Cut Line: Related to OWGR, will majors have best fields possible?
In this week’s edition, we celebrate team golf and the Zurich Classic, savor an all-time Twitter clash and consider how the majors should stand above the fray in professional golf.
Made Cut
Team efforts. A few weeks back, this writer dismissed those who were lamenting the end of the WGC-Match Play, which will not be on next year’s schedule. Lost in the handwringing was the fact that the match-play format sounds refreshing in theory but has proven beyond problematic in practice.
The opposite to that issue is last week’s Zurich Classic, a two-man team event that uses fourball and alternate-shot formats that break up the monotony of the Tour’s stroke-play schedule and create compelling competitions.
Sunday’s finish at TPC Louisiana had a little bit of everything – from first-time winners Davis Riley and Nick Hardy rallying to shoot a tournament-record 30-under total to defending champions Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay’s attempting to pull off an improbable repeat.
In the age of designated events, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for those tournaments of the non-designated variety to stand out, but if last week was any indication, the Zurich Classic will be just fine.
Made Cut-Did Not Finish (MDF)
Lost in the law. In case anyone was holding out hope for an expediated conclusion to the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf clash, consider that another discovery dispute was added this week to the original antitrust lawsuit filed against the PGA Tour, bringing the total to five U.S. courts that are attempting to litigate the case.
Attorneys representing the Tour filed a flurry of motions Wednesday in an ongoing discovery dispute between the circuit and McKenna Advisors, a Virginia-based advisory and investment firm that serves as “outside consultant to LIV,” according to court filings.
The dispute is one of at least a half-dozen between the Tour, LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which has invested more than $2 billion into the second-year league and moved this month to delay the case even more by filing an appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The move forced the judge in the original anti-trust case to push the trial date back at least five months to May 2024, and even that is starting to look overly optimistic.
A case that was originally fast-tracked is now mired in not one, but five different courts with no end in sight.
Tweet(s) of the week: @blandy73 (Richard Bland’s now-deactivated account) “Unfortunately I did have too many last [night], Ed. I apologize for what I said. I should know better not to tweet under the influence.”
“Ed” is Eddie Pepperell, who innocently began what unraveled into a surprisingly aggressive Twitter exchange between the two Englishmen when he commented on the raucous hole-in-one celebration during the final round of last week’s LIV Golf event in Australia, by comparing the atmosphere to the 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open.
“Ed.. tell me where on DP World [Tour] there’s been a hole like this? Because in 22 yrs of playing the tour I can’t think of any. But maybe your 15 minutes on tour you know different,” Bland’s tweet challenged.
Pepperell – whose Twitter bio now reads, “LIV golfer in the making. Been on DPWT for 15 minutes” – offered a bit of a walk-off in his response:
There are a few learning moments here: don’t drink and tweet (and if you do, follow Bland’s lead and own it) and never, ever pick a social media beef with Eddie Pepperell.
Missed Cut
Major dilemma. Whichever side of the Tour vs. LIV Golf debate you’re on, the Masters made clear that some of the top players in the world reside on the breakaway circuit.
Three of the top six finishers at the year’s first major play for LIV and a total of 18 were qualified for the Masters, but that number is bound to wither as those players lose world ranking points.
Just six LIV players currently rank inside the top 50 and only one, No. 8 Cam Smith, remains inside the top 25. That number is only going to get smaller as the Official World Ranking board mulls whether to award ranking points at LIV events.
“It’s going to all iron itself out because if you’re one of the majors, if you’re the Masters, you’re not looking at, ‘We should keep these guys out.’ You’re saying to yourself, ‘We want to have the best field, we want to have the best players, and these guys added a lot to the tournament this year at the Masters. How do we get them included?’” said Phil Mickelson, prior to this week’s LIV event in Singapore. “We have to come up with a qualifying mechanism that is inclusive, and if the world golf ranking isn’t going to be inclusive, then they have to find another way.”
An example of how complicated the majors will become for LIV players emerged this week when Talor Gooch, who won the LIV event last week in Australia, announced on Twitter he’d been given an exemption into next month’s PGA Championship via his world ranking (currently 59th). The year’s second major traditionally invites players from the top 100, but it was unclear if the association planned to extend those exemptions to those who joined the new league.
Gooch, however, isn’t qualified for the U.S. Open after the USGA changed its qualification criteria for this year’s championship to include players who qualified for last year’s Tour Championship (which Gooch was) and were eligible to play (which he was not after being suspended by the Tour for joining LIV Golf).
“That was obviously disappointing because that changed rule only affected one person, which was me,” Gooch said on the 73rd Hole podcast. “So that was frustrating and tough because with LIV still not being rewarded with world ranking points, I have only two options to qualify for the U.S. Open: via my world ranking, which is going to be very challenging, or trying to obviously go through the qualifying route of sectional qualifying.”
While Mickelson and Gooch may sound self-serving, their points are valid. As the Masters proved, the majors should feature the best players regardless of which side of professional golf’s political divide they fall.