PGA Tour Aligns With Amazon Web Services To Build "Data Lake" For Golf History

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-02 at 9.33.45 PM.png

In a staggering move that has executives all over golf asking, why didn’t I think of that, the PGA Tour and Amazon Web Services have combined to create the single greatest piece of golf B-speak nonsense.

I’ll leave it to Sean Martin to reveal in this story for PGATour.com because it does involve the most exciting part of this announcement:

AWS will help the TOUR store real-time and historic content that will give fans and media access to content dating back to the 1928 Los Angeles Open. This “data lake” will contain video, audio and images that AWS technology will tag for easy cataloging. This will help the TOUR and its content partners search, review, annotate and package new content and give them instant access to key moments in the TOUR’s history.

Now that sounds fun. Let’s get that lake filled with data!

As for the real reason behind this deal...

In a newly announced partnership that promises to revolutionize how fans consume the game, the PGA TOUR has partnered with AWS as it looks to modernize the way golf content is created and distributed. The AWS partnership comes at the perfect time as the TOUR grows its global media services. A range of AWS services will be utilized in this new media landscape to simplify content delivery, create new digital experiences, and provide enhanced access to archived broadcast footage and highlights.  

“We are excited to utilize AWS media services to further enhance new and existing innovative services for our fans,” said Scott Gutterman, the PGA TOUR’s Senior Vice President, Digital Operations. “Features like Every Shot Live and TOURCast will now be powered by AWS, which will allow for a more streamlined process and overall better product for our fans.”

Translation: we’re going to help them get closer to real-time streaming so we can make live betting happen.

The Tour’s dreams of live betting is quite unattractive in a world where streamers get excited texts from their cable-subscribing friends and must wait ten seconds to find out what happeed.

These latency issues are hugely problematic when other fans (or other interested observers) can beat the linemakers and algorithms who are on a delay. AWS to the rescue for not just golf, but all of sports streaming.

Nice And Steady Ratings: WGC At The Concession Slightly Up

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-02 at 9.24.20 PM.png

Showbuzzdaily has last week’s ratings for the 2021 WGC Workday at The Concession (listed as WGC Mexico).

The 1.79 final round rating on NBC was up just a tick from last year’s 1.83 based on audience size specifics. Saturday was up nicely, too. The overall steady numbers do not include streaming data. In sports ratings right now it seems “steady” or even “slightly down” is a positive for the sport.

Screen Shot 2021-03-02 at 9.24.08 PM.png

"The rich vs the very, very rich: the Wentworth golf club rebellion"

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-02 at 9.14.19 PM.png

It’s been a while by Wentworth standards since we’ve heard of drama or another course renovation coming out of the English countryside.

But The Guardian’s long read is devoted to the club’s first world dramas and Chinese owner Yan Bin. Thanks to all who forwarded a fascinating read that’ll make you believe your club or condo board is perfectly sane.

The story author, Samanth Subramanian writes:

The ongoing clash between Yan Bin and his club’s members has witnessed several dramatic phases: threats, lawsuits, duplicity, negotiations, truces, even death. But the tale isn’t just about the preposterousness of the wealthy. Rather, it’s impossible to learn about all this turmoil – in a place called “the Island”, for crying out loud – and not see it as an allegory. With its groves of pine and rhododendrons, its houses named Heatherbrook or Bluebell Wood or Silver Birches, and the gentle hillocks of its club’s fairways, Wentworth Estate holds dear a vision of pastoral Englishness. But since the 1980s, Wentworth has been reshaped – just like England itself – by money: first the wealth of the homegrown 1%, which considered itself immune to the turmoil of change, but which then found itself subject to the whims of the globalised capital held by the 0.001% like Yan Bin. The saga is familiar: a small locality unsettled by the arrival of an outsider. Except that the outsider is a transnational holding corporation, and the locality is Wentworth Estate, a slice of England overtaken by the world.

Oh No Another Florida Swing? European Tour Considers Three Events This May

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-01 at 8.35.10 PM.png

Nothing says Europe like three weeks of Florida tournament golf.

But with restrictions on traveling to and from Spain and Portugal, the European Tour’s current post-Masters schedule has issues. And since playing opportunities are all that matters, they’ve turned to their new global strategic alliance partners reports The Telegraph’s James Corrigan.

What a gift. A second Florida swing because one wasn’t enough? Who needs Tenerife, Gran Canaria and the Algarve when you can go to Tallahassee, Gainesville and the Villages?

