Thursday Threads - Shipnuck Redux Edition

Yeah, I'm still absorbing that strange Phil bio, yanno, the one in which he admits he left the best bits on the cutting room floor.  But this is about to drop, though I certainly hope Sir Paul (or is it Ian Fleming's Estate?) is cashing royalty checks:

The book doesn't technically drop until October 17th, but this is that point at which they drop all the juicy bits to drive pre-orders... First, this whiny author's note to put us off any of the pesky questioning of sources:

This was a tricky book to report, in part because everyone was suing everyone else, or so it seemed. Government scrutiny didn’t help either: One key protagonist said he couldn’t respond to my emails because the Securities and Exchange Commission was monitoring his inbox, while another character in this book beseeched me face-to-face not to text him anymore, because the Department of Justice had access to his phone. Meanwhile, according to the wording in their contracts, LIV players are supposed to get authorization before consenting to one-on-one interviews. All of this is a long way of saying I tried to keep anonymous sources to a minimum but at times it was unavoidable in the service of getting the story. The phrase “anonymous LIV executive” covers six current and former higher-ups, but, per my agreement with each individual, I could not provide any further identifying details. Who knew that researching a golf book could be so cloak and dagger?

So, I guess we'll just have to take your word for it all?  

Origin Story - Conventional wisdom has done a 180, such that Jay is now blamed for not having perfect foresight.  Yet my reaction is that a card-carrying member of the golf media is explaining the burgeoning golf story that said golf media failed to tell:

Throughout 2020 and ’21, the renegade Premier Golf League tried to forge a partnership with the European Tour, staked by a $500 million pledge from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Recognizing the existential threat to his business, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan swooped in, investing $100 million in the European Tour and creating a “strategic alliance” to thwart the Saudis. His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, and Majed Al-Sorour, the CEO of Golf Saudi, began hunting for other ways to invest in the game.

Al-Sorour established a beachhead in West Palm Beach, Fla., renting office space and a big house. He became omnipresent on the back patio at the Bear’s Club, where Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Keegan Bradley, Ernie Els and other pros are members. But before blowing up the structure of professional golf, the Saudis extended an olive branch. Twice. In March 2021, Al-Sorour had a meeting with Jack Nicklaus at the Bear’s Club at which he asked Nicklaus to reach out to Monahan to discuss how “they might work together going forward,” according to a lawsuit Nicklaus later filed against a business partner in another matter. “Mr. Nicklaus reached out to Mr. Monahan later that week and was told that the PGA Tour had no interest in collaborating with Golf Saudi.”

Poor Jack seems to get himself used frequently in the manner, but isn't this something we might have been informed about?

Then the famous letter, about which we've heard previously, though without the telling details:

Increasingly frustrated, Al-Sorour dashed off a letter to Monahan dated April 17, 2021. That it carried Al-Sorour’s name and not Al-Rumayyan’s is, says someone close to them, “cultural,” adding, “H.E. would never put his name on a request if there was the slightest chance it would be turned down. He wouldn’t put himself in a position where he could lose face.” After some opening pleasantries, the letter, which has never before been made public, said in part:

I am writing in my capacity as lead advisor of a new golf enterprise. I want to introduce you to our proposition and outline its value as a prospective partner of the PGA Tour. We are proposing an innovative league featuring twelve “teams” of top talent competing head-to-head over 14 weeks, creating a new dimension for sports and stakeholders.

Al-Sorour talked a bit about the new league’s potential “social impact” while pledging to “uphold the values and heritage of the sport.” Then he got to the heart of the matter: “We have a very interested individual and group and are confident our approach will benefit all who participate. With the positive responses we have received, we have chartered our course to launch in 2022.” All the formal language did not disguise the inherent threat: We are launching with or without you.

In closing, Al-Sorour wrote:

I have respect for the PGA Tour and we view this as an opportunity for a collaboration that would grow the game. We’d like to arrange a sit-down with you to discuss our approach in more detail and highlight how this could represent value for you, your members, partners and community.

Yours sincerely,

Majed al-Sorour

I'm no Jay dead-ender, but the criticism of Jay for not taking this meeting seems misplaced, though misperceptions abound for sure.  But, while I won't criticize Jay for not taking the meeting at that juncture, it's hard to explain why an experienced hired would fail to inoculate himself by disclosing it:

This was the moment of truth for Monahan, a former defenseman at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Around Tour headquarters the dark side of his personality has a nickname: Hockey Jay. He had been masterful in guiding the Tour through Covid, securing a game-changing TV deal, and thwarting the PGL. But the Saudis were proposing to fundamentally alter his business and force him to give up some control. They were threatening Hockey Jay’s dominion. He never responded to the letter or even brought it before his full board of directors.

In describing the letter to a colleague, Monahan called it “strange.” It had come on a blank sheet of paper with no letterhead—not Golf Saudi or the Public Investment Fund. The postmark was from Oregon; after some digging, Tour sleuths discovered that Al-Sorour had a paramour there. The letter did not include his title at Golf Saudi. In this kind of high-level corporate correspondence, it would have been standard to include Al-Rumayyan and PGA Tour board members as addressees, but they were glaringly absent. No mention was made of the source of funding. Al-Sorour included no contact information. Of course, Monahan knew who Al-Sorour was, whom he worked for and how much money he was sitting on. But the letter’s curious lack of protocol and specificity gave Monahan just enough wiggle room to blow it off. Was Al-Sorour freelancing behind his boss’s back? Was the project tied to the PGL or something else entirely? Monahan could have asked any of his top players for Al-Sorour’s cell phone number—they were already in negotiations with him!—and given him a call. He could have bum-rushed the Bear’s Club and found Al-Sorour on the back patio to engage him in discussion. But imagine Monahan’s state of mind: He’s the muthahfuckin’ commissioner of the PGA Tour and one of the most powerful figures in golf. He was not duty-bound to chase after a shadowy would-be competitor offering a nebulous deal. He was already pissed the Saudis had set up shop in Florida—in his backyard!—and were trying to steal his players. If they wanted to talk, there was a right way to do it, and Al-Sorour’s unorthodox letter wasn’t it. It is true that Monahan could have taken a more nuanced view: that the Saudis—already friends of the LPGA and partners with Ladies European Tour and the European Tour (through the Saudi International)—were potentially an asset, an opportunity, a windfall. But that would have taken a humility, perspective, and savvy that eluded Monahan. He responded to the letter like Sonny Corleone, not like Tom Hagen.

A couple of points here not necessarily in order of importance.  But it occurs to me that Alan is misreading Monahan, who we can be assured was not one of his sources.  What Alan calls masterful in relation to Covid I remember as dithering.  Unable to make a decision at that 2020 Player's Championship, they went from allowing spectators to banning them to canceling in record speed.  More importantly, he kept repeating this "We play over hundreds of acres" mantra, blissfully indifferent to his paying customers who were crammed into shuttle buses and grandstands.

We also know that Jay basically had a nervous breakdown after his D-Day ambush, so the presentation of him as an hard-boiled executive spitting nails kind of lands flat, no?  But that second 'graph is quite the bit of melodramatic tradecraft, no?  We've been warned that the sourcing is problematic on the LIV side, but exactly who gave Alan the image of Jay stroking his kitty and mumbling "I'm the muthafuckin' commissioner?"  Is this book going in the fiction or non-fiction aisle, Alan?

My problem with Jay is not that he wanted to fight, but rather that he fought so poorly and apparently based upon such bad assumptions:

Monahan continued to take a hard line against the Saudis. In the fall of 2021, the PGA Tour convened another board meeting. Player director Charley Hoffman asked Monahan, “Why don’t we have a discussion with any of the Saudi guys who are putting together this tour?”

The answer to that simple query, according to Hahn and another person in the room, would shape golf history. “We are at war,” Monahan replied. “We do not negotiate with another entity that is trying to put us out of business. We do not negotiate with people who are trying to ruin the golf ecosystem.”

PGA Tour board meetings are populated not only by the directors but also legal counsel and a handful of Tour suits. “All of the other Tour people are on Jay’s side, obviously,” says Hahn. “As a player, you feel outnumbered. When Jay said we wouldn’t negotiate with the Saudis, as a player, that was it. End of discussion. It felt like a dad yelling at his son: ‘This is how it is because I said so, and we’re done talking about it.’ There was no pushback, no follow-up questions. Every meeting we had from then on was about how do we combat this threat to our business? ‘We’re at war here, fellas. These guys are trying to take over our business.’ That’s all we heard: ‘We are at war, we are at war, we are at war.’”

Not sure whether Sun Tzu actually says this, but one should only fight those wars one can win. There's also the bit about thinking you're winning when you're not, but in keeping the letter to himself Jay seems to have violated all rules of corporate survival, yet survive he will.

A Game For Gentlemen - I'll try not to strain anything while patting myself on the back, but my early prediction was spot on.  While the world was training its fire on the LIV defectors, my instinct expressed early in the proceedings, was that the LIV initiative would result in us coming to hate every major player in the game, and whatya know?

