New Look Houston Open Off To Rough Start: No Top 30 Players, No Defending Champion

Ian Poulter’s signature 2018 Houston Open victory wasn’t enough to draw him away from the European Tour, nor is the move to fall’s more appealing weather attracting any top players to the new-look Houston Open.

Will Gray on Poulter’s decision:

But Poulter's allegiance to Europe also plays a role in his decision. The Italian Open is a lucrative Rolex Series event, bringing with it an increased purse ($7 million versus the $7.5 million up for grabs in Houston) and offering qualification points toward making the 2020 Ryder Cup team. This event was also the site of Poulter's first career Euro Tour win back in 2000, and he also won it in 2002 - the last time that Olgiata Golf Club, this year's venue, hosted the event.

As for the field, headliners put into Featured Groups includes no World Top 30 players, yet its winner earns 500 FedExCup points and a likely invitation to the Masters. (OWGR strength of field numbers have not been posted).

Check this out:

Field strength wise... we knew there were going to be "winners" & "losers" with the new schedule, but not sure many anticipated HOUSTON OPEN would get hammered as bad as it has in 1st year moving from Spring to the Fall. It will be a "weak" OWGR 24 level event... {{{sigh}}} pic.twitter.com/SBZibdHWOS

— Robopz (@Robopz) October 5, 2019

A “weak” 24 level event puts the Houston event in the John Deere Classic, Sanderson Farms, opposite field camp and highlights how, even with a huge golf supporter and friend of the game Jim Crane attempting to maintain a PGA Tour presence in America’s fourth largest (golf loving) city accessible from anywhere in the United States within three hours.

Furthermore, there may be too much “content” when players outside the world top 2000 are getting in on some sort of Tour status. Among the tournament alternates are retirees and volunteer assistant golf coaches.

The tournament director is not hiding his frustration with the field quality, reports Golf.com’s Art Stricklin.

“I’ve been doing this for 13 months and I know I’ve looked a lot of players in the eye who said they were coming and they are not here,” tournament director Colby Callaway told GOLF.com. “So, I’m a little surprised, but it is what it is.”

Meanwhile the European Tour’s Italian Open field also includes Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Francesco Molinari and the Champion Golfer of the Year, Shane Lowry.

Every Shot, Live On-Demand To Debut At 2020 Players

The PGA Tour says in today’s release that the newly-announced every shot, “live on-demand” is the eventual goal for all golf coverage. Bold!

In conjunction with NBC Sports Gold, the tour will roll out the first attempt at the 2020 Players, just weeks prior to the Masters, where a slightly tape-delayed on-demand debuted in 2019 with mostly great success (things were rough at the start and some shots never were captured).

The technology and concept is undoubtedly exciting, but it does the raise the question": how people will watch golf going forward. Given the length of a round, the number of variables involved and the slow nature of the sport, the act of sitting down to watch one or two groups go about their round, minus announcing and other storytelling elements, seems like a big ask. Perhaps those who have fantasy pool or waging implications at stake will pay for the privilege, as will family and friends of players.

The technology seems far more compelling in the Presidents Cup or WGC Dell Match Play, where such formats make you want to follow the mini-dramas within a match. But even then, you need announcing and other production elements to make for compelling viewing.

Anyway, For Immediate Release:

PGA TOUR, and NBC Sports Group announce live streaming of every shot during THE PLAYERS Championship in 2020

Marks the first time ever fans can follow every shot by every player live 

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – For the first time ever in golf, every shot by every player will be live-streamed from a full-field tournament when THE PLAYERS Championship returns to TPC Sawgrass, March 12-15, allowing fans to follow any player in the elite field, all four rounds.  All of this revolutionary coverage will be available to PGA TOUR LIVE subscribers on either NBC Sports Gold or Amazon Prime Video Channels.

“The PGA TOUR is the most content-rich sport on the planet and we have been focused on expanding the amount of content we bring to our fans from our competitions,” said Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer for the TOUR.  “Our vision is to bring every shot in every PGA TOUR golf tournament live and on-demand to our fans, and this is the first step to making that happen.”

PGA TOUR Entertainment and NBC Sports Group will accomplish the monumental task of showcasing more than 32,000 shots over 72 holes from a starting field of 144 – live – by utilizing nearly 120 cameras positioned throughout THE PLAYERS Stadium Course, with each group having its own dedicated stream.

“Every shot of THE PLAYERS on PGA TOUR LIVE is a natural next step in the innovative partnership between NBC Sports and the PGA TOUR that spans nearly 60 years,” said Mike McCarley, president, GOLF, NBC Sports Group. “Super-serving golf fans with more comprehensive coverage of THE PLAYERS is emblematic of our commitment to elevating this championship and builds upon our success in adding enhancements to PGA TOUR LIVE on NBC Sports Gold.” 

