Liv and Let Die

Here we go again. LIV golf is continuing its assault on the PGA Tour and the tradition of golf. It has become the water-cooler topic in golf circles across the golf globe. Since their inception, some 33 PGA Tour pros have left the PGA for the upstart league. Some have left simply because their tour days were behind them, some have left because they disagreed with the PGA Tour, and perhaps some for reasons unknown. But we can be sure of one thing: The ALL left for money. The ludicrous amount of money being offered to these professionals from the rival faction is enough to shock even the most extravagant spenders among us. And enough to repulse the time-honored fans of conventional golf.

Let’s put aside our ethical and/or geopolitical objections for the moment and consider just the established golf standards LIV may be threatening:

* Professional golf has been and should remain the purest form of competition - purest in the sense that a competitor receives only that which they earned.  If Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus enter an event and miss the cut, they earn zero. Zilch. Nothing! No appearance fees, no sponsor kickbacks - NOTHING. Remember we are discussing the PGA Tour here (the European Tour, now the DP World Tour) has allowed this for some time.  

* Professional golf is played over 72 holes. 36 holes are played by the entire qualifying field and the remaining 36 holes played only by those who finished in the top half of the field (made the “cut”).  Meaning of course that the bottom half of the field goes home empty-handed! The PGA has maintained this rule despite what it meant to ratings or sponsors; regardless of how severely the viewing audience might drop when Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus missed the cut, there was no change in the policy. The prize money is distributed throughout only the top half. 

* Professional golf has traditionally been an individual game, not a team sport. Sure, the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, and the Solheim Cup are wonderful exceptions but even those are made up of individual matches. Simply put, a contestant endures the battle alone. 

When Greg Norman presented his idea of a rival golf with The Saudi Investment Fund’s Yasir Al Rumayyan, his motivation was, in this author’s opinion, one of revenge. He has had a long-standing beef with the PGA going back to his playing days. In 1994 Norman proposed a “world tour”, a limited field event, in which only the top players in the world competed at a variety of golf courses around the world. Norman proposed eight events with a 40-man field in each one. Tim Finchem, The PGA Tour commissioner at the time, immediately took umbrage to the idea. He issued a dictum stating that any Tour player participating in the proposed tour would be fined and suspended. For whatever reasons the idea never took off. What the tour did, however, was create the World Golf Championships, a series of four tournaments a year featuring only the best players in the world. These WGCs ran for 24 years from 1999 until just last year, 2023.  

Because of the tour’s snub and what Norman claimed was an irreparable damage to his reputation, he has been hell-bent on revenge ever since. And now, at long last, he has found a platform on which to launch his “revenge tour.” LIV golf, a Norman-conceived golf tour is his retaliation. This competing venture is, to put it mildly, extremely well-funded. So much so that it can afford to buy players, sponsors, TV time, and anything else it may need to launch its ultra-affluent front with relative ease. It is backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, (PIF), an unlimited source of cash. Again, putting aside our ethical concerns (Saudi oil money is a euphemism for blood money some say) one cannot question the PIF’s ability to pay players for joining the league.

All well and good, some say. There is, however, a problem when we consider the nature of the tour PIF is backing. And that is this: LIV is not founded on any of the principles of the professional game as we know it. 

1. The name LIV itself is the Roman Numeral for 54, the number of holes they play in the events. 

2. There is no cut for any event. In other words, the entire competing field is paid,

3. The tournaments are team events (with an individual stroke play component).

4. All the events are conducted in a circus-like atmosphere, with music, players wearing shorts, and a rollicking gallery - hardly what we are used to seeing in “real” tournament golf!

The main objective of LIV seems to be to create something as dissimilar as possible from the PGA Tour, golf traditions be damned. There is little emphasis on purely individual competition where one’s ability to score lower than the field seems insignificant. To be rewarded for merely competing does not have a place in professional golf tournaments. The LIV defectors complain they are dropping in the world golf rankings because they receive no points for playing LIV events. Well, simply play real tournament, competitive golf: 72 holes, individual stroke play, with a cut after the first 36 holes under USGA/PGA rules. Then you get points with no regard for whom or where you are playing. 

In sum, I feel LIV is not a good thing not only for The PGA Tour but for professional golf period. It is not only an adversary of the PGA, it is antithetical to what the game of golf has always been: a form of competition where the contestants are compensated by their score in relation to the field that week, only!