Alan shares some vignettes that aren't going to change hearts and minds:

LIV launched in June 2022, in London. At the completion of its second tournament, in Portland, LIV supplied a jumbo jet to ferry its players to the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland. It marked just the second comingling of LIV golfers and PGA Tour loyalists. Amid all the palace intrigue at Adare Manor, the LIV guys were living it up. Deep into the night following the closing party, Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Pat and Ashley Perez, and Dustin Johnson and his bride, Paulina, repaired to a small, private bar tucked into the Manor. The drinks were flowing, and Paulina, spilling out of a tight black dress, was having trouble balancing atop a leather barstool. Perez, wearing a backward baseball cap, pointed at Johnson, who had recruited him to LIV, and shouted, “I owe everything to that man!” DJ was too busy tending to his wobbly wife to notice. Despite the relaxed setting, Koepka radiated some heat when reflecting on his career change. “Fuck all of those country club kids who talk shit about me,” he said, referring to the likes of Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and others. “You think I give a fuck what they think? You think I care what people say about me? I just had three surgeries, and I’m supposed to turn down $130 million? I grew up with nothing. After signing that contract, the first person I called was my mom. We both cried.”

And what did you call your Mom?  But here Alan is woefully short on details, because I'm dying to know whether Paulina was falling out of her dress and more than Pat Perez' wife was in this photo:

Talk about a competitive category....

This story bothers me, just because I thought him one of the better-grounded guys out there:

The Open marked Paul Casey’s first real tournament since the onetime UNICEF ambassador had gone to LIV. Sky Sports reporter Jamie Weir approached Casey on the practice chipping green at the Old Course to see if he would do an on-camera interview. “He said, ‘Oh, hello, mate,’ in his usual smug, insincere tone,” says Weir. “I asked about having a chat, and right away he was defensive and wanted to know the questions. I told him I wanted to talk about the 150th Open, his good history at St. Andrews, how his back was feeling, and then finish off with a question about LIV.” Casey asked what the LIV question would be. Says Weir, “I said that he was 29th in the world but had just joined a tour without ranking points and would surely fall out of the top 50, so, given that, had he given serious consideration that this Open could be the last major championship of his career? His face darkened. He said, ‘Fuck off. Go fuck yourself. What a fucking shit question. Go fuck yourself. That’s a shitty fucking question from a shitty fucking reporter.’ I said, ‘Paul, you’re massively overreacting to this.’ He was like, ‘No, I’m not. Go fuck yourself. Fuck you, and fuck your interview.’”

Says Casey with a laugh, “That’s a fairly accurate recounting. But what is missing is the fact he sauntered over, invaded my space, and interjected himself into an environment where he was not invited. And what he actually said was, ‘This is probably going to be the last major championship you ever play.’ He’s just assuming I’m going to fail! I could have won that Open and been exempt for another 25 years. I was there grinding on my game, and it was his smugness that got me. I can debate with anybody, but he was just being a dickhead. You know what, Jamie Weir can go fuck himself. Again.”

Yeah, a game for gentlemen..... It's the insistence of zero scrutiny that I love most, there should never be any consequences or, even discussion, of their betrayal.  Remind me again, Paul, what tours did you achieve your success on?  And what did you do to those tours by jumping to LIV?  Nothing to see here...

As for this guy?  His father should explain how being an adult works:

During these acrimonious times, no person in golf provoked stronger feelings than Brandel Chamblee, the Golf Channel analyst who relentlessly offered withering critiques of LIV. Claude Harmon III is the swing coach to Koepka, Johnson and Perez. Harmon says of Chamblee, “He has to take Rory’s cock out of his mouth so he can suck off Tiger.”

Which trikes me as amusing, because his career is based on providing a valuable service sucking off Brooks, DJ and Pat... As Dylan once said, we all gotta serve somebody, but Brandel will stay above the allegations of fellatio a lot easier than a swing coach....

Shadow War - With the benefit of hindsight, it seems to me that Jay would have come out better in allowing the Saudis to invest in the Euro Tour, but that's very much Monday morning quarterbacking.  Deep into explaining the turnabout, Alan throws out some numbers that still have me scratching my head:

The Tour was fighting legal battles on multiple fronts, with the lawyers’ fees running deep into eight figures. With the barristers for LIV and the Tour fighting tooth and nail over an endless number of procedural matters, casting doubt on their antitrust trial beginning as scheduled on May 17, 2024, the United States Department of Justice became reengaged in its own antitrust investigation, interviewing players, agents and executives from both tours. Key protagonists had to surrender their phone so evidence could be extracted. “You give them all your passwords, and they take the phone for five or six hours,” says LIV golfer Carlos Ortiz, who was one of the original plaintiffs in the antitrust lawsuit before dropping out. “Then they know everything you’ve ever said to anyone. And they tell you not to delete anything because they will find that, too. It’s fine, I have nothing to hide. But I know other people were nervous.”

I've never understood their statements on the antitrust lawsuit.  Eight figures might sound high to you and me, but the $15 million number I've seen elsewhere is chump change in this context, heck it's smaller than the PIP program.  And also smaller than the nine-figure sum pumped into the Euro Tour, so color me skeptical about Jay knowing what he was doing.

I'm not completely sure of the significance of this, though it might explain why Jay had such an urgent need to settle that antitrust matter:

That included Monahan, who had used all of his political capital to thwart LIV. Surely the DOJ knew that Endeavor—the parent company of International Management Group and the William Morris Agency, with Spieth and Patrick Cantlay among its clients—had been considering a $1 billion investment in LIV but scuttled the deal under pressure from Monahan. “We’re all connected in golf,” Ari Emanuel, Endeavor’s CEO, would say on the Freakonomics podcast. “And [the PGA Tour] said, ‘Please don’t do it.’ So we stopped. I’m friends with Jay. We have a lot of business with Jay. I don’t want to hurt Jay.” Was that merely hard-nosed business or illegal antitrust bullying? The clues to this, and many other instances of potential malfeasance, were buried in the phones of Monahan and his lieutenants, and the government investigators had access to everything.

Noted.  But, lest you think I've been milking that "terrific penis" reference to Patrick Cantlay, so is the source:

As contentious as the battle between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour has been, winning the peace was never going to be easy. Patrick Cantlay is a member of the Tour’s board, which must ratify any final agreement with the PIF. He is known for driving hard bargains; a fellow player who has worked with Cantlay on governance issues calls him “a terrific penis.” Translation: He’s a dick. (Of course, if Cantlay is salty perhaps it is because he turned down a $75 million offer from LIV.)

The anxiety gripping the Tour was codified at the end of July, when 41 top players sent a sternly worded letter to Monahan demanding more transparency and oversight in the ongoing negotiations with the PIF. The embattled commissioner responded the next day, creating a sixth seat for the players on the Tour policy board, though they still don’t have a voting majority with six independent directors hanging on the commissioner’s every word. Tiger Woods had been noticeably silent in the wake of the framework agreement, but he was the key signatory of the letter and he snatched the new board seat.

Woods has always preferred to exert soft power; it is a significant development that he has now put himself on the firing lines. Says a member of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council, “No offense to [board members] Peter Malnati or Webb Simpson, but we need Tiger in the room. We need his presence. He’s not going to take any shit from Jay or Jimmy Dunne, because he doesn’t have to. What you’re seeing with Cantlay, with Tiger, is the players trying to take back control of the Tour.” With a rueful laugh, he added, “Before it’s too late.”

Alan continues to play fast and loose with his sourcing, because it matters completely who that Player Advisory Council member is.  Could it be that terrific penis himself?  Here are those members:

PATRICK CANTLAY. Term: 2023.

CHARLEY HOFFMAN. Term: 2021-23.

PETER MALNATI. Term: 2023-25.

RORY MCILROY. Term: 2022-24.

WEBB SIMPSON. Term: 2023-25.

TIGER WOODS.

Because what Alan seems to be deliberately obscuring is that this isn't the amorphous players taking control, it's a specific sub-set of the players, to wit, the top twenty.  I would guess his source would have to be Charley, no?  Not an elite player for sure, but a guy who wants to hang with the cool kids.

Everyone is universally over the moon about Tiger taking the position, and the soft power reference is laugh-out-loud funny.  But have you seen anyone curious as to what Tiger has taken the position to actually do?

In fact, it's pretty funny to think about Claude Harmon's fellaciatic image above about Brandel.  Because if there's one guy alternating between Rory and Tiger's junk these days, it would be our Jay, no?  Though that might explain his bout of depression....

Bromance Aborted - these guys have never had any use for each other, and I find merit in each of their positions.  This is a fairly minor bit garnering way too much attention, but who doesn't like a cat fight?

The following week brought the 150th Open. It was supposed to be a joyous celebration of the game’s oldest championship and most historic venue, but everyone was edgy during Open week. Mickelson was snubbed from a private dinner for Open winners held in the R&A clubhouse. Woods orchestrated that. “He talked to a handful of other [past champions] to get their blessing and then went to the R&A and told them, basically, no one wanted Phil there and it would make the night weird and awkward,” says one of the men at the dinner. “Whose side were they going to take Tiger’s or Phil’s? That’s an easy choice.”

But it's quite true that no one wanted Phil there.  I'm far less concerned with Tiger boxing out Phil than with the prospect of him being welcomed back with open arms.

So, is this a best seller?  Meh, most seem bits we could have imagined, though I do like the unscripted bits where Brooksie and Pat Perez demonstrate the wide gulf between money and class, bits that Netflix would presumably kill for.   But mostly I'm guessing we'll be treated to a series of anecdotes showing golfers behaving badly, but all within a context of acceptance of the Wahabis and the players the enabled them.

