Brandel Chamblee and Trump, and 1 way slow play is OK | Weekend 9

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. Michael Bamberger fan. Dome-golf wonderer. Bad football picker. I can be reached at [email protected]

First, he talked about Charlie Woods. Then he wondered about LIV. And the deal. 

We’d met a couple weeks ago just outside New York City’s Riverside Park, where his dog tugged him a bit too enthusiastically toward another dog before he slipped, I helped him back up, and we started our own walk and talk. He was a retired chief legal officer for a bank you’ve heard of, and I told him I write about golf, and I’ll let you decide whose mother should be more proud. Still, he was at least curious about some recent headlines. 

Charlie? He was speechless over his swing. LIV and the Saudi PIF deal with the PGA Tour? He was stumped over the stalemate. 

Didn’t they strike a deal?

They had, I said. But they were still negotiating. 

What’s the hold-up?

Hmm. How much time you got?

But maybe things are near the green now. (On that note, seemingly every sport offers a saying for ‘getting close’ — finish line, red zone, rounding toward home — but no one ever uses the golf one. But I digress. Let’s continue.) Just look at some of what’s gone down since the man’s question. Donald Trump took office, and according to the New York Times, met with the Saudi PIF’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PGA Tour pro Adam Scott. (Trump’s likely helped talks, as, we’ll say simply, he’s a golf fan.) Then there’s the fact that LIV’s now shown on Fox’s collection of channels. (That’s likely influenced the PGA Tour, which would prefer not to lose more viewership.) Then there’s the fact that LIV’s offseason signings can be considered mild, at least compared to years’ past. (That’s likely influenced LIV, which probably wouldn’t mind some PGA Tour player crossover.) Then there’s the fact that the U.S. Open, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship are offering invites to LIV pros. (That’s likely influenced the PGA Tour, as that’s removed a player detraction to joining LIV.)  

The real question, though, is what does a deal look like. 

In the short term, the thought is LIV will stay, as it’s brokered a number of business deals. You’ll maybe also see some openness between the tours. But is something more coming? A Rory McIlroy comment, said last week at the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, further teased the possibility of a world tour, which you’d guess would travel globally like LIV and compete like the PGA Tour’s Signature Events series. 

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“Yeah, maybe by the end of this decade you might see something where it could come together,” McIlroy said, “but that’s — I mean, it’s so pie in the sky and there’s so much stuff that can happen.”

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9. 

2. Trump didn’t talk just with the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF, according to Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee — he also talked with Chamblee. In response on Thursday to the meeting news, Chamblee said he played golf with the president last year, and that most of their conversation centered around subjects Chamblee has been critical of — LIV and the source of LIV’s funding, Saudi Arabia.

Said Chamblee on Golf Channel:

“Look, I felt like it [the meeting] was inevitable after the election. I had the pleasure of playing with President Trump last year. And almost after every single hole, when we would putt-out, he would want to come over and talk to me about LIV Golf, about Saudi’s involvement in the game of golf, and he was so magnanimous about our differences. At one point, he said, look, I know you and I differ on this opinion, but hear me out. He said Yasir, meaning the gentleman who runs LIV and heads the PIF, he said Yasir loves golf more than you do and more than I do. Now it’s hard to believe because President Trump plays a lot of golf and I’m crazy about it, but he was serious. He was like, ‘He loves golf that much. They have $32 trillion worth of oil underneath that sand and they really have to diversify their economy.’ He said they are all-in on this and they’re not going anywhere. As the round progressed, he would want to talk almost every hole about LIV and about the Saudi involvement, how excited he was for it. 

“Geopolitical issues aside, of course I understand why we acquiesce and need Saudi Arabia as a partner in the Middle East. My issues were about the human rights concerns and about how golf was at some point, I felt like, going to have to apologize for some issue. And he was like, just look further into the future. It’s going to be good for Saudi Arabia, it’s going to be good for the PGA Tour, it’s going to be good for LIV. And at the end of the day, did I agree with him? No. But I got to say, he made strong points all day long, he was, I wouldn’t say, adamant about it, but he was as opinionated on one side of it as I was. I was happy to listen to him. I was grateful for the conversation all day long. And at the end of it, I will say that he did change my mind. I mean, he made me think about Yasir as a partner in the game of golf and not looking just for an economic opportunity through the game of golf.”

Responded analyst Paige Mackenzie: “I also think from the beginning, and you and I had this conversation probably two and a half years ago, I said it’s better to have this money invested in golf versus going somewhere else. The idea that Trump has been involved is absolutely of no surprise. I think we saw Yasir with Trump somewhere between November and December of this year. He’s had LIV Golf events at his property. He’s clearly a follower of the PGA Tour. It is no surprise that he has been contacted as part of this unification. And I think for every golf fan out there, this is great news. This should be celebrated because that’s what a lot of players have been talking about what they want. They want a resolution, this divided professional men’s golf landscape.”

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Responded announcer Rich Lerner: “Said a couple of years ago, at the hillcrest, that day that Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with Jay Monahan: Saudis won. And today’s confirmation of that. And I also added there would be a running of the bulls for the Saudi money and that’s where we are, realities of where we are in the game of golf. Golf got caught in a geopolitical vortex, but big news today.”

A takeaway here? Chamblee said it himself when he said: “I will say that he did change my mind. I mean, he made me think about Yasir as a partner in the game of golf and not looking just for an economic opportunity through the game of golf.” Chamblee’s platform is maybe the biggest in golf, and “change of minds” can be questioned. But it’s just an opinion. Take it for what it’s worth.

3. One of my favorite reads on LIV Golf came in October of 2022 from Zach Helfand of the New Yorker. (And if you haven’t yet read it yourself, you can do so by clicking here.) One nugget in the story has especially stuck with me, and it’s an interesting thought to consider in light of the recent conversation of PGA Tour players being more “entertaining.”

Here’s a part of what Helfand wrote: An agent told me, “… I think LIV is going for the WWE model.”

Best Michael Bamberger read for your weekend 

4. I pause whatever I’m working on when a Michael Bamberger story drops in our Slack channel, and his words this week on Tida Woods should show you why. Below are just some of them, and the entire article can be read by clicking here.

Wrote Bamberger:

Tiger has talked in general terms about what he learned from his mother, a practicing Buddhist, but he has kept private any details of how it shaped him. Tiger has always given the appearance of being a child of the North American experience, playing Little League baseball, rooting for the Raiders, going to Vegas. Someday we may find out that his Eastern side — his Buddhist side, his Tida side — opened a window to the game’s mysteries in ways that defy post-round interviews. Be the ball times infinity.

One non-GOLF.com story that made me smile 

5. What am I reading (besides the thoughtful prose of my colleagues)? This article made me smile. 

Here, Fergus Bisset of Golf Monthly wrote why putts — should count as a half-stroke. 

Best instruction tip for your weekend 

6. This week, I talked with legendary instructor Pia Nilsson about slow play, and there’s one nugget that didn’t make the article that I want to share here. 

I’d asked her whether there are moments when slow play can be considered OK, and she said there was. It’s something to remember. 

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“One category that sometimes would be good to slow it down,” Nilsson said, “is actually the ones playing from the front tees because — often more women than men — because often they’re the last to hit and everybody’s rushing past them in the carts and they’re often the first one to hit. So many of those, we have to help them. It’s your turn, you’re allowed a few seconds to calm down and make a decision because they just can feel totally anxious out there.”    

A golf story that may interest only me — a golf dome!

7. Forget TGL. Oswego, Illinois, may be getting nine holes under a roof, and the concept’s got a sweet name — the Megalodome. Sam Woodworth of WSPYnews.com wrote here that progress is being made. 

One non-golf thought for your weekend 

8. Let’s pick a Super Bowl winner, if only for you to know who won’t win. I like Philly. The Birds are great on both sides of the ball. 

What live golf is on TV this weekend?

9. Here’s a rundown of live golf on TV this weekend:

— Saturday
4:30 a.m.-8 a.m. ET: Commercial Bank Qatar Masters third round, Golf Channel
8 a.m.-11 a.m. ET: Trophy Hassan II final round, Golf Channel
10 a.m.-noon ET: LIV Golf Riyadh final round, FS1
Noon-3 p.m. ET: LIV Golf Riyadh final round FS2
1 p.m.-3 p.m. ET: WM Phoenix Open third round, Golf Channel
3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET: WM Phoenix Open third round, CBS 
3 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: Cognizant Founders Cup third round, Golf Channel

— Sunday
3:30 a.m.-8:30 a.m. ET: Commercial Bank Qatar Masters final round, Golf Channel
1 p.m.-3 p.m. ET: WM Phoenix Open final round, Golf Channel
3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET: WM Phoenix Open final round, Golf Channel
3 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: Cognizant Founders Cup final round, Golf Channel

A feel-good moment for your weekend 

10. This is good. It’s also why Justin Thomas is wearing a ribbon on his hat this week.