Thursday Themes - Full-Field Edition

Enjoy the week, kids, they don't give us many quite like this one.  Exactly four in total, including this week and three of the majors.  Elite professional golf should and used to be about beating strong, deep (but I repeat myself) fields.... Keep that in mind as you list to Jay's nonsense.

I'm in the late stages of my last full-field (see what I did there?) ski trip of the year.  It hasn't been brilliant, 220 inches of snow to date being quite the half-assed year.  Now the last few days have been warm and sunny, and its been quite fun sliding around in the slush low on the mountain.  A series of storms hits beginning today, though it has the potential to merely complicate my final two days on the mountan.

But enough about me....

The Players - I shan't spend too much time previewing this event, you can read Golf Digest's ranking of the entire 144-player field here, or ESPN's preview here.  Shall we just take a quick peak at the ESPN writers' picks?

Schlabach: Give me Scottie. It's March and the world No.1 golfer hasn't won a PGA Tour event yet. To win the Players, you have to be accurate off the tee and on approach. Few players hit it as straight as Scheffler, and I think he'll work some magic around the greens and make enough putts to complete the three-peat.

Uggetti: Maybe I'm a sucker for the storyline this would create, but short of Scheffler three-peating, I think I'm going with the Morikawa instant redemption arc. He has been playing such good golf lately that it feels like he is due. Then again, it felt like he was due last week, and we saw what happened.

However, despite the fact that he said he never needs some kind of external affirmation for coming up short, everything he said Tuesday struck me as his own version of a self-prescribed pump-up speech fueled by some combination of anger, frustration and motivation.

"If you get beat, you get beat, like I can't do anything about that. But I knew I had more inside of me to control for that day to where I'm like, 'Man, if I shoot, if I have two more birdies, I win the tournament,'" Morikawa said. "So I look at it both ways. And that's why it sucked. That's why you just, you're pissed. But you got to move on."

At a course that fits him like a glove, I think Morikawa will be able to do just that and finally get his first win since 2023.

I haven't seen that much from Scottie since his return, but we all understand it will click back in at some point.  But the Morikawa pick seems a good one on the merits, but would it be a popular win?  Well, depends who you ask, because Collin might need a remedial PR course:

Three PGA Tour pros who have adopted a role in golf media took offense to Collin Morikawa

blowing off the media on Sunday after finishing second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Morikawa, who lost a three-stroke lead with five holes to go, said he was pissed and needed time to cool down.

“Like I don't owe anyone anything. No offense to you guys, but for me in the moment of that time, I didn't want to be around anyone. Like, I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't need any sorries. I didn't need any 'good playings.' Like, you're just pissed," Morikawa said on Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. "I get it. Like you guys are there to figure out how we played and how things went, but in my perspective, like I just didn't want to talk to anyone, and I think that's fair to myself, you know."

Translated into the original English, it' basically a double-middle finger.....

But I personally love it when they drop the mask.....Don't you?  I mean, we all get the disappointment and he could have skated if he had merely said that he was so distraught and disappointed that he couldn't pull it off.   But what he said was so much clearer.  Shall I render it with a little bolding?

“Like I don't owe anyone anything. No offense to you guys, but for me in the moment of that time, I didn't want to be around anyone. Like, I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't need any sorries. I didn't need any 'good playings.' Like, you're just pissed," Morikawa said on Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. "I get it. Like you guys are there to figure out how we played and how things went, but in my perspective, like I just didn't want to talk to anyone, and I think that's fair to myself, you know."

Does that help explicate?  I've bolded everything that's important to Collin.... Really, what could he do to make things clearer to us.  We're just lucky to be allowed to live in the same world as he does.... But by all means don't take offence.

Now, there are a handful of guys out there that get it:

But Rocco Mediate, a longtime pro who won on PGA Tour Champions last year, isn’t buying Morikawa’s explanation.

“Biggest bunch of horsesh--t you could ever say, period. I mean, that is the dumbest, most selfish garbage you could ever say,” Mediate said. “Mr. Palmer would've hunted him down. Trust me on that one because he told me one thing, Mr. Palmer told me one thing that stuck with me. [He said,] ‘You know what, Rock, it's real easy to go in and talk to somebody when you won or when you've played well, but can you do it when you don't? That's the key.’ Obviously he can't, OK, so stop talking to me about, ‘I didn't wanna talk to anybody.’ Your job is to tell people what happened. I don't give a s--t about your workout in the morning and all that other crap. Tell me what happened. You lost? You lost. You got beat? That's what happens. Guess what? Golf's hard.”

Arnie has left the building....

Obviously the worst bit was the lede about not owing anyone anything, which doesn't even have the benefit of being true:

Mediate continued his rant against Morikawa: “Please stop trying to tell me, ‘I didn't feel like talking to somebody.’ I mean, if Mr. Palmer was there, he'd have grabbed, I'm telling you, it wouldn't have been pretty, it would've been public, too. You don't need to act that way. The Tour does not need that garbage at all. I'm not sure if I was clear. Was I clear or was that a little ambiguous? Man up, talk about it and be done. He said, ‘I don't owe anybody anything.’ Actually, he does. The people that are watching. The reporters that bust their ass to write stories about our sorry asses. And I get this s--t? No, pathetic. You can say it. You can put it all, I don't care. Come to me, Collin. We'll talk about it.”

It's hard to overstate how bad this crap is, because he's showing contempt for the Tour's fans and sponsors.... There are precedents that Jay and other might want to consider, yanno, major brands such as....wait for it, Bud Light.

Brandel gets it as well:

Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, speaking on “Live From,” echoed that sentiment, beginning his comments by saying, “It’s so disrespectful.”

“When I found that he had refused to do the interview I was thinking about the players who had suffered far more devastating losses, far more momentous losses, who regained their equilibrium and with class gave the media – and it’s not just giving the media, it is giving the fans and the sponsors and the entire ecosystem of the golf world an explanation of the humanity of losing,” he said.

Chamblee thought of Robert de Vicenzo signing an incorrect scorecard at the 1968 Masters; Greg Norman losing a six-shot lead at the 1996 Masters; Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 British Open after tripling the last hole to fall into a playoff; Phil Mickelson at the 2006 U.S. Open, Jordan Spieth at the 2016 Masters – each of whom stood in front of the media and answered questions with candor.

“The one that really resonated with me and that Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy can learn from, there is no more devastating loss in the history of golf and maybe the history of sport than Tom Watson not winning the 2009 Open at Turnberry. He gathered himself after the loss and went in and spoke and opened up his heart to the world to what this loss meant."

Collin was very clear that he doesn't owe us anything.  The only logical reaction to that is to remind ourselves of that should he win soon....  That's not something I feel compelled to watch.

State of Play -  Jay's presser was quite the work of art:

Players 2025: Jay Monahan stresses PGA Tour will only do a PIF deal on tour terms, isn't willing to jeopardize tour product

Let me help you with the translation there.  We have Patrick Cantlay reasonably content, so we've successfully destroyed our product be copying LIV, so as long as Tiger and Rory are happy, we're good.  I know, not much in there for the rest of us....