So, what do the players think?  They don't like it one bit, do they?

I’d like to speak on behalf of a lot of Tour players and say we’re sick of @AlanShipnuck doing what he does. Bring positivity and good stories to help grow the game of golf, not try and make money bashing guys, earning zero trust, with a lot of incorrect information. Ridiculous

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) October 5, 2023

Perhaps you should worry more about demonstrating actual positivity?  As for trust, JT, that's gotta be earned....

I don't like Alan's sourcing any more than the other guys, but JT has obviously made his peace with the New World Order, so we know where he stands.  But very much like Phil's famous faux apology, you don't get to call the information wrong without some evidence that it is incorrect.  Otherwise, JT, you're just an enabler of the bonecutters......  

Have a great weekend and we'll be back next week as content requires.

Thursday Threads - Ryder Cup Afterglow Edition

The event had a strange, LIV-infused vibe to it, but Stefan Schauffelle's attempt to hold it hostage reminds us that nothing matters if his son isn't making bank.  As he said, though I'm paraphrasing here, "Nice little event you have.  Sure would be ashamed is anything happened to it."

Not sure I love this event's future, so let's linger a bit over this last installment.  Geoff breaks the world down into the following constituent parts:

Ryder Cup: Champions, Cutmakers And (Point) Missers

He starts with this last-minute substitute:

Champions

Luke Donald. A second coaching choice has shocked the world before. Due to the nature of the Ryder Cup job, Donald was either bound to end up as a wise disciple of Cicero or another bungling

Caligula. He—or should we call him Sir Luke from now on?—pulled strings to near perfection. Donald managed nine different nationalities, maintained calm, appeared in total control of his troops, made a shrewd format change, and offered dignified answers while still letting a few of this strongest opinions be known. Now he faces demands for a return Captaincy at Bethpage. Heck, a $100 million LIV player/manager advance from Andrew Waterman has probably been dangled. Still, for all the talk of data, mood lighting and doing it for Seve, this victory still came down to having full control of who went out to play Marco Simone on Friday. Donald sent his best possible teams in morning foursomes, then spread the wealth later in the day hoping the role players stepped up to maintain a lead. They did. It was over on Friday night. Bold. Brilliant. And most of all, he proved the Captain and Vice Captain consultants actually matter.

As Tom Watson once noted, it comes down to twelve players, and Luke's guys showed up.  He certainly had the courage of his convictions, moving foursomes to the morning being perhaps his boldest move.

But, Luke, take those chips off the table:

Ryder Cup: Europe want Luke Donald back as captain for Bethpage

You're gonna get crushed at Bethpage and it could get ugly with the crowds, so why not let Henrik take this one?

You can sort through his comments on the players, but let's contrast the above with his thoughts on that other captain:

Cutmakers

Zach Johnson. A true believer in the Task Force way got him the job. Jordan Spieth and Justin

Thomas were the only two players on the committee that voted him in. Talk about conflicts of interest. But devotion to the buddy system for picks and pairings also caught up to Johnson. As did the failure to find ways of getting his 12 egomaniacs more competitively sharp. Rustiness cost his squad a chance at ending the European soil losing streak. Johnson also appeared to lack the will or authority to break up the Thomas/Spieth duo after it was apparent on Friday that Spieth was hitting it wildly. Was it out of loyalty for making Zach the Captain? Meanwhile, Luke Donald’s picks tallied 3.5 more points more with each side playing their selections in 20 matches. That all said, and more important to the point of the Ryder Cup, Johnson was classy, respectful and a quality representative who answered all questions but rarely made this about himself. Johnson undoubtedly popped a few Aleeves dealing with the Schauff-Lay nonsense, yet never let on what a mess he had to clean up. Also, bonus points for constantly reiterating how the “bug” going around the team was not an excuse or reason Europe was fortunate to face a USA team less than 100%.

That feels about right to me.  I do think that Zach handled himself well.

The bigger issue, as Geoff hits on, is that the U.S. Ryder Cup effort is held hostage by the cool kids.  Not only will they not go unless they get to pair with their besties, but now we'll watch them whine about getting paid.... Good times!

These are systemic failures for sure, but fealty (haven't used that word in a while) to the system was a condition of his employment.   But, just out of curiosity, one notices that Rickie got himself benched but Jordan was sent out in foursomes?  

Shall we see what he has to say about your humble blogger's two favorite guys?  This guy played some golf, so is lumped in with the Cut-makers:

Patrick Cantlay. Spectacular golf on Saturday with three closing birdies as he wondered why everyone was waving their hats. Now stick to being a golfer. You’re not the smartest guy in the room. You need to focus on hitting that little white ball instead of trying to get a cut of Ryder Cup revenues or auditioning to be the next Commissioner.

No, I think he needs to whine more about money.... And this stiff:

Xander Schauffele. If you’re going to be a demanding diva the golf has to be better. A 1-3-0 record accented by dour expressions and lack of awareness at your place in the golf world can be replaced. Maybe you’re just the victim of a wacky golf dad. In which case it’s time to cut off his dad bun and take control of your personal business. A place on future team rosters now seems in doubt. Do you think Captain Tiger really wants to hear Stefan’s thoughts on product improvement?

It's laugh-out-loud funny how these two think they're the straw that stirs the drink, while having accomplished very little in the game.  Patrick's big head isn't, alas, merely a metaphor....

Don't think Geoff really gets it here:

(Point) Missers

The Task Force. They’ve certainly had their successes and done a lot right for the USA side (when playing domestically). But once again the buddy system’s fatal flaws emerged. The 2023 matches called for a blazing start. The layers of politics and egos dictating some pairings appears to have prevented fully forthright assessments of who was playing best. Sending Jordan Spieth back out with Justin Thomas Saturday morning made no sense the way Spieth was hitting it. Did their role in selecting the Captain influence this call? Why are they even picking Captains? Tolerance of the buddies within the team—Schauff-Lay in particular—appears to not have been the wisest move. This is all easy to note now after USA lost by the same score as the doomed 2014 squad. But Keegan Bradley, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau probably make this team better on the course. You know, the golf course. Where they actually play the matches.

First, what successes?  We're in an era of home team dominance, so those sugar-high home wins, and the triumphalism resulting therefrom, have made the U.S. cocky heading into road games.

The task force has always been a joke, fixing our Ryder Cup team by putting Phil and Bryson out in foursomes in Paris and sending a team to Rome that hadn't played in more than five weeks.  As important, two critical members of the team missed the scouting expedition while fighting over legal wording, where was the task force in that?

What we have is a coup by the elite players, in which they demonstrated their contempt for this event and the golf fans in general.   Cantlay and Xander were willing to miss the Ryder Cup in order to keep Netflix out of the team room (the Euros had no issues with Netflix being in their team room), which is a good call if you have things you don't want the world to see.  While the two guys accused of roiling the waters over players getting paid assure us the week wasn't about that, it's the same two guys that went to the mattresses to keep the cameras out..... And then one of their father's issues a Tony Soprano-like ultimatum.

This remains weird beyond words:

Joe LaCava. With each video shown Saturday’s weird meltdown moved up the list of all-time caddie screw-ups. It was the football equivalent of an assistant coach running onto the field and taunting a kicker before a game-winning field goal. And a first-ever black eye for a normally low profile bagman. As Rory said, “time is a great healer and we'll all move on.”

As for the TV coverage, it's quite the train wreck:

Comcast/NBC. Following two weeks of treating the viewer like an annoyance, it’s time to explain why golf has become too expensive for a company with a $180 billion market cap. Why can’t you provide basic production elements that established NBC Sports as the one-time gold standard? Show us the numbers. Plead your case. Tell us how the rights fee you agreed to pay is no longer sustainable and why you need to renegotiate to avoid flooding the zone with commercials. Or get out of the golf business. Your partners and customers deserve better.

Randomly cutting away. It’s one thing to take the world feed. But it was stunning how many times NBC cut away mid-action for breaks. As in, a ball was in the air but it’s time for a commercial. Automation of some kind? Infused with AI? No cutaway was more fitting than one on Sunday when a rare non-world feed featurette of highlights was juxtaposed with beautiful Rome scenes, all set to a big, thumping score. Dan Hicks read a carefully scripted narration to this mood setter, only to be cut off before the closing line was delivered. The interruption took us to the same commercials we’d seen 20 minutes before. Pitiful.

Paul Azinger. Either unprepared or uncomfortable questioning a fellow American captain, it was a brutal week for NBC’s top analyst. Many gripes were tinged with bursts of hostility toward European success that felt uncomfortable at times. Predecessor Johnny Miller was an All-American homer as well. But he never rooted against the other side or sounded angered by European success. Johnny also never moved into creepy stuff about clickbait or nationalism. What’s going on with one of golf’s best analysts?

It's bad and trending worse...

Zinger especially has gotten disjointed and struggles to get his words out.  It's like he's trying for, well Zingers, and they're all landing flat.  And then there's the commercial load....

Wither Ryder - In 2018, Alan Shipnuck mourned the demise of the Ryder Cup due to the era of U.S. dominance.... Yeah, OK, are you done laughing yet?

