Pro Golf Could Be Approaching DEFCON 1

In this edition of Ask Alan, Alan Shipnuck answers readers’ questions about the world of golf.

What is DEFCON for pro golf right now? The fact that the top two tours are not getting more than 100,000 viewers on Sunday seems disastrous even for the football season. Combined with the disappointing ratings for the playoffs, it really does seem like this sport is in a rapid downward spiral! @SarrMaclean

I’m going to say DEFCON 2: a raging crisis that threatens to turn into mutually assured destruction. The PGA Tour has been severely devalued by the loss of so many key players, and the TV ratings you cite reflect that. The Tour’s new benefactors can’t be happy either, as the first billion dollars of private equity money has been funneled into players without a dollar being spent on upgrading the product. After three seasons and countless billions of dollars, LIV still has only a modest audience and now faces a myriad of major personnel decisions as the first wave of contractors age and/or retire.

A deal to (sort of) reunite the sport isn’t a silver bullet, as many former fans have discovered they’re perfectly fine not watching golf… and Bryson DeChambeau teeing off at the Byron Nelson isn’t going to change that. The tour wars couldn’t have come at a worse time, as the professional game has already suffered from a glaring lack of personality. Greg Norman, Payne Stewart, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh… golf has had charismatic stars, tough guys and transcendent talent for a quarter century. Now the PGA Tour is dominated by understated nice guys who barely move the needle. LIV has all the antiheroes and feisty personalities, but they remain largely out of sight and out of mind. We’ll see how things pan out in the off-season, but DEFCON 1 could be on the horizon.

Is Rory’s inability to win physical or mental? Or metaphysical? @Kevinp613

All of the above. At the Senior Tour in Pebble Beach last week, I looked up Ernie Els, who shares a lot with McIlroy: a huge talent who had a meteoric rise to fame at a young age and was then plagued by several near misses. Els is friends with McIlroy—he sold his old home in South Florida to Rory—but he doesn’t beat around the bush. “It’s not going to get any easier, that’s for sure,” Els said. “Pinehurst, that’s going to hurt for a long time. Mentally, we have to wait and see. When that little bit of doubt creeps in, it’s hard to get it out. I’ve been there a lot. You beat yourself up.”

Els couldn’t hide his frustration as he recalled the final holes of this year’s US Open, where McIlroy blew a two-stroke lead. “He hit the wrong club on the 15th hole,” Els said. “The driver made the wrong play on the 18th hole. He could have hit a 2-iron off the tee. And then hitting his pitch too hard and coming out over the hole, that was a terrible leave.”

Els has tried to be a confidant and advisor to McIlroy; after the 2022 Open Championship, where Rory was run over by Cam Smith on the back nine, the Big Easy invited his friend over for dinner to give him a pep talk. “I wanted to help him get his head in the right place,” Els says. But he chafes at McIlroy’s reluctance to address some of the holes in his game. “He needs to hit softer cut shots with his short irons,” Els says. “I’m sure I told him that. Get absolute control. There’s a reason Tiger played best with a little bit of soft cut. When you have that much power, you have to control the ball with a little bit of cut spin.”

So there you have it: course management, wedge play, confidence… there are many explanations for why McIlroy is left heartbroken time and again.

What would Lydia have to do the rest of the year to beat Nelly and win the Golf Writers of America Player of the Year award? @DREAMWeaver2784

It’s pretty much a neck-and-neck race now. Ko has the two crown jewels of the season, the Open at the Old Course and the Olympic gold medal, along with two other LPGA victories. Korda had an incredible run this spring, with six wins including a major championship, but her play since then has been disappointing and occasionally disastrous. If I had to vote today, I’d go with Ko. But with eight tournaments left on the LPGA schedule, any of these mega-talents could make a run and create a little daylight in a very spirited POY race.

Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko have both had great seasons. (GETTY IMAGES/Ross Kinnaird)

Billy Horschel should be in every team competition for the next five years. He has more heart than most recent captains picks. The guy just doesn’t quit. Furyk will win the Prez Cup, but isn’t his mission to strengthen the bench for the Ryder Cup? @david_troyan

It is somewhat astonishing that American captains have an army of pundits and vice captains to offer their opinions and yet consistently fail to acknowledge the most important quality for the Cups: the fight in the dawg. Like Keegan Bradley and Kevin Kisner and Lucas Glover, Horschel has been ignored for an American team when it is obvious he would add a much-needed dimension. Your point about the Ryder Cup is valid. Horschel is exactly the kind of personality who could shine amid the Bethpage crowd and this Presidents Cup would have been a worthwhile dress rehearsal. Instead, we have been given safe, uninspired picks from players whose primary qualifications seem to be in the right clique.

