PGA Tour: November 2011 Stuff: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).Last weekend saw the very best of sport, Thank you Martin Kaymer.
And the very worst of sportsmen, shame on scumbag Steve Williams.

2).What a wonderful final round by Martin Kaymer, in the style of Luke Donald's Disney dream, birdieing nine of the final 12 holes, and leading a 1,2,3, finish for Europe with Freddie Jac and the suddenly mercurial McDowell.

3).And look who was tied for fourth! The recently divorced Paul Casey, subject of so many hushed whisperings from commentators about "personal problems". Nothing much else to say except best wishes to Paul and his (now) ex-wife Jocelyn. Good health Paul, get fit and set 'em alight in 2012.

4).By all accounts Tim Finchem looked like he'd swallowed a skunk at post-tournament interviews and that's not surprising as his American contingent only squeaked out only one Top Ten finish (Mahan) for the second year running. And, just like last year, only half the eligible Americans showed up. Come on Finchem; time to get your well-heeled rear end behind this event. (Give the high-heeled boy a low spark?)

5).What's this? Finchem might do just that?? Stories are circulating that PGA Tour HQ is suggesting one year's season ends with the FedEx Play-Offs and the following season starts with the Fall Series, followed by a beefed-up field in Malaysia and the HSBC Champions. Lots of pieces of the jigsaw missing, but that would be a way of making all the half-pregnant co-sanctioned events "Official". This is linked, somewhat, with the idea that PGA Tour qualifying should be solely via the Nationwide Tour and there'll be a Players Meeting to discuss all this in San Diego in late January.
(It is difficult not to feel that progress exclusively via the Nationwide is exclusionary to golfers from overseas Tours and possibly even minorities, and certainly undermines some of the status of "veteran members". But change is afoot - how much change, we'll have to wait and see.)

6).Finchem also hints that the 2015 Presidents Cup is destined for Asia, probably Korea. Rightly so, one would think, as Japan has seemingly been overtaken as Asia's number one golf nation. But who would the Captains be, in 2013 and 2015? Couples already looks as if he's had enough, while Greg Norman surely sees Royal Melbourne as being one of a number of career pinnacles.
I really can't see who the American choice might be. Duval perhaps? Justin Leonard?? And for the Internationals: Steve Elkington? Vijay Singh?? (Followed of course by Ernie Els with the promise of 2019 being in South Africa.)

7).The proposed invitation to Yani Tseng to play in next year's Puerto Rico Open on the PGA Tour has apparently been put on ice. For the time being at least with the feeling in the Tseng camp apparently that she still has much to prove on the LPGA Tour, Hall Of Fame qualifications for one, and that her chance to challenge the guys will come soon enough.

8).And then there's Steve Williams. Who knows whether he's a racist? Tiger sticks up for him in that regard but, really, how does anyone know exactly what/if he was thinking? Most unfortunate for Adam Scott, one of the nicest (too nice?) golfers on Tour, and great credit to Greg Norman for getting out in front of the mess. In contrast to Fred Couples' inane blatherings about what he would have done if Joe LaCava had said anything quite so stupid. The same Joe LaCava that is, who lobbied for Tiger's bag behind Dustin Johnson's back, apparently with Couples' encouragement.

9).My expectation and hope is that Scott retains Williams thru the Aussie Open and Presidents Cup and then ditches him. No excuse for Williams' behaviour, still an angry old man and a powder keg just waiting to explode. In the mean time the reported Aussie Open dream grouping of Day, Scott and Woods will have to wait for another year.

10).Don't think there's not a recent precedent for expelling Williams from PGA Tour action. British broadcaster Ben Wright was summarily relieved of his CBS commentary position fifteen years ago after some clumsily expressed comments about the women's game. Women's physique was in some cases unsuitable for golf and lesbianism on the LPGA Tour had turned off sponsors. No malice intended and possibly/probably true in both cases, but CBS ditched him, golf blackballed him, and a distinguished career was terminated as ignominiously as it was prematurely.
Come in Mr.Williams, your time is up.

Thanks, as always.

I'm loathe to comment on the distracting off-course soap opera of "I am Tiger Woods" (or "I used to work for Tiger Woods" depending on your point of view), but there's a chance that Day, Scott and Woods [and that Williams character] might be in the same group at the Presdents Cup?