Shane Ryan also finds no pulse, with this non-obituary obituary:

We come today to mourn the soul of the Ryder Cup, but make no mistake: This is not an obituary. The Ryder Cup will survive in its current state of atrophy. It will be held every two years barring global catastrophe, rotating between Europe and the United States, attended by thousands of fans and months of hype and heaps of salvation money. But this weekend, in the Eternal City, on land from which once rose a great empire, we bid solemn farewell to the institution as a competitive, or even interesting, event. To borrow a Zach Johnson-ism, we've lost the Ryder Cup.

I've seen enough, and only fools let themselves be deluded for more than a decade. The fact of the matter is that the Ryder Cup has evolved into a malfunctioning affair in which the script is pre-written. The home team reigns supreme and has done so for five straight Ryder Cups, winning by gaudy margins. This will continue into the future—and there appears to be no practical solution that doesn't involve removing the Ryder Cup from its host nations—an obvious impossibility that wouldn't be desirable even if it could be done without hemorrhaging money (which it could not). In modern sport, there is nothing as predictable as a Ryder Cup; the drama is dead.

The current circumstances have been evident since 2014, when the Europeans won by five points in Gleneagles. But in the wake of the Medinah fluke, we weren't ready for the truth, and Tom Watson was a poor enough captain that you could plausibly blame bad leadership.

But the solution is what?  Is it the Euros fault that the U.S. showed up unprepared on Friday?

Eamon Lynch has longer-range thoughts, but not of the pleasant ilk:

Lynch: Ryder Cup won’t be unscathed by golf's new world order. Radical change is coming

The Ryder Cup reliably showcases the sport’s greatest theater and passion. That’s the user experience. The apparatus around the Cup and its inner workings are strained, and demand a rethink that’s more pressing than any ideas we’ll see emerge from the post-mortem analysis of Team USA’s latest defeat.

Some of the issues are owed to the ownership structure. Europe’s half of the Cup is mostly held by the DP World Tour, with minor slices owned by a couple of regional PGA associations. There is no asset of remotely comparable value that the European circuit can bring to the new for-profit entity it is creating with the PGA Tour and, negotiations pending, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (plus sundry investors who don’t have a side hustle abusing human rights).

Yet as vital as the Ryder Cup is to the books of its various owners, it is commercially isolated. Business types gripe about its limitations in terms of opportunities and partnerships that global sponsors will pay handsomely for. Eventually, some enterprising corporate cipher will see a means by which it can be plugged into a bigger commercial platform to increase profits. Any such platform must be built around the world’s best players, so it seems ordained that wherever the major tours go in the coming years, the Ryder Cup must follow.

That sounds ominous....

The qualification system in Europe has been modified more frequently than Cher’s face, but every tweak has had the same rationale: accommodating stars who mostly compete in the U.S. while preserving a pathway to the team for guys who ply their trade at home. Leveraging the Ryder Cup to reward loyalty to the DP World Tour is parochial but necessary. On the opposite shore, the PGA Tour has no ownership stake but is the means by which players qualify. These systems (mostly) work now, but what happens if top players one day commit to a lucrative global schedule of tournaments elevated above the current American and European circuits? The Ryder Cup qualification system will immediately become unfit for purpose.

The fix for that is something that should be considered now: go to 12 captain’s picks and dispense with the points system entirely. Such a move would certainly have opponents, but plenty of pros. It would be tour-agnostic and grant skippers the latitude to choose on form and compatibility, and to do something that’s impossible with automatic qualifiers: leave at home those openly ambivalent about being here. It would also restore authority to captains, particularly future U.S. leaders, and not leave them hostage to the preferences of the automatics, which is what Zach Johnson essentially admitted has been his situation.

Ummm, Eamon, you make good points, but I don't like where that pushes us.  Right now the only way around the cool kids is to automatically qualify.... Think about the reaction of Keegan Bradley to his "snub".  Do you want to tell him that he'll never be on another Ryder Cup team?   

For all the pablum about continental rivalries, the modern era in the Ryder Cup has always been tour versus tour, PGA against Europe. The old legends — Ballesteros, Faldo, Woosnam — felt disrespected when they traveled to the U.S., which only fueled their determination to stick it to the Yanks every two years. Now, at least half of the European team lives stateside and both Scandinavian standouts this week — Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg — spent their formative years in U.S. colleges. The old enmity is being diluted, and that will only accelerate as the lines between tours are blurred. What the Ryder Cup cannot lose or imperil is its heartbeat, the thousands of spectators who bring the noise regardless of what side of the ocean it is held on.

The concerns voiced in the aftermath of the 44th matches in Rome will be short-term in nature — what went wrong for the U.S., who is to blame, what must be done. However entertaining these recriminations may be for onlookers, those of us who love the Ryder Cup must grasp that the years ahead will bring challenges even more daunting than trying to beat Europe at home.

Eamon seems in denial.  The only way to save this event is also the only way to save the PGA Tour.  To wit, pay Patrick and Xander.

I'm a little short on time, so I'll leave with two amusing bits for now.  Some excerpts have dropped from Shpnuck's new book, but we'll defer those until tomorrow or Monday.  For today, just some silliness.

Dunhill Dreams -  So, we've achieved Peace in our Time and this guy is able to play in a DP World Tour event:

PIF governor and LIV Golf chair Yasir Al-Rumayyan playing in pro-am portion of the DP World Tour’s event at St. Andrews

OK, but Golf Digest got scooped by Golfweek on that one telling detail:

LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan reportedly playing Alfred Dunhill Links Championship under false name

Let me guess.  Did he register as Chaim Yanklebaum?  Nothing says these guys are completely legit quite like an alias....

Fall Follies - You don't need me to tell you what a hot mess the Tour is, not least in their Fall events.  I want to take pity on those sponsors at the mercy of Jay's whims, but you guys really should have known better.

But you'd think that the Ponte Vedra Beach suits would put some effort into ensuring that the Tour doesn't devolve into a Clown Show, but you'd be sadly mistaken:

Lexi Thompson to make PGA Tour debut at Shriners Children’s Open

The concept would seem to be to allow great women players to test their skills against the men, which I agree could be interesting.  Yanno, if only they might have found a great woman player, because we had this about Lexi a while back:

Thompson is No. 138 in the Race to CME Globe and in danger of losing her LPGA Tour card for 2024 without taking a career money exemption. She has 11 tour victories, the last in the 2019 ShopRite.

By my count, there are at least 137 women more deserving of this sponsor's exemption than Lexi.... Good to know the circus is in town.

Also good to know that you will be made to comply with the approved narrative:

PGA Tour player Peter Malnati quickly retracts statement after calling Lexi Thompson's exemption a 'gimmick'

Peter is not just anybody, given his seat on that PGA Tour Policy Board, where he's the last great hope for Tour rabbits...

But, Peter, resistance is futile.  Just repeat after me:

"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia."

See, don't you feel better, already.

I'll see you all down the road. 

Ryder Cup Post-Mortem

It's begun per Shack, the slow drip of recriminations....

The Xander Shuffle - Didn't think I could like these guys any less, but come along for this ride.  Apparently it has nothing to do with hats:

Remaining true to recent American Ryder Cup losses, Monday kicked off with a reveal suggesting all was not sweet panna cotta and smooth cappuccinos in the under-decorated USA team room. (Maybe the match outcome would have been different if there’d been European style mood lighting and an empty locker tribute to Abe Mitchell.)

In a Times story released Monday, reporter Tom Kershaw quotes Stefan Schauffele at length over a recent Ryder Cup business dispute featuring his son and Patrick Cantlay.

The sire of Xander explained the likely cause for Saturday’s disputed report implying USA team dissension. The Tweet thread by Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir suggested demands for player pay had prompted a hatless protest by Cantlay, who denied this or that he’d engaged in play-for-pay discussions during the week.

However, Papa Schauffele tells the Times that the trouble started in July when his son and good buddy Cantlay demanded a “player participation and benefit agreement” from USA’s overlords at the PGA of America. While both players were in good shape points-wise at the time, the team would not be finalized for another two months. Schauffele ended up as the last player to make the roster on points.

Most accounts I've read indicate the trouble starting with demanded modifications to that agreement.  Geoff seems to be informing us that this was a new demand (the word "benefit" is the one that jumped out at me), so further reporting is needed on this score.  But the implication is that these two perfect peni required an agreement that hadn't existed previously, so one assumes it was for their benefit.

But then changes were demanded... changes indicating that there's something of greater importance than growing our game:

Granted an agreement by a PGA of America lawyer, the duo asked for changes, including an amendment regarding Netflix documentary access to the American team room. The demands were ignored for a considerable period and based on Stefan Schauffele’s recounting of the timeline, appear to have influenced his son and Cantlay’s decision to pass up last month’s team practice trip to Rome.

“The PGA of America were not willing to even talk to us about [the three amendments]," Stefan Schauffele told The Times. “It was very late in the schedule right before the team came here [to Rome| to practice because they had moved the deadline and they said, 'If you don't sign it by then, you're off the team', but they never gave us the contact information of their legal counsel.”

Ah, the old lost the phone number bit.

I'd have gone with the dog ate my homework, but weren't we just reliably informed that the first season of that Netflix series is responsible for the current bubble in golf participation?  

