PGA Tour, Twitter Team Up For 70 Hours Of Weekday Coverage

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Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick with details of a new PGA Tour-Twitter broadcast partnership that covers 31 events and 70 hours over the course of the season.

Essentially they will provide 60 or 90 minute pre-game show coverage before PGA Tour Live and Golf Channel's weekday coverage commences.

PGA Tour Live has been providing coverage in the pre-Golf Channel window and will continue to be there for its subscriber(s). Theoretically this deal will encourage more to sign up for the paid PGA Tour Live service and gives the Tour more of the digital presence new Commissioner Jay Monahan telegraphed in this Q&A. There is also the big-picture effort to create new distribution channels for eventual Golf Channel negotations when that deal expires in 2021.

Day Opens The Door For New Commish To Attack Slow Play

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New PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan probably took a few aspirin when he saw that world No. 1 Jason Day returned from time off and, unprompted, proudly touted plans to play slower in 2017.

After all, the new Commish has more on his plate than you'd expect given the supposedly great product Saint Finchem left behind. Big picture stuff like trying to fix a confusing schedule, repairing relations with sponsors and keeping FedEx around should be Monahan's first-month priority instead of jumping in on the slow play debate.

But did Day just hand Monahan the perfect opening to attack the slow play problem?

Because of Finchem's many blind spots related to the actual product of PGA Tour golf, none was more perverse and damaging as his desire to see pace of play policies ignored. Finchem prioritized protecting the gentleman's game imagery above the gentlemanly behavior of playing golf at a considerate pace. Finchem never shied from bragging about his players taking hats off and shaking hands for the 18th green cameras.

Slow players? That could be swept under the rug because television wouldn't show someone rudely taking three minutes to play a shot, until they started showing such antics down the stretch because they had no choice. Then a Sean O'Hair or Kevin Na or Jason Day made it apparent how ungentlemanly it is for someone with PGA Tour level talent to take that long to hit a shot, and the Commissioner openly resisted penalty shots.

It is no coincidence that in the nearly 20 years Finchem was in office, the last penalty occurred in his first months on the job and never since. He also worked to undermine the stature of his officials by prolonging contract negotiations and underpaying the unionized force charged with enforcing the rules. And don't think players were oblivious to this neutralization of the referees or the amount of time that has passed since the last penalty (1995).

Even the USGA appeared has bowed to Finchem, implementing its very effective pace of play system at all but the one of its championships. It just happens to be the one where coddled PGA Tour players play: the U.S. Open.

Now that Finchem is retired, the PGA Tour slowpokes' sense of taking as much time as they'd like came flooding out of Day's mouth prior to Kapalua's 2017 season kickoff event. With no fear of being penalized and a rumored $10 million a year from Nike to pay any minor fines, Day made clear he's not going to rush himself.

The full comment:

Imagine a pitcher declaring that he will not throw a pitch until he's ready or a free-throw shooter backing off five times before taking a free shot? The leagues would crack down. 

In an era when no sport can afford to be seen as slowing down, the PGA Tour has shied away from enforcement that might help solve the problem. However, a new commissioner is in town and he's just been given a natural opening to push back.

Monahan shied away from taking a strong stand on slow play in a Q&A at PGATour.com earlier this week, understandably not needing to start his tenure off on a combative foot. Yet Jason Day has uttered comments  far removed from the simple reality that the PGA Tour survives on its entertainment value, not on how it pads Day's bank account. The suggestion he will back off until he's ready made clear Day's entitlement level runs so deep that even his truest believers might not feel sorry to see a PGA Tour rules official stalking him around Kapalua. And Torrey Pines. Or any fairway he pitches his tent upon to indulge himself at the expense of our viewing pleasure.

SBJ's Predictions For 2017: Look For FedExCup Changes, No New PGA Tour Broadcast Deal

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There are a couple of intriguing insider notes from SBJ's well-connected John Ourand related to PGA Tour business in this 2017 predictions column.

9. No new broadcast deal for PGA Tour

It’s no secret that the PGA Tour will have conversations with CBS and NBC about opening up their broadcast deals. But the tour knows that there’s no big deal to be had here. The big media money comes in 2021 when the PGA Tour’s cable rights with Golf Channel are up. Until then, look for the PGA Tour to cut interesting streaming deals with companies like Facebook and Twitter as it studies the landscape before its cable negotiations kick in.

