Friday, March 1, 2024

Late-Week Leftovers - Return Of The Prodigal Son Edition

Just a few bits for you this morning.  But, before getting to the news, here's a quick scene from the Wasatch Range:

Photo: Lee Rouman

We've always been blessed with moose sightings at the Ski Resort Formerly Known as The Canyons, but it's even better since Vail built a new lift called Over and Out, which spans a ridgeline and greatly shortens our trip home.  The final hillock has become Moose Central, and ski buddy Lee caught this guy on our Wednesday transit.

No matter the quality of the ski day the precedes it, seeing these guys always makes my day.

AK, The Resurrection -  He's the Yeti, The Golem and The Loch Ness Monster all in one package.... of course, the Yeti never had to keep a scorecard, so we'll see how it all goes.

So, how does it begin?

Kinda weird that it starts with a "The road begins" before the segue to redemption....

To be fair, it actually began with a trial balloon hinting that a PGA Tour return was under consideration, which never made much sense to this observer.  While AK obviously was uniquely situated, given the insurance proceeds at risk, LIV was the obvious soft-landing of choice:

There’s still so much we don’t know. But here’s what we do know: Kim signed a deal with LIV
Golf that has secured him one of the league’s two “wild-card” spots in each of the league’s 10 remaining regular-season events in 2024. Kim’s lone-wolf status means he will not be on a team, but if he plays well enough, he could find stablemates next season. Just as TV shows need to prove their merit and watchability, Kim will need to do the same in what is essentially a pilot season. LIV executives believe the brashness and aggressive play for which Kim was known aligns with the league’s ethos. “When I think of Anthony Kim,” LIV CEO Greg Norman said in a press release announcing Kim’s signing, “I can’t imagine a more perfect fit for what we’re trying to do.”

Sure.... He's twelve years past his sell-by date, so I totally see the perfect fit... 

But it all feels a bit off somehow:

If you’re a Kim diehard or merely have just been intrigued by the mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance, you might have long fantasized about this day and maybe even envisioned how an AK reemergence might look and feel: a buzzy private-jet arrival on a local airstrip, entourage in tow; Kim bursting into a packed-house press conference like the Kool-Aid Man through a brick wall; rapt reporters absorbing riveting details from our protagonist about how he has spent the better part of his 30s. Yes, we’re exaggerating here, but for a guy who lived large, AK’s reintroduction has been surprisingly low key — and, in all its crypticness, a bit weird, too.

Crypticness?  Creepiness?  Whatev....

Kim will begin his revival Friday at LIV’s Saudi Arabia event. The first round at Royal Greens Golf Club, in Jeddah, starts at 11:15 a.m. local time, which means if you’re an American fan on the East Coast and want to see Kim’s opening blast (in the shotgun start, he’ll be going off the par-5 home hole alongside major winners Cameron Smith and Graeme McDowell), you’ll need to flip on the CW app at 3:15 a.m.

That Kim’s comeback party is unfolding half a world away from American golf fans is, of course, contributing to its subdued nature. So, too, is the dearth of American media on site, and perhaps this is precisely how Kim and LIV drew it up. A LIV representative told me Wednesday that no U.S.-based reporters are at Royal Greens this week, which, in part, helps explain how in two team press conferences Wednesday — one of which included McDowell — Kim’s name wasn’t mentioned. Not a single question about the splashiest LIV story line since the league inked Jon Rahm.

 I was shocked there was no letterman jacket.... is it too warm in Jeddah?

But these guys don't seem to get the ABC's of PR, do they?

Even Kim didn’t field any queries about Kim. That’s because he didn’t have a press conference, and won’t; at least he has none scheduled before play begins. One might think LIV would be eager to get its newest, shiniest recruit in front of cameras and microphones, but either Kim or LIV, or both, is instead electing to slow-play his assimilation. When I asked about when the league intends to bring Kim to a podium, the LIV rep told me, “We will when the time is right.”

Well, when you have those kind of boffo ratings, you can dribble out all your PR successes....

That’s similar messaging to what Kim himself delivered in a short video LIV published to its social channels Wednesday. In that video, Kim is playing a Royal Greens hole in shorts, an untucked white t-shirt emblazoned with “GIRL DAD” (he has a toddler daughter, Georgia) and a white LIV hat with a ponytail popping out of the back. “I’ll tell my story when it’s the right time, but right now I’m focused on golf,” he says. Toward the end of the video, Kim adds, “I’m 38 now so I don’t know quite a few of the guys, but I’m here to bust everyone’s ass.”

Whatever he thinks that means, though your unenlightened blogger thought he was there to play golf.  

So, where will this get AK and LIV?  I neglected to include this Alan Shipnuck tweet from my prior post on the topic:

Three at most, but I'm unclear in what sense that's unfair?  He'd have all the time in the world had he tried to return to the PGA Tour, but that would have entailed a grind to get back into relevance.  He took the easy way out, so there is a resulting need to deliver....

Another take on the same issue:

All that posturing, though, will quickly become moot if Kim isn’t competitive. The single biggest
question on fans’ minds is how will he play? Does he still have it, or even any semblance of it? After more than a decade in the wilderness, can he possibly challenge recent major winners like Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith? No matter how many money games Kim has been playing around Dallas and SoCal, it’s hard to fathom his game is sharp enough to hang with world beaters. The oddsmakers have set an over-under for Kim’s first round at 74.5; Royal Greens is a par-70. The over-under for his overall finish is 48.5 (out of 54). Line-setters are right far more often than they’re wrong. Kim will have this start plus one more (March 8-10 in Hong Kong) before his U.S. debut, which will come at Trump National Doral, in Miami, the week before the Masters.

Beyond the state of Kim’s game, another big question lurks, one which is harder to quantify: How much does the golf world still care about Anthony Kim? Do you care? If you’re of a certain age, you might not. Kim last played in a PGA Tour event in 2012 and last won in 2010. That was 14 years ago, meaning most golf fans under the age of 30 have at best hazy memories of Kim’s prime or, more likely, no memories at all. My neighbor, who is in his late 40s, is a rabid golf fan and weekly PGA Tour watcher. When the news first surfaced that Kim was plotting a return to pro golf, I texted him for his take. He replied, “I feel out of the loop that I don’t really remember Anthony Kim.”

I'd add one further question, to wit, how much does the golf world care about LIV?

 So, how's it goin?  Not a promising start, but obviously we shouldn't overreact to one swing:

That was actually in Thursday's Pro-Am so, shockingly, your humble blogger is willing to acceded to his request for a mulligan.... After all, golf is hard.

I loved that oddsmaker citation above, but I assume that, having dispensed with first tee jitters on Thursday, of course Friday would go better.... Right?


Professional golf is hard. Especially after taking 12 years off. Just ask Anthony Kim.

The 38-year-old returned to the golfing world this week at LIV Golf Jeddah, and it went about how you would expect it would after not playing in a competitive round for more than a decade.

Kim shot 6-over 76, dead last in the 54-player field at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. He had seven bogeys, one birdie on the par-4 sixth and plenty of competitive rust to shake off.

Hope y'all took the over....  No one should ever take eighteen holes as a sufficient sample size, though the irony is that one round assumes greater importance when you're playing only three versus four.  He just needs to show that the talent is still there, even if his play is inconsistent.  One birdie on this easy a track doesn't meet even that low bar, so we'll see how the rest of his Saudi sojourn plays out.

How bad was a 76?  Pretty bad...

