PGA Tour: "I Know It's Time, But I Never Wanted It To End": Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).That may be Arnold Palmer's requiem to Masters participation, quoted by Jim Nantz yesterday as an epitaph for "Mr Palmer", but it's also pretty much how I felt about Sunday's Ryder Cup denouement.
It seemed an uphill task for Europe ever since Rory and Sully capitulated, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in their Friday morning foursomes match, losing 15, 16 & 17 with water balls and other ugliness to fall 1 Down.

2).The post-mortems have been written and it's not worth going over them again. Except to say how sad it was to see Westwood's extraordinary Ryder Cup career fizzle out, lw1 looking as utterly dejected as he was defeated on Sunday evening, hardly a fitting end that he should stroke/jab the losing putt. Hopefully he'll be back and winning tournaments again but that was not a pretty sight.

3).And a word about Hazeltine - despite Rose's protestions about course set-up, presumably by a Yorkshireman though clearly to LoveIII's instructions, I thought the course looked pretty good, well worthy of another Major Championship. Justin Rose will look back on a season where not much went right except for one Golden moment, and his putting last weekend was as poor as his "ball striking" was good. Course set-up is a two-way street and I would have thought that Le Golf National offered plenty of chances for Europe to exact revenge. If they're good enough and don't over-read putts like they did all last weekend long.

4).And Sergio & Phil: Magnifique.
Patrick Reed may have enjoyed two devastating 5-under-par in four holes streaks, but Sergio's match with Phil was as good as Round 4 of The Open at Troon. Congrats to both.

5).The thinking golfing press in the US is clearly concerned that the rush to sell tickets has caused crowds to be too big; perhaps things went over the edge this time round, but Bethpage in 2024 could take things to a new level if authorities can't/don't/won't figure this out. Not my original thoughts, but those expressed by the Golf Channel.

6).This week sees the web.com Tour Championship, the fourth tournament of the wTF series which constitutes a quasi-Q-School where 25 PGA Tour cards will be earned.
But Hurricane Matthew is likely to ruin the best laid plans and we haven't yet seen how the Tours will resolve the dilemma of much-delayed play if the forecast of heavy rain and strong winds prevails. After all, the newly minted Tour members are expected to be in the Napa Valley of California for Tour action on Thursday, Oct 13th. Watch this space.  

7).There will be some Europeans earning their cards, led by Andrew Johnston (a mildly amusing Beef ad for Arby's already interrupting golf broadcasts) and Gonzo. There's still the chance that Mansfield's Greg Owen, Sweden's Norlander and Mr.58, Stephan Jaeger, among others, might join them.

8).And certainly joining them will be Ben An, Danny Willett, Jon Rahm, Rafa C-B and Soren Kjeldsen.
Hopefully the European Tour and Ryder Cup gurus will ensure they get their arms around all those who could conceivably be eligible for Europe Ryder Cup play. Fingers crossed on that.

9).The third tournament in the wTF series was won "handsomely", though apparently somewhat toothlessly, by Grayson Murray, about whom I knew nothing. But here's a nice piece about him and his famous caddie, Mike Hicks:
http://www.pgatour.com/webcom/news/2016/09/25/grayson-murray-mike-hicks-nationwide-childrens-hospital-championship.html

Hopefully Murray's dental deficiences will be rectified by the time he tees it up on Tour as he'll likely be on TV a lot, even if just to show someone who pounds it out there as far as anyone.

10).Talking of which (driving distance not missing teeth), Congrats to Thomas Pieters. He's sure to be on the PGA Tour's radar in the hope that he'll bring his act to the US while his name and performance last week are still on viewers' minds. Even in defeat, good things come and it's time to embark on another 6-year stretch of Ryder Cup possession, hopefully with Rory & Pieters, an accidental partnership, leading the way.
Well done USA, Allez Europe.

robopz wrote:
Still kind of surprising a player of Scott's caliber can't do better in Japan.

Probably because he turns up jet lagged, has a couple of practise swings and then tees off (ok maybe that is an exaggeration, but I bet he's not giving it the same amount of preparation as bigger tournaments, he's just happy to take the fat appearance fee and a mediocre result).

robopz wrote:I dunno if there's actually any truth to the Tiger and TM deal, but it could make a lot of sense for TW. But I'm thinking more in terms of future potential branding and income, not so much tax advantages.   if this turns out to be true... from an investment standpoint I'd be surprised to learn Tiger is any more than a secondary contributor. I'd think his value to an investment group would be more in his name than any money he would contribute.

Yes. This.

Obviously Tiger could probably claim almost his whole life as business expenses and so tax deductible, but surely this would be all about branding and securing a long term future income stream.

I'm sure Tiger's vast wealth is invested in many different areas, and this would probably include private equity funds already. But PE houses typically look to exit after a few years, it doesn't make sense to have Tiger as a short term adviser / shareholder - the benefit comes with a long term association.

And a PE house doesn't need Tiger on board its investment committee... don't think they would be interested in his assessment of deal value, and Adidas is keen to sell... there hasn't been a long line of investors queuing up to take TM.

McLaren wrote:Robo

Saw that about TM, backs up what was being said a few weeks back.  I wonder why Tiger would invest in the golf industry?

Why do you wonder this?

Ray... Seems we're pretty much thinking the same on a potential TW/TM thing. Adidas is interested in maximizing their return from the disposal of the assets, and unless they're carrying some paper on the deal, (unlikely) then they probably couldn't care less if TW is involved or the company is successful after they've washed their hands of it.

And for Tiger, I'd agree it's probably all about future revenue to him with as little risk as possible. That's far more likely to be from what he can bring in terms of branding as opposed to potential revenue via earnings or equity appreciation.