Running 2024 golf thread

[playthrough]

Time to fire up another golf thread, as the PGA Tour season begins in Kapalua. The Tour's gotten one thing right so far -- this is a new season, not a wraparound from the fall.

Jon Rahm won 2023 Player of the Year honors from the Golf Writers Association today. The Tour will announce its POY tomorrow, who will not be Jon Rahm. But I bet he would have been if the announcement was last November.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Rory backtracked a lot on his LIV stance today. Makes me think movement behind the scenes?

 

[Tighthead]

Rory backtracked a lot on his LIV stance today. Makes me think movement behind the scenes?

I think that’s part of it, and a lot of fans are tired of the back and forth. Golf is a niche sport, and war is bad for business.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I think they see the Tiger Wave they've been riding for 25 years is about the crash and they're all positioning themselves accordingly.

 

[playthrough]

Rory has gone through so many iterations over the last two years and has finally arrived at the "zero ****s given" stage. For him to say "I can’t believe the PGA Tour has done so well for so long" is stunning, referring how the Tour gets so much money from sponsors despite never guaranteeing every star at every event -- when Rory himself can't be bothered to report to every big event (see Harbour Town last year, and this week in Kapalua).

And Rahm finally broke him too. The ink wasn't dry on Rahm's LIV deal when Rory said the Ryder Cup would have to change its eligibility to let Rahm in, after two years of poking all the Ryder Cup stars who left for LIV.

I still don't believe anything is close to being resolved. But LIV's hand keeps getting stronger, albeit while running a league no one pays attention to. Crazy.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

They also might be hoping Tiger has one more mini-wave of competitive relevance to get through the next couple of transition years until all of this is sorted.

Tiger has been mostly absent or non-competitive since 2013 and casual fan eyeballs just don’t watch without him. He had the 2018 resurgence and 2019 Masters. But it’s been basically 10 years and it’s apparent Tour expectations have to be recalibrated to the time before Tiger.

 

[playthrough]

The best Tiger idea I've read was Michael Bamberger suggesting that part of this megadeal include a reformulated Champions Tour where Tiger, Phil and so many of their peers can battle again. Which may introduce another set of problems when fans stop watching Cantlay take five minutes over a shot on the regular tour, but so be it.

 

[swingline]

I still don’t think Tiger plays any Old Farts tournament. He doesn’t need the money, and the competition is not up to his own standards. I’ll bet he continues to play a few regular tournaments while being more involved in his kid’s game.

 

[playthrough]

I hope he gives the senior majors a whirl. No shame in that.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

I still don’t think Tiger plays any Old Farts tournament. He doesn’t need the money, and the competition is not up to his own standards. I’ll bet he continues to play a few regular tournaments while being more involved in his kid’s game.

I think Tiger has said he will/wants to play on the Champions Tour. To what extent, of course, is hard to tell.

 

[Cosmo]

If the Tour is banking on Tiger saving it in 2024, it's dead. I don't know what the answer is, but hoping Tiger competes at even a reasonable level eight times a year is not it.

 

[SixToe]

Money always wins.

Rory just finally gave up. He knows it’s futile to fight.

 

[Chef2]

Tiger will play some senior tour stuff.
Any chance to go out with Stricks, Fred….he will play in a couple majors.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Would Tiger be the first to win 4 different USGA championships?

 

[Chef2]

Would Tiger be the first to win 4 different USGA championships?

Yes.
He already has the most total with 9, but four different ones would be a first.

 

[Cosmo]

Well, only two players have ever won the US Junior and the US Am -- Tiger and Nick Dunlap. So, yeah, he'd be the first. I haven't looked through the women's list though.

EDIT: To add Rose Zhang won the Girls' Junior and the U.S. Women's Am in the same year, so she'll have a conceivable chance of hitting that milestone once she gets to U.S. Senior Women's Open age. That's a ways off tho...

 

[justgladtobehere]

Well, only two players have ever won the US Junior and the US Am -- Tiger and Nick Dunlap. So, yeah, he'd be the first. I haven't looked through the women's list though.

EDIT: To add Rose Zhang won the Girls' Junior and the U.S. Women's Am in the same year, so she'll have a conceivable chance of hitting that milestone once she gets to U.S. Senior Women's Open age. That's a ways off tho...

JoAnne Carner won the Junior, Amateur, and US Open.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

If your business model revolves around a 48-year-old dude with a bad back and a leg that looks like raw hamburger playing golf, your business model might suck.

 

[Cosmo]

JoAnne Carner won the Junior, Amateur, and US Open.

She still plays in the USWO too, but I doubt she adds that title at age 84.

 

[hondo]

I still don’t think Tiger plays any Old Farts tournament. He doesn’t need the money, and the competition is not up to his own standards. I’ll bet he continues to play a few regular tournaments while being more involved in his kid’s game.

Several of Tiger's fellow competitors on the PGA Tour have gone on the record as saying they believe he will play.