love revolution tour

GIG REVIEW: Will Young

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Will Young performing his Love Revolution Tour, supported by Lemar, at The Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Thursday 26 th November.

Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

Televised singing contests might have brought us a fair number of also rans over the years, but occasionally they have also been a platform for some genuine talent; two of the most durable examples have joined forces for a UK tour.

Will Young has come a long way from the heady days of battling Gareth Gates on Pop Idol in 2002. With five multi-platinum albums, four UK number one singles and two Brit Awards, no-one can accuse him of being a reality show fly by night.

And why London soul singer Lemar Obika didn’t win the BBC’s Fame Academy a decade or so ago remains one of life’s mysterious. As Will Young’s special guest, it is clear that he remains in good voice, mixing good old fashioned grit with lover man’s falsetto.

Highlights from his new album included a fantastic acoustic version of Tainted Love, that was more akin to the Northern Soul roots of the song than the Soft Cell version, and its title track, a catchy reworking of The Box Tops’ 1967 hit, Letter.

Accompanied by just a guitarist, he seemed thoroughly at home on this Royal Centre stage, encouraging this packed audience to harmonise to the chorus of Someday We’ll Be Together. But it was a storming version of his own song, If There’s Any Justice, which was best received. If he continues to be as engaging and vocally excellent as he was tonight, with a little more luck, he could yet be a headline act once more.

When Will Young appears on stage standing behind a transparent screen, wearing a small man bun and a black Samurai outfit, he doesn’t make much of an impression. His interesting new look might be unrecognisable but when he opens his mouth to sing opener, Brave Man, pelted by a fake blizzard, we know for sure that it is our Pop Idol winner.

His latest album, 85% Proof, was heavily showcased in a set which not only demonstrated his knack as a writer of memorable songs, but also his considerable charm and good humour as a performer. Delivering the glorious new soul banger U Think I’m Sexy, he followed up with Runaway. He took us back to where it all began with his moody jazz lounge version of The Doors’ Light My Fire, whilst the soaring early hits You And I , Who Am I and the theatrical Your Game, showcased that powerful voice in full flight.

As a balladeer, Young’s light tenor was ideally suited to Gold and Like A River; two of the highlights from the new album that he said he particularly liked for their positive messages. Thank You was given a feisty make over, thanks to its T-Rex like groove and some impressive backing from singer Michelle John.

Despite being a superstar to millions, he has managed to stay down to earth, and you just can’t help but really like him. In amongst his instantly catchy set list was a Generation Game moment when Young threw his merchandise, including a tip and strip pen and a cuddly bear, into the audience, and a couple of competition winners sang on stage with him. But for the most, it was one thumping song after another.

The encore started with the finger clicking Motown-esque Love Revolution, whilst next song Joy did exactly what it said on the tin. With all of these fabulous songs, it would be easy to lose track of what was missing, but a Will Young concert would not be complete without his beautiful anthem Leave Right Now. With a packed audience singing along, it certainly was a fitting end to a fantastic show.

INTERVIEW: Will Young

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Israel Houghton Heads Out On Love Revolution Tour In February/March

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Integrity Music’s GRAMMY Award-winning Israel Houghton announces the Love Revolution Tour, which will visit at least 20 cities in February and March.  The tour will support Houghton’s critically acclaimed CD Love God. Love People, which is nominated for two GRAMMY Awards.

After attending the GRAMMY Awards on Feb. 13 at Staples Center in Los Angeles (and live on CBS-TV), Houghton will hit the road starting in Columbus, Ga. On Feb. 19 and wrapping up on March 27 in Louisville, Ky. for the “Love Revolution Tour with Israel Houghton.”

Tour dates confirmed thus far include:

Feb. 19             Columbus, Ga.

Feb. 24             Lakeland, Fla.

Feb. 25             Orlando, Fla. *

March 1            Richmond, Va.

March 2            Gainesville, GA.

March 3            Jacksonville, Fla.

March 5            Chattanooga, Tenn.

March 6            Florence, S.C.

March 8            Little Rock, Ark.

March 9            Memphis, Tenn.

March 10          Jackson, Miss.

March 11          Lake Charles, La.

March 12          Houston, Texas

March 13          Harlingen, Texas

March 17          Austin, Texas

March 18          Lubbock, Texas

March 20          Phoenix, Ariz.

