Premier Golf League Jumps Back In At An Inconvenient Time For PGA Tour

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News of the Premier Golf League’s non-Saudi backed plan getting a refreshed non-Raine Group rollout seems to be designed to generate discussion at next week’s U.S. Open inside the bubble.

But the news landing this week highlights just how embarrassing the PGA Tour’s “product” can be in weeks when a 156-player field is rolled out despite no demands to see that many players for another stroke play event.

The PGA Tour incentivizes executives to create playing opportunities and purse growth, no matter how much if dilutes the product. Not many businesses I can think of would succeed that way.

Therefore this week’s Canadian Open replacement event turns up at a remote club in South Carolina featuring 156 players. Many had to be awakened from their backyard hammock to get down to South Carolina in time.

Or worse, in Tommy Gainey’s case, they passed to play the Korn Ferry event instead.

Hey congrats you’ve been called up to the Show! Wait, what? You want to stay in the minors?

What perfect timing for the Premier Golf League to highlight how the PGA Tour product can be so unnecessarily warped, bloated and unnecessarily weak. Imagne playing events where the priority is on providing work for golfers and executives instead of something a tad more aspirational for the people who pay the bills?

And they wonder why there are competing ideas to blow up the current model.

Look at the WD’s this week and the replacements. As Brendan Porath noted in the Tweet embedded above, what a contrast to Golf’s Longest Day where the lowest scores go to the U.S. Open. Granted, the various disruptor leagues are anything but democratic. Seems like something in between would be ideal for fans and the world’s best. And nothing against Omar Uresti, but no one is paying to watch him play on the PGA Tour…

"Jon Rahm made a bad business decision."

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Holy cow have I heard some ridiculous whining about Jon Rahm’s forced WD from the Memorial after testing positive for COVID-19. I realize that people think they will curry favor with players by telling them what they want to hear, but that may also be at the core of Rahm’s decision not to get vaccinated to protect his family and career.

Thankfully, Rob Oller did a nice job summing it all up with Jack Nicklaus’s assessments to support his case.

In a nutshell, Rahm assessed a risk/reward situation. He went for the green in two—passing on vaccination until last week—and drop-kicked it into the water. Maybe he was unlucky. Who knows. The virus is cruel that way. As a multi-million dollar business operation with a new family and having lost family members during the pandemic, he had plenty of reasons to lay-up, take the vax route and likely remain upright with just a small microchip whispering AOC’s deepest thoughts in his ear. Oh well.

Oller writes:

So let’s speak the language of corporate attorneys and CEO consultants: Jon Rahm made a bad business decision.

If Rahm had been vaccinated ASAP after his home state of Arizona opened eligibility to all adults on March 24, the 26-year-old Spaniard almost certainly would have avoided testing positive for COVID-19 Saturday at the Memorial Tournament.

And had he not tested positive, he would not have withdrawn from the Memorial, which he led by six shots with 18 left to play.

Nicklaus the tournament host did not sound particularly torn:

“Jon is a big boy and understands we have rules, and unfortunately rules are something you may not like but they are the rules we have right now and you have to abide by them,” Nicklaus said, adding that tour commissioner Jay Monahan feels the same way. “Whether he would have shot 64 (Saturday) or 74, the same result would have come out for him.”

BBC: The Premier Golf League Is Back And Shooting For 2023 Start

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BBC’s Iain Carter has the scoop: the World Golf Group’s Premier Golf League is back. While bruised from a failed merger attempt with the European Tour and Golf Saudi’s “Super Golf League” theft of the original concept once partly funded by the Public Investment Fund, they are set to announce later this week goals for a 2023 start and $20 million weekly purses.

The Formula 1 style concept remains in place with 18 tournaments featuring the top 48 male players in the world, with what sounds like a harder push to start a women’s version sooner than later. The team concept remains a centerpiece with four-player squads facing off in a season-ending event.

Carter writes of the funding:

Those backing the project, run by the British-based World Golf Group, are worth in excess of $20bn according to boss Andy Gardiner.

