PGA Tour Exec: "It’s not an easy thing to consider leaving Comcast, but it’s also not an insurmountable one.”

On top of the original July 29 story by John Ourand and John Lombardo detailing the possible ways a new PGA Tour television/digital deal may play out, a second and more pointed column from Ourand appeared on August 5th. I’m presuming the quotes from this were in the original interview, though the tone of this column is decidedly more incumbent-friendly than the original piece.

Ourand predicts that it will take “a significant bid to convince the tour to turn away from” the Golf Channel, NBC and parent company Comcast.

But it’s the quote from the PGA Tour exec in charge of shaping the new deal that will interest (or concern) fans and viewers.

“It’s not simple,” Rick Anderson, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of global media, told SBJ golf writer John Lombardo and me recently. “Comcast has built an entire multibillion-dollar linear channel with our programming. They are phenomenal in terms of their production of golf, and they have a strength of position in the game. Changing that and walking away from that and leaving them will not be easy. It would be the hardest path. It would be a lot easier to talk about doing a renewal instead of going to the market … It’s not an easy thing to consider leaving Comcast, but it’s also not an insurmountable one.”

Phenomenal but not insurmountably so.

As for the viewer appetite to stream golf, Anderson believes the audience wants more digital streaming, even if means watching a guy take over two minutes to hit a six foot putt and paying for the privilege.

“The digital platform is as big an opportunity as the linear channel,” Anderson said. “We know that our opportunity extends beyond the current business model of cable and a linear channel. We can build a real digital platform that has content that people will pay for and in a different way than any other sport can do.”

Anderson said the tour’s available package has more than enough content, particularly Thursday through Sunday with the PGA Tour, LPGA, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry tours.

“The landscape that I see with those big deals is definitely a linear channel, but then an extremely robust digital platform where you really could almost literally go and watch golf on a 24-7 basis,” Anderson said.

I continue to have a hard time seeing more than friends and family paying significant chunks of change for a more robust PGA Tour Live on top of all other streaming or cable subscriptions.

Maybe the folks doing this negotiation will be inspired by Disney’s brilliant, trend-bucking bundle announced last week and pricing of its new combined Disney/ESPN+/Hulu and give golf fans the chance to buy a one-stop place for all of this content at a fair price.

Brooks And Brandel A (Lighter) Sparring Item Again

I’ve missed these two lovebirds chirping at one another, so naturally Brandel Chamblee had to go and pick on Brooks Koepka displaying improper etiquette by standing ahead of Rory McIlroy during their Northern Trust round.

While Bryson v. Brooks could have turned ugly Sunday—it did not but gave Eamon Lynch a fantastic start to a slow play column—I still have hope for eternal sniping between Brooks and Golf Channel’s Chamblee.

Josh Berhow of Golf.com pieces together the latest manspat, this time Chamblee trying to suggest walking ahead was a greater breach of etiquette than a slow player.

Team Koepka alerted their man, who replied on Twitter (above) with a little less bite than some of other recent jabs back at Chamblee, which date back to the Masters when Chamblee questioned Koepka’s toughness and quality of his major wins.

The 2019 FedExCup "Playoffs" Are Off To Pretty Rough Start

Just to review the week in case you weren’t watching the commencement of the 2019 PGA Tour “Playoffs”...

Tiger WD’d and it’ll take a major improvement for him to defend his title at East Lake.

PGA Tour Live’s Featured Group coverage exposed horrendous examples of slow play masked by normal golf tournament coverage that jumps around a course full of players. The clips go viral and highlight Bryson DeChambeau’s slow play. The episode is a reminder of how unappealing it is to see every shot of every player sometimes, much less pay for such a privilege as the Tour believes will happen starting in 2022.

The Northern Trust’s weekend was totally overshadowed by a slow play controversy.

The PGA Tour added to the distraction by issuing a fluffy Staff-reported story during the final round, prompting more on the news of a ShotLink-leveraged solution to this problem instead of the playoff event playing out.

Patrick Reed won in an oddly flat final round despite a great leaderboard. The shockingly lukewarm applause after Reed’s final putt summed up the flat finish.

Reed jumped from 50th to 2nd in the FedExCup points, a silly leap if we are to believe claims of season long points and rewarding early season play mattering.

The CBS team sounded giddiest talking about their final broadcast of 2019 and Saturday night goodbye party.

But hey there’s time and a new, wacky format awaiting at East Lake—Patrick Reed, one win and four top 10’s, would be only two strokes back of Brooks Koepka if the Tour Championship started today, even though Koepka won three times and went T2-1-2-T4 in the majors.