PGA TOUR LIVE already has expanded its coverage for the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season by adding early round featured groups coverage from seven events between September and December. This includes, for the first time ever, live streaming of “featured matches” all four days of competition from the upcoming Presidents Cup at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia (December 12-15, 2019).

All told, approximately 140 hours of additional live content is available, bringing more than 1,100 total hours to subscribers and extending live content across each month of the calendar year. With NBC Sports Gold and Prime Video Channels being available on dozens of connected devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast, connected device consumption has spiked to about one-third of total minutes in 2019.

Further, the PGA TOUR will be launching an all-new TOURCast product that will allow fans to follow every shot from each group with a beautiful 3D rendering of the golf course and shot trails.  The new TOURCast platform will also include deep access to the PGA TOUR’s ShotLink powered by CDW data, as well as video clips of every single shot available for fans to see, on demand.  The launch of TOURCast at THE PLAYERS will mark the start of every event in the PGA TOUR Season through the FedExCup Playoffs being offered on the platform. TOURCast will be available on the PGA TOUR’s mobile apps and website.  

“Since the launch of PGA TOUR LIVE four years ago, fans have consistently asked when they would be able to watch every shot of every player's round live as it happens.  We are thrilled to be able to do this for the first time at THE PLAYERS Championship in 2020,” said Luis Goicouria, the TOUR’s Senior Vice President of Media.  “THE PLAYERS Championship has long been the tournament where the TOUR debuts the newest technology, including LIVE@ 17, our first Virtual Reality experience, and the PGA TOUR Augmented Reality iPhone app, just to name a few.”

TOURCast, which originally launched in 2003 as a state-of-the-art graphical scoring platform that provided unprecedented tournament coverage, won an Emmy in 2005. “We’re very excited to bring back a greatly enhanced version of it to a new generation of fans, utilizing the latest technology and data,” Goicouria added.

From the historic competition to an iconic golf course with an unparalleled fan experience, THE PLAYERS is uncompromising in its pursuit to deliver the best. The 144-player field represents the strongest collection of players assembled each season, competing on Pete Dye’s masterpiece, THE PLAYERS Stadium Course, that favors no single style of play and demands excellence in every facet of the game.

THE PLAYERS also was the first tournament conceived with the fan as its focal point. From the original design incorporating viewing mounds, to embracing change to deliver the best experience in the modern game, THE PLAYERS provides the highest expression of hospitality and entertainment. Morgan Stanley, Grant Thornton LLP and Optum are the exclusive Proud Partners of THE PLAYERS.

"Skins game reminds us that money can't buy meaningful rivalries on Tour"

Good stuff from Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch on the upcoming Skins game match-up reminding us that a combination of changing economics and the continued elevation of majors translates to little buzz. Especially when the attempts to create interest fall flat (below).

The Challenge was touted in coordinated social media posts and press releases that exhibited all the spontaneity of a North Korean military parade. “There has always been some friendly banter between us, and that will continue until we get to the first tee,” Woods said with the kind of passion money can’t buy.

“There are so many fun elements to The Challenge that will have me wanting to take home that title,” McIlroy pitched in gamely.

In fairness, the bar is low for this year’s “The Challenge” to outperform last year’s “The Match,” when Woods and Phil Mickelson asked viewers to pay $20 for awkward trash talking that was less amusing than what you’d hear from a couple of over-served middle managers jostling on a crowded commuter train home.

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Whitworth Still Golf's Easiest Interview

Kathy Whitworth, the 88-time LPGA winner and certified all-time great recently turned 80. As Beth Ann Nichols writes for Golfweek, a luncheon at last week’s Volunteers of America Classic reminds that she’s one of golf’s great characters.

Just a sampling of the anecdotes shared:

That lesson came from Penick, who told a 17-year-old Whitworth to take the club back like she was getting paid by the hour and not the job.

When Whitworth tells the story, she wrinkles up her brow and pauses: “I’d never had a job before. What’s he talking about?”

Bryson Heads To Denver To Ensure His Neurological Threshold Meets His Mechanical Threshold

I just copy and paste, remember. Though I do wonder how this will help get him up-and-down around Royal Melbourne’s greens, or any greens. From Ben Everill’s PGATour.com report on Bryson DeChambeau shutting things down for six weeks to work on his conditioning. Excuse me, muscle activation techniques.

He instead uses muscle activation techniques with Greg Roskoph, an important member of his team.

He will start his program on Monday and will include some intense stints in Denver with Roskoph as well.

“We make sure the neurological threshold is just as high as the mechanical threshold,” DeChambeau said.

“In layman's terms, pretty much whatever muscle potentially you have, how big and the muscle spindles you have, you can recruit every single one of them to their full potential throughout the whole range and training the whole range of motion.”

DeChambeau finished T4 in the Shriner’s Hospital For Children Open as its defending champion.

Na Makes Things Interesting (Surprise!), Sets New Putts-Made Mark

Never dull-Kevin Na triple-bogeyed TPC Summerlin’s 10th hole in bizarre fashion before recovering to force a playoff with Patrick Cantlay.

He sank a 4-footer on the second hole to win the Shriner’s Hospital For Children Open and set a new mark for most feet of putts made since the wondrous ShotLink system has been tracking such things.

From Steve DiMeglio’s Golfweek game story:

Na, who made 202 feet of putts in his second-round 62 and 117 feet of putts in his third-round 61, set the record for most feet of putts made in a 72-hole tournament since the PGA Tour started tracking statistics with ShotLink in 2003. He finished his 72nd hole with 558 feet, 11 inches of putts. That bested the record set by Ben Martin, who made 551 feet, 2 inches of putts in the 2015 Dean and DeLuca Invitational.

Na’s 191 total also set the 54-hole tournament scoring record.

The final round highlights…



Putting For Dough: Na Makes 379 Feet Of Putts In Rounds Of 62-61

Kevin Na holds the lead heading into Sunday’s Shriner’s Hospital For Children Open on the back of an astounding putting performance.

It’s not often you see a player back up a 62 with a 61. From Steve DiMeglio’s Golfweek report:

A day after making 202 feet of putts en route to firing a 9-under-par 62, the Las Vegas resident made 177 feet of putts Saturday on his way to a 61 and the outright lead through 54 holes of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin.

Two other notes from the PGA Tour Communications staff:

• Made 445’ 7’’ of putts through 54 holes; Ben Martin holds the record (in the ShotLink era) for most feet of putts made at a PGA TOUR event through 72 holes with 551’ 2” at the 2015 Charles Schwab Challenge

• Leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting through 54 holes (11.905)

Former Cal Golfer Opens Rustic Canyon Round With 10 Straight Birdies

As co-architect I should be horrified but any course that rewards such incredible play must be a masterpiece, no?

Anyway, enough about me.

The Forecaddie reports on Brandon Beck’s 10-birdie start at Rustic Canyon in August and suggests that it’s a record given how few documented 10-straight moments have been recorded.

Oh, and he lipped out on the 11th.

Trump Aberdeen Has Racked Up £9.4 Million In Losses Since Opening

The once vaunted Trump International Links near Aberdeen has 77 staffers and last year lost , it’s seventh consecutive year failing to profit, reports The Scotsman’s Martyn McLaughlin.

The Martin Hawtree design, where a second course was recently approved for construction, had been projected to generate as many as 6000 jobs after construction of homes and a second course.

From McLauglin’s report:

The company remains reliant on interest free loans provided by Mr Trump worth £40.6m. The latest filings mean that Mr Trump's resort, which he promised would be the "world's greatest," has now run up cumulative losses of more than £9.4m.

In the previous accounts, covering the 12 months to the end of December 2017, its losses ran to £1.25m, with turnover standing at £2.54m. It employed 84 staff.

The latest accounts, signed off by the Trump Organisation's auditors in Scotland, Johnston Carmichael, cover the 12 months to the end of December 2018. They show the employee headcount has since fallen to 77.

Severity Of Whistling Straits Means Cart Drivers Won't Be Cart Drivers At 2020 Ryder Cup

Barely maneuverable for maintenance vehicles, many have wondered how the fleet of cart driving assistants to the assistant cart driver/vice captains would navigate around the faux-Pete Dye links.

Turns out, they won’t be having to sort the best routes to deliver players bananas and to get WAG’s in position for camera time, reports Martin Dempster for The Scotsman.

Because of the undulating terrain of the spectacular Pete Dye-designed layout on the banks of Lake Michigan, only the two captains, Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington, will be permitted to use four wheels to float between matches as opposed to two legs.

It’s not an ideal situation due to the important roles of the vice-captains,

…down Martin, down…

but buggies are not allowed at all during normal play and, in some respects, it will feel refreshing being at a big golf event for once next September and not actually get the impression you could be on the M8 due to the volume of carts buzzing about the place.

Don’t worry, they’ll find a few extras for PGA board members and past presidents, no matter how their driving history.

Koepka Details Stem Cell Treatment, Clever Rationalization For Losing Player Of The Year Vote

Steve DiMeglio reporting from the Shriner’s on World No. 1 Brooks Koepka’s return to PGA Tour action and specifically, treatment on his knee.

And this regarding his bizarre loss to Rory McIlroy in a player of the year vote by his peers, despite being only the fourth player in history to finish top 4 in all four majors.

“I don’t play for awards,” he said. “I just play to win, win trophies, win tournaments. It would’ve been great, but I think everybody in this room knows. I mean, LeBron has only won four MVPs and I’m pretty sure he’s been the best player for more than just four years.”

