World Ranking Rejects LIV

OWGR head cites closed shop while admitting the men's ranking is diminished without the Public Investment Fund-backed players. The news puts the already fraying "framework agreement" in doubt.

Greg Norman Calls On The Five Families To "Grow Up"

In the latest Quadrilateral I try to decipher what LIV's Commish Greg Norman is hoping to achieve with his latest world ranking attack.

Plus, WSJ's look at the "secretive" OWGR and another McKellar pod.

WGC Mexico Heading To Bradenton, Needs Sponsor And Probably, A Future Home

According to multiple sources WGC Mexico is relocating to FL (likely Naples) for 2021, and then likely internationally in ‘22 and ‘23 as part of Euro Tour strategic alliance. 3 year deal w/ new sponsor.

Announcement likely this wknd. T’s and P’s up for Grupo Salinas & Geronimo.

— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) January 8, 2021

Tron Carter at NLU had the details first and while the WGC Mexico City is headed to Bradenton’s The Concession due to COVID-19 related “logistical challenges”, the PGA Tour’s press release would suggest the relationship with Grupo Salinas is both continuing and, probably over.

For Immediate Reading Between The Lines:

Due to logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship will not be played in Mexico this year, the PGA TOUR announced in a memo released to players. This year’s event will be conducted Feb. 25-28 at The Concession Golf Club in the Bradenton-Sarasota area in Southwest Florida. There will be no change to the tournament’s eligibility requirements.

The tournament will now kick off a four-week Florida Swing that also features the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, THE PLAYERS Championship and The Honda Classic. 

“The PGA TOUR is grateful for its continued partnership with Grupo Salinas as we navigate the unique challenges created by the pandemic,” said Ty Votaw, PGA TOUR Executive Vice President, International. “While we work toward returning to Mexico in 2022, we are appreciative of the collective effort to bring this event to a worthy venue in The Concession Golf Club, which is renowned as one of the top courses in the state of Florida.”

Returning to Mexico in 2022, so, why all the past tense usage…

For the past four years, the PGA TOUR and Grupo Salinas have fulfilled their commitment to grow golf in Mexico and Latin America, introducing the sport to thousands of new fans. In only four years, The First Tee Mexico, a non-profit organization for children and youth development, now has nine chapters throughout the country and will continue to provide educational programs and support based on key societal values such as honesty, integrity and teamwork. 

With two sold-out editions, the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship has shown to be a world-class event featuring the best players from across the globe.  

This is the part where they are supposed to mention looking forward to welcoming back the world’s best in 2022.

By bringing and hosting the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, Grupo Salinas has reaffirmed its solid commitment to promote Mexico’s compelling attributes and image before the world, reaching nearly one billion households within over 200 countries and territories. 
 
Given the one-year relocation from Mexico City, the TOUR is working to secure a title sponsor for the 2021 event.  

They fulfilled their mission and they won’t sponsor in 2021. We’ll see if 2022 happens there, or as Carter noted in his original Tweet, this WGC travels to another part of the world as part of the European Tour strategic alliance.

Potential World Tour Takes Aim At PGA Tour With Lucrative Individual And Team Concept

A multi-year effort to create a star-driven global golf tour has gained momentum again.


Multiple sources have confirmed to GeoffShackelford.com that after years of attempting to commence the World Golf Group’s vision with a 2020 start date, organizers are making another fervent bid to lure top players away from the PGA and European Tours with plans to start in 2022 or 2023. The concept, first revealed by Reuters in 2018, has been alternatively known as the World Golf Series or “Tour de Force.”

“It seems to resurface at different times,” said Mark Steinberg, the only agent willing to go on the record about the concept. “It’s obviously resurfacing right now. We’ll see if they take it to the next level.”

Two other well-known player representatives confirmed that the concept had serious legitimacy and that players were considering the proposal. Three other agents contacted declined to comment, while four players with knowledge of the proposal would only confirm details, fearful of fines for discussing a potential PGA Tour competitor.

The original concept presented by the group featured an 18-event schedule from January to September with 48-player fields vying for $10 million each week, highlighted by a season-ending team championship.

The World Golf Group’s current proposal has since been adjusted after feedback from players and agents now aiming for ten events. The group is retaining a Formula One-style team component, complete with managers and potential drama surrounding players who are signed, benched or released from franchises. Those franchises, offered to a group of megastar players who could retain ownership past their playing days, would be capable of generating an “equity value between $350 and 750 million” along with a 4% of annual net profit.

With the PGA Tour currently wrapping up media rights negotiations for 2022 and beyond, the group is attempting to lure players, sponsors and media companies by highlighting what it sees as deficiencies in the current professional golf model. Besides a view that top players do not face off enough, documents spell out ways to improve television production values, shorten the tournament day with shotgun starts, and end the season with a Ryder Cup-style team event appealing to a younger audience. Tour de Force also seeks to “increase participation” and “generate greater cohesion and cooperation within the sport.”

The World Series group’s lobbying effort was a major topic during this week’s PGA Tour player meeting at the Farmers Insurance Open. Commissioner Jay Monahan flew in from Ponte Vedra Beach headquarters and engaged in substantial discussion with players about the pitfalls of the concept. Sources say defectors would face complications related to the releases necessary to play in non-PGA Tour events and loss of eligibility in the Tour’s lucrative pension program, among other matters. Two players present but not expecting to be invited to play in the group’s tour characterized the meeting as somewhat tense. Each sensed a legitimacy to the new group’s proposal with the potential to inflict damage to both the U.S. and European Tours.

The PGA Tour and European Tour both declined to comment for this story.


Steinberg, while potentially reaping huge added income for his Excel agency thanks to appearance fees, made clear that he still values the stability of the PGA Tour.

“It’s more than a wonderful product that the PGA Tour puts in front of its members, and it seems to get better each year with sponsors like FedEx, Charles Schwab, whoever it may be,” said Steinberg, who represents Tiger Woods, Justin Rose and Gary Woodland. “It’s very stable, it’s becoming more innovative all the time, so I can’t answer if [Tour de Force] is real or not real.

“But, like anything else you have to listen to everyone and all options.”


Since Steinberg made those comments at the Hero World Challenge when the group’s representatives made an updated pitch to player agents, the talks have accelerated and prompted Monahan’s advisory at the players meeting.

So how would this new global tour work?

The original concept featured 54-hole, no-cut events to would be spread around the world while allowing players to still earn world ranking points needed to qualify for major championships and earn endorsement money. Purses were originally pegged to be in the $10 million range, but those numbers may climb while retaining backdoor appearance fees that would add to player and agent coffers.

Beyond the huge money, the lengthy, well-formulated pro-forma passed around to golf industry figures lobs several jabs at the current state of the professional golf “product.” Financing is believed to come from a combination of sources, including Tokyo-based Softbank, and private equity investment from several regions including the United States and the Middle East.

Efforts to receive comment from executives detailed in documents have been unsuccessful, in part because the group’s extensive team have taken a highly secretive approach. 


Asked whether he had discussed the concept in detail with his influential stable of players, Steinberg confirmed that he had.

“As long as there is talk this grand, what it might be, you have to at least tell your players what you’re hearing because you don’t want them to hear it on the first tee or in the media. To me, its just been a comment I’ve made to the players we work with, and that’s literally all that’s been so far.”

In the coming days I will detail how the proposed formats will work and why the concept could be of interest to golf viewers.

Rory: "It's all about world ranking points" And European Tour A "Stepping Stone" To PGA Tour

We’re off to quite a start! We’ve got players whining about the prospect of on-course interviews—as if they’re being asked to do their own laundry—and now Rory McIlroy goes all Bobby Joe Grooves on the European Tour while professing the vitality of world ranking points. These guys know how to pull at fan heartstrings!

From Dave Shedloski’s Golf World story at the Sentry Tournament of Champions:

“It’s so one-sided,” McIlroy pointed out. “Look, you can talk all you want about these bigger events in Europe, but you can go to America and play for more money and more ranking points. I think as well with the world ranking points, everyone out here, all of their contracts with sponsors, it's all about world ranking points. If players are getting paid more and earning more world ranking points, why would you play over there?”

It sounded harsh, but he was only speaking the truth, and he continued.

They might play there because they play the game for the love of it, with the riches coming from that passion? Oh there I go again!

And this won’t be in any European Tour slogans this year…

“The ultimate goal is here,” McIlroy added. “The European Tour is a stepping stone. That's the truth. The European Tour is a stepping stone. That's the way it is. It's tough. I still want to support the European Tour, and I talk about this loyalty thing with Europe. … [But] it's not as though I'm just starting out and jumping ship. I've done my time. I've done everything I feel like I need to do to say OK, I’m going to make my own decisions and do what I want.”

I’ve done my time.

Looking forward to what his cheering section in the UK has to say about this! Happy New Year!

The HSBC-WGC, 72-Hole Stroke Play Oversaturation & An East Lake Cup-Inspired Alernative

The World Golf Championship concept brings an international together four times a year, including the PGA Tour's lone match play event, so it's hard to criticize a concept forcing the best players in the world to show up.

HSBC pours a lot of money in golf, generates discussion about the industry of golf with its business forum, and wants to see the game expanded beyond its current borders, so it seems unfair to blame a company going above and beyond the normal sponsors.

And top players did show up in Shanghai at the end of a year when they've been asked to play even more weeks than normal, so there is no way they can be criticized.

Yet in trying to watch the WGC-HSBC Champions, won in resounding fashion by Hideki Matsuyama for his third PGA Tour win, there may be no finer example of the oversaturated product that is elite professional golf. A limited field, no-cut rankings and cash extravaganza watched by few people in person or on television is the product of...too much "product."

The recent analysis suggesting oversaturation and over-extension of the NFL and Premier League should serve as a reminder that unless a pro golf tournament this time of year has something fresh and entertaining to offer the fan base, it should not be played. Too many events are serving the needs of players, executives and sponsors, and needlessly denying the fans a chance to be entertained.

Consider this week's 72-hole, no-cut WGC-HSBC. To say it was lifeless would be an insult to life. The competing Sanderson Farms PGA Tour stop in Mississippi offered a more compelling event because the players, who genuinely need these dollars and points to retain their tour status before the next re-shuffle, appeared more engaged. The event exuded a certain small-town charm lacking in Shanghai. (Left-hander Cody Gribble won and added his name to the list of emerging young players.)

And it's not as if alternatives are unavailable.

This week's collegiate East Lake Cup, while obviously a made-for-TV event highlighting top Division I teams, at least promises to entertain thanks to the team match play format. What if the WGC-HSBC did something similar, offering two or three days of stroke play to determine an individual winner and to make some seedings. But instead of binding players as a team by their country, allowing them to play for a corporate alliance?

Might we stand a better chance of watching and being entertained by seeing Team Nike featuring Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Jhonattan Vegas, taking on Team Srixon with Hideki Matsuyama, Russell Knox and J.B. Holmes.

Team Callaway's Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reed and Thomas Pieters could take on Team Taylor Made's Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Daniel Berger in another early tournament match? And why relegate it to manufacturers? If the RBC-endorsees are going to get appearance fees elsewhere on the schedule, let them field a team based on having enough players high enough in the world ranking.

Some sort of twist on existing formats are presumably squelched in the name of FedExCup points and world ranking points prioritization, which reminds us once again: too often professional golf tournaments are played at the pleasure of the golfers, executives and sponsors, and not for the fans.

Is it any wonder so few were paying attention this week, even with a leaderboard like this?

Kingston Heath! World Cup Returns To Team Format, Epic Course

One of the world's premier designs will host the World Cup this November with 28 two-man teams comprising the field.

While any format that's not individual stroke play is exciting, the Sandbelt return is the best part of the announcement, as Kingston Heath is easily one of the world's great designs and arguably the best outside of St. Andrews on flat ground.

World Cup of Golf returns to team format
at Kingston Heath Golf Club, November 21-27, 2016
 
Melbourne, Victoria, AUS – Tournament officials announced today that the 58th edition of the World Cup of Golf will be played at Kingston Heath Golf Club, with the format returning to team play (two-man teams) from 28 different countries squaring off on November 21-27, 2016, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  One of the most historic global events in the game, the World Cup of Golf has been played 57 times in 25 countries and will carry an $8 million (US) purse with the first-place team splitting $2.56 million. The event boasts an impressive and prestigious list of winners that includes the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Arnold Palmer, Bernhard Langer, Sam Snead, Peter Thomson, Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Jason Day, among many others.
 
Kingston Heath is one of Australia’s best golf courses and consistently ranked among the top 50 courses in the world. The course is renowned for its natural charm and strategies created by its superbly crafted greens and bunkers.  The signature par-3 15th hole is one of the classic short holes in Australia, if not the world.
 
Kingston Heath has hosted numerous prestigious events over its history including the men’s Australian Open, (1948, 1957, 1970, 1983, 1989, 1995, 2000), Women’s Australian Open (2008), Australian Matchplay Championship (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992) and the Australian Masters (2009, 2012).  Winners of these events include names like Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Ian Baker-Finch, Greg Norman, Peter Senior, Karrie Webb and Gary Player.
 
“The World Cup of Golf has a long and storied history as one of the true international events in our sport,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem. “On behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours, we are thrilled that a course with the reputation and standing such as Kingston Heath will serve as the tournament’s host venue in 2016. The fans in the Sandbelt region of Australia are some of the best in the world and our players consider themselves extremely fortunate every time they are able to play in an event of this stature in the Melbourne area. Our thanks go out to the Victorian Government for their partnership in both the past and future events.”

Update on 2016-01-08 15:07 by Geoff

**A bit buried in the press release was this on the format:

The 2016 tournament will return to a 72-hole, stroke play, two-man team event. The first and third days of competition will be the foursomes (alternate shot) format and the second and final days are fourball (best ball) play.

Mike Davis Tabbed Chair Of World Golf Foundation, World Asks: What's The World Golf Foundation?

It's a collection of older, well-compensated white men who gather and table most if not all of the pressing issues in the game while ensuring their cronies are elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

They do, however, have one heck of a museum in St. Augustine that you every golfer must visit.

Anyway,For Immediate Release...

USGA Executive Director Mike Davis Named 2012 World Golf Foundation Chair                                                                                            
 
St. Augustine, FL (January 11, 2012) – Mike Davis, Executive Director of the United States Golf Association (USGA) has been named Chairman of the World Golf Foundation’s Board of Directors for 2012.  Davis succeeds The European Tour’s Chief Executive, George O’Grady, who served as the 2011 Board Chairman.
 
Davis, who was named USGA Executive Director in March, 2011, has been with the Association for over 21 years.  He joined the organization in April 1990 where he served in various capacities in Rules & Competitions, including as U.S. Open Championship Director and later as Senior Director of Rules & Competitions, until being named Executive Director.

“I am both delighted and honored to assume the Chairman’s role for 2012,” said Davis. “The game of golf continues to be presented with challenges and opportunities around the world. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Foundation’s Board and the organization’s talented staff to ensure that the Foundation continues to play a leadership role in fostering the health, growth and development of the game.”

“Mike, with decades of experience organizing and managing national championships, will bring a rich perspective as Chair of our Board,” said Steve Mona, Chief Executive Officer of the World Golf Foundation. “His extensive knowledge and leadership in the golf industry will benefit our mission of supporting the growth of the game worldwide.”
 
In addition to Davis and O’Grady, the other World Golf Foundation Executive Committee members are Jim Armstrong, Executive Director of The Masters Tournament; Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A; Tim Finchem, Commissioner of the PGA TOUR; Joe Steranka, Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of America; and Michael Whan, Commissioner of the LPGA.

What diversity!

Olympic Format Claims Another Victim

Bernie McGuire gets confirmation from Mission Hills' Ken Chu that the two-man World Cup will go to 72-holes of stroke play and world ranking points starting in 2013.

"The World Cup will change format, and it will begin enjoying world rankings points, and it will still be held biennially and at around this time of year," he told Reuters.

"But with golf to be in the 2016 Olympics the equation in golf changes, and these changes to the World Cup will be having the Olympics in mind."

Chu, along with his younger brother Tenniel, Mission Hills vice chairman, held meetings earlier this week at Haikou with the Federation of Golf Tours heads, including PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and his European Tour counterpart, George O'Grady.

Chu indicated the Federation would release a joint statement shortly confirming the changes.

Ah no need now!

"This is the biggest bogey Finchem has ever made."

The surprisingly chipper talk of Tiger coming back unblemished meant this exchange from the SI Confidential went unnoticed:

Anonymous Pro: The thing that we thought would drive the Tour was the World Golf Championships. If anything, those events are killing the other tournaments. Why? The WGC tournaments draw top players away from regular Tour events, which we need now more than ever.

Bamberger: The Tour basically oversold Tiger, and in the end it's an uphill slog when he doesn't appear. The Tour's long tradition is about local events and local charities. They tried to join the big leagues and were somewhat successful but found that golf is still a niche sport, although it can break out from time to time. The WGC events haven't connected with anyone and at the same time have ruined the real heart of the Tour, stops like L.A. or Hartford or Colonial that are now unfairly perceived as second-rate.

Anonymous Pro: Tiger and Phil wanted the season to end sooner. They weren't playing after mid-August, sometimes not even in the season-ending Tour Championship. Now that the FedEx Cup concludes the season in September, they're taking advantage of the downtime they asked for by playing overseas for big appearance fees. Didn't Finchem know that was going to happen? I'm not blaming Tiger or Phil. I'd play in a dress for $3 million. It is the Tour's fault for allowing it, and it really rubs me the wrong way. This is the biggest bogey Finchem has ever made.

Short term I think it's terribly wrong to call the WGC concept a bogey. But in the post-Tiger accident and Great Recession economy, long term the events appear to bring as many complications as solutions.

I'm guessing that hard questions internally about the value of WGC events will be forbidden as long as Finchem is commissioner. But the combination of increased animosity outside of the U.S. toward the America-centric concept and the inability of stops like San Diego to draw sponsor interest, could mean 2010 will lead to a closer examination of the World Golf Championship concept. Long overdue.