But our two team leaders were apparently prepared to forego their slots on the team to keep Netflix out, and used their no-show on the scouting trip as negotiating leverage..... That's our leadership, folks, taking care of their own personal brands above anything else.  Did you see Xander's play this week?  Yeah, not like he could have used a few more reps on those greens....

I know I'm not the typical audience, but does Papa Schauffele think he's helping his son's reputation?

Daddy Stefan says it was not until the “head of the PGA of America got wind of this” over Labor Day weekend that they were put in touch with council. Father Schauffele curiously suggests his son’s status on the team was in doubt until the issues were resolved quickly.

“Then I received a message that Xander was back on the team,” he told The Times. “That you can quote. That's the extent of this and I think it's shameful."

Over Netflix?  Gee, I have a follow up question.... what might have been going on in that team room that required a media blackout?  Perhaps talk of, just spitballin' here, money....

Just a reminder that Cantlay is denying the Saturday story of him splitting the team by making a play for pay, and then there's this equally dubious denial:

El Pater Schauffele denied that player pay came up last week as was suggested, telling the Times “it’s the wrong venue and time.”

This, as he was discussing the topic at Marco Simone with a reporter from one of the more influential newspapers in the world.

But it's totally OK to hold the event hostage to your son's demands?  Noted.

But I checked my notes, which indicate that when they say it's not about the money.....

Schauffele also suggested a “meaningful conversation” needs to take place regarding player pay and disclosure of revenues. And the chef’s kiss? This discussion needs to happen in the name of “product” improvement.

“This is a long game, maybe in two or three Ryder Cups when the parties have decided to come to the table, instead of leaving the elephant standing around in the middle of the golf course,” he said. “It's all about improving this product, instead of being secretive and non-communicative.”

What a remarkable coincidence.... Just like the only way to save the PGA Tour was to pay his son more, it seems the only way to save the Ryder Cup is to pay his son more.  Who coulda seen that one coming?

But the funniest bit remains that he apparently thinks he's helping his son.... or maybe it's just damage control.

But it seems the money grabs of 2022 were just the warm-up act:

The Ryder Cup funnels significant profits to the PGA Tour pension where Xander Schauffele is a future beneficiary (and without ever having to put his own earned dollars into the fund). Yet daddy Stefan’s beef seems to be with the PGA of America and the European Tour Group, operators of the event in Europe.

“They are using players' intellectual properties to make money and the American players don't get paid,” Schauffele said. “More importantly, this would become a non-issue if all proceeds, net proceeds, from the Ryder Cup were to be donated to common charitable causes.”

Notably, Schauffele pivoted from product improvement and abuse of individual player rights to speaking out in the name of finding “common” charitable causes.

“The PGA (of America] uses this money, and the PGA Tour gets 20 per cent that goes into the retirement of every member. The 12 players supposedly need to eat it and their intellectual property gets abused for the benefit of 200 other people. That's not right.”

There are more than 200 players benefiting from the pension.

Their intellectual property gest abused?  Wow, Pops, I see that the class struggle is real, but those poor players don't control the means of production and, damn, I can't remember enough of my Marxist dialectical materialism to give poor Xander his due, although I'm guessing the Ryder Cup (really last year's Prez Cup) contributed to his $5 million PIP bonus, but they'll lose sight of that one, won't they?

But wait, Pops isn't the only member of that family that should have kept his pie hole shut.  I didn't think I'm over-stating it when I say there's a sickness in their worldview.  This is from an interview Xander gave to No Laying Up's Kevin Van Valkenburg:

If nothing else, Stefan Schauffele said, it’s time to have a conversation about Ryder Cup compensation that doesn’t result in questioning someone’s patriotism.

“I think it’s absolutely non-controversial,” Schauffele said. “Imagine if the winners got $2 million and the losers get nothing. How good of a competition would we have now? I think it could be made so much better because of that. I don’t see a negative there. I think we need to talk about it without bringing up the issue of patriotism, which I think is a really, really cheap shot. Because they’re so wrong, especially these [PGA of America members] are not owning any mirrors in their houses because they’re the ones that are not patriotic. Hopefully the conversation, in seriousness, leads to talks about it that make sense. And then everyone can be happy.”

See, they actually think that the money is what we care about.  Maybe, and I'm just spitballin' here, that's because it's all that they care about?

But the real evil is that nasty patriotism.... We don't want Netflix seeing any of that in the team room... But this is a damn fine catch, given that these two are allegedly joined at the hip:

 It reminds of nothing so much as that awkward Tiger-Phil body language when paired by Hal Sutton.

I'll leave this kerfuffle with this from a brand-spanking new Ask Alan, just to show that the subject of player compensation isn't completely verboten:

Seeing the corporate structures surround San Marco, I thought, Surely the players should get a cut of the largesse? @OTownPauly

And don’t forget the oppressive commercial load of the telecasts! Everyone makes money hand over fist at the Ryder Cup—the TV networks, PGA of America, European Tour, ticket brokers, the vendors and hotels and tour guides. Incredibly, the only folks who aren’t getting a slice of the pie are the players. Of course they’re bothered by this, and have been going back at least as far as the O’Meara-Duval-Mickelson rebellion of 1999. It is a perfectly understandable position…but there are 153 weeks between Ryder Cups to address it. Once you don the red, white and blue it is tacky to be talking about or thinking about the money.

The golf ecosystem is its own hot mess, the involvement of the PGA Of America being a major complication.   But the event is the only thing, other than Jay's transfer payments, keeping the Euro Tour afloat.

The argument has always been about the one week supporting the rest of the schedule, during which they make pretty damn good bank.  And I think PIP has made that argument stronger, because they're racking up the social media activity that converts into cold, hard cash.... Of course, these two guys will be generating all sorts of negative coverage, but they will get paid for sure.

But what I want to leave you with is the memory that these two guys were willing to put their positions on the team at risk over Netflix or other such nonsense.  They're telling us the team was unified, but that bit about the two guys having their own space in that team room kinda rings true, no?

Hatgate - I'm still trying to process this one, but Dylan Dethier informs us that the genesis is the same, that Saturday morning story about divisiveness in the U.S. team room:

It might seem silly to think that Cantlay could finish one match and start another without learning why he had suddenly become the event’s main character. But afternoon pairings were released as

he played the 16th hole and by the time Cantlay’s morning match finished, the afternoon session was about to begin. Cantlay is hardly a guy to reflexively check Twitter during a few minutes’ break, either; he doesn’t even have social media on his phone. So as he walked through the tunnel and onto the first tee alongside new partner Wyndham Clark, he faced a mob of fans armed with new ammo — and more than eager to put it to use.

In understanding what happened at day’s end it’s important understand the vitriol that followed Cantlay throughout his afternoon round. That’s not a critique of the European fans; the madness and meaning of the Ryder Cup comes from the passion of its spectators, and for all the creative cruelty of the home crowd, they’re respectful of maintaining silence in the moments before a player hits. But everything else is fair game, which makes the area inside the ropes is a pressure cooker. And it was relentless for Cantlay.

But....

What happened next has been detailed extensively elsewhere but, as someone looking on from beside the green, struck me as something I’d never quite seen in this job. There were Cantlay’s American teammates, hats above their heads, reclaiming the European fans’ celebration. There was LaCava, Cantlay’s caddie, no doubt experiencing a moment of extra release after a full day’s mistreatment, holding the celebration one beat too long, then another beat too long and then — wait, what was that?

The actual confrontation between LaCava and McIlroy happened quickly. The Northern Irishman didn’t take kindly to LaCava’s celebratory presence beside his line and eventually made that clear. LaCava didn’t take kindly to his removal; he barked at McIlroy and then at McIlroy’s caddie Harry Diamond and then at Shane Lowry, who was incensed on his buddy’s behalf from the rear of the green. When McIlroy’s putt wandered by and Fitzpatrick’s did, too, the match was over, 1 up. Europe’s lead still shoot at five points, 10.5-5.5, a comfy home-team margin. But the entire tenor of the tournament had changed.

That helps, but Dylan ignores that ugly confrontation with Bones later.

I don't really understand the extent of Rory's reaction, but pretty easy to see that this is just wrong on Joe's part:

Man, he is out there for a LONG time.pic.twitter.com/Tqlj2eNucG

— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) October 1, 2023

I get that it has been a long, frustrating day, but you waive your hat for a second and then you let the guys get back to business.  But that bit with Bones later?

McIlroy took issue with LaCava’s antics, and his frustrations boiled over in the parking lot when he had to be restrained while talking to caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay. The Northern Irishman texted Mackay Sunday morning and apologized. Shane Lowry was the one who stepped in to pull McIlroy away and get him inside a courtesy car.

“He was the first American I saw after I got out of the locker room,” said McIlroy, “so he was the one that took the brunt of it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

When asked if he was much of a car-park scrapper, McIlroy said “No, but if I need to … ”

Where's Ernie when you need him? 

Am I the only one that finds something more than a little unhinged in Rory's over-reaction?  Especially after having a little time to calm down.  Of course, not remotely close to as unhinged as this:

Ryder Cup 2023: Rory McIlroy makes a bold prediction—Europe will win on the road at Bethpage Black

OK, right.  Ummm, Rors, care to make it interesting?  

