Major(s) News & Notes, December 12, 2024
Crenshaw addresses Ryder play-for-pay, year-end stats tell us who is trending into 2025, remembering Babs, Pinehurst U.S. Open's impact, the (ugh) four-wide is back, Quotables, This, That and Reads.
Days to The Masters’ opening tee shot: 119
Days to the PGA Championship’s opening tee shot: 154
Days to the U.S. Open’s opening tee shot: 182
Days to The Open’s first tee shot: 218
Nearly 365 days since the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia missed their original deal deadline, there are emerging signs of how pro golf’s future may look. One where peace(ish) prevails to give the Tour’s FIGJAM set time to gloss over assorted messes while keeping big checks coming in from Viacom/Larry Ellison and Comcast/Brian Roberts.
According to Gillian Tan, Giles Turner, and David Hellier of Bloomberg, a PIF investment deal in PGA Tour Enterprises “nears,” with advanced talks giving Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund a measly 6% stake in the PGA Tour while carrying on with their stolen LIV Golf model built around hopes of F1-style billion-dollar franchises featuring team names that’d make a six-year-old roll their eyes.
Depending on how you feel about giving the Big Bodychopper His Ownself a 6% stake, these latest details from a credible outfit seem (A) surprisingly minimalist after all this time, or, (B) like one last lethal injection into the Tour’s inconsistent response to an existential threat. If the Bloomberg report turns out to be accurate, a 6% stake and continuing independence of PIF’s LIV feels galaxies away from the original “framework agreement.” Especially if the same Bloomberg crew’s report of a possible LIV-DP World Tour partnership pans out.
The original “framework agreement” looks like the Declaration of Independence compared to the details in the latest report. You may recall that the FA’s parameters were ironed out by Jimmy Dunne and friends with an eye on returning non-major championship control of pro golf to the PGA Tour, and, as a byproduct, likely adding His Excellency to membership rolls at places he’d otherwise spend centuries hoping to join.
Ah, those were the days.
The struggle to merge massive egos ignorant of cratering viewership numbers became even more clear when grounded golfers named Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau gathered for a conference call to plug next Tuesday’s crypto-funded match at Shadow Creek. The made-for-TNT showdown will pair the PGA Tour’s Team McSheffler against LIV defectors Team DeKoepka. The call revealed that McScheffler eventually got a release to play from the event after Global Home groveling—according to McIlroy—and overall, the PGA Tour is staying as far from the thing as possible without getting their usual $1 million-plus vig. This unusual distancing from Ponte Vedra could be a result of how the crypto match came together and might even be a wise move at staying clear of the promoter’s shady past. And I’m not referring to his paling around with Phil Mickelson.
“The showdown is a great showcase for bringing the two tours a bit together,” DeChambeau claimed.
A bit.
Bryson continued, “And I think what we’re doing to do next year, all of us aligned, is bringing something a little bigger and badder, so we can have a couple of times—at least one more time—where we can see most of the best players on both sides competing.”
At least we have those weeks called The Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open and The Open.
The Vegas quadrilateral of major winners acknowledged the sad state of seeing the best get together only four times a year. Yet as long as LIV keeps hiring and trying to grow, a split-status quo seems set. That might be fine for PGA Tour locked into a solid media deal while LIV searches for its CW replacement in hopes of drawing over 100,000 average final round viewers in 2025.
A more disastrous scenario sees the Public Investment Fund taking some NEOM slush fund money to buy the DP World Tour with hopes of creating a world-versus-the-U.S.A. scenario. This seems likely to set up a Ryder Cup-alternative floated by Koepka this week.
“Let’s be real — wouldn’t you want to see a LIV versus PGA Tour Ryder Cup-style thing?” he asked. “That is what it is. This is growing into a big thing. That’s what will draw the fans.”
Down boy, down!
Okay, maybe the moribund Presidents Cup becomes LIV vs. the USA. Anything will be better than another blitzing of the International squad. But it’s hard to see the PGA Tour going very far to support what will still be a competitor even after getting $700 million to buy Pebble Beach or whatever the for-profit does with the blood money.
It’s remarkable to think that these four players are the ones left attempting to broker increased competition. The bizarre state of affairs, combined with shrinking fields and eliminating cuts in big events, speaks to how much the PGA Tour has lost the plot. Because it’s still all about the competition and who puts out a “product” of integrity. Not some watered-down mess or something built around what the CMO-du-jour thinks is campaign-worthy.
“What I love most is the competition,” Scheffler said, to give us hope for humanity. “All this talk about LIV and PGA Tour and money…I think most of us just want to get back to the competition.”
The wise one added this punctuating point in case it wasn’t clear, “I think we need to start focusing on the competition aspect of it.”
Good on the four lads and their 20-percenters for thinking big picture, even if they are going to slap it around an overgrown, bloated Fazio snoozefest with synthetic money on the line and all organized by a guy linked to Russian mobsters. You gotta start somewhere.
Meanwhile, back in The Quad’s world of majors and elite Cup events, the silence continues with those unexplained American Ryder Cup pay demands minus one notable and noble exception from the Captain who dealt with a similar pre-match mess 25 years ago. This week’s News & Notes covers Gentle Ben’s remarks to Sports Illustrated before items on some of the year-end numbers, the heart-wrenching loss of a super reporter/editor/mensch in Jeff Babineau, a note on Pinehurst’s 2024 economic impact, more on NBC’s Kisner “vision,” some Seve video that’ll have you holding those hands a little lower at address, and, of course, a bunch of This, That and Reads.
Crenshaw Remains Consistent On Ryder Pay
Ben Crenshaw spoke to SI’s Bob Harig about the still-unconfirmed-and-yet-to-be-denied month-old report on American players receiving a $400,000 “stipend” for 2025 Ryder Cup participation. Crenshaw captained the 1999 team when a play-for-pay controversy broke out. That dispute was started by Mark O’Meara’s comments in 1997 and followed two years later by David Duval’s suggestion of a possible boycott over the issue.
“My opinion is no one should be compensated to play for our country and the Ryder Cup,” Crenshaw told Sports Illustrated in explaining the resulting compromise of a charitable contribution.
“My position has never changed, nor will it even though the game has.”
Crenshaw told SI he’s unsure what the current players want, but hopes the charitable aspect remains.
“I feel it necessary to honor all the Ryder Cup participants who came before us who proudly represented our country and the PGA of America.”
If only they’d had time to respond to a month-old report!
Here’s guessing the PGA hires a CEO before someone at the PGA Tour realizes it would be wise to manage this latest image crisis.
Strokes Gained Movers And Trending 2025 Players
Among those highlighted: Maverick McNealy improved the most across the board, Akshay Bhatia’s SG putting ranking rose 150 spots, Justin Rose falling in multiple strokes-gained categories despite a runner-up finish at The Open, Max Homa dropping off the tee and on the greens, plus, many more.
In his excellent newsletter, Rick Gehman has been working on his “RunGood 50” ranking of the Top 50 golfers to start 2025. For those looking to place a futures bet or just wanting to get a sense of players headed into the 2025 majors off a strong year, it’s worth a look. Among the players noted for strong fall performances: Max Greyserman, Nico Echavarria, Ben Griffin, Kevin Yu, Justin Lower, Seamus Power and Nick Dunlap.
Remembering Jeff Babineau
A pro’s pro in all of the best possible ways, longtime golf writer and former Golfweek editor Jeff Babineau unexpectedly left us this week. A fountain of golf knowledge who listened to every answer a player gave—no matter how dry—to consider a smart follow-up that would ultimately help fans better understand the game, he never made questions about himself. Babineau was both a skilled practitioner and, later, a smart editor when the job called for a deft touch.
“Babs” had recently become the informal Helen Thomas of press conferences, particularly at the PGA Championship, often leading off sessions as the “pool reporter” filing recaps and notes for the PGA of America’s events. He always knew how to seek out the best elements of a player’s story while working behind the scenes to stick up for scribes as a former Golf Writers Association of America president. Babs genuinely loved the sport and telling its stories no matter how small. His passing at 62 is an unfathomable loss and I won’t even try to sugarcoat how much my heart breaks for his family.
Alex Miceli’s remembrance of his longtime friend.
A roundup of social media tributes.
The PGA of America’s statement:
Pinehurst No. $242.5 Million
The 2024 U.S. Open delivered a $242.5 million infusion into North Carolina’s economy, exceeding the impact reported for 2014’s two-week U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open Championships at Pinehurst.
The 2024 report by Eventcorp revealed several numbers:
The creation of 1,800 jobs
$95.7 million in visitor spending
An average per-visitor spend of $1,156.
More than 28,000 visitors have walked through the USGA Experience and World Golf Hall of Fame building since its opening in late May.
On the eve of the championship, North Carolina’s Department of Commerce aggressively projected $500 million in economic benefit to the state.
Either way, in a state were $18 million in incentives were appropriated to the USGA for multiple championships and creation of a satellite museum, the week turned out to be a success both on and off the course.
