Category: Pro Golf Weekly

Men’s pro golf faces another year of turmoil

 

It’s most appropriate to wish all our golf enthusiasts a happy holiday season.  This is a season-ender is like no other, however.

Only the much-debated “Framework Agreement,’’ that is to bring together the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Tour, is left among major golf developments in 2023.   The agreed upon deadline for this agreement is Dec. 31, but I don’t expect anything substantial to be announced. Men’s professional golf is, sadly, in for another year of turmoil.

Jon Rahm’s late-season jump to the LIV Tour was monumental, and Viktor Hovland’s comments in the immediate aftermath of it suggest that peace in the wonderful world of golf is a long way off.

Hovland may be the best young star in the game. At least he has my vote as player-of-the-year.   Hovland says he won’t leave the PGA Tour like Rahm did, but he’s not happy either.

“The (PGA Tour) management has not done a good job,’’ said Hovland.  “They almost see the players as labor, and not part of the members.  After all, we are the PGA Tour.  Without the players there is nothing.’’

Being more specific about tour management, Hovland says  “They are not professional golfers, after all.  They are businessmen…There is a great deal of arrogance behind it all.’’

Rahm’s jump to LIV may not be the last.  LIV boss Greg Norman says “eight to 12 guys’’ are interested in filling the last two or three available positions on LIV’s 2024 roster thanks to the interest Rahm’s jump created.

“Since Jon signed I know he’s been inundated by players saying ~I want to play on your team.  How do I do that?’’ said Norman. But he didn’t say who those players are.

ANYWAY, these things also bother me:

BULLET There’s a growing call for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to resign.  He did  a terrific job bringing the circuit through the pandemic but the competition with LIV is another matter.  I was stunned to see Sportico’s report that the PGA Tour’s legal fees jumped from $2 million in 2021, when the PGA-LIV battle began, to $20.7 million in 2022 and Monahan’s overall compensation climbing from $13.9 million in 2021 to $18.6 million in 2022. The 2022 numbers for Monahan cite a $1.8 million base salary, $9.2 million in bonuses and incentive compensation and an actuarial estimate of $7.4 million for non-cash benefits Monahan will receive after he retires. Do those figures make sense to you?

BULLET Then there’s the return of Angel Cabrera.  Winner of two major titles, he spent 30 months in jails in Brazil and Argentina in gender violence cases again two ex-girlfriends. Cabrera was released on Aug. 4 and competed on the PGA’s Latinoamerica Tour three months later. Seems odd that a 54-year old who last played on PGA Tour Champions before doing all that jail time (and fathering a child while he was incarcerated) could be back in action while two young players on the Korn Ferry circuit are serving suspensions for violating the tour’s gambling rules.

BULLET On a positive note, the PGA Tour found a sponsor to replace the Honda Classic, a fixture on the Florida Swing at PGA National, and is finally putting a tournament in the golf mecca of Myrtle Beach, S.C.  The Cognizant Classic will replace the Honda with Feb. 29-March 3 dates.  The new sponsor, a New Jersey-based personal services company, has a six-yer agreement. Honda ended its 42-year sponsorship run in 2023.  The new Myrtle Beach Classic will be held May 9-12 at The Dunes course. My only thought on both is, why did it take so long?

BULLET The Masters, of all tournaments, needs more players.  The first major championship of the year is in April, and it’s an invitational. Generally the membership wants to hold the field under 100 (it last went over that number in 1966 when 103 competed).  Usually the field is  between 85 and 100 but this year the likely number of starters is only 77 unless the club revises its invitation policies.

BULLET And, finally, there’s the rollback announcement from the U.S. Golf Association and R & A to revise golf ball test conditions.  That won’t begin until 2028.  Do you think the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV can reach an agreement before that?

 

 

Rahm’s jump to LIV puts the golf world in a tizzy

What? Jon Rahm has jumped to LIV?  Who woulda thunk it?’’

Certainly not me, at least not until the rumors of his signing dragged on long enough to make the actual event almost anticlimactic. This development made it emphatic that the Saudi-backed circuit is here to stay.

So, how big was it? Too big for it to be just considered a sports event.

Rahm, who is probably the best-paid athlete of 2023 now, bypassed the golf media to make his personal comments in a  Fox News interview with Bret Baier, a veteran news anchor. No sports media were involved in this one.

Shortly after the Rahm signing was announced officials of the Wells Fargo Championship, one of the PGA Tour’s best events, announced that the tournament would be discontinued after its staging in 2024.  Just a coincidence that the Wells Fargo announcement came on the heels of the PGA Tour losing one of its biggest young stars?  Just asking.

