The Feast and Famine of Jay Monahan pt1

 No recap is needed here... I'm sure you're tired of reading about who made the playoffs, and who missed the playoffs. Or maybe you're tired of golf period. While I can't help that you don't like golf, we can talk about something else.........how about the driving force behind the PGA Tour? "Is it the players?" you might ask. No, no, it is one man. Pull up a chair, grab a beer, and let's talk about Bernie Madoff... I mean, Gary Bettman.. no no, I mean Jay Monahan. Yes, yes PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. 

Here's Jay in his basement

Jay Monahan became the Commissioner of the PGA Tour on January 1st, 2017.  -sidebar: 2017 seems like it was yesterday, but holy crap it was 6 years ago- Monahan after college worked to establish what became the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, and followed that by working with the Fenway Group. More directly to his Commissionership, he became executive director of the Players Championship in 2008. 

You may know that the Players Championship is regarded by the players and caddies as the tournament they like best. Players, historically, were paid very well for their efforts, and the caddies were treated as humans. Pretty low standards for caddies. I am theorizing that from this experience Monahan's "players first" ideas came from... stick with me, I'll connect these dots.

Innocuous enough, in December 2019... after he started wearing tuxedo button-ups to play golf (and losing his mind)... Phil Mickelson announced that he would play in the upcoming Saudi International, and miss the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the first time since 1989. Although he was criticized for this move given Saudi Arabia's record on human rights, he played and finished T3 in the event in February 2020. Later that year Mickelson made his debut in the PGA Tournament Champions (the old guys league... the Tour all amateur men truly aspire to). 

So Phil has this experience rubbing elbows with Saudi elites, and then a few months later he plays golf with the old timers of the PGA Tour. We have to think that Phil saw into the future here and thought "Hell No... I'm fuckin Phil Mickelson." As noted previously... he was losing his mind.

So Phil in 2021 becomes the oldest major champion, winning the PGA Championship at Kiawah. While no button-ups were worn, this was the debut of the cop sunglasses... and that damn CBD gum he incessantly chomps.---losing it.

Let me pause here to say that yes this is a Jay Monahan story and it will continue,  leading up to Thursday's first round of the St. Jude Championship. Come on back tomorrow... and swing easy.








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