Monday Morning Rap: Rory vs. Reed Drama, CBS Steps Up Its Game, And New Anthony Kim Rumors

KARIM SAHIB. Getty Images.

Welcome back to the Monday Morning Rap, where we’re feeling extremely thankful to be alive (and covering golf for a living) at this very moment in time. If the last 12 months in golf unveiled the Golf Gods’ latent flair for the dramatic, the last seven days proved they also have a sick sense of humor. Let’s dive in

Drama, Drama, Drama in Dubai

We begin this week not with Max Homa’s narrative-affirming victory in San Diego—everyone’s favorite player has blossomed into a world-class golfer, and it’s been cool to witness as hell—but in Dubai, where Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed played leading roles in what has to be considered the Best Motion Picture of this young year. It began with the Flick Heard Round the World, when Patrick Reed viciously tossed a golf tee in McIlroy’s general direction after Rory refused to acknowledge him on the driving range of this week’s DP World Tour event. I wrote about this in detail earlier in the week, but I’ll give you the sparknotes: I genuinely wonder how much Reed’s even aware of all the lawsuits flying around with his name on them. How else do you explain acting like everything’s cool with McIlroy after your lawyers subpoenaed him at his home on Christmas Eve?

LIV Golfers remain banned from PGA TOUR events but they’re allowed to play the DPWT, and they certainly made their presence with their play this week. Ian Poulter hovered near the top of the leaderboard all week. So did Richard Bland. But no LIVer fared better than Reed, who worked his way into contention despite yet another controversy during his third round. And this one, like others of recent vintage, doesn’t reflect too positively on the 2018 Masters champ. 

During his third round, Reed hit a tee shot directly toward a gaggle of trees guarding the right side of Emirates Golf Club’s 17th fairway. TV cameras appeared to show the ball on a crash-course with the tree closest to the tee; it’s not clear what happens after the ball hits the tree, but the ball definitely appears to hit the tree. Funny, then, that Reed then claimed to be “100 percent sure” that he could identify his ball…in a different tree altogether. Brandel Chamblee  wasn’t buying it: 

Identifying the ball is vital in this situation because it allows a player to take an unplayable lie and drop another ball, with a one-shot penalty, near where the ball came to rest. If the player can’t identify the ball, he’d be forced to declare a lost ball and hit his third shot from the tee. It’s essentially a 300-yard difference. With an unplayable, you’re playing your third shot from where your tee shot finished, whereas with a lost ball you’re hitting your third from the teebox. 

The easiest way to identify a ball, of course, is to retrieve the ball from wherever it came to rest. But what happens when a player can’t retrieve his ball—like, say, if it got stuck in a tree? He has two options. If a player says he can identify his ball up in a tree by seeing it, he’s entitled to an unplayable. Additionally, if a bystander says he or she saw the ball enter a tree, the player can take an unplayable. The latter is exactly what happened. 

“Two on-course referees and several marshals identified that Patrick Reed’s ball had become lodged in a specific tree following his tee shot on 17,” the DPWT said in a statement. 

But that wasn’t all. Reed went out of his way to insist that he also identified his own ball in that tree using a set of binoculars. 

"I would have gone back to the tee if I wasn't 100%," Reed said. "I got lucky that we were able to look through the binoculars and you have to make sure it's your ball, and how I mark my golf balls is I always put an arrow on the end of my line, because the Pro VI, the arrow on the end stop before it, so you can see the arrow.”

That’s where he’s going to lose a lot of people. Is it entirely possible that the camera footage was misleading, and that Reed’s ball did indeed get caught in the other tree? Of course it is. And in golf rules disputes, the tie always goes to the runner. It’s a game of honor, and trusting that each player is being honest is the bedrock of the entire rulebook. But consider Reed’s long history with rules disputes—every time he’s been involved in an imbroglio, he claims 100 percent innocence. Is it possible that he simply has the worst luck in the world, and that his reputation precedes him and makes judging his actions impossible? Sure it is. But is it more likely that his reputation is what it is for a reason, and that these controversies happen way too often to simply write off as coincidence? 

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Either way, Reed took his unplayable, made bogey and entered Monday’s final round—heavy rain delayed action all week—four shots back of McIlroy. He then proceeded to fire a seven-under 65 that saw him post 18 under for the week and take the clubhouse lead. McIlroy stepped to the 17th hole on Sunday trailing by one only to finish birdie-birdie to win his first start of 2023, retain his world No. 1 ranking and send quite a message to the golf world. More than satisfied with his dose of drama for the week, McIlroy took the high road after the round. 

"It was a battle all day,” McIlroy said. Honestly it's been a battle all week. I really feel like I haven't had my best all week but I just managed my game so well and played really smart. I feel like I showed a lot of mental strength out there today, something to really build on for the rest of the year.

"There's been a ton of positives this week but also been some things that I need to learn from and I need to try to improve on…I’m going to enjoy this. This is probably sweeter than it should be or needs to be but I feel like I've still got some stuff to work on. It's a great start to the year and a really good foundation to work from."

This is probably sweeter than it should be or needs to be. We definitely know why. 

So, who’s the best player in the world at this very instant? Is it Rory McIlroy, or is it Jon Rahm? The numbers are a virtual dead-heat: 

Max Soars, CBS Shines

We’re running out of superlatives for Max Home’s remarkable ascent. The 32-year-old played some macho golf in his home state of California on a chilly Saturday, firing a six-under 66 on Torrey Pines’ South Course that brought him a two-shot victory over Keegan Bradley, who pushed up the board but failed to birdie the par-5 finisher when he badly needed to. Sam Ryder, the 54-hole leader, kept his nose in front through the front nine with some patchwork play and clutch putting—but, as tends to be the case of 72 holes, his spotty ball striking was exposed when closing time came around. Ryder finished in a tie for fourth with Sahith Theegala and Sungjae Im, one shot behind Collin Morikawa, who finished solo third after another promising week that saw him gain shots on the field putting. 

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For a fuller breakdown of the finish, check out my gamer from Saturday. We’re going to focus more here on CBS’ broadcast of the action. If we’re going to harp on bad broadcasts, which has been a favorite activity of Golf Twitter for as long as I’ve been on it, it’s only fair that we spotlight good broadcasts. This one was excellent. Sellers Shy, the executive producer of CBS’ golf shows, went deep into his bag over the weekend. There was way more of those fancy 8K cameras that debuted during NFL games a few years ago—you know, the ones that make every player look like they’re in a video game. There were some neat leaderboard graphics that, Greg Norman Jr. was quick to point out, looked rather similar to some that LIV Golf unrolled in its first-year broadcasts. 

There was an interview with Sam Ryder’s mother during the back nine on Sunday. Best of all: there was a mid-round interview on Friday with Max Homa, who narrated his 13th hole to viewers as he conducted a walk-and-talk with an AirPod in. 

You only get one chance at a first impression, and CBS needed the perfect player to roll out this concept. Rickie Fowler surely would have been down, but Homa was the perfect guy—someone who doesn’t take himself so seriously to think that talking between shots might impact his play, but also someone insightful and articulate enough to provide the viewer with legitimate insight. He talked about how he hits a cut off the tee virtually every time, shape of the hole be damned. He talked about his strategy for the layup. He cracked a joke about Patrick Reed when his ball came to rest in some gnarly rough above a bunker. 

It was terrific television, and here’s to hoping that Home’s willingness to play guinea pig starts a trend. These types of mid-round interviews have been a thing on the DP World Tour and the LPGA for years now, but the men have largely resisted breaking the inside-the-ropes-during-competition barrier. The thought process: I’m too focused to talk in the middle of the round, and breaking that focus would impact my play. That’s undoubtedly true for some, but Homa poked a pretty sizable hole in that theory by winning the golf tournament. 

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Athletes are forced to do things they perhaps don’t want to all the time; it’s part of the bargain, part of the reason they’re compensated as handsomely as they are. Sports are an entertainment product, and giving the viewer what they want (within reason) benefits all parties. I see no reason why the PGA TOUR shouldn’t come to some sort of agreement with the players on this: perhaps each player agrees to do a walk-and-talk for one hole per tournament, and they can mutually agree on which hole that might be. I simply refuse to believe that chatting between shots is so distracting that its impact on the competition outweighs the benefits of the interview. Other sports, namely baseball, have pioneered the mid-game interviews, and, like baseball, golf’s countless breaks in action lends itself well to content between swings. And, it must be said, LIV’s emergence and outside-the-box broadcasts have raised the stakes; the PGA TOUR and its broadcast partners now have some competition, and they know they need to step up to keep apace. 

The winner in all this is you, the viewer, who will continue to benefit from ambitious broadcast initiatives. Your move, NBC. 

Time for Our Yearly Anthony Kim Week

Around once a year we seem to get an Anthony Kim week. Someone will post a picture of him to social media, or it’ll be the anniversary of one of his accomplishments, and Golf Twitter will spend the next few days throwing out tributes and wild hypotheticals regarding golf’s Sasquatch. 

This latest round of AK murmurs began with a New York Times article that didn’t quote Kim directly but did quote his former caddie, Eric Larson, and his longtime golf coach, Adam Schreiber. The article didn’t suggest Kim is on the verge of making a comeback, but a particular quote from Larson kicked off a frenzy: 

“He goes, ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know.’” Larson told the NYT in regard to a LIV comeback. “I said, ‘Come on, man, get the old clubs out. Go out there and have some fun.’ And he starts laughing at me. He goes, ‘That’s what everybody wants me to do!’”

This was a fascinating case study in just how much headlines stretch the truth. Here’s what Golfweek went with: New York Times feature on Anthony Kim confirms he still plays golf, shares LIV Golf thoughts. Golf Digest took it a step further: Anthony Kim hasn’t dismissed a LIV Golf opportunity, former caddie says. 

Ben Baller immediately took to social media to say that he talks to AK nearly every day and that AK hasn’t talked to Larsen or Schreiber in a few months. Then a random Twitter account cited “sources” in claiming that LIV had a multi-year offer out to Kim. I spoke to someone in contact with Kim who said he doubts AK would seriously consider a comeback, but that’s about as much as I know. Kim could well be considering an offer. What’s more, if LIV is going to pay that type of money for a 37-year-old who hasn’t played in over a decade, and who struggled mightily with injuries and the driver yips before he disappeared, he’d almost be foolish not to take it. 

It would be, in my opinion, a truly frivolous spend. A gimmick. Much of the fascination with Kim is inextricably tied up in his absence. We view him as this unicorn: a supremely talented golfer who simply chooses not to compete at the highest level. We love picturing what a return might look like and fantasizing over AK competing with Rory and Rahm and JT. But what if he’s not that guy anymore? What if he’s more like the AK we last saw, who can’t stay healthy and can’t make a cut? Sure, there would be massive interest in his first start. People would wanna see how he looks and how he plays. But what happens next? What if he comes back and isn’t very good? That unicorn shine will wear off completely, and will people care enough to watch him past the first week? And that’s not saying anything about the optics for LIV, which is trying to unseat the PGA Tour as the pinnacle of professional golf. Paying out the wazzu for a guy who hasn’t competed in a decade would’t exactly further that mission. 

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More turnover at LIV Golf

Two more LIV Golf c-suite executives are no longer with the company: Jonathan Grella, former chief communications officer, and Kelly Taylor, chief marketing officer. That’s in addition to the departure of Atul Khosla, former president, and Matt Goodman, former head of franchises. All of those execs leaving would suggest some turmoil at the company, but a source in the LIV Golf ecosystem painted a rather different picture to me: that the departures were by-and-large involuntary. Or, put differently, that these executives were let go. 

The source said LIV had some initial difficulty in recruiting top-level talent to fill its positions at its launch. It’s a tough sell, convincing people with excellent jobs to join a highly controversial startup league. But now, with LIV off and running, they feel they have a wider talent pool to choose from and believe the eventual replacements will help propel the league forward. 

Now, that’s obviously only one side of the story, and as with all things LIV, it’s hard to sort through what’s true and what isn’t. Making matters more difficult, you have to think all four ex-LIV executives are NDA’d up and won’t discuss their departures. LIV did release this official statement on the turnover: 

“As LIV begins our second year, we are grateful to the team that helped get us off the ground and launch such a successful start-up.  We have a group of hard-working, dedicated staffers and we understand from time to time personnel will move on or decide to pursue other endeavors. In all cases, we are appreciative and will continue to assemble a world-class team to guide us through our second-year.”

Elsewhere…

—Rickie Fowler is quietly off to a solid start to his 2022-23 PGA TOUR season. Fowler’s got a runner-up, a T-6 and, most recently, a T-11 at the Farmers already this year and is ask inside the world top 100 (he’s No. 99) for the first time in about a year. That’s progress. 

—Sam Ryder’s joggers rankled a few feathers this week—including those of Phil Mickelson, who was apparently locked into all the golf action this weekend. He couldn’t understand why the PGA Tour doesn’t allow shorts but does permit pants that show ankles. He joked about the rough at Torrey Pines. He commented on Rory’s win in Dubai. It’s nice to have Lefty back in the public conversation. 

—Fore Play’s “Fore The Cut” bet hit for the second time in three weeks. This one came with a +800 payout thanks to Sahith Theegala, Rickie Fowler, Harry Higgs and Callum Warren all making the weekend at the Farmers. If you don’t trail us for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the only logical conclusion is you hate money. 

—Speaking of Pebble…another weak field this week for what used to be one of the better non-major events on the calendar. The old Crosby Clambake is in a rough spot in the schedule, as it falls before back-to-back elevated events in the WM Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. Plus, with slow rounds across three courses, it’s not exactly the easiest week of the year from a logistical standpoint. What results is a field with just one top-10 player in Matt Fitzpatrick and only four guys in the top 50. 

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—A few PGA Tour players, led by Cameron Young, are heading to Saudi Arabia this week for the Saudi International. The reason they’re allowed to play despite this event being funded by the same Saudi money that’s behind LIV golf: the International is technically an Asian Tour event, and the tour has approved opposite-event releases for the International in the past. So, Young and co. will collect a healthy appearance fee, play in Saudi Arabia for the week, then head back to the PGA Tour.

—Move over, JT and Jordan, ‘cuz golf has a new bromance: Collin Morikawa and Max Homa. The two former California Golden Bears were paired together for the first two rounds at the Farmers and again for the final round, and both were effusive in their praise for one another afterwards. 

“It was really fun playing with Collin three of the days. I’ve gotten really close with him. He’s one of the most spectacular golfers I’ve ever seen. I’ve always wanted to kind of test myself against someone like him, who I look up to, even though he’s significantly younger than me. So it was fun to get to battle with him and get to see what he does because he’s a tremendous player.’

Morikawa threw it right back in his direction on Twitter: “Mutual respect. Your golf speaks for itself but being a genuine person speaks volumes. I’ve been lucky to call you a friend over the last handful of years and look forward to many more battles/groupings together.”

Awwww. 

—The LPGA released a teaser for an upcoming docuseries following its players to be called Drive On: LPGA All Access. This truly is the new wave in sports, and it’s nice to see the ladies get their own version of Full Swing. 

Until next week,

Dan