Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
Talk of scarcity this week wasn’t scarce.
Tuesday, at the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods had thoughts on it. Scarcity, he said, was one of the pillars of the soon-to-come new-look PGA Tour. If there are potentially fewer tournaments, that could heighten the importance of the ones remaining, the idea goes. Or you’ll miss golf when there isn’t golf.
“The scarcity thing is something that I know scares a lot of people,” Woods said, “but I think that if you have scarcity at a certain level, it will be better because it will drive more eyes because there will be less time.”
That seems right.
Right?
Wednesday, about 10,000 miles away, at the Australian Open, Rory McIlroy opined. He noted that he and others were playing in Melbourne. And that there were 20 pros at the Hero. And that there was the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa. (And he didn’t mention that the 50-and-over gang is playing the Skechers World Champions Cup, and the LPGA is playing its final stage of Q-School, which is arguably the biggest event this week, should life-changing moments be important to you.)
“I think because there’s so much golf and there’s so many tournaments, the eyeballs are divided,” McIlroy said. “And the interest in every one of those tournaments this week is probably not as high as it should be. I think this tournament in particular because of the history, because of the tradition, deserves to be a standalone tournament, a week on its own.
“Hopefully one day the powers that be can put together a schedule where the biggest and best tournaments in the world and the oldest and the ones with the most heritage can be elevated and stand on their own.”
This seems more right.
The reasoning in reducing the PGA Tour schedule is sound. Tournaments after majors seem strange — you don’t play a regular-season game after the Super Bowl or the World Series, after all. The plan of a tournament nearly every week from January through November is also a lot.
But pro golf is not just the PGA Tour. And PGA Tour golfers play all over, too. At PGA Tour-affiliated events, like this week. On the DP World Tour, like this week. TGL. Hit-and-giggles, like the Skins Game on Black Friday and next week’s Golf Channel Games. Shoot, maybe there’s even a day where there’s LIV Golf crossover. And what does the casual pro golf fan see? Golf, golf, golf. And that’s great to those who love golf on their screens, no matter the day, week or month.
But scarcity is then just a word.
Will that change? You hear whispers. McIlroy’s often talked of a world tour, and he’s probably not talking just to hear his voice; he’s part of the conversation. Consider too another theme of PGA Tour redevelopment.
Simplicity.
“So not only the players understand,” Woods said, “but the fans can understand it, what goes on every week, week to week, how they can follow and how we can make it better.”
Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9.
One takeaway from the week
2. This exchange between Keegan Bradley and a reporter on Wednesday at the Hero World Challenge stopped me. The reporter’s question is in italics.
If you could give yourself a letter grade for this season, what would you give yourself?
“Well, that’s a complicated question because I’m really proud of the way I’ve played,” Bradley said. “I think in a lot of ways it’s the best year of my career. My rookie year I won twice with a major, so that’s going to be tough to beat. But with everything that was going on, I’m really proud of the way that I played.
“But when you factor in losing the Ryder Cup, I mean, it’s an ‘F.’ Without — you’ve got to go and win that and this grade’s different. It’s really tough to grade. I was talking to my coach. He said, ‘Remember, you won this year.’ I was like, ‘No, I don’t remember that at all.’
“It was a unique year. I think a year that no — really no other player has ever experienced. I’m proud of the way I played certainly, but the end of the year was difficult.”
We can argue about Bradley’s performance as Ryder Cup captain (and there are decisions in which to be critical). But is there another currently playing American who’s more invested in the event?
Is there a way that can be absorbed?
One takeaway for the weekend
3. As noted above, this week’s most consequential event will be LPGA Q-School. The 90-hole tournament runs Friday through Tuesday, and the leaderboard can be found here. (Thursday’s first round was postponed due to unplayable course conditions.)
Next week, the PGA Tour will hold its Q-School.
4. The best story at LPGA Q-School? It may be Kim Kaufman, who a year ago was diagnosed with breast cancer. You can read more on her here, via a story by Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols.
An instruction story for your weekend
5. Robby Payne of Chrome Unboxed tried to get Gemini 3 to be his son’s swing coach. Payne’s story can be read here.
A golf story that interests me
6. Min Woo Lee recently accepted sister Minjee’s Greg Norman Medal — considered Australia’s highest individual golf honor — and the acceptance speech might be one of the best things I’ve heard all year. You can watch it below.
Another golf story that interests me
7. The Weekend 9 doesn’t go into politics often, but this was good.
Scott Morrison of the University of California-Berkley, in a story for phys.org, wrote here about a study that looked at whether the play of PGA Tour pros was affected when they played with pros with opposing political viewpoints.
One more golf story that interests me
8. This was good. Lydia Blackstone of wjcl.com wrote here about how a pair of golfers at Crescent Pointe Golf Club in Bluffton, S.C., helped rescue a beached manatee on the course’s 9th hole.
What golf is on TV this weekend?
9. Here’s a rundown of golf on TV this weekend:
– Friday
9:30 p.m. (Thursday)-1 a.m. ET: Crown Australian Open second round, Golf Channel
4 a.m.-9:30 a.m. ET: Nedbank Golf Challenge second round, Golf Channel
Noon-4 p.m ET: World Champions Cup, ESPN
1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET: Hero World Challenge second round, Golf Channel
– Saturday
9:30 p.m. (Friday)-1 a.m. ET: Crown Australian Open third round, Golf Channel
4 a.m.-9:30 a.m. ET: Nedbank Golf Challenge third round, Golf Channel
Noon-2 p.m. ET: Hero World Challenge third round, Golf Channel
2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: Hero World Challenge third round, NBC
– Sunday
9:30 p.m. (Saturday)-1 a.m. ET: Crown Australian Open final round, Golf Channel
4 a.m.-9:30 a.m. ET: Nedbank Golf Challenge final round, Golf Channel
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET: Hero World Challenge third round, Golf Channel
1 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: World Champions Cup, ABC
1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET: Hero World Challenge final round, NBC
What you’re emailing me
10. Let’s do 10 items! This was in response to my story last week that tried to figure out why the term ‘skin’ is used in skins game:
Building on your research, it seems to me that going back further, people have been “risking their own skin,” with skin being a synecdoche (I just wanted to use the word) for the whole person for a long time. That likely moved on to having skin in the game, initially perhaps in gambling situations.
One suspects that some competitive golfer didn’t like playing just against the course, or betting only on a two-dollar Nassau, but wanted every hole to be more interesting. He then egged on his playing companions to get some skin in the game on every hole. Probably the hunter’s brag about how many pelts (skins) he had bagged didn’t hurt the imagery.
11. Let’s do 11 items! This was in response to my story about the car accident I was in — and the title provided by the emailer was great (I’ve withheld the name).
Enjoy reading your thoughts and stories! Glad you’re OK after the accident! Hope you have a great Thanksgiving (my fav holiday). To quote a friend, ‘Keep breathing’
Fish Whisperer, Bourbon Taster & Raconteur
One non-golf/golf thing
12. So about that accident …
It had happened as I was traveling back home to help my nephew with a college visit. A college golf visit actually. And Thursday, the young man shared the post below:
