WGC Match Play Draws Another Strong Field

Always one of the best weeks of the year, the 2021 WGC Dell Match Play has lured a strong field this year despite its proximity to the Masters. I wondered if we might see more defections not wanting to risk a COVID positive so close to the Masters. Particularly after a Players week scene produced three positive cases.

One of those players, Gary Woodland, is not playing, nor are other recently injured stars who qualified: Koepka, Rose and Woods.

For Immediate Release…

Final field set for the 2021 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play

Star-studded event features the world’s top-ranked players returning to Austin Country Club 

AUSTIN, Texas – Tournament officials announced today that the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play field is officially set with 64 of the top 69 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) committed. The event returns to Austin Country Club, March 24-28, and will feature golf’s biggest stars for the only match-play tournament on the PGA TOUR. 

Reigning FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson, 2021 PLAYERS champion Justin Thomas, World No. 3 Jon Rahm, 18-time PGA TOUR winner Rory McIlroy, former Texas Longhorn Jordan Spieth and defending champion Kevin Kisner are among the notables returning to Austin. The event annually boasts an international group of players and the 2021 tournament will be no exception, including representation from 17 different countries across the globe. 

The field is comprised of 50 PGA TOUR winners with a collective 229 wins to their credit. Twenty-two players will make their tournament debut including UT graduate Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Sungjae Im and Matthew Wolff. 

Final seeds for the 64-player field will be determined based on the Official World Golf Ranking as of Monday, March 22. 

WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play field list as of Friday, March 19 at 5:00 p.m. ET:

Rank     Player                           Country

1          Dustin Johnson             (USA)

2          Justin Thomas               (USA)

3          John Rahm                    (Spain)

4          Collin Morikawa            (USA)

5          Bryson DeChambeau     (USA)

6          Xander Schauffele         (USA)

7          Patrick Reed                  (USA)

8          Tyrrell Hatton               (England)

9          Patrick Cantlay              (USA)

10        Webb Simpson              (USA)

11        Rory McIlroy                 (Northern Ireland)

13        Tony Finau                    (USA)

14        Viktor Hovland              (Norway)

15        Daniel Berger                (USA)

16        Matt Fitzpatrick            (England)

17        Paul Casey                    (England)

18        Sungjae Im                    (South Korea)

19        Lee Westwood              (England)

20        Harris English                (USA)

21        Matthew Wolff             (USA)

22        Tommy Fleetwood        (England)

23        Louis Oosthuizen           (South Africa)

24        Hideki Matsuyama        (Japan)

26        Ryan Palmer                 (USA)

27        Cameron Smith             (Australia)

28        Abraham Ancer             (Mexico)

29        Joaquin Niemann          (Chile)

30        Kevin Na                       (USA)

31        Jason Kokrak                 (USA)

32        Scottie Scheffler            (USA)

33        Victor Perez                  (France)

34        Billy Horschel                (USA)

35        Christiaan Bezuidenhout (South Africa)

36        Kevin Kisner                  (USA)

37        Max Homa                    (USA)

39        Marc Leishman             (Australia)

40        Shane Lowry                 (Ireland)

41        Corey Conners              (Canada)

42        Sergio Garcia                 (Spain)

43        Will Zalatoris                 (USA)

44        Robert MacIntyre          (Scotland)

45        Bernd Wiesberger         (Austria)

46        Carlos Ortiz                   (Mexico)

47        Jason Day                     (Australia)

48        Si Woo Kim                   (South Korea)

49        Lanto Griffin                 (USA)

50        Brendon Todd               (USA)

52        Jordan Spieth                (USA)

53        Mackenzie Hughes        (Canada)

54        Matt Kuchar                  (USA)

55        Matt Wallace                (England)

57        Bubba Watson              (USA)

58        Brian Harman                (USA)

59        Kevin Streelman            (USA)

60        Russell Henley               (USA)

61        Sebastian Munoz           (Colombia)

62        Andy Sullivan                (England)

63        Antoine Rozner             (France) 

64        Talor Gooch                  (USA)

65        Ian Poulter                    (England)

66        Erik van Rooyen            (South Africa)

67        Adam Long                   (USA)

68        J.T. Poston                    (USA)

69        Dylan Frittelli                (South Africa)

 The match play bracket reveal will happen on PGATour.com at 10 am CT and you’ll be able to play along at dellmatchplay.com. 