Kim’s round was the worst of the day by two shots (Bubba Watson shot 4-over 74). He was one of only eight players to shoot over par on the opening day of LIV Golf Jeddah.

Meanwhile, Adrian Meronk and Jon Rahm are tied on top of the leaderboard after opening 8-under 62s on Friday.

Hey, he's only fourteen shots off the lead..... 

But see if you can keep from laughing at this:

That's funny, but the spit-take is here:

Look no further than when he shanked his approach shot on the par-5 fifth hole. Later in the broadcast, Greg Norman said a drone flying overhead caused the mishit.

Yeah, a drone.  That's the ticket....

Other LIV News -  Can you feel the game growing?  So, big news on the media front for LIV, although quite the tell in the header:

LIV Golf lands a surprising new TV partner

That sounds promising, especially since the CW refuses to preempt Buffy reruns for Friday golf....   But what exactly is their definition of TV?

On Tuesday morning, LIV Golf announced an agreement with the U.S.-based streaming partner Caffeine to carry the league’s Friday tournament coverage through at least the rest of the year.

A real long-term commitments, plus where does that TV come in?

COFFEE GOLF

If the name “Caffeine TV” means nothing to you … well, you’re not alone. To the outside eye, it’s tempting to view Tuesday’s announcement as a half-measure of last year’s semi-disappointing weekend broadcast agreement with the CW. Just as last time, LIV touted months of “negotiations” with interested buyers before it wound up settling on an unheralded partner with little name value as a sports broadcasting entity. And just as last time, the league struck out with the creme de la creme of the sports TV world.

While LIV surely would have preferred a multi-year agreement with a glitzy sports streamer like Amazon or Apple, the Caffeine deal has a few things to like for the upstart league — even if it still leaves a few major questions unanswered.

I beg to differ....  It actually answers all the important questions, most notably that there is no demand to broadcast LIV tourneys, at least not where anyone might actually see them.

But talk about setting a low bar:

TGIF

At the simplest level, the Caffeine deal is important because it shores up LIV’s “Friday problem”:
The league has not had a TV rights partnership for its Friday tournament coverage since inception, meaning one-third of its tournaments have gone unsold from a media rights standpoint. In a sports landscape where leagues make the majority of their cash from TV rights deals, giving away Friday for free on the LIV Golf app and for a nominal subscription fee on YouTube just wasn’t financially sustainable.

The good news is that those days are now over. Even if the Caffeine deal nets pennies on the dollar for LIV, it’s still pennies more than the league had last year. (And the league could still sign a Friday linear TV partner.)

The bad news is that it’s not clear how much the Caffeine deal changes LIV’s perception. Landing any sort of agreement is good for optics, but considering the deal marks another failure to penetrate the billion-dollar budgets of legacy providers (and came two events into the new season), it still smells a bit like desperation.

Wow, that changes everything!  The golf tour so irrelevant that it can't find a Friday TV deal, still has no Friday TV deal.  Click through if you're so inclined, as James Colgan provides a deep dive into Caffeine, none of which actually seems remotely relevant to LIV.  Though his final bit will make you laugh:

Fully anecdotal: The tech seems relatively crisp and clean, but even after disabling my browser’s ad blocker on Tuesday morning, I was unable to pull up a working stream. (Maybe I’m just getting old.)

No worries, James.... After all, it's not like golf draws an older crowd.

Another storm cloud on the horizon.... Does anyone remember the Premiere Golf League?  

LIV Golf is involved in a potential eight-figure legal dispute over allegations it copied its format from the Premier Golf League, according to a report from The Times of London.

The PGL, a theoretical competitor to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, traces its roots back to 2014, with details of the circuit becoming public in 2020 as principals began an attempt to lure the game’s best to participate. The league was headed by Andrew Gardiner, a British attorney and businessman, who pitched his vision to multiple outlets, including to Golf Digest. Gardiner’s vision was a tour with 54-hole tournaments and shotgun starts, with teams of four players simultaneously competing for individual and team prizes. The project was backed initially by Saudi Arabian’s financers.

“The planning is all done, the platform is built, the financial backing is in place,” Gardiner told Golf Digest in 2020. “Now, this will only happen with the support of the players, the sponsors and broadcasters, and the fans.”

Of course your humble blogger's mind envisions Yasir being forced to testify, though the Saudis will do as the Saudis do:

Though the PGL has attempted to continue, nothing of substance has come to fruition. Publicly, Gardiner has been relatively quiet on LIV. ​​“I’m not angry at all,” he once told Today’s Golfer. “We see [LIV] as a testament to us because it is, for all intent and purposes, the same format that we devised.” But according to the Times, the PGL has been engaged in a secret battle with LIV, likely around intellectual property.

So far, there is no filing in courts. That’s because, according to the Times, the PGL has instructed its lawyers to find a resolution to avoid arbitration. For its troubles, the PGL initially was seeking $60 million from the Saudi-backed circuit. The Times story goes on to say that possible settlement could be more in the neighborhood of $12.6 million.

Neighborhood?  That's an awfully specific round number....

Doesn't sound like much of a claim, unless the Saudis signed some kind of NDA or non-compete.  But couldn't happen to a nice bunch of fellows.

I know that's short by the standards of Unplayable Lies, but I do need to get to a few things before making turns.  Bear with me and we'll cover everything important, eventually.  

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Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Midweek Musings - Screwing The Gooch Edition

For those concerned, no frostbite was incurred yesterday.  It was certainly cold and windy, though nothing near as low as the forecasts cited.  As for the freshies, they were plentiful as my quads could attest.  Things will now return to normal, and I'll be back to skiing with the old guys.

I wasn't planning to blog today, but then Golf Twitter melted down.  

Tinker, Talor - The gift that keeps on giving.... At one point I deemed Goochie the most insufferable of the LIVsters, an extremely competitive category when you include Phil, Sergio, PReed, Pat Perez and the other varied and sundry malcontents.  This eruption bears more than a passing resemblance to my personal favorite in which he compared LIV's team format to the Ryder Cup.... The comedy gold coming from the fact that the speaker's best chance of experiencing a Ryder Cup was to apply to be a standard bearer.  

So, here's the bit where the foot is inserted deep into mouth:

If Talor Gooch were still a member of the PGA Tour, he’d likely be in the running for one of the top spots in the Player Impact Program.

He has a knack for stirring up social media, and his latest remarks went viral after taking a shot at Rory McIlroy and the Masters, specifically.

“If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his (career) Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk. It’s just the reality,” Gooch told Australian Golf Digest. “I think everybody wins whenever the majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world there.”

That sound you hear is Roger Maris spinning in his grave.  Of course, that original sports-related asterisk was to protect the legacy of Babe Ruth, whereas this is merely a whine from a guy without an invite.  Though The babe and Talor are just as comparable as LIV's team competition and the Ryder Cup, so he's got that going for him.

At the risk of taking the Goochster seriously, who are these "best players" not in the Masters?  Well....

Pretty much.

You'll be shocked to know that Golf Twitter reacted rather harshly, unlike the reasoned approach we feature here at Unplayable Lies.  To be fair, the Masters field is woefully small (and you know how your humble blogger feels about field size), but this guy is the least of the victims:

One might assume that, to render such a bold assertion, that Gooch would have a strong record in majors, but there's a funny thing about assumptions:

It’s unclear why Gooch called out McIlroy specifically, or if McIlroy was perhaps brought up in the question given this April he’ll again chase the career grand slam, which he can achieve if he wins the Masters and will no doubt again be one of the tournament’s key storylines. It’s also unclear if Gooch was talking about himself, or other players he feels are being left out. (Gooch has played in 11 majors in his career. He’s missed four cuts and has yet to record a top 10.)

