Tuesday Tidbits

We'll try to throw enough your way that you'll not notice my absence tomorrow....  Bobby D. has arranged a road trip here for our semi-regular Wednesday game...  

Opinions Are Like... - You know the rest, everyone has at least the one.  First up the Golfweek staff, with their views of the late night sensation:

Novelty is a good thing 

Our favorite moment came on the 7th when the main cast was joined by world-class rugby players for a two-man scramble. (Tokyo is hosting the Rugby World Cup this month.) Hideki Matsuyama drained a 35-foot putt for birdie and was hoisted off the ground by his partner, former South African player Bryan Habana. “He’s my partner. I’m with him,” Habana yelled.

All right, here's that moment which required Googling to find:

So, the best moment from a golf event was created by a bunch of rugby players?  Shouldn't that be of concern?

Shack is the source of this one:

Low-level stakes, lackluster golf 

So the GOLFTV production wasn’t what we are used to week to week, but the on-course interviews were a good diversion. (We heard Tiger really wants to play in the Olympics next year. Rory wasn’t offended by Brooks Koepka’s comments on their non-rivalry last week.)

But the quality of golf by the four big names wasn’t enough to carry our interest through the middle of the night. Perhaps it was the lack of big-time stakes for these guys (McIlroy won $23 million last season, which included his $15 million from the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title) or the lackluster golf, particularly those first few holes. 

Whatever the case, the appeal of watching the skins game in Japan was entirely about Tiger and particularly this being our first look at him swinging a club since his latest knee surgery two months ago. On that front, it appears he’s not as good as he wants to be, but that’s no surprise to anyone. It is October after all.

Usually we forego actual drama for an inflated purse....  here we skipped all of the above for large appearance fees, and we know how exciting those can be....

I don't know this gent, but I'm thinking he nailed it:

More like a 7:00 a.m. tee time, but still...

Yesterday I was wondering about the absence of a Tour Confidential panel, which was delayed 24 hours presumably in the hopes that they'd have something on which to opine...  Funny thing is they don't do that when a Tour event spills over into a Monday finish.  But the ink-stained wretches used their extra day to good effect:

1. While the majority of the U.S. was either sleeping or getting ready to call it a night, the much-hyped Japan Skins featuring Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama aired on Golf Channel beginning at 11 p.m. ET. (If you missed any of the action you can catch up here.) So what did you think? Did the event live up to the hype? What highlights/lowlights stuck out? 

Sean Zak: It was going to be difficult to live up to the hype, but I was genuinely entertained. This was much better than The Match, and probably always was going to be. The course was a highlight as we watched elite pros play shots for the first time. Tiger was a lowlight on the first four holes (rust, perhaps) and then started flagging it. Rory wilted after putting on a ball-striking display, and Day’s putter reigned supreme. The only lowlight was the man unmentioned thus far. Hideki really never got it going.

But that guy that didn't get it going was the most important of the four?  Or at least second after Tiger, no?  And "better than The Match" seems like faint praise for sure. 

Luke Kerr-Dineen: Unlike intrepid golf journalist Sean Zak, I did not stay up to watch this. I was fast asleep. The highlights and delightful Drop Zone podcast about it were fun to wake up to, though, and it certainly seems this is a more promising format than The

Match. Did it live up to the hype? It’s hard for us to say, because this event wasn’t for us. You don’t broadcast a live event through the night if you want to penetrate the U.S. market. This was an international play aimed at Asia specifically, and from that perspective, it seems quite successful.

Dylan Dethier: I think it fell short of the hype but still exceeded expectations, if that makes sense (if it doesn’t, that’s because I’ve been awake for far too long). The skins game started slow, but once the players eased into the format they hit plenty of great shots and got into some compelling moments, too (not just canned “needling”). It can be easy in promos to make it seem like a skins game is a heavyweight bout when it’s really just a slightly more fun version of golf. 

Michael Bamberger: It looked like a practice round on a course that would never be the site for a PGA Tour event, here in the lower 48. I should say I fell asleep before the gents reached the fourth green. It was just guys playing golf and spreading good cheer. They weren’t raising money for war bonds, but it was still a good time and at times a good cause. What’s not to like? 

Alan Shipnuck: I didn’t make it to the back nine. The golf was sloppy, the course uninspired, the banter forced and cheesy, the money laughably small. But other than that…

Mrs. Lincoln was unavailable for comment...  I'm thinking that Josh nails it:

Josh Sens: Well, that was one weird show. The production itself was almost local cable 

Tiger to Jason: "Can you believe they're paying us for this?"

access quality — you could hear the players talking and then you couldn’t; the shot tracer worked and then it didn’t; the images glitched and jumped then steadied. It was like the Skins game version of Between Two Ferns. In that way it was almost endearingly bad. I kind of liked how unslick it was. Full disclosure: I nodded off after the first nine. In that time the golf itself was a long way from spectacular and the conversations the mics did pick up were a long way from interesting. But there were some high points, including a goofy moment where each guy got paired with a rugby legend and they played a two-man scramble. The rugby players themselves seemed genuinely thrilled to be there and there was a funny scene when Matsuyama drained a long putt and his hulking partner jumped into his arms in celebration. Matsuyama caught him and it looked like he might slip a disc. Bottom line: It was strange and pretty awful but it also sort of worked.

I went back and check the promos, and it turns out that "Endearingly Bad" is, in fact, what they were going for....

 They waited 24 hours, so why not a second question:

2. Was the four-player format more compelling than the mano-a-mano model we watched with Tiger vs. Phil last November? 

Zak: Undoubtedly. I think the PGA Tour, which proudly counts its depth as an asset, needs to do this every 10 months with a cycling cast, and in a new, exotic location. Perhaps South Africa could be next? I would sign up for a quartet of Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm. I know that wouldn’t sell quite as well without McIlroy or the Big Cat, but there seems to be a very deep group that would compel me to watch. 

Kerr-Dineen: There’s something so thrilling about a me vs. you, mano-a-mano match up. It’s a simple concept which makes it easy to hype up. It’s why we boxing tends to transcend into the national consciousness around its biggest fights. But sadly, I just can’t see it working for golf. The possibility is too high that one of the two players simply won’t show up on the day. A skins match is something golfers know and play themselves, and it’s probably the best option for events like these in the future. 

Dethier: Yeah, this was better. I wasn’t particularly swayed by the piles of cash awaiting Phil and Tiger, and having more players to provide compelling moments (and to avoid only two people interacting) was much less awkward. In golf, two is generally too few. 

