Friday, October 21, 2022

Late-Week Lamentations

I had anticipated an earlier arrival at the keyboard.  So, shall we cover just a few bits out there, though I'll promise no baseball talk.

Cue the Walkback in 3,2,1.... - Kids say the darndest things, but how should we feel when those assuming the mantle of reform in our game have the IQ of a mollusk.  Or at least no ability to think through the impact of their words.  Because, assume for the moment that you're responsible for committing $2 billion to Greg Norman....  Yeah, I know, but they didn't ask me before that commitment.  

You find yourself needing to be able to offer world ranking points to your overly-entitled players, yet you're shocked that those whose sinecures you're trying to annihilate haven't capitulated, but there's one silver lining, the fact that the organizations running the majors have previously established qualification protocols.  Shockingly, your gambit to gain those world ranking points through an alliance with a defunct tour didn't work, but who could have seen that coming.  Bellicosity alone has also seemingly proved fruitless, so clearly this is a situation calling for further threats, right? Like this one:

In a feature story this week in the New Yorker about the Saudi-backed circuit, Majed Al Sorour, CEO of the Golf Saudi, discussed how his league would respond should LIV golfers not be able to
compete in the majors. Without LIV events getting Official World Golf Ranking accreditation, players could fall in the rankings and lose an avenue to qualify. Potentially, too, the groups that run the majors could outright prohibit LIV players from competing, as has the PGA Tour. From the piece:

There was speculation that the Masters might ban LIV players. “For now, the majors are siding with the Tour, and I don’t know why,” Sorour said. “If the majors decide not to have our players play? I will celebrate. I will create my own majors for my players.” He went on, “Honestly, I think all the tours are being run by guys who don’t understand business.”

Hmmm, perhaps.  But the man who threw $200 million large at Phil seems to have his own issues understanding commercial economics, no?   Of course, he's going to cash out by selling these franchises, so clearly your humble blogger is unable to understand the complexity of their worldview.

I've said it before and I'll likely have to say it another hundred times, but these guys don't seem specially bright, do they?  The response of the Tour, the absence of a TV partner and the importance of world ranking points all seem to have taken Mr. Norman and his Saudi paymasters as quite the surprise.  Yet, aren't these the kinds of things that were all obvious and should ahve been planned for, yanno, before you bombed Pearl Harbor....

Anyway, they really respect everyone:

“I had a casual conversation with a New Yorker reporter at LIV’s Boston event a few weeks ago, during which I expressed my frustration at the unfortunate blackballing of LIV Golf players by the PGA Tour,” Sorour said in a statement. “When it comes to the majors, tournaments that stand alone and are independent of LIV, I have the utmost respect for the majors. The majors are about history, heritage, true competition and honor.

“The story wrongfully expressed and misrepresented my views. The majors are indeed the best platform where LIV golfers and other tour golfers can compete, despite the PGA Tour’s suspension of our players. As a LIV Golf board member and managing director, I am here to accomplish our LIV Golf investment chairman and the board’s strategic direction by building a team, growing the game and defending player rights. That is my only interest.’’

It's not just honor, it's the utmost honor....Seriously, maybe English isn't his first language, but when you say, "nice little major you have there.  Sure would be a shame is something happened to it", it's just an outrage that such a statement could be understood as conveying anything other than the utmost respect.

And did you catch that "casual conversation" bit?  I did not have an interview with that man.... Gee, where have we heard that, recently? And blackballing?  Interesting term, which translated into English means enforcing the rules of its organization, which apparently took the boncutters by surprise.  

Of course, it's easy to conjure up the nightmare scenarios:

Silly?  For sure, since I've been reliably informed that the Wahabis are all about history, heritage, true competition and honor.  And nothing quite shouts true competition  quite like having PReed as your poster child.

Fred Ridley and others would be foolish to believe that they don't mean what they say.  

Doug Ferguson tackled this subject in a piece that seems to argue for the LIvsters, but my interest lies elsewhere.  First, his arguemnt:

The PGA Tour had 12 of the top 50 players in the world ranking competing last week in Las Vegas. LIV Golf also had 12 of the top 50 in the world playing in Bangkok.

The difference, aside from LIV Golf providing triple the prize money, is that only one of those circuits received credit from the Official World Golf Ranking.

That needs to change. The question is how quickly.

Gee, Doug, wasn't there another difference that should be noted?   You've already rigged your thoughts by focusing on Vegas, a silly season event with one of the weaker fields, but they at least had a 144-player field.  Do the same analysis for this week's field at the CJ Cup.

I think the argument he's making is that there's a concentration of talent at LIV that shouldn't, in a perfect world, be excluded from the world rankings.  And it's a strong argument, but again one of those things you might have wanted to, yanno, think about before committing $2 billion.  He does at least hit on my due diligence failure angle:

These guys knew what they were getting when they signed up: money. If they thought world ranking points would come easily — or even quickly — that would be the same misguided thinking as Norman texting Sergio Garcia in February that the PGA Tour couldn’t ban players “for one day let alone life.”

PGA Tour suspensions, backed preliminarily by a federal court, are in their fourth month.

Ugh!   Those suspensions were in no way "backed" by a federal court, it just refused to offer injunctive relief.  But, yeah, Harold Varner III was correct, this is what they signed up for.

Norman isn’t doing himself any favors with a not-so-clever attempt to expedite the process by aligning with the Mena Tour (an acronym for Middle East and North Africa). The Mena Tour entered the OWGR family in 2016 as a developmental tour with 54-hole events. It’s so far down the ladder that its leading players now have access to the Asian Development Tour.

But nothing screams legitimacy more than hiding behind a defunct tour...

That much is true. There could be as few as six LIV Golf players left in the top 50 by the end of the year, and the number will shrink when it starts up its 14-event schedule in 2023. Still to be determined is if LIV Golf will adjust its format (perhaps by introducing a cut).

Even then, the new formula is not favorable to smaller fields. The PGA Tour not only has most of the top players, it has depth. LIV Golf players will still be at a disadvantage when it gets world ranking points.

The only thing that will grow at a rapid rate is their bank accounts.

From the strength of field measures I've seen, I'm far from sure that he's correct on this point, though I'd feel better if he were.  

So, why spend so much time with Doug?  he gets a good one in against one of our favorite targets:

However, it’s worth noting that since 1983 — when the PGA Tour was able to keep complete records — players who had at least a share of the 54-hole lead went on to win 39% of the time. The same percentage applies to majors.

Norman, of all people, would not be surprised by that.

Heh!  Good one, Doug, though you might have thrown in Greg's own record in that regard, especially his record in those pesky majors.... Of course, Greg will be running his own majors soon enough...

Musings - A certain Ulsterman has become the éminence grise of the PGA Tour, so his recent comments on scheduling are of interest:

The Tour has officially reverted to a January through August regular season schedule with a
major injection of money, creating 13 “elevated” events in addition to major championships. After the season ends in August, though, there’s still some uncertainty. The Tour has clarified that the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup will qualify for a series of fall tournaments with no cut and huge purses as well, likely to be held overseas. The rest of the Tour is bound for a different fall series of events that commissioner Jay Monahan dubbed a “compelling, consequential final stretch” where players can improve their status entering the next season.

