Golfing News & Blog Articles

Thanks to reader for Cara Lombardo’s Wall Street Journal story breaking the shocking news: Callaway is buying the remainder of Topgolf after owning 14%. The all-stock deal marks a stunning turn of events after Topgolf had long eyed an IPO. However the company has seen its business decline during the pandemic with struggles ahead due to issues with public gathering places.

“Topgolf is the best thing that happened to golf since Tiger Woods,” Callaway Chief Executive Chip Brewer said in an interview. “It’s going to be the largest source of new golfers for our industry.”

That was certainly a 2019 view of Topgolf but I’m not sure that’s still the case.

This statement from Lombardo is also strange:

Topgolf’s outdoor driving ranges have been a big draw during the coronavirus pandemic as people look for ways to safely socialize out of the home.

There is much to unpack here so naturally we kick off with the 2020 Masters news you needed the least: ESPN’s College Gameday will broadcast from the Par 3 course.

Can’t wait for Herbstreit’s take on Ike’s Pond, a Rinaldi tearjerker on where Clifford Roberts called it a career, Geno on the MacKenzie par-3 course never built and of course, Coach Corso making his Masters pick by in caddie coveralls.

Anyway, the important stuff comes after the Gameday news.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, announced today the 2020 Masters Tournament, scheduled for November 9-15, will provide an expansive slate of content across multiple platforms, including ESPN’s College GameDay airing live from Augusta National on Saturday, November 14.

“Given the circumstances brought about by the pandemic, the delivery of quality content is as important as ever to the storytelling of the Masters Tournament,” said Ridley. “While we will dearly miss our patrons at Augusta National this fall, we are excited to showcase what promises to be a truly memorable Masters in a variety of ways for viewers around the world.”

One such way is the addition of College GameDay, which is scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. – Noon before the live CBS broadcast of the third round. The studio will be staged overlooking Ike’s Pond and the 9th green of the Par 3 course.

“When exploring ways to showcase a fall Masters, we were drawn to the concept of hosting College GameDay at Augusta National to introduce the Tournament to a new audience and provide even more anticipation and excitement to the event,” Ridley continued. “We appreciate the collaboration with ESPN, our longtime broadcast partner, for this first-of-its-kind opportunity.”

And hopefully last of its kind. Now that we’ve made up for the Par-3 Contest cancellation…

The Return To Golf needs to start thinking about a Return to Sound.

After taking in this week’s ZOZO Championship at Sherwood Country Club and watching how other sports have adapted to the times, it’s clear professional golf needs to keep adapting to the bizarre times. Quickly.

The PGA Tour has kept their business going but it’s begun to feel like just that: doing enough to keep the doors open and cash flowing. And I realize this will be a big ask while the main focus is on keeping things safe. But as an entertainment “product” (gulp), it’s losing ground. Broadcast enhancements are needed. Immediately.

With the ongoing pandemic likely meaning 2021 golf will be played, at best, with very limited galleries, the natural melatonin that is a golf broadcast requires immediate rethinking to retain fans and sponsor interest.

To review: pro golf was the first major sport back and without fans, managed to make a broadcast work. That was thanks primarily to CBS going all in on extras, particularly in the sound department. Credit also goes to the players who were willing to wear a microphone. Since only the last nine holes felt like golf in the time of a contagious virus without crowds, the “Return to Golf” worked.

While reading how this week’s PGA Tour stop in Bermuda will earn the winner a 2021 Masters invite—even though the headliners couldn’t get in the ZOZO Championship or don’t hold a Tour card or can’t get in Champions Tour events or were not known to be playing golf still—this seemed like a good time to revisit this year’s Masters daylight issues.

Daylight and field size pose some issues for the committee. That’s where Craig Dolch has done the work for us and all I can say is: play fast robust field of 96, you have over two hours less of daylight and the potential for some chilly mornings. And please, no rain delays.

But, with spring turning to fall and Daylight Savings Time ending on Nov. 1, that number shrinks to a daily average of 10 hours, 27½ minutes from Nov. 12-15.

That will be the only day of a traditional first-hole start of twosomes. CBS will be off the air by 6 to prepare for its Alabama-Auburn telecast.

Sunday’s final round becomes even more problematic because of the possibility of a sudden-death playoff and CBS is committed to televising an NFL game at 4:05 p.m. The Masters would likely shoot for a 3 p.m. regulation finish, but there’s not enough daylight in the morning to move the tee times as earlier as needed.

The Masters thus would have to go back to a double-tee start of threesomes for the final round, a single wave, with the first group likely at 8:40 a.m. and the last group at 10:20 a.m.

Two tees and threesomes and the guy who could fix this is a member!

Sherwood’s slightly uphill range is dreamy

The ZOZO Championship’s move from Japan to Sherwood gave players a prime opportunity to prepare for the upcoming Masters. It also offered a chance to see how the whole golf-in-a-pandemic thing is working. This and that from Sherwood:

--The PGA Tour gets an A-. They’ve gotten the whole precautionary steps and protocol thing down at this point in impressive fashion. The attention to safety detail is mighty impressive. The “bubble” largely works and players are more diligent about mask-wearing compared to when I last saw them in action at August’s PGA at Harding Park. The report card is not showing an “A” for just one reason: the peculiar sight of six-or-so men at a time cramming in a fitness trailer to huff, puff and stretch before their rounds. I just don’t get it.

—One other quibble. Caddies and face coverings? Still not a thing. With branded gaiters and other ways to print logos on masks, you’d think some might make a little extra money working as billboards. Or, just want to show up, keep up and mask up in the name of job security.

--Thank heavens for the pro-am. I small-talked with a few Wednesday pro-am participants on the way to their cars. They used regular or electric push carts and appeared to have the time of their lives. Of course was 80 and sunny with a great field, too. But without caddies and galleries, the experience seemed no less enjoyable and maybe more intimate? Players also seemed chipper: the nine-hole format was in use. With the infusion of excited amateurs under sunny skies, Wednesday was easily the most upbeat day of the week.

Both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are working as hard as ever to prepare for the 2020 Masters.

At the 2020 ZOZO Championship and played at Sherwood Country Club, Mickelson was his usual gale force of energy working his coffee/launch monitor/intense warm-ups. Each ZOZO day Tiger was visible in the fitness trailer (doors open for ventilation!) preparing his body ready for play.

Still, Sunday’s late back nine grouping with Adam Long featured plenty of mediocre golf by their lofty standards and a sense that weekend groups featuring the two legends will be rare.

Rex Hoggard writes for GolfChannel.com:

It was a starkly unceremonious end for the two legends who were grouped together in a PGA Tour event for the 38th time. Sixteen strokes off the lead to start the final round of the Zozo Championship, this was a formality. It also was likely the anti-climactic end to a largely anti-climactic head-to-head history between the two titans.

They’ll find themselves in a manufactured group for Rounds 1 and 2 at an event starved for attention somewhere down the road, but the chances of the duo landing together in a meaningful weekend tee time is about as likely as the two sharing a plane ride home.

Volunteers and security watch Patrick Cantlay finish off ZOZO Championship win

A season review of major winners and this year’s November Masters may look back kindly on Patrick Cantlay’s ZOZO Championship win. Coming in his native southern California at Sherwood Country Club, Cantlay held off Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm, two other very likely Masters favorites in 17 days.

While we normally look to play at Riviera, Bay Hill, Honda and TPC Sawgrass for signs of Masters readiness, 2020 left the PGA Tour with a sense of responsibility to give players the chance for a legitimate tune-up. Sherwood checked all of the boxes as a sensational and proven tournament venue. A nice mix of playing styles were in contention and while the softened green contours, five par-5’s and immaculate conditioning produced incredible scoring, the ZOZO field was adequately separated.

Cantlay heads to Augusta as a 25-1 shot and with a big win to go with strong play there last year. He finished T9 in the 2019 Masters after briefly leading Sunday.

And as Ben Everill notes at PGATour.com, his final round 66 came on a course he had never played until this week despite going to college nearby.

CNBC’s Alex Sherman takes an in-depth look at how major media companies are preparing to lose another 25 million cable subscribers and why that may be expediting the demise of several channels.

The story is of particular note for golf given the references to Comcast (NBC, Golf Channel) and Discovery (GOLFTV). But also because all signs point to streaming becoming the required way to get your tournament viewing. Given that the platform is not the preferred way to watch for golf’s older demographic and is still remarkably clunky, it would appear golf’s major organizations relying on cable arrangements have a lot to lose.

As always please hit the link and read the entire story. Here are a few highlights for discussion purposes, starting with this

Moreover, a vicious cycle is settling in that could accelerate cable bundle defections. Distributors like Comcast and Charter no longer care that much whether or not a customer buys traditional pay-TV. The price of a video bundle has gotten so high, there’s little margin for them -- especially compared to broadband internet service.

“You get to that point of financial indifference, then you’re seeing the EBITDA margins go in the right direction and continue to increase,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said last month at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference. “That’s one of the big pivots of Comcast the last decade.”

So instead of threatening blackouts to lower rates, pay-TV operators are accepting rate hikes, passing them along to subscribers, and accepting the fact that price-sensitive customers will cancel TV and go to internet only.