The whole 2019 playoff thing could work out well and get way better. It better.

The Best Evidence Yet That Green Reading Books Need To Go

We can... pic.twitter.com/TOnRS4BXds

— Fantasy Golf Pod (@fantasygolfpod) August 10, 2019

We were sold on rangefinders as a pace of play godsend and anyone who has seen their use in college and amateur events knows they sometimes help move things along. More often the use of a rangefinder just adds another step in the “process” of hitting a shot.

Green reading books were never billed as time savers by the governing bodies when allowing them to stain the game, and the only people who really benefit from them are the people selling them.

But those who have watched players use them sense that sometimes extra time is spent looking at a putt because the book says one thing and their eyes say the other. I’ve had the privilege of hearing a player whine that a putt did something different than the book, as if his caddie was responsible.

Which brings me to the best evidence yet that they need to go and are a silly crutch only adding time to the length of rounds. From Bryson DeChambeau’s whirlwind Saturday press conference at the Northern Trust:

Q. On 8 green. It took like two minutes and 20 seconds?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Correct.

Q. That obviously is one --
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Five percent, where we looked at it, it was a very difficult read. It was on a bit of a crown, trying to read it, best of my ability. Couldn't figure out a way to play it four inches out because that's what the book said. That's what it looked, or that's what it said in the book. Didn't look like that to my eyes. We walked around, took a little bit of time. I was ready to hit. My caddie pulled me off because he saw something different. That's just what's going to happen every once in a while. You have guys that sometimes that does happen. Is that every time? No. That's one -- probably 1 percent of the time that I take over two minutes.

I would couple this amazing admission with what I felt was a reduction in how much players are openly relying on the books, and that I’ve yet to encounter anyone who thinks of the decision to keep them in the game and says, “so, so glad the USGA and R&A caved on that one.” But I don’t hang with those profiting from selling a page full of arrows, either.

Bryson Sticking With I-Walk-Faster-To-The-Ball Justification For Glacial Pace, Criticism Of His Pace Turns Ugly

One of the many downsides to the PGA Tour turning a blind eye to slow play all of these years: eventually the glacial practices would become sacrosanct. The process of hitting a ball, in the wrong hands, is an act of entitlement, not a privilege.

While the loathsomely slow and inconsiderate Ben Crane will always be leader in the PGA Tour slow play clubhouse, Bryson DeChambeau’s making a strong push to be known as the PGA Tour’s slowest and least considerate player.

After two episodes on PGA Tour Live went viral—Featured Group coverage can not jump to another hole to mask how long some players take to figure out a shot—DeChambeau was blasted by many, including fellow pros. (You can also watch the episodes in question, if you can carve out the time).

Following his round Saturday at The Northern Trust, DeChambeau opened his press conference with a diatribe that essentially returned to his views shared earlier this year that he gets to his ball faster than most, therefore earning rewards of a sort in the form of extra seconds to contemplate.

“A lot of it’s the caddies. A lot of it’s the other players,” DeChambeau said. “They don’t care about walking fast. I play a different way out there. I take my 40 seconds that’s allotted, sometimes over, absolutely. Totally agree. It’s maybe 5 percent of the time. But I’ll tell you that it’s really kind of unfortunate the way it’s perceived because there’s a lot of other guys that take a lot of time. They don’t talk about this matter and for me personally, it is an attack and it is something that is not me whatsoever. People don’t realize the harm they are doing to the individuals.”

Imagine what he’d think of the harm of being put on the clock and it ended in penalty shots.

But back to the original issue at hand: the PGA Tour’s inaction over the years. It has led to this festering situation where top players Koepka and McIlroy are speaking out, where players are calling each other names and where fans are responding in droves on social media that DeChambeau is the poster child for why they watch less golf.

All of the avoidance of penalty strokes, to protect a player’s brand and keep golf out of the headlines with negative press, has led us to a point where the bickering is getting louder, uglier and more expensive for the PGA Tour if nothing continues to be done.

The Revamped Rules Of Golf Still Have An Intent Problem, Files: Rory Absolved, Webb Stuck With Cracked Driver

Hard not to scratch your head at the two episodes arising at The Northern Trust, each involving intent, long verboten in rules discussions (unless you knock a ball off the tee accidentally).

Andy Kostka on Webb Simpson playing with a cracked driver (featuring undesirable results) and why a crack is not enough to allow him to replace the wounded weapon. Under the old rules he could have. And if his driver shatters, breaks in half or explodes he could have sent for another mid-round.

David Dusek points out that since April 9th when the broken club rule was clarified, there still has been no clarity to explain why an unintended crack is deemed different than a club that shatters. Both are not usable.

On April 9, the USGA and the R&A released a clarification of Rule G-9 and a Local Rule, “allowing players to replace a broken or significantly damaged club, except in the case of abuse.”

Under the change, clubs are defined as being “broken or significantly damaged” if specific criteria are met, like if the shaft breaks into pieces or splinters, the face or clubhead deforms, the grip is loose or the clubhead detaches or loosens from the shaft.

After the series of bullet points that lists those circumstances, there is a sentence that makes absolutely no sense.

“However, a player is not allowed to replace his or her club solely because there is a crack in the club face or the clubhead.”

But alas, no further explanation why cracks do no measure up to the standards of other club breaks. If the player intentionally broke the club or intentionally swatted it against their bag, they should not be allowed to get a new one mid-round. But unintentional cracks do not get the same treatment even as the club is all but lost?

Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy thought he was moving a pebble, as he’s now allowed to do under the new rules. Turns out, it was a clump of sand. McIlroy reported it to officials and after it was determined he did not intend to improve his lie—even though the new rules allow for the moving of rocks to, uh, improve your lie—he was determined to not be deserving of a penalty.

From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story:

"The reason I called someone over is I don't want anything on my conscience, either. I feel like I play the game with integrity and I'm comfortable saying that I didn't improve anything. I thought it was a rock; it wasn't. I moved my hand away and then I was like, I don't know if I've done anything wrong here.''

While McIlroy played the last four holes -- he birdied the 15th -- PGA Tour rules official Slugger White conferred with officials at the USGA and determined that there would be no penalty after all. They told McIlroy of the decision after consulting with him at the conclusion of his round.

His intent was considered and powerful enough to absolve him. Common sense.

Why that does not apply to a cracked driver head, remains unclear. And clarity is vital. The inconsistency of “intent” questions continues to undermine the stature and credibility of golf’s rules.

Early Playoff Exit Looms: Where Did Tiger's Fight Go?

If you’re a Tiger fan there are a couple pieces worth reading after his opening 75 at the 2019 Northern Trust, all but setting him up for a playoff exit next week, barring a resurgence. **And now a WD Friday morning.

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig considers everything we’ve seen since the Masters and concludes that odd decisions may not be helping his back.

Why fly overnight to The Open last month, arriving in the early hours at Royal Portrush right off the plane, to practice? With his own jet, Woods can fly when he wants, get the proper rest and treatment, and make sure he prepares and warms up properly. From the moment Woods set foot in Northern Ireland, he never looked right.

This week, Woods arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and soon was playing a practice round with Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, trying to launch his drives with the longest hitters on tour. He barely warmed up, had just come from the plane, and rushed to get in putting practice before heading to a planned Presidents Cup dinner that lasted well into the evening. Then there was the quick turnaround to Wednesday's 7 a.m. pro-am time, and again he struggled.

Harig also notes that Tiger no longer travels with the physio of years past.

Eamon Lynch of Golfweek seizes on the lack of fight in Woods and concludes that Tiger’s season may have ended when he achieved his goal of winning another major. And Tiger’s just fine with that.

Woods has immense pride — even in the darkest of times that never changed — but that famous passion is gone, for now at least. He admitted this week to aches and pains that make high-level golf next to impossible some days. But there have also been days when he insists his balky back is fine and that he simply played poorly. “It’s a little bit stiff, yeah, but that’s just the way it’s going to be,” he said with a resigned realism.

And this…

No matter how poorly he played Thursday, or how truncated his run in the FedEx Cup playoffs may prove to be, there exists no measure by which Woods’ year can be deemed a failure. He carries himself with the air of a man who knows as much. 

"Why isn't the medicine working?"

Thanks to reader BB for passing along Paul Johnson’s Queensland Times report on Briony Lyle’s emotional interview on the one-year anniversary of Jarrod’s passing from acute myeloid leukemia.

In case you were thinking you had it rough…

Perhaps the hardest part of the story was hearing Briony recount how their daughters Lusi and Jemma were by his side until his death. 

"We made the decision to start palliative care and drove home early that morning and had to wait till Lusi woke up and I had to say to her that the medicine is not working and that daddy is going to die," Briony Lyle told Bickmore. 

"It was immediate sadness for her, which I had never seen before. 

"She walked into his hospital room which she had been into so many times before and just walked over and held his hand. 

"In the corner of his room there is a little whiteboard and there is a section that said do you have any questions for the doctor? And she wrote 'why isn't the medicine working'?" 

So far Amazon is just offering this edition of the forthcoming book that will help support the family. If I get a link with more than two copies I’ll pass along here or Twitter.

View this post on Instagram

The perfect way to end the Instagram chapter of Jarrod’s life (pun intended). His autobiography is now available for presale through Challenge ahead of its August release. All royalties and profits will be used to continue his work supporting kids with cancer. You’ll find the books at www.challenge.org.au/shop #legacy

A post shared by Jarrod Lyle (@jarrod.lyle) on Jul 11, 2019 at 12:41am PDT

Weird Is The Operative (Revamped) PGA Tour Playoff Word So Far

As week one of the three week playoff-run is underway and we build up to the finish at East Lake, flaws in the new Tour Championship finale are becoming more evident as it is explained to fans. (For a full explanation of the format, Mike McAllister has it here for PGATour.com.)

Adam Schupak calls the entire thing “weird” in this MorningRead.com piece, setting up the final structure at East Lake when the first two events have whittled the field to 30. I guess I missed a memo, but I wasn’t aware just how much the new setup waters down performance from the regular season or a dominant playoff run. In particular, the perks of finishing 11th to 20th on the season.

…change is that instead of a points reset before the finale, the powers-that-be have concocted a staggered start by which the FedEx Cup leader begins the tournament at 10 under, No. 2 at 8 under, No. 3 at 7 under, No. 4 at 6 under and No. 5 at 5 under. Players 6-10 will be at 4 under, 11-15 at 3 under, 16-20 at 2 under, 21-25 at 1 under and 26-30 will start at even par. Under this new scoring system, only one winner will be crowned on Sunday: the overall FedEx Cup champion.

I can’t quite figure out how anyone outside the top 10 gets any kind of scoring head start. Shoot, why aren’t Nos. 21-30 starting over par?

Do places 11-15 really deserve to be within seven of the FedExCup leader, who had a far more successful year? And if No. 20 makes up eight shots, is that person really deserving of winning a season-long race?

It seems the handicapping system here is flawed, maybe fatally.

Think of it from the leader’s perspective: he could have a wildly dominant season and playoffs, but still have that domination wiped down to a five-stroke lead over someone at No. 5 who wins the Tour Championship and the $15 million first prize?

No wonder so many top players played such light schedules. They incentive to build a war chest of points just isn’t there.

Schupak also writes:

And here’s guessing that in a few years’ time, the Tour will be tweaking the format again.

The players have $60 million reasons to sing the praises of the new way of keeping score – “At least people know where they stand,” is the best McIlroy could muster – but here’s all you need to know about what they really think of this change: Their precious world-ranking points will be based on how players perform in the 72-hole tournament at East Lake without the handicapping. No trophy, no dollars and no public scoreboard, but a prize to play for, all the same.

Weird.

Playoff Focus Turns To...Slow Play As Brooks, Rory Talk "Out Of Hand" Problem

One symptom of not acknowledging the slow play problem is that it is prone to rear its head at all the wrong times.

Say, when the sun is setting and a network is past enjoying the whole lead-in audience thing as a non-star sets up camp debating the merits of going for a green.

Or, I don’t know, any tournament where the sponsor wants the focus to be on the event instead of a problem ignored for too long.

Sorry Northern Trust.

Andy Kostka of Golfweek has the blissfully honest remarks and context of FedExCup top contenders Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy from Wednesday at Liberty National. Both players have the credibility to vent given their amazingly quick pace.

Koepka:

“I get that you can take a long time for your thought process, but once you’re done thinking about it, just go. What else is there to do? That’s been the problem I have,” Koepka said Wednesday. “It’s just gotten out of hand. It seems now that there are so many sports psychologists and everybody telling everybody that they can’t hit it until they are ready, that you have to fully process everything. I mean, I take 15 seconds and go, and I’ve done all right.”

Don’t forget agents, physios, short game instructors vs. long game instructors, launch monitor technicians, Soul Cycle instructors and dietitians, too.

This has actually been an issue for decades—do not hit until you are committed—but the lack of support from Tour HQ to enforce the rules has prevented real action.

Rory has a simple solution:

“For me, I think the guys that are slow are the guys that get too many chances before they are penalized,” McIlroy said. “So, it should be a warning and then a shot. It should be, you’re put on the clock and that is your warning, and then if you get a bad time while on the clock, it’s a shot. That will stamp it out right away.

Deducted FedExCup points have been mentioned as a sound solution, too. And it would get the FedEx mentions up, too!