Much of it is…still quite murky. So Rory, while the Tour figures it all out, what should the fall season really look like?

“Football,” he said.

“I mean, it’s football season, right?”

So?  It so happens that Rory is arguing for a curtailed schedule, but is he a tree falling in the forest?

“I think we need to get to the place where it’s not oversaturated,” he continued. “I would love us to come back in January and people will have missed watching competitive golf. I don’t think that happens right now because there’s 47 events a year.”

What McIlroy is arguing for is not something anyone could have been prepared for years ago. When Tiger Woods burst onto the scene in the 90s, the PGA Tour couldn’t get enough events on TV. But a modern conundrum has manifested. It’s become difficult for golf fans to know which events are the most important beyond the majors.

“I think to get the most fan engagement that we possibly can, we have to let people miss it for a little bit,” McIlroy said. “I’m not comparing golf to football at all, but you think about the exclusivity of the NFL and they play 18 weeks a year. Then people are just so ready for football season to start again. I’m not saying that golf’s going to be that way, but you’ve got to let people miss it a little bit.”

You go, girl!  

But Rory, have you actually had this discussion with Jay?   Because, going back to the time of Nurse Ratched, it's been the policy of your organization to fill every nook and cranny on that 52-week calendar, with the lone exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks.

With a bit of a qualifier:

“And I’m not saying we’re not going to play any golf in the fall,” McIlroy said, “but the fall is maybe more of an international flavor. It’s an opportunity for guys to travel the world a little bit, grow their brands in different countries, but the real competitive golf season is January to August. That’s where I see it.”

Yes, but I would have said that the Ponte Vedra folks should leave that to the other world tours, though that doesn't obviously square with the ambitions of those whose new crystal palace has been dubbed the "Global Home."

 Two of the Golf.com writers tackle these thorny scheduling issues with very mixed results:

Sean Zak: Hello, young James! Finally, the PGA Tour has settled most of its schedule moving forward. We’ve got 13 elevated events taking place next year featuring $20 million purses and the
top players in the world. The first one is just months away in Hawaii. Add the majors and that’s 17 times where the best players in the world are guaranteed to be playing together. The honor of being an “elevated event” will be permanent for all but four tournaments, which will change among the list of Tour events every year. This year, the WM Phoenix Open is elevated. In 2024, perhaps the Honda Classic will be. In 2025, maybe even the 3M Open! My first question for you: did they choose the right events to kick this off (Phoenix Open, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo, Travelers Championship)?

James Colgan: If I were a teacher grading the elevated event selections, I think I’d give the PGA Tour half-credit for their efforts. I like the Phoenix Open and the Wells Fargo. Both of those events feel like bigger events each year, and it helps that I can name at least half of their recent winners. The RBC and Travelers, while fine Tour events, are pretty eh to me. I don’t get the feeling that making them worth $20 million is going to make me care very much about them, even if it helps to juice their respective field strengths a little bit. I’d much rather have seen the Farmers, Canadian Open, or Schwab in that same slot.

Are these guys like sixteen years old?  Did Jay pick the right events isn't exactly the right concept, as he shockingly picked the events whose sponsors were willing to pay up.  And they don't seem to have noticed that two of the four are the week after majors....including one with a five-hour flight time.

Also, no real concern about those events that remain unelevated.... I'm sure they'll be fine Korn Ferry fields.

Seriously, how naive are these two?

Sean: Well, I’m all in on watching Jon Rahm or Rory McIlroy play Harbour Town, but yeah, I tend to agree. If I can try and guess the theory there, it’s that the Tour can’t have the most perfect set of four elevated events every year. They really need to spread the love, because basically every event raised its hand and asked to become elevated.

Do you not recognize a pay-to-play scheme when you trip over it?

They at least recognize this point of vulnerability:

Sean: Can we pour out a pint of Tennent’s for the Scottish Open not being selected?

James: The DP World Tour must be furious at that development (not all strategic alliances can be as easy as ours!). I wonder if the cross-sanctioned nature of the event was its eventual undoing. If the Tour is shelling out $20 million for an event, it would make sense to me that they want to be damn sure that money is winding up in the pockets of its full-time members.

Fine, as long as Jay has the Euro Tour under lock and key.... It's not just that the Scottish isn't elevated, the players are required to play so many events that they would be hard-pressed to add the Scottish, even is they think it'll help their preparation for the Open.

There's some good stuff buried, but it's at the same time comically inept.  For instance, James Colgan makes an impassioned plea for improved venues, but the citations are just bat guano crazy:

James: LOL. Now you’re just getting a rise out of me. The biggest thing I’d change with the PGA Tour schedule is the quality of the venues utilized. Every year, the overwhelming majority of golf’s best courses go entirely unseen by the public. This never made sense to me. Imagine having an NFL season without a game at Lambeau Field — it’s weird! The Tour should be trying like hell to fit as many top golf destinations into its annual calendar. It’s how you educate your fanbase, and how you draw in the most enjoyable events. Pinehurst, Bandon, Chambers, Bethpage, Gamble Sands … and those are just the public tracks worth considering! If you’re going to go to Chicago, like you suggested, play Chicago G.C., Medinah, or Shoreacres.

Let's see, the compelling need to go to Pinehurst, which is hosting the 2024 U.S. Open, is what exactly?   

He checks off cool names he's familiar with, such as Bandon and Chicago Golf Club, without regard for whether those golf course are remotely suitable.  And remote?  How many fans would you guess you could get to Bandon, OR?  He's absolutely correct on the larger issue, that's a place the Tour could improve dramatically, but it takes a lot more thought.  Interestingly, the Tour did actually find an interesting venue this week, but the degree of difficulty is higher than James realizes.

They do try to discuss the larger of issue of what to do with the Fall, but they don't get very far with it.

Fully Committed - I'm just not a fan of this:

Los Angeles Country Club set to host 2032 U.S. Women's Open and 2039 U.S. Open

Geoff explains:

Anyway, this officially commits the U.S. Open to all but nine years between now and 2051, and unofficially through 2035 with the next openings in 2036, 2038 and 2040.

The U.S. Women’s Open is officially taken through 2032, with the next openings coming in 2033, 2036 and 2037.

As a minor quibble, you're hosting this year's U.S. Open at LACC, which I think will prove to be a wonderful venue, but doesn't it make more sense to see that Open before committing to additional events? 

More importantly, they've selected the site for the 2051 Open, which seems rather, well unnecessary.  It strikes this observer as hubris to think one could anticipate the state of game and the demands for a venue so far into the future.  Do tey have a Plan B in case Trump buys one or more of these entities?

They should be planning the next decade or so of events, but this business of committing forty years out is just nuts.

