Quadrilateral: The Drive To Produce Major Content

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With The Open Championship joining the other majors in adding yet more “content” online to draw in new fans, I took the opportunity to look at these efforts as Netflix’s Drive To Survive show boosts F1.

Plus a quick roundup and links to The Open Final Qualifying results.

This one’s for all but if you like what you see, signing up is free.

Here is the R&A’s produced piece on Sam Forgan, who made it through qualifying to reach Royal St George’s.

Olympic Women's Golf Field Set With Few High Profile Defections

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The Kordas will represent Team USA in Tokyo along with Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang

The Kordas will represent Team USA in Tokyo along with Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang

Once again the world’s best women are more on board with Olympic golf, though seeing both the U.S. and South Korea getting four players in does make me wonder what might have been if the field was a stroke play/team match play format like the NCAA golf.

The host country will be represented by Nasa Hataoka and Mone Inami.

Beth Ann Nichols with the notes and the photo gallery of the entire field.

England’s Georgia Hall and Charley Hull were the highest profile players to pass. Hull’s explanation on Instagram:

Shadow Creek Primed To Be The First $1000 Green Fee Course

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GolfDigest.com’s Stephen Hennessey with the gory details of Shadow Creek becoming the first $1000 green fee course, though it also requires staying at an MGM property so the price is actually higher.

Good news, it’s only $750 during off-peak months.

Meanwhile Pebble Beach is still below $600, but also requires a Lodge or Spanish Bay stay.

Whan On The Way Out: "We write a check six times a year to be on network TV."

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Al Lunsford of Links chatted with Mike Whan on his way out of the LPGA Commissionership and into the USGA CEO job, where he says his immediate priority is to learn the rules and ask questions.

But his response to a question about the biggest obstacle to LPGA Tour popularity is a good reminder about what his successor faces:

I’ve always struggled with, “You just don’t deliver the viewership of the others.” Well, they’re paid to be on network TV 35 weeks a year; we write a check six times a year to be on network TV. If you asked me to run a 100-yard dash but I have to start 170 yards back, I don’t expect to win many races. We’ve closed the gap—virtually 12 years of viewership increases in the U.S. and around the world—but we’ve still never been given an equal playing field. It’s hard to engage with athletes you don’t see very much.

His comment about the LPGA having to pay to get on networks has been made before, but it’s still fascinating to hear given the recent gender equity talk.

Also noteworthy: Whan essentially says being on the Golf Channel means the tour is not seen very much. Psst…Mike, they host all of your new job’s events. Be nice!

2021 Travelers Ratings Hit 19-Year High, Audience Peaks At 6.6 Million

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Paulsen reports at Sports Media Watch on huge numbers for the Travelers, won by Harris English in a dramatic 8-hole playoff over Kramer Hickok that ran nearly two hours past CBS’s allotted window.

The final round averaged 3.97 million and peaked within 2 million of the recent U.S. Open’s highest audience number.

The telecast, which peaked with 6.66 million viewers from 8 PM ET to the conclusion, delivered the sixth-largest golf audience of the year and the third-largest with majors excluded. Only the final rounds of the Players (4.59M) and at Pebble Beach (4.19M) rank higher outside of the majors.

With the (suspicious) demise of ShowBuzzDaily.com, I don’t have access to the KPMG LPGA Championship final round rating. But Nelly Korda’s first major win ran concurrent to the Travelers in yet another reminder of golf’s scheduling issues.

Old Tom At 200 (And Almost Two Weeks): A Great Read, The Scottish Golf Podcast And Other Coverage

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2021 was supposed to celebrate Old Tom Morris’s 200th birthday and then get followed by an Open in St Andrews. Well, it didn’t work out that way but he did turn 200 and there were some enjoyable efforts to commemorate the great man. Then he had the audacity to be born the week of the U.S. Open!

So belatedly because some of us were distracted by a major, some of the Old Tom coverage that caught my eye.