Kisner Hiring Means More Of NBC’s Weird Odd-Even
By the time Kisner signed his contract, the network had already decided to bring back a big broadcast experiment from 2024, the “odd-even” format, splitting play-by-play and analyst duties between teams designated to odd and even-numbered holes. The goal of the strategy, Flood and Roy said, is to facilitate a conversation between broadcasters that fans can “eavesdrop” in on, rather than having broadcasters speak to the audience at home. NBC hopes the shift to “odd-even” will make life easier for Kisner as he switches to golf TV. It will simplify preparation, for example, and create fewer, more targeted speaking opportunities.
That the format is suggested as a way to keep Kisner from doing too much work or preparing to back a pointed take, seems like a pretty sad statement about where the once-vaunted NBC Sports has landed. For golf fans, it’s especially sad given how thoroughly Johnny Miller prepared every time he donned a headset.
Nor does the weird watering-down approach seem like a ringing endorsement for the “four-wide”, the new lead analyst’s ability, or NBC’s faith in its audience.
But in Kisner’s defense, this is NBC and Comcast where grown adults are trained to belly flop into an empty pool if it means rescuing a lone penny. It’s a creativity black hole unlike any other. So the four-wide spin may only be a justification to pay Kisner less money than the network would give a full-time marquee name.
Quotable
Rory McIlroy, assessing his season during a Sky documentary. “The hard thing is in my position is your disappointments and your mistakes keep getting brought up to you every time that you get in front of a camera or you’re in a press conference or answering questions. That’s the tough part of this gig. At the same time, I am in a very fortunate position that this is what I get to do for a living. If I have to deal with what people deem are unfair expectations or are held to a higher standard than others, then so be it. I feel like that’s a very privileged position to be in. I’d much rather have it this way than if people didn’t really care about what I was doing on the golf course.”
Seve!
Hit play to see for an unexpected rope cap win in 1980, a double logoed-Nike visor that worked for 67.5 holes in 1986, then stay for a hard-drawing, left side downhill lie 4-wood into No. 2 that’ll blow your mind.
This And That
Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Tour Player of the Year vote. Somehow, in a season where he won the Players, Masters and Olympic gold, the PGA Tour headlined the vote announcement with his FedExCup win. That takes a level of ignorant audacity with which most of us are unfamiliar. One interesting development came out of the landslide vote that
magicallygoes to the FedExCup champion regardless of major championship success: the vote percentage was revealed for the first time in recent memory. Scheffler received “91% of the vote for the Jack Nicklaus Award and was selected over two other nominees: Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy.” Rumor has it the sun will rise in the east even after revealing 9% of voters (likely) felt two major wins superseded even Scheffler’s historic season.The PGA Tour announced a pair of documentaries billed as the “first original content from PGA Tour studios, the Tour’s new state-of-the-art production studio that officially opens Jan. 1 (🤔). Scottie 24 in partnership with Rolex documents “the incredible performance of Rolex Testimonee Scottie Scheffler during one of the most dominant PGA Tour seasons of the past 25 years,” while Xander Embedded presented by Avis gives fans “an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes with Xander Schauffele leading up to and throughout the 2025 PGA Tour Season.” The Scheffler film debuts Dec. 23 at 9 a.m. E.T. on the PGA Tour YouTube channel and on Golf Channel
when everyone is watching the Rose Bowl Jan. 1, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. E.T. The Schauffele series premieres Dec. 27 at 9 a.m. E.T. on the YouTube channel, with six additional episodes of the series set to release “throughout the 2025 season.”Tiger Woods returns to the course alongside son Charlie in next week’s PNC Championship. Padraig Harrington and son Paddy were also added to the 20-player field that also includes major winners Bernhard Langer, David Duval, Fred Couples, Gary Player, John Daly, Justin Leonard, Lee Trevino, Mark O’Meara, Nelly Korda, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Tom Lehman, Trevor Immelman and Vijay Singh.
Comcast stock fell 10% on news of an unexpected drop in broadband subscribers as wireless options and remotely decent service increased customer options. I’d make a pithy comment here about how this will mean even fewer bells and whistles on 2025 golf telecasts, but then that would be inspiring the beancounters to find new cuts.
Daily Gallery tickets to the 2025 U.S. Open and 2025 U.S. Women’s Open remain available for all days.
Reads
👔 Callum Borchers on the necktie making an office comeback thanks to Gen Z.
"Down boy, down!"
"where grown adults are trained to belly flop into an empty pool if it means rescuing a lone penny."
you have a gift for words my friend. The comic relief is needed given how pathetic both the game and broadcasts are. You are one bright spot!
I look forward to the day the Quad doesn't need to detail any money matters with the exception of the current weeks winner's checks. Especially enjoyed the Seve highlights and hearing the voices of those calling his shots.