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
Tiger and Charlie beat 2020 Tiger and Charlie!
According to Showbuzzdaily.com, the 2021 PNC Championship final round drew a Nielsen 1.43 overnight, with an average of 2.23 million viewers and 404,000 of the cap-on-backwards demo.
The 2020 edition featuring Team Woods and 19 other teams drew a Sunday .98 rating and 1.5 million/280,000 non-AARPers.
Punishment for those collecting seven and eight-figure appearance fees (Photo by Geoff Shackelford)
They weren’t bluffing down there at the Global Home regarding February’s Saudi International and preventing as many as thirty top players from playing the same week as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Nobody messes with Jay Monahan! He is the Sheriff of all…wait, what?
The potential defectors get to abandon one of the biggest events on the PGA Tour calendar and their punishment will to play Pebble Beach-Spyglass-MPCC over the next two years? All while collecting huge appearance fees and possibly laying the groundwork for fundamentally disrupting the PGA Tour’s business?
Tony Soprano, he is not. Guess Jay’s in the holiday spirit?
Back in July Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch reported that players would be denied releases to play the event believed to be a precursor to a Saudi Golf League. But now Lynch is first to report the releases will be granted for the February 3rd-6th event but with “strings attached.” Some really, really thin strings.
Any player who has competed in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am event at least once in the past five years must commit to play at least once in the next two years (2023 and 2024). Players who have not competed at Pebble Beach in the last five years will need to do so twice in the three years until 2025.
The travesty of it all! How will they cope?
A source familiar with the names of the 30 players who applied for waivers told Golfweek that 19 of them will have to commit to one appearance at the AT&T, while the other 11 will be required to play twice.
Cracking that whip! I half-expected to read they’d be prevented from getting Spanish Bay rooms overlooking the service bay.
One source familiar with the situation told Golfweek that lower-profile players invited to compete in King Abdullah Economic City have been offered appearance fees of around $400,000, with mid-tier players receiving between $500,000 and $750,000. High-profile stars get seven-figure offers. Chartered private aircraft to and from Saudi Arabia is also provided.
Growing the game!
Meanwhile the PGA Tour Twitter account acknowledged this gruesome situation. Remarkably, the PGA Tour has yet to suggest it has any issue with how the country in question sometimes conducts its business. Psssssst: someone tell the Global Home the Fund is no longer invested in Disney and Marriott, so no need to worry about upsetting proud or semi-proud partners.
With conditions, the TOUR has granted releases for those wishing to play overseas February 3-6 in 2022.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 20, 2021
This is one of those instances where you wonder how much thought and analysis went into the conceptual phase, only to have to embarrassingly remove it within minutes of posting.
Given the camera assistance and potential spon-con play with Quest Diagnostics, there appears to have been a “team” decision for Bryson DeChambeau to debunk any rumors of steroid use. And judging by the Twitter comments posted before the video came down, DeChambeau also revealed he’s a cat person. This could be the real reason the post came down, not some a frantic call from Cult Ponte Vedra warning that the video was a terrible, terrible PIP play was he’s closing in on the same fifth place finish headquarters penciled him in for at the season’s start.
Either way, it was “uploader” deleted:
Thankfully, G.C. Digital is not taking the holiday week off and posted this description of the short-lived video:
DeChambeau said he had bloodwork and a urine sample done before the video cut to him doing an intense speed-training session. The video then transitioned to a shirtless DeChambeau scrolling through his emails on his phone at 10:30 one night during the Hero World Challenge earlier this month in the Bahamas. DeChambeau held up the email of the results on his phone, while the PDFs were also posted to the video.
"All negative," DeChambeau exclaimed, as the lab report showed a long list of negative results, including for amphetamine, methamphetamine, anabolic and masking agents, dozens of anabolic androgenic agents and growth hormone. "Nothing!"
DeChambeau then capped the video sitting next to Greg Roskopf, found of Muscle Activation Techniques, while saying, "This is better than steroids."
Subtle plug there.
As for the Twitter comments during the short time the video was up, they’re, uh, informative..
**It lives!!! Warning: this is six minutes you’ll never get back!
Just a fantastic blend of point missing and obtuseness on display here as both quotes about the Saudi Golf League’s latest hires hide behind “grow the game”. In the first sentence!
Guess they didn’t read my GTG variant warning.
For Immediate Point Missing:
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. and NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LIV Golf Investments announced today that it has appointed Monica Fee and Lily Kenny as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Partnerships and Head of Strategy, respectively. The addition of Fee and Kenny bolsters the number of women serving in leadership positions within the company as both will transition into their new roles with LIV Golf Investments immediately, reporting into Chief Commercial Officer, Sean Bratches.
