When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
While I’m busy collecting thoughts, notes, quotes, anecdotes and much more from Phil Mickelson’s 2021 PGA win, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the day.
I tried to come up with a clever poll question but there really isn’t one. Just a special week, incredible win and one we won’t stop talking about for a long time.
Phil Mickelson Saturday at 16 (PGA Championship Instagram)
A stellar Saturday sets us up for a doozy Sunday at Kiawah.
Phil Mickelson leads by one over Brooks Koepka and looks to become the oldest male major champion.
Whether this was all code for something more we’ll soon find out, but the initial reviews suggest the Saudis did not throw much of a Kiawah party.
“It all happened pretty quick,” the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. “It was like, We have everything sorted, it’s all going to work out.”
Present for the meeting were lawyers from a high-profile American law firm that is handling the venture’s contractual work. These attorneys assured agents that they were combing through any potential legal hiccups and that their process, too, would be completed sooner rather than later.
Oh yeah, nothing to worry about.
A rep for Golf Saudi also ZOOM’d in. Which is probably why the characterization shared by Rex Hoggard makes a lot of sense:
One manager who attended the meeting characterized it as “underwhelming” and given how long representatives from the Super League Golf concept have been pushing for the new tour it’s likely going to continue to be a topic and a distraction for some time.
*Whoops, sent this one out only to the paying folks. I send the first round’s notes to all subscribers. The link above though should give you access.
I only briefly touched on today’s Saudi stuff and took a pass on the Ryder Cup talk.
Documentation seen by the Guardian confirms world ranking points only apply on the basis that: “Tournaments on a tour must average fields of at least 75 players over the course of each season.” On this rule, the proposed tour clearly falls short; their 14 planned tournaments are for just 48 players.
The guidelines add: “A tour must demonstrate it has complied with the above guidelines for a period of at least one year immediately prior to being admitted to the OWGR system and must continue to comply with such guidelines following its inclusion in the OWGR system.”
The “average” language helps offset players and agents pointing to something like the Hero World Challenge’s 18-player field earning points.
Another interesting twist in the disruptor golf league world came Tuesday at Kiawah, as PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh made clear the Ryder Cup will only accept PGA of America members who get that perk through their PGA Tour membership:
“If someone wants to play on a Ryder Cup for the U.S., they’re going to need to be a member of the PGA of America, and they get that membership through being a member of the Tour,” Waugh said. “I believe the Europeans feel the same way, and so I don’t know that we can be more clear kind of than that. We don’t see that changing.”
Translation: should someone sign up for an SGL or PGL, and the PGA Tour follows through with threats to toss them off their books (with potential legal ramifications), the players would be Ryder Cup ineligible.
Whether that is enough to dissuade Americans, is unclear.
Adam Schupak filed this Golfweek with more details of Waugh’s remarks and his interesting assertion that these league conversations are healthy for the game, to a point.
“I actually think it’s healthy. You either disrupt or you get disrupted. That’s what this is,” he said. “You know, should it be a hostile takeover of the game? I think is way too far. They’ve created this conversation, which by the way isn’t new. It’s been around since 2014 in different forms, has created change. It’s created an alliance of the European Tour and the PGA Tour, which we think is really healthy for the game.”
Lee Westwood has an outside shot at making England’s Olympic golf team and surprised media assembled at Kiawah Island by revealing he’s already given notice of his intent to pass on Tokyo.
The reason? Too much golf at that time of year.
Many, many reasons. I have a few family commitments,and I already proved a few weeks ago that playing seven in eight weeks is not good for me. And there's already a lot of tournaments crammed in around there, Scottish Open, Open Championship. I need a couple of weeks off between there and the FedEx in Memphis. Then there's only another week off and I could be playing three FedExCup events, the PGA, a week off, then the Ryder Cup. I want to be in good shape for all of those. I think going to Japan the week before Memphis, just with all that going on, is a bad idea, especially when I can't say whether I'm in it at the moment anyway.
I'm of an age where I need to make a plan and stick to that going forward, else my game suffers.
And then he offered this on the format:
LEE WESTWOOD: I know why they brought the Olympics to golf, and I'm all for that. It's taking it to another audience, and obviously the funding from the Olympic committee feeds down through golf, which is great.I just feel like maybe they didn't quite get the format right or the players that play in it right and the qualification right.
Some good stuff to read and refine your sense of what kind of week we’ll have at Kiawah. Anytime the forecast is good we’re almost assured some special moments, but throw in a refined Ocean, some key players finding their form in time and some potential (rangefinder) controversy, and we’re off to a good start.
My roundup for Quadrilateral’s generous subscribers.
Subscription info (and remember Thursday’s will be available to allow followers of the newsletter).
The Quad will be going out daily to paid subscribers all week with followers getting a free live look-in Thursday, but today I wrap up the PGA preview coverage with more insights on Charleston courtesy of author David Coggins, plus a few notes.
A lot of The Quad goes back behind the paywall next week and I know you won’t want to miss my thrilling PGA missives. Info on the newsletter is here, and the subscribe button is here. A year is cheaper than a dozen “longer and straighter” golf balls.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Absent hole-by-hole flyovers I have the next big thing: enough to whet your appetite for next week’s PGA Championship and an update on Kiawah since we last saw the Ocean Course in 2012.
Golf architect Scot Sherman kindly takes us through the course in Part 2 of my Quadrilateral Q&A.
Andy Johnson takes through specific changes since the last PGA there along with this Fried Egg look at the Ocean is especially good on a big 4K screen:
As the PGA nears The Quadrilateral has you covered with news, notes and expensive resale market ticket links.
The weekly edition is for all followers of the newsletter. Here are past issues and the signup page.
Kiawah Ocean Course (PGA of America)
As we near the PGA at Kiawah it’s time to start get reacquainted with Pete Dye’s Ocean Course.
In part one of this interview with Scot Sherman we discuss how he met Dye, his various projects working on updates to Dye designs, and the increased interest in going back to Pete at his wackiest.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
