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
There are no sound reasons I could come up with for the Masters, USGA, R&A and PGA of America to uphold possible player suspensions and risk legal exposure should Jay Monahan suspend players over U.S. appearances for LIV Golf’s series.
A Greg Norman interview with ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach is getting a lot of attention for the Shark opening up even more about “negative momentum” Phil Mickelson’s “scary m&^%$#@&^’s” characterization caused the startup LIV Golf.
I found a couple of other remarks more telling and they probably kept conversation lively around the Global Home’s pizza maker today.
"Quite honestly, we were ready to launch on the Tuesday or Wednesday of Genesis," Norman said. "We had enough players in our strength of field, or minimal viable product, ready to come on board. And when all of that happened, everybody got the jitters, and the PGA Tour threatened people with lifetime bans and stuff like that."
Norman said a handful of the players who had previously signed with LIV Golf have remained committed to play in the series, which now includes eight events -- including five in the U.S.
Norman said they had 15 of the world top 50 at the time committed to play in what was a league concept then and is now a come-as-you-please tour with a team event at the end. If he’s to be believed—always an if with the Shark—that would have been a more significant number of top players than the current 15 of the top 100 most recently estimated.
But this was a shocker:
"To this day, we still have players under contract and signed," Norman said. "The ones who wanted to get out because of the pressure of the PGA Tour gave back their money and got out. Guys had money in their pockets."
So according to the Shark money was wired and returned.
Which would suggest a sizable number of players were and probably will continue to have no qualms about the money source, a significant problem for the existing Tours who have either done business with Saudi Arabia (European Tour) or are afraid to question the source (PGA Tour).
Yet who is proudly all in and publicly committed to the LIV events?
Tiger Woods visited Southern Hills last week and delivered excitement. And yet, did Team Reed really take to Twitter to grovel about the scouting trip?
Just over a year since he flashed a sleeve of golf balls over Lee Elder’s shoulder and got deservedly banished from The Masters, Gary Player’s son Wayne speaks.
GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall tracked Wayne down and learned this.
“I don’t mind letting people know,” Player says. “To be completely transparent I think it is a cool story because you know, the National never really came out formally and said, ‘Oh, we're, you know, not allowing Wayne Player to come back to the Masters.’ They never ever said that to the media. That's just the way they do it. They don't say much.”
Better than having you sleep with the fishes.
And of course Wayne has thoughts on dad’s endorsement of Saudi Arabia this year.
“We can judge, you know, the Arab nation for traditions that they have. I mean, where women are not allowed to walk around like we know women can walk around, they've gotta have a cloak over their head. I mean, I don't know, it's not for me to criticize them, you know?” Player says. “I mean, look, they're very tough on law and order, you know, and they do all the stuff that would be considered barbaric there, right. That's what [Phil Mickelson] basically said.”
Yes and you’ll all be lining up to take their money. How charming.
Victoria Golf Club (Geoff Shackelford)
While we’ve had tournaments of a similar format, the Australian Open becomes the first to bring the men and women together for concurrent national golf championships December 1-4, 2022.
The DP World Tour will co-sanction the men’s event.
Even better, they have lined up the magnificent Victoria Golf Club for the finale, with the incredible Kingston Heath hosting early action.
From the release:
The men’s event will headline the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, while the women’s event will be sanctioned by the WPGA Tour of Australasia.
In another first for the Australian Open, the men’s event will also be sanctioned on the DP World Tour, putting Australian golf on the world stage for two consecutive weeks with the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship to be staged at Royal Queensland the week prior.
Field sizes of 144 men and 144 women will compete for an equal split of the minimum $3.4 million prizemoney on offer.
The Australian Open will also feature the third edition of the Australian All Abilities Championship assembling the top 12 players on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability from across the world. Golf Australia’s Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said the new format is a significant strategic move that has involved in depth long-term planning.
Today is a historic day, with Golf Australia confirming the first-ever joint men’s and women’s Australian Open, in addition to the Australian All Abilities Championship, to be hosted by @VicGolfClub & @KingstonHeathGC from Dec 1-4.
