Major(s) News & Notes, December 5th, 2024
Tiger throws out a wild Ryder Cup per-player comp number. Plus, Kisner to be lead analyst on major telecasts, USGA updates gender entry policies, latest Masters film, Quotable, This, That and Reads.
Days to The Masters opening tee shot: 123
In the three weeks since The Telegraph’s report of a proposal to pay United States players in future Ryder Cups, the story has been allowed to fester without pushback.
There has not been a non-denial-denial, a “it’s nuanced,” a “fake news,” or even a loud-and-proud, “yeah, we want cold hard cash knowing how much those quarter zippers are charging for tickets and we don’t give two flocks what anyone thinks because we’re the ones out there putting on the show.”
It's a shame, really. So sad even. The boys apparently don’t have a lavishly compensated overseer or billionaire buddies who have years in sports business to help explain the optics or come up with creative financial finagling to make this go away.
This state of Ryder Cup pay turned the early Hero World Challenge week news into even more speculation about the divide between European and USA Ryder Cup priorities.
Tiger Woods was the first Ryder Cup regular/senior Task Force Founding Member Emeritus to be asked. He went down both predictable and surprising paths. Recuperating from another back surgery, Woods initially dodged the meat of the pay question by referencing the 1999 Ryder Cup controversy.
“We didn’t want to get paid; we wanted to give more money to charity,” Woods said on Tuesday, which does accurately represent his and David Duval’s views at the time. But others who felt players deserved pay? Not so much.
“The media turned it around against us and said we want to get paid,” Woods continued.
To be clear: some players back in 1999 wanted to be paid and it went over so well that the primary voice, Mark O’Meara, was never seriously considered for a Ryder Cup captaincy. So a charity-of-their-choice resolution helped put the story away prior to Brookline’s matches, only to have the idea resurface last year in Rome when Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele raised concerns privately.
“What’s wrong with each player, 12 players, getting a million dollars?” Woods continued. “And doling it out to any amazing charities that they’re involved in, that they can help out in their hometowns, all the different junior golf associations or endeavors that the members are involved in?”
That’s a lot of rhetorical questions from someone whose Foundation scores very well with Charity Navigator. The same cannot be said for many other players including the Senior All Things Money Mastermind, Cantlay.
The Play-For-Pay 2023-25 North American Tour is reportedly asking for a strings-free $400,000 deposit into player accounts and is not required to be allocated to a cause, as Woods suggests. (A $250,000 “stipend” was given to players, captains and vice captains at the recent Presidents Cup by the event’s organizer, the PGA Tour, and was seen as a model for the Ryder Cup.)
Woods eventually got around to the 2025 situation and dropped a wild number that will liven up the next PGA of America CEO role (whenever that hire happens!).
“Make it clear that whatever money they get will go to charity,” Woods said. A noble and tax-friendly idea undoubtedly, but not really what’s driving the pay demands. “I hope they get $5 million each and donate it all to charity, different charities. I think it’s great.”
Yes, he said $5 million each. A bold number. One which, when you throw in charity-of-their-choice checks for cart drivers, banana fetchers, calf masseuses, fishermen catching the wild salmon—naturally but humanely!—and the wives’ stylists, means that’s $65 million or so would be going to the American player foundations or charities of choice. The European stars have already said they will not be making a similar request, setting up a bizarre competitive and optics dynamic that has yet to be addressed by either of the PGA’s.
“To be honest with you, there’s not much to talk about; these leaks that came out were ... leaks,” Bradley told Sports Illustrated while playing the Hero pro-am. “I was shocked to see the leaks, as was the PGA of America. As was everybody involved. There’s been nothing that’s been finalized, done. This is all speculation at this point.”
Justin Thomas, a passionate Ryder Cup advocate and 3-time participant, ordered The Albany Club’s popular Sam Bankman-Fried Both Sides Word Salad.
“I understand, it's a weird, a touchy subject and you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't,” he said. “Obviously all of us would play if we weren't compensated. We have been. Now, does that necessarily mean that it's -- like you could look at it the same way as how it's obviously gotten out of hand with college athletes, like college athletes, should they be compensated for how their name, image and likeness was used? Yes. Is it something that should happen? You have people on both sides. I think this is something very similar.”
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler took a refreshingly sane path.
“I don't play golf for money,” he said ahead of his Hero title defense. “I've been playing golf my whole life for free and the money's just a bonus. If somebody wants to pay us to come out here and play golf, that's great, I'm not going to say no to it. I'm going to do the best I can in my community to steward that money well.”
Then, he offered a bold prediction his fellow Americans might struggle with.
“I think every one of our players would pay to play in the Ryder Cup if that's what was asked of us. I think it's a little bit silly for a tournament that makes hundreds of millions of dollars to ask for the players to pay as well, but I think we all would. I definitely would.”
Moments later, Scheffler was asked about Tiger’s mid-round visit during Wednesday’s pro-am. While the printed version of Scheffler’s remarks makes for a nice read (and is featured below in Quotables), it fails to capture the sharp-edged facetiousness you can only fully savor on video. This comes courtesy of Skratch, back and younger than ever with a new logo as part of a post-millennial reinvention desperately hoping to reach Gen-Z.
And now with volume IV of This Week In Ryder Cup Pay complete, we have news from NBC, the USGA, and much more.
Earlier this week I reviewed the 2023 Ryder Cup documentary that dropped on Tuesday. And on Monday I reviewed the wild weekend that also included some stellar Australian golf. Onward…
NBC Bake-Off Ends: Kisner Gets Lead Analyst Role
After testing an assortment of internal and external options on air following Paul Azinger’s non-renewal, NBC made it official: Kevin Kisner is their new lead golf analyst.
“I’m humbled and grateful to have the chance to sit in the seat that many legends like Johnny Miller and Paul Azinger have sat in before me on NBC,” Kisner in NBC’s press release. “I’m looking forward to offering a different voice and adding a new dynamic to the broadcasts, hopefully reaching more fans and telling things like it is. That’s what I think I do best. I’m also excited to continue to compete on the PGA Tour amongst my peers, which I think will help me to tap into what these guys are really feeling on the course.”
Remaining active as a competitor certainly could bring insights from inside the ropes. However, anyone who has followed golf more than fifteen minutes knows that previous attempts at maintaining a dual role have traditionally not worked. Either because the analyst is unprepared when situations call for having done some homework or waters down their insights to avoid awkward range run-ins.
Kisner had few memorable takes in his first year working events at Kapalua and Phoenix while not getting the call at the U.S. Open or The Open. Then again, his ability to get in more than a few sentences of cogent analysis was saddled by Executive Producer Sam Flood’s vaunted “four-wide” booth experience. One where too many people have leading roles on a broadcast team that never comes up for air. At least the four-wide debacle appears to be over based on the announcement’s suggestion Kisner is, “joining veteran play-by-play commentator Dan Hicks in the booth for its presentations of PGA Tour events and major championships.”
Flood’s name was nowhere to be found in the announcement. The executive asked to speak was longtime lead golf producer Tommy Roy, who celebrated his new lead analyst with a quote sounding as familiar and lukewarm as last December’s announcement of a Kisner tryout.
“Kevin always shared frank and honest opinions about the game of golf during our various conversations through the years,” said Roy. “Those kinds of opinions and his engaging personality make Kiz a great fit for our broadcast team. He knows these players, he knows this game, and the audience will get to hear more of those opinions and that personality this season.”
A four-time PGA Tour winner, Kisner will bring a light major championship pedigree to the U.S. Open and Open Championships compared to others who have donned a major championship headset. In 33 majors, Kisner has made 20 cuts and enjoyed two top 10’s, including a T2 at the 2018 Open Championship.
His record is less important to viewers than to television executives looking to justify a hire, assuming Kisner can deliver insights. His initial work delivered little of the candor referenced in Roy’s statement. Then again, Kisner likely knows the slightest criticism could become a topic at the PGA Tour Board, now demanding by players demanding 24/7 praise.
Last week, Kisner seemed to offer a hot and smart take on Twitter about the future of the PGA Tour before following up in mop-up mode. While type of apologize-immediately style is the new norm in my little buddy bro broadcasting, it will do little to generate buzz or viewer interest on a network with cratering ratings. And one that set the bar with Johnny Miller’s frank commentary.
LPGA, USGA Update Gender Policy
The announcements landed within minutes: the LPGA and USGA have updated their gender policies to forbid players “assigned male at birth and who have gone through male puberty” ineligible from women’s professional events. Included in the change are the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour, and U.S. Women’s Open.
In a subsequent announcement following the LPGA’s release, the USGA announced a “Competitive Fairness Gender Policy” effective in 2025.
The policy matches the LPGA’s and the USGA timing was explained in a Golfweek interview of Mike Whan, former LPGA commissioner and current USGA CEO.
“Mostly just new medical data that’s available,” Whan told Golfweek. “We started this process, I think it’s been like 20 months that we’ve been getting into this. There was a time when we thought the IOC was going to give clear across-the-board direction and that didn’t happen. The IOC ended up saying every sport kind of figure it out, I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it’s up to every sport to figure it out. Then we thought we’d get a federal law at least in the states that we could kind of lean against and that never happened.”
The USGA statement said its policy “is not intended to apply to recreational, non-elite competitions or participatory events, teams or leagues, where different considerations may be taken into account when establishing such criteria.”
Quotable
Tiger Woods on not playing this week as he recovers from September’s back surgery. “I’m not tournament sharp yet, no. I’m still not there. These are 20 of the best players in the world, and I’m not sharp enough to compete against them at this level. So when I’m ready to compete and play at this level, then I will.”
Woods on his 2024 starts. “I wasn't as sharp as I needed to be and I didn't play as much as I needed to going into the major championships and I didn't play well at them. Hopefully next year will be better, I'll be physically stronger and better. I know the procedure helped and hopefully that I can then build upon that.”
Scheffler on what he and Tiger talked about Wednesday. “I think most of the time we just talk about money and how the purses need to be bigger. Today we really grinded on the Ryder Cup and how it's just such BS that we've never gotten paid. Tiger was really frustrated, he feels like he hasn't made enough money in his career. I feel the same way, I feel like last year I didn't get paid enough for what I did. Mostly that, just a bunch of griping (Laughs).” 🤪
Hallowed Grounds: The Clubhouse
The latest vignette from The Masters takes a close look at the clubhouse and what its design, history and various interior accents mean to everyone who visits. So much fun stuff to chew on. And I forgot about Ike’s desk! Enjoy.
This And That
The PGA of America confirmed the extension of its partnership with Delaware North’s Patina Restaurant Group through 2034.
The St Andrews Links Trust has announced the return of the Old Course Reversed event in 2025. Looking like an annual tradition after last year’s expanded offering (beyond one day), the 2025 edition will take place over three days in April 4th, 5th and 7th with multiple ways to play, including daily ballot and digital singles list options as well as a £750 three-round public package playing the normal Old Course, the Old Course Reversed and, unfortunately, the Castle Course. Applications for packages will open for a limited 48-hour window from 9th–10th December 2024.
Reads
🧐 Money in Sport dives into the USGA’s financials and finds a noticeable drop in the organization’s investment portfolio.
🙋🏻♂️ Lorne Rubenstein on why Rory McIlroy remains the most interesting man in golf.
🏌️Ginia Bellafante on virtual golf facilities replacing closed storefronts in New York City.
💩 Tory Shepherd on how enshittification’s 2024 “word of the year” status is relatable for so many.
The gender policy reeks of anticipatory compliance with new political leadership. Expect broader acquiescence to be made (cough, Rory). Is eternal vigilance the price of liberty or is golf merely a cosigner on tyranny?
Btw, any connection between Marcoux Samaan departure and this announcement?
Great piece as always!
Judas Priest. I can't take a full season of listen to the NBC cast referring to him as "Kiz" every time they address him. I loved to know what he's making compared to what NBC offered Paul.