PGA Tour: "Farmers Insurance Open" @ Torrey Pines: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).A good field this week in San Diego, but not a great one which suggests that the lure of appearance fees from scumbag Saudis trumps (for want of a better word) the opportunity for more practice, acclimation at next year's US Open venue, Torrey Pines (South). The shorter North Course will also be played by the pros this week for one of the first two rounds.

2).Tiger Woods makes his debut for the year, and Rory, Rahm, Rose, Reed and Schauffele add strength to the field. princedrac still seems to peep in here occasionally (don't be a stranger vc!), so I'll steal one of his observations about tournament winners in the owgr era:
93: Woods
67: Jumbo Ozaki
57: Els
52: Vijay
47: Mickelson
42: Norman, Greg not Moe
41: Westwood!!!!
30: Sergio
28: Adam Scott
26: Rory

3).Other Europeans joining Rory etc include:
Bjerregard, Molinari, Knox, Laird, Norlander . . . . . . and young Cornish qualifier, Harry Hall. Disappointing not to see Alex Noren in the field; probably should have won this two years ago before being edged out by Jason Day - who is condescending to play this week.

4).Conditions should be fine this week, if a touch cool for SoCal, so scoring should be good. Hope the set-up satisfies Rory's critical eye after his criticism of ET courses last year.
That means no repeat of last week's birdie/eagle bonanza in the Palm Desert where Andrew Landry won at 26 under par. Austrian/American Sepp Straka finished T4 and Dane Sebastian Cappelen was T6 and they'll look to repeat the trick this week. Noren was T14, one stroke shy of the top ten finish which would have assured him of returning to San Diego.

5).Also last week, Ernie Els made his Champions Tour debut in Hawaii and, after a decidedly average first round, motored through the field to a play-off with Couples and Miguel-Angel which The Mechanic won. Ernie says he's committed to playing pretty much a full season so it'll be interesting to see if his putter can match the rest of his play.
When Trevino turned 50 he was fond of telling anyone within earshot that "There's a new Sheriff in Town". Lee was as good as his word and lifted the Senior operation and there has been similar anticipation, though not from Ernie, for Els's first year of Senior golf.

6).The big surprise was that Bernhard Langer lost his chance of a customary win, but no apologies for being a by listing just how lucrative the Champo Tour has been for a select few Europeans. Champions Tour earnings so far in $M:

Langer          $28.7M
Montgomerie: $9.8M
Jimenez:       $7.6M
Canizares:     $7.2M
Smyth:         $4.5M
James:         $4.4M
Broadhurst:   $4.2M

7).Not much exciting going on, at least until Rory tees it up today, so let's close with a question:
What is the buzz about future Open Championship venues? Is the R&A going to wait until after November's US Presidential Election?
Right now, we just have:
2020: Royal St Georges
2021: St Andrews
2022: Hoylake
So: Turnberry is overdue, and Portrush is promised a speedy return. But Muirfield will be due in 2023 and, possibly Lytham in 2024. Who knows about St.Andrews after next year?
Some interesting decisions for the R&A.

Watching the sky coverage. Rory is great to watch.

Nice starts by Woods and Rory.

Kwini

Nit heard any chat about open venues. But I think if trump doesn't remian president there will be a push for Turnberry and to get back on the rota ASAP and maybe at a later date Trumpton links.

Mac, as horrendous as it may seem, Trump is highly likely to get a second term.
Can't see his Aberdeen course getting on the rota, more likely it would get a Scottish Open before it was considered for The Open.

As I said, Trumpton in the longer term.

McLaren wrote:As I said, Trumpton in the longer term.

I simply can't see it Mac, the old farts in the R and A absolutely love history and I'm not sure they would ever permit a Johnny cum lately course to enter the rota.
As we all know they don't understand progress.

Sports governing bodies need to make money somehow. Would it be a shock if the R&A took trumps cash one day when the sky money dries up?

McLaren wrote:Sports governing bodies need to make money somehow. Would it be a shock if the R&A took trumps cash one day when the sky money dries up?

Yes, that would be a surprise. When was the last time the R and A added a new course (in terms of age) to the rota?
Doing that would be a bigger stretch than them admitting women members.

Unfortunately, the Royal and Ancient are.

Good start by Rory, Tiger and a lot of others. I played this course and, with the rough up, it's a fine test for these non-mortal golfers. On the PGA Radio this morning they were chatting about who's the best golfer in the game today when they are playing their best? Off the top of my head: Rory, Koepka ... then a host of others including DJ, JT, Rose, Rahm ...

Roller_Coaster wrote:Unfortunately, the Royal and Ancient are.

Yes, I know, but it was hardly something they would have done had they not effectively been forced to.

WTF is this.

https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2020/1/23/potential-world-tour-takes-aim-at-pga-tour-with-lucrative-individual-and-team-concept

Apparently people have been planning a world tour behind the scenes and could be ready to go from next year. What are th more informed posters views on this?

Seems bogus but keen to hear people's thoughts.

Clicked on the link and our friend Robo clearly laid out the roadblocks to this so-called world tour.

Robo's response. Hope he doesn't mind me copying it across.

Robo wrote:The PGA and Euro Tours "hole card" in all this is that their players in effect own and control their respective Tours. This new proposal is basically a hybrid team ownership model like the NFL, NBA or NBA.

And then let this paragraph sink in... "The group is retaining a Formula One-style team component, complete with managers and potential drama surrounding players who are signed, benched or released from franchises."

So let's say a bunch of top 50ish players are convinced to crap on to PGAT and ET tours... Then go in a slump... Get benched... Or get released... And they've burnt their PGAT/ET Bridges behind them. And they have no recourse. Because in this new concept, instead of being the owners like they are now, they become the owned, and can be sold off or fired it will.

Another thing to consider might be how the pension pots would compare between the PGAT and World Tour?

RE world tours... Mac I don't mind you pasting what I say elsewhere. If I didn't want it public I wouldn't post it public.

To me the bottom line is this...

Without the top players... This has zero chance of ever getting off the ground. And Chubby Chandler is supposedly saying Tiger was approached and said no thanks. Rory is saying similar.

But another thing is becoming clear too. Some of the top players are frustrated at the bloat of the tour organization and less of the gross being directed at the TALENT than any other sport in America. (And I posted on how underpaid PGA tour players are for years now). But this new broadcast deal is an opportunity for the PGA Tour to bring its players compensation more in line with the percentages of other sports. If it doesn't, there's going to be more assaults on the PGA tour as time goes along. PAY THE TALENT WHAT THEY'RE WORTH, and they won't have to worry about competitive tours popping up.

But what's baffling about all this, The players in effect control the PGA tour now. That they haven't been demanding their due all along makes no sense. Because golf is more expensive to produce as a % of revenue, it's not likely golfers can ever get 50% of the gross revenues like you see in other major team sports... But they've been making less than 25% of the gross for too long, and deserve a bigger piece of the pie. This recent FedEx cup change is helping, but they're still more that needs to be done.

McLaren wrote:Another thing to consider might be how the pension pots would compare between the PGAT and World Tour?

Who cares?