In a word...

• What the hell? A golf edition?? That’s right bitches! You know you’re pumped for the Masters! And we’re here to get you in a golf-watching mood.

• In his long-awaited debut, producer-extraordinaire Michael P. discusses the current state of the game. Why did LIV come about? Where’s it all going? Enjoy my dawg’s silky take.

• Boxslayer—a proud Augusta native—returns with his Masters picks. Do you like money? Then follow my guy straight to the bank.

• New to TTM ::clears throat:: H…TM? Well it’s damn good to have you! Get in on the action by subscribing to our weekly 'letter.

An Introduction—to a New Contributor, to the PGA/LIV Kerfuffle, and to the 2025 Masters

By Michael Peloquin aka Professor Mordecai

I’ve started sweating a lot again and that means that golf’s first major tournament of the season is upon us. It’s Masters week. You can hear the theme song, and your rods and cones are primed for the most magnificent green imaginable. Get your second, third, and fourth screens ready so you don’t miss a drive, chip, or putt. 

This is my first time contributing to TTM. Well, more accurately, this is my first time contributing as a writer. I’ve been stuck down in the engine room putting out fires while the deckies and stews were tending to your every desire. Captain Burt runs a tight ship and won’t stand any green crew mates, so it’s during the offseason that I’m permitted to turn Teams That Matter into…that’s right…Holes That Matter. Welcome to the golf edition. 

For those who know me, I’m more of a big picture guy. I’d rather talk about the vibes and the trends than I would the weedy stats that today’s pundits so often reach for as they try to tell you who will win this week (look to the Boxslayer for this type of “analysis”).

So—BIG TWIST!—in this, my authorial debut, I’d like to take a big-picture look at the golf landscape nearly three years on from LIV Golf’s audacious coup d’etat attempt at the Palace of PGA. Three years in, I think we have enough data to begin to evaluate the impact on the golf world of this seismic shift, one that continues to send tremors and aftershocks through leather-stuffed members-only locker rooms everywhere. And I endeavor to ask, “Is This Good for the COMPANY?”

Why does LIV...live?

All professional sports leagues rest upon a balance—sometimes a very tenuous one—between the league and the players. Is the value derived primarily from the players? Or does the league itself, with its history, its traditions, its institutions (think…the Masters…oh, those sweet, sweet holes…), contribute a significant and perhaps even inimitably unique measure of value? In most leagues, this tension yields a natural and symbiotic relationship that alternates between mutually beneficial…and toxic.

Like all organizations, there is the public facing brand where “everything is amazing!” And then there are the behind-closed-doors issues that have the power to destroy. The public isn’t entitled to know everything, so I don’t blame organizations—the PGA Tour included—for maintaining a desired modicum of privacy to work through disputes. In my opinion, a bit of tempered fakeness helps take the edge off the drama and allows the organization to continue forward (sound like marriage to anyone else?! Hey ohh!). The British have been doing this for millennia. Yeah, we have problems, but we keep calm and carry on.

So of course problems brew up between the tour and the players. No relationship is perfect. But when are those problems worth blowing it all to pieces? (Separately, how many times have we heard Brandel Chamblee and another random white guy debate whether some new trend is ‘good for the game’? We’re all deeply concerned with golf’s PR for some reason. When we see the deep rifts inside our beloved tour, there’s a collective groan of, “well this can’t be good for the game.” What the hell are we all holding onto? What is it we truly value here??)

A bit of history

There was a precursor to LIV: In 1996, Greg Norman started another rival entity to the PGA, the World Golf Tour. His primary goal? To better compensate the elite players Norman felt were truly driving interest and money into the sport. The hall of fame Australian’s voice and opinion seem worth considering as a 20-time winner and longtime world number one—he must have a point, right? In 1996, the total season purse for all events was about $65 million across 45 events, or a little less than $1.5 million per event. That’s not for the winner…That’s the total to be split between all participating players. 

And so we return to our discussion of that tenuous balance between talent and platform. The business relationship between the players and the league is cooperative. The players provide their talent and likeness to the tour in exchange for payment via prize money. The tour promotes the players, events, and coordinates sponsorships. It’s not hard to see why a player could get salty feeling like everyone else is making money on the back of their hard work (pre-NIL college football, anyone?!). But that’s a subjective viewpoint. There will always be intangibles that are hard to quantify…value that the platform the tour provides that’s difficult to account for. There’s never been a set percentage of revenue the tour must provide as prize pools, but generally the PGA Tour has always increased the total purse each year, and in recent decades, it’s done so drastically. Sounds like pretty solid stewardship of this great game.

The result of the Shark’s first foray into major league assassination? Norman’s World Golf Tour was swiftly routed by a PGA Tour who flexed its muscle and quashed Norman’s hopes of standing up a legitimate rival by threatening suspensions to Norman and any players who joined him. But perhaps a key question that the PGA Tour should have taken more to heart…”Are we listening enough to our players?”

The Tiger era

1996 marked another monumental moment for golf. Tiger Woods turned pro. If Norman should kick himself for something, it’s that he wasn’t born a little later so that he could have benefited from the true value creator. The Michael Jordan of golf. The Sultan of Swat. The most loyal customer Perkins has ever had…The…well, you get the picture…

You can’t separate golf from Tiger Woods. (And again, if you know me, you know I’ve always ridden with the Big Cat.) Golf in its current form is a byproduct of what he has done for the game. Tiger has made over $120 million in career earnings alone (completely separate from his treasure trove of endorsement deals). The previous earnings phenom, Jack Nicklaus, made $5.7 million in his touring career, blowing past Arnold Palmer’s previous record of $3.6 million. Of course there are other big-picture trends to take into consideration—the evolution of TV, the internet, social media, Bidenflation!—but Tiger brought the eyeballs, and those eyeballs brought the dollars. He created real, lasting interest in the game. It wasn’t just a fad in the way that TV poker was when it had its early-2000s moment.

Not only has Tiger done financially well—the understatement of a lifetime—on and off the course, but every consistent tour player has benefited from his rising tide. Phil Mickelson once said, “When I won the Tucson Open, the purse was $1 million. The entire purse. First place was $180,000. I remember thinking in the mid-90s, ‘I wonder if someday we’ll play for a $1 million first-place check? I don’t know…probably not in my lifetime, but I hope we do.’ Here we are: every week, a million-plus first-place check. That’s due to Tiger.” We’ll come back to Phil in a moment, and here's a bit more on the financial windfall the tour has enjoyed, largely thanks to Tiger.

So what if Tiger had taken a step back in, say, 2003 and said, “I think I’m worth more.” We all know he would have been right! He could have played hard ball. “I demand $1,000,000 to show up!” “I demand a league salary to play!” “I demand equity in the league!” I think we all would have called him a greedy bastard, even as we admit now the plainly obvious truth as to his impact on the game.

Enter LIV

Fast forward to 2022. The gods grant Greg Norman a mulligan at starting his own tour to rival the PGA, only this time he’s backed by the deep, deep pockets of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. (So, unlimited funds. Are you fucking kidding me? Who’s writing this script??) And the Shark teams up with the pudgy, gambling-addicted swinger—Phil Mickelson—who, to his credit, is honest about why golf became such a draw early in his career. Mickielson gave an interview shortly before his defection to LIV where he accused the PGA Tour of regularly exhibiting “obnoxious greed”. He probably has some fair points, but it’s hard to feel sorry for a guy who has benefited so much from that tour. And to be lured away from an organization you’ve spent your career helping to build by running into the cushy deep pockets of a group with a questionable moral fabric? As an American golf fan, it doesn’t pass the smell test. Who’s exhibiting “obnoxious greed” now, ya tubby nerd??

To rationalize this obviously money-driven decision, defectors to LIV pointed to a series of structural changes those players just couldn’t live without. The desired changes:

• A change in the number of mandatory events
• More financial support for non-elite players
• New formats that would appeal to younger viewers
• A global strategy for expanding the game and player reach
• Player compensation
• Greater player autonomy

I’ve never understood these players’ willingness to blow it up over these demands. On their face, they don’t seem to be too unreasonable, but at the same time, they just don’t seem that important. There’s certainly a vibe of “sticking up for the small guy” in asking for more financial support for less elite players, who bear the burden of covering their expenses each week as they travel and compete on the tour. Perhaps more importantly, if you miss the cut on the PGA, you get no prize money. That’s half the field making zero dollars each week! Definitely something the PGA should look at. But…I don’t think any of the guys who made the jump to LIV were making this decision as some martyr for the younger players. Martyrs have never been paid so much…

So here’s where LIV ended up from a format standpoint:

• Fewer tournaments (14 events)
• 54 holes versus 72
• Shotgun starts
• Individual and team performance results
• No cut

Less, less, less. There are less tournaments, but the tournaments have a high total purse. $25 million. Marc Leishman (!!) took down $4 million at LIV’s latest tournament (Doral in Miami). The two tied for last place walked away with $50,000. That’s $50,000 more than $0.

Compare this with the PGA’s roughly 40-event season of 72-hole tournaments, and you can see why some guys who wanted less work and more pay would be pleased. And who could blame them?! But, a general heuristic: never make decisions solely based on money. I think the players at LIV want to be great athletes. They should be competing against the best. Not competing in some well-financed backyard league with 54 holes, no cut, and fewer tournaments just so they can have a walk-up song play on the first tee.

"Don't think money does everything, or you are going to end up doing everything for money." ~ Voltaire

Fun Fact: It’s called LIV because they play 54 holes. Get it?!

So is this good for the game?

No. It’s not. And I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of this before. I didn’t break new ground on the order of events that led us to this dual universe of PGA and LIV. But we are multiple years into the experiment, and while I still tune into a PGA event on Sunday, and keep an eye on the leaderboard heading into the weekend, I have, somewhat surprisingly, barely found myself thinking about players like Rahm, Koepka, and Johnson. (And those guys are hot!) No fleeting thought of Martin Kaymer, Cameron Smith, or Harold Varner III. And do I give two shits about rooting for their stupid teams, the Aces, the Cleeks, the Crushers? It’s never been a question of those guys’ talent, I’m just saying they are out of sight and out of mind. 

And the numbers tell me that you aren’t watching either. LIV’s March event in Singapore averaged 34,000 viewers on FS1. The Carvana Professional Pickleball Association saw 1.25 million viewers for some of their events. I’m not trying to insult your great aunt’s favorite new hobby, but LIV paid about $1 billion for this talent, for these personas to join their tour, and they’re barely bringing in enough viewers to fill a MAC stadium on a Tuesday night. If the players were as valuable as they thought, that number would be much higher. Maybe they are capturing that global audience Norman and Mickelson talked about. Or maybe they’re just playing for oil money…

As we watch both PGA and LIV players walk Augusta this week—THERE! There’s the through line to the Masters! Because this is the first time this season we’ll see these guys compete against one another—the competition itself reminds us what we've lost in this fractured landscape: the consistent opportunity to see the world's best go toe to toe week after week. The Masters gives us a glimpse of what golf was, and what it could be again.

Augusta National, with its traditions, its history, and yes, those magnificent greens, demonstrates why the 'league versus players' question was always a false dichotomy. The magic of golf relies on both: exceptional players, and the stages worthy of their talents. As negotiations continue between the PGA and LIV’s Saudi investors, the true measure of success won't be dollar figures, but whether they can rebuild a tour that serves players fairly while preserving what fans truly value: great golf on great courses with great stories.

Until then, I'll be watching the Masters with my usual nervous sweating and multiple screens; a rare weekend where golf feels whole again.

AUGUSTA, GA, April 9, 2025

The following statement was released today by Boxslayer, through his personal attorney and business manager located in Augusta, Georgia, in response to numerous questions about his future career plans:

“I’m back.”

After what feels like an eternity, the local Augusta legend, Boxslayer, is back in action and ready to share his betting advice on what’s shaping to be a great—and non-Tiger Woods-distracted—Masters tournament. A few inside sources have confirmed that the patrons won’t notice much difference in the legendary track after Hurricane Helene ripped through Augusta last September, so don’t expect any notable changes in strategy from the boys in the locker room.  While everybody seems to home in on the ability to hit the long drive as a prerequisite to win this sexiest of tournaments, the stat that has historically correlated to winning has been—shocker to anyone who’s ever played the game—GIRs (greens in regulation). Now, putting is also a major factor at Augusta, but GIRs eliminate the big numbers that can plague scorecards and boot players from contention. So Big Box crunched some numbers as he poured through the current rankings in those three stats—which together make up the proprietary formula Boxmetrics™—and he’ll be putting BIG money on the following:

• The Winner: Rory McIlroy (+650)
  Yes, this is a chalky pick, but the numbers don’t lie. Rory is playing incredible golf right now, and he has the mental fortitude necessary to make it through four rounds. He’d be in the top three on the PGA if you averaged the three stats I mentioned previously, and there’s a lot to cheer for in a guy looking to complete the career Grand Slam. This is Rory’s year.

• The Dark Horse: Joaquin Niemann (+2700)
  Let it be known that Boxslayer hates LIV. It’s so fucking dumb. That being said….. Joaquin Niemann is jumping off my Boxmetrics™ chart. The guy doesn’t miss greens, he can rip 300+ yarders, and he doesn’t let the putter kill his scores. He’s my second favorite to win, and I think a Top 10 for him is one of the best on the betting board.

• The Longshot: Nicolai Hojgaard (+10000)
  Three straight missed cuts isn’t exactly the mojo you’re looking for as you prepare to tee off on Tea Olive on Thursday morning, but he earned a special exemption for good reason.  Before blowing up on Sunday last year, Hojgaard was on the first page of the leaderboard throughout the first three rounds.  Watch for him to get off to a hot start, and watch his odds of winning dip below +1000 (value alert!).  

• The Guaranteed Top 10er: Bryson DeChambeau (+1900) Another LIV knucklehead, but someone whose game Box—as a fellow big bomber—greatly respects.  It’s well documented how far he can smash it, but let’s not discount his putting ability. The guy can make the big putts in the big tourneys (he’s a two-time major winner and perennial Masters contender), and has really gotten better with irons in his hands. Love him in the Top 10. 

• The “Dull as Dishwater” Pick: Patrick Cantlay (+4000)
  Don’t really like the guy at all.  Arrogant, slow AF, and not the best-looking dude out there.  However, the guy is a machine, and he’s got some ice in his veins (did you see the *thrilling* finish to the TGL final??).  His ability to hit the green—top three on tour this year—will give him a chance to finally capture his first major.

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