Iss. #216 | LIV Goes Squid Games On Us

"I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it. Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable. I was going to hit it a third time too just because, but yeah, it was a bad spot." - Xander describing his quad at the ZOZO... or every single one of us.

Never lay up.

LIV x Squid Games crossover?

ONLY ONE WILL SURVIVE

LIV announced an update to its Promotion Event this December and it's got a major Squid Games vibe to it... (Season 2 is dropping the day after Christmas!)

Only one player will be able to earn their spot onto the 2025 Tour.

Last season, three players earned a spot in the same event and while LIV is offering the Top 10 a second shot at earning their way on by competing in a 10-event tournament series in Asia—effectively, this is your shot.

And the reason why is, actually, pretty reasonable.

“Candidly, the ability for the league to impose players on teams is something we want to move on from... There is a balance of bringing in those who can help sell the team while also adding to the competitive nature at the same time.” said an anonymous LIV Golf executive.

Yeah, that tracks.

As nice as it might be to say that anyone has a shot at joining the league, you still have to bring in people who will (hypothetically) bring eyeballs and energy. Some random amateur from Stockholm or Uruguay or wherever... who happened to go on a heater at the December event in Saudi Arabia... probably won't do it.

Now, the real Squid Games idea is to take all the players from the bottom performing team, throw them back into the pool with everyone else, and make them earn back their spot.

If LIV went with Squid Games...

TGL GOES BUZZFEED

TGL released a "Choose Your Team" quiz this week as the news steadily picks up in advance of the season opener this January.

The quiz is all sorts of unhinged, asking favorite cuisine, vacation spots, and almost nothing to do with golf. Which now has me asking "Who is this league for?" because if the idea is to create this league for non-golf watchers then I guess I am following. But the event itself is still very much golf, golf, golf with state of the art facilities, technology and designers.

I am also bitter because despite trying to guess what answers would lead me to my actual favorite team (The Bay Golf Club featuring Min Woo, Ludvig, Wyndham, and Shane Lowry)—I ended up getting Tiger's team. It's the equivalent of starting to like baseball right now and picking the Dodgers as your team. Convenient... you can, on day one, root for an absolute freak of nature like Ohtani in the World Series.

TGL also released the full season schedule and it's INSANE to me that they did not plan on having Tiger v. Rory as the premiere match.

"Tune in, casual sports fan who probably don't know many famous golfers, on January 7th for Matthew Fitzpatrick squaring off with Min Woo Lee."

Womp-womp.

Halloween came early in Japan

PISTOL PETE SIGHTING AT THE ZOZO

The PGA Tour is out in Japan this week for the ZOZO Championship.

And the broadcast has been all over this dude who dressed up as the Oklahoma State mascot Pistol Pete as he followed Rickie Fowler around for the day.

I bring this up for two reasons.

1) Great idea and even though I'm sure there have been plenty who pulled this off through the years, I was surprised I had never seen it before. This feels like a Phoenix Open kind of move, so the fact that it happened in Japan makes it all the more special.

2) A quick gripe about Halloween costume props. How do we live in a world where someone can easily find cowboy hats in all shapes, sizes, and colors? But when I try to dress up as Casey Becker aka Drew Barrymore from Scream for a Halloween party (my wife requested to be Ghostface and mayyy have posted the picture of herself in it as a low key pregnancy reveal—a truly iconic move), I can only find one kind of 90s block phone and all the white colored ones are sold out.

Amazon sells rocks for f&@# sake. Rocks.

As if that wasn't enough...

DID HE COMPLETE THE OUTFIT?

Golf-Ready. Cowboy. Boots. I've seen everything now.

They've got all the restrictive knee high wear of a cowboy boot, with the lateral stability of a golf cleat.

Niche down, some marketing experts say. To which Lambda said, you ready for this?

My 2.5 year old son Jack can count the number of potential customers these should appeal to.

What a world we live in.

A quick fantasy football pop-in

GOT TO KEEP IT REAL

As much as I wanted to only share the highs, I owe it to you all to share the not-as-highs.

I finally lost, so all you Juandamien Nebraska ticket holders can breathe a sigh of relief—for now.