But does Gooch not realize the logic of his assertion?  I mean what follows is laugh-out-loud funny, limited only by the low degree of difficulty:

And of far greater consequences:

Hey, take your asterisk with a little grace, Mister.

Did Talor not see this coming:

What do you mean by maybe?

Dunking on the guy is good fun, but isn't this really the issue?

Which highlights the larger issue for our hero, which is that those three LIV wins are the only thing he's ever accomplished in golf.  And, unlike Niemann, he's not prepared to actually earn it.

It also provides an opportunity to revisit this amusing bit:

I might have forgotten that story, but no doubt the Green Jackets haven't.... Speaking of which, have you seen the redesign:

In the interest of fair play, I'll include this:

In both incidents cited, there's a wanton cluelessness about the game, and his own position therein.  It of course also reeks of entitlement and a refusal to bear the consequences of his own decisions, so that bit about him being a genuinely nice guy might bear reexamination.

But the mots important bit is how easy it makes blogging....

Point- Counter-Point - A split verdict on The Match, first from our old friend Michael Bamberger (and the buried lede here is that he seems to have moved back from The Fire Pit Collective to Golf Magazine): 

The coolest thing about the moonlit Match IX wasn’t its star power

Thank God, because that star power was fairly marginal.... I hate to be a doggy downer, but on the distaff side the two participants include a woman barely holding onto her LPGA card and a youngster with all of one win...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Maybe the coolest thing was that the golf was played under the light of a February moon, one tick past full, aided and abetted by a hundred floodlights. Monday
Night Golf, people, Match IX, live on TNT Sports, 12 holes of holiday golf featuring (no surnames needed!) Max and Rory and Lexi and Rose. Golf at night. We need more golf at night.

Or was the coolest thing the venue, the old West Palm Beach public course, now rebranded as The Park? There’s the centerpiece, the 18-hole public course, a giant playfield of semi-flat, firm turf where you can play line-drive golf from start to finish and never lose a ball. But wait, there’s more public fun to come! The Park also has a spectacular, free-to-all public practice putting green, heaving and vast, that is hugely fun. And an open-to-the-public driving range. And an open-to-the public lighted par-3 course. Count ‘em up people: six sentences, one public per sentence. We need more public golf.

Or maybe the coolest thing was Charles Barkley’s old-school, itty-bitty lined yellow pad that he scribbled on while working the gig for TNT, alongside Christina Kim, Trevor Immelman and Ernie Johnson? From what I could observe, Sir Charles was taking his assignment semi-seriously, but you’ll have to tell me. I could see him. I couldn’t hear him. I know he takes his golf seriously. Have you seen his swing lately? It’s no longer a chapter book.

I guess he liked it.  But as much as I like Mike (I've called him the conscience of our game on occasion), I'm a little unclear as to the rest of his thoughts.  I get that he was amused, and there's no problem with that.  But it all seems to go a bit far:

The old Honda event, now called the Cognizant, is being played this week up the road at PGA National. This Monday, the annual pro-member will be played at Seminole, and if you had a dime
for every Seminole logo you saw at Match IX, you would have made way more than Homa received for his caddying duties. The conversion of the West Palm Beach muni into The Park was a beloved pet project for a wide range of prominent civic-minded South Florida golf people, many of whom have visited the Seminole pro shop. The golf analyst Dory Faxon, wife of Brad, made the best early-evening observation, while standing on the practice putting green: “Being here is like being under the tree at Augusta.”

Yes, except at Augusta, play is not halted when a freight train is coming through. Augusta is not hard by I-95. You can’t roll up to Augusta and play its par-3 course.

Augusta is some course and the Masters is some tournament and golf is lucky to have both. As the saying goes, the road to Augusta begins at the Cognizant!

I'm old enough to remember when that road started at Doral, but this made-for-TV entertainment product has precious little to do with our game.

But public golf (as the man once sang) is where it’s at. The Delray Beach muni, down the road from here, is getting a makeover. So is the Augusta muni, aka The Patch. Ditto for Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia and courses in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and anywhere else you throw a dart.

“Golf needs more of this,” Homa said at the end of the night. He wasn’t talking about his scoreboard total or his souped-up cart. He was talking about the thing that makes the game the game. A course, and a path to it. That’s what Match IX was all about. Lighting up a course, and the path to it. The coolest thing of all.

The actual support of public golf, long a theme of Mike's work, is truly great, and to the extent this event furthered that, all to the good.  But does golf need more nights like that?  Maybe, but only as long as the entertainment product actually entertains....  It's taken them nine installments to get to here, and even this one wasn't quite the home run Mike saw.  

Having watched only the early portion of the festivities, I suspect this is more useful feedback:


We have to start here. There were simply too many cooks in the kitchen on Monday night.

Ernie Johnson was the studio host and was joined by Trevor Immelman, Christina Kim and Charles Barkley. Kathryn Tappen was the on-course reporter while DJ Khaled and Paul Bissonnette provided special contributions (that weren’t so special after all). That’s seven people on top of the four players who were also mic’d up, and more than half of them don’t need to return next time around.

Christina Kim provided some analysis but dropped way too many cringe-worthy lines to get an invite back. Bissonnette is a wild character who didn’t get a fair shake to show his fun personality, largely because he was always paired with DJ Khaled, who didn’t provide anything of substance to the broadcast and frankly took away from it.

There's quite a bit of advise contained in the piece, much of it good:

Simply put, fans are watching for the players. You don’t need a side-show of personalities and interviews with PGA of America President Seth Waugh and LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. Let the players carry the conversation. They’re the stars of the show.

That's why that fast forward button is so important.

Bring back team golf

The individual skins format worked and provided some drama after three straight pushes (and a late $500,000 contribution) made the 12th hole worth a whopping $1.6 million. That said, fans see individual play every week. Bring back team golf.

Not only would a team element speed up pace of play, which Monday night desperately needed, but it may even spring some more trash talk between the players. All four players were complimentary of one another, and they also needled each other. As seen in past editions, the team format provides a different element of competition that can only help.

I don't necessarily disagree, but equating a skins game to individual competition is an odd way to frame it.  

But it does get a bit odd here:

 But look where he starts from:

Seeing Tiger and Phil go head-to-head was fun. Brooks and Bryson settling their beef was cool. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson made for interesting moments, but we see enough NFL and MLB players at Lake Tahoe and Pebble Beach. The mixed-event model was well past due and proved it deserves to be featured heavily in future editions.

Seeing Tiger and Phil go head-to-head should have been fun, but the reality was far drearier, in large part because Tiger himself isn't all that interesting mic'ed up.  But most of these events were dreadfully boring, so this one certainly was a step in the right direction.

But no clue how he gets here:

And yeah, I’ll say it, let’s get some of the LIV guys back in the fold. Lefty is showing his personality again and could slot in well as a player or analyst. Say what you will about Koepka and DeChambeau, but both are either loved or hated by fans, and those kinds of polarizing personalities work in made-for-TV hit and giggles like The Match.

Yeah, that's the ticket.  I'm not sure where to find these guys that love Brooksie and Bryson, but their cage match was amongst the worst of the lot.  Of course the only interesting moments in the entire oeuvre came from Phil, principally his intense coaching of Barkley that one time.  