"I am very pleased to welcome Monica and Lily to LIV Golf Investments to help lead our company's ambitious plans to expand our global corporate presence and grow the game of golf around the world," said Sean Bratches, Chief Commercial Officer of LIV Golf Investments. "This is an exciting time for all of us as we grow our team, and the appointment of Monica and Lily is the latest show of force of how we are strengthening the commercial arm of the business."
Grow it all! And hey, they even can go to restaurants when they visit Saudi Arabia so they’ve got that going for them.
Fee previously served as a Property Sales Agent at CAA Sports, representing many of the world's top sports properties for naming rights opportunities and global sponsorship. In 2017, Fee was recognized by Adweek as one of "The Most Powerful Women in Sports." In her new role as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Partnerships, Fee will be tasked with identifying key partners that share LIV Golf Investments' vision for establishing groundbreaking platforms to grow the sport of golf across the world.
"I look forward to bringing my creativity and sponsorship expertise to the LIV Golf Investments team, helping to grow the game and link leading brands to a new global sports property," said Fee. "It is an honor to join Sean's team and be part of something truly groundbreaking in the world of sport."
Want to grow the game? Take all those millions you’re going to pay pros and put them into affordable par-3 courses, public golf and starter programs.
I feel more g word drops coming…
Kenny joins LIV Golf Investments from Amazon where she played an integral role in the company's rapidly growing entertainment space over the last five years, most recently leading the international expansion strategy and the launch of Amazon's ad supported video service, IMDb TV, in the United Kingdom. In her new role as Head of Strategy, Kenny will be responsible for advising on strategic decisions across the commercial operations within LIV Golf Investments.
"The game of golf has immense potential for growth, and I am eager to leverage my expertise and tap into the game's true potential," said Kenny. "It is an exciting time to join the LIV Golf Investments leadership team as we work to push boundaries and deliver a new experience to professional golfers and fans alike."
It’s true potential. How did we all miss it after several hundred centuries?
Sigh…I drove by this one in 2019 going between Portrush and Giant’s Causeway without stopping. Maybe in 2025! Bushfoot sure looks like a model 9-holer for the community as well as a nice spot for a morning or late nine if you should be so lucky to play Royal Portrush. And hit the Causeway too.
From the Cookie Jar golf team:
I got the dreaded red light telling me this one was too long. So out went a photo of Omar Uresti.
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North Berwick
The game has grown! And America barely added to the increase of 5.5 million or so people who identify as golfer.
14 December 2021, St Andrews, Scotland: New research figures revealed by The R&A and Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS) show golf has enjoyed a significant increase in popularity worldwide since 2016 with over five-and-a-half million additional golfers taking up the sport.
The number of total golfers globally has increased from 61 million to 66.6 million in a five-year growth period, surpassing the previous high mark of 61.6 million set in 2012. The measure includes club members and non-member independent golfers playing nine or 18 holes and users of driving ranges in markets where course availability is limited.
The new figure reflects a positive trend in golf in which participation levels are now rising worldwide after a period of decline. This was recently highlighted in the 2021 European Golf Participation Report, which highlighted that over 10.6 million golfers now enjoy playing full-length courses on the continent – a healthy increase from the 7.9 million last monitored in 2016.
Phil Anderton, Chief Development Officer at The R&A, said, “Golf is enjoying a real boom in popularity at the moment and we are seeing substantial increases in participation in many parts of the world, particularly in the last two years when the sport could be played safely outdoors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The new figures are very encouraging but we need to work together as a sport to make the most of this opportunity by retaining those people who have returned to golf or tried it for the first time. We can achieve this by offering a variety of attractive and flexible options that encourage golfers to play more regularly and enjoy its many health and wellbeing benefits with family and friends.”
Options! Now we’re talking.
Check out these numbers…
SMS collected participation data reported by national federations in different regions around the world, using nationally representative studies and expert estimates to calculate the global number of total golfers.
Regions experiencing the largest rises include Asia (20.9 million to 23.3 million); Europe (7.9 million to 10.6 million – driven largely by Great Britain and Ireland 3.6 million to 5.7 million); and North America (29.9 million to 30.6 million).
The research figures indicate the growth trend began before Covid-19 and then accelerated during the pandemic as the popularity of golf grew due to golfers being able to socially distance in a safe outdoor setting and stay active to boost their physical and mental health.
Physical health for sure. Not sold on the mental part.
In Great Britain, the number of adults playing a nine or 18-hole course began to gradually increase before the onset of Covid-19, rising from 2.5 million in 2017 to 2.8 million in 2018, then to 3 million in 2019, before surging to 5.2 million in 2020.
