Weekend Wrap - Memphis In August Edition

 April seems so awfully far away.... At least there was that one event this week that actually mattered.

Spain Ascendant - Given the profound legacy of Spanish golf, it's shocking to note that no Spaniard had ever even reached a U.S. Amateur final.  Yet that all-Spaniard semi-final led this man (on the day he assumed adulthood) to achieve that which Seve, Jose Maria, Sergio and Rahmbo did not:

Josele Ballester is like many Spanish golfers who have grown up idolizing the greats from their country.

On Sunday, Ballester did something none of those before him have been able to accomplish: win the U.S. Amateur.

Ballester, the rising senior at Arizona State, dominated throughout the day then held on late against Noah Kent to capture the Havemeyer Trophy at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Ballester led 4 up with six holes to play, but by the time he was on the 17th tee, his lead was down to 1. However, Ballester found a way to clinch his biggest victory yet, and it’s one that has given him a title no Spanish golfer has ever been able to achieve.

“I think I’m still not conscious of what just happened today,” Ballester said. “Super thankful to have the opportunity to live this moment. We have many great Spaniards, many great legends, and being able to add my name into that history, it’s pretty sweet.”

I saw him get his 4-up lead back on the 11th hole (I was visiting a golfie friend and just happened to leave at that juncture, picking it up on tape later), and thought it was well and truly over.  But Noah Kent didn't get the memo, and it went all the way to the 26th hole.

A big day for the kid man:

As a cherry on top, Ballester’s 21st birthday was Sunday. The Havemeyer Trophy, and everything that comes with winning the biggest amateur event in the world, makes for a good present.

He’s the fourth winner of the U.S. Amateur from Arizona State, joining Billy Mayfair (1987), Phil Mickelson (1990) and Jeff Quinney (2000).

Given how insufferable the Sun Devil Nation can be, would you have ever guessed it was only the four?  And that only one of their Am Champs would be considered historically significant.

I don't know, I try hard not to get swept up in the current zeitgeist, but doe3sn't this have to be a wee bit racist?

When Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond was recruiting the talented youngster, he and Washington coach Alan Murray were watching him when the latter quipped, “It’s just a man amongst boys. He’s just a big silverback gorilla, and all these are little cubs around him.”

It’s a phrase that has stuck with Ballester his entire career at Arizona State. Often overlooked on a talented roster, Ballester has always been the gorilla, an alpha who’s consistency shines through, even if the results didn’t show.

How exactly his consistency  shines through in the absence of, yanno, results will be left for another time.

The Tour Confidential writers did eventually get around to this event:

Jose Luis Ballester won the 2024 U.S. Amateur on Sunday at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, besting Noah Kent 2 up. What did you like about Ballester’s game, and has the professional success of last year’s champ, Nick Dunlap, proven some of these top-level amateurs are ready to win on Tour right away?

Colgan: Golf’s talent is not going away. The most interesting battlefield for LIV/PGA Tour relations is in the amateur game, and good for Ballester in boosting his bottom line.

Wall: It most definitely confirms the top-level amateurs no longer need a long runway to get acclimated to the pro game. Just look at the heater Luke Clanton has been on. Ballester is another uber-talented amateur who could very well win on Tour right now. The ASU pipeline continues.

Sens: It’s hard keeping up with the torrent of young talent in golf these days. Whether they are all ready to win immediately is another matter. Not just anyone can. But Ballester sure looked like a world beater this week. The guy’s wedge play and short game were Seve-worthy. If he keeps that up, we will see him lift more trophies before long.

he may have boosted his bottom line, but he's headed back to ASU, so he'll have to limit his appetites to what NIL money can cover.

Of course it's a funky match play event, so beware the recency bias.  No doubt some of these guys might be ready to win on Tour, but it's far more likely to be the Luke Clantons and Gordon Sargents who do so, guys that were taken out in the first couple of match play sessions.  It's golf, so go figure.

Collar, Tightened - Early in the day we were flipping between the Amateur and Memphis, but Hideki seemed to have matters well in hand.  At least until they pulled a DJ on him:

It had been a week filled with adversity for Matsuyama outside the ropes, but no matter. Matsuyama seemed just fine inside the ropes. That’s where he appeared to be cruising to his

second PGA Tour title of the season.

It didn’t go so smoothly.

As Matsuyama headed to 12, a rules official approached.

They talked. The NBC broadcasters were confused.

Eventually, PGA Tour Lead TV Rules and Video Analyst Mark Dusbabek came on to explain that Matsuyama wasn’t going to be penalized. Five holes earlier, at the 7th, Matsuyama had stepped on a pitch mark that was off the green. But it was determined, after the conversation, that it was far enough away from his intended line of play, so no penalty.

PGA Tour rules official Gary Young told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis the Tour later found supporting video evidence that the pitch mark was about three feet off his line of play.

Matsuyama also told Lewis later the conversation didn’t bother him.

Then why were you effing with his head?  

“If I was worried that I had done something wrong and was going to be penalized, that would have rattled me,” Matsuyama said through his interpreter. “But it was really a non-issue so it was fine.”

It didn’t look that way.

He then pulled his tee shot at the 12th and made bogey. No worries, he was still up four shots.

He then pushed his tee shot on 13 into the bunker. No worries, he made par and was still up four.

He then blocked his approach at 14 into the water. No worries, he got up and down for bogey and was still up two.

He then blasted his approach at 15 over the green and flubbed his pitch short of the green and made double. No worries, he had a par-5 remaining.

He then left his third shot short of the green and missed the putt for birdie. Big worry. His once-five-shot lead was gone and he had two brutal par-4s at TPC Southwind left to play.

Fortunately, Hideki got back on script:

That’s when Matsuyama flipped the script. After finally finding the green in regulation on 17, Matsuyama buried a birdie putt from 26 feet to take the lead by one over Xander Schuaffele and Viktor Hovland, who had a birdie putt from nine feet on the 18th. But Hovland missed and Matsuyama stuffed his approach at Southwind’s hardest hole to six feet, making the putt to secure a two-shot victory at 16 under in the first FedEx Cup Playoff event of the season.