At TheOpen.com, they posted a wonderful collaboration by author Roger McStravick, the British Golf Museum’s Hannah Fleming, and with bits from The Colossus of Golf by David Malcolm and Peter E. Crabtree, TheOpen.com featured a fantastic long-but-not-excessively so read of Old Tom Morris’ life and legacy. Just a sampling from his role in The Open:

Indeed, Morris and Park helped grow The Open in stature from what was initially a slight inconvenience to some members in 1860, to already by 1867 becoming a fixture in not only the Scottish sporting calendar, but in the English calendar too, where the event was covered heavily in the gambling press.

“There were eight players in The 1st Open,” Roger McStravick said. “They were squeezed in between other members in their meeting, and they were quite annoyed about this band of rabble. These lower than low squeezing in among the gentleman golfers, it was such an inconvenience. The players didn’t take practice swings, they just got onto the first tee and got away, anybody who took a practice swing was just posing. So they just got away with a minimum of fuss.”

Prestwick unveiled a new plaque in his honor:

I spoke to the Scottish Golf Podcast’s Ru Macdonald about the great Prestwick and it’s role in Old Tom’s life and the newfound appreciation for the links.

More Tweets and fun stuff…

PGA Tour Ending COVID-19 On-Site Testing In July, Vaccination Rate Unknown

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GolfDigest.com’s Tod Leonard reports that players have been notified of the full scale COVID-19 testing coming to an end at the 3M Championship this July. No player has been known to test positive since Jon Rahm’s high-profile case at the Memorial, one of around 35 detected or reported after players revealed to have experienced the virus (but not testing positive under the Tour program).

Leonard says there will still be testing available to those who experience symptoms and daily health surveys but could not get a vaccination rate out of the Tour.

I reported earlier this month that the LPGA was at 60% full vaccination of players, caddies and staff as of early this month and no positive cases since March.

According to Leonard, the unvaccinated will have to undergo contact tracing if they test positive.

Though unvaccinated people don’t have to undergo testing, according to the memo, there are distinctions made. Vaccinated individuals will not have to undergo contact tracing should they be around someone who has COVID-19, while those who haven’t been vaccinated must notify the tour and follow contact tracing protocols.

The memo says that those who have been vaccinated “should” upload a copy of their vaccination record to their Healthy Roster account, but the tour will require proof of vaccination should the player be involved in a contact tracing situation, a tour spokesperson said.

The story also notes this:

Since testing began, more than 25 tour players have tested positive for COVID-19, including some of the game’s most high-profile athletes: Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau, Adam Scott, Gary Woodland and Padraig Harrington. No PGA Tour player has reported serious illness or hospitalization due to the coronavirus.

It was Golf Digest’s Undercover Caddie that suggested there have been players hit harder than reported:

A few of the guys who did test positive got really sick, more than fans have been led to believe, and that certainly got our attention.

Given that the LPGA Tour has a better track record on positive cases this year despite a more worldly schedule and far less private jet travel, they were able to report vaccination rates without violating anyone’s privacy. In light of that, the Tour’s program seems like it should be able to end on a brighter note of at least some disclosure and assurance that it’s in line with vaccination rates seen in general society.

"Trump may well rue the day he brought the lawsuit."

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James D. Zirin is a former federal prosecutor with a special interest in dissecting Donald Trump’s lawsuits.

Given the news of the Trump Organization suing over the voiding of its Trump Ferry Point contract after the January 6th insurrection, he explains in this Washington Post guest piece how the wide-open discovery process might backfire.

Attorneys for the city undoubtedly will want to probe in discovery the state of Trump’s finances. He is said to be deeply in debt. His precarious financial situation may disqualify him from operating a tournament-worthy golf course. They will also want to go into what Trump meant on Jan. 6 when he perpetuated the “big lie,” asserting that there had been mass election fraud, encouraging an unruly mob of his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to stop the certification of an election he had “won in a landslide” and to “take back our country.” The city will certainly call witnesses from the PGA and the British Open who would be expected to testify that they canceled plans for tournaments at Trump golf courses because Trump’s name has become mud.

