Golfing News & Blog Articles

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announced lockdown measures were announced last week and include golf getting a not-so-special shout-out for England.

Outdoor exercise and recreation encouraged and is unlimited - only with your household/bubble, on your own or with one other person from a different household (golf is not allowed)

Sean Ingle and Ewan Murray report that a reprieve may be coming for golf, tennis and swimming.

The possible compromise could come after Johnson has been pressured by England Golf and its chief, Jeremy Tomlinson, to reconsider. A petition has garnered over 250,000 signatures.

In an open letter to “fellow golfers”, Tomlinson took issue with protocols revealed by the prime minister on Saturday. “I would like to make clear England Golf’s intention to respectfully challenge the government’s rationale for closing golf courses. We will do so utilising all in our network – MPs, colleagues, media and friends – to make sure we are heard by government,” he said.

Aljean Harmetz’s NY Times remembrance of Sean Connery (thanks reader Chris for sending):

Like the months that 12-year-old Charles Dickens spent working in a factory that made shoe blacking, Mr. Connery’s deprived childhood informed the rest of his life. When he was 63, he told an interviewer that a bath was still “something special.”

His anger was never far below the surface. What he called his “violent side,” he told The Times, may have been “ammunitioned” by his childhood. The same was true of his odd combination of penury and generosity.

A passionate golfer — he discovered the game about the same time he discovered James Bond — he was the only player at the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles who carried his own bag.

Other stories, including one from Jim Nantz (embedded below), indicate he was a lifelong walker/carrier even where caddies were required.

Morning Read’s Shaun Tolson reports on a very exciting collaboration: Pinehurst and Tad Moore Hickory.

The rental sets are a steep $50, but anyone who has played unsuitable hickories can attest that the price is worth it given the quality of Moore’s clubs. The rental sets can be used on any Pinehurst course, though the resort is advocating their use on Nos. 1, 3 or the Cradle.

Tolson writes:

Yes, playing a round with hickory clubs may open doors to a new social circle of golfing compatriots, but it will definitely open newcomers’ eyes to the challenges that the sport’s greatest players faced a century ago.

“They’re just fascinating to hit,” Smarrelli said of the clubs. “You get so much satisfaction when you hit the ball solid with those things. When you hit a good shot, you say, ‘Wow! This is how they played golf way back.’”

On State of the Game 107 we welcome author Daniel Wexler to discuss his new book A Timeless Game but quickly run off topic into the future of golf in urban centers, technology and the distance debate along with a brief addressing of Brandel Chamblee's uncomfortably dishonest attacks on co-host Mike Clayton and pro-regulation types.

I highly recommend Wexler’s latest, available here on Amazon. The paperback features ten essays. Topics include the life of Willie Anderson, to heavyweight boxing champ Joe Louis’s life in golf, to the dominance of Korean women golfers. And of course, the modern equipment issue. It’s a steal at $14.95!

The Guardian’s Ewan Murray talks to TaylorMade CEO David Abeles about the possibility of equipment regulation. Abeles’ “what if” scenarios floated fall a tad flat given recreational golf’s recent resurgence that have not a thing to do with distance gains via club purchases or golfers running out to buy what the pros are playing. They’re spending on soft goods, balls, bags and other essentials because they have time and golf is safe.

Most interesting is Abeles’ suggestion that should some sort of rollback occur, he would consider bringing non-conforming equipment “to market”. This is something the company could do today since there is no law requiring manufacturers comply with USGA and R&A rules.

“As a governing body you can choose to modify your rules in any way you feel acceptable,” Abeles says. “That’s ultimately their decision. The question is who is going to follow it? Right now, we can design and develop whatever we want as an authentic company. We play by the construct of the rules that have been created around the sport as relates to equipment and ball development. We believe that’s the right space to be in, in the spirit of the traditions of the game.

“But there is nobody prohibiting us from going and building a ball that goes further or a driver that does the same. We are working on advanced technologies all the time to do that. We have chosen not to do that [bring such products for sale] because we want to unify the sport and apply the same rules. If there was a rollback, we would have to draw real consideration as it relates to what we choose to bring to market.”

So if game improvement is sacred, and they have developed things that would make the sport easier, why not sell those clubs?

Interesting that R&A Chief Martin Slumbers felt the need to justify his organization’s cancelling of the 2020 Open Championship given the leeway most organizations have gotten during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From John Huggan’s GolfDigest.com discussion with Slumbers about the decision to postpone Royal St. George’s:

“The situation here was very different to that in America,” Slumbers said. “The United States is so much bigger than the U.K. All the messages we received from government were prompt. We were getting very clear steers that this virus was not going to go away in four weeks. Having said that, I can’t be happier for my colleagues at the USGA and the PGA of America and Augusta National who have found ways to get their events done. Do I have a slight tinge of jealousy? Yes, I do. Having no Open rips the heart out of the R&A. Our rhythm of life, as it has for so many, has been disrupted. I didn’t enjoy what should have been Open week.”

There was one more piece of ammunition for potential critics. Did the financial safety net provided by the presence of the R&A’s “communicable disease” insurance policy play too much of a role in the eventual decision?

“Although it would be wrong to say that having the insurance in place was not linked to what we came up with, all the decision-making was done through the lens of being uninsured,” Slumbers said. “We would have come to the same conclusion, irrespective of that. We were fortunate to have insurance. That protects part of our expenses, and we are working though all of that with the insurers at the moment. But it was independent of the final decision. [Slumbers would not say how much the insurance cost, how much the R&A has or will receive as payment or what it covered.] The All-England Tennis Club at Wimbledon was in the same position. They had an identical policy, and they canceled their championship, too.”

Bubba Watson spoke to USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio about anxiety issues that have crippled his game at times and sent the former world No. 2 to dark places he never imagined.

It’s an important read so hit the link. But the happy setup:

But Watson has emerged on the other side, saying he’s feeling as good as he has in a very long time. And helping him battle the anxiety is talking about it.

“I’ve sought help in many different ways, many different forms, trying to overcome it,” Watson said. “It really comes down to me being nuts. I’m trying to make light of it because using humor helps. But it’s all in my head. It’s all anxiety.

“I think more people are speaking out about mental issues and I want to be one of them. I think it’s the only way to get through it. We’re designed to talk to people, to air it out, and get help. I am old enough now to realize my life is a waste if I don’t share, if I don’t try to get better myself so I can help other people.”

Jack Nicklaus has endorsed Donald Trump again for President of the United States and four years later, is issuing a stern warning about the upcoming election and urging folks to vote for his candidate.

Offhand, I’m not sure that I recall a famous golfer wading this deep into ideology since the threat of world war.

The full post is pasted below just in case someone wakes up in the morning and reads the responses, but in the meantime here are the Twitter and Instagram versions.

When its $2B merger with @Topgolf is completed early next year, @CallawayGolf expects the combined company will have a revenue mix of Topgolf (46 percent); golf equipment (30 percent); and softgoods (24 percent).@GeoffShac #callawaygolf #topgolf #golf #golfbusiness #sports pic.twitter.com/cSs6K9Eu0m

While the market pounded Callaway’s stock price—down 18.83% on news of an all stock merger with Topgolf—Yahoo’s Daniel Roberts notes that Callaway diversified its business for less than half of Topgolf’s $4 billion valuation as it eyed an IPO.

But there is the pandemic and Roberts suggests the market is less bullish on a return to groups gathering for Topgolf fun as soon as Callaway may be thinking.

CEO Chip Brewer joined CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’ to talk about what the merger would do for its golf entertainment business.

With this week’s Bermuda event featuring around 500 spectators and next week’s Houston Open selling 2000 tickets a day, it’s unclear if this is an aberration or the beginning of fan attendance.

GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker reports on the safety protocols planned in Bermuda and the view of some that it’s not worth having spectators back just yet.

Scott Stallings, who is in the field this week in Bermuda and will play in Houston next week, believes it’s too soon to have fans in attendance. Privately, others also expressed similar concerns.

“It’s not worth the risk with only three events left in the U.S.,” Stallings said. “We’ve made it this far without issue, why rush back?”

A not unreasonable point though at 500 spaced well outdoors, let’s hope there are no issues both of the viral sort or on the optics front.

John Lombardo of Sports Business Daily reports on the unlikelihood of crowds in Hawaii and California, where virus numbers are down and restrictions are toughest. Some galleries are possible at the Waste Management Open (but likely without the usual 16th hole arena build-out).

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:

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.