Following the easing of lockdown restrictions, The R&A sought to carry out additional research into this rise in demand and how different types of golfers were engaging with the sport.
The Post Covid Opportunity Research, along with findings from Bayfirth Research, details experiences of golfers during the pandemic, motivations for playing and long-term plans for the future. Among new golfers, 98% of those interviewed identified they are enjoying playing golf and 95% see themselves playing golf for many years to come.
The research also outlined recommendations clubs can take to retain new players, including feeling welcome and valued; a friendly culture and relaxed atmosphere;
You don’t say!
participation options based on ability and experience; good customer service; having an efficient booking system; the quality and maintenance of the course; and, importantly, playing in an encouraging environment.
Nice, schmice. What about all-you-can-eat comfort stations? Bigger, lighter, more expensive drivers?
After the relentless attention the Associated Press’ Stephen Wade gave the Olympic golf course project in Rio—none of it positive—it’s nice to see the same news organization covering a golf-related game grower in Rio who has created the “City of Golf” training ground.
From Diarlei Rodrigues' and Mauricio Savarese’s story about Marcelo Modesto.
A caddie for four decades, the 54-year-old Modesto has opened a golf training center in the most violent area of the favela. Without public or private funding, from just a sheer passion for the sport, Modesto has attracted 100 kids to the ground in hope of starting some on the path to becoming professionals, or doing something to get off the favela streets.
The City of God golf training ground is part of a program that hopes to develop children from one of Brazil’s most violent favelas into budding golfers who are invited to use the course from the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.
Their introduction to golf is rudimentary, at best.
The City of God training ground is only 1,600 square feet (150 square meters), which is less than the size of your average putting green. A community center once filled the site. Interested kids, who are mostly Black, play with donated clubs and balls. Instead of holes, they hit buckets. As a warmup, they swing wooden sticks around their backs.
And no matter how intense practice gets, they remain alert for any sound of gunshots.
Longtime sports writer Kaye Kessler, who met and covered the career of Jack Nicklaus earlier than anyone, has passed away eleven days shy of his 99th birthday.
Four years ago Gary Van Sickle filed this lovely look at the life of Kaye Kessler who, besides witnessing the rise of Nicklaus and 56 Masters tournaments, also covered Ohio State’s Woody Hayes and Fred Taylor.
So is Kaye Kessler. His life’s course was irreparably altered in 1950 when Scioto Country Club hired a new golf professional, Jack Grout, and Kessler was sent over to write a story about him for his paper, the Columbus Citizen. The paper’s photographer needed a photo so Grout posed with a posse of Scioto junior golfers. One was a 10-year-old named Nicklaus.
And they wonder why Chris Wallace took a job at CNN+?
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller appears to have worked hard to test out Titleist’s golf ball personalization censors after an enraged customer was rejected over a “Lets Go Brandon” request. The phrase became one of the more pathetic dimwit dogwhistles of this or any generation.
When Fox News Digital attempted to personalize a Titleist Pro V1 ball on the company’s website with the phrase "Let’s Go Brandon", an error message said, "Sorry, one or more of the words you have chosen cannot be used. Please see our Terms and Conditions to learn more about what we will imprint."
On the website, part of those Terms and Conditions reads, "Acushnet Company reserves the right to reject orders for imprints on our products that may, in our sole discretion, be inconsistent with our company values or brand identity, including, but not limited to logos, designs and/or personalizations that are negative in nature, advocate violence or illegal activity, or are slurs, hateful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene or pornographic."
It is unclear which of those categories the phrase "Let’s Go Brandon" violated.
Miller goes on to share the vulgar messages he tested and did not get the same error message. Some of them are not pleasant. Still, it’s fascinating to see Fox News upset over Titleist reserving their rights as a corporation to not sell a product.
And besides, all is right with the world. The customization feature allowed me to create some important messaging:
Wally, before you get upset: I’m just combating juvenile humor with juvenile humor. That’s all! We know they’re too scared to roll it back.
Going through the Instagram photos someone uploaded for him, the impression is one of a busy week for Greg Norman at the tournament he’s hosted since 1989. He even earned his keep this year by playing the pro-am and dropping a lot C-Suite references during a pre-tournament press conference.
And yet if you were watching the Golf Channel and NBC telecasts for this year’s QBE Shootout, Norman’s name was rarely mentioned. The CEO of QBE didn’t give the Shark a nod in the telecast opening while doing his best Joe Ford impersonation. Even Norman’s role as Tiburon course architect seemed rarely mentioned. (But we did learn that Naples, Florida got its name because of a resemblance to Italy’s Naples.)
