Golf Emergency
I’ve been delinquent on updating the blog. Turns out, starting a podcast is time-consuming.
I have loved the process of creating “Media Credentials.” From choosing the name, to deciding on a platform, to scheduling guests, it’s been a healthy obsession. I’ve learned how to edit audio using Adobe Audition, although I’m sure I’m merely skimming the surface of that program’s capabilities. The editing process requires precision, repetition, and patience, all of which tracks nicely with my particular brand of anxiety. It’s soothing. I’ve gotten to the point where I can recognize an “ummm” based on its waveform.
The pod also provides an excuse to stay in touch with friends and colleagues in the industry, another area of delinquency for me. I’m heartened by the reactions when I ask for an interview. There’s usually a mention of “honored to be asked,” tinged with a bit of surprise. That’s good, because that was the point of Media Credentials — turning the tables and platforming people in sports media whose work is critical, but outside camera range.
Speaking of camera range — I was on set for Golf Central on June 5th, the day the USGA conducted Final Qualifying for the 2023 US Open at ten sites in the US and Canada, something Golf Channel has dubbed “Golf’s Longest Day.” Turns out, it wasn’t even golf’s longest day that week.
The following day, June 6th, saw the seismic news drop: the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour were going into business with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the financial backers behind LIV Golf. I was supposed to be at the office for a production meeting at 1pm that day; my phone started blowing up two hours earlier with messages like “HOW SOON CAN YOU GET HERE?”
It was a full-on Golf Emergency.
George Savaricas and I traded shifts throughout the day, along with a parade of Golf Channel analysts and hosts, all trying to make sense of the senseless. That Golf Central was able to stay on the air for a good 7 hours, commercial free, with so little actual information, is a credit to TV’s ability to make chicken salad.
When I returned to Stamford last week, the story had advanced, slightly: on Monday, June 26th, the PGA TOUR sent a five-page document to Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin outlining a “long-term strategic partnership” between Ponte Vedra, the DP World Tour, and the PIF.
At least now, we had something on paper. Rex Hoggard of GolfChannel.com has been all over this since Day One; you can read his June 26th summary here.
Even after the release of this document, and the subsequent meeting of the Tour’s Policy Board, there is little clarity as to how this new for-profit entity will work. We know who the principals are, and that’s about it. In the words of the late William Goldman, “nobody knows anything.”
During my last stint in Stamford, I worked next to Jaime Diaz, who I consider to be one of the most thoughtful and well-reasoned voices of the game. We talked off-air about the release of the five-page document, as well as this question: what if the Tour had just taken Greg Norman’s phone call in the first place?
Norman, the LIV Golf CEO, contends that he made multiple attempts to sit down with the PGA TOUR during the early days of LIV, and was rebuffed. Jaime told me he thinks the Tour felt it had all the leverage and nothing to gain from engaging with LIV. That has proven to be wrong. In hindsight, perhaps the Tour should have given Norman a hearing.
Two days before the PGA TOUR and the Public Investment Fund sent that letter to Congress, Golf Channel contributor Eamon Lynch wrote a column for Golfweek claiming that Patrick Cantlay, a member of the Tour’s policy board, was “trying to rally players against the deal with the Saudis, and against members of the Tour’s policy board who architected or support it.” He also suggested that Cantlay has been “romancing” LIV for some time, even while a member of the board.
That column prompted a response five days later from Adam Scott, the chairman of the Player Advisory Council. A statement was posted to his Instagram on the morning of June 29; Rickie Fowler would later post the same statement, as did Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris. In a month of bizarre happenings, this missive fit right in:
“Putting aside personal barbs and fluffy adjectives would be helpful, dealing with facts presented with integrity far superior.”
(First time I’ve heard adjectives described as “fluffy.”)
The statement also asks for proof that Cantlay was attempting a “coup d’état” and references “an about-face of Tour management policy.” It’s not clear what the statement hoped to accomplish. A couple of potshots at Lynch’s writing style, an admonishment to avoid “faceless speculation” (again, odd combo), and a gentle reminder that the PGA TOUR was dead-set against a deal like this, until they weren’t. I’d love to know if Scott wrote this himself.
Just about a month after the June 6th announcement, there are still a multitude of questions, among them: what happens to LIV? PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has indicated that he’s open to the concept of team golf as part of this new business entity — and in fact, there’s language about a “good faith assessment” of team golf in the agreement — but that’s nowhere close to a promise that LIV will play on. The language in the June 26 document specifies that Ponte Vedra will make the business decisions for the new arm, which also fuels speculation that LIV is toast. I don’t think so.
The Public Investment Fund has already pumped $2 billion into LIV and has signed its players to contracts. Those documents have to mean something. Majesticks GC, the team led by Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, just announced a sponsorship deal with a crypto exchange company. The local tourism board in the Andalucia region of Spain just announced a multi-year deal with LIV to bring an annual event. Does any of that sound like a league on the ropes?
Most importantly: Yasir Al-Rumayyan wants it. The governor of the Public Investment Fund has called LIV “my f**king baby.” As LIV television producer Keith Hirshland told me on the podcast: LIV is still in its infancy. They’re halfway through a 14-event schedule this year, after all of eight events in 2022. It would defy logic for Al-Rumayyan to sign off on a deal that terminates his pet project. I know what the document says; I also know that the guy with the checkbook ultimately makes the rules. I think LIV lives.
