The Swamp

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:28 pm

• Dustin Johnson doesn't seem like the smartest guy in the world.

I remember reading somewhere that the whole "DJ is dumb" thing isn't true and in fact is a facade he puts up so people will leave him alone. I think it was a story either by Brandon Quinn or Jason Sobel that brought this to light.

Sally Jenkins takes a flamethrower to the LIV golf tour...

Claiming to be ‘Golf, but louder,’ LIV’s sound and fury signify nothing

The opening paragraph:

The airborne toxic event called LIV Golf is slowly dissipating, and soon all that will be left is the mere faint scent of its portable toilets. The failures are piling up so fast that the PGA Tour may not even need lawyers to beat LIV. It’s going to beat itself with its own sour-smelling hustle, its jinks-on-the links-for-clinks gutter golf.

And it gets more scathing from there...

“Golf, but louder” is one of LIV’s slogans, but all that apparently refers to is Ian Poulter’s pants by Pixar. Poulter is at least a likable star, more audience-friendly than laconic burnout cases such as Brooks Koepka or that aging inveterate scrounger Mickelson, who apparently would take checks from the slaughter of dolphins to get whole.

Geez. She busted out the thesaurus on that one. Difficult to read, frankly. Not because of the harshness, but more just... a bit much.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 2:27 pm Geez. She busted out the thesaurus on that one. Difficult to read, frankly. Not because of the harshness, but more just... a bit much.

She possesses her dad's ability to see the point and use language reserved for non-sports writing, but not always his ability to convey it as well, or better yet, when to say something simply.

Anyone follow Country Club Adjacent? They started showing up across my phone (youtube, instagram, shorts, etc). I get a chuckle from some of it. They seem connected/invited to Liv stuff.

I typically like her style, to be fair. But that piece seemed a little too try hard.

Could one of you guys cut and paste the article? ( I don’t take WaPo and I’d like to email it to my folks - because my mum is a big golf fan and my dad doesn’t understand why people don’t like LIV.)

Claiming to be ‘Golf, but louder,’ LIV’s sound and fury signify nothing

Perspective by Sally Jenkins
Columnist

The airborne toxic event called LIV Golf is slowly dissipating, and soon all that will be left is the mere faint scent of its portable toilets. The failures are piling up so fast that the PGA Tour may not even need lawyers to beat LIV. It’s going to beat itself with its own sour-smelling hustle, its jinks-on-the links-for-clinks gutter golf.

The news value of its debut last year, championed with patent unease by Phil Mickelson, has long faded. What’s left is just the militant fruitcakery of Greg Norman, whose emanations from his empty luminescent head never quite form into actual substance. To hear Norman tell it, LIV 2023 would begin with a “momentous” TV deal and seven more top-20 player signees. As the second season opens this week in Mayakoba, Mexico, it’s got a laughably desperate TV pact with the CW Network, which also boasts “World’s Funniest Animals,” and no new big names. It was just more blowharding that evaporated into a few lower-level defections such as Dean Burmester and Danny Lee.

“Golf, but louder” is one of LIV’s slogans, but all that apparently refers to is Ian Poulter’s pants by Pixar. Poulter is at least a likable star, more audience-friendly than laconic burnout cases such as Brooks Koepka or that aging inveterate scrounger Mickelson, who apparently would take checks from the slaughter of dolphins to get whole. Starting Friday in Mexico, all of them will resume crapping around in an incoherent, noncompetitive, no-cut, drama-repellant 54-hole format with locked-in appearance fees.

The supposed duel between LIV and the PGA Tour for the soul of the game is already over. Which entertainment product is better? Richard Bland and Pat Perez jacking around at places such as Crooked Cat in Orlando, a course that the PGA Tour used for Q School events? Or the winsome Max Homa weeping with competitive agony as he chases mighty young Jon Rahm across layouts such as grand old Riviera? The PGA Tour’s new “designated” event format means that 17 tournaments this season are packed with top players on its greatest courses. Small wonder LIV chose this week for its opener: a non-designated week most of the PGA Tour’s top players are taking off to rest.

LIV can’t compete head-to-head. That has become clear. If you want insight into the difference between the world’s best players today and the spine-caved spongers on LIV’s exhibition circuit, watch a couple of insightful episodes from Netflix’s golf docuseries, “Full Swing,” filmed when LIV was just a hard twinkle in Norman’s avaricious eye.

Koepka and Poulter allowed the cameras to follow them especially closely and gave revealing interviews that show just how hollow-eyed and desperate they were over downturns in their careers and fears that they had become second-rate. Their motives for jumping at LIV’s cash are there for all to see; they say it all straight into the cameras. They didn’t leave the PGA Tour because they wanted to play better golf against the best in the world. They left because they couldn’t anymore.

Koepka had lost his edge physically and mentally after a string of injuries, and he knew it. The cameras capture his recognition of that fact as Scottie Scheffler stormed past him to win at the Phoenix Open, what used to be Koepka’s favorite tournament. “I probably lost confidence, if I’m honest,” Koepka told the filmmakers. Jena Sims, then his fiancee and now his wife, acknowledged, “He’s hearing voices in the back of his head, ‘You can’t do this; you can’t do this.’ ”

At the Masters, he horseshoed short putts to miss the cut while Tiger Woods ground out a limping resurgence on his surgically repaired leg. Puffy-faced and peroxided, Koepka finally admitted, “I’ll be honest: I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out.” It didn’t seem to occur to him that defecting to LIV for the money wasn’t the cure to his bored, vapid and anchorless existence.

Poulter jumped because, at 46, he was losing his battle to stay in the top 50, and with four kids, two homes and a private plane to support, he couldn’t go on missing cuts. It was costing him. At least he was forthright about that, which was more than others could say. After he missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, he told Netflix: “Your job is not to waste time, be away from them for five days and not cover your expenses. . . . You’re packing your bags and leaving without getting a check. Working for free doesn’t float my boat.”

So much for the phony public jeremiads from Norman and his chief recruiter, Mickelson, about how LIV is some kind of liberation from PGA Tour oppression and is the future of the game. In fact, apart from Cameron Smith, it’s mostly a bailout for guys who have lost it. It’s interesting to note that the average age of the PGA Tour’s current top 10 is just 29.5, with Rahm, Scheffler and Collin Morikawa making huge charges in their mid-20s. The LIV top 10’s average age? It’s 35. The leader, Dustin Johnson, is 38.

From the outset, LIV was a home for buttercup-bellied moral cowards clutching at cash from a murderous regime, but it quickly has evolved into a refuge for guys who have lost their taste for competition. Who cares who “wins” more money among such a scrabbling bunch? Only the torrent of blood-spattered Saudi coin made Norman’s follies viable in the first place, and now the best young guys are turning down the money. LIV’s incursion is failing, and eventually all that will be left is the unpleasant smell of its corruptions.

The PGA Tour’s new “designated” event format means that 17 tournaments this season are packed with top players on its greatest courses. Small wonder LIV chose this week for its opener: a non-designated week most of the PGA Tour’s top players are taking off to rest.

Actually, this is exactly why Honda is pulling its sponsorship from the Honda Classic down in Palm Beach Gardens, FL (it's this weekend). Ever since the (Los Angeles Open) Genesis Invitational began jacking up its purse more and more top flight players are bailing on the Classic.

Thanks, nlfc.

Okay LIV...top this

The winner of Charles Schwab’s PGA Tour golf tournament this month will receive a Schwab blue 1973 Ford Bronco, the company announced Tuesday.

The winner of the tournament will be able to drive off with a customized, fully restored 1973 “Schwab Bronco” kitted with 465 horsepower, as well as a 10-speed automatic transmission that’s paired with a push-button four-wheel drive system, the firm says. The vehicle also comes with custom machined door handles, mirrors and knobs and hand-stitched interior upholstery with Colonial Tartan plaid trim.

Last year Sam Burns got a 79 firebird

I didn't recognize DeChambeau.

Or de thread title

I swear it said non-Masters.

I know it won’t happen, but I wish one of the LIV golfers would make a point of not playing this weekend, since it is being held at Trump national golf course.

Ouch
https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/ore ... -his-foot/

What a weird way to not tell the actual story. Did he step on a tee that was, somehow, just sitting pointy side up?

Strange that they didn't include the most interesting aspect of the ordeal. This one should be in the End of Journalism thread. Who-What-Where-When-How.

If you click through to the GolfDigest article linked in the CBS Sport article you get this:

According to a report from Golfweek that was later confirmed by the school, Solhaug had a tee that he stepped on while playing the 11th hole go through his shoe and impale his foot.

Clicking through to the next level gets you:

While he was on a tee box, Solhaug stepped on a tee, and it went through his shoe and injured his foot, forcing him to be removed from the course and withdraw from the tournament.

And hey, a Casey Martin sighting!

I’m gobsmacked. Haven’t seen details but this explains Rory’s reticence to talk much.

yuck?

These mergers are a way to save face for a failing company. I have seen this in a few sports (Lacrosse, Soccer leagues, etc)

so gross.

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 9:39 am These mergers are a way to save face for a failing company. I have seen this in a few sports (Lacrosse, Soccer leagues, etc)

I need a primer. Who was the failing company here?

Michael Scott Paper Company is trending.

Such excitement! Wonder if the ACC is watching

On the bright side, think of all the people who have their regularly scheduled CW programming back.

Team Golf?

Other than the Ryder Cup, who gives a shit?

Seems like a huge mistake.

ETA: The PGA is a tax-exempt organization?

How can this be?

As disgusting as this news is, it's sad to say that LIV Golf was never going to lose this. The Saudis were willing to keep burning money from a limitless war chest; the numbers meant nothing to them. It's like fighting a final boss with infinite hit points, there's just no way to win this game. Just a sad reminder that the bad guys win because they're the bad guys and have less to lose.

Pruitt IV wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:17 am Team Golf?

Other than the Ryder Cup, who gives a shit?

Seems like a huge mistake.

ETA: The PGA is a tax-exempt organization?

How can this be?

Pretty sure everyone but the NBA was at one point tax exempt. MLB and NFL gave it up (relatively) recently. The holdouts are NHL, PGA and LPGA and maybe one other?

It's ludicrous.

I do wonder if the Saudis decided to step up the, uh, aggressiveness of their campaign in response to Qatar hosting the World Cup. Shows that a couple of corrupt bureaucrats really can change the world!

Does anyone doubt that Super League will happen now?

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:26 am As disgusting as this news is, it's sad to say that LIV Golf was never going to lose this. The Saudis were willing to keep burning money from a limitless war chest; the numbers meant nothing to them. It's like fighting a final boss with infinite hit points, there's just no way to win this game. Just a sad reminder that the bad guys win because they're the bad guys and have less to lose.

Yeah, the fact that whatever the war chest is called is spending BILLIONS to lure top (aging) soccer players having taken over the top 4 clubs (ETA - in Saudi Arabia) is just another sign of all this.

With the soccer, I truly don't understand how they think that's going to move the needle. No one is going to start following Middle East MLS all of a sudden.