— Golf Australia ⛳️ (@GolfAust) April 28, 2022
Read the announcement: https://t.co/xP0sITf2C7 pic.twitter.com/KZ6RSzFSo7
So many sad stories in the news these days and I hate sharing another.
Seems Brooks Koepka reneged on his charity-raising match with Barstool Sports founder and dream influencer of select governing bodies, Dave Portnoy.
Pausing here to let you take it all in.
At least we know this break up is a clean one. No grey area for this brospat! Essentially, Koepka backed out of their “charity” match due to a wrist injury but played Bryson DeChambeau for The Match.
From Bunkered, with Portnoy explaining how this match made in douchedom fell apart:
"Next thing you know, I don't hear from him and he's like, ‘Hey I'm doing a match with Bryson DeChambeau.’
“Listen, you do you but to not give me a heads up that he was doing that first and after all the work we put into our thing? (He’s a) scumbag piece of sh*t.”
A clearly furious Portnoy added: “If I had wasted somebody’s time, it wasn’t his fault he got hurt, but the courtesy would have been to say, ‘Hey, I got this opportunity so I’m going to this first and then I’ll do you.’ Not even a ‘Yeah, I should have told you.’ Piece of sh*t.”
Hey parents, have fun explaining that one!
Daddy, why do they say Shot Just Got Real?
Well, Tilly, it’s a play off of…oh forget it.
But more importantly, you can now reserve Grounds passes in the $70-85 range for all but the LIV Golf series tournaments except the finale at Trump Doral. And I know, this sounds pricey for one day of golf where it’s a 4-hour shotgun start. But it’s a small price to pay when you get to see the likes of Garrigus!
Besides the general admission, there are some all-you-can-eat packages and Club 54 options for each event including a premium option that what looks like it goes for $13,000. Lee Westwood’s going to love when there are fans inside the ropes! And the post round Q&A…
Plenty of notes in the weekly free edition of The Quadrilateral for all the world to see.
As always, here is more on The Quadrilateral.
And The Quad’s Substack home page.
Plus, the free Substack Reader app for a reading experience minus cookie acceptance requests, pop-up ads if your finger nears the screen, random crashes and autoplay videos.
And in doing so Lawrenson notes two key points worth keeping an eye on:
The interesting thing will be if the DP World Tour follow through with their threat to prevent anyone who signs up for a Saudi event from becoming a Ryder Cup captain in the future.
It looks as if Westwood, Poulter and Garcia — three shoo-ins for the job under normal circumstances — are ready to call their bluff and see who blinks first. It would certainly damage the credibility of the Ryder Cup if all three were overlooked for the post.
That’s an understatement. It would be a stunner given how all three have seemed like locks to one day wear $1900 jumpers and drive the bright blue buggies of the DP World Team, I mean, Europe.
He also offers this reminder about all of the money talk surrounding the world of golf.
There's a war going on, people are struggling everywhere to pay their bills, and yet 48 golfers, half of whom will be journeymen at best, will play a glorified exhibition 54-hole tournament for a $4million first prize, with even last place getting $120,000.
Is it possible to conceive a worse optic for golf than that?
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Heritage tournament averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.68 million viewers on CBS Sunday, marking the largest audience for the event since 2003. Jordan Spieth’s win, which peaked with 5.04 million viewers, increased 20% in ratings and 43% in viewership from last year. The previous 19-year mark was 3.46 million for Spieth’s previous win in 2015.
Also noted by Paulsen and this should not be underestimated: “The 19-year high for the Heritage came on the same Easter Sunday in which the NBA scored its largest opening round playoff audience in 20 years.”
CBS had the other highest-rated non-major of the year with the WM Open in February.
The two-man team Zurich Classic fared poorly for CBS despite Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele winning. According to ShowBuzzDaily.com, it drew a 1.16 final round rating on CBS, averaging just 1.8 million viewers, down from 2021’s 1.37/2.1 million avg. Saturday’s third round drew a .96/1.4 million average, a tick down from 2021.
