October 17th: The Open Turns 161 Today
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Big birthday to celebrate for golf fans.
A Quadrilateral for all explains.
*The big birthday was noticed on social media…
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Rahm: "I don't want to see a golf club"
/To no one’s surprise, top players are running on fumes after an 18-month window of six majors and obligations to turn up all over the world. World No. 1 Jon Rahm spoke of plans to shut it down after the best and also most dramatic stretch of his career when he captured the U.S. Open, contended regularly in majors, lost a probable title after testing positive for COVID-19 at the Memorial, and became a father.
His comments after a 78 and missed cut in Madrid, as reported by AP:
"This is the first time in my life that I don't want to see a golf club," Rahm said. "And this comes from someone who loves this sport, and after a year in which some pretty good things have happened to me."
Rahm said he needs to take a break and may not play for one month until the World Tour Championship in Dubai.
"More than my body, it is my mind that can't take it. I am going to hang up my clubs for four weeks," Rahm said. "I haven't stopped since the stoppage because of COVID. ... If we add it all up, I need to rest."
"There will be solutions but this is not that solution. What they are, we’re not sure yet, but this is not it."
/Mike Stachura covers a lot of ground on the driver length “Model Local Rule” here, including early signs of more players going longer, the supportive stance of the PGA Tour, and the overall theme of this as a proactive move instead of reactive.
If that wasn’t clear, this from the USGA’s Thomas Pagel leaves no grey area about what lies ahead.
“We’re committed to our desire to stop the cycle of increased hitting distances. We have the long-term health of the game in mind. How is the game healthy 20, 50, 100 years from now. That’s something we \remain committed to. We know elite players can achieve distance increases through using a longer club, and as an industry as we go through the critical conversation about the long-term health of the game and what role distance plays with that, we just thought it was best to cap this now while we have the rest of that discussion.”
Quadrilateral: Major(s) News And Notes, October 14th, 2021
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I had to leave a few lesser notes on the cutting room floor but there’s always next week! In the meantime, we have plenty to chew on with the 46-inch Local Rule reactions ensuring widespread adoption in 2022's majors. But Phil doesn't agree and I speculate as to why.
Plus, a cow pasture wants the '31 Ryder Cup, Masters job offerings and a whole bunch of good reads both on golf and not
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R.I.P. Renton Laidlaw
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One of the game’s great voices and gentlemen has left us, with the R&A first to share the sad news of Renton Laidlaw’s passing. The voice off the European Tour until 2014, Laidlaw began his career as a writer for the Edinburgh Evening News before moving into radio and television. For American viewers he became synonymous as soundtrack to weekend mornings of European Tour events.
Brendan James has more in this remembrance for Golf Australia. I’ll post more as they appear.
He can be heard most recently in this podcast with John Huggan posted in August.
This YouTube search link will let you listen to Hidden Links Golf’s series of Scotland golf videos voiced by Laidlaw.
Alistair Tait celebrates the magical life of Laidlaw.
The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster with his tribute.
A nice tribute video here followed by some of the initial Tweets:
Phil's Champions Win Edges Out Shriners' Ratings, But No One Was Watching Either One
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Maybe you decided to go for a par-5 in two, dunked it in a pond and lost $20. Or you finally figured out you’re paying more for fewer channels after cutting the cord? Or you just feel understandably duped for having bought a $1,000 patio furniture set that’ll sit under a cover for the next seven months?
But know this, as least you aren’t paying millions to broadcast or sponsor PGA Tour fall golf. Or millions upon millions for the FedExCup.
Last week’s ratings for the 2021 Shriners Hospital For Children Open and Furyk and Friends event on the PGA Tour Champions are posted at ShowBuzzDaily.com and what’s the best thing one can say? At least they drew a rating, while the LPGA’s Founders Cup could not draw a large enough audience to be listed.
It was the rare win for PGA Tour Champions golf, with Phil Mickelson’s third victory in four starts drawing an average of 237,000 to the Shriners’ 210,000. Both drew what amounts to a courtesy number of 13,000 in the coveted 18-49 demo, so this was even more Villages-leaning than normal. Essentially, built into that number are the family dog and college freshman home for the weekend who tip-toed out by the TV while Pops was snoozing in a Barcalounger to Sungjae Im’s stirring victory.
The causes of this dire state were predictable, predicated and are no secret except to those whose bonuses depend on pumping out product: schedule oversaturation, Golf Channel reaching fewer and fewer homes, and too many other more compelling things to watch.
(Side note on the whole cable/cordcutting topic: this David Lazarus column in the LA Times highlights won way Spectrum is trying to woo back the cutters and it’s really quite unbelievable!)
In the embed above, other sports ratings were included from the bottom third for context. The 2021 Shriners numbers were also down substantially from last year when the pandemic cancelled college football games and other sports:
46 Inches: USGA, R&A Announce Local Rule Option For The Elites
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As I wrote yesterday in a Quadrilateral for all to see, the most interesting news in capping non-putter length clubs at 46 inches is not what it will do to distances, but what this means for distance politics.
Besides setting a precedent of different rules for “those running professional or elite amateur golf competitions”, we now get to see whether the “Model Local Rule” is adopted. Already, reports GolfDigest.com’s Mike Stachura, the PGA Tour has signed on despite what will amounts to a mid-season rule change, citing low usage of drivers longer than 46 inches. That’s a huge Rules of Golf endorsement from the Global Home. And while they won’t say it, this is bifurcation of the rules. Yes, the big, nasty B word!
Next up, we’ll see what Augusta National, the PGA of America and various other tours say. Golf Digest reached out for comment and only the PGA of America replied, saying a decision will be made before their 2022 events.
For those keeping track of such things, the 48-to-46 capping came six months and one day after the end comment period ended (it had been extended a month to April). A similar comment period ends on a range of more substantial distance questions posed by the USGA and R&A, so put Tuesday May 3, 2022 down in your calendars.
Here is the rule, length tolerance and penalty language.
For Immediate Release:
THE USGA AND THE R&A ANNOUNCE NEW MODEL LOCAL RULE OPTION FOR LIMITING CLUB LENGTH
LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. and ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (Oct. 12, 2021) – The USGA and The R&A have announced that a new Model Local Rule (MLR G-10) will be available beginning on January 1, 2022 to provide those running professional or elite amateur golf competitions the option of limiting the maximum length of a golf club (excluding putters) to 46 inches.
The proposal was announced in February 2021, which opened a notice-and-comment period to allow the industry the opportunity to provide feedback as part of the equipment rulemaking procedures. The comments received from the golf industry, including players, professional tours and equipment manufacturers, were carefully considered before the decision to proceed with the new MLR was reached.
New acronym alert!
The USGA and The R&A issued an Area of Interest notice in 2014 indicating that research was being conducted into the impact of club lengths of more than 48 inches on hitting distance and whether that limit remained appropriate.
Only took seven years to reach the finish line…
A proposed change to the limit was subsequently put forward in 2016 but was put on hold in 2017 when the Distance Insights project got underway.
Mike Whan, chief executive officer of the USGA, said, “We’ve worked closely with our industry partners to ensure the future for golf remains strong. Admittedly, this is not the ‘answer’ to the overall distance debate/issue, but rather a simple option for competitive events. It’s important to note that it is not a ‘Rule of Golf,’ and as such, it is not mandated for the average, recreational golfer. Rather, this is an available tool for those running competitive events.”
Martin Slumbers, chief executive of The R&A, said, “We have taken time to consult fully with the golf industry, including players, the main professional tours and equipment manufacturers, and have considered their feedback carefully. We believe this is the right thing for the game at this time and will provide tournament organizers with the flexibility to choose for themselves within the framework of the Rules. We are working hard to maintain an open, collaborative and considered dialogue with these key stakeholders as we continue to evolve the Equipment Standards Rules to ensure they reflect the modern game.”
And they still won’t be happy.
The proposals submitted in February for changes to the testing method for golf balls and the testing tolerance for spring-like effect are still under consideration. The governing bodies plan to consider feedback on these proposals in line with the responses to the broader Area of Interest – Research Topics notification, which are due by November 2.
Networks And Betting: "But will they go all in?"
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The LA Times’ Ryan Faughnder and Stephen Battaglio access the push into sports gambling and talk to various figures with an interest, but namely how networks and leagues are balancing the need for revenue and “engagement”. Coupled with their vaccine stance, it’s amazing again to see the NFL trying to lead in a more responsible manner, while other sports dive in for short term ad revenue, dreams of regaining lost viewers and to build a new kind of transactional relationship with fans.
This was fun:
Only the seven betting companies with NFL deals are allowed to advertise during pro football broadcasts. The league allows six ads per telecast: one per quarter and one during pregame and halftime.
While odds analysis can bring another level of sophistication to coverage, NFL executives are reluctant to have explicit gambling references during the regular live national broadcasts. Research indicated that audiences don’t want national broadcasts to explicitly include gambling chatter, according to Christopher Halpin, the NFL’s chief strategy and growth officer.
“The bettors say, ‘I don’t need to hear Jim Nantz and Tony Romo talk about sports betting,’” Halpin said. “‘It’s inauthentic. It’s not their area.’”
Golf’s foray has largely leaned on selling ads to the various authorized gaming partners of the Tours, with a scattershot and comically lame approach on the television side (to date). In reading about the above NFL findings, it’s hard not to think about the painful sound earlier this year of longtime CBS analysts Nick/Ian/Frank having to make their FanDuel picks for next week, or Golf Channel’s Jimmy The Greek, Paige Mackenzie, chiming in on a top parlay opportunity at PointsBet, currently available in four states. At least the CBS crew turned the sponsored bits into a chance to laugh a little.
Good news for the anti-gambling set: if the lazy, awkward and short-sighted integration continues, the whole thing will fizzle based on first impressions.
Case in point from last weekend’s Shriners Hospital For Children Open. Mercifully I didn’t hear the analysis, but won’t be shocked to learn that good golf broadcasters were put in an awkward position of hawking product only the folks of New Jersey and Indiana could gamble on via their phone.**
**The page has been updated today (Oct. 12, 2021) to now reflect seven states with some form of legalization.
Tiger Spotting: Standing Without Crutches
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While normally I’m not a huge fan of sharing shots showing Tiger on dad duty at a junior golf event, the images posted by Tiger Woods Legion focus mostly on the all-time great and what appears to be major progress since his February car accident. Nice to see. Now, about that growth on his chin…
"Up to 1 million gallons of water...a night? That’s par for some desert golf courses"
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Influential LA Times columnist Steve Lopez has set his sights on water usage by Coachella Valley courses and shares the concerns of residents Doug Thompson and wife Robin Kobaly. It’s not the usual golf-is-bad piece since all involved acknowledge golf’s role in the region stretching from Palm Springs to Indio. And Lopez gets some great info into the piece from Craig Kessler of the SCGA.
He notes one course as being pleased to have gotten their usage down to numbers like 1 million gallons a night of water, and while drought issues are of concern, there is also a view that residents are paying more than they should have to.
“Absolutely, there is an inequity,” said Johnson, and that, in effect, residential users “subsidize the infrastructure used to get water to golf courses.” Johnson, a golfer, said he used to play at a La Quinta course where “they were irrigating areas that weren’t even in play,” and watering sand traps, as well.
So why not institute tiered pricing for golf and ag, same as for residential users?
I’ll be watching to see how that goes, but it’s worth noting that three of the five members of the agency’s board of directors are in the agriculture industry. Water and oil don’t mix, but in California, water and politics always do.
But the real kicker—spoiler alert—is how Lopez ends the piece.
Thompson and Kobaly, who aren’t golfers, have a suggestion. They’ve been looking into links-style golf courses, which are common in other countries and use far less water. You tee off on a patch of green and you putt on a patch of green, but most of the area in between is natural and not irrigated.
“I’ve got nothing against golf,” Thompson said. “But they’ve got to find a different way of doing it.”
Hey, links style. They may be onto something there!
Shame they didn’t dare suggest that golf reduce its footprint and consider dialing back back distance. Maybe after more research?
NGF: "A New Norm, Or An Old Norm?"
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Joe Beditz and the National Golf Foundation continue to monitor the state of golf, the business side and pandemic-related upswing. His latest looks at the numbers of golfers per 18-hole course showing a balance “that existed 20 years ago, when golf courses were more economically successful, as a whole, than they’d been over the past decade or so.”
Given golf’s trajectory pre-pandemic and the sport being one of the few industries to experience a deceleration of trends, he notes the increase in wealth as a huge driving factor. But there was also this:
And there’s one other very important consideration: a decidedly positive media narrative about golf in non-endemic publications, such as Esquire, Adweek and the Wall Street Journal. It was only a short time ago that headlines blared golf was doomed. Today, pundits are raving about golf’s renaissance like they haven’t since Tiger’s heyday. We’ve assembled some of the more notable positive stories about golf, which you can read here.
I don’t miss reading and posting all of the stories declaring bowling, cycling, hiking or bowling-while-hiking as the “new golf “.
"She’s Playing College Golf. She’s 63."
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WSJ’s Jason Gay profiles Debbie Blount, an underclassman and Georgeia’s Reinhardt University and playing on the golf team. The sophomore is 63.
Now she longed for a change. “After my husband passed away, I was getting stale,” Blount said. “I love golf, but I’d lost my passion for it, and I was looking for something fun and different.”
Her path returned her to Reinhardt, a school she considered more than four decades ago. “It was the combination of golf and getting a degree,” she said. “I probably would not have gone back to school if I couldn’t play golf.”
It was a momentous choice. Blount’s the first person in her family to attend college.
“She’s doing something that she’s always wanted to do,” said Blount’s mother, Loraine Seidel, now 95. “Debbie, when she makes up her mind to do something, she does it.”
There is lots more and it’s not behind the paywall, so enjoy.
"The constancy of The Dinah has been no small thing"
/I’ve been mulling the complicated dynamics of The Dinah’s planned move to an unnamed course in Houston and the pressures of providing increased pay for players. Something has to give and the value of history is always underestimated until the damage has been done. But it’s worth remembering how many players helped build the oldest majors into what they are and how many of them did it for the trophy, not the purse value.
This is not to impugn today’s players since not one has said they were unsure about playing the women’s first major due to the purse, or that it should lose its major status if it were to not keep up with the efforts by the USGA, PGA of America/KPMG or R&A/AIG to offer more money. Such a stance would be better than seeing how quickly folks have been willing to toss aside the value of what was built over 50 years and use equal pay or the allure of a blue chip sponsor as the justification. You don’t need to have inhabited this planet long to know corporate sponsors come and go.
Thankfully, Bill Fields put some thoughts together on this complex topic in a must-read edition of his newsletter, The Albatross.
A teaser:
But beyond that basic equation, the demise of the ANA Inspiration and the formation of the Chevron Championship is also something else: an additional piece for the growth-or-preservation puzzle that always seems to be on golf’s kitchen table. Increasingly, tradition is the sliver of cardboard that goes missing.
Turkey Day? DeChambeau v. Koepka Match Set For The Wynn
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This one could go a lot of ways so those of us with no lives will sit back and let those with a meaningful existence know how it went.
They’re playing 12 holes because that’s more than enough and a number many would like to see more golf played at—I’m sure Prestwick was on their minds—or was it because 18 is a slog? Anyway, that’s splendid and hopefully the first of many events validating 12 hole rounds.
Also, for all the claims of making up during the Ryder Cup, these Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka will undoubtedly retain their charming form of brotherly tension and maybe some of it will even spill out on national TV.
Not mentioned in the new release but likely the most interesting element in this: Phil MIckelson moving to the broadcast booth. He tipped us off during a recent Gary Williams podcast about this possibility.
For Immediate Release:
TNT will exclusively televise the 12-hole event, to be held the day after Thanksgiving — Friday, Nov. 26, with live coverage beginning at 4 p.m. ET from Wynn Las Vegas, home of top-ranked Wynn Golf Course, the only golf course on the Las Vegas strip. TNT’s presentation of Capital One’s The Match will also be simulcast on TBS, truTV and HLN.
DeChambeau won in his first time competing in Capital One’s The Match – pairing with Aaron Rodgers – this past July, when they topped Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. Winner of the 2020 U.S. Open and an eight-time winner on the PGA TOUR overall, DeChambeau is currently the No. 7-ranked player in the World.
This will be Koepka’s first appearance as a competitor in Capital One’s The Match, though through his foundation he donated $100,000 to COVID-19 relief efforts during Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity in May 2020 in connection with a memorable front-nine birdie from Brady. Koepka also owns eight PGA TOUR titles, including four Major Championship victories over a three-year span: the 2018 and 2019 PGA Championship and 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open.
DeChambeau (2-0-1) and Koepka (2-2-0) were both members of the victorious U.S. Team’s resounding win over Europe at the recent Ryder Cup.
Live coverage of the match play event will once again feature unprecedented access with players having open mics throughout the entire competition, including the capability to communicate directly with their competitor and the broadcast commentators.
Can we bet an over/under on how many holes it takes before Brooks has to back off a shot because Bryson’s yammering to his caddie? I’ll take the under!
Capital One’s The Match has raised nearly $30 million in support of various charities and initiatives and has generated nearly 10 million meal donations through Feeding America and other organizations.
A partner since the event’s inception, Capital One will return as title sponsor of Capital One’s The Match, which is sanctioned by the PGA TOUR. Presenting partners will include Michelob Ultra, and DraftKings will return as sports betting partner. E-Z-GO, Wheels Up and Wynn Resorts will also serve as associate partners. Further details about social, digital and broadcast brand integrations throughout the event will be shared in the coming weeks.
Designed by Tom Fazio and his son, Logan, the Wynn Golf Club is a 6,722-yard, par-70 championship length golf course and is considered one of the best courses in Las Vegas.
Considered one of the best of its kind!
