Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 98
For the love of money: Saudi cash and pro golf, the story of Christopher Cross and "Sailing," Recipe Corner, and more.
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For The Love of Money
LIV Golf has reason to feel good about itself, but where does the sport go from here?
Follow me on this one, even if you aren’t a golf/sports fan, you will find this story fascinating. The short version: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund created a new professional golf tour. This is, at least in part, an effort to “sports wash” the country’s extensive and ongoing record of egregious and extensive human rights violations.
It’s also noteworthy because the Saudis are throwing unlimited resources (read: money) at golf’s top players. This serves as an international platform to distract from its recent abuses, including the infamous assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, its devastating war in Yemen that caused a humanitarian catastrophe, as well as its ongoing crackdown on intellectuals, reformers and women’s rights activists.
The PGA Tour has banned all the players who took the Saudi money. The first tournament was this weekend. How did it go? Golf writer Alan Shipnuck was there for a look at the big picture.
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, England — On Saturday evening, along the rolling countryside outside London, at a private club that is a bastion for the Anglo elite, former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel tapped in for a final par to win $4.75 million at the inaugural LIV Golf tournament, ushering in golf’s age of cognitive dissonance. For Schwartzel, 37, this was his first worldwide “victory” since 2016 — he was also part of the winning four-man squad in LIV’s concurrent team competition — but his potential reemergence as a big-time player was relegated to a minor footnote amid the preceding days’ political brinkmanship that is threatening golf’s world order. Pressing flesh at the glitzy trophy ceremony was Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan, a top official from the Saudi Arabian government. It is the Saudis and their vast reserves of oil money that launched LIV. Al-Rumayyan’s preppy Western clothes and impeccable manners did not hint at the atrocities his government repeatedly has committed. Acting as emcee at the ceremony was LIV frontman Greg Norman, who has taken to spouting empty cliches about modernism and inclusivity but only two days earlier looked on impassively as tournament security goons strong-armed a reporter out of a press conference without cause. All this messiness lurked beneath the surface, like a turgid shark, as the feeling at the trophy ceremony was celebratory.
That’s a lot in one lede.
In a cute touch, Liv gave out trophies to the top three finishers in both the individual and team competitions, and the assembled players radiated Christmas morning giddiness and exchanged incredulous looks that could be interpreted as holy shit—this actually worked! Taking it all in was disorienting, a reminder that in this complicated moment for professional golf many things can true at once: It is impressive what LIV has built from scratch in a short period of time; the Saudi money and palpable player greed is distasteful in the extreme; a 54-hole tournament with a shotgun start feels weird, but it is still a pleasure to watch accomplished golfers tussle with a challenging course with something at stake; in the space of a week, LIV has seized most of the leverage in the battle for golf’s future, some three decades after Norman first floated the idea of an independent world tour; the monolithic and monopolistic PGA Tour is somehow now the underdog.
In London, the players enjoyed the shorter work week and jaunty, non-conformist feeling of the tournament. They especially liked the money. Schwartzel’s haul (including the $750,000 for his share of the being on the winning team) would have placed him 29th on the season-long 2020-21 PGA Tour money list. Hennie du Plessis, 25, who finished second, cashed $2.875 million in individual and team money—that’s nearly double what the winner of this week’s Canadian Open on the PGA Tour will claim, and it triples Du Plessiss’s career worldwide earnings. Journeyman Peter Uihlein won $1,050,000 for finishing fourth, more than seven times what he has earned in 15 starts on the PGA Tour this year. The money was mentioned incessantly during the streaming coverage of the final round, because what else did this soulless tournament have to offer?
So what’s it mean for the Tour?
This is the cold, hard reality facing PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who clearly has been outmaneuvered by Norman, a man far more comfortable working in the shadows. Monahan thought he had a hammer in threatening PGA Tour members with suspensions if they defected for LIV, but Johnson and others have resigned their membership with minimal regrets. DJ is now going to make more money playing half as often, in what could be interpreted as the American Dream. What will Johnson, a noted boater and occasional Tik Tok star, do with all that free time? “Whatever the hell I want,” he says. Of course, this kind of insouciance is possible only if you don’t think about the source of the money buying all that freedom.
Now more than ever, money is what makes the golf world go ’round. A lot of cash was won at this first LIV event. But it felt like the sport lost something too.