Right, now I've said it, I will revert to my preferred position of "So what?".

Kwini Cutting through all of the hoohaa in the past few days one of my first thoughts was that Adam Scott is too nice. And soft. It explains a lot really...

Some rays of light for two Europeans last week with Kaymer and Casey. Again, it underlines how strong the Europeans are just now. Those two have been awol most of the year whilst others stepped in. Yes, Finchem's face was tripping him!

Looking forward to seeing how Mickelson is doing this week and the warm up to the PC. Funny time of year this. Plenty of golf still to watch but think ahead to Kapalua, Middle East Swing and Augusta and the heart quickens a tad.

Thanks guys.
Just a note that I meant to add.
I read "The Nation's Newspaper", USAToday every day, and Monday's edition contained exactly nine lines on Kaymer's win. The comprehensive results were there, but just nine lines of reporting. Utterly pathetic but one can imagine that HSBC are wondereing why they only get a whimper for their buck in the good old US of A. Get Finchem on the line!

Not fair on Kaymer either, all the airtime and newsprint has been diverted to a caddie and a golfer who didn't even qualify.

Good read as always Kwini.

No Surprise an event outside of the US getting virtually no mention especially when it's golden child (can I say gold or will I be held up for racism) does not qualify for it.

No surprises Williams comments are headline news though considering who they were about, i'm sure they'll now run that as a story in the run up to the Pres Cup to try and add that bit of spice.

How is the vote for PGA Tour qualification likely to go in your opinion, I can see the merits for doing it, but it would also take away the chance to see exciting young rookies come straight to the tour, so imo I hope it doesn't get the yes vote.

Is q school a common way for the better players leaving college to qualify for the PGA tour?

I get the feeling a lot of the college "superstars" have more chance of pulling off a good few rounds in q school than coming out on top over a full years worth of play.

Sad to hear of the unexpected passing of Luke's father yesterday. Condolences to him and his family

kwinigolfer wrote:Thanks guys.
Just a note that I meant to add.
I read "The Nation's Newspaper", USAToday every day, and Monday's edition contained exactly nine lines on Kaymer's win. The comprehensive results were there, but just nine lines of reporting. Utterly pathetic but one can imagine that HSBC are wondereing why they only get a whimper for their buck in the good old US of A. Get Finchem on the line!

Not fair on Kaymer either, all the airtime and newsprint has been diverted to a caddie and a golfer who didn't even qualify.

Hardly surprising when the BBC lead story was also relating to Williams/Woods, rather than any number of great European-based stories coming out of Shanghai. The much maligned Iain Carter being a chief culprit as usual, although to his credit his later blog on Kaymer was one of his better ones.

As for Williams, whatever anyone believes or not about his prejudices, he will always be an idiot. Every time he opens his mouth he reminds us of this.

After snow and hail last week we're enjoying a heatwave, so just catching up after playing in sunny shortsleeves and shorts yesterday! Played golf too!!

Hi Mav, Mac,
PGA Tour qualification?
I think there'll be a lot of opposition to the Tour's plan, but I'm not completely sure I understand who is eligible to participate in the Players Meetings, and that will influence things mightily. The younger the attendance, the more likely players will accept the Nationwide route, and you can bet the young 'uns will be out in force in San Diego as it will be one of the few West Coast events "Rookies" will get into en masse.

In the past, veteran players have complained that just one poor year on Tour, for whatever reason, condemns a long-standing Touring Pro to the Nationwide without have recourse to bouncing back via Q-School.
Equally, hot-shot youngsters such as Anthony Kim, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler in recent years would have to serve a year's Nationwide apprenticeship regardless of how good/mature they might be.

As for overseas players, especially European Tour players, they would have to forego their European Tour season, serve a year's sentence to the Nationwide, and then risk just missing out at the end of the year.

I'm probably wrong to feel this, but Finchem's plan seems to me to represent another layer of "graduation" for aspiring Tour players, and without serious financial backing, many hopefuls won't have the financial resources to do this.

It's all very well for the Tour to look at Bud Cauley's rapid ascent this year, but what they don't mention is that he had to forego Walker Cup selection in order to turn pro early enough to fit in sufficient tournaments to accrue the necessary prizemoney.

America is supposed to be a melting pot but American golf likes to be a homogeneous entity; country club upbringing, high school, preferably something preppy and/or religion-based, college, Nationwide, Touring Pro. And then they send their children the exact-same route!