Will Golf Learn? Baseball Chases Long Ball All The Way To Lowest Attendance In Sixteen Years

The parallel’s between baseball’s pursuit of speed and home runs is oddly similar to the warped notion that golf fans mostly want to see long drives (with ratings down, that case is getting tougher to make).

Baseball and golf’s launch-angle focus has introduced safety issues in baseball, longer games and a less interesting version of the sport to watch. Similar parallels can be seen in golf. And yet…

Craig Calcaterra reports that in a record year for home runs, baseball saw its lowest attendance in sixteen years. While his focus on the price of attending games is no doubt part of the problem, the thirst to see home runs has not been enough to offset the economics. Sound familiar?

European Tour Rolls Out 2020 Schedule, Rolex Series Holds Steady

Depending on how you view things, the European Tour’s bloated schedule mostly held steady and did not lose any Rolex Series events. But as Alistair Tait notes for Golfweek, holding steady misses Chief Executive Keith Pelley’s stated goal for more of the big-purse events.

The eight tournaments – the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, the BMW PGA Championship, Italian Open Turkish Airlines Open, Nedbank Golf Challenge and DP World Tour Championship – mirror this year’s Rolex Series at similar times of the year.

Pelley had hoped to have reached double figures by this point in his tenure. “Our goal is eight or nine in 2017 with a goal of 10 by 2018,” Pelley said when he launched the series in November 2016. While he did not reach that target last year or this season, there was hope he would hit 10 next year.

The WGC event in Memphis now moves to July—oh joy!—meaning the Irish Open moves back to late May at a venue to be determined. This ends a noteworthy one-year attempt at a two-week links golf lead in to The Open.

The full schedule can be viewed here.

"Kinks" Still Getting Worked Out In The PGA Tour Driver Testing

Nick Menta files a lengthy piece from Las Vegas where this summer’s driver test consternation continues: the testing is flawed and privacy has not been protected.

So, as Menta reports, the PGA Tour and USGA testers are still working through elements as the manufacturers believe the testing is targeting clubs differently, depending on make.

From Menta’s report:

A second player expressed similar concern to GolfChannel.com, wondering why the USGA was testing parts of the face that would make for poor contact and thus a poorer result, regardless of Characteristic Time.

“That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Thompson said, “because, as golfers, we’re trying to hit the center of the clubface. So why not test the center of the clubface?

“So I think that was a big issue with a lot of the manufacturers, because they weren’t told that going into this year of testing. … They were told how it was going to be done, and the manufacturer’s testing is done to replicate what the USGA is going to do. And I was under the impression that last week [the test] was not done the way they said it was going to be done.”

Of course, if they just made the ball a little bigger and the driver head a little smaller for professionals, no one would care about Characteristic Time.

A Year Out, Looks Like Captain Stricker Is Feeling More Pressure Than Captain Harrington

The 2020 Ryder Cup captain’s kicked off the year-long countdown to what will be highly anticipated matches with a joint press conference. At rainy Whistling Straits, where lousy weather kept things largely indoors and will be a factor next year, it was clear who is a bit more assured where things stand: Captain Padraig Harrington, current holders of the Ryder Cup.

As Eamon Lynch notes for Golfweek, Captain Steve Stricker still sounded a bit tied to the “task force” and it’s (sometimes) successful, (sometimes) clubby ways.

Mickelson was also on that task force. So too was Woods. The last three U.S. captains have been drawn from that small circle, and the decisions they have made — particularly Furyk’s decision to pick Mickelson — creates a perception of an old boys’ network looking after its own. Are the captain’s decisions being crowdsourced? And is the captain compromised as a result?

Stricker didn’t do much to dispel that notion in his comments Tuesday.

Of greater concern may ultimately be a venue seemingly more favorable to the Europeans than normal. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jim Owczarski focused on the fairly revealing presser remarks. At least, by year-out standards.

“Here at Whistling Straits, this is a much more natural golf course,” Harrington said. “I'm interested to see down the road what Steve has in store but doesn't look like you can do a lot with this golf course. As much as it was obviously designed and built there, it looks like it's just in a natural setting all its life and it's going to present its way. Even the weather could be very changeable the week of the Ryder Cup next year.

“So in many ways, this is a golf course that is just going to test the players on its own merits.”

Even Stricker, whose presence will bring an even more passionate home-state fan base to an already charged atmosphere, couldn’t help but hope the weather in about a year is a tad bit different for his team.

“Yeah, it concerns us, when we look out, and I don't know if you brought this weather today or what, but hopefully we have nice, sunny 75-degree days next year at this time,” Stricker said looking out to the lake. “But yeah, you know, when you look out here, it has the feel of -- does it not, over there in Ireland…”

“It looks like an Irish day out there, yeah,” Harrington interjected with a smile.

On Golf Central, Isenhour and I were in agreement: Captain Stricker has delicate matters to resolve in the all-important course setup department: