Late-Week Logorrhea - Group Play Edition

Don't blame me for the late arrival at the keyboard.... Let's see you try to dislodge a 15-lbs. kitty from your lap....

Bracket, Busted - Can't be helped, as Bobby D. is the only guy I know who had Princeton beating Arizona.... What?  Oh, sorry, wrong bracket...

I've certainly enjoyed the first two days of the Match Play, though this is really the first time I've felt the absence of the LIV gaggle.  This comes in the form of surprise that certain players are even there, not mention shock at how highly ranked certain players are.  As an example, Kiwi Ryan Fox obviously belongs in the filed, but as a B-player?  He's seeded No. 29, which seems about twenty-five slots too high to this observer.

While your humble blogger strongly prefers the feral single-elimination format, the key day in pool play is Friday, so you'd think the major golf websites would be all over the iterations and permutations possible today, but you'd be wrong.  Of the big three, only Golf Digest can be bothered summing it up:

Here's where all 16 groups stand as we approach a frantic Friday at WGC-Match Play

Combine the deep-sixing of this event with the absence of cuts in those Designated Events next year, and we have a new count in the indictment against LIV.  To wit, they've ruined Fridays...

This one is more than a little amusing:

Group 3: Rory McIlroy's 18th-hole eagle closed out Denny McCarthy, leaving him 2-0 and needing a win or a tie vs. Keegan Bradley on Friday to advance. Bradley, who has struggled so mightily for so long at this event, got a massive 6-and-5 win over Scott Stallings on Thursday, eliminating Stallings in the process. That sets him up in a showdown match with Rory McIlroy on Friday, a rematch of their Ryder Cup bout.

That would be this eagle:

One of the greatest drives you will EVER see 🤯@McIlroyRory drives the ball to 3 FEET at the 375-yard par-4 18th with a 349-yard carry to the green! pic.twitter.com/HzhMBtyKkr

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 23, 2023

That's pretty damn good, though can't the FBI get Twitter to deplatform all those calling it the greatest drive in golf ever?   As a rule for life, the best whatever by definition cannot happen in group play of this event.... It's amusingly quite like that drive DJ hit in Kapalua a few years back, impressive yet insignificant.

But did you scratch your head at that Ryder Cup reference?  That was the famous incident in 2012 when Rory damn near missed his tee time, dusting Keegs without so much as a warm-up.... 

But when you say Keegan has struggled in this event, shouldn't we be revisiting that last year at Dove Mountain and that Best. Match. Ever?  That was the famous Keegs-Miggy consolation match in which a confrontation with the Spaniard over a drop ended with Keegan sulking in his courtesy car with his girlfriend's lapdog providing solace.... 

Lots of folks liked that terrific penis' chances, but if that lefty putts well (and when doesn't he?)...

Group 4: Here we have the simplest of scenarios: Patrick Cantlay and Brian Harman are both 2-0, and will face off for the group win. Should they tie, it's an instant sudden death playoff. There's history here too—in 2021, Cantlay beat Harman in group play in a red-hot match for both, but then lost to him in a playoff on Friday. The revenge narrative is real. Needless to say, K.H. Lee and Nick Taylor are both eliminated at 0-2.

That lack of depth referenced above can be readily seen here:

Group 7: Here we have a group with just one player at 2-0, and that player is Andrew Putnam (56), the lowest seed of the lot. Win or draw against Harris English, and he's through to the weekend. At 1-1, Ryan Fox (facing a lame duck in 0-2 Will Zalatoris) and English need to win and hope; both could win outright or meet each other in a playoff if Putnam stumbles.

Group 8: This is a classic "not how we drew it up!" situation, where the two lowest seeds, Si Woo Kim and Matt Kuchar, are the only two left alive. Kuchar had a brilliant chance to join Kim at 2-0, but blew it on the last hole against Chris Kirk to settle for a tie. Nevertheless, he's in with a win over Kim on Friday in their head-to-head battle, while Kim goes through with a win or a tie.

This ne as well, mostly because Matthew Fitzpatrick has been so off hisd feed:

Group 11: If you had 61-seed J.J. Spaun absolutely rolling Matt Fitzpatrick (5 and 3) and Sahith Theegala (5 and 4) in consecutive days to seize control of the group, well ... congratulations, because nobody else did. Still, Spaun is the alpha here, and has guaranteed himself a spot in a playoff at worst. If he beats or ties Min Woo Lee, he's through to the weekend, while Lee and Fitzpatrick both have to win and then fight through a playoff. This is Spaun's group, and we're all just living in it.

We've been big on epitaphs lately, and this group could serve that function for this event:

Group 16: After being absolutely waxed by Sungjae Im on Wednesday, Maverick McNealy fought tooth and nail against Tommy Fleetwood, but was eliminated on the 18th hole when Fleetwood's last putt fell. That means that 2-0 J.T. Poston will advance with a win or tie against McNealy, or if Im can't beat Fleetwood. Even if Im wins and Poston loses, the worst the Postman can do is a playoff.

You know how J.T,. Poston draws those eyeballs....

Today is the last fun day of match play for....well, apparently, forever.  The weekend drags for this event, the only hope being that we get a couple of match-ups of sufficient interest to justify tuning in.  We've got enough of the show ponies on form that we can enjoy it for that which it is, but also as an indicator of prospects in a couple of weeks....

Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out - Bob Harig pens athisode:

The Final World Golf Championships Event Marks the End of an Era on the PGA Tour

Twenty-four years after their inception, the WGCs will end with the Match Play at Austin Country Club.

What's that in dog years?

Of course, this subject requires an irony alert, because of that Aussie still raging against the machine:

The WGCs date to 1999 and their origin has a current-day tie-in with Greg Norman, the World Golf Hall of Fame member who is now the commissioner and CEO of LIV Golf—which at the very least has had an indirect impact on the PGA Tour and its move to the designated events.

Norman, when he was in the prime of his career, had proposed an alternative tour in 1994 that would have brought the top players in the world together in a series of big-money tournaments with no cuts.

Called the World Golf Tour, Norman had financing, network TV and a plan for eight tournaments to begin in 1995. Those events would have 40-player fields with the majority taken from the world rankings, then sponsored by Sony. There would also be 10 sponsor exemptions.

Make sure to have a hankie at the ready for this one:

“He hung me out to dry," Norman said then. His last Tour victory came at the 1997 NEC, which two years later was turned into one of the WGCs which eventually became the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Hey, at least he didn't propose a meeting at the Istanbul consulate.... 

What Harig avoids is any discussion of how dreary these events were, making this all the more curious:

“Obviously we’ve got big changes coming next year. And it sounds like it will replace that. At the end of the day, you want the best players in the world playing week in and week out and those are going away right now."

 I had been reliably informed that anything what walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

The WGCs were limited-field events with no cuts that attracted the best players in the world because of their outsized purses.  The Designated Events are limited-field, no cut events that will attract the best players in the world.... The definition of insanity remains doing the same things and expecting different results. 

Be Rory's Ball - I certainly have issues with the changes to Tour events that he's spearheading, but you have to credit the man for considering the wider implications:

“I’ve been pretty adamant that I don’t really want the governing bodies to touch the recreational golfer because we need to make this game as not intimidating and as much fun as possible,” he

said, “just to try to keep the participation levels at an all-time high. So, I’m glad in this new proposal that they haven’t touched the recreational golfer.

“But for elite-level play, I really like it. I really do. I know that’s a really unpopular opinion amongst my peers, but I think it’s going to help identify who the best players are a bit easier. Especially in this era of parity that we’ve been living in these past couple of decades. You guys (at No Laying Up) use the term ‘golf has been dumbed down a little bit at the elite level,’ and I completely agree. I think you’re gonna see people with more well-rounded games succeed easier than what the game has become, which is a bit bomb and gouge over these last few years.”

Ya think?  I think he's right about this as well:

“Selfishly, I think it helps me,” he said. “I think this is only gonna help the better player. You know, it might help the longer player too, in some ways. But I think it’s going to help the overall professional game. I think making guys hit some long irons again, and some mid irons, and being able to hit every club in your bag in a round of golf. … I can’t remember the last time when I’ve had to do that. I don’t know if this change in the ball will make us do that, but it certainly is a step closer to that.”

But this was the most interesting bit....  While I don't necessarily think he would do so, it does show the logic by which the Tour will likely come to:

“Honestly, for me, the major championships are the biggest deal,” he said, “so if the PGA Tour doesn’t implement it, I might still play the Model Local Rule ball, because I know that that’ll give me the best chance and the best preparation leading into the major championships. And again, this is personal preference and personal opinion at this stage of my career. I know that I’m gonna be defined by the amount of major championships that I hopefully will win from now until the end of my career. And that’s the most important thing for me.

“If that gives me the best chance to succeed at the major championships and feel as prepared as I possibly can be, then that’s what I would do.”

There's nothing that requires the Tour to play under USGA rules or to employ that Model Local Rule.  But it's hard to imagine that the governing bodies would recommend it for elite players and the Tour would demur.... effectively denying that their players are elite.

 Geoff had some pointed comments:

This left room for Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth or some other generational major winner to make the case and quickly shame the PGA Tour and PGA of America for stupendous point-missing. Spieth failed. Big time. But McIlroy delivered the dagger via No Laying Up where, unlike the major media outlets still hoping to score ad deals with the companies, the upstart influencers have staked out a credible safe place where a guest will have have their sensitive views spliced, diced or bookended by gibberish about planting more trees.

As I noted here, McIlroy delivered an unassailable case to anyone who isn’t on a manufacturer payroll or hoping to save ad deals with companies never happy even when they get their way. McIlroy craftily embarrassed the long list of complainers and confused corporatists who’ve been in full pretzel mode since last Tuesday, making asses of themselves to keep the flow of free custom logoed golf balls coming their way. Gosh, grown men can be so shallow.

But I have great news for those on the losing side of this debate: the big companies already have researched, developed and patented balls that should pass the test whenever they get over themselves and make the Model Local Rule ball. Even better, the companies will sell a ball that passes the new tests in January 2026 and might even make money doing so. They’ll even still have the ability to stamp your stupid nickname or special number. Mitzvah!

Compare Rory's thoughtfulness to this guy's reaction:

“It’s so bad for the game of golf,” Justin Thomas said before the Valspar Championship.

 A reminder, this was the guy that asserted a God-given right to play quickly in order to use a playing partner's ball as a backstop..... That's is actually bad for the game of golf, but do tell, JT!  Though perhaps this is something you might want to talk over with your new BFF...

LIV Scat - Uh, oh, the mean girls are at it again:

Documents submitted late Wednesday night in U.S. federal court include a LIV Golf accusation

that the PGA Tour intervened in its dealings with potential broadcast networks.

“Based on (PGA Tour) documents and other sources, LIV believes Mr. Pascal used illegal means to dissuade numerous broadcasters in international markets from signing broadcast contracts with LIV and even from reporting about LIV events in their news content,” LIV lawyers claim in the filing, referring to Thierry Pascal, the PGA Tour’s managing director for international media./

More from the filing: “Time and again, after the live meeting or phone call, the broadcaster did an about-face and informed LIV the negotiations (in one case, a signed contract) could not proceed. Because of his conduct and his efforts to conceal it, Mr. Pascal is a foundational witness whose testimony will inform later discovery in important ways.”

The lawyers for the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund did not mention the media company which signed a contract in the filing, but did state that because of the Tour’s actions, LIV was forced to sign “with a secondary network,” referring to the CW Network, which signed a multi-year revenue-sharing TV deal with LIV in January. Golfweek was first to report LIV was nearing a deal with Fox Sports last September.

So CW is a secondary network?  So, when you looked us in the eye and told us what a massive coup that rights deal was, you were lying?  Oh my God, this is so disillusioning....

Thomas Pieters was their big get this offseason, and the Belgian had some interesting comments about his decision.  Apparently he was a lonely boy in his time on the PGA Tour:

For Pieters, that wasn’t life on the PGA Tour. He loved his time in college at Illinois, where he won the individual national title in 2012, but he got lonely on the Tour.

“As a kid you obviously dream about playing on the PGA Tour, winning golf tournaments. I played a year on the PGA Tour. I did not like it,” he said. “I got very homesick, very lonely, so for me that was kind of like tick the box, I tried it over there, wasn’t my thing and then LIV came around right at the right time.

“Everybody who was playing on it last year that I talked to said it was very exciting, new and that was something that really spoke to me. You can’t lie about it financially, it’s amazing, and it was something as a family, father of two daughters, as well with my girlfriend, it’s awesome to have such good schedule, as well.”

Pieters made it clear he didn’t hate the PGA Tour and loved playing in events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, but when the round was finished, he was lonely, and never experienced that in Europe on the DP World Tour.

I wonder if the Euro Tour still features that level of camaraderie, but many of the guys struggle to adapt to tour life.  But is this helpful to his cause?

Pieters opened up while talking about his journey through professional golf and what his future may or may not look like, providing a unique perspective compared to those of his professional golf colleagues.

“I’ve done 10 years of being on the road and trying to achieve my dreams. I’m not Rory McIlroy, I’m not Tiger Woods, I’m not going to be in the history books or have a massive legacy, and that’s OK,” said Pieters. “I’ve made an unbelievable living out of golf, which is amazing for me and my mrs. and my kids. I don’t worry about that at all, actually. It’s just sport. It’s just golf. Happiness is so much more than just playing golf.”

If I'm the Saudis, I don't want my indentured servants talking like this....  It's a modified version of Graeme McDowell's comments about LIV featuring golf without the grind....  They seem to lose track of the concept that, if they're not grinding, there's little reason for anyone to watch.

But while I credit him for a certain honesty, look at the tortured logic on display here:

LIV Golf has long been criticized as another avenue for Saudi Arabia to sportswash its controversial human rights record, and when asked if he had any issues with the Public Investment Fund backing LIV, Pieters clapped back at those who are critical of the upstart circuit.

