Bad Ideas
The last two weeks have delivered a lot of really bad ideas.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Davis Love III recently suggested that PGA Tour members might boycott major championships if LIV Series players are allowed to participate. This is a terrible idea.
One can understand the origin of Love’s passion. He literally grew up in the game as the son of a PGA professional. He’s a 21-time Tour winner, major champion, Ryder Cup veteran, captain of the U.S.. President’s Cup team, and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Davis Love III has a deep and meaningful connection to the current state of professional golf, and possesses an impeccable resume’ in same. And he’s missing on this one.
Asking his fellow Tour players to boycott majors is reckless and short-sighted. Boycotting those events directly impacts hundreds, if not thousands of people who need those events in order to make a living. We’re talking about concessionaires, security guards, and maintenance crew members. The guys in the pro shop and the cart barn. The people who work for the USGA or the PGA of America who need to successfully sell tickets and hospitality packages to keep their jobs. They all need major championships to deliver the best fields possible in order to maintain their standard of living. If the best players remaining on the PGA Tour, per Love’s suggestion, decide to boycott those events, said events will be weakened, and real people could lose real money.
This is part of the problem when discussing LIV: it’s millionaires getting pissed off at other millionaires. Perhaps we should tap the brakes and instead think about those with boots on the ground who need that one PGA Championship or US Open week to help cover their bills.
Speaking of majors: Bubba Watson is resigning his PGA Tour membership to join the LIV Series. Pair him up with Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Charl Schwartzel, Dustin Johnson, and Patrick Reed, and that’s six Masters champions from the last 11 years now gone to LIV. How will Augusta National Golf Club respond? Will they hew to the PGA Tour’s policies and uphold the ban, essentially forfeiting their own policy regarding Masters invitations for past champions? The Tour has done Augusta no favor in this regard.
Speaking of Reed: he (and his people, whoever they are) filed a $750 million dollar defamation lawsuit against Brandel Chamblee and Golf Channel.
My father is an attorney. His brother is an attorney. My best friend from high school, the best man at my wedding, is an attorney. I went to a small prep school in Orlando with a senior class of about 75 kids, and nearly half of them — no joke — are now attorneys. I didn’t go to law school (for the reasons just listed), but I have grown up in the company of current and future members of the bar.
(I know I am venturing into Mona Lisa Vito territory here, but bear with me.)
Patrick Reed is getting horrifically bad legal advice. He’s hired Larry Klayman, a lawyer who apparently bases his entire practice on frivolous litigation, and he (Reed) is going to lose. Bad. Bigly. He’s going to get crushed. Trust me. He doesn’t want this smoke, no matter how much he and his wife hate Brandel.
It’s one thing to harbor a grudge against a TV analyst who levels criticism. It’s something else entirely to enjoin a legal process where concepts like “discovery” and “disclosure” become very real, very quickly.
I have only marginally dealt with Reed; I interviewed him for Westwood One Sports the year he won the Masters, and I have seen him on the range and on the course at various PGA Tour events while working for Golf Channel. I have no strong opinion about the man, and I don’t claim to know him or his family. Just know that this lawsuit is a colossally stupid move. I actually feel bad for him.
