Official PGA Tour Thread

[laughedatbytime]

The PGA was a great story and he handled it remarkably well and with incredible play.   I just hope he's competitive in the tournaments he's gotten sponsors exemptions to.

 

Maybe he should just get himself a ton of Saudi money, play a few exhibitions and then retire to his mansion.

[laughedatbytime]

Currently being reported on CNBC:  PGA to merge with 54 hole exhibition league.

 

[Principled Man]

 The PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) today announced a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis. The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.

 

In addition, PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success. The new entity (name TBD) will implement a plan to grow these combined commercial businesses, drive greater fan engagement and accelerate growth initiatives already underway. With LIV Golf in the midst of its second, groundbreaking season, the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF will work together to best feature and grow team golf going forward.

 

Notably, today’s announcement will be followed by a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties. Further, the three organizations will work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to re-apply for membership with the PGA TOUR or the DP World Tour following the completion of the 2023 season and for determining fair criteria and terms of re-admission, consistent with each Tour’s policies.

 

Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes
Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul...

 

https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2023/06/06/pga-tour-dp-world-tour-and-pif-announce-newly-formed--commercial-entity-to-unify-golf?webview=1

[Nova Carmina]

No, it's true, the PGA has agreed to merge with the Saudis, those theofascist murdering bastards.  https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/06/pga-tour-liv-golf-and-dp-world-tour-agree-to-make-shock-merger

 

Utter balls.

 

Well, there's some good golf to watch on the LPGA, probably . . .

[Principled Man]

Who could have made you make such a deal, PGA?

 

Could it have been....oh, I don't know......maybe.........SATAN?!! 😱😱😱

 

[BastillePark]

It's always about the Benjamins. 

[Principled Man]

According to the terms of the merger between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the PGA will control holes 1-8 and 12-18.

 

The Saudis get 9-11.

 

 

  

[goose]

1 hour ago, Principled Man said:

According to the terms of the merger between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the PGA will control holes 1-8 and 12-18.

 

The Saudis get 9-11.

 

 

  

[Principled Man]

1 hour ago, Principled Man said:

According to the terms of the merger between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the PGA will control holes 1-8 and 12-18.

 

The Saudis get 9-11.

 

 

  

 

15 minutes ago, goose said:

 

Not my joke, sorry to say.  It’s brutally effective!
 

I stole borrowed it from someone on another website earlier today.  

[goose]

2 hours ago, Principled Man said:

 

 

Not my joke, sorry to say.  It’s brutally effective!
 

I stole borrowed it from someone on another website earlier today.  

I've passed it on with Lols from my friends

[Nova Carmina]

Is there a regulatory fly in the oil-ment of the PGA-LIV merger? Anti-trust issues, anyone?

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/pgi-tour-liv-golf-antitrust-merger/674332/

 

In part:

 

>> 

“We were competing against LIV,” Monahan said after the deal was announced. The merger, he explained, was a way “to take the competitor off the board, to have them exist as a partner.”

 

That’s a very understandable reason to do a deal. In this case, it’s also most likely an illegal one.

 

The most basic principle of antitrust law is that companies with large market share can’t make agreements to avoid competing against each other. It is very difficult to characterize the PGA-LIV merger in any other way. The antitrust suit originally filed last year by a group of LIV players alleged that without “any meaningful competition (prior to LIV Golf’s entry), the Tour has failed to innovate and its product has grown stale.” The PGA Tour, they argued, “has used its monopoly position to extract substantially increased revenues from broadcasters and advertisers” while paying players less “because there is no competition for players’ services.”

 

LIV Golf eventually joined its golfers as a plaintiff in this very lawsuit. To now claim that a combined PGA-LIV entity is something less than a monopoly would lack any semblance of credibility. The merger would leave just a single, dominant association controlling almost the entire world of professional golf. Even if the PGA Tour was not a monopoly before the proposed merger, the new entity certainly would create one.<<

 

There are some problems with his argument (like about broadcast partners -- hardly a competitive market before LIV, of course), but it's an interesting idea.

 

Hey, LABT, will you tolerate govt interference in business mergers if it pisses off the Saudis?

[laughedatbytime]

2 hours ago, Nova Carmina said:

Is there a regulatory fly in the oil-ment of the PGA-LIV merger? Anti-trust issues, anyone?

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/pgi-tour-liv-golf-antitrust-merger/674332/

 

In part:

 

>> 

“We were competing against LIV,” Monahan said after the deal was announced. The merger, he explained, was a way “to take the competitor off the board, to have them exist as a partner.”

 

That’s a very understandable reason to do a deal. In this case, it’s also most likely an illegal one.

 

The most basic principle of antitrust law is that companies with large market share can’t make agreements to avoid competing against each other. It is very difficult to characterize the PGA-LIV merger in any other way. The antitrust suit originally filed last year by a group of LIV players alleged that without “any meaningful competition (prior to LIV Golf’s entry), the Tour has failed to innovate and its product has grown stale.” The PGA Tour, they argued, “has used its monopoly position to extract substantially increased revenues from broadcasters and advertisers” while paying players less “because there is no competition for players’ services.”

 

LIV Golf eventually joined its golfers as a plaintiff in this very lawsuit. To now claim that a combined PGA-LIV entity is something less than a monopoly would lack any semblance of credibility. The merger would leave just a single, dominant association controlling almost the entire world of professional golf. Even if the PGA Tour was not a monopoly before the proposed merger, the new entity certainly would create one.<<

 

There are some problems with his argument (like about broadcast partners -- hardly a competitive market before LIV, of course), but it's an interesting idea.

 

Hey, LABT, will you tolerate govt interference in business mergers if it pisses off the Saudis?

Oooh, a conundrum.   It's always fun to decide among competing beliefs to see which principle wins out or if hypocrisy does.

 

First of all, as always, f**k the Saudis.   

 

I'm not an antitrust lawyer (obviously) so I have no idea if this will be successful, I think I would like it to be, as it appears at first as if it is restricting those who want to work in professional golf at anywhere close to the top level of pay to have to work for one entity.  It seems like other sports (baseball and football) have anti-trust arrangements that preclude competitors getting in.  Maybe the Saudi money is so overwhelming it wouldn't matter, but I can't see Congress passing that kind of exemption for the Saudis, so this lawsuit can't be avoided in that manner.  And it seems to have merit that this is a violation of those laws, which I don't oppose.

 

However, I have been wondering if a group of the highest paid players would come together and appeal to corporate America indicating that if they started a rival tour after having received enough sponsorship dollars that they couldn't rival the Saudis, at least enough to attract enough of the players to make it competitive with Monahan's Saudipalooza tour, without having to associate with such an odious regime (though let's not kid ourselves about any kind of total purity existing among that group).

 

Maybe this is horribly naive and Tiger and Rory (and others) don't want to fight that particular fight, and they shouldn't have to.  The plausibility of this shouldn't affect anything.   Rory seems to have been neutered (or bought) as he insists on distinctions without differences in his apologias, unless he was really concerned about shotgun starts and the lengths of tournaments more than human rights debacles.

 

By the way, anyone who insists that people refer to him as Your Excellency is a POS.

[Nova Carmina]

Do I watch the US Open, or do I really show 'em by ostentatiously _not_ watching the US Open?

 

I would kind of like to see how they handle LACC . . . 

[laughedatbytime]

19 minutes ago, Nova Carmina said:

Do I watch the US Open, or do I really show 'em by ostentatiously _not_ watching the US Open?

 

I would kind of like to see how they handle LACC . . . 

His Excellency requests your presence in front of a TV to watch.

 

Actually, this event (I believe) is independent from the PGA Tour (and the exhibition golf clowns), so unless you're boycotting the cupidity of the participants, I'm not sure what you'd be looking to accomplish (if you were being serious).

[Nova Carmina]

Just now, laughedatbytime said:

His Excellency requests your presence in front of a TV to watch.

 

Actually, this event (I believe) is independent from the PGA Tour (and the exhibition golf clowns), so unless you're boycotting the cupidity of the participants, I'm not sure what you'd be looking to accomplish (if you were being serious).

 

Thanks; I'd forgotten this is the USGA, not the PGA! Oh, cool, then.

 

 

[laughedatbytime]

12 minutes ago, Nova Carmina said:

 

Thanks; I'd forgotten this is the USGA, not the PGA! Oh, cool, then.

 

 

You could always root for an amateur or a club pro.  

 

Or maybe call in some picayune rules violation.

Edited June 15, 2023 by laughedatbytime

[laughedatbytime]

Fowler -5 through 11.

[Nova Carmina]

So much for par being a good score. We'll see what happens now.

 

[goose]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:46 AM, Nova Carmina said:

So much for par being a good score. We'll see what happens now.

 

I think Fowler would have settled for par on 18, lol.   I figured Clark's birdie putt might put the squeeze on Ricky, and sure enough he powered it through the break.  

 

For the final round I can't help but wonder if Rory missing the final group might work to his advantage.  But  I am rooting for Clark to close it out.

[Laurabw]

I’m always rooting for Rors but today I’m rooting for Fowler. He needs one.

[Nova Carmina]

Not Rickie's day, I guess

[goose]

1 hour ago, Nova Carmina said:

Not Rickie's day, I guess

Nope.  When Clark made birdie on 18 yesterday it was over for Fowler.  Hope Clark can get the 2putt he needs here to seal it...

[goose]

Clark wins it!!!!

 

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

2 hours ago, goose said:

Clark wins it!!!!

 

 

Got home just in time to see the last hole. Would have been nice to see Rickie finally break through in the last round of a major but Clark's win was nice to watch.

[laughedatbytime]

The best golfer in the world.