Saudi deal, Tiger and the best rando golf partners ever: 23 Christmas wishes  

“Effectively, how the fa-la-la-la are you?”

Solely she stated one other F phrase there. Her good friend then added this:

“Don’t thoughts her. She’s 4 drinks in.”

I used to be smitten. In love. All you want is that, proper? And these girls had it. Me, too. On a late summer time afternoon, on a well-used muni within the Bronx, New York, I had fallen head over golf sneakers for 2 beforehand unknown ladies whom I had joined up with. 

They have been very merry. 

They drank. They cursed. They laughed. At themselves. At one another. Finally at me. They talked about how their classes weren’t working. They wished to battle some slower gamers forward of us. They cheered for good photographs. They requested the place I labored. They advised me the place they labored: Each have been longtime academics. Candy!

Finally, sadly, we went our separate methods. However they’ll go down as the perfect rando golf companions I’ve ever had. I advised them that, too. In order that they instantly got here to thoughts as we renew this annual exercise the place we provide up Christmas needs for people throughout the golf world. They deserve a gift. It’s easy, although: 

Extra. Simply preserve doing what you’re doing. No adjustments. No notes. They’ve acquired this foolish recreation gained. They like it. So simply extra of that for them. 

Listed below are 22 extra ideas.  

2. A couple of month earlier, at that very same course, I used to be paired up with two extra memorable gamers, a dad and his younger son, each visiting from the United Arab Emirates. Dad introduced up LIV Golf. Watching neighboring Saudi Arabia spend billions on the golf league, he was interested in all of it, and I’ll merely depart it at that.

My want, although, is for the son.  

He’s a Rory McIlroy fan. He’s seen him typically on the Dubai Desert Basic. My want is that he will get to look at extra professional golf in his space. The child was actually good. And impressed. 

3. With that, let’s make some needs for the Saudi PIF-PGA Tour deal. Or no matter could come of it. Then once more, what do you get for one thing that already has all the pieces?  

However want one for the deal is transparency. And the clear, definitive capability to reply this: Why would the Tour take Saudi cash, after its commissioner as soon as stated this, on nationwide TV, in reference to others who had: “I’d ask any participant that has left, or any participant that will ever take into account leaving, ‘Have you ever ever needed to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?’”  

4. Want two for the deal — there are simply three; I promise there gained’t be 23 — is the flexibility to reply this query: Are golfers actually value that a lot?

On the 5 Golf equipment podcast a number of weeks in the past, former pro-turned-analyst Frank Nobilo wondered that actually.

“However I additionally assume there’s a realization — we don’t price excessive sufficient, as a lot because it pains me to say,” he stated on the podcast. “Golfers are overpaid in comparison with each different sport. Nobody needs to confess that. They don’t wish to say it. 

“If LIV by no means got here alongside — we’re going to have so many 20 million-plus purses. And we don’t have the rankings. We’ll globally — and I’ve used this a bunch of instances — volleyball worldwide charges greater than golf. I don’t see volleyball gamers racing round in personal planes and all kinds of issues. So we’re in a very bizarre area.”

5. The final want for the deal is the flexibility to grasp that the followers nonetheless matter. They’ve pull. They’ve alternative. They don’t should go to tournaments. They don’t have to look at occasions. Professional golf remains to be fan leisure. 

6. LIV Golf. The want is the competence to take an excellent take a look at a product that requires you to spend a half-billion {dollars} or so to convince one player to join. 

7. PGA Tour. The want is the competence to take an excellent take a look at a product that has your star gamers fascinated by leaving for a tour that has been routinely criticized. 

8. Professional golf followers. Some finality to all this.  

9. Professional golf information followers. Extra of all this. 

10. Phil Mickelson. A U.S. Open win. Lastly. At, of all locations, Pinehurst, the place 25 years earlier he memorably embraced Payne Stewart on the 18th. The Mickelson story, one of many weirdest-ever in golf, would simply get weirder. 

11. Tiger Woods. A PGA Championship win. At Valhalla, the place 24 years earlier, he gained main No. 5.  

12. McIlroy. A Masters win. Whew, now we’re actually rolling. 

13. Aaron Rai. An Open Championship win. 

Wait, why Aaron Rai? Glad you requested. 

Again on this area in the course of the PGA Championship, it was Rai who was enjoying a observe spherical late on a Tuesday at Oak Hill. And it was at Oak Hill the place, in response to native legend, the ghost of Buffalo Invoice visits the grounds. Earlier, I had even talked to a psychic on tips on how to discuss to ghosts, ought to I ever encounter one. So I requested Rai about all of it quickly after he teed off on a gap. He laughed. However he stated he believed in ghosts and thoughtfully defined why.

Then, developing to some extent the place the ghost apparently has been typically seen, I attempted to speak to it. Nothing. I thanked Rai for the time.

Solely he requested to attempt. 

After all he might! However nothing. I once more thanked Rai. 

Solely he requested if we each ought to attempt. 

After all we might! However nothing once more. 

So yeah, I hope Rai wins the Claret Jug. (In case you’re in any respect curious, here’s the story — and video.)

14. The USGA and the R&A. The understanding to speak your rollback. Roll-back the ball 5 yards. Ten yards. 100 yards. 

However be clear along with your constituency. 

15. Golf-ball purchasers. The kindness to not purchase up all these scorching golf balls. Save me some! 

16. Presidents Cup. Hats for the Worldwide followers this upcoming 12 months in Montreal. Seems to work. 

17. Solheim Cup. A reputation like Carlota Ciganda for the followers this upcoming 12 months in Virginia. The best way final 12 months’s rowdies chanted it to the tune of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army has been caught in my head for 3 months. Automotive-lo-ta Ci-gan-da. Automotive-lo-ta Ci-gan-da. Automotive-lo-ta Ci-gan-da. 

18. U.S. Girls’s Open. The Rose Zhang breakthrough. 

19. Girls’s Open. A Gemma Dryburgh victory. She’s one other favourite on this area. However an Open win, in her dwelling nation of Scotland, at legendary St. Andrews, can be a hoot. And St. Andrews Brewing Firm, considered one of her sponsors, can be pouring loooong into the night time.  

20. Golf’s powers-that-be. The power to take heed to Nelly Korda. It was Korda who had this alternate final week with a reporter on the PNC Championship:

“Prize cash is rising; attraction is there. Do you are feeling just like the LPGA is getting sufficient consideration because it ought to in contrast with different ladies’s sports activities? And if not, what’s holding it again, do you assume?”

“I imply, I feel what’s holding it again is that we’re not on prime-time TV clearly on a regular basis like the boys are. I feel that’s the place you get probably the most viewership.

“However it’s trending in the proper path. And lots of people, in the event you give them a finger, they need the entire hand, they need the entire arm. So you must go a step at a time.

“And I feel that we’re making the proper steps ahead as a Tour. However clearly being there, you want to it to progress possibly sooner. However I feel it’s all about placing it in the proper spot and on the proper platform, and that’s, truthfully, prime-time TV.”

21. Golf followers. The power to play this recreation just a bit extra like Will McGee, the younger son of Annika Sorenstam.  

22. Golf followers want two. Identical as final 12 months, really. And ceaselessly. The power to chop out at midday on Friday and play till the solar units. And eat a brat on the flip. And win the Masters ticket lottery. And go on a fall golf journey. The good things.  

23. Me. The possibility to stumble throughout extra monkeys at unique locations just like the Playboy Mansion. 

Like I did on the U.S. Open. 

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Journal. In his function, he’s liable for modifying, writing and growing tales throughout the golf area. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be enjoying the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and brief, and consuming a chilly beer to clean away his rating. You may attain out to him about any of those subjects — his tales, his recreation or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.