Thursday Threads - Wailaeie

The gods delivered the goods yesterday, as we skied through the snow falling all day (not that our days are very long).  Forecast still is bountiful, although only an inch called for today.  With the high projected to be a windy 16 degrees, can't imagine we'll be out there too long.

By the time we got up there we can't exactly call it a powder day, but there were powder turns to be had off the side of trails, which all concurred were our first soft turns of the season.  As we ducked into one of the lodges for the boys to have a cocktail, we did notice that Lee had developed a porn 'stache stalactite:

Good Times.

European Evac - I'll allow my readers to decide what life form is deserting those ships, at least one of which is barely afloat.  It's a live, it's just substantively diminished in terms of prestige.  But first, this guy:

Nine years after he started, Martin Slumbers, CEO of the R&A and secretary of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, is going to finish. In a press release the Englishman announced he will step down from both roles by the end of 2024.

“It has been a privilege to serve golf at the highest level,” said the 63-year-old. “It is a role that I have been proud to carry out on behalf of the R&A's employees, the members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and all our global partners. In any career, there is a time to allow the next generation to have its turn. I am grateful to have had the honor, for nearly a decade, to have been the custodian of all that the R&A and the game of golf more broadly represents.“

Indeed, Slumbers’ tenure has often enough been tumultuous. Quite apart from the long-running debate over distance and the announcement of a rollback on the golf ball last month, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the postponement of the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews in 2020.

More positively, though, Slumbers led a modernization of the R&A’s activities, not least through a merger with the Ladies' Golf Union that enabled the organization to represent golf for men, women, boys and girls at the elite level. Since the R&A has taken over running the AIG Women's Open, it has increased the purse from $3.25 million in 2018 to $9 million in 2023.

A long-term friend of the blog that's an R&A member sent me a heads up with a cryptic "Good riddance", though I don't know the underlying gripes.  Certainly on their most important endeavor, the distance project, he gets an Incomplete, waiting decades too long to act.  Though of course that involves other parties in interest, so easy enough to slough off.

Then this:

On the same day that Martin Slumbers made a surprise announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of the Royal & Ancient, Canada’s The Sports Network (TSN) reported that DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley has been hired as president and chief executive of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. MLSE is the parent company of four Toronto-based sports franchises— the NHL’s Maple Leafs, NBA’s Raptors, MLS’s Toronto FC and CFL’s Argonautsason and are guaranteed stipend of $500,000.

TSN noted that the job “is considered one of the most coveted positions in North American sports, overseeing a collection of prized sports and real estate assets that are worth billions of dollars.”

TSN said the deal could be announced as early as Thursday, which happens to be Pelley’s 60th birthday. A Canadian, Pelley has been the chief executive of the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) since August 2015. He has overseen enormous changes in the golf landscape, including the strengthening of the alliance, announced in June 2022, between the DP World Tour and PGA Tour. The tours unveiled a 13-year operational joint partnership through 2035 that included the co-sanctioning of the DPWT’s Genesis Scottish Open and the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship.

Also among the significant changes in the new agreement was that the leading 10 players in the Race to Dubai rankings at the end of the season, who are not already exempt, earn PGA Tour cards for the following season and are guaranteed stipend of $500,000.

Damn, there go the best eyeglass frames in the business, although he's showing quite the sedate pair in the photo above.

I'm open to the concept that Pelley played a weak hand reasonably well, though I think it'll be hard for his constituents to give him much credit.  The players hated when he negotiated those ten passes to the U.S. Tour, because they thought it made the Euro Tour look like a feeder tour.  Of course it is a feeder tour and has been for quite a few years, so reality comes with sharp teeth.

We can't assess much about impact without knowing who fill fill the two big chairs, but at least it's not a stressful time in our game.

Common Ground - The last guy on the planet we'd expect to understand the burned bridges:

In fact, in an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, Mickelson said a form of the word divisive four times in a 350-some-word answer to a question about his Ryder Cup future.

He leaned heavily on the adjective as he explained why he wouldn’t be the best choice for 2025 Ryder Cup captain at Bethpage Black on Long Island.

“I’ve had 12, 13 opportunities to be a part of the Ryder Cup — 12 as a player, one as a vice captain — and I’ve loved every minute of it and cherish those moments and those life experiences,” Mickelson said. “I don’t feel I’m the right guy to be involved with the team because I’m a very divisive character right now, if you will. And I understand that that the players on the PGA Tour, there’s a lot of hostilities towards me, and I don’t feel I’d be the best leader for them going forward.

“I think that as a Ryder Cup captain, you have to be kind of a unifier and have these relationships solidified and somebody that you want to follow. And right now I’ve been very divisive, and I’m OK with that. I knew that was going to be the case. I knew that it was going to take a couple of years and that I was going to take a lot of hits and a lot of divisiveness.”

Obviously most of will readily agree and credit him for his honest appraisal of the environment.  Except that it's Phil, so what's in it for him to make that statement now?

Is it possible he's trying to use his 3D chess kills to lock Tiger into the gig?  

Wither Golf - Am I the only that has noticed that golf has attracted generation after generation, yet the powers that be feel that we're all gonna die, if we don't change everything.  Sean Zak wants jazz it up by stealing from other sports, which strikes me as quite unpromising.  Shall we see what he has:

What golf should steal from college basketball

Unlike college football, college basketball has figured out an important aspect of sports: stratification. With its 68-team NCAA Tournament, its 32-team NIT and even the 16-team CBI, almost every relevant team still has something to play for when the regular season comes to an end. Stratification can be good!

The PGA Tour is already leaning into stratification with its top 70 advancing to the playoffs, its top 50 FedEx Cup earners entering the following season’s Signature Events, the top 125 earning full playing status for the next season. But rather than drag out the FedEx Cup Fall in seven tournaments across 10 weeks in September, October and November — where the non-elite performers play stressful golf on Sundays during the NFL season — how about a quasi-NIT golf tournament? Or quick series of events, where there are extra incentives, like, say, placement for 10 of the 55-man field in the following season’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am? Creating a consolation bracket of sorts — or rather consolation buckets — would expedite the playoff stratification of the entire Tour membership, opening up the fall season for something truly different: team golf.

Anyone have a clue as to his point?  We already have that in the Korn Ferry and DP World Tours, so things are pre-stratified.  But wouldn't it be better to just allow those guys into the PGA's most important events?  I know what Patrick thinks, but maybe we'll find out what Tiger thinks.

What golf should steal from cricket

Rory McIlroy has pulled back from his outright dismissal of LIV Golf in recent months, now seeming to take up the belief that team golf of the right fashion could help buoy particular sections of the golf calendar, like the fall. If LIV Golf could be massaged in the right way, perhaps it could help bridge the gap from season to season in an intriguing way.

“I would love LIV to turn into the IPL of golf,” McIlroy said recently on a podcast, leaving American golf fans scratching their heads. What’s the IPL?

McIlroy was talking about the Indian Premier League, a cricket league created in the 2000s with a newer format that promised to engage fans like never before and also improve the pay structures for cricketers. It has skyrocketed in popularity.

The logical answer is to do some kind of team competition in the Fall, but good luck getting anyone to tune in.  LIV's schedules have shown the same thing, they don't want to go up against the NFL any more than Jay does.

What golf should steal from…multiple sports!

Part of the reason we love this sport is how gamified it can be. Putting contests, closest to the pin, up-and-down competitions. There’s a reason why the World Long Drive competition exists as a television product. It’s fun to watch! But pro golf rarely, if ever, gets to show off in these derivative settings.

All we have to say is, LOOK AROUND!

The NFL has sustained a Pro Bowl weekend out of goofy, athletic competitions. The NBA All-Star weekend is an annual meeting of the minds for the entire industry. The NHL wanted its own version of this action so badly that it created a speed-skating contest that gets the best in the world starving to win something different. How do we not get to see Collin Morikawa show just how skilled he is with a 7-iron, hitting 5-straight laser-beams inside 10 feet? How do we not test out Jordan Spieth’s wedge game against Xander Schauffele in wicked lies dreamed up by Justin Thomas? Videos of these competitions fare well on YouTube. So bring them to the masses, Golf Channel!

This idea feels so obvious as an extra way to inject life into any of the Tour’s premier events, I’m concerned there’s something really important that I’m missing. Until someone proves me wrong, I’ll steadfastly believe that the season-ending trip to East Lake should include a Tuesday-evening all-star show under the lights. You’ve made it to the Tour Championship, now show us why you’re here.

No problem with that, though it's not clear the players really want more obligations?  Don't think so, given how our pampered guys duck pro-ams.

Udder Stuff - A couple of minor bits of amusement, then I'll let you get on with your day:

Lexi Thompson appoints new full-time caddie after year-end flourish

Am I a loner in thinking that golf publications should know and use golf language?  Not only do I see them with headers speaking of hitting a hole in one, but players hire caddies, there is no appointment power.

Full-time sounds promising, but it's Lexie, for whom the half life of a caddie is about an hour-abd-a-half.

Try not to laugh at this last bit:

LIV Golf pro Pat Perez and his wife, Ashley, had been one of the most colorful couples in golf, but appear to be headed for a split.

Ashley Perez filed for divorce in Maricopa County (Ariz.) Superior Court in November, as first reported by the website Bro Bible.

The outlet discovered the filing after observing that the couple had removed photos of each other from their respective Instagram pages, though some older shots of the couple together do remain on Ashley’s page.

By colorful they mean this:

She will be missed if and when Pat makes it back to polite society. Maybe at some juncture we'll learn Phil and he haven't spoken in year, which reportedly resulted from Phil doing something inappropriate that related to Ashley.

That's all for today, kids.  I'll catch up with you again most likely on Monday, though who knows for sure.  Have a great weekend if I skip blogging on Friday.

 

Midweek Musings - Deep Stuff Edition

I'm safely ensconced in Unplayable Lies Western HQ, with a short day of skiing under my belt.  Just a day to get our sea legs back.  We skied through light snow and later it seemed to be accumulating on my little terrace, just a tease of the onslaught promised.  Pleased to see the resort report 9" in the last 24 hours, and more is apparently in the works:

It's really cold, which means the snow should hold up pretty well (not sure the same will be said of us).

Sentry Leftovers - For the first of the Tour's Elevated/Designated/Sanctified Events, it seemed a bit of a lifeless affair,  It should be an object lesson to our leaders that, even with a tiny 59-player field, you're not guaranteed of a marquee shootout on Sunday.  The tell might be that it was another week in which the Tour Confidential panel was never asked about the event (this certainly not because of competitive events).  They were asked about this faux controversy:

The PGA Tour made its Player of the Year announcement, yet in a somewhat surprising decision it was Scottie Scheffler who won over Jon Rahm. Scheffler won The Players and

Phoenix Open last year and put up gaudy scoring numbers and top finishes, but Rahm won four times, including the Masters. The award is voted on by the players, with Scheffler earning 38 percent of the vote. (The Tour said voting took place between Dec. 1-15; Rahm announced he was leaving for LIV Golf on Dec. 7.) Rahm was previously voted Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America, so what did the players see that the golf writers didn’t? Did Rahm leaving for LIV Golf have anything to do with it?

Josh Sens: As impressive as Scheffler’s season was, Rahm clearly had the edge by the usual criteria for this award. I think it’s very safe to say Rahm’s leaving for LIV had a lot to do with it. The impulse of, ‘He’s leaving, so why should he get an award?’ But it is supposed to be a retrospective honor, based strictly on what transpired last year. So not choosing Rahm mostly just seems off-base and petty.

Ryan Barath: I’ve heard some folks like Brandel Chamblee say that money could have been the determining factor. I’m willing to bet that there aren’t many players that would take Scottie’s season over Rahm’s considering he earned himself a lifetime invitation to Augusta National, so in this case I think politics came into play big time.

Josh Berhow: The Tour doesn’t release the number of players who voted for these awards, but it’s important to remember, historically, how few actually participate. For a story I wrote about the 2019 Player of the Year Award (Rory McIlroy edged Brooks Koepka), the Tour told us typically 45 to 60 percent of players actually vote. Maybe the players gave more credit to Scheffler’s incredible strokes-gained numbers and mega-consistency. But it also could have been a parting jab at Rahm, because even early in the voting window (before Rahm went to LIV) it wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret he might be leaving. I wasn’t in Hawaii this past week, but at least one journalist on-site kept asking players how they categorize a successful season. The answer was pretty unanimous: wins. Can’t fault Scottie, though. He had an amazing season too.

I'm hard-pressed to think of a story about which I care less, though is this perhaps why Rahm was in Maui?   As I say about the No. 1 ranking, if it's an argument it means that no one is a clear No. 1, so leave the title vacated.