Speaking Tuesday at the TPC Sawgrass ahead of this week’s Players Championship, Monahan opened his annual state of the tour address by giving an update on the discussions with LIV Golf’s financial backer, stating reunification with those who defected to Saudi-backed circuit remains his priority. However, as Golf Digest detailed last week, both sides have hit a roadblock in trying to finalize a deal, a sentiment Monahan nodded to by mentioning “when you may be near a breakthrough, there are ebbs and flows in the discussion.” While Monahan was quick to say both sides are operating from a place of respect, the commissioner was adamant he would not accept anything that would harm the existing tour product.

“We will not do so in a way that diminishes the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners,” Monahan said. “So while we've removed some hurdles, others remain. But like our fans, we still share the same sense of urgency to get to a resolution.”

Oh yeah, it's like a rocket ship..... No doubt you've noticed the coordinated talking points about the Tour not needing a deal, though buried in the fine print is an asterisk, since they much be burning through that SSG cash infusion, no?

But there's a lot to unpack here:

Publicly and privately, Monahan continues to push for a deal. He is wary of the fatigue from fans about the schism and also has preached the danger of continuing to war with the PIF. The tour’s

private equity partners, the Strategic Sports Group, are in favor of a deal, as well. Conversely, though the PIF has vast resources at its disposal, it also is under a mandate to curtail some of its expenses. LIV has already burned upwards of $5 billion on the fledgling venture. To those who view LIV Golf as an exercise in sportswashing and soft power, LIV has succeeded, giving the kingdom direct access to the White House. With that mission accomplished, LIV Golf’s success as its own vehicle warrants further scrutiny. Now in its fourth year of existence, LIV continues to struggle to gain traction with the golf populace. Though the league signed an American broadcast deal with FOX Sports, ratings have been soft, and for the second time in three years LIV failed to extract a marquee player from the PGA Tour or DP World Tour for the 2025 season. In short, there’s the question of what leverage LIV has at the moment.

The same leverage they've always had.  Because of the greed of the players, they have the financial wherewithal to inflict pain on the rest of professional golf.  Just not the power to create a compelling product.

Of course, everyone assumes this is a reference to team play:

In his opening remarks, Monahan spoke about assimilating some aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour product. However, in Golf Digest’s reporting, LIV’s team element remains a sticking point. When pressed by Golf Digest and other reporters on what exactly the tour is interested in, Monahan repeatedly declined to get into specifics.

It has to be, because the other core components of LIV, specifically tiny elite fields and no cuts, have already destroyed to competitive integrity of the Tour's premier events.  It would take a heart of stone to not to laugh at Jordan Spieth's frustration at not getting a sponsor's exemption into Bay Hill, maybe he should take that up with Cantlay?  Or Tiger?

But while beating their chest, have their ratings improved?

PGA Tour telecasts (finally) trending up, but biggest issue still looms

 Issue?  You sure about that use of the singular?

Good news first. The Tour knows it has to get better on TV, and efforts to get there are leading somewhere. For years, the biggest problem facing PGA Tour telecasts was the same problem facing the Tour itself: It was too large, too slow, and much too bureaucratic. Most fans understood that commercials were unlikely to disappear in an environment where the Tour had to generate $700 million in ad revenue each year for its network partners. But why did that render the Tour incapable of changing anything that irked its most loyal consumers?

The Tour introduced the Fan Forward program — a survey that solicited responses from more than 50,000 golf fans — almost exclusively to fix that. The program has identified a roadmap forward for “fixing what can be fixed” in Tour telecasts, in the parlance of many Tour execs. These changes, outlined in Monahan’s annual state-of-the-state speech on Tuesday, include more live golf shots, more player-caddie interactions and an increased focus on cutline battles. According to multiple people at the Tour, the modifications also include new focus group-tested shot sequences that show fewer tap-in putts and a greater number of golf shots per minute.

Many of these changes already are on display, with a few more expected to roll out this weekend at the Players Championship. And while the Golf Twitter army will be relieved to hear there is still ample room to quibble with the Tour’s network partners — including after NBC missed a tournament-deciding moment on Sunday — there is little disagreement that the survey already has produced welcome changes. Before Henley’s tournament-winning eagle at Bay Hill, NBC had delivered one of its more comprehensive Tour telecasts in recent memory, and its analytics-focused approach to the cutline replaced an outdated Friday golf TV tradition with something new and considerably more watchable.

Let me see if I have this straight.....  We're wowed by NBC analytical approach to......really, the cut line?  When Tiger and Rory are committed to a world with no cuts?  Sheesh, what a clown show.

I do love the buried counter-point:

Still, these changes to golf TV can best be viewed as fixes on the margins. They are fixing problems of golf TV that can be fixed, and that’s good, but they fall well short of addressing the proverbial elephant in the room: commercials.

 Yeah, the broadcasts are unwatchable due to that commercial load....

As part of the PGA Tour’s 2019 TV rights agreement with CBS and NBC, the networks air between 17 and 21 minutes of commercials per hour on any given week, and average about 18 minutes of commercials per hour. That’s a tremendous “commercial load,” as it’s called, and it places an equally tremendous burden on the editorial folks responsible for bringing Tour broadcasts to life to stitch together something in the remaining 42 minutes that keeps fans engaged.

The problem, of course, is that the current PGA Tour TV machine basically prints money. Eighteen minutes of commercials per hour might not be the best way to win over an audience, but it turns out to be a great way to make everybody in the golf world (Tours, networks, players and sponsors) very rich. Considering the many pieces of professional golf that remain broken as the golf world turns to Players Championship week, it is understandable and perhaps fair for the Tour to view tweaks to the one irrefutably solid piece of its business as being beyond reproach.

Really?  I don't expect that it's printing money for the broadcasters, and even that commercial load doesn't sate the players.

Of course, it’s easier to sell your advertising partners on higher prices when you’re delivering on your end of the bargain, and that can also be said for the Tour in 2025. Since the Farmers Insurance Open, Tour viewership is up 16 percent in Nielsen’s new “big data panel” — and by a smaller but still encouraging margin in Nielsen’s more traditional ratings panel.

That viewership rebound can largely be attributed to a successful sophomore season for the Signature Events, particularly in Pebble Beach, which went from three rounds to four in 2025 and also saw a thrilling win by Rory McIlroy. For the first time since they were announced a few years back, the Signature Events seem to be delivering on entertainment value. The schedule is more solidified, the stars are getting together more often, and the big events feel bigger — this is what golf fans were promised.

From the numbers I've seen, that 16% increase is entirely attributable to decreases in 2024, and leaves the Tour with a viewership lower than before the creation of these money-grabs.  More importantly, those ratings can't support the economic model of the Tour.

Tied to the Morikawa hissy fit, it creates a weird juxtaposition.  The players demand more money than the ecosystem can produce, then they tell us they owe us nothing.  We, in turn, owe them the respect of acknowledging their contempt for us, and responding in kind.

Elvis Has Left The Building - I'm legally required to cover this story, right?

Tiger Woods ruptures left Achilles, undergoes surgery that puts his major season in doubt

For the two people on the planet that missed the story:

"As I began to ramp up my own training and practice at home, I felt a sharp pain in my left

Achilles, which was deemed to be ruptured," Woods wrote. "This morning, Dr. Charlton Stucken of Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida performed a minimally-invasive Achilles tendon repair for a ruptured tendon. “The surgery went smoothly, and we expect a full recovery,” added Dr. Stucken. I am back home now and plan to focus on my recovery and rehab, thank you for all the support."

Tiger injured?  Say it ain't so, Joe!

I'm so bored by this man.  Remind me again why hw isn't the Ryder Cup Captain?  What, it would cut into his Call of Duty play?   Maybe you can devote yourself to making those field even smaller.......

That's it for this post and this week.  Heading home Saturday and we'll wrap the Players on Monday.  Have a great weekend.

Weekend Wrap - You Had One Job Edition

I dubbed the 2024 Tour Schedule the Faceplant Tour™, falling into that blogger's dilemma of using the good bits too early.... I could go with the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight™, though the field sizes are so small that they might not meet the minimum to be considered, yanno, a gang....

I did watch it, it's just that like NBC's entire audience, I wasn't permitted to see the one shot that mattered....

Not TGL - I'm guilty og belaboring the bit for sure, but perhaps NBC thought we were playing only fifteen holes, like that Monday-night craze sweeping the country.  Anyway, to the actual golf:

Russell Henley steals Arnold Palmer Invitational title from Collin Morikawa

He best be careful, this is Florida where theft is still a crime....

HENLEY HOLE-OUT!! 🦅

From 1 back to 1 ahead with one perfect chip.

📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/UZXUvwm4Hq

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 9, 2025

As I'm sure you'll have noted, the chip came in hot:

“I knew it was probably going to be, I don’t know, 5, 6 feet by, but I don’t know that you can stop it with any pace right there,” Henley said. “I think Collin hit his a couple feet by. That’s just kind of golf. I mean, sometimes you get a good break like that and it hits the pin and goes in.”

The Tour Confidential panel take a different tack, eschewing the theft angle entirely:

2. Russell Henley chipped in for eagle on the 16th hole to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, beating playing partner Collin Morikawa by one. Did Henley win it, or did Morikawa lose it?

Colgan: Henley won it, but man, Morikawa’s gonna be replaying some of those putts down the stretch in his mind on the trip to Jacksonville. I feel for Collin — he’s been one of the three best golfers alive over the last 16 months, and he’s got no wins to show for it.

Berhow: It might be a little bit of both. Morikawa was one over on the back nine and that’s not how you close golf tournaments, especially when you lead by three at the turn. You could argue Henley got lucky with his eagle chip in on 16 (which would have cruised well past the hole if it didn’t hit the flag) but he also had to be aggressive. Plus, after a bogey on 10, he had birdies on 12 and 14 before that eagle. Three under on the back which included two textbook, smart two-putt pars on 17 and 18? Hat tip to Henley.

Sens: Henley won it with some help from the golf gods. No doubt Morikawa could play the woulda-coulda-shoulda game, but I don’t think he’ll dwell for long on that and he’ll go right back to striping it at Sawgrass. Talk about a good candidate to spoil Scheffler’s attempt at a three-peat.

Not the most illuminating of questions, as it takes 72 holes to separate them by a mere shot.  That chip, which could well have saved Henley two shots by clattering in is the obvious hinge point.  Good thing NBC was all over it, eh?

Still, is there a lack of clarity at NBC as to the nature of their job?  Because...well, in addition to the merits of an NBC eff-up, we have a new contender for the header Hall of Shame:

What caused NBC’s tournament-deciding commercial gaffe at Bay Hill

Cause and effect can challenge many, but NBC's assclownery didn't actually affect the tournament outcome.  They just televise it, though just because it's happening doesn't mean we actually get to see it...

In the end, only one shot mattered at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

And in the end, most of the golf world failed to see it.

The moment arrived on the 16th hole on Sunday afternoon, as Russell Henley stared down the short-sided eagle chip that would change the fortunes of his PGA Tour career. The 16th, a short

par-5 by PGA Tour standards, has long played as the easiest hole relative to par at Bay Hill, so much so that The King himself had it shortened to a par-4 for several years. Sunday was no different. Trailing Collin Morikawa by one, Henley needed a birdie to bring things back to even, which meant he needed to keep his chip close to the flagstick.

The ensuing high, spinning chip Henley popped out of the greenside rough was the kind you might have seen on NBC’s telecast live, had the network been showing golf. But in the moment Henley made contact NBC was not showing golf. It was showing a minute-long Rolex commercial.

Had the Rolex advertisement run for 59 seconds, the golf world might have seen the entirety of the shot that altered Henley’s career and the shape of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in real-time. But it ran for 61, and the golf world saw only Henley’s ball after it skittered across the green and into the cup for an eagle three, veering the telecast from synthy commercial notes into the tournament’s biggest moment like a five-lane sweep into the exit ramp.

In the end, only one thing matters, and that's the commercial load....  The golf is obviously secondary....

The author goes full Zapruder with a timeline, but also has some deeper background:

So, what happened?

It’s easy to point the finger at NBC’s production team for failing to navigate seamlessly in and out of the break, but after rewatching the sequence, there’s not much fat left to trim. From Morikawa’s approach to Henley’s chip is a gap of one minute and 48 seconds. Perhaps NBC could have gotten into the commercial a second sooner after Conners’ missed tee shot on the 17th, when the network went to Brad Faxon for 5 seconds of analysis. But in that moment, Conners was as close to leading the golf tournament as Henley. The decision is hard to second-guess.

Of course, some amount of blame belongs to the whims of live golf, where there are 18 playing fields and as many as 72 balls in play at any moment. Unlike other sports, golf does not stop when its networks go to commercial, which means there is always the chance, however small, that a big moment will be missed entirely. It is largely the responsibility of the professionals employed by networks — an army of producers and directors — to ensure that those commercials are aired judiciously to avoid these slip-ups whenever possible. Often these professionals are good enough that audiences miss only fodder. But sometimes they bet on Russell Henley taking 120 seconds to hit a consequential chip shot and he only takes 108, meaning half the chip doesn’t air. “That’s golf,” as former CBS Golf lead producer Lance Barrow used to say.

No, the bigger issue seems to be the commercial itself. Did Rolex pay for this advertisement to run specifically during this section of the telecast, or was it merely a one-minute spot that needed to run sometime in the final hour or half-hour? If it’s the former, then it seems remarkably short-sighted of the NBC and PGA Tour sales teams to have agreed to these terms, given what we know about the 16th hole and its penchant for providing low scores and tournament-defining moments. If it’s the latter, it’s still short-sighted, because it places a commercial interruption during a stretch of play when the “winning moment” could be anywhere (and arrive at anytime).

All of this raises a larger, more existential question: Is the entertainment value of a thrilling finish not more vital to golf’s continued financial success than another commercial break? Said differently: Don’t be mad at NBC for missing Henley’s chip-in — ask why NBC needed to air a 61-second commercial in a moment of significance in the first place.

On that last bit, everything in golf is currently driven by one simple overriding necessity, to wit, that Patrick Cantlay needs to get paid.

The bigger issue is no doubt that, in funding the current rights contracts, the commercial load renders the broadcasts unwatchable.   That's our current reality, which even makes watching on tape a marginal experience.

That said, while everything said here is true enough, doesn't it miss the larger point?

Golf’s business people will argue that you can have your cake (great golf) and eat it too (advertising dollars), but as golf grows richer, that vision grows more opaque. The margin of error for the NBC production team in navigating three golf shots and a one-minute commercial break was five seconds of analysis and one second of black. Meanwhile, the obligation facing the NBC production team was to feather 61 seconds of advertising between three contending golfers on two holes separated by a single shot. For those in the business of missing nothing, those are not particularly favorable numbers.

Nobody — not fans, NBC’s editorial team or the PGA Tour — is happy with the televised outcome of Henley’s chip, but it’s worth remembering why the possibility of this outcome exists. Golf on TV is ultimately a money-making entity, and for PGA Tour golf that costs upward of $700 million per year, commercial interruptions are how the money is made. The more of them, the larger the profit.

In other words, the real problem here isn’t an inept production but one overburdened by its commercial obligations. Real golf moments will continue to get squeezed from viewers in an environment where NBC is routinely expected to air 18 minutes per hour of commercials to satisfy its profit margins, and in turn pay the PGA Tour its chunk of the $700 million annual rights fee. Whether they’re tournament-deciding moments is anyone’s guess, including those employed to make the hard marriage of timing and obligation.

I think we all understand that not every shot can be covered live, but they can be covered plausibly live.  What I can't understand is why an experienced NBC producer comes out of an extended commercial break showing a ball in motion.... WTF!  Just set up the damn shot on tape, tell us it happened second ago if you must, but show the whole damned shot from start to finish.  What is so hard about that?

Lastly on this event, Eamon Lynch does the hard work that American bloggers are happy not to have to do (at least this morning):

Lynch: The Arnold Palmer Invitational has become a poor way of honoring Arnold Palmer

 They're using Arnie much the way Stalin used Lenin....

Elitism is the idea that a select group — let’s say, the uppermost tier of golfers — is entitled to

special privileges and power. Exclusivity, on the other hand, would insist that a certain contingent — let’s say, everyone not deemed part of that uppermost tier — is undeserving of access to those advantages. It’s a fine distinction, one muddied by PGA Tour mandarins, whose Signature events masquerade as promoting the former while actually practicing the latter.

Arnold Palmer was elitist only in the administration of his craft, as both golfer and businessman. And he was anything but exclusive. His career was built on being a consummate Everyman, the guy from working-class Pennsylvania stock who earned what he had. Which makes it all the more lamentable that Palmer’s eponymous tournament has become everything he was not.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational remains one of the Tour’s premier tournaments, but it has clearly been diminished, and not because its founder passed more than eight years ago. Decisions, not death, diluted the API.

The field at Bay Hill used to be 120 strong, with morning and afternoon waves of three-man tee times. Spectators filled bleachers erected behind the practice range and pressed against the fence overlooking the putting green. For the past couple of years, those bleachers have seen about as much use as an ashtray on a Harley-Davidson and space has been easy to find along the fence. With just 72 men in the starting field this week, there was usually no more than a handful of them warming up for fans to watch. The buzz of activity that once characterized this event is gone because the activity is gone, not because Arnold is gone.

Hey, at least they went through the motions of a Friday cut, though I can't imagine the number of players cut was even in double figures.

 But in one sentence Eamon provides the essence of the scam that Rory and Tiger have perpetrated on the Tour's members:

Go back a few years to 2021 B.Y. (Before Yasir) and 120 guys competed for $9.3 million. A decade ago the pot was $6.3 million. This week, 72 played for $20 million.

Forget the purse, it's all about the denominator.  Amusingly, above we spoke of Russell Henley stealing the event, whereas the actual theft is to be found in that field size.

 Eamon again using plain English:

A cash grab has disfigured professional golf and the API bears the scars because that’s how the PGA Tour had to buy the loyalty of a disloyal cohort: its own members. Or at least its elite members, who wanted the rank and file to be excluded from the deepest troughs.

A couple of years on from meeting that ransom demand, the Tour should recalibrate Signatures. There’s a sweet spot for field sizes that’s probably closer to 100, certainly a couple dozen more than the current norm. That would give fans more to watch, broadcasters more to show, and media more storylines to cover. It would permit the inclusion of stars who are commercially relevant (Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are both absent this week) while not denying spots to rising stars and others deserving. And if top players don’t want to share the purse, pay the lowest finishers less or nothing. (That cuts to the heart of it: top players still want to be paid when they underperform inside the ropes).

Which explains why, in the midst of the PGA Tour-LIV enmity, the format of the LIV events was never criticized.  Why?  because those that stayed were jealous.... They expect to be paid for merely showing up, and seem to be getting their way.  The only chink in the armor is that they're not doing at all well at getting us to watch.

So now the PGA Tour's most important events have all the excitement of a LIV event (or, if you're a retro kind of guy, a WGC event).  And they're waiting for us the thank them.

The Players - I hope you've secured any open containers, because you're about to be shocked:

The 144-player field features 48 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, and representation from 24 countries.

Just a reminder that Scottie Scheffler's 2024 season included only one win against a full field, the Players Championship being that lone example.  That's where the TC panel opted to begin:

1. It’s officially Players Championship week, with Scottie Scheffler headlining the field at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course. He’s won the last two years, how bullish are you on a Scottie three-peat?

James Colgan: Bullish!!! The game hasn’t quite been there for Scottie thus far in ‘25, but it looked closer at Bay Hill than at any point since Pebble Beach. The ball-striking is still there, the relentlessness is still there. Now he’s had a month to shake off the rust of the famed Christmas Day Ravioli injury. Call him Spaghetti Scottie in Ponte Vedra — I think he’s hitting it long and straight enough to lock up three-in-a-row.

Josh Berhow: Few people you can say this about but he’s kinda due, isn’t he? (He last won in December.) He’s been solid this year just hasn’t quite had everything clicking at once. I hope he contends because it’s a great storyline to see unfold next week.

Josh Sens:  He’ll rightfully be the favorite – and I expect him to be in the mix–but three in a row is too outlandish to bet on, even for Scheffler, especially on a course that has historically allowed for so many different styles of play.

I didn't see much at Bay Hill to justify the bullishness, though of course he's such a stud that he'll get back on track at some point.  Though I tend to focus more on that event the second weekend in April...

What’s one storyline you are monitoring at the Players?

Colgan: We have a LIV Golf return!!! Laurie Canter played his way back into major professional golf after leaving for LIV, and played well enough to earn a late invite into the field. As far as I can tell, this is the first time a current or former LIV player will have returned to the fold at a PGA Tour event. I’m intrigued by his performance.

Berhow: Jay Monahan’s annual state of the union presser. Part of me thinks there won’t be much of an update on the state of pro golf’s merger, but another part of me thinks the people deserve some candid answers. This has dragged on long enough. Oh, and the par-5 16th is a hole I like a lot, but it gets overlooked because it precedes the par-3 17th. So I guess I’m excited to watch that and the golf.

Sens: Xander Schauffele does not have a great track record at the Players–not by his standards anyway. He’s just coming off an injury and working on the longest-running cuts-made streak on Tour. I’m curious to see if he keeps that streak alive, and what kind of shape his game is in as we work toward the Masters and the meat of the season.

Hey, I'm just happy to have a full field....  Just remember, the next important full-field PGA Tour event after this one will be....checking notes, the 2026 Players Championship.

Is That What He Said? - This is interesting, though not how I remember Keegan's comments:

Also at Bay Hill, Keegan Bradley has his best finish of the season with a tie for fifth. While he’s not yet near Ryder Cup auto-qualifier status, he has said before that as captain, he would give up that gig if he qualified for the team. We still have lots of time left to sort this all out, but if Bradley keeps it up, who would you pick to replace him?

Colgan: Will clear out the obvious selection first: Rick Pitino. In all seriousness, seems clear that

Furyk would get first crack at it given his leadership experience, but I sorta love the idea of calling Tiger off the bench to rile up the boys. If not, I’m sure Phil is available.

Berhow: Furyk is already one of the vice captains and seems like the obvious answer due to his experience, especially since whomever might replace Keegan will have less time at the helm. James is right, Tiger would be an awesome fill-in, but he declined this originally because he couldn’t commit as much time as he wanted. So unlikely he’d take on the gig with even less time to plan. Bummer.

Sens: Do the rules allow Bradley to make himself a captain’s pick? That would be entertaining. Furyk would be the natural substitute, and they could make it official at a press conference where Bradley, doing his best Bugs Bunny, tells Furyk, “I’m captain, and I say YOU’RE captain.”

I thought what he said, back when we were all shocked at his selection, that he would only be a playing captain is he automatically qualified.  I remember it being along the lines of, "I can't imagine using a Captain's pick on myself."  I don't remember him talking about giving up that captaincy, but I've seen quite enough of "Alas, Poor Furyk" to last a lifetime.

But since we're talking Tiger, anyone notice his absence from this week's field?  He was well enough to enter the Genesis before his Mom passed, and there may not be an easier course to walk than Sawgrass.... Can we dispense with any pretense that he is still an active professional golfer?

I shall release you all here to get on with your week.  I'll see you down the road....

Thursday Threads - Arnie's Place Edition

Your humble blogger is back in Utah, where it is snowing.....  Quite a bit expected, although it will be more of that wet, heavy stuff....

There isn't much of anything to discuss, so we'll just throw a few things up and see when we want to hit the mountain.

LIV Musings - Their mouths are moving, but not only don't I know what they're saying, but I've no clue as to what they're trying to say....

I'll just lede with a minor sideshow, amusing because it features two guys that no one has wanted to hear from since the Carter administration.  For our benefit, they lede with a little history:

Fred Couples has pulled no punches when it comes to LIV Golf, and more, specifically, his former teammate and fellow Ryder Cup vice captain Phil Mickelson. In the summer that Mickelson defected to LIV Golf in 2022, Couples opined,

  “These guys—you’ve seen their interviews, right? Have you ever seen Phil look so stupid in his life? They know it’s a joke." Then in March 2023, Couples again took shots at Lefty, calling him a “nutbag” and offering, “If you’re willing to give Phil Mickelson $200 million at age 53 to shoot 74 and 75, God bless you.”

The barbs from a mostly beloved character like Couples had to sting Mickelson, especially with Couples nailing it on Mickelson’s play, which has been wholly mediocre in his time on the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit.

That's when he's taken time out of his core obligations of measuring Cam Young for Ryder Cup kits.... Musta dug deep for that pic.

But Fred didn't leave it there, of course:

The skirmish started when Couples did an interview with Sports Radio 93.3 KJR in his hometown of Seattle last week and suggested that his friend and five-time major winner Brooks Koepka wants to return to the PGA Tour.

“He wants to come back. I will say that, believe me, he really wants to come back and play the PGA Tour,” Couples said.

But were you thinking that any of these guys exhibited impulse control?

The feud had seemingly quieted of late, but that changed on Tuesday when Mickelson responded to a Golf Digest social media post by calling an opinion Couples had expressed as a “low class jerk move.” Mickelson later deleted the comment.

Hmmmm, couldn't he have worked in a jerk store reference?  Devastating repartee from the Master, no?  And nothing quite says low-class, jerk move like deleting your low-class, jerk move tweet....

Now we're apparently supposed to sense the auras and penumbras:

Jay Monahan’s latest update on PGA Tour-LIV deal strikes different tone

So we're going for nuance?

Rumors have been swirling that the meeting at the White House between Monahan, PIF governor

Yasir Al-Rumayyan and President Donald Trump didn’t go as well as both sides have claimed. Monahan pushed back on that narrative Tuesday but also made sure to temper expectations on a timeline for the deal.

“I think anything that I’ve said or we said, the three of us said, is consistent with what should be said when you’re in the middle of a complex discussion to try and reunify the game of golf,” Monahan said via Golf Channel. “It doesn’t speak to my confidence level. It speaks to the moment. I view that meeting as a huge step and so I look at that very positively.

“We had a recent meeting with the President, the Public Investment Fund, thought it was a constructive meeting,” Monahan said. “And we’re thankful for the President for his leadership, extremely thankful for him, for his willingness to host us in the Oval Office, and to help us continue those conversations. I feel like if you look at his commentary last week as ultimately seeing a deal happening and Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s comments at the FII about the good meeting that we had, I think we’ll just continue to move forward on those conversations.”

As long as any agreement bans the single-tone green outfit....  Do they know how bored we are by it all?  And, most importantly, we don't care about those guys.

But are they even at the same meetings? 

Following the PGA Tour’s first meeting with Trump, Monahan spoke with reporters at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and made it sound like he expected something to get done on the PGA Tour-LIV front soonish. Monahan spoke of a desire to have all the best players in the world play under the umbrella of one tour. This is antithetical to the rhetoric coming out of LIV Golf, which has been adamant that it plans to stick around and grow even when the merger is complete.

Hey, I'm old enough to remember when we wouldn't even acknowledge the bone-cutters.... 

If there's a competitor to Jay for eating prior statements, this guy is back with a familiar refrain:

Does the PGA Tour still need a deal with PIF? Rory McIlroy answers

As long as Webb Simpson keeps getting his sponsors' exemptions, everyone is happy....  OK, let me rephrase, the eight guys Tiger and Rory worry about are fat, dumb and happy.

“I think the narrative around golf, I wouldn’t say needs a deal, I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again,” he said. “But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong. TV’s been good, TGL’s been hopefully pretty additive to the overall situation. I answered this question at Torrey Pines two weeks ago, before, you know, the landscape might have looked a little different than it does now over these past couple of weeks, and I think a deal would still be the ideal scenario for golf as a whole. But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”

It’s important to note his reference to a similar question at the Genesis Invitational last month. There he made it clear the game’s better with the two sides joining together.

“Whatever’s happened has happened and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone,” he said. “If people are butt hurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went [to LIV] or whatever, like who cares? Let’s move forward together and let’s just try to get this thing going again and do what’s best for the game.”

Asked on Wednesday what has changed in those couple of weeks since those comments, McIlroy said, “Look, I think it takes two to tango. So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”

It's angels on the head of a pin type nonsense, but from a guy that got pretty much everything wrong.   But here's his coda:

To put a bow on things, after the recent optimism with White Hose meetings, does a deal feel closer?

“I don’t think it’s ever felt that close,” McIlroy said. “It doesn’t feel like it’s any closer.”

Well, then, the thing to consider would be to stop pimping it.....

Dare we look at ratings?  There is good news, though that's mostly how bad last year was:

The 30-year-old’s outstanding performance in the first round helped him secure a 12-under par 59 in the 18 holes. That was not enough for him to go all the way through the tournament. But he did draw in a lot of golf fans to watch the action live. Knapp’s efforts, Jordan Spieth’s mishaps, and Rickie Fowler’s near miss to get a ticket to the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational helped the event gain an average of 2.15 million viewers on Sunday.

Unfortunately, none of the names above won the tournament. The 2025 Cognizant Classic Championship went to first-time winner, Joe Highsmith. Yet, Jay Monahan & Co. had a lot to celebrate. They have now had 5 consecutive events with high TV ratings. Things have seemingly gotten better after the horrid numbers they received in 2024. Missed it? The PGA Tour struggled with viewership last year, and early 2025 wasn’t much better with big names absent. But with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler back, the season’s heating up. Still, Jay Monahan & Co. shouldn’t celebrate too soon—ratings are up from 2024 but still lag behind 2022-23. An analyst just dropped that insight minutes ago.

Trusted golf reporter, Josh Carpenter tweeted, “NBC drew 2.15M viewers for Joe Highsmith’s win in the Cognizant Classic on Sunday. Last year’s finish was pushed to Monday due to rain, but taped coverage drew 1.45M viewers. Better comp is the prior two years: 2.38M (Chris Kirk) and 2.57M (Sepp Straka)”. The numbers reveal that the PGA Tour is still lagging behind what it was achieving a couple of years ago. Hence, a jump up from 1.45 million to 2.15 million shouldn’t be considered a win for them.

Carpenter himself also had the same opinion when someone asked him “Ratings up 5 weeks in a row!?”. He responded a few minutes later with “Technically, yes. But I don’t know that I’d really go down that road considering last year was washed out. Better comps are 2023 and 2022, which they’re down from”. This will be a big reality check for Jay Monahan & Co. as they were hoping for a big win soon.

But Rory tells us that TGL is additive, right?  He wouldn't lie to us, would he?

An unfavorable Monday afternoon window on ESPN2 resulted in TGL’s worst viewership number yet.

Monday’s match between Los Angeles Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club, which aired at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2, averaged just 160,000 viewers, by far the least-watched TGL match so far this season. The simulator golf league’s 7 p.m. ET window on the deuce fared a bit better, averaging 291,000 viewers for a match between Boston Common Golf and New York Golf Club.

 But denial ain't just a river in Egypt:

While those numbers don’t necessarily look pretty for the nascent golf league, it’s all part of a larger plan. Per a TGL spokesperson, the league intentionally scheduled some mid-afternoon windows to better serve their European broadcast partners.

Oh yeah, that's the ticket.  I don't know how much weight to give to that trend line, but they seem to still be shedding viewers, so declarations of success seem speculative.

Counter Musings - Were I a cynic, I might not that the PGA Tour's efforts to place all elite professional golf under their control should await proof that they can fix one of their marquee events:

What needs to happen with the PGA Tour's season-ending Tour Championship? 'It has to be simple'

The Tour Championship was a hot topic of conversation at the Player Advisory Council meeting on Tuesday evening at Bay Hill Lodge & Club. How can the Tour design an end to its season that matches the excitement and fan interest of the majors? Is that even possible? Former Major League Baseball executive Theo Epstein and a senior adviser at Fenway Sports Group, who has advised the Tour on improving the fan experience, and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, a member of the PAC, were participants involved in the discussion.

“There's a few different formats that I think we're looking at right now. Some of 'em good, some of 'em were bad. I'm not really going to go into details of those formats because we're still ironing them out,” Scheffler said.

Well, there's certainly no urgency.  You're only 25% of the way into the season involved, so totally legit to completely rewrite the rules.  Has Patrick given you his decision yet?

I've been on this since 2007, but the problem is that Tour can't make a simple decision:

Mackenzie Hughes, who served on the PAC the previous two years but not this season, said the FedEx Cup Playoffs need more volatility. “If we’re going to make our playoffs truly the playoffs, it has to be more do or die,” he said. “Every round there needs to be a chance to be eliminated.”

Not to worry, Mackenzie, you can be eliminated at any time.  They just won't allow you to eliminate Cantlay, so good luck with that "playoff" thing....But you can see them defaulting to their core capabilities, talking.   

API Musings - This sounds far better in the header than in the deets:

The cool reason there will be fewer commercials at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week

 But....

If there’s one thing golf fans hate, it’s commercials. And if there’s one thing golf fans love, it’s player-caddie conversations. For regular PGA Tour viewers, it often feels like the time spent watching car insurance commercials comes at the expense of deeper immersion into the sport and its colorful cast of world-class athletes.

This weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the PGA Tour will attempt to ease those concerns with its latest Fan Forward Initiative, which replace several commercial blocks at Bay Hill with live golf segments focusing on player-caddie interactions. The segments will be presented by Mastercard, the title sponsor of the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational, with the support of the API’s broadcast partners, NBC and Golf Channel.

“In addition to wanting more live golf action, fans are telling us they are more entertained when they can see and hear a player’s pre-shot process in the heat of the competition,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan of the new approach. “We are excited to work with Mastercard and NBC/Golf Channel to step back and allow fans to experience those intimate, real-time interactions during the telecast this week.”

Sounds like another "Playing Through" experience, which are remarkable facsimiles of...wait for it, commercials... 

The only other bit from Orlando is this:

On Thursday afternoon at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Joe LaCava will step to the first tee box with a bag slung around his shoulder, and for the first time, a second question will follow that simple act.

Which Joe LaCava?

Yes, on Thursday and Friday at the API, the group of the day — at least for one New York metro area community — will belong to Patrick Cantlay and Joe Highsmith. More specifically, though, the group of the day will belong to the players’ caddies, Joe LaCava III and his son, Joe IV, who will be sharing an afternoon walk for the first time in their PGA Tour careers.

As long as they both keep their caps on.....   A nice moment for Dad, one we usually only see at the PNC.  But Joe IV might have found himself a bag that will make bank for him.

I told you it would be a light day of blogging, and I'm a man of my word.  Have a great weekend and we'll check in to wrap the weekend on Monday.

Weekend Wrap - Bear Trap Edition

Yeah, think Honda is having any second thoughts?  Not bloody likely, as last year Face-Plant Tour™ seems a best-case scenario....

But The Narrative... - We're lucky enough to live in a no-cut Nirvanas, in which the best players in the world can sleepwalk through Thursday and Friday.  It's perfect for the age, as removing any lingering drama from professional golf is only prudent:

Four feet, seven inches.

That’s the par putt that Joe Highsmith had Friday at PGA National to make the cut at the 2025 Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches. Highsmith poured the putt in the center to play the weekend, but he had no idea what the next 48 hours would hold.

The Pepperdine product had a terrible warmup before Saturday’s third round but rode a hot putter to a 7-under 64 to vault into contention. On Sunday at the Champion Course at PGA National, Highsmith watched as every other contender stumbled while he fired a bogey-free 64 to finish at 19-under par to claim his first PGA Tour win.

In doing so, Highsmith became the first player in nine years to make the cut on the number and go on to win. Brandt Snedeker was the last to do so at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open.

“I feel like once I made it on the number, I knew I was going to go out early on Saturday, and that was going to be a good chance because the scores just get so much harder as the day goes on,” Highsmith said Sunday after his win. “I definitely took advantage of that. I played really nicely on Saturday.

But our best players won't endure the indignity of a cut, which is win-win, baby!  They don't have to risk a weekend of leisure and we, therefore, don't need to watch.

Although, this is spit-take funny from the winner:

His putter, one he put in his bag just before the Farmers Insurance Open, propelled him past some of the PGA Tour’s most notable names.

“A lot of big names, obviously, up on that board, and knowing that there’s a lot of great accomplished players that are right around the same score, and I saw, like, Russell Henley was under early, I think, and I was playing so good, and I think I was at 14-under and he was at 17, and I was like, how am I going to catch these guys?” Highsmith said. “Was able to just stick with it.

Big names?  Well, they don't get much bigger than Russell Henley, do they?  In fact, I have a question for Patrick Cantlay, how canm golf grow if we don't know when Russell Henley is going to play?  You see how tenuous this all is....

The man of the week couldn't get it to the clubhouse, though "love" seems more of a personal reaction:

Jake Knapp’s watery demise reminded us why this event is great

They keep using that word..... Notwithstanding that the lede is a bit more candid:

The Cognizant Classic has faded in importance over the years. Ever so slightly, but it has faded nonetheless. There are four tournaments in this Florida Swing and it ranks fourth for a lot of people. It’s okay to say so.

It used to be the Honda Classic — the automobile manufacturer sponsored the event for more than 40 years, but they moved on when things started getting weird in pro golf in recent seasons. The event used to draw Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson — the Jupiter crew — but none of those guys have played since 2022. (Woods and McIlroy are in town, but saving themselves for the Seminole Pro-Member and some nighttime TGL. Koepka and Johnson are in Singapore.)

But the Cognizant Classic pushes on mostly for those who aren’t in next week’s Signature Event field, or who aren’t in good form, or who aren’t in great standing in the world ranking. It’s a place to tee it up for more money than anywhere else, but more importantly, it’s a place to see if you’ve got some mettle. This is what PGA National reminds us constantly, and did so once again this week. It wasn’t just Sunday when players had to walk through the Bear Trap on their tiptoes. It was the week as a whole.

Well, that's quite the downer.... and quite the about-face from the header.

And a seemingly brutally honest take on  that 59-shooter:

On an overseeded golf course with tame conditions, the best modern golfers — largely built by numbers to be repetitive robots — are going to take this course down. Jake Knapp was our chief aggressor, shooting a 59 with a closing tap-in — the way you’d prefer to shoot 59 if you were a Tour pro. He drove it supremely, which is Jake Knapp Golf. He is not known for his short game, his putter or iron game. He’s PGA Tour Average in a lot of spots but way above average in distance and well below average in accuracy. But on the days when he is accurate? Look out. That was Thursday.

Fifty-nines are rare enough that they still feel special, though their lore is, like the event, fading as well. A 59 is special enough that if it comes in the opening round, all the tournament’s eyes are locked on you now. There have been 15 59s, but only five have led to victories. Don’t get too full on the appetizer and ruin the entrée.

Knapp was never going to pull off that round twice. He is not made to thrive on this golf course. He’s made to thrive on big, wide courses without water everywhere. You can ignore those hazards for 18 blissful holes, but eventually they will greet you. How you respond says a lot. Knapp made a double on Friday when he met those hazards for the first time, but otherwise kept his ball dry all weekend. He teed off Sunday with the lead and appeared on cruise control, up one shot on the field when he found the 11th fairway.

Spoiler alert:  Here's how it ended:

Was it love for you?  I can't even guess how many venues have similar issues (Kapalua will jump to mind), the the place just isn't what it used to be:

Naturally, this miscarriage of golf justice had Golf Twitter up in arms. This was once a

tournament where single-digit winning scores were the norm. A U.S. Open-like test, in Florida of all places. Much of that was often due to high winds and crispy, almost-brown-colored Bermudagrass fairways and greens that baked in the Florida sun.

That changed in 2023 when the tournament began overseeding the Bermudagrass with Ryegrass, a practice to help soften conditions and make the golf course greener. Chris Kirk won that year at 14 under. Last year, Austin Eckroat won with a score of 17 under. In the previous 19 editions of the event, no winner had shot any lower than 14 under.

This has not only come as a shock to those on the internet. Some of the players playing in the actual event sounded off on the soft setup, too. Among them was Billy Horschel, a Florida man through and through who contextualized what's taking place so far in the first round in Palm Beach Gardens.

"There was no wind so it helps tremendously," Horschel said after shooting a first-round 66. "You've got to tip your hat to him [Knapp]. He shot a 12-under par 59 at PGA National, which no one ever thought. I know we had a discussion earlier this week and I've probably changed my tune a little bit. I think the overseed has -- the rough is not long enough. It's not penal enough when you miss the fairway.

"I really wish we would just play this as a straight Bermuda," he added. "From tee to green, everything be straight Bermuda. I know it doesn't look prettier on TV and I know that's one of the reasons why it's overseeded."

The Tour Confidential gang took a swing at this issue as well:

After Jake Knapp shot 59 in unusually tame conditions on PGA National’s Champion Course, some pros were wondering what happened to the beastly Bear Trap. Is that unfair to the 15th sub-60 score in PGA Tour history? Or do 59s no longer carry the same historic weight as they used to?

Zak: They just don’t mean the same they used to. And that’s okay! We’ve been traveling down this road for quite a while. The course had been overseeded, received some rain, had zero wind and one of the best drivers on Tour drove it extremely well. Someone was bound to go low. It just becomes a bit inevitable.

Hirsh: No, Sean, 59 is still 59. PGA National is easier than it used to be, but it’s still a rating over 75 from the back tees. That’s a hard golf course. Is it as hard as it used to be? No, and that’s unfortunate after the recent renovation. But just because a 59 comes on an easier setup, that doesn’t make it less impressive. I don’t think I’d be able to swing a club if I was 11 under with one hole to play.

Dethier: We’re asking these tournaments to walk a very, very fine line. Too hard? They get ripped for sloppiness and slow play. Too easy? Your 59 means nothing! But yeah, it means less. Yeah, it’s still cool. Yeah, it’s fun to watch when this tournament is a suffer-fest. But it’s tough to do it all.

Journalism On Parade - We all instinctively understand that sports journalism isn't really journalism, and when you fall short of even those degraded standards...

I mean, what are the going for here?

First reported by Golfweek, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler will not receive sponsor’s exemptions into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a Signature Event with a 72-man field. While it’s easy to agree with Fowler’s “at the end of the day, play better” comment, is it more complicated than that? Regardless of current form, Spieth and Fowler are two huge draws. With the pro ranks still split and the best players not on the same tour, is there an argument to load tournaments with star power?

Zak: It’s extremely complicated! Webb Simpson took a bunch of these invites last year and got criticized by his fellow pros for it. Adam Scott took a bunch of those invites, too, and played well enough to finish within the heralded FedEx Cup Top 50. You want to invite players fans will cheer for, pros who will deliver some pep for sponsors, and you also want to appear dutiful in assessing all your options. It’s lazy to just choose the biggest names. It’s commendable to take Rafa Campos’ letter to heart and hand him a ticket to the biggest event of his season.

Hirsh: I’m with Zak here, too. If you’re going to argue that LIV has a diluted product because it hands out spots to guys who were supposed to be relegated (looking at you, Bubba) just to maintain a draw, then you shouldn’t argue the same for Spieth and Fowler. It is interesting because Spieth seems to be finding his game again and Fowler had a good week at the Cognizant, but obviously these decisions get made before that. I also love that a heartfelt letter still has some weight and I’ll be pulling for Rafa Campos, whom I interviewed back in college about being the lone PGA Tour player from Puerto Rico.

Dethier: There’s definitely an argument to load tournaments with star power! And there’s also an argument that the PGA Tour should lean in on meritocracy and ditch these sponsor invites altogether. If you’re gonna have ‘em and keep anybody from getting mad, well, that’s impossible. But this may be the most thoughtful way to do it, even if you’re leaving some big names out.

Guys, is there any context to this discussion?  Any changes in the last few years that maybe impact how folks are reacting....

They seem to be having the "How should sponsors use their exemptions" conversation, which is Ok as far as it goes.   But isn't it, in this moment, the least interesting aspect of this all?

The first thing I would be inclined to note, si that it's their a*****e buddies Tiger and Rory that have cared them out of these events, while concentrating vast sums of the PGA's treasury on these events that Rickie and Jordan are not, boo hoo, qualified into.  The first question is whether, with the field limited only to Tiger's BFFs, should there still be sponsors' exemptions?  Yes, they've committed money with those in play, but such delicate feelings about fair play didn't stop the Tour from giving it to Honda up the you-know-what.

But, as an alleged journalist, how do you mention those Webb Simpson and Adam Scott exemptions without adding in the dark underbelly.  Their votes were needed to ensure that Cantlay got paid, and the votes seem to have been purchased with sponsor exemptions.....  Add Peter Malnati to that list, and the Golf Magazine writers seem all too happy to bury that not-so-little bit of ugliness.....  Remind me again, they're all gentlemen selflessly serving the game?  Sure, and now I suppose you have some swamp land for me....

Par For The Course - Anyone surprised?

Tiger Woods won’t play Arnold Palmer Invitational but will play another exclusive event

Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour season debut will have to wait at least another week as the 15-time major champion is not in the field for next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods, however, will tee it up Monday in the annual Seminole Pro-Member tournament, which is played at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.

Woods is playing with former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh for the second consecutive year. The field at the Seminole Pro-Member includes Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Nelly Korda, Tom Brady and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, among others.

OMG, what a brutal week for the guy:

Woods is also in the lineup to play in Tuesday night’s TGL match between Jupiter Links and the Atlanta Drive. Jupiter needs a win Tuesday and some help to make the playoffs.

I'm supposed to be excited, right?  

Udder Stuff -  A little copying and pasting and you can get your week under way:

Florida State junior Luke Clanton made the cut at the Cognizant Classic — his ninth made cut in 12 career PGA Tour starts — to earn his 20th point in the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, securing his PGA Tour card at the conclusion of this college season. As the top-ranked amateur in the game and a future Tour player, what should the average fan know about one of the game’s most promising young talents?

Zak: He isn’t just making a bunch of cuts to earn his way into this Tour card. The kid has contended! Multiple times. He already fits in among the well-known names on Tour, stats-wise. Entering the tournament, DataGolf gave Clanton the same expectation of making the cut, finishing top 10, and winning as Cameron Young. You know, the guy everyone thinks would be a good Ryder Cup asset. That’s who Clanton is, too.

Hirsh: People need to realize how quickly his rise to stardom was. He didn’t earn his first point in the PGA Tour U Accelerated program until the U.S. Open last year when he made the cut and battled Neal Shipley down the stretch for low amateur (Shipley beat him out on the last hole after Clanton missed a tying birdie putt). But by the end of November, he had 17 points, the quickest accumulation of points in the three-year history of the program. When the Tour announced PGA Tour U Accelerated, it said since 2010, only three golfers would have earned their Tour card through it. Clanton is now the second after Gordon Sargent earned 20 points and deferred to this season. It’s just another example of how much better players are, younger.

Dethier: What should people know about Clanton? In high school he won the Florida state title three times…and finished second the other year. He also might make the Ryder Cup team.

It's crazy how well he's played out there, though I suspect it will get harder for him and turn into a grind. 

Lydia Ko won the HSBC Women’s World Championship on Sunday in Singapore to capture her 23rd career LPGA victory. Nelly Korda didn’t play, but she has two top 10s in two starts already this season. Who wins more in 2025: Korda or Ko?

Zak: Ko does. She’s already one up! Having spent some time with Lydia recently, she seems so incredibly centered. She speaks a lot like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler these days, which is great company, mindset-wise. We were treated to a Korda-Ko battle early in 2024, and even at the Open in St. Andrews. Frankly, it’s becoming time for Korda to punch back.

Hirsh: Ko had one more on Korda early on last season, too. It’s kind of amazing to me that Ko is actually third behind Jeeno Thitikul in the Rolex Ranking. That said, I think Korda has a bit more to prove after last season, which sounds strange after she won seven times. She’ll want to capture more majors this season after watching Ko win the Open last season.

Dethier: Korda wins more. But it’s a great sign that we’re asking the question. This era of Ko has been a welcome addition to the golf landscape — and the fairytale continues.

This stage of Lydia's career has been shockingly productive.... Hard to see her staying at the top, though I'm not completely sold on Nelly as well.

That's it for today.  I head West on Wednesday and will see you from out there.