“I know my money comes from an American-based company,” said Pieters, referencing LIV Golf Investments, where PIF is the majority shareholder. Yasir Al-Rumayyan is the current governor of the PIF, and serves directly under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has controlled the fund since 2015.

Oh, well that's completely different, then....  Seriously, why do you even mention something like that, pretending that it's somehow exculpatory... You're taking Saudi money, you can at least own it.  Equally weaselly is this:

“I think the PIF is in about 150 boards if I’m not wrong, so anything you touch on a daily basis is funded by Saudi money, so I think it’s a bit hypocritical, some of the things that are being said,” Pieters continued. “Obviously the things that have happened, they’re horrible. I’m here to play golf. It’s not really something I want to go into. I knew that question was going to be asked, but I don’t really have an answer for that.”

So, he doesn't want to answer these questions, except to the extent that we might be willing to accept his squirrelly evasions.... offered presumably because he understands who he's enabling.

Enjoy your Match Play Friday and I'll see you on Monday.

Midweek Musings - Opening Day Edition

There are plans to peg it later this morning, but don't tell Bobby D. that the bride and I played nine holes yesterday with only our 7-irons....

Last Dance at Austin CC - I suppose the difference between 51 and 52 weeks per year of soul-killing medal play should be rather minor.  And yet...

Dylan Dethier had this off-hand comment in his Monday Finish column:

1. The final Match Play.

As I understand it, there is currently no plan to have match play on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule. That stinks, because this event provides the most exciting weekday golf of any on the schedule. I hope there’s a way to make match play make business sense at some point going forward, but for now: Enjoy this one!

It's an awkward event for TV, one that I've long called the upside-down tournament, because the best days are those weekdays that feature thirty-two matches.  Your humble blogger still pines for the feral single-elimination format, which made Wednesday one of the best golf-watching days on the calendar.

The event has always been awkward in Austin, the date specifically.  A little too close to Augusta to make the guys trudge through seven matches, but my latest epiphany is that the event should be in a portion of the schedule where Golf Channel would air the weekend matches in lieu of NBC or CBS.  because, while once in a blue moon we get a weekend match of interest, the reality is that the weekends pretty much suck.

But we seem to be living in an elite-player-driven dystopia, so what do the big boys think of it all?  Big Boy No. 1:

"It's too bad that this is the last edition of this tournament," the World No. 2 said on Tuesday. "I obviously love match play, so I'm hoping maybe it's just a one-year deal and we get a match play event back on the schedule."

Rahm has made it out of his group in three of his five Match Play attempts, and went as far as the final in 2017, when he lost 1 up to Dustin Johnson. He also holds a 4-3-1 Ryder Cup record that includes an iconic singles win against Tiger Woods in 2018, so it's no surprise that he loves match play and looks forward to coming to Austin every year.

"As a player it's just an opportunity to play kind of a different golf," he said. "It's really the only time throughout the year besides maybe the Ryder Cup where you're playing truly against the person in front of you, which is much more relatable to every sport we play in the world ... it's a lot more aggressive. You see more birdies. You see a lot of things happen."

We can't have that now, can we?  Big Boy No. 2:

Rahm is not alone. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who made his first WGC-Match Play final in

2021 before winning last year, called Austin one of his favorite places to come each year, and the Texas alum took a predictably plainspoken approach to the appeal of the format.

"I like the simplicity of it," he said. "All you have to do is just go out there and try and beat the guy that's in front of you and if you don't, you lose, and if you beat him, you win."

So, what would be the antonym of  recency bias?  That would be classifying this guy as a Big Boy:

"I would love to see there still be a match-play event at some point," Rickie Fowler said, explaining that he liked single elimination better than the current setup. "Match play, other than what we see in team events, it's fun. We obviously wouldn't want it every week, just because of how volatile it is, and it's not always the guy that's playing the best that week .. but yeah, I love match play."

Fowler points to his 6-and-5 victory against Phil Mickelson in the second round in 2011 as his fondest memory of the Match Play.

Of course he's still bitterly-clinging to 12-year old memories, but whatever happened to that Phil guy?

 I wonder, though, if this is really true:

The players who spoke on Tuesday were universal in their enjoyment of match play, but understood its drawbacks, both for the competitors and from a corporate angle. On the playing side, luck plays an enormous role in determining the winner—you can play great and lose, or play poorly and win—and a more consistent style of player won't find it as easy to register a high finish. (The current format, as Rahm pointed out, can lead to some confusion, as when a player might have to face someone he already defeated in a playoff in order to advance.) On the corporate side, any format dictates a dwindling field over the weekend, which can lead to dead time on television and lower appeal for sponsors who count on big weekend fields for clients.

For these players, though, the good outweighed the bad, and there was a certain regret, with maybe even a tinge of melancholy, at the prospect of this tournament coming to an end. Rahm, remembering years when he played well but didn't advance, and other years when he didn't feel in top form but managed to beat those in front of him, summed up the strangeness and appeal of the format best.

"That's the beauty of match play," he said.

It's a member-owned organization, so if there's "universal" demand for a match-play event.... well, I'm not so sure it's quite that universal.  Alan Shipnuck has a new mailbag for us, and cuts right to the chase:

Do you sense the players are disappointed the Tour may no longer have a match play event, or are they not that bothered? @tonyjdear

Both. Everyone loves the idea of a match play event…until it is conducted. The players always hated that when the Match Play was single-elimination, they could have an embarrassingly brief one-day work week. Sponsors and TV execs anguished over losing so many stars early in the week. The solution was the round-robin pool play, which guaranteed every player three matches but robbed the event of its win-or-go-home essence and corresponding tension. It’s a symbolic loss, but the top 64 players on Tour will gladly sacrifice the Match Play for a no-cut designated event, which is essentially what has happened.

Sounds about right, the irony of this being the last WGC being lost on them.  The WGCs were a dreary lot, small fields and no cute generating little buzz, so enjoy your Groundhog Day.

In the "Who ya got? thread, I can't help but notice a certain singularity:

Dell Technologies Match Play picks 2023: Why we're chasing a Patrick Cantlay win

  And this:

Action Report: Patrick Cantlay popular pick for WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

And, while Golf.com throws out nine names, this was first among equals:

Patrick Cantlay (20-1)

Cantlay does not have many weaknesses in his game. He is second on Tour in birdie average, No. 1 in par-4 and par-5 scoring, 45th in SG: putting and 38th in scrambling. He also has an excellent history on Dye courses and is second-best in this field in SG: total on Dye courses over the last 36 rounds. The bad news is that he hasn’t ever made it out of the group stage in this event. This time around, Cantlay is the top seed in his group, over Brian Harman, Nick Taylor and K.H. Lee. On paper, he should be able to handle those three players and make it to the weekend. His career match-play record, here in Austin and also in President’s Cup and Ryder Cup play, is 8-5-2.

I get it! After all, who can resist a terrific penis?

The funny thing is that Cantlay seems to this observer as a guy likely happy to avoid this event in the future.  I don't pretend to know the guy, but my guess is that he's far too comfortable in his routines to embrace the mayhem.... Not to mention losing to that 58-seed.

LIV Scat - Mostly just Q&A's from Alan, but there is this follow-up on viewership (or, more accurately, the lack thereof):

The viewership reports are starting to roll through for the second LIV Golf League event of the

season, and early numbers aren’t great for the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit.

The Sports Business Journal, citing a source with numbers from Nielsen, reported last week’s LIV Golf Tucson event had an average of 274,000 viewers on the CW for Sunday’s final round from Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona, after an average of 284,000 viewers for Saturday’s second round. At LIV Golf Mayakoba, the season opener last month, the CW averaged 286,000 viewers for Saturday’s second round and 291,000 for Sunday’s final round. Friday’s opening rounds are only available via the CW app and other digital streams.

Can you feel the game growing?  Though this might be the more discouraging bit:

Outside of the viewership, the SBJ report also claimed that 24 percent of homes – or 29 million – in the United States were unable to watch LIV Golf Tucson on television because their local CW affiliate did not carry the coverage in the 1-6 p.m. ET window.

That's quite the vote of confidence, no?  Gee, Buffy or PReed?  Quite the conundrum....

Perhaps more importantly, some background on those viewership numbers quoted by LIV:

LIV Golf plans to release its own data on viewership later this week, which will predictably look different from the SBJ report citing just Nielsen numbers. The same thing happened with the Mayakoba viewership.

The league signed a multi-year revenue-sharing TV deal with the CW in January that will see its events be distributed across both not just CW affiliates, but also various Nexstar properties. It’s unclear how many watched on Nexstar stations or whether any Nexstar outlets carried LIV Golf Tucson in areas where CW affiliates elected not to. Competing with the opening weekend of the NCAA basketball tournaments surely doesn’t help the viewership numbers, either.

It’s also important to note which numbers are used in television reports. LIV reported 3.2 million total viewers across the three days in its season opener, while the Nielsen numbers cited above are average-minute audience, the industry standard. LIV is also using iSpot, a TV ad measurement and analytics company that offers a different way to measure viewership compared to Nielsen ratings.

Measure?  Obscure?  Whatever....

Alan had this from his week in Tucson:

When at the LIV event, did you get a sense from any player that it could be the beginning of the end? @The_Real_DA

No, just the opposite: Those guys are all-in. There was already an us-against-them mentality on that tour, and the new emphasis on the team model has only increased the players’ buy-in. Believe it or not, it appears they’re having fun out there.

Can you say Stockholm Syndrome?

But the interesting thing here is that Alan's own reporting on that player's meeting revealed quite a bit of whining and griping, so there does appear to be a disturbance in the force....

But one of my major takeaways thus far is how poorly LIVs show ponies have played:

What do you think is the singular biggest thing that could put LIV on the mainstream news cycle for its golf product (vs. political/disruptive news so far)? @rchav9

Only five LIV golfers can move the needle, roughly in this order: Phil Mickelson, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka. Maybe Patrick Reed, but usually for the wrong reasons. LIV badly needs these guys to play well, and one or more to dominate. Most of all, it needs a few of its biggest names to contend at the majors. If one of them wins the Masters, the volume gets turned all the way up on this thing.

Bryson?  heh, that's a good one...

Let's veer off on a tangent, as Sunday night's Tour Confidential panel had a Bryson query:

Danny Lee won LIV Golf’s event in Tucson in a playoff, but 16 strokes back and in a tie for 44th place was Bryson DeChambeau, who was also 24th at LIV’s first event of the year and never finished better than 10th at any LIV event last season (although he did tie for 8th at The Open). Not playing on the PGA Tour has led to less spotlight for DeChambeau, who not long ago was a fixture on headlines across golf websites everywhere. Is this too small a sample size to say something is up with his game? And do you expect him to be a threat at the Masters in two weeks?

Colgan: I think it’s fair to wonder what happened to Bryson, whose every moment used to receive the breathless attention of the golf world — an attention he seemed to resent. In that regard, he may be one of the few golfers who benefitted from LIV’s obscurity. But his game is a long way from the U.S. Open winning form of 2020. It has been for some time.

Dethier: Would it surprise me to see Bryson contend at Augusta? Yeah, it would. It just doesn’t seem like his stroke-play golf is in top form; he’s never finished better than 10th in a LIV event and even MC’d at the Saudi International at a course that should set up fairly well for him. He’ll be a fascinating follow for an abundance of reasons, but one such reason is that we just don’t know what we’re going to get.

Bastable: Gosh, it wasn’t all that long we were speculating about what Augusta National would need to do to “Bryson-proof” its course. Now, the same guy we thought might win the Masters by 10 in the fall of 2020 has dealt with a litany of injuries and devolved into a questionable LIV investment. DeChambeau has never finished top-20 at Augusta, a streak he’s on the fast track to extend in April.

Why is this remotely surprising?   Except for Cam, each LIV defection to me spoke to a lack of confidence in their games, hence the need for guaranteed money...

Of course, this is the money question:

Will anyone discuss golfer acquisition for LIV moving forward? How can they enhance their current lineup? Will another name PGA Tour guy jump? @mcdermott_randy

There are two key political/judicial factors: the World Ranking resolution and the ongoing arbitration case in the U.K. LIV folks have been told to expect a OWGR ruling by July. I think LIV will get points simply because the World Ranking as an institution will act in its own best interests. From its website, it has the following mission statement: “The objective of OWGR is to devise, maintain, review, update, administer and promote the recognition of a system that fairly ranks the relative performances of male professional golfers participating in the leading golf tournaments throughout the world.”

It says nothing there about turf wars between rival tours. Love or hate LIV, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Abe Ancer, Talor Gooch and sundry others are undoubtedly among the best players in the world. If the OWGR continues to exclude LIV, Mark Broadie or some other sharpie will simply formulate a new algorithm that becomes the gold standard. Don’t forget, the World Ranking was invented by superagent Mark McCormack as a way to make more appearance money for his players. It is not sacrosanct. It can be replaced. So once LIV gets World Ranking points, it will obviously become easier to attract PGA Tour players. And if litigious LIV golfers win their appeal against the European Tour’s ban, that will change the landscape dramatically, allowing them to play all over the world, and also in the Ryder Cup. That would put immense pressure on the PGA of America to alter its criteria for Team USA, allowing LIV folks on that squad too.So let’s see how things play out in the coming months. But if golfers can play in the majors, play in the Ryder Cup, earn World Ranking points and get guaranteed money upfront, LIV clearly becomes more attractive.

I remain amazed at how in the tank Alan is for the bonecutters.... It must be that Abu Ghraib continues to play on his conscience....

What's missing from his answer?  Any acknowledgement of the extent to which the LIV events have royally sucked.  Oh, the PGA Tour has no shortage of issues, but I've been reliably informed that it's product vs. product, and theirs is comically inept....

But I continue to believe that Alan is dramatically misreading those potential scenarios.  Yes, we're all anxiously awaiting that European arbitrator's decision, which is very much a wild card.  But access to Euro Tour events will only get them so far, as it's functionally a  Korn Ferry feeder tour at this point.

But does he seriously think that the PGA of America would break with the PGA Tour on Ryder Cup eligibility?  And that Ja would still make his boys available?  For a European home game?  I don't think so....

At the risk of my readers nodding off...

Will LIV have to do some sort of revenue sharing to make sure teams remain viable financially? If a team isn’t winning enough, how can they afford the expenses of global travel? In other words, are the Cleeks destined to be the Pittsburgh Pirates? #askalan @jjgottschalk

Lotsa questions about the LIV business model after my stories from Mexico and Tucson. LIV has extended each team a line of credit to be used as needed for this year and into next. In 2024 the franchises will go up for sale, and if/when they sell, the owners will be footing the bills. Selling the teams is a key to LIV being a viable business. Let’s say they sell for an average of $100 million. That sounds like a lot, but there are tons of bored billionaires who want to buy their way into professional sports. Almost none of them will get an NFL or NBA franchise, which cost at least a couple billion dollars. But if they love golf, LIV could be a fun consolation prize; you can party with Dustin and Paulina on their boat or have Phil play in your member-guest. For nerdy rich dudes who can’t break 90, this kind of access is probably a bargain at only 100 milli! LIV owns 75 percent of each team while the players (mostly captains) have the rest of the equity.

So in this thought experiment, LIV gets $75 million on each sale. Times 12, that’s close to a billion dollars, which is more or less what will have been spent on purses and signing bonuses and operational costs last year and this year. Now the PIF has gotten back its initial investment. Let’s say LIV’s operating costs are $500 million a year. Going forward it would need to get that back in TV deals, ticket sales, corporate suites, pro-ams and the usual revenue streams. This might be doable if LIV can cut TV deals with SKY Sports and the Japanese, Korean, Aussie, South African and Mexican versions of ESPN. There are a lot of ifs and optimism built into these scenarios, but I think you can construct a theoretical case to where LIV breaks even, which would be a huge win considering the ridiculous burn rate at the outset.

Hey, if Silicon Valley Bank gets bailed out, why not the Cleeks?

First and foremost, Alan, I had been reliably informed that each franchise would be worth a cool billion, so you might have offended the scary mofos.... Best to get your affairs in order.

But those fever-dream Sky and Asian TV contracts amuse when the CW wouldn't put $1 on the line for the U.S. rights.  It all presupposes interest and viewership at a level unsupported by reality....

This is interesting as well, although they'll need to be viable in 2026 for it to matter:

LIV won’t gear back the ball. They will promote the same ball us mortals use. Big marketing point for LIV. @Deadcenter12

Yes, that would be a clever way to endear themselves to the mythical casual fan who, anecdotally, hates bifurcation. (In reality, I’m not sure how many care.) But all of the major championships will be played under whatever rules the USGA sets, so if LIV renounces the new ball—but the PGA Tour doesn’t—that would put LIVers at a monumental disadvantage at the majors. Having a chance to win major championships will trump pandering to non-conformist fans. I think LIV will wait to see what the PGA Tour does and then mirror that.

I suppose we should at least hear from Fred before declaring that all majors will use the rolled-back ball...

But Alan seems to envision quite the schizophrenic PGA of America, no?  He assumes they'll go with the crowd on the roll-back buy dissent on LIV players in the Ryder Cup.  I can't imagine both those things happening but, then again, I couldn't imagine Sergio spitting in a cup...

One last bit:

Do the Green Coats have it in them to mix pairings with LIV and PGA Tour guys? It would be so juicy to have a Rory/Cam or Tiger/Phil pairing for the first two rounds. Once we get to Sunday, though… the scenes around 18 green if a LIV guy is in contention will be something. How’s it play out? @EddieK619

Rory/Reed would be even better! And, gawd, Tiger/Phil would be epic, not to mention Freddie and Phil. Alas, that’s not happening. The lords of Augusta are not interested in creating any sideshows. The polarizing LIV players will be paired with the most innocuous, easygoing Tour players and as many amateurs as possible. Everything the Masters does this time around will be about defusing tensions. If a LIV player is in the hunt I expect the reception will be a little tepid but ultimately respectful, because no one wants to get kicked out of the Masters for life for bad behavior. Might be a little ruder/rowdier at the ensuing majors, though.

Probably better not to give them such an opportunity...  Though if Rory were paired with Reed, I'd be looking to short him. 

More Alan -  A couple of non-Liv bits for that mailbag:

Talk me out of these and/or rank them in order of least likely to most likely

Masters — Rory; PGA — Spieth; U.S. Open — Rickie; Open — Xander @Blulinski

Rory McIlroy is a top-10 machine at the Masters but has accumulated so much scar tissue along the way that he’s approaching the point of no return. (That he’s messing around with new putters two weeks ahead of Augusta does not inspire confidence.) Big, bad Oak Hill seems ill-suited to Jordan’s flighty play; he has looked so shaky in crunch time lately I’m not sure he is ready to win anywhere. Rickie Fowler is trending, but after all these years lost in the wilderness it’s a big ask for him to win the national Open. Xander Schauffele at Hoylake seems like the best bet here.

Rickie?  Geez, some dreams die a hard death.... I can't decide which of his picks is the more ridiculous.

But obviously the one that grabs our interest right now is the first, and I've been a consistent skeptic that Rory can get it done.  But I first need to see a soft Augusta to like his chances at all.

Are you up for another Alan fever dream:

If the USGA or PGA went with a model of 8-9 courses to be rotated through every 10 years (the other 1-2 being wild cards), what would your preferred rotation look like? And what 2-3 wild cards would you like to include? #AskAlan @thestables1896

The USGA dabbles in new venues, but I want it to lean in on the classics. Meanwhile, the PGA of America needs to differentiate itself, and the easiest way would be an emphasis on new, buzz-worthy sites. I’d love to see these roots:

USGA: Pebble Beach, Winged Foot, Pinehurst, Oakmont, Oakland Hills, The Country Club, Los Angeles C.C. (it’s gonna be a smash hit), Shinnecock Hills, Olympic, Bethpage

Wild cards: Myopia Hunt, Merion, Cherry Hills, Chicago GC

PGA: Pine Valley, Prairie Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Sand Hills, Friar’s Head, Whistling Straits, Southern Hills, Bandon Trails, Ocean Course

Wild cards: Chambers Bay, National Golf Links, Quail Hollow

The USGA list is mostly chalk, except for Bethpage which is firmly in the PGA orbit with it's 2025 Ryder Cup.

But the PGA list is empty virtue signaling, given that most are too small and too remote to host elite players, unless they roll the ball back to the featherie...  I like Pacific Dunes as much as the next guy, but they likely want more than twelve fans on the golf course....

Q: No matter how you slice it, the proposed ball rollback is a rule aimed at only a few thousand golfers worldwide. Why are the governing bodies so interested in policing the pro game? It has no impact on amateurs or the courses we play. #askalan @kevin_demsky

You just eloquently explained why the USGA has decided to bifurcate the rules! No one is going to touch your ball, or mine. We can keep chasing the distance we desperately need. But professional golf is a powerful force in our game—it inspires and educates and entertains weekend hackers. Alas, modern, tech-infused athletes have gained too much of an advantage over their ancient playing fields. The USGA is trying to slow the inexorable distance gains and restore some balance in how the pro game is played. I think it’s the right call.

It's a longer argument than that, but fair enough....

But here's where it gets interesting:

Can you please comment (go ahead and ramble) on Tiger’s chances once the ball changes for the majors?? He’ll still be under 50 and playing with a shape-y ball!! Getting goosie bumpies. @tommy_tracker

This is an underrated and still unknown piece of the rollback: How much more with the new balls spin compared to the current versions that have minimal curve? If it’s a lot, that certainly helps an artiste like Tiger, especially because he grew up playing that game while all these twenty-something hot shots came of age in the Pro-V1 era. I mean, if we went to balatas for this year’s Masters, Tiger would have to be the favorite, despite everything.

Which only scratches at the surface, though they have been vague about whether their ball will spin more.  The whole point is that the elite game now has devalued ball-striking, and we want the game to be more than a putting contest.

That'll have to sate you for the moment, as I need to get on with my day.  Enjoy the match play, asa you might not see another anytime soon.

Weekend Wrap

Late to the keyboard, I'll just have to type faster....I'll do my best to keep the typos down to no more than one per word.

Moore's Law - You can Google it if it's unfamiliar, but the gist of it is that, try as one might to arrange the outcome, golf stubbornly remains golf....  Geoff seems to get it:

Another week, another reminder of how fun PGA Tour fandom can be when a superstar fends off against players trying to make a life-changing check.

Enjoy it while it lasts!

C'mon, Geoff, how can we grow this game if we let just anyone in?  We should just let the Taylor Moore's and Adam Schenk's of the world know that they're not of our class, Dearie.

No need to belabor the obvious—limited designated events are not the answer— but Jordan Spieth may have blown it badly Sunday. But he is rounding into form and Tommy Fleetwood seems poised

to be a presence in 2023’s majors. Still, the big winner was the old Tour model where an “anything can happen” vibe makes it fun to be a fan. The juxtaposition of the stars going up against the Indiana farmboy-whose-wife-is-eight-months-pregnant trying to win—Adam Schenk—made for pretty great TV despite a return to the privilege of Playing Through.

While we were tracking those storylines, little-known Taylor Moore posted a life-changing final round 67 to win the 2023 Valspar Championship.

Moore entered the Valspar ranked 103rd in the world and without a top 10 finish. As a PGA Tour rookie last season, he recorded 10 top-25s, including four top-10s in 28 starts. The 29-year-old Texas native had recorded six top 25’s in nine cuts made this year, so he was somewhat top-form adjacent coming into the week.

I intend to continue belaboring it, Geoff, but we each have to make our own choices in this life.  perhaps turning your focus to the last ever match lay event will cheer you up?  Yeah, I know, not so much....

Before we get to the vivisection of the loser, this general reaction from the Tour Confidential gang:

It was a thrilling final hour at the Valspar Championship, with Taylor Moore birdieing two of his last four to win his first PGA Tour event. Moore had the clubhouse lead and watched as Jordan Spieth made a huge error on the 16th tee (but still made bogey) followed by another bogey at 18; Adam Schenk also made a closing bogey to lose by one. What’s your main takeaway from how this one unraveled?

James Colgan: We learned that Spieth could play a “boring” (his word) round of golf with a share of the 54-hole lead and still lose. He might be further from the 2015 world-beater than we realized.

Dylan Dethier: This is basically the ideal recipe for future non-designated events: Close finish involving a mix of big names and relative unknowns. There’s so much at stake that the results are intriguing either way, and now we can put those results in better context.

Alan Bastable: I don’t know how that tee shot into the water at 16 doesn’t stick with Jordo for a while. In a tie for the lead at that point, at 10 under, his destiny was squarely in his own hands, and he missed his mark by 40 yards, maybe more. He said afterward he was trying to hit a “straight fade” with his 3-wood but bailed on the swing and caught the ball on the heel. Hard to win in tight contests on the PGA Tour without fully committed swings. The short birdie try on 17 also looked a bit tentative. By the way, big hat tip to Taylor Moore — a Sunday 67 on this major-grade setup was proper golf.

So much at stake, Dylan?   I'm finding it hard to take that seriously when the event comes with a warning label to the effect that the organization promoting it has determined it to be insignificant.  It's pretty basic stuff but, when you identify some events as being elevated or designated, you've at the same time informed us that it might be a good weekend to watch college basketball.

Your humble blogger agrees with Geoff and Dylan that this should be interesting, less because of the bold-faced name than those two rabbits fighting for their professional lives.  

Everyone seems optimistic about Jordan, an opinion I'm struggling to understand.  Geoff apparently has the receipts:

• Spieth’s driving turned ugly Sunday, including the only shot any longtime Innisbrook watcher knows you can’t hit at the 16th. (Five others made the same mistake Sunday.) 

• Spieth’s tee shot into the par-3 17th was the closest to the hole by anyone in the final round (6 feet, 8 inches). He missed the putt. 

• Still, Spieth fans have to be encouraged by this improving numbers heading to Augusta. In particular, his iron game is coming around and that new awkward look over the putter still had more good than ugly moments. His Valspar numbers from ShotLink:

The TC panel had these thoughts as well:

Spieth has had an interesting past few weeks, with a cold putter holding him back at Bay Hill, some inconsistent rounds at TPC Sawgrass and now this uneven finish at Innisbrook.

He’s been top 20 in his last three starts, but has the mix of flashes and burnouts over the past few starts given you more reason for optimism or concern when it comes to his Masters prospects?

Colgan: Given the state of his game, it’s always fair to assume Spieth will be a relevant part of the conversation come Masters week. But his penchant for the big mistake means if he’s in the hunt, he’ll be must-see TV — for better or worse.

Dethier: Optimism, for sure. Spieth demonstrated something important at the Valspar: a well-rounded attack. He gained strokes off the tee, with his irons, around the green and on the green. And even though he had disappointing shortish misses on both the 17th and 18th greens, this week was only encouraging. There’s no mistaking this version of Spieth for the youngster we saw win the Masters nearly a decade ago. There’s more effort. But Spieth also seems to be embracing his current game, for better and for worse. That appears to be working.

Bastable: Dylan framed it well — the game has never looked effortless for Spieth but of late even his best play looks like really hard work. But you still have to like how he’s trending. Spieth said he made only two bad swings Sunday — the water ball at 16 and another Big Right Miss into the trees on 6 — and his one-under 70 on a tough Copperhead course was bested by only three players in the top-15 finishers. If he can keep himself in contention week to week, Tour win No. 14 won’t be far off. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if it comes at ANGC.

