By: Michael Saladino
Almost two months ago, Dustin Johnson committed to LIV golf and was preparing for his first tournament event in London. Over six months ago, LIV golf was not even a real thing. Just last week, three players on the LIV golf tour filed a temporary restraining order against the PGA Tour. For someone like me, who is one of the biggest golf fans on the planet, this has been one of the most interesting stories to follow.
What we know to this point…..
Liv Golf League is a professional league funded by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The fund dumped upwards of 8 to 9 Billion dollars in this league. You might be thinking why would Saudi Arabia want to own a golf league and pay that unimaginable amount of money. The first term is for sports washing. Sports washing is where a group, person, company, country, etc. will use a platform of sport to better perceive their own image. Saudi Arabia’s reputation of late has not been very good in the public. There has been ties to them in association with 9/11, the killing of a gay American journalist, the treatment towards women in their country, and many more not good things. The overall hope is for them to use golf as a way for people to better associate Saudi Arabia in that sense instead of those not so good things. With an endless amount of money due to the amount of oil being sold and plenty of other reasons, Liv golf started.
At first, they hired Greg Norman to be the commissioner of the league. Norman, otherwise known as the Shark, won over 80 professional tournaments that included two major championship victories from his playing days. Norman at first targeted Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambeau to come play in the league. This was very low key information circling around the golf media back in February. Then the PGA tour got work on this information. Within the week almost every single notable player wrote a statement stating their word to stay on the PGA Tour. Even Dustin Johnson stated in his statement he would stay on the PGA tour. The PGA tour said they would suspend any player that would go play in the new league. Phil Mickelson in an interview around this time said some words that were not very pleasant towards some people’s values they have different from Saudi Arabia’s. Mickelson then decided to take some time away from the game to think about his action. At this point, it looked like nobody was going to this league and everything would be back to normal. Instead, that was not the case.
Fast forward to June since that point, one week before the first ever Liv golf event began in London; it happened. Dustin Johnson committed to LIV golf and the very first event began playing the following week. Taylor Gooch, a young talent on the PGA tour, also committed to the event. A couple days later, Phil Mickelson committed to the LIV golf league. Johnson was signed to a 125 million dollar deal. Mickelson was upwards towards 200 million. Shocking! Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, and countless others followed. The first LIV event took place in London on Youtube for live streaming. LIV golf concept itself is based off of a 54 hole, 48 player field, individual competition worth the payout of over 4 million to the winner. Not only that but the element of team golf was introduced.There were 12 teams competing using the 48 players in the field. Charles Schwartzel of South Africa, the 2011 Masters Champion, went on to win the tournament. After that first event the likes of Brooks Koepka, Bryson Dechambeau, Henrik Stenson, Matthew Wolfe, Bubba Watson, and Patrick Reed all signed to LIV golf for millions and millions of dollars. All players that have been signed to LIV golf have all been suspended/banned indefinitely by the PGA Tour.
Fast forward to the present day and things are now starting to shape what could be the foreseeable future. As I alluded to earlier in this piece, three LIV players tried to get a temporary restraining order to play in the playoffs. I expect more LIV players that care about their world ranking points, who are not exempt into some of the major championships, to try and get a TRO (temporary restraining order) to play in PGA Tour events. Ian Poulter, who signed to LIV back in June, has already won two cases in court to be able to play in two DP World tour events. 11 LIV players including Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambeau are all suing the PGA Tour for banning them from playing their tournaments. Just the other day, all the top players in the world rankings on the PGA Tour called a meeting. The meeting included the likes of Tiger Woods, Rory Mcilroy, Jon Rahm, Xander Scheffule, Scottie Scheffler, Will Zalatores, Rickie Folwer, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and the rest of the 20 best players in the world. Not too much was said about what was discussed that night but it looks evident that it would be looking ahead to what the PGA Tour is going to do in the future.
My Take……
It has been a crazy story to cover. When I first heard about all of this back in February, I did not give the idea much thought. It just seemed like a far-fetched idea that the likes of Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambeau would just get paid that much money to play in a completely different golf league. So looking back at it now, it really is crazy how fast this took off. The weird part of it is nothing really was said about LIV Golf or anything from March to June. Phil Mickelson taking time away from the game after his comments was the only thing that was discussed from it. It seemed as normal as can be. I think when DJ signed and Taylor Gooch, a good young American player, signed to LIV; I took notice. Then, Phil Michelson did. That’s when it started for me. Golf Twitter and the golf world just could not stop talking about what happened. I did not like the fact that we may never see DJ or Phil another round on the PGA Tour again. It honestly felt like they sold out for a lot of money. SInce then it seems like every day there is another development with this story. This summer of golf felt like it was an NBA offseason for free agents to see which player would defect to LIV.
If I were a top player in the game, I would NOT take the money and play in LIV. Look, I do like the concept of a lot of it. I love the shotgun start, the action packed broadcast of shot for shot, the no commercials, the not playing every week, teams, and new courses. The product is actually pretty good for starting out and maybe it is the future. It just feels morally wrong to take that money and I really agree with Rory though it is taking the easy way out. Although, I can give the fact that from a business standpoint it makes clear sense. I do not hate the players that went, I just do not agree with their decision. Brooks Koepka is one of my favorite players to watch and I’ll still tune in to see him play on the LIV side. Like I said, the product is good, just the funding and separation is not. It is turning into a mess in the courts which is making it less golf and more drama. My solution would have the LIV players be allowed to be in events they are supposed to be playing in. If they earn the right into a major championship then they should have the ability to compete. It still will be hard for LIV players to earn world rankings but if they play all together on Asain tour events and elevate the fields; they will earn more points.
If Cam Smith and a bunch of these international players do go to LIV after the Presidents cup, that could change a lot of things. I still do not know how to feel if LIV players try to play in some elevated PGA Tour events. If they do get the TRO to play in PGA Tour events, then they should just earn world ranking points. If they only receive world ranking points then do not allow them to have Fedex Cup Points or prize money. This way they would only be there for the points, nothing else. That seems fair to me. Lastly, I do want to point out for what it is worth, when the major championships were on all this seemed to not be there. It was nice to just have all conversations focused on the tournament Thursday through Sunday. Even now, Monday through Wednesday is all talk about the future of the PGA Tour/LIV but once the tournament starts that noise goes away. I really hope that there can be more of a coming together between the top players in the world because when politics get involved there is too much drama. I just want golf back at its highest product and level.
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