Bamberger: Four did make it seem like a home game. Two is the best when the stakes are really high–Ryder Cup, U.S. Am, club championship. But if it’s just two rich guys playing to become richer yet, it leaves one cold and having four makes it more about the camaraderie. 

Shipnuck: This should be proof that meaningless exhibition golf doesn’t work no matter how many players are involved. 

Sens: It was much better but that’s a low standard. A static snowstorm on your TV screen would have been more interesting than that Phil/Tiger charade.

Shippy nails it, as these things have never worked.  Even the old Shell World of Golf matches were dreadfully bad, interesting only for their choice of interesting venues and awkward announcing.

That's why I'm pretty skeptical of the grandiose plans for streaming services and artificial matches such as these.  I know everyone has plans to make a fortune, I just don't get who they think will be watching....   In all the commentary, I've heard nary a word on the Japanese ratings for the broadcast.  It was, after all, for them....

ZoZo Doings - Standards have been lowered for the Skins Game, why not for this event as well:

PGA Tour's stop in Japan reaching blockbuster status

Show me one damn block that's been busted....

What’s not to like? 

Officials at the headquarters of the PGA Tour could not have envisioned the blockbuster status this week’s inaugural Zozo Championship at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan – the first official Tour event in the Land of the Rising Sun – would achieve so quickly. 

Nabbing Tiger Woods alone would have earned a call for champagne. 

But the game’s biggest star isn’t the only headliner. 

On Monday, the tournament launched with The Challenge: Japan Skins, which pitted Woods, the winner of 15 majors and the latest Masters, against world No. 2 and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, 2015 PGA champion Jason Day and Japan’s biggest star, Hideki Matsuyama, in an 18-hole Skins game for $350,000. 

All four are in the Zozo field and will be joined by major champions and past FedEx Cup champions Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, reigning U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, reigning British Open champion Shane Lowry and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott.

If you say so...  But the question that remains unanswered is how many of these folks will return next year with no Prez Cup inducement?  

This is also getting excessive coverage:

Tiger Woods tests eye-catching new TaylorMade putter at Japan Skins

Yes, this putter did very much catch my eye:

What?  Oh, I guess he didn't use that putter, but rather this one:

But he went back to his trusty Scottie for the main event....So, much ado about nada.

Back to our trusty TC panel for their take on what to expect from the Striped One this week:

3. Speaking of Tiger, he’s in the field for this week’s Zozo Championship, his first start since the BMW Championship and an arthroscopic procedure to repair minor cartilage damage in his left knee at the end of August. What should we expect from Tiger, and how much do you think his play this week will influence his decision to make himself a playing captain at the Presidents Cup? 

Shipnuck: Expectations are low but the stakes are high – this is Tiger’s audition for himself and would-be teammates to see if he’s ready for the Prez Cup. It’s okay if he’s rusty with the scoring clubs but he needs to look relatively spry and have some speed. Tiger’s old-man creakiness helped torpedo the last U.S. Ryder Cup team; we don’t need a sequel at Royal Melbourne. 

Bamberger: This is the week that can break the 2019 Presidents Cup. If Tiger plays really poorly, he can’t defend picking himself. And it’s a much better event if he’s the playing captain. He hasn’t played well after long layoffs all year. But he rises to occasions as few others have, ever. I think he’ll play well enough. There’s only, what, 78 in the field, and no cut? He’ll beat 50 guys anyway. 

Dethier: One subplot from Monday’s skins game is that this course can stand up to some seriously good players. Jason Day was hitting a 3-wood into a par 4! If Woods can string together four reasonably good rounds (and I expect him to) he’ll cement playing-captain status. 

Sens: I expect a “getting-in-his-reps” kind of performance — solid if unspectacular by Tiger standards. But I don’t think that makes or breaks the Presidents Cup. What comes close to breaking it — or at least pushing it further toward irrelevance — is another American rout. An International win would be a very good thing for this event. 

Zak: Based on how shaky he was to start the Skins, I’d expect some more rust. I don’t think he finishes in the top 20 this week. He’s competing against a lot of folks who have been playing on Tour the last few weeks. That’s worth something.

Kerr-Dineen: Expect what we usually see from Tiger upon his return: Rust, discomfort, and a finish underwhelming. In his post-peak years, Tiger’s form really does seem dependent on getting enough prerequisite tournament ‘reps.’

No clue, but the good news is we'll have his opening round to dissect on Thursday morning....How about we agree to overreact then?

Tiger, The Book -  Mike Bamberger is one of my faves in golf press corp, an interesting mixture of stubborn traditionalist and new age mystic.  But all in on Tiger, with a mile-wide blind spot methinks:

A caveat, painful though it is to type. Many, if not most, of my predictions about Tiger

Woods, over the last 24 years, have been when wrong. And yet: I believe Tiger Woods announced his retirement this week. It’s in the subtext of a press release about a book he is writing. 

There was no announced publication date for the book. If the publisher, HarperOne, had one, it would have been trumpeted. The guess here is the book will be excellent, and that it will come out on the last Tuesday in April in 2022, after the Masters and before the PGA Championship, when Woods will be 46. Jack Nicklaus was 46 when he won the 1986 Masters, his 20th and final major, professional and amateur titles combined. 

You can imagine Woods using the occasion of the book’s release to announce, with a sly nod to Nicklaus and one of his best phrases, that henceforth he will be a “ceremonial golfer.” At a minimum, he’ll have 18 majors himself then, professional and amateur combined. His professional career, the guts of it, will be a nice, neat quarter century.

At a minimum?  Care to specify which majors you see him bagging?  Because at the present I see 18 surgeries as the more likely achievement than 18 majors... 

The book, coupled with his new status as a ceremonial golfer, will pave the way for the rest of Woods’s public life, as course architect, team captain and assistant captain and advisor, golfing elder statesman, philanthropist and restaurant owner, all while enjoying the freedom that comes from being unchained from the secrets of one’s past. You can expect Woods to explore his complex feelings for fame, wealth, the game that made him and nearly broke him and made him again, his management team, Augusta National, other players, his caddies, his own body, his drug and alcohol use and the media spying that turned his private life inside out in 2009 and 2010. 

“This book is my definitive story,” Woods said in the press release. He is now under obligation to make those words true.

Mike, have you considered the possibility that Tiger doesn't do complex feelings?  or at least share them....

