"Saudi International and Asian Tour announce historic golf partnership"

An unbylined Arab News story reports on Golf Saudi moving from the European Tour—where it was once a cherished “get” for Chief Executive Keith Pelley—to the Asian Tour for 10 years. The subtext will involve how this impacts the Asian Tour, the Saudi effort to disrupt pro golf via a ripped-poff version of the Premier Golf League concept, and what players might show up to cash a check.

From the story:

“Today marks a significant development for our flagship golf event and our vision to strengthen the depth of world-class golf events, both in the GCC and also on the international stage,” said Majed Al-Sorour, CEO of Golf Saudi and the Saudi Golf Federation.

“The importance and potential of Asia’s role in world golf is undeniable, not least due to its position as a global economic powerhouse,” he said, adding: “This partnership will unlock many opportunities for players, sponsors and fans of the game. Most importantly, we are eager to help build a more inclusive game for all eligible professional golfers that spans borders and cultures by fostering collaboration with major tours and see this as an exciting first step on that journey.”

The PGA Tour's 2021 Season Opener Barely Draws A Rating

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You want wrap around, something has to pay.

That and some more research is needed to see just how historically awful the PGA Tour’s “Fortinet Championship” ratings were, but as far as season openers go it’s hard to imagine even the old Safeway or fall events of recent years failed to write for three days until a final round .03/330,000 average viewers.

Going against the NFL and it’s incredible season start will always be tough sledding, but to see what people watched in larger numbers than what was an interesting final round won by Max Homa, suggests something deeper going on. Namely, Golf Channel reaching fewer and fewer homes while all but giving up on promoting the “product”.

It’s alarming given the Fortinet was the beginning of the PGA Tour’s new nine year contract with the Comcast owned network.

Showbuzzdaily.com with all the weekend numbers.

Friends Of Finchem: WGHOF Randomly Adds "Lifetime Achievement Award"

I’m not sure where this one came from given how many times folks have wanted to see World Golf Hall of Fame “wings” to recognize contributors to the sport.

The Tuesday-of-Ryder-Cup week announcement of a huge change in WGHOF policy only heightens my suspicion that even some in Hall land know this will not help shed their image as a plaything for former Commissioner Tim Finchem.

While I respect both gentlemen and appreciate their contributions to the game, Dick Ferris was a longtime PGA Tour Policy Board member who signed off on Tim Finchem’s gargantuan pay packages (and don’t give me that nonsense about how he grew purses…Tiger did the heaviest lifting on that).

So while Ted Ray and Tom Weiskopf have yet to receive any Hall honors, and the latter is battling cancer, this is what friends of Finchem receive for their friendship. And why no Clint Eastwood?

World Golf Hall of Fame to Recognize Pebble Beach Company’s Dick Ferris and Peter Ueberroth at 2022 Induction Ceremony

Ferris and Ueberroth to receive new Lifetime Achievement Award

St. Augustine, Fla. (Sept. 21, 2021) – The World Golf Hall of Fame will honor two leaders in golf – Dick Ferris and Peter Ueberroth – as part of a newly created Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Induction Ceremony on March 9, 2022. The ceremony will take place in conjunction with THE PLAYERS Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

“In 1999, we did something that had never been done before,” said Ueberroth. “We gathered a group of friends who shared our passion for Pebble Beach to purchase it with the goal to keep it, preserve it and enhance it for future generations. On behalf of all of us, we thank the World Golf Hall of Fame for this incredible recognition.”

“Giving back to the game and helping others has brought a lifetime of joy,” said Ferris. “To be so honored is humbling.”

Ueberroth and Ferris, alongside Clint Eastwood, the late Arnold Palmer and their other partners, purchased Pebble Beach in 1999 from Taiheiyo Club and Sumitomo Bank, returning it to U.S. ownership. They served as co-chairmen of Pebble Beach Company for 20 years, and together with their fellow board members and management team, worked to ensure Pebble Beach remained open to the public and a global, must-play, bucket-list golf destination.

Since its founding in 1919, Pebble Beach has hosted 14 major championships including six U.S. Open Championships, five U.S. Amateur Championships, two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships and the 1977 PGA Championship. It also will host the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, its first, and the 2027 U.S. Open, its seventh. Pebble Beach Company has hosted the PGA TOUR’s annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am since 1947 and the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach impacting First Tee (a PGA TOUR Champions’ event) since 2004. The Company, under their leadership and in partnership with Monterey Peninsula Foundation and AT&T, raises more than $15 million annually for local charitable organizations.

