LIV Gets World Ranking Points: Who Cares? Dead Tour Walking

 

After a long battle that included changes in format and certain accommodations to the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) committee, LIV was finally awarded inclusion in the points system that determines inclusion in major championships, among others. I can’t remember a sports decision that is so potentially impactful yet no one seems to be pleased with it.

Initially, the OWGR committee declined points for LIV because of 54-hole events, field spots that were selected as opposed to being earned and shotgun starts. LIV agreed to go to 72-hole tournaments and is reportedly instituting changes that will necessitate qualifying for the tour and also staying exempt from year to year. Apparently, those resulted in the top ten finishers in LIV events being awarded OWGR points beginning this season.

LIV isn’t pleased with the ruling, because it’s limited to the top ten. PGA Tour players aren’t happy about it because 48 player fields that are hand-picked without any qualification criteria don’t come close to PGA Tour or even DP Tour events. The real question is “does it really matter”? With recent defections from LIV, most notably five-time major champion Brooks Koepka and former Masters winner Patrick Reed, questions have arisen about the viability of the LIV Tour itself.

I’ve never thought it was much of a threat to the PGA Tour or the golf establishment from a competitive perspective. Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, both with significant bones to pick with the PGA Tour, had a motive to bring about change in the Tour that they thought was not providing players their fair share of revenue. Norman has issues that go back 30 years, when then PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem supposedly stole Norman’s Idea for what would become the WGC events that provided global entry into a select number of tournaments with elevated purses.

The last four years, however, have actually resulted in the PGA Tour implementing many changes for which Norman and Mickelson were proponents. Most notable were a handful of signature events that have purses in the $20 million range as well as a program that rewards players with Tour equity as well as substantial bonuses.  Add to that the lack of any meaningful television contract for LIV and no additional PGA Tour defections beyond Jon Rahm two years ago and the result is a Tour on life support, albeit one that is incredibly well-funded.

LIV needs to face the reality that, and I’ve maintained this from the beginning, it’s nothing more than a travelling golf exhibition with players paid to appear, not really compete. The quick reaction of the PGA Tour to funnel more money to its players along with the resistance of most high profile players like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and others, resulted in dooming LIV to failure with traditional golf fans, not to mention sponsors and advertisers.

The last dominoes to fall will most likely be Bryson DeChambeau, who went public last week with his dissatisfaction over LIV’s changes, and Jon Rahm, who at his age is still able to rescue his legacy. DeChambeau’s importance to LIV can’t be overstated and whether he returns to the PGA Tour or not is irrelevant if he departs when his contract is up at the end of the season. At this point, however, nothing LIV can do will secure any kind of relevant future for the Saudi investment fund backed endeavor.

The PGA and DP World Tour vs. LIV Golf: Who is on the Right Side?

The golf world, once a place of civility, whispers and etiquette has suddenly been turned on its head. If you thought the Ryder Cup celebration at The Country Club in 1999 following a mile and a half made Justin Leonard putt was disruptive, then what LIV Golf has done is nothing short of an eighteen hole tsunami. The closest golfers usually get to a courtroom are when they try to set up a tee time with the local judge who happens to be in their foursome.

But now, we have Jay Monahan of the PGA Tour and Keith Pelley of the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) on one side and Greg Norman and eleven LIV and now suspended PGA Tour players on the other side. The battle lines have been drawn and the dispute appears to headed to court as the players have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. We're not talking about the Joel Dahmen's and Beau Hossler's here, but instead they're the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, players with 77 Tour victories and nine major championships between just the three of them.

On the one hand, this dispute between the established Tours and LIV appears to be somewhat complex, especially when considering that the source of the funding is Saudi Arabia. We've heard talk of human rights violations, appearance money instead of purses distributed on the basis of performance and even that the startup is somehow damaging the integrity of the game. 

In order to keep this piece to a length that won't require the consumption of a meal while reading it, I'll try to be brief on my take on the entire dispute. First of all, the PGA Tour is comprised of players who are all independent contractors, as much as the Tour would like to think differently. With the exception of the four World Golf Championship events that don't have a cut, thus guaranteeing players a minimum payday, a player has to make it to the weekend to be compensated for that event. 

If a player doesn't finish in the top 125 in FedEx Cup points at the end of the season, they lose their fully exempt status on the Tour. If they finish outside the top 200, they basically lose all status whatsoever. So these guys have travel expenses, caddies, coaches and whoever else they wish to employ, with no guaranteed money outside of any sponsorships or exhibition pay they might be able to negotiate. None of that, however, comes courtesy of the PGA Tour or any of its 45 or so events.

Then along comes LIV Golf, which is offering some players more than $100 million over several years to participate in their Tour. Now let's take Dustin Johnson as an example. He's been on Tour for 15 years with 24 victories, including a pair of major championships. Johnson's career earnings on Tour stand at just under $75 million. He signed with LIV for at least $125 million, and that's in addition to any tournament winnings he amasses with his play on the course. At the time he was suspended from the PGA Tour, he'd earned $1.6 million in the current season.

In last week's LIV event in Bedminster, New Jersey, Johnson finished second in the individual  competition and he was a member of the winning team, handing the 38 year old a total paycheck for the week of just over $2.5 million. That brought his total LIV winnings to over $5.2 million, and that's for playing 54 hole events with no cut. The winner of the event, Henrik Stenson, won $4 million individually and another $750,000 for his team's second place finish. Stenson was forced out as the European Ryder Cup captain after signing with LIV. 

To say it's all about the money would probably be accurate, although some players have also expressed that part of their motivation was the way they've been treated by the PGA Tour. Don't get me wrong. Many of these players have been highly compensated for years and I'm not painting any of them as lacking financially. Nonetheless, guaranteed money, shorter golf tournaments, a team component and bigger purses all add up to a huge incentive for players to make the jump. After all, even though they're competitors, golf is a business and it's their livelihood.

What's interesting about this situation is that shortly following the inception of the LIV season and in response to the continuing exodus of players from the PGA and DP World Tours, the PGA Tour announced big changes to the Tour schedule, tournament formats and purse sizes. They've increased the number of events without a cut and radically raised purse levels for a number of tournaments. For an organization that wanted to stand by the "don't make the cut, don't get paid mantra", it smacks somewhat of hypocrisy.

I'm no legal expert, but when a non-profit organization suspends or kicks out independent contractors who get no guarantees on a week to week or season to season basis, it would appear the PGA Tour has a pretty thin case. In conversations with a longtime friend who also spent his career in the golf business, it doesn't make a lot of sense for the Tours to suspend these players for simply pursuing a living. LIV Golf could easily have coexisted with the PGA and DP World Tours. Both of those organizations have minimum participation requirements in order to retain membership.

LIV golfers could have chosen to play the minimum number of Tour events while still participating in LIV tournaments. The goal of LIV, as explained this week on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" during interviews with Norman and DeChambeau, is to bring a different type of fan experience to the sport. It's as if TopGolf suddenly came to a country club near you. Now the PGA and DP World Tours simply look jealous and vindictive, and may very well lose in court or need to come up with some compromise to avoid legal embarrassment.

There are still some issues around how long LIV Golf may survive, especially without a television contract or Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points awarded for tournament play. The earliest OWGR points could be granted would be July of 2024, so even if the other bodies such as the PGA of America, the USGA and the Masters allow LIV golfers to play in their major events, it's doubtful they can qualify, except for the players who have exemptions already in place.

Where will this go? My prediction, and if you've ever seen my football prognostication, could be spot on or wildly inaccurate. I am guessing that LIV could end up going the way of the original USFL, while many of the new ideas generated finding their way to the major Tours. They already have to an extent. I find it hard to believe that top players, despite the money, will want to be on the outside looking in when it comes time for the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

What's really interesting is that a victory in court for the players could actually end up being the best thing to happen to the PGA and DP World Tours. It would mean they would retain the top players for many of their events, making it more difficult for LIV Golf to gain additional traction. I believe the players will prevail and the Tours will work out some sort of compromise with LIV Golf to return civility to the game.

The latest novel in the PK Frazier series is now available. "Unplayable Lie", as well as the first three installments, can be found at PK Frazier novels

COACHING GENIUS IN THE NFL

 

Today we’ll be looking at what it takes, or more accurately, what it doesn’t take, to be a head football coach in the NFL.

In case you missed this past weekend’s conference championship games, you failed to witness coaching genius on display at the highest level. Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott led his team to a 13-3 record and two additional victories in the playoffs.

Of course, McDermott never played a down or took a snap on the field, but his genius has been on display for all to see since September. The Bills were taking on the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, led by veteran coach Andy Reid, who is also a genius.

The third genius on display Sunday was Green Bay head coach Matt LeFleur, who gets that label because he had the smarts to take a job with a team on which plays what many so called experts consider the best quarterback in the Solar System, if not the universe. 

Of course, because of Covid-19 there is no intergalactic play, so we’ll have to let you be the judge on whether Aaron Rodgers and his single Super Bowl win qualifies for the lofty title. Lastly, the fourth genius, and probable the only genuine one of the bunch, was Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians.

He convinced his general manager to sign the best quarterback in whatever is bigger than the universe is called. His name is Tom Brady, a 21 year veteran, winner of six Super Bowls and four Super Bowl MVP’s. Arians basically said in an interview last week that he just lets Brady do whatever he wants, that the 43 year old is a coach on the field.

Now let’s rewind to the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader that produced the NFC’s representative to Super Bowl fifty-five. It was a terrific contest, with the Bucs jumping out to an 18 point lead early in the third quarter, partially due to LeFleur’s inability to manage the clock at the end of the first half, which enabled the Bucs to score on a 39 yard touchdown pass with one second left.

The Bucs took a 21-10 lead into the locker room, then came out in the third quarter and scored again in just over a minute. The Packers scored a touchdown to make it 28-17, then got into the end zone again to cut the lead to 28-23 with 24 seconds left in the third quarter. This is where LeFleur’s genius really began to shine, and why he’s the coach and we’re not.

His team has all of the momentum and if they make the extra point, the Packers would be back within four. A stop and a touchdown puts them up by three, or even a Bucs field goal leaves Green Bay within a touchdown and a made extra point from a tie.

But LeFleur is smarter than the rest of us, so he goes for two, thinking rightfully so that it would leave him within a field goal of tying the game. But he didn’t think of the ramifications of missing such a conversion. Well, the greatest quarterback in the universe didn’t get it done, the Bucs get a field goal and the Packers find themselves down by eight, not seven.

Rodgers, because he’s, well, you know, drives the Packers down to the Bucs eight yard line with two minutes and twenty seconds left on the clock. It’s third down and Rodgers gets chased from the pocket with nothing but green Lambeau Field turf in front of him. Instead of taking off for the end zone, he throws an errant pass for an incompletion, bringing up fourth down.

The Packers still had all three timeouts remaining, and I’m sure that Rodgers threw the ball thinking they would go for it on fourth down. A field goal would still leave the Pack needing a touchdown, even if they could get the ball back from Brady, the greatest quarterback in, well, you know, that really big thing beyond the universe. A touchdown and a two point conversion is all they needed to tie the game. It would be a great, dramatic fourth down play, right? 

Well, instead, out trots Mason Crosby, Green Bay’s field goal kicker, and hits the kick and cuts the lead to five. And guess what? Rodgers never gets his hands back on the football and the Bucs advanced to the Super Bowl, Brady’s tenth.

Just when we thought we’d witnessed the ultimate in coaching genius from LaFleur, McDermott showed us that we really are just neophytes when it comes to football acumen and higher algebra. The Chiefs let their opponent jump out to the obligatory nine or ten or seventeen point lead, it doesn’t really matter to them. Anyway, the Bills led 9-0 early before the Chiefs showed them who was boss, and that’s clearly Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, injured toe or not.

By midway in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were clearly in control, 38-15. Buffalo had missed the extra point following their fourth touchdown, which didn’t seem to matter until it did. But with just over four minutes left in the game, Buffalo scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 38-21.

No brainer for the Bills, kick the extra point, cut the lead to 16 points, recover an onside kick and maybe get the thing to one score with a couple of minutes left. But somewhere on his big sheet of paper coaches carry around for just such occasions, McDermott saw something to this effect: seventeen points behind, four minutes left, need to recover an onside kick no matter what, maybe two. 15 points down, great, 17 points down okay, even though it would essentially negate the touchdown we just scored and still leave us three possessions behind, and 16 points down apparently unacceptable.

So with the 16 points option apparently off the table, McDermott goes for two, doesn’t make it and essentially the game is over. But he continues to defy logic by trying an onside kick. If that was the strategy all along, then why not get the extra point? Was it because the guy had missed one already? Really? How many NFL kicker miss two extra points in the same game?

And here’s the real “kicker”, pun totally intended. They attempted the onside kick and miraculously, the Bills recovered. But instead of being down two scores with four minutes left and possession of the ball in great field position, they were down three. Essentially, the game was over.

A quick score, which the Bills are totally capable of, would have made it interesting, if not downright compelling. Instead, the genius of Sean McDermott, something we will never comprehend, didn’t let that happen. But hey, these guys are savants, worth millions of dollars a year. What do we know?

The latest novel in the PK Frazier series is now available. "Unplayable Lie", as well as the first three installments, can be found at PK Frazier novels