The 2022 ratings news for NBC continues to be uninspired. But at least the Tour can go right down the Global Home hall and ask what’s going on?
Here’s guessing the World No. 2 has not heard of Tom Morris or Walter Hagen…or about 30 others.
Rahm, speaking to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis ahead of this week’s Mexico Open, believed what Mickelson said and did shouldn’t damage his legacy.
“That guy has given his life to golf,” Rahm said about Mickelson. “A lot of what we have, a lot of people don’t know, a lot of what we have and what we are competing for right now is because of [Phil]. A lot of people focus on Tiger but he is easily one of the top 10 best players of all time. He is a Hall of Fame and we should recognise him as that. He has given his life to the public, no one has signed more autographs, no one has done more for the fans.”
Steve Loy, Co-President, Americas of SPORTFIVE, issued the issued the following statement today: pic.twitter.com/okZdMIv5P4
— SPORTFIVE (@sportfiveagency) April 25, 2022
Tiger and Phil are entered, but Mickelson’s agent issues statement suggesting his disruptor client is keeping all options open, including a possible Saudi payday.
The fountain at Trump Doral.
Bob Harig at Morning Read/SI had the news first: Trump Doral will host October’s concluding eighth event of the LIV Golf Invitational Series. The famed Blue Monster course was site of the PGA Tour’s annual Miami stop beginning in 1962 and until the PGA Tour left for Mexico City’s WGC event, now defunct.
Harig writes:
After five years away, Doral will get professional golf again under Norman’s LIV Golf banner, the $30 million Team Championship in which the four-man winning team will split $16 million.
As you may recall Commissioner Greg Norman and friends have abandoned a team concept for 7 individual events followed by this concluding tournament. Harig has also reported that 15 top 100 players have registered and may seek releases from their Tours.
Either way, expect former President Donald Trump to add to October’s spectacle, whatever format is used to give out $30 million of Public Investment Fund money. It should be fun.
When Doral was dumped by the Tour, he said…
"I just heard that the PGA Tour is taking their tournament out of Miami and moving it to Mexico," Trump said in an interview with Fox News in May of 2016. "It's at Doral ... they used one of my places. They're moving their tournament; it's the Cadillac World Golf Championship. And Cadillac's been a great sponsor, but they're moving it to Mexico. They're moving it to Mexico City which, by the way, I hope they have kidnapping insurance.
"But they're moving it to Mexico City. And I'm saying, you know, what's going on here? It is so sad when you look at what's going on with our country."
Well it’s back and funded by folks who’ve done a little kidnapping and slaughtering themselves. It comes full circle.
Reader GP was miffed at reports out of New Orleans of Jay Haas becoming the oldest player to make a PGA Tour cut. While there might be some recency bias and general silliness to a team event counting the same as an individual tournament, it’s still nice that the Haas’ competed, made the cut and acknowledged Sam Snead.
Adam Schupak handled the “record” well in this story and as you’d expect for a class act like Jay Haas who knows the history of the pro game, he said just what you’d hope after making a key putt to get to the weekend.
That included becoming the oldest player to make a cut on the PGA Tour at 68 years, 4 months, 20 days, edging past Sam Snead, who made the cut at the 1979 Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic at 67 years, 2 months and 23 days.
“I don’t think it should (count) because Sam Snead did it on his own and all that, but anything that I’m even remotely close to Sam Snead on would be very special,” said Haas, of Snead, who was in the field when he made his Tour debut at the 1973 Wyndham Championship.
In a lot of ways, these records or near records are more impressive for Haas:
Haas is making his 799th Tour start, second on the all-time list behind Mark Brooks (803). Among his other achievements he counts leading the record books with 591 made cuts. And Jay, who captained the 2015 U.S. Presidents Cup team, was no slouch in his prime, winning nine times on Tour and another 18 times on PGA Tour Champions, where he remains active.
It was another fun week at Wilshire Country Club where Nasa Hataoka dominated and set herself up as a U.S. Women’s Open favorite with her DIO Implant LA Open victory.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
