PGA/LIV golf ... something



  • Jeebus. I honestly have zero clue what this little joint venture between the PGA and LIV means yet.

    But, at the outset, it sure seems like the PGA Tour is now in cahoots with the Saudis as $$$ backers? Eff if i can tell. If so, WHY???

    Whether some new tour, old tour or merger happens, no clue. confusing story below.

    https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2023/06/06/pga-tour-dp-world-tour-and-pif-announce-newly-formed--commercial-entity-to-unify-golf



  • Yea the details are still vague.

    PGA Tour absolutely f*cked over Rory, Rahm, Zalatoris and others. Could have taken paydays of hunderds of millions of dollars. Instead they didn’t, and the PGA used them as a mouthpiece only to jump into bed with the Saudi’s in the end anyways.

    I personally never took a stance. If someone offered me 50x my salary to do 60% of my current job I’m taking it. I don’t blame any of the guys who did. I feel bad for the tour players who were used and abused here. And once again Golf is essentially a monopoly rendering the players powerless if they want to get a payday.

    How they structure the new tour is going to be very, very, very interesting. Rumors of “teams” owned by sponsors and a lot more events being played all over the world like F1. Not sure how they organize that with all of the player’s individual sponsorships, but nothing that can’t be figured out.



  • Yup, agreed on those points. They asked Rory to step up, and he did. To his detriment, he admitted. Was taking away time from his actual game, and practice.

    Effed.

    I just don’t understand this “merger” at all. They should have let the Saudis run wild for a year or two, then realized they had nothing to show for it.



  • @rockchalkjayhawk said in PGA/LIV golf ... something:

    Yup, agreed on those points. They asked Rory to step up, and he did. To his detriment, he admitted. Was taking away time from his actual game, and practice.

    Effed.

    I just don’t understand this “merger” at all. They should have let the Saudis run wild for a year or two, then realized they had nothing to show for it.

    There is some speculation that the lawsuits filed by LIV would have hurt the PGA and jeopardized their 501c3 status.

    Unlikely we find out what actually caused the PGA to cave. I agree they could have just told LIV to pound rocks for another few years and it would have died.



  • LIV forced them to up wages. I don’t see the harm in competition. I don’t like the source of the money, nor was I a proponent of LIV golf, but that’s a different discussion altogether.



  • Joke I heard today (apologies in advance):

    PGA gets holes 1, 8, 10 and 12 and 18. Saudis get 9, 11



  • It was really interesting that besides Phil who is wildly popular, the guys who went to LIV who also are the most known guys who left the PGA generally had a bad reputation. Koepka, Poulter (fun loving but kind of a jerk), Dechamblis, Garcia, Bubba, Na. Don’t want to paint with a broad brush too much but seemingly aging golfers went there. As someone pointed out it’s not too hard to blame them. But i really dislike those guys now as it watered down the PGA which I still watch, and only have taken a curiosity peak at LIV stuff.

    Here’s what these guys did. Dechamblis, a super long driver made history by going for the green on a par 5 by driving the ball over a lake instead of hitting it well back of the green. It was fun to watch, and amazing to see him have a pitch to the green on a par 5.

    During the Masters 53 year old Phil Mick made a legit run at winning the thing. CBS’ guys held back their excitement because of Phil’s LIV ties. Take away LIV and it’s a huge story. I’m not that sharp and so while watching I was puzzled why they weren’t getting more excited.



  • For lack of a better thread…

    Looks like the US is getting SMOKED in the Ryder Cup. I’m about to turn on Day 3. Maybe we’ll return the smoking in singles matches? 🙂



  • @rockchalkjayhawk Day 1 did us in. I watched very little as I had morning plans both days of the weekend. Heard about the stupid drama with Cantlay and the caddie and Rorie.



  • The drama was mildly entertaining. At the very least it brought some life into Rory’s otherwise lack of give a shit.


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