Morning Read Mailbag: Debating a 'New' PGA Tour, TV Filler and the Big Lawsuit
Readers are encouraged to offer their thoughts on Morning Read stories or anything else from the world of golf. Email inbox@morningread.com and include your name and hometown. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
Merit Before (Mountains of) Money?
Gary Van Sickle's article is excellent and covers multiple flaws in the PGA Tour's "answer" to LIV (PGA Tour Should Remember Its Roots and Reject Players' Idea of Limited-Field Events, Aug. 23). As he states, the beauty of pro golf should be one earns his/her right to compete and is rewarded by merit.
Upon hearing of this "new plan," my heart sunk. Instead of players selling out to the Saudis and Shark, we have Tiger & Rory selling out to the same basic idea—all that matters is $$$$ and no cuts.
Where is the concern for charities, sponsors, longtime tournaments, golf fans, etc.? Because of the PGA Tour's fears of losing "top players" to LIV, the idea is, let's just throw more $ at these guys, making it easier to win it & supposedly more "fun" for them.
First of all, these 'top players' are already rolling in dough. Is there ever enough for these people? Do they ever talk about nurturing young players, making tournaments more affordable for fans, etc? I guess since golf is an individual sport, it's natural to focus on self—this new plan makes that blatantly clear.
As Van Sickle states, even diehard golf fans are not going to care about contrived events, which disrespect and detract from real golf tournaments. With all this new-vision talk, they've already diminished the "big finish" to this season. (Btw, 100% agree with his remark that the format "feels un-American" for so-called Tour Championship).
This whole debate allows for a wide-ranging discussion. Thank you for giving a disillusioned fan a chance to vent!
Cynthia D. Anderson
Rockford, Illinois
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Excellent column. The PGA Tour is headed in the wrong direction, and it will affect the viewing habits of this long-time televised golf viewer. Point-in-fact: I have watched exactly zero LIV Golf events and never will watch them for the reasons you stated in your column. As someone who respects achievement, they haven’t earned my attention. The same will be true of a series of PGA Tour events designated “for elite players only.” They may as well name it “LIV Golf Lite”.
One other point regarding the FedEx Cup finals. Will someone please tell me one other sport where the team that finished the season gets a head start in the championship finals? In the Super Bowl, does the team with the best record start the game 7 points ahead? In the World Series, does the team with the best record start the 7-game series up 1-0? Hockey? Soccer? Basketball? The FedEx Cup solution is so simple. At the end of the second FedEx Cup playoff event, they should declare the winner of the Tour Championship and send the Top 30 finishers to the FedEx Cup Finals where all 30 will play for the Cup and start off dead even. Nothing else makes any sense.
Ron Garland
Prescott Valley, Arizona
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I agree wholeheartedly with Gary Van Sickle’s opinion about potential changes to the PGA Tour as we know it. Mimicking the LIV Tour is a tragic mistake in my opinion. How many top PGA tour players “need the money?” The answer is none!
I find it just as entertaining when a guy like J.J. Spaun wins a tournament beating the “best in the world” and guys like Rory, Scottie, etc., miss the cut. You get what you earn and catering to an elite few will ruin the game as we know it.
Here’s an idea for the Tour Championship, make the event a match play event with the Fed Ex Cup point system used to seed all players from 1 to 64 and let the best man from that field win the Cup. Theoretically the best players should win their first two matches which should leave an elite field of 16 to play for the Cup.
Giving players strokes to start an important tournament makes no sense. The guy with the best four rounds of the week could theoretically not win simply due to the fact he didn’t receive enough strokes to start the tournament, which is ridiculous.
Let the PGA Tour look back at the history of the game and preserve it instead of dumb ways to cater to the elite few and eventually ruin the game as we know it!
Bob Curry
Waltham, Massachusetts
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Gary is spot on. I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For many years we had the best back-to-back events on tour. Mr. Nelson brought in the top players in the game and the legend of Mr. Hogan, as well as its charitable legacy, kept players for a second week. Since the inception of the WGCs and the revamped majors schedule, we've moved to an "also-ran" Texas two-step.
By creating these additional 15 elite events, DFW will drop even further to journeyman field status. We all wish LIV would go away and I appreciate this is a needed step to retain the top players, but a look-alike series is not the answer. The Tour should continue to retain its foundational meritocracy, create a barrier to exit for the elite players and build on its charitable and highly competitive roots.
Ken Venezio
Fort Worth, Texas
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Great article by Gary Van Sickle that outlined the folly of more limited field events on the PGA Tour. The rich (and they are rich in every sense of the word) get richer and the players just outside are stuck looking in to watch the big boys collect their cash. "Play harder" won't mean much with diluted ranking points based on weaker fields. As a Canadian, I get enjoyment watching our contingent of players playing against the best full field every week. My interest will decline notably to be watching the guys outside of the elite at the "Bob's Your Uncle Open" sponsored by nobody. If the PGA wants to drive up-and-comers to LIV then this is the way to do it. LIV is abhorrent in every but if I was in my 20s, playing well and moving up yet still outside that bubble, the LIV cash would be fairly enticing.
I read also that Talor Gooch had played well enough this season such that he would still be in the final 30 for FedEx Cup obscenity ("I Played Well Enough To Get There': Talor Gooch Is Inside the Top 30, But Not at the Tour Championship," Aug. 23). Hey Talor! You made a choice and choices come with consequences. Enjoy your tainted LIV money.
Baird Heide
Collingwood, Ontario
Breaking Out the Stopwatch on TV
It has gotten to a point I never believed could happen, advertising volume during PGA tournament coverage has arrived to where I simply turn away from the program. This, despite the fact that I record these events so that I can speed through the ads.
With a stopwatch I clocked the cumulative time consumed by non-golf shot/player on-course coverage, The resulting total includes such things as full-screen ads, “playing through” ads with mini-screens of golf and no scoring insertions, booth interviews and conversations, end-of round player interviews (with inane “how do you feel?” questions), historical course and family fluff, player family history videos, etc. Significantly, this count does not include the never-ending plugs and non-golf commentary blizzard from the commentators promoting such things as upcoming programs on the network.
In the end, 50 percent of the air time is consumed by non-golf and viewers have to endure incessant interruptions. If golf wants to cultivate a viewership, fire the programming and business people who are responsible for this abominable coverage. Only in golf can you find telecasts that routinely detract from the suspense of the next moment. It’s unfortunate that technology permits recording every shot, only to be shown in non-real-time and out of competitive sequence. Replay of a great shot is one thing, but cherry-picking shots and playing them apart from competitive sequence is another.
Bob Baribeau
Naples, Florida
Will the PGA Tour Want Legal Scrutiny?
Your analysis of the perceived, real or not, treatment of the LIV players by the Tour players may be accurate ("Only the Lawyers Win If LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour Continues, So Why Not Drop It?", Aug. 18). That said, there is more at stake. The PGA Tour is a 501(c)6, a designation that is given to organizations that promote its members' interest without the goal of making a profit.
What is interesting is that the Tour, certainly in reaction to the LIV challenge, increased its purses by tens of millions after continuing defections by its players to LIV. How did the Tour suddenly come up with these millions for its existing talent base? I am not sure, but am relatively confident, that the last thing the PGA Tour wants is for its books to be opened for review—clearly a part of what Phil Mickelson alleged in his comments vis-a-vis the Tour. There is little doubt that this examination of the Tour's finances will come to the fore in a suit.
Having been involved in the Reggie White free agency case (White, et al v. NFL, 836 F. Supp. 1458 D. Minn. 1993), there are some similarities as to the antitrust and restraint of trade issues. I believe that rather than be open to scrutiny, the Tour and LIV will come to some accommodation.
Peter Flach
Bel Air, Maryland
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While I appreciate Alex's insight to the LIV litigation issues, I am struck by endorsing current behavior to “shun“ Phil or other LIV players because they opted to work for another company.
Is this how we want to treat other people because we don’t agree with them? I hope not. As a golf fan, I have great admiration for Phil and his great accomplishments in the game and the decades playing on the PGA Tour. Now we are all supposed to castigate him and the other talented LIV players? I vote NO on that very bad assumption of "we vs. them" mindset.
After 30 years of courtroom experience I agree the lawyers are the big winners in protractive litigation. The bigger man puts his ego in his pocket sits down at the table and works out an agreement. There is always middle ground for reasonable (non-emotional) folks to work out issues. There is never an upside to going to trial only very hard feelings, disappointment, and staggering costs.
Finally, as a golf fan I actually enjoy watching the LIV tour, love the shotgun start and the team play and excitement around the golf course. I think golf fans need to give LIV a chance.
John Lakin
Laguna Woods, California