Brandel Chamblee Joins Forces With Golf Architect Agustin Pizá

One of the 6 hole routes of a 24 hole complex, that @arqpiza and I are building, designed specifically for women, with all the fairways, greens, roughs and hazards oriented with the right numbers in mind, a sort of Women’s version of the TPC Sawgrass. Long overdue. https://t.co/IPTqjyOTPM

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) March 5, 2021

As he’s peddled widely on distance and criticized architects for not adapting to the modern game, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee has not shown much sympathy for the plight of architects in the face of modern core strength. (This, even though architects could profit off of changing distances and yet most would like to see regulation in the name of sustainability.)

So it’s with great joy to see that he is teaming with Pizá Golf founder Agustin Pizá to take up a new side-hobby: golf architecture.

For Immediate Release:

"Humbled by #BrandelChamblee mention of my golf design philosophy as it relates to the structure of a good 18 chapter book. Being able to partner with such a gentleman, intellectual, analyst and arts connoisseur will ask for the best of me. I'm up for the challenge but most of all, for the fun we will have in the process of achieving exciting new golf courses which will take you, like a good book, through a carousel of emotions," Agustin Pizá

Pizá Golf has been recognized with many international accolades and has garnered a reputation for “Re-defining Golf Facilities” with their concepts – Wellness Golf and Lounge Golf. Agustin Pizá was recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 100 creative minds from Mexico and Golf Inc. Magazine included him in their Power 2020 issue as an up and coming superstar. Pizá and the company have worked and have been involved in more than 60 projects on three continents

Ironically, or not, Pizá got a mention during last week’s Players Championship by Chamblee. I’m sure the whole full disclosure thing happened before or after the clip below.

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R.I.P. Frank Thomas, USGA Technical Director And Golf Inventor

Mike Stachura and Mike Johnson pen a lengthy remembrance of Frank Thomas, longtime USGA technical director and inventor. While the story goes into great depth on some of the fascinating moments in his career, Thomas’s accomplishments were well summed up by the USGA’s Mike Davis:

Thomas earned the respect of both those who worked with him at the USGA and those whose products he ruled on sometimes negatively. “Frank was such an important part of the USGA and the game,” said Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA. “He was an innovator who created golf’s first graphite shaft and played an integral role in creating the Slope System for golf course rating, among many of his incredible achievements. Most importantly, he was a friend of so many in our game. He will be sorely missed.”

And this on the graphite shaft:

Prior to coming to the USGA, Thomas earned an engineering degree from Western Michigan University and was working for Shakespeare Sporting Goods. He developed the filament winding technique for graphite fibers around a mandrel to control the demanding torsional bending properties of a golf shaft.

Thomas took on several pieces of equipment during his time, including the Polara ball and Ping’s square grooves. Both got the USGA sued and Thomas was named by Ping in the Eye2 iron case.

But it was the USGA’s knockdown-drag-out fight with Ping and its founder Karsten Solheim over the “square grooves” in his Eye2 irons that was a kind of Cuban Missile Crisis event for equipment rulemaking. It led to a $300 million antitrust lawsuit in 1985 that named Thomas personally and hinged on the interpretation of the measurement of a groove, a measurement that for all intents and purposes constituted the width of a human hair. Thomas initiated a change in the rules that provided updated and practical guidelines that in essence prevented more than half the irons on the market at the time from being ruled non-conforming. But the new specifics on groove width and spacing ran into measurement challenges, and the ruling bodies eventually blinked—albeit with no money changing hands and, perhaps most importantly, the USGA’s authority to make equipment rules was upheld.

Quadrilateral Major(s) News And Notes: March 18

It’s an all-Masters edition of the Quadrilateral’s weekly notes letter available to all who sign up for free.

Past editions of the newsletter are here.

And if you’re new to the newsletter thing, I explain the Quadrilateral here and even answer questions.

Links: Top Short Course Openings for 2021

Not too long ago the headline above might have sounded almost April 1 worthy given the game’s infatuation with 7000-72 courses.

Mercifully tastes are changing but I still never imagined this one: a list of the “Top Short Course Openings for 2021”.

Erik Matuszewski presents ten of this year’s most anticipated alternative offerings all over the globe. This one looks and sounds the most intriguing, a fitting addition to one of the world’s great places in very little time.

It was only a couple decades ago that Barnbougle Dunes was just a strip of land alongside a potato farm on Tasmania’s northeast coast. Today, it’s one of the most celebrated destinations in golf, not just Australia. In 2010, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw opened the 20-hole Lost Farm course to complement the original layout and their team, along with Winter Park 9 visionary Riley Johns, is putting the finishing touches on a 14-hole short course built into a ridge of sand dunes near Lost Farm that will have mostly par threes along with a couple of drivable par fours.

A teaser video of the Barnbougle course:

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USGA Partners With Crooked Stick Golf Club To Preserve Dye Legacy

Danny Vohden explains the partnership between Crooked Stick and the USGA to preserve various artifacts and ephemera from the life and times of Pete and Alice Dye. The items will be housed at the USGA Golf Museum and Library.

The United States Golf Association (USGA), at the invitation of Crooked Stick Golf Club members Joe and Marcia Luigs, along with Tony Pancake, the club’s director of golf, has acquired a selection of artifacts and ephemera from the estate of Pete and Alice Dye.

The collection, which is to be preserved at the USGA Golf Museum and Library, includes more than 50 items from the Dyes’ life and career together and was obtained from their home on the grounds of Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., which served as their summer residence for many years. Pete and Alice Dye designed Crooked Stick, which was founded in 1964 and has gone on to host six USGA championships, most recently the 2009 U.S. Senior Open.

Highlights of the collection include:

• Trophies from Alice’s illustrious amateur golf career

• Accolades and awards related to Alice’s career and service to the game

• Alice’s gavel from the American Society of Golf Course Architects, of which she was the first female president

• Alice’s blazers from the USGA Women’s Committee, the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, and the Women’s Western Golf Association

• A selection of Pete’s architectural plans and course drawings

• Personal photographs, correspondence and documents

You can see some of the collection in a slideshow accompanying the story.

Padraig: "Bryson should be screaming for a rollback because it would give him a big advantage"

Quite a few sites picked up Padraig Harrington’s kind “could have told you so” remarks about Rory McIlroy and the pursuit of speed. But the real headline can with his answer discussing what Bryson DeChambeau has done and why he should root for a rollback.

The full Honda Classic press conference transcript is here at ASAP. The full answer on a “curtail distance” question:

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Okay, I think -- right. I've got to think this through. One, everybody argues about speed, and the argument always tends to go about whether you like people who hit it long and playing golf with long hitting or you don't. But that argument is just personal opinion. You can't argue, if some person likes it, some person doesn't like it, whether the golf is more fun or not more fun. That is purely down to each individual person. So anybody who's arguing on social media, it's crazy because it's just personal opinion. It's not a factual argument.

I would say, though, golf ball going further means it's more expensive to build a golf course, it's more expensive to maintain a golf course. Golf ball going further definitely slows down the round of golf in terms of it's a longer walk, it takes longer, and that's the biggest issue with golf is the pace, the time it takes to get around. The golf ball going further also slows down the style of play because there's more bottle necks when people wait on par-4s and par-5s. Golf ball going further has meant that some golf courses are obsolete, some of the great courses, and the golf ball -- I shouldn't say golf ball. Equipment going further. And it could be an equipment change. It doesn't have to be a ball change. With the ball going further, equipment going further, it also means that golf -- and I see this at home. Golf is extremely dangerous at home. People wing it off fairways. You go to any regular club in Ireland, guys who are 25 years of age are hitting it 340 in the air and they don't know where it's going. I'm not saying good players, I'm talking just your regular guys hitting it miles, and you can't keep it on these courses because there's doglegs, so it's dangerous, so for those six reasons I think the game should be tailed back.

