SPORTS & MORE

PGA MERGES WITH LIV; WHAT’S NEXT FOR GOLF?

PGA Tour Commissioner

STRANGERS ’TIL TONIGHT

... a veteran sports columnist, says the only sport he doesn’t follow is cricket. That leaves plenty of others to fill his time.

ralphmoro1936 @gmail.com

Jay Monahan on June 6 shocked the golf world with news that archrival golf tours — the PGA and LIV Golf — were merging to form one professional golf entity.

The details are still being negotiated behind closed doors, so you and I won’t be in the loop. Unfortunately, if the past is any indicator, neither will the players. (Many PGA players, like their fans, learned of the momentous merger via Twitter. LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman reportedly was uninformed as well.)

Apparently, Monahan will be CEO of the new yet-to-be-named golf entity, and the PGA Tour will have a majority stake in it. Yasir AlRumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which pays for LIV Golf, will join the board of the PGA Tour, and become chairman of the board of the new combined entity.

We haven’t heard much else from Monahan, but plenty has been said about him. Some PGA players, fans and relatives of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks quickly labeled Monahan a hypocrite for merging with the Saudi-backed league he had trashed for two years, given the country’s past financial ties to terrorist groups and human rights record.

On June 13, one week after his stunning merger announcement, Monahan told the PGA board he was stepping away to recover from an “unspecified medical situation.” Golf Digest reported, “According to the tour, chief operating officer Ron Price and executive vice president Tyler Dennis will lead day-to-day operations in Monahan’s absence. No additional details about Monahan’s condition were released.”

I don’t like when such a huge decision is reached in secrecy, keeping those most affected — the players — in the dark. The 20 players who left the PGA to join LIV celebrate the merger because they’ve already gotten their millions, which is what this is all about. Those who defected to LIV received huge inducements and contracts.

Players who refused LIV’s financial enticements and remained loyal to the PGA have now come up short. What was the point of refusing LIV’s millions if the PGA itself was ultimately willing to accept the Saudis’ money?

We’ll see what happens to assuage the PGA players’ anger — and wallets.

The PGA, meanwhile, has increased the amount of its purses, prompting some players to point out that the tour clearly had money it could have been spending on its players all along.

It’s all disheartening to those of us who just want to watch the world’s best golfers each week — and who have no prayer of getting even $1 million — for golf or anything else.

MEANWHILE… the Florida Panthers ended their National Hockey League season, losing four games to one in the NHL finals against Las Vegas.

MORE INTERESTINGLY, at least to my friend Sam and me, is the Miami Heat. After making a late run against stronger opponents, the Heat finally faced a team they couldn’t handle, losing in five games to the Denver Nuggets.

Despite the NBA’s season ending, there’s been plenty of action off the court.

Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant posed for photos while waving a gun and posted them online. The NBA didn’t approve and Commissioner Adam Silver suspended him without pay for 25 games. It’ll cost him $6.5 million and he has to promise to behave.

And finally, Michael Jordan and his group plan to sell their majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets.

One of the musical questions I most frequently encounter is, “How do people who have never played together, play together?” It is a difficult question to answer given the numerous variables in each potential scenario.

Occasionally, there is a distinct leader — perhaps the person who secured the gig then assembled the group, or the leader could simply be the person with the microphone in front of them. In either case, the responsibility of calling the tunes falls to this leader.

They may or may not be the most developed musician on the stage. And if they’re not, they will likely call that which they know best. If they are the most advanced musician, they’ll have to assess the personnel. If you’ve been fortunate, this will have been done before calls were made and before set lists were created and shared. If that was not possible and this group was formed in haste, then the leader will have to rely on instinct and subtle observations, like the way a player handles their gear. Someone with a fair amount of stage time has a system. They are in charge of their space on the stage. They know where it is and how it works with other players. A seasoned player’s gear, though it need not be expensive, won’t look like it was the first thing purchased, but rather chosen through trial and error.

The leader may start with songs everyone knows. Songs most people with a few seasons under their belt have played a number of times. After that, they may try calling a

Ray West

tune out of that realm and gauge the reaction. If everyone nods and looks confident, it’s game on.

Several layers of communication take place during the first few songs. Let’s start with the rhythm section. The drummer and the bass player seem to know within only a few bars where they are with each other. Do they connect and become one, following the music and instinctively knowing how to play the parts as they come, or is that connection lacking a bit?

The result can be great either way, but one is much more fun than the other. Can the singer sing, and WHAT can they sing? That, too, can be determined rather quickly. Can they work the crowd and make people want to stay? Do they know how to include and communicate with the rest of the players throughout the evening? Is the guitar player any good? Do they know their chords and scales and use different voicings and tones throughout the evening? Are they listeners or is every song simply a canvas for the solo? If you’re fortunate to have a keyboard player, they are (nearly) always the most educated player in the band.

Here in Key West, we are extremely lucky. So many of our players are seasoned professionals. They know the goal is to entertain and they know that happens more easily if they, too, are enjoying themselves. They respect each other and most importantly they know, as Caffeine Carl once said to me, “We’re all out here doing the same thing; let’s make everybody sound great.”