But it's passing strange that he would posit that, given that it was Tiger and Phil that owned and started this thing, but our Phil has acquired some baggage since then.  In fact, so much baggage that he was defenestrated from the sponsorship group, and Tiger hates him with a passion.  So, no, Phil is not an option for future installments.

One of Life's Enduring Mysteries - Do we really need an explanation here?

How the PGA Tour’s new billion-dollar equity plan could help prevent player defections

Kind of blindingly obvious, no?  Give those top ten players a billion dollars and perhaps they'll hang around.  Go figure.

 The gist of this piece is about the equity component:

However, how does that investment really work for the players—who stand to collect more than $1.5 billion in equity—in the near and long-term? According to experts in venture capital and sports entrepreneurship, the playbook appears to look a lot more like Silicon Valley than Pine Valley.

The new entity—PGA Tour Enterprises—built an equity distribution plan that looks similar to something tech companies use to protect themselves from losing their most valuable contributors to deep-pocketed competitors. "The whole idea behind restricted stock units [RSUs] is to motivate employees to stay and create more value for the business," says Matt Erley, who before founding golf start-up fund Old Tom Ventures was the head of growth at beverage-delivery startup Drizly when it was acquired by Uber. "You're acting like an owner."

In broad terms, RSUs work in two phases: how they're allocated and triggered, and how and when they vest. At a tech start-up backed by a venture capital firm, the leadership team will usually assign a certain amount of equity to be distributed each year to contributors for a variety of reasons—from simply being a member of the team to achieving a performance milestone. The rules about how and when contributors get access to the equity they've been awarded are set with strategic goals in mind.

But you'll be shocked to know who's grabbing the lion's share of the kitty:

Confirmed details about the PGA Tour's new equity plan are still murky, but we know there will be four broad categories of players earning equity stakes in this initial round: A handful of superstars like Tiger Woods will share $750 million. A second group of 64 players will share $75 million based on their past three years of performance. The third group—mostly the remaining fully-exempt current players—will share $30 million, and a group of 36 designated "founding" players will share $75 million for their historical contributions. Another $600 million will be distributed in the future through recurring grants based on factors like on-course performance and Player Impact Program finish.

I totally get that the only way to grow the game is to pay Patrick, and I'm totally on board.

I don't have the time to go too deep into this, but employee ownership has a long history in the private sector.  The tech references are to be expected, where stock ownership has created millionaires out of receptionists.  But those were created largely through the public markets, which we won't see here.  The real underlying issue will be profitability, which will require a dramatic increase in the revenue base, about which we have mostly happy talk.

I need to get moving.  I'll see you as time and golf news permit.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Tuesday Catch-Up - Arctic Blast Edition

Thanks for your patience with my absence.  I've had one great day at Snowbasin and one tough day at Alta with my nephew, and no clue what awaits today.  The high for the day is forecast to be 9 degrees, with winds of 20+ mph (I won't depress myself with the potential gusts).  But there's 10 inches of fresh reported as of 5:30 a.m., and it should keep snowing most of the day.  Frostbite vs. freshies.... what's a fellow to do?

Just gonna do a drive-by on a handful of recent stories, and we'll resume regular blogging later in the week.

The Match, Distaff Edition - I saw some of the early bits:

The Match 9 takeaways: Fun had by (almost) all, Rory comes up clutch and Rose almost gets taken out

The ninth iteration of The Match was already running a little long. Then, after Rose Zhang poured in a short birdie putt to tie Max Homa on the 12th and final hole of the evening, it was about to run a little bit longer.

All it took after that, though, was one short wedge shot from Rory McIlroy, who locked up the skins game title by hitting one to two feet at The Park in West Palm's par-5 18th. Below are our takeaways from a night where fun was had by (almost) all.

It did seem that they are maybe figuring this thing out, though it was perhaps less about Max and more about Charles and Christina...

Fun was had by (almost) all

During every one of these made-for-TV affairs, the usual suspects have to make it known that THEY AREN'T WATCHING. But because of the venue, more hardcore golf fans tuned in, and then they went after someone on the broadcast rather than the broadcast's existence itself—DJ Khaled. "Who is he?" and "Why is he here?" they cried. To have fun. To make people smile. To bring in some eyeballs that would otherwise NEVER watch golf and are now tuned in on a freaking Monday night in primetime. It's really not that deep, people. Add in Paul Bissonnette, AKA Biz, and you had a pair of electric personalities doing their best to bring some much-needed energy to the evening. As McIlroy said in the pre-Match press conference, these things are about experimenting and trying new things. Playing under the lights, having DJ Khaled and Biz team up in a cart, one-club challenges, etc. It's not the Masters and nor does it have to be. And I promise you, this April, you will still have your Masters. On Monday night, Feb. 26, it's OK to experiment.

The problem with the sycophantic press is that they're not smart enough to protect their own credibility.  The tenor was amusing, heck even Lexi got into the spirit of things and was engagingly self-effacing.  But those two guys I'd never heard of were crack-the-cyanide capsule painful, and I'm not the only one that thought so:

And loud and unfunny, always a great combo platter.

More under the lights, more LPGA/PGA Tour crossovers

As McIlroy said, these matches are little "labs" to experiment with. Clearly, the under the lights experiment is working. The visuals are very tough to beat and this match in particular was so well lit you could follow the ball all the way through the night sky to the point it first landed. This time of year at night in Florida is also as peak weather as it gets. As for the competitors, the LPGA-PGA Tour crossover might need to be the move going forward. I've never been a hater of the NFL/NBA players, but the golf is not exactly quality. People want to see very good golf shots at very good courses, and this edition of The Match checked both those boxes.

I think what we've found from these things is that the PGA players alone don't provide a reason enough to tune in, and the amateurs alone weren't any better.  But mix the familiar Tour pros with something different, think Phil coaching Charles Barkley, and it can work.  

And I also love the one-club challenge, but don't at all get why the can't use the same one-club, especially since their bags (at least comparing the men and ladies) are constructed so differently, that the confusion as to whether Rose could use a 4-hybrid when Lexi had chosen a 4-iron seems so unnecessary....  But that half-5-wood Rory hit might have been the most interesting swing of the night (said having only seen half of the event).

Good on them for amusing us a bit on a dark winter night, and for giving a couple of the ladies a showcase.  Just one nagging question.... I had been reliably informed that golf is a global game, so why the four Yanks?  Just kidding, we all know the answer.

But we can all agree this isn't the direction they should go:

Haven't we suffered enough already?

A.K., The Man, The Myth, The Belt Buckle - You've heard the news by now:

So, Anthony Kim is going to play tournament golf again, the LIV Golf way. That is, payment up front. For more than a decade now, Kim has been paid, by an insurance company, not to play.

This week, at a LIV event in Saudi Arabia, Kim will start a new chapter of his enigmatic life.

Good luck, kid.

Excuse me, this just in: He’s 38.

Well, good luck, Mr. Kim.

To give this news the gravitas it doesn’t deserve, GOLF.com reported on Jan. 25 that Kim was considering a return to tournament golf. Word of Kim’s Saudi start first surfaced on X over the weekend by way of @FlushingIt and @LIVGolfUpdates, and soon after Golf Channel reporter Rex Hoggard, as well-sourced as anybody covering the professional game today, gave the news more credibility with a story citing unnamed sources. LIV still hasn’t officially confirmed that Kim is in the Jeddah field, but on Monday morning, it came awfully close, dropping a moody teaser video that showed images of Kim hitting shots against a desertscape. Greg Norman and his people must have made it worth Kim’s while to sign with LIV — for how many appearances we don’t know — just as they did for various other golfers with familiar names and past-post games.

Golf's Yeti is returning after more than a decade of hibernation, and the geniuses of LIV have decided to hold that coming out party in.....checking notes, Jeddah?  Wow, those are some serious public relations chops on display.... Or, perhaps they know more about the state of AK's game than we do.

But it's quite the mellifluous melding of personality and forum, a guy who may not remember which end of the club to grasp with the ultimate golf circus sideshow.... But this is a pretty cutting jibe, no?

In his early 20s, Kim was a spectacular talent. There was something galvanizing about him, thisdiminutive kid choking up on the driver and killing it with a long, flowing follow-through. He was so light on his feet, like a lightweight boxer, and he had so much speed with every club, plus the flying mullet at impact. He was Brooks Koepka before there was a Brooks Koepka, but Kim seemed to take himself much less seriously. He was refreshingly outside the country-club system, and he could shoot 66 on a hard course and make it look easy, fun and meaningless.

Ummmm, didn't see this coming, but I feel compelled to defend Brooksie.  I mean, there were those four majors in three seasons, whereas AK was all sizzle and little steak.  I get why he intrigued folks, but a pretty wide chasm in the potential vs. actual results comparison, no?

This week's Tour Confidential panel devoted as much time to the actual PGA Tour event in Mexico as I will, but they were all over this story:

1. According to Golf Channel, Anthony Kim will play in LIV Golf’s Saudi Arabia event this week, which would mark his first professional start in more than a decade. We reported last month that Kim was mulling a return to either the PGA Tour or LIV Golf, and now, it appears, Kim has made his decision. Does LIV feel like the right landing place for him?

Right place?  heck, it's a marriage made in heaven....

Josh Sens: Seems like an easy decision for Kim. Safe and sensible. So much so that I can’t imagine he really gave the PGA Tour much serious consideration. The route he has chosen is essentially a free roll. Guaranteed money. If he plays well, it’s heroic. If he struggles, he has a good excuse.

Jack Hirsh: I agree with Sens. Kim will likely at least be getting the value of his insurance policy (reportedly $10 million) upfront. Do I think he wants to fly all the way to Saudi Arabia to go back to competitive golf? It’s interesting, to say the least. For LIV it’s a no-brainer because, at least for this week’s event and its next U.S. event (the week before the Masters in Miami), lots of golf fans will no doubt tune in to see the man who has become something of a mythical figure in the game. The timing is questionable given that LIV’s next two events are both in Asia, meaning the broadcasts will either be in the wee hours of the morning or on tape delay in other major markets.

Sean Zak: This is gonna sell some tickets in Miami. You can bet on that. In fact, I LOVE the comeback starting in Saudi Arabia. Golf fans in the States will wake up to his scores every morning. And where can they watch highlights? LIV’s YouTube channel. LIV’s social feeds. Two weeks abroad, then back to Miami, which has probably been the most comfy location for LIV to date. All of that one week before Augusta. It checks out more than people will give credit to.

Jack, it all depends on the meaning of "lots"....

Sean, are you saying that LIV has given up on anyone watching their painful broadcasts, and now it's a "W" if they catch a swing or two of highlights on YouTube?  Did the CW get the memo?

Has anyone thought through what happens if he shoots in the mid-80's?  There's an old Wall Street adage that you buy on the rumor and sell on the fact, which could well apply here.  There's pent up interest, but that can only be sustained if the guy can still play.

2. All these years later, what’s your read on Kim’s Q rating and the kind of impact he potentially could have on drawing attention and eyeballs to LIV?

Eyeballs, plural?  Given that Phil, Cam and Rahmbo haven't delivered on that, it's quite the big ask...

Sens: I’d expect the curiosity factor to draw a lot of eyeballs to begin with. How can you not want to see how he fares after such a long layoff and all the questions that surrounded him? But unless he plays great — which seems unlikely — I suspect the interest will be short-lived. Some stories are more compelling when they remain a mystery.

Hirsh: I mentioned this above, but at least for his first rounds, I’m willing to bank on LIV drawing some fairly good ratings, but they’ll be hurt by the time differences. If Kim plays well in Jeddah and Hong Kong, LIV Miami could provide some serious competition to the PGA Tour’s Texas Open the week before the Masters.

Zak: He’ll be the talk of Twitter this week. What is that actually worth? It’s more than the other wildcard players on LIV are doing. Which makes him worth another drop-in-the-bucket bunch of money.

Yes, this creates some buzz, but am I the only one that sees downside here?  Well, there's this one other guy:

Lynch: A second coming of Anthony Kim would mesmerize his cult, but it wouldn’t save LIV Golf or the PGA Tour

This is actually an Eamon Lynch piece originally posted in late January before he opted into LIV, which we excerpted back then.  So, peruse it at your pleasure.

But the larger issue, to this observer, is how it plays into the big picture.  I've been calling LIV a circus sideshow since it booted up, and isn't this the moral equivalent of landing the tattooed lady for said sideshow?

Now think about all the caterwauling about how they deserve OWGR points?  Nothing says we're a totally legit professional tour quite like hiring a guy because of his flashy belt buckle.... The Match with Lexi and Rose was more credible.

Charley - Did someone mention guys posting in the mid-80's?  A bit of a predictably ugly scene, unfortunately:

Charlie Woods, in a bid to play in his first PGA Tour event, reportedly encountered more than a par-70 golf course.

According to a Palm Beach Post story written by Emilee Smarr, the 15-year-old son of 15-time major winner Tiger Woods played through multiple incidents of unruly fan behavior on Thursday during a Cognizant Classic pre-qualifier at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida. Among them:

— Fans walked alongside Woods on the fairway, ignoring requests from tournament officials to stay on the cart path. They prompted one fan to ask an official: “Who are you? The fire marshal?”

— A grandmother admitted to pulling her granddaughter out of school in the hopes of Woods noticing her;

— A fan asked Woods if he would sign How I Play Golf, a book written by his father, after he walked off the 12th green. When an official denied the fan, the fan yelled, and as Woods teed off on the 13th hole, the fan shouted: “I live here.”

— Fans pursued a Woods ball hit out of bounds and into bushes and palm trees.

The Father-Son event is able to provide a protective cocoon, but that can only be extended so far.... But as for that Grandma, was she not consuming news around Thanksgiving 2009?   I mean, if you believe the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree, is that what you wish for your granddaughter?  Of course, I'm setting aside the fact that most 15-year old boys aren't in the market for a wife just yet, at least not this side of Jeddah (that's two world-class segues for those keeping a scorecard at home).

The TC gang had thoughts as well:

3. Charlie Woods shot 86 in a Cognizant Classic pre-qualifier — the first PGA Tour-sanctioned event he’s entered — to miss out on qualifying for next week’s event at PGA
National. A 12 and a couple of other big numbers derailed his round, which was reportedly marred by unruly fan behavior. Charlie’s play led to much discussion online about what is the appropriate amount of attention — from fans, media and spectators in attendance — to focus on a 15-year-old’s competitive pursuits, even if his father does happen to be the world’s most famous golfer. What’s your read?

Sens: All the buzz around Charlie Woods has been entirely unsurprising. But that hasn’t made it any less cringey, as the kids say. It feels cheap and voyeuristic but also in keeping with our sports/celebrity-obsessed culture. It reminds me of what the Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic said when he was asked what he thought about fans’ fascination with knowing every wrinkle of his life. He said he thought it was ‘sad.’

Hirsh: He obviously has talent. Playing in a PGA Tour Pre-Q at 15 is impressive no matter how you slice it. Getting those kinds of competitive reps is invaluable. We know he’s put up some good scores. I think most people realize it’s unfair to put the expectations his father had on him, but at the same time, the interest might be just as great. I’m hesitant to show much interest in Charlie because the chance of him earning his PGA Tour card in the next five years is probably the same as him deciding he doesn’t want to play golf at all. I don’t think a crowd of 50 following him at a qualifier is outrageous, but what is outrageous is grandparents pulling their granddaughters out of school in hopes of him going out with them. Same goes for asking him for autographs while he was playing. It’s interesting because LeBron James’ kids didn’t have the same level of pandemonium at their high school events. I think when he wins something big or tries to play at the pro level, it’s certainly newsworthy, but he still needs to be treated like a human. Other than that, let the teenager live his life.

Zak: My read is that this is exactly how society typically acts. He’s marketable because of his last name, so people flock to him. Unfortunately, he hasn’t asked for any of that attention, nor has he deserved it. So it’ll feel pretty angsty online whenever he plays another high-level tournament. But that’s the online world for ya.

Sad is as good a reaction as any.... Of course the fan interest is to be expected, they're just supposed to be there to watch, not become the story themselves.  But perhaps they watched all those Live Under Par™ commercials...

I don't have extensive qualifications on the parenting thing, but have mixed feelings about having Charlie try to qualify.  I certainly understand the value of the opportunity competitively, any young player needs the failures as part of the development process.  But this particular 15-year old will never be able to develop in anonymity, so I'm left wondering if this was necessary and/or helpful.  

Included in the linked piece above is this description of Charlie's appearances in junior events:

During one of the tournament rounds, Harbeck was chatting with Charlie on the 8th hole, a straight-away par-5 lined by condos down the right side. “I look up,” Harbeck recalled, “and I’m
watching all these doors to the condos opening up and all these people come out because they knew he was there.” On the second day, after inclement weather had suspended play, more than a hundred players, coaches, spectators and members took shelter in the clubhouse. Harbeck gathered his team at an out-of-the-way corner table, but Charlie still was sought out for pictures and autographs. Fans flock to Charlie on the course, too. At one event, an armada of 30 golf carts awaited him on the first tee.

At another match, Harbeck said a couple of photographers tried to access the course but because Harbeck didn’t know them, he turned them away. At public-course host sites, paparazzi wrangling is trickier. “You can’t stop anyone from coming, and if Tiger’s there, it’s crazier,” Harbeck said. “Trust me, there are people in trees taking pictures. Microphones in his face.” After the first couple of weeks of the season, Harbeck learned to alert host sites in advance of the interest that Charlie stirs up, which he said led to some courses beefing up their security.

That's just how it's gonna be for him.....  Given this undue scrutiny and interference, he should perhaps consider doing an AK and just jumping into LIV, no?

As indicated above, that'll be it for today.  I'll catch you later in the week. 

  
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Thursday, February 22, 2024

Thursday Threads - Dog Days of February Edition

Appreciate your acceptance of the limited blogging schedule....  I know, it means we won't give the Mexico Open at Vidanta the flood-the-zone coverage it deserves.... Let me know when you're done laughing and we'll continue.

No need to tax ourselves today, so we'll cover a few bits and then use an Alan Shipnuck mailbag to keep from breaking a sweat.

Dueling Headers - Our Brave New World has arrived, though one notices a bit of a schism in the reactions thereto.  This piece was referenced in a Tour Confidential panel:

The PGA Tour changed this week. Here’s how it looks

Perfect, apparently.....

Is the PGA Tour in a slump, or is this a new reality?

New?  That's a good one...

The first is a breathless James Colgan piece into which he does at least interject a modicum of reality:

If there is a city worthy of stress-testing professional golf’s exclusive, star-focused, image-obsessed, high-priced, overtly capitalist new business model, it is, for obvious reasons, Los Angeles.

In some ways, the PGA Tour’s Signature Events series was built exactly for Hollywood’s pro golf tournament, the Genesis Invitational. There’s a huge, high-profile sponsor (Genesis); a living legend tournament host (Tiger Woods); a historically exclusive and highly-regarded golf course (Riviera Country Club) and one of the best fields in all of professional golf. If the Tour’s new format for Signature Events — starry fields, limited (or no) cuts, lots of money — can’t work here, it’s hard to imagine where it can.

That thinking is what got a lot of the golf world to train its attention on Riviera at the beginning of the week. Tiger’s return to the sport mattered deeply, of course, but his presence was emblematic of a bigger shift on the PGA Tour — a world where the best compete against each other more often and, in theory, more interestingly.

 Did anyone tell James that Bogey no longer sits by his eponymous tree?

Did the smaller field or better starpower have any effect on the week’s crowd sizes? It seems
unlikely. Even for those watching the main event (Tiger Woods), good vantage points could be had on all but the most claustrophobic holes. Sunday grounds tickets could be had on the eve of the tournament’s final day for $110, face value, and clubhouse tickets for $175. That isn’t a red-alarm issue, but considering the Tour’s efforts at taking the Signature Events big-time will at some point require enticing the interest of ticket-buying golf fans, it qualifies as notable.

We won’t know for a few days how the tournament did with those watching from elsewhere, though expectations are high. The West Coast hours mean primetime viewing in much of the U.S., and the quiet sports schedule means limited competition. Annually, the tournament’s ratings are some of the best of the year.

Since James wrote that piece late Saturday, the requisite "few days" have passed, so prepare to be underwhelmed:

According to recent reports, ratings for the Sunday round television coverage fell 5% from the previous year, when Jon Rahm took home the victory. The overall number of viewers for the final round of 2024 was 3.2 million, whereas the total number of viewers for the final round of 2023 was 3.4 million.

Of course, with Tiger going down.....What?

It is worth noting that the opening round of the Genesis Invitational, which included both Tiger Woods and Jordan Speith, did not perform well either in terms of television ratings. They received just 450,000 viewers, a significant decrease of about 51% from 2023.

The counterpoint like above is from Joel Beall, who provides quite the summary of the Tour's vaunted West Coast swing:

The West Coast Swing is ostensibly the PGA Tour at its best, opening its year with good fields at entertaining venues while the rest of the country is buried in the malaise of winter. But as the circuit heads east, it's fair to wonder if the tour began its 2024 season in a slump or if what was seen was a harbinger of what is to come.

That may seem like a cruel assessment of the past seven weeks, particularly to the tournaments in this stretch and the players who won them. In themselves, these weeks had their moments: redemption stories (of varying degrees) in Chris Kirk and Grayson Murray; breakthroughs in Nick Dunlap and Matthieu Pavon; Wyndham Clark cementing his big-game status; a playoff in Phoenix; Hideki Matsuyama’s sensational closing 62 to win Riviera. Collectively, however, the first two months have lacked juice, and a depleted field at this week’s Mexico Open at a resort course does not promise to instill much-needed verve.

I think we can all agree that the cluster-eff that was the Wasted can be accurately summed up and explained by noting that there was a playoff.... Mrs. Lincoln could not reached for comment....

But, excuses:

Those thinking these past seven weeks were an aberration have evidence in their corner, starting with the weather. The climate is historically problematic at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, yet what Mother Nature threw at the tour at this month’s Clambake was downright biblical. Scottsdale, an area which receives roughly seven inches of rain a year, was hit with more than an inch and a half during the WM Phoenix Open. The flu knocked out Tiger Woods from his own event after 24 holes; Jordan Spieth, arguably the second-biggest draw on tour after Woods, was disqualified at Riviera for signing an incorrect scorecard … a flub that might be correlated to Woods' illness. Most of the major headlines from this stretch were other oddities, and some were self-inflicted. The Phoenix Open has long walked a tightrope with fan behavior, only to fall off in public fashion that could have lasting repercussions. After his 54-hole win at Pebble, Clark acknowledged he had been in talks with LIV Golf, adding he eventually chose legacy while prefacing his loyalty to the tour was only good until the end of this year. The tour announced it had agreed to private equity investment from Strategic Sports Group, a deal that is seemingly consequential … yet a deal that featured no press conference or media appearance from tour leadership, the agreement revealed only in a release with scant details, leaving fans to wonder what exactly this means for them.

Does anyone understand that bolded phrase?  The last bit is also quite curious, no?  I don't think that private equity deal itself mattered, though the fact that each and every one of these players has acted like an entitle a****e might.... Just spitballin' here.

So, Joel, what you're saying is that their plan to create a series of exhibitions guaranteeing match-ups of marquee talents has laid an egg.  Then, amusingly, you note the depleted field in Mexico, but you don't seem inclined to connect those rather obvious dots.  The Tour, in promoting its Signature Money Grabs™, has ensured that other events can't possibly attract many top level layers.....Cause, Effect.

So, why the long face?

Conversely, the bigger, overarching worry from the past seven weeks is what fans didn’t see. Rory McIlroy was a tour de force in the Middle East but has been so-so in his two tour starts. Reigning FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland has struggled. Max Homa usually feasts on the West Coast but hasn’t posted a top-10 in five appearances. Collin Morikawa hasn’t done much, and an expected Sunday battle between Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay at Riv turned out to be a dud. Then there is Scottie Scheffler. The two-time PGA Tour Player of the Year is posting the best ball-striking numbers since in-his-prime Tiger … but that performance has been weighed down by his continued putting woes, which have prolonged to the point they can no longer be classified as a funk. Scheffler knows it too; this weekend alone featured images of Scheffler tossing his putter like a baton after missing a putt and dropping to his knees after another, the normally stoic Texan unable to hide his indignation at his flatstick’s betrayal. The putter has single-handedly kept him from a generationally-great 18-month stretch, and as golf has sadistically proved over and over the present (in this case, Scheffler’s tee-to-green game) is no guarantee of the future.

But, Joel, it's the Tour that has tried to convince us that only the guys you mentioned matter....  It actually gets even weirder when he segues to LIV:

Seven weeks is a small sample size. In that same breath, the tour is nearing the quarter mark of the season, and the very stars tasked with keeping the lights on have been dimmed. Which brings us to LIV Golf. For the first two years of LIV’s existence there has been a general belief from tour headquarters that the tour’s depth was its hydra: When one star leaves he would be replaced by another. Generally, that held true. But Jon Rahm's defection seemed to be a tipping point of sorts. LIV has now taken both a significant portion of the tour’s frontline firepower (Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith) along with a sizable bite out of the second- and third-tier rank. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that five of the tour’s seven winners in 2024 were outside the top 50 in World Ranking … but maybe it’s not. That Rahm won three times during this stretch last season only exaggerates the perceived power void.

That bolded bit is true, I only wish the Tour believed it.  Because every action of the Tour (or, perhaps more accurately, of the cabal of elite that have seized control) has been to inhibit the rise of new talent:

In altered PGA Tour landscape, rookies are facing tougher road to rise up the ranks

The author goes event by event adding up the reduced playing opportunities, which even include the alleged full-field events.

I don't agree that Rahm was some sort of tipping point, viewing it as more of the same.... In fact, LIV hilariously bungled the announcement and roll-out, and they have received no actual benefit from the signing that can be discerned:

LIV Golf is struggling to attract golf fans to tune in on broadcasts of the controversial breakaway circuit despite spending big money on new acquisitions like Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.

Hatton became the latest big name from the PGA Tour to defect after reigning Masters champion Rahm joined the controversial breakaway league last month. The Saudi-backed series league secured Rahm’s services by inking him to a deal worth up to £450million - and Hatton followed suit with a £50m move of his own.

However, the star power has failed to attract fans. The final round of LIV Las Vegas drew 297,000 viewers on the CW, with the telecast ultimately finishing 51st for all sport programs that day - level with the Golf Central pregame show ahead of PGA Tour coverage.

I hope you read that last bit carefully... They were the 51st highest rated sports broadcast THAT DAY!  My God, they were competitive with Golf Channel's pregame show.... Can you feel the game growing.

Here is Joel's Cri de Coeur, and I'd like you to see if you can suss out its internal inconsistency:

This sentiment may seem demeaning to this year’s winners, and one of the tour’s alleged assets in golf’s civil war was maintaining the ideal of meritocracy compared to the closed and limited fields of LIV. The problem, however, is that while most sports love underdogs, golf often lives in fear of them. Once in a while, sure, crowds want to pull for the little guy. Every week, not so much. There’s a reason the tour implemented the Player Impact Program: this is a universe that revolves around stars. Worse, three of the seven tournaments (Sentry, AT&T Pebble, Genesis Invitational) have been signature events and six of the next eight are merely “full field” competitions. It doesn’t mean that what’s to come will be anticlimactic; it’s just this was the stretch that was supposed to deliver. This was supposed to be what mattered.

Again, it’s only been seven weeks, and there have been bright spots. Dunlap’s win was a revelation. Justin Thomas is looking like his old self. Spieth and Schauffele have played well. Weather has been bad all over the country, and as for the aforementioned oddities … well, it’s golf, oddities happen. But this slate is supposed to provide us with storylines for the rest of the year, and as the tour leaves California, the biggest one to watch is what product the tour is ultimately presenting.

I completely agree that JT is looking like his old self, that old self being one of only seventeen players to miss the easiest cut line in golf at Riviera....

He says in the first 'graph that golf fans won't abide underdogs but then he characterizes Dunlap as a revelation.  I don't know about your personal experience, but I got more reactions after Dunlap's win that for every other event on the 2024 calendar.  Is it possible, Joel, that you've mindlessly absorbed the nonsense from those perfect peni and are selling golf fans short?  Because to be a golf fan is to understand that fickle, maddening nature of our game and to embrace it.

Perhaps, Joel, you might want to think through the failure of the WGCs....  because these newfangled money grabs are the mirror image of those lifeless events.  

Let's review the video tape.... when LIV first sprung up we were assured that the issue was the tainted source of the money, whereas it's now blindingly obvious that the only issue is the recipients of said tainted money.  

Now they're telling us that the changes re necessary to ensure that we know that Riviera will have a good field, as if it ever had a bad field.  But what's blindingly obvious now is that Signature Events aren't about whose in the field, they're about excluding the riffraff to enhance the winnings of the cool kids.  Nice work if you can get it...

Alan, Asked - Need to keep this an easy day, so we'll just riff on that certain mailbag feature, beginning with a question we should have been asking since 2019:

Is it time for Tiger to ride into the sunset? @rgen_hle

That is not for you or I to decide. Woods, 48, has certainly earned the right to wind down his career however he damn well pleases. But it is hard to watch his decline. For all the social media hyperventilating that accompanies every Tiger start, the primary emotion I feel is wistfulness, or maybe even sadness. When he was 32, he owned 14 major championships and was easily the most dominant and celebrated athlete on the planet. Every sports fan had the priceless thrill of being witness to a once-in-a-millennium phenomenon. The last decade and a half has been mostly a story of self-destruction. I admire the grit Tiger continues to show but, man, it didn’t have to be like this.

My problem is that there are so many dangling threads from both the Q and A that I want to pull.  let me attempt to show some discipline and limit myself to two.

First, while my MD is still pending, Alan makes an intriguing comment about the arc of Tiger's career, upended by scandal but more by injury.  My enduring is how much of Tiger's injury history is a result of the muscle mass he created in the gym.  I've said this many times, but the body Tiger came into the professional game with seems to me ideally suited to golf, affording flexibility most would die for.  Tie would say that he built up to avoid injury, but am I the only one that thinks it did the opposite?

My second point, again one I've made previously, is that a few years ago I'd have agreed with Alan that Tiger should do as he pleases.  But Tiger himself has compromised that laissez-fair attitude, in dramatically limiting the field sizes of the most important, most lucrative events.  It then looks completely different, dare I say hypocritical, when he himself takes up one of these precious spots and can't perform.... 

Of course, that begs the larger issue of Tiger's elevation to Player Director...  Because, we've been assured that he's our savior, but few seem interested in whose interest he's furthering.  

This an odd combination of Q with A, but also a warm and delightful trip down memory lane:

What is the “Hideki one-handed follow-through on a great shot” equivalent in sports journalism? @MRileyGolf

I recall a Sunday night at the Masters in the mid- to late-90’s, when Dan Jenkins (below) was still writing game stories for Golf Digest. He would still bang out the articles following the final round even though they wouldn’t appear in the magazine until weeks later, a nod to his old deadlines at Sports Illustrated. I took a little break from grinding on my story and bumped into Jenkins in the courtyard in front of the press building, where he would smoke cigarettes and hold court. “Don’t tell me you already filed,” I said. Jenkins took a drag and mumbled through the corner of his mouth, as he was wont to do, “Fooled ‘em again.”

I only wish we had been treated to Jenkins' take on LIV..... OI suspect he would have gone medieval, and that's I'd have lapped it up.

I could on at length here as well, though I did so already above:

Strange PGA Tour week. No questions. @santafelife

Well, I have a few notes. It’s been a messy season so far. A Frenchman and an amateur have won. Phoenix was a clown show. Pebble got washed out. Tiger and Jordan Spieth were unceremoniously bounced out of Riviera. Hideki is the only blue-chip player to get it done on a Sunday (though Wyndham Clark had one heckuva Saturday) but the TV ratings for the L.A. Open were abysmal. And now this week’s Mexico Open has only 3 of the top 40 in a World Ranking that has been badly watered down by LIV defections. Eek.

LIV may not be resonating with large swaths of golf fans but it has badly damaged the Tour by stealing headliners, grinding down those who stayed and creating a bifurcated schedule with so many starless fields. (Not for nothing, Jon Rahm won three times on the Tour’s West Coast swing last year.) There’s barely enough players we care about to sustain one tour; the game has been cleaved into two different circuits and each feels flat and lacking. No one loves the West Coast swing more than me but for once I’m looking forward to Florida, which always signals that the Masters is finally getting close. The only hope for the Tour is that is that its stars, who are suddenly making more money than they ever dreamed possible, can start playing with a more palpable hunger. Otherwise this whole season is going to be about the majors and the Olympics with a lot of uninspired filler in between.

I find it curious in the extreme that Alan attributes the dismal field in Mexico exclusively to LIV.   Has he not considered the effect of bifurcating the Tour into haves and have nots has on the latter?

Of course LIV has hurt the Tour, though the coroner is likely to rule it a suicide.  But the single biggest problem, as presciently predicted herein, is that each and every one of these guys has revealed themselves as overly-entitles and self-absorbed.  OK, maybe excluding this guy....

Alan handles this one quite well:

How long before the pros don’t have to keep their own score? I mean, every shot is tracked already. In 50 years, guys will still be writing their scores on paper? @ricksterps

But who is tracking the scores? Harried volunteers. Do we really trust them more than the players themselves?! Years ago I served as a Shotlink volunteer at the Crosby Clambake and it was intense. There was so much information to log and myriad distractions. I was stationed in the second fairway at Pebble Beach and if a player had a misadventure in the deep barranca near the green I wouldn’t have seen it. Most of the leaders’ shots are shown on TV but how much of Matsuyama’s front nine at Riviera did we get to see on Sunday? Only a smattering. There is simply too much happening all at once across a 150-acre playing field to entrust the official scorekeeping to anyone besides the players. Now, getting DQ’d for signing an incorrect scorecard is probably too harsh and should be amended to a two-stroke penalty; I expect it will. But I think the players will always be the official scorekeepers, and for good reason.

I'm not even sure how I feel about making it a penalty versus a DQ, because I cling to this naïve notion that reviewing one's scorecard shouldn't be an onerous burden.   

For this one, I'm inclined to believe his hat is too tight:

Why do you think Cantlay has had such difficulty in closing out 36/54 hole leads? @TheStroker83

Yeah, he’s now oh-fer-8 in converting 36-hole leads, having just frittered away a 5-shot cushion in LA. The easy answer is Cantlay is merely an average putter: 57th in strokes gained this year, and 129th in putts per round for the final round. (Last season he was 47th in strokes gained-putting.) He particularly struggles to cash in the mid-range putts that can turbocharge a round. But maybe the explanation is more metaphysical. Cantlay is a prickly personality who has rubbed a lot of his colleagues the wrong way. Behind-the-scenes, as a member of the board of directors, he’s been a muckraking figure in the LIV-Tour wars. Having a clear mind makes winning a lot easier; there always seems to be negative juju swirling around Cantlay and perhaps that creates just enough internal discomfort to prevent this mega-talent from winning more often.

It was in Alan's very mailbag that Cantlay was first crowned as the perfect penis, so Karma is probably the perfect explanation.  I can tell you that your humble blogger took inappropriate pleasure from his weekend face-plant, so we've got that going for us.

Something is up with Rory, what is it? @mark_cusack

Over the last decade the guy has won everything you can possibly win around the world: the Players, the Race to Dubai, the FedEx Cup, tournaments from China to Scotland to Canada to Korea to Ireland. Obviously the only thing missing is more major championships. Imagine the interminable wait for Rory from the end of the Open in July until the ensuing Masters in April. Torture! I’m sure he’s a little bored and antsy with all these ho-hum tournaments he has to slog through to get to Augusta. Can’t really blame him.

Granted, he's won everything except that which matters....  No small caveat that.

But funny to contrast the Cantlay and Rory answers.  Because Rory has major weaknesses in his game that he's failed to correct, and those vulnerabilities are exposed in the most important events.  Both because the set-ups at majors tend to exacerbate his weaknesses (Rory is notoriously clueless in wind and on firm and fast tracks), but also probably because of the increased pressure and scrutiny.

Folks remember his four majors from 2011-14, but tend to forget the unique specifics of those events.  Every one of those venues was as soft as can be imagined, even Hoylake.  If you had put Rory on  Hoylake as firm and fast as Tiger won on in 2006, he'd have missed the cut. 

That's it for today, dear Readers, and I'm unsure as to when you will see me next.  I'm headed West tomorrow and will be with my nephew, so morning blogging will suffer accordingly.  But bear with me and we'll pick up the thread in Florida.

 
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