Corrigan writes:

Not only has the PGA Tour given their sanction to the prospective tournaments, but it is understood they first proposed the idea as they saw their new partners struggling with the schedule due to the ongoing crisis.

Immediately after The Masters at Augusta, the Tour is down to visit Tenerife, Gran Canaria and the Algarve. But with Spain banning visitors from the UK and South Africa and with Portugal on the red list, the “elite athlete” exemption would not apply.

On average, roughly a third of European Tour fields are made up by South African and UK pros, making it doubtful this trio of stops could justifiably go ahead. At the moment, the Tour is undergoing a frustrating four-week blank period of regular events and Keith Pelley, the wily chief executive, has made it his mission to give his membership ample opportunities.

Florida here they come!

Timetable Offered For Resurrection Of West Palm Beach Muni

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-01 at 9.08.16 AM.png

Tony Doris reports good news from West Palm Beach where a community trust will restore the shuttered muni. (Thanks to reader John for this.)

PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh is the primary figure helping bring together all sides and donations for the project hoping to start this summer with a fall 2022 reopening planned. The site will return 18 holes designed by Gil Hanse along with a short course, full range and modest clubhouse.

Doris writes:

To date, $22 million has been committed by donors, he said. The founding group is prepared to contribute about $3 million and is looking for like-minded Palm Beach County golfers to join them, he said.

The total of $35 million required to build and sustain the project will include no money from city coffers. It will come from individual donors and a limited number of corporate partners, Waugh said.

The entrance will be off Georgia Avenue, no longer off Forest Hill Boulevard and Parker Avenue. Assistant City Administrator Armando Fana said that Georgia Avenue might require landscaping or other beautification but what form that would take and who would pay has not been decided.

2022 Drive, Chip And Putt Registration Opens, Stellar Set Of Regional Sites Await

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-01 at 7.51.57 PM.png

Parents and kids you probably know the drill by now: create an account and sign up for the next Drive, Chip and Putt in 2022.

And because it’s the world we live in, they’ve added Health and Safety Guidelines to read up on. But it’s all worth the opportunity to get to Augusta National or even the regional finals.

Now about the competition: Subregional, Regional and National Finals are again part of the equation.

Once again the USGA, PGA of America and Augusta National Golf Club have secured some amazing venues for the Regional Finals. So even if a trip to Augusta doesn’t happen, just making the Regional final will expose the youngsters to a very special place in the game. And Quail Hollow too.

From the DCP press release:

These regional venues, featuring several USGA and PGA Championship sites, include: Medinah Country Club, Oak Hill Country Club, Colorado Golf Club, Quail Hollow Club, TPC River Highlands, Pebble Beach Golf Links, TPC Scottsdale, Alotian Club, The Bear’s Club and Oakland Hills Country Club.

Saturday, September 11 | Medinah Country Club (Site of four USGA championships, including three U.S. Opens; and host of two PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup)

Sunday, September 19 | Oak Hill Country Club (Site of six USGA championships, including three U.S. Opens; and host of three PGA Championships, the 1995 Ryder Cup and two KitchenAid Senior PGA Championships. Oak Hill will also host the 2023 PGA Championship)

Sunday, September 19 | Colorado Golf Club (Site of the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship and 2010 Senior PGA Championship)

Saturday, September 25 | Quail Hollow Club (Site of the 2017 PGA Championship and the host of the 2025 PGA Championship)

Poor Presidents Cup.

Sunday, September 26 | TPC River Highlands (Site of the Travelers Championship)

Sunday, September 26 | Pebble Beach Golf Links (Site of 13 USGA championships, including six U.S. Opens, and the future site of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open and 2027 U.S. Open; and host of the 1977 PGA Championship)

Sunday, September 26 | TPC Scottsdale (Site of the Waste Management Phoenix Open)

Saturday, October 2 | Alotian Club (Site of the 2013 Western Amateur Championship and 2019 Arnold Palmer Cup)

Sunday, October 3 | The Bear’s Club (Founded December 31, 1999 by Jack and Barbara Nicklaus)

Saturday, October 16 | Oakland Hills Country Club (Site of 11 USGA championships, including six U.S. Opens; and host of three PGA Championships and the 2004 Ryder Cup)

2021 U.S.A Walker Cup Team Set, Matches A Go For May

/
Screen Shot 2021-03-01 at 8.48.46 AM.png

The Walker Cup’s May playing at Seminole got the best sign yet it’s full steam ahead with the naming of Team USA.