But since Greg Norman is a such a hero in the eyes of today’s youth, at least he got plenty of mentions on the PGA Tour Twitt…wait, what? None? All week?
Not even the traditional pic with the winners? Since Norman’s not much of a presence on the tournament website, that might be asking too much.
Surely there was the all important in-booth visit with NBC/Golf Channel’s Steve Sands and Curt Byrum? You know, to talk about Greg’s favorite subject? No sirree.
The Shark was finally seen on the telecast Sunday when he greeted the champions in the most masculine way possible. But who wouldn’t be elated when Kevin Na and Jason Kokrak win your tournament?
I should note that there was no announcer mention along the lines of, “There is tournament host Norman to greet the champions, a great tradition here at the QBE Shootout.”
For all we know, this was just jacked Florida retiree who paid $150 for a Norman Collection uniform and fulfilled a lifelong dream of working as Kevin Na’s final round standard bearer.
You know, maybe the problem is Norman’s role as CEO of LIV Investments fronting Saudi Arabia’s deep desire to grow the game and disrupt the PGA Tour’s business? It’s almost as if some are not too happy with the Shark!
But at least the week ended with nice wire story about Greg Jr.’s wedding to Michelle Thomson. Except for this mistake…
Links editor George Peper filed “A Rant Against Golden Age Golf Architects” in the latest issue and while I suppose a backlash was inevitable, he also makes a few points that warrant a Golden Age defense.
The old architects are certainly getting a lot of ink these days and no matter how many old photos we turn up showing their courses were just better, there will be a subset that just wants to be living in a better time. And another subset that needs to be living in a better time for their self worth.
But in making his case, Peper ignores when key trait of the restoration movement results and deification of the old architects. First, this attempt at suggesting they are overrated:
If, as one of today’s leading designers Tom Doak has astutely observed, “the best architects are the ones who get the best clients,” then maybe the individuals we should be venerating are not the Golden Age designers but the Golden Age owner/developers, the gentlemen golfers with deep pockets and a simple, steadfast vision that began and ended with the creation of an outstanding golf course: Dick Tufts (Pinehurst No. 2) rather than Ross; Clifford Roberts (Augusta National) rather than MacKenzie; George Crump (Pine Valley) rather than Colt; Robert Moses (Bethpage Black) rather than Tillinghast.
With the exception of Crump, the architects were the difference between having a nice development and a masterpiece. Though Crump famously relied on many opinions besides Colt’s and the overall collaborative nature ended up spawning several successful design careers.
In Roberts’ case, he attempted to redo MacKenzie’s 8th green and turned it into a flying saucer that was rebuilt a short time later. If not for Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie, the Augusta National would not have been the success it was. (And contrary to the prevailing narrative MacKenzie spent a great deal of time at Augusta during key stages of construction. Which we know from David Owen’s book.)
The truth is, the early golf architects were not particularly revered or famous during their own lifetimes or for decades thereafter. Indeed, as recently as 50 years ago, if you had asked a member of just about any club in the world who the designer of his golf course was, he would have been hard pressed to tell you.
Not sure about the lack of fame part. Having flipped through thousands of magazine pages from the era, the household name designers were covered pretty thoroughly, featured prominently and praised for their work transforming rudimentary courses. And fame does not translate to timeless design, as Rees Jones and Tom Fazio prove over and over again.
Suddenly, belonging to a club with a course designed by an A-list Golden Ager became a badge of honor. More than one layout of 6,500 theretofore nondescript yards rebranded itself overnight as “a great old Donald Ross course” and a coterie of insufferable poseurs arose, boasting of their familiarity with MacKenzie bunkers, Macdonald templates, and Raynor greens. I know this because I did some of that boasting. Let this be my mea culpa: “I’m George and I’m an archaholic.”
Name dropping has always been part of the elite golf world. The difference now? After playing a course people can tell the difference and like any other kind of connoisseurship, seek more because of the satisfaction derived.
I guess what got me riled about this Golden Age regurgitation is the pretentiousness it’s fostered in some circles.
Except that successful restorations have led to more enjoyable golf, newfound respect for a course, increased value of memberships or land, interest in reclaiming once-grand public courses, and an appreciation of architecture that is fun to play merely serving to move lots or punish bad shots.
While the occasional pontificating that comes with the Golden Age reverence may not be progress to all, I’ll take the doses of pretentiousness if it means more people are enjoying the courses they play. After all, that is ultimately the point of good architecture and something that the old masters and their restorers keep reinforcing.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