Meanwhile, media companies are shifting their best content to their new streaming services. The result for consumers is higher and higher prices for lower and lower quality.

If that wasn’t disturbing enough there is this:

Approved in 2015, the 44-room extension to the historic Rusacks hotel on historic links road is looking anything but historic. Or befitting the Auld Grey Toon.

Approved and expected to use “traditional” materials, it appears the scale and blond sheen will be an eyesore for decades. Maybe by the 200th Open in 2072 it’ll take on the aged patina one would have expected the planning commission to have demanded from the outset for this sacred real estate.

The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster posted these photos today, October 24, 2020. So much for the grey ole

Wee day out with @carol_dempster at start of a week off and that building work at the side of 18th on Old Course is continuing to take shape pic.twitter.com/P08FoN2vR1

A tradition we sincerely hope is unlike any other: the October run-up to a rescheduled Masters culminates for most players with the ZOZO Championship final round at Sherwood Country Club.

Normally we get the West Coast and Florida swings to build up to Augusta. This year, we have a collection of fall events that are not the usual building blocks to Augusta, though at this week’s ZOZO, a fun test rewarding all types of player.

The leaderboard heading into Sunday’s finale features several expected Masters leading contenders and any number of possible upstarts with a shot. Eleven players are within four strokes of Justin Thomas’s one-stroke lead over Jon Rahm (63).

Adding to the intrigue: cooler and breezier conditions forecast for Sunday at Sherwood, which nobly stood in as the host venue for the Japan-based event. After three days of fairly benign conditions, players may face a bit more on top of hoping to capture a PGA Tour title so close to the Masters.

Key notes from the PGA Tour:

Phil Mickelson was seven-under through eight of his ZOZO Championship holes Saturday before posting 67 at Sherwood, but more noteworthy was the way he walked back his early week comments on Houston. Or was that some post-Commissioner-text-message breakdancing?

Anyway, a few days after questioning a pre-Masters Houston Open appearance because 2000 spectators were going to be allowed, Mickelson has had a change of heart. Maybe.

From Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com:

He told GolfChannel.com this on Saturday: “That’s not a deciding factor. I’m sure the Tour will do a great job of making it safe.”

He went on to mention a bunch of first world dilemmas he faces in this all important scheduling decision. They involve rye grass. Carts. Other things. In case you care.

Another strong month for rounds played, this time up 25.5% according to Golf Datatech.

From their summary:

Entering October, play was up 8.7% nationally versus the same period a year ago. That reflects a year-to-date increase of about 29 million more rounds, even with the loss of about 20 million rounds during the spring due to Covid-related shutdowns.

Every state in the continental U.S. has seen increases in play of at least 2% for each of the past three months. A major drop in precipitation helped fuel a 46% September rounds-increase in Minnesota, while other Midwest states also saw notable increases: Illinois (+35%), Wisconsin (+29%), Michigan (+27%), Indiana (+27%) and Ohio (+26%).

Tony Finau has returned to action after a positive COVID-19 test and what sound like the worst known symptoms experienced by a PGA Tour player since the pandemic has begun.

After carding a second round 64 at Sherwood to land T6 (-11) in the 2020 ZOZO Championship, Finau spoke to reporters about the experience.

I was present for much of Finau’s chat and he’s both a testament to the PGA Tour’s testing program, but also to the role players who have tested positive can play in spreading an enlightened message about mask wearing and distancing.

From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story on Finau that is very much worth your time.

Finau, 31, said he started to experience flu-like symptoms on Oct. 3. Two days later, he drove from his Salt Lake City home to the tournament in Las Vegas. He was tested the following day, with the positive result forthcoming.

"For the first five days, it got worse," said Finau, who was required by the PGA Tour to quarantine in Las Vegas for 10 days -- with a $75,000 stipend provided. "I had massive headaches, body aches. I didn't feel like doing anything. It got me really good -- fatigue-wise. I'm very active. Work out quite often. Always playing golf or with my kids and quite active. It knocked me down. There's no question about it.

"For those 10 days, I didn't feel like doing anything. I obviously didn't get to practice. I lost my taste and smell after about four days. Still don't have it back. That kind of sucks; I'm quite a foodie. It was not the experience I thought I was going to have. Most guys are asymptomatic. They say if you're young and healthy, it's not a big deal. I think I gained some respect for the virus."

It was the coolest day in months around southern California but still comfortable enough for short sleeves.

Sherwood Country Club is immaculate.

There are five par-5’s.

The ball goes forever and there isn’t a snap hook in sight.

Oh, and the players have never been more athletic, intelligent, etc...

