Weekend Wrap - Lazy Blogger Edition

Sorry, kids, just having an awfully tough time working up enthusiasm for this blogging thing....Low motivation combined with a moribund new cycle leaves the Reader craved for content.

Hard to imagine it'll get much better any time soon.

Old Dog, New Tricks - Remember that old Paul Azinger quote?

“The Old Course at St Andrews, the home of golf, is different, because the course isn’t as long and the greens are pretty easy to putt and don’t have nearly as much slope,” Azinger said. “Augusta’s greens are frightfully fast, and they can stick the pins two paces from the edge.

“Augusta can always be defended. St Andrews is in trouble.”

And by "Old" I mean from way back in 2018.

So, how will the Old Girl be defended in 2027?

The R&A and Links Trust of St Andrews revealed the most significant wave of Old Course modifications in almost two decades.

As a previously announced irrigation system upgrade gets underway this week, the announced architectural work commences next week with the timing of various changes to depend on which holes are closed to play.

The mix of additions, restoration work, and subtle tweaks came about after the R&A and Links Trust commissioned Mackenzie & Ebert to analyze the Old Course in advance of the 2027 Open Championship.

“We believe this work is important in ensuring the Old Course continues to evolve and challenge the world’s best golfers in the years to come while enhancing the experience of local and visiting golfers,” said Mark Darbon, Chief Executive of The R&A. “Working with St Andrews Links Trust we have commissioned Mackenzie & Ebert to carry out a carefully planned programme of work to enhance and restore the challenge of the Old Course in a few key areas.”

Darbon said the “approach is grounded in deep respect for the course’s unparalleled history.” While some of the refinements are correcting the effects of wear, tear, and maintenance, key elements of the work are obviously inspired by how the course plays for Open contestants in the juiced equipment era. We’ll never know if these alterations would have happened had the original plans for a 2026 start to new golf ball regulations had been in place.

A total of 132 yards will be added on six holes, bringing the maximum yardage to 7,445 yards from 7,313.

That's the reimagined 16th fairway above, with the Old Course Hotel providing the background.

It's hard to get worked up over 132 yards, though we've already seen them grab portions of the adjoining golf courses for added yardage.  The 17th tee for Opens just happens to be OB, or is that splitting hairs?

Before ducking behind his paywall, Geoff helpfully provides a summary of the substantive changes:

• The 16th hole will see a “historic playing route” restored to the left of the Principal’s Nose and Deacon Sime bunkers, along with the addition of two bunkers to add risk on the left-hand side of the extended fairway. 

• Added length on six holes: the 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, and 16th. 

• Two right-side drive length bunkers will be relocated farther down the second hole “to make them more relevant to the line of play.” 

• New bunkers at 6th and the 10th. 

• The right side approach bunkers at the 9th will be extended slightly toward the line of play, including Boase’s Bunker, which will be restored to its previous size. 

• The championship tee on the 12th will be realigned and improved. 

• The daily play tees at the 14th will be realigned and repositioned. 

• The Road bunker will see some restoration efforts to reduce the surrounding build-up.

I am personally most interested in that first bullet, No. 16 being an underappreciated hole in my humble estimation.  In fact, I still laugh when I think of the starting line my caddie suggested last time we hit the daily ballot, it being most notably....err, how do they put it?  Oh yeah, out of bounds.

Unfortunately, Geoff's dissertation on the 16th is deep behind his paywall, so let's ignore fair use and I'll excerpt his full examination of the changes to the second hole (the only one before that paywall):

Second Hole - Dyke

Two bunkers down the right side will be shifted closer to the play and the existing location filled

in. The Open’s second hole yardage of 452 yards remains thanks to a temporary tee placed out-of-bounds on the Himalayas putting green.

In an ideal world: The fairway down the right would be expanded, and the bunkers would not have to be shifted. But the new positioning will surely bring the deadly Cheapes into play (even more) because of the difficulty lining up from the Open tee. With the New Course first tee down the right, safety concerns appear to have made fairway expansion down the right a no-go.

Takeaway: If 300-yard drives were on the high side for average Open tee shots, the relocated bunkers would be putting a huge premium on starting a tee shot at Cheapes. But with the relocated bunkers a carry of 265 yards or so from the Open tee, they are likely to only become a nuisance into a stiff wind. It would be nice to expand down the right to show off ground features and reward taking on a right side that’s hard to see or hit to from the back tee. It would also get rid of a hideous straight line running down the right.

But this hole more often plays downwind.... Geoff provides these before-and-after visualizations from Makenzie & Ebert:

Hard to discern that difference for sure.  Not sure how far along they'll be by August, but hopefully we'll have better luck with the ballot next year and I can report back.

Before moving on, I'll add this graphic from a Golf.com article on the changes, one showing the effect of the solid core ball and providing context for that Azinger comment:

Nothing to see here.....

This week's Tour Confidential panel was asked about these changes:

The most revered links golf course in the world, St. Andrews’ Old Course, will add bunkers and be lengthened by 132 yards ahead of the 2027 Open Championship, a move R&A chief governance officer Grant Moir said is “appropriate” to “properly” adapt to the way the modern game is played.” Does adding length to a historic course like this worry you?

Berhow: I think there is something jarring about the Old Course making announcements like this. If a 60-something-year-old country club has to lengthen its course due to modern equipment, so be it, but when you hear of some of golf’s greatest cathedrals essentially saying “what we currently have ain’t it,” it gives you pause. We don’t like changing classic things — golf courses, cars, recipes, you get the picture. I’m interested to see how this looks on the property, where there isn’t a ton of room to work with. Makes you wonder if these tees will stay for future post-rollback Opens in St. Andrews.

Zak: It’s just not easy to see where the new tee boxes will be placed on certain holes. The lengthened Old Course starts to eat up space within itself. But ultimately, it’s mostly just for Open Championship week, so we won’t talk about it more than one month every five years.

Schrock: I don’t know if it worries me, but it speaks to the broader issue professional golf is facing with distance and equipment. We want to see the world’s best play meaningful tournaments on historic courses. And we want to see them play the course the way it was meant to be played. When I was at the Truist Championship at Philly Cricket Club this year, the difference in how the course was played on the first day in no conditions compared to the second round when it was raining and windy showed how these golden age courses can still present a challenge when the ball doesn’t fly for miles. We won’t talk about the Old Course changes except for one week every five years, but it speaks to the bigger problem.

First, quite the framing in that question, no?  I would call the Old the most revered golf course in the world, though the Golf.com limit said reverence to only the subset of links courses..... methinks these kids need to get out more.

I don't think the three guys added much to our understanding, especially given that to add prior yardage required them to grab real estate from adjoining links.  but to me the easiest way of understanding the issue is to think through what scoring could look like if they get soft, windless conditions.  When we see a 59 or 58 in an Open, will that get folks' attention?

While we're in the Auld Grey Toon, shall we deal with a tab that's been open for some time, one that may well explain our lack of recent Daily Ballot success:

St Andrews Links Trust lands huge revenue figure as investment plans set out

Golfers playing at St Andrews in 2024 generated £48.5 million in revenue for the Links Trust, resulting in a surplus of £10.8 million.

The surplus has been reported on the back of a total of 281,554 rounds - similar to a post-pandemic high of 2023 - being played on the seven courses that come under the Links Trust umbrella.

The total revenue generated in 2023 was £43.85 million while the surplus for that year was just under £11.5 million.

Too many damn people, for damn sure.

Phil Being Phil - The key bit today is to close browser tabs.  We have a new bit about our old friend Phil. and, since there was unfinished business elsewhere, shall we?

Report alleges Phil Mickelson received inside information on offshore company

Hmmm, Phil and insider information?  It's deja vu all over again.....

A report from the financial publication Hunterbrook alleges Phil Mickelson received inside information on an offshore oil company and distributed that information to a private group of

company shareholders. Mickelson responded on X Friday afternoon, calling the report “slanderous.”

