2021 Tour Championship Ratings Down A Tick And Generally Stink For a $46 Million Investment

I realize that a variety of metrics are used to justify a $46 million payout and the many millions FedEx pays to sponsor the season-long chase. Still, when you look at the 2021 Tour Championship ratings and the zilch-buzz factor in the golf community last weekend, they’ve got to handle a lot of packages to justify the tab.

Amazingly the payout will go up next year. At least the ratings stand a chance of inching up a shade when they aren’t going against Alabama football, as they did this year and prompting Saturday’s meager 1.14/1.85 million viewers.

According to Showbuzzdaily.com, the 2021 final round drew a 2.30/3.97 million for part of the telecast which, for the second year in a year, was broken up in the ratings listing. Presumably the average audience size for the 1:30-6 pm window would drop below a 2 if they tallied the numbers in more traditional fashion. And I’m going to guess that a rating below 2 causes the purple and orange phone to ring in Jay Monahan’s office.

Sunday’s first ninety minutes drew a 1.36 with only U.S. Open tennis and the Solheim Cup as early sports viewing competition.

The 2020 Tour Championship finished on Labor Day Monday and drew a 2.42/4.00 million. That telecast’s ratings were also broken up into two numbers to goose the average. The early window drew a 1.51.

As for the far more satisfying Solheim Cup, Saturday’s NBC window drew a .41 and Sunday’s garnered a .59, with an average viewership of 878,000 on NBC. The four-hour Saturday afternoon coverage on Golf Channel drew a .28 and a 432,000 average viewers.

Monday’s singles spread out over a six-hour window on Golf Channel averaged 588,000 viewers.

**Paulsen at Sports Media Watch broke down both the Tour Championship and Solheim Cup ratings and noted this about the PGA Tour’s numbers:

Dating back to the start of July, 16 of 18 PGA Tour windows on broadcast television declined from the last comparable year.

"The PGA Tour pro who saw COVID-19 coming"

COVID-19 has been awful, unpredictable and it remains hard to fault most leaders for decisions they made with so many unknowns.

So it’s a bit much though not unexpected to see the PGA Tour trying to weave a fresh narrative related to last year’s Players Championship cancellation.

Two long features with identical details went live today (here and here) carving out the executive decision-making as historic, if slightly caught off-guard by last year’s cancellations in other arenas. Golf was the last major sport to shut down and did so reluctantly.

The Tour tried to forge ahead with a disastrous TV deal rollout and the Players even though warning signs of potential trouble were in place for weeks.

Lee Westwood, who stayed in England, could see the PGA Tour was moving slow to grasp reality. Lucas Glover lamented the lack of a proactive approach. And C.T. Pan was also not surprised by the direction of the virus and withdrew on Players eve (the only player not compensated for his time as a result).

GolfDigest.com’s Dave Shedloski caught up with Pan about his foresight, which looks downright prophetic compared to that of executives who still allowed a concert and first round to go on with fans, then told fans they could not come for round two before eventually cancelling the tournament.

Though it pained him to do so—truly, because the Players Championship is one of his favorite events—Pan withdrew that morning from the tour’s flagship tournament after it became obvious the strange new virus that he had heard about for months not only had gained a foothold in America but now was beginning to rage across the country. The coronavirus pandemic was taking hold.

“Yes, things happened fast between Arnold Palmer and Players, but to us, given what we had heard, we didn’t think things moved fast enough overall,” he said hesitantly, not wanting to offend or be critical of anyone. “Honestly, it’s hard to track the original time, but it seemed to have started back in November [2019] in China. It took only a few months to really spread with the European countries hit first. No one was really ready for it anywhere. The WHO [World Health Organization] was not telling us much. All I’m trying to say is that by last year at API it was already here.”

Malnati: "When people say, oh, this golf course is all about angles, that's not true."

After a Sony Open first round 62, was asked about a recurring Waialae Country Club theme: is this one of the last courses where a more strategic, accurate player can win?

The full exchange, though the last question answered is the best part addressing the idea that there are any preferred “angles” of attack left in modern golf:

Q. Talking to a few guys about this week, as the game goes to distance, are there places you can't win?

PETER MALNATI: Where I can't win? I hit it far now. I'm longer than average I think.

Q. Are you longer than Cam Champ?

PETER MALNATI: No. But he's pretty long. There's not places I can't win. There's probably conditions in which I can't win. But like golf courses, I've never been to Augusta. Augusta probably ain't going to suit me great but I putt it really well and I hear you have to do that there.

Q. You do. You have to do it everywhere. What conditions are you talking about, do you think?

PETER MALNATI: When it's super wet and we're doing everything through the air -- one of my favorite things to criticize, a weird way to say something, I absolutely hate it when I'm watching golf on TV, which is rare, and I hear the commentators say, oh, this course is all about angles.

Golf, on TV -- that's rarely ever true. Have you ever watched golf on TV? Like, look at the way Jason Day hits it. Angles don't mean anything when you fly it to the hole. Like just fly it to the hole and land it next to the hole. Angles aren't important. So when people say, oh, this golf course is all about angles, that's not true. Like that doesn't matter.

And so there's places that are the big, wide open course when is they get really soft like it's going to be tough to hit three clubs longer into a green and compete. But when the ball is bouncing and going crazy places, like here, I hit several drives ShotLink will say they went 320 plus. Like when the ball is bouncing like that, I can play anywhere.

Also note that Malnatti makes clear he doesn’t watch much golf on TV. Why do pro golfers always like to let us know that?

The bigger point here though: angles as we knew them hardly matter in the launch angle era. Unless a new angle can be created with a 12 degree launch angle and 320 yards of carry. Just ask Waialae’s 18th hole.

"Bryson DeChambeau’s outsized impact in 2020 extended far beyond just his own game"

While he’ll probably lose out in the writers’ season-ending Player of the Year voting, 2020 in golf will forever be remembered as the year Bryson DeChambeau played a very different game en route to winning the U.S. Open.

Alan Shipnuck offered this in his year-end review of DeChambeau transformation and launch angle golf approach.

It’s hard to overstate the impressiveness of DeChambeau’s transformation; it was as if Tom Brady gained 40 pounds, made himself a fullback and then rushed for seven touchdowns to lead his team to victory. But could DeChambeau’s bruising new style prevail at any of golf’s Super Bowls, with their more penal setups? A strong run at the PGA Championship offered a clue, and then at the U.S. Open, in September, he overwhelmed one of the game’s brawniest courses, Winged Foot. The revolution was complete.

“It’s honestly hard to process what Bryson accomplished,” says Andy North, who won two U.S. Opens the old-fashioned way. “In so many ways it’s like he’s playing an entirely different game.”

Check out the rest of the piece here.

DeChambeau’s ultimate legacy may be the corner he put governing bodies in with 2020’s transformation. Any equipment rule changes potentially formulated pre-pandemic could look like they were targeting him if they attempt to impact launch conditions.

This is an optimistic take clearly since we’re more than 18 years since the Joint Statement of Principles and nothing has been done to protect the concerns spelled out back then during Bomb and Gouge, the prequel.

Ratings: Women's U.S. Open Was Not Worth Watching To Much Of An Audience

The rescheduled U.S. Women’s Open ratings reality was obvious to everyone but, apparently, those behind last week’s ill-timed “Women Worth Watching” campaign.

2020 has taught us that sports fans just aren’t into championship golf outside of their normal playing windows. So even though we’ve seen declines for all of the rescheduled majors—with the Masters and U.S. Open taking the biggest plunges—it did not take a doctorate to know that 2020 U.S. Women’s Open ratings would set record lows due to the timing, competition and overall trends.

Not the year to tell everyone Women are worth watching when nothing could reverse the trend. Which made the suffocating rollout of a “brand campaign” perplexing, particularly knowing how many meetings and dollars are spent to orchestrate the pretend-to-be-natural “content” (aka paid filler). The relentless hashtags, paid influencer endorsements, and force integration of the campaign even by media covering the event was all a really cool new thing back in 2018. But in 2020? It came off as desperate and ill-timed. At best. With 3000 Americans dying a day from COVID-19 last week, this would have been a good year for the USGA to remain quiet in the branding onslaught department.

Throw in Golf Channel sticking with the QBE Shootout’s live window when the Friday play was expedited due to forecasted weather, and the women were not even deemed worth watching live by the decision makers who were peddling the inopportune campaign.

Showbuzzdaily reports some of the numbers from A Lim Kim’s stunning win and they are dismal for a major. I’m still searching for Saturday’s third round on NBC and Monday’s rain-delayed finale** on Golf Channel. Sunday’s rainout consisted of a third round replay not noted in the Showbuzzdaily roundup.

**The final round on Golf Channel did not make the top 150 cable shows for Monday, December 14th. A .03 rating was needed to crack the lineup. The previous all-time low final round rating (.5) on Fox occurred last year according to Sports Media Watch.

Shows that beat the rain-delayed final round of the U.S. Women’s Open:

Twitterers Make Clear Kuchar's Frugalgate Past Has Not Been Forgotten

While Matt Kuchar and Harris English’s dominant QBE Shootout will be forgotten quickly—if it was watched at all—but Kuchar’s past caddie frugalness dominated the comment section of an otherwise nice PGA Tour tweet devoted to his son.

Cameron Kuchar, who will play with his dad in the upcoming PNC Challenge, looped for the old man at QBE and Twitter readers made clear they are concerned about the lad’s winning compensation.

You can read all of the replies here. A sampling should someone accidentally hit the delete key.

Slugger, Russell Speak On Retirement And Huge Changes In Rules Administration World

Adam Schupak does a nice job packing a lot into this story and Q&A on golf losing a combined 160 years of experience at the top of the rules administration game. The players: White, Russell, Paramor and McPhee. Sounds like a law firm!

In the U.S., as reported here Monday, Slugger White and Mark Russell will be winding down their PGA Tour days as tournament directors and officials. White is hanging up his walky talky sooner while Russell will take a longer last lap around the country as he hands things over to Gary Young.

But the loss of golf’s four most prominent faces at applying the Rules of Golf at essentially the same time begs the question: how do the PGA Tour and European Tour begin to replace that institutional knowledge?

“The most important thing to me over the years that I thought I was responsible for was hiring the best possible people,” Russell said. “I’m extremely proud of the people that Slugger and I have hired and I’m sure it will carry on.”

“It’s a lot of years and you take a lot of experience with you,” White said. “I hope I’ve given some of that experience out and I’ll be around for a little bit. They know what they’re doing and they’ll be fine.”

In the Q&A White tells the story of his first ruling after retiring as a player. Of course, it was Jack Nicklaus who called for an official.

Ratings: Mayakoba, LPGA Remind This Is A Time Of Year Suited Best For The Silly Season

Played in the traditional Hero World Challenge slot, the 2020 Mayakoba Classic (.41/NBC) filled in for the cancelled tournament with a terrific field but was not watched outside of PGA Tour headquarters, The Villages and the Oklahoma State golf team house. To give an idea just how much people don’t want to see tournament golf right now, the lowest rated college basketball game (Baylor-Arkansas women) was on par with Golf Channel’s first early round broadcasts of the Mayakoba.

Showbuzzdaily.com has all of the numbers, including the 2019 Hero’s ratings for comparison (.91/NBC).

The LPGA fared even worse, with no day of the Volunteers of America Classic cracking the top 150 cable broadcasts last week.

The sports taking place in their traditional December slots—football, college basketball—appeared to do just fine, while the sports pushing their product in a non-traditional slot are not resonating as much with fans.

In golf’s case, the recent Match 3 fared well enough and I suspect next week’s PNC Challenge will do very well with Tiger and Charlie Woods in the field. To have any audience beyond the most core of golfers, this is a time of year best suited silly season golf and doesn’t ask us to even pretend to care about a season long points race.

RSM: Streb Holds Off Kisner Thanks To One of 2020's Best Shots

I can’t say from the parts I watched that we’ll be talking about 2020’s RSM Classic years or even days from now. But Robert Streb did pull off a couple of minor miracles, starting with an out-of-nowhere week, as documented by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak:

Streb hasn’t finished in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings in each of the past three seasons, and his recent form didn’t suggest he’d earn his first title in six years. He had shot in the 60s only three times in his last 12 rounds entering this week, but posted four straight rounds in the 60s, including a 63 on Friday and closed with a 2-under 68 to finish with a 72-hole aggregate of 19-under 263.

“I felt like things were starting to get a little better and I wasn’t quite getting the results, but wasn’t expecting this, either,” he admitted.

Streb’s approach on the second playoff hole was spectacular:

WHAT A SHOT. 😱@therealstrebber nailed his approach on the second playoff hole to win @TheRSMClassic. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/sAmFE6otjR

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 22, 2020

Ortiz Wins Houston Open As Memorial Holds Up Much Better Than Fan Safety Rules

A diverse set of playing styles highlighted the huge success of Memorial Park’s renovation and Carlos Ortiz punctuated his win in 18th hole-birdie style before dam of emotions burst.

There's nothing like your first. 😊

Soak it in, @CarlosOrtizGolf. pic.twitter.com/S7j4ZBuwIF

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 8, 2020

He is the first Mexican to win a PGA Tour event in 42 years. The finale and strong showing by Memorial made for great viewing and was unquestionably better with fan support.

(And no, Ortiz was not in the 2020 Masters field so he will not be headed to Augusta. That’s how things roll this strange year.)

About the “2000” fans a day.

The look, at least on television in a time America is about to hit 10 million cases and over 1000 deaths a day, was awful. Fans sandwiched together, maybe 60% mask buy-in and an uncomfortable look given the tournament rules and reminders.

Besides the largest 2000-fan crowds you’ll ever see and the lack of buy-in, the potential for getting fans back soon seems remote unless more measures are taken. Off the top of my head: designated eating/drinking areas, mask enforcement folks (sorry, I know, horrible job) and designated seating assignments (also, an enforcement nightmare).

While the outdoor setting hopefully helps avert a spreader event disaster, the ultimate problem is one of optics. Ratings will be light given the Golf Channel airing and competition from the NFL, but had the Houston Open been seen by a large audience, I’m fairly certainly most county health officials would have been horrified by what they saw. Most painful of all: the enjoyment of hearing roars and enthusiasm but also knowing that the spewing of droplets is, ultimately, problematic.

A few images from Sunday’s telecast:

Houston Open First To Welcome Significant Crowds, Safety Protocols Not Getting Total Buy-In Just Yet

This week’s Vivint Houston Open benefiting the (cheating) Astros Foundation marks the first time in the COVID-19 era that a tournament is welcoming back significant crowds. (Announced at 2000 a day compared to last week’s 500 a day in Bermuda).

While face covering is required at all times and spectators at Memorial Park are forking out over $100 per ticket, they’ve been asked to socially distance. Yet even a Thursday crowd, typically the lightest of the week, appeared to struggle with both requirements.

While the obvious first concern involves virus spread, the responsibility placed in Houston’s hands will also determine how soon upcoming events can welcome back fans.

Golf.com’s Art Stricklin was on site and quotes players who felt safe inside the ropes but also addresses what was obvious to telecast viewers: a lot of people standing around side-by-side with the usual mixed-face covering buy-in.

In fact, the only complaint Texas native Jimmy Walker had was there were only 2,000 fans.

“I wish there were more this week, but at least it’s a start,” Walker said.

Local tournament officials wished there were more, as well, but settled on 2,000 after discussing it with the PGA Tour and City of Houston health officials. The U.S. Women’s Open, 20 miles away from here next month, is not allowing any fans.

“It’s pretty much shoulder to shoulder on every green,” said Houston business owner David Miller, who came as the guest of a client. “I’m trying to live my life, but be cautious about it.”

Camera views can be deceiving, particularly on a rear-tee shot like this where the crowd size and spacing is distorted.

Thankfully, players felt safe inside the ropes, according to Stricklin:

Spieth said he was taking a more wait-and-see approach with having fans.

“Yeah, I think we have to see,” he said. “It certainly felt more normal as we were playing, so obviously if we’re able to do it safely, that’s a huge win for the tournaments and the Tour. Hopefully it continues to go well like it did this morning.”

“Pretty much everyone was wearing a mask that I saw,” added Scottie Scheffler, who was tied for second, behind leader Brandt Snedeker, after a 67.. “I felt very safe out there on the course. So for the players, I’m sure it will be fine.”

Ratings Ouch: Champions Tour Outrates PGA Tour's Bermuda Championship

Even with a Masters invitation (somehow) on the line and of course, the all important FedExCup points, Brian Gay’s Bermuda Championship win still had fewer Golf Channel viewers than the Timbertech Championship.

That event featured Darren Clarke holding of Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer for his first PGA Tour Champions win.

Saturday’s third round of the Timbertech “won” the weekend and averaged 43,000 in the coveted none-Villages demo.

The Bermuda Championship’s Thursday and Friday telecasts draw enough of an audience to crack the top 150 cable shows.

ShowBuzzDaily with all the numbers.

Memorial Park Preview: A True Muni Hosts This Week's PGA Tour Event

With a 2020 title in the pocket and the injection of real muni golf onto the PGA Tour schedule, I will set aside my feelings about the cheating Astros*. And this week’s host, their cheating, thoroughly remorse-free owner, Jim Crane (along with various dishonest players).

While I’ll never quite fully grasp why this murky crew pushed one of America’s elite golf associations aside to take over a storied Tour event, we at least have Tour players prepping for the one-off Fall Masters on a low priced public course. This is a long overdue victory for the Houston Open and validation for the Bethpage effect we hoped had taken a stronger hold by now.

Josh Sens gives the revitalized Memorial Park a positive review and explains how the Tom Doak-Brooks Koepka effort does not try to protect par for this week’s Vivint Houston Open.

The work that made Memorial Park Tour-worthy once more — bringing the Houston Open back from the suburbs, where it was held for decades, to within the city limits — began in earnest in late 2018.

The first phase alone cost $18.5 million, but the money didn’t come out of taxpayers’ pockets. It was furnished by the Houston Astros Foundation (a non-profit founded by Jim Crane, the owner of the baseball team), which, in consultation with the city, tapped the noted architect Tom Doak to renovate the course.

Every renovation brings its own demands. Doak’s mandate was to dream up a Goldilocks design, a course that would ask compelling questions of the world’s best golfers while answering the needs of its muni clientele during jam-packed year-round play. As his consigliere, Doak leaned on Brooks Koepka, an official advisor on the project, a four-time major winner, who provided his two cents on design.

From the start, both men knew that defending par against the pros couldn’t be a top priority. That would only yield a one-dimensional layout. The emphasis, instead, should be on excitement — especially, Koepka urged, on the closing stretch. Electric late-day lead changes were what he hoped to see.

History and design buffs will enjoy Sean Martin’s “Five Things To Know” about Memorial Park as the Tour descends on Houston.

This isn’t the first time Memorial Park has been the venue for the Vivint Houston Open, however. It hosted the event 14 times between 1947 and 1963. Winners at Memorial Park included major winners Arnold Palmer, Bobby Locke, Jack Burke Jr., Bob Charles, Bobby Nichols and Jay Hebert.

Burke’s father, Jack Burke Sr., was a Houston golf pro who is credited with hitting the first tee shot when Memorial Park opened in 1936. Jack Burke Jr., who also won a Masters and PGA Championship, was on-hand for Memorial Park’s re-opening ceremony last year. Burke is 97 years old.

Charles’ win at Memorial Park in 1963 was the first on the PGA TOUR by a left-hander. He won the Open Championship later that year to become the first left-hander to win a major.

Memorial Park nearly was the site of Jack Nicklaus’ first PGA TOUR win, as well. Nicklaus lost a playoff to Nichols after suffering a strange penalty in the third round of the 1962 Houston Open. While tending the flag for his boss’ 35-foot birdie putt, Nicklaus’ caddie accidentally pulled the hole liner out of the ground. Nicklaus was assessed a two-stroke penalty after his ball struck the liner. 

"Sunlight will be a precious commodity at Augusta National for this year's Masters"

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!

ZOZO Championship: Random Observations From Just Outside The Bubble

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.

The Wednesday pro-am

--About that on-site vibe. It was funereal at times but mostly just bizarre and a touch sad in a first world way. Maybe with three pretty big name players testing positive in as many weeks and Tony Finau sharing his story, the virus earned newfound respect inside the bubble. One player confided that he’s ready for the season to end. He’s uncomfortable traveling and playing as the virus continues to cast a pall over much of the country. That said…

--The Sunday range scene was…intense. If you ignored the lack of fans and just watched players warm up, you sensed big money, a nice title and pre-Masters momentum was on the line. Matthew Wolff and instructor George Gankas engaged in a spirited putting lesson up to his tee time. And I mean, right up to his tee time. Eventual winner Patrick Cantlay’s instructor Jamie Mulligan was shuttling from his Virginia Country Club member-guest duties to keep a watchful eye on his student. The overall intensity seemed like the old days, minus too many range volunteers and agents blocking your view.

--Sherwood’s amazing range. It’s slightly uphill with realistic targets and short game facilities nearby. You’d never get tired of practice there.

--Less launch monitoring and pre-round music. Maybe it was the drizzle? But not every player warmed up with a Trackman or Flightscope or whatever to study their numbers. A few who did appeared to have them there more as a security blanket than a reference point. Then again it was a Sunday and if you’re a professional golfer and don’t have things sorted out by then, maybe you should be elsewhere. As for losing themselves in music, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed and Jon Rahm were wearing headphones and doing their thing. Most others warmed up without musical assistance.

--Sherwood Held Up Well. Yes the scoring was absurdly low, but none of the five par-5’s are converted to par-4’s, the place is immaculate, the wind stood down and grey skies mean no shadows. The players should light it up (and also thank the club for standing in as a last-minute venue). The place always looks superb on television and produces compelling finishes in part because two of the par-5’s actually play like them. Granted, that’s only because the 13th and 16th holes cut off drivers and leave long seconds in from uneven stances. Good prep for the 13th and 15th in a bit over two weeks.

Sherwood’s 16th green

--Agents are still not missed. Amazing how much nicer the players are after their rounds without the ten-percenters around to scowl at press and give over-compensating bro hugs as if their man just returned from deployment in Afghanistan.

--So much for those live odds. When I was inside and not rebooting my tablet following NBC Sports app crashes and freezes, I noticed last week’s so-so rollout of on-air live odds was abandoned. Perhaps because the Tour moved from Nevada to California where sports betting is not legal? Or maybe with all of the tech issues in a Golf Channel show led by the A-team of producer Tommy Roy—Jeremy Schilling details the admirable transparency by the broadcasters here—the odds got shelved?

--The Hoodie. Rory McIlroy did not close the roof on his more than a time or two that I saw. But he also was wearing a hat. Hoodie and hat? Redundant? Anyway, the hood was large enough for two heads and Baby Yoda riding along in the back. It looked better suited for Happy Hour at Mos Eisley Cantina than a golf tournament.  But, it is super soft as Rory noted to anyone who asked. So Nike got the fabric right.