But the one thing that nobody seems to be getting in the whole of this argument, it's a massive advantage to the long hitters if they tail back the equipment. If they bring it back, it's a huge -- Bryson gains massively if they draw back the equipment. The longer you hit it, if you reduce Bryson by 10 percent, say he's hitting it 350 and he's now hitting it 315 and you reduce a guy who's hitting it 300 and you reduce him to 270, Bryson is okay. He's still that same percentage ahead but it's a lot easier to hit the golf ball on a golf course at 315 than it is at at 345 or 350. It is an incredible advantage to the long hitters if they tail back how far the ball goes.

If only more listened and appreciated that the distanistas really do love the long ball, just in proportion with the courses we have.

I'm talking it will encourage even more of a chase of long hitting because it's such an advantage.

And remember, doesn't matter what they do with the equipment going forward. You can't change now. You're going to have young guys coming out who swing a 7-iron at 110 miles an hour and that means that there's no lie in the rough, there's no tree in the way that they can't get over or can't get out of.

Of course if you take 8% off their drives maybe that 7 becomes a 6 or a 5 and magically the tree is in play.

As I said, I saw it with Tiger Woods. In 1996 he destroyed everybody because he was faster -- he was a good player and was faster, and Rory did the same thing.

Now we're seeing Bryson, he's obviously getting the limelight for it, and it's very impressive, but it will be -- he should be screaming for a rollback because it would give him a big advantage.

Even PGA National Is Getting Into The Fun Game

Before we settle in for the Bear’s Trap references as an uninspired Honda Classic field gets around PGA National, very close by avictory for the “f word” effort is underway.

Len Ziehm explains how PGA National Resort and Spa “is undergoing a major change” by letting architect Andy Staples redo the 1983 George and Tom Fazio “Squire” course into something…fun!

One of Staples’ works will be a nine-hole par-3 course that utilizes the space that was The Squire’s first and 18th holes. The remaining 16 holes are being transformed into a shorter 5,744-yard 18-hole course. Staples calls the dual project a “reimagining” rather than a renovation.

Yes, in the name of fun. The word that used to be so scary not long ago.

Staples:

“I had said, ‘You’ve got the difficult golf.’ You can get your brains beat out in playing The Champion, then come out here (to the nearby new courses) and actually like golf,” Staples said. “The greens (on the new courses) will be challenging, but they’ll be a completely different offering than the tough golf you get on the other courses.”

The par-3 course will have no set tee markers. One hole is designed to be played with a putter or with a rescue club chip. The real eye-catcher, though, will be the designated No. 5 hole. Players will be encouraged to tee off out of a bunker, and their 50-yard shot to the green is partially over water.

Ok that’s bold, but we’ll keep an open mind. Maybe more impressive than getting a place like PGA National to embrace the fun word? The transformation is taking place on a classic real estate development.

Great for the PGA of America to have this nearby as an example of how to re-imagine something for a modern game more receptive to fun.

Wait, you said what? They’re moving the headquarters? To Frisco? Ok, scratch that last PGA National though.

"How misguided course setups are holding back women’s golf"

I’m not sure about that headline to Beth Ann Nichol’s Golfweek look at the role of course setup on the LPGA Tour and how it could be impacting views of “the product.”

There is a lot to chew on in the piece and Nichols covered many bases for what is a tricky topic. I came away feeling for what the LPGA staff faces in trying to set up a course.

Because having seen the PGA Tour rule staff evolve and make so many adjustments off of ShotLink data, they’ve gotten so good at finding that balance between risk and reward. But without similar data, combined with pace and distance disparity matters greater than the PGA Tour, and the job the LPGA Tour staff faces preparing courses appears really tough.

On the data issue, Nichols writes:

The USGA used volunteers and paid caddies a stipend during the 2014 U.S. Open to collect over 50,000 data points to determine how players approached each hole on No. 2. On average, there was a 25-yard difference between the men and women in terms of approach shots.

They set out to create similar hole locations and green speeds for both championships. But green firmness was the biggest change from week to week, given that women, as Kirk noted, do not hit the golf ball as high or create as much spin.

And this part on information is particularly interesting but also discredits the headline’s “misguided” reference since much of the issue may be “misinformed” setup. This is a teaser with more at the link to consider:

It’s difficult to tell the story of an LPGA players’ game beyond the final score because only the most basic stats exist on the women’s tour, making the jobs of rules officials, broadcasters and players all the more difficult.

Santiago Carranza, a former software engineer who now makes a living in finance, started a detailed stats project out of necessity to help girlfriend Gaby Lopez look for areas of improvement. It has since turned into ABX Tour, a Golf Analytics system aimed at helping the entire tour.

Carranza, who doesn’t work with the tour but met with officials late last year, collects round-by-round data from dozens of players, including nine 2020 winners, to create a benchmark of standards so that players can put context to their own personal stats.

"The United States and Japan are responsible for about two-thirds of the world’s golf equipment market."

Golf Datatech’s 2020 findings will be available to their customers but Golf Course Industry shared some of their key findings from Golf Datatech’s John Krzynowek.

Among the findings:

• The top five golf markets in the world, in order, are the United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom.

• The United States and Japan are responsible for about two-thirds of the world’s golf equipment market.

• Korean golfers spend more per capita on their golf equipment and apparel than any other country.

• Sweden was the fastest growing country, up more than 50 percent.

World Champions Cup: Three Six-Man Teams, Nine Hole Matches

It’s always been mysterious how rarely the Champions Tour is used as a format incubator of sorts. The old guys are just happy to be upright, out of the house and maybe still playing like they did 20 years ago. They’re open to fresh formats and whatever it takes to keep the product going.

So news of the World Champions Cup debuting this November intrigues as much on the format. Particularly as Olympic golf, which desperately needed to be a team event to “grow the game” and is instead looking increasingly doomed by relying on individuals.

Could this format be a test run? Likely not, but it has merits for those hoping golf figures out a better and more captivating way to approach Olympic golf. For Immediate Release:

World Champions Cup set to debut in 2022, featuring major champions, Hall of Famers and legends of the game squaring off in a first-of-its-kind international team golf competition  

Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and Darren Clarke on board to captain Team USA, Team World and Team Europe, respectively, in the first playing of the new annual competition

 CHICAGO (MARCH 16, 2021) – A unique and exciting new professional golf competition is ready to take the world stage, as sports media and marketing firm Intersport announced today the creation of the World Champions Cup, scheduled to debut in the fall of 2022.

Inspired by the passion and tradition of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the World Champions Cup will be a first-of-its-kind golf tournament featuring Team USA, Team Europe and Team World squaring off over three days of competition that will renew some of the game’s most storied rivalries as the teams battle for international pride and global bragging rights.

World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els, 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk and 2011 The Open champion Darren Clarke will each serve as playing captains for their respective teams of six competitors, all aged 50 and older, in the first playing of the World Champions Cup. Seven-time PGA TOUR winner and popular golf commentator Peter Jacobsen will serve as Chairman of the inaugural event.

“This is a truly exciting day for golf fans and for all of us who love the game,” said Charles N. Besser, Chairman and CEO of Intersport. “Our team at Intersport has invested a significant amount of time and effort into developing this concept. The World Champions Cup is a continuation of Intersport’s history of launching significant new events that endure for decades. We are confident that the World Champions Cup will renew golf’s legendary rivalries on a global stage while bringing innovation to the game we love. We can’t wait to tee off in 2022.”

Intersport has been creating award-winning sports and entertainment-based marketing platforms since 1985. In addition to launching and operating the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, which, in its inaugural year, was the TOUR’s most awarded event on the 2018-19 schedule, Intersport is an Emmy Award winner and owns and operates nearly a dozen nationally televised sports properties.

The World Champions Cup is sanctioned by the PGA TOUR. The annual three-team, three-day match play competition will be held at one of America’s great golf courses and will be contested across twice-daily, nine-hole matches featuring team formats and singles play, with points being earned for each hole won in each match. When the three-day competition concludes, the team with the highest point total across all matches will be crowned the champion. 

“We are excited to add this global event to the golf calendar starting in 2022 and are appreciative of Intersport’s passion to begin a new world-wide golf tradition,” said Miller Brady, President of PGA TOUR Champions. “The World Champions Cup will give golf fans the opportunity to see the game’s greatest players come together in a team format on the world’s biggest stage. International team events are some of the most significant competitions in our game and it will be fun to see Ernie, Jim and Darren, along with their teammates, compete for the inaugural World Champions Cup next year.”

Intersport is currently engaged in preliminary conversations with potential media partners, title sponsors, and host courses.

Els, a native of South Africa, will captain Team World. The former World No. 1 player, elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011, boasts a resume that includes 19 PGA TOUR victories and 47 international wins. The biggest among those are his two U.S. Open titles (1994 and 1997) and his two wins a full decade apart at The Open (2002, 2012). The Big Easy has been a member of eight Presidents Cup teams and captained the International squad in 2019.

“International team golf events have provided me with some of my greatest golf memories,” Els said. “I have spent my career competing in global golf championships and supporting the growth of the game across the world. It’s a great honor to be named the captain of Team World for the inaugural World Champions Cup.” 

Furyk will captain Team USA. Throughout his career, Furyk has represented Team USA in seven Presidents Cups, nine Ryder Cups and served as a Ryder Cup captain in 2018. He is a 17-time winner on the PGA TOUR, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, and a two-time winner on PGA TOUR Champions. Furyk is also the owner of the lowest round in PGA TOUR history, having shot 58 in the fourth round of the Travelers Championship in 2016.

“I am excited to lead Team USA and recapture the great global team championships I have been fortunate enough to enjoy during my career,” Furyk said. “For more than 20 years, I have been competing against Ernie and Darren, and I look forward to having the chance to captain Team USA and play against them in the World Champions Cup.”

Clarke, a native of Northern Ireland, will captain Team Europe. He is most famous for his 2011 victory at The Open at Royal St. George’s, where he finished three strokes better than Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. A member of five Ryder Cup teams and the 2016 captain for Team Europe, Clarke’s resume includes victories at two PGA TOUR World Golf Championships events and two PGA TOUR Champions events, as well as 15 international wins.

“I am extremely proud to be named captain of Team Europe for the inaugural playing of the World Champions Cup,” Clarke said. “To be selected along with Jim and Ernie, two of golf’s all-time great players, is an honor. I have been fortunate to compete in many global team events, but I am as excited about captaining and playing in the World Champions Cup as I ever have been throughout my career.”

Jacobsen, the Chairman of the inaugural World Champions Cup, is a seven-time PGA TOUR winner, two-time PGA TOUR Champions winner and the 2004 U.S. Senior Open champion. A popular golf media personality for the past two decades, Jacobsen has established himself as one of the great ambassadors of golf. He represents everything a professional athlete and committed community leader should be. Throughout the years he has used his talents and status to transcend the game of golf and touch the lives of many.

“I have spent nearly all of my life playing, watching, talking and loving the game of golf,” Jacobsen said. “After nearly 40 years on the PGA TOUR, it is the honor of a lifetime to have the opportunity to represent something as significant as the World Champions Cup will one day be for golf.”

Additional information about the World Champions Cup is available atwww.WorldChampionsCup.com, on Twitter (@WorldChampsCup) and on Instagram (@WorldChampionsCup).

2.8: 2021 Players Ratings Hold Steady

Steady is a huge victory as cordcutting chips into sports ratings, so 2021’s final round 2.8, while almost identical to the 2019 Players final round’s 2.75, means it was a successful for NBC.

ShowBuzzDaily.com with all the 2021, 2020 and 2019 numbers here. The 2020 numbers were of the short-notice 2019 Players after the tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Will Golf Discover NFT's?

The sport inevitably will and possibly before it’s too late.

I try to explain (or steer you to people who can) this bizarre phenomenon that could also generate major revenue for golf organizations. Then again, the entire thing seems bubbly and likely to set off wars between players and the majors.

Enjoy! This edition of the Quadrilateral is available to all followers of the newsletter and then some.

For more on the Quadrilateral you can read all about it here, or sign up for free here.

