In this Issue

1. 🏆 Results Recap

   • JDay returns to the winner’s circle with Ko

   • Oosty wins the Alfred Dunhill

   • LIV Golf Promotions Event

   • Scotty takes out the Cathedral Invitational

   • Gale gets it done in the Sandbelt

2.  🍴Quick Bites

   • PGAT to negotiate with preferred PE consortium (and the PIF 🤔)

   • Finau says no to LIV, so who’s next?

   • LIV trading window sees player movement

   • “Mule Memo” released to the amusement of Golf X

   • USGA and R&A announce golf ball roll-back

Ok, so things have been pretty manic in the world of golf heading into Christmas. Traditionally, this time of year is pretty sleepy and we just coast into the holiday season with a minimum of fuss. But this year has been anything but sleepy. Given the amount of news and activity going on right now in golf, we are going to hit you with a quick-fire newsletter this week covering a bunch of topics in short form but giving you the key links in case you want to go deeper. Enjoy!!

🏆 Results Recap

• JDay returns to the winner’s circle with Ko - Jason Day and Lydia Ko teamed up to win the “hit and giggle” Grant Thornton Invitational on the PGAT. It is Day’s 2nd win on the Tour this year and has him well placed to represent Australia at the Olympics next year (although he previously declined to appear at the Olympics for Australia at the 2016 Rio event).

• Oosty wins the Alfred Dunhill - South African Louis Oosthuizen shot a closing round 3-under par 69 to take out the Alfred Dunhill Championship on home soil. He edged out fellow LIV golf player and Stinger teammate Charl Schwartzel for the title. The victory marked the fourth successive win by a LIV Golf player on the DP World Tour, which must be irritating the DPWT leadership to no end.

• LIV Golf Promotions Event - LIV Golf has completed its promotion/relegation event at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. The tournament was compelling watching as aspiring players from across the world (including PGAT players Kevin Chappel, Jeff Overton and Chris Stroud) fought it out for the final 3 spots left in the LIV Golf League for 2024. Coming down the stretch, the stakes were high as qualifying for the 2024 league guaranteed at least a $2m season to the 3 successful players. Congrats to Finland’s Kalle Samooja, Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma.

• Scotty takes out the Cathedral Invitational - Adam Scott has completed 3 successful weeks of golf in Australia with a W at the Cathedral Invitational in regional Victoria. The niche event, which included Cameron Smith and Mark Leishman, was not broadcast on TV, but did have a strong showing of fan support in the ground. Our communications with event organisers indicate it will be televised next year via Foxtel and Kayo.

• Gale gets it done in the Sandbelt - Geoff Olgilvy’s event, held at various Sandbelt courses (Royal Melbourne, Victoria, Peninsular Kingswood and Yarra Yarra), has been won by Daniel Gale. Gale led by 4 going into the final round but stumbled as he tried to close it out coming down the stretch. Then he aced the par-3 16th on Royal Melbourne East to seal the win.

🍴 Quick Bites

Here are some golf quick bites for you to snack on:

• PGAT to negotiate with preferred PE consortium (and the PIF 🤔) - with the deadline for the Framework Agreement fast approaching (31 December 2023), the PGAT has announced that it is advancing negotiations with a preferred Private Equity consortium called the Fenway Sports Group, which is comprised of a number of billionaire sports team owners. At the same time, the PGAT said it was also continuing discussions with the PIF. Hard to imagine how the Saudis don’t take this as a middle finger from the PGAT.

• Finau says no to LIV, so who’s next? - Big Tone has rejected an offer to join LIV Golf and has confirmed via Instagram his commitment to play on the PGAT next year saying “see you in Maui” (for the PGAT’s Tournament of Champions). Tony is said to have been underwhelmed by the LIV offer (reported to be circa $40m) and also worried about entry into majors whilst the OWGR fiasco remains an issue. Current speculation about the next players to move has shifted to Viktor Hovland and current US Open champ Wyndham Clark.

• LIV trading window sees player movement - there have been trades and moves by various teams at LIV. A big head scratcher was Bubba Watson (captain of the Range Goats) trading Talor Gooch (this season’s individual champion) for Matt Woolf (who struggled most of the year with poor form and public abuse from his Team Smash captain Brooks Koepka). A summary of all the trades as they currently stand is below. More moves are to come so stay tuned.

• “Mule Memo” released to the amusement of Golf X - A collection of rank-and-file PGAT players have retained a big hitting litigation law firm to serve a letter of demand on the PGAT in relation to current negotiations underway with potential PE investors and the PIF. These players, hailing from the PGAT player demographic now colloquially being referred to as “Mules” (after Ryan Armour coined the phrase earlier this year), are concerned about a lack of transparency from Big Jay and the Policy Board as the future of the Tour hangs in the balance. No Laying Up’s Tron Carter broke the memo via his X post.

• USGA and R&A announce golf ball roll-back - there has been much angst and handwringing since the announcement by the USGA and the R&A that technology in golf balls will be rolled back. For many years now, there have been concerns about the distances golf balls are travelling and the impact that is having on the sustainability of golf courses which are unable to keep pace because they have been designed and constructed in a much different era. The course architecture purists are all for the rollback to protect the integrity of the game, whilst more new age fans are very angry at losing distance and not being able to play the most technologically advanced ball available. In reality, most golfers will not notice any difference from the ball roll back because we are talking about losing approximately 5 yards of distance, and the changes do not come into effect for amateurs until 2030.

Xmas/New Year Holiday Break

If you enjoyed this read or other issues of The Shank Show, can we ask for your help in growing our community of Shankers. Please pass on this issue to your golfing mates and encouraging them to subscribe using the button below. That would help us greatly.

Thanks again for your support and readership. The Shank Show will be taking a break over the Xmas/New Year period and returning in 2024 with a preview of the PGAT’s first event of the season, The Sentry in Maui. We wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We look forward to having you all on board again in 2024. Until then, we are going to leave you with a little reel of what it means to flush it…

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