The city lawyers will seek financial documents to show any connection between the Bronx golf course and Trump’s other business interests. They will want to probe the cost and quality of the improvements Trump claims he made, and may even go into the source of the money. If Trump borrowed the money, they will subpoena the banks and probe his banking relationships, including the financial statements he gave the banks to obtain the loans. They could even get into his controversial tax returns. Trump may well rue the day he brought the lawsuit.

Instant Classic: '21 Travelers Decided In An 8-Hole Playoff

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Maybe the craziest part of the Harris English’s 8-hole sudden death playoff win over Kramer Hickok: this Travelers Championship playoff was a thriller without anyone recording a birdie until the winning putt.

It’s one that’ll stick for a long time and the PGA Tour at its best: a fun final round, a few crazy how-did-that-not-go-in moments, beloved sponsor that knows how to put on a tournament, a course that regularly delivers, and the (mostly) welcomed sounds of a boisterous crowd.

The sides embellished this prime cut steak: golden light on a beautiful Connecticut evening, an energized CBS crew, and dramatic drone shots to help make the theater that much grander. It’s no surprise the network stayed two hours past their allotted time instead of handing off to Golf Channel. For that they were rewarded with several clutch saves before English’s winning putt. And yes, there there was appropriate Twitter grumbling about the 18th hole’s overuse. Particularly on a course with one of golf’s most combustible three-hole stretches at 15-17.

From David Dusek’s Golfweek story:

Little did anyone know that the tournament itself would wind up being the amuse-bouche. The main dish was an eight-hole playoff culminating with fans doing the wave around the 18th green and par after agonizing par being made on a course that yielded 263 birdies in the final round.

When it was over, English outlasted Hickok after eight playoff holes to earn his fourth PGA Tour win. This was the first time a PGA Tour playoff went to eight holes since 2012 when John Huh defeated Robert Allenby at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

“This was awesome. The fans were keeping us in this it, getting the juice from them,” English said. “That’s been really all afternoon. Hats off to Kramer. What a competitor. We were both grinding. That’s what it was all about. We were grinding and trying our hardest.”

English’s second win of 2021 makes him the only player to win more than once. The winning check will also have 10% going to caddie Eric Larson, whose time in prison and new lease-on-life Mark Cannizzaro documented here in the New York Post.

Oddly, the most incredible shot of the playoff was not posted online but you can at least see the fried egg English overcame to keep the playoff going:

The winning putt:

For Hickok’s clutch breakthrough performance, he probably deserved an interview instead of a look at the updated FedExCup standings.

But there was at least this:

The round four highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment:

Nellie Korda Takes Women's PGA, First American World No. 1 Since 2014

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A terrific performance by Nellie Korda to win the KPMG Women’s PGA for reasons other than being just 22:

  • It comes just weeks after a bad missed cut in the U.S. Women’s Open

  • Arguably too fast of a golfer at times, she dueled with Lizette Salas, a wonderful player and amazing story, but a very slow one.

Beth Ann Nichols’ Golfweek story filed from Atlanta Athletic Club included this:

At 22, Nelly came into the KPMG Women’s PGA, her 26th major start, the undisputed best player on the LPGA without a major. By week’s end, kids lined the barricades that led from the 18th green up to the clubhouse shouting her name.

On a sweltering Sunday, Nelly fulfilled the promise she’d shown from a young age, becoming the first American to rise to No. 1 in the world since Stacy Lewis in 2014, ending a drought that stretched 2,678 days. She also became the first American to win an LPGA major since 2018, when Angela Stanford won the Evian Championship.

“I’ve put in a lot of work and to finally get a win,” she later said on the 18th green, “or two wins under my belt, or three wins, sorry.”

Former World No. 1 Shanshan May Be Retiring After The Olympics

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Upon missing the KPMG PGA Championship cut, Shanshan Feng revealed she’s contemplating retirement after representing China in the Olympics. The former World No. 1 and former KPMG PGA winner is a mainstay of major leaderboards and recently contended again at the U.S. Women’s Open.