Alan To The Rescue - There's way more to discuss but time is becoming quite short, so let's riff on Alan's return:

Can we please get rid of the boys club and pick players that actually want to be there?! We need guys with heart and passion. Europe has that and consistently beats our higher-ranked players.@MoggerMM

Yeah, for all the talk about points lists and strokes gained stats, there is far too little attention paid to the players’ personalities. You know who would be awesome Ryder Cuppers, stats be damned? Billy Horschel, Talor Gooch, Kevin Kisner, Keegan Bradley, Sahith Theegala…dawgs. Or a passionate character like Bryson DeChambeau. Instead of a two-year qualifying criteria, maybe the U.S. team should be picked strictly by Meyers-Briggs results. Having lost 10 of the last 14 Ryder Cups, the Americans need to ditch analytics and start making picks based on anatomical parts that don’t necessarily translate to a launch monitor: heart, guts, balls.

Talor Gooch?  Yeah, pretty sure that isn't the answer.... Kevin Kisner hasn't been a Tour-level player since the Carter administration, and where do I go to lose my memories of Bryson in Paris?  

I hate everything about the task force, not least that buddy system referenced.  But, and this is key, I'm not sure that gest you to a better roster or result.  For all the sturm und drang of the JT pick, wasn't it the non-controversial Spieth pick that laid the egg, and he's a guy that actually wanted to be there.

But isn't the bigger issue the task force itself?  This is a typical Euro take on pairings:

"There's a really strong culture on the European team," England's Justin Rose said. "A good pairing on the European team doesn't mean playing with your best mate. You know, it means about representing something bigger than yourself, and I feel like that's, for me, what being a European Ryder Cup player is all about."

The other issue is that our task force is populated by mental midgets.  Whether it's pairing Phil and Bryson in foursomes or allowing the guys to show up without having played in months, they're not very good that this.

Alan reinforces his rep as a LIV dead-ender:

Alan, Zach is getting blasted for his picks. Don’t you think the assistant captains were quite influential with the picks. using the buddy system and, let’s face it, they were very anti-LIV. Zach fell in line. @Marie11581

Yes, Johnson’s kitchen cabinet was basically Davis Love, Freddy Couples and Tiger Woods. They all *hate* LIV, and are much bigger presences in the game Zach. And then you had the not-so-subtle pressure from above, from Jay Monahan and PGA of America czar Seth Waugh, who has openly disparaged LIV. Was Zach Johnson, a nice, god-fearing Iowa boy, really going to stand up to all of big personalities and put his neck on the chopping block to pick LIV guys? Of course not. The pressures were too great, and almost anybody else in Johnson’s position would have done the same thing.

Because Brooks played so well?  Those guys went to a non-competitive tour and did nothing in the four majors, so hard to see where Zach had any real options.

Watching these matches in Europe the past 30 years, is it just me, or are these Americans the softest group of pros you’ve ever seen? Things get tough, it’s over. I imagine Ray Floyd telling these guys, a la the Saturday Night Live Sinatra, “Toughen up—I’ve got chunks of guys like you in my stool!” @fakePOULTER

Have you ever been to an AJGA event? They make the Masters look underfunded. U.S college golf teams have palatial practice facilities and travel by private jet. Many/most Tour player grew up at private country clubs. They’ve been coddled since an early age, so how tough can these guys be expected to be?

They both miss the point entirely.  Patrick and Xander are as tough as nails, but only on those issue they actually care about.... Typically those that follow a dollar sign.

Did Cantlay build his brand this week as a (somewhat) more likable Patrick Reed? @OTownPauly

I don’t know, Reed was wildly entertaining at the Ryder Cup, with his on-course antics and short-game mastery. Cantlay is still hard to watch, with his constipated expression and numbingly efficient game. But, yes, this Ryder Cup did wonders for his brand, because prior to Rome very few golf fans had ever given him much thought. And Cantlay still has another role to play, as the most activist member of the PGA Tour’s board of directors. If the framework agreement blows up, Cantlay’s fingerprints will be all over that, furthering his new position as one of golf’s most polarizing figures.

Likeable?  Alan is quite right that our hatless wonder is one of the key guys in our next act, but that black Goldman Sachs hat seems just about right...

Where does ZJ fall on the scale of best-to-worst U.S. Ryder Cup skippers and why is it “worst ever”? @WillotheGlen

The 2014 Tom Watson would like a word. So would Corey Pavin, Hal Sutton and Jim Furyk. It says a lot about the U.S.’s ineptitude that there is so much stiff competition! Zach might have done okay on U.S. soil, during a less overheated moment than the first Ryder Cup of the LIV era. But on the road, the U.S. team needs a commanding, leader-of-men type. Tiger Woods was the obvious choice but deferred. Put him down for 2027…and ’25 if he wants it. If not, the choice has to be Phil Mickelson. Time to bring in the alphas.

I think Zach will take far too much of the blame for this.... All you need to know about Zach is who he owed for the gig...

I think Alan is out in the ozone on his captains, as Tiger was never taking a road game (and Phil had his grubby paws on Bethpage).  But isn't it still an open issue as to whether Phil will ever return to polite society?  he's told us he doesn't want back and most of us don't want him, so by all means he'll be at Bethpage...

Do you remember my final words before the start of the event?

Is this the death of the idea of a U.S. dynasty? They will never have a depth advantage greater than the last three Cups…they won one. @martinayersgolf

It’s not about depth as much as the guys at the top. The best Americans have rarely delivered over the last three decades. Tiger, Phil and Jim Furyk were the backbone of numerous U.S. teams; Wood’s Ryder Cup record is disappointing and Mickelson’s and Furyk’s downright abysmal. Meanwhile, Europe’s keynote players have a long history of dominating: Seve, Olley, Faldo, Sergio, Westy, etc. Coming out of the 2021 Ryder Cup, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth were expected to be U.S. cornerstones but they all looked woebegone in Italy, while world number one Scottie Scheffler appeared to be overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Europe’s big three of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland delivered copious amounts of points, leadership and duende. They were so dominant all the other Euros just had to contribute here and there and that was enough. The U.S. did indeed have a big demographic advantage over the last three Cups, with tons of young talent coming up just as many of Europe’s key players were getting long in the tooth. But now Europe has reloaded (Aberg!). Unless the top Americans can go back to the future and play like their old selves, it’s hard to imagine the U.S. winning an overseas Ryder Cup anytime soon.

 Nobody is dominating on the road these days, that's the actual trend line.

But those Thursday words were to the effect of, if not now, when?  The answer sure feels like never, because it's hard to imagine weaker Euro teams than in 2018 and 2023.

I didn't actually see this:

Should Rickie be banned for life for giving a three foot birdie putt to concede the Cup? @VeryAvgDad

I’d say longer! Charitably, you could call Fowler’s concession an act of sportsmanship. The more I think about it, it feels like capitulation, or maybe self-preservation. If Tommy Fleetwood missed that putt and Rickie made his, Fowler and the U.S. team was still alive. Barely. Everything would have had to break their way for the Americans to pull off a miracle but, the point is, up until the concession they still had a chance. I think in Fowler’s heart of hearts he didn’t want to hand the Europeans the Ryder Cup by missing his 6-footer, so better to take what could be considered the the high road. But, man, I feel like to win the Ryder Cup a dude should have to hole a putt.

Sounds plausible, but I'm still waiting to understand why Rickie was benched on Saturday.  This is the closest I've seen:

“It was a situation where our matchups felt it was best to go this direction,” Johnson said. “Rickie is the consummate professional and team player. We had an embrace that I’ll never forget and a smile afterward. And you know what, it’s hard. I want to play all 12 guys every match — every session, excuse me. That goes without saying. So it was nothing more than that. He is a dear, dear, dear friend. And knowing him, it’s probably motivational.”

So, Zach said "it's not you, it's me".

How's this for a Happy Trails exit?

Can we now go back to talking about LIV/PIF, the framework agreement, money, etc.? @MichaelSFuchs

Honestly, that stuff is more interesting than yet another Ryder Cup blowout! Watch this space, as the first excerpt from LIV and Let Die is dropping imminently…

Good Times!

Sorry, kids, but I am just flat out of time.  Golf tomorrow, but perhaps we'll see each other on Thursday? 

Weekend Wrap - Task Force Follies Edition

What would we do without that Ryder Cup Task Force?   I suspect Phil is having a good laugh over the BS he sold us.

Unfortunately, this piece doesn't deliver on its header:

Europe’s blowout Ryder Cup victory? It was two years in the making

Unfortunate, because this is a team that got defenestrated 19-9 two years ago, yet managed to put on a show this week.   Though my bigger issue is that after those 2016 and 20121 U.S. routs, there was a triumphalism that seemed misplaced.  Certainly this team couldn't hold a candle to that noxious 2018 installment, they certainly didn't show up prepared on Friday.

Shane Ryan tries to explain:

Ryder Cup 2023: How Europe won back the Ryder Cup in 7 simple steps

Simple?

1. They controlled the first hole

In the first three sessions of play, after which the Europeans led 9½-2½ and the outcome of the Cup was all decided, the home side had won the opening hole in five of the 12 matches. More astoundingly, the Americans won it zero times. That's more important than you might think; teams that lead early win more often than they lose, to state the obvious. Those holes establish momentum and put pressure on the opponent. After the first hole, no European team trailed in those three critical sessions, and five of them led. The final tally after singles was Europe with 10 wins on the first hole, and America with just four.

2. By the way, they controlled the second hole, too

The tally on the second hole this week was eight wins for the Europeans, two to the Americans. That's how you snuff out hope early.

So, two of the seven steps were to win golf holes?  Pretty simple indeed.  Though the 18th hole might have been the bigger issue, at least Friday afternoon when three one-up leads morphed into halves on that hole.

Though this seems rather more the issue:

3. Foursomes, foursomes, foursomes

To read my magnum opus on foursomes, and how the home team dominates this format and pretty much wins the Ryder Cup on its back, go here. In short, though, the last five Ryder Cups

have followed a very specific formula in which the fourball and singles matches are roughly even, and the foursomes matches are a slaughter. That was the case once more in Italy; take foursomes out, and the U.S. "won" this thing 10½-9½. In foursomes, the Europeans won 7-1. That's it! That's the ball.

The baseline argument here on why the home team just keeps running up these ridiculous numbers is that the statistical revolution has made leaps and bounds in the last decade—both teams now operate with sophisticated data support—and foursomes is the format in which you can have the most influence as the home team with course setup. That's the only explanation, but it's a decent one, and it's so critical.

There was a period where the U.S. had erased this gap, but 7-1 is quite the beatdown.  The U.S. just looked lethargic on Friday morning, and might well have taken a bagel in fourballs just as easily.

This is always interesting, though likely overinterpreted:

4. Dodo's statistics

One of the big red flags before this Ryder Cup is that the European team moved away from the 21st Group, their statistical consulting partners, to the operation run by vice captain Edoardo "Dodo" Molinari. (The U.S. stuck with Scouts Consulting, the outfit which has been with them in some capacity since 2016, and it was inevitable that they'd be prepared.) As it turned out, Molinari wasn't some dilettante statistician; Matt Fitzpatrick, one of the great data nerds in the game, retained him for consultation/analysis, and he was more than prepared for the job ahead of him. As always, the actual nuts and bolts of this work are tightly held—neither side wants the other to know exactly how the sausage is made—and journalists are necessarily light on specifics. But you can judge by the final score, and by how certain holes were won and certain partnerships formed, that whatever made up the magic sauce, Molinari, a former U.S. Amateur champion, knew what he was doing when he was crunching numbers for match play.

Just fascinating that Edoardo has made that career transformation..  Anyone remember his match with Rickie at Celtic Manor?  Let's just say this is the better Ryder Cup legacy.

Let's duck into the Tour Confidential panel:

Europe claimed the Ryder Cup over the U.S.A. on Sunday at Marco Simone outside of Rome, beating the Americans 16.5-11.5 and extending their lengthy winning streak at home. A lot happened this week, but let’s start here: What was the difference between the two squads?

Josh Berhow: The stars showed up for Europe. Rory, Rahm and Hovland went 4-7-3 at

Whistling Straits but combined for a 9-2-3 record this time (although Rahm was great both years). It was the opposite for the Americans. Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth were both 0-2-2. Thomas, despite his play coming in, has thrived in this event. But he was 1-2-1. Xander and Collin both had three wins two years ago. This year they got a point each. And by the way, Dustin Johnson, while he was never really in consideration this year, had five(!) points in 2021 they had to replace. These events are just really hard for the away team to win, and Europe did a better job playing together and got what it needed from its big guns. And as much as the U.S. team likes to say some of the controversy from this year didn’t affect them, why is it that the controversy always seems to follow the Americans?

Jack Hirsh: I agree with Josh, however, the U.S. team’s advantage coming in was depth. The last man on the U.S. team was Justin Thomas, he of two major victories and a sparkling team match record. The last man on team Europe was Ludvig Aberg, he of exactly zero major championship starts. Aberg got two points this week, including a demoralizing beat down of Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka, while Thomas had to carry Jordan Spieth, who might as well have not played this week. The Europeans also got a multi-point effort from Robert MacIntyre, and had five players win three or more points! Meanwhile, Rickie Fowler laid a big ole’ goose egg this week. The depth advantage was totally flipped.

Jessica Marksbury: All great points. I would agree that the U.S. did not get what was expected from the stars on the roster. I mean, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the most consistently excellent player on Tour, failing to win a match outright is unthinkable! Then, of course, there’s the horrific performance in foursomes, in which Europe won seven of the eight available points. You can’t expect to win a Ryder Cup with a record like that. Then there’s the clutch factor. Team USA just seemed to be lacking in the department. Down the stretch, it was Europe who drained the putts and chips when things were tight and it really mattered.

Zephyr Melton: Europe’s best players showed up, while the USA’s did not. The Euros also got off to fast starts, dominating the 1st hole all week, and they also came up clutch coming down the stretch. There were a number of reasons Europe won, but those are the things that stick out to me.

Road games are difficult for sure, though apparently Jessica hasn't seen Scottie putt for the last few months.  

Perhaps we should get to the What went wrong" genre at this point, because we're gonna need a bigger Task Force.  Zach is taking quite a bit of heat, though I'm not sure he did that much that was wrong:

The scariest part of the U.S.’s latest Ryder Cup disappointment wasn’t the golf

I'm going to have to beg to differ, in that I think it pretty much was the golf.... 

Some of the blame can be placed squarely on the shoulders of U.S. captain Zach Johnson, whose American team looked overmatched, outmaneuvered and generally lifeless until about 5 p.m.

local time on Friday. The U.S. lost its first four matches handily, halved three matches it should have won in the following session, and didn’t claim its first full-point victory until the third match on Saturday morning — an alternate-shot session that also included the biggest blowout loss in Ryder Cup history.

If the performance wasn’t bad enough, Johnson seemed out of his depth even in trying to explain it, largely declining to acknowledge the European advantage or accept responsibility for the Americans’ sleepwalking start to the event. Even after it was all over on Sunday evening, Johnson neglected to address any of the specific strategic or competitive differences that led to the Europeans’ lopsided victories, chalking up large amounts of the tournament’s outcome to good fortune and … the infinite possibility of the universe?

Yeah, while Zach's responses were of the coaching robospeak ilk, I'm gonna maintain that that wasn't the actual issue.... which was, call me crazy, their golf.

Yin, meet yang:

In Johnson’s defense, the U.S. showed admirably on Saturday evening and Sunday, rallying behind Patrick Cantlay’s hatless crusade and creating 45 minutes on Sunday where it looked as though they might even have a chance to win. But to point to the U.S. response in defense of Johnson’s captaincy is to ignore that the Americans were caught sleeping in the first place — and have been at every road Ryder Cup for the last three decades.

 I don't think this is a silver bullet, but it's the most obvious aspect of their preparation:

This is why it was concerning that Jordan Spieth appeared to be the only American team member willing to admit the answer was even slightly more nuanced than a swift kick in the rear end on Sunday evening, the night the streak extended until at least 34 years.

“I think we would probably say, give us a week after the Tour Championship or two weeks after and then go, instead of five,” he said of the Ryder Cup’s current schedule location. “If it were tighter to our Tour Championship and/or even if it were later and we had more of an opportunity to get a little rest and play more of an event or something, then it helps a bit.”

Jordan might have been the American most in need of an explanation for his poor play, although that admittedly is quite the competitive category.

A reminder that, not only did they not play in that five-week period (longer for Spieth, given that he wasn't in Atlanta), but three of the guys couldn't bother making the scouting trip.  That includes Jordan, who had a chld due, but the hatless wonder and X-Man as well.  Cantlay obviously played well, but Xander should be reminded of his indifference early and often.

Not just Z on the hot seat:

The second thing (Scheffler) might ultimately be less significant than the first (the result of this

Ryder Cup), but the two are related in a way that is closer than anyone on the U.S. side would like to admit. The truth is that Scheffler has now gone two full team events for the United States without a single match victory, an 0-5-3 record since the start of the 2022 Presidents Cup that directly correlates with his ascension to becoming arguably the best golfer in the world.

Included in that stretch is the absolute undressing Scheffler and his partner Brooks Koepka faced in their morning foursomes match against Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland on Saturday — a session in which the United States desperately needed to mount a comeback, and in which Aberg and Hovland slammed the door shut with the largest margin of victory in an alternate shot match ever in the Ryder Cup, 9 and 7.

The Americans were the losing team this week for a number of reasons, but Scheffler’s profile makes him one of the biggest. Ryder Cups, after all, are won and lost by the stars. And in a week in which the Europeans rode their best players — Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy — to 10.5 points, the Americans rode Scheffler to a measly one.

Eamon Lynch trots out the A-words and, while I'm not convinced, he's always entertaining:

Lynch: Team USA’s Ryder Cup problem used to be acrimony. Now it’s apathy, which is worse

 Gee, i thought they just wanted to get paid....

Not every American will be disappointed if Europe’s Ryder Cup rout short-circuits the importance of the final day’s singles matches. Certainly not devotees of Taylor Swift, now all but guaranteed that Sunday sports will again be dominated by their idol’s appearance at an NFL game. For that, they ought to thank the formidable performances of Europe’s players and captain, Luke Donald. But this is the most lop-sided contest in Rome since the Christians were drawn at home to the lions at the Colosseum, so the aftermath will almost certainly see less credit for Europe than criticism of the U.S.

