Major(s) News & Notes, October 10, 2024
Ryder Cup captains make news a year out from the matches. Plus, MacIntyre apologizes (sort of), Reuters obtained a Masters press credential for a prominent source, a ratings ray of hope, and Reads.
Days to The Masters opening tee shot: 179
A surprising amount of news came out of this week’s Ryder Cup press conference featuring Captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald. So we’ll cover that before a follow-up on Robert MacIntyre’s Road (hole) rage, the bizarre Masters credentialing story involving Reuters, hope for those desperate to see a golf ratings narrative reversal, and finally, a few Reads to bookmark for your weekend perusing.
In case you missed it earlier this week: here is The Quad’s look at Augusta National storm damage along with a weekend wrap on the Dunhill and Asia Pacific Amateur.
USA Reveals Selection Criteria for 2025 Ryder Cup
The New York meeting of the Quarter Zippers Of Queens 2025 Ryder Cup captains turned out to be more than just a chance to plug the matches and promote overpriced tickets. Captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald actually made some news.
Bradley touched on Ryder Cup qualifying for the United States and curiously opted not to use his late unveiling as Captain to start qualifying later. Apparently, he chose to maintain a tradition of players earning points well before the year of the matches, a plight that has arguably saddled past teams with players no longer in peak form. Bradley could have started the points race in January 2025 to counter Europe’s later points accruing start (which leaves out the 2024 majors). Instead, Bradley and the PGA of America unveiled a new qualifying list rewarding standout performers in 2024’s biggest events, including The Players Championship.
For 2025, Bradley’s six qualifiers will earn enhanced points in the four majors but not The Players. It’s a surprising twist with the alliance between the two PGA’s. However, it’s not unreasonable given The Players’ less-robust field in a LIV world. But the flex is an intriguing statement about what the Task Force types think of the PGA Tour’s most important non-major and other “Signature” events that will be treated like any other stop.
“We'll keep [the selection criteria] the same,” Bradley said. “I think the points system does a great job in identifying the 12 best players. We play our Elevated Events and majors carry so much weight, and I think that's important with how strong the fields are, you know, week-to-week, the pressure of playing in these big tournaments and majors, and that shows up on the points list.”
Yet only the 2025 majors receive extra points so it’s not clear why he lumped in the “Elevated” events in his comments:
2024 Major Championships - 1 Point per $1,000 earned for all players who made the cut at The Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open.
2024 The PLAYERS - 1 Point per $1,000 earned for all players who made the cut at THE PLAYERS.
2025 Regular PGA TOUR events - 1 point per $1,000 earned for all players who make the cut in events beginning January 1, 2025, through the conclusion of the BMW Championship, August 17, 2025 (second FedEx Cup Playoff event).
2025 Opposite Field PGA TOUR events - Will NOT receive points.
2025 Major Championships - 1.5 Points per $1,000 earned for all players who make the cut at The Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open.
The top six eligible players from the U.S. Ryder Cup Points list will be on the team following the BMW Championship on August 17, 2025.
Bradley will announce his six Captain’s picks following the 2025 Tour Championship.
The unveiled rankings show Brian Harman enjoying top-six status off of his 2024 Players runner-up finish.
On the European side, Luke Donald opened the door for a possible Sergio Garcia return to the Ryder Cup. His tone suggested a Garcia pick would be a longshot at this point in his career. Left unsaid but undoubtedly part of Donald’s calculations: Long Islanders would feast on His Neuroticness. But Garcia also registered a 4th place finish in the 2002 U.S. Open there and a T10 when it returned in 2009.
Either way, it was a surprise to learn that the cranky one is toying with retaking DP World Tour membership.
“Yeah, we chatted on phone a couple weeks ago,” Donald said. “He's certainly very interested in doing that. He understands everything that's involved, and again, the decision has to go to him, whether he's prepared to do all that.”
Donald maintained the party line regarding LIV players and key 2023 Ryder Cuppers Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.
“It's really the same as it was in Rome,” he said. “You have to be a Member of The European Tour and born in Europe. If you fulfill the regulations and the rules that the DP World Tour set, then you're eligible. There's a bunch of LIV guys that play on LIV that they are eligible now; so I can pick them at will.”
Other highlights from the press conference:
Bradley on captain’s picks coming from outside of the PGA Tour. “I'm going to take the 12 best players. So if we feel like there's a few guys there, one guy, two guys, whatever it is, then we're going to do that. But we're too far out to figure out how this is all going to play out. But we're definitely going to take the 12 best players however that shakes out.
Donald on dealing with the American crowds. “Obviously when we come to New York, it's going to be very pro American. The good thing about New York is that it is a melting pot. There's lots of different cultures here. I see it as a semblance of what our team represent, as well. So there will be some support, which we didn't have in Whistling Straits, which was a really tough atmosphere.
Bradley on getting the job. “The past three months have been some of the craziest, most exciting, most nerve-wracking months of my entire life. But I have to pinch myself, a lot, and you know, this stretch of my life has been really incredible. It's an honor of a lifetime for me to lead this U.S. Team here at Bethpage Black.”
Bradley on the possibility of a playing Captaincy. “Once we get closer to the tournament and I'm up there on the points list, then we'll start to think about it. But I'm focused now on being the captain of the team and that's it.”
Donald on being the road team. “It's one of the hardest things to do is to win an away Ryder Cup, and I'm going to have to adapt a little bit. Some of the advantages I had with home crowd support, I've lost that advantage. Setting up the golf course, I've lost that advantage. It's about coming up with different ways to try and counteract some of those disadvantages and trying to turn them into something positive.”
Bradley on Bethpage. “I really fell in love with New York through Bethpage. I just love the essence of what Bethpage brings in the public course and the vibe you get when you go there. I love the Red Course. It's just a really fun place to play golf.”
Donald on Bethpage crowds. “The PGA of America have things in place for if there is, you know, outburst the or if there's anything deemed inappropriate, they will deal with that. Again, we are looking forward to playing in front of a New York crowd. It's going to be fun. It's going to be feisty. It's going to be spirited, and it will be fun.”
Bradley on crowd control. “There's going to be people walking around inside the ropes that are going to be monitoring the situation. It's really important to us, the U.S. side, that it's a fair place to play for both teams. Nobody on either team wants this to get uncomfortable or weird out there. But listen, you come into Yankee Stadium; you come into Madison Square Garden; you come into these places, it's a tough place to play, and Luke and the boys know that.”
Later on in the rollout day, the Captains were humbled by Oz The Mentalist.
There is simply no truth to rumors that he’s up for a Vice Captaincy. The Task Force doesn’t need a magician and Europe has Dodo, so…
MacIntyre Apologizes For His Road Rage
Credit Robert MacIntyre for not even waiting 24 hours to apologize for his Road hole (rage) suggesting detonation was the only remedy.
Granted, he did call it the “17th hole” instead of its gentler nickname. And the cranky one hashtagged the post with #FU, which, sources tell me, could theoretically, after a microdose of quaaludes and a stiff margarita, stand for “Follow Up.”
So, at best, it was a passive-aggressive apology tinged with irony. But at least MacIntyre realized he was caught up in the post-round moment and will never, ever let it happen again.
The surly Scotsman will next confront the Road a year from now in the Alfred Dunhill Links and then, presumably, during The Open in less than three (or five?) years from now.
Press Passed
The revelation forced Reuters to withdraw a pair of stories where Fitzgerald and WADA did not care for the American organization’s “handling of the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication but were cleared of wrongdoing.”
As the organizations continue to feud over the matter, Reuters acknowledged the press pass-for-play situation.
“A journalist who no longer works for Reuters has acknowledged that they helped a representative of Wada obtain a Reuters press credential for the 2024 Masters tournament, a violation of our journalistic standards,” the organization told The Times.
Both unnamed reporters penned the withdrawn stories and also covered the Masters, reportedly assisting (or fudging?) an application to get Fitzgerald some form of accreditation. It is not believed he worked the tournament but did attend. Hopefully Fitzgerald enjoyed a few Georgia Peach Ice Cream sandwiches since they might be his last.
Will New Data Approach Prop Up Golf Ratings?
Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter considered the sizable ratings drop for PGA Tour coverage and the prospects that new Nielsen data will compensate for 2024’s downturn. Carpenter notes there were many factors leading to the decline but majors were not one of them.
Digging into the numbers, the tour averaged 2.2 million viewers for its Sunday telecasts (no majors) in 2024, a drop of 19% from 2.7 million in 2023. With majors included, that Sunday number in 2024 jumps to 2.8 million. On Saturdays, the tour earned 1.5 million viewers, down 17% from 1.8 million last year.
On NBC, the tour averaged just more than 2 million viewers for all tour events (no streaming included), down 5% from last year’s weekend rounds on NBC (which did not include the playoffs, as those were on CBS in 2023).
On Sunday only, NBC in 2024 drew 2.35 million, down 2% from 2023. Removing the three FedEx Cup Playoffs events from NBC’s average this year, that average goes to 1.98 million, which would be 6% lower compared to last year on NBC.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan suggested that the data was flawed in his Tour Championship press conference and Nielsen, in a pretty unusual move to diminish its current process, agreed when queried by Carpenter.
According to Nielsen, when implementing big data, the tour’s weekend broadcast coverage in 2023 would see a 17% increase. In 2024, those numbers jump to a 20% increase, the spokesperson said, which would be among the largest for a major stick-and-ball sport.
This all seems a tad strange.
Let’s start with here: if Nielsen is so sure the current numbers are not up to snuff, why are they waiting to unveil the updated metrics?
And given how tiny golf streaming numbers are whenever overall viewing figures are released after Nielsen overnights, what is it they are purportedly tabulating to increase viewership so significantly?
Perhaps the new “big data” will include other elements beyond pure telecast streaming numbers like social media views and YouTube views?
We’ll see in 2025.
Even if the numbers go up 15-20%, the Tour’s reach via Golf Channel continues to deliver unfathomably low audience numbers as the Comcast-owned network bleeds homes and viewer loyalty. According to Carpenter, viewership for last weekend’s Sanderson Farms Championship (won by Kevin Yu) saw a Sunday audience of 136,000 (133K in 2023), while Saturday’s third round drew just 95,000 (115K in 2023). Those are incomprehensibly low viewership numbers even if they’re boosted by 20%.
Earlier in the day, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship drew 49,000, as did the final round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Tape-delayed coverage of the Furyk & Friends won by Rocco Mediate saw an audience of 57,000 on Golf Channel.
Reads
😬 Money in Sport lists eye-opening takeaways from the DP World Tour’s 2023 financials.
A Links Trust vignette on the Old Tom Morris statue dedication:
Thoughts and best wishes to all of the Quadrilfloridians as you deal with the impact of hurricane Milton,
Geoff
Great stuff and Geoff you are fearless. Numbers tell a bleak story but there is really no excitement around the current model and the dirty secret is the Civil War is hurting golf. One thing that has to go is the FedEx Cup and for the Players the Tour would be very smart to make that an “Open” event for all players.
After the last Ryder Cup where the US got their rear end kicked, there was no way they were going to not allow DeChambeau on the team.