“We are pleased to recognize the important and long-standing contributions that Dick and Peter have made to the game of golf through their thoughtful stewardship of Pebble Beach Company,” said Greg McLaughlin, CEO, World Golf Hall of Fame. “We are proud to recognize them through this new award at the 2022 Induction Ceremony, paying homage to their achievements and what those have meant for the sport.” 

“Under Dick and Peter’s stewardship, Pebble Beach Company has invested over $600 million in resort improvements, hosted three historic U.S. Open Championships and made an immeasurable impact on our local community through both charitable giving and economic impact,” said David Stivers, CEO of Pebble Beach Company. “Their greatest legacy, however, is their passion for Pebble Beach that has become an integral part of our Company culture.” 

Ferris, a long-time friend of Palmer’s, became a member of the PGA TOUR Champions’ Policy Board in 1985 and moved to the PGA TOUR Policy Board in 1993, where he served as chairman from 1994 to 2007. He was the Chairman and CEO of UAL Corporation (parent company of United Airlines, Hertz Rent-A-Car, Hilton International and WestinHotels), a position he held from 1976 to 1987. Between 1992 and 1998, Ferris and Ueberroth served together as co-chairmen and directors in three hotel companies: Guest Quarters Hotels, Doubletree Hotels, and Promus Hotels.

Ueberroth’s career began in the travel business. He founded First Travel Corporation in 1962, and when he sold the company in 1980, it was the second largest travel business in North America. From 1980 to 1984, Peter was President of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, the first privately funded Games which resulted in a $250M surplus earning him Time magazine’s Man of the Year award. He subsequently served as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989, and today is managing director of Contrarian Group, an investment and management company. His numerous charitable endeavors include serving as Vice Chair of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation and helping to establish First Tee – Monterey County. 

Ferris and Ueberroth will be recognized at the upcoming Induction Ceremony, where competitors Tiger Woods and Susie Maxwell Berning along with contributors Tim Finchem and the late Marion Hollins will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame as members. The Induction Ceremony is returning to Northeast Florida for the first time since 2013. Most recent ceremonies have been held in St Andrews, Scotland (2015), New York (2017) and Pebble Beach (2019).

Tiger's Moving Into The NFT World

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Signed! Digitally…please don’t ask me to explain this, as the whole thing eludes me until someone makes mind-blowing ways to display these things. And even then I’m still not sure…

For Immediate Release:

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Autograph, the company pioneering partnerships with the world's biggest sports and entertainment icons to usher in a new era of digital collecting, will debut the first set of NFTs co-designed by Tiger Woods. The collection will be exclusively available to view on Autograph.io and for sale on DraftKings Marketplace (Nasdaq: DKNG). The NFTs will drop over the next week allowing fans to have longer to access the collectibles with the second collection dropping on September 28th.

"Autograph is thrilled to be the driving force behind the first-ever Tiger Woods NFT as a part of a larger, exclusive series of his digital collections," said Dillon Rosenblatt, CEO and co-founder of Autograph. "Autograph's incredible partners and team are committed to producing cutting-edge content that brings our audience one step closer to icons. Releasing a collection for Tiger Woods, one of the greatest golfers of all time, is a huge milestone as we usher in the new era of collecting."

Tiger's digital collectibles are the latest addition to Autograph's Preseason Access Collection, joining other sports heroes like Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Tony Hawk, Derek Jeter, Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles. All prior collections have sold out within minutes, so fans looking to purchase the highly-anticipated Tiger drop are encouraged to join the queues early. The Premier edition drops on September 21st and the Signed edition drops on September 28th, both starting at 3:00pm ET, with queues opening at 2:30pm ET.

"Autograph's team is at the forefront of digital collectibles and enhancing the fan experience around NFTs, and I'm thrilled to be a part of the new era of collecting," said Tiger Woods. "It will enable me to grow closer to my fan base and I'm looking forward to seeing that all fans have the opportunity to participate. I could not be more excited for future drops with Autograph."

While the Premier editions will offer thousands of Tiger's digital collectibles, the Signed editions will have significantly fewer, with less than 300 total in the whole batch. Each owner of a Preseason Access Pass NFT, regardless of edition, will also be granted preferential access to a future NFT drop from Autograph.

To view the latest exclusive NFT drops, collectors can visit https://www.autograph.io and registered DraftKings customers can visit https://marketplace.draftkings.com/ to explore and transact on DraftKings Marketplace.          

The Other Team Event Hanging Over This Week's Ryder Cup

The PGL’s Andy Gardiner

The PGL’s Andy Gardiner

All signs suggest the disruptor golf leagues declared dead multiple times by Tour toadies are, miraculously, still hanging around. There may even be a conversation or twelve this week between Vice Captains and players about who is in and where.

The Saudi’s and their SGL, a rip off of all things Premier Golf League only with a Middle East-heavy schedule?

Or will the new Strategic Alliance keep everyone a happy PGA Tour/European Tour camper?

Judging by Phil Mickelson’s remarks to Gary Williams, the PGA Champion is still very much interested in the proposals. Armed with major championship exemptions for another few years, his fearless jabs at the PGA Tour model suggest he’s open to the ideas.

Here is a link to the interview portion where Williams and Mickelson discuss the wraparound schedule, PIP and team league proposals merge:

A few curious and noteworthy comments by Mickelson:

  • He said of the wraparound, the Tour is “going away from that next year”. Not sure if that was a slip up or slip of the tongue regarding the 2023 schedule and beyond.

  • Mickelson lamented that only 26% of the revenue goes to the players and agreements requiring the Commissioner’s approval. He said that while players use the engine of the PGA Tour to be successful, “we don’t make a majority of our revenue from the PGA Tour” we don’t own our media writes, and YouTube “make millions” off it, citing Bryson’s 6th hole tee shot at Bay Hill earlier this year. The clip does have 1.4. million views and in YouTube money, that’s not much barring a massive sweetheart deal with the Tour.

  • He says “top guys are being taken advantage of” and believes the PIP money offered by Ponte Vedra “sounds like a lot” but in the “big scheme” doesn’t “even come close to being equitable.”

  • Mickelson said the “competition is going to be good” for all.

  • He said for the first time “the top players are being valued by the PGA Tour” and the players are “so far down the line on, kind of, the bullying tactics that have been used to suppress the top players on the PGA Tour,” that this will all come down to what’s best for fans.

  • He said it’s “tough when only 4 people have a vote” and of the PGA Tour, says “I’m not sure we have, internally, the structure to fix it.”

On the PGL side, co-founder Andy Gardiner gave an interview to Golf Monthly and reminded how this week’s event is the inspiration for the concept:

If you can bring any of the brilliance of the Ryder Cup into a more regular format, then it’s got to be a good thing.

It’s easier for a fan to have allegiance to a team than it is to an individual.

Some individuals can have it – that’s where Tiger was utterly brilliant because he was so dominant that you could fall in love with him as the dominant player, or you could be fascinated by him.

But what everyone else was doing was backing the underdog because everyone else was an underdog.

What he did was to ignite both sides.

You had one group who wanted to see him win everything and you had those who wanted someone else to win.

Ryder Cup Course Setup: How Low Will They Go?

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Today’s Quadrilateral kicks off Ryder Cup week looking at course setup ploys dating to the 1950s and how in many ways the gamesmanship was taken to strange new places in the last two Cups.

Plus, I wonder not very subtly whether Whistling Straits a different beast for the home team? And round up some random preview reads and Tweets.

Two items I don’t want you to miss just in case reading about course setup ploys in one newsletter is asking a lot on a Monday: Ward Clayton has the stunning tale of Skip Alexander’s place in Ryder Cup lore. This was a totally new one to me and fascinating to learn about.

And The Fried Egg offered this vignette and discussion of the venue:

Johnny: "Too many announcers want to be friends with their fellow players, even though they’re announcers."

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Great stuff top to bottom in part one of Adam Schupak’s conversation with Johnny Miller, but his comments on the state of golf announcing and long broadcast windows is of particular note.

I’m sure sensitive flowers will be put off by the reference to himself as the “one Simon Cowell” in golf, but get past what is essentially true and read the full answer.

GW: Have TV golf announcers gotten too soft? 

JM:  Well, they’ve always been soft. There’s only been one Simon Cowell and you’re looking at him.

This is a really an important thing I’m going to tell you. The greatness of golf – whether you’re a 100 shooter or whatever – is how well you can finish off your milkshake bet or whatever. The greatness of golf is handling your nerves and your choking point and whether you can perform when you need to.

So to ignore that, which has been basically ignored by every golf announcer except for me, and say a guy has swung all over, he’s choking – my very first tournament, Peter Jacobsen has got this downhill lie over water in front of the green, and when you try to hit it over water on a downhill lie, like 15 at Augusta, and you try to hit it high off that downslope, you either hit it thin or fat, that shot. It happened to Seve when he hit it in the drink at the Masters. I said, this is like the perfect situation to choke on.

Now, I didn’t say that Peter would choke on that shot, but no one had ever said choke in the history of golf, OK. Now, I’m not bragging, but that’s the way I viewed the game. It’s how well can you handle the choke factor, and to sort of ignore that because it’s uncomfortable or – you don’t have to say choke, but to not talk about the pressure, that’s why people loved Tiger is because he could actually raise his level to win tournaments. He was the opposite of folding under pressure. He was the best ever at that, better than Jack even.

Fighting words!

Here’s the strongest case made by Miller:

The great champions can lift their game to get the job done or make the great shot, and I was willing to go there. Too many announcers want to be friends with their fellow players, even though they’re announcers. I don’t know, they just don’t talk about it.

The people are starving for the truth. They’re starving to know what’s really happening. But you can’t just say a guy is choking. You have to say the guy has played fades all week long, now all of a sudden he’s hitting hooks, you know he might be choking. Or he hasn’t missed a putt inside six feet, now he’s missed three in a row. In other words, you can’t just pick it out of thin air and say the guy is choking. I would never just say it without showing you why it’s choking. It would be unfair to say a guy is choking. A guy who’s never hit a hook and he starts duck hooking it on the last five holes, he might be choking. If you’re hitting shots you’ve never seen before or it’s not you, you’re not handling the pressure. You’re folding.

I don’t know if anybody will go there again. Maybe they don’t need to. But I think it’s part of the greatness of golf how well can you handle pressure.

I was glad to see him not shy away from questioning his longevity in an era of all day broadcasts since it highlights the issue of prioritizing showing a ton of shots over storytelling or drama.

I’d rather be going nowhere fast than somewhere slow. I like to be going fast, so for me to be on the air for the Ryder Cup for 11-12 hours straight was like – that was so not me, I can’t tell you. That’s where golf is going. It’s getting where the hours that they’re demanding to cover and all the coverage, I got out at the right time because that’s just – if they said, come on in and do the last four hours, that would be fine, but I don’t have the patience to – golf has gotten almost crazy compared to what I knew.

When I first started announcing, two-hour coverage was normal. At the Masters, they just used to do the back nine on Sunday, right? Or did they do it on Saturday, too? I guess they did. Yeah, it’s changed so much. But you know, I think it’s good. It’s just not good for me. I probably wouldn’t have lasted 29 years if I had to do that kind of schedule and not only just Saturday and Sunday, but now sometimes you’ve got Thursday and Friday of the events.

Whan Expands On USGA's Role In Distance Debate, Provides Timeline Update

New USGA CEO Mike Whan continued his busy interview schedule, this time, appearing on the Fried Egg podcast with Andy Johnson to talk distance.

This is not going to please those who feel restoring lost skill or design dynamics is needed:

“I think we’re going to establish some guidelines. I think those guidelines are probably going to slow some of the pace of progress over the next 10 or 20 years.

But are [equipment manufacturers] going to figure ways around that to continue to push the envelope? I’m actually counting on it because I think that’s what makes the game exciting. I also think that I have a responsibility to make sure that, when you look at [this issue] over the next 50 years, the decisions we made to control some of that pace didn’t obsolete every course in the country.”

As previous generations of the USGA leadership have felt but ultimately were unable to back-up with action.

Regarding timing:

”I think at this time next year, next summer, we’ll be talking about some real specific suggestions, recommendations, and be going through the same process [of taking feedback]. In the beginning, we put out the distance results. We then talked about some of the areas we want to look at. We’ve listened to feedback. I think, come this off-season, we’ll take all that feedback in and try to determine some specific directions. And then we’ll do the same thing. We’ll put it out there and let people [give] feedback.”

The suspense is not killing us.

He’s taken an interesting tact on where courses are built going forward, which I think would have been practical for his predecessors some time ago to acknowledge. Today? I’m not sure enough are going to be built for this to matter, but the sentiment is appreciated:

“More importantly, do you think there’ll ever be an urban golf course built again if it needs 8,600 yards to build the golf course? People say to me, “Well, you don’t need 86 [hundred] unless you’re building a golf course for the top elite.” But I’ve never met somebody who’s got a plan to build a golf course who doesn’t want to have a course that can host major championships. I just don’t think we want to make this game only a suburban game, only a game for the wealthy.”

Whan also spoke of finding a place in the equipment rules that have engineers working hard to circumvent the rules in the spirit of innovation and “energy”. Kind of like they’ve been doing for the last thirty years.

“But I think my job is to make sure that there’s as much energy about the future of this game three years from now as there is today, and 20 years from now as there is today. I want engineers to wake up every morning and say, ‘I see the rules that he put in place, but I’m going to spend a lot of hours today working on how to get excitement even within that space.’ I can’t throw a wet blanket over that or I’ll lose one of the things that makes this game truly exciting and great. If I see a package under the Christmas tree that looks like a golf club, I’m just like anybody else: I get pretty excited about ripping it open because maybe there’s two strokes of handicap in that box. And I don’t want to lose that excitement.”

Shop to drop (your handicap)!

Of course, that’s been the approach of the last few decades and average handicaps have not dropped substantially but costs have gone up. And until the pandemic, the number of people playing has steadily dropped under this approach. One born out of feeding the desires of public-traded companies, not necessarily the majority of golfers.

You can listen to the full pod here:

"Patrick Cantlay won $15 million using golf equipment that is up to seven years old"

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Once the Ryder Cup is behind us all signs point to the distance discussion heating up and Golfweek’s David Dusek added some fun grist with this story on Patrick Cantlay’s bag.

It seems the FedExCup winner is playing old stuff which is the endorsement industry equivalent of stepping on the first tee with dirty toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

In most other worlds it would be a compliment that something made not that long ago was still so functional it delivered a $15 million payday for its user. Heck, most timeless brands take pride in the timelessness of the product.

But this it a planned obsolescence business driven by appeasing perceived Wall Street demands and the whole permanence thing is bad for business. Always something to remember as the whining begins this fall about stifled innovation , the end of growing the game, infringing on the rights of athletes, blah blah blah…

It’s quite a sob story until you realize someone played great golf with what most manufacturers consider antiquated equipment.

Yet if they were offered some bifurcation to free up the opportunity to innovate? They won’t like that either.

Barbara Nicklaus Cup To Feature Mixed College Team Event

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While golf’s CEO types greenlight ad campaigns to show they care about the women’s game, some in the sport are actually delivering what folks might find “worth watching” on occasion: a mixed competition.

While the European Tour pushes individual formats of interest, college golf’s Barbara Nicklaus Cup provides another intriguing blueprint for something like the Olympics or perhaps an event not yet created.

From Dave Shedloski’s report on Ohio State coach Therese Hession’s effort to create the event and its format:

Each school will field six players from each men’s and women’s team to compete in four mixed foursomes and four singles matches in head-to-head contests against each of the other three schools. Each match counts for one point with a maximum of eight points per contest. The school with the most points after the three separate rounds will be the winner.

Members of the winning school will receive Muirfield Village Golf Club pin flags signed by both Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, said Hession, who hopes that a trophy might be created for the occasion in the next few years.

And two days at Muirfield Village should make for some fascinating match play.

State Of The Game 115: Ryder Cup Preview With Andrew Coltart

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Andrew Coltart’s a six-time European Tour winner, former Ryder Cupper, current Sky Sports commentator and proud Scotsman. He joined Rod Morri, Mike Clayton and yours truly to discuss all things Ryder Cup and a little Solheim Cup as well. I think you’ll really enjoy this one, especially some of Coltart’s insights into this year’s team.

You can give Andrew a Twitter follow here. He will be in Wisconsin next week covering the event for Sky Sports.

Links to your favorite podcast app landing pages for SOTG are here, or you can listen via this embed:

Steph Curry To Join Golf Channel's "Live From" As Part Of New High 8-Figure NBC Deal

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Variety’s Matt Donnelly reports on Steph Curry’s “sweeping, first-of-its-kind talent deal with Comcast NBCUniversal” that will feature Curry all over NBC and Universal, including next week’s Ryder Cup.

The “high eight-figure” agreement includes Curry’s Unanimous Media and covers all of the conglomerate’s various businesses.

It’s an impressive, if not urgent, move from Comcast NBCU, led by Brian Roberts and Jeff Shell, to secure talent with mass appeal in a landscape littered with blank checks from the streamers. NBCU has always touted its vertical integration program “Symphony,” but the Curry deal looks and feels like an aggressive play to realize the full power of its portfolio.

First up for Curry on the sports side is joining NBC Sports’ Golf Channel for coverage of the ultimate team golf event, the Ryder Cup. He will create original content for the channel’s acclaimed “Live From the Ryder Cup” coverage and GolfPass, which will be featured internationally on Sky Sports.

In the New York Post story there was this B-speak gem:

Aside from the Unanimous deal, Comcast NBCUniversal said its been developing a “symphonic cross-portfolio approach” of entertainment content deals with talent like Meghan Trainor and Miley Cyrus, Seth MacFarlane and Justin Lin.