To his credit, Spieth does appear to have upped his ball-striking recently, gaining strokes in most tee-to-green categories.  But while he shows good numbers with the putter this week, did anyone think he looked comfortable on the greens?  I think Alan Bastable is under-counting the bad swings, but Mark Broadie might need to create a metric that will measure how bad that swing on the 16th tee was.... and I'd add the crucial putt on No. 17 to that list.

And while we're making fun of Jordan's half-hearted birdie putt on the penultimate hole, what are we to make of that par putt on No,. 18?

Enter Schenk’s playing partner, Jordan Spieth. For 15 holes it had looked every bit like Spieth might just steal this one from under Schenk’s nose. But that would be far too simple; where

Spieth goes, chaos follows. He hit a massive block-slice into the water off 16 and wound up getting up and down from 160 yards just to save bogey. He hit a terrific 4-iron to seven feet at No. 17 and, facing a putt that tie him for the lead, missed it just right. And then came the 18th hole.

Spieth needed birdie to force a playoff with Moore, but his approach shot came up just short and spun back to 48 feet. He made sure to get that putt to the hole and raced it three and a half feet past.

“Having to rip the one on 18 to make sure I got it there put me in a tough spot on the next one,” he said.

That next one? That ticklish three-and-a-half footer? Spieth jammed it past the left edge. He finished out for bogey and T3 alongside Tommy Fleetwood. That left Schenk alone in second place. That means more money. It means more points. And it means the best finish of his PGA Tour career.

Just how big a difference did Spieth’s final miss make?

Solo second paid Schenk $882,900, the biggest check of his career. Had he tied for second with Spieth he would have earned $162,000 less. (If you’re looking for the flip side, Spieth’s slip to T3 actually cost him $243,000, although he still earned $477,900. I supposed it’s worth acknowledging that both these men shouldn’t have trouble affording diapers.)

That's a long excerpt for a marginal payoff, so bear with me.  First, when Spieth missed that come-backer, Employee No. 2 asked me if he might have done that on purpose to help the expectant father.... I don't actually think Jordan is sufficiently secure with his status to do so, but is Jordan badly missing a short putt something that cries out for an explanation?  To me it's something SOP....

But more to the point, that wedge was another shot that should have made Alan Bastable's list of bad swings... He got a huge break on a bad tee shot, yet with a wedge in his hand he didn't sniff the hole.

And, speaking of bad tee shots, Mr. Schenk's reminded your humble blogger of another critical 18th hole tee shot, Mito Pereira's at Southern Hills.  It's heart-breaking in its own way, a guy sensing a chance to change his professional life, with his pregnant wife looking on.  On that swing he gave into the pressure, but this is the essence of our game, so naturally they want to take it away... Can't let you folks see anything that dramatic....Nope, wouldn't be prudent.

Though how about that left-handed recovery shot?  The game is so cruel... Didn't think he could even reach the fairway, yet ends up making such good contact that it ran through the fairway into a nasty lie.  That whole sequence was so great and unscripted....Lord knows we can't allow that.

LIV Redux - If you wanted to create a parody golf tour, what would you do differently?  Seriously, the bride turned it on and we couldn't stop giggling:

LIV Golf Tucson went to a four-way playoff Sunday evening, and it was Danny Lee who emerged from the pack after three extra holes.

The 32-year-old from New Zealand defeated Carlos Ortiz, Louis Oosthuizen and Brendan Steele in a playoff at the Gallery Club in Marana, Arizona, and will leave with not just the trophy, but also the $4 million top prize. The win is Lee’s first in just his second start since joining the LIV Golf League this year. He previously hadn’t won since 2015 at the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic.

OK, so bear with me until I stop laughing..... It is true that Danny won at the Greenbrier in 2015 (and that venue is now ironically hosting a LIV event), and it's equally true that he hasn't won since 2015.  But, what has the Kiwi done since 2015?  All of this, according to his Wikipedia page:

2019

In the 2019 PGA Championship, Lee announced he was now working with golf coach George Gankas which was netting him a significant increase in length off his tee shots; especially his driver. He opened with a 64 (−6) and was only one off Brooks Koepka's lead.[43] He then followed with scores of 74, 71, and 77 to finish tied for 36th.

2020

At the 2020 U.S. Open, Lee made the 36 hole cut, but later withdrew from the championship after the third round citing a wrist injury; he had earlier taken six putts from close range on the final hole

2022

Lee played using Parsons Xtreme Golf equipment during the 2021 season following his departure from TaylorMade.[45]

2023

Following his appearance at the Genesis Invitational on the PGA Tour in February, Lee joined LIV Golf ahead of its second season.

Wow, so we know that he made at least the one cut in those eight years....  Makes perfect se4nse that they would sign him and that he would dominate.

This might be the perfect epitaph for LIV:

Danny Lee thought he'd never win again, but was last man standing in LIV Golf Tucson playoff

He faced quite the dilemma.  It was either the C-flight of his club championship or LIV....

Alan Shipnuck seems to have assumed the role of Chief Apologist for the bonecutters, though shouldn't someone have thought to name one of the teams the Scary Mofo's?  I mean, c'mon guys, lean in to the beheadings and misogyny....  Because Alan says we can't be critical of the Saudis because of Jim Crowe or Abu Ghraib or something...

Unfortunately for Alan, he's previously declared Charles Howell, III the ideal champion, so he won't hae any superlatives left for Danny Lee.  But there was a players meeting and not all the guys are over the moon:

The insouciant vibe was at odds with the growing pains LIV is currently experiencing. The players had gathered in a Ritz ballroom for a mandatory meeting led by commissioner Greg Norman and chief operating officer Gary Davidson. Among the topics addressed were the coming drug-testing procedures and a new pace-of-play policy, of which one player says, in a tone as dry as the Sonoran desert, “It’s basically modeled on the [PGA] Tour’s, so expect it to be just as effective.” But the biggest revelation of the night was the ongoing evolution of LIV’s business model, which has led to a certain amount of behind-the-scenes consternation. Louis Oosthuizen, captain of the all-South African Stinger squad, is one of the most mild-mannered folks in golf, but he was utterly flummoxed when approached (the following day) for comment about the meeting. “Sorry mate, I don’t want to talk about any politics or any controversy,” he said.

At the heart of the matter is LIV’s accelerated timeline. Its executives refer to 2023 as Year 1, and the original plan was to hold 10 tournaments this season and introduce the fully baked-out team component in 2024 as part of a slate of 14 events. But internally, the beta test season of 2022 was judged a monumental success, based on the buzz created by the breakaway league—almost all of it was about the macro stories and not the competition, but disregard that for now—and the signing of so many Hall of Famers, Ryder Cup stars, major champions and U.S. Amateur winners. During a tumultuous offseason, LIV decided to fast-track its business plan by a full year, conducting 14 tournaments in ’23 and going all-in on the team concept, which has palpably bonded and energized its players. LIV desperately needs to build fan interest and differentiate itself from the PGA Tour, and the team component is its best selling point. But now some players’ expectations, and contracts, are misaligned with what’s best for the league as a whole. A hint at the related palace intrigue was the abrupt resignation in November of president and COO Atul Khosla.