The last two U.S. teams that competed over here were balkanized with internal strife. Scotland in 2014 was a week-long squabble between skipper Tom Watson and Phredo Mickelson, his “I’m smart!” detractor. That led to the “task force,” an exercise in shifting responsibility masquerading as group therapy. By Paris in 2018, Jordan Spieth had had enough of Patrick Reed (let he who hasn’t cast the first stone), so Reed aired his grievances about his former partner to the media before Europe had finished its first magnum of celebratory champagne.

OK, the acrimony plus pairing Phil and Bryson in foursomes....

In Rome, the U.S. team has traded acrimony for apathy, delivering a performance more befitting the last morning of a buddies’ trip to Myrtle Beach, without the redeeming excuse of thundering hangovers that would at least suggest fun was had along the way. But fun is in woefully short supply for Zach Johnson’s team.

That can be attributed in part to the unspecified illness that has impacted the U.S. team room, but missing fairways and putts aren’t symptoms of any infection. Sniffles won’t explain how Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg could play the first three holes of alternate shot on Saturday morning in 1-over-par, and win all of them. Mystery bugs can’t account for the U.S. team needing 11 matches before it managed to record an outright victory.

I don't actually think it's apathy.... nor does Eamon, actually:

Johnson is passionate about both the Ryder Cup and his patriotism. So too are his vice captains. The problem is that the same sentiment isn’t universal in the team room. To be clear, all 12 American players are not apathetic about being here. Most of them care. Most of them care a great deal. But apathy is a deadly contagion in team environments, and it only takes one case. Especially when the going is tough.

Every aspect of Team USA’s preparation and performance was repurposed by Europe to boost their confidence. Like when the U.S. showed up three shy of a full squad on their reconnaissance trip earlier this month, though Spieth had a perfectly valid excuse. Or when nine of the team didn’t compete for a month before coming to Rome. Even the LIV guy checked that box, and they’re supposedly the ones who want to spend more time at home. Or when rumors circulated that every prospective member of Johnson’s squad had signed the agreement stipulating their obligations for the week months ago, except for two, who only recently inked the paper. Or when they heard that some on the U.S. team are skipping group dinners to rest. Or knowing that some Americans are upset about not being paid to play, as though patriotism is just another commercial transaction.

People relentlessly focused on money will always find it difficult to reconcile themselves to giving their time to an unpaid cause, no matter how distinguished, even if only for a few days. The dispiriting impact of the cash arms race in professional golf isn’t only evident in the veterans who are absent this week.

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea that is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself,” wrote the ancient Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius. “The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

Any doubts about who he's calling out here?

Back to the TC gang about that hiatus:

Much has been said about how the two teams prepared for this week. Seven of Europe’s players, for example, played in the BMW Championship two weeks ago, while the majority of the U.S. hadn’t played since the Tour Championship five weeks ago. How much stock do you put in that? And is it something the Americans need to address?

Berhow: It definitely could be a factor and it’s something the Ryder Cup Committee should look into after getting some honest feedback from its players. But most of the Americans had a few weeks off before the 2021 Ryder Cup and dominated. So back then we probably said they were well-rested?

Hirsh: I don’t think that’s anything more than coincidence. If the result had been flipped, we’d be saying the same thing about the Europeans not taking enough time off before the Ryder Cup. Hindsight is always 20/20 and the only way to eliminate this discussion is the move the Ryder Cup to the summer, which ain’t happening.

Marksbury: I think there’s something to it. Five weeks is a really long layoff in pro golf. No player would ever “rest” like that for a major championship, right? Why should the Ryder Cup be any different?

Melton: I suppose rust could be a factor, but it’s impossible to pinpoint just one reason the Americans played so poorly. They just looked straight-up bad.

Nothing to see here.... They show up listless the first day and gradually return to form after getting reps in...

And on those captains:

Luke Donald was the Europeans’ winning captain, with Zach Johnson taking the loss. What’s your take on their influence over their teams? And what’s your opinion on Johnson’s performance specifically?

Berhow: It’s hard to say without being in those team rooms, but you have to feel good for Donald, who wasn’t even supposed to be the captain this year yet stepped in, received rave reviews and led his team to a victory. Donald and his crew seemed to do a good job of setting up the course in their favor. As for Johnson, I don’t think he put out the right pairing to begin this entire Ryder Cup to get his team started off on the right foot, and I wish we would have heard even a few more genuine answers from him. Everything was just “so proud of my guys.” Was hoping for more honest answers and less canned comments.

Hirsh: I agree 100 percent with Josh about Donald, specifically when it comes to course setup, which has become as much of a factor as anything in these matches, with the home team taking the last five. For Johnson, I think he will go down as the worst captain in U.S. Ryder Cup history. (Yes, worse than Watson!) Again agree with Josh that his answers were not sincere and as someone who used to cover college football, it sounded a lot like coach-speak. Deciding to provide Jordan Spieth with whatever information he did Saturday evening on the 16th tee may have been worse than Hal Sutton pairing Tiger and Phil together twice in 2004.

Marksbury: Fair points on Johnson, but I’m inclined to give him a little bit more slack. Could he have made better decisions in terms of player order on Day 1? Yes, definitely. But at the end of the day, his guys didn’t deliver. When a power pairing like Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler get waxed 9 and 7, what can you do? There are limits to Johnson’s powers.

Melton: Captains can’t hit the shots for their players, but they can at least put them in positions to succeed, and this week it didn’t seem like Johnson did that. He told the media he “wouldn’t change a thing,” but I’m sure he’d do things differently if given a mulligan.

Worst captain in history?  No, no, no, Hal Sutton retired that Championship Belt in 2004, as pairing Tiger and Phil was merely the second stupidest thing he did that day in Detroit (I'll spare you the details).

I think Zach will take much more heat than he deserves.  I would have gone a different way on Sam Burns for sure, but do we really want to believe that Keegan Bradley or Lucas Glover was the key to this effort.  Or that putting Koepka in that Friday morning rout in lieu of Burns would have change the alignment of the planets?  

Amusingly, folks are questioning the JT pick, whereas it's the Jordan pick that blew up on Zach.  And while Koepka was supposed to be an intimidating presence, that's hard to discern when you're going down 9 & 7.

What I hate and would like to see upended is the cool kids taking care of each other aspect since Phil's hostile takeover.  As I've noted, I was OK with the JT pick, though I hate that it was never in doubt due to Tiger's advocacy.  The pick that should draw the most scrutiny was Sam Burns, though I don't think it change the outcome.  But that's not on Zach, that's on Tiger, Phil and those other insiders.

Shall we get to those controversies?  First, about my favorite guy:

Patrick Cantlay was the talk of the Ryder Cup on Saturday, when a report alleged “a fracture” in the U.S. team room and said Cantlay wasn’t wearing his team hat in protest of players not being paid for the Ryder Cup. (Cantlay called the report “totally false.”) How would you unpack everything that happened with Cantlay?

Berhow: He was asked on Saturday night if Ryder Cup players should be paid and while he didn’t say yes, he didn’t say no. His non-answer said enough. In my opinion, two things can be true: Patrick, and probably others, might think players should get paid. But it also might not be that big of a deal to them where it splits a team room.

Hirsh: Obviously, someone thought or said something about it or it wouldn’t have come out or would have been denied sooner. I’m sure the players want to be paid, but I don’t think it was enough to make Cantlay protest by not wearing a hat; that seemed pretty strange. He was still wearing the rest of the uniform and not wearing a hat is a pretty common thing at the Ryder Cup.

Marksbury: Cantlay isn’t the first player to believe he should be paid for exhibitions like the Ryder Cup, or to have a desire to opt out of the pomp-and-ceremony events that accompany them. Like Josh, I think his non-answer about whether or not players should be paid is telling, but it seems very unlikely that that would cause any friction in the team room.

Melton: I agree with Josh. I believe Cantlay has his grievances with the lack of pay in the Ryder Cup, but I don’t think the team room was as fractured as some might’ve suggested.

Lede, buried.  Guys, Patrick introducing money into the Ryder Cup reminds us of what a greedy dick he is, but I'm more upset that it didn't split the team room.  It seems that's pretty much all they care about these days, which is why I end up rooting against them.

That they don't get paid is true, though with more nuance.  A contribution is made into the PGA Tour pension fund and each player is given charitable contributions to allocate to organizations of their choice.  But Patty Ice is all about the Benjamins, so nice of him to remind us of his priorities on that one week we shouldn't be speaking of money.  

I'm going to defer discussion of LaCavagate until tomorrow, as we're already deep into the morning.  have a great week and we'll pick things up then.

Just one more fledgling thought.  I assess at 100% probability that the U.S. captain at Bethpage in 2025 will be Tiger Woods.  While I think he should be on the outs due to his no-show in Rome, you know how these things go and we'll hear all about his leadership and yada, yada, yada.  But, fat is, Tiger trakes care of Tiger, and he's smart enough at this point to avoid a road game.  They'll be desperate and crush the Euros and declare victory, but....  If you were really committed to ending the three decades of road futility AND you really believed Tiger provides leadership AND you really wanted to do what is best for the U.S., you'd implore him to wait until 2027 at Adare Manor.  Good luck with that, guys!