The column also includes a note on Amazon's desire to get into sports this year, though Ourand cited the emerging streaming network as targeting other sports such as tennis.

10. FedEx Cup changes coming

There’s been a lot of talk inside the tour about shortening the FedEx Cup so that it would not run up against college and pro football games in September. The tour will decide this year that it will conclude the FedEx Cup on Labor Day weekend starting in 2019. The knock-on effect from the compressed August schedule will see the PGA Championship moved from August to May and the Players Championship moved from May to March. That will start the golf season with a lot of momentum with one big event a month (from the Players to the Masters to the PGA Championship).

I'm still struggling to see how this works for the PGA of America in two big ways: agronomically and financially. A May date all but rules out several markets they visit or want to revisit (Rochester, Minneapolis, middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin), while the August date is actually a decent one given the fairly uncrowded landscape.

From a historical perspective, giving up the August date for the low-rated, lowly-anticipated FedExCup also seems short-sighted.

On the plus side, returning The Players to March beefs up a Florida swing already feeling a little depleted by the elimination of the Doral stop, while a May PGA Championship would open up a few markets of interest.

Finchem Hints At World Cup Format As Possible Olympic Sport

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If you've been busy with the holidays and unable to watch the ISPS Handa World Cup from Kingston Heath, you've missed out on some glorious golf architecture and pretty good golf. The stakes figure to get a lot more intersting Friday when the players go back to foursomes play. The event wraps up Saturday night at 5pm on Golf Channel as four-ball play decides the title.

Since the Zurich Classic received a very warm reception for its move to a two-man team format, the momentum seems to be headed toward team play in the Olympic Games.

Adam Pengilly of The Age reports on the first hopeful sign of progress, from that progressive Commissioner his ownself, Tim Finchem.

"The feedback is very positive [on team-based formats]," the PGA Tour's Commissioner said. "We're looking at the formats for 2020 and we like individual competition, but we'd also like to mix in a different competition or two and we're looking at different possibilities.

"We might end up saying, 'we'll keep it the way it is', we might recommend a couple of changes on certain days where we do a different type of competition. And it also affects scheduling so we're looking how that all works."

So we know individual competition is staying because this game of individualists is addicted to 72-holes of stroke play. (Even though until the last days, golf came off as a painful slog in the context of the higher, faster, stronger Games).

But we know two-person team match play would be superb. Two days, at least, are needed for that.

So if you factor in individual stroke play, we're up to at least six competition days. With the PGA Tour showing no interest in ceasing play for two weeks every four years, the pressure to keep things as tight as possible could actually be used to Olympic golf's advantage.

Because right now, by adding team competition of some kind, we're looking at 12 days of competition between men and women. That may be too much for officials, fans and volunteers.

There is a final key caveat as explained to me by IGF officials who will create and present any changes: the IOC does not want to see two medal competitions in one.

Translation: a team medal cannot be awarded from the stroke play competition.

So here is my final offer:

72-holes of stroke play from a field of 60. Three medals will be awarded just like we saw in 2016. If you want to shorten the competition days to ten overall between men and women, make the first day a 36-hole first and second round. (Rio could not handle that due to shorter winter days, whereas Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles will all have plenty of daylight.)

From that competition, the low eight two-person teams (based on country with pairings pre-determined by world rankings), advance to a two-day match play event. They are broken up into Pools A and B based on seedings from the stroke play competition. (Countries that only send one player or an odd number of three will not be included, sorry.)

Day one of the two-person team match play is a 27-hole day, with three 9-hole foursomes matches played by each team within their pool. With nine-holes and foursomes, you may be looking at some very quick matches, addressing the speed issue that plagues the game.

The two top teams advance from those pools to an 18-hole gold medal match, with the runners-up playing an an 18-hole bronze medal match. How ties in the pools are decided, I'm not sure. But sudden death playoffs would be fun.

So to recap: five or six days of competition, with stroke play while team foursomes match play introduces a shorter, faster, high-pressure format. Both nine-hole rounds and alternate shot are put on an international stage for the world to see golf is not the slog it can sometimes be.

What do you think?

Update On Tour, Microsoft Putting Tracking Effort

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It was a year ago that the partnership was announced and some of us got to see demos of the PGA Tour/Shotlink/Microsoft effort to enhance both the presentation and culling of ShotLink data.

