Response To Pelley's Claims Of European Tour Financial Health: "No strategic alliance joy for the 68"

Back in April Keith Pelley was lamenting the difficult financial times. Job losses were predicted, etc.

In abruptly announcing a new PGA Tour alliance, Pelley scoffed at a Twitter assertion that the European Tour was in poor financial shape.

It’s a particularly strange stance given how there would be complete understanding amidst a pandemic that things were not perfect.

The result of Pelley’s obvious truth distortion now leaves him open to some pretty and deserved criticism. Not for joining forces with the PGA Tour. No as Alistait Tait writes in a superb post, the lying seems crude given the spector of the Tour letting go of off a huge portion of the staff. It’s 68, Tait writes.

Since the tour is in “robust financial health” any chance of those 68 getting their jobs back? Or maybe the Tour IS in “robust financial health” because it shed those jobs.

This pandemic has hurt every business. Many people in all industries have lost their jobs as a result. Golf is no different. However, many companies have stuck by their employees, retaining them for the good days that surely lie ahead. That’s certainly true for those companies that are in “robust financial health.”

And what about the tour’s current employees at its headquarters at the Wentworth Club (pictured)? What does this strategic alliance mean for those good men and women currently working their youknowhats off to keep the European Tour circus running right now? They must be worried about the future.

He goes on to write about “redundancies” and the pain felt by those let go. It’s well worth a few minutes. Oh and the closing line is a killer.

Early 2021 PGA Tour Events To Be (Largely) Played Without Galleries

While one more fall event is to be played this week in Mexico the West Coast Swing is not far away. And outside of a smattering fans in Maui and (gulp) a downscaled but still-amtitious Waste Management Open, fans will not be in attendance in early 2021. (The viability of the events remains in question as California has traveler quarantine rules in some counties and other lockdowns coming).

The Sony Open will not have fans.

And the first of three California tournaments announced Monday their plan to play the Farmers Insurance Open without fans. From Tod Leonard’s GolfDigest.com story:

The blow of no fans will be lessened, Gorsich said, because the County of San Diego did give its approval last week for pro-ams to take place on Monday and Wednesday of Farmers week. “To not have pro-ams would have been another big hit,” he said. “Getting pro-ams was a big win for us.”

The Tournament of Champions, Sony Open and American Express also will have pro-ams, and it figures that Riviera and Pebble will, too, if their local governments approve.

At the Farmers, pro-am participants pay about $8,000 to play on Wednesday and $4,000 on Monday. Of course, the experience will be very different this year, with only the golfers, the professional and his caddie allowed on the grounds, though Gorisch maintains that it can be a more enjoyable and “intimate” experience. There are no in-person draws parties, and at Torrey Pines the amateurs will warm up in indoor simulators at a nearby hotel.

What could go wrong with a bunch of nervous, huffing and loud pro-am participants gathering in an indoor simulator?

Also, in what should be a pressing matter for the Tour and upcoming non-CBS events: Golf Channel is not COVID testing its crews and is stonewalling. It’s surprising, even at this point, that the Tour’s testing apparatus is not incorporating these hard-working folks into their fold.

McGinley On Alliance Of European and PGA Tours: Stars Playing Together "Premier League style"

As a member of the European Tour’s Board of Directors, I didn’t expect Paul McGinley to tip his hand much in this Sky Sports piece endorsing the PGA Tour alliance announced Friday.

As I reported Friday, the board McGinley sits on had been briefed on the offer and opened the European Tour books to Raine Group. And on a careful reading and even a shred of imagination there is plenty to read into McGinley’s endorsement.

After calling the deal the “right partnership” for the European Tour and the sport, he gets to some of the primary motives of the “alliance”:

The idea is that we become a little bit more international in terms of the schedule of the world's top players, so they're able to visit other places and play in other events on the European Tour.

Three of the four major championships are played in America every year and a lot of the World Golf Championships have migrated back to the USA. I think the players can eventually expect, hopefully from a European point of view, a more international flavour to the world's best events.

Hope you got that in writing! Because given the opportunity, the American organizations given the chance to go international with top events have a mixed track record.

More from McGinley:

This is a way of working together to get everyone back to playing under one umbrella, which will help bring a little bit of a better narrative to what golf is all about.

It's a simplification of the sport to try to create a real top tier of professional golf, Premier League style if you like, with gateways for the players underneath that to then get into that style of event.

Sounds familiar. Oh right, that’s the Premier Golf League concept.

Anyway, here’s the big reveal: “a real top tier” of professional golf, the main philosophy behind the PGL, is the goal if the often-xenophobic PGA Tour membership can be ignored for some form of international symmetry to happen. McGinley says that’s the goal here.

It has been pre-empted a lot by the coronavirus pandemic and the PGA Tour deciding that this is a route they want to go down. The PGA Tour have previously been a little bit hesitant and a little bit American-centric in what they've done and how they've viewed things.

It is going to take a little bit of time to develop, as this is a very raw relationship at the moment that's just starting out, but I think there's more of an understanding now that the PGA Tour need more of an international element to what they do. The European Tour is the obvious place for that.

It has been the obvious place for a long, long time. And thanks to a “compelling” offer from the Raine Group, the two Tours finally figured out how much they need each other. A least for now.

Video: The Annual Alfred Dunhill Championship Wildlife Roundup

The Alfred Dunhill Championship traditionally delivers the best nature shots of the golf year. And as always, the European Tour broadcast provided plenty of images from Leopard Creek’s location next to Kruger National Park.

This handy roundup was posted by the European Tour social team:

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Pelley Insists European Tour "Categorically" Not In Financial Hole; Says PGA Tour Alliance Came Together In 72 Hours

Chief Executive Colorfully Coordinated sported a less-than-comforting black-on-black motif for Friday’s hastily-arranged Zoom to spin the European Tour’s “landmark strategic alliance” with the PGA Tour.

Based on the reports by those partaking in the call, Keith Pelley remained light on details about the surprising Thanksgiving Friday announcement. Skepticism was in order given that it’s traditionally a day reserved for only Grade A, First Team, All-World news dumps.

The Daily Mail’s Derek Lawrenson noted the 72 hour mention by Pelley and suggested the announcement was meant to torpedo an upcoming announcement.

The alliance has been years in the making but came together in the space of 72 hours as both tours look to kill off the upstart Saudi-backed Premier Golf League. 

The PGL have promised untold millions to the top players and were rumoured to be ready to make a big announcement next month regarding a circuit for the elite they hoped would be up and running by 2023.

Alistair Tait attempted to parse Pelley’s comments and found the missing details disconcerting.

You’d have thought after four and a half years of talking to PGA Tour counterpart Jay Monahan they’d have laid out some basic plans of where this strategic alliance was going to take the game. No. Just airy-fairy stuff cobbled together over 72 hours. Why the rush?

“You might ask, why now?” Pelley acknowledged. “Jay and I have been talking about working closer together for the last four and a half years. I've always said golf is very fractioned with four major championships and two professional organisations. This was just a moment in time when everything aligned.”

Who said stars can’t align during Thanksgiving week in a pandemic?

Tait goes on to analyze several components to the deal and it’s well worth your time.

Sky Sports’ Ali Stafford features the most Pelley quotes, including this jargon-laced doozy. It was the COVID that did it:

"I think the whole process made us realise, you know, we are in this game together, and we have so many synergies. We are both committed to growth and globalisation of golf, and I think the Covid showed us that actually we shouldn't be competing against each other.

"We should be pulling together and aggregating our skills and our best practises, our commercial streams to ultimately benefit both tours and the game of golf, which has seen an incredible boost, and I think what we can do together, it really gets me excited."

Probably the biggest reveal came with the following quote, placed high in Brian Keogh’s Irish Golf Desk assessment of the call.

But Pelley vehemently denied it was tantamount to a first step towards a merger, explaining that the deal came about after it turned down “a very compelling offer” by the private equity group fronting the breakaway Premier Golf League, Raine Capital, “to take the European Tour to another level but in a different direction.”

“Compelling” and using “another level” only adds intrigue to this bizarre late-year news dump.

Bezuidenhout Wins Alfred Dunhill To Continue His Impressive Rise

South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout held off Sean Crocker to win the 2020 Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek. And while the 26-year-old’s second win came over a so-so field, Bezuidenhout picks up a win in his native land, comfortably moves inside the all-important world top 50 (41st), and has solidified himself as a player-to-watch heading into 2021.

But as Brentley Romine reminds us, it’s the Bezuidenhout journey that is even more incredible.

Bezuidenhout has much to be proud of. For those who need a refresher, here are the spark notes: Bezuidenhout nearly died when he was 2 years old after unknowingly drinking from a Coke bottle that had been contaminated with rat poison. The poison took a toll on his body, affecting his nervous system and causing a stutter, which in turn led to bouts with anxiety and depression. When Bezuidenhout turned 14, his doctor prescribed him medication that helped him “enjoy my life again,” Bezuidenhout wrote last year in a blog post for EuropeanTour.com, but the beta blockers were also a banned substance, and despite Bezuidenhout being adamant that he filled out the proper paperwork, he was disqualified from the 2014 British Amateur and subsequently banned for nine months.

“It felt like my life was over. ... I was inconsolable,” he wrote in the same post. “However, I eventually turned this into energy to help me come back stronger.”

His emotional post round interview and the Director’s Cut of the final round highlights.

Watch highlights of Christiaan Bezuidenhout winning the 2020 Alfred Dunhill Championship from Leopard Creek. ► SUBSCRIBE: http://et.golf/Subscribe Welcome to...

President Trump Issues Less-Than-Pleasant Architectural Assessment

As the 45th President winds down his tenure, Donald Trump made his 292nd visit to one of his properties on Thanksgiving day.

If I were the third hole at Trump National Washington D.C., I’d be concerned about my architectural future after this shot, assessment and reaction…

Donald Trump got in a few holes before his Thanksgiving dinner, but it went about as well as the election for him ... and he was VERY vocal about it.SUBSCRIB...

What's Missing From The PGA Tour-European Tour Strategic Alliance News?

We knew the sides were talking months ago. Then news on a mega-tour merger went silent as the focus turned to merely getting 2020 golf tournaments off the ground.

Then we got the Friday-after-Thanksgiving news.

Belaboring the cynical timing of Friday’s “landmark strategic alliance” announcement could grow tiresome, but it’s also hard to filter much of anything out of the detail-light European Tour-PGA Tour release without returning to the odd rush to share so little detail.

This much is apparent: Jay Monahan joins the European Tour Board of Directors and with it, he brings a check of an undetermined amount to own a stake in their impressive television production operation. Less apparent: how much of that is an investment in a media operation versus a quick way to help the European Tour’s finances?

In a call with UK writers, ET Chief Keith Pelley refuted the idea that this was about finances:

.@EuropeanTour CEO Keith Pelley on "strategic alliance" with @PGATOUR :"Emphatically, this is not a merger. I read 1 tweet that said a takeover is inevitable because of the situation that we are in. We are categorically not in financial difficulties, that is simply wrong."

— Phil Casey (@pcaseysafc) November 27, 2020

But as the AP’s Doug Ferguson writes: “The announcement comes toward the end of a devastating year financially for both tours. The PGA Tour has lost more money than Europe because of its size, though it had more in reserve to handle the crisis.”

Setting the finances aside, this looks like the PGA Tour blocking a European Tour acquisition/merger/strategic partnership/just friends/whatever-you-want-to-call-it deal with the Raine Group. They are holders of the proposed Premier Golf League that was declared dead back in March.

The dance of living dead!

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch exclusively declares today’s announced deal another nail in a coffin purportedly already six feet under when the pandemic loomed. Lynch writes:

The historic alliance announced Friday between the PGA Tour and European Tour came after months of tense negotiations, and fended off a rival bid to take a stake in the European circuit by the private equity group fronting the Premier Golf League, multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek.

Back in March Lynch wrote the PGL “scheme” was “condemned to failure”, which begs the question, why the need for today’s fending off deal? Lynch explains this way:

The prospect of Raine Group — and by extension, Premier Golf League — gaining a foothold through the European Tour caused dread among executives at the PGA Tour, which views the PGL as a potential existential threat should it successfully lure major stars away with the promise of huge paydays.

There is life after death!

A number of sources said the Raine Group proposal was always unlikely to win favor with the European Tour’s board and was being used as leverage to secure better terms from the PGA Tour, which was keen to ensure the PGL did not secure the infrastructure and tournament network from which it could launch its own rival operation.

After checking in with sources who have knowledge of the Raine Group’s efforts, negotiations between the private equity firm and European Tour had advanced considerably this summer.

Around 50 meetings had taken place this year.

Zoom’s with the player board and Board of Directors had taken place after Raine was given full access to European Tour financials, including the Ryder Cup. That was a risky leverage bluff by Chief Executive Keith Pelley but it does appear to have led to a last-minute deal where the PGA Tour wrote a check to stave off a rival. A dead one at that.

But as one source put it, “To paraphrase Mark Twain: reports of the PGL’s death are greatly exaggerated.”

Beyond the questions of financials and dead proposals, what does this mean for players, fans and sponsors?

For now the alliance appears to be a survival move with benefits TBD. Fans might eventually get a better world schedule that will undoubtedly be streamlined due to the pandemic. Players, however, will face the prospect of a monopoly that some like Rory McIlroy openly lamented with the Premier Golf League’s more controlled franchise infrastructure. And sponsors? Perhaps there is a better solution to the WGC, Rolex, Race to Dubai and FedEx elements that seem to clash instead of delivering better golf tournaments.

Until more exciting details come forward, Andy Johnson’s take sums things up:

The PGA Tour bought a competitor with the same product and from a financial side, a worse one. The PGL has always bet on providing a different product. The positive spin for the PGL is that the Tour has doubled down on the same existing product.

— Andy Johnson 🍳 (@the_woke_yolk) November 27, 2020

This would be like if when Google came out, Yahoo bought up a smaller worse search engine. Google smoked Yahoo because it provided significantly superior products.

— Andy Johnson 🍳 (@the_woke_yolk) November 27, 2020

PGA Tour Acquires Share Of European Tour Productions, Board Seat For Jay Monahan In "Landmark Strategic Alliance"

The European Tour and PGA Tour have finally decided to join forces. And what better day to share this news than than the ultimate Friday news dump window, Black Friday!

Wait, what?

Blow is the PGA Tour release, dropped on the Friday most Americans focus on getting 60% off an air fryer and anything but looking at news. While light on detail despite seemingly positive news for the two Tours, it is hard to get past the odd timing and brevity of the release.

Here is the PGA Tour copy followed by one notable omission when compared with the European Tour’s version.

EUROPEAN TOUR AND PGA TOUR ANNOUNCE LANDMARK STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

* Historic move brings golf’s two leading global Tours together in partnership

* Alliance allows for further collaboration on scheduling and commercial opportunities

The European Tour and PGA TOUR today heralded a significant new era for global golf with an historic announcement of a Strategic Alliance.

The landmark agreement will see golf’s two major Tours explore all facets of collaboration, working together on strategic commercial opportunities including collaborating on global media rights in certain territories.

Certain territories. Tantalizing!

This will come through part of the agreement which sees the PGA TOUR acquire a minority investment stake in European Tour Productions (ETP), the European Tour’s Media Production company, which produces and distributes content internationally. 

That’s the lead news in this? I mean, we all love ETP and they certainly do a fine job but uh, ok. More likely it gets top billing because this was the easiest way for the PGA Tour to send a check that keeps the lights on in Wentworth.

The Tours will also work in partnership on a number of other areas including global scheduling, prize funds and playing opportunities for the respective memberships. Further details of these areas will be announced in due course.

That would have been my lead!

Now to the air quotes…

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “This partnership is an historic moment for the game of golf and is a fantastic opportunity for both the European Tour and the PGA TOUR to explore ways to come together at the very pinnacle of our sport and work in unison for the benefit of the men’s professional game.

First thing we’ve learned: Tour remains in all caps for the PGA, not for the European.

 “Today’s announcement is the formalisation of a closer working relationship between the Tours in recent years. It was one which was crystalised earlier this year when both Jay and I were part of the working group containing representatives of the four Majors and the LPGA, a group which helped shape the remainder of the golfing calendar for 2020 during unprecedented times.

 “We shared the challenges of working through a year neither of us could have ever imagined and we found definite synergies in many areas of our respective Tours. That gave us the impetus to move forward together and arrive at this momentous announcement we are making today.”

So momentous we are dropping it on a Friday with only one significant detail about acquisition of a minority share in a money-losing in-house television department? Whatever you say Chief Executive!

 Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA TOUR, said, “We are thrilled to announce this further strengthening of our partnership with the European Tour, and we look forward to working together for the benefit of the men’s professional game and for golf fans around the world.”

And that would be the end.

Here is the one difference between to the two press releases sent to media, included by the European Tour but not the PGA Tour when its release landed 24 minutes later (but included in the PGATour.com online version):

One element of the partnership which can be confirmed today is the fact that PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan will take a seat on the Board of the European Tour.

A board seat is a pretty big deal. It means Monahan gets a close look at all of the European Tour financials, including the Ryder Cup. And from the player’s perspective, this particular bit of news should prompt multiple questions including, “why wasn’t Keith Pelley afforded a similar seat on the PGA Tour Tour Policy Board?”

Just guessing here, but that would have required assembling the current board, a lot of lawyers who’d charge double to work on Thanksgiving, and doing a major re-write of the PGA Tour by-laws that would have taken more time.

In Europe they’ve lately been handing out board seats monthly so clearly it was an easy move for the European Tour to add Monahan. Still, it raises questions.

More analysis to come…

The Economist On Launch Angle Golf

Thanks to reader T for The Economist’s look at launch angle golf as carried out by Bryson DeChambeau to impressive effect.

There is this explanation of how he’s defying trends by launching.

The model’s lessons are intuitive. To thump the ball as far as possible, maximise clubhead speed and launch angle while minimising spin (which causes the ball to soar higher, rather than racing forward). However, most players face a trade-off between these goals, explains Paul Wood of Ping, a club manufacturer. Harder impacts usually mean flatter trajectories. Although the average male player swings faster and produces less spin than in 2007, launch angles have declined since then.

One golfer, however, has escaped this constraint. Bryson DeChambeau, a physics graduate with oddly designed clubs and a voracious appetite for data, is nicknamed the “Mad Scientist”. While the PGA Tour was suspended because of covid-19, he added 18kg (40lbs) of bulk. This has allowed him to swing faster than anyone else. But he has also managed to smash the ball with a high launch angle, rather than a low one—an unprecedented combination that might owe something to his unusually stiff wrists and robotic technique.

Putting Shotlink data to good use, The Economist put together a stunning chart showing DeChambeau’s outlier (for now) status in the launch/speed world:

Also, The Economist’s Editor’s Pick podcast discussed their research at the 14:56 mark.

Video: "Brora Golf Club; Story of a Golf Club"

Cookie Jar Golf did a fine job highlighting the charm of endangered Cleeve Hill and they’ve posted another important short film on Brora Golf Club. Earlier in this grand year you may recall there were concerns about Brora’s future and the positive response to helping one of the world’s oldest and most important courses survive.

It’s all covered in this enjoyable four minutes:

We kick start out 2020 Scotland tour, with Brora Golf Club; Story of a Golf Club! This James Braid classic, that sits largely untouched since 1923 has gained...

Ratings: Basically, No One Watched The 2020 RSM Classic

Despite a very solid field and compelling finish, Golf Channel’s four-round broadcast of the 2020 RSM Classic failed to garner more than a few cataract-free eyeballs.

ShowBuzzDaily with the gruesome ratings showing an average of 346,000 watched the final round, with only 31,000 of those not Villages-eligible.

The post-fall Masters slot and wealth of viewing options made this a no-win situation even with all of the long-bombing athletes today.

"Who could have imagined just five years ago that Jordan Spieth and Fowler...would both be ranked outside the top 50 and all but forgotten heading into 2021?"

A variation of that question gets asked pretty frequently of most anyone who calls themselves a golf writer and there are no easy answers. Derek Lawrenson highlights the recent struggles of Rickie Fowler’s efforts to retool his swing in his weekly Daily Mail column and writes:

The Californian has played in 18 consecutive tournaments without so much as a top-10 finish and is now on the brink of falling outside the world’s top 50 for the first time in a decade.

That’s quite some fall for a man who won six times between 2015 and 2017 after finishing in the top five in all four majors in 2014.

It’s another illustration that while golf might be the slowest of games, it has a fast-changing landscape. Who could have imagined just five years ago that Jordan Spieth and Fowler, back then the two golden boys of American golf, would both be ranked outside the top 50 and all but forgotten heading into 2021?

At 27 and 31 respectively, it’s too glib and easy to say they will be back. It’s certainly the hope given they’re two of the game’s nice guys.

The bald truth, however, in a mentally shattering game, is it’s far from a given.

Another factor that can’t be discounted: both Fowler and Spieth have had incredibly lucrative off-course endorsement careers. No matter how much drive both may have, the financial windfalls inevitably have to chip away at their competitive edge. Oh and the balls goes to far and the future will be all about bashing, so I’m not sure the motivation will be there for players who, at their best, thrive on a variety of skills instead of just driving and putting. That should annoy them or the governing bodies, but so far, not yet.

The Shirtless Shark Really, Really Enjoys Playing Fetch With His Dog

The New York Post’s Nicki Gostin handles the big picture, well, better than most details. Also for non-Gram users, their hefty roundup of the best comments is below. Though you can always “view comments” on the post and see the comedic best of humanity in these dark times.

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CBS News On Renewed Interest In Golf And Late Nine-Hole Rounds

CBS Moneywatch’s Megan Cerullo doesn’t tell us much we haven’t already read about golf in the pandemic. Still, after years of stories about the decline of the sport’s participation numbers, it’s worth noting pieces like this one, if nothing else to highlight that a resurgence in the game had nothing to do with the opportunity to spend $600 for ten more yards off the tee.

In August, consumers spent a record $331 million on clubs, balls, gloves and other gear — that was up 32% over the year-ago period and topped the previous sales record for that month in 2006, according to Golf Datatech. 

For the first 10 months of 2020, golf equipment sales were up nearly 30% compared to the same period last year, Matt Powell, an analyst with market research firm NPD Group, told CBS MoneyWatch. Training tools, such as hitting screens, swing aids and putting matts are up 75% as enthusiasts practice their technique away from the golf course.

And this is a nice reminder that all that well-intentioned capital devoted to nine-hole ad campaigns could never be as effective as having more people work from home.

The millions of Americans now working from home because of the virus is also boosting golf, with more people sneaking away from their desks to play a quick nine holes. 

The number of so-called short loops as a percentage of complete rounds played is up more than 15% in 2020, according to the National Golf Foundation. 

"This challenges the assumption that golf is an 18-hole sport. People are starting to see the beauty of carving out two hours for nine holes instead of three or four," said Lorentz of the National Golf Foundation. "That could be a real positive for the industry coming out of the pandemic.