Adam Schupak with the unfortunate news of the 2017 Greenbrier Classic being in jeopardy due to necessary green rebuilding and regrassing caused by recent flooding.
The issues facing the resort pale in comparison to the troubles of those who lost lives and homes, but still a blow to the region should things not be able to be grassed in time.
The Old White TPC, host course for the tournament, suffered extensive damage from the flooding and was deemed “beyond reasonable repair to conduct the tournament,” Tour officials said. The tournament, scheduled for July 7-10, was cancelled on June 25.
“I’ve witnessed a lot of natural disasters to golf courses, but nothing to this extent, nothing even close,” said Roth, of the damage to the tournament course located in the Allegheny Mountains in White Sulphur Springs, West Va.
There isn't much to get excited about with this year's WGC Bridgestone, especially given that without it on the schedule in an Olympic year, the players would have a lot less to gripe about with excessive playing options.
But we march along so the boys can collect their easy $50k, world ranking points and--silver lining alert--huge driving distance numbers!
As Mike Stachuraexplains after seeing Justin Thomas hit a 413-yard drive, Firestone remains one of the few courses were players can hit driver on nearly every non-par-3. But with an earlier date on the schedule and less humidity, Stachura says the field's 317.3 yard average from last year should be down this year.
If it's not...
What’s the number to beat? Aside from last year’s 317.1-yard mark, the tournament with the highest driving-distance average in the last year was the Shriners Hospital Open in Las Vegas last fall at 305.4.
Now, is it fair to say that if the average this week surpasses last year’s number, there should be more concern about driving distance increasing? Statistically speaking, it’s merely one set of data that carries as much weight in determining trends as does the driving-distance average at Harbour Town for the RBC Heritage, which this year was 278.8 yards. That’s, in a nutshell, the point the USGA was making in its recent report about the relatively modest growth in driving distance over the last dozen years or so.
If you listened to ShackHouseepisode 7, you know I shared the view of several PGA Tour insiders that the longtime Doral stop was soon coming to an end and likely headed to Mexico as a World Golf Championship tournament.
Business Insiderpicked up the comments, but I've held out on doing a story in hopes of pinning down what city and course is in the running to replace a storied PGA Tour stop.
(Background: The PGA Tour had a long term deal to play events at Doral but they had an out should they not be able to secure a sponsor. With Cadillac done as sponsor of the WGC at Doral, the tour has not been able to find a sponsor and has been planning its exit.)
Now it seems the host at Doral, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, revealed today on Hannity that the tour is taking its annual Miami stop to Mexico City and he hopes they have kidnapping insurance!
Here is the video, followed by a Tweeted transcript with the kidnapping comment.
Let's pause for a moment to giggle at the PGA Tour taking an event to Mexico, away from the person who is campaigning on jobs and business being lost to...Mexico or Mexican immigrants.
Now, the serious (golf) issues at hand here:
--The PGA Tour has been going to Miami since at least 1961 and Doral was an important event before being turned into a WGC by Commissioner Tim Finchem. WGC's are costlier to sponsor and therefore prone to be moved, altered and stripped of identity.
--Trump has invested heavily into the resort and course with great results. While he may have intervened in course setup and may have been too high of a profile for the tour or sponsors, the event is seemingly is a great sponsorship opportunity due to its place on the schedule, the status of Trump Doral and the Miami market. Apparently the tour no longer can convince a sponsor of that.
--At a time the PGA Tour is considering opting out of its current TV deal with the networks, it is considering saddling a network with a WGC in a country other than the United States and one that only gives candidate Trump more fodder for one of his key campaign themes. I'm not sure how that creates leverage for the tour, only headaches.
--Instead of just letting the Doral event die and opening up a spot on the schedule, a replacement event is the goal because executive bonuses are tied to playing opportunities. Even when the playing opportunity might be in Mexico City!
--Finchem is possibly positioning the PGA Tour to become a focal point of the presidential campaign as he's preparing to opt-out of a television contract. A wiser commish less-focused on his golden parachute would have had the tour self-sponsor the event for a year to ride out the campaign.
Longtime readers know I feel a Pinehurst-like restoration to the originalPete Dye vibe would look livelier, more interesting, more environmentally-responsible and more visually intimidating. Done right, it might even justify the price of golf here in the way that Pinehursts's renaissance has restored a singularity to No. 2.
As difficult as the TPC remains, today's equipment and conditioning means the TPC Sawgrass has been left behind and green speed is one of its last defenses. It's an unfathomable notion given that this course was viewed as too tough when it opened, and the bermuda rough lining the fairways has not instilled much fear.
Jason Day hitting iron-3-wood to the once unreachable 9th? Dustin Johnson launching a 372 yard drive there as well, and too many other instances of players able to bomb and gouge has to be an alarming sight for those insisting the course should not be updated. I will argue until I'm blue in the face that there was not an intentional effort to reverse the low scoring by the tour staff on Saturday, but a strong case can be made that the green speeds we saw are motivated by a desire to keep an immacutely-groomed, scoreable course relevant.
As for the look of the TPC, two-time former PlayersChampionSteve Elkingtonnoted this on Twitter:
They've made the course for the $600 choppers, it's to plush, it used to be like Pine valley , unpredictable https://t.co/0Cj4RO4ur5
Ultimately, the weird dynamics we saw at TPC Sawgrass boil down to one thing: the fear factor has been lost.
Getting that back won't be easy because of modern driving distance prowess, but at least bringing back some of the rusticity to TPC Sawgrass--and a few back tees--would help for the long term good of The Players.
As we get ready to kick off another unpredictable Players Championship (Sean Martinon the amazingly wild track records at TPC for top players even those who have played well here), Cameron Morfit talks to a few folks about the challenges facing likely incoming Commissioner Jay Monahan.
In the short term, Morfit outlines howMiami, Trump and the WGC figure to be a huge matter, as will FedEx in 2017 if Commissioner Reset isn't able to secure a new deal before he hands over his NetJets card.
But as I've outlined in a few posts, the tour seems to be building some leverage with television networks for the next deal with various media ventures. Morfit's reporting suggests what I suspected: the tour is operating with a bit of a chip on its shoulder for having been out negotiated by Comcast when signing for 15 years to be on Golf Channel exclusivity with no out clause, even as the network takes on the money losing leftovers like the Web.com and Champions Tours.
Ogilvie, who was on the policy board when the Tour's 15-year deal with Golf Channel was announced in 2006, says Monahan will have to shore up the main TV deal, which he says is costing players money. Ogilvie's assessment is based on recent sports-television deals, specifically the 12-year Fox-USGA pact, which was said to be worth around $100 million a year when it was announced in '13.
"The Tour left $700 million to $1 billion on the table when it did the deal with Golf Channel," Ogilvie says. "There's been astronomical growth since then, and with 20/20 hindsight Comcast got a sweetheart deal. Tim went for what was safe, and you can't fault him for that."
Pre-20/20 hindsight, the deal got all early rounds on TV, which as I recall, was a pretty big deal and has been sensational for the players. No one could have seen rights fees going the way they did, so the tour has nothing to be bitter about. Except that the rights craze may be subsiding and nets like ESPN and Fox are likely not going to be bidding on any golf.
A newly announced PGA Tour/LPGA Tour/Topgolf "strategic alliance" was announced yesterday and while LPGA Commish Mike Whan appeared to have thought about the possibilities, Commissioner Ben Carson was alarmingly disengaged about possible fun ideas.
Therefore, my suggestions for the alliance at GolfDigest.com for scaling, leveraging, baking and of course, platforming the fast-growing Topgolf brand on the C-level. (That's C as in championship level).
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning Drive, is co-host of The Ringer's ShackHouse is the author of eleven books.
The issues facing the resort pale in comparison to the troubles of those who lost lives and homes, but still a blow to the region should things not be able to be grassed in time.