The most interesting component appears to be the upgrade of putting stats, which will give players some incredible data on their tendencies. But as Doug Ferguson reports, the ability to put the lasers to good use could some day have a profound effect on a telecast.

This is from ShotLink's Steve Evans...

"With this system, let's say it's a 30-foot putt. We'll know a foot off the putter how fast the ball is moving," Evans said. "It's gives us a much more accurate projection on where it will end."

Imagine how fun it would be if that information could be incorporated in a graphic popping up on the screen a bit off the putter face what the percentage chances are of the ball going in the hole?

It's still a ways off but that could be just the kind of fun use of technology revolutionizing the least interesting and most heavily seen part of a golf telecast.

Guardian: Rolex Series Doesn't Bridge PGA Tour Gap

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Ewan Murray doesn't deliver a Guardian-endorsed stamp of approval to the European Tour's new Rolex Series.

He questions whether the expensive funneling of cash to events that were already stars on the ET schedule is a wise tact given the number of events in dire need of an attention infusion.

Pelley remains quite the showman but close analysis of his work continues to raise queries. What this Rolex Series will actually provide, barring more money at the elite level of the Tour and enhanced media coverage which it is hoped will make golf more accessible, is a cause for debate. The gulf in resource to the PGA Tour remains vast.

One could make a decent case for the batch of events as boosted, with the French Open being certain to follow, being strong enough in any case. What is being done for the poorly attended, unattractive stuff at the lower end? Pelley has to be careful not to pander only to the players at the top of his organisation.

Murray also touches on something that has left me confused about the Series and many of these concepts created in various tour headquarters.

There is no overall narrative to knit the seven tournaments together and no combined prize at the end of them. The European Tour already has an order of merit, which it is stressed will retain key status. This, it is feared, could add confusion; the announcement of a second money list, lost in the Rolex melee, certainly should. Golf hasn’t really grasped the concept of simplicity being king.

It's bizarre that tournament formats floated to break free of 72-hole stroke play are often branded as too complicated, yet we keep getting all of these odd money lists, points races and other algorithmatic nightmares that interest no one.

PGA Championship Contemplating A Permanent Move To May?

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There has been increased chatter about the Players Championship moving back to March, but the various headlines working off of Rex Hoggard's story suggesting a 2020 PGA Championship move to May missed the buried lede: golf's fourth major may be considering moving from August to May. Permanently.

Check out the key quotes from PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua, quoted by Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard about what we already knew (the 2020 event may be played in May to avoid the Tokyo Olympic Games), and what we hadn't expected:

“We are huge proponents of the Olympics. We are all about the Olympics, but we also have to protect the PGA Championship and we can’t just bounce the PGA Championship around every four years,” Bevacqua said.

Can't bounce around.

And...

“To truly make it work, to make it succeed and to make sure golf is in the Olympics for the next century, the whole schedule needs to be adjusted,” he said.

Bevacqua may be testing the waters to see how television and fans feels about the change, but I'd guess he and new PGA Tour Commish Jay Monahan have sketched out a new schedule post-2019 that moves the Players to March, the PGA to May and the "playoffs" to a conclusion before or on Labor Day.

This would be an enormous boost to the PGA Tour's moribund playoff product where ratings stink, the format does not resonate and players seem uninspired following the PGA Championship. But put the playoffs back a few weeks after The Open, inject just a little life in the format (play-off), and suddenly a few of those issues go away.

So it would make sense for the PGA Tour to move the Players back to March, allowing the PGA Championship to move permanently to May. Except that...

The PGA of America's PGA Championship currently owns an August date when there are few other major sporting events, giving it the opportunity to regularly register the second highest rated golf telecast of the year behind the Masters.

Furthermore, as difficult as August can be agronomically, May might be even more of a headache for northern venues that experience a long winter. Places like Rochester, Long Island, Whistling Straits and Minneapolis are all very tricky to get peak conditions in May, impossible in a freak year.

So thinking of this as a trade, I'm feeling like the PGA Tour gets the better end of the bargain, solving two huge issues. There has to be one piece for the PGA of America missing. Maybe a player to be named later or some cash sent along as a courtesy?

With a television contract due to expire after the 2019 PGA, it's clear the PGA of America CEO is testing the waters for a permanent move.