Brian DePasquale has all of the details and team bios here. No teens and no one over 29. Stewart Hagestad, John Pak and Cole Hammer are holdovers from the American’s winning effort in 2019 at Royal Liverpool.

The release announcing Team USA also provided this update on attendance:

Due to health and safety guidelines, attendance at the Match will be limited. Information on the availability of public tickets will be posted in the spring on walkercup.org.

Television times have not been published yet.

Morikawa Finds His Putting Stroke And Scores Impressive WGC Win

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-28 at 8.07.50 PM.png

When reigning PGA Champion Collin Morikawa is putting well, well, he’s tough to beat.

From Ryan Lavner’s GolfChannel.com story at the WGC Workday at The Concession, a late replacement event for the WGC Mexico City.

For the week, Morikawa ranked 10th in the field in putting, gaining nearly four shots on the field – the second-best putting week of his Tour career, behind only the PGA.

“His putting stroke looks unbelievably good,” Horschel said.

So why is this not just another hot streak? Why does he feel confident that these weeks can be the norm, not the exception?

“Now I feel confident I can take the stroke out of play and I can just really focus on speed, I can focus on the line, how do I get that ball to fall in the hole where I want it,” Morikawa said. “That’s what’s really exciting for me.”

Morikawa turned things around thanks to a move to a saw putting grip Mark O’Meara taught him two weeks ago.

Golf.com’s Nick Piastowski with an explanation and the backstory. Oh, and how it’s different than a claw grip.

The saw keeps his putter square. For a right-hander like Morikawa, the left hand grips the putter a bit like it would the other clubs, with the thumb pointing down the shaft. The right hand is the “saw,” which O’Meara described in a 2008 video for Golf Channel as “my top three fingers are on the top of the putter, my pinkie is just on the back edge of the putter and my thumb is around the back side.”

A few notes courtesy of the PGA Tour communications team:

  • Made 27 birdies, most of any player in the field; most birdies in a WGC stroke-play event is 29, by three players (Scott McCarron/2002 Workday Championship/6th, Martin Kaymer/2013 HSBC Champions/T8, Hideki Matsuyama/2016 HSBC Champions/Won,)

  • Led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach The Green (9.544) and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (12.526

  • Morikawa joins Tiger Woods as the only players to win a major and WGC before turning 25

  • No player has won multiple tournaments through 20 weeks, the longest streak to start a season since 1994 (Nick Price won his second tournament in the 21st week of the season)

  • Scottie Scheffler finishes highest among the five players in the field who competed at the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Championship at The Concession Golf Club

  • Seven bogey-free rounds recorded during the week, but none in the final round

Morikawa’s early career is shaping up to be impressive historically:

This also makes it back-to-back weeks for Cal golf, with Max Homa winning last week’s Genesis Invitational.

Tiger Tribute Prompts Utterly Bizarre Backlash

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-28 at 7.28.24 PM.png

Tiger owns the color red.

He earned it by winning often and decisively.

No one in their right mind—other than Patrick Reed—dares to wear red and black on a Sunday.

It’s quite charming that his peers have essentially said no to the color out of deference to Tiger’s traditional power color expression inspired by his mom.

In light of this, few golfers travel with or wear red shirts.

So when Woods was seriously injured last Monday in a car wreck it was hardly a shock to learn players were not prepared for an impromptu salute during Sunday’s WGC final round. This somehow did not stop an unusually large number of lunatics from grousing on social media about players not partaking in the homage to Woods.

Last week’s winner, Max Homa, took particular grief for not violating his apparel and logo deals (see Tweets below). This, even though he spoke so beautifully of Tiger’s importance just a week ago when winning the Genesis Invitational hosted by Woods.

Collin Morikawa felt the need to explain why he was not in red and hopefully he’ll avoid the angry mob since his sponsor tried to get him somethign.

From Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com:

Tournament winner Collin Morikawa said that he had planned to wear a red shirt on Sunday, but that the shipment from Adidas got stuck in Memphis because of weather issues. His caddie even went to the distribution center to check if it had arrived. When it became clear that the shirts wouldn’t get here before his tee time, Morikawa instead settled for black pants.

“My agent said that even though the shirt wasn’t there, go out and play like Tiger would with the lead,” Morikawa said. “I think I did.”

Either way, the tribute went just fine Sunday supported by those who were able to get a red shirt from Nike even if the pattern screamed, the “red shirt Tiger said no f’ing way to.”

But more vital than any of this nonsense, Tiger saw the tribute from his room at Cedars Sinai and that’s really all that matters.