Here's a thought.  Maybe we should allow these things to be determined by their clubs?  I know, an idea so crazy it might just work...

The TC gang riffed on Scottie Scheffler dissing the playoff format:

Scottie Scheffler, the season-long points leader of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, said the format of said playoffs is, well, silly: “Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up

and it doesn’t heal the way it did at The Players, I finish 30th in the FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No.” Do you agree? But more importantly, what’s the fix?

James Colgan: There IS a fix, and it’s utterly obvious: A massive match-play event seeded and played like the NCAA Tournament! Host the event over three weeks at a handful of tournament sites (so as to stagger tee times to maximize TV view-ability). Bake-in 1-, 2- and 3-up advantages to start opening round matches for FedEx top 10 finishers and everyone else plays straight up. Host the elite eight through the finals in one long weekend (two 36-hole days.) To the winner go the spoils!

Jonathan Wall: Personally, I’ve been out on the existing playoff format for a while. I miss the days of the Tour Championship closing out the season without the manufactured buildup of extra events no one seems to care about, save for the few guys at the top. I’d torpedo the current three-event format and go back to the old season-ending event. Lose the different starting scores and just see what happens when everyone starts on a level playing field. I don’t think golf fans need or care for the gimmicks. Match play is another option, but to Scottie’s point, the unpredictability means a guy who grinded for the No. 1 spot might get bounced by someone having a day.

Josh Sens: I like Colgan’s idea, though I don’t think you’d need to start with scoring advantages. The seeding itself is designed to give the top players an easier path. After that, shut it down for a long offseason. There are too many events in professional golf already. Go dark for a few months. Give fans a chance to miss you.

 It's the same muddled thinking that got us the current hot mess.  You have to choose between a season-long competition (which may be decided before East Lake) or a high-stakes shootout, but you can only choose one....  Well, you can refuse to choose as per the current system, and enjoy folks making fun of your staggered start.

The writers are opting mostly for the latter, with which I agree although, as much as match play could be epic, FedEx and the Tour will never sign off on it.

And this enabling nonsense:

The top 50 for the BMW Championship is now set, which means those players are guaranteed spots into the uber-lucrative Signature Events for 2025. With how important these events have become — for money and FedEx Cup points — are you OK with that many players getting reserved spots? The Tour still has pathways for players to earn starts in them, but is this too generous to the top players while making life more difficult for the rest of the Tour?

Colgan: I think it comes down to our perception of fair. The PGA Tour did the best it could to be fair to players as far as earning entrance into the Signature Events, but the system is inherently favorable to the stars. The good news is that a system built around the stars makes the PGA Tour more like the remaining leagues in pro sports, which makes it a fairer product for the fans. I think the turnover is good. Good enough, at least. But I’m sure there’s somebody out there who disagrees.

Wall: I’m in agreement with Mr. Colgan: Turnover is good, but you still need the stars in the field. That’s who everyone is paying to see. Don’t like the system? Play better and become one of those top stars.

Sens: Making life too difficult for the other guys? They are competing for the right to play golf for multi-million dollar payouts. It’s supposed to be difficult. I have a hard time feeling like anyone out there is getting a raw deal.

James thinks it's good for golf to be like team sports, except that golf isn't like those sports, as their outcomes are far more predictable.   And the point isn't that it's too difficulty for the other guys, it's that absent a full field of elite players, you're conducting exhibitions.  We had two decades of WGC's, which absolutely sucked, yet nobody can explain how these will be different.  Except for the only metric tat matters, to wit, that Patrick gets paid.

And one question for the TC gang.... Who exactly do they imagine cares about this?

Jordan Spieth tied for 68th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, meaning he’ll miss the BMW Championship and won’t get automatic spots into those aforementioned Signature Events. He also will soon undergo surgery to repair a tendon in his left wrist. Spieth had just three top 10s this year and hasn’t won since the 2022 RBC Heritage. Do you see better days ahead for him? Or has his form proven that’s not so certain?

Colgan: Seven years is a really long time to go between relevant stretches of golf, and it’s been seven years since Jordan Spieth’s golf game was relevant for being good. I hope the surgery — and subsequent time away from golf — gives him the reset he’s needed since 2018. Right now, it’s hard to say that’s a given.

Wall: I’d argue no one is more electric than Spieth when he’s scrambling from all over the course and finding a way to contend. The problem is we’ve seen more scrambling than moments in contention. It’s clear he’s not right and has needed a reset for some time. The Tour could really use a healthy Spieth. Here’s hoping surgery brings a return to form.

Sens: I’m sure the surgery will help. But recoveries like this aren’t just physical. Spieth is going to need to regain that magic pixie dust he used to have around him. And that will mean regaining his confidence. Doing that, I suspect, will be the toughest part of all.

Don't worry, Jordan, the cool kids still like you.  Is it too early to rant about the sponsors' exemptions he'll get into those Signature Events?  And did you note how the writers avoided that touchy topic?  They take care of their own, and the rank and file can whine all they want, but Patrick must get paid to save our democracy.

Wither Pro Golf - Very little actual news, but the TC gang picked up on the PGA Tour's 2-25 schedule drop:

The 2025 PGA Tour schedule dropped last week with few changes but one important revelation. When asked if the new schedule is an indication that there’s not going to be anything happening with LIV “at least through next year or ’26 or ’27,” commissioner Jay Monahan said, “I think that’s fair.” Is this bad news for the Tour? And what does it mean for golf’s future? Could things actually get worse?

Colgan: If by “is this bad news for the Tour?” you mean “is this undermining pro golf’s relevance in a way that makes the average sports fan care less about the sport?” … then, yes, it is bad news for the Tour. The good news is that the fault lines are so clearly defined (and LIV’s business is so obviously and totally unprofitable) that waiting things out might actually help the PGA Tour. (An observation: I know the Tour made the decision to merge interests with the Saudis, but I hate how every conversation is framed around the Tour’s incumbency. LIV’s product appealing to literally anyone would go a long way in motivating unity in pro golf, and yet they continue to be watched by audiences smaller than Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation without substantive competitive critique. Both sides are at fault!)

Wall: It’s bad news for pro golf, not just the PGA Tour. Spreading the talent across two tours waters down the product and makes it difficult for fans to get excited about anything other than the majors. Neither Tour has any juice, and it’s highly frustrating. The future doesn’t look rosey, let’s put it that way.

Sens: Wall said it well. The Masters can’t come soon enough.

I'm not saying it isn't a problem, but there's really only 2-3 guys whose absence could possibly matter, and the nature of golf renders their absence almost undiscernible.

I'll also admit I have little idea what Colgan's point is about that "incumbency".  Does he think the discussions frame the PGA Tour as at fault?  I thought Scheffler said it best, that if you want blame somebody for the rupture in the game, why wouldn't you start with those that, yanno, ruptured it?  Though does James connect the unprofitability with the unwatchability?  And, most importantly, is he concerned that the move to make the PGA Tour more like LIV will render it unwatchable as well?

Eamon Lynch has some thoughts:

Lynch: When LIV’s cash advantage is spent — which might be soon — what leverage does it have left?

Spent?  Soon?  Do tell.  He frames his piece using one of those 2-3 guys to whom I alluded:

The pithy ‘3 R’s’ rubric has been used to summarize fundamentals in many areas, from the New Deal (Relief, Recovery, Reform), to early learning (Relationships, Repetition, Routines), to the

environment (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). The same formula can illuminate what matters most in golf these days: Reward, Reputation, Relevance.

The economics that have warped the men’s professional game ensure ample reward, but for some that has come at the cost of both reputation and relevance, none moreso than Jon Rahm. Golf Digest’s Jaime Diaz reports that the Spaniard regrets his December move to LIV Golf, and while Rahm himself is unlikely to ever confirm such a sentiment, Diaz is a fastidious reporter and his account squares with what many others in the game have heard. Even in his (at times bizarre) public comments, Rahm sounds more notes of poignant yearning for the tour he left than of fierce advocacy for the one he joined.

He was rewarded though, even if the oft-cited contract amount ($500 million) is wholly unsourced and — according to someone close to Rahm — wildly exaggerated. Whatever the figure, it was sufficient for a man who emphatically pledged fealty to the PGA Tour to don a LIV letterman jacket and stand next to Greg Norman. Rahm’s isn’t the only reputation bruised after a volte-face, and at least he didn’t explicitly express his willingness to overlook murder and human rights abuses if doing so gave him leverage over the PGA Tour, that being the putrid pyre on which Phil Mickelson’s legacy was incinerated.

Obviously that doesn't pay off those header promises, but the public regret of their highest-profile get isn't helpful.

I do agree that this space bears watching:

Yet a day is nearing when Saudi subsidies cease to provide a dominant advantage when it comes to player rewards, because LIV’s irrational economy faces a retraction. A few player contracts expire in 2024, more in ’25. Some of the league’s stars have been told they won’t see renewals on the scale that lured them to LIV, so those who extend will be doing so for less. Assuming extensions are even offered. Perhaps they will be, but if no deal is reached between the Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour, then the Saudi government has a call to make: throw good money after bad with another round of contracts for an execrable product with zero market traction, or cut loose. And they have been known to favor chopping those deemed inconvenient.

 Yanno, who doesn't enjoy a good bonecutter jibe?

I would still caution that they have the available resources, and that folks tend to be slow to acknowledge their major mistakes, so hold the triumphalism.  But, as Eamon hints at, the whole model is a substantial failure, but is Yasir ready to won up to that F-up?

Of course, the Tour has it's own issues:

Across town, it’s a bull market, for now. Scottie Scheffler has earned more than $28 million in prize money this season on the PGA Tour. Throw in his Comcast bonus ($8 million), two lucrative events this week and next (each paying $3.6 million to the winner) and the eye-watering FedEx Cup bonuses disbursed later this month at East Lake (top payout: $25 million), and Scheffler could clear well north of $60 million. And that excludes endorsements, the value of the equity grant he received in PGA Tour Enterprises, and a pension scheme that would make Congressional grifters feel shortchanged.

But how sustainable is that model? Strategic Sports Group injected $1.5 billion into the Tour with the promise of the same again, but that’s not intended to be debited directly into players’ pockets as purses. An accounting will come in Ponte Vedra as surely as it will in Riyadh. “Sustainability is living on nature’s income rather than living on its capital,” wrote the late physicist, Murray Gell-Mann. His aphorism has currency when applied to the golf economy, regardless of which tour one looks at.

Excuse me, Eamon, but that's exactly the intended use of the $1.5 billion large.  In fact, it was mostly supposed to go into the one guy's pocket, yanno that pluperfect phallus.

That said, one tour has attracted investors who see the potential for significant returns. The other survives on the whims of a solitary banker, and he works for a mercurial authoritarian. That’s a shaky foundation for long-term sustainability. The popular narrative has the PGA Tour unable to withstand more poaching, having its product strength bled out, seeing its sponsors and fans fleeing. There are very minor elements of truth in those assertions, but the Saudis are even more incentivized to seek a face-saving deal. The PGA Tour is looking less like LIV’s rival and more like its life raft.

For some guys who cashed out with LIV, most of what happens next won’t matter. They got theirs. But not everyone who went to LIV lacked the weaponry or the stomach for the fight at the elite level. Certainly not Rahm. He was by far the most competitive player to jump, and while he hasn’t performed well since—at least outside the 54-hole exhibition ecosystem—it’s too limited a data sample to say LIV has diminished him as a force. But it’s not too early to say LIV has made him less relevant.

I don't think the header was justified by the facts on the ground, but I do think Eamon is correctly judging the current relative leverage, mostly because LIV itself just isn't viable.

I can't tell you how long that $1.5 billion lasts or whether the jock-sniffers would release the second half of the promised sum, so Jay should be perceived as being on the clock, methinks.  But I don't see further defections to LIV (the low-hanging fruit is gone and Rahm's misery is quite public), so over to you, Yasir.

My last glance yesterday had Rahm ahead at The Greenbrier, and I'm guessing that Yasir would have preferred a different outcome:

Brooks Koepka wins at LIV Golf Greenbrier in playoff over Jon Rahm, becomes first five-time winner

Yeah, nothing like a battle between your two biggest names, leaving us to speculate at which of the two is more miserable on LIV.  

That's it for today.  Blogging will be on a "feel like" basis going forward, not that I even know what that means.

Thursday Threads - Electrolyte Pumping Edition

OK, I'm slowly getting back to normal, including this thing they call solid food.  Good stuff for sure...

Let's get the strange dings at The Wyndham out of the way, shall we?

Don't Be That Guy - First, to state the obvious, I saw none of it.  It's the Wyndham, for God's sake, and I'll need to get paid more if you expect me to watch that....  But, while I won't cover Max Greyserman's epic collapse (if I have it right, at one point he went eagle-quad), I will cover his rather poignant reaction to it (via Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column):

NOT-WINNERS

Some 8s are handled better than others.

How do you respond to massive, shocking failure? To taking a four-shot lead on the back nine of the final round of a PGA Tour event and immediately making quadruple bogey to kick it away? Max Greyserman could have moped, raged or made excuses. Instead he took it on the chin — and kept his chin up, too.

“Played really well today, obviously had a couple blunders but came back with a birdie on the par-5 after that quad,” he told CBS’s Amanda Balionis. “Just gonna take away that I hung in there, that I’m playing good golf … I mean, it’s golf. Stuff happens. I’ll go pet my dog after this, I’ll hang out with my wife, fly tomorrow to Memphis and right back to work just like I did after the 3M.”

Greyserman’s 3M reference is a reminder that he’d finished runner up in his last start, too. Not bad for a rookie.

“I don’t know,” he concluded with a grin. “It kinda feels like my own 2006 Phil Mickelson moment. So hopefully that equals good things to come [for me] like it did for him.”

I like it and it makes me want to root for him in the future.  I don't know your own personal experience, but there aren't too many of these guys that I can still say that about...

Now, the Kooch bit, which was really odd.  Here's Dylan's framing of it, which seems to leave out one important bit:

ONE BIG QUESTION

What on earth was Matt Kuchar doing?

It was a moment so strange, mysterious, so meaningless and so deliciously golf that it immediately caught the attention of the entire sport. Matt Kuchar, comfortably outside contention, mathematically eliminated from golf’s postseason and stuck in the left rough on the 72nd hole at the Wyndham Championship, decided that he and he alone would keep the tournament going for another day. Just before sunset on Sunday Kuchar marked his ball while the rest of his group played on. The golf world responded with a mix of incredulity, amusement, bemusement, criticism, [limited] defense and more.

 But how did he find himself in the left rough, Dylan?  

The lone golfer to not finish Sunday at the 2024 Wyndham Championship, Kuchar was in a tie for 12th when he hurriedly teed off on the 18th hole. Minutes later, he informed a rules official he

was done for the day, electing not to complete the round in the growing darkness. Everyone else did, including tournament winner Aaron Rai, playing in the group ahead.

Tour rules official Orlando Pope explained that rather than blow the horn to suspend play due to darkness, all three players in Kuchar’s group were given the option to finish Monday but only Kuchar opted to do so, reversing course after driving left into trouble.

That's what's so puzzling about it, so eerily reminiscent of Rory at Valhalla in 2014, when in his rush to hit his drive on the 72nd hole he almost found the water....

If the last few years have taught us anything, it's that these guys aren't what they seem to be.  And this man, specifically, has an item on his C.V. where he showed us a darker side (think Mexico, if you're not catching the reference), though his explanation makes me think he might have been trying to help the young man:

After taking relief, hitting his approach just short of the green, lipping out his birdie chip and finishing out for par, Kuchar explained himself. He said he thought Greyserman would probably wait for the morning, given he was just a shot back to begin the hole.

“I’m figuring no way Max is going to finish out with a chance to win a tournament. I thought Max for sure had a shot to win and I thought no way in this situation do you hit this shot; you come back in the morning 100 percent of the time,” he said. “So I said, well, Max will stop, I’ll stop, kind of make it easy on him. And for me, coming back in the morning, like, I never would have taken [the relief that he was able to take] last night, I never would have thought to ask. I knew I was in a terrible situation, I was praying to make bogey from where I was. To walk away with par, nearly birdie, is a huge bonus.

“Again, it stinks to — nobody wants to be that guy that’s showing up today, one person, one hole. Not even one hole, half a hole to putt.

“So apologies to the tournament, to everybody that had to come out. I know it stinks, I know the ramifications, I know it stinks. Certainly I apologize to force everybody to come out here.”

It seems possible, no?  Especially since the alternative explanations make little sense, but wasn't the time for that discussion (one of the Golf Channel folks confirmed that Kooch said something along those lines to Max, although he'd need to be circumspect under the rules) before the tee shot?

The Am - One of the great events in golf is ongoing this week, and I sure ain't speaking of anything happening in Memphis.  But, like all match-play events, the best parts tend to be earlier in the week:

Match play is set to begin Wednesday at the 2024 U.S. Amateur, but first, a playoff.

Stroke play concludes Tuesday at Hazeltine National Golf Club and co-host Chaska Town Course, but come Wednesday morning, there will be a 14-for-11 playoff to determine who gets the final spots for match play, with the Round of 64 to follow.

Perhaps the story of the tournament so far is 39-year-old Jimmy Ellis, the mid-am medalist who fired a 61 on Tuesday at Chaska Town Course to win medalist honors by three shots. He’ll be the top seed for match play but will have to wait to find out who he will face.

Clanton is safely through the Round of 64, but this guy isn't:

Tiger (yes, really) knocking off World No. 2 among highlights from 2024 U.S. Amateur Round of 64

Well, it depends upon your definition of "really":

Tiger (Christensen) topples Gordon Sargent

There’s another Tiger in the field this week hoping to add his name to USGA lore, but his last name is Christensen.

The rising senior at Arizona topped World No. 2 Gordon Sargent 4 and 3 on Wednesday in perhaps the upset of the day. While Christensen is ranked 51st in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, he feels like one of the best amateurs in the world, and he played like it in the Round of 64.

This is where the golf world sucks.  Golf Channel had a generous coverage window on Wednesday, before the Tours kick off on Thursday, but we're limited to two hours (6-8 p.n.) today.

Wither Golf - There was a flurry of activity a couple of months back, but now radio silence seems to be dominating.  For those focused on tea leaves, there's this:

With no further updates on negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public

Investment Fund, the tour released its 2025 schedule of FedEx Cup regular-season and playoff events Wednesday with only a few minor changes to its lineup of 39 tournaments.

Featured for a second year is a regular season highlighted by the four majors and eight signature events that offer increased purses and FedEx Cup points. But in 2025, the signature events also guarantee fields with a minimum of 72 players. The tour did not release prize money for any of its events.

 And, whatya know, a Jay sighting:

Meeting with members of the media on the eve of the opening round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan provided an update Wednesday on the ongoing

negotiations with LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Essentially, there isn’t an update.

Monahan preferred to focus on the success of the revamped PGA Tour schedule featuring its series of limited-field signature event and to trumpet the creation of PGA Tour Enterprises and closing of the $1.5 billion investment deal with Strategic Sports Group in late January . The tour released its 2025 FedEx Cup schedule earlier in the day indicating that a deal that would include the LIV Golf League wasn’t imminent—at least not in time to integrate into its scheduling model.

“They're very complicated discussions,” said Monahan, who met personally with PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, in New York during the week of the Memorial Tournament in June. “There are a lot of elements to them, but when you have the level of interaction, when you've got … you're continuing to meet and move forward and discuss and debate, you can't be anything other than hopeful. And as it relates to times and timeframes and where we are, I just say that we're in a good place with the conversations, and that's the most important thing.”

To paraphrase, blah, blah and more blah.  But are they complicated or, yanno, nonexisatent?

Perhaps indicative of the slow nature of the negotiations, Rory McIlroy, a member of the tour’s transaction subcommittee, said he hasn’t participated in any conference calls related to PIF negotiations since June.

But Tiger can't captain the Ryder Cup team because of his extensive time commitments...  remember the old rule of thumb, that you knw they're lying because their lips are moving.

But you're probably asking yourselves, how are things going at LIV?  Shockingly, they haven't been providing viewership numbers since, checking notes, forever, so is it possible that the CW hasn't delivered a massive audience?

After two short years and a few too many bleak ratings reports, LIV Golf and the CW are preparing to change the channel.

That’s the latest according to LIV star Phil Mickelson, who let slip during a press conference

previewing the league’s championship in Chicago that the league has its sights set in a new broadcast direction for 2025 and beyond.

“Well, television and viewership for sports, especially golf, is changing. So the old-school media and way that we’ve done it, which is be on a network and so forth, is not the way of the future. It’s going to be more digital, more streaming,” Mickelson said on Wednesday, speaking about the league’s current agreement with network TV partner the CW. “Our new partner, because our new partner, whoever that is after this year, I think is going to be more focused and centric there because of the opportunities that will open up. But I am not part of those television contracts.”

Sources at LIV confirmed the league is “exploring partnership opportunities” with current and new broadcast partners in the U.S. and abroad, as it has done in each of the last several offseasons.

Mickelson, though, indicated the league could look to move away from linear TV rights altogether. That would be, to put it lightly, a radical shift in the modern sports media economy.

Yeah, that's the ticket, the reason nobody watches is what's happening with linear television....As Ian Faith put it, Phil's appeal is just getting more selective.

The Tour Confidential panel did have some thought son this knotty problem:

4. LIV Golf tees off at The Greenbrier this week for its regular-season finale (with just its individual and team championships remaining), and in a recent press conference, Phil Mickelson went into detail about LIV Golf’s new broadcast direction for 2025 and beyond, which could include new partners and more streaming options. After a couple of years of low ratings and one streaming partner abruptly shuttering, is finding a reliable, far-reaching partner LIV’s No. 1 goal this offseason? Or is a deal with the PGA Tour or something like signing more stars more important for LIV?

Barath: So far streaming for LIV has been a bust, but on the other hand one of its biggest stars also happens to have one of the biggest golf YouTube channels, so I feel that if they wanted, LIV could once again lean back into YouTube as a broadcast partner. It’s not a major TV network, but the reality of live golf on TV is changing, and the younger audience is looking for other options.

Melton: Finding a reliable TV partner has to be their biggest priority. They can sign as much talent as they want, but if no one is watching, it doesn’t matter. If LIV wants to be taken seriously, their leaders have got to figure out a way to get eyeballs on their tournaments.

Dethier: I’m curious what that TV deal would look like, who’s in the running and what the level of interest is from nontraditional broadcast partners. Unless unreleased streaming and app numbers are big-time, LIV’s viewership is still negligible. So I’d say LIV’s biggest priority is making a deal. LIV Golf needs the PGA Tour’s legitimacy. The PGA Tour needs some of LIV’s star power. The fans want it. But the way Mickelson is talking, LIV will be around the rest of his golfing life so yeah, there’s certainly no guarantee anything will happen. (Hoping to report out a story on this in the coming weeks.)

Dylan, if those numbers were meaningful, I think they might shared them.... If there's one common thread among those who have turned on a LIV broadcast, it's the word "Unwatchable", so maybe the problem isn't with linear TV?  Except, of course, to remind of how few people watch televised golf of any kind, so one might want to think in terms of creating a compensation structure consistent with the revenue stream... Nah, that's crazy talk.

There's little doubt that LIV has damaged the PGA Tour.  But LIV has created nothing that's viable or sustainable, absent being 100% funder by PIF.  So, good luck, Yasir!

Exit Question:

Glory's Cost: Will money ruin the chase for golf greatness?

How LIV Golf pushed the game into a lucrative limbo and drained some of its passion and intensity.

Ummm, don't forget integrity.....

That's behind a paywall, and I'll give you a moment to stop laughing at Golf Digest thinking that anyone would pay to scale said wall.  But the answer to the headline query is simple, it'll only affect those that took the money.

That'll be it for today and, I assume the week.  Enjoy the weekend.

Home Again - Playing Hurt Edition

Employee No. 2 and I are safely home from our wonderful Scotland adventure, though only under the loosest of definitions of safely.  The delay in the resumption of normal blogging is that we've both been ill.  Theresa caught what we first thought was food poisoning, and traveled home during its onset, which is truly no fun.  We came to the conclusion that it wasn't food poisoning when it hit me Sunday morning, though I seem to be recovering at a quicker pace than the bride.

I have some final day photos for a trip notebook dump, but don't have anywhere near the energy for that today.  Just thought I'd cover a couple of golf items, and try to get back into ordinary course of business.

Olympic Fever - If only my immunity to Olympic Fever extended to the gastrointestinal realm, but folks are understandably happy for a certain Kiwi.  Prone as I found myself, I did catch a bit of the final round, the part where Lydia's collar got a bit tight.  Shall we see what folks thought, beginning with the Tour Confidential roundtable?

1. Lydia Ko claimed gold at the women’s Olympic Golf competition, finishing 10 under to beat Esther Henseleit (eight under, silver) and Xiyu Lin (seven under, bronze) at Le Golf National outside of Paris. What did Ko do better than everyone else, and could her Olympic success (a gold, silver and bronze) now be higher up on her resume than her two major titles?

Ryan Barath:: As much as the women’s majors are a very big deal, I think when you consider the time between all three of her Olympic medals, especially the gold she just earned in Paris, I believe when all is said and done in her career, this could be considered her crowning achievement.

Zephyr Melton:: It might not be higher than her major wins, but it very well might equal them. Majors come around five times a year for the ladies — the Olympics only happen once every four years. Securing all three spots on the podium in three Olympic starts its a wildly impressive accomplishment.

Dylan Dethier: She rode a red-hot putter all week, gaining more than eight shots on the rest of the field. Can we call that destiny? As I understand it nobody else in golf history has more than one Olympic medal. Ko has all three of ‘em. That’s incredible. That’s historic. Golf still counts majors more than golds, but in the eyes of the rest of the sporting world those medals are worth far more.

Then obviously the rest of the world has been into the wacky 'shrooms...  I agree this is a feel good win and those three medals over seven years is a notable achievement, but there's one gnawing problem.  The field in Olympic golf is so thin as to render the competition irrelevant.  Lydia plays for a country that guarantees her a spot in the filed, then she only needs to beat a handful of actual top-level players.  Sorry to be a downer, but that's the reality of what Peter Dawson has given us.

And this about the young lady:

2. With the win, the 27-year-old Ko became the 35th player to join the LPGA Hall of Fame and also the youngest to qualify for it under the current criteria. Has her consistency — winning at 15, two majors, 20 LPGA titles — received as much praise as it deserves when so many other young stars haven’t found the same sustained success?

Barath: Within the game I have a very hard time thinking of another LPGA or even PGA Tour

player that is as well-loved and respected as Lydia. Her career has spanned over a decade and a half and in the modern women’s game that’s almost unheard of. Part of what I think has prevented her from reaching the general popularity and recognition as others that have been less successful is that there is no standout part of her game that fans can point to like being overly long off the tee — she’s just a top-to-bottom solid player.

Melton: Lydia’s career seems like one that will be remembered more fondly as time passes. She became a victim of her own success after such a dynamic start to her career, and when she couldn’t maintain that pace it almost seemed like a disappointment. But with her spot in the LPGA HOF locked up and her legacy secure, we’ll look back on her career as one of the greatest of the modern generation.

Dethier: It’s crazy to say because she’s just 27 but Ko’s journey has had several chapters. Early on she got plenty of praise and credit; in down times she received her fair share — maybe more — of criticism and second-guessing. Hall of Fame qualification has loomed over this era and there’s no more dramatic way to get over the line with Olympic gold. The up-and-down ride has made this latest chapter feel that much more satisfying from the outside and, Ko admits, for her, too.

Aren't there a lot of interesting threads in that question and answers?  I think, as noted above, that we learn a lot about these folks by the reactions of their fellow players, and we see them genuinely happy for her success.

But her career arc is interesting, and in many ways more admirable than her popularity.  I think Dylan citing here age is a bit of a red herring, because the women tend to rise earlier but their careers don't have the length of the men, a big part of which is attributable to life intruding.  But she's really a bit of an under-achiever to be honest, that early burst of brilliance leading two a mere two majors (and, to be honest, one was a gift from Ariya and the other was a made-up major), is a bit of a disappointment.  

I always worried about Lydia's longevity because she was such a short hitter, it's hard to compete routinely hitting longer clubs into greens.  But it's her reaction to those down periods that I think will be her legacy, and the work that allowed her to remain competitive for so long.  I don't know that she qualifies as a legend, but I do know that I'm happy for her success, and I'm not a cheap date in that regard.

Now for the inevitable over-reaching conclusions, though bear in mind that there's more from Dylan Derthier coming:

3. With the men’s and women’s Olympic Golf competitions now complete, what was your main takeaway or learning from the events?

Barath: On the women’s side I think the Olympics is now considered bigger than a major, especially considering the global broadcast that brings in so many casual fans. As for Olympic golf on the men’s side, I believe this year has helped to solidify this as a big event for the best men’s players in the world.

Melton: Olympic golf is FUN. Playing for medals makes for a much more exciting finish and watching players rep their countries is a treat. I’m all in on golf in the Olympics.

Dethier: I’m biased because I’m an Olympics sicko and I’ve always been a massive proponent of golf in the games. But I think what I hadn’t realized until this week is that 72-hole stroke play actually IS the right format for the individual competition. I’d been a proponent of something more creative, but nah — the original way still delivers. I’m still dying for an outside-the-box team competition, but incredible crowds on a wild golf course with talent and storylines in contention? This was awesome.

I agree that the laying for medals is interesting, though I think what's intriguing is the silver and bronze versions thereof.  What I mean is that what makes Olympic golf different, is the value, i.e. the medal, that is assigned to second and third places.  

Dylan's comments are a bit odd, as the general reaction to Olympic golf suffers, in your humble blogger's opinion, fails because it doesn't address the need to make it a credible competition, meaning a deep field.

Dylan spends a lot of time on the Olympics in his Monday Finish column, which amusingly is framed by a non-golfer's travails:

After watching roughly 230 hours of Summer Olympics coverage these last two weeks, there’s one athlete I can’t stop thinking about: sprinter Akani Simbine.

Simbine is from South Africa and he runs the 100-meter dash, one of the Games’ marquee events. This was hardly his first time at the track; at the 2016 Games he finished fifth in the 100, missing the podium by 0.02 seconds, and when he made it back to the final in Tokyo in 2021 he finished fourth there, 0.04 seconds off the podium. He fell into a depression post-Olympics, he said in one interview, locking himself in his house for a week and ultimately stepping away from the sport for a while. But he worked his way to a positive new mindset, battled his way back into form, qualified for a third Olympics and made his way into the final. Again.

And then, last week, he finished fourth. Again.

This time Simbine’s margin was even more excruciating. Not only had he finished just 0.01 seconds out of the medals; his time of 9.82 was less than four hundredths from gold.

I'll alert the media that sports are cruel.  What?  I see, Dylan is media but apparently didn't get the memo...

So what does this have to do with golf?

For one thing, golfers should feel lucky. Every year we talk about the scarcity of the majors. Golfers’ careers are defined by performances in majors, specifically victories in majors, and because there are only four per year (five, for the LPGA) every chance to win one is incredibly precious. Golf is a game of inches, the difference between winning and losing can be a lip-in vs. a lip-out, you need luck on your side, etc. You’ve heard the cliches. But there’s a world of difference between four four-day majors per year and one 10-second “major” every four years, which is how most of the world views the Olympics 100-meter race.

So while it’s still not yet clear where Olympic Gold fits in golf’s hierarchy, there’s a scarcity to the accomplishment that just doesn’t exist elsewhere in the sport. It might have seemed silly after the 2016 Games to suggest that gold could be bigger than a major, but that’s a far less crazy suggestion now; some athletes would certainly make the trade. It’s certainly more unique: We gave out 31 men’s major championships between the 2016 and 2024 Olympics, after all, but only one gold medal.

That middle 'graph is troubling, because it so misrepresents life as it really exists.  He's correct up to point about the once every four years, although he ignores the annual world championships that exist in most Olympic sports.  But it's that 10 second analogy, along with the lip-outs, that's so misguided.

What Dylan ignores is that the best track athlete in the world will win x percent of his or her competitions, whereas the best golfer in the world will win y percent of the time.  Now, dear reader, solve for x and y....  Of course there are upsets and luck, but x is exponentially higher than y, which makes golf an awkward fit in the Olympics.  Of course, they've increased the best player's chances of winning, by the expedient of excluding so many of the best players in the world, but that renders the underlying competition an exhibition.

But here's where it gets really interesting, though Dylan doesn't seem to understand the implications:

For another thing, golf should feel lucky. Because the game’s tendency towards randomness is where where golf in the Olympics could have gotten weird. Without the assistance of some high-level pharmaceuticals, the 350th-ranked high jumper will never come from nowhere to win Olympic gold, nor will someone running a 10.1-second 100 meters suddenly run 9.7. In many Olympic sports there are upsets but there aren’t usually random flukes. But in golf? The 100th-ranked player wins all the time! So while they would be deserving champions, a gold medalist like Esther Henseleit (No. 54 in the world before her silver this weekend) or Rory Sabbatini (No. 161 before his silver in Tokyo) would feel a bit random as golf’s global representatives for the next four years.

Instead, something special has happened since the sport’s Olympic reintroduction — a golf miracle, if you will. The perfect players have won.

In 2016 the men’s gold medalist was Justin Rose, a respected major champion who’d emphasized the Games’ importance and showed up enthusiastically even as many other top-ranked players bailed. On the women’s side gold went to Inbee Park, a seven-time major champion and the best player of her generation.

In 2021 the golds went to Xander Schauffele and Nelly Korda, which proved a sign of things to come; each was already among the best players in the world at the time and each is even better now.

Things got even better this year; Paris and Le Golf National brought out the best from the best. On the men’s side there was World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler rallying to a Sunday 9-under 62 to chase down Jon Rahm and the rest of the field to win by one. And then this weekend there was Lydia Ko, already the only person in history with multiple golfing medals, needing gold to complete her set of three and needing a win to cement her place in the LPGA’s Hall of Fame. A red-hot putter carried her into the lead and an all-around game kept her there; her perfect wedge at the last sealed the deal, she finished with birdie and walked off the course and into history.

But riddle me this Batman.  Why was the 161st ranked player in the world in a 60-player field, when the fifth-ranked American (who would have been in the top ten in the world) excluded?  In a sport whose genetic profile includes what Dylan calls "randomness"?  

I remain open to the concept of Olympic golf, but please wake me when they make it a legitimate completion.  

I had intended to get to Koochgate today, but the fact is that I'm already worn down.  So let's keep that for another day, and we'll catch up later in the week.

The Load Out Begins

 The party is over..... but what a party it's been.

Yesterday was the final day of golf, a seemingly fine day with one small challenge contained therein, forecast winds of 24 m.p.h., with gusts into the 30's.  And we find ourselves on the Craighead, the far more difficult of the two courses, one featuring tiny little greens.  

We've been passing this church every trip to Crail, so caught this from the moving vehicle:

Those massive windows were, disappointingly, not stained glass, but loved the graveyard and quite the piece of property.  One could see it repurposed as a links clubhouse, no?  

How windy was it?  You make the call, but make sure your audio is on:

It appears that Blogger will not allow me access to the most basic of iPhone videos, so I'm pretty exasperated.  What you're missing is long fescue whipping in the wind, but the whole point of taking the video was for you to hear it....

The opening tee shot is quite difficult, and when my ball fortuitously ended up here, I thought maybe we'd have ourselves a day.  Alas, I was misinformed.

You may not be able to make it out, but it found grass after trundling through two bunkers.

The golf wasn't actually half-bad when one considers the degree of difficulty, not least that which was in front of us.  As we drove into the Crail carpark, we saw the bus in the auxiliary carpark, as well a minyan on the first tee, meaning that the visitors were ahead of us.  It turned out to be four groups that, despite having forecaddies, played at a pace akin to....well, who am I kidding, there was no pace to their play.  But to make up for it, they were loud enough to be heard in St. Andrews....