On Friday, Hunterbrook published a story that included a series of private messages allegedly shared by Mickelson with a group of investors for the Houston-based oil startup Sable Offshore. In the messages, Mickelson, according to the report, shared material non-public information gleaned from interactions with Sable Offshore CEO Jim Flores — a decision that could have legal ramifications for Mickelson, the company’s chief executive, or both.

The article centers on the latest actions of the embattled oil company Sable Offshore, which reportedly paid $988 million to assume control of a troubled oil field from Exxon off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., and quickly attracted investors seeking a potential moonshot.

The article does remind us of this from Phil's CV:

Mickelson’s own past with insider trading is well-documented. In 2016, he paid more than $1 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations that he had traded on inside information gleaned from the legendary gambler Billy Walters.

That's a wee bit cryptic for my taste.  To me, there are two aspects worth noting, including that the only reason Phil wasn't prosecuted was that his illegal trades were at a time when legislation made the burden of proof higher than prosecutors could likely meet.  Had he made those trades a year later, we might have had the pleasure of seeing Phil in an orange jumpsuit.

To me the bigger issue is that Billy Walters obviously felt that he needed to share this inside information with Phil to get him to pay his gambling debt.  There are at least three such instances of Phil stiffing his bookies, one in which Callaway paid it off and the third involving the Detroit mob.  Nice guy, eh?

Read the full article for the detailed nature of the allegations, it certainly sounds as if, best case, Phil is flirting with the rules, even if you take him at his word.  And, why would anyone take Phil at his word?

So, those two open tabs...  This we don't need to spend much time on:

Will Phil Mickelson ever be Ryder Cup captain? Analyst says it’s hard to envision

Look, Phil is a jerk, so easy enough to acknowledge that he's persona non grata in such matters.  But my wish would be that his actions in 2014 and thereafter would be reexamined, because his model for the Ryder Cup was always complete BS.  Pods, right, that's the ticket.  In light of U.S. results since 2014, how lame was that Task Force?

This was the more interesting open tab:

Phil Mickelson could have been modern-day Arnold Palmer. He chose another route

It's a Michael Bamberger piece, and I've in the past called Bams the conscience of our game, but not sure this is his best stuff:

When Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship at age 50 at Kiawah Island in 2021, it was all teed up for him, to be Arnold II. Do you remember the crowds that engulfed him? He had, by dint of his golf, declared an end to the pandemic. You could breathe again. You could take your mask and trash it.

Golf was never going to have a second Arnold. But at 50, Phil Mickelson, with his raised thumbs and marathon autograph sessions and enduring game, was the closest thing the game had to the man.

It didn’t happen. Phil went LIV and that changed everything. He took the PIF money and thereby helped open a door to LIV Golf for Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Cam Smith and others. Phil helped make LIV legit. Along the way, he got himself exiled from the tour he came up on, the tour Arnold did so much to make. The PGA Tour has been weaker for it.

I think where Mike misfires is that, in his core, Phil simply isn't Arnold Palmer.  I used to divide the world into Good Phil and Bad Phil, and the former was the bit that has Mike saying that Phil could have been a elder statesman such as Palmer.

But Mike only notes that left for LIV, eliding the HOW of his leaving He burned with a white hot anger that demanded retribution, somehow discerning disrespect from being the 11th highest compensated athlete in history (notwithstanding that he's not even the eleventh best golfer in that period).

To repeated, he didn't merely take the money, he attempted to damage the tour on which he made tens of millions of dollars.  And he expects the guys that attempted to hurt to still respect him.

No, Mike, he was never going to be Arnie, because he's only about himself.  

Udder Stuff - This week's TC panel isn't much, but it does have the benefit of being easy blogging.  Not that I'm all that interested in their primary focus:

It was recently reported that Dustin Johnson re-signed with LIV Golf, and Bryson

DeChambeau has also been transparent about his contract. While some of the exact contract details of other LIV stars aren’t public, what’s more important for LIV this offseason: keeping current stars, or does it need to make another Jon Rahm-like splash and sign a big name like it last did a couple of years ago?

Josh Berhow: You could argue LIV is due for a big addition. Anthony Kim joined in 2024, and although he hasn’t performed well, it was a surprising and splashy name. I wonder, though, if there are any current, established PGA Tour pros who would leave at this point, like another Rahm-level guy. Part of me thinks allegiances have already been cemented, and luring a big-name guy away would be much more difficult than it sounds. Bringing back some of those key guys should probably be the priority.

Sean Zak: LIV doesn’t need another star. It needs seven more stars. The league simply does not have enough elite player firepower to gain a substantial audience. Joaquin Niemann has been great; Cam Smith has not. Bryson DeChambeau has been great; Brooks Koepka has been up and down. Sergio Garcia has been quite good; Phil Mickelson has not. As I have said for three years now, all the money in the world can buy you big names, but it cannot guarantee they play great, compelling golf.

Josh Schrock: Everyone feels pretty entrenched in their respective sides now. As Zak noted, LIV needs several more stars to move the needle. I’m doubtful that those moves are out there. Their best move is to re-sign their big-name guys. If they lose one of their top guys or two, the air will really start to leave the balloon.

LIV has exactly nothing that works, so adding big names seems futile.  More to the point, given how unhappy Jon Rahm has seemed with his move, who do we think would follow him?

I agree that this guy was an interesting case:

One player who declined a PGA Tour invite and instead joined LIV Golf, Tom McKibbin, earned 2026 Masters and Open Championship invites when he won the Hong Kong Open on Sunday. This comes a couple of months after Augusta National and the R&A announced the winners of six national opens (Scottish, Spanish, Japan, Hong Kong, Australian and South African) would earn spots in those two majors. Still without World Ranking points, are these new exemptions good recruiting bullet points for LIV?

Berhow: They aren’t bad for recruiting, because it does offer additional chances for majors, but it’s directed at the wrong type of players. Yes, LIV can benefit from bringing in young talent, but a bunch of up-and-coming Tom McKibbins isn’t going to be what draws eyeballs. They need established stars; and those guys aren’t probably worried about these extra invites, because ideally they wouldn’t need them.

Zak: Not really. In order to gain major access through those events, you almost always have to win. As in be so good you beat everyone else in a big field. It’s definitely not much of a carrot.

Schrock: It’s better than not having any access, but it’s still so minuscule that it won’t lure the type of players they need to move the needle.

Yeah, if he doesn't win the event, he has no way to get into those majors.  To me, it's just a horrible choice for a young player....

When those exemptions were announced, it came with the caveat that the winners of PGA Tour Fall Series events will no longer receive Masters exemptions. Do you like the change? Or do you prefer fall-event winners earning them?

Berhow: I like this better. Have the fall focus on earning PGA Tour status. Plus, the Masters is more global than ever. This makes sense.

Zak: Doesn’t bother me that Fall Series events don’t get auto berths. I wouldn’t mind Augusta extending more invites via the year-end OWGR ranking, which is a greater representation of skill than a one-week heater in a weaker field.

Schrock: I prefer the invites go to winners of national opens instead of weaker PGA Tour fields. Golf is a global game, and the Masters has prioritized the global nature of the sport in recent years. Keep the FedEx Cup Fall about earning a card, and ask guys who want to earn a trip to Augusta National to play in the national opens.

Those Fall events are so lame now that major invites can't be justified, although the real takeaway ought to be that the Masters needs a substantially enlarged field.

Just one more that will have you laughing:

‘We’re ready’: Senior tour head says they’re prepared for Tiger Woods’ debut

Sure, he'll be out there for the good of the game.  Take as long as you need to stop laughing....

I don't know what he'll do, but I know it will reflect only his own sense of best interests... So, the round belly tour shouldn't get their hopes up.

