Honma's Mark King Leaves Honma For Taco Bell

Erica Newburger of CNBC reports on Mark King taking the job as Taco Bell CEO, but oddly does not mention his current gig as leader of Honma’s North American operation. Instead, the focus was on his time at Adidas and Taylor Made.

Assuming you consider this a promotion, as many would, it’s rare for a golf executive to move up in the corporate world.

I’m not sure what else it says given the world of boards, headhunters and “C-level” hires, but there is one less prominent voice in the manufacturing community to join the distance debate likely to occur this fall. King had a range of views on bifurcation over the years and as I noted when he was named an advisor to Honma, a poor track record in the later years of his Taylor Made run.

He will be replaced by John Kawaja, reports Jonathan Wall:

Honma announces EVP John Kawaja will become president of North America operations.

Per an announcement from Yum Brands, Mark King has accepted a new role as CEO of Taco Bell. Wild.

— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) July 25, 2019

PGA Tour Enlists DraftKings For Daily Fantasy Gaming Help

After years of pretty uninspired efforts to jumpstart fantasy league play, the PGA Tour has wisely joined forces with the real pros at this business, DraftKings. Looks like a very smart move if they can pry loose more than a dozen balls or some old headcovers for prizes.

For Immediate Release and now is time to take the “engagement” over/under? It’s 3:

DraftKings named “Official Daily Fantasy Game” of the PGA TOUR

“PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf” becomes TOUR’s first daily fantasy sports partner 

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA, AND BOSTON – The PGA TOUR and DraftKings Inc. announced a new multi-year content and marketing relationship today that designates DraftKings as the first-ever “Official Daily Fantasy Game of the PGA TOUR.” 

“We are excited to partner with DraftKings, an industry leader in innovation and fan engagement, in this groundbreaking step for the PGA TOUR,” said Luis Goicouria, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President Media. “The partnership with DraftKings provides the TOUR with a unique opportunity to innovate in a new industry and to further engage our fans.”

DraftKings will activate the partnership by branding its daily fantasy golf contests as “PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf.”

Nice, an activation and a branding in the same sentence.

By playing these contests, fans will have the opportunity to win cash prizes as well as an array of PGA TOUR prizes in the future. The offerings include Classic contests where fans choose six players each week on the PGA TOUR for their fantasy team all while staying under the designated salary cap.

Does this mean PGA Tour pros and their agents will be complaining to Tour headquarters when they perceive a slight when the designated salary suggests they are, uh, a great value?

Showdown contests are also available, which requires players to compile a team of six while staying under the designated salary cap for a single round of a tournament. Players have the option to compete with other PGA TOUR fans or in private, fully customizable contests with friends and colleagues.

As part of the new relationship, PGA TOUR DraftKings Fantasy Golf players will have the ability to receive real-time video highlights for players in their respective lineups. Other elements of this partnership will create expanded Draft Fantasy Sports specific content offerings, as well as allow for brand integration into both the PGA TOUR and DraftKings platforms. Lastly, the PGA TOUR and DraftKings will collaborate on a variety of real-time product enhancements via the PGA TOUR’s proprietary ShotLink powered by CDW data feed. 

“Golf continues to grow in popularity among DFS players globally at DraftKings and is our fourth-largest sport in terms of engagement, out of 15 total offerings.” said Ezra Kucharz, chief business officer of DraftKings. “Our partnership with the PGA TOUR signals a mutual commitment to excellence in customer experience along with a new era in golf fandom and engagement.”

The 21st Century's K Club? 2026 Ryder Cup To Adare Manor

Apparently we’re far enough removed from the K Club Ryder Cup to have forgotten the lessons of that forgettable experience to award JP McManus and Adare Manor the 2026 event.

Harry McGee reports for the Irish Times on Thursday’s announcement plans.

I understand that cold, hard cash is all that matters in European Tour Ryder Cup venue selection. Especially these days. But this still doesn’t mean we have to be excited by yet another inland, American-style course hosting in Europe. Just one links or mildly historic/interesting venue in this lifetime would be nice. Just one!

Players Offering Thoughts On Testing For Juiced Drivers

As I noted for Golfweek, Xander Schauffele going public with his failed driver test at The Open, and then stirring up a debate about hot drivers, has kept the incident in the news and led to some interesting comments from top players.

Jason Munz reports on player thoughts as they tee it up in Memphis this week, and while some inexplicably display life in the bubble by praising Schauffele for taking on the R&A—even after being caught playing an illegal club that was used in competition since January—there are some who don’t take this quite so lightly.

Justin Thomas says it’s on the makers to not let this happen:

“I think that’s on the manufacturers to make sure that (the clubs) are tested and that they are conforming,” he said. “Because that’s not fair to the rest of the field if guys are using some and some aren’t. We don’t have those tests just sitting in our living room (where) we can do them when we get home.”

While that is ideal, ultimately random testing is a better way to prevent a rogue player or clubmaker from skirting the rules.

Meanwhile Bryson DeChambeau tells Golf.com’s Jonathan Wall that the winner or top 5 should be tested every week and if they fail, can keep the win but take a hit elsewhere:

“If you did play a driver that was illegal, you take some FedEx Cup points away,” said DeChambeau, who has five Tour wins. “So you make your money and win, that’s great, but you lose half the points you made. It’s not like you should have the trophy taken away. That’s one way to deal with it. You putted well, you chipped well. But I think there needs to be some repercussions from using something that’s not under the conformance rules. If they want to challenge the ruling, they can go do some tests to see if it was truly over.”

Looks Like Shane Lowry Did The Right Thing Passing On Memphis In Favor Of A Homecoming Celebration

Look at that crowd in Clara! Grandma and the Jug met on stage, too…

View this post on Instagram

Well that was a bit mad. Thanks so much to everyone who organized last night and everyone who came out. 🇮🇪☘️

A post shared by Shane Lowry (@shanelowrygolf) on Jul 24, 2019 at 2:17am PDT

Incredible scenes as Shane Lowry takes to the scenes in Clara.

More than 10,000 turning out to welcome their hero home.#Lowry pic.twitter.com/04pG9cdkrq

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) July 23, 2019

Koepka Cruises To 22-Shot Win In The 2019 Majors (Among The Cutmakers)

I’ll have to look back but I don’t remember this kind of dominance except from you know around the turn of the century.

From Kyle Porter of CBSSports.com:

Video: Grandma Of Shane Lowry On Not Sleeping, Brandy For The First Time In A Decade

Great stuff from Emily Scanlon (below) on the agony and ecstasy of watching her grandson Shane Lowry win The Open at Royal Portrush. Nice work by RTE News to track her down. It’s a gem!

Meanwhile, Sean Martin of PGATour.com watched the final round from Esker Hills, Lowry’s home club, and reports on the celebrations at that working class golf clbu.

View this post on Instagram

🥃 'I hadn't drank a brandy since 2009 - drank two yesterday, it's nearly killing me.' Emily Scanlon has spoken of the celebrations and of how proud she is of her grandson, Shane Lowry, as the Offaly man celebrates his Open success. Golf champion Shane Lowry and his family have been celebrating his win at Royal Portrush yesterday. The 32-year-old won the tournament by six shots ahead of Tommy Fleetwood of England. Lowry becomes the fourth Irish player to lift the Claret Jug in 12 years, after Pádraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlory. Celebrations continued last night at his home golf club, Esker Hills, in Tullamore. Details of his homecoming are expected to be announced later today. President Michael D Higgins described Lowry's win as both a personal and historic victory, saying he had brought pride and joy not only to sports fans around Ireland but to the Irish everywhere. #golf #portrush #shanelowry

A post shared by RTÉ News (@rtenews) on Jul 22, 2019 at 5:39am PDT

From Portrush To TPC Southwind: Don't Tell Memphis This Is A Bad Thing

Mark Giannotto gets a very long column out of a harmless, and accurate Tweet from Kyle Porter about the jarring nature of the visual eye candy that was Portrush, and most of golf’s best turning up this week at TPC Southwind.

I get the sensitivity in Memphis but his comment was clearly directed at the beauty of Portrush and not a statement about the city, state, children’s hospital or anything else. Few people are looking forward to TPC Southwind after glorious Portrush. Make that, none are.

He at least blames the tour for this scheduling oddity, which will hopefully be remedied by a new date or putting this WGC out to pasture. The latter is an unlikely scenario.