Until the the 29-year old reigning Masters champion took the jump the most significant LIV Golf League post season development was the trade of Talor Gooch, the circuit’s 2023 individual champion, from the RangeGoats to Smash.  Within LIV circles that was huge.  Imagine a Major League Baseball or National Basketball Association team trading its Most Valuable Player.  That’s how Smash captain Brooks Koepka saw it.

“There couldn’t have been a stronger offseason move for us,’’ said Koepka.  “It goes from making us a contender to a juggernaut.’’

Well, maybe.  The signing of Rahm could enhance LIV’s increasingly interesting team format.  In addition to signing for – reportedly –somewhere between $400 and $600 million Rahm also got his own team in the deal. So who is Rahm bringing with him as teammates?

The LIV crowd takes the team competition seriously, as shown by other offseason moves.  The 4Aces got Harold Varner III from the RangeGoats for Peter Uihlein.  Koepka also revised his roster by adding Graeme McDowell, a former U.S. Open champion, and Jason Kokrak before nabbing Gooch.

Of course the reported Dec. 31 deadline for a framework settlement with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour is still out there, but player movement is more interesting now. So, who will go next?

Best bet is Tony Finau. Not only is he a friend of Rahm’s, he’s facing some lawsuits that could be expensive. LIV money could be helpful.

Finau was asked about a move to LIV while he was competing in the Grant Thornton Invitational, a new mixed team event at Tiburon, in Naples FL.  Finau certainly didn’t rule it out.

“I haven’t heard anything yet,’’ he said.  “I haven’t let anything marinate other than just playing, but I’m happy for Jon.  He  made the best decision he felt was right for his family and himself.’’

Another Rahm friend, Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, was reportedly in negotiations with LIV.  While his signing wouldn’t have nearly the impact of Rahm’s signing or Finau’s (if indeed it materializes), Hatton was on the victorious European Ryder Cup team.

The Ryder Cup is already a consideration with no less a LIV critic than Rory McIlroy quick to declare that the DP World Tour must change its rules.  The DP World Tour ruled out the use of LIV players in the last Ryder Cup, meaning Rahm would be ineligible, but Euro captain Luke Donald may not have that problem in getting his next squad ready for the 2025 matches at New York’s Bethpage Black. The Euros will need Rahm.

It might a stretch at this point, but another PGA star – Patrick Cantlay – might also be a LIV candidate.  He’s reportedly taken on a very active role on the PGA Tour policy board’s planning for the framework negotiations.  If he doesn’t get his way he might consider the LIV alternative and good friend Xander Schauffele could conceivably follow him.

LIV concluded its exciting Promotion event Sunday in Abu Dhabi with the winner, Kalle Samooja, giving the circuit its first player from Finland. LIV  still has some loose ends to take care of before its third season tees off in February.  The TV coverage needs an upgrade and three tournaments, including the two biggest ones at the end of the season, still don’t have sites lined up yet but the player roster is critical.

Given the offseason developments, especially the Rahm signing, there are likely more than a few PGA Tour players second-guessing themselves for not heading to the Saudi circuit sooner. We’ll see how many take the plunge now.

 

PGA Tour Champions now has its own World Cup

 

BRADENTON, Florida — Who says who can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

In the case of the wonderful world of tournament golf the “old dog’’ is PGA Tour Champions, and the 50-and-over circuit has never been reluctant to try something new. This week, though, it may have gone overboard with its World Golf Champions Cup.

It’s a team competition, which triggers thoughts of the Ryder Cup, President’s Cup and Solheim Cup — but it’s unlike any of those.  They only have two teams competing. The World Golf Champions Cup has three so – while it’s a match play event – it is in reality a “teams’’ competition.

And that’s not all.  The team scores are determined by holes won, not matches. I can’t recall any big-time pro golf event with a concept as different as this one, which tees off on Thursday (DEC 7) at Concession Club in Bradenton, FL.

It won’t even be held over consecutive days. There’ll be eight nine-hole matches each tournament day, featuring team formats and singles but the traditional pro-am will be on Saturday and without spectators.

Matches begin on Thursday after the 9 a.m. opening ceremonies and resume on Friday with ESPN providing broadcast coverage. After the pro-am the event concludes with two waves of singles matches on Sunday. ESPN and ABC will share broadcast coverage on that day.

Unlike traditional match play there’ll be no close-outs if one player leads by more than the number of holes remaining. Every hole matters.

The three teams are Team USA, captained by Jim Furyk; Team Europe, captained by Darren Clarke; and Team International, captained by Ernie Els.  Each team has six players and their leaders will all be playing captains with their rosters filled with recognizable tour stars of the past.

While the event is unusual, it is a big-time event as evidenced by the names of the players, the network TV coverage and the prize money.  The purse is $1.35 million with each player on the winning team getting $100,000.  Each player on the runner-up team gets $75,000 and each one on the last place unit gets $50,000.

I found the team scoring format on the LIV Tour difficult to follow. This one – because it’s so different – might be even more tricky than that, but it’s certainly worth a try. I’m all for pro golf trying new things and this attempt is certainly at the perfect venue.

Concession Club’s leadership has never been reluctant to try new things.  I was among about 20 media members invited to a two-day visit in 2013.  We all arrived and wondered why we were there for a while.  The program started late, suggesting a big announcement might be in the offing.

It came once club member Paul Azinger arrived.  He spelled out the details of the Concession Cup, a biennial team event that brought together the best mid-amateur, senior and super senior players from the U.S. and Great Britain/Ireland  two weeks before the next Masters. It was something different back then.

Later on the Bradenton club also hosted the 2015 men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Championship and the 2021 PGA Workday World Golf Championships.

Concession has my favorite logo in golf – one that honors Jack Nicklaus’ concession of a putt to Tony Jacklin in the 1969 Ryder Cup.  It was a controversial gesture then, some feeling Nicklaus made a great display of sportsmanship in allowing the matches to end in a tie while others thought the spirit of competition was compromised because Jacklin didn’t have to putt out with the critical match on the line.

Jacklin is a Concession member and Nicklaus designed the course. Former PGA and Champions Tour star Peter Jacobsen is chairman of the World Golf Champions Cup and he guarantees that – while the event has an untested format – it will be played at a worthy venue.

“The Concession is a fabulous match play course,  a ball strikers’ paradise,’’ said Jacobsen.  “Missed greens here put a lot of pressure on your game.  There is no way to coast, and you never can take a moment off.’’

 

 

Price, Leadbetter will be a great team in creating Soleta course

Nick Price (top) and David Leadbetter are working together on a new Florida course.

 

MYAKKA CITY, Florida – When you put Nick Price and David Leadbetter together on a golf project you most likely will have a winner.

This week those two were in the spotlight at the ground-breaking for the Soleta Golf Club on the outskirts of Sarasota, FL.  Soleta’s expected opening is in late 2024 and will be the centerpiece for a private residential golf community that will include 93 residences and other amenities.  Needless to say, it’ll be highly upscale with the initiation fee for a full golf membership set at $100,000.

Both Price and Leadbetter are long-time Floridians. Price lives in Hobe Sound and Leadbetter has lived in the Sarasota area for the past eight years. Both were closely involved in the planning stages at Soleta and will be on site frequently during the course’s construction phase. Price is the course designer while Leadbetter is designing a 30-acre practice facility called Field of Dreams and an indoor center that will include a biomechanics studio, club fitting, a putting studio, simulators and other advanced training technologies.

“My buddy Nick and I go back a long way,’’ said Leadbetter. “I designed a course once, but it was in China.  I figured it was far enough away that nobody would know about it.  I thought Nick and I could be co-designers here, but he was afraid I’d screw it up.’’

Clearly they enjoy working together. Though the Soleta home sites will be worth a look, the most interesting aspect at this stage of the project is the pairing of Price and Leadbetter. Leadbetter was once Price’s swing coach.  Leadbetter’s tutelage helped Price make a swing change in 1982 and that worked out so well that another Nick, this one named Faldo, underwent the same treatment a few years later and achieved even greater success.

Though Price is in the World Golf Hall of Fame, his playing career is not be as appreciated as it should be.   That’s my perception, and I was up close and personal in witnessing just how good Price was. Being a Chicago-based writer then, I was most impressed by his back-to-back victories in the 1993 and 1994 Western Opens.  In the first he beat Greg Norman by five strokes. Price had a shot at a third Western title in 2000 but lost in a playoff to Robert Allenby.

Sadly that late, great Western championship – first played in 1899 — was shut down in 2006 when the PGA Tour and Western Golf Association opted to convert it into a FedEx Cup Playoff event called the BMW Championship. Golf in Chicago hasn’t been the same since.

I was also on hand to watch Price win two PGA Championships, at Bellerive in St. Louis in 1992 and Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oka., in 1994. Oh, yes, there was also that eye-opening day in 1986, when I covered the Masters for the first time.  Price set the tournament record with a 9-under-par 63.  It’s a record that still stands, though Norman tied it in 1996. Throughout his playing career Price was a class act on and off the course.

Now 66, he notched the last of his 18 PGA Tour victories in 2003 at a time when he was just getting involved with golf course architecture. Not all great players turn out to be good course designers, but Price has held his own. His design website lists a portfolio of 13 courses, the first five of which were outside of the United States.  One of those, TPC Cancun in Mexico, is the only TPC layout outside of the U.S.

Price plays out of one of McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, a course he co-designed with Tom Fazio. The only Price course I’ve played is Grande Dunes – one of the very best layouts in the golf mecca of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

So what will Soleta be like?  Other than the fact that it’ll be separated from the home sites, Price could give only an inkling.

“We’re here to create a special place for golfers to play, spend time with friends and have fun,’’ he said.  “The property has wetlands, uplands, open grassland and some great trees.  We’ve laid out the course to take advantage and incorporate those natural features into the design of the holes. I’m really happy that no wetlands have been impacted or eliminated anywhere on the property.  These natural elements will be part of what gives the course its natural look and feel.’’

 

 

LIV’s second season is over; now the fun begins

 

LIV Tour’s second season is history.  The team championship at Doral created great drama and was an appropriate ending to the 2023 campaign.

Now, however, the real fun begins.

LIV chief executive officer Greg Norman took at least a brief look ahead during lulls in the action at Doral..  He started by confirming that he hasn’t been a part of the mysterious negotiations between LIV, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and still declaring that he’s not worried about his job.

There’s no reason he should be. LIV made progress in Year 2 and Norman was a big reason, but there’s so much more to do.

“Our next couple months are probably going to be my most exciting time,’’ Norman told a small but select media contingent.  “We’re going through the relegation process, the trade process, building out the teams to a position that each captain wants to negotiate. All that stuff is really going to energized it.’’

True, but there are some things that concern me and should concern others who have closely followed this changing world in golf:

WORLD RANKINGS:  Something has to change, for the good of the game as a whole and not just for LIV, which continues to be snubbed by the Official World Golf Rankings.  The OWGR are a joke without LIV players being recognized. Limiting their appearances in the major championships only denigrates those tournaments, all of which should want the strongest fields possible.  How do you get that with a LIV presence?

LIV players can try to qualify for the U.S. Open and British Open but won’t be eligible for the Masters or PGA Championship.  Those are basically the only opportunities for the best players in the world to compete against each other. How should Talor Gooch, for instance, be kept out of anything after winning three times on the LIV and have seven other top-15 finishes – and winning over $33 million – this season? Oh, yes.  Gooch’s current world ranking is No. 201. Ridiculous!

SCHEDULE:  At this time LIV hasn’t announced its 2024 schedule.  Sports Illustrated presented an unofficial version a few weeks ago, and it concerns me. It listed only 14 events – the same as this year.  I would have expected a bigger schedule in Year 3. The SI version – if accurate – didn’t include a return to Chicago.  That strikes home with me, of course, as my long-time home base has been short-changed by the PGA Tour regarding annual tournaments in recent years. LIV’s stop at Rich Harvest Farms in the suburb of Sugar Grove helped alleviate the problem and that event was generally recognized as one of LIV’s most popular stops the first two years.  So what happened?  It’s a story that I’ll be following, to be sure.

TEAM ASPECT:  I’ve been on hand at three LIV events and each time the team aspect was improved.  Having a Brooks Koepka-Phil Mickelson matchup to start play at Doral was terrific.  Still, the teams need to be differentiated better.  Same color team shirts each day perhaps?

RELEGATION:  LIV is doing it right.  A three-day Promotions event was announced at Doral.  It’ll be played Dec. 8-10 in Abu Dahbi — a 54-hole event, a $1.5 million purse and a cut to the low 20 after 36 holes. Size of the field and identity of the participants will be key.  It should provide some meaningful offseason drama.

SCOREBOARDS:  I’m still not happy with what I see, either at the courses or on the TV telecasts.  The scoreboards are hard to follow, which may be inevitable given the shotgun start format. On TV the score list with players names abbreviated in some instances makes for difficult reading, as the type is inevitably small to accommodate all the information that is bring provided.  While I don’t have all the answers to this one, more thought is needed to upgrade the situation.

That sums up 2023, an overall good year for this fledgling circuit.  Let’s see some significant new player signings, some eye-catching trades and a bigger schedule.  That “framework agreement’’ with the PGA can wait.  It’s not much of an “agreement’’ anyway.

Norman and Bubba Watson revealed that numerous  inquiries to purchase teamwould be  were already in the works.  Phil Mickelson has been talking to more PGA Tour players and “knows’’ more will be making the jump to LIV.

Gooch and Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers  are now the champions to beat in what promises to be LIV’s best season yet in 2024.  Bring it on!!