Anyway, Mike hopes that this book lives up to Andre Agassi's, though his reasoning seems a tad.... well, that word "naive" keeps rattling around in my brain:

Retirement was a pathway to candor for Agassi and looming semi-retirement may loosen Woods in a similar way, or so his publisher might bet and the reading public might hope.

Woods would not be bothering to write a book if this were a quick cash grab. The 1997 Masters: My Story, despite some interesting passages, lacked depth, breadth, candor and passion, at least for this reader. It did not sell well and had no cultural impact, not in golf and certainly not beyond. 

There would be no point in Woods going down that road again, and no publisher would pay him a serious amount of money to write such a book. The book about the 1997 Masters was written in a difficult period in Woods’s life, with his back often out and his future in the game impossible to predict. Of course, Tiger is often impossible to predict.

So, the guy that cashed a big check to phone in his prior book wouldn't do that again, because "there would be no point."   I guess Mike has never heard that that which gets rewarded, gets repeated.

The Tour Confidentialistas got a crack at this one as well:

6. Tiger Woods announced he’s working on the release of his memoir, Back, which he says will be his definitive story. “There have been books and articles and TV shows about me, most filled with errors, speculative and wrong,” Woods said in a release. If you were Tiger’s ghostwriter, which part of his career/life would you most encourage him to open up about? 

Bamberger: What he’s learned. As a player, as a father, as a husband, as a boss, as a son, as someone with addiction issues, as someone who has tried to find a place in the world. If he can somehow share with us what he has learned, and we can figure out a way to apply it to our own lives, the value of it all is incalculable. He’s led a remarkable life. There’s so much for him to take pride in, and so much for him to be bitter about (tabloid spying, for starters). I hope he can go deep, take off all the chains, and write a book for the ages. 

Sens: If he can strip away the press conference politeness and other sponsor-friendly speak, it would be interesting to hear him go deep on almost anything, because there’s always been the feeling that he’s held back on almost everything. Any resentment toward his dad for hoisting that “he’s-gonna-change-the-world” expectation on him? What was he thinking/feeling when Billy Payne lectured him about his personal life — and the broader context of that lecture? Tiger has willfully avoided wading into those areas in particular. Let’s hear the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. 

Shipnuck: I just hope he’s raw and real. Otherwise, what’s the point? 

Dethier: Yeah, some true self-reflection would go a long way here. One example: We’ve heard him talk generally about the rough times, but I wonder: When he allegedly thought he was done with golf forever, what was he thinking of doing?

Zak: I’d be fascinated to hear Woods discuss his thoughts on race and culture and his place in it all. Do I think I could guess the bland answer? Yes. But he cares about certain things — his foundation will tell you that — and not so much about others. I would like to hear him go deep on what he aligns with, and perhaps what he doesn’t. And to have him explain Cablinasian in modern, more sophisticated terms.

Kerr-Dineen: His formative years — those countless hours on the range in his youth that forged his identity and made Tiger, Tiger. The pressure, the expectation, the fear of failing in front of the world, the love of the game, the race-based scrutiny amid it all. It was in those years that all the faults and triumphs in his character were seeded, and when he was first plopped into the media fishbowl. Everything since then is merely a result of it.

All good stuff, but all of the wishful thinking variety.  As for Dylan, he's young so perhaps the short memory is excusable.  But Tiger has previously given us the answer when, during a previous hiatus, he spent his days playing Call of Duty....It could be that he's just not all that interesting except, you know, for being the best golfer we've ever seen.

Frisco Kids - Picture yourself as a struggling assistant golf professional at Goat Hills Muni (apologies to the late Mr. Jenkins), dutifully sending your dues checks into the PGA of America, the organization charged with protecting your interests amid the shifting sands of the golf world.

Today you walk to the curb to grab the local paper, and are treated to this story of use of those dues:

PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh and PGA of America Chief Operating Officer Darrell 

The future home of American golf.

Crall both call it “the future home of American golf.” 

Frisco mayor Jeff Cheney prefers to go with “the Silicon Valley of golf.” 

No matter which buzzy term you decide to adopt, the landscape of golf in the DFW area (and beyond) is going to change when construction of PGA Frisco completes in June 2022, which organizers say is still on track to happen.

Members of the media got their first look at the courses, which began light construction about three months ago, on Friday. Here are four key things you should know about the courses and the project.

 The first will come as quite the shock:

It’s huge

If you're an area golf fan, you’ve probably taken many trips to the TPC Four Seasons and Trinity Forest Golf Club -- the past and current homes of the AT&T Byron Nelson. For reference, the entire Four Seasons resort sits on a 400 acre plot of land. Trinity Forest is on a plot a little more than 200 acres. 

As for PGA Frisco? The entire project will sit on an 660 acre plot of land that was part of a larger 2,500 acre plot that belonged to the Estate of Bert Fields Jr.. That means it’s larger than both the TPC Four Seasons and Trinity Forest.

The golf portion includes two 18-hole championship courses -- the East Course and the West Course -- as well as a short course and practice areas. Organizers expect the new PGA of America headquarters to become the home of national player development and coaching programs. 

In total, the city of Frisco expects more than $2.5 billion in economic development over the next two decades, according to an economic impact study it commissioned.

Shockingly, they still haven't gotten to the benefits to that assistant professional above, though he's no doubt he'll be relieved to know that the Senior PGA Championship has a home in 2029.

This is why the term "Edifice Complex" was created.

Amateurism Today - Gary Van Sickle contemplates the effect of California's new Fair Play to Pay Act, though the hyperbole takes over the proceedings:

Feel that? The earthquake that California started is still rumbling. The world of NCAA athletics is still tumbling, and it’s not going to settle down any time soon. New York,

Pennsylvania and Florida are among states already considering similar laws. 

It is obvious that college sports and the NCAA will dramatically change in ways we can’t imagine if this revolution continues. This is why some NCAA officials and big-program athletic directors are whining and crying like little babies. Their gravy train has reached the end of the line. Their money machine is in jeopardy. 

In its long, money-grubbing history, the NCAA has done next to nothing to help student-athletes. So, I don’t feel bad for those pompous hypocrites. Maybe you see this new law differently. And maybe you booed when Luke Skywalker blew up the Empire’s Death Star, too. 

I don’t know what the NCAA’s next version will look like, but I know that fallout from the Fair Pay To Play Act, if it goes national, will give golf a bigger facelift than anything Kris Jenner has had … so far.