Amusingly, they were also bloody idiots and not shy about exhibiting that trait.  Several time we saw one or the other walking back to retrieve clubs left behind, at least until they got the idea of using the caddie for that purpose.  We had quite the scene on No. 6, while we were playing up the Par-5 and the players were on the 7th tee, their caddie was walking back towards and past us, then we saw him circling a patch of long fescue searching in vain for something.  I just hope they were generous with the caddie, because it's hard to forecaddie well when you're on a wild goose chase behind the group that's behind your players.

If I had any lingering illusions about the day, they didn't survive contact with the twelfth hole.  On that short Par-4, my 3-hybrid tee shot drew around the corner perfectly, leaving me a mere 36 yards to the front of the green.  It's the firmest green on the course, and I nudged a wedge that landed just short of the green, trickling on and feeding to the pin.... Or at least it would have, had it not instead alit on John's ball, kicking hard right and into the greenside bunker.  

You'll note the absence of pictures, the camera remaining safely out of the wind all day.  Obviously a taxing day for all, though the some commendable golf was played.  Both ladies made par at the tricky 2nd which, while impressive, is a bit early to peak.  I may have cured my case of Triskaidekaphobia, hitting a controlled 8-iron that settled on the fringe at the front left of the green.   I just have to remember to underclub, would someone remind me of that in mid-July 2025?

We had blown past the four-hour mark and, while playing No. 15, John indicated that he had lost his will to live.  My own had been lost at No. 12, so no worries there, mate.  No 15 is a long Par-5, the second shot of which plays over Dane's Dyke, the ancient stone wall that Gil Hanse incorporated into the routing (though this side of the wall is sodded, and balls will run over).  I had push my drive dangerously close to a gorse bush, and couldn't advance my second more than 25 yards or so.  Finding myself some 246 yards from the front of the green, unable to see the green and not caring a whole lot for those in front, I crushed a three wood that I ultimately found in the middle of the green.  Having decided at that point to walk in, I just picked it up in the knowledge that there was no reason to ruin the feel of that shot with the inevitable 3-jack.

Our day wound down here:

That's Seafood Ristorante, one of a series of restaurant recommendations helpfully provided by friend-of-the-blog Mark W.  It's located just past the R&A clubhouse and the British Golf Museum, in an area known as The Scores.  The building is a bit modern, but hard to quibble with the location:

And you'll not find four people that were happier with their meals, so a proper rousing coda to our time with our friends.  And that list of restaurants will be transferred from my 2024 Scotland file to the 2025 version thereof.

Elsie and John are packing up as I type, and will depart for home, stopping on their way to pick up grandson Sebastian.  We will get ourselves sorted and we head for the airport tomorrow.

This will conclude Scotland blogging for 2024.  Regular blogging will resume at a yet-to-be-determined date, but thanks to all for reading along with us.

Lazy Day - Auld Grey Toon Edition

This won't keep you long.... After three straight days of play, Theresa and I couldn't have answered the bell.  And John was certainly happy to bask in the glow of his win on the Balcomie...

When we finally summoned the energy to leave our rented home, we took a lovely walk around St. Andrews.  It's a tiny place, essentially three major streets, with all sorts of alleyways and wynds weaving throughout.  While settlement there dates to the mesolithic (Middle Stone Ages), it's peak influence was a bit later:

St Andrews, in particular the large cathedral built in 1160, was the most important centre of pilgrimage in medieval Scotland and one of the most important in Europe. Pilgrims from all over

Scotland came in large numbers hoping to be blessed, and in many cases to be cured, at the shrine of Saint Andrew. The presence of the pilgrims brought about increased trade and development.[25] Recognised as the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, the town now had vast economic and political influence within Europe as a cosmopolitan town.[26] The Scottish Parliament met in the town in 1304, when King Edward I, in his capacity as overlord of Scotland, came to be received by Bishop William de Lamberton.[27] As many as 130 landowners turned up to witness the event ranging from Sir John of Cambo to Sir William Murray of Fort.[28]

In 1559, the town fell into decay after the violent Scottish Reformation and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms losing the status of ecclesiastical capital of Scotland.[29] Even the University of St Andrews was considering relocating to Perth around 1697 and 1698.[26] Under the authorisation of the bishop of St Andrews, the town was made a burgh of barony in 1614. Royal Burgh was then granted as a charter by King James VI in 1620.[30][31] In the 18th century, the town was still in decline, but despite this the town was becoming known for having links 'well known to golfers'.[26] By the 19th century, the town began to expand beyond the original medieval boundaries with streets of new houses and town villas being built.[26] Today, St Andrews is served by education, golf and the tourist and conference industry.[26]

Wikipedia indicates a population of 16,800 souls (though that's a 2011 estimate), making it the fourth largest in Fife....Just a tiny speck, with outside influence due to the Uni and the golf.

We started by walking to the cathedral ruins, which was shockingly close to our rental house:

In prior years I've ranted about those metal barricades, which don't seem to do much and ruin the ambiance of the ancient ruins.  But homage must be paid:

And to the forgotten man, Allan Robertson:

We then headed down to the East Sands, the less famous St. Andrews beach:

We did a drive by of a house there that could be under consideration for 2025:

It would be lovely down by the water (it's the white building), although spending the full period in Pittenweem has also been discussed.

Then a lovely walk along The Scores towards the castle ruins:

And ultimately the more famous West Sands, the Chariots of Fire beach:

And, most importantly, a pint and some nibbles at the Dunvegan:

I love that the photos of owners Jack and Sheena are so voluminous, that they need to be adhered to the ceiling to have enough space.  What you really want at the Dunvegan (at least on such a fine day) is one of their precious few outdoor table, but that wasn't in the cards.

We're to play the Craighead today, with a deteriorating weather forecast, featuring some bodacious winds.  Should we make it that far, Vegas has established the over/under for Scott's lost balls on No. 13 at 3.5.  You should seriously think about that over bet...

More later, but we are officially in winddown mode.