March 24          Kalamazoo, Mich.

March 25          Hoffman Estates, Ill.

March 27          Louisville, Ky.

More dates are expected to be added. *The Orlando date in February also includes an afternoon workshop in addition to the concert that evening. The workshop is an intense, three-hour worship conference geared to worship leaders, teams and musicians. Tickets to the worship conference, which includes admission to evening concert, are $30 each.

For more information on all concert dates, including venues and pricing, visit http://www.israelhoughton.net .

While not officially part of the Love Revolution Tour, fans that can’t get enough of Houghton on land may choose to spend their vacation with Houghton and other of their favorite Christian music artists on the 2011 Music Boat Cruise presented by Premier Christian Cruises in November.  He joins Chris Tomlin, newsboys, Brandon Heath and other artists for the Nov. 7-11 sailing to Cozumel, New Mexico and Key West, Fla. More information is available at www.musicboatonline.com .

Houghton’s live shows deliver a perfect blend of passion and purpose that bring fans back again and again. Those fans are showing their love and support now in the 2011 About.com Readers’ Choice Awards, as they have nominated Israel as the Best Male Vocalist of 2010, the Best Urban Gospel Artist of 2010 and the Best Christian Artist to See in Concert. Nominations from fans and industry personnel alike will be accepted through February 4, 2011 at 11:59 pm ET at http://christianmusic.about.com/library/bl-readers-choice-awards-2011.htm . On February 11, 2011, the top five artists from each category will be announced as finalists. With the fans continued support, Israel Houghton can easily be among the top 5.

Three-time GRAMMY Award, multiple Stellar and Dove Award and Soul Train Award winner and double RIAA certified Gold-selling artist Houghton has received two GRAMMY nominations for his critically acclaimed album, Love God. Love People on which his upcoming tour is based.

Love God. Love People. released in August on Integrity Music/Columbia Records and has garnered praise from critics reaching out to a diverse variety of music fans nationally and beyond.  Critics at media outlets ranging from CCM to Gospel Today and ChristianityToday.com to SoulTracks.com, CBA Retailer + Resources, GospelFlava.com, Breathecast.com, Crosswalk.com and more have lauded the new album, calling it “gospel music milk and honey,” “profound” “uplifting,” “spectacular,” “God dropped it out of heaven,” “excellent,” “amazing,” “musical and spiritual masterpiece,” “relentlessly original,” “wonderfulness” and more.

Writing or co-writing all but one of the songs on Love God. Love People., Israel is an innovative worship leader, singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who has also written or co-written 11 CCLI Top 500 favorites.  Breaking down barriers and defying categorization with his music, Israel uses his own multi-cultural upbringing as a reference point with a desire to draw people of all races, ages and cultures together.

The album features the musically masterful energy that has become synonymous with Houghton recordings, and includes special guest appearances by Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond and Take 6’s Claude V. McKnight, III, Mark Kibble and Joey Kibble, as well as song co-writes with Meleasa Houghton, Aaron Lindsey, Tommy Sims and Michael Gungor.  Love God. Love People. blends the musical genres of worship, rock, pop, Gospel and R&B and was recorded and engineered at Abbey Road Studios.

Active as worship leader in his local church, Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, Houston, Israel has served as worship leader at Hillsong conferences, Franklin Graham crusades, and is a featured CompassionArt songwriter and artist.  Israel also ministers through concerts in the U.S. and around the world, has accompanied Alicia Keys at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards for a performance of George Michael’s “Freedom ’90,” and has performed at the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards, taking part in a segment saluting Gospel music alongside the likes of Aretha Franklin and BeBe Winans.  Houghton has been featured on FOX, CBS, ABC, BET, CNN, TBN and CBN, and has amassed a legion of fans that cross generational and cultural lines.

For more information, go to www.israelhoughton.net or www.integritymusic.com .

article courtesy of TheBelleReport.com

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• Bring It On Play Video
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• American Woman ( The Guess Who  cover) Play Video
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Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

Love & revolution tour.

Transcendent Afrobeat Visionary

Date & Time

Wed Sep 21, 2022 • 7PM

“Seun Kuti has inherited not only the lyrical heft of his father’s legacy but also—thankfully—the musical stylings.” –  PopMatters

Seun Kuti’s mission is as vast as the continent from which it sprang: “Inspire Africa to be what it is supposed to be.” The youngest son of visionary Fela Kuti, Seun has continued the family tradition of fusing music and politics into something transcendent.