Some good zingers, but he hasn't exactly helped us understand how this might evolve and affect amateur golf.  Lost in the shuffle, it seems to me, is that the only value of any note to be found is in two other sports, and golf will be a mere sideshow.  Also missing from Mike's analysis is the extent to which the rules governing amateur golf have been compromised the last few years.  Not only have the kids beeen getting gear and apparel free for years, but Tony Romo and Lucy Li have made a mockery of the USGA's stewardship of amateur golf.

In fact, add this name to the list:

The Forecaddie noticed long ago that Steph Curry has been a Callaway fanboy, right down to his Warrior-themed wedges and visits to the company’s Ely Callaway

Performance Center. That makes news of an official partnership with the Carlsbad-based company a minor surprise. Nor is there much suspense in Curry’s real motivation for the endorsement arrangement: support for his various efforts to make golf more accessible for the underprivileged. 

The partnership includes Callaway support of Howard University’s launch of D1 men’s and women’s golf programs on top of Curry’s pledge to fund the university’s men’s and women’s programs for the next six years. The Callaway partnership will include co-produced content on top of his many efforts, including the new ABC mini-golf show “Holey Moley” and other Curry-endorsed efforts. 

“I am beyond excited for the opportunity to work with Callaway Golf,” Curry said. “Their ability to think outside the box on how we can collectively grow the game of golf is second to none.”

And yet, after his name comes that "a" signifying amateur status....

I'm not bent out of shape over the California statute, at least from a golf perspective.  The NCAA spoils system has long been begging for a renegotiation, but the benefit to golf is that there's no real value in the game at that level.

I am, however, concerned that we've lost our way in considering that status of the amateur in our game, and have allowed it to be compromised without any consideration of how it should evolve.  We also see it manipulated by those at the top of the food chain, which has me concerned.  I am unclear as to how we should manage the Romos and Currys, though I'm pretty sure the Lucy Lis of the world shouldn't be doing Apple commercials.

See you Thursday.

Weekend Wrap

The Silly Season seems to have gotten a bit sillier overnight....

While You Were Sleeping - This guy seems to be on Tiger's payroll:

If you were expecting the excitement of Sunday at the Masters, that would have been silly of you, because that's not what MGM Resorts The Challenge: Japan Skins was

going for. Instead, the made-for-TV event's goal was to entertain, and it did just that, even if it took its time in doing so. 

Eventually, Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama settled in, and those who settled in to watch on their couches well past midnight on the East Coast were treated to a fun, laid-back affair.

The boys were slow in getting started over the opening few holes as they felt out the course and the format. Jason Day struck first with a birdie at the par-3 third hole, winning three skins and $30,000.

Laid back, huh?  Let me check the promotional materials and see if that's what they were going for...

This ESPN account seems less burdened by the need for access:

While you were sleeping, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama played in a made-for-TV skins game. If we're being honest, you didn't miss much while you got some rest before the work week began. 

The golf wasn't great at The Challenge: Japan Skins. The banter was, occasionally, entertaining. Still, there were no can-you-believe-he-just-said-that moments -- unless we count the four-letter words that snuck into the broadcast. By the way, they weren't all from Tiger.

At least there couldn't have been any kids watching... at least no American kids.  I got through this account of play on the first hole feeling the need for a nap:

No. 1 

So it wasn't the prettiest start. None of the four players hit the fairway off the tee. OK, it'll get better from there, right? Well, three of them missed the green, with only Jason Day giving himself a birdie chance. But Day lipped out his 5-footer. 

Result: No skins. 

Totals

Woods $0

McIlroy $0

Day $0

Matsuyama $0

Good times.  Back to that first account for this bit of excitement on tap:

Rugby players spice things up 

After six quiet holes, four rugby players in Japan for the Rugby World Cup added their own brand of excitement. Mike Tindall of England, George Gregan of Australia, Bryan Habana of South Africa and Brian O'Driscoll of Ireland were part of the second "charity challenge," which paired them each with one of the pros. The hole ended in a tie, but it was an electric tie at that. Matsuyama made the first birdie from way downtown, causing his partner, Habana, to jump into his arms/scare the hell out of him. Moments later, O'Driscoll buried his birdie putt for the halve.

What is this halve of which he speaks?  Oh, a tie?  Please consult your Newspeak Dictionary and limit yourself to the authorized vernacular:

They also did a one-club challenge for one hole, which was kinda cool....  But it otherwise strikes me as a desultory affair.  No word as to whether that "occasionally entertaining" banter including comparisons of their appearance fees, but the $350,000 officially being contested is shockingly paltry, less than that played for in the original 1993 version.

Mike Bamberger tells us that the event is all about GolfTV for Tiger:

Tonight’s event, for Woods, really is about GOLFTV. His contract with GOLFTV looms

large in his life. Woods has done only one interview about winning his fifth green coat win since leaving Augusta National on Masters Sunday, and that interview was a GOLFTV production. The interview was conducted by Henni Zuel and it lasted 28 minutes, but Woods likely got credit for an even half-hour. It’s an excellent interview, by the way, but too short. 

Woods will surely have more to say about that Masters win in his memoir, Back. No publication date has been announced. In the interest of synergy, GOLFTV could film Woods while he is writing his book. That could be interesting.

It's always a bit disconcerting when Mike, often the conscience of our game, plays PR hack for Tiger ans the Tour, but he seems to find this far more interesting than he ought to.

But it's not just Mike, as Alex Myers had this on offer as a preview of the event:

Ranking all 23 previous times Tiger Woods has played in a made-for-TV golf event

Those that don't know history, are doomed to watch a lot of really boring golf....  Wasn't that Santayana's point?  These things died and went away because the golf could never live up to the hype.   Let's start at the bottom of Alex's list:

23. 2001 Skins Game: Incredibly, Woods played in six Skins Games (1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005) and never won. But 2001 was the only time he got shut out in the

former Thanksgiving weekend special. Not that he was alone that year as Greg Norman swept the entire $1 million purse against Tiger, Colin Montgomerie and Jesper Parnevik. You might remember this was the year you had to “validate” your skin. Don’t worry, that will NOT be the case in Japan this week. 

22. 1996 Skins Game: Woods’ first Skins Game appearance yielded a slightly better return (two skins for $40,000), but won’t exactly be remembered in the same way as his “Hello, world” announcement a few months prior.