What can be done to spice up the Presidents Cup? Even with an international win, I don’t think it will move the needle. Please don’t tell me to go to hell. @ricksterps

I would never do it! But go to your room, you’re on timeout… because there’s simply no way to make the Presidents Cup any more appealing. It’s a Tour product, so the suits in Ponte Vedra are never going to allow the stage to be shared by LPGA interlopers, which would of course make the whole thing much more interesting. And they’re never going to embrace a non-traditional format like a sausage-balls scramble, which would be crazy fun. The Presidents Cup just is. It’s never going to have the intensity or history of the Ryder Cup, and it’s unwise to yearn for it. Just enjoy the Prez Cup as a low-level event. It could be worse: at least you’re not watching football.

How much of a ricochet shot has the Presidents Cup taken with LIV cutting key players from the international roster? The 2019 PCup seemed like a sign of great competition to come, but has now been ruined with Cam, Niemann, etc. unable to compete. @Twooters1

It is a definite disappointment for the Internationals not to have Joaquin Niemann and Cam Smith, who would arguably be their two best players. The effect of LIV on the Cups cannot be overstated. At the last Ryder, the US was weakened by the absence of Bryson DeChambeau or Dustin Johnson, and Europe was strengthened by not being forced to give aging warriors Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson or Sergio Garcia a final shot, freeing up spots for young stars like Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Højgaard. If Jon Rahm does not retain his place in the ’25 Ryder Cup, it will be a huge blow to Team Europe. So yes, the International team at this Presidents Cup has been injured, but that is now part of the cost of doing business in the new golf landscape.

The Presidents Cup could use players like Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann. (GETTY IMAGES/Lintao Zhang)

If Rory never wins the Masters, will he still be a regular member of ANGC after his playing career? @HoselBombs

That’s highly unlikely, considering that even a beloved figure and two-time Masters champion like Ben Crenshaw has not become a dues-paying member.

Alan, I fear we will never see a Ryder Cup on a links course. It’s just not what the Europeans want, apparently. Do you think we will ever see a Ryder Cup on a links course? @bobbytrunole

The problem with almost every links course is that they are bounded by the sea, rugged terrain and often picturesque towns; there is little room for the corporate villages, parking lots and other infrastructure needs of golf’s Super Bowl. The courses in the Open Championship rotation have largely solved these problems, but they are old, proud clubs that are reluctant to fork over the tens of millions of dollars required to host the modern Ryder Cup. So I doubt we will ever see the Cup on a true links course. The good news is that the bona fides of the course are less important in match play, where you are playing against the other guy, not par.

Which study program will be the first to invite the top 5 of the LIV points list? @glennmcspadden

Neither the Masters nor the PGA Championship need to commit to that, as they are both invitationals and can already pick the occasional LIV player, as any tournament has done. Mike Whan, who runs the USGA, sees himself as a maverick, strategic thinker and is more likely to break tradition than the two men at the R&A. So the answer is the US Open, but the top 5 seems ambitious; I think the best LIV player who is otherwise not exempt is logical and justifiable. Maybe the top 2. I doubt any major will commit beyond that.

I hate hypotheticals except for this one, which has two parts: What do you think Adam Scott’s career would look like if 1) he was an average putter and 2) he was in the top 10? @caia437

1. Three major championship victories, 25 PGA Tour victories.
2. Mickelsonian.

If Keegan automatically qualifies for the 2025 Ryder Cup team, what do you think the chances are of him playing and captaining at the same time? @Not311Drummer

100%. Firstly, Keegan has made it clear how much he wants to play in another Ryder Cup and why would he punish himself and not do that when he has earned his place on the team? Secondly, the Ryder Cup is an entertainment product. It would be great theatre if Bradley wore both hats, with his every move being recorded by the cameras of NBC, USA, Golf Channel (and Netflix!).

Is Tom Brady Tony Romos’ Notah Begay? @FakePoulter

No, he’s the Smylie Kaufman of Terry Bradshaws.

Top photo caption: Rory McIlroy will have to fight through heartbreak to reach a fifth major. (GETTY IMAGES/Richard Heathcote)

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