But Koepka ultimately hit on the most problematic issue of all for golf: the game just takes too long to play at all levels, but it’s especially hard o watch at over 5 hours for a round. The days are too long for fans, volunteers and TV, and it’s hard to see how that time span isn’t deadly. Especially when you put it the way Brooks did:

“Five and a half hours to play golf is a long time. Everybody’s going to get bored,” Koepka said. “There’s not much action in golf. If you really think about it, you’re probably only playing for about five minutes — maybe six, seven minutes total — and the rest of the time, I’m just walking. You try walking by yourself for four, four and a half hours, and see how boring it gets.”

Hey, on that note, coverage of the Northern Trust starts with PGA Tour Live Thursday and no galleries until 10 am after a nasty storm blew through Liberty National.

Tiger Takes Cautious Approach To Pro-Am Round; Has Concerns For Possible Playoff Run

From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com report at the Northern Trust, where Woods played nine pro-am holes than chipped and putted for the second nine, a day after he was feeling great:

"Yes, there is concern, hopefully because of the pressures I'm going to be facing, hopefully put myself in contention,'' he said. "That's why it gets difficult. If you're missing cuts, who cares. You're taking weekends off and a couple extra days of rest.

"But I'm trying to get myself where I'm in contention, where it takes a toll on you, and that's what I want to feel. I want to feel that type of tiredness, where I have a chance to win. That's a good feeling.''

The desire is there, but the body is not cooperating.

Faxon And Friends Buying (And Saving) Metacomet Where He Learned The Game

What a great story to read from NBC 10 News’s Joe Kataya on Brad Faxon joining with others to buy (and save) Metacomet, a 118-year-old Donald Ross design struggling for over a decade now. 

Kataya writes:

“I wasn’t looking out for that, it kind of came to me. A group of guys got together and thought Metacomet is kind of a gem here in the state that’s got a lot of history. It’s 100 years old, it’s a Donald Ross course,” Said Faxon.

This course means so much to Faxon since he is a member dating back to the 1970s, where he learned the game of golf there with his father and club pro Joe Benevento.

AT&T's Rough Tactics Hurting Tour Ratings, But Will They Raise Red Flags?

LA Times consumer advocate columnist David Lazarus looks at AT&T’s recent efforts to raise prices and employ other tactics.

The efforts are noteworthy in golf circles given that CBS coverage of the PGA Tour has seen a ratings drop in recent weeks due to DirecTV and U-Verse customers losing CBS in a blackout. Those meager audience numbers surely are noticed in Ponte Vedra Beach, though hopefully the blackout is considered in evaluating those numbers.

Furthermore, AT&T is now said to be a possible bidder on the PGA Tour’s next television deal (including a pledge of flipping a current channel to a golf network).

Lazarus writes of AT&T’s post-merger actions:

AT&T wasted no time in raising the price of its DirecTV satellite-TV service by $5 a month. It then raised the price of its DirectTV Now streaming service by $10 a month. (The company said last week DirecTV Now is being renamed AT&T TV Now.)

More than 6.5 million of AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse pay-TV customers are currently cut off from CBS channels because AT&T says CBS wants too much money for its programming.

Meanwhile, more than 12 million Dish Network and Sling TV subscribers have lost access to AT&T’s HBO and Cinemax channels because, according to Dish, AT&T wants too much money for its own programming.

Put more succinctly, AT&T, after raising subscriber costs, wants to pay as little as possible for channels included on its pay-TV services. But it wants as much as possible from other pay-TV services for its own channels.

And it’s willing to hold consumers hostage to get what it wants.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is on the PGA Tour Policy Board and will have a vote on the next PGA Tour media deal.

$39.5 Million: Listing Price For Tom And Gisele's Estate On The Country Club

It’s a nice club and neighborhood, a Richard Landry design and good economy, but is it rude to say that this is still a little excessive for five acres?

Bill Speros with the details for Golfweek of Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s home overlooking The Country Club in Brookline going on the market.

Leadbetter Calls Out "Unbelievable Ignorance" Of Lydia Ko's Parents

The sad decline of former No. 1 Lydia Ko continues with missed cuts in back to back majors (granted, in back to back weeks…).

She’s fired caddies and coaches galore and one of those former’s has been critical. Still, it’s jarring to hear David Leadbetter continue to call out Ko’s parents. Roxanna Scott reports on an interview recently given by Leadbetter.

“I hope she gets it back but restoring confidence is never the easiest thing to do. Her parents have a lot to answer for – a case of unbelievable ignorance,” Leadbetter said in a Radio Sport interview, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Ko responded on her Instagram story with this: