Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
Masters of Hypocrisy: From Road Rage to Golf Wars
The battle between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed Live Golf Tour exposes profound hypocrisy in professional golf, challenging the notion that golf isn't primarily about money. The concept of loyalty in professional sports is examined alongside the double standards that affect players' freedom to compete where they choose.
• Hypocrites come in many forms, from road ragers with religious bumper stickers to supervisors who claim to empower employees but punish independent thinking
• The Live Golf Tour offers players significantly more money for fewer events (8 vs 40+) with guaranteed appearance fees
• PGA Tour has suspended players who joined Live Golf, framing it as disloyalty rather than competition
• Live Golf's format includes shotgun starts, team competition, and a different broadcasting approach
• Even Jack Nicklaus has contradicted his previous statements supporting players' freedom to compete globally
• Non-practicing golfers face an eternal struggle between expectations and reality
• Professional improvement comes from countless hours digging balls out of the dirt
• Confidence from proper practice is the number one emotional contributor to good shots
Start digging balls out of the dirt and keep putting until you know the ball is going in the cup – not hoping or wishing, but knowing.
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You're listening to the 98th episode of Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, Rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. This week I'll share my thoughts on the ever-expanding and popular Live Golf Tour. I'll talk about non-practicers and their never-ending battle with the gap between their expectations and reality.
Speaker 2:But first, a weekly segment.
Speaker 1:I call what Annoys Me this Week. What annoys me this week are just hypocrites that don't know they're hypocrites. Hypocrites come in all sizes, shapes and forms and certainly different degrees. I once worked for this supervisor that was unimpressed with most of his organization for not taking 100% ownership of their domain. He would say things like Be your own CEO, manage your business like it's your business. That was a powerful soundbite, except for one thing when certain managers took that approach and made decisions that the CEO might not have agreed with, he would go ballistic. He would go ballistic and not only bring people into his office to tell him about how disappointed he was, he'd make a public spectacle of them.
Speaker 1:And that might happen 15 minutes after he told the entire group to be your own CEO. Now, I think he was right in trying to empower his employees to make decisions on their own, but here's really what he should have said. He should have said something like act like a CEO, but never forget, I'm your entire board of directors, so don't keep asking me what to do. Just do what I tell you to do Now. That's the ultimate empowerment.
Speaker 3:I'll shake his hand and plainly thank him for forgiving my mistakes.
Speaker 1:You know, it's almost like parents telling their kids don't drink and drive, but particularly when they have a new driver, like a 16 or 17-year-old Whatever you do, don't drink and drive. If anything happens, call us at night, we'll come to pick you up. Well, the first thing is, a few hours later, mom and dad are going to go to a cocktail party that lasts for five hours and one of the two of them are going to swerve and drive back home. Or in situations where our kids went out and they did drink, or some of their buddies were drinking and they called us to pick them up, but it's so late at night. We get in the car, we go get them and we berate them on the way back. What were you doing with those kids? Why were you drinking? Why were you doing that? And all that does is send a message to your kids of like maybe it's best not to call mom or dad, figure out another way to get home or schedule an ad hoc sleepover at somebody else's house. Or, if it's not about drinking and driving, it's something like don't operate heavy machinery under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. I mean, I think I've seen that on most every drug vial I've ever had. Did you know that the Jackass movie trilogy has grossed over $350 million? Those guys have broken every possible warning that their parents or any pill bottle gave them, and over 25 million people have gone to see that movie and rewarded them by buying tickets.
Speaker 1:Okay, that might be a stretch to underscore my point, but here's something that actually happened to me last week. I'm driving on Route 17, which is one of the most heavily traveled roads in the Charleston area. This one car comes out of nowhere and cuts me off. Now, maybe I allowed too much space between myself and the car in front of me. I didn't think I was, but the person cuts me off. Now that's a douche move. Anytime you make sudden moves causing other cars to slam on their brakes or swerve, it's a douche move.
Speaker 1:So now the traffic flow is changing a few times and this person pulls out of my lane, goes into another lane. A few minutes later, the same car cuts in front of me again and I'm like, okay, how many times is this guy? What am I going to do? Should I do something or should I just? Maybe this guy's in a hurry, maybe his wife's in the car and she's having a bit. You don't know what's happening in somebody's car. So now this guy swerves out again and he's swerving and when I say swerving he's just playing like NASCAR man. And so other cars are honking and I could see other drivers putting up their middle fingers right. And then five or 10 minutes goes by and I get to another light and this guy is right in front of me and I look down at his license plate just before the light turns green and the license plate says rejoice. And not only does the license plate say rejoice, he's got these two stickers on his bumper and I think it was the ichthys, which is the Christian sign of the fish.
Speaker 1:So I'm thinking maybe this person is like the biggest hypocrite of all times, or it could have been a kid taking his parents' car out for a joyride. They say that the pastor's kids are usually the wildest ones in school, but let's say it was the owner's car. I mean that's also not as hypocritical as religious leaders bilking their congregation for millions or having affairs with members of their staff or their congregation or fondling young, innocent altar boys until they get transferred to enough parishes long enough to escape their victims and their families, until they can't escape anymore and their past catches up to them, or maybe not as obvious and egregious as Boy Scout troop leaders teaching not tying by day and genital fondling by night. Hypocrisy is a human trait that unfortunately finds its way into our daily lives in all different types of ways, some at even lesser degrees, like a vegetable hating parent insisting that their children finish their peas and carrots before they leave the table. Which leads me to my first topic, the Live Golf Tour and the PGA TOUR's response. Now. To me, there's nothing hypocritical about the Saudi-backed Live Golf Tour. It's only the response from the PGA Tour and some of the players.
Speaker 1:The Live Golf Tour has been argued, debated and planned for years. I've had a great deal of debate and discussion with all my golf buddies about the tour. It's starting to feel like discussions about politics with one distinction. It's starting to feel like discussions about politics with one distinction. There is this wait-and-see attitude on both sides that lends itself for everybody's right to change their mind if things change. I've already covered my thoughts on the Live Golf League in a previous podcast, particularly as it pertained to Phil Mickelson, so I'll just pick up where I left off.
Speaker 1:With this week's news, the first event took place in London, which gave it more of a neutral location. When I say neutral, I mean neutral from the standpoint of a location in an English-speaking country with lifestyle and rituals almost like North America. There were 12 teams that were captained by the headliners, which gave it a completely different feel and approach from most all PGA Tour events. The TV coverage well, it wasn't actually TV coverage, it was covered on YouTube, which didn't bother me, but I would suspect that not every golf fan has the wherewithal to connect their devices to bigger screens to watch. Live Golf needs to broadcast on a major network or major sports cable networks to get better viewership. The broadcast production value in my mind was different from the golf channel, espn or other major networks.
Speaker 1:Scoring in the leaderboard to the viewers was a little different from the PGA. What Live Golf did is they took a page from the Grand Prix racing and they had on the top left-hand corner most all of the participants from the leader all the way down to the 48th place, and as each player was either improving or moving backwards, you would see their name on the board change. It would get highlighted and then it would either move up or move down. Now in the PGA broadcast they usually do that with the top 10 players. But here is the significant difference in the tournament, other than teams, which I think is pretty significant. It's that everybody teed off at the same time.
Speaker 1:It was a shotgun start, which basically meant two things. Number one is that all players are going to start and finish around the same time. The total broadcast is going to be shorter and when you're looking at the scoreboard on the top left, you're going to see a number that shows how many holes left are to play. That's for everybody. Since everybody's starting at the same time at a different hole, the entire field is moving at the same pace. So when they say there are 10 holes left to play, it's pretty much all of the players have 10 holes left to play. That took me a skinny minute to get used to. So Live Golf and their production team had cameras and announcers on every hole to capture the action. As a viewer, you're seeing more golf shots from more golfers instead of just following the top leaders. Instead of just following the top leaders, that gives more players more TV exposure, which gives their sponsors more eyeball time, meaning that their brand is going to be in front of the public that much longer.
Speaker 1:The commentators were a mix of international accents that kind of mirrors both the European tour and the PGA. I just didn't know who they were. I wasn't familiar with them and I guess if I was a European player or if I was somewhere in Asia, I might have recognized some of the celebrity announcers if they were celebrity announcers. I believe to achieve ultimate success, of course they're going to have to have an array of the better golfers, most popular golfers in the world, and I think that's happening. I think we saw Reed DeChambeau. There are going to be other players.
Speaker 1:As you start to see some of these live golf tour players playing the majors, I think it's going to open something up and I think that Jay Moynihan and the PGA are going to have to become more flexible. But for this thing to have its ultimate success, they're also going to have to have announcers that are well known, announcers that either had incredible success on the PGA Tour you know, I kind of think of Tony Romo in football Good quarterback, some would say great quarterback Incredibly insightful announcer Maybe guys like Charles Barkley, but they need to have a celebrity profile that know the game, that know the players they have to know the golfers as well, and whose insight and ability to capture a soundbite is far above the rest, something like better than most, better than most. It's hard to think outside the box when you start thinking of who are the commentators you want to see, because you only know what you see. You know, I like people with personalities that could not only describe what the players are feeling, what they're saying out there, but people that can spin a story. People like Peter Jacobson, david Faraday, nick Faldo, johnny Miller, colin Montgomery, gary McCord, paige Sporanek that's right, you heard it here Paul McGinley, lee Trevino, rocco Mediate, Holly Saunders, blair O'Neill or Polina Gretzky Wouldn't that be a sight.
Speaker 1:So back to the live tour. This weekend, charles Schwartzel wins the event with his team, the Stingers oh, by the way, I picked them to win the event in London. He won $4 million and he and his teammates split $3 million. That's big money.
Speaker 1:Despite the large amounts of money that are being thrown around, there are still a lot of arguments against the tour. 17 PGA players went to London to play the event and those that didn't resign from the PGA were sent letters to cease and desist. They were fired from the PGA Tour. I mean, the PGA Tour has given these players their livelihood and trophies and now these players turn around and show disloyalty trophies. And now these players turn around and show disloyalty. They've bitten the hand that's been feeding them. I talked to this one guy at the first tee box and he goes hey, you know, you're giving all these guys money. A man's got a hunt to eat. A parent's fees make it too easy to relax and too easy not to have to grind each hole to try and win. Some would say they're not playing against the best in the world. Who are they beating? Chase Koepka? It's a slap in the face to the number one tour in the world, just because of the money.
Speaker 1:Who watches golf on YouTube? Now, I heartfully agree with the last one. Youtube is free, easy to access and you could stream it to larger screens. But sometimes I double screen, you know. Sometimes I like watching golf on the big screen and then have my phone to either look something up or do something else. But as for the other arguments against the live tour, here's my POV on the LIV.
Speaker 1:Golf is a worldwide sport played on multiple continents by golfers from around the world. The PGA Tour has been a cash cow for those that have talent, skills and the mental fortitude to make the cut and then play for first place and then play for first place. Different from other pro sports, athletes that play on the PGA are independent contractors that have to attract sponsorship outside the tour to underwrite their costs to travel and compete on the tour. They also have to fund their teams of caddies, swing coaches and whatever other entourage they need to succeed. They can't play in events that are not sanctioned by the PGA Tour on any weekend that the PGA Tour has events without the written approval from Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour. They don't own their name, image or likeness while playing in the PGA events. So basically, it's a meritocracy with independent players based on performance and commitment to play in so many events with the hope that you could go low enough to keep your card and pay your staff. To make it on tour, you have to grind for years and live out of a suitcase.
Speaker 1:The Live Golf Tour has only eight events, five of which are in the United States. Most all players that play for the Live Tour are guaranteed a payout for showing up to all late events. It's an appearance fee. The purses are higher than the PGA. Last weekend's event paid out $25 million to all the players, with $4 million going to first place and $120,000 going to last place. So it's play less, earn more. It's the American way. Okay, maybe it's the democratic way.
Speaker 1:The Live Tour is not restricting golfers to compete in the PGA 44 weeks of the year in the PGA 44 weeks of the year let's say 40 because several weeks are holidays Yet the PGA is suspending golfers that play in any of the eight events in the Live Tour. So here's where I circle back and talk about hypocrisy. Several years ago Jack Nicklaus was asked about the LIB Tour and he said he was supportive of golfers competing around the world and if there are other tours that are out there, the golfer should have an opportunity. But Greg Norman remembers that and he called Jack Nicklaus out on his 180 degree turnabout. When Jack's talking about how guys have to stay on the PGA and how he wouldn't go to the lift tour to do any commentating it's you know. It's almost like a read my lips kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Read my lips no new taxes. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination, and you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.
Speaker 2:But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again I did not have sexual relations with that woman, ms Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false and I need to go back to work for the American people.
Speaker 1:Those were all powerfully contradictory statements. Look, we should all reserve the right to change our minds. Circumstances change, which should allow us to make different choices. Just don't be all holy and pious and stand up on a soapbox to tell the world that this big golf professional golf is not about the money. The Ryder Cup and the Olympics are not about the money to the athletes while they're competing. But mark my word, the cost of sponsorship goes up when you're holding a gold medal or you're on the winning Ryder Cup team.
Speaker 1:Our ability to make more choices in life because of our wealth makes a difference in comfort and leverage. It's always about the money. Trophies and trophy cases allow you to reflect on your accomplishments. It strokes your ego and it's nice to show off to family, friends, the media and, of course, other golfers. Money gives you choices when to live, your circle of friends, your sphere of influence, you and your family's lifestyle, private versus public, everything. Golfers who make it on the live tour can now live where the owners and CEOs of their sponsors live. Why can't players who qualify for any of the tours play in as many as their schedule permits? I'm a capitalist. I believe that the market should dictate, dictators shouldn't market. Now I've heard some arguments about human rights violations, pointed at the Saudi regime and how sports washing is their way of sweeping their bad behavior under the rug. It's certainly an argument I would make if I were the commissioner of the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1:Jay Monahan, or Adolf as his friends and business partners call him, made some intense statements when interviewed by Jim Nance during the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday. Now that guy would scare ghosts to vacate a haunted house. If I were reviving Netflix's original series, house of Cards, I would cast Jay as the president or even the chief of staff. He's a lot more daunting than Michael Kelly staff. He's a lot more daunting than Michael Kelly, I mean. To me Jim Nance looked like he wanted to run from the broadcast booth while Jay was spitting venom talking about the live tour.
Speaker 1:Look, I get it. The live tour is a disruptor. They are luring pro golfers into their lair with the riches behind their imagination. Even though it's only eight events today, what stops them from expanding the schedule in upcoming years? The commissioner of the PGA Tour is no different than a CEO from a lot of companies. Where competitors come in with deep pockets to confront them, jay has chosen to play the them or us card. He's also trying to pit the PGA Tour players against the Live Tour players, or at least against the PGA Tour players that have left the PGA to play on the Live Tour.
Speaker 1:If I'm Jay, I'm looking at every which way to make the decision impossible for PGA Tour players, like raising the stakes and asking more from sponsors to pay bigger purses. That's a lever. Now I would certainly consider that on a bigger scale. Like all contestants in the PGA that are playing, an event should be paid if they score under a certain threshold, even if they get cut. Appearance fees should be considered and paid out according to the player's world rankings. Total purses per event increase. The Ryder Cup as an event makes great money, not for the players because they don't get paid. Figure a way to donate money to each player's designated charity and have them wear the logo of that charity on their left breast pocket area. Think of a hundred other things that the PGA Tour can do to satisfy their players that doesn't break the bank and make it emotionally difficult for the families of the PGA players, so that it's not just a singular decision. Do more for the PGA players' families so if they're all sitting at the dinner table and the PGA player tells his family he's considering playing on the live tour that his kids throw a freaking tantrum and his wife just cuts him off. Now that's leverage. Like with most brands, the better product always wins.
Speaker 1:If you watch the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday, you know what I'm talking about. Other than Adolph Moynihan venomous rants in the Nance booth the action on the course was awesome. Justin Rose shot a 60 and was on pace to shoot a 58. Jt, rory and Finau in the last pairing shot lights out, with Rory winning with birdies on the last two holes. But they were going back and forth. That's the kind of action I didn't see watching the live tour. I could just imagine what Rory and JT said to each other on the 18th green during their man hug. It was probably something like this tour is where the best compete in the world. We run this place. Suck it. Live Tour Non-practicers.
Speaker 1:Have you ever noticed how good the golfers on the PGA, lpga, yeah, and even the Live Tour are. They are arguably the best in the world at what they do. They have tremendous talent, focus and have hit more golf balls than most anybody else that plays golf. Most of the shots they hit are at the practice area. Most of the shots started from buckets or shag bags filled with balls. Other than the injury caused layoffs, pro golfers keep hitting the ball out of the dirt until their hands bleed. Then they bandage up and keep on hitting.
Speaker 1:The road to perfection has no end, because perfection in golf is never the result. And I only say that because I'm just not watching a lot of pro golfers shoot 54 or below. That would mean a birdie in every hole or even better than that. Breaking the four-minute mile was thought impossible until Roger Bannister in 1954, at the age of 25, beat it by a second. Now I'm not insinuating that a score of 54 is inevitable by a lot of golfers. I think it's possible. But the pursuit of perfection starts in the practice area. Whenever I hear somebody complain that they can't break 100, can't break 90, or can't break 80, I just ask them are they spending time in the practice area, and almost always the answer is no, I don't have time.
Speaker 1:Look, I respect being time starved. Some golfers have work, family and religious obligations and commitments that share their waking hours. But here's the thing I think that golfers that really want to improve their game find time for instruction, find time to practice and, if they have enough money, get fitted for clubs and shafts that give them the best chance to improve, for clubs and shafts that give them the best chance to improve. When you step up to the tee box or get ready to hit an approach shot to the green or about to make a putt, the positive image that you need to cement in your head usually comes from effective shots you've made in practice. I can't tell you how many times I've had a 60-yard shot to the green where I imagine a shot in the practice area that I made earlier that week. Right before I pull the trigger when I'm on the golf course, it's the thought of that good performance that I did in practice that stays with me and I bring that to the golf course.
Speaker 1:Now it doesn't always work, but I'll tell you the weeks and months I don't practice, guaranteed I'm not hitting my best shots. But after all, that being said, some people get bored practicing. They prefer to pee on the golf course playing. Usually those players are honing their game by playing a lot. Billy, the Kid who I've spoken about in a lot of podcasts, tees it up over 300 days a year. You won't see him in the practice area, but he's never complaining about trying to break 80 because he does it all the time. Practice is not for everyone, but I would suggest that practice done right is the best elixir for game improvement.
Speaker 1:Confidence is the number one emotional contributor to good shots. Good shots translate to a better outlook on the game. Better outlooks have a positive effect on low scoring. Better outlooks have a positive effect on low scoring. But look, if you don't need any of that to score low and be happy on the course, don't waste your time. But if you're like the other 99% of us, start digging balls out of the dirt and keep putting until you know the balls going in the cup. Not hope it's going to drop, not wish it's going to drop, but know it's going to drop.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to another episode from Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, Rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. Talk to you soon.