Growing pains?  yeah, that's a good one.... Though I've stubbornly failed to sense any of that buzz to which he alludes.

Schadenfreude alert:  It just so happens, and you couldn't make this up, that they guys are now fighting over.....well, money:

Says one player, “Some guys thought their contracts for this year are for 10 tournaments, not 14. But even with more tournaments there is no bump in the guaranteed money they signed for. Last year the players kept their share of the team winnings”—Pat Perez famously won over $8 million on the season despite an average individual finish of 32nd—“but now that money goes back to the team. I heard one guy say, ‘Why are we standing on a podium spraying each other with champagne when we don’t get the money?’ So that’s interesting. And now there is talk that [LIV leadership] wants to put more of the total purse toward the team component. But, again, guys have it in their contract they would be playing for $20 million on their own. So you can imagine there is a lot of conversation right now.”

It is often said that LIV has unlimited resources, so shouldn’t all of this be easily solvable with more barrels of money? LIV could just add $10 million to each purse for the team component and everyone would be happy, right?

One LIV executive counters that its financial forecasting extends for 10 years, so a purse increase of only $2 million per tournament quickly becomes a $250 million expense that has to go into the model.

Where do these guys get these crazy ideas?   You give an over-the-hill player $200 million and the guys start to think you're made of money....

Who knew the beat reporters are hardest hit?

Indeed, the most important barometer is the press room lunch: Last year featured decadent buffets with hot entrees and a cornucopia of desserts, but in Tucson it was the same cold sandwiches and pre-packaged cookies day after day. OK, that’s not the most important barometer, but it is symptomatic of larger belt-tightening.

OK, those decadent buffets at least are the first logical explanation I've heard of why you're so in the bag for these guys.... But this bit is funny because of how hard Alan works to avoid the obvious explanation:

To get things off the ground in 2022, LIV covered all of the travel expenses for the players and (most of) their entourages, but now those costs have been offloaded to each team. That decision might be traced to the pique of His Excellency Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which pays all of LIV’s bills. (Al-Rumayyan is also chairman of Saudi Aramco, which reported a $161 billion profit in 2022.) Norman is the frontman, but al-Rumayyan, who is often referred to internally at LIV as “The Investor,” is calling the shots. Last year he provided a deluxe 747 charter to ferry players from LIV Portland to the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland but was furious when social media posts made the plane look like a flying frat party. There are no chartered jets this year. Al-Rumayyan and his deputy, Majed al-Sorour, were omnipresent at the LIV events last year, bro-hugging their way through the pro-ams and hosting Tuesday night player parties with fancy wines. But they have been noticeably absent this year, a signal they are now treating LIV more like a business and not a fantasy camp for weekend hackers with PIF money.

Really?  You're suggesting that the Wahabis have anger issues..... I never expected that from a bunch of scary mofos...

But Alan might want to remind himself of that recent decision in the antitrust lawsuit as it relates to al-Rumayyan making himself scarce.  

I'm sure the players will embrace the new penny-pinching era:

“Every expense is getting double- and triple-checked now,” says another player. “Just take a look at the musical acts.” Last year LIV hosted post-round concerts for fans featuring headliners including Diplo, Jason Durelo, Nelly and, not least, the Chainsmokers, stolen away from the warm embrace of the PGA Tour. On Friday in Tucson, the music came courtesy of a DJ with minimal star power.

I'm thinking that Jay is quite happy to have the Chainsmokers go over to the dark side, as that was likely his worst moment as Commish.  

But this to me is an admission against interest:

All of this is not to say that LIV is unwilling to pour more money into its product in its ongoing war of attrition with the PGA Tour. “When we committed to $25 million purses two years ago, that was by far the biggest in the game,” the executive says. “Now the Players Championship purse is $25 million and other Tour events are at $20 million. So that’s something that we are looking at and will continue to evaluate.”

If the purses grow, it seems certain the money will be applied to the team component. “It would maximize the team values,” says the exec, “because their valuations are based on revenue. From a pure business point of view, it would have made more sense from the very beginning to put all of the purse toward the teams [as LIV does now with its season-ending $50 million extravaganza]. But that would have been a vast departure from what the world of golf has known forever, and we wouldn’t have been able to sign all the players. In time we may move in that direction—we’re fluid on that.”

That will only be possible when enough existing player contracts expire, or are restructured. A handful of the biggest stars have contracts through 2026 or ’27, but otherwise, says a second LIV executive, “There aren’t as many multi-year deals as people think.”

Yeah, they've saddled themselves with some dreadful contracts, Phil no doubt ultimately being their biggest albatross  (not the golf kind but the Coleridge kind).

Alas, I might have jumped the gun on that epitaph thing.  This is quite the strong contender as well:

Na offered some needed perspective when he described the discord as “first-world problems.” He was unbothered by any proposed changes to how the money gets doled out, saying he’s not even sure what is specified in his contract. “It’s a long contract!” he says with a laugh. “I’ll have to ask my agent.” In the perfect coda to this moment in professional golf, Na adds, “There is a shit-ton of money out here, and I already got a shit-ton. If you play well, you’re gonna win a shit-ton more. I’m not worrying about the details.”

Alas, you'll get that shit-ton of money even if you don't play well, the option most of their big names seem to have taken.

Of course, Mr. Na will limit his financial concerns to those 48 guys:

The cost of pricey premiums to land the likes of Steele, Lee and Pereira… https://t.co/lmFpJGITpu 

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) March 19, 2023

But I for one did not have those scary mofos turning into beancounters on my bingo card.... So, that might be the most interesting takeaway from Return to Dove Mountain.

I haven't verified the above tweet, nor this one as well:

You can’t make this up:

According to multiple sources, Phil Mickelson had “About 17%” of his LIV money in Silicon Valley Bank. pic.twitter.com/7jYYNmczvi

— Tour Golf (@TuorGolf) March 18, 2023

Why do you think they're making all depositors whole?  Other wise Callaway or Billy Walters would have to bail him out.

 But Alan felt a tingle up his leg that he called a buzz.  He doesn't seem to have had much company, at least per this early report:

LIV Golf’s TV ratings somehow get worse with Tucson event

Exactly what I'd expect, once those who tuned into Mayakoba just to see what it was all about had their curiosity sated:

Remember when LIV Golf was supposed to take over the sport?

It’s definitely not doing that with it’s television ratings so far on The CW Network.

According to a report, the ratings spiraled downward during its second event of the year this weekend in Tucson, Ariz.

Kevin Van Valkenburg of the golf-centric No Laying Up reports that LIV Golf scored a 0.14 rating in the key 18-49 demographic across 33 markets from their Arizona-based showcase on Saturday.

It’s a worse performance than just three weeks prior.

I'm sure we'll see a follow-up similar to that after Mayakoba, informing us that every human being in North America tuned in to the streaming broadcast...  But those 120 million homes that can access the CW seem stubbornly resistant to the charms of Golf, But Louder™.  Who coulda seen that coming?

I shall have to leave you here and pick up the thread later this week.