They were also asked about the Kiz debut:

Kevin Kisner made his much-anticipated debut as an analyst for NBC at The Sentry in Hawaii, which is believed to be somewhat of a “tryout” consisting of Kisner and other golfy figures as the network searches for a replacement for Paul Azinger. What did you think of Kisner’s debut?

Sens: As advertised, Kisner proved to be funny and self-deprecating, both appealing traits. He is also clearly chummy with a lot of the players, which has its pluses but only in small doses, I think. For 18 holes of analysis, I’d rather have a commentator who can cut to the quick a la Johnny Miller, without worrying about straining his clubhouse and driving range relationships. That’s a lot more interesting than hearing Kisner muse on, say, what kind of cutesy nickname Scottie Scheffler should have. To my mind, the benefits Kisner brings are better suited to an on-course reporter than to a lead analyst.

Barath: Kisner did a nice job with on-course interviews, and players seemed genuinely keen to talk about what they were experiencing out on the course, but the one issue with the “buddy-buddy” of it all is that it got a bit too chummy — to steal a work from Josh. On the other hand he was quick to point out when Jordan Spieth took too long over a short putt (which he missed) and I think that kind of pointed observation goes a long way in helping the viewer get an inside look at key moments. Overall it was a good start and I’m curious to see him do this a few more times before picking a side.

Berhow: I thought he did a good job. He seemed comfortable and obviously knows the players well. I agree fans also want that role to be someone who can fairly criticize players when it’s needed, but I don’t blame Kisner for keeping that arrow in his quiver in his debut. As weird as a “tryout” might seem for this gig, it will actually be fun to see them all get their chance. They’ll all get better the more they do it too.

There was pushback to the tryout idea, which I don't get at all.  There's nothing any of these guys has done that will predict how they'll perform in the big chair.  To me the issue might be more that the tryouts, two events in Kiz' case, might not be long enough to exhaust their inventories of bits....

I do think Kiz is an amusing guy and that we could do far worse....in fact, we've been doing reliably far worse with Sir Mumbles and Zinger, so I see nothing but upside.  I don't love Kizners voice and Southern accent all that much, though, and wonder how it would hold up over the interminable hours in the booth.  I actually think he'd be a hell of an on-course reporter, maybe out-Smylieing that other guy.

But word is that they've got a woody for Geoff Ogilvy, who has a knowledge of the game that would be great to have, though booth presence is an unknown until his tryout.

In his maiden Monday Finish column of the season, Dylan Dethier had this that seems like the more things change...

IN: Scottie Scheffler’s ball-striking

New year, same Scottie Scheffler. This was the week Scheffler picked up his second consecutive PGA Tour Player of the Year title and then logged a ho-hum T5 finish, leading the field in strokes gained from tee to green in the process. That’s impressive! It should also come as no surprise, because that’s pretty much what Scheffler does every time he plays …

Scottie Scheffler's tee to green rankings in his last 17 events.

Bay Hill: 2nd
Players: 1st
Masters: 2nd
Heritage: 5th
Nelson: 2nd
PGA: 1st
Colonial: 1st
Memorial: 1st
U.S. Open: 3rd
Travelers: 2nd
Scottish: 2nd
Open: 3rd
St. Jude: 15th 🫣
BMW: 1st
Tour…

— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) January 8, 2024

Alas, Dear Reader, you know what's coming:

OUT: Scheffler’s putting

New year, same Scottie Scheffler. After gaining strokes the first two days on the greens and seizing the 36-hole lead, Scheffler looked like he could roll to a victory in his second consecutive start. Instead he faded on the weekend, losing nearly four strokes to the field putting on Saturday and Sunday combined (although he played Sunday’s final 14 holes in eight-under par). From the booth, Kevin Kisner provided an intriguing theory that Scheffler struggles with his alignment, setting up with his feet square or even slightly closed to the target, just like he does with his full swing. The results with his full swing are undeniable. But so are the results with his putter.

His setup works with driver, Kisner said, because he can hit a fade.

“But he can’t really fade a putt.”

Beg to differ, Kiz, I think he fades most of his putts.... But it's quite the thing, because Scottie was a perfectly fine putter through his entire career until something went horribly wrong.  But that ball-striking is other-worldly, amusing for a guy whose hyper-active footwork renders us amazed that he can even make contact.

Feel Good Story Of The Week - We don't get an abundance of brain injuries in golf, though a few act as if there bells have been rung a few times.  But having this guy back so soon is a nice treat:

The fear that gripped Gary Woodland in the weeks after last year’s Masters was the tell-tale sign

that something was wrong. Unequivocally wrong. A perpetually optimistic soul by nature, the Kansas native wasn’t afraid of much. True, he never was comfortable with heights, but the only thing he really feared, he admits, was failure.

Suddenly, however, he found himself consumed by fear almost constantly—fear of dying, fear of something awful happening to his children, fear of falling to his death. At the Memorial Tournament in June, he awoke one night and clung to the mattress for an hour, certain that if he let go, he would plummet to his demise.

After enduring a difficult week of nausea and anxiety at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, Woodland consulted his longtime general practitioner, who was inclined to prescribe medication, though not before he ordered Woodland to undergo an MRI. He wanted to rule out Parkinson’s Disease. The MRI did that, though it did reveal something more troubling—a lesion growing on his brain. It sat on a part of his cranium that, Woodland said, controls fear and anxiety. “He's like, you're not going crazy. Everything you're experiencing is common and normal for where this thing is sitting in your brain.”

Read the whole thing for a palate cleanser from the bulk of our usual golf news.

Era, Ended -  We had this at the Hero, unofficially, but now it's confirmed in this official statement:

"Over 27 years ago, I was fortunate enough to start a partnership with one of the most iconic brands in the world. The days since have been filled with so many amazing moments and memories, if I started naming them, I could go on forever. Phil Knight's passion and vision brought this Nike and Nike Golf partnership together and I want to personally thank him, along with the Nike employees and incredible athletes I have had the pleasure of working with along the way. People will ask if there is another chapter. Yes, there will certainly be another chapter. See you in LA!"

 Dylan Dethier has more on both sides:

OUT: Nike Golf

Day wearing Malbon means he’s not wearing Nike, which marks a significant shakeup in the golf lineup of the swoosh. But a far more significant shakeup was confirmed via tweet on Monday morning: Tiger Woods is leaving the brand, too!

