Golfing News & Blog Articles

Nothing screams corporate passion like returning to your old stomping grounds the way Golf Channel has this week. Apparently the return of studio shows to Orlando is due to the bleak Winter Olympics in already awful Beijing necessitating NBC use of the lavender-tinged broom closet in Stamford, Connecticut.

While some might see a post-Chernobyl vibe to the former newsroom emptied of people, it’s also a fitting way of saying, “yes, we know a lot of people are paying attention to golf with no NFL and with the Saudi and Pebble events this week, but guess what? We just don’t care, plus we’d have to pay camera people and electric bills to go in the old studio just over their shoulders. And our partners, sponsors and viewers don’t deserve quality!”

Or, maybe it’s a way of signaling to a buyer? You know, one who’d like to return to where Arnold Palmer started the channel and it remained until his passing? And they tried to put out a good product? If only we the sport of golf could be so lucky.

Episode 2 of the LPGA’s all-access docuseries is now live on YouTube and embedded below. The stories of Gaby Lopez and Amy Olson continue, including a pickleball primer from Olson.

As noted yesterday when Ep. 1 was posted, this comes without the Netflix-sized budget and massive star power, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Check it out.

This gives me an idea too: imagine a channel devoted to the game that would share these stories. Like, just spitballing here, an all-inclusive place that really is devoted to the sport? You just leave it on all day, they care about the sport we love that has an $84 billion economic impact in America but it also beloved around the world. Too crazy?

It would have been a disaster had someone tried to compete against the NFL’s AFC and NFC Championship games given this year’s massive numbers and the almost non-existent numbers for sports going against the football.

Showbuzzdaily has all the Nielsen numbers, starting with those eye-popping NFL numbers: 23.35/50.2 million for the NFC title game on Fox featuring the Rams victory over the 49ers, and a 23.62/47.8 million average for CBS’s broadcast of the Bengal’s win over the Chiefs.

The 2022 Farmers final round wrapping on Saturday drew a 1.71 Nielsen rating with a 2.67 million viewer average.

Friday’s third round on CBS drew a .95/1.4 million average viewership.

Have you showered yet? If not, wait until after you’ve read this post.

Over at The Quadrilateral I summed up and dissected the lack of deep hidden meaning in Greg Norman’s pre-PIFSIPSIA presser to announce another $100 million for the Asian Tour’s new series of international events. Which, as first reported by Alistair Tait here and Ewan Murray here, is a bold foray outside of the Asian Tour’s normal confines. You can read more details on the series that might act as a feeder tour for the Saudi Golf League or even as placeholder events converted into stops should the superstar league go forward.

In The Telegraph, James Corrigan reported exclusively on the lavish offer of $20-30 million for Ian Poulter to commit and, in all likelihood, kiss a future Ryder Cup captaincy goodbye. Ironic since his Ferrari collection is worth about that much and built off of his Ryder Cup play.

Trying to gauge where all of this stands, Murray posted this analysis at The Guardian and wondered if using the Ryder Cup as leverage could backfire.

Golf organizations are generally territorial when it comes to crossing continents, so as troops amass on several borders this week, now we learn the Asian Tour is reportedly looking at an unthinkable incursion on DP World Tour territory this June.

Alister Tait reports that Aramco (eh em…) is going to sponsor an event the week before the U.S. Open. The site: Centurion Club north of London, just 31 miles from DP World Tour headquarters and formerly home to a couple of European Tour events. Tait writes:

Aramco appears set to run back-to-back men’s and women’s events at the course between St Albans and Hemel Hempstead. The $1 million Aramco Series London tournament on the Ladies European Tour is set for June 16-18, one of four Aramco sponsored tournaments on the LET along with Sotogrande, New York and Jeddah. The men’s tournament is pencilled into the week previous to the London date, clashing with the $1 million Scandinavian Mixed hosted by Henrik & Annika, a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and LET.

It’s also no unreasonable to assume any event added to the Asian Tour is a placeholder of sorts for a tour run by LIV Golf/Greg Norman/Journalist Murder.

With Level 4 State Department status (“Do Not Travel”) you’d think going to Club de Golf de Panama might be low on the list of Korn Ferry Tour members. But every dollar counts when you’re trying to secure a PGA Tour card and money made at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am doesn’t mean a thing toward your season long effort so, not surprisingly, players are opting to take on the double whammy of crime and COVID over the Monterey Peninsula.

In that sense, this is a win for the KFT structure and speaks to the player determination to get their card. But passing up what was once a signature Tour event where the prominent and powerful gather is also quite surreal to see. Some good news: the worst crime areas cited by the Department of State are a decent distance from the KFT’s Panama Championship. They’ve got that going for them.

The AT&T has seen its field depleted by all the waivers granted to play the Saudi’s PIFSIPSIA stop on the Asian Tour. So with three courses and pro-am slots needing a pro, the opportunity exists to play Pebble Beach, Spyglass and MPCC like never before. Yet it appears the AT&T is headed toward a Charlie Beljan late-add at this pace. And some lucky big spender is guaranteed to get Grayson Murray for three rounds. Enjoy that!

We know the grow-the-games will be flying this week when top player descent on Saudi Arabia for the PIFSIPSIA cash grab and audition for those two peas in a pod, Greg Norman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. I anticipate some fabulous rationalizations. But I did not expect Monty earn the week’s first eye-roll.

Andrew Wright summed up Monty’s contribution from a BBC interview at the Dubai Desert Classic.

"It's a shame it's come to this,” Montgomerie told BBC Sport. “We used to work well with the Asian Tour and now we are at loggerheads because of money. It's a problematic issue. It's that horrible, evil word, money. The mighty dollar ruling people's hearts and minds. 

“We never played the game for money on the European Tour when I first started out. I was trying to see how much better I could get as a golfer. Now it's all about that evil word, money. Let's hope the European Tour is closer to the PGA Tour than we've ever been before and we can fight it off."

Highlighting world ranking status is not normally my thing but it’s mighty impressive to see Viktor Hovland win for the sixth time in less than two years and rise to No. 3 in the world upon winning the Dubai Desert Classic.

He had help from Rory McIlroy who needed to par 18 to join a playoff with Hovland Richard Bland. But found the water on his approach to the par-5 en route to a bogey six.

From Ewan Murray’s Guardian story:

Onlookers will speculate over whether McIlroy was correct to take on the last green from 260 yards. He had miraculously saved par from a bush on the previous hole, perhaps rendering a further dice with danger unwise. The counterpoints relate to McIlroy’s regular – and regularly successful – policy of being aggressive and that he was hardly planning to mis-hit a fairway wood. McIlroy did not become essential viewing by playing percentages.