1/27/25

January typically is a slower month for golf on the course, but off the course, the headlines and news keep piling up. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on in golf.

Full Swing Season 3

Netflix’s Full Swing takes a look at life inside the ropes of a professional golfer and gives behind-the-scenes looks inside the life of a pro. Season two provided a look at USA Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson calling Keegan Bradley to tell him he wouldn’t be on the team and real-time reactions to the framework agreement announcement of the DP World Tour, Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and the PGA Tour, which shocked the sporting world. Season 3 will feature 20 professional golfers, like Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, siblings Min Woo and Minjee Lee, among others. The series has been largely well-received while providing looks at the highs and lows of the professional golf life. The series will feature all four majors, and with Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau squaring off head-to-head in an old-fashioned dual at the 2024 U.S. Open Championship, that episode perhaps will be the most anticipated one of the season.

LIV Golf Signs Deal With FOX

This felt like a matter of when would this happen, not if it would happen. FOX is the only network of the Big Four without golf, Greg Norman worked for FOX when they had golf coverage last decade, and none of the other networks were going to leave their current rights deal with the PGA Tour. CBS and NBC split their coverage of the PGA Tour and ESPN+ also shows coverage of the Tour. With TGL starting this year and being shown on ESPN, which consists of all PGA Tour players and is founded by its two biggest names, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, they aren’t backing out of their deals. So FOX and LIV Golf were destined to strike some sort of deal. LIV Golf needs it to try and grab more viewers, as their numbers on The CW were dismal, and FOX could use more inventory throughout the summer. FOX is now carrying IndyCar and the MLB throughout the summer, but adding another sport to keep up the variety isn’t a bad choice.

Golf ratings have plummeted, and they continue to sink. The current divide in men’s professional golf doesn’t help matters, but for LIV now they are on a platform that has more credibility and legitimacy. Comparing ratings from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf events will be easier to do since the platforms are similar. LIV should see an increase in ratings from when they were on The CW.

LIV also announced their first event of the year in Riyadh will be played under the lights, and will be live in the States during the day, rather than being played locally during the day and shown live at night here. Certainly, it will be a unique way to start their season, and will be interesting to see how night golf will look on TV and how the fans and players respond to it. Should the ratings continue to be poor and sparse, LIV Golf might need a deal with the PGA Tour as much, if not more than, the PGA Tour needs a deal with LIV. No matter how much money the PIF has, eventually, if they continue to see net losses and no sign of profits on the horizon, they might shift their focus elsewhere.

The Farmers Insurance Open WD-Fest… *Yawns*… Doesn’t Have A Good Week

The Farmers Insurance Open, once a tournament that felt like the true start to the PGA Tour season, turned into an all-you-can-WD buffet. With rumors swirling that the no-cut Genesis Invitational was being moved from Riviera due to the tragic wildfires to Torrey Pines, players seemingly decided to wait for the opportunity to play in San Diego in a few weeks rather than play it twice. It makes sense, with the PGA Tour introducing these no-cut fields, guaranteeing players who are eligible to play in those signature events do not get cut and take home some sort of money, why would anyone waste their time to fly across the country for that? Especially since Torry Pines, which has hosted the U.S. Open twice since the turn of the century, isn’t a major championship site this season. One would have to assume, that their broadcast partners, (CBS this week) weren’t too pleased seeing players withdraw left and right.

Pace of play has been a topic of conversation for a long time in golf. There have always been players who play at a pace that makes sloths look like Usain Bolt. However, no round of golf should take over five hours. The leaders in the final round of The Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday took nearly three hours to play nine holes. Their round was about five and a half hours in total, which is outrageous. I’ve played in golf tournaments in Washington that actually enforce pace-of-play rules, and if they have it figured out, surely the geniuses in men’s professional golf can. There are rules in place to keep the pace of play reasonable in men’s professional golf, but for some reason, the pampered, hubris pros can’t be put on the clock or penalized penalty strokes without throwing a temper tantrum like a baby who needs its diaper changed. This issue seems to be worse and worse, year by year, and no one in the game has the stones to step up and start getting on the players to speed it up.

Dottie Pepper for CBS did a fantastic job of calling it out on the broadcast this weekend. Dottie relayed what many others say on social media on television, which I’m sure wasn’t easy for her, considering there might be some displeased folks in suits. The point needs to be reinforced more by people who can inflict change in the game, and it starts with the tours. They must start enforcing their rules. Why have rules for something if you won’t enforce them?

We all hate playing golf recreationally when you have to wait on every shot, or it takes so long, you either skip holes or go home after nine holes. If recreational golfers hate playing that way, why the hell would they want to watch it?

As for what transpired on the course, it looked like Ludvig Aberg might run away with the tournament after he posted a 63 (it was on the North Course), but shot a woeful 79 on Saturday. Harris English played steady in the final round, recording pars on the final 12 holes to win by one over Samuel Stevens. English recorded his fifth PGA Tour victory, and hadn’t won since 2021 and visited the winner’s circle for the first time as a father. It’s a great story, as English has been one of the PGA Tour pros who’s always there, but not one of the stars. It’s hard to be a PGA Tour pro and not win for multiple years, which speaks for his consistency to stick around, despite the drought. English was part of the 2021 USA Ryder Cup team, that dismantled Team Europe at Whistling Straits, the last time the U.S. hosted the Ryder Cup. English also made the cut at every major last year, with his best finish coming at the PGA Championship with a T-18 finish.

It was refreshing to see a final score that wasn’t over -20. The wind made conditions difficult for the players, which seems to be the only line of defense against players until equipment regulations come back. It was a positive way to end what otherwise was a pretty negative week in San Diego.

TGL’s Biggest Stars Go Head-To-Head On Monday

This week, Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf goes up against Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links GC on ESPN at 3:30 PM today. With Tiger and Rory headlining today’s match, I’d expect big ratings for the broadcast. This will be the first time we see Rory and Boston Common Golf tee it up, and Jupiter Links will hope they don’t get throttled like in their first match. Last week, the Atlanta Drive gave NYGC their second loss of the season with a 4-0 win. Atlanta sat on The Hammer (delivered by FedEx) all night long, taking that unique part of TGL and throwing it right in the trash. They did seem to play and act like an actual team, with chemistry and thought. It’ll be interesting to see what the ratings are when Tiger and/or Rory aren’t involved in the match. How much they will fall off will be the big question. If they don’t drastically fall off, TGL might be in a really solid place.

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