#AskAlan, Vol. 71
With thoughts about an asterisk for Wyndham, moving Pebble to the summer, Niemann and the majors, Sergio’s karma, how the equity will be dispensed on Tour and much more
Does Wyndham Clark’s 60 get an asterisk? @adamkommers
Nah, he doesn’t make the rules and he can only play the course that is presented to him. The guy was nails from start to finish. But I’m glad Clark didn’t shoot 59 under lift, clean and place because *that* would have demanded an asterisk.
What is preventing the Tour from moving the Pebble event to the summer when it can run in prime time? Nobody wants to watch guys sweating through their Dockers in Memphis in late July/August. Play Riviera and Pebble Beach when players would love California summer and fans get evening golf! @LivingItUpPod
It’s a great idea but the Pebble Beach Co. doesn’t want to give up those long summer days when the tee sheet is packed with hundreds of golfers and the cash registers are ringing. Pebble is also hosting three U.S. Opens in June between now and 2037 so a summertime Clambake would be redundant. Alas, we’re stuck with Crosby weather forever.
Are guys like Joaquin Niemann really upset about not being in the majors? That’s the deal they made by going to LIV. I guess winning $4 million doesn’t mean much anymore when the first words out of his mouth is about missing majors. @amolyajnik
We’ll see how many major championships he actually misses. Niemann’s victory at the Australian Open in December earned him an exemption into the ’24 British Open, and he can play his way to Pinehurst through U.S. Open qualifying like all of the other dreamers. The Masters and PGA Championship are invitationals and their respective committees can invite Niemann if they are so inclined, no matter where he falls in the increasingly irrelevant OWGR. The PGA Championship already set a precedent last year when it gave Paul Casey an exemption, so the real intrigue surrounds the Masters, which has always coveted international audiences. Niemann is the best player from the whole of South America, and he was top 20 in the world when he went to LIV. The Masters is diminished without him in the field. But the lords of Augusta are traditionalists, and with their spot on the governing board of the OWGR they helped deny LIV’s application for recognition, so there is much intrigue as to how they will handle Niemann (and perhaps Talor Gooch if he keeps winning).
Is there a parallel universe where Sergio Garcia wins four or five majors through sheer ballstriking prowess and a little luck here or there? @Levi275
Easily. I’m reminded of what PGA Tour veteran Scott Harrington texted reporter Dan Rappaport after being paired with Garcia in U.S. Open qualifying last year: “Haven’t played with Tiger but have played with everybody else. Was first time with Sergio. In terms of putting the bat on the ball and shotmaking, it’s the most impressive I’ve seen.” Garcia has 24 top-10s in the major championships but only one victory. Shaky putting and emotional immaturity explains a lot, but when a player puts himself in position that many times you’d think a win or two (at least) would fall into his lap. That it’s never happened for Garcia can be described as bad luck…or karma.
So, when does the 2024 golf season begin? Haven’t heard much about actual golf. Maybe April? Oh, and what kind of season will Rose Zhang have? Golf + Academics. @caia437
It’s true, the macro-stories continue to overwhelm. But this week will be a double banger with the energy of the Phoenix Open and LIV playing in Las Vegas at the same time that the town is hosting the Super Bowl. Then we get the L.A. Open, which is always one of the best tournaments of the year. So there will plenty of golf to focus on.
As for Rose, she had a little swoon last fall at the outset of the Stanford school year, and who can blame her? Juggling academics and professional golf can’t be easy. But in her last half-dozen starts she’s been back to her rock-solid play. I expect she’ll do quite well in and out of the classroom this year.
If a random golf Twitter account trolls golf posts every day by replying, “Nobody cares”… does he care too much? Is he holding on too tight? Are there more concerning issues at play?? Asking for a friend… @kylelabat
You appear to have many friends on the bird app! The proliferation of the Nobody Cares Guy has certainly been an obnoxious development in the LIV era. It can be translated as, “I care so much I am too flummoxed to articulate an actual human thought.”
How does “player equity” work when the roster is continually moving with new players coming and going all the time? @votehimoutinnov
Short answer is timing is everything: card-carrying PGA Tour member in 2024 are lucky mofos! They will reap most of the benefits of a century of toil by their predecessors. I’d love for PGA Tour Enterprises to break off some dough for all the old-timers. How about every living pro golfer over 40 gets $1,000 for every start that he made on Tour? It would be a symbolic thank you to the old dogs and the journeymen who helped build this thing. Or, let’s add another zero to that if we’re feeling generous. But the vast majority of the money will be dispensed right away to reward top players who didn’t jump to LIV and discourage any who are currently contemplating. If the PIF walks away from the framework agreement in the next few months, and the Tour is again in a fierce battle to keep its players, pretty much all the equity will be burned up this year.
Hi Alan, I’ve asked this one three times on past “Ask Alan’s”: Why wasn’t the private equity path pursued from the start versus going to PIF last summer? Seems so logical. @Michaelarinewma
Clearly I’m susceptible to guilt trips—well done, Mike! But you’ve kind of answered your own question: it was too logical. PE money had been circling professional golf for years. After all, Raine Capital had pledged $500 million to the upstart Premier Golf League and Raine had been in deep negotiations with the European Tour, too. Jay Monahan knew all of this and still he decided to try to compete with the Saudis’ $750 billion war chest by…checks notes…squeezing his wary corporate sponsors for an extra million or two. Oy.
On some level, I don’t blame Jay. He has day-to-day oversight of a massive bureaucracy and has to fret about everything from Bernhard Langer anchoring his putter to finding sponsors for the Latinoamérica Tour to his direct-reports having flings with subordinates (allegedly). But what about his army of Vice Presidents—shouldn’t they be gaming every possible scenario? What about the supposed corporate whiz kids on the PGA Tour board—aren’t they supposed to be big, strategic thinkers? It’s easy to blame Jay but the slow, reactive, ineffectual response to LIV’s gathering storm was a massive institutional failing, and the mistakes keep compounding.