Forward Press podcast: No Ryder Cup in 2020? And how’s the PGA Tour restart coming?

Episode 50: David Dusek and Steve DiMeglio discuss Rory McIlroy’s comments about the possibility of the Ryder Cup not happening in 2020.

Welcome to episode 50 of Forward Press, a weekly Golfweek podcast.

In this edition, David Dusek chats with Steve DiMeglio about Rory McIlroy’s comments about the possibility of the Ryder Cup not happening this year, the upcoming PGA Tour restart at Fort Worth, a recap of the Match II, and much more.

You can download and listen on all of your favorite platforms, including: iTunesStitcherSpotifyCastbox and Radio Public.

Catch up on previous episodes of Forward Press here.

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‘The Match II’ and TaylorMade Driving Relief were great, but where were the women?

The LPGA could have gotten a big boost through some simple measures during the “The Match II” and the TaylorMade Driving Relief events.

Let’s start with this: I enjoyed every minute of “The Match II.”

Listened to every word. Watched every shot. High-fived my husband twice on the couch and neither of us cared who won. The golf was both relatable and exceptional. The broadcasters were fresh, funny and their input was beautifully timed. Golf needs as much of Sir Charles in the booth as it can get.

And I haven’t even mentioned the charity component. An afternoon broadcast that produced that much fun for a sports-starved nation and $20 million to help those in need?

Outstanding.

How can there be downside to two Sundays of golf taking center stage and raising mega-money for COVID-19 relief?

Well, there is no a downside, but it could’ve been more. As LPGA player Mel Reid tweeted during the TaylorMade Driving Relief Challenge, the broadcasts could’ve represented all of golf.

They could’ve included women.

Between both charity matches, Amanda Balionis was the only female involved in the telecasts, working as an on-course reporter in The Match. To be fair, The Match was in the works well before the COVID-19 crisis. The all-star cast of Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Peyton Manning drew an average of 5.8 million viewers on Sunday, making it the most-watched combined golf telecast on cable television.

NFL quarterback Russell Wilson came on the broadcast and donated 300,000 meals during a memorable par-3 segment in which Woods hit the worst shot.

It would’ve been great to see an LPGA player and her sponsorship partners get in on the action in a similar fashion.

The TaylorMade event could’ve been a mixed-team format. Maria Fassi and Paula Creamer are both in Florida. Some of TaylorMade’s female stars could’ve also called in during the broadcast as Jon Rahm did. Staffers who could’ve called in include Natalie Gulbis, Muni He and Charley Hull. Sung Hyun Park, who speaks limited English, was involved in a charity exhibition in South Korea with current No. 1 Jin Young Ko. Women’s golf frequently takes center stage in that part of the world.

England’s Reid, a three-time Solheim Cup participant, got hammered on social media for pointing out a missed opportunity. To the extent that she posted a follow-up tweet that said her words had been taken out of context.

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People ask: “Why don’t the women just have their own event?”

It takes money to raise money. And it’s obvious to everyone that the men command more viewers and sponsorship dollars. Why not take the opportunity to help lift the women’s game in the process by introducing LPGA stars in a relaxed environment? Bring them alongside the men and celebrate both.

LPGA pro-ams have long been the bread-and-butter of the tour. The women, in particular, excel in this area of entertainment. Let them banter with the men. Let them show off skills that are so often overlooked.

Women can trash talk too. And quite frankly, the first match at Seminole could’ve used some personality.

There hasn’t been a mixed-team event on the LPGA and PGA Tours since 1999, a format that should’ve been resurrected ages ago. The back-to-back U.S. Opens at Pinehurst in 2014 were a rousing success, and Michelle Wie’s victory upstaged the men in every way possible. But there’s no sign of that happening again anytime soon.

So often it feels as though female athletes are an afterthought, if they are thought of at all.

Why can’t backers look at female golfers as added value to a broadcast? If equality is important to corporate America, then why doesn’t that extend to sponsorship and marketing dollars?

As LPGA commissioner Mike Whan says, “live your values.”

“If you’re going to say something is a value, it has to be involved in everything you do,” Whan said last year at the season-ending event in Naples, Florida. “I’ve had this conversation with a lot of CEOs. Some like it and some hate it, which is – don’t call it a value statement unless you’re going to hold that mirror up to everything.”

In my personal circle, female sports fans who don’t watch golf at all, tuned into “The Match II” and loved it. With limited competition from other sports on the table right now, it’s an ideal time to showcase players from a women’s organization that turned 70 this year.

Reid wasn’t trying to take away from the charitable cause. She was trying to point out ways to make it better. Representation matters. When male players praise the talents of female players (which would inevitably happen in such an event), it matters.

People often ask, why do women have to make it a gender thing?

We’ll stop asking – where are the women? – when the question no longer needs to be asked.

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Tiger Woods wears Nike TW20 Frank Edition shoes at The Match: Champions for Charity

The 15-time major winner wore prototype Nike golf shoes while playing with Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

Golf fans have seen Frank, Tiger Woods’ driver headcover, on top of the 15-time major winner’s bag since the mid-1990s. Frank also has appeared on t-shirts, polo shirts and hats. Commercials shot in 2003 and 2004 that feature Frank, voiced by Paul Giamatti, still get clicks on YouTube.

Frank was in a new spot Sunday, but you had to know where to look.

Woods had worn Nike Zoom TW71 shoes earlier this year, but when he was paired with Peyton Manning against Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson, Woods wore a prototype pair of TW20 Frank Edition shoes for The Match: Champions for Charity at the Medalist.

Tiger Woods's Nike TW20 Frank Edition shoes
Tiger Woods’s Nike TW20 Frank Edition shoes at The Match: Champions for Charity (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The black shoes featured a likeness of Frank on the back, and the Nike swoosh logo was decorated with orange and black stripes. The shoes appeared to be fitted with the same Champ Pro Stinger steel spikes that Woods uses on the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods wearing Nike golf shoes
Tiger Woods wearing Nike golf shoes at The Match: Champions for Charity (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Woods has used several styles of golf shoes throughout his career, ranging from rigid, traditional golf shoes to flexible, running shoe-inspired footwear. The TW20 Frank Edition appears to be quite flexible, and having played through heavy rain Sunday, let’s hope it is waterproof.

If you are interested in trying the TW20 Frank Edition, you will need to wait. Nike said the shoes will not be available at retail in 2020.

‘The Match II’ takeaway: Keep microphones on players once play resumes

If I worked for the PGA Tour, I would demand on-course access to all the players. Now.

Prior to Sunday’s The Match: Champions for Charity, fans had watched competitive golf just once from Medalist Golf Club.

It was on March 5, 1995, two months after it opened, when world No. 1 Nick Price beat Medalist co-founder and world No. 2 Greg Norman in a “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” event. Norman, who was coming off a tough defeat to Nick Faldo the previous day at the Doral-Ryder Open when he bogeyed the last hole, lost to Price by four shots after a 4-over 76 on the course he co-designed with Pete Dye.

There were maybe 3,000 spectators on hand that Monday morning at the Treasure Coast course, with most of the exposure coming months later when the Shell’s episode was aired. And re-aired.

Sunday’s televised match at Medalist went to a slightly larger audience on Turner Sports: 5.8 million viewers. That made it the most-watched golf telecast in cable television history.

Larger than, gulp, the Masters. To quote Verne Lundquist, “Never in my life …”

There were two reasons for the smash ratings:

  1. The appeal of icons Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, providing the event with crossover appeal.
  2. Fans are starved to see live sports after every major league or tour has been shut down for 2½ months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sure, it was a little strange to see Woods and Mickelson wearing shorts, playing in front of no fans, riding alone in souped-up carts with no caddies and mic’d up.

We need to see more of that last portion.

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Hearing Mickelson go through an in-depth explanation to announcer-for-the-day Justin Thomas on how he would play his chip on the second hole — taking into account the rain, the grain and the spin — was priceless.

So was Woods. After listening to Mickelson yapping about how he had drank coffee,  was about to “activate” his calves and hit a “bomb” on the first long-drive hole, Tiger dryly looked at the camera and said, “Yes, ladies and gentleman, this is what I have to listen to every time I play with him.”

Just after announcer Charles Barkley derided Brady after a horrific start, telling him he would have to give the 8-handicapper shots in a match, Brady responded by holing a wedge from the seventh fairway for a birdie.

“Suck on that Chuck!” said Brady, who no doubt has said far worse during his six Super Bowl wins. Only we could never lip-read those comments because he was wearing a helmet.

It was great theater.

If I worked for the PGA Tour, I would demand on-course access to all the players. Now.

Most of them don’t want to be interrupted during their five-hour rounds because it would interrupt their focus. Well, most of us would prefer not to be wearing a mask or going months without seeing our loved ones, but then almost 100,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.

Things have changed in our world because of COVID-19, and professional sports needs to connect to a new normal.

On-course interviews haven’t hurt the PGA Tour Champions. It doesn’t matter what a player says, short of saying what club he hit, because there is no defense in golf.

When the PGA Tour returns in two weeks, there will be no spectators for at least the first four events and a lot less fans for the foreseeable future. Without crowd noise, let’s hear more from the players and their caddies.

Golfers can’t rely on crowd support to energize them, but didn’t they learn how to play the game in solitude? Isn’t making more than $1 million to win a golf tournament enough of a motivation?

The lack of fans will hurt pro golfers in other ways. Medalist member Brooks Koepka was the first to point out the best players will start losing balls on tour because there won’t be thousands of fans and marshals to keep an eye on them.

This, from a guy who has won four (and has a pair of second-places) of his last 10 majors.

There are other ways the game will become more difficult for the world’s best.

There won’t be thousands of spectators (or large grandstands) to stop a foul ball from running into the rough, out-of-bounds or penalty areas. Even slightly off-line shots will land in rough that hasn’t been trampled down by fans. And players won’t need to ask for a free drop if their crooked shot lands behind a pavilion.

The pros will have to – oh my gosh – play the game like the rest of us.

Wouldn’t that be special?

The best part about The Match: Champions for Charity was it raised $20 million for COVID-19 relief efforts. And, just maybe, it provided a blueprint for how professional golf can become even more entertaining.

Less quiet, please.

Peyton Manning tried to get in Tom Brady’s head with a comment about Bill Belichick

Manning got things going during an interview on the range when he was asked who he might have brought in to caddie for him.

The beginning of The Match – which featured Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson – was delayed because of rain,

But the trash talking wasn’t delayed at all, which was nice. Manning got things going during an interview on the range when he was asked who he might have brought in to caddie for him.

He brought up his brother, Eli Manning, Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles and one more …

Bill Belichick.

Brady was warming up next to Manning when the comment was made, which made it even better. Peyton, of course, hasn’t been one to hold back on making things awkward for Brady since he left the Patriots, and it looks like he’s ready to keep that going:

Not surprising, the fans loved it:

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Golfweek Rewind

Golfweek’s JuliaKate Culpepper recaps the week’s top stories in golf including Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning defeating Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in “The Match: Champions for Charity.”

Golfweek’s JuliaKate Culpepper recaps the week’s top stories in golf including Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning defeating Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in “The Match: Champions for Charity.”

‘The Match II’ report card: Tiger’s putter keeps him from an A; Brady rebounded

As well-intentioned as the TaylorMade Driving Relief event was last weekend, it left much to be desired in terms of entertainment. For a sports-starved nation hoping to catch a little trash talk and a tiny bit of relief from the monotony of …

As well-intentioned as the TaylorMade Driving Relief event was last weekend, it left much to be desired in terms of entertainment. For a sports-starved nation hoping to catch a little trash talk and a tiny bit of relief from the monotony of quarantine life, much of the event left average sports fans —and even many golf purists — only mildly interested.

But this was different. Sunday’s “The Match: Champions for Charity” had a little bit of everything. Uncertainty over whether the rains would allow the match to start. Instant and incessant banter. Horrible golf shots. Amazing golf shots.

And in the end, it produced some genuine drama. After digging themselves a big hole, the duo of Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady staged an impressive comeback to make the 18th hole relevant.

Here are the grades:

Medalist Golf Club: Incomplete

Former NFL player Peyton Manning plays his shot from the tenth tee during The Match: Champions For Charity at Medalist Golf Club on May 24, 2020 in Hobe Sound, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images for The Match)

Last week’s perfect conditions and sweeping images gave us a glimpse of Seminole Golf Club that many will never be afforded, but Sunday’s “The Match II” was like watching a Packers game from Lambeau in December — it helped to set an amazing scene, but you couldn’t make out much of the surroundings.

The course played fairly and it’s certainly a treasure, we just couldn’t see many of the highlights amid the downpour.

We’ll give it an incomplete and hope we can get a better understanding of the subject matter next semester (whenever that is).

See Tom Brady hole out from the fairway, split pants in ‘The Match II’

After a rough go through the first few holes at Medalist Golf Club, Tom Brady reminded people how much of a competitor he is with an amazing birdie.

What’s that phrase about how one great shot will keep you coming back?

Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady was dreadful through the first six holes during the “The Match II” on Sunday, consistently missing off the tee, despite clubbing down.

In fact, after a stretch in which Brady knocked tee shots into the woods and the water, Brooks Koepka told Brady he’d give him $100K for any par on the front nine.

Charles Barkley, offering up spicy commentary on Turner Sports, joked with Brady that he wanted a piece of him on the course.

And that’s when Brady pulled off the unthinkable, holing out his fourth shot on the par-5.

Brady followed by telling Barkly, “suck on that, Chuck” and then adding a soliloquy of sorts, thanking his family and joking that he needed to enjoy the spotlight since he hadn’t hit a good shot through the first seven holes.

Oh, and he also later mentioned that he did some more damage during that swing.

“I had to put rain pants on … I split my pants,” he said. “There was so much torque in that swing.”

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Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning say Charles Barkley can’t make bogey or better

Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning talk trash about Charles Barkley’s chances to post a bogey on the final hole of today’s “The Match II.”

It’s hard to know whether Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning will mesh well together during “The Match II,” but they’re certainly unified on whether or not Charles Barkley can make bogey or better on the 18th hole of today’s event.

During the Bleacher Report pregame show, both Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson insisted that Barkley will get his competitive juices flowing and can at least post bogey.

Barkley will be one of the commentators on today’s broadcast, but then will play the final hole for charity.

Woods did not share the same enthusiasm about Barkley’s ability to at least post a 5 on the 444-yard final hole.

“I don’t care what tees he’s playing from,” Tiger said. “It’s not gonna happen.”

Tiger’s teammate, former Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos great Manning, also was quick to pile on.

“That charity better look for another place to get that money,” Manning said.

The Match: Champions for Charity free trivia game

The Match: Champions for Charity is finally here, pitting Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in a charity match to raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts.

USA TODAY has released a new, special trivia game around The Match: Champions for Charity, which you can take part in absolutely free. It’s easy to participate and adds some extra excitement to Sunday’s event.

The Match: Trivia – How to play

  • Sign up for free at USA TODAY Trivia
  • Select The Match: Champions for Charity box among the listings Note: There will be pre-event and in-event trivia questions!
  • Answer each question with how you believe The Match will play out
  • Sit back and watch your “My Stats” results to see how you’re doing
  • Don’t forget to also take part in the in-event trivia, too

Sign up now for USA TODAY’s The Match trivia game.

Will ‘The Match II’ be postponed? Weather updates ahead of Tiger/Manning vs. Phil/Brady

The Match: Champions for Charity golf event is meant to tee off on Sunday afternoon in a game that pits Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. Unfortunately, weather might be getting in the way. The event is meant to …

The Match: Champions for Charity golf event is meant to tee off on Sunday afternoon in a game that pits Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady.

Unfortunately, weather might be getting in the way.

The event is meant to tee off around 3 p.m. on Sunday at Tiger Woods’ home course, Medalist Golf Club, in Hobe Sound, Florida. (Get all the TV and live stream info, or see odds for the event here.)

Much of Florida is currently getting rocked by thunderstorms, however, with a forecast that doesn’t look much better as the day goes on.

A 9:40 a.m. ET update, via Weather.com:

Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 81F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.

And here’s the hourly look, again via Weather.com:

Screenshot via Weather.com

It’s … not looking good. We’ll keep updating this post as the day goes along.

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The Match: Champions for Charity free trivia game

The Match: Champions for Charity is finally here, pitting Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in a charity match to raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts.

USA TODAY has released a new, special trivia game around The Match: Champions for Charity, which you can take part in absolutely free. It’s easy to participate and adds some extra excitement to Sunday’s event.

The Match: Trivia – How to play

  • Sign up for free at USA TODAY Trivia
  • Select The Match: Champions for Charity box among the listings Note: There will be pre-event and in-event trivia questions!
  • Answer each question with how you believe The Match will play out
  • Sit back and watch your “My Stats” results to see how you’re doing
  • Don’t forget to also take part in the in-event trivia, too

Sign up now for USA TODAY’s The Match trivia game.