From Beth Ann Nichols’ story for Golfweek.com:

Feng told instructor Gary Gilchrist from the start that she’d like give it her all for 10 years on the LPGA and then move on. The Olympics changed that timeline, and it was pushed back even further due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Feng took all of 2020 off, returning in March at the ANA Inspiration where she tied for third.

“Her swing is better than ever,” said Gilchrist.

Mercer Leftwich has been on Feng’s bag since 2011 and believes that a lot of Feng’s success comes from her confidence. She’s also not one to overwork.

Leftwich jokes that if Feng leaves the tour for too long, he’d fly over to China and bring her back.

“She started laughing,” said Leftwich on Thursday, “saying ‘No, he will!’ ”

Feng, who confirmed the same to Golf Channel after her second round on Friday, played the first two rounds at Atlanta Athletic Club with Anne van Dam, and said that she was routinely 50 to 60 yards behind her.

Report: Open Championship Contestants Face DQ For Protocol Violations

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The Telegraph’s James Corrigan obtained player requirements for the upcoming Open Championship calling for restrictions on public dining and how many on a “team” can stay together. Most stunning: vaccination appears to mean nothing and this is all juxtaposed against the United Kingdom okaying 32,000 fans a day on site. Most of those fans will be arriving via train.

Pete Cowen, the current guru to Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, spoke to Corrigan about the issues. raised.

“There are going to be 32,000 fans allowed in every day and they’re saying we can’t stay in anything other than the dedicated hotels — most of which are already sold out — because we’d be mixing with the public,” Cowen said. “And we can’t stay together, like we have on the PGA Tour for the last year. We have all been vaccinated and will have been tested before we are allowed in. This ‘bubble’ we have created between ourselves has produced no problems at all.

“It makes no sense at all when there will be 60,000 at Wembley, 140,000 at Silverstone (race track) and all those at Wimbledon on the weekend before — sitting next to each other. I suppose I should be grateful I am going at all, as initially the wording of the regs made me believe instructors would be banned.”

In a follow up report, Golfweek’s Tim Schmitt and Steve DiMeglio report that unnamed PGA Tour players have considered passing and are miffed at the rules.

“If someone on your plane tests positive on way to the British and is sitting anywhere close to you, you’re out no questions asked, no matter if you’re vaccinated. It’s aggravating that they deem the tournament safe enough for 32,000 fans a day to attend, but won’t let a player’s wife, children travel and watch the tournament, nor will they even let players visit a restaurant without threat of disqualification.”

The player “teams” can stay together in a maximum of four at a private rental. Any violation of the protocols, including a simple visit from someone not in the player’s sphere, faces “withdrawal from the championship.”

“They care more about the revenue of the fans buying beers than they do about the actual people participating in the tournament,” said the player who spoke with Golfweek. “Any fan can go to a grocery store or a restaurant and we can’t. Does that make sense? And I’m vaccinated. How does that make sense?”

For Quadrilateral subscribers, I wrote about the inconsistency of the UK’s plan and apparent blind eye turned toward the many successful championships run to date. And none of those attempted to welcome as many fans back as the UK is, with trains and a Delta variant added to the mix.

"The Monster is back."

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Oh My! The 10th and 11th holes at Oakland Hills South. Look at that land! (Larry Lambrecht)

Oh My! The 10th and 11th holes at Oakland Hills South. Look at that land! (Larry Lambrecht)

That’s what the Detroit Pree-Press’ Carlos Monarrez says about one of America’s most storied championship venues sidelined while undergoing reconstructive surgery to repair damage done by the Jones family.

Oakland Hills South has seen Hanse Design attempt to bring back more Donald Ross and prepare it for 21st century tournaments. The course reopened Thursday but has no events locked in right now.

Last week the USGA announced more future sites for the U.S. Open. The next open date is 2028, a year after Pebble Beach hosts the tournament. That could bode well for Oakland Hills’ chances since the USGA likes to alternate eastern and western sites every year for the Open.

“Restoring the South Course at Oakland Hills was a master class in scale from architect Donald Ross,” Hanse said in a statement Thursday. “By returning the proportions of the features to the large scale of the property, we learned so much about how to create interest, strategy and beauty. This was a truly thrilling project for us to be involved in and we are excited about the transformation that has occurred.”

Quadrilateral readers know 2028 is out barring some sort of last minute change, while 2024 and 2029 are already locked in at Pinehurst #2. So the likely next option is 2030 but there is a certain anniversary that makes Merion a possibility that year. Time will tell!

It Seems Like The Post Round Interview Is Doomed

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A couple weekends ago I watched the end of two events: an Indy race on NBC and a competitive sailing competition on CBS.

At the Indy race, about ten drivers were interviewed to help fill time when the race ended early. This included a driver who crashed.

On the sailing, which was on tape, the American team’s jib broke, or someone’s Sperry’s slipped, I don’t know. But they were knocked out of the race and within seconds they went to the captain wearing a microphone to hear what went wrong. He answered while they were still reeling from what went wrong.

Both sports were also full of sound allowing us to eavesdrop on the proceedings. During the interviews, logos were visible, the drivers let you get to know them better and all that screen time pleased the people who write the checks.

Pro golf is going the opposite direction.

In-round interviews have died (again). Sound of conversations seems like it’s less prevalent. And now post-round interviews of anyone but the winner seem in danger.

Following Naomi Osaka’s French Open WD over post-round media stress , some golfers have opened up about how much pressure they feel from announcer criticisms or post round interviews. While these sessions generally don’t yield much, it’s still a shame that some feel questions starting with the world “how” or “talk about” can be seen as so stressful.

Of course writers and television will miss them and the shirt logo and watch deals might start to disappear, but mental health does take priority. And maybe if there is no danger of losing access, announcers can call the action more accurately.

Maybe these are isolated cases, but here’s a review of some recent comments on the topic, starting with Bubba Watson at the U.S. Open.

“The sad part for me is we celebrate every sport in the world. We celebrate accomplishments. We celebrate a guy scoring 50 points in the NBA. They are not saying quit shooting three-pointers. But we don't celebrate when a guy makes eight birdies or a guy bombs it 400 yards. I don't understand how we're not celebrating. We're trying to make golf courses bigger, harder, dumber, however you want to word it, but we're not celebrating our great players. I'm definitely not in that group of great players. I'm saying I want to see these guys hammering the ball. I want the next up-and-comer. I want a 6'8" guy not playing in the NBA, I want to see him on the PGA Tour bombing the ball. We're the only sport not celebrating accomplishments of being a guy working out in the gym that can hit the ball miles. We're mad at that guy. I don't know why, but we are. I'm not, but some people are -- golf course designers. The NBA, Tom Brady winning, throwing touchdowns, we celebrate that. ESPN talks about it nonstop. They don't ever talk about us chopping out of the -- hey, he laid up again. That's great. Anyway, that's my rant for the day.”

Given the influence his advice has had on Matthew Wolff, here is what Wolff had to say while dealing with undisclosed issues.

“I was talking to Bubba Watson earlier on the range this week and he told me he stopped watching golf, he only watches LPGA because they're so positive. He goes, LPGA is like the commentators, like everyone is just so positive, like every shot they hit is the best shot ever. And I think that -- and I'm not, I'm not like hating on the LPGA, I think it's awesome, because like these shots are hard out here and it's like, you know, sometimes they're describing a shot and they make it sound easy and it's not. And it's just, I'm only trying to have positive thoughts in my head and be positive. And I mean, kudos to pretty much every professional athlete out there, it's, I haven't been in this world for a long time, but it's fucking hard.”

And this in advance of the KPMG LPGA from Jessica Korda:

“You have fans coming to follow you, and if you're not playing your best, you obviously feel like you're disappointing everyone, and you get asked about it right after. It's never easy not playing well and then kind of answering the questions why because you're trying to figure it out yourself.”

This could just be a short term post-pandemic thing that will change when crowds come back and some normalcy returns. But this also could build momentum in the other direction and lead to more players saying no. I’m not sure that’s great for “growing the game,” but we’ll find out soon enough.

Quadrilateral: The 2021 U.S. Open Ratings Have A Story To Tell

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