It is believed this iteration of the PGL involves no ties to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund or the Crown Prince, greatly increasing the potential appeal for some players.

Speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, Gardiner said: "The team is ready to go.

"We've used the last eight months to bring in externals to check through every single piece of the model to make sure the events of the last 12 months with Covid haven't changed our thinking.

"The January 2023 date right now is entirely feasible. We will see how the conversations go with the community that we want to embrace."

Already addressed by Gardiner: the threats of expulsion from Tours for signing up.

"Different bodies create their own sets of rules to protect what they have and then it's a question of whether the rules that they have in place are fair and that's when you look at the relevant law.

"Imagine the reaction of the sponsors and the broadcasters if the world's best players were all of a sudden banned. Common law in the US says that is a punishment, that's not a protection.

"You've got to allow people to live their own lives. That's why I'm confident."

More details to come!

In the meantime for those interested, here is my coverage of the PGL when it last surfaced over a year ago.

Golf's Longest Day Is Here, A Quick Guide

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In the old days of this blog I used to do some heavy Golf’s Longest Day lifting when the USGA did not. (I’ll still will never forget seeing 500,000 page views in one day all because golf sites didn’t care). Mercifully the ultimate display of democratic golf offering to fill out next week’s U.S. Open field will be covered in a few places sites.

For a while the USGA sent writers and photographers to venues, we’ll see if that happens this year at their dedicated page currently featuring just scoring links.

Golfweek has this dedicated page with preview of each site and promises of reports from writers as the day goes.

And as detailed in last week’s Quadrilateral, Golf Channel is back with all day coverage until midnight ET.

The final qualifying storylines, as compiled by the USGA.

Early on it seems cicadas are an issue at the Woodmont qualifier:

Olympic Club And Rouillard: In Praise Of A Course Setup Audible

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We’ve been through a lot of course setup mistakes over the years and while some were repairable, others could not be adjusted last minute without heavy watering or finger-pointing.

So it’s worth highlighting Kent Paisley’s GolfDigest.com story on Shannon Rouillard’s last minute decision to tweak some mowing heights, intermediate cuts and approach to Olympic Club following the practice rounds. I’ve seen enough of these events to know this is not easy for a setup team to do, especially since Rouillard has an extra-special tie to the venue. But she was also working with an adaptable grounds team and superintendent in Troy Flanagan at Olympic Club, which helps. And as we saw from the outcome, got it right.

Yes, the course went from being the hardest thing in the history of golf—a familiar early week major refrain—to surprisingly scoreable for players on their game. However the score dispersion suggests it was still very brutal for most. Those last minute tweaks meant admitting error or at least, miscalculation.

Anyway, check out Paisley’s piece on the “late tweaks” here. And one key graph from the story after explaining the decision to lower the rough height, no small task:

Additionally, after saying as late as Wednesday morning that she would not have an intermediate cut on the course, Rouillard added one before play began on the par-5 first and par-5 16th holes.

On the remaining holes, however, Rouillard stuck to the decision not to include an intermediate cut, instead leaving fairways in place that were 10-15 percent wider—and even 20 percent on the fourth hole—than when men’s U.S. Open was played here in 2012

“I understand why it got a lot of chatter because we typically have an intermediate pass at this championship,” Rouillard said.

Given the sidehill nature of the course it was the right call. For a nice change of pace, an Olympic Club major ended up focused on players instead of questions about the setup.

Women Almost Worth Watching: Not Heidi Bad, But Still Not Great

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When NBC sent the U.S. Women’s Open playoff to Golf Channel without warning and viewers went wild (as AA’s Jay Rigdon documents here), we were reminded of a few things:

  • NBC took back the USGA package from Fox and already had plenty on its plate (Belmont Stakes, French Open, Olympic trials, etc.).

  • It’s an Olympic year and NBC has far more invested in the Games build-up than in golf, so prime time gymnastics will always get the call. Fine, it’s a big business, it wasn’t supposed to be this year and we get the headaches involved in all of this except…

  • Women Worth Watching was pushed by the USGA and NBC. If you were on Twitter at all you’d know how relentless the staged messaging was. That should not have been pushed in an Olympic year when the network priorities lie elsewhere. (Perhaps incoming CEO Mike Whan can get that fixed down the road or revisit the U.S. Women’s Open date if it will continuously get squeezed on the schedule.)

  • The final round was already compromised when threesomes were sent off both tees much earlier than on Saturday. Players were asked to make a quick turnaround. All for television in the most important championship in the women’s game. Turns out, the Saturday schedule of some early NBC action followed by the evening conclusion on Golf Channel in ET prime time would have been better for the U.S. Women’s Open than what transpired Sunday.

  • Peacock was developed with a streaming future in mind and made part of the renegotiated Fox contract, so why not stream all of it there all the time so you can point to the app and say, “we are giving it all to you in once place while juggling an obviously busy sports schedule, we hope you understand.”

I wrote all of this in the Quadrilateral today, but I left out one other component of the bungled handoff which, let’s face, would have also been blasted if it were Fox or CBS doing the same thing.

After the two-hole aggregate playoff was tied, NBC went to its gymnastics coverage and sent the sudden death portion to Golf Channel as the players were teeing off. The network coverage did not have to sign off on the west coast. Gynmastics would be shown later on tape delay for the Pacific Time Zone.

In the past when CBS has sent delayed PGA Tour coverage to Golf Channel, they often stay live in the PT zone. So what happened on the western NBC stations showing the U.S. Women’s Open?

They went to infomercials in L.A.

And in San Francisco where the event was played?

Something called One Team: The Power of Sports. A show geared toward children. Thanks to readers M and K for sending the heads up.

Again, if the parties involved are sincere about “growing” the women’s game—ratings—and raising the profile of players, they have to back it up with decisions which make the viewing experience more sensible and respectful of the competition. Anything else means it’s just another synthetic messaging campaign.

**Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols wrote this about the scheduling, timing and NBC handling:

Moving away from a tournament like the Memorial is another important piece of the puzzle. There should be a significant push within the industry (that includes the PGA Tour) to align schedules to give the biggest women’s events the best possible chance at success.

That goes for TV too. There were great strides made this week at the Women’s Open with the addition of feature groups and the return of Golf Channel’s Live From. But the fact that the network TV window came and went on Saturday without showing a single shot from the leaders (it switched to Golf Channel), combined with Sunday’s final round missing primetime and forcing Sunday threesomes, is a giant weekend whiff.

Quadrilateral: 2021 U.S. Women's Open Champions, Cutmakers and (Point) Missers

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I’m light on blog posts tonight because it’s a long newsletter on the rapid decline of NBC Sports, as evidenced by Sunday’s blah telecast and epic show that women are (sort of) worth watching.

But there are also plenty of winners and losers from a grand U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic. Here’s the post for paid subscribers.

Quadrilateral: Major(s) Rahmifications, U.S. Women's Open Final Round Primer And The Reids Of Nottingham

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Rahm Opens Up Six-Stroke Memorial Lead, Tests Positive For COVID-19 And It's A Total Mess

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AP’s Doug Ferguson reported on the shocking twist Saturday, with this scene getting a lot of attention after Jon Rahm opened a six-stroke Memorial lead:

The positive test was confirmed, the results returned as he was on the 18th green. Rahm was been asymptomatic all week.

He was withdrawn from the tournament, leaving Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa tied for the lead at 12-under 204.

“It’s kind of the worst situation for something like that to happen and he played awesome today and it’s just, it’s really a shame,” Cantlay said.

The PGA Tour statement revealed Rahm as having been exposed May 31st. He was in daily testing and his 4:20 pm result tested positive again at 6:03 pm while Rahm was on the 18th fairway. A “close contact” in the Tour guidelines is within six feet of a positive person for 15 minutes.

PGA Tour VP Andy Levinson answered questions after the withdrawal and could not confirm Rahm’s vaccination status. However, he did say Rahm is in the PGA Tour testing program still, essentially confirming he is not vaccinated for COVID-19.

Q. Can you say if Jon has been vaccinated and if he had been, would he not then have been required to test every day?

ANDY LEVINSON: I can't speak to Jon's vaccination status. That's an individual situation. But he was still part of our testing program, and he was required, under our contact tracing protocol to test as a result of that.

Q. So is it then fair to say that anyone who, had they been vaccinated still would have had to test every day like he did?

ANDY LEVINSON: Not necessarily. If someone had been fully vaccinated, and fully vaccinated under our protocol is, and it's defined by the CDC, is 14 days past the full cycle of a vaccination. They do not have to test as a result of being a close contact.

Q. If I could just ask one more. Thank you. Is there any consideration given to allowing him to -- allowing him to play simply because we're outdoors, the spacing, he wasn't being allowed to go indoors. I take it based on your earlier answer that the answer is no, but I just wonder if you could address that part.

ANDY LEVINSON: No, the CDC's protocol regarding people who are confirmed positive for COVID-19 is clear, and that is 10 days of isolation unless someone is asymptomatic and is able to produce two negative tests of a minimum of 24 hours apart. Unfortunately, the timing would not allow Jon to continue to participate.

Levinson also revealed the PGA Tour player vaccination rate is tracking “north of 50%”.

CBS handled the surprise news well, staying on as they were seconds from signing off due to the round lasting past their allotted time.

Jim Nantz, upon seeing Rahm’s reaction, said “this is not good” and after a few moments, stated somberly “we have no idea folks” before describing Rahm’sreaction as “instant devastation.” Part of the sequence:

Rahm spoke to media after completing his rain-delayed second round Saturday morning. Maskless:

Jack Nicklaus offered his sympathy via Twitter:

Rahm took to Twitter to thank fans and was met with sympathetic calls to have gotten vaccinated sooner.

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Other player reaction has included scorn toward the Tour for releasing the news (Wesley Bryan) or even claims of government heavy-handedness (Jimmy Walker) preventing Tour officials from letting Rahm play Sunday:

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Bryson Leaves It To The Tour To Address Brooks Who Says He's Growing The Game With Michelob Stunt

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The headlines just write themselves these days!

For those tracking the Brooksy saga, we have updates.

Brooks Koepka spoke to Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch about his pledge to offer brewskies to his Brooksy-howling booted bros just living under par.

“I’d never condone anyone being a distraction during someone’s swing or when they are about to hit,” he said. “As professionals, we do enjoy fans getting engaged at the appropriate times. It’s part of sport and competition. Hecklers are always going to be a part of any live performance. We all know that out there. We all get called different names. I’ve been called DJ many times, even when I was slipping at Bethpage [where a faltering Koepka held off Dustin Johnson in the ’19 PGA]. It’s part of it. He even said he considers it flattering.”

“With the Michelob Ultras, I wanted fans to know I saw what was going on and I appreciate fans who care about golf. It’s great to see fans out there loving it, having fun after a year of no one.”

LUP it up!

This quote alone could be the swan song for “grow the game”:

“I’m not condoning disrespectful or inappropriate behavior,” he replied. “I’m engaging in helping grow the game of golf and growing the Tour. I’m here for people being engaged and excited about golf, as long as it doesn’t cross the line.”

Meanwhile Bryson DeChambeau sounds less amused with all of the back and forth in the name of game growth.

He was all over the place after his third round but talked about his PIP prospects rising thanks to Brooks mentions. Take that FedExCup!

Q. Did you see a certain video last night from Brooks?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I heard about it through my manager and whatever, but, no. First off, I wanted to say like the fans were awesome today. They came out, supported me. Obviously you're going to have people saying things, but again it doesn't -- like I said yesterday, it doesn't rile me up, it doesn't affect me or anything like that. So it's great banter, it's fun, but the fans were awesome, the golf course is in great shape, I can't say much more than that.

Q. You didn't see it, but you heard about it. Are you surprised? I mean, like that it's going to escalate it like sort of, is that sort of what happened, I think.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think that's something that the TOUR needs to handle, it's something I can't control. I tried to take the high road numerous times and I think that, from my perspective, I'll continue to keep doing so and people are going to do what they want to do. So it is what it is.

Q. Do you in any way think, in a strange way, that this is good that people are talking about it, people are talking about golf?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I mean, I don't even know how to answer that question. Like for, from an integrity standpoint and an honor of the game standpoint, you know, the game has always been played in a certain way. I think golf is changing, it's evolving, so there's going to come a time where it is going to be like this and if I'm the person to take the brunt of it and whatever, you know, great. I'm happy that there's more conversations about me because of the PIP Fund.

🤮

Q. That idea of honor and kind of the way that the game is played, for you, what's like that fine line of things that happen in other sports, right, where you might hear things from the stands versus out here?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I love what's been going on. I've had no issue with it whatsoever. I think that when it gets to a point where -- I would say tennis and golf are the only two sports where like when you're hitting a shot everybody's usually quiet. If it comes out to a point where they're affecting like your swing, like they're saying in your swing, that's a little over the line, but everything else, I don't care.

Q. Have you had conversations with the TOUR about this?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, my agent has.

Q. And can you give us a kind of a drift on which way, what it's about? I mean, obviously, you said it doesn't bother you.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, it's more about how, I think, and this is what I don't really know about, but I think it's something along the lines of how the TOUR wants players to act, I think. That's about it. But from my perspective, I mean, if he keeps talking about me, that's great for the PIP Fund.

And I’m sure he meant to mention his real focus remains on the FedExCup and the Comcast Business Solutions thing.

As The PIP Race Turns: "Brooksy" Calls Lead To Ejections, Koepka Engages By Offering Michelob Ultra's

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An aborted Brooks Koepka interview with Golf Channel continues to spread in new and bizarre ways after Bryson DeChambeau was subjected to light Memorial Tournament heckling on Friday.

At least ten spectators were ejected for yelling “Brooksy” at DeChambeau over the course of his 33 holes. Some suggested DeChambeau pointed out his hecklers to police, though he said he did not care in post round remarks.

From ESPN.com’s Bob Harig:

"Oh, they weren't taunts at all, it was flattering,'' DeChambeau said after shooting 72 in the second round. "I think it's absolutely flattering what they're doing. They can keep calling me that all day if they want to, I've got no issue with it. When you look at it, to most people it's they think it's a distraction, but I grew up learning how to deal with that stuff and I honestly thought it was flattering.''

DeChambeau said he did not ask for anyone to be removed, that "the officers take care of that. I don't really care.''

This on-site accounting disagreed:

Looking to move up the formerly-secret Player Impact Program race exposed by Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch, Brooks Koepka wasted no time in scooping up valuable engagement, retweets, Google searches and Meltwater mentions. This, even though he’s not playing this week’s Memorial:

The NCAA's Format Would Work Too Well For The Olympics

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Tee marker from Rio 2016 (Geoff Shackelford)

Tee marker from Rio 2016 (Geoff Shackelford)

Format suggestions are always risky since the powers in golf adhere to the ABWMS system (Anything But What Media Suggests). Their devotion to this approach is how we get FedExCup leaders starting at -10 or two boring individual stroke play events at the Olympics.

The last two weeks of NCAA golf provide an obvious and brilliant way to deliver a stroke play winner and seed teams for match play. It is the rare made-for-TV event also determining a champion in fitting fashion.

An offshoot of the NCAA approach would still get players into the Games who are good enough but might come from a developing country, while including team match play to show off the most dramatic form of golf (growing the game!).

According to IGF officials who deal with the IOC, format constraints consist of Olympic Village bed availability and whether stroke play alternatives are recognized within the sport as a significant championship format.

Those two questions are now easily answered after the Rio Games: most golfers would prefer not to stay in the Olympic Village (in normal or COVID times) and the NCAA format is established to determine significant titles on the line. (The PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and European Tour should be using their “alliance” to devise similar events as sort of a mini-Ryder Cup played by nationality or corporate alliance, which would also be a handy way to push back disruptor tour proposals.)

Here is one Olympics-friendly adjustment of the NCAA format:

  • Invite players for a 54-hole stroke play event based on world ranking as they do now, but expand to include players eligible for the team component, up to ten eligible five-player teams and eligible individuals (as we have with the current system). This means we’d be watching the world rankings to see which teams will get into the Games in a fun, side race for Olympic eligibility. Currently there is almost no interest in the who-makes-the-Games race.

  • After the individual stroke play results are in and medals awarded, the team event will be whittled to eight and seeded by scores. Two countries will not make match play based on the medal competition.

  • Team matches of five players per team are contested over two days, starting with a 36-hole day that eliminates four teams. This means a max of six competition days for the final four teams (assuming a bronze medal match, which the NCAA does not do).

The college golf format would work for both men and women, though I’d love to hear twists on how to consider it for a mixed team format. You could theoretically combine the teams into one of five men and five women, but there is something to the simplicity of the NCAA’s approach worth learning from. And we all know by now that team match play provides more drama and school pride. Throw in nationalities with Olympic medals on the line, and you have the makings of a thrilling competition. At least, in normal times.

17-Year-Old Amateur Shares U.S. Women's Open First Round Lead

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They torched the Lake!

Well, not quite with a 75.173 average, but overall the play was excellent on a calm opener at The Olympic Club. Tomorrow’s forecast isn’t so kind, with 15-25 mph winds expected.

Most impressive on day one: 17-year-old Megha Ganne making six birdies en route to a 67 to sit alongside Mel Reid who, Beth Ann Nichols reports, is a Brooks Koepka-channeling, distant relative of Wilfrid (designer of courses like Indianwood and this place called Lakeside CC which became…you know it…The Olympic Club).

Anyway, Ganne’s also a terrific interview:

Pagunsan Qualifies For The Open Using 11 Clubs Prompting Yet More Calls To Just Try It One Lousy Week You Tour Dullards!

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Okay maybe I got a little carried away with that header.

But for those who’ve long wondered what it would be like to see today’s decathletes play a reduced set of clubs. Because there would be the ensuing shotmaking, plus lots of chatter about how the team at (fill in gratuitous manufacturer plug here) helped tweak the bag to cover the numbers.

So it’s with this in mind Alistair Tait celebrates Juvic Pagunsan needing just 11 clubs to win the Japan Tour’s Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open last weekend. With caddies forbidden due to Covid-19, Pagunsan lightened his bag of the 3, 4, 6 and 8 irons while adding a hybrid.

Tait suggests the overall max number should be lowered, but I’d take just a tournament here or there where it was the Local Rule. Anyway, Tait explains what Pagunsan was thinking:

Not only did he win to qualify for Royal St George’s, he did so by three shots with a 17-under 199 thanks to scores of 66, 65 and 68. So much for 14 clubs.

“What do I do when I need 6-iron? Well, I will just adjust it by using different club,” Pagunsan told the Japan Tour website.

“On 11th, wind was blowing at me and I had 160 yards to play, and I used my 5 Iron, what choice do I have?"

"Since I didn't have much choice of clubs, I didn't have to think too much to choose," he added.

John Daly Said He Was Offered $1 Million To Tank The Open

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John Daly gave a 2014 interview to “In Depth with Graham Bensinger” that included a revealing claim about attempted bribery to tank a tournament. The clip was just posted on YouTube this week.

Jenna Limoncelli of the New York Post reported on the revelation of attempted bribery while Daly was leading the 1995 Open.

“He says, ‘Look if you tank it, I’ll give you a million bucks,’ ”

As for Daly’s response?

“I said, ‘Go…f–k yourself. No way,'” he remembered.

Daly recounted other times being approached by gamblers.

The full clip: