on impression of paint drying in the 18th fairway at Torrey Pines.  Needing eagle to get into a playoff, he took an eternity to decide that winning is over-rated and laid up, the golf gods doing their thing an ensuring that he laid up into the rough.

So, having long established that he's slow, we now learn that he's a slow scumbag:

Ready for this one? Because it’s wild. J.B. Holmes, who has played eight PGA Tour events this
season, entered a scramble tournament at a Tennessee club two weeks ago in which a nearly $30,000 Calcutta was up for grabs.

The only problem? He was entered under a cryptic name, his first and middle: John Bradley.

Most people know who J.B. Holmes is. He’s a five-time PGA Tour winner — most recently at the 2019 Genesis Open, where he beat Justin Thomas by one — and even played on two Ryder Cup teams. The 41-year-old pro has made more than $25 million in his career.

As for John Bradley, the golfer who entered this tournament? He apparently flew under the radar, but only for so long.

John Bradley played under a fictitious handicap, although the story is a bit more convoluted than that:

Twenty-two teams entered this year’s tournament, and after the first day they were divided into three flights, with a Calcutta organized for the final day. A Calcutta is an auction-style wagering that’s popular in many golf club tournaments. Golfers can bid on individuals or teams, and the money raised through the auction is put into a pot. If your golfer or team wins or places in the money in the predetermined payout structure, you can win cash, too. And, with thousands on the line, even though handicaps don’t factor into scoring, it’s wise to have a good understanding of who is in the field — especially if one of them has won five times on the PGA Tour.

“If he would have just said his name was J.B. Holmes, that would have been fine,” West said. “But it would have definitely messed up the first-flight Calcutta, but at least it would have been based on real names.”

After the first day, Holmes’ team led at 21 under, one ahead of their closet pursuers. The flight Holmes was in had a Calcutta purse of nearly $30,000, of which 70 percent (or about $21,000) would go to the team with the lowest Day 2 score; the rest would go to second place. The lowest two-day total in each flight would get trophies. Holmes’ team didn’t buy themselves in the Calcutta, but they did buy half after someone else claimed them with a bid of $5,000.

One source GOLF.com spoke to explained it as sticking a finger in the peanut butter jar, but not taking a big scoop: “I think they were after a mild hustle here.”

A mild hustle?  I guess that makes sense since J.B. isn't good enough to get a slice of Rory's bigger hustle....

As I predicted long ago, the net result of the LIV story is that we're going to find out who all these guys really are, and it's not going to be a pretty picture.

That's enough aggravation for today.  Not sure about blogging tomorrow, it may well depend upon the news flow.  If not, enjoy the weekend. 

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