"MyGolfSpy...has become like a Consumer Reports for golf equipment."

Here’s a sensational read from ESPN.com’s Tom VanHaaren on the rise and prominence of MyGolfSpy as golf’s most trusted voice for equipment reviews.

As always, please hit the link and enjoy the story in its entirety, but a couple of parts stood out. This on MyGolfSpy’s testing:

Beach and his 12-employee staff have a dedicated test facility in Virginia, where they conduct thousands of hours of tests on balls, clubs, shoes and even golf bags.

The testing is vastly different from what has been done in the past, where a blogger or reviewer testing a new club set to hit the market typically would hit a few shots and review the results for an audience. Beach and his staff, whether they're testing a ball or club, run through 10,000 shots with humans and a robot, a process that can take up to three months.

The story also addresses MyGolfSpy’s look at the Callaway Chrome Soft in 2019 and the resulting change in production after revealing poor, uh, core concentricity.

Callaway happened to be three-and-a-half years into a $50 million golf ball plant renovation that the company believes will ultimately end up with Callaway making the best-performing golf ball in the world. But Toulon admits that because of MyGolfSpy's tests and reviews, Callaway has altered certain aspects of the renovation and even pushed the update along.

Ensuring core concentricity -- that the cores are in the center of the ball -- is one focus. Another is improving the testing and quality-control process.

"We had initially planned on one or two extra X-ray machines, not testing every single golf ball but testing definitely enough that you could come up with a metric that you could look at and judge quality against that," Toulon said. "Now, every single golf ball, I think we'll be at at least five X-ray machines, which will allow us in the United States, coming out of our Chicopee, Oklahoma, plants, which is all of our Chrome Soft business, we will now X-ray every single golf ball. That definitely has, we've been impacted by MyGolfSpy in a really good way and we're thankful for that."

Just A Few Reasons Not To Care About The USGA Hiring Don Cheadle As A Frontman

In a dated and dreadfully timed rollout, the USGA announced the hiring of actor Don Cheadle to serve as U.S. Open “brand ambassador” and as its spokesman on environmentally sustainable public golf.

Golf.com’s James Colgan reports the big news here.

A few readers wondered why I had not acknowledged this circa 2005 news of an ambassador signing on to front PSA’s. Wonder no more.

—$trategic alliances would be the only reason some golf news organizations reported Cheadle’s hiring. Even clickbait-desperados would have no other reason to report his hiring as news, just as they would not post a Q&A with the new USGA President unless someone ordered them to do so while holding a pen and checkbook in hand.

—The USGA took voluntary staff buyouts last fall laced with an incentive that would make anyone over 50 a fool to stick around. What better way to show new fiscal responsibility—brought on by the apparent need to trim costs—than to hire an actor to front PSA’s whose greatest purpose is to let FOX announcers can have a bathroom break.

—The ball still goes too far. Not even Don Cheadle can’t fix that.

—Legions of great old muni’s needing restoration could use some of the USGA’s money or remaining non-buyout expertise. Don Cheadle PSA’s won’t help those courses.

—The announcement came after the new World Handicap system debuted to five days of non-function and online griping. Here’s guessing not too many golfers feel the handicap system will improve with Cheadle’s hiring.

—Don Cheadle is a smart, accomplished actor and activist. He will soon learn he’s wasting his time. One Annual Meeting should do the trick.

—Golf rounds take too long. Not even Don Cheadle can’t fix that.

PGA Tour: Data Sales A Big Part Of Sports Betting Push

We’ve previously learned that the PGA Tour hopes to reap 1% of the billions projected on sports betting. Based on estimates, that would put their annual haul at $7.5 million, or the price of one above average event’s purse.

Not much given the headaches that could come with legalized sports betting in golf.

But of further interest is this reveal in an unbylined AP story regarding the PGA Tour selling ShotLink data in lieu of a more direct partnership with betting houses.

The leagues argue that they are creating new betting products by enhancing the data that they sell to gambling companies. That is part of the reason these companies have been willing to pay for a product instead of simply writing the leagues a check.

The PGA Tour says it is creating new betting opportunities through its complicated (and expensive) ShotLink technology.

“ShotLink gathers data from every shot; there are more than 30,000 shots in a golf tournament,” said Andy Levinson, senior vice president for tournament administration with the PGA Tour. “We’re collecting multiple data points, and they are going to be potential betting points. There’s going to be opportunities over a season to have millions of markets created in golf. You’re talking about distance, ball location, whether it’s on the fairway or in the rough. If a player has a 10-foot uphill putt, there’s going to be historical data on that shot. Our sport is perfect for it.

“That requires 60 people every week; we have to lug 5 miles of cable,” he said. “We have cameras, laser systems around our greens. It’s an extremely expensive process.”

Volunteers man a majority of the Shotlink towers that gather information, though increasingly the Tour is leaning on an automated setup. Nonetheless, I do wonder how volunteers will feel about their job when it’s better known they are working to fill Tour coffers on the back of sports betting. Most probably won’t know or care, but it certainly is another element of the efforts to incorporate betting into PGA Tour golf.

Americans Have Not WD'd From European Tour's Middle East Events, But That Was Before...

Joel Beall reports for GolfDigest.com that, as of Tuesday morning, the likes of Koepka, DeChambeau, Johnson, Mickelson, Reed and other top stars had not withdrawn from any of the European Tour’s upcoming Middle East events.

But, that was before Iran sent ballistic missiles toward American troops in Iraq and also threatened to “unleash Hezbollah” on Dubai, home to the Dubai Desert Classic, January 23-26.

Given that the events offer significant appearance fees, we’ll see just how determined these players are to head overseas for pay.

Bryson DeChambeau, while playing Twitch, Twitching, Being A Twitcherer—please, I have no idea and won’t try to figure it out—says he’s “really not sure” now about his planned trip.

Topgolf Targeting $4 Billion Valuation, IPO May Come In 2020

Gillian Tan, Scott Deveau and Kiel Porter all contribute to a tidy Bloomberg report on Topgolf’s long awaited march to an IPO, with banks selected and the all-important valuation targeted: $4 billion.

The Dallas-based company is working with banks including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter is private. Its IPO could come as soon as this year, they said.

Topgolf, led by Chief Executive Officer Dolf Berle, has $525 million in outstanding debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Given the incredible success of Topgolf, it should be interesting to see how much the state of the golf industry is characterized during the process, and after the official launch.

Kapalua Ratings: Going Against NFL A Bad Idea, Finishing Against Golden Globes Worked Better

As Sports Business Daily notes, the NFL’s Saturday Wild Card games were up, with massive peak audiences of 31.4 million for Titans-Patriots and 29.4 million for the Texans-Bills overtime thriller on ESPN.

The NFL saw gains for both of its Wild Card games on Saturday. CBS led the way with 31.4 million viewers for the Titans’ win over the Patriots, which is the best audience for the Saturday primetime Wild Card since Saints-Eagles drew 34.4 million in ’14 on NBC.

Third round play at Kapalua went up against the Patriots game and did not rate among the top 150 cable shows, where a .3 minimum was needed to rank.

The news was better Sunday as NFL games ended earlier, freeing up eyeballs for the 2020 Sentry’s conclusion, won by Justin Thomas in sudden death playoff over Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed.

Sunday’s live PGA Tour coverage on Golf Channel ranked 79th, with only the Golden Globes as major competition. The Sentry drew a .09 with an average audience size of 634k, 319k were 18-49 year olds. That means the peak audience was significantly higher during the exciting conclusion.

Still, there may also be viewers lost to a pair of NFL games already played and limits to how many hours one can watch television in a day. Not to mention, most Sunday night, Monday coverage centered around the NFL games.

And circling back to Sunday’s reader poll asking about Monday finishes for the entire Hawaii/La Quinta swing, 68% of you voted in favor of such a setup to avoid football. As always, thank you for voting!

GWAA: Writers Name Brooks Koepka, Jin Young Ko, Scott McCarron 2019 Players Of The Year

On the wings of his T2-1-2-T4 finish in the 2019 majors, Brooks Koepka was named the Golf Writers Association of America player of the year. Also on the ballot with Koepka were Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, who made strong cases for the award. But Koepka’s consistency in the majors ultimately got him the nod, it would seem.

McIlroy was named player of the year by his PGA Tour peers.

The full release:

KOEPKA, KO, MCCARRON VOTED 2019 GWAA PLAYERS OF THE YEAR

HOUSTON (January 7, 2020) – World No. 1 Brooks Koepka’s impressive record in last year’s majors propelled him to his second consecutive Golf Writers Association of America’s Player of the Year Award, while Jin Young Ko and Scott McCarron won their respective 2019 Player of the Year honors.

Koepka is the first player to win back-to-back since Tiger Woods won back to back in 2006-2007 (he also won in 2005).  Koepka got 44 percent of the vote to world No. 2’s Rory McIlroy’s 36 percent while Woods, who has won the Player of the Year honor 10 times, was third.

Koepka, who was sidelined with a knee injury in the fall, crushed the majors in 2019. In addition to winning his second consecutive PGA Championship, he finished in the top four at the other three majors. He was tied for second at the Masters, second alone at the U.S. Open and T-4 at The Open. In addition to the PGA, he won the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational and T-2 at the Classic, T-3 at the TOUR Championship and fourth at the AT&T Byron Nelson.

"I am extremely humbled to receive this award for a second year in a row,” said Koepka. “The GWAA does so much for the game we all love, so to be their Player of the Year again is a real honor.’’

Ko, in just her second season on the LPGA Tour, ran away with the Female POY race with Nelly Korda finishing a distant second. 

The South Korean star won four times, including two majors and swept every major LPGA award. She won the ANA Inspiration and Evian Championship and posted 12 top-10 finishes and ended the year winning the Rolex Player of the Year, the money title and Vare Trophy. Her 69.052 average was the second-lowest mark in LPGA history to Annika Sorenstam’s record of 68.697 in 2002.

She made headlines, too, for playing 114 holes without a bogey, besting Woods’ record by four holes.

"It is a great honor to win this prestigious award,” said Ko. “To be recognized by golf writers, who cover our sport of golf all year long, makes it even more special. I'm really proud and excited to be named alongside all the other recipients of this award in the past."

 McCarron won three tournaments and the Schwab Cup and had 14 top-10 finishes in 26 events to edge twin-tour wizard Steve Stricker. The 54-year-old McCarron won The Mitsubishi Electric, Insperity Invitational and Mastercard Japan.

 "To be selected Senior Player of the year by the Golf Writers Association of America is truly a great honor," said McCarron.

Koepka, Ko and McCarron will receive their awards at the 48th ISPS HANDA GWAA Annual Awards Dinner on Wednesday April 8 in Augusta, Georgia.

Foreplay Pod: "Old Man" Media vs. Barstool

After going on the Foreplay pod to discuss last December’s Presidents Cup spat between “old” media and the Barstool boys, I’ve come to realize my use of fanboys that so riled their base was in fact, unnecessary and short-sighted.

While I’ll continue to contend everyone with a media pass and signing the same forms should work under the same rules—no matter how outdated—the notion of a fanbase following the sport vicariously through media personalities dates to the earliest days of coverage. Darwin had fanboys who lived for his tournament accounts even a month after there had been a conclusion. Certainly Dan Jenkins elevated the art of fans living vicariously through his SI expense-account maneuvering, both in print and books. And by posting the things we do today on social media (golf, food, sites), all of us take audiences of different sizes on the road with us in different ways, just as the Barstool group does for their audience.

Anyway, with that apology out of the way, here’s the discussion below or as always, you can find on your favorite podcast platform or iTunes, and near the end we do also talk about the extra-fun finish at Kapalua.

The Reed Rules Saga, Files: Calls For An Intervention, Fans Need To Back Off And Monahan Weighs In

It’s no “mashed potatoes.”

Twenty-four hours later, Sunday’s “cheater” yell remains a shocker in a sport largely heckle-free. And totally predictable given Patrick Reed’s lack of a legitimate explanation for his cheating episode at the 2019 Hero World Challenge.

The outburst was surprising for the event, home to chill Maui crowds.

Brentley Romine on what was said and when during the 2020 Sentry.

Randall Mell writes for Golf Channel on the need of Team Reed to host an intervention due to overall point-misser tendencies.

Because this isn’t even really about Reed’s welfare. It’s about where the game is being further pushed if he doesn’t admit his need for forgiveness and seek some sort of absolution. It’s about how even reasonable golf fans are willing to accept heckling when it’s aimed at a player who is so remorseless in his indiscretion.

The sport is in trouble when heckling can be justified as defense of the game’s honor.

Michael Bamberger had a different view of “the heckle heard ‘round the world”, saying it’s the job of fans to save the sport by remaining genteel:

If golf is on the road to anything goes, on the part of players or spectators, the professional game will be on life support before Tiger gets his 18th major.

Ultimately this all ignores what I see as equally important: has the lack of any significant punishment for Reed increased the likelihood of more fan incidents? We considered this going into the Presidents Cup, and now we know how those crowds treated Reed (not well).

A second high profile episode in his first PGA Tour start of 2020 now exists during a sudden death playoff. And his case is closed. Commissioner Jay Monahan speaking in Maui, as reported by Dave Shedloski at GolfWorld.com:

“Golf is a game of honor and integrity, and you've heard from Patrick,” Monahan said. “I've had an opportunity to talk to Patrick at length, and I believe Patrick when he says that [he] did not intentionally improve [his] lie. And so you go back to that moment, and the conversation that he had with [rules official] Slugger [White], and the fact that a violation was applied and he agreed to it, and they signed his card and he moved on. To me that was the end of the matter.”

Given that Reed appears to have gotten away with something in the eye of most fans and PGA Tour leadership, it’s easy to envision many more fan episodes.

Oh, and he video, if you missed the 2020 Sentry:

WATCH: A fan yells "cheater" while Patrick Reed putts for nearly $2m #SentryTOCpic.twitter.com/wkLxvuWPAt

— Odds.com.au (@OddsComAu) January 6, 2020

Golf Central’s discussion of Reed’s issues with fans:

Monahan On Next TV Deal: More Work To Do Than Has Been Suggested

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan spoke to the light sprinkling of golf reporters on hand for the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions, reports GolfDigest.com’s Dave Shedloski. He covered an array of topics, but for those eager to see how the PGA Tour positions media rights for 2022 and beyond, it seems no decision will be coming imminently.

“We have more work to do. Probably more work than has been suggested,” Monahan said. “But I've been bullish on our prospects before we entered the process, and I'm as, if not more, bullish as we get through it.”

And this on TV vs…platforms:

He said that much more attention is being given to the delivery platforms as opposed to a straight television deal. “I’m probably more focused on that than I am anything else,” he said. “Making certain that … we continue to provide our content to our fans in the way that they want to consume that content.”

Mike Whan: "I can’t be thinking, 'I rebuilt the LPGA, now I am going to cash out and go to a bigger platform.’"

GolfChannel.com’s Randall Mell talked to Commissioner Mike Whan about his intention to stay with the LPGA for a long time.

“My wife says, in time, God answers prayers, but maybe not in the way we expect,” Whan said. “I really believe, in some strange way, he answered my prayer. I wanted to raise and impact a young woman’s life, but there was another plan, another way to do that.”

A primary focus of Whan’s purpose going forward will be to address big, complicated issues.

Now, Whan can’t imagine leaving his adopted daughters with this larger purpose still to pursue, with women’s empowerment a cause he is committed to champion:

Growing the game to where half the golf population is female.

Growing the profile of his players with more network TV opportunities.

Narrowing the gender pay gap.

They’re all more aggressively in his crosshairs today.

“I can’t just let that be somebody else’s problem,” Whan said. “I can’t be thinking, 'I rebuilt the LPGA, now I am going to cash out and go to a bigger platform.’ That would feel wrong. You’re either in this, or you’re not.”

His comments are also notable given the pending renewal of media deals that certainly may lead to a bonus.

Some Players Take The Blame For Mistakes, Some Get Gusted

The memorable 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions featuring a playoff and eventual win by Justin Thomas will go down as one of the more memorable PGA Tour events in some time. The combination of elite players, Kapalua’s finishing holes regaining some of their danger and a nice dose of wind set up a wild conclusion.

Of course, none of it happens without Justin Thomas bungling the 18th in regulation, carding a six after a weak tee shot and poor decision to hit 3 wood. Plenty of factors threatened to stop Thomas from hitting a quality shot, as Luke Kerr-Dineen noted here for Golf.com.

And then there was Justin’s thinking.

Thanks to Jeremy Schilling from highlighting this answer in Thomas’ post round press conversation:

Q. Two things on 18 in regulation, a nice moment to reflect on. On the second shot you had, did you hit a bad shot or was it a bad lie?

JUSTIN THOMAS: It was a really bad lie. It was the wrong club. I should have hit a 5-wood. It just -- I had no chance to get it to the green. The only good thing about a 3-wood was that it was going to cover more if I slightly pulled it, not hit it as far left as I did. But I mean, as steep as -- the thing is the farther down you get it, the flatter it is. I hit that drive so bad and so far off the toe that I didn't get it far enough down to be flat. It just was -- with a one-shot lead that was so stupid. I would have been better off hitting a 6-iron than a 3-wood. It doesn't make sense.

If I just would have made 4 there I would have won the tournament in regulation. Obviously if I made 5 I would have, but standing on 18 tee, I'm like, we make 4 we're probably going to win this thing, and boy, I botched it up pretty badly.

In an era of “we” making a bad call or “we” hitting a bad shot, Thomas’s comments will endear him to golf fans.

Contrast that with those who got “gusted.”

Unbeknownst to many, this is a thing.

Patrick Reed wheeled out the term for his missed playoff putts during a post round interview, not long after Xander Schauffele used the term.

From Dylan Dethier’s noble attempt to respectfully consider the act of being gusted.

“Unfortunately I had two putts really to close it, and one of them I got gusted on, and then this last one with the wind and the break, just got me again,” Reed said. There it is again: “gusted.” (Remember to save this phrase for your weekend game!) He expanded on the point, describing his birdie try on playoff hole No. 2. “The wind picked up right when we hit it and it made the ball stay straighter because it was more downwind and it actually didn’t break at all,” he said.

Certainly wind can affect a putt, but as I recall watching the putts live, they appeared off pretty early on. Maybe that’s where the gusting too place. Or maybe former tour player Chris DiMarco likely summed up the feelings of most in a Tweet that now sleeps with the fishes, notes GolfWRX’s Gianni Magliocco.

Sentry 2020: Watching Young Guns Hit Woods Into Par-5s Was Exciting! Stop The Presses!

Kapalua played like a golf course re-opening year one of a major overhaul. The turf was young, the greens sported that dreaded new-green firmness and overall, it needs a little more time to settle in. Mother Nature was also cruel to the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions in making Kapalua play long, soft, wet and not as much fun as we know it can be.

But as the ground dried just enough during Sunday’s windy finale, the 18th played like it did fifteen years ago. Drives that caught the right line and ridges shortened the hole. Clubs once called woods—not irons!—were used for second shots on a par-5. The hazard was in play. The ground mattered. Position off the tee was key. Genuine skill behind mere power was on display. And it was all very exciting to watch.

This is noteworthy given how often we are told the long ball is vital to selling the sport when we were once again reminded that power is fascinating when it is used to overcome hazards or to separate highly competitive players in a tight battle. Seeing the shots of Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed just trickle on to a green in two, after starting 677 yards away, proved far more exciting than most finishes we’ve seen in some time and certainly were more fun than the simple lash at a tee shot.

It was all a reminder of how much pleasure can be found in watching a skilled player use a wood off of a hanging lie under tournament pressure, and how rarely it now happens as distance overwhelms the game.

Well done to all involved and thanks for the viewing pleasure to kick off 2020 in style.

Here was Thomas hitting into the hazard, hopefully we’ll get some social posts of the brilliant shots hit by Thomas, Schauffele and Reed on the first playoff hole (Think shaped, running and using the land, with a wood in their hand.)

Hopefully we’ll get some of those posted in the PGA Tour highlights package, but in the meantime, eventual winner Justin Thomas’s gaffe in regulation and his near eagle hole out in the playoff, in case you missed all the fun.

Leader Justin Thomas finds the penalty area.

He began the 18th hole with a 1-shot lead. pic.twitter.com/ssx8KRPD3A

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 6, 2020

The drama.

Justin Thomas' eagle bid in the playoff ...#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/Y7Rx20cq5p

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 6, 2020

Better Than Most: Video And Story About The Baylor Full-Court Putt

KWTX’s Tyler Boudin talked to Ky Carlson after his full-court, $5000 made putt at halftime of Saturday’s Baylor-Texas game. The incredible third putt of the contest went viral, including millions of views via social media (below).

In these tough times, it’s always fun to read about a fun feat. Boudin writes:

When Ky Carlson's third attempt drifted right of the green set up on the baseline, the trend appeared to roll on to another day.

"As soon as I hit it, I know I pushed it off to the right, but as it goes past halfcourt, it starts to curl back in," Carlson said. "It keeps getting closer and closer, and then all of a sudden, it's pandemonium. It pops on the green and goes in. Nobody could believe it, including me, so that was pretty amazing."

Carlson was a contestant in the Mattson Financial Group putting contest that features three separate putts worth $250, $500 and $5,000 respectively. Ironically, his first attempt was the worst of the three, missing the green by a few inches.

"(Baylor) kind of wants us to go pretty fast. I get to the second one and it's a dead aim," Carlson said. "That one barely lipped in and out. I thought that second one was my chance."

Here it is:

🚨 HISTORY MADE 🚨

You GOT to 👀 this!!!!

Mattson Services Financial Putt ⛳️ #SCtop10 #SicEm 🐻 pic.twitter.com/2RWkgveqP9

— Baylor Athletics (@BaylorAthletics) January 5, 2020

Instant Poll Asking For A Friend: Would You Support Monday Finishes During The NFL Playoffs?

We’ve run into this question seemingly every year. But with the NFL’s already high ratings on the rise again as a strong leaderboard plays against wildcard weekend. It takes little imagination to know that golf is annoying blip to casual fans following the games, and is even asking its core audience to keep their remotes or second screens busy.

In between remote control flips to wildcard games, I ask, what would be so terrible if the first three events of the PGA Tour season started on Friday and ended on Monday?

The Sentry Tournament of Champions, Sony Open and Bob Hope Chrylser Humana Careerbuilder Workday American Express Desert Classic could all finish on Mondays and in eastern U.S. prime time on Golf Channel.

For the sponsor, a Monday finish might allow the event to get a similar rating on cable and get more recognition in media cycles when the only major sporting event.

The major negatives: a potentially smaller final round gallery at the Hawaii events, a tight turnaround from the desert event to Torrey Pines and the end of any chance a major network would carry the final round. And such a move would mean finishing near the start of the national college football championship but also on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday.

And then there is this point from reader Mark:

So I am trying to figure out why the @PGATOUR did all this work to end before the @nfl started but start the main part of the 2020 season on wild card weakened @GeoffShac @the_woke_yolk @NoLayingUp

— Mark Wittig (@MarkWittig) January 5, 2020

So, simple yes or no…

Should the PGA Tour's opening events avoid NFL playoff games with Monday finishes?

Yes

No

 

pollcode.com free polls