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Cut Line: Inter-family trash talk; players dreaming big in Mexico

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In this week’s edition we celebrate the genetic brilliance of trash talk, the opportunity for special moments this week in Mexico and whatever alliance will come from last week’s agreement between the PGA and European tours.

Made Cut

And then Charlie said. Whether Tiger Woods’ skill as a golfer filters genetically to his son, Charlie, remains to be seen, but it is certain that the younger Woods has his father’s talents when it comes to trash talking.

Justin Thomas explained earlier this week that he and Tiger Woods had talked for weeks about possibly playing this month’s PNC Championship and that the idea came from Charlie Woods, who has a talent for giving the needle.

“For some reason, Charlie just always wants to beat me, it doesn’t matter what it is. Although he’s never beaten me in golf or a putting contest, he still talks trash just like his dad. It will be fun,” Thomas said. “We’ll have that like inner tournament within a tournament, trying to shut his little mouth up, but it will be fun.”

Woods and his son will draw plenty of attention at the PNC Championship but don’t sleep on Thomas and his father, Mike, who is a PGA of America teaching professional and his son’s longtime swing coach.

Home games. Carlos Ortiz is still relishing his first victory on the PGA Tour earlier this fall at the Vivint Houston Open but this week the 29-year-old acknowledged that winning in Mexico would be the highlight of his career.

“Oh, it’s a dream,” Ortiz said at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. “Obviously, winning on the PGA Tour has always been a dream, but winning on your home soil would be a dream come true for us, for the media and everyone here. I was close last year and Abe has been close a couple times, so I think it’s coming.”

Fellow Mexican Abraham Ancer was in contention earlier this year at the WGC-Mexico Championship and Ortiz was close last year at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, where he finished runner-up. Ortiz is back in the hunt this week following rounds of 67-69.

For Ortiz and Ancer this is starting to feel like an inevitable dream come true.

Tweet of the week: @GenoBonnalie (Joel Dahmen’s caddie Geno Bonnalie)

We wouldn’t pretend to have a clue about what makes for good reality TV, but anything that included Dahmen and Bonnalie would be a must-watch.


Made Cut-Did Not Finish (MDF)

Alliance. It’s far too early to call last week’s news regarding the PGA Tour and European Tour’s “strategic alliance” a success or failure but there certainly seems to be plenty of upside.

For the European circuit, the marketing and financial might of the PGA Tour will bring some welcome stability to a tour that has always felt top heavy. For the PGA Tour any type of merger or co-sanctioned schedule would open markets that had been closed.

The game’s best players will benefit from a unified “global schedule” that will allow them to expand their brands without the hassle of dealing with competing events, but what remains to be sorted out is how the move might impact the rank-and-file players and second-tier events.

In an interview with The Daily Mail, European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley outlined what a “global schedule” might look like with a possible run in Europe around The Open Championship and again in the fall after the FedExCup playoffs.

While that makes sense given the ebb and flow of the season, what happens to the Tour events that already occupy those spots on the schedule and how would players qualify for a global lineup?

If creating a global schedule was easy it would have been done years ago and the speculation and uncertainty that followed last Friday’s announcement has proven how complicated the concept will be.


Missed Cut

A premier move. The alliance between the PGA Tour and European Tour came about, at least in part, in response to an investment bid from the Raine Group, which is the private equity group behind the proposed Premier Golf League.

The PGL has promised enormous purses at limited-field events with a team concept and the offer to the European Tour was said to be “compelling” and ultimately accelerated talks between Pelley and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

While some see the alliance and all that it could become as the end for the PGL concept, sources familiar with the movement say the league will continue to push for their version of a global tour. But it’s clear that last week’s alliance undercut the startup circuit’s easiest path to relevance.