TT has he/she/it/they have been known—aka Tiger Tracker—has become a staple of GolfChannel.com’s presence on social media. The 8-year-old account had become the go-to for fans to track Woods’s every move and could even, at times, become a tad cultish as those who questioned the anonymous Tweeter’s wisdom.

Nonetheless, at 438,800 Twitter followers, it was Golf Channel’s second most-followed account but easily its most beloved. While not profitable, TT was quite good at the whole “engagement” thing MBA types mention as vital to their businesses.

But with the channel laying off most staff and sending a small number to Connecticut to put a bare bones channel on the air until an inevitable move of PGA Tour coverage to Peacock, layoffs have apparently eliminated those behind the beloved Twitter follow.

Tiger Tracker has not posted since September 23rd and sat out Tiger’s opening two rounds in his 20200 ZOZO Championship defense. Fans have been inundating both the official account and folks like myself wanting answers.

How revered is the Tracker? Even Golf Channel’s official account briefly wondered where TT was during Thursday’s opening round before the delete button was struck.

Some are counting down to the rescheduled fall Masters to savor a tradition most definitely not like any other we want to do again. Others, well, are looking forward to Bryson DeChambeau highlighting previously unknown design dimensions to Augusta National.

The 2020 U.S. Open Champion provided this Instagram story update on his rest, training and speed work in advance of the Masters (embed above).

As the PGA Tour visits Sherwood Country Club below, Wayne Gretzky has listed his Richard Landry-designed and Lenny Dykstra-redecorated estate for $22.9 million, reports the LA Times’s Jack Fleming.

Overlooking the course hosting this week’s ZOZO Championship, the home has quite a history.

It’s actually Gretzky’s second time selling the home. The NHL Hall of Famer was the compound’s original owner after having it built in 2002, but five years later, he sold it to former baseball star Lenny Dykstra for $18.5 million.

The sale kicked off a dramatic saga that saw Dykstra lose the property to foreclosure after declaring bankruptcy, at which point it sold at auction on the steps of the Ventura County Courthouse for $760,712 (with the winning bidder taking on about $12 million in debt owed on the property).

Then, two years ago, Gretzky reunited with the home, shelling out $13.5 million for the promontory estate. That’s $5 million less than the price at which he had sold it to Dykstra roughly a decade earlier; if he gets his price this time around, he stands to make $9.4 million in profit.

Never one to be entirely consistent, former PGA and Open Champion John Daly took in the 2020 Presidential debate as a guest of Donald Trump. Along with buddy Kid Rock, the pair had to be asked to pull up masks, as mandated by the debate commission, Des Bieler reports.

Not long after the two settled into their seats at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center, they were reportedly asked to put on masks. Daly and Kid Rock complied, but to judge from a number of photos taken of them, they weren’t always assiduous in keeping them pulled up.

Daly, diabetic and battling bladder cancer, was a mask advocate in April and withdrew from the PGA Championship over California’s COVID-19 infection rate.

His post last night from the debate:

Beyond blessed to watch one of best @realdonaldtrump #Trump at #PresidentialDebate2020 #Debates2020 with my boy @kidrock TRUMP MTHA FUCKAS 🚂🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

You want something fresh and different in golf broadcasting? Of late it’s been slim pickings after CBS’s run this summer, but huge points go to LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan for working as an on-course reporter.

Whan covered round one of the LPGA Drive On Championship near Lake Oconee and pulled off a veritable miracle in modern golf: on-course, mid-round interviews.

From Beth Ann Nichols’ Golfweek report on the Whan experiment:

Whan even conducted mid-round interviews, asking players what they would do if they were commissioner for an hour.

“Hire Mike Whan back!” said Kang, who looked more nervous than usual with a mic in her face.

The video:

Nothing against the fall or even the ZOZO, rather miraculously rescheduled despite the sponsor having no place in the American market. But this is typically not a time of year you see players bend clubs, blow off the media, tell dad to lose the tips, or grind on the range until dark.

Day one at Sherwood saw a bit of everything and the stunning scoring you might expect with perfect conditioning, a healthy purse and players seeking momentum into the rescheduled Masters (November 12-15).

A stout 24 players posted 68 or better, with leader Sebastian Munoz 64 despite two bogies and a double. He leads by one over the sizzling Tyrell Hatton and Justin Thomas who finished his round eagle, birdie, birdie.

While spectators are not allowed, local boy Matthew Wolff did have family and friends moving around the property as he predicted Wednesday. Imagine the pride of walking off the fourth tee with Tiger Woods:

Wolff opened with a 69 that included a lost ball at the par-4 14th. He drove the first green, hit the oak next to the surface and made a 17'10” putt for eagle.