While Woods thanked Nike for their 27-year partnership, he also teased two things. No. 1, that something is coming next. (“Yes, there will certainly be another chapter.”) No. 2, that he’ll be playing the Genesis Invitational. (“See you in LA!”) I’ll leave the Tiger-in-Nike-red obits to others and just say that, with the possible exception of Arnold Palmer and bottled iced tea-lemonade, this was the most iconic golfer-brand relationship of all time.

We’ll see what’s next for Nike, which is clearly scaling back its golf investment. Scheffler still wore Nike shirts this week, as did Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Kim. We’ll see if Rory McIlroy is still swooshed up at this week’s Dubai Invitational, and Brooks Koepka whenever he makes his next LIV appearance. And then we’ll see what’s next for Woods — and for his accompanying TW brand.

To me this is actually interesting and perhaps even fraught with peril.  For all its outsider and rebel DNA, Nike provides the cleanest look in golf, and I think Tiger benefitted from that.  I also remember that when Rory went to the Swoosh his logic was that he wanted that cleaner look.

We've already seen Jason Day show up in the 1970's era baggy pants, but I'm hoping that Tiger doesn't try to copy the cool kids.  In particular, I hope he steers well clear of JT and those joggers....Lots of phot galleries of Tiger swooshed over the years, including here and here.

Gotta throw one of these in, of course:

Of course, Charlie was already in Greyson at the PNC, so he apparently adapts to change quicker than his Dad.  Surprisingly, nobody included the single funniest Tiger-Nike picture ever, so lucky thing your humble blogger is on the case:

That poor girl is Kelli Kuehne, and the mitigating detail is that Nike wasn't yet manufacturing women's apparel but, still, how could you do that to the poor girl.

A Rabbit's Life - It's quite magical starting the Tour season in Hawaii, for sure, but it can also be quite the burden if you've ever looked at where Hawaii actually is located.  This is ostensibly a story about Monday qualifying, but note how the Tour treats it's members:

The Tour’s vacation dilemma started a few weeks ago, when the first email went out to this year’s PGA Tour rookie class. The news was, charitably, quite exciting: those preparing for their first year on the big tour in 2024 were required to attend a mandatory Rookie Symposium in Hawaii at the beginning of January. The meetings would fall on the weekend preceding the second event of the ’24 season, the Sony Open — an event which many of the Tour’s rookies were likely to be playing already — and those who were not invited into the field would have their travel costs covered by the Tour. At the time, the pitch sounded pretty good: start the year off with a free trip to Hawaii, attend a few silly meetings, drink in some sunshine and maybe even Monday qualify into a season-opening paycheck. Not half-bad!

Seems fair enough, but does the meeting need to be in Asia?

But then things started to turn bad. As our pal Monday Q Info reported alongside fellow pro Mark Baldwin, the first problem arose when the tournament invitations began to circulate. Suddenly, many of the pros who had been told they were likely to receive invites realized their inboxes were empty. As it turned out, the rejiggering of the PGA Tour’s fall schedule had resulted in many of the Tour’s working class opting in to the Sony Open in an effort to get a head start on the points and earning potential of the season. Suddenly, the field had filled up, and many of the rookies were left without invites.

A head start on points?  Yeah, that's the ticket.....  It's more like they've been excluded from the money grab that is the Anointed Events, and are figuring out how they'll manage.  The rest of us saw this coming, except apparently the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Fortunately, those who were anticipating an invite weren’t entirely out of luck. They could still compete in the Monday qualifier for the event, held just down the street from Waialae Country Club, for a slot in the field. Of course, these aren’t exactly winning bets for players, who often have to shoot five under or better in a single round of golf just to earn a spot in the field — but it was better than nothing. This is when the second problem arose: the Tour’s rookie orientation was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, leaving players with few opportunities, if any at all, to play practice rounds on the Monday qualifier course.

And how did Monday go?

It’s early in 2024 but “it’s a little off the right” from the Monday Q might be the caddie line of the year. pic.twitter.com/9FhWxO2x75

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) January 9, 2024

Not gonna be any fun to be a rabbit on our LIV-resistant Tour.  

Watch Your Back -  Guys like Rory have bene mewling in the press, and it's pretty dreary stuff.  But one of the rabbits referenced above, Mackenzie Hughes, gave an interview that might require him to watch his bat.  You'll be nodding your head at things like this:

When Hughes looks at what the Tour is selling as a product in 2024, he doesn’t see much

difference from what it sold in 2019. In a strictly economic sense, the same tournaments have been slightly rejiggered and are being sold for a much higher cost to sponsors, who are on the hook for a majority of the purse value.

“We have the same product that we had in 2019, yet we want this, like, increased investment, not just increased, but increased in a big way,” he said. “I just think that the product, while I think it’s great, it’s the same product. I just think fans are kind of left scratching their head thinking, like, What is going on? They also don’t know where certain guys are playing and there’s spats between the LIV and the PGA Tour, and it’s not unified in any way, shape, or form. There’s negotiations going on that are unclear, they have been dragged on for a long time. The fan just wants to watch golf. I think you watch sports for an escape from other nonsense, but I think golf has brought a lot of nonsense onto its plate, and now you don’t get just golf — you get a lot of other stuff going on. It’s a bit of a circus.”

Hughes doesn’t like how unsustainable the product feels right now. He doesn’t like how entitled many of his colleagues on Tour can be. He doesn’t like the outlook of forcing purses to a $30 million threshold. These were all thoughts he elevated on Tuesday in Hawaii. He doesn’t like seeing “the-Tour-owes-me-something” attitude, or that fans can’t guarantee which players will be playing which events. And given there was a microphone in his hand, he decided to speak up.

“I think that also there’s a lot of guys that feel entitled out here,” Hughes continued. “Like, you start to see all these big amounts of money flying around and this offer and that offer and people think, Oh, well I stayed loyal, like, where’s my money? And it’s like, you’re not entitled to play the PGA Tour. You have the right and you have a privilege to play out here and it’s an opportunity, but it’s not like anyone owes you anything. No one’s forcing your hand. You don’t have to stay, you can go play over there if you want.”

Those are your peers, and we feel pretty much the same way about them....

But we keep hearing that the players are in control now, which misses the bigger point entirely.  The coup took place in Delaware, but in front of a limited audience:

The Signature Event system was devised and discussed in a serious way during the summer of 2022, when 23 players met at the Hotel Du Pont in Delaware during the BMW Championship to forge a response to LIV Golf. There were 47 other top pros in town that week who weren’t invited to the “closed doors meeting for the who’s who of the Tour” as Hughes called it. He’s not bitter about it, but it did feel like a slap in the face. He’s not alone in that thinking — Keegan Bradley has echoed something similar — but he’s come to accept it.

Just remember, Mackenzie, this was done to you by Tiger and Rory.   They had a chance to stand for something, and they chose to stand for getting Patrick paid.

I do wish he had spoken more about that unsustainability, because that's one bit that continues to gnaw at me.  The golf ecosystem generates what it does, but our best players refuse to be constrained by those economic limitations, and therefore we simply don't know how the movie ends.

That's it for today, kids.  We'll chat more later in the week.

Bonus Saturday Blogging

Since I left Utah on December 21st, Park City has had all of 9" of snow, 4" of that in the last two days.  Must have been a miserable week of skiing between the holidays, as they did better at getting lifts turning than in  opening actual terrain.  

Now, typically I like to see the white stuff on the ground before committing, but desperate times and all.  But here's the current 10-day rolling snow forecast for PC:

Accordingly,. I'll be in a skinny metal tube headed out there on Monday morning, thoroughly disrupting our blogging schedule for the nascent season.  I know, though I think I've been clear about my priorities in the ten years we've been live.

Speaking of which, I just checked my archives and my first musings of this blog were posted January 5, 2014, making yesterday my tenth blogiversary.  And to think you didn't get me anything....

Nothing too taxing for today, but we'll lede with the news from Maui...

The Sentry Snoozefest - I have watched some of the early coverage and there's no sugar-coating the absence of electricity, my principal thought yesterday being how desperately they needed a cut to offer any drama whatsoever, notwithstanding the 10-out-of-10 eye candy and the equally eye-popping scoring:

Kapalua’s Plantation Course can play like a beast when the wind blows. But when it doesn’t, it can be a pussycat. These guys are good, especially in calm conditions. But on Friday, the field of

59 recorded the lowest scoring average in 101 rounds since Kapalua became an annual stop in 1999.

The scoring average of 67.4 in the second round on the par 73 layout broke the previous record of 67.7 in the third round last year.

The forecast had called for breezier conditions on Friday but the weatherman was wrong yet again. On a windless day, every player in the field broke par. Unless the wind picks up, the birdie barrage should continue, said Todd.

“I was telling my son, he said, ‘If I shoot 6-under four times that’s 24-under.’ I said, ‘That’s not going to be enough to win.’ He said, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Well, 34 under won two years ago.’ I think we’re looking like something like that. Something in the low 30s,” said Todd. “There’s just so many great players and the golf course is in perfect shape and without the wind you’re able to hit wedges close and reach the par-5s.”

There's something else going on for the last few years, which is that the course is far softer than it used to be.  Oh, the ball still runs out more than at most Tour venues, but nothing like it used to in those old Tiger-Ernie videos from the early aughts.  Mark Rolfing has occasionally tried to explain this phenomenon, blaming it on changing trade winds and the like, but I for one b lame it on LIV.

While we're still in the land of small sample sizes, this guy rolling his rock well is of note:

Just two days after being named PGA Tour Player of the Year for the second straight year, Scottie

Scheffler is staking an early claim to a three-peat of the Jack Nicklaus Award.

The 27-year-old World No. 1 shot 9-under 64 at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course on Friday in Kapalua, Hawaii, to take a one-stroke lead over Tyrrell Hatton, Sungjae Im and Brendon Todd at the midway point of the Sentry. He improved to a 36-hole total of 16-under 130, which marked the first time that Scheffler has posted 16-under par or better through two rounds.

Scheffler, who won the Hero World Challenge in December, continues to show improvements in his putting since he started working with Phil Kenyon before the Ryder Cup in late September. Scheffler gained more than two strokes to the 59-man field on the greens on Friday. When he does that, he’s tough to beat. But leading after 36 holes hasn’t always been to Scheffler’s benefit. This marks the 10th time he’s held or been the co-leader after 36 holes on Tour and he’s converted just 2 of 9 to date, winning the 2022 Masters and 2023 WM Phoenix Open.

He only needs to be a tour average putter to win, and it's inconceivable that he can't accomplish that.  With Rahmbo in limbo, it's hard to imagine that Scottie won't make some serious bank this year.

Another of those effortless segues for which I am justifiably renown, but this to me is the weirdest part of the week:

Jon Rahm is here.

No, he’s not at the tournament. But he’s not far away, either! Jon Rahm’s plans to defend his Sentry title took a sideways turn when he joined LIV Golf in December. But his plans to spend this time on Maui apparently did not, as Rahm and his family have spent the week vacationing nearby, playing golf and running into his former Tour peers, as confirmed by several people at the Sentry on Tuesday.

The vacation plans of pro golfers are rarely newsworthy, but the fact that the PGA Tour is about to kick off its season and the tournament’s defending champion, who’s now on LIV, is also in town but isn’t playing in the tournament? That’s a strange sign of the times. He’s the only pro from the 2023 Sentry field who has since joined LIV.

Rahm’s presence calls to mind Cameron Smith’s showing at this year’s Players Championship. Smith was the defending Players champ (and the 2022 Sentry Champ, for that matter) but had been suspended after leaving for LIV; on tournament Thursday he teed it up at the Yards just a mile away from TPC Sawgrass.

The obvious difference, of course, is that Smith is a Jacksonville Beach resident and only traveled a few miles to play golf, while Rahm’s trip was significantly longer. It’s just not clear whether he’s sending a message, he found a hotel he really likes or the cancelation fees were just that intimidating…

How can we miss you if you won't go away?   Just bizarre....

Feel Good Story of the Day - I'm not suggesting any cosmic significance, but this is very much the story that impels me to the keyboard:

Patrick Reed must pay attorney fees and costs to defendants in his dismissed lawsuit, judge orders

Be still my foolish heart....

Patrick Reed, whose $750 million lawsuit against Gannett and other media outlets was dismissed twice, has been ordered to pay attorney fees and costs to the defendants.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan also denied motions by Reed for Corrigan to recuse himself and to reconsider his earlier dismissal, with prejudice.

Corrigan dismissed the suit for a second time on Sept. 27, 2023.

Notwithstanding reports to the contrary, he did not sue Jordan Spieth for refusing to play with him at the Ryder Cup.

This lawsuit might well be the high water mark in ass-foolery, as suing public figures for defamation of a public figure works, checking notes, approximately never.  The reason it's so stupid is that it exposes the plaintiff, either in deposition (PReed's suit was meritorious enough even to reach discovery) or on the subject of court costs.

The judge seems quite favorably disposed to Team Reed's arguments:

“Many of the statements are not about Reed. Some statements are about LIV Golf, of which Reed is a member, but not specifically about Reed,” Corrigan wrote in his dismissal in September. “Others are matters of opinion or permissible rhetorical hyperbole. Still others are statements of fact, the truth of which are not challenged.”

Corrigan responded: “Reed does not meet the required pleading of actual malice to hold the press liable for defamation. While Reed may be frustrated at the negative media coverage he receives [some of which seems over the top], under Florida law and the First Amendment, Reed fails to bring actionable defamation claims and his cases therefore must be dismissed.”

Corrigan reiterated in his latest ruling that the defendants “exercised the constitutional right of free speech” in their publications about Reed as a public figure.

Unsurprisingly, Reed found a lawyer with as much baggage as he himself carries, but their pleadings always sounded like a plot synopsis from Mean Girls:

Larry Klayman, Reed’s attorney, stated, “The PGA Tour’s and its ‘partner’ the NBC’s Golf Channel’s mission is to destroy a top LIV Golf Tour player, his family, as well as all of the LIV Golf players, to further their agenda and alleged collaborative efforts to destroy the new LIV Golf Tour.”

“As alleged in the Complaint, these calculated malicious attacks have created hate, aided and abetted a hostile workplace environment, and have caused substantial financial and emotional damage and harm to Mr. Reed and his family.”

Did Klayman just bveak news?  Did the Tour and NBC got after Talor Gooch?  Because when you speak of a "top LIV golfer", your client doesn't seem to qualify.

The best part is the list of those now lined up at the Reed trough:

In addition to Gannett, the other defendants are Golfweek, Associated Press national golf writer Doug Ferguson, Golfweek columnist Eamon Lynch, Golf Channel commentators Brandel Chamblee and Damon Hack and golf reporter Shane Ryan.

Funny, Brooks isn't calling for a wellness check on Chamblee now....

The Kiz Moment -  They trotted him out yesterday unofficially, but today his fifteen minutes of fame commences, though this isn't keeping me up nights:

Kevin Kisner’s NBC broadcasting debut prompts 1 major question

Well actually, two:

“The first question I get from everyone is, Are you retiring?” Kisner told me, deadpan, Wednesday afternoon. “Then, once they find out what I’m doing, the second question I get is, How long is the delay?”

By “delay,” Kisner doesn’t mean “from his professional playing career.” Instead, he is referring to the FCC-mandated practice of airing certain sports broadcasts on a seven-second tape delay, a procedure enacted by the major broadcast networks to avoid receiving considerable fines for airing profane language or indecent images. Kisner, and his notorious potty mouth, will be putting such measures to the test this weekend.

Not sure retirement is quite the concept, he just suddenly found himself without many tee times.... His skills are quite obvious, he's just one of those short hitters that finds himself increasingly unable to compete.

So, he did the logical thing and asked Producer Tommy Roy that second question:

"I asked [NBC Golf producer Tommy Roy] that question and he said, 'Oh, no, there’s no delay.' I said, 'Well what happens if I mess up?' And he said, 'Well, you get canceled. I don’t.'"

Not much of a safety net! Although Kisner has been reminded of a few things not to say.

"Yeah, they've told me a few words not to mention on air," Kisner added with a laugh.

Yeah, words like Mickelson, Koepka, etc.

I would expect Kiz to be good fun, though word on the street is that NBC is Jonesing for Geoff Ogilvie.

Today In Golf Memes - Wither Nike?  Still awaiting official word from Tiger, but guys like Scottie Scheffler are still beswooshed, though Jason Day has officially moved on, now repping previously unknown-to-me golf apparel company Malbon.  

Let's just say, sartorially speaking, that he bogeyed the entire front nine:

👖🗣️“There’s just so much fabric” @MalbonGolf
pic.twitter.com/faslNA88Qi

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) January 5, 2024

Just a lucky break that those forecast high winds didn't materialize, as he might have parachuted into the Pacific.

Of course, fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, so memesters gotta meme:

pic.twitter.com/QVESC27rjd

— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) January 5, 2024

Jason Day at The Masters: pic.twitter.com/xNpfyXkv0m

— Scotty Holdridge (@holdridge_scott) January 5, 2024

Jason Day on the tee #TheSentry pic.twitter.com/rNV9t13K5c

— Colby Maverick (@TopShotboi) January 5, 2024

They're not all great, but they are suitably mean-spirited, so we've got that going for us.

Enjoy the weekend at Kapalua and I'll pick things up next week from the Unplayable Lies Western HQ on either Tuesday or Wednesday.   

Midweek Musings - Back To Kapalua Edition

OK, I typically save that header for Wednesday posts, but in my defense I did actually begin this post on a Wednesday, so I've got you on a technicality....  But you'll have live golf with Pacific Ocean eye candy available this evening, so light a fire and see if the Tour still holds any interest for you. 

Wither LIV/PIF - Another fine mess that Ollie has gotten us into, but we'll lede with this from Jay Monahan's memo to his players late last week:

A memo sent to the membership on Sunday from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan covered three primary points as the Tour continues to negotiate with both parties. From the Tour:

•  First, Monahan noted that “we have made meaningful progress” in negotiations with SSG and are currently working toward finalization of terms and drafting necessary documents.
• Secondly, with just hours until the Dec. 31 expiration date for the Framework Agreement with the PIF and DP World Tour, the memo spoke to an effort to extend the deadline into the new year based on the progress made to date. Monahan categorized the PIF and DP World Tour discussions as “active and productive.”
• Finally, the memo restated the Tour’s goal relative to all negotiations, which is to bring SSG, PIF and the DP World Tour on board as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises in 2024. Monahan said, “These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of the players, fans and sponsors.”

The word that should jump out at us is the M-word.  In their D-Day announcement, Saudi Arabia was expected to become the PGA Tour's major commercial sponsor, whereas they seem currently to be relegated to minority-investor status, which perhaps isn't what Al-Rumayyan thinks he negotiated.  

With talks bleeding into 2024, Adam Woodward has this on how the parties might be affected:

What's next: Breaking down the impact of extending PGA Tour, Saudi PIF and investor negotiations

Though he ends at the start with this, which only shows Woodward's misunderstanding of that Framework Agreement:

Should we even take the framework agreement seriously anymore?

It’s been surprising to see how quiet LIV and the PIF have been with regard to the framework agreement over the last few months given the interest from outside investors. The Tour has controlled the messaging with its updates to players and has been upfront by making more information public to fans, which shouldn’t come as a shock given the fallout from the surprise announcement of the agreement and the backroom dealings that took place to produce it.

But at this point, it’d be naïve to view the framework agreement as gospel given the material change in negotiations with the inclusion of outside investors. It was initially vague for a reason, and while that might help the powers that be, it’s causing headaches for those of us who just want to watch the best golfers in the world compete against each other.

We should take it as seriously as we took it on June 6th.  Even in the shock of that day a couple of things were obvious, first that their term sheet was almost completely devoid of actual terms, rendering any attempt to understand their agreement fruitless.  Interestingly, there were only two binding provisions, the withdrawal of the antitrust lawsuit and the non-disparagement clause.

So, how seriously should we have taken a non-binding term sheet?  Plenty seriously as far as intent was concerned, but the absence of detail seemed almost intentional.

This to me is where the rubber meets the road:

The role of outside investors

But if the PIF is so rich with its billions of dollars, why bring more cooks into the kitchen?

For a few reasons. First, follow the money. Rich people often enjoy doing business with other rich people because it usually means they’re going to make more money. What’s better than $3

billion? $7 billion, which is how much money could be involved according to ESPN.

An optimist could argue that bringing in outside investors is a way to make the deal more palatable given the U.S. government’s various questions. On the flip side, a pessimist could view the move as a way for the Tour to have its cake and eat it, too, by pushing the Saudis out after ending the litigation. The former seems more realistic and would be a step towards reuniting the game, while the latter would be another pivot from the Tour that would only lead to more battles with LIV.

There's also speculation that diluting the Saudi's investment helps with antitrust approval, all good as long as Yasir and Jay are on the same page.  Which seems to be the case, unless you think about that Jon Rahm signing...

While there's not much here, Woodward is the first I've seen to even pose this rather obvious query:

What will PGA Tour Enterprises even look like?

This is the multi-billion-dollar question. Integrating the LIV and Tour schedules as is won’t be

easy, and concessions will need to be made on both sides. In the memo sent to players on New Year’s Eve, Monahan said, “These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of the players, fans and sponsors.”

That all sounds great. But how will that be achieved?

Given LIV’s struggles to run a smooth operation and the Tour’s inability to manage its interests between top players and rank-and-file members, should we have confidence that the two sides can work together to create something the fans want to watch? Some parts of LIV have been good, but the concept hasn’t caught on as quickly as organizers would’ve hoped. The TGL was supposed to be a big step for the Tour, but it ended up as a faceplant.

Missing the Dec. 31 deadline could have a significant impact on when PGA Tour Enterprises gets off the ground, as well. Let’s say an agreement had been reached, that would have given LIV another full year to prove its worth and the powers that be plenty of time to iron out what the future of the tours and PGA Tour Enterprises would look like. The longer the negotiations take, the worse off we all will be. A divided game overshadowed by uncertainty isn’t good for anyone.

At the time of the announcement, the Tour indicated that it would continue to operate as a not-for-profit, leading me to initially conclude that the actual tournaments would not be part of the for-profit entity.  Woodward clearly assumes otherwise, though that is a level of complexity above my pay grade.

TGL is an asset one expects to be in the for-profit entity, and no doubt they can convince themselves to value it exuberantly, but that doesn't sniff at justifying the $3-7 billion of fresh capital contemplated.

Wither The Tour - Not diving too deep into the predictions for the coming season, but Sean Zak did lay down some markers of interest, and also accrues valuable bonus points for sharing last year's projections, which did include a LIV player winning a major.  So, 2024?

1. PGA Tour-Saudi PIF deal makes us all yearn for 2025

It’s not particularly exciting to begin a 2024 predictions post with an immediate look to 2025, but that’s what the initial takeaway will be when the two sides ultimately strike a deal. Golf things are just easier when they work on a calendar that begins in January, and the PGA Tour-PIF pact will be no different. Jon Rahm will be allowed to defend his AmEx title in January 2025 as the first LIV golfer to return to play in PGA Tour events. Until then, we’ll be treating 2024 as a bit of a gap year. It’ll make golf fans a bit antsy as a result, especially without a Ryder Cup in the fall. How much patience do we have?

Yeah, that seems a stretch, though certainly those four majors look pretty fine....

Now it seems he's just trying to piss me off:

2. Patrick Cantlay, Masters champion

At one point in recent memory, Cantlay was beloved by a sizable group of PGA Tour fans, christened “Patty Ice” when he out-putted Bryson DeChambeau at the 2021 BMW Championship. That feels like decades ago in Tour Politics Years, now that Cantlay has become a bit of a lightning rod for pace-of-play, pay-for-play and Tour governance issues. In 2024, he’ll earn plenty of fans back with a stone-cold, four-shot victory at Augusta National. Why? Well, he’s slowly crept toward contention at the Masters, and was quietly just five shots off the lead entering the final round in 2023. Also, this’ll be his first Masters with Joe LaCava on the bag. That can only help at ANGC, where LaCava has looped for multiple green-jacket winners.

And just when I was getting excited about those majors.....

6. Your favorite event will be the Women’s Open

Forget all those major championship winners discussed above. The major we’ll care about the most will come in August: the Women’s Open at the Old Course. In a year where the men’s major championship courses leave a bit to be desired on the excitement scale, thank goodness for the women taking on St. Andrews. One thing we might learn: In its current form, the Old Course might be a better tournament site for the women than for the men. And given the Open will take place the same week as the men’s BMW Championship, it’s the perfect starter to a full day of golf-couch lounging.

Yeah, you'd be hard-pressed to design a drearier set of major venues for the guys.  The positives are Pinehurst and that, being forced to go back to Louisville, that it's May instead of August.  But who thought that when we returned to Troon that both protagonists from the last visit would be in the witness protection program?

The Tour Confidential panel had a couple of forward-looking bits that we might as well grab:

What’s your 2024 storyline to watch that no one is talking about. (Yes, this excludes the potential of the aforementioned merger, which everyone is talking about.)

Colgan: Who the hell is going to be in the booth for NBC at the U.S. Open?! It’s been close to 40 years since the peacock entered a PGA Tour season with an element of uncertainty about who was going to be in the lead analyst chair for its biggest events. The fact the network is sticking to an apparent “tryout” for the job represents one of the weirdest subplots of the early Tour season.

This actually seems to bother some folks, whereas I take comfort that we're not stuck with whatever bozo is abusing my eardrums.

Berhow: The Olympics are back! But will golfers care this time? In Brazil in 2016 there was the Zika virus, and in Tokyo in 2020 there was Covid. And if those things didn’t scare professional golfers away, their own general indifference to Olympic competition did. Will they care in Paris this summer?

When does the issue of LIVsters in the Olympics rear its ugly head?   I'd send Patrick Reed and Phil, just to give them one last chance to find a fairway at Le Golf National.

Zak: It’s high time that some of the biggest names in the game win a major or another major. HIGH time. Nelly Korda should have more than one. Lexi Thompson should have more than one. Xander Schauffele should have one. Rory McIlroy, damn it, it’s high time! When a year passes with breakout victories like Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman or Lilia Vu, it’s great. But I’m looking for some legacy-building stuff and we got that from Rahm and Koepka, but I’m growing impatient at not seeing it from some others.

Lexi?  Heh, that's a good one!  Nelly is an interesting case, for sure, but I'll take the under on those other guys.

And the major-less player to nab their first in 2024 is…?

Colgan: Viktor Hovland! And he’s going to do it in Augusta.

Berhow: Hard to bet against Viktor with how he played the last few months. Another option: Patrick Cantlay. A dark horse: Ludvig Aberg.

Zak: Xander Schauffele and Linn Grant. It’s time.

Linn Grant is getting a lot of good press, though I view Cantlay and X-Man as being very much on the clock.  It's actually a little shocking how little those two have done in the majors.  And while I don't quibble about Aberg's talent, a major still seems a big ask, if only so soon.   

The Caddie Shuffle - I don't know what to make of this, but in the last year we saw longstanding caddie relationships ended so that experienced loopers could pick up the bags of young studs such as Tom Kim (Rickie Fowler's longtime looper Joe Skovron) and Cameron Young.  So what to make of the fact that the music played on?

Ludvig Aberg has a new caddie.

Aberg’s new caddie is Joe Skovron, who you’ll know as Rickie Fowler’s longtime caddie and, more recently, Tom Kim’s caddie. Aberg has played less than one full season on the PGA Tour but has already generated sky-high expectations after winning on the PGA and DP World Tours and impressing as a part of Team Europe at the Ryder Cup.

Skovron’s appearance was no surprise; we learned of the partnership a few weeks ago as Aberg sought a veteran caddie with big-pressure experience and let looper Jack Clarke go.

As well as:

Cameron Young has a new caddie.

Cameron Young and Paul Tesori have parted ways to start the year. The veteran caddie had joined Young’s team last March, which drew significant attention at the time given Tesori’s success on the bag of Webb Simpson.

In some ways the Young-Tesori partnership mirrored that of Skovron and Kim; both involved rising stars leaning on successful caddie vets. The pair got off to a promising start with a runner-up finish at the WGC-Match Play and a T7 at the Masters. But the rest of the season was below Young’s lofty standards.

I'm old enough to remember when Joe LaCava went to work for Dustin Johnson for all of an hour-and-a-half.  When LaCava jumped elsewhere (to be fair, it was for Tiger's bag) I was a lonely voice speculating that Joe hadn't liked what he saw from DJ.  Similarly, and admittedly both of those guys are on a down cycle, should these moves be viewed as commentary on the players they dumped?

Of course, we should keep our powder dry and see how long Joe himself stays with that perfect penis.... 

Loose Ends - A few bits in open browser tabs to clean up, first this requiring an intervention for Shane Ryan:

The 2023 Quadrant of everything that happened in golf

Shane's blinding insight is to use importance as one axis of his graph, the genius being bleakness/wholesomeness being the second axis.  The fun is in looking at the full spectrum, though the problem is that it doesn't copy in a form that you'll be able to readily read.

Shane provides larger images of each of the four quadrants, but I'll leave you to view those on your own.

It's a time suck, so you've been forewarned....

You already know that Eamon Lynch is very much old school, though we'll wish him luck in preaching about the importance of punctuation to today's screen-addicted kids:

Punctuation matters. pic.twitter.com/xTKZMfTAzm

— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) December 3, 2023

Tour WAG of the Year?   Alex Myers has dubbed Jessica Hadwin as the Queen of Golf Twitter, and it's quite the worthy nomination.  If you're looking for the anti-Justine-Reed, look no further, beginning with this modest little tweak:

Jess is watching Joel’s episode on full swing. Gets to him at the us open at Brookline. She asks me, and I quote “ did you play this one”?? Yes dear, it was my only major top 10 and I was leading after the first round 🤦🏻‍♂️

— adam hadwin (@ahadwingolf) December 10, 2023

That's gonna leave a mark..... But that made me go an find this fun bit, reminding me that these two should teach a master class in staying normal:

2 celeb/golf pro backyard greens companies came out to give us a quote. Neither had any idea Adam is a golfer and one even said “you sure you want to chip towards the house?” He also told him about all the pros he’s done before. Play better and/or get tackled harder am I right?

— Jessica Hadwin (@jessicahadwin) December 19, 2023

First, that is just the perfect skewering of that tedious "Play Better" trope about which your humble blogger is always ranting, but to link it to "get tackled harder" is just comedic genius.   I assume y'all remember him being tackled after Nick Taylor sunk that snake to win the Canadian, But his bride of the year also had this back at the time:

Luckily, Hadwin wasn’t injured among the confusion, which Jessica confirmed in another tweet: “Sorry to leave ya’ll hanging, had to get the toddler ready for bed. I’m thrilled to report that @ahadwingolf is still among the land of the living and in true Canadian form, apologized to the security guard for being tackled.”

Even better was this with those contractors:

No, we just oooo’d and aaaaa’d at the list of other professional golfers haha

— Jessica Hadwin (@jessicahadwin) December 19, 2023

That'll be all for today and likely the week.  Enjoy Kapalua (coverage starts at 6:00 p.m. EST) and your weekend snow, and we'll p[ick things up early next week.