“I want to win majors, but I gotta get in first.” – Joaquin Niemann
LOL. Then why did you join LIV? Sign for millions and win millions in LIV events, and then whine about the decision you made. You can’t have it both ways, kid.
– The Head Nut
“Golf is losing all its class. It’s turned into a Jerry Springer episode.” – Anonymous
By Ward Clayton, Substack
Click image for story
The Head Nut
#0001
Give it a try and let me know how it worked.
The Head Nut
#0001
I sent the following message to James Colgan of Golf.com in response to his piece “8 noticeable changes coming to CBS broadcasts in 2024“. It’s safe to assume that I’m pretty fed up with the current state of the game, and you can expect more of the same coming from me going forward. Somebody needs to stand up and fight, and I’m volunteering my services uninvited. We are losing the game to those who believe “change is inevitable”, when they have no clue about the fundamental challenge of the game and its longstanding customs and traditions. They Are Wrong.
–THN
James,
Your article is proof that we already have bifurcation in golf. You and I couldn’t disagree more regarding some of the changes in golf broadcasts. You must represent the younger demographic, and I the older demo. Trust me there are more of us, and we are being left behind by these “noticeable changes” you mentioned in your article.
I am 76-years-old, have been playing golf since 1969, shooting somewhere around 140 but being instantly hooked on the game. I went on to play competitively, winning five state titles, one regional title, and being qualifying medalist in 5 USGA regional qualifiers. So, I know the game both as a competitor and as a television viewer. I’ve been watching televised golf since long before you were born and have benefitted a great deal from the networks’ improvements and innovations over these many decades. There was a point in time, however, when golf broadcasts crossed the Rubicon, and your article, “8 noticeable changes coming to CBS broadcasts in 2024”, is all the evidence we need.
First, “walk-and-talks” are not an innovation, they are an invasion of a player’s privacy at a most inopportune time. This is a very annoying trend in all of sports. Yes, sports. Golf is not entertainment, it is sports. Can you imagine Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus agreeing to be interviewed during any of their tournament rounds back during their prime? I can’t. Rather than thinking, “Hey, let’s do in-round interviews, that would be SO cool!!”, perhaps the networks should ask, “What would Tiger do?” And the players should ask themselves the same question when the network asks them to do these ridiculous in-round interviews. If the sport of golf isn’t enough to draw viewers, then I say the broadcasts are the problem, not the golf. Broadcasters need to be more innovative in what they show, when they show it, how they show it, and what they say when they show it. It’s not a calculus problem.
Frankly, I think there is serious cliché overload in all golf broadcasts. Boring cliches abound in the broadcast booth. They can do better. Have these broadcasters taken the time to do background research about the players who will be on the day’s broadcast? If I were a golf analyst or anchor, I would have a “book” on every single Tour player and would keep it updated daily. I also would have done background interviews the days before each broadcast of as many of them as possible. Instead, we get anchors and analysts who feed us banal hyperbole over and over throughout the week about the same players each and every day. Frankly, I think they’re all overpaid.
The networks might also consider showing less putting. More broadcast time is spent watching players read their putts than actually putting. And if I never see another player go through his ridiculous Aimpoint routine, it will be too soon! Golf viewers do not tune into a broadcast to watch professional golfers read putts. In fact, we don’t tune in to watch golfers PUTT! We tune in to watch the greatest players in the game hit GOLF SHOTS. I realize that the players are all marching to the same tune out there and are all on the greens, tees, and fairways at essentially the same time, but with all the video replay technology available to them, why don’t the broadcasters cut away from all the green-reading and show the viewers recorded shots by simply saying, “Here’s McIlroy’s shot to the 7th, hit just a moment ago.” Or, “Here’s how McIlroy arrived at the 7th green.” Or, “Here’s an amazing pitch that Fowler hit on this same green when he played the 7th. Or, “This amazing shot was just hit over on 14.” Apparently, that takes a level of intelligence they don’t seem to have.
As for “the return of the ‘on-course set’”, is it a party or a golf tournament we’re talking about? I’d like to see CBS propose such a grotesque violation of golf tradition to Augusta National for this year’s Masters. You people in the media are always looking for innovation. Why isn’t the event itself enough? And if it isn’t, blame the networks for not doing a better job of telling the story. The ridiculous par 3 “party hole” sets are ludicrous, and I’d be willing to bet a large sum that they were the bright idea of Amanda Renner. She thinks golf is a damn party. It’s not. It’s a sport. And for we traditionalists out here, it is actually a game. Regardless, it is not a party. And that includes the disgusting 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open. What a joke. Good grief…if that’s where golf is headed, I’m out.
Another thing the networks and the TOUR might want to address – and soon – is the commercial load. I started watching the TOUR event at Torrey Pines this afternoon and turned it off after just a few minutes as the commercials were endless. How many commercials do the networks and the TOUR think we golfers will endure? As many as they wish? More commercial time than actual broadcast time? Do they actually believe that viewers accept their silly “Playing Through” double-box concept as broadcast time? You even wrote about this back in March 2023., defending this crap as more broadcast time. Let me be clear, double-box is a commercial. To make matters worse, they are the same damn commercials replayed over and over and over, ad nauseum. I never watch a golf broadcast live anymore. I record it so I can fast-forward through the commercials, especially the double-box commercials. The TOUR needs to figure out who their customer is. Let me help: their customer is the television viewer. The networks can’t sell one minute of commercial time if there are no viewers. Ask LIV.
Something else the networks might want to cease is the morbid fascination with rulings. Who is the genius that believes we viewers care more about a damn ruling than we do about watching someone tee-off or hit an approach shot or difficult shot around the green? We’ve all seen some of these rulings last five minutes or more with the network staying with them the entire time! WTF? Then, after the ruling is finally done, the network cuts to five minutes of commercials. And yet they wonder why golf viewership is dropping like a rock.
Another “fun feature” of golf telecasts is the ridiculous interview questions, typically from women who seem to know very little about the game. It leaves viewers wondering if they are there strictly to satisfy “diversity” mandates. If you don’t know golf, you don’t get to do golf interviews. Period. Trust me, Frank Chirkinian is rolling over in his grave. Amanda Renner would not have made the cut with him. Amanda is all about Amanda all the time, and it shows. CBS should be ashamed.
These are just a few of the reasons I rarely watch a golf broadcast anymore, and never live (I’m actually watching the ’87 US Open final round on YouTube as I type.) I’m sure there are other reasons I’ve forgotten. I record all golf telecasts and keep the remote in my hand, with my trigger finger on the fast-forward button, and I doubt I am alone. Think about that, Jay Monahan, CBS, NBC, and Golf Channel. Millions of viewers are seeing none of your commercials. I’m sure your advertisers and sponsors are thrilled at the news.
Ron Garland, Founder
Golf Nut Society
Rex Hoggard, Golf Channel
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The Rules of Golf don’t really have room for concepts like recompense or reconciliation. For the ancient game it’s always a simple question of cause and effect, crime and punishment.
But if there’s no room for nuance in the Rules of Golf, the rule of the day demands a bit of flexibility. That was evidenced by the push back Rory McIlroy caused earlier this week on the Monterey Peninsula when he suggested, however innocently or well-intended, that those who joined LIV Golf should be welcomed back to the PGA Tour without penalty or penance.
“I think life is about choices. Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here,” McIlroy said. “If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back. I think it’s hard to punish people.”
Whether McIlroy’s motivations to change his tune were driven by a growing desire to piece a fractured game back together or the pragmatic need to clear away one of the biggest obstacles in the PGA Tour’s ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund doesn’t matter. What matters is, the game’s most outspoken opponent to LIV Golf and Saudi investment has pivoted dramatically.
“I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV tour or anything else is bad for both parties,” he admitted Tuesday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
There’s no such thing as a consensus on Tour and that is evidenced in this discussion.
“I’ve asked a lot of players, I’ve done a lot of talking with a lot of players in the last couple months. That’s Rory’s viewpoint. I could name some guys with the same viewpoint, I could name some guys with a totally opposite viewpoint,” said Jordan Spieth, who took McIlroy’s seat on the policy board when he stepped down last year. “It’s certainly mixed on how players feel about that.”
Rickie Fowler was not nearly as tactful when asked his thoughts on what a pathway back to the Tour for those who joined LIV Golf would look like.
“[I’m] probably not in the same spot as Rory. Maybe we started in a similar area, but I think there’s been a little roller-coaster ride on his part,” Fowler said. “As far as decisions to go elsewhere and just welcome back, I don’t think it’s a direct road [back to the Tour]. I mean, they made decisions and there has to be something for it. Whether how small or big, that’s not up to me.”
Fortunately for those who will need to walk that tight rope, it’s not a decision that must be made immediately.
Wednesday’s announcement that the Tour had agreed to a deal with Strategic Sports Group, a private equity group led by Fenway Sports, to create PGA Tour Enterprises will now allow the circuit to focus on its talks with the PIF and, depending on who you ask, it either creates a runaway to reunite the game or a war chest for an escalating arms race.
Without a definitive agreement with the PIF, which owns LIV Golf, there’s no need to get bogged down in what promises to be a polarizing debate. But for many, the day of recompense feels inevitable.
“I think everyone’s divided,” said Patrick Cantlay, a player director on the policy board, which will ultimately decide what a potential pathway back to the Tour looks like. “People are welcome to make the choices that they’d like to make. It’s a personal choice. As far as coming back, we’ll see. It’s up to a group of us. I know players feel all over the board on that issue and so my job as a player director is to represent the entire membership.
“If something like that were to come down the road, I’m sure we would have to have a robust conversation around that topic.”
Although many see it as a sliding scale, those who joined LIV Golf violated the Tour’s policy on media rights and conflicting-event releases and many resigned their memberships. It’s not as straightforward as hitting a ball out of bounds or taking an incorrect drop, but there is a correlation that can’t be ignored – violate a rule, take your penalty, move on.
There are multi-billion-dollar hurdles, not to mention continued scrutiny from federal regulators, facing the Tour as it inches closer to its new, for-profit reality, but the biggest obstacle commissioner Jay Monahan faces will be balancing the basic human desire for a pound of flesh with the need to keep things moving in the right direction.
A couple of Certified Golf Nuts found their way into Global Golf Post’s Letters to the Editor this week. The first was long-time loyal Nut Al Jamieson (#1876) weighing in on the current state of the professional game…
Inflated self-worth leads pro golfers astray
I find myself in the same camp as those who expressed disinterest in the week to week tour and will pay attention when the majors come around (“The Most Turbulent Times in Golf” January 8, GGP).
I have said from the beginning of this LIV business that golf is still a niche sport that sold the professional tours to advertisers on the story that its small audience was a very well-heeled slice of society.
At some point, golfers started to think they should command Shohei Otani or Lamar Jackson money. It’s ludicrous, and demonstrates a total ignorance of the economics of sports. However, the Saudis have thrown a wrench in economics by their willingness to spend with no thought about a bottom line or return on investment.
I am old enough to remember baseball’s Curt Flood and what free agency did for athletes, turning the three major sports in this country into revenue sharing arrangements between management and labor.
Will golf now become a global free agent free for all?
Perhaps a younger generation will warm to team golf, music, and myriad online gambling options.
I will continue to enjoy the game, which has provided pleasure and challenge to people for about five centuries.
Al Jamieson
Burlingame, California
And then some guy called The Head Nut somehow also got quoted in the same issue (Go figure)…
Past the point of no return
I always enjoy Ron Green’s columns, and based on the content, I consistently share his views on the game. In his recent column (“Finding common ground in golf’s uncivil war,” January 8 GGP), however, I sense the same attitude of resignation I am seeing in Rory McIlroy, Mackenzie Hughes and others on the PGA Tour side of the LIV debate, including the tours and others in golf’s establishment.
Vast amounts of money have not only encouraged several top-tier players to jump to LIV, but more troubling is its effect on many who have remained loyal to the PGA Tour, not to mention a softening of opposition by the PGA Tour itself and others in the golf establishment. Saudi Arabia is buying up U.S. assets, which is neither good for golf nor for America, nor is it inevitable. It is only inevitable if those in positions of power say, OK, you win. We will accept your horrific human-rights record and your totalitarian ways. We will just look the other way and point to that big pile of money you are promising. We also realize that even if we make you a minority partner, you will throw your weight around behind the scenes and get whatever you want. But we are also resigned to the fact that you will continue to recruit our players and diminish our tours if we don’t capitulate. So, how much are you willing to invest?
This makes me sad. Over this past year, I have watched less and less televised golf. There are other factors such as pace of play and the stunning number of commercials, but the overriding reason is that when I look at players now and know that what they really care about is money, and not the same love of the game that prompts me to play and watch it being played, I can’t enjoy watching it anymore.
Money is being defended as a reason for decisions, either as a motivating factor, or as a reason to fear Saudi Arabia as a threat to the game if we don’t capitulate. Neither is a good reason. We should be fighting for what we believe in, and for me that is golf’s legacy, history, and traditions, not how much money someone can use in their battle against the game’s legacy, nor how much someone receives for winning a tournament. We are in an existential fight over those priceless things, and we are giving up the fight.
Golf will never be the same because regardless of what is written in any agreements that are ultimately signed, it is that old saying, “He who owns the gold makes the rules,” that wins the day.
Ron Garland
Prescott Valley, Arizona
(Garland is the founder of the Golf Nut Society.)
Speaking of Bob Rotella…
The Head Nut
#0001
It took Theegala over 1 1/2 minutes to decide what club to hit on a simple short iron shot. And then he did the same damn thing on the next hole.
Almost all the players do the same thing on nearly every shot, and take twice as long to read and hit a putt.
It’s why I now watch mostly old classics on YouTube. When I do watch a PGA Tour event, I record it first and fast-forward through this crap and the flood of commercials.
Stuck in the present…longing for the past.
The Head Nut
#0001