The PGA Tour put together this nice tribute of Tiger moments interspersed with players who wore red and black Sunday:

Phil Mickelson chose to go with a red shirt and kept his logo’d sweater on above it, explaining that he had to do a little shopping:

Branden Grace Dedicates Puerto Rico Win To His Late Father

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-28 at 5.47.10 PM.png

While local favorite Rafael Campo finished three back, the Puerto Rico Open got a fine winner in Branden Grace. The AP game story from Rio Grande.

The world No. 83 posted a bogey-free 66 to claim his second PGA Tour win and a two-year exemption.

The victory comes five weeks after losing his father, Peter, to complications associated with COVID-19. He spoke movingly about his father after the win:

Rahm On Green Reading Books: "I don’t think they should be allowed."

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-28 at 4.53.30 PM.png

Apologies for missing this from Jon Rahm’s Wednesday WGC Workday/The Concession press conference but given his status in the game and views it’s never too late to point out his comments on green reading books.

The full exchange is interesting:

Q. Jon, I had some super golfing questions for you. Dustin said that with the detailed greens books, it's actually easier to learn a golf course these days than in the past. You might even be able to figure out a golf course before you even get here. I'm just curious, do you think that negates some of the challenge or perhaps even some of your advantage of having some prior golf course knowledge?

JON RAHM: You mean the greens books like the little map with all the slopes?

Q. Yeah. All the charting is so good now that he basically figured it out before he even arrived on site.

JON RAHM: Well, I don't use those books.

Q. How come?

JON RAHM: My caddie gets them. I don't look at them because I just--I'm a feel player, I trust what I see. If I have a question, I'll ask him, and he might look at it if we're in doubt. I've never spoken of this, I have to be honest, I don't think they should be allowed. That's my opinion. I think being able to read a green and read a break and understand the green is a talent, it's a skill that can be developed, and by just giving you the information, they're taking away from the game. Again, I think being able to read greens and understand greens, it's a talent, it's part of the game, and like I said, it's a skill that can be developed or not. So that's my take on it.

Besides the de-skilling and dumbing-down component at a time the governing bodies are reviewing those matters, there is the horrible optic of a professional golfer staring at their little cheat sheet on national TV while we wait for them. The situation has been made worse (not better) by the rule change restricting rendering sizes.

Essentially the only people wanting to keep them in the professional game profit from their creation and sales.

Elliott Heath at GolfMonthly pointed out Rahm’s remarks and also reminded me of Ian Poulter’s very prescient Tweet in 2017 taking a similar stance:

Before We Leave The Concession...

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-28 at 5.15.23 PM.png

Before we move on from The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, a salute is in order for putting on a good short notice show with the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession (just imagine, the first tee announcer repeated that doozy all day!).

While the architecture leans a little too artificial and overbuilt for my taste, the course appeared to give players plenty of fun problems to solve. It’s not clear if this is a one-off, but the February 16th press release announcing Workday as sponsor only specified this stand-in role because the normal host in Mexico City was not available (and sounds unlikely to return). The Concession also paid an unsustainable fee to help fund the purse and maybe move some real estate.

Either way, I really enjoyed the excuse to go back and read up on the 1969 Ryder Cup moment that gave the course its name, digging up some fun and forgotten anecdotes from that Cup for Quadrilateral subscribers here.

With Crown Prince Responsible For Khashoggi Killing, Where Does That Leave Golf Saudi And The Public Investment Fund?

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 10.15.06 PM.png

In the worst kept secret on earth, a declassified U.S. intelligence report holds Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

While the Biden administration is thus far not directing penalizing the Crown Prince, the New York Times Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger write that “the release of the report signaled that President Biden, unlike his predecessor, would not set aside the killing of Mr. Khashoggi and that his administration intended to try to isolate the crown prince.”

The isolation effect could have an impact on the Crown Prince’s Golf Saudi and the Public Investment Fund under his control (also said to be a primary backer of the proposed Premier Golf League among many investments).

Golf.com’s Michael Arkush recently summed up Golf Saudi’s hopes in a story prompted by the recent announcement of a Jack Nicklaus design in Saudi Arabia, a company that part of Golf.com’s parent company 8 a.m. Golf.

The golf push is part of a larger “Vision 2030” strategy, championed by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; that initiative is aimed, in part, at bolstering the kingdom’s entertainment and tourism offerings as the nation simultaneously implements social reform.

On the golf front, thinking big means bringing in established designers.

