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The Card – Volume XXIX

The Card |

by | Feb 25, 2024

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. Every winner on the PGA Tour is a great story.  To cross the line on the deepest tour in the world is a massive accomplishment but the absence of stars winning on tour coupled with the number of terrific players now playing on LIV is a problem as they embark on the “for profit” arm of their business.  Leveraging departures for a two-tier system and more money against the backdrop of a force not required to adhere to market principles is a far more palatable strategy if the stars driving the changes are winning, and they are not.
  1. The winning drought that the tour’s remaining stars are experiencing is ironic and bad timing.
      • Jordan Spieth, last win April 2022
      • Justin Thomas, last win May 2022
      • Patrick Cantlay, last win August 2022
      • Xander Schauffele, last win July 2022
      • Max Homa, last win January 2023

    You add the weird and frustrating stretch of amazing tee to green performance with the confounding putting of Scottie Scheffler, who is approaching a year without a win, and you have a ratings nightmare. Without LIV players at THE PLAYERS the PGA Tour needs a star to step up, like yesterday.

  1. This past week saw Yasir al-Rumayyan speak at the Future Investing Initiative in Miami.  The leader of LIV golf was a star among billionaires, and he shared that more than 70% of the public investment fund’s investment are within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the international investment has declined to around 25%.  The reality is that the PGA Tour and its new partnership with the Strategic Sports Group NEEDS the PIF.  The players on the PGA Tour may think their new partners make them healthy and whole but it’s simply not the case.  The continued fracturing of the men’s game is wreaking havoc on the tour’s product.
  1. Joaquin Neimann receiving a special invitation to the Masters Tournament is hardly a surprise.  What would have been a surprise is if the press release announcing his invitation was supported by his results on LIV.  He’s a past Latin America amateur champion and his win in the Australian Open was the biggest boost to his recent accomplishments.  He’s a fantastic player and his inclusion is deserved and earned.
  1. Miles Russell is the number one junior golfer in the U.S. with a bullet.  He shot a 2 under par round of 70 at the pre qualifier for the Cognizant Classic.  He’s not the first 15-year-old to attempt to pre-qualify for a tour event and won’t be the last. 
  1. Rafael Nadal is ready to begin what might be his last year of professional tennis.  In advance of his return, he won the Balearic Mid-Amateur Golf Championship in Mallorca, Spain by seven shots.  I have no idea the quality of the field but is it possible Mardy Fish will have a new “celebrity” am nemesis in Tahoe?
  1. The report this week that Gil Hanse and his team, Caveman Construction, are being commissioned to undertake a decade long project at Sunningdale in England is just another amazing feather in their restoration cap.  No designer has been entrusted with more, by a multiple of many, than Gil to return more historic golf courses to their prior design principles.  Soon enough the world will see their expedient work at Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, the host of the Charles Schwab Challenge.
  1. If you never read Michael Bamberger’s “To the Linksland”, it has been republished for the 30-year anniversary of its release.  Buy it and read it.  Michael is a wonderful storyteller and his accounting of his journey with his then new bride to the British Isles is fantastic.  We featured the book in the 5 Clubs book club this past week on SiriusXM and with a new forward from Michael Murphy it’s a must.
  1. The 1286th ranked player in the world rankings, Carlos Ortiz, won the International Series Oman on the Asian Tour.  His world ranking is a result of playing on LIV and seeing his world ranking nosedive in the last year.  He held off a few fellow LIV players and will not get a huge world ranking bump because all his peers on LIV have seen their rankings plummet as well in the last 18 months.  He beat some very good players including Joaquin Neimann who finished third.
  1. Gil Hanse has described the Ohoopee Match Club golf course as a tapestry that is frayed at the edges.  Tucked away outside of Cobbtown, Georgia, Ohoopee has earned a reputation in the first five years of its existence as one of the finest and coolest hangs in golf.  It’s golf’s great dude ranch and after being on the property for two days this past week I have an even greater appreciation for the design.  I made a point of walking “outside the lines” and what I found was land that talks.  Fallen limbs, decayed walking paths leading to who knows where, vegetation with countless colors and textures leave you nourished.  You punctuate your walk looking across the meadow at grazing Zebra and wildebeest and you feel a sense of gratitude for the time that is uncommon.
  1. NBC gives Luke Donald the main chair next week as they continue their season long audition for the lead analyst post for the network.  Donald has always been sneaky good at everything.  He got to Number 1 in the world at a time that length was exploding as a huge asset.  He was the passed over European Ryder Cup captain who only got the post when Henrik Stenson left for LIV, and he performed a masterclass in understanding his team.  I expect him to be thoughtful, insightful and a great listen.  No, he’s not going to bring huge levity, but I expect the response to be very positive.
  1. Getting to see Old Town Club in Winston Salem, North Carolina for the third time in the last couple months has me even more convinced that it is one of the finest routings of a golf course in the United States.  The tree removal and re-grassing of the greens under the direction of Coore/Crenshaw has taken the Perry Maxwell design to another level.  It’s among the very best golf courses in the country. The convergence of the double green for the 8th and 17th holes is one of the coolest design features anywhere.
  1. The quartet featured in Monday night’s match are appealing and exceedingly likable, but the real star will be the Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner designed ‘The Park”.  The public facility was opened last year, and its open canvas will be fantastic for the match play format but it’s the angles and contour that make the golf course a total blast. Under the lights the reachable par 5, the drivable par 4 and the fantastic par 3 17th, which will play as the 11th hole in the 12-hole match are fantastic golf holes.  After a couple flat episodes, I expect this Match to deliver an entertaining evening.
  1. The Florida swing on the PGA Tour brings a much greater premium on ball striking.  Punitive and penal design is the hallmark of PGA National, Bay Hill, and the stadium course.  The value of par is much greater than the west coast swing and Bermuda grass and overseeded rye are now the agronomics of the month of March.  Save me the monikers associated with stretches of holes at each venue, but the Florida swing signifies that all roads lead to Augusta National.
  1. Jake Knapp may not have drawn a big TV audience in winning the Mexico Open, but he is extremely appealing.  He has a flow that reminds you of the 70’s and 80’s coupled with his Munsingwear swag.  He also has a gait and golf swing that emotes cool.  He’s a really good story for the PGA Tour especially if he can continue to build on the win.  
  1. Three rookies to win before March on the PGA Tour matches the total number of rookie winners in 2023.  There are more and more players coming from everywhere who can contend and win, and it flies in the face of a group of players trying to create a “super” tier on the tour with fields of 70 players.  The most elite of all these events should always have fields of at minimum 100 players with cuts.
  1. Anthony Kim will play competitive golf this week halfway around the world on LIV.  He was a legit star when he became physically compromised and walked away more than a dozen years ago.  Of course, the golf nerds, me included, will be into his return.  My question is whether he gets any attention from the mainstream sports media.  My easy answer is positively No.  He faded away; he wasn’t shutdown while he was at the height of his stardom.  He just wasn’t a big enough deal outside of golf to warrant much if any attention this coming week.
  1. When I think of PGA National and the rebranded Cognizant Classic, I think back to 2012 when a rising superstar in Rory McIlroy held off the biggest star in sports in Tiger Woods, who shot 62 on Sunday, to win the Honda Classic and ascend to number 1 in the world.  Rory is back this week, and the tour could REALLY use a healthy shot of full flight Rory.