The bottom line: these players are all picking up huge bags of money. They will all receive criticism and hostile crowds. Is it worth it? The old adage is true: every man has a price.
Here’s the letter I delivered to every door in my apartment complex
Shameful self-promotion or marketing masterstroke? Only time will tell. The same offer applies to readers of this newsletter, by the way.
Get started today at micahwiener.com or text me now at 512.695.5920.
Thanks,
M
‘Sailing’ Was Supposed to Save Christopher Cross. It Drowned Him Instead.
The San Antonio–born musician defined a generation of yacht rock and made Grammys history. But the song’s origins couldn’t be much further from its beatific sound.
I’ve been fascinated with the Hit Parade podcast of late. In a previous newsletter I recommended the Hall and Oates episode, but even better may be the Yacht Rock episode. Of all of the stars of the now-accepted smooth music era, Christopher Cross may be the most fascinating story. This Texas Monthly profile is a jaw-dropper filled with information I did not know.
Check this lede:
Chris Geppert knew where he wanted Christopher Cross to go. In the late seventies, Geppert, frontman and songwriter for the Austin four-piece band called Christopher Cross, periodically sent demos to Warner Bros. Records, a label that was renowned for turning singer-songwriters into stars. In this era, the roster at Warner/Reprise included Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren, James Taylor, and Neil Young. Geppert wanted to be in their company, literally and figuratively.
But the accomplished and opinionated A&R executives at Warners who were charged with signing new talent didn’t reciprocate Geppert’s affections. They’d heard his music and shrugged at this Texas songwriter who didn’t sound a lick like he was from Texas. When a new Christopher Cross demo arrived at the L.A. office of Warners in mid-1978, A&R employees rolled their eyes, except for Michael Omartian, a junior member of the staff, who especially liked “Sailing” and “Ride Like the Wind.” “It wasn’t what Warners considered cool,” he told me. “But I thought Chris was a great pop writer.”
At the weekly Wednesday morning A&R meeting, his enthusiasm for Cross puzzled his bosses—Warners had already moved into new wave and punk rock, anticipating a new decade—but they allowed him to sign the band and produce its album. It’s your funeral, Omartian.
The other three members of Christopher Cross—bassist Andy Salmon, drummer Tommy Taylor, and keyboardist Rob Meurer, who’d known Geppert since they were teenagers growing up in San Antonio—weren’t great musicians, Omartian thought. But because he knew so many top session aces in L.A., he was confident he could spackle any cracks in the music. Now it was Geppert who didn’t reciprocate the enthusiasm. He hoped to work with one of the bigger A&R stars at Warners: Ted Templeman, who’d produced Van Morrison but was now busy with Van Halen’s second album, or Russ Titelman, who signed and produced Randy Newman and James Taylor and was now working with George Harrison. Geppert gave Omartian the cold shoulder until he found out his advocate had played keyboards on several records by Steely Dan, the singer’s favorite band.
Making the album was an ordeal. Omartian reportedly spent seven hundred hours in the studio with the band and a succession of big-name guests, from stars like Michael McDonald and Don Henley to triple-scale ringers Larry Carlton and Jay Graydon. But almost as soon as it was released in December 1979, Christopher Cross was a sixty-point-headline boffo smash. It sold five million copies. “Ride Like the Wind” and “Sailing” were massive hits, and at the Grammy Awards in February 1981, Cross became the first artist to win Best New Artist and Album, Record, and Song of the Year in one night. He accepted his Grammys unaccompanied by his bandmates. Christopher Cross was no longer the name of a group. It was Geppert’s name.
The lyrics to “Ride Like the Wind,” which Cross wrote while on LSD, presage some of Bon Jovi’s cornier western-gunman fantasias. But the stately ballad “Sailing” is the song that’s taken hold in pop culture and hung around, leading to Cross jokes on 30 Rock, Cobra Kai, Family Guy, Futurama, and Seinfeld. The song’s breezy nautical imagery helped inspire writer J.D. Ryznar to invent the term “yacht rock” to describe smooth pop songs from the seventies and eighties, when normcore ruled the Top 40.
But the origins of “Sailing” couldn’t be much further from its beatific sound. Yacht rock is often described as escapist, and in this case that’s true in a way it isn’t for, say, “Still the One” or “Lido Shuffle.” In a very personal way, “Sailing” is about escaping tumult, about imagining and achieving hard-earned peacefulness while living in the thick of misery.
Wanna hear more? Subscribe to my podcast, Mind of Micah, and get the entire story sent straight to your device as soon as it’s released this week.
I promise you, you’ll want to hear the rest of the story.
New Yorker Cartoon of the Week
Recipe Corner
As mentioned, we close on the house tomorrow. You best believe I will be grilling to celebrate.
Sweet and Sticky Grilled Chicken
1 3½–4-lb. chicken, backbone removed, halved
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
½ cup orange marmalade or seedless jam of choice
⅓ cup Dijon mustard
⅓ cup sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 jalapeño, finely chopped (optional)
5 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil, plus more for grill
Flaky sea salt
Generously season chicken halves all over with salt (use about 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt per pound of chicken) and pepper. Let sit at room temperature at least 15 minutes, or chill up to 1 day. If chilling, let sit at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.
Whisk marmalade, mustard, vinegar, soy sauce, jalapeño (if using), and garlic in a small bowl to combine. Set glaze aside.
Prepare a grill for medium-high indirect heat (for a charcoal grill, bank coals on one side of grill; for a gas grill, leave one or two burners off). Lightly oil grate. Pat chicken dry with paper towels, then rub with 1 Tbsp. oil. Place, skin side down, over indirect heat. Cover grill and grill chicken, turning halfway through, until skin is lightly browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thighs registers 120°–130°, 15–20 minutes.
Uncover grill, turn chicken over, and move over direct heat. Brush chicken with reserved glaze. Grill, turning often and brushing generously with glaze (move to indirect heat if browning too quickly), until charred in spots and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of breast registers 150° (it will climb to 160° as chicken rests), 10–15 minutes. Transfer chicken, skin side up, to a cutting board; let rest 15 minutes.
While chicken is resting, transfer any remaining glaze to a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbling and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
Carve chicken and transfer to a platter; sprinkle with sea salt. Serve with sauce alongside.
Potato-Tomato Gratin With Horseradish
This looks like a lot of work, but we’re coming up on peak tomato szn and this would be pretty damn special at a barbecue.
4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided; plus more for serving (optional)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt, divided
3 Tbsp. drained prepared horseradish
1 Tbsp. double-concentrated tomato paste
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes or 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. thyme leaves, divided
1 cup low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth or 1 tsp. Better Than Bouillon reconstituted in 1 cup water
1½ lb. Yukon Gold potatoes (about 4 medium), scrubbed, sliced into ¼"-thick rounds
1½ lb. plum tomatoes (7–8), ends trimmed, sliced into ¼"-thick rounds
1 (2"–3") piece fresh horseradish, peeled, or 1 oz. Parmesan, finely grated (for serving)
Flaky sea salt
Arrange a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°F. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium-low. Add onion, garlic, and ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt and cook, stirring often, until onion and garlic are softened and translucent but without taking on any color, 5–7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in prepared horseradish, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes, and 1 Tbsp. thyme leaves. Transfer to a large bowl.
Combine broth and remaining 2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 tsp. Morton kosher salt in a small bowl or measuring cup, stirring to dissolve salt; set aside.
Add potatoes to bowl with onion mixture and toss to combine. Arrange groups of 4–5 tomato slices and 4–5 potato and onion slices in alternating stacks in a 2–2½ qt. baking dish or medium cast-iron skillet so edges are aligned vertically, working your way around perimeter of dish before moving into center. The pieces should be very tightly packed; tuck leftover onion filling into any gaps.
Pour reserved broth over vegetables and drizzle with 3 Tbsp. oil. Cover tightly with foil and bake until potatoes are tender and tomatoes are juicy, 40–50 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 425°, uncover baking dish, and continue to bake until liquid is reduced by about half, tomatoes are concentrated and jammy, and potato edges are golden brown and crisp, 30–45 minutes more. Let cool 15 minutes.
Drizzle gratin with a little more oil if desired and sprinkle with sea salt and remaining 1 Tbsp. thyme leaves. Finely grate as much fresh horseradish over as you’d like.
Did Micah practice yoga this weekend?
Yes. 60 minutes at Fairground Sunday with Kayla.
That’s 22 in-person weekend classes in 23 weeks this year. Namaste.
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