“Every single golf course we are going to build from now on is going to have to be a branded name,” Majed Al Sorour, the CEO of Golf Saudi and the Saudi Golf Federation, said in an interview. “All of the great designers are going to be part of the development in the kingdom.”

So far, the list includes two legendary major winners in Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman. 

Golf Saudi also hosts an annual European Tour stop said to be the vision of bin Salman.

As for the Public Investment Fund with tentacles in several major American companies and the proposed Premier Golf League, it could be vulnerable because of direct ties to the crime.

From CNBC’s Emily DeCiccio report:

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, is chaired by MBS. It appears to have played a role in purchasing the aircraft that ferried Khashoggi’s killers to Turkey, where the murder occurred.

“If this is the case, it could become a target for American human rights sanctions,” according to Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of State. That could, in turn, “create an economic earthquake,” he said. 

“If the United States determines that the Khashoggi killing was a targeted human rights violation, then the perpetrators and backers of that killing could be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act,” Rubin said. 

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act authorizes the president to impose economic sanctions, freeze any U.S. assets, and deny entry into the U.S. to any foreign person who has engaged in human rights abuse or corruption, while prohibiting Americans from doing business with him or her. The Magnitsky Act has been used against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cronies. Putin called it, “A purely political, unfriendly act.”

Vic Open Concept Comes North, Gets European Tour Status Thanks To ISPS Handa, Horan

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 12.52.26 PM.png

Australians rave about the Vic Open’s male/female format that sees both tournaments concluded Sunday, with leading groups interspersed. And now it’s coming to another European Tour/LET stop.

From Brian Keogh’s report on ISPS Handa and Niall Horan’s Modest! Golf Management putting together the event for this July, with first-ever northern hemisphere tri-sanctioning.

The ISPS HANDA World Invitational will attract a field of 288 players, 144 men and 144 women. The women’s field will be split equally between the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour. The $2.35 million purse will be split evenly, with men and women competing for two equal prize funds.

The tournament will count towards the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and carry Team Europe Ryder Cup points, while the women’s tournament will count towards the Race to the CME Globe for women on the LPGA Tour, the Race to Costa del Sol on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and Solheim Cup points for both Team Europe and Team USA.

When the male and female fields are cut to 60 and ties, another 54-hole cut reduces the fields to 35 advancing to Sunday, with tee times mixed so fans can watch both tournaments conclude at similar times.

R.I.P. Bill Wright, Pioneering U.S. Amateur Pub Links Champion, Instructor

/
Screen Shot 2021-02-25 at 8.08.59 PM.png

A couple of superbly handled stories are with your time on the life and times of Bill Wright, the first Black golfer to win a USGA championship when he captured the 1959 U.S. Amateur Public Links.

From David Shefter’s USGA.org remembrance:

“He felt so thrilled to be the best golfer that day, not the best Black golfer,” said Ceta Wright, who was married to Bill for 60 years, in an interview with the Seattle Times. “And, of course, afterward he realized that he was a barrier breaker and that was important to him. It was important to everyone, really, and especially in the Black community.”

Shortly after the trophy presentation, a Seattle journalist called Wright and asked what it was like to be the first African American to win a national championship. Wright, who was about to enter his senior year at Western Washington College, slammed the phone down.

Wright later told golf.com, “I wasn’t mad. I wanted to be Black. I wanted to be the winner. I wanted to be all those things. It just hit me that other people were thinking [about race]. I was just playing golf.”

Wright competed that week with only 12 clubs: two woods, nine irons and a putter. His opponent from Jacksonville, Fla., had been a professional for four years before regaining his amateur status and returning to the insurance business.

And from Richard Sandomir of the New York Times:

Winning the public links title earned Wright an exemption to play in the U.S. Amateur Championship later that year at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs. When the white golfers who were to join him for a practice round refused to play with him, Chick Evans, who had won the Open in 1920, invited him to join his group. That group included Jack Nicklaus, then 19 years old, who would win the event.

“I have never forgotten it,” Wright once said of Evans’s gesture in an interview for usga.com. “He came over and made it so I could enjoy the most aristocratic hotel. It was just amazing.”

And this…

Because he could not afford to play golf professionally full time, Wright taught sixth grade in Los Angeles for nine years, then owned a car dealership in Pasadena and was the teaching pro at the Lakes at El Segundo, a nine-hole municipal golf course, from 1995 to 2017.

The USGA put together this wonderful video tribute to Wright:

In 1959, Bill Wright made golf history when he became the first black USGA champion, winning the U.S. Amateur Public Links. Learn more about Wright's inspiri...