Now it should be noted that Porter’s tweet did get at one notable issue this year. If you ignored that 46 of the world’s top 50 golfers will be here this week, it’s easy to see why a historic event for Memphis is being looked down upon by outsiders.

The PGA Tour deserves some blame for that.

FedEx used its leverage as the title sponsor of the Tour to get a world-class golf tournament in Memphis that still benefits St. Jude, a cause as worthy as any in professional sports. But then the Tour mucked it all up with its new, condensed schedule this season, effectively diminishing an event considered just a notch below a major by putting it immediately after a major.

Xander Needs To Let His Driver Test Rage Go...

Since it appears he has not thought this one through very well, and Callaway has the black eye in this according to this website’s poll (thank you as always for voting), I spell out for Golfweek why Xander Schauffele needs to stay quiet going forward regarding his hot driver failing a test last week.

His sponsors, peers and the governing bodies will be grateful.

From Tiger To Shane: Open Championship Overnights Down 42%

Big lead, no Tiger making his first run at a major in years and what do you get? A 2.9 for NBC and ratings decline for the 2019 Open Championship.

From SBD’s Austin Karp:

British Open final round dropped around 42% in overnight ratings on NBC. This was coming -- no big names at top of the leaderboard, a big lead for Shane Lowry and a comp to 2018 when Tiger was winning on Sunday. 2019 rating easily lowest for NBC since it reacquired rights in 2016

— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) July 22, 2019

The Skins Game Is Back! Sort Of

Bob Harig reports news of a Woods-McIlroy-Day-Matsuyama Skins Game this fall the same week—mlitzvah!—of the new $9.75 million Zozo Championship in Japan.

The event appears to be part of Woods’ deal with GolfTV and probably seals the fate of a repeat of The Match, last fall’s day-after-Thanksgiving-AT&T synergy play.

While the dollar figures or format are not known, it’s great to see the once-successful format back. Harig writes:

How much this version of a skins game will resemble that is unclear, but this event is part of an agreement Woods has to provide content to GolfTV, an entity that does interviews and other features with Woods at international locations that at this time do not include the United States -- although there are negotiations to have the skins event televised in the U.S. market.

Could Lytham And Muirfield Be In A Holding Pattern After Portrush's Success?

Martin Dempster of The Scotsman wonders if Lytham and Muirfield are on the endangered rota list after last week’s success on and off the course at Portrush.

Coupled with the R&A’s increased emphasis on ticket sales and fan energy, Muirfield’s membership matters and the modern gluten-free diet rendering Lytham helpless against today’s triathletes-turned-golfers, and it’s easy to envision a return to Northern Ireland before those two storied venues.

Dempster writes of the numbers:

Even before it produced one of the most popular winners ever, the Portrush event had attracted a sell-out attendance of 237,750 – the second biggest after St Andrews getting 239,000 in 2000. In comparison, the last visit to Muirfield in 2013 was just over 142,000 and, for the one before that in 2002, it was 161,000.

Is Portrush The Rota's Best (After St. Andrews) Venue?

I say yes.

The combination of design quality, intrigue, variety and beauty, with logistical success puts this course above the non-Old Course layouts.

The players seem to agree, as Alistair Tait writes for Golfweek, with endorsements from Fuyrk, Casey, etc..

The Forecaddie tries to figure out how fast they can get back here and what needs to be done.

My wish list would be pretty short: maybe soften the back portion of the new 7th green, restore the burn currently piped under the par-5 12th green, lose a few ferns in the roughs and definitely lose the interior boundary lines at the 1st and 18th holes, along with the silly boundary line behind the fifth green.

Winners And Losers From The 2019 Open At Portrush

You’ll be shocked to learn who won big in my assessment for Golfweek.

Shane Lowry Wins The Open At Royal Portrush, Your Reactions

A performance and scene that we’ll all remember capped off a magnificent week for Portrush, the R&A and Irish golf. Shane Lowry never displayed more than a brief ounce of feeling the immense pressure that was placed on the golfers who knew Portrush and mean so much to this part of the world. He won by six strokes.

We’ve got full coverage coming at Golfweek, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new Champion Golfer of the Year, the broadcasts, the course and anything else related to The Open’s triumphant return to Northern Ireland.