That will have to keep you satisfied for now.  I'll be back....well, let's just say that I'll be back when I'm back. 

Weekend Wrap - Dog Days of October Edition

Real life intruded yesterday, not that many would have noticed.  After all, the next important event to wrap is....checking notes, the second week in April.

Utah On My Mind - I is, but still a wee bit early and not that part of the State.  I did watch brief moments of the event, and the visuals were pretty stunning.

As we've ranted about for years, the Tour has effectively required all but the bluest-chip prospects to serve a year of indentured servitude on the Korn Ferry Tour, though this guy came up with a workaround:

After a dominant campaign on PGA Tour Americas, Michael Brennan earned a promotion to the PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit. But he can skip the Korn Ferry Tour and head straight to the

PGA Tour, just as his caddie predicted he would, after winning the Bank of Utah Championship on Sunday by four strokes over Rico Hoey.

"He told me ever since we played a great year, we’re not going to the Korn Ferry Tour," Brennan said of his caddie, Jeff Kirkpatrick. "I can’t believe he’s right."

Brennan, 23, shot a final-round 5-under 66 at Black Desert Resort Golf Course in Ivins, Utah, in his third PGA Tour start and first as a professional. In doing so, he became the seventh player since 1970 to win his first Tour title within his first three starts. Brennan won three times on PGA Tour Americas this season and finished No. 1 in the Fortinet Cup standings, the PGA Tour Americas season-long race, which is similar to the FedEx Cup. That earned him full- exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour next season. In his six previous starts on the PGA Tour Americas, Brennan had won three times, registered five top-5 finishes and a score to par of 105 under.

Are you finished laughing yet?   Sure, the Fortinet Cup is just like the FedEx Cup, except, yanno, for the money.... 

A couple of bits worth covering.  Brennan comes from Leesburg, VA, a tiny hole-in-the wall where everyone wanted to share in the hometown boy's success:

This is the winning moment at River Creek Club in Leesburg, VA. It’s where Michael Brennan grew up playing golf and today the club is celebrating being the home of the latest winner on the @PGATOUR @BOUChampionship. pic.twitter.com/eMzUKIAIYF

— Todd Lewis (@ToddLewisGC) October 26, 2025

So, not a country club kid.... Golf could use more scenes like this.

The other aspect worth highlighting is that this kids bombs is:

Michael Brennan made one of the fastest moves ever into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking with his win at the Bank of Utah Championship on Sunday. And it was in large part to him swinging fast with one club in particular.

Those watching saw Brennan bombing his way all around Black Desert Resort, averaging a stunning 351 yards per poke. But his accuracy was just as impressive.

At one point, Brennan hit 34 of 35 fairways during his four-shot victory in his first PGA Tour start as a pro. Granted, they were some wide fairways, but still, he had the Big Dog working as well as anyone on tour this year. In fact, it was actually the best driving performance of 2025.

The PGA Tour's Sean Martin noted that Brennan's 7.6 strokes gained off the tee was the highest on tour this season. And it wasn't particularly close.

Utah winner Michael Brennan tops the list of best single-week Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee performances in 2025:

1. Michael Brennan (Utah), +7.6
2. Thorbjornsen (ISCO), +7.2
3. Woodland (Valero), +6.9
4. DeChambeau (PGA), +6.7
5. Rico Hoey (PLAYERS), +6.6
pic.twitter.com/T2ga3CJtnK

— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) October 27, 2025

Maybe the craziest entry there is Rico Hoey, only because Sawgrass would seem to be an odd place to rack up big SG Off-the-Tee numbers.... I mean, where can they even hit driver there?  In some cases, not even on the Par-5's.

Great call by Brennan's caddie.  I do hope he stays on the bag for a while and enjoys the ride.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes -  I had noted the revival of Big Break in my most recent post but, as per this week's Tour Confidential panel, Good Good is apparently good for more than just that:

YouTube stars Good Good Golf made two splashy announcements last week: it will serve as the title sponsor for a new PGA Tour event in Texas, and the group will also team with Golf Channel to produce a new edition of the longtime reality TV show, “The Big Break.” What bit of news piques your interest more?

Sens: Tough for me to get too excited over who is or isn’t sponsoring a tournament, though this news definitely underscores the broader ongoing cultural shift in golf. I’m more interested in checking out the reboot of “The Big Break.” Faster paced, I would think, given that attention spans haven’t gotten any longer. And probably crasser, given the drift of everything these days.

Colgan: The first. It costs a LOT of money to be the title-sponsor of a PGA Tour event (like $12-15 million, according to the latest reporting). The Fall series nature of the Good Good Championship might make that cost a little bit cheaper, but it’s still an outrageous amount of capital for a company of their size. I’m sure there’s a compelling business case, but I’m still fascinated.

Dethier: I’m mostly just fascinated by the identity shift that’s gone on here. We usually think of Good Good and its smaller-scale YouTube Golf peers as some sort of future of golf — an alternative to the PGA Tour and Golf Channel. Now they’re leaning into the PGA Tour AND Golf Channel, tapping into the past as they do. There’s power in being part of the establishment…

Melton: I’m fascinated by the entire spectacle. I knew Good Good was big, but I didn’t think they were sponsor-a-Tour-event big. If nothing else, I’m glad to see Big Break making a comeback. Was always one of my go-to watches as a kid and I’m pumped to see how the reboot turns out.

If they're paying $12-15 million large to sponsor a Silly Season event, then you deserve what you get.  Actually, anyone signing a sponsorship deal with the PGA Tour should know what to expect.

My guess is that Texas is a really good call, featuring a critical mass of Tour players that might just want a home game in September.  Depending on the schedule, every two years there could be a need for a place to have the Ryder Cup team stay sharp, although they'll fight with the folks in Napa for that privilege.

The aforementioned tournament (the Good Good Championship) will be played as a fall event beginning next year and take place in Austin, which not long ago hosted a regular PGA Tour stop. What does this move tell you about the future of the PGA Tour and how it plans to serve its audiences?

Sens: It’s no secret that the Tour, like golf itself, is bending over backwards to bring in a younger audience. This move is clearly in keeping with that effort. The September timing seems like a good (good) fit as well — during what used to be called the silly season, as opposed to the traditional heart of the season. It’s a smart, relatively low-risk way to try something new.

Colgan: It’s hard to make sense of the Maui event disappearance on the same week Austin returns to the schedule, but I’m glad to see one of the coolest towns in pro golf is back.

Dethier: The Tour has been telegraphing its plans for a smaller, more meaningful main schedule. But it’s also been extending some fall events and now incorporating another. Something has to give for these visions to mesh together — and soon.

Melton: Bringing on Good Good as a title sponsor certainly signals that the Tour is looking to cater to a younger audience, but does the sponsor of an event really matter all that much? I’m not sure that the name of the event will do much to drum up interest among the younger demographic.

I assume this will be huge, as long as they've arranged for the NFL to take the week off....

Joking aside, it seems to me that the big winner here is Golf Channel, which gets a reboot of one of its low-cost properties.  The Tour gets to hang with popular YouTube influencers, but not at a favorable moment on the calendar.   Net, net, it feels like a yawn.

As You Sow... - The only explanation for the TC panel burning a question here is the complete absence of anything else of import.  If only they had something to add:

Keegan Bradley, in his first comments since the U.S. team’s Ryder Cup loss, opened up

about the “brutal” experience at Bethpage and said he “really would enjoy playing in one more” before admitting: “I don’t know if I’ll get the chance.” Do you think Bradley has a better chance of being in Ireland in 2027 as a player or as a second stint as captain?

Sens: Neither. Maybe as an assistant captain to Tiger Woods? Bradley poured his heart into his captaincy, and I’m sure he’d do the same again, but passion for the event isn’t a qualification enough. He did a middling job. Why rehire him? Whatever happens, the fact that we are discussing this two years out is yet another example of the American gift for overthinking the Ryder Cup.

Colgan: I think he has a better chance of arriving as a player, but I don’t think his chances of either are very good. A vice captainship feels much more in line.

Dethier: Oh ye of little faith! In Keegan We Trust. One of the most passionate people in golf can channel another heaping dose of Ryder Cup frustration into a two-year triple-down and make this team. He’s never been much of a links golfer — but Adare Manor isn’t links. All good.

Melton: He can try to qualify for the team, but I think (hope) his days as a captain are behind him. Turns out that being obsessed with the Ryder Cup doesn’t automatically make someone a good captain.

I'm just grateful that we have that prestigious Ryder Cup Task Force™ to provide for a seamless transition from captain to captain.  How's that all going for us?

They have, to say the least, painted themselves into a corner.  Oh, that Tiger guy could take them off the hook and allow them all to pretend that this was always the plan, but that implies that losing the home game was part of the plan as well.  But if Tiger continues to channel his inner Garbo?  They might have to revert to Keegs because no one else wants to be the sacrificial lamb.

Udder Stuff - The TC gang had thoughts on Kapalua:

The PGA Tour canceled its season-opening Sentry at Kapalua in Hawaii, citing course conditions due to the water restrictions on Maui and infrastructure complications that come with hosting a tournament on a remote island. Our Dylan Dethier laid out why this might not be good news for pro golf’s future prospects in Hawaii. Do you agree? Should the Tour continue its two-week January run in the future?

Josh Sens: Humpbacks breaching in the backdrop have been a January golf signature for so long that it’s hard to imagine the Tour without them. I hope Kapalua remains in the rota. But I thought Dylan made a compelling case for concern. As difficult as it may be to bring tournament infrastructure to Maui, it has been even more difficult to bring Rory McIlroy there, which is just another permutation of the same old challenge: how to get all the best players competing against each other in an era of fragmentation and outsized individual player power? The fact that the event has such a dedicated sponsor in Sentry and such deep roots at a distinctive venue in Maui makes me think it will stick around. But a shakeup wouldn’t come as a total shock. How’s that for a hedge?

James Colgan: They should! If only because the PGA Tour’s ability to show great events at good golf courses in unique and beautiful places is a good pathway to its continued relevance. And right now, there aren’t that many places other than Hawaii that fit that bill.

Dylan Dethier: For the record, my understanding is that this is all very much up in the air — I don’t think it’s been decided for sure one way or the other. I personally find Kapalua such an epic locale and Hawaii such a special place that the idea of the Tour leaving bums me out. But if you were looking for [winces at word I’m about to type] efficiencies, or if you were chasing profit maximization, a relatively small local market with limited financial upside and countless logistical challenges would come under pretty intense scrutiny. But if the Tour leaves, they’ll lose some character in the process.

Zephyr Melton: I can’t claim to be an expert on the ins and outs of PGA Tour scheduling, but I would venture to guess that the Sentry taking a hiatus won’t be great long-term for the event. If the tourney dates come and go in January and the event isn’t really missed, who’s to say the change won’t become permanent? The future could be grim for the historic tourney.

Yanno, I was OK with the Tour's prior system where the guys simply pegged it when they wanted to....

But then a Tour éminence grise lectured us about the necessity of creating these Signature Events money grabs, because the only way the game can grow is to know when each alpha dog will be playing.  Hey, I totally got it, until that very same asshat decided to skip three of those eight events in 2025.   So, Rory talked the talk but wasn't any better than his friend Tiger in walking the walk.... So, perhaps it was about the money after all, Rors?

Kapalua isn't what it was, the course has been far too soft in recent years.  But opening the season there is a great show for the folks back home with the winter blues.  They tell us that they're all in on growing the game, but we can't help notice that it's all talk.... None more so, I hate to say, than from Rory.

Wither LIV - I know, it's cone of silence stuff, because they simply can't make us care.  But Dylan Dethier put in some effort and copying-and-pasting requires almost none:

LIV Golf faces 5 fascinating offseason questions | Monday Finish

I'll venture a guess that Dylan is more easily fascinated than your humble blogger....

SHORT HITTERS

5 unanswered questions LIV faces this offseason.

If you’re saying to yourself, hey Dylan, isn’t your job to answer these questions? I would say, y’know, that’s fair enough. Consider this an interesting list for you and a to-do list for me. Here are five questions surrounding LIV that affect the rest of the professional golf ecosystem, too:

1. Who will LIV sign?

Since LIV’s inception this has continually been the most intriguing question surrounding the league — who will they recruit from elsewhere in golf’s ecosystem? The first wave-and-a-half in 2022 was eye-popping, everybody from Phil Mickelson to Bryson DeChambeau to Brooks Koepka to Joaquin Niemann to Cam Smith and more. The 2023 signing of Jon Rahm was a shocker, too, particularly when accompanied by Tyrrell Hatton. So who will LIV claim this offseason? Which PGA Tour players will defect? Who will be the biggest name?

Is there any reason to think they'll sign anyone?  The rumor mill is quiet and, more importantly, do Rahm and Hatton seem happy there?  Put another way, haven't all the a******s gone already?

2. Who will LIV re-sign?

News came over the weekend via Flushing It that LIV had re-upped Dustin Johnson’s contract, which had been set to expire after the 2025 season. The 4 Aces captain will be back, which means LIV presumably made it worth his while to do so.

Some of LIV’s big names are now in an interesting position; on the one hand LIV needs them to stay on to keep any momentum going. On the other hand, their leverage in negotiating with LIV is hampered by the fact that they may have nowhere else to go.

The biggest negotiation by far won’t come this offseason and will involve Bryson DeChambeau, whose contract extends through 2026. He’s a full-time content creator and something of a media mogul in his own right, now — it’ll be interesting to see how his relationship with LIV and with his Crushers evolves as he thinks about re-upping while also balancing his side quests.

Heh, DJ?  Good to know he's still in the game....  But Bryson feels like the only one that matters.

3. Will LIV get OWGR points?

Included in a terrific and all-encompassing Global Golf Post profile by John Hopkins (which you should read here) of now-retired OWGR chairman Peter Dawson were two interesting nuggets:

-He’s unclear on why LIV is pressing on.

“I really don’t understand why the PIF [Public Investment Fund] and Saudi Arabia are persisting with it,” Dawson continued. “They are doing wonderful things for the women’s game with the PIF Global Series and they have terrific plans inside Saudi for expanding golf for their own people and for tourism. These initiatives deserve our applause but LIV seems to be the odd man out.”

-and he’s disappointed they didn’t reach an OWGR resolution.

“I was very disappointed that we could not do so with LIV,” he said. “It is self-evident that players on the LIV tour are good enough to be ranked because they were before. But OWGR has a duty to ensure that all of the thousands of players in the system are ranked equitably. Some aspects of the LIV format made that impossible. In my opinion OWGR made the only decision it could at the time.“

That OWGR failure was in part due to LIV taking its toys and going home, withdrawing its application rather than working with the powers-that-be on acceptable standards for points-getting. Now, though, with new leadership in place on each side of the relationship and a new application on the way, it’ll be interesting to see how the OWGR board and LIV find common ground — and potential points.

Yeah, this was bizarre.  And Dawson isn't wrong, at least to the extent that the Saudis can do more for the game and themselves by focusing on the ladies....  But that ignores that Yasir is in this for the Augusta National membership.

4. What will happen to Henrik Stenson?

Henrik Stenson is the most high-profile LIV golfer to finish in its “Drop Zone,” outside the top 48, which per LIV’s regulations meant he is automatically relegated. (This is true with Anthony Kim, too, plus Mito Pereira, among others.) But we haven’t really seen LIV abandon any of its stars to this point, never mind a co-captain of a team (the Majesticks) like Stenson.

The only relevance that Henrik has remaining, is that he put in motion the sequence of events that demonstrates the difference between the U.S. and Europe.   They win because they have a bench full of Luke Donalds.  The U.S. loses because they expect that Tiger will save them....

5. How will promotion and relegation look, exactly?

LIV has staged a Promotions event each of the last two offseasons. They’d be due for another this December, and presumably Stenson, Kim and Pereira could enter — but if it’s happening LIV has made no announcements on the subject as of yet. The answer to this question is intertwined with Nos. 3 and 4 (and, perhaps, 1 and 2, too) because questions of promotion and relegation are crucial to what makes this an open versus closed shop with new players earning their places. Perhaps they’re consulting with the OWGR on this very matter. Perhaps there’s another route they could build through the Asian Tour or its International Series. Again, we have mostly questions.

Time to work on the answers…

I'm for sure going to be up nights until I know what will become of....Mito Pereira.

Peter Dawson has it right.  They have nothing with LIV that's worth salvaging, they're just not used to admitting failure.   When in doubt, revert to the bonecutter....

That's it for today, kids.  And may well be it for the week, unless something of interest drops.  Have a great week.

Thursday Themes - Where Ya Been Edition

Sick, is the simple answer.  Oh, some scheduling bits as well, but got whacked last week with what at first appeared to be merely a nasty head cold, but evolved into something far more impressive....No fun at all.

I did actually play yesterday, and if I'm well enough to play, I should be well enough to blog.  Not that there's much about which to blog.

Tommy Lad In Full - Recency bias, much?  He's a really good player and one of a dwindling few whose reputation has been enhanced recently, but I can't be the only one thinking he's still the same guy that coughed up all those opportunities.

First, with Tiger's next appearance likely to be on a milk carton, the Tour Confidential panel would logically be hardest hit.  And it's not like they have much to mull over either:

Tommy Fleetwood won the DP World India Championship to earn his second victory in his last four starts (not to mention his Ryder Cup dominance). Now no longer worried about securing his first PGA Tour win (and save for the World No. 1), is there a player primed for a more dominant 2026 than Fleetwood?

Ummmm, unless Scottie Scheffler has retired to spend more time with his family, I'm gonna go with a hard "NO". 

Josh Berhow: The stars certainly seem to be aligning for a Fleetwood breakout. He had a few close calls even before he finally won the Tour Championship, so it’s not like the last few months

have been a fluke. The guy can ball-strike with the best of them, which is a good way to always stay in contention. But it’s also important to remember guys have gotten hot and looked ready to tear up the golf world before, only to disappear. (Viktor Hovland won back-to-back playoff events in August 2023 and didn’t win again for 19 months.) I don’t expect a Scottie-like 2026, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Fleetwood picked off two or even three wins next year.

Alan Bastable: Amazing how wins so often beget more wins. Fleetwood is the latest case in point, and not necessarily because his game is any better than it was a year ago — but more so because he’s leading the Tour in SG: Confidence. We’ll see if that magic stays with him through the offseason. As he said himself on Sunday, “I know form doesn’t last forever, but I’m trying to make myself the most consistent player I can be.” But, yes, to answer the question, he’s incredibly well positioned for 2026. Another guy I’m excited to see in action next year: Cameron Young. Curious if his impressive Ryder Cup will give him a shot of sustained confidence.

Jessica Marksbury: It’s always interesting when players get hot in the fall and winter to see if they can sustain the momentum into the next summer major season. Although, as Josh mentioned, it’s not as though Tommy is coming out of nowhere. He’s been a favorite pick at the majors even before his PGA Tour breakthrough. But Tommy does seem to come on especially strong in Ryder Cup years. So let’s revisit this in 2027! As for next year, I’m looking forward to keeping my eye on another solid European: Alex Noren, who won two DP World Tour titles this year and is projected to earn his PGA Tour card for next season.

Hard to see why they would even hold the Masters, eh?  But that Alan Bastable premise is unfortunately completely unsupported.  It's what we think will happen, but where's the evidence that it does.

What drives this observer more than a little crazy is that which we ignore.  I'll get to East Lake below, but this is the week on that third-tier tour that has sober journalists calling it the Tommy Lad Era:

Fleetwood beat out a handful of stars to win on a narrow Delhi Golf Club, where it was reported that 42 percent of the field played without a driver. Should the PGA Tour visit more courses where players are forced to be more strategic off the tee? And how often?

Berhow: Delhi Golf Club is a pretty extreme example — I don’t want Rory hitting zero drivers! — but it should definitely happen more, as playing sound, strategic golf and hitting clubs the course might call for is a skill, just as much as it is to bomb driver all around the property. It gives more players a chance too. Years ago I remember Kevin Kisner rattling off a list of courses he felt he couldn’t win on simply due to the distance required off the tee. How realistic it is though is another question. Lots of logistics go into picking a Tour venue — a sponsor, the TV production, etc. — and sometimes the type of golf course isn’t always the main focus.

Bastable: Power should be a competitive advantage in golf so, yeah, it would be unfair to suddenly inject the Tour schedule with a bunch more tight and tree-choked sites. Still, this week in New Delhi was a fun reminder that there’s more than one way to test elite players who can hit a driver 330 yards, and some of the players seemed to really dig the challenge. “I like courses like this a lot more because you just hit a variety of different clubs more often,” Ben Griffin said early in the week, “whereas in America we’re so used to hitting maybe drivers and wedges a lot more.”

Marksbury: Playing a round of golf without a driver is something I will never be able to relate to! Years ago, a USGA official told me that the objective for the course setup for the U.S. Open was not necessarily to provide the most tortuous test, but for players to utilize every club in the bag over the course of the tournament. I like that idea, and I am definitely in favor of promoting more courses (or setups) where that’s possible. Six or seven times a year would be nice.

I completely agree.  It must be racist or something to expect that the best players in the world will show actual golf skills in their competitions....  And that doesn't even incorporate the most damning bit buried in the lede sentence of the question, the key word being "handful".

So, sure, win in India against nobody on a golf course too fiddly to hit driver... world dominance logically ensues.

Dylan Dethier had some good bits in his Monday Finish column, though I'm not quite buying this premise:

Fleetwood’s latest accomplishment also completes a fascinating third act of this year in men’s professional golf. Rory McIlroy was the clear star of the first act; he won at Pebble Beach, won the Players and won the Masters to complete the career grand slam. Scottie Scheffler was the clear star of Act II, winning two majors and a half-dozen times in all as he put even more space between himself and the rest of the world. I posed this question during the FedEx Cup playoffs — behind McIlroy and Scheffler, who’s the PGA Tour’s third-biggest star? It wasn’t long before we got our answer. Fleetwood has established himself as the champion of Act III. Soon we’ll put the pressure back on him to win a major, but in the meantime he’s the clear winner of this post-majors season.

Really?  Let's see, the first guy completed the career Grand Slam and that second guy ran off two majors, but the third guy beat 29 guys in Atlanta and four guys we've heard of that had to leave driver in the locker.  Yeah, totally the same thing!

Before we leave Tommy, I do want to include this lovely story from Dylan:

When Tommy Fleetwood won the DP World India Championship on Sunday, he made his son Frankie’s dreams come true.

Recently Frankie mentioned he’s never been able to run onto the green to celebrate one of his father’s wins. Tommy literally wrote his son’s quote down — “You have never won and I’ve run onto the green” — and then, within the week, made that happen. Tommy Fleetwood is a terrific golfer. He’s also apparently an even better dad. What did you do for your kid this weekend?

The only thing I don't like about that bit is the underlying premise that the absence of a win might make him a bad father.... It's not an entitlement.

While I feel compelled to make fun of the underlying assumptions, I do hope I don't sound as if I'm down on Fleetwood.  We're at a juncture where he's one of the few guys left (along with Scottie) to root for, and let me work in this from Dylan:

Along the way he (and his family!) have completed impressive side quests. Frankie delivered the quote of the year at the Masters (his declaration that he was “trying my hardest” was inspiration for everyone, everywhere). Tommy has delivered enough philosophical gems of his own that he could start a cult, or at least a self-help podcast (he described this Sunday as “another opportunity to show a good attitude”). He even stunned in traditional Indian attire at a tournament party this weekend, where he looked like royalty (and further reinforced the idea that Tommy Fleetwood would do well wherever you put him).

My bolding will show which bit got my attention.

I think Tommy had a great summer and he was never better than in the aftermath of Hartford and the other disappointments.  I consider those press comments a Master Class in professionalism, and someone should compare and contrast that to Rory's behavior during the summer.  Tommy has called speaking to the press after coughing up a lead "Part of the job", an attitude that his peer group would do well to internalize.  Rory, are you taking notes?

Tour Faceplants - We're supposed to care about this nonsense?  First they tell us that eight tourneys are so important that we can't have them sullied by actual Tour players (you know, the riffraff that might get in the way of those they think we need to see).  Then come this:

The PGA Tour just canceled its opener. Is there more to the story?

The PGA Tour announced on Wednesday that its 2026 season opener, the Sentry, is canceled.

Curiously, it wasn’t the only Kapalua-related announcement on Wednesday. The Plantation Course — the pride of Maui and longtime host to the first event of the Tour’s calendar season — added a banner to its website trumpeting the fact that it’s now booking tee times after closing the course for two months.

So what on earth is going on?

This is a story of drought, of course conditions and of Hawaiian politics. But it has also become a story about the PGA Tour’s future, about its vision and its strategy and its relationships with markets and sponsors. Let’s talk through a few of the complicating factors together, Q&A-style.

The problem is that we've already spent more in it than out interest in the event justifies....

Wait — why aren’t they having the Sentry at Kapalua like they normally do?

The simplest answer is that water restrictions on Maui (resulting from a combination of drought, infrastructure, streams, ditches, lawsuits, finger-pointing and more) called into question the course’s readiness to host a premier field in January. Tournament officials and PGA Tour representatives deliberated and ultimately decided last month that the Sentry wouldn’t happen as scheduled.

But..... while the Sentry folks seem to be taking the high road, this is something I've been on for quite a while:

Are there other complicating factors?

There are! One is the fact that the Sentry is no longer the only early-January competition on the golf calendar. The DP World Tour’s 2026 Dubai Invitational is scheduled for the week after the Sentry (Jan. 15-18) and has already gotten commitments from Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood; they’re also among the top Europeans expected at the following week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic (Jan. 22-25).

There’s also TGL, which kicks off in Florida on Sunday, Dec. 28, and then features matches on Monday or Tuesday every week of January — which raised eyebrows when the schedule was released, given it’s tough to combine a Tuesday TGL match with a Thursday tournament tee time in Hawaii.

Once again, the PGA Tour has stuck a shiv in a sponsor's back....why do they take it?

Many of you will understand that, given the unique geography here, it's not just the one sponsor that took it up the back channel:

So … where does the PGA Tour season start?

Technically the first PGA Tour event of the season will be the Sony Open in Hawaii, with balls in the air for the first round on Jan. 15. But it may not feel quite like the full-on PGA Tour will be underway; top pros who typically island-hop from the Sentry to the Sony may not make the trip at all.

It’ll be interesting to see if we get a beefed-up field when the Tour returns to the mainland with the American Express in Palm Springs Jan. 22-25. That’s followed by the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines (Jan. 29-Feb. 1) and the WM Phoenix Open (Feb. 5-8) before, at last, the first Signature Event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Feb. 12-15). From there, things will hit warp speed (eight Signature Events plus the Players and all four majors in the next 23 weeks). But it’s an admittedly slower start with the Sentry off the schedule.

 I wonder if they'll even be able to fill out the field.  Sony might have to pay to get guys to Oahu....

Beloved? - Your mileage may vary:

Golf Channel is bringing back a beloved show … with a YouTube twist

I'm sure you'll have guessed....

There is a certain irony in the news that Golf Channel is bringing back The Big Break with help from the YouTube content kings at Good Good.

The irony in question? Primarily that at the time The Big Break was in its Golf Channel heyday, most of the Good Good gang wasn’t old enough to watch it.

Still, the news is good for lifelong fans of the show (or more recent fans of one of YouTube golf’s most prominent brands): The Big Break has been greenlit by Golf Channel executives to return to audiences in late 2026, and Good Good is at the center of the operation.

According to a press release announcing the return, Golf Channel and Good Good will combine to produce a new edition of the longtime reality TV show, with a sponsor’s exemption into next November’s newly announced Good Good Championship (a PGA Tour fall series event) on the line for the winner.

To date, The Big Break remains Golf Channel’s most notable success in the world of original programming — a reality TV series that ran for a record 23 seasons from 2003 to 2015 and helped birth the careers of several notable golf figures, including Tony Finau. The new edition of the reality show will feature a heavy dose of Golf Channel’s content partners at Good Good golf, the 2-million-subscriber YouTube channel and merchandise monolith. Good Good and Golf Channel signed a content partnership in 2024 that has seen a host of new programming come to the network via the YouTube channel, though to date the partnership has focused more on one-off events than recurring series’ like Big Break.

I've got a bit of a personal connection to this show, because during my Willow Ridge days one of the aspiring pros there got a gig on Big Break ate The Greenbrier.  In fact, I was with him when he received the call telling him he was in,.

But I always thought that watching aspiring professional golfers choke up a storm should have been much better television than they made it out to be.  Hopefully the YouTubers can help them make it more appealing.  Honestly, to me this should be of greater interest than the TGL, just because those guys just don't hit enough bad shots.  Well, except for Kevin Kisner.

That will have to do for today, boys and girls.  Still not planning too much blogging, but I will try not to ghost you again as I've done for the last 10-12 days.  No hard feelings?

Weekend Wrap - Indigenous Peoples Day Edition

Just a reminder, those indigenous folks didn't have much of a sense of humor:

Don't know how they found that many Republicans.....

Not only is there no golf to amuse ourselves with, but a certain baseball team regressed to its talent level, so that might account for my contentious state of mind....

We've Seen This Movie Before - I might have mentioned this, but the bride and I had the following short conversation during the Sunday of the Ryder Cup:

Employee No. 2 - So, after this, when's the next important golf event?

ME:  April.

Employee No. 2 -  Nothing until then?

ME: Well, there is the Father-Son in December.

In the immortal words of Emily Littella, never mind:

“After experiencing pain and lack of mobility in my back, I consulted doctors and surgeons to have tests taken,” Woods’ statement said. “The scans determined that I had a collapsed disc in L4/L5, disc fragments and a compromised spinal canal. I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday and already know I made a good decision for my health and back.”

Care for some brief history?

No timetable was provided for Woods to make his return to competitive golf.

Tiger Woods has not played on the PGA Tour this season after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon in March. Last September, Woods underwent a procedure on his lower back that he described as a microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement.

The 49-year-old has had six prior back surgeries, starting with a microdiscectomy for a pinched nerve in 2014. He had a second microdiscectomy surgery in September of 2015 and then had a follow-up procedure to relieve discomfort in October of 2016. He had another microdiscectomy in 2017 and then another in 2021. Woods has also undergone numerous surgeries on his legs both pre and post-car accident.

Hey, everyone knows that the seventh back surgery is always the charm....

The TC panel showed admirable restraint in speaking of actual golf before getting to the object of their obsession:

Tiger Woods announced he had a seventh back surgery Friday, this one replacing a disk in his lower back that caused pain and mobility issues. Do you think we’ll see Tiger in 2026?

Zak: Not as a player. Hopefully as a very comfortable, walking-18 golf dad/coach! And very likely as a TGL non-playing captain. For all the Tiger obsessives desperate to see Woods as the next American Ryder Cup captain, I think we’re forgetting that his main priority in 2027 will be watching/traveling alongside Charlie Woods’ burgeoning college career.

Piastowski: I don’t see it, and it’ll also be a bit disappointing not to see him and son Charlie at this year’s PNC Championship. But then again, that’s his call and he knows his body best. Champs tour golf also allows for carts, you know.

Sens: Not in competition. But he’s got other roles to play in the game and in life. Seems long past the time for us all to let go of expecting anything more.

I knew they wouldn't have anything trenchant to add, as there isn't anything.  But they worked in far more crazy than I thought possible....

Because, Josh, Tiger could have, nay, should have had an important role in 2025, but the dick just couldn't be bothered.   Despite weeks of Ryder Cup recriminations, nobody, these very writers most especially, are asking where Tiger was that last week in September.

And, yes, of course Tiger might be interested in his kid's college golf career, although we also might note that the Ryder Cup intrudes on that for exactly one week.  The answer is one I think we're all coming to grips with, to wit, that Tiger will be at Adare Manor only if J.P. McManus makes it worth his while to do so.

Your humble blogger usually waits until the event starts to switch his rooting allegiance the the far more likeable Europeans.  On the day Tiger is announced as U.S. Captain , I will beat the Christmas rush and start acquiring blue and yellow swag.

Speaking of Which.... - Did someone mention Ryder Cup recriminations?

Bob Harig has the skinny:

A Tiger Woods Ryder Cup Captaincy Is Complicated

Woods's stalling in 2024 led to Keegan Bradley getting the job at Bethpage. Bob Harig explores whether a different outcome could be in the works for the 2027 Ryder Cup in Ireland.

Complicated?  Really, that's what you're going with?

Tiger Woods will almost certainly be offered the position as the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain, with plenty of questions surrounding such an appointment in the aftermath of another U.S. defeat.

Does he even want the job? Is he capable of doing it in this climate? Can he make a decision sooner rather than later?

What climate is that?  You mean one where the PGA of America begs him to help. but he's worried about taking time out from Call of Duty?

So they want the mythical creature called Tiger Woods, yanno, the fictional character that these guys saw on TV:

It was Woods’s stalling on the offer to captain the 2025 team in the spring and summer of 2024 that led to the surprising decision to offer the job—without even an interview—to Keegan Bradley in July of last year.

Whereas, the flesh and blood Tiger can only wonder what's in it for him.

But here's where he gets to the crux of the Tiger conundrum:

The U.S. Team Needs Answers, Which Then Makes Woods a Question

Are those reasons why the U.S. lost? Not directly. But the American side does likely need to do a deep dive and come up with some answers.

All of which makes a Woods captaincy somewhat problematic. Due to injury, he didn’t play in any PGA Tour events this year. He didn’t attend the Champions Dinner at the Masters. He was never amongst the players.

He cited his duties as a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board for passing on the job this time. Wouldn’t those get in the way again? Will he play more to try and be around more? If not, will he attend events?

Also the idea of a captain just showing up is, obviously, not ideal. Woods is revered and can expect buy-in and players wanting to play for him. But there are no guarantees. Nicklaus lost a Ryder Cup as captain (and lost a Presidents Cup). So did Lee Trevino. Nick Faldo, one of Europe’s greatest players, lost as a Ryder Cup captain.

Those are clearly questions that would need to be asked, and amazingly for someone of Woods’s stature, perhaps his appointment is not the slam dunk you’d expect. Doesn’t he need to commit to the process? Does he need to be an assistant for Brandt Snedeker next year at the Presidents Cup?

At some pnt they'll realize that they're asking the wrong question.  They keep thinking in terms of what might be best for the U.S. team, whereas the issue is quite obviously what's best for Tiger Woods.  Harig does at least acknowledge that 600 lb. elephant in the corner:

Then there is his friendship with J.P. McManus, the owner of Adare Manor, site of the 2027 Ryder Cup. That is said to be a factor in Woods’s decision.

So, too, could the idea of there being less pressure. The U.S. has not won in Europe since 1993, when Woods was in high school and had yet to win the first of his three U.S. Amateur titles. He could be the one to break that streak, and be lauded for it.

But it seems there needs to be some buy-in from him, too.

Perhaps Luke Donald will provide necessary contrast.  In 2023, Henrik Stenson  pulled quite the fast one.  No sooner was the ink dry on his contract to be Ryder Cup captain (including a clause in which he specifically committed to not sign with LIV), then he proceeded to screw his friends at the DP World Tour.  The last thing in the world that Luke Donald wanted to do was become Ryder Cup Captain like THAT.

So, why did he do it?  For a very simple reason, it wasn't about him.  Notice the resemblance to Tiger?  Exactly, there isn't any.  For Luke Donald, the Ryder Cup is about the European Team.  For Tiger, the Ryder Cup is about Tiger.  Any remaining questions?

Doug Ferguson is also on the case, with this amusing header:

US Ryder Cup a mess that not even another task force could fix

 Buckle up:

The best news out of the American camp since losing the Ryder Cup again to the Europeans is that no one has suggested another task force.

The path forward is no less muddled than it was leaving Scotland in 2014.

An Indiana club pro — Ted Bishop, the PGA of America president — decided that Tom Watson should be the U.S. captain for those matches at Gleneagles. That didn’t go well, ending not only with another loss but with Phil Mickelson in a most awkward takedown of the captain.

That led to the vaunted task force, and Mickelson was far more optimistic five months later when the work was completed.

“We are looking forward to not just 2016 ... but really laying a foundation and a blueprint for the years to follow of continuity and success,” Mickelson said.

The Americans have won two of the five Ryder Cups since then — that could be called success considering they had won only two of the previous 10 times.

Doug is one of the better observers of our game, but I do think that here he falls into a common trap.  One can't assess the success of any initiative without understanding its objectives.  The problem for Doug here is that that Task Force wasn't designed to win Ryder Cups, rather it was a mechanism for Phil to seize control and to stick that shiv further into Tom Watson.  In that regard, it's been quite the success.

Ferguson provides this back story, although he seems to be eliding a third event:

But these issues go further back than the illustrious task force. This takes root in 1968 when the touring pros lost faith in the PGA professionals who were running the sport, a split that led to the modern PGA Tour.

There were two golf tournaments that needed to be divvied up. One was the old World Series of Golf, which was becoming a lucrative event at Firestone. The other was an exhibition called the Ryder Cup — that’s what it was at the time — that could barely sell a ticket.

The previous Ryder Cup had been at Champions Golf Club in Houston. Peter Alliss, the late incomparable British commentator who played in those 1967 matches, once recalled, “The opening ceremony began with hundreds, not thousands of spectators.”

Tour players took the World Series of Golf, which eventually became a World Golf Championship and now no longer exists. Imagine if they had taken the Ryder Cup.

There's also a little event called the PGA Championship that the PGA of America retained, one that's more important than the other two combined.

Mickelson thought the task force would create a blueprint not just for the next one, but for the next 10 Ryder Cups. That didn’t go as planned. It led to a buddy system, and then continuity fell apart when Mickelson led a breakaway to LIV Golf.

Perhaps the next move is for the PGA of America to consider turning over management to the PGA Tour, which has more stability, more expertise running big events and a stronger relationship with the players who perform.

It might not be enough to turn the tide. But it can’t hurt.

There is no logic to that other PGA owning the event, but it's also fanciful to think that the Tour couldn't screw it up.   Remember, the first thing the Task Force did was t take the architect of the Meltdown at Medinah and to give him a mulligan.   So it's never been about the best and the brightest....

But in all the second guessing and name calling after the Bungle at Bethpage, Tiger's name barely merits a mention.

Other TC Bits - Obviously not pushing myself too hard, so let's just draft on others' work.

Xander Schauffele won the first two majors of his career last season but was winless in an injury-plagued 2025 — until this weekend, when he won the Baycurrent Classic in Japan by beating Max Greyserman, who has now finished runner-up on Tour five times and is still without a victory. Who needed Sunday’s trophy more — Schauffele or Greyserman?

Sean Zak: The correct answer is probably Greyserman, as we’ve seen when it comes to guys

needing to get over that first-victory hump. But Schauffele had genuinely battled some confidence issues throughout this year. Remember, it was Xander who we counted on to mount any serious defense to Scottie Scheffler’s war on pro golfers. Schauffele considered himself a couple pegs below Scheffler at the beginning of 2025 and that had to grow and grow as the season wore on, without any wins or even real moments in contention. This was massive for him just to remind himself — you’re one of the five best golfers in the world.

Nick Piastowski: I think the answer comes down to what you like more — a breakthrough or a re-breakthrough. Greyserman has put together a solid couple of years on the PGA Tour and is one of pro golf’s hardest workers, and you get the feeling one win would lead to three more quickly — so you could argue that he needed it more, as you’d like to see him keep rolling. But if you’re a fan of stars and players who play at the highest levels, then the answer is Schauffele. This season, the two-time major winner has been battling back from injury, and for him to start next year with a win at the top of his mind is no doubt beneficial.

Josh Sens: That’s a good way of framing it, Nick. Greyserman is still looking for that first W, so he needed it more. But the game as whole is more compelling when a guy like Schauffele is in synch.

What, you thought Silly Season was just for the players?

Obviously the X-Man's season was affected by his injury, but ask stupid questions, get stupid answers.  Xander still qualified automatically for the Ryder Cup, so in no way did he "Need" the win.

Jeeno Thitikul won the LPGA Shanghai in a playoff to become the LPGA Tour’s first two-time winner this season, ending a surprising streak in which the 26 previous events this season were won by 26 different players. This comes just one year after Nelly Korda won seven times last year. Which is better — the parity or a player or two dominating?

Better for who?

Zak: It is not the parity. I promise you it is not the parity. TV ratings, overall interest, etc. will back it up. The LPGA needs at least one, if not two or three front-runners that are locking horns against each other and setting some standard for players 5-30 to fight for.

Piastowski: The depth of talent on the LPGA is stunning — but greatness sells. You tune in for Tom Brady. For Michael Jordan. For Nelly Korda. The hope, I would think, is that the players around her will push her to even greater heights.

Sens: A fiery rivalry is best. That obviously requires a rare kind of talent, but also certain personality types. I’ve heard some grousers complain of Scottie Scheffler’s “Pete Sampras” effect–dominance without flash or a full embrace of the spotlight can have a dulling effect. As Sean says, the LPGA needs a player like Korda at her best–ideally with a few foils around her.

Not only does the LPGA desperately need star power, they need some of it to be American.  Or is that Xenophobic?  Because they won't survive if they can't draw a U.S. audience, and that's hard to do with a rotating cast of unknown foreigners.  Don't get me wrong, Anika and Inbee are great, but there's no benefit to denying the obvious.

To their credit, they did offer a take on this curious phenomenon:

2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur champ Brandon Holtz joined GOLF’s Subpar podcast to break down his mid-am title and playing Augusta, and he also discussed the controversial topic regarding former pros regaining amateur status. At the U.S. Mid-Am, 14 of the final 16 players were former pros. Do you have any issue with this? Should it be harder for pros to regain amateur status?

Zak: The problem with the phrasing of this question is it makes all 14 cases seem the same. They’re not! I do think the USGA could do a much better job of publicizing its criteria for former pros regaining am status. What does a cup of coffee on the PGA Tour mean on that journey? To answer the question, I’m mostly conflicted without good, hard information and context. Dear USGA, help us out and maybe we’ll stop talking about it!

Piastowski: I just wonder if this can’t be solved by another category — let those who’ve always played as amateurs play in one category, and have those one-time pros play in another. Just a thought.

Sens: I’m not sure exactly what the answer is, but the issue needs to be addressed as events like the Mid-Am are losing touch with their original identity. A similar issue reared its head at this year’s Walker Cup, which featured a guy who’d been playing pro golf only a year before. Remember the Pub-Links, which got away from its roots and became so overrun by college standouts that it became unrecognizable and was cast into the dustbin? No one wants to see a repeat. A smart friend of mine suggests that as with so many things in golf, Augusta National holds the cards in this: if the green jackets put a foot down and said something like, we don’t want to see former pros getting into the Masters on the strength of an amateur win; it’s not in the amateur spirit of Bobby Jones. So, do something about this or we’re going to stop extending April invites to some of your amateur event winners.

I haven't put any thought into this and Mid-Ams are a bit of fringe category, but that is quite weird and somehow seems not quite right.  That said, nobody cares about Mid-Ams, so two categories is a non-starter.  About the only relevance is that Masters invite, so not sure where this goes.

Two TV-centric announcements came last week: the full schedule of season 2 of TGL and the news of Netflix’s Full Swing coming back for season 4. Now with sample sizes at our disposal, have these two supplementary productions succeeded in expanding the sport’s reach? Anything you’d like to see different from either?

Zak: As much variability as possible in results of shots from TGL. Whatever you think is a lot, I want more. And as for Full Swing, my attention span for that show is pretty minimal now. I’m not the audience they’re chasing, though! So if I were asking for something, it would be hyper-narrow focus on all the ways the PGA Tour is DIFFERENT from F1 or the ATP Tour. Because the same company has produced a lot of the same docu-follows on pro sports, these world tours all seem like slightly different cousins when in reality they’re very, very different.

Piastowski: To the first question, the answer is yes. Golf on a Monday night in the dead of winter, as TGL provides, is something additive. Golf stories on demand, as “Full Swing” offers, are something additive. Here are some requests. To TGL, fewer house ads; we don’t need constant reminders why we’re tuned in. (And I like Sean’s idea — gimme the funky.) As for “Full Swing,” you’ve established your ‘stars,’ so now let’s go deeper. I don’t mind the season yearbook approach, but, as my editors say, tell me something I don’t know.

Sens: I’m not sure whether to think of these shows as engines of change or mirrors that capture how the game is evolving. Probably a bit of both. Personally, I have a hard time getting very excited about either. But I’m not the target market, and based on my anecdotal experience (getting paired with strangers on the course; listening to friends’ kids talk about golf), I’m not the best barometer of success. In fact, if I find it boring, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve got a runaway success.

Have either of these efforts created a single new golfer or golf-viewer?  If so, please provide names and addresses....

The Korn Ferry Tour season ended Sunday at French Lick in Indiana with 20 players earning PGA Tour membership for 2026. Who is one player casual fans should have on their radars?

Zak: Casuals love to obsess about the longest golfers in the pro game — I’m excited for them to be in awe of Davis Chatfield, who doesn’t hit it far but just knows how to get the damn ball in the hole. He was 140th in driving distance but 1st in accuracy. On the KFT — the ultimate mash-it-and-chase-it tour — that’s not necessarily a recipe for success, but he found plenty of it with three top-3 finishes. That’ll get you to the big leagues. No,w what can you do with it?

Piastowski: Neal Shipley. He’s a personality. He’s a player. He’s a Waffle House enjoyer. The PGA Tour needs all of that.

Sens: Christo Lamprecht. Crazy tall. Crazy long. Far from another robopro in appearance and playing style. We’ve seen flashes of him, like when he briefly held the lead at the Open a couple years ago. It will be fun to see more.

Shipley, for sure.  Although I have a good golf buddy that tells me the answer is Blades Brown (who earned Korn Ferry playing privilege's, but didn't likely have enough opportunities for a Tour card.  But, don't cry for him, Argentina, he's only eighteen.

That's it for today.  Not sure what the rest of the week will hold, as blogging may be dependent on content.  Have a great week.