I'll wish you a great weekend and catch you on Monday.

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Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Midweek Musings

The plan was to clear out some browser tabs, but then the boys in Ponte Vedra Beach dropped some actual news....

Elevate This - If LIV exists to make golf louder, then the PGA Tour seems to be responding by making golf...well, higher.  Of course, everything remains relative:

The PGA Tour is set to announce a further four tournaments with elevated status for 2023, Golfweek has learned. The additions will bring to 13 the total number of Tour events designated as
“elevated,” meaning the presence of the game’s biggest stars will be guaranteed as they compete for lucrative purses of at least $20 million. The Tour plans to communicate specifics on the events to players later this week.

In August, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced the first nine elevated events for the 2022-2023 season. Those were the Players Championship; three FedEx Cup playoff stops (FedEx St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship, Tour Championship); the three invitationals (Genesis, Arnold Palmer, Memorial); the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play; and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Don't want to make the trek to Hawaii right after New Years?   Don't fancy August in Memphis?  Suck it up, bucko, they were only kidding when they called you an independent contractor.

I thought they'd milk the drama longer, after all there's sponsors to be extorted:

The four additional tournaments to be elevated this season are the WM Phoenix Open, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Travelers Championship, according to five sources familiar with the discussions. Several sources said the Tour is still in the process of finalizing negotiations with the events. A spokesperson for the PGA Tour declined to confirm the details or to comment on potential announcements.

While the nine previously-announced events will have elevated status every year, it’s expected that the four unveiled this week will rotate between tournaments each season, ensuring that every sponsor interested in paying for elevated status would be guaranteed the best possible field every few years.

All righty then, I guess the announcement will be withheld pending clearance of the checks.  But why exactly would you do business with the Tour?  You signed up with the expectation that you'd compete with other events for your field through amenities, the venue and the other soft factors that go into making a schedule, only to be told that the Tour is now a Pay-to-Play Ponzi scheme.  

You'll no doubt be unconsciously nodding your head and thinking these are worthy events, well, worthyish at the very least.  But it's quite bizarre in a number of ways, and Dylan Dethier does a credible job of identifying the winners and losers:

 

WINNER: SUPER BOWL WEEKEND

The WM Phoenix Open has been a behemoth of a frat party for decades. The 2023 edition was always going to be even more behemoth-y, given the Super Bowl is coming to the same city the same week. Now that it’s going to be an elevated event? Yowza. TPC Scottsdale’s about to be a tough ticket — never mind State Farm Stadium.

LOSER: CANADA

After an invigorating edition of the RBC Canadian Open this summer, there was plenty of positive chatter about the national open hosted by our brothers and sisters to the north. This year? Yikes. The Tour’s trek to Canada comes the week after the Memorial and the week before a back-to-back duo of the U.S. Open and Travelers Championship, both elevated events. Something’s gotta give, and this year that something is a trip to Oakdale Golf and Country Club.

But don’t fret, Canada. There will be a brighter 2024. The Presidents Cup is coming to Montreal, after all. And RBC is sponsoring the Tour’s elevated event at Hilton Head in 2023 — could it take that money north of the border in 2024…?

OK, as long as you promise that the scene in the upper-right hand quadrant is not repeated....

Most folks won't care about the diminishment of the Canadian Open, but isn't RBC expecting all its sponsored players to show up at its flagship event (which just happens to be their national open)?

The Texas guys get pimped pretty good:

LOSER: TEXAS

The Lone Star State isn’t getting shut out of the elevated events; the WGC-Match Play in Austin remains one of the most fun tournaments on the calendar. But the rest of its events are in a bit of a pickle. The Houston Open’s future is uncertain after this fall. The Valero Texas Open sits the week before the Masters-RBC back-to-back stretch. And playing both DFW-area events in the spring (Byron Nelson and Colonial) would require playing five events in a row (and seven of eight, including the U.S. Open-Travelers stretch). Jordan Spieth contemplated that dilemma on Tuesday:

“You know, if that’s the case, then that does put me and a few other people like Scottie, Zalatoris, some guys who like playing both the Dallas events in a situation where you’re looking at five in a row, which I’ve done once. I don’t particularly like doing more than four in a row, but I love my hometown events.”

Your humble blogger believes that folks think they know what they want, but are perhaps not accounting for all the factors involved.  This is a perfect example, where we fail to incorporate the importance of  home games.  Heck, I thought the Byron Nelson would die after its namesake did so, but it was sustained at least in part due to the loyalty of the Texas boys.  Guess what, if you wanted to kill those two events, this is how you'd do it.

No surprise then that I don't really agree here:

WINNER: FANS

It’s fun to pick through the minutiae, and there obviously is some collateral damage, but big-picture this is a really positive development for PGA Tour fans. Finally we have some clarity around which events *really* matter and we know when all the biggest names are going to show up. That’s a net gain; the big events will feel bigger, the fall “offseason” will get us revved up for the start of the next year and we’ll have a healthier balance of big-time golf in our lives. There will still be golf, like, every week, but it’ll be easier to make sense of it all.

In attempting to strengthen some weeks, you've inevitably weakened others, so it seems more of a push than a win.  Admittedly, the core problem is that there are simply way too many events, but at least wait until you see the fields at the non-elevated events before crowing.  

But here's where it goes off the tracks badly:

LOSER: POST-MAJOR WEEKS

I’ll be clear on this one: I hate the idea of having elevated events the week after a major. Hate it. If I was in charge, the Tour wouldn’t have any PGA Tour events the week after a major, much less an elevated event where you get the exact same group of fellas together. But this year we’ll do that twice, first from the Masters to the RBC Heritage (which at least makes geographic sense)

I cut Dylan's thought unceremoniously, because what comes next is beyond parody.  But even Harbor Town is profoundly silly.  It has always worked as a palate-cleanser after the Masters.  A dramatically different kind of venue, it offered a suitably low key week for those that wanted it.

While that one works, kinda, get a load of what Jay is making the lads do:

and then from the U.S. Open in Los Angeles to the Travelers in Connecticut (which makes less geographic sense).

Blergh. Let the gravity of what you’ve just done at the majors soak in! Every other sport builds up to its biggest competitions and then takes a break immediately thereafter. You’re not likely to see NFL teams suiting up the week after the Super Bowl, after all. I’d much prefer if there was a way to work in the elevated events the week before majors, to serve as a sort of tune-up. Otherwise we’re just resigning ourselves to weeks of anti-climax and this feels more like sponsor service than the best possible schedule for the Tour.

Yeah, I know, that Super Bowl reference is quite the category error, especially since confusing golf with football is pretty mush how we got the incoherent FedEx Cup in the first place.    

Imagine, you're in the final group on Sunday at LACC, and suffer a heartbreaking loss on the last hole.... You take a quick shower and ...get on a plane for Hartford?  I'll predict that the Tour sets a record for injury withdrawals in Hartford, so we got that going for us.

