Morikawa’s performance makes me feel better about a collapse I had in the club championship a dozen years ago.
And Scott has a pretty great sand save on 18 to clinch the final spot.Cantlay wins the BMW. Scheffler retains the #1 spot heading into the Tour Championship.
That reads more like Pro Top Golf to me.Pro Golden Tee?
With Brooks and Bryson teeing it up for LIV, what an amazingly likeable top 12 group of golfers for team USA (and a lot of them are under 30 too).USA
Scheffler
Cantlay
Schauffele
JT
Finau
6 Captains picks. Next up:
Zalatoris (out)
Spieth
Morikawa
Homa
Horschel
Young
Hoge
Poston
Kisner
Totally agree. They also aren't really any worse off without DJ, Bryson, Brooks and Reed. They are just as good, if not better. Hard to gauge the form of the LIV guys, but had LIV not occured there's a good probability that Bryson, Brooks and Reed wouldn't have sniffed qualifying based on their Tour starts before departing.With Brooks and Bryson teeing it up for LIV, what an amazingly likeable top 12 group of golfers for team USA (and a lot of them are under 30 too).
Absolute addition by subtraction.With Brooks and Bryson teeing it up for LIV, what an amazingly likeable top 12 group of golfers for team USA (and a lot of them are under 30 too).
How many times since 1985 have we seen inferior European rosters play much better than their talent levels and superior American rosters play much worse? Your general point is spot on - the American advantage on paper has noticeably increased - but the Ryder Cup is totally unpredictable, and the European team ought to have a pretty decent home course advantage in Italy next year.For the Ryder Cup, the Euro's have the horses at the top but once you get past Rory, Rahm, Hovland it gets bleak in a hurry. Lowry and Hatton are solid but after them they're dipping into Thomas Pieters, Seamus Power, Sepp Straka, etc. No offense to those guys, but they aren't going to hold up against the Homa's, Morikawa's that are on the bottom half of the US lineup. Also, I think this was happening with or without LIV. Westwood, Sergio, Poulter, Casey were basically aging out and I don't think their inclusion would make much of a difference.
For like the 8 billionth time, they aren't hiding money and suddently finding it under the mattress. It's all tied to the new $6 billion TV deal that they are in year 1 of. They don't actually have the money in hand yet.Some announcements out today from the tour... Tour sure is finding a lot of money. Among announced changes:
-Top players commit to 20 event schedule with 12 "elevated events" with $20mn+ purses, 4 majors, PLAYERS, plus 3 other events of player's choice
-Expanded PIP up to $100mn from $50mn and expanded to 20 players
-"Earnings Assurance Program" guarantees minimum $500k per player on Tour for any fully exempt member that plays 15 events
-$5k travel assistance for non-exempt players that play an event and don't make the cut
https://www.pgatour.com/news/2022/08/24/pga-tour-top-players-make-unprecedented-commitment-to-pga-tour-future-schedule.html
Yes. Popularity matters. A lot, really.PIP as a qualifier for the top events is interesting and a big shift from almost entirely performance based approach to qualification in the past (excluding sponsors exemptions). I get it, but at the same time is it right that because Rickie Fowler is popular he gets to play big events he might not otherwise qualify for which in turn keeps him in the spotlight and therefore he remains popular?
The tour needs ambassadors. This is the way to get them. I don’t have an issue with it. Popularity leads to awareness which leads to more fans which leads to more money.PIP as a qualifier for the top events is interesting and a big shift from almost entirely performance based approach to qualification in the past (excluding sponsors exemptions). I get it, but at the same time is it right that because Rickie Fowler is popular he gets to play big events he might not otherwise qualify for which in turn keeps him in the spotlight and therefore he remains popular?
Edit: or am I misreading? Obviously PIP can't qualify someone into the Masters, but will top 20 PIP guys all get into the elevated events?
There is more TV money coming, yes, but the emergence of LIV clearly gave the players a lot more leverage than they would have had otherwise with the top players seeming to get a lot more influence over the outcome.For like the 8 billionth time, they aren't hiding money and suddenly finding it under the mattress. It's all tied to the new $6 billion TV deal that they are in year 1 of. They don't actually have the money in hand yet.
They announced over a year ago, before LIV shit hit the fan, that the purse sizes would be increasing significantly.
If it's on sims that means Tiger doesn't have to walk. Getting to watch any form of Tiger playing golf is good in my book.If it leads to finding a way to fix putting on sims, I’m all in.
Based on these renderings, hit long shots into a giant sim, then putt on an actual green?If it leads to finding a way to fix putting on sims, I’m all in.
LIV definitely spurred the stars to action to re-shape the Tour, but the perception that the Tour just "found" the money has been out there for a while and it's flat out wrong.There is more TV money coming, yes, but the emergence of LIV clearly gave the players a lot more leverage than they would have had otherwise with the top players seeming to get a lot more influence over the outcome.
Did you(or anyone else) happen to catch the airing of the Payne Stewart Award ceremony last night honoring Billy Andrade? In his speech, he had a spirited response to the LIV guys. It was pretty powerful.LIV definitely spurred the stars to action to re-shape the Tour, but the perception that the Tour just "found" the money has been out there for a while and it's flat out wrong.
Anyways, I think this effectively stops the LIV momentum. They'll get their last batch of players, including Cam Smith, after this week or the Presidents Cup but that's it.
You can say it 8 billion and one times, because this is an additional ~$100 million that Jay admitted in his press conference that will partially come from reserves, and partially he’s hoping to pull from as-yet-TBD partners.For like the 8 billionth time, they aren't hiding money and suddently finding it under the mattress. It's all tied to the new $6 billion TV deal that they are in year 1 of. They don't actually have the money in hand yet.
“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,’’ Westwood said of the plan unveiled at the Tour Championship. “It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is 'not competitive.’ They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields.
“Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV. Hopefully, at some point they will all choke on their words. And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days.’’
(he made close to $25 million in his career on thePGA Tour)“I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years,’’ Westwood said. “There’s not much “give.’ They have always been bullies and now they are getting their comeuppance. All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger (Woods) came on tour is up the prize purses. In turn, that has taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour.
“They’ve had to play in the States, taking all their world ranking points with them. That was their strategy: 'Put up the money. Get all the players. Hog all the world ranking points.’ Which becomes self-perpetuating. What we have seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has done for the last 25 years.’’
He's not wrong
[/QUOTE
'All the tour has done with all the extra money made because of Tiger is give it back to the players"
I guess when you look at it that way, it's just like murdering journalists.
He’s completely contradicting the rationale that Mickelson articulated when LIV was being formed. Of course he’s wrong.He's not wrong
Thanks for sharing. For some reason, I have to pick up the passes at the Saudi embassy, but it’s small inconvenience for free tickets!Just saw an LIV Facebook ad and clicked in out of a morbid curiosity. Under discounted ticket availability I, erm, saw this:
View attachment 54735
Now the likelihood is you are not sending a military ID *direct* to the Saudi government, but maybe if you served it is ok to pay full price this time?
I don't understand what you mean by this. There is no prestige of LIVThe money must just be too irresistible for these guys, because the prestige of the PGA Tour is still far beyond LIV.
Hence the PGA Tour's prestige is far beyond.I don't understand what you mean by this. There is no prestige of LIV
Yeah, that's my bad. Stupid question.Hence the PGA Tour's prestige is far beyond.
I'll go one step further than this: the FedEx Cup Playoffs have always been spiritual kindred to what is now LIV, the Saudi angle notwithstanding. You've got a bunch of people playing (after the first playoff event) in a no-cut format, and the only thing that's really on the line is money. Lots and lots of money. It used to be that the player who "won the money list" - or "the Order of Merit" on the European Tour, a much classier name - had by one very important metric the best season on the Tour. The playoffs cheapen that to the point where you can no longer say that because of the outsized impact the playoff events have on the regular season FedEx Cup standings. The revised format, with the leader coming into East Lake starting at -10 and so on down the rankings, at least more equitably distributes the big wad of cash at the end of the season towards players who did well over most of the season - relative to the old system where everyone in the Top 30 had an equal shot at the big jackpot - but the calculations for getting there are mystifyingly opaque.I have absolutely no love for this format