On this week’s version, we scream into the void and unpack each side of the pay-to-play Ryder Cup debate and marvel on the transformational reputation Caitlin Clark delivered to golf.
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The Caitlin Impact. It’s not usually the golf world pivots on a random Wednesday to an LPGA Tour pro-am, however then it’s not usually a generational expertise brings her stardom to a different stage.
WNBA star Caitlin Clark was the spotlight of Wednesday’s pro-am at The Annika, the LPGA’s penultimate occasion, and whereas the league’s Rookie of the 12 months will not be the primary singular athlete to show to golf, her presence at Pelican Golf Membership in Belleair, Florida, felt greater.
WNBA celebrity Caitlin Clark drew an enormous gallery — and loads of additional eyes — whereas competing in The Annika pro-am.
“I feel it’s superior,” event host Annika Sorenstam advised GolfDigest.com. “Yeah, I like all of the younger ladies with the indicators. Nothing we might actually see on a standard Wednesday. It’s simply nice the way it brings consideration to the event.”
Sorenstam performed the second 9 with Clark, who sports activities a self-estimated 16 handicap, after world No. 1 Nelly Korda was together with her on the entrance. All the spherical felt like an epiphany.
Each Korda and Sorenstam are unmatched abilities of their sport however tend to shrink back from the highlight, not like Clark who proved Wednesday she is the highlight whatever the sport.
Math. It seems a number of the small print within the proposed plan to chop fields sizes and the variety of absolutely exempt PGA Tour members would possibly assist the rank-and-file, because of some severe math and Maverick McNealy.
A part of the plan, which can be voted on by the coverage board Monday, will assist degree the taking part in area for gamers who will not be certified for the circuit’s signature occasions. The brand new method – which was not surprisingly flushed out by McNealy, a Stanford graduate with a level in administration science and engineering – would extra precisely award FedExCup factors for middle-of-the-pack finishes primarily based on Information Golf’s true strokes acquire.
“It was one thing lots of guys identified even earlier than the season began that it appeared like these signature occasions had been getting too many factors relative to common Tour occasions,” McNealy mentioned on “Golf As we speak” this week. “About midway by the 12 months it felt like these guys taking part in in these signature occasions had been getting such a giant benefit and I wished to determine how. Information Golf does a very good job of measuring how guys play. … From positions 8 to 30th-ish, the signature occasions had been giving out too many factors for the standard of play.”
That is in all probability not the primary time McNealy has put his diploma to good use nevertheless it’s the primary time his fellow Tour gamers are glad he did.
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Pay to play. Full disclosure, this can be a little bit of a contrarian take and can doubtless not age properly however given the state of the skilled recreation it might be naïve to not acknowledge the painfully apparent info that include participant empowerment.
In line with a number of experiences, the PGA of America is poised to start out paying gamers to take part within the Ryder Cup, a transfer that has many, together with Rory McIlroy, cringing on the unabashed greed.
“I personally would pay for the privilege to play on the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy advised BBC Sport this week in Dubai. “The 2 purest types of competitors in our recreation proper now are the Ryder Cup and the Olympics, and it’s partly due to that, the purity of no cash being concerned.”
Whereas the Northern Irishman is nearly at all times the voice of motive and arguably the perfect model of an ethical compass the skilled recreation has, on this subject the altruism misses the straightforward fact that skilled athletes will not be charities.
The concept gamers ought to dedicate per week of their lives to the U.S. Ryder Cup professional bono is a romantic idea that ignores the economics of the matches — bear in mind, the PGA charged $750 for a one-day ticket to subsequent 12 months’s matches at Bethpage. The concept the athletes — the labor — shouldn’t anticipate some slice of that pie is archaic to the intense.
In actual fact, the larger difficulty appears to be the going fee for a possible U.S. Ryder Cup participant, which is about at $400,000 in keeping with a report in The Telegraph. For context, a participant would make greater than that with an 11th-place tie at one of many Tour’s signature occasions.
You might be offended by the brazen greed of all of it however the PGA might be getting a reduction.
Tweet (X) of the week:
As soon as once more Rory hits the nail on the pinnacle. It’s a tragic commentary on the skilled recreation that just a few gamers with misdirected and undo energy deal with each facet of this recreation, together with the privilege of taking part in for one’s nation, as transactional. They’re the explanation the very… https://t.co/nV9DcY7Ulu
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) November 15, 2024
Within the spirit of equal time, Golf Channel colleague Brandel Chamblee posted an insightful response to the Ryder Cup cost story (please test the complete publish) and his factors are all predictably legitimate, however that doesn’t change the economics or politics of the second.
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Drama. It’s a dropping proposition to throw stones throughout the Atlantic Ocean in the case of the manufactured drama of a season-long race, however at the least the Tour’s convoluted playoff finale permits for a measure of drama.
This week’s DP World Tour finale in Dubai started with Rory McIlroy in a commanding lead within the season-long factors race, greater than 1,500 factors forward of No. 2 on the listing, Thriston Lawrence.
The lead is so insurmountable that even when Lawrence wins the DP World Tour Championship — he’s 34th and 9 photographs off the lead by two rounds — McIlroy may safe the title with an uninspired 11th-place end or higher (he’s at present tied for second place).
It could be McIlroy’s sixth season title, which might transfer him to second on the all-time listing behind Colin Montgomerie, which is cool, however that dominant efficiency leaves little room for drama.