Great credit to players like Keegan Bradley who missed the early steps, he went from ski-bum to tiny rural high school, a college with no history whatsoever of churning out pros and then his ability carried him the rest of the way.

Suffice it to say that we shouldn't expect too many more Chi-Chi's, Trevinos or Jim Dents. Or even Boo Weekleys or Two Gloves.


Davie,
Sad indeed. Strange how often a birth is accompanied by a death, life's regeneration I suppose. Hope my children don't provide me lots of grand-children; think I'd be nervous for all the wrong reasons.
Tough time for Lukey though, he's going to be torn in three directions now and something in his plans will have to give.


Tiler,
Haven't read Carter's piece on Kaymer yet, but couldn't quibble too much with his mock-horror at Tours' reluctance to get to grips with the Williams stupidity. Though, as usual, he lacks any non-British perspective, especially the context that the unwitting victims find themselves in.

Anyone know what (UK) TV coverage we have of the Aus Open? I've scanned the listings and can't find anything yet. I believe the 1st round starts around about now

Just checked the pga tour Player of the Year Nominations on pga tour wedsite. Notice the first stat for each player is number of competitions played. Is this a tactic to reduce Luke's chances as he has played the fewest.

Checked the comments. I assume most from US. Vast majority supporting Luke with "no boubt", "by a mile" and "no competition", but few posters have picked other players because they played more tournaments.

Surely the pga pros will make the correct decision.

Bad news: Prehistoric website for the Aussie Open.
Good news: Golf Channel carrying LIVE coverage of the Presidents Cup, for Thursday's, Friday's and the first part of Saturday's play, plus Sunday. Not sure about Saturday afternoon.

Aussie Open coverage in the US begins 1.00 a.m. GMT.

Good read kwini.

So PGA Tour are considering splitting the season over two calender years? Isn't that what the ET finally got rid of? Or are they just inspired by the way football seasons work?

After a tough season ending FedEx cup playoff Statesside, I still doubt you'd see many of the best PGA Tour players first traveling to Asia, then home for Christmas (where ever that is) and then out to Hawaii? Alternatively the west coast swing will be severely devaluated as players will skip these events in stead. But why not try it out and see what happens?

Cheers pedro,
Can't tell at this time if this is just Finchem-speak trying to justify his (untenable) position on the HSBC, or whether there really might be something in it.
But the star players are hoist by their own petard a little as the FedEx Play-Off system was designed to finish early autumn partly to free the leading players to reap rewards worldwide.
Regardless, very unlikely anything would change before autumn 2013.

kwinigolfer wrote:... just catching up after playing in sunny shortsleeves and shorts yesterday!

So you've been in holidays too...!? Experinced something of a similar sudden change in temperature when I came back home yesterday and it's probably the reason why I woke up so early today... And after just having to watch Daly walking off the course down under, I wish my holidays lasted a bit longer...

His explanation on twitter: "...when u run out of balls u run out of balls..."
That should remain one of Daly's classic quotes for a long time...

I didn't know that Casey and his wife have divorced... that obviously puts everything we've seen (or not) from him this year on the golf course in a different perspective. Wish them both well...

Davie wrote:Anyone know what (UK) TV coverage we have of the Aus Open? I've scanned the listings and can't find anything yet. I believe the 1st round starts around about now

Davie, it was on ESPN from 1am onwards, same again tonight.

Ah that's why I couldn't find it.

Damn you ESPN

I'm ok with ESPN just now, recently got it for free for 3 months, had to cancel it 31 days before the end of the 3 months period or I'd be billed. I called to cancel it but they haven't switched me off as yet and I haven't been billed. Long may that continue.

Hi pd,
No hols, just a heatwave! Front blowing through now, possible snow by the weekend - just did a road trip south as most courses up here are now closed for the season.

Hope everyone saw Adam Scott's albatross last night, smiles on everyone's faces, even Stevie's!

Most of the Presidents Cup Teams were in action somewhere and let's try figuring out their report cards for their efforts:

A:YE Yang, Schwartzel, Johnson, Watney: All in the top five of their respective tournaments.

B:Woods, Watson, Scott, Day: In touch with the leaders

C:Goosen, Ogilvy: Good start, ground to make up

D:Ishikawa, Haas, Toms, Baddeley, Mahan, Kim: Very so-so: Get your skates on or you'll have the weekend off

F:Mickelson, Els, Kuchar, Allenby: Terrible start, need to go low if you want to get paid (appearance fees excluded of course).

Sick list: Stricker: Wonder if he's got any feeling in his left arm yet?

No shows: Can't find KJ Choi anywhere, and Furyk and Simpson seem to have gone awol from the Singapore entry list. Wonder if they told Fred?

Lastly, Congratulations to Phil Mickelson on being elected to the World Golf Hall Of Fame on his first appearance on the PGA Tour section of the ballot.
The International ballot result will be known later this month, plus any veteran or lifetime achievement awards.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Hope everyone saw Adam Scott's albatross last night, smiles on everyone's faces, even Stevie's!

Haven't seen it yet but I wouldn't be surprised if SW took full credit for it!

Davie,


Regarding the WGHOF, I would note that Fred Couples was the leading vote-getter among those not elected, followed by Davis Love and, for reasons which utterly escape me, Mark O'Meara (who would in my mind devalue the Hall if ever elected).

kwinigolfer wrote:Hope everyone saw Adam Scott's albatross last night, smiles on everyone's faces, even Stevie's!

Yep, saw it... but all the smiles and well deserved praises aside, it has to be said that getting an albatross while hitting a mid-iron is somewhat diminishing it as an 'albatross'... I think I saw in the highlights later that there's been another guy (Day or maybe someone else, I can't remember) who almost got another one in a similar manner. Plus you had Bubba who was playing Driver+wedge to reach the green on some of the par 5s...

Fun to see the albatross though, even if it was diminished by the length.

Not many championship courses end both nines with par threes, as The Lakes does. Quirky!

Ah ha, That K-t Kim. Had missed his name on the leaderboard from Japan. He shot a 73, good/bad enough for a D in the notes above, which I shall now edit for inclusiveness!

Agreed, I quite liked many features of the course down under from what I've seen on tv. Looked pretty windy too out there at times...

Going back briefly to the 'story of the day'
...I saw someone just spotted that Daly's current ranking is #666 !!!
That obviously explains all that outburst today....

Curtain's withdrawn from the Aussie Open.
So it's curtains now for John Daly, Michael Curtain and Hunter Mahan (who has withdrawn due to soreness behind his shoulder).
It may or may not be a coincidence that Mahan played with Day yesterday, part of the way anyhow. So now Craig Parry will do his Popeye act all alone.

No doubt there'll be regular medical bulletins on Mahan's shoulder - what with that and Stricker's neck/arm, perhaps Keegs will get a call after all?

Tiger on the prowl in Sydney; tied with Watney in the Aussie Open lead.

Allenby and Kuchar among Pres Cuppers struggling to make the cut.

Well, well, well... Woods is up on his own after a 5-under on the first(back) 9 holes, 2 shots ahead now from the pack... Yet, it's interesting that he only pared two of the par 5s today. Day also going well.
Early days still...

Adam&Stevie are zig-zagging all over the place with the scores today after 14 holes:
bogey-eagle-bogey-par-birdie-bogey-par-birdie-bogey-par-birdie-double bogey-birdie-par...
In other words, no consecutive scores of the same type!
Tiger was somewhat at the opposite pole with no bogeys after 29 holes, but he just got one now at the 30th.
The young Peter O'Malley going well today...

Interesting to see Peter O'Malley pitching the strongest early challenge to Tiger Woods.
O'Malley beat Woods in the 2002 WGC MatchPlay!
Allenby and Kuchar still in trouble, Appleby, Goggin and Leishman among the early starters almost certain to miss the cut.

Ah well if Tiger goes on to get the victory at least his coverage will begin to be more justified. Couldnt believe Applebys score when I checked it. Was that just an indian summer last year?

Anyone think Bradley would be offended if Couples phoned him up and asked if he minded coming out to be on stand by? Could always make up some sort of off course role if he doesnt play. Kind of like Faldo inviting Kaymer over to watch the action of '08 RC. Couples doesnt want a Christie Kerr moment in the singles surely?

'Morning Lairdy,
A whole bunch of Aussies who should have known better stunk the place out Friday - Pampling shot 82, Senior also, Leishman, Goggin etc. Appleby looked like he had no idea where the ball was going by the end of his PGA Tour season, and his putting was dreadful.

Tiger was making some longish putts for a change; looks like the wind got up as he was finishing. O'Malley hit all 14 fairways, all 18 greens!

As for Couples, thought he was daft not bringing some insurance anyway. Perhaps that's what he thinks John Cook is, but an insult to the PGA Tour guys, Bradley especially, if that's the case. All twelve team members have to play every match except on Saturday, so there's no hiding place for crocks. Cristie Kerr deja vu is right!

Kwini

"Regarding the WGHOF, I would note that Fred Couples was the leading vote-getter among those not elected, followed by Davis Love and, for reasons which utterly escape me, Mark O'Meara (who would in my mind devalue the Hall if ever elected). "

After the election of Bush the first to the hall of fame does it really mean anything anyway? It seems having a 36 handicap, getting invited to play Augusta for services to pummelling Arabs and generally contributing nothing to golf is enough these days.



Do you think Finchem is trying to strengthen the nationwide by increasing its importance to PGA tour qualification? I just wonder if he thinks it is possible to create two strong tours in North America. How many mid ranking players would the nationwide need to attract from tours in asia, Europe, south Africa and Australia before an event provided more OWGR points than a weak European tour event?

If the nationwide became a good source of money, owgr points and potential access to the pga tour it could possibly grow in strength. Although not sure a more multinational nationwide fits the finchem ideology. Could a strong nationwide and limited qualification to the pga tour from more domestic orientated tours like the Gateway Tour and NGA Pro Golf Tour be his master plan to dent the European tour?

Hi Mac,
Election of Bush certainly a low point - there seems to be an insidious relationship between the PGA Tour and Republican politicians. Apart from everything else, that particular Bush got into the White House on the back of the first wave of really nasty political attack ads, which was perfectly OK with him. And his nauseating son.

Not sure about the Nationwide. Finchem's trying to find a sponsor to replace Nationwide after the 2012 season, plus the Tour still seems to struggle with the rightful place for "opposite field events" and the Fall Series. I always thought Q-School was a sort of rite of passage for the aspiring Touring Pro and I'd be perfectly happy to see the status quo maintained.

It's only really Asian and European Tour Members who are affected by the proposed changes, the south-of-the-equator guys already seem to go straight to the Nationwide if they can, with some exceptions. Also not sure how the South American events will dovetail with the Nationwide.

On a slightly related note I notice that ET member Fabrizio Zanotti won the Carlos Franco Invitational on the Tour de las Americas last weekend, receiving a whopping 6 owgr points in the process! Remembered that recently the South American tour started receiving owgr points and looked it up to see what was happening. 6 owgr points seems to the norm for the winner, only once did it go to 12 points.

Hadn't seen confirmation of this before"
" . . . unless they will change the amount of tournaments we have to play in America, I'm not going to join the PGA Tour, unfortunately.. . . . . if I play on both tours, tournament-wise, it will be too much."

No, not Rory McIlroy saying No before he said Yes! But Martin Kaymer's comments quoted on yahoo.com.


Lairdy, They'll have to beef up the owgr points awarded for the PGA Tour's new South America initiative if only to provide it credibility; it'll be interesting to see how much they increase it too. Regardless, until the past year or so, South America has been grossly underserved by the owgr system. First signs of an overdue change!

I'll be very surprised if they put up the owgr points for the South American tour so soon. It's a bit of a chicken and egg dilema with the owgr allocation, but I'd say if there will be signs next year of more and more established and strong players like Zanotti playing over there, then they will have to do something about it sooner rather than later... The Carlos Franco tourney in Paraguay was probably a case in point to that extent, exposing pretty clearly the relative weakness of the fields over there at the moment. I followed the results over the 4 rounds there and Zanotti zoomed past everyone else very quickly and was light years ahead after 3 rounds, then could afford to relax a bit in the last round but still finished way ahead of everybody else...

All comes crashing back to earth for Tiger....

Update the Presidents Cup dress rehearsal efforts:

A: Top 6, All contenders: Day, Watney, Watson, Schwartzel,

B: Top 22: Need to go very low to get into contention: Yang, Woods, Scott, Badds, Ishikawa, Kim

C: Top 40: Playing for place money: Ogilvy, Haas, Toms, Els, Mickelson, Johnson

D: Made the cut but nothing much else: Goosen

F; Made nothing, gone to Melbourne already: Allenby, Kuchar, Mahan

Still no update on the health of Mahan and Stricker, or on whether Bradley has received an urgent FreddieGram.

Very informative as usual, kwini. Just stopping by to say hello before shoving off to work.

Since the President's Cup is light years apart from the Ryder Cup events, why don't the powers-that-be experiment a bit with the format especially in dealing with the number of official players on the team and when to decide the official roster per day of play. i.e. 16 a side with 12 eligible per day.

There are other elements of the event that could be considered for change to improve the product but to also put its own stamp on the matter. Playing little brother to the Ryder Cup should not be a desirable position to remain in for the next century or so. Bottom line: the President's Cup needs to step up its game and think outside of the box. After all, it is primarily a venture in entertainment.

Still early in the season but both of our respective NHL teams are still struggling. The Kings skate great shifts for one game and cluelessly meander on the ice during the next one.

Cheers venice,
The Pres Cup has some distinguishing features - four days instead of three, all players have to compete Days 1, 2 and of course 4.
I believe the Pres Cup has been diminished in the past because it's gone overseas so seldom and was restricted to the RTJ course in Virginia. Internationals win next week will help a lot - then the 2013 version will be at Muirfield Village. Hope to go to that, fabulous course to watch the action.

Les Habs personify inconsistency so far; haven't been up there yet, but will surely go soon.

Come back and see us y'all . . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:

As for Couples, thought he was daft not bringing some insurance anyway. Perhaps that's what he thinks John Cook is, but an insult to the PGA Tour guys, Bradley especially, if that's the case. All twelve team members have to play every match except on Saturday, so there's no hiding place for crocks. Cristie Kerr deja vu is right!

Kwini

Aren't you not forgetting big John, he'll be twiddling his thumbs for a while and at least he can borrow some of his partners balls if he runs out. Couples would then have a current PGA tour member and Major winner to call on - not to mention the disco / cabaret after.

Yads
Fred would then have to add a ball-boy. But that could be Keegan's role; doesn't look like he's in the running for anything else.
Curious, in (relatively) recent years, Daly, Tway, Sluman, Brooks, Bradley, maybe someone I've forgotten, have all failed to make a RC/PC Team after winning the PGA.

Gawd, Can't stand to watch Greg Chalmers waddle his piles up the 18th.
Good for him though, deserved to win on the day.

Thrills and spills on the last day, Day, Scott, O'Herrn, Woods and Senden will all feel they had their chances; would say that a tournament-sharp Woods would have won it. But if you don't compete, you can't be sure of staying focused in the crucible of competition and Tiger fell short, despite plenty of good putts holed plus an eagle chip-in.

So that's what Couples might take out of the Aussie Open, but Kuchar looked like he's still on his hols, Mahan might be crocked, and Johnson and Toms fizzled. Flat Sunday under the gun for Watney and Watson.

Interesting that Jason Day's coach and caddie, Colin Swatton, is Snakey's coach also.

"Guadalajara won't do".
Not for Steely Dan perhaps, but it suits Catriona Matthew just fine.
Congratulations to North Berwick's best who won this week's Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

kwinigolfer wrote:"Guadalajara won't do".
Not for Steely Dan perhaps, but it suits Catriona Matthew just fine.
Congratulations to North Berwick's best who won this week's Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

pgatour.com report Mahan and Stricker are good to go for the Presidents Cup. They'll need to be with the possibility that they'll be partnering Tiger and Phil, for Thursday and Friday and probably at least once on Saturday.

Of course, they also report that John Daly regrets having walked off the Aussie Open course last week. Not surprising given the reaction to his departure. Good for Craig Parry for putting the fuss about Daly's actions into some sort of perspective. Parry very definitely marches to his own drummer (and clearly not Johnny Miller's!), and a breath of fresh air even if one doesn't always agree with him. Could lose a few lbs though.

What did parry have to say about it?

He basically said people are being a bit two-faced. Daly is fine to play with; the same people in Australia who slag him off are the same who keep on inviting him; that, whatever anyone thinks of Daly, he sells tickets.
Nothing especially earth-shattering, but it helps to listen to another perspective occasionally.
Personally, I blame the people who insist on giving him a second, third, etc, etc chance, instead of requiring that he earns that chance.
The essential big difference between Daly and Duval if you like.