Yeah, that validating skins didn't work out too well, but the disaster I remember best was this one:

9. “Battle at Bighorn” (2001): Monday Night Golf went with a mixed doubles foursomes format as Tiger and Sorenstam defeated David Duval and Karrie Webb on the first playoff hole. We’d put this higher, but it was Sorenstam and not Tiger who made a 10-foot birdie putt on final hole of regulation to keep the match going.

A Top Ten for this Turkey?  My, you do have some really low standards...

Anyone remember the last Skins Game?  The franchise died in 2008 when the field included Phil, Rocco Mediate, Stephen Ames and K.J. Choi.  In other words, a mercy killing....

Meanwhile, Back At Nine Bridges... -  A funny week... Not only is there no Tour Confidential panel, but the Skins has pushed this result into oblivion:

Justin Thomas won the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges on Sunday, continuing a streak of quality golf resembling how he played in rising to No. 1 in the World Ranking for four weeks in 2018. 

Thomas, 26, shot a five-under-par 67 in the final round at the Nine Bridges course on

Jeju Island, South Korea, to win by two over Danny Lee of New Zealand. He completed 72 holes in 20-under-par 268, two ahead of runner-up Danny Lee of New Zealand. Lee, who was chasing his second PGA Tour victory, shot a three-under-par 69. 

The two entered the final round tied for the lead and were still tied until Thomas holed a 10-foot birdie putt at the 14th hole and Lee bogeyed the 15th and 16th holes. 

"I felt like this course provides a lot of opportunities for two-shot swings, so I kept trying to hit fairways and greens and give myself a lot of birdie chances," Thomas said. "And he just kept getting up and down from everywhere. It was hard to kind of keep my composure and stay patient, but I knew that I was playing great golf and it felt like if I kept doing that, then at least I was going to have a great chance on the last couple holes." 

The victory was Thomas’ 11th in this his sixth season on the PGA Tour. It also was his second win in his last four starts, his first coming in the BMW Championship in August.

He seems back on form after a year lost to nagging injuries.  There were a few items of marginal interest from the week, most notably this of Phil nearly jarring his tee ball on a Par-4, though the best bit is Vaughn Taylor's reaction shot.  Phil's near-miss led to this remembrance of the first albatross ever on a Par-4:

If you're going to recount the history, you'd think you'd recount the interesting bits, no?  Magee's ace was most notable for the lucky bounce it took off Tom Byrum's putter....

Also, this guy didn't make it through the week:

World No. 1 Brooks Koepka has withdrawn from the CJ Cup. 

Koepka released a statement in which he says that he slipped and aggravated an injury on his left knee. 

The full statement, released on the PGA Tour’s twitter account, reads: 

“During the course of Friday’s round, I slipped on wet concrete aggravating a previous injury to my left knee. After consulting with my doctor, I have been advised to withdraw from the CJ Cup and head home for further tests. I appreciate everyone’s concerns and support. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.”

Notably only because that's the knee into which he had stem cells injected a few weeks back.

Brooks was in the news a bit last week about those Rory comments, as Brandel accused him of high crimes and misdemeanors:

For one thing, Koepka-McIlroy is undeniably a rivalry, Chamblee pointed out. 

“I mean, this is adding fuel to a rivalry that definitely exists,” he said. “Look, they’re the

No. 1 and 2 player in the world, they each have four major championships, the last two times that they’ve gone head-to-head, each has gotten the better of the other.” 

Those last two times came at the WGC-Memphis, when Koepka dusted McIlroy in the final round, and at the Tour Championship, where McIlroy returned the favor en route to claiming the $15 million season finale prize. 

“In general, I just thought it was disrespectful,” Chamblee added. “When you start to look at great players who have rivalries — take Tom Brady talking about a rivalry with Peyton Manning — you can go back and find the quotes, many of them, and they’re fabulous quotes about how Peyton Manning would bring the best out of him and if he didn’t play well he would lose to a Peyton Manning-led team.”

But Brooks is noting an inconvenient truth, to wit, that when he won his four majors that Rory guy wasn't in evidence.  And support for Brooks' position comes from an unlikely source:

“I felt like … I think it’s hard,” McIlroy said. “We’ve all had it where we get asked in press conferences about other players. I’ve had it where it’s like, why are these guys

asking me about someone else, are we not supposed to be here to be talking about me? And like, what Brooks said wasn’t wrong. He’s been the best player in the world the last couple of years, four majors.” 

McIlroy was (unsurprisingly) less excited about the no-major shade thrown his way. 

“I don’t think he had to remind me that I hadn’t won one in a while,” he added with a smile. “But I love Brooks, he’s a great guy and obviously super competitive like we all are. I guess I can see where he’s coming from; we’re out here, we can’t control anyone else, we just have to play our own golf. And look, I said a couple things after the Tour Championship that I approached that final round like a rivalry because he got one over on me in Memphis and I sorta wanted to get him back.”

Rory's a big boy... I think he'll be OK.

Before we move on from the Brooks v. Rory cage match, Eamon Lynch has an interesting though ultimately skewed reaction:

It can‘t often be said that a sport enjoyed a good week when it included offhand arrogance from its top-ranked star and a drug suspension, but this was a solid seven days for the PGA Tour. The joint efforts of Brooks Koepka and Matt Every helped sweep cobwebs from the dated image of its pros as wholesome clones who are unfailingly deferential to their peers. 

Boastfulness isn’t much embraced in professional golf. A sport that prides itself on being a gentleman’s game is predisposed to treat bombast as vulgarity. Through that muted lens, Walter Hagen was viewed as more carnival barker than confident champion. Greg Norman held his ego largely in check until he moved wholly into business, at which point it was a brand asset. Even at his peak, Tiger Woods lets his clubs speak for him, though that didn’t stop the sniping about his aloofness and fist-pumping being unbecoming. 

Golf has long lionized stars who conduct themselves as though inhabited by the ghost of Byron Nelson: courteous throwbacks to a time when sportsmen were free of profanity, scandal and indictments. Blandness over bluster. Against that colorless standard, Braggadocious Brooks stands out for reasons that are obvious. 

We'll get to Matt Every below, but I think Eamon misses how that nature of our game affects behavior.  The best players win so infrequently that it discourages excessive braggadocio.  But I view Brooks' comments as a mild gibe, and Rory 

This one last bit on some inconclusive evidence:

Weekends owned Jordan Spieth in the 2018-’19 season, the least productive of his career, 

and whether he can again effectively navigate them is the key to his bid for returning to prominence. 

Spieth ranked 170th in third-round scoring and 187th in fourth-round scoring on the PGA Tour last season, offsetting his finishing ninth and first in first and second-round scoring. 

It is too early to tell whether he has found a remedy, but in his first start of the new season, he hinted at better weekend days ahead. Spieth bettered par in both weekend rounds, shooting 70 and 71, to tie for eighth in the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges.

Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations...  When the winning score is -20, merely beating par isn't much to speak of.

 Is that enough to garner a Tiger pick for the Prez Cup?  I wouldn't think so, but we'll know more when we see how Tiger himself plays at the ZoZo.

Lastly, I'm just not sure how serious to take this streak:

It had to end sometime. Viktor Hovland couldn’t keep posting scores in the 60s on the PGA Tour, treating his nascent professional golf career like he was on an extended run playing Golden Tee. 

And so on Saturday at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges, the 22-year-old from Norway did the inevitable. Hovland shot a two-over 74, including a double-bogey 7 on the 18th hole, that ended his streak of consecutive rounds in the 60s on tour at 19, two longer than Bob Estes’ previous record set in 2001. 

Hovland had an up-and-down front nine in the third round at the Club at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island in South Korea, making three birdies and two bogeys over a six-hole stretch. Still, he turned in one under par to give himself a good chance at another sub-70 score. But bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes changed things for the worse. A birdie on the 14th hole gave him a chance if he could birdie three more of the final four holes, yet it was too tall a task.

He's obviously a strong, young player, though it also seems to be a run of really easy golf courses this time of year.  

Pot, Kettle -  Did you guys catch the Matt Every suspension?  It seems we're in a legal quagmire on the subject of cannabis, though first this from Shack:

First question:  Has the Tour changed its policy and is now announcing suspensions?  I know they avoid mentioning pot, but this is big if true.  Or, if not big, at least a step in the right direction.  At least we seem to be no longer making up fiction jet-ski accidents, so we've got that going for us.

But Every's reaction was more defiant than contrite:

Every, however, said in a statement to Golf Channel, “I tested positive for cannabis, a drug I do not abuse and a drug I have a legal prescription for in the state of Florida. I

have been prescribed cannabis for a mental health condition by my physician whom has managed my medical care for 30 years. It has been determined that I am neither an acceptable candidate to use prescription “Z” class drugs nor benzodiazepines. Additionally, these classes of drugs can be highly addictive and harmful to the human body. For me, cannabis has proven to be, by far, the safest and most effective treatment.

“With that being said, I have no choice but to accept this suspension and move on. I knew what WADA’s [World Anti-Doping Agency] policy was and I violated it. I don’t agree with it for many reasons, mainly for my overall well-being, but I’m excited for what lies ahead in my life and career. Over the last few years I have made massive strides and I know my best is still in front of me. I can’t wait to come back better than ever in January.” 

Every, 35, has been suspended before by the tour following his 2010 arrest in Bettendorf, Iowa, for possession of marijuana.

There's a lot going on here, including a few important aspects about which I'm unclear.   It's my belief that there is no reason for the Tour to be testing for cannabis, as I can't think of a drug less likely to enhance performance.  This argument is supported by the legalization efforts, as apparently Every's use was legal (though, of course, that prior use in Germany was not).  Weer the product still illegal, the Tour would have a logical reason to discipline players for that illegal activity and the risk of the association with the criminal element.

At this point the Tour is locked into the WADA testing protocols, though Shack has an interesting reveal:

While he says the doctor who has treated him since age five could not provide any other alternative remedy for his issues, Every has never suggested he filed for, and was denied, a Therapeutic Use Exemption. Nor has the PGA Tour deviated from WADA with regard to marijuana, as they have in a few other areas.

I wasn't aware that the Tor had the ability to deviate from the WADA requirements?   This, if true, might afford a way forward...

But then Shack tackles that tougher issue of whether the substance is, in fact, performance enhancing:

Which brings us back to the core issue: is marijuana potentially performance enhancing? 

I have no idea but given that Matt Every stuck with it after one suspension and never suggested he ever applied for its use medicinally, it was not performance unenhancing.

Whether pot usage is enough to alter outcomes is another story. But in the grander scheme, as its usage is legalized in more places and a younger generation sees it as harmless, golf and WADA may need to study its impact on performance. I don’t need a case made but there may be a surprising number of fans who struggle to understand what the big deal is all about.

So…simple question based on your views of the game and what you know about cannibas…

That seems to me quite the bizarre argument, so let's unpack it.  If Matt suffered from a purely physical ailment, high blood pressure or the like, the medicine that treated said condition wouldn't be considered performance enhancing, would it?  

I get that Every is treating an unspecified mental health issue, and that this is therefore more ambiguous.  I'll also add that we've long heard talk of the use of beta blockers in our game, and that I could see as performance enhancing for a golfer, especially one that's highly strung.  I think one can see the difficulty in where to draw the line, though I also think the burden of proof should be on those looking to ban a substance.

I suspect that pot was historically easy to include on the banned substance list, merely because of its illegality.  But now that society has evolved to make the substance legal, its incumbent on everyone from WADA to Ponte Vedra Beach to make the substantive case for why it should be proscribed.

Eamon Lynch had his won take on this matter as well:

Every also helped distance modern Tour pros from the unsustainable squeaky clean image that has been tenderly cultivated for decades. He received a 12-week suspension for using cannabis, for which he has a legal prescription in the state of Florida to treat a mental health condition. In accepting his suspension, Every was far from apologetic. He admitted violating the rules but not wrongdoing. 

Count me among those who believe recreational drug use that doesn’t improve performance is no one else’s business. But all players know the Tour policy is in line with stringent World Anti-Doping Agency protocols. That’s what Every signed up to.

Eamon is showing that he's just a wee bit out of touch with these crazy youngsters, if he thinks squeaky clean kids don't smoke weed.

This bit was also a bit weird:

This week was a gentle reminder of the pitfalls inherent in the PGA Tour’s old marketing line, “These Guys Are Good,” which implies there isn’t a jerk, blowhard, cheat or abuser among them. Most guys are good, to be fair, but the Tour’s reputation need not be symbiotic with those who play it. Hitching its image to the conduct of individual players risks the Tour being embarrassed with every minor transgression, and crucified when a major one invariably comes. In this light, the widely ridiculed “Live Under Par” slogan has been an improvement.

No, Eamon, not good like that.  Good at golf is what they meant... 

Late-Week Loghorrhea

They've just pushed back tomorrow's tee times at Fairview by an hour, presumably anticipating frost.  As I see it, that gives us another hour to blog....

Scenes From the CJ Cup - In that mailbag that we dissected yesterday, Alan Shipnuck had this question that I left on the cutting room floor:

Do you think Justin Thomas should be offended that he is not on the Nine Bridges ad on Golf Channel? The ad says that Phil/Speith are likely to stop Bruce’s repeat win! -@anjipate 

Of course not, but he probably is, and will likely shoot 30-under, win by 10 and then dunk all over the Golf Channel. It never fails to amaze me what bothers these guys. If I was young, immensely talented, generationally wealthy, and lucky enough to play golf every day on the world’s best courses, y’all could talk all the smack you want and I would be way too busy polishing my trophies/partying with models on my yacht to even notice.

I passed on it for multiple reasons, among which are the fact that I haven't seen the promo and I don't really care....  That said, Alan's call is looking pretty good through 36 holes:

Justin Thomas shot a 9-under 63 Friday to take a two-stroke lead at CJ Cup at Nine

Bridges, putting himself in position to win his second PGA Tour event in South Korea in three years. 

Thomas, who won the inaugural CJ Cup in 2017, had a two-round total of 13-under 131. 

South Korean-born New Zealander Danny Lee (66) was in a tie for second place with first-round leader and former U.S. Amateur champion Byeong Hun An, who shot 69.

Jordan Spieth (65) and Emilaino Grillo (66) were tied for fourth, four strokes behind.

Hey, if I'm the '62 Mets of fantasy golf Shippy, with his 2017 prediction of an era of U.S. Ryder Cup dominance, qualifies as the 2019 Orioles....

The focus is on Prez Cup wannabees, and you no doubt picke dup on Spith's name in that excerpt above.  Shane Ryan helpfully applies his handicapping acumen to Ernie's menu options, but first a reminder of his automatic qualifiers:

Automatic International team selections: Marc Leishman, Hideki Matsuyama, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott, Abraham Ancer, Li Haotong, Pan Cheng-tsung, Cameron Smith

Doesn't exactly blow one away, does it?  So, this guy will not shock:

Jason Day: 100 percent 

Day finished ninth in the final points standings, with the top eight becoming automatic picks. Considering the fact that the Cup will be played in his home country, Day joining the team is a lock. How do I know? Well, Els told us. “You might have a debate for one or two of the [potential captain’s picks] but I think there are two guys who are pretty obvious,” Els said. Day is the most obvious. As for the other?

C'mon, the suspense is killing me:

Sungjae Im: 99.99 percent 

The reigning PGA Tour rookie of the year was 11th in points during the qualifying period but has easily the most impressive résumé of those in need of Els’ generosity. And since finishing the 2018-’19 season at the Tour Championship, Im has finished second in a playoff at the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship and won the Genesis Championship in South Korea. I’m only docking Im .01 percentage points because he’s not Australian, but, again, Els has all but told us Im’s on the team. And in fact, there are no other South Korean players who qualified automatically, so his nationality gives him an extra boost, even if he didn’t really need it.

Yeah, that makes sense, though he's not a name that will have us setting the alarm clock.

The Q-factor heads in only one direction here, though this guy gets my nod:

Jazz Janewattananond: 43.5 percent 

This was absolutely the trickiest guy to handicap. Jazz (I hope you’ll forgive me for

sticking with the first name) finished 10th on the points list, just behind Day, and he’s put up a couple strong finishes in the past three weeks, with a T-4 and a solo fourth in Japan. The Thai native put himself on the “lets discuss” list with two Asian Tour wins and a 14th at the PGA Championship at Bethpage, and he’d give Els a golfer from Southeast Asia. He should have a chance here … so why do I feel like he doesn’t, and that this percentage is too high? Maybe it’s because Els hasn’t mentioned him extensively, and maybe it’s because he’s a rookie, and maybe it’s because he’d be on his own, language-wise. In any case, he deserves at least a coin-flip chance, but I have a feeling he’s not truly in consideration. That said, he’s in both the CJ Cup and the WGC-HSBC, so he has every chance to play his way on.

As for this guy, I don't think so:

Ernie Els: 0.01 percent 

In August, Els said he didn’t want to put himself “100 percent out,” and apparently Adam Scott kept telling him to consider himself for a pick. Els' appearances since then have been not good, and this is absolutely not going to happen, but I’m respecting the captain’s math.

The real issue here is how poorly guys like Day and Scott have played in this event over the years.  It has to change at some point, and I've got this hunch that the U.S. team might be ripe for a letdown.

A Deep Dive on Handicaps -  With a year under our belt, how are we feeling about the new rulebook?  I'm gonna go with mixed, which I think is grading on a curve.  Because even when changing something for the better, caddies lining up their play as a for instance, they really can't help cocking it up...  Just think about the penalties early in the Tour season, and the immediate rewrite necessary.... And don't get me started on their dumbing down of our vocabulary....

Why rant on that at the present moment?  Because the handicap system is about to change, and the same forces will be in play...  These folks simply can't help themselves.

Sean Zak has the tutorial, and let's start at the beginning:

The USGA and R&A have worked steadfastly to create a new world order … of handicaps. The result is a system that every golfer in the world can use at any course in the world. One that will allow you to compete equitably whether you’re playing a match in Dublin, Ohio, or Dublin, Ireland, Africa or Arkansas. The burning question for many golfers: Will my current index increase or decrease? It will, but not by much (look for it to go up or down a tick or two if keep your handicap in the U.S, maybe none at all.; look for it to rise slightly if you play in the British Isles). More important, the way you keep a handicap will be altered. Here’s everything you need to know with a little help from Steve Edmondson, the USGA’s managing director of handicapping and course rating. 

What is happening to my handicap? 

In short, it is getting better and global. For most folks who use the USGA Handicap System there will be little change. The current system computes your 10 best scores from your 20 most recent rounds. Under the new system only your top eight rounds will count toward your handicap, so if those 9th and 10th best rounds aren’t so hot, expect your index to improve. The 96% multiplier that existed in the old handicap system no longer exists, which should make calculating index changes in your head a bit easier for those quick with numbers. 

I thought there already was a world handicap system? 

Nope! There are actually six different systems in place around the world. Today, when American golfers want to post a score abroad, they might discover that that course may not have been rated via the USGA Course Rating System. Beginning next year all courses across the world — save for a few — will have the same grading system, dubbed “The Course Rating System.” This is a significant change that required raters to get out and assess roughly 3,000 courses around the world. No small job. Take a sprawling continent like Africa, for example. Raters there started in South Africa, Edmondson says, “and once they finished all their courses, they branched out to Angola, to Botswana, to Comoros, to DRC, Madagascar, Malawi.”

Ya got that?  You'll now be able to post that score from Madagascar, so we've got that going for us....  But the necessity of re-rating every golf course on the planet seems excessive, given the resources of many of these clubs and governing bodies.  As with a halve becoming a tie, they devote their efforts to solving marginal problems, while ignoring that actual threats to our game.

Now this bit is new to me, and seems unworthy of the effort (though strangely similar to a point I've long made):

What happens when I shoot 90 in good weather and 92 in bad weather? 

The latter might actually improve your index more that the former. Because of the new Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC), scores posted at the same course on the same day will help determine if the course played more difficult (or easier) than normal, due to conditions or setup. Handicap differentials from all abilities of players will work together to create this calculation, and your handicap could be impacted because of it. “You look at the field for all scores posted on that day, regardless of what tee they played,” 

Edmondson said. “We know from our player equations from what we’ve modeled in the Handicap Index what are the expected scores for every golfer. When you get so many golfers that are higher or lower — outside of that [score] funnel — you would have an adjustment. This course played one stroke harder [than normal]. This course played two strokes harder. This course played one stroke easier.” 

According to the USGA, this adjustment will not happen often, but it’s another reason why it’s important to post your score on the day you played. Scores posted retroactively will not contribute to the PCC, though they will be impacted by it. You’re helping the USGA (and golfers everywhere) by feeding more data into the system.

I've long said that the head professionals at links in the GB&I should a post a sign each morning to the effect that "Today's Handicap is X".  In a wee 10-mph wind a links might be a 72, but when the wind is in the mid-twenties it's an 80.

My question here is the value of the added complexity, especially since handicaps are most often used within the same ecosystem.  

But now let's get to the area in which I think this might flounder, though admittedly the current system was pretty bad:

What does this mean for Equitable Stroke Control? 

We’re impressed you know what ESC is! For those who don’t, a quick primer: At its core, handicapping is a hole-by-hole exercise, in which each hole has a maximum number of strokes one can make. The new guideline is Net Double Bogey. 

If a player with a course handicap of 15 is playing the hole rated 11th-most difficult, the worst score he or she can submit on that hole would be a double bogey plus 1 — i.e., if the 11th-most difficult hole is a par 3, a score of 6 on that hole would register as a net double bogey. 

Likewise, if a player with a course handicap of 15 is playing the 17th-most difficult hole, the worst score he or she could submit would simply be a double bogey, given the “net” aspect doesn’t apply on that 17th-toughest hole.

As the man said, don't double down on stupid.

The current system was far easier for the player to remember, unless you're a player that vacillates between a nine and a ten.   Because while the 0-9's can take double bogeys, the 10's can take a seven on any hole, regardless of par.  At the time the USGA offered all sorts of statistical analyses to support this oddity, completely ignoring human nature.  Even were they correct, and I remained stubbornly unconvinced, it quite obviously wasn't worth complicating things unnecessarily....  that's a lesson they've yet to learn:

Do you see the complication inherent?  The maximum score one can take varies with the handicap ranking of the hoe and its par...  There is little chance that this will be implemented correctly by the legions of recreational golfers, so good luck with the accuracy of your brave new world.

Another I hadn't heard of previously is the Bobby D. rule:

Any other major changes? 

There are new handiCAPS, as in “caps” on your index if you run into poor form. Get the shanks for a month? Sheesh. If you post six scores in the 100s when you’re normally an 80s-shooter, you will probably run into what is now called the “soft cap.” If your handicap decreases (gets worse) by three points in a 12-month span, further decreases will only be calculated at 50%. Heaven forbid those shanks continue, a “hard cap” is instituted when your index decreases by five in a 12-month span.

But they'll update immediately, so your handicap will be less accurate and more timely.... or something.

Got Those Ryder Cup Tix? - In which the PGA of America unnecessarily pisses off their target audience.  Here's how it went down:

The Ryder Cup is coming to Whistling Straits and Wisconsin next September. Some of you might be there, some of you might not, and perhaps many of you missed out on getting tickets on Wednesday morning. 

Last week fans who signed up for the ticket lottery started receiving emails saying they’d been selected, but that only meant they’d been selected for the “random selection process” and still had to wait in line on Wednesday morning when the ticketing window opened.

So, how does one add insult to injury?  

With an immediate push to purchase marked-up tickets:

The primary issues involve the lack of a lottery sensibility detected by fans and a landslide of unsuccessful outcomes due to a combination of technical problems. The situation appears to have been worsened by immediate offers to the unsuccessful buyers for purchase of wildly marked-up prices on the PGA of America’s exchange partner, PrimeSport, with Sunday prices already starting at at $427.50 per ticket.

That'll bring in those millennials and non-golfers.... Pathetic.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Off-Season - I had this off-season pegged at two weeks, so news that it will be halved comes as quite the shock:

With the Korn Ferry Tour’s release of its 2020 schedule, The Forecaddie was pleased to

see the addition of four new events, nearly $19 million in purses and even traditional season-opening events in the hurricane-ravaged Bahamas. 

Yet The Man Out Front could not get past the dates for the Korn Ferry Tour playoffs.

The season-ending stretch will compete head-to-head with the PGA Tour playoffs, right down to the final Sunday of Aug. 30. 

Which means while the FedEx Cup comes to a conclusion at East Lake, the Korn Ferry Tour’s always valiant battles to gain Tour cards will be playing out at Victoria National and once again presented by United Leasing but without the spotlight those finals enjoyed this year when finishing on Labor Day, a week clear of the 2019 Tour Championship. 

Why is the PGA Tour putting the Korn Ferry Tour against its Super Bowl?

The Forecaddie reached out to a PGA Tour official and learned the date was selected to give the Korn Ferry grads a much-needed week off before the 2020-21 PGA Tour schedule starts the week of Sept. 7.

Boy are they considerate....  Those KF grads have to play the early events, because many of them won't have a tee time when the schedule gets going going for real.  But I'm so old that I can remember when it was imprudent to have golf compete with the NFL.... 

A pox on them all....  Have a great weekend.