The Golf Thread

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Forget the Rory part, looks like Asian Tour is the vehicle by which PIF creates a global golf tour

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1769666847853453820

 

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Valid points. I've also noticed that when he gets into trouble off the tee, instead of doing the sensible thing of getting it back into play and relying on getting up and down for the par, he's going for the impossible shots which is where the doubles are coming from.

I'm not sure LIV or Brooks are disappointments to him. But one took up way more of his time/mind than was healthy and no doubt he's got zero time left for Monahan now.

Watched a bit of Flushing It on Netflix

Monahan & PGAT used him and he was pissed when he discovered that they’d been negotiating

Rahm didn’t carry anywhere near the focus & he was pissed enough to sign for LIV

He admitted that being passed by Brooks is a disappointment as it’s the first time he’s been bettered by a contemporary in his life

Anyway, nothing he can’t fix

 

[Molehill]

Watched a bit of Flushing It on Netflix

Monahan & PGAT used him and he was pissed when he discovered that they’d been negotiating

Rahm didn’t carry anywhere near the focus & he was pissed enough to sign for LIV

He admitted that being passed by Brooks is a disappointment as it’s the first time he’s been bettered by a contemporary in his life

Anyway, nothing he can’t fix

True, winning the Masters will automatically raise him well above his contemporaries. Brooks may have 5, but he's never won an Open....or a Tour Championship.......or Wentworth.......or a Matchplay....or Dubai....(Rory needs to get some perspective on just how successful his career really is).

 

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True, winning the Masters will automatically raise him well above his contemporaries. Brooks may have 5, but he's never won an Open....or a Tour Championship.......or Wentworth.......or a Matchplay....or Dubai....(Rory needs to get some perspective on just how successful his career really is).

Yeah but Brooks doesn’t care about anything but majors and nor do most of the guys at that level

 

[Molehill]

Yeah but Brooks doesn’t care about anything but majors and nor do most of the guys at that level

Judged by how quickly some signed to LIV, I reckon they care quite a lot about their bank balances, so the Tour Championship would be a big miss from Koepka's CV.

He's also 'only' won arguably the two more minor Majors too.

 

[Anil]

He is likeable, and of the 4 who ended up with a chance of winning, he was the one I wanted. Clark is a bit of a muppet, Harman so annoying with his waggles and Schauffele too good a friend of Cantlay's!! Wins despite a neck injury clearly impeding him for the 2 middle rounds.

The NBC commentary was so painfully fawning, utterly cringe-worthy. "Here comes World No: 1!", "World No: 1 is in the lead!" blah, blah, blah! I liked his answers to some of the more dumb questions like "When you got that pain in your neck in the 2nd round, did you ever think you would be in this position?" "Yes I did, that's why I continued playing". And his matter-of-fact responses to the severity of the injury...looked like everyone from the analysts and the media wanted it to be more severe than it actually was.

A what could've been for Fitzpatrick who managed to get beaten up all week by the short par 4 4th, played it in +5 whilst the others were all under par on it. He lost by 5!!

Yeah that was strange, two doubles and a bogey just on that hole...

Not sure who beats Scheffler at the Masters, he could actually win it by more than 5 if he putts well. His tee to green is so far in advance to everyone else at the mo.

He will be the favorite going in, that's for sure. But we will have Rahm and Koepka also in the field...should be fun!

Rory needs to cut out the stupid ****. Apparently he had 7 double bogeys all last year, he's already had 5 this season (3 this week) and it's still March.

Why would he want to mess with that superb swing? That's the best part of his game...I can understand him trying to fix his short game and putting but this is weird to say the least.

 

[Molehill]

The NBC commentary was so painfully fawning, utterly cringe-worthy. "Here comes World No: 1!", "World No: 1 is in the lead!" blah, blah, blah! I liked his answers to some of the more dumb questions like "When you got that pain in your neck in the 2nd round, did you ever think you would be in this position?" "Yes I did, that's why I continued playing". And his matter-of-fact responses to the severity of the injury...looked like everyone from the analysts and the media wanted it to be more severe than it actually was.

He will be the favorite going in, that's for sure. But we will have Rahm and Koepka also in the field...should be fun!

Fortunately, in the UK we have our own commentators for the big tournaments. That's why Radar (who was on the course for the UK coverage) became a central figure in the Rory Drop Controversy as he had been asked an opinion on the first one on 18 which seemed to annoy Spieth for some reason.

Koepka peaks for the Majors and doesn't need tournaments in between to get his competitive juices flowing. He will certainly be a threat and he goes well at Augusta. It'll be interesting to see how the LIV format has affected Rahm's game. It certainly doesn't seem to have helped Smith. Also, worth pointing out that unless your name is Woods, Nicklaus or Faldo, no one has ever retained the trophy.

 

[Anil]

I expect Rahm to do well but you are right, it's an unknown how the LIV exhibition games have changed his game overall.

 

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See that Paul Casey is playing a DPWT event in Singapore this week

Bit strange as he’s still with LIV & assumed he’d be banned but is playing on a sponsor’s exemption

Edit: okay, he’s a Porsche ambassador and they not only sponsor 2 DPWT events but have threatened to pull out if their ambassadors aren’t allowed to play

Money obviously trumps rules

 

[Molehill]

See that Paul Casey is playing a DPWT event in Singapore this week

Bit strange as he’s still with LIV & assumed he’d be banned but is playing on a sponsor’s exemption

Edit: okay, he’s a Porsche ambassador and they not only sponsor 2 DPWT events but have threatened to pull out if their ambassadors aren’t allowed to play

Money obviously trumps rules

Not sure there's any rules about who sponsors can invite.

Looks like they've also paid for Lowry and Pavon to join up too - can't think why else they'd have jetted over from Florida for this.

Will be interesting to see how Casey goes, been one of the in form LIV players and has been selected up by a well known golf tipster in the UK (Ben Coley is well worth a follow as much for his interesting opinions as anything - although he was threatened by a LIV bot yesterday!!). He generally hates LIV, but is obviously happy to tip up Casey here.

 

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Not sure there's any rules about who sponsors can invite.

Looks like they've also paid for Lowry and Pavon to join up too - can't think why else they'd have jetted over from Florida for this.

Will be interesting to see how Casey goes, been one of the in form LIV players and has been selected up by a well known golf tipster in the UK (Ben Coley is well worth a follow as much for his interesting opinions as anything - although he was threatened by a LIV bot yesterday!!). He generally hates LIV, but is obviously happy to tip up Casey here.

4 under for Casey which is 4 off the pace

Other than Pelley being an idiot (or insert other reason here), I still don’t understand why the DPWT has aligned itself so closely with the PGAT as all it’s achieved is to weaken its regular fields

They could simply have remained somewhat independent like the Australian Tour and padded out their fields with LIV guys whenever possible and nobody would care

 

[Molehill]

They could simply have remained somewhat independent like the Australian Tour and padded out their fields with LIV guys whenever possible and nobody would care

So I think that's the difference, people would care. There's a lot of animosity to LIV in the UK. The likes of Poulter, Westwood, Garcia, Casey etc had shown limited loyalty to the DPWT for the previous 10 years anyway, all having set up base in the US (Westwood more recently, but the other three for close on 20 years). I don't blame guys of that age for grabbing the money, but to expect DPWT to offer them loyalty for not much in return is questionable.

There is a school of thought which suggests more European players will now come through the DPWT than previously. A lot of youngsters with potential take up scholarships in the US College system (I know 2 lads currently there). With a clear pathway to the PGA Tour through DPWT now established, it will perhaps allow more to take this route.

It should be remembered that we do still have the Ryder Cup, if you want to play in that you've got to play a significant amount of tournaments on DPWT - although the Rahm situation is going to test that.

 

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So I think that's the difference, people would care. There's a lot of animosity to LIV in the UK. The likes of Poulter, Westwood, Garcia, Casey etc had shown limited loyalty to the DPWT for the previous 10 years anyway, all having set up base in the US (Westwood more recently, but the other three for close on 20 years). I don't blame guys of that age for grabbing the money, but to expect DPWT to offer them loyalty for not much in return is questionable.

There is a school of thought which suggests more European players will now come through the DPWT than previously. A lot of youngsters with potential take up scholarships in the US College system (I know 2 lads currently there). With a clear pathway to the PGA Tour through DPWT now established, it will perhaps allow more to take this route.

It should be remembered that we do still have the Ryder Cup, if you want to play in that you've got to play a significant amount of tournaments on DPWT - although the Rahm situation is going to test that.

Just to give you an indication of how horrendous the DPWT deal is

Asian Tour received $300 million from LIV, is expanding into Europe, Central & South America and gets to pad the fields of its signature events with LIV players

DPWT receives $13 million per year from the PGAT who take the top 10 finishers in the OOM in return. They also reneged on a previous deal to stage a couple of elevated events in Europe

Little wonder that Pelley did a runner

 

[Molehill]

Just to give you an indication of how horrendous the DPWT deal is

Asian Tour received $300 million from LIV, is expanding into Europe, Central & South America and gets to pad the fields of its signature events with LIV players

DPWT receives $13 million per year from the PGAT who take the top 10 finishers in the OOM in return. They also reneged on a previous deal to stage a couple of elevated events in Europe

I guess some people also have a conscience. Does the name Jamal Khashoggi mean nothing? It seems money can't buy you everything.....like a crowd or a world ranking.