Of course, the next two Opens are at Pinehurst and Oakmont.  Wouldn't either have been the better year to elevate Hartford?

One last point that Dylan captures relates to that great strategic alliance, which got coal in their stocking.  Jay's Achilles heel might well prove to be headquartered at Wentworth:

LOSER: THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE (FOR NOW)

Here’s hoping a sizable contingent still shows up to play the Genesis Scottish Open this coming year despite its lack of elevated status. And here’s hoping the Tour allows its cross-tour members (like Jon Rahm or Rory McIlroy) to count their DP World Tour starts towards their required three “non-elevated” starts on the PGA Tour. That would seem like an easy and logical nod to the Tour’s strategic partners across the pond. For now, though, the Euro Tour doesn’t seem overly present in the Tour’s immediate plans.

But I think “for now” is an important caveat here.

And Dylan has barely touched on the issue raised by Jon Rahm, that it's simply too much golf being demanded of those who also belong to the Euro Tour.

Even one of the "winners" can see where this leads:

In a story published this week by the Associated Press, the all-time major winner questioned the Tour’s recent move to give 12 events more lofty status, with purses between $15 million and $20 million, and the promise of having the circuit’s “top players.” Nicklaus’ concern centered on the Tour’s other tournaments.

“I’m not sure what to make of it yet,” Nicklaus told the Associated Press. “I think the Tour was going to get there, but the LIV thing pushed them. That’s pretty obvious. What it’s done is made the PGA Tour almost two tiers. All of a sudden the other tournaments become feeders.”

Jack is wrong only in the sense that it's always been thus, a few years back the divide was where Tiger played and where he didn't.  It's just that, with players free to make their own schedules, sponsors could market their events and attempt to draw enough talent to maintain interest.  Now the Tour is basically prohibiting elite players from playing in, say those Texas events, merely by requiring them to play in so many other places.  

I don't see anything good in this, especially since the vast majority of the top players were already participating in most of those elevated events.  All this does is calcify the status of the non-elevated events, and I just don't see why you'd want to play Jay's game.  

The Weekend - felt a little remorse at not blogging the actual golf, which was more interesting than a typical mid-October weekend delivers.  First, the battle of the has-beens (as per the Tour Confidential panel):

Keegan Bradley made a long birdie putt on the 71st hole to win the Zozo Championship on Sunday in Japan, beating Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam by one. It was Bradley’s fifth career PGA Tour victory and first since 2018. In the process he beat Fowler, the second- and third-round leader, who sits at five career victories and hasn’t had one since 2019. It was an emotional win for Bradley but another close call for Fowler. Who needed this victory more?

Berhow: Neither of their bank accounts really needed this latest check, and kudos to Keegan for pulling this off — you could see how much it meant to him afterward — but I think it would have been bigger for Rickie. He hasn’t played as well as Keegan the last few years and has staked his named to the PGA Tour in the battle vs. LIV. (Remember, Fowler was on that jet with Tiger that went to Hartford for that rallying cry.) Fowler’s still a huge name in the golf world and would have secured a pretty substantial contract to go to LIV, and winning on Tour now would have helped validate his decision. Regardless it was a good week for Rickie, who has turned in top 10s in two of his three starts this season. One last thing about Fowler — he’s long been criticized for having just five career Tour wins, but I was shocked today when I realized he’s had 15 (!) runner-up finishes. Man, coulda would shoulda, but turn a few of those into Ws and look at what it does for Fowler’s career.

Zak: Rickie needed the win more. Their droughts were virtually the same, but Rickie had become an average performer. Bradley was still elite tee-to-green, a la Adam Scott, just waiting for a great putting week. Fowler’s game has shown no elite aspects the last two years, and even if that might start changing with Butch Harmon back in tow, Fowler has plenty to prove.

I was surprised by how many people cared about an event in Japan in October, a reflection of the good will people have for Rickie.  Surprising, because I'm old enough to remember the days of Orange Man Bad....But if we're looking for a guy that could benefit from not taking the blood money, Rickie is well positioned there.

I know it's the round bellies, but respect is due:

There’s shooting your age, then there’s what Fred Couples did on Sunday.

The 63-year-old Couples finished with seven-straight birdies to beat his age by three and lap the field at the SAS Championship by six for his 14th PGA Tour Champions victory and first since 2017.

Couples career-low 60 featured 12 birdies, with the run of seven-in-a-row coming on the final seven holes of the par-72 Prestonwood Country Club. He put it on the par-5 17th in two, giving him a chance for a 59. He also had a run of five-straight birdies on the front nine.

“It’s easy to say because we’re standing here, but I think it’s the best round I’ve ever played,” Couples said. “I hit a few loose shots, got away from them, but I made so many putts. I don’t know what other rounds I’ve ever shot on the Champions Tour that are close to 60, so this would probably be my best round and lowest score by far.

Wow!  I don't care if it's mini-golf, it's just crazy low.

This isn't making our life any easier, but this one could get tricky:

Here's the background:

In June, Otaegui played in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational in London, finishing tied for sixth, and made subsequent starts in Portland and Boston. After his initial LIV appearance, the DP
World Tour suspended Otaegui and the other tour members who competed on the rival tour for three events and fined them £100,000. Otaegui subsequently appealed those penalties to an arbiter, who quickly stayed the suspension.

With a full hearing scheduled in the U.K. for February to decide whether the DP World Tour can prohibit defectors from playing in its events, LIV golfers are still allowed to enter tour events. Otaegui was making his ninth start in a DP World event since June.

You see the range of issues for Jay?  In a perhaps far-fetched scenario, who's to say that a court would similarly reinstate Henrik Stenson's captaincy?

There are no shortage of Euro players that want Keith Pelley to accept a Saudi bailout, as they think their tour is being dissed by the evil Americans.  They might have a pint, although they seem to ignore the weakened state of the Euro Tour in their calculations.  Any thoughts as to what happens to the Ryder Cup under such a scenario?

More realistically (although I don't consider that farfetched in the slightest), what if Keith Pelley is permanently enjoined from suspending the LIV defectors?  Doesn't that mean that they can qualify for the Euro Ryder Cup team?  Stay tuned.

Today On Planet Phil - The Tour Confidential panel had some thoughts on Phil's Saudi bloviations and, while they're late and not especially profound, it makes for low-impact blogging:

Phil Mickelson, for the first time in what seemed like a very long time, riffed on a variety of
topics during his pre-tournament presser at LIV Golf’s Jeddah event, including his decision to join LIV. “I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards, and I love the side that I’m on,” Mickelson said. Mickelson, of course, is biased, but is there any truth to his answer?

Zephyr Melton: Is LIV trending up? Yes. With each successful tournament and big-name star they sign, they gain even more momentum. But is the Tour trending down? Hardly. With the improvements they’re making to the schedule, I’d argue it’s on the upswing, too.

Josh Berhow: LIV can’t really begin to attract more fans until it gets a TV deal, and there’s obviously still confusion regarding when that’s going to happen. YouTube streams aren’t going to cut it. I don’t think the PGA Tour is in a bad place, though. They lost some big names but how many of them were playing at a high level lately? Just a few. It will be interesting to see how the Tour’s elevated events shake out in 2023. Will they feel bigger to the average fan?

Sean Zak: It’s campaign season folks! Mickelson is doing his best modern politicking — explaining things away quickly and simply when the truth is just far more complex. The PGA Tour is not trending downwards. Sorry, Phil.

I'm curious as to why Zephyr thinks LIV is trending up although perhaps that's a function of your start date.  I would say that since the Cam Smith/Joaquin Niemann signings it's been a rough go for the radicals, as no one seems to have much cared for their Bangkok and Saudi events.

More importantly, they still seem nowhere as far as a U.S. TV contract is concerned:

Only five?  Sounds low by a lot....

1. The ratings are down vs. earlier LIV events.

Ratings prognostication is a problem typically reserved for those with advertisers they’re scared of underwhelming, but for LIV Golf, it’s actually bigger than that. Ratings for the upstart tour have sagged significantly since relatively stronger performances at LIV Boston, Chicago and Bedminster.

After landing audiences of greater than 600,000 viewers for the final rounds of those three events, both of LIV’s international events (in Bangkok and Jeddah) struggled to reach 300,000 viewers, seeing declines of more than 50 percent off the summer’s high watermark. At LIV Bangkok, things were worse in terms of average audience, which was one-third the size of LIV Chicago and one-fifth the size of LIV Boston.

Of course, it should be noted that LIV Bangkok was contested in the middle of the night for many Americans, while LIV Jeddah was played in the early morning. Still, these dropoffs suggest that YouTube viewers — many of them likely Americans — aren’t following the league as it shifts to different timezones; a concern for broadcast partners who will find themselves at the mercy of LIV’s tournament schedule.

There is that, though there's a bigger issue left on the cutting room floor.   just like the actual tourneys sounded so much better on paper, the same applies to their broadcasts.  Nobody will tune in, because golf kinda sucks, boys.

Even if they got Masters-level ratings for every broadcast, they'd still lay a huge egg.

Last week was also the first time Mickelson’s been in Saudi Arabia since controversial comments he made last year led to him taking a leave of absence. There was a lot to unpack about Mickelson’s few minutes from the media, but what was your biggest takeaway from the most candid version of Phil we’ve seen for quite some time?

Melton: His claim that he “never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck” was a curious one considering he issued an apology after the fact back in the spring. I’d wager his attempt at revisionist history is likely a strategy we’ll see from many LIVers in the future.

Berhow: It sounds like his comments about speaking with Alan (or not speaking with him) were more related to it not being an “interview” since Phil still claims it was off the record. (Shipnuck says otherwise.) That said the guy was in a tricky spot, back in Saudi Arabia and having to touch on that topic. But I digress. I think the Phil we saw in that pre-tournament presser proved he’s settling in a little bit. He had to keep a low profile after his comments from February made worldwide news but now he’s getting a little more comfortable and letting it fly. How much of it is truthful and how much of it is a spin? That’s up to interpretation.

Zak: My biggest takeaway is I’d like Mickelson to step forward with some facts, context and nuance next time he wants to go deep. His public discussion of media rights in January? Littered with half-truths, as reported by GOLF.com’s James Colgan. His “I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck” line this week reeked of Aaron Rodgers’ deceitful immunized/vaccinated storyline from last fall. For years, the treasure of Mickelson in front of a mic was not knowing what he’s going to say. Now he feels predictable and deceptive. It’s not a great look.

How do you know Phil is lying?  Relitigating that Shipnuck conversation while on Saudi soil just seems like an unforced error, but he's the FIGJAM and we're not.

But, did someone mention Alan Shipnuck?  because I've been trying to sort through my mixed feelings about him, mostly thinking that he's gone awfully easy on both Phil and LIV.  We've got two bits from Alan to mull, the second being a bit of a bombshell I think.

First, there's an Ask Alan that I ignored and is now mostly dated, though this Q&A is worth a moment:

If rumored LIV changes — 72 holes, a cut, a qualifier, etc. — come to fruition, is this another Monahan mistake? He’s forcing their hand but may end up giving them more legitimacy long-term with a widely accepted format that’s more difficult to ridicule. Thoughts? @kylelabat

We can blame Jay Monahan for a lot of things, but this is a bridge too far. LIV has said from the beginning that this year is a beta test and things will evolve. With the OWGR declining to bend the knee, it has become obvious that LIV will have to try harder to meet the established criteria. Going to 72 holes, having a cut and a more attainable qualifying system are the keys, and that template was established by the World Ranking bylaws, not Monahan.

Excuse me, is there a rumor of LIV changing to 72 holes?  Because that would be quite the admission against interest, no?  Not to mention the amusement to be ha at their name....

Jay is reaping the whirlwind of some bad decisions for sure, most notably awarding OWGR points to Tiger's hit-and-giggle event.  The strongest argument against the LIV events receiving OWGR points is the field size, not that there aren't other issues in their structure.  To me, a bigger issue that hasn't been focused on is that they'll be language in some of those contracts guaranteeing the player a spot in the field, thereby limiting the ability of other players to qualify in.  We'll likely find that Lee Westwood is guaranteed his spot until 2028, or some such nonsense.

Lastly, and it would be hard to come up with a better item on which to exit, than this thunderbolt from Shipnuck:

And so you're offering fools like myself who purchased your book a refund?

Seriously, what the f**k does this mean?  If he knows it to be true, why is not n his biography of the man?  And why is telling us this? Is it not an admission of malpractice?  

Does he think he can say that out loud and not come across with the goods?

I don't think you'll see me tomorrow, but we'll catch up on it all on Friday.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Tuesday Tastings

A wacky day at Bethpage yesterday, one in which biblical rains miraculously cleared in time for the Met. Golf Writers to experience the ritual abasement at the hands of the Black.  Though maybe the biggest miracle was the absence of traffic on the way home... was it a Jewish holiday or something?

I was going to tread lightly on the LIV stuff, at least until this 15,000 word tome from the New Yorker dropped.... 

To state the obvious, you'll need to read this in its entirety and draw your won conclusions, because it's quite the hot mess.  Though the combination of cheap shots against Greg Norman and the lack of actual familiarity with golf makes each individual paragraph amusing to parse.  Let's start with this that should have been left on the cutting room floor, but provides a mirror into the roiling conconction of grievances that is Greg Norman:

Generally, the players who cared most about prestige and legacy aligned with the P.G.A. Tour. Its tournaments offered history and gravitas but no guaranteed income; you earned what you won in
prize money. Golfers viewed it as the American-individualist ideal—“the purest form of meritocracy,” one golfer said. But the fault lines were idiosyncratic and difficult to untangle from old resentments. Whether a person stayed or left could be explained by some combination of political leaning, culture-war affiliation, sensitivity to peer pressure, and, most of all, naked self-dealing. “They don’t really care what the Saudis’ interest is,” the old hand told me. Sometimes it was a matter of a personal grudge. Did Woods stick with the Tour to protect his records or to snub Norman? They’d been at odds since at least 2006, when Woods moved to Jupiter without giving Norman a heads-up. (Last year, Norman sold his Jupiter spread for fifty-five million dollars to Leslie Wexner, the mogul with ties to Jeffrey Epstein.)

Is your head spinning yet?  It's of no import, but that Woods-Norman bit is comedy gold, because on what planet would Tiger be expected to give Norman said "heads-up"?  I'm sure the Shirtless One is clinging to the grudge, but I'm equally sure that Tiger's reaction to the Aussie is more accurately characterized as aggressive indifference.

Of course, there's fun to be had in the Norman Wayback Machine, including this:

"I never feared anything or anyone on the course, and I wasn't afraid to fail. So I think I'd do pretty well against Snead, Hogan, Tiger (Woods) and Phil (Mickelson) - whoever," Norman told the publication. "Tiger's a tough guy, but I was a tough guy on the course, too. I probably would have beat him."

Yeah, that's the ticket!  The man that couldn't beat Bob Tway or Robert Gamez when it mattered...

But the piece is most interesting for its introduction of the Saudi officials involved:

Today, Saudi golf operations are within the purview of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the wealth fund and the chairman of Aramco. Rumayyan is polite, with wavy black hair and well-cut suits. In 2015, he was running a bank when M.B.S. offered him a job as an adviser. Later, M.B.S. named him head of the fund. Terms were not discussed. “You will do it,” M.B.S. said. An American analyst who has dealt with Saudi officials told me that Rumayyan “is known as being sort of obsequious.”

Why it's almost like MBS is....what's that term of art, a scary motherfucker.  Memo to the New Yorker, everyone in Saudi is obsequious....well, either that or dead.

Forgive the lack of discipline in my blogging, but if you'll read the piece in its entirety you'll see its shotgun approach (pun intended), there's stray voltage everywhere.  For instance, in a piece allegedly about this rival golf league, the New York reported goes the the Bedminster event and stays entirely on 
topic:

I went looking for Ivana Trump’s grave. The family had buried her on the grounds the previous week. It struck some people as strange. Who would want to spend eternity at her ex-husband’s golf club? On Twitter, rumors circulated about how the property was, technically, a cemetery, which would eliminate the club’s obligation to pay state property, income, and sales taxes.

In case you might have forgotten, Orange Man remains bad.  

But they can't just report on a golf story without resorting to Das Kapital, can they?

liv appeals to the golfers who once identified with the white working class, or to the merely resentment-prone. “Guys who grew up a little hardscrabble, didn’t have country clubs to play at, that fought tooth and nail to play on the Tour, they say, Look, I’m gonna get what I can get,” the manager Mac Barnhardt told me. The P.G.A. Tour, meanwhile, is for the élite, the club crowd that likes to think there are things more important than money. Of course, it’s easier to look down on cash grabs when your cash was grabbed for you generations ago. The savvier golfers also have images to protect; rarefied dignity sells Rolexes and lands Goldman Sachs sponsorships. Nelson, the golf writer, told me that, if liv embodied Trumpism, “the P.G.A. Tour is not Abraham Lincoln, it’s Mitch McConnell—the power structure that says, Well, I don’t disapprove of élitist destructive behavior, but this is bad for business.”

Except when it doesn't:

Exceptions can be found on both sides, and, despite the exodus, the Tour is not wanting for Trump voters.

So your point is?  Seriously, Phil is working class but Tiger isn't?

But have you wondered what the Saudis are getting for their $2 billion large?   When their able to set aside their dialectical materialism, they actually go further than almost any media outlet to address the Saudi's objectives:

David Schenker, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, was in charge of U.S. policy and diplomacy in the Persian Gulf region from 2019 to 2021. He’s also a golf nut, with a fourteen handicap. “This is the intersection of my personal and professional lives!” he told me recently, of liv. Schenker believes that liv is best understood in the context of Gulf geopolitics: the budding rivalry between the Saudis and the Emiratis.

M.B.S.’s stated goal is to diversify the economy and wean it from oil, a program he calls Vision 2030. The P.I.F. aims to spend forty billion dollars a year to bolster new Saudi industries—coffee production, electric cars, tech. One main objective is for Riyadh and Neom, a megacity being built on the Red Sea, to supplant Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the region’s de-facto capitals. Schenker said, “There was this picture, perhaps mistakenly, that M.B.Z.”—Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi—“was sort of a mentor to M.B.S. But Saudi Arabia increasingly sees itself as the leader.” M.B.S. has plans to double Riyadh’s population in the next decade. The kingdom will require companies that conduct business with state institutions to establish a regional headquarters in the country. The problem has been that a desert with no cinemas or alcohol, and with a religious police force that harasses women, is not very attractive.

Ringing any bells, Dear Reader?  Again, the author commits journalism malpractice, but at least hints at the political divide in the Sunni Arab world.   They can't quite bring themselves to disclose fully the background on Jamal Kashoggi, who was a Qatiri intelligence asset.  There's a cold war (well, it went hot for Mr. Kashoggi) between the Emirates and the Saudis but, to admit this, would cast shade on their fellow travelers at the Washington Post.

The golf is a side show.  In a world with competent political leadership, we sould be working to untie the Emirates and the Saudis in an alliance against the Iranians, whom the Sunni countries fear most.  As you might have heard, significant progress was made in this direction up until January 2021, but now we have pushed the Saudis into a marriage of convenience with Putin.  Given this:


But the New Yorker is only worried about the location of Ivana's remains....

Back in February, they set out quite the aggressive business plan:

The changes meant that the player exodus was likely to stabilize. Sorour and I retreated to a private suite beside the eighteenth green. He sat on a couch, his arms spread on the cushions, and said, “We have many players who want to come in now. But I need to protect my people.” He felt a sense of loyalty to the early adopters. The first ten had signed before liv had announced its launch. Another group had been ready to sign. Then Mickelson made his comments about the “scary motherfuckers,” and the league, suddenly, was on the brink of folding. Sorour told me, “I called the boss”—Rumayyan—“I said, ‘Everyone’s walking away. Do you want to do it, or not?’ ” Sorour told Rumayyan he had a plan: “Get the biggest mediocres, get the ten that we have, get you and I, and let’s go play for twenty-five million dollars.” Rumayyan decided to press ahead and announce the launch immediately.

How's that for a slogan?  Golf, But With Mediocrities Being Louder™.

Here's the other a******e buddy of Phil, who make s great first impression:

The man wore pink pants and aviators. “They called me a scary motherfucker!” he said, laughing. It was Majed Al Sorour, the C.E.O. of the Saudi Golf Federation. He had a genial bearing, but seemed bothered by some of the press coverage. Unprompted, he said to me, “We don’t kill gays, I’ll just tell you that.” (As recently as 2020, an activist advocating for equal rights for L.G.B.T. people in the kingdom was arrested and tortured.)

Let me see if I have this right...those publicly behe4aded were all cis-gendered?  Noted. 

Everyone and their brother craves a deal between LIV and the PGA Tour, but one hopes the heads of the Five Families are listening:

liv’s other pressing issue is that its tournaments don’t yet earn golf ranking points, making it more difficult to qualify for the majors. There was speculation that the Masters might ban liv players. “For now, the majors are siding with the Tour, and I don’t know why,” Sorour said. “If the majors decide not to have our players play? I will celebrate. I will create my own majors for my players.” He went on, “Honestly, I think all the tours are being run by guys who don’t understand business.”

So you paid Phil $200 million and it's the other guys that don't understand business?  This is how they think they'll recoup their $2 billion:

Sorour said the P.I.F. had funding for liv through 2025. By then, he imagined, they would begin to cash out by selling off ownership in their twelve teams. The franchise model is how liv plans to recoup its investment. Sorour envisions owners building home golf courses, like a stadium for a football team. liv had given certain players equity stakes in their teams. (Some of the reported compensation figures, such as the seven to eight hundred million allegedly offered to Woods, included equity and potential sponsorships. Of the Woods offer, Sorour said, “It’s not straight-out money. I never offered him that money, not even close to that.”) There have been conflicting reports about the valuations that liv puts on its teams, which consist of four players: a hundred million, half a billion, a billion. Sorour told me it would vary by team. Outside liv, the numbers are treated skeptically. McIlroy told me, “People have to remember, golf is a niche sport. All you’re getting is four golfers. And I get it, some M.L.S. teams are worth seven hundred million dollars. But it’s all tied to the economics of the league, and right now that league doesn’t have any economics.”

Of sure, but meanwhile back here on Planet Earth:

Wow, that many!  And this from the deceased Peter Allis:

I've got lots more teed up for you, but need to get on with my day.  Due to the chilly forecast, the Wednesday Game™ has been moved to the afternoon, so we'll cover that stuff tomorrow morning.

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Friday, October 14, 2022

Your Friday Frisson

I slept far later than usual and was sorely tempted to skip blogging, but for three things:

  1. I'm headed to Bethpage on Monday with the Met. Golf Writers, so our usual wrappage will have to wait until Tuesday;
  2. Phil went in front of a microphone...
  3. Geoff saw Phil in front of said microphone and, well, you'll just have to wait a bit....
An Appeal to Authority - Famous quotes for $200, Art:

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, you'll quickly see why this quote popped into your humble blogger's mind:

In a lively press conference on Thursday at LIV Golf’s event in Saudi Arabia, Phil Mickelson defended his new home tour’s home turf with a prolonged victory lap from the lectern.

“I firmly believe that I’m on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf,” Mickelson said. “I love the way they involve us and listen to us in decisions. I mean it’s so inclusive, it’s so fluid that things, LIV Golf is leading. Whether it’s shorts, whether it’s other aspects of professional golf that are going to change and evolve, those positions will be led by LIV.”

“I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards,” he said. “I love the side that I’m on. And I love how I feel. I love how I’m reinvigorated and excited to play golf and compete. I love the experience. I love the way they treat us.”

Sure, I totally get it.  When I think of the Wahabis the first thought that pops into my mind is of their inclusiveness, because when those plane shit the tower they killed all 3,000 people without regard to race, gender or national origin.

There are exactly 200 million reasons that Phil loves how he's treated, but I'll leave you to suss that out on your own....

The commentariat reacted as you'd expect, though with a range of colorful analogies:

Perhaps we should view Brandel as a compromised observer, since he's a defendant for saying mean things about Phil's a*****e buddy Patrtick?  More on that below (I think).

But Phil also went in a really strange direction:

Q. You made some comments about this country last year which you've apologized for. I wondered how you feel about now you're here? Have you changed your opinion?

PHIL MICKELSON: So I will reiterate, I never did an interview with Alan Shipnuck. And I find that my experience with everybody associated with LIV Golf has been nothing but incredibly positive and I have the utmost respect for everybody that I've been involved with.

 Got it, you did not have sex with that woman.... Totally believable.

Here's the funny bit, at least to a guy that doesn't get out much.  Mike Bamberger has a defense of his buddy Alan Shipnuck, and he goes the same direction as the guy writing this blog:

Phil: “I will reiterate: I never did an interview with Alan Shipnick [sic]. And I find that my
experience, with everybody associated with LIV Golf, has been nothing but incredibly positive. And I have the utmost respect for everybody I’ve been involved with.”

He adjusts the stand-up microphone in front of him, which almost obscures his sunglasses perched on his black golf shirt, as he says reiterate.

He opens the fingers on his right hand at incredibly positive.

He punctuates utmost respect with an itty-bitty karate chop with his right hand.

Really, it’s such a good delivery you stand in awe. We’re talking Clinton-level.

You're never going to win this kind of argument with a reporter, because they take notes.  Having been routed on this subject in February, though, the question is why revisit it now.  In fact, at the Quad Geoff suggested an alternative answer to that interview question:

Golly it’s amazing to be here in Saudi Arabia. The Red Sea is so tranquil. I get a great night’s sleep in the amazing offshore yacht our hosts from the Kingdom have provided. Also, it’s remarkable to see so many women out at restaurants. Speaking of, did anyone notice? Not one mass beheading in months!”

Yanno, for what it's worth, I could get behind a few, highly-selective beheadings....

Mike and Dylan Dethier get into the long grass of what it means to speak to a reporter in that context, and you can read that at your leisure.  Mike actually thinks he's disingenuously trying to convince low-information fans that he didn't speak to Alan and say those very words, though does that strike one as a useful argument for Phil at this late date?

I'll include this from Alan as well, if only because of the new word that can be added to your lexicon:

Shouldn't bullshittery have two "Ts"?  The funny thing here is that Shipnuck remains far more favorably disposed to Phil than I would have expected, not least because of this attack on his journalistic ethics (yeah, I know, it should have come with an oxymoron alert).

It is all bullshittery for sure, but funny bullshittery.... Not least because of Geoff.  Are you, Dear Reader, familiar with ClubProGuy?  A fromer Mexican mini-tour rabbit, he's carved out his own unique social media space to some amusing effect, including this that I posted back in the day:


So, it's over to you, Geoff:

The major champ is back to his wacky press conference ways and increasingly shares a lot in common with Club Pro Guy.


It's not merely a physical resemblance:

Consider what these two veterans appear to have in common:

Compete in a shotgun-start exhibition league? ✅

Consistently drag down their teams with mediocre play? ✅

Well-known gambling issues leading to questionable decisions? ✅

Propensity to wear sunglasses indoors? ✅

Own regrettable tattoos received in a foreign land? ✅

Tendency to hold strange press conferences? ✅

Sponsored by multiple brands? Oops, Club Pro Guy owns this one.

That's gonna leave a mark.... 

Patrick's Torment - Another LIVster that needs to be kept away from microphones would be Patrick Reed, A Hero of France.  But first, that venue change:

The nine-time PGA Tour winner-turned-LIV golfer was in the news again late last month when a defamation suit filed in his name against Golf Channel and Brandel Chamblee was withdrawn from federal court in Texas, only to be refiled in federal court in Florida.

In its refiled form, the suit expands upon the list of defendants (Golf Channel commentators Shane Bacon, Damon Hack and Eamon Lynch have been added), but its thrust is pretty much the same: It seeks $750 million in damages for injuries it claims Reed has suffered to his reputation as a result of “calculated, malicious, false and/or reckless attacks.”

Otherwise, the biggest change is geography: Florida instead of Texas.

Why the switch?

 Well, there was that little bit of misfortune in landing a judge that actually knows the rules of golf:

When Reed’s case was first filed in Texas, it was assigned to Alfred H. Bennett, a federal judge who also happens to be an avid golfer and a reported stickler for the rules of the game. Given Reed’s reputation and the judge’s fondness for playing it as it lies, it is not unreasonable to believe that Klayman felt that he and his client had gotten an unlucky draw and thought they’d stand a better chance in a different court.

This would not be unusual. Attorneys often seek out judges and jurisdictions that they believe will be favorable to their cases, says Matt Jacobs, a former federal prosecutor and partner at DLA Piper, an international law firm. In the absence of another explanation, Jacobs says, “it looks to all the world that (Klayman) is shopping around.”

You can't make this stuff up, but doesn't Patrick play with absolute fealty (yeah, that word again) to the rules of our game?

 You'll  not be surprised that there's other issues:

About a month ago, on Sept. 15, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals — the highest court in the District of Columbia — upheld a recommendation that Klayman be suspended from
practicing law in D.C. for conduct that was deemed unprofessional in a different case, unrelated to Reed’s — a sexual harassment suit, initially filed more than a decade ago, in which Klayman was representing the plaintiff. (You can read the court’s report on the matter here, which includes violations of the professional code that Klayman was found to have committed; Klayman told Reuters that the ruling was a “political hit” and that he had been unfairly targeted because of his support for former President Donald Trump.)

Though the 18-month suspension was handed down in D.C., it carries wider implications, because the federal district court in Texas where the Reed suit was filed has its own local rule stating that any lawyer “suspended or disbarred by another court shall immediately cease to practice before this court.” At this point, in other words, even if Klayman wanted to keep the case in Texas, he wouldn’t be permitted to represent Reed there, experts said. In the Florida district where the Reed suit has been refiled, the local rule is more lenient: An attorney can have a suspension stayed by petitioning the judge for relief.

Translation: Klayman appears to stand a better chance of being able to represent Reed in the district where the case has been refiled.

Nothing says "Righteous tort" quite like using a suspended lawyer, no?

But the funnier bit is what follows because, like Phil, Patrick seems to have trouble sticking to a story:

Patrick Reed, whom multiple outlets reported as saying his treatment at a DP World Tour event
last month was “a slap in the face,” said Thursday those stories were “false reporting.”

Since LIV started in early June, Reed has played in five of six events, though with the Saudi-backed tour awaiting word whether they’ll receive OWGR recognition, he has continued to play tournaments on the DP World Tour. And he’s made headlines. Ahead of last month’s French Open, multiple sites reported that Reed told Journal du Golf that he was displeased with how he was treated at the event.

“It’s a slap in the face not to invite me to do a press conference here, or as happened in Wentworth, not to have me play the pro-am and all those things,” Reed told Journal du Golf, according to the Telegraph.

First professional golfer in recorded history to complain about not playing in a ProAm....

I guess that didn't play well in the focus group:

In a press conference ahead of this weekend’s LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia, Reed also said he did not play in another tournament because he “got decommitted,” though he had told one site that he withdrew after hurting his back due to a mattress being too soft. He then ended his session with reporters by saying that the Official World Golf Ranking was “not a true system if you’re not counting all the events and having points for everybody.”

Decommitted?  Yeah, that's the ticket....

Three weeks later, on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, Reed then had this exchange:

“I was reading that you were a bit unhappy about some of your treatment at the French Open,” a reporter said.

“No, that was false reporting,” said Reed, who has resigned his PGA Tour membership. “Had nothing to do with the French Open. When I went over there, the players, the fans, the tournament, they treated me amazingly. It was an unbelievable time over there. Obviously I wish I had played better and did something, but no, they treated me really well, and that’s just something that is unfortunate about how the media tried to spin that that week, because when I was over there, everyone was excited to see me. It was great there, being with the guys, being with the players, and seeing fans I’ve seen in the past.

“No, it was a great week based off of fans, players and the people there at the golf course.”

It never made any sense... Given how poorly Patrick played and how divisive his comments and Justine's tweeting was, why wouldn't the French welcome him back with open arms?

At the very least, the defendants in his defamation suite seem terrified:

But relaying Patrick's comments verbatim is now "False reporting", the saddest part being that I totally agree.

Udder Stuff -  Not unrelated, but did you catch the ladies playing that Aramco event at Ferry Point.  I've been arguing to keep a watchful eye on Jon Rahm, at the same time we'll need to watch the ladies.  I've ben thinking for a long time that the Saudis have screwed up in royal fashion (pun intended), that they could have done themselves a world of good sportswashing-wise at a fraction of the price by holding a few events for those in hijabs.  

We've seen the LPGA Commissioner indicate that she would take the call, as well as individual players almost pleading for such an opportunity as well.  So we see something like this and can't help but wonder if something might be going on behind the scenes:

Arc of history and all....

Gotta bring this to a conclusion, but wanted to leave you with this piece of historical importance.  Not so much for the actual incident, but it's always helpful to be reminded of who Greg Norman has always been:

The story of the mutiny at the 1996 Presidents Cup. Of course, it includes Greg Norman

That would be an incident that happened more than 25 years ago, when Graham, an Australian who won two majors during his Hall of Fame career was unceremoniously ousted as captain of
the International Presidents Cup team by his own players, just two months before the second biennial international team competition was to be held in September 1996. Some of what happened during a player meeting in July at a Grand Hotel conference room near Royal Lytham in St. Annes, England, where the British Open was being contested that year, still is a mystery but this much is clear: it damaged the reputation of a good man willing to give his time and effort to grow the fledgling event.

To this day, Graham is convinced Greg Norman, then the No. 1 player in the world and now the face of LIV Golf, and fellow Aussie Steve Elkington orchestrated what one participant in the proceedings dubbed “this mutinous act.”

They have the receipts.

Sharkie sticking the shiv in David Graham is the perfect accompaniment for Phil doing the same to Tom Watson in 2014, so put on some popcorn, because ultimately these two will go after each other, which will require exhuming that famous Henry Kissinger quote about the Iran-Iraq war.

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up on everything next week. 

 

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