10 Tuesday Takes: Tiger Woods’ posturing and Faxon’s mini rant

Hello, folks. Below is an assortment of takes, seared to a nice temperature for your consumption. Some of them are opinions I steadfastly believe. Others are thoughts I think I believe. Others still are simply notices that should inform you of what’s going on and what may be coming down the pike. Anyway, there are 10 of them. They’re all mine, but now they’re yours, too!

1. Brad Faxon found an agreeable audience 

I am not going to call Twitter a perfectly representative audience, but the virality of Faxon’s mini rant/campaign/story/dig feels like some sort of sign. People agree with him. A lot of people do. A lot of golf fans on Twitter believe Arnold Palmer would have handled this era of pro golf angst differently. 

I think that’s a fair assessment. But I’m also not sure it’s absolutely relevant? The market structures were wildly different in Palmer’s era. He used leverage of his own to found the PGA Tour. And then leveraged his stature and what he helped build to shut down Greg Norman’s attempts in the mid-90s. But I suppose that’s not the point here. The point is that fans prop up the overall economic viability of the PGA Tour. Bringing them in, in a simple way, is something more players could focus on. These days, though, it takes a bit more than looking them in the eye.

2. Players need to do their homework

Wyndham Clark and Lucas Glover both made headlines over the weekend for sharing opinions on the structure, or future structure, of the Tour. Clark is in favor of a 100-member Tour. Glover thinks the Signature Events make no sense in their current iteration, telling Golfweek they are a “money grab.” 

First, a thank you to both of them for sharing their thoughts publicly. Not many pros do. But they both undercut themselves later in their respective interviews. When Clark was asked to expand his thoughts with a bit of detail, he followed by saying it’s all “above my paygrade,” essentially saying he’s got these forthright beliefs but that you should take them with a heavy grain of salt. Not really sure what to do with that. 

Glover was similar, opining on PGA Tour Enterprises and what it might mean for the Tour, but he did it in such a flimsy way, referring to it as “PGA Tour Enterprises, or whatever it’s called.” Glover is going to get some serious money from PGATE, and his opinion on it will be interesting some day, but he admittedly hasn’t watched any of the videos the Tour has made for players explaining the equity program.

My thought is simple: players sharing opinions is fantastic. But half-baked thoughts without all the information or detail feels a bit meaningless.

3. Tiger Woods might have been posturing

It felt compelling in late November when Tiger Woods returned at his Hero World Challenge, an appearance he has rarely missed in past seasons, despite a slew of reasons to, making good on his own promotional value. Woods’ press conference that week felt telling, too, saying a “realistic” best-case scenario would have him playing one tournament per month in 2024. It made headlines, because Woods hasn’t played that much in one season since his car accident in 2021. And maybe that was precisely the point.

I had a feeling at the time and it feels even more plausible now that Woods was posturing a bit. Stirring up the hype for 2024 right as 2023 was coming to a close. But why? The PGA Tour was in the later stages of negotiations — which Woods was heavily involved in — with the Strategic Sports Group, the consortium of sports owners who invested an initial $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises. There is not a bigger bargaining chip for early value-injection than Woods playing a mostly full schedule, so it would have been nice for SSG to believe that was coming. It just hasn’t happened. No events for Woods in January. Twenty-four holes at the Genesis Invitational, another event that benefits Woods’ foundation. And to this point, zero events in March (and likely none before the Masters, an event PGA Tour Enterprises does not directly benefit from.) 

4. Anthony Kim’s 65 was WEIRD 

Fans know so little about Anthony Kim’s return to competitive golf, mostly because it’s happening on the other side of the world. But also because it hasn’t been great. It was scores of 76, 76, 74, 76 and 72, all shot in the middle of the night in America. But then there was his Sunday 65 in Hong Kong. Immediately, some hope for progress, right? Sure. 

But this was a weird 65 from Kim. A putting-dependent 65, led by him hitting just six fairways. Kim hit just 10 out of 18 greens. His ball-striking stats are 54th out of 54 on LIV. It’s been really bad, by professional golf standards. But he hooped everything with his putter Sunday. And the putting stroke looks good! I don’t mean to have outsized expectations for the man, but the golf he’s playing right now is not sustainable, and I think we’ll find that out more this week when he competes in a 72-hole tournament with a cut. That 65 was a lot closer to 70 than it was 63. 

5. 6,700 yards can work

Doubters will be inclined to point out that Kim’s 65 took place on a 6,700-yard course. And they’d be correct. But that was the same course that featured Phil Mickelson’s first-round 80. And Jon Rahm’s final-round 69. The point is, the course is the course. How’d you play it? 

And the answer to me is more visual than quantifiable. Players were forced to work all sorts of shots around Hong Kong Golf Club, with its many doglegs. Rahm was working the ball left and right, showing off just how great of a ballstriker he is. Which is to say he’s showing off just how great of a golfer he is. The width and angles approach to golf course design offers endless strategy, and that’s what pro golf should utilize most often. But maybe once or twice a year I’m all in favor of watching pros play a tiny, tight track and get forced into very specific shots. I would have loved watching Justin Thomas play that golf course. 

6. Jay Monahan had a misconception

Jay Monahan issued his annual Players Championship state of the union press conference Tuesday, and unlike past iterations, this one didn’t amount to much. He refused to provide detail about negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, despite being asked about it more than a dozen times. His answers regarding the investment he has landed — $1.5 billion (and counting) from SSG — were riddled in corporate speak. 

But Monahan did one thing that I found very curious. When asked how he planned to deliver a return on that investment, he immediately highlighted the fact that Golf The Sport is booming recreationally. That golf-course participation is at an all-time high, Monahan implies, is a means to expect commercial growth of PGA Tour Enterprises. 

What I think he fails to realize — or at least where that mindset breaks down — is that a lot of people play golf without following golf. Without really caring about PGA Tour players. Without transacting with the Tour product by sitting on their couch and watching CBS, NBC or ESPN+. He’s correct that Golf The Sport has been handed an opportunity, but it’s not as direct of a connection to his commercial product. Otherwise Tour ratings, interest, social media views, etc. would have grown consistently the last three years. That’s simply not the case. 

7. The Champions League format … isn’t what everyone thinks

Much has been made of Rory McIlroy’s hopes for pro golf to take on a similar form to the Champions League, the global pinnacle of soccer. The idea continues to get invoked by golf media, and even a few other top players. Will Zalatoris did so just last week. But I think people are a little confused as to how the Champions League is actually formed. A very rough golfy Champions League would be less The best players on LIV and the best from the PGA Tour and more something like this: 

– 30 players from the PGA Tour

– 10 from LIV Golf

– maybe three from the DP World Tour

– maybe three from the Korn Ferry Tour

– one from PGA Tour Australasia

– one from PGA Tour Japan

– one from the Sunshine Tour in South Africa

– one from the Korean PGA

– then maybe another four from a qualification series 

That’s 54 players, traipsing the world. Rory might be in favor of it, but the process to get there would get hairy. Because one thing non-soccer fans don’t realize about the Champions League? Clubs like Tottenham — the 17th-best in the world — fail to qualify for it all the time. 

8. Pro golf’s biggest frustration? The lack of timeline

Monahan spoke for 60 minutes Tuesday and made clear 1. Discussions with the Saudi PIF are “accelerating” but that 2. He was not going to add any detail to it for us. He shut down the room a couple times when pressed for more. But he repeatedly discussed the importance of giving fans the best product, and even said the Tour and the Saudi PIF have a shared goal of “quieting the noise” in the pro game.

My question: When? (Yes, I could have asked this myself, but he was clearly not in the mood.)

What we received on June 6, 2023 was a promised effort for the two sides to reach an agreement by December 31. That didn’t happen. An additional two months have come and gone since then, and there’s no timeline of when fans can expect a deal. Not even a rough idea. The cost of this is solidifying any angst fans have that the collection of best golfers, as they once knew it, is still a long way off. And Patrick Cantlay didn’t seem to ease that angst. Cantlay was asked when Tour player directors like him should meet with leaders from the PIF. His answer? “When that time comes, I think we should all be open to it.” When pressed to consider when that could come, he was brief: “I’m sure when the time is right, we will.”

9. Tiger’s highlights have perpetual value

Is there another tournament that has made more off one highlight than the Players Championship has made off Tiger’s triple-breaking, “Better than Most” putt in 2001? On Monday afternoon, the instant I stepped out of our rental vehicle, I could hear Gary Koch’s famous broadcasting call played over entrance speakers. When we arrived again Tuesday morning, the same thing. This tournament has its famous 17th hole, but the best highlight in its history is not anyone hitting that green but a particular putt on top of it. And for it to be as famous as it is, it had to be hit by one player in particular.  

To answer the rhetorical question above, I think the only other tournament that has made more off an individual highlight is the WM Phoenix Open, which has been aided by Woods’ famous Raise-the-Roof ace for a full 27 years now. That single swing (and celebration), really feels like the genesis of mayhem on that hole, indicative of everything the tournament has become. And again, it could only be as famous as it is because of one specific player hitting one specific shot.

10. Sorry folks — St. Andrews’ new queue system makes sense

Gonna squeeze this thought out at the end here, because I know thousands of people who will disagree with it. Because thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of people have an indelible memory of sleeping overnight outside the Old Course Pavilion in St. Andrews, earning (and holding) a spot in line for the tee time of their dreams. They’re not wrong to be sad about the St. Andrews Links Trust instituting a new system, which goes into effect today. But it all just feels unnecessarily hazardous. Should it be more random than simply those people who can safely camp out overnight? Is it good for anyone’s health? Were we one chilly-night-induced heart attack away from a lawsuit? We might be better off now. I know it’s not a popular take, but not all of these will be.

Congratulations for reaching the end of this column of ideas. If you have a take you’d like to pass along, or if you agree or disagree with any of the above, shoot a note to sean.zak@golf.com.