Shipnuck Leaves Golf For "A new golf media company 25 years in the making"

Congrats to Alan Shipnuck on a fantastic run at Sports Illustrated/Golf and now just Golf as he embarks on a new chapter in his award-winning career.

He’s joining Matt Ginella and friends at The Fire Pit Collective to, well, I’ll let him explain:

TheFirePitCollective.com will be the home for my original long-form features, weekly columns and event coverage. For my entire career you, the loyal digital reader, has been forced to endure a relentless assault of pop-up videos, embedded links, garish ads and other clutter that destroyed the reading experience, which is supposed to be transporting. That ends today. For the first time, I am in a position to personally promise that all of my stories will be presented in a clean, beautiful format that maximizes your enjoyment, not a corporate suit’s Christmas bonus. In addition to all of the typing, I’m excited to finally immerse myself in long-form video storytelling and get back to podcasting. (More on that soon!) I am going to oversee Fire Pit Presents, which will give aspiring writers a platform to share their work. Matt and I have ambitious plans for a travel series and to host experiential events at great golf courses, featuring thought-provoking guests. Over time we will add more talent, with an eye on diverse, unexpected contributors.

Honda Classic Renames Media Center For Tim Rosaforte

Nice touch here from the Honda Classic paying tribute to one of the reporters who was there from the beginning and as the event remains the PGA Tour’s longest continuous sponsor.

HONDA CLASSIC RENAMES MEDIA CENTER FOR LONGTIME GOLF WRITER/BROADCASTER TIM ROSAFORTE

Tournament creates Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Writers' Award to honor golf journalists

Tim Rosaforte has been covering The Honda Classic for more than three decades, first as a newspaper writer for the Sun Sentinel and Palm Beach Post, then as a writer for Sports Illustrated and Golf World and lastly as a broadcaster for NBC and the Golf Channel.

The Honda Classic announced Monday that it will honor Rosaforte, now retired in Jupiter, for his amazing career in golf journalism by renaming the tournament media center "The Tim Rosaforte Media Center."

In addition, The Honda Classic is creating a perpetual award in Rosaforte's honor - The Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Writers' Award. Rosaforte has been named the first recipient of the award by the tournament.

"Tim has been such a vital part of the history of The Honda Classic from his work as a writer and broadcaster to the emcee of so many of our pro-am dinners and sponsor events," Honda Classic Executive Director Kenneth R. Kennerly said. "It is only fitting now that he has retired from broadcasting that we find ways to honor him for his years of service to the game and to the community."

Affectionately known as "Rosie" to most who know him, the 65-year-old Rosaforte enjoyed a successful career in both print and broadcast journalism.

His career began in 1977 at the Tampa Times after he graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island, where he played linebacker on the football team. He moved from Tampa to the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale in 1981 and then worked at The Palm Beach Post from 1987-93.

Rosaforte's print career continued at Sports Illustrated from 1994-96 before he joined Golf World and Golf Digest as a senior writer. On the broadcast end, Rosaforte served as co-host of USA Network’s “PGA TOUR Sunday” program starting in 2003 and then moved to Golf Channel in 2007 as a reporter and analyst. He retired in December 2019 because of health issues and recently was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease.

“Tim is one of this generation’s great golf journalists," golf legend Jack Nicklaus said. "He has developed relationships and trust from so many in the game, and you always knew that if there was an important story to be told in golf, Tim was going to be the first call you received and usually the first one to report it."

Rosaforte is also a recipient of more than 40 writing awards and the author of five books. He was inducted into the South Florida PGA Hall of Fame in 2012 and received the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism in 2014 and became the first journalist to be given an honorary membership to the PGA of America. Rosaforte is just the 12th person to become an honorary member of the PGA, which is granted after a vote of PGA delegates to recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to the game of golf.

The Memorial Tournament also recently announced Rosaforte as a recipient of the 2021 Memorial Golf Journalism Award.

"Tim has been an incredibly important part of the enormous growth of the game throughout South Florida over the past three decades," said Geoff Lofstead, Executive Director of the South Florida PGA. "He has been so important in telling the stories of the great players and all the great PGA professionals that administer the game on a daily basis."