Major(s) News & Notes, January 12th, 2023
Major(s) News & Notes, January 12th, 2023
Writers snub Cameron Smith for POY. Plus, Winged Foot commits to one major at a time, a look at the Masters special invites, the Netflix docudrama finally has a drop date and a bunch more.
Days to the 2023 Masters first tee shot: 84
Days to the 2023 Chevron Championship: 98
Days to the 2023 PGA Championship 126
Days to the 2023 U.S. Open: 148
Days to the 2023 Open Championship: 190
Days to the 2023 Ryder Cup: 260
That fantasy of cord-cutting millennials tuning in and lowering golf’s average viewer age to 64.9? It springs eternal after Netflix dropped its docudrama trailer on Wednesday. Takeaways from this epic moment in golf history make up just on part of The Quad’s latest News & Notes, but only after I quibble with golf writers over their 2022 Player of the Year selections. We’ll also analyze a venue announcement involving a championship where the eventual winner is someone currently living and breathing among us. Then I have thoughts on how the two recent Masters special invitations fall in line with past invites by the Lords of Augusta. Finally, we have a Latin America Am preview, Quotables and a long list of This, That and Reads.
GWAA Players Of The Year: Scheffler, Ko
The PGA Tour and PGA of America give out their Player Of The Year award to the best male golfer in September while the Golf Writers Association of America waits until December. The disparity leads to contrasting results since the PGA of America uses a points system and Tour players or their agents generally “vote” for whoever wins the FedExCup. The scribblers then swoop in a few months later and recognize a body of work friendly to history books and common sense.
The GWAA’s 2022 male and female POY decisions were complicated somewhat by Scottie Scheffler doing a majority of his outstanding work by April, while Lydia Ko played best from June until her CME Group win in November. This is all a fancy way of telling you I did not vote for either one of these two fine humans.
I loathe quibbling over these awards given that all involved had sensational seasons, yet I felt Cameron Smith’s wins in the season-opening TOC, The Players, The Open and Australian PGA made his year just a bit more epic. Smith triumphed in the two toughest tournaments to win and that was the difference-maker for this voter. (I couldn’t tell you one thing he did in his LIV starts.)
According to the GWAA release announcing Scheffler’s POY win, he “earned 49.2 percent of first-place votes, winning over [Rory] McIlroy, a three-time winner, and Cameron Smith,” who apparently finished third. Well okay then!
On the women’s side, Minjee Lee earned my vote with her Founders Cup and U.S. Women’s Open wins. Lee’s overall record in majors included a second in the KPMG Women’s PGA and a T4 in the AIG Women’s Open. This earned her the Annika Award for best overall performance in the majors. And no one forgets her AON Risk-Reward Challenge title that I refused to factor into the equation.
Eventual POY winner Ko went T25-5-T46-T3-4 in the LPGA’s pentagonal. Yet the women’s voting was even more lopsided, with this notation in the GWAA announcement:
Ko finished 2022 by getting married in Korea. She earned 79.5 percent of first-place votes, beating finalists Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul.
I can’t fathom how a non-major winner gets the award over someone who captured the biggest title in women’s golf and contended in three of the other four. Maybe it was the getting married in Korea part?
It’s Official: Winged Foot In 2028
We’ll probably never know what held-up making this one official even as the USGA awarded future U.S. Open venues into the 2050’s. But at least we have a major venue announcement involving this decade: Winged Foot’s A.W. Tillinghast-designed West Course will host its seventh national championship in 2028.
“Today is an incredible moment for all of us here at Winged Foot,” said Rob Williams, president of Winged Foot. “Our club has a long history of hosting this nation’s greatest men’s and women’s championships and we look forward to helping write another chapter in the story of our great sport in 2028.”
This will be Winged Foot’s 14th USGA championship. The Mamaroneck, New York club has also hosted two U.S. Amateurs, two U.S. Women’s Opens, one U.S. Senior Open, one U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and one Walker Cup. Curiously, with the recent USGA tendency of locking up multiple events well down the road, the club did not commit to the 2059 U.S. Open to help us prepare over the next 37 years for the 100th anniversary of Billy Casper’s victory. Nor was the “anchor site” brand stamped on “The Foot”, an elite status enjoyed by Pinehurst, Oakmont and Pebble Beach.
The current U.S. Open site list is down to available dates in 2031, 2036 and 2038. Riviera is expected to be announced for 2031 and The Country Club a strong option to host in 2038 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Francis Ouimet’s epic victory. If that prediction holds, reigning champion Matt Fitzpatrick would be 44 when the tournament returns to the scene of his 2022 triumph.
Those Higa And Sargent Masters Special Invitations
In announcing that Kazuki Higa and Gordon Sargent accepted invitations to compete in the 2023 Masters, Chairman Fred Ridley maintained one tradition while potentially starting a new one.
Both players will be first-time Masters participants this April.
Higa is 27 and coming off a four-win Japan Tour season. The current World No. 68 joins a long list of players from Japan receiving special invitations dating to 1936, when Toichiro “Torchy” Toda and Seiha “Chick” Chin played the third Masters.
The 1950s say Koichi Ono and Pete Nakamura play the 1958 edition and Japanese players have often been considered for invitations when not already exempt. Most have been on merit and undoubtedly helpful in maintaining the Tokyo Broadcasting System as the only network to broadcast the Masters in Japan. That partnership dates to 1976.
The most controversial invite (at the time) might have been Ryo Ishikawa’s second invite in 2011. He was the world’s 53rd ranked player and some known names from countries not named Japan were missing the Masters that year.
“The Masters Tournament prioritizes opportunities to elevate both amateur and professional golf around the world,” Ridley said in making the announcement via press release. “Thus, we have extended invitations to two deserving players not otherwise qualified. Whether on the international stage or at the elite amateur level, each player has showcased their talent in the past year. We look forward to hosting them at Augusta National in April.”
More surprising was the special invitation to Gordon Sargent, the reigning NCAA Division I Men’s Individual champion. Sargent is a sophomore at Vanderbilt.
Currently No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, he’s the first amateur to receive a special invite since Aaron Baddeley received one in 2000 not long after winning the 1999 Australian Open.
While the club did not install NCAA individual champions as a permanent invite fixture with this announcement, the nod could become a tradition for those champions who return to school after winning the title. Given how many more amateurs once competed in the Masters—including the entire U.S. Walker Cup team for many years—the addition of the current NCAA champ feels both deserving given the quality of college golf and a clever way for the tournament to encourage some to stay in school a little longer. Given how quickly the elite college players turned professional even before LIV came along, it’s unlikely to happen very often. But in a year where the field sits at just 80 players and the club’s co-founder wanted to celebrate the amateur, why not?
Invitations are still expected for this week’s Latin America Amateur champion, winners of upcoming full-point PGA Tour events, and OWGR Top players not already in the field as of the week prior to the tournament.
The 2022 Masters featured 91 players while the 2021 edition started with 88.
2023 Latin America Am Offers Spots In Two Majors
The 8th annual Latin America Amateur Championship begins Thursday at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico. The Tom Kite-design has been the annual host to the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open since 2008.
The 108-player field will be playing for a Masters invitation and a spot into The 151st Open at Royal Liverpool. The winner also receives full exemptions into The Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship and final qualifying for the 2023 U.S. Open Championship. The LAAC runner(s)-up will also be exempt into Final Qualifying for The 151st Open and the 2023 U.S. Open.
The official LAAC site offers this look at five players to watch, starting with WAGR No. 18-ranked Fred Biondi, the 2022 runner-up. Defending champion Aaron Jarvis also returns and is currently ranked 295th in the world.
All coverage will be streamed live on LAACgolf.com.
Television options include ESPN2/ESPNEWS in the United States, Fox Sports (Australia), TSN (Canada), Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (throughout Europe), SBS Golf (Korea), SpoTV (Southeast Asia), SuperSport (Southern Africa) and Sky Sports (United Kingdom).
The coverage team includes Rich Lerner hosting, Andy North as analyst, Iona Stephen and Colt Knost as on-course reporters, and John Sutcliffe on interviews. The coverage windows (ET):
Netflix Drops Preview Of “Full Swing”
Just over a year since the concept was announced to jubilation among the M’s craving for authentic “content”, Netflix’s long-awaited pro golf docudrama finally has a title, confirmed participants and a drop date: Wednesday, February 15th.
Full Swing is the work of Vox Media Studios and Box to Box Films, the same group behind Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Eight episodes are in the can, with likely highlights including exclusive access to Justin Thomas and Matt Fitzpatrick during weeks they won the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, respectively.
Three players seen in Wednesday’s trailer launch stood out: Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Brooks Koepka.
McIlroy was not expected to participate, yet he’s seen ending the trailer by saying, “If I want the game that I love to be played by future generations, the game needs to be pushed forward.”
I knew he’d come around on bifurcation so that we don’t leave a totally unsustainable model for Gen Z!
Poulter and Koepka are generally the most interesting LIV defectors who are only appearing because no one in Cult Ponte Vedra had control over the show content. LIV defectors Joaquin Niemann and Dustin Johnson were also highlighted in the trailer rollout, but no one’s marking a calendar to hear what they have to say.
The filterless Poulter and Koepka should add significant color. Then again, Poulter’s enraged over the Ryder Cup Twitter account not wishing Sergio Garcia “happy birthday.” We now have incontrovertible evidence that Poulter’s several Titleist’s short of a dozen. (Poulter’s reaction to this horrendous snub is given a deserving critique by Fried Egg’s Brendan Porath.)
Also included in the rollout and press material is Mito Pereira, who led the PGA Championship until the 71st hole and appears to be defecting to LIV’s Team Torque based on an exclusive from The Telegraph’s James Corrigan.
The minute-long Netflix trailer released Wednesday suggests we’re in for many scenes of grown men in gym rat gear flying private and telling us how “hard” it is to win on the PGA Tour. But that fantastic locker room hissy fit offers something to look forward to!
Quotable
Justin Thomas on his mindset heading into the 2022 PGA Championship final round seven shots behind: “I knew I didn't have a very good chance to win. I know that I didn't. But I also knew it was a major championship and everybody in front of me had never won one and there's going to be a lot of nerves, myself included. So just try to make as many birdies as you can and chip away, and I was fortunate to have everything that happened happen.”
Jon Rahm on his 2022 before winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions: “The only thing I have I didn't do last year that I wish I would have done is compete better in majors and give myself a better chance. So obviously that being a goal this year, hopefully get No. 2 and give Spain another major.”
Jay Monahan, discussing the state of PGA Tour media partnerships after Warner Brothers Discovery negotiated out of international PGA Tour streaming to three major continents, shuttered GolfTV and renegotiated to save the company untold millions: “I spent a lot of time in the back half of the year going to see the leadership at NBC, Golf Channel, CBS, ESPN, all of our core media partners, Discovery, and there’s a level of passion and commitment that’s, again, inspiring.”
Scottie Scheffler on his Champions Dinner and the potential for tension with LIV golfers. “I saw Bubba [Watson] on vacation this year, and I told him that I was just going to have a separate table for him in the corner by himself (laughing) only kidding, obviously. In the world of golf, I think it's definitely a little sad what's happening.”
Ben Crenshaw on the 2023 Masters Champions dinner in a LIV world: “It’s a tournament in which the champion can change his whole life. It’s a life-giving memory, there’s no doubt about that. But I hope the focus is on the champion and the tournament. But I don’t know. I just really don’t know. I’ve been worried about it, I must be honest.”
Harry Higgs on LIV’s impact: “They took all the villains. And that’s a problem.”
This, That, Tweets And Reads
🇸🇦 Rex Hoggard on accusations flying that LIV is using its PGA Tour lawsuit to build dossiers on 9/11 victim families. Frankly I’m stunned. Meanwhile, Hoggard also reports on the Judge in LIV’s case likely ruling Friday on whether the Public Investment Fund head will be subject to a deposition.
🏌️♀️Nuclr Golf was first to report Taylormade’s long overdue signing of a top female player, as Brooke Henderson is leaving Ping to go all in on TM equipment. Score Golf’s Rick Young has more details.
👑 Caroline Davies and Jessica Elgot have the inside story of the Queen Elizabeth’s final hours.
🐍 Madeleine Marr on the woman who tried to board a commercial flight with Bartholomew, her four-foot boa constrictor who she insisted was her emotional support pet. Meanwhile, the TSA shared the X-ray image that gave Bartholomew away.
Have a great one,
Geoff
Update to today's edition: In announcing the 2024 Latin America Amateur's venue (Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama), the organizations announced that in addition to Masters and Open invites on the line, the USGA will be exempting this week's winner to the 2023 U.S. Open. So three major berths are on the line this week.
I have been a F1 fan for 30 years but I don't get Netflix, so I have never seen "Drive To Survive." However, from what I have heard, it is a great show about last year's racing. I fail to understand why I want to watch a show about last year's circus when I can watch this year's version in real time.
I won't be watching the new show on Netflix about last year's golf for both reasons. I will be watching the Latin America Amateur Championship this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed last year's event -- which I watched live.