Like his parents and grandparents, Seun is an activist on the frontlines – a revolutionary in every sense of the word. He has responded to our global moment of crisis in a burst of creativity. With his weekly radio show, his mythical gigs at The Shrine in Lagos, and a righteous social media presence, Seun is a towering figure in Nigeria. In “When We Move,” his recent collaboration with Common and Black Thought (from The Roots), he continues to ask the difficult questions: “Would they feel the pain like we do? Would they hear a cry like we do?”

Seun’s lyrics are set to rhythms born in Africa, which then circled the globe, returning to Nigeria where Fela reinvented them as Afrobeat. “I was raised in Afrobeat,” says Seun, who joined his father’s band at 9 and began fronting it at 14.

Like his father, Seun doesn’t just stand against corruption – he dances against it, sings against it, pressing onward with his family’s sacred musical mission: resisting oppression, uniting the people with rhythm. To grasp the depth of this dynasty one must look beyond Fela, to Seun’s grandfather, a composer of hymns in traditional Nigerian form. Seun’s grandmother was the first Secretary General of the International League of Women. When speaking of her Seun invokes Oya, the Storm Goddess of Wind and Lightning. His respect for feminine power is woven into his lyrics.

And now the torch of justice has been passed to Seun, Pro-Tem Chairman of Movement of the People, the political party launched by his father which Seun is resurrecting. Seun creates music to heal the violence that he sees between people and nature.

LEARN MORE:  https://www.seunkuti.net/

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Renowned Afrobeat Artist Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 Continues “Love & Revolution” Tour This Fall Performing Across Europe & US

The tour also supports an upcoming record featuring hip-hop versions of songs from their 2018 Grammy®-nominated album Black Times

Kuti family scion Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 have been relentlessly touring the globe for the first time in years, with an ongoing US, UK, and European tour that has hit stops at major festivals like Glastonbury. The tour is currently booked through October 1 in the US, at the tenth annual Desert Daze in Moreno Valley, California, and through November 7 in Europe, at Villanos del Jazz in Madrid, Spain. Along the way, they have been performing classic anthems from their catalogue alongside new material from their upcoming album, like singles “Love and Revolution” and “Emi Aluta.” These two tracks were recorded live at Clout Studio, the legendary premises of Cool FM 96.9 on Victoria Island in Lagos and are out now.

The new Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 record will also include hip-hop versions of some songs from their 2018 Grammy®-nominated album Black Times, in collaboration with Black Thought, co-founder/MC of Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show house band The Roots. The lead single “Kuku Kee Me (Remix)” is an official soundtrack selection for FIFA 23 and will be available for purchase and streaming on September 23 (the animated music video will be released September 22). The track perfectly marries the two artists’ unique but global perspectives, combining funky beats and blistering verses to share the message of “people power” in the world today. They last worked with Black Thought on Common’s single “When We Move,” which debuted worldwide for UN World Oceans Day before a performance on The Tonight Show, with footage of Seun at The New Afrika Shrine in Lagos intercut with Common, Black Thought, and The Roots live on-stage in New York.

The youngest son of visionary Fela Kuti, Seun has continued the family tradition of fusing music and politics into something transcendent. He started opening for his dad at age nine, joined Egypt 80 before he was twelve, and assumed leadership of the band following his father’s passing in 1997. Seun performs his father’s seminal compositions with his own twists, digging deep into African tradition and culture. Like his parents and grandparents, Seun is a revolutionary activist on the frontlines who has been named Pro-Tem Chairman of Movement of the People, the political party launched by his father. With his weekly radio show, his mythical gigs, and a righteous social media presence, Seun is a towering figure in Nigeria and revered worldwide. His mission is vast: “Inspire Africa to be what it is supposed to be.”

In 2011, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80’s live record From Africa with Fury: Rise, co-produced by Brian Eno and John Reynolds, landed on both Billboard and digital international charts. The album was their first Knitting Factory Records before joining Knitting Factory Management in 2021. Still retaining members of the group that played, protested, and were arrested with his father, they have a reputation for playing multi-hour shows heavy on group improvisation. “My band Egypt 80 and I hope, as always, that our music will help make the world a more generous, kinder and more liveable place,” Seun concludes, “not only to fans but to its underrepresented people.”

Pre-save “Kuku Kee Me (Remix)” here and keep up with Seun on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & YouTube.

This content was first published by KISS PR Brand Story. Read here >> Renowned Afrobeat Artist Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 Continues “Love & Revolution” Tour This Fall Performing Across Europe & US

Will Young Announces UK “Love Revolution Tour”

The singer songwriter, Will Young, has announced a UK tour, called the “Love Revolution Tour,” for October and November. You can check out the dates, details and poster, after the break.

Digital Tour Bus

The singer songwriter, Will Young, has announced a UK tour, called the “Love Revolution Tour,” for October and November. You can check out the dates, details and poster, after the break.

Thu 29 Oct – York Barbican Fri 30 Oct – Liverpool Empire Sun 1 Nov – Plymouth Pavilions Mon 2 Nov – Brighton Centre Wed 4 Nov – Birmingham Symphony Hall Thu 5 Nov – Cambridge Corn Exchange Fri 6 Nov – Southend Cliffs Pavilion Sun 8 Nov – Dublin Olympia Theatre Mon 9 Nov – Belfast Waterfront Wed 11 Nov – Newcastle City Hall Fri 13 Nov – Glasgow Clyde Auditorium Sat 14 Nov – Blackpool Opera House Tue 17 Nov – Ipswich Regent Theatre Wed 18 Nov – Cardiff St David’s Hall Fri 20 Nov – Bristol Colston Hall Sat 21 Nov – Llandudno Venue Cymru Sun 22 Nov – Manchester Apollo Tue 24 Nov – Oxford New Theatre Wed 25 Nov – Swindon Oasis Thu 26 Nov – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall Sat 28 Nov – Bournemouth BIC Sun 29 Nov – Hammersmith Apollo

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Will Young announces UK autumn tour

Will Young is to tour the UK this Autumn

Will Young has announced a 22-date UK tour for this autumn, with his first performance taking place on 29 October

The announcement comes with Young riding high in the Official UK Album Chart, with his sixth studio album 85% Proof sat atop the pile. The record is Young’s first LP since 2011’s Echoes and becomes his fourth album to reach No 1 on the Official UK Album Chart.

When speaking to The Independent recently Young expressed his delight with 85% Proof , revealing, “This is the first record where I literally would be happy to put out any song, I think they are all great and I can do no more … my granddad used to say to my grandmother, ‘Margaret, I’ve done the salad dressing, I can do no more’. So, I’ve done the salad dressing, I can do no more!”

The Love Revolution Tour dates are:

Barbican, York (29 October) Empire, Liverpool (30 October) Plymouth, Pavilions (01 November) Brighton, Centre (02 November) Birmingham, Symphony Hall (04 November) Cambridge, Corn Exchange (05 November) Southend, Cliffs Pavilion (06 November) Dublin, Olympia Theatre 08 (November) Belfast, Waterfront (09 November) Newcastle, City Hall (11 November) Glasgow, Clyde Auditorium (13 November) Blackpool, Opera House (14 November) Ipswich, Regent Theatre (17 November) Cardiff, St David’s Hall (18 November) Bristol, Colston Hall (20 November) Llandudno, Venue Cymru (21 November) Manchester, Apollo (22 November) Oxford, New Theatre (24 November) Swindon, Oasis (25 November) Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall (26 November) Bournemouth, BIC (28 November) London, Hammersmith Apollo (29 November)

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What can pro golf learn from MLB’s revolution?

Chris Kirk loves baseball. This man loves baseball like an 8-year-old loves baseball — follows the transactions, the stats, watches every game. He lights up when asked about it. Sitting here in the men’s locker room at Olympia Fields Country Club, he points above his metal locker.

I do a double-take. Is that a … ?

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“There’s my glove,” the 38-year-old says. “I bring it everywhere.”

Kirk is in his 13th year on the PGA Tour . His fellow pros tell me he’s the biggest baseball fan on tour. Kirk grew up in the early-1990s cheering for those Atlanta Braves teams – the ones on TBS every day, the ones with that pitching staff, the ones with 14 straight division titles. He never grew out of it.

Which, as is the case for so many baseball diehards out there, has made this summer all the more gratifying. The 2023 rule changes in Major League Baseball have transformed a game once at an existential crisis. The average nine-inning game is now roughly a half-hour faster. There’s more action at the plate. More action in the field. The game’s renaissance is unquestionably one of the great success stories in recent American sports. Viewership is up. Attendance is up. Breaks from long-held traditions are being lauded endlessly as a triumph of innovation and consumer demand. The pastime has a pulse again.

“It’s so much better,” Kirk says, relieved. “I love all the changes.”

So we’re all thinking the same thing, right?

What can golf learn from baseball’s revolution?

I look at Kirk excitedly. He sort of winces, leans back, looks around. The Tudor-style clubhouse at Olympia Fields was built in 1925. It’s among the classics in Chicagoland golf, where old clubs cling to the past, refusing to install air conditioning or fancy new lockers because you know who didn’t need air conditioning or fancy new lockers? Bobby Jones, dammit. This locker room is especially massive, rumored to measure a full acre. The ca-clunk of the metal lockers echo in air thick with Brut and Barbicide.

“Anything similar to what they’ve done in baseball being applied to golf, it’s just too difficult,” Kirk replies.

This seemed like a simple idea: Professional baseball, a game steeped in tradition, a sport populated with purists, has triumphed with radical change. Why wouldn’t this be a message for pro golf? Why wouldn’t this be a glaring proof of concept? Why wouldn’t an eagerness arise to match it? Speed up the game. Enhance the action. Give the people what they want.

Right, Chris Kirk?!

“I mean, think about it — we still keep our own score by hand out here,” Kirk says. “If we can’t even keep our own score, how can we play on a shot clock? Or do any of this stuff?”

OK, strike one. This won’t be easy.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth asking.

Baseball was struggling, feeling lost in the march of time. Attendance fell year over year from 2015 through 2022, finally hitting lows not seen since the post-strike fan revolt of 1996. Those fans who did make it to the park spent as much time walking around the concourse as watching balls and strikes. Families headed home at the seventh-inning stretch. TVs tuned elsewhere. The notion of someone in 2023 watching a four-hour game felt, at best, laughable, and at worst, impossible. Game 6 of last fall’s World Series drew the lowest ratings ever for a prime-time finale of the Fall Classic.

In recent years, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred introduced tweaks to hasten games along. He capped mound visits and pitching changes. He eliminated time-killers like needing four pitches to initiate an intentional walk.

All promising. Nothing transformative.

Everyone knew what was needed. Fans wanted to see the ball in play, not pick-off moves. They wanted balls hit in gaps, runners careening around the base paths and outfielders in full sprint, not the shift turning the infield into a bastardized defense. They wanted stolen bases, not batters adjusting and readjusting batter’s gloves. They wanted to see more happen in less time.

But baseball carries an inherent obedience to tradition, and any rule change the league wants is going to face scrutiny from players and others.

That came following a 99-day labor lockout in spring 2022 that resulted in the players receiving contract concessions and the league office securing some much-needed wiggle room to tweak rules. At last, the shift was banned. Pickoff throws were limited and bases were widened. No change, though, would prove as revolutionary as putting the game on the clock — a 30-second timer between batters, a 15-second timer between pitches with the bases empty, a 20-second pitch timer with runners on base.

The results? The average time of a nine-inning game is down to 2 hours, 39 minutes, compared to 3:04 at this point last season. Game time is on pace to be the fastest since 1984. Teams are averaging 9.2 runs per game, up from 8.6 at this point in 2022. The success rate of stolen base attempts is at an all-time high of 79.8 percent.

Fan response has followed. According to the league office, MLB attendance is up nearly 10 percent across the board through mid-August. All told, 24 of 30 clubs have seen increases. Nine weekends have produced total attendance topping 1.5 million, four more than the last four seasons combined.

Is the game saved? It is, at minimum, surviving. Crazy things happen with unsentimental change, as long as you can bring yourself to do it. As Theo Epstein, the former general manager of the Red Sox and president of the Cubs , who moved to an MLB consulting role to help enact these changes, told The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich : “If we had let this game evolve on its own, we were on our way to an unwatchable sport.”

Sound familiar?

“Baseball is like golf,” John Smoltz tells me. “We’re slow to change. We’ve got a lot of history, and the game has primarily been played the same way.”

Smoltz is a Hall of Fame right-hander from those legendary Atlanta pitching staffs that young Chris Kirk loved more than anything. Nowadays Smoltz is in the booth, working as Fox’s lead game analyst.

Smoltz is also an elite amateur golfer carrying a +1 index. He’s qualified for the U.S. Senior Open and maintains aspirations of playing on the PGA Tour Champions circuit (if his double hip replacement can hold up). When he’s not playing golf, Smoltz is watching the pros. “Completely obsessed,” he admits.

Seeing baseball’s changes take hold, Smoltz has come to a realization.

“It’s unbelievable,” he says. “The movement of things happens when you lose interest. You can swing the pendulum too far when changing things, but it can come back. You have to see where things can go, first.”

So much is possible in professional golf.

The game is in a rather strange place. Recreational golf is booming in the United States, but interest in the pro product is more difficult to pin down. While the PGA Tour claims interest in its product is growing, the health of professional golf is measured by the majors. Per Sports Media Watch, TV ratings were up slightly for the Masters and U.S. Open (thanks in large part to a prime-time slot in the east) this year. Conversely, final-round ratings of last month’s Open Championship were the worst since 2014, while the final round of the PGA Championship hit a 15-year low.

Between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf , the game at the highest men’s level is splintered and awkward, broken and hostile. The same pro sport that once considered belly putters and 48-inch driver shafts major controversy now navigates daily storms of frayed loyalties, money, politics and gossip. The past 18 months have unquestionably turned off a faction of fans.

A variety of methods and mediums exists to improve professional golf. We could spend the next hour talking about how it’s presented on television.

And another hour on the schedule. And another (few) hour(s) on the complications of LIV Golf and the broken ranks. But the roadmap currently being provided by Major League Baseball can’t be ignored. Aggressive rule changes could be worth a try …

“You mean a shot clock?” Max Homa says.

“Well, maybe … ” I reply.

“Because I don’t think it changes enough,” Homa says. “There’s so much that can happen. What if a fan yells? What do you do with the shot clock? What if a bird (lands on your line)? What do you do with the shot clock? I don’t think it would save you more than 5 minutes in a round.”

Thus, we’ve come to the issue of any proposed change, ever. It was late afternoon at the Olympia Fields practice green when I approached Homa, one of the more progressive players on tour, and a diehard Dodgers fan. I asked about how the success of MLB’s rule changes might translate to the PGA Tour. Understandably, Homa immediately imagined a shot clock to speed up players’ pre-shot routines.

And he immediately spiked it.

As did Kirk.

“There isn’t enough manpower — or umpires, if you will — to keep track,” he says. “It would be logistically impossible. I also think the amount of variables that we are dealing with, compared to a pitcher or batter, are completely different.”

Like baseball players five years ago, professional golfers will gladly say, yes, the game must modernize, but promptly tell you what can’t be done and what shouldn’t be tried. The motion is denied before the case can be made.

The idea of a shot clock in golf is not a new one. It has been attempted on the DP World Tour, but never given an opportunity on the PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour, the circuit that operates as a minor league tour. Nor will it, in all likelihood, because no one is particularly inclined to try.

As Smoltz puts it: “When you’re playing a sport, you don’t really think anything should change. You’re just trying to play and survive. You play within the rules and the philosophy that you learned.”

The same goes for the distance debate. While, yes, the occasional high-profile voices like Rory McIlroy might be in favor of dramatic change, the vast majority of tour players have little interest in complying with last spring’s suggestion from the game’s governing bodies (the USGA and R&A) to introduce a separate, rolled-back ball to limit distance in competition. The mere suggestion of such a move can get a rise out here. (It’s kind of fun, actually. Whisper “bi-fur-ca-tion” and see what happens.) While acknowledging that distance is an issue worth addressing, tour officials take issue with the data presented by the USGA and R&A, and have concluded a different ball won’t make a difference.

In a memo issued to tour membership in late July, commissioner Jay Monahan announced the tour will not support the proposed Model Local Rule presented by the USGA and R&A that would give tournament organizers the option to require use of golf balls tested under modified launch conditions. The decision was based on feedback from tour players. Asking around, it’s easy to see why.

“I don’t think there’s anything you can do about distance,” Kirk said. “You make the rough longer, you just play more into the hands of the bombers. You make the greens firmer and faster, you play more into the hands of the bombers. There’s nothing you can do.”

The lesson of MLB’s changes, though, is that transforming the game doesn’t necessarily require changing the essentials. Baseball didn’t refashion the bat or the ball. It instead found modes to spur more action.

What does that look like in pro golf, specifically the PGA Tour? The only way to find out is for those in charge, including the players, to not be so precious with the game. While this might be lost on some, it’s not on everyone. One tour official, on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly on the tour’s thinking, acknowledges: “It’s time for golf to take a hard look at itself and come do what baseball did with outside of the box issues or answers to the problems that have plagued them for decades.”

Like the MLB with minor league baseball, the PGA Tour has the Korn Ferry Tour at its disposal to try anything and everything.

So why not put them on the clock? Why not force faster play on the greens? What data might be revealed?

Why not seek more course setup changes? More graduated rough, more variety in tee boxes, more short par 4s. There are ways to combat distance that don’t require equipment changes. You could, in fact, shorten the course and create different results.

Why not allow rangefinders?

Why not add more internal out-of-bounds? If we are to believe these players are athletes in an arena, then let’s treat them as such. Eliminate relief for Temporary Immovable Obstruction. You hit in a grandstand, you take a stroke penalty and a drop.

Why not broaden the roster of courses to places people want to see? Whistling Straits. Erin Hills. Go play the Tour Championship at Shinnecock Hills. Why not?

Want to get real radical? Let’s see the data if you make the hole smaller.

Asked how he might speed up the game, Kirk suggests placing a rules official on each hole, cutting down on the lag that occurs every time a drop is needed. So, do it. The tour might say such a change isn’t cost-effective, but last I heard, there’s some money coming in soon .

What else can be done? There are bad ideas. There are good ideas. What can be learned from concepts implemented by LIV? The point is, baseball has proven change is worth trying. Golf can either do the same aggressively or potentially be forced to accept the kinds of truths only revealed by autopsies.

Mark Broadie, the mind behind golf’s transformative Strokes Gained statistical model, notes that pro golf hasn’t grown fundamentally slower in recent years (increased time is as much a result of field size as it is player behavior, he says) and eliminating distance “wouldn’t necessarily make golf more interesting or exciting.” Where his curiosity piqued was the idea of pondering, what’s golf’s version of eliminating the shift?

“Ideas that guarantee movement on the leaderboard and create volatility,” says Broadie, who attended an MLB game last month for the first time in five years and was “so pleasantly surprised.”

The impact of pro golf seeking out change could could very well go beyond Thursday through Sunday on tour. In baseball, a generation of young players grew up emulating their heroes, leading to Little Leaguers stepping out of the box to adjust chin guards and high school pitchers pacing mindlessly behind the mound. In golf, today it isn’t uncommon to see junior players and 12-handicappers measuring the tilt of the earth with their feet.

“Everyone has to realize that decisions have been made at every sport to enhance the action to the end or change the direction of what the sport was headed,” Smoltz says. “You’re always going to have pushback, and you’ll probably need some compromise, but at the end of the day, it ain’t going back in baseball. Our changes are here to stay and people are dealing with it, because the end result is a better product. That’s the bottom line.”

Some people get it. Following an early round at the BMW Championship, I tracked down Cameron Young, the 2022 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. Along with being one of the best young players on the tour and a Ryder Cup hopeful, the 26-year-old is also recognized for having one of the more interesting sponsorship deals out there. Young sports a Major League Baseball logo on the collar of his golf shirt, the result of Manfred, the MLB commissioner, being a member at Young’s home course of Sleepy Hollow in New York and offering early sponsorship support.

Surely, if anyone could see pro golf following baseball’s lead, it’d be Young.

“You mean, like, putting us on a shot clock?” Young says. “Sure, why not?”

“Wait,” I say, wanting clarification. “You’re the first person I’ve asked who wasn’t a hard no.”

Young looks back perplexed. He shrugs.

“It would speed up play, right?” he says. “Kind of makes sense.”

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic ; photos: Darren Carroll, Carl Iwasaki, Dylan Buell, Mark Goldman / Getty Images)

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Brendan Quinn is an senior enterprise writer for The Athletic. He came to The Athletic in 2017 from MLive Media Group, where he covered Michigan and Michigan State basketball. Prior to that, he covered Tennessee basketball for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Follow Brendan on Twitter @ BFQuinn