Interesting to see Rahm bleat on about how LIV is growing the game by taking tournaments to places no one has ever been before....except...checks notes.....he could've played all those on the DPWT!! He openly admitted he went there for the money, does he really need to talk utter ****e too? You're better than that Jon.

 

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I guess some people also have a conscience. Does the name Jamal Khashoggi mean nothing? It seems money can't buy you everything.....like a crowd or a world ranking.

Interesting to see Rahm bleat on about how LIV is growing the game by taking tournaments to places no one has ever been before....except...checks notes.....he could've played all those on the DPWT!! He openly admitted he went there for the money, does he really need to talk utter ****e too? You're better than that Jon.

There’s very few countries in the world who aren’t guilty of human rights abuses

The good ole US of A is arguably the worst in history but I don’t see a mass boycott of the PGAT

Money talks

 

[Molehill]

There's human rights abuses and then there's the Saudis.

The question is, what is giving $300m to the Asian Tour actually going to achieve? LIV has more money than it could ever know how to spend, yet it's created a format that no one wants to watch, despite having bought a number of the best golfers. The Team thing is pointless, no one cares. The Shotgun spoils the routes of courses that have been carefully created by designers. 54 holes allows for lesser players to shine more (see Gooch for perfect example).

I get that the PGA could've done more for the World game, and more tournaments should be held outside the US. I still think it's somewhat embarrassing how many turned up to the Adelaide LIV though which is fast becoming the flagship event for LIV - the only place people want to watch it. But it does show that the PGA missed a trick in not taking a Fall event down under.

 

[social]

There's human rights abuses and then there's the Saudis.

The question is, what is giving $300m to the Asian Tour actually going to achieve? LIV has more money than it could ever know how to spend, yet it's created a format that no one wants to watch, despite having bought a number of the best golfers. The Team thing is pointless, no one cares. The Shotgun spoils the routes of courses that have been carefully created by designers. 54 holes allows for lesser players to shine more (see Gooch for perfect example).

I get that the PGA could've done more for the World game, and more tournaments should be held outside the US. I still think it's somewhat embarrassing how many turned up to the Adelaide LIV though which is fast becoming the flagship event for LIV - the only place people want to watch it. But it does show that the PGA missed a trick in not taking a Fall event down under.

C’mon man

The US, UK & Australia make Saudi look like choirboys

I know it, you know it & the world knows it

Khashoggi was probably chopped up by a chainsaw given to them by the US, flown there by Qantas and delivered to them in a Bentley

Tiger’s red shirts were probably made in a sweatshop staffed by children in Bangladesh

If sportsmen got up on their high horse and refused to play in any country that had perpetrated human rights abuses then they wouldn’t play at all

 

[Molehill]

C’mon man

The US, UK & Australia make Saudi look like choirboys

I know it, you know it & the world knows it

Khashoggi was probably chopped up by a chainsaw given to them by the US, flown there by Qantas and delivered to them in a Bentley

Tiger’s red shirts were probably made in a sweatshop staffed by children in Bangladesh

If sportsmen got up on their high horse and refused to play in any country that had perpetrated human rights abuses then they wouldn’t play at all

Slightly different if you're man v woman v gay in Saudi!!

Chess champion to miss Saudi Arabia tournament over women's rights | Chess | The Guardian

I believe the Ladies tennis players are also up in arms about a potential tournament there.

We may not be perfect, but to say we're anywhere near the human rights levels of the Saudis is utterly ridiculous.

 

[Yeoman]

There's human rights abuses and then there's the Saudis.

The question is, what is giving $300m to the Asian Tour actually going to achieve? LIV has more money than it could ever know how to spend, yet it's created a format that no one wants to watch, despite having bought a number of the best golfers. The Team thing is pointless, no one cares. The Shotgun spoils the routes of courses that have been carefully created by designers. 54 holes allows for lesser players to shine more (see Gooch for perfect example).

I get that the PGA could've done more for the World game, and more tournaments should be held outside the US. I still think it's somewhat embarrassing how many turned up to the Adelaide LIV though which is fast becoming the flagship event for LIV - the only place people want to watch it. But it does show that the PGA missed a trick in not taking a Fall event down under.

The LIV tie up with the Asian tour seems designed to give them a connection to an established tour and therefor a shred of legitimacy, to act as a kind of feeder tour and to give its players somewhere to play outside of the LIV schedule. To most organisations this would not be worth 300mln however money is seemingly no object for them.

 

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Nelly Korda is new ladies #1 after her win in California

Gabriela Ruffels, who was formerly a world ranked junior tennis player, finished 3rd