From spats, lawsuits and suspensions to a whole lot of money, golf has certainly had an interesting year, yet despite all its drama, LIV Golf might just have been what the sport needed.
From the minute the Saudi-funded circuit parked its tanks on the PGA Tour’s lawn, digs have been hurled back and forth between the two camps.
But, despite all their jibes, should the PGA Tour loyalists actually be thanking the rebels and their revolution?
The PGA Tour loyalists should actually be thanking the LIV Golf rebels and their revolution
A big talking point has been the blockbuster, mega-money deals LIV has used to lure away the PGA Tour’s biggest stars.
With its seemingly infinite funds, backed by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, LIV Golf has not only been able to splash out eight or nine figure sums on signing fees but also has the ability to provide such a padded prize fund that last place pockets $120,000 at every event .
In the fightback against LIV Golf and its invasion into the sport, the PGA Tour released a number of changes in August.
The changes were considered to be huge – particularly on the financial front.
LIV has used mega-money deals to lure away the PGA Tour’s biggest stars, such as Cam Smith
There have been many feisty exchanges between the two camps, in particular from Greg Norman
In an attempt to shut off the steady drip of big names to the breakaway for money, Jay Monahan revealed that there will now be a minimum salary of $500,000 for all players on the PGA Tour.
Prize money also received a healthy fattening, with the new average purse of $20 million to keep pace with LIV.
In addition, stars will receive $5,000 for missing cuts at the tournaments, with never-before-seen amounts given out to players on the PGA Tour even if they’re not winning competitions.
The PGA Tour has also elevated four more events to the 2023 FedEx Cup Regular Season, on top of the eight they announced in June, with an average prize pot of $20 million.
Jay Monahan revealed a number of changes to the PGA Tour in a fightback against LIV Golf
This year’s ‘Player Impact Program’ also saw 20 players rewarded instead of 10 and the payout has been doubled from $50m to $100m.
In mean that a player like Twitter-less Viktor Hovland, who doesn’t have a large social media presence, finished 20th and still pocketed $2m.
By introducing four additional elevated events for the 2023 season, the PGA Tour has now committed $99.8 million to increased purses for next season.
The tour also estimates that the four new elevated events will lead to approximately $46 million in increases alone, after it had previously pledged a total of $48.8 million to bump up the purses for the three FedEx Cup Playoff events, Sentry Tournament of Champions, Genesis Invitational , Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial Tournament, WGC-Dell Technology Match Play and The Players.
That doesn’t even include the $100 million the tour pledged to double the money awarded through PIP in 2022 and 2023.
The newly-minted PGA Tour stars undoubtedly have LIV to thank for their well-stocked bank accounts as the changes stemmed from the McIlroy-Woods led crunch meeting to fight back against the breakaway – and Jon Rahm agrees.
‘I think on this side of things, we should be thankful that LIV happened,’ the Spaniard said ahead of the start of the Hero World Challenge at the beginning of December.
‘I don’t know if those changes would have happened if LIV wasn’t in the picture. So to an extent, yeah, we should be thankful.’
The changes mean that Viktor Hovland finished 20th in the PIP and still pocketed $2 million
Race to Dubai winner Jon Rahm claimed he and his fellow pros should be thankful for LIV
Jay Monahan claimed the money for the new prize funds is coming from three primary sources: increased revenue from the 2021-22 season, reserves and sponsors and partners.
However, how long those sources of revenue will be able to sustain the Tour’s new expensive structure remains to be seen.
Even with its monetary boost, the PGA Tour still isn’t matching the same levels as LIV Golf.
Tiger Woods himself recently conceded that the PGA Tour cannot compete with LIV Golf’s dollar.
He said: ‘They want to be a validated tour with world ranking points and they’re buying up tours around the world and I don’t know what their end game is. It might just be being an official member of the golf ecosystem and being recognized with world ranking points.
‘I think that’s what their intended goal is. You know, they’ve spent probably close to $2 billion this year. Who’s to say they can’t spend $4bn or $5bn next year? We just don’t know. It’s an endless pit of money.’
Tiger Woods himself recently conceded that the PGA Tour cannot compete with LIV’s funds
With the increased prize funds came the introduction of the elevated events, which will see the world’s top players compete against each other in around 20 PGA Tour events next year.
The new elevated events will join the FedEx St Jude Championship, BMW Championship, Tour Championship/FedEx Cup, The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Memorial Tournament, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Yet, these events do not benefit the entirety of the PGA Tour but rather just the select top 20, arguably just adding more fuel to the organization’s elitist cycle and more division when it is the players outside of the upper echelons who need the most help.
In realizing it needed to better protect its blockbuster names, the PGA Tour may have isolated its future rising stars.
However, Rory McIlroy insisted it wasn’t a move to establish an exclusive club, claiming every player on the Tour will have
‘This isn’t some sort of renegade group trying to take some sort of power grab of the PGA Tour,’ McIlroy said. ‘This is, ‘OK, how can we make this tour better for everyone that’s going to play on it now and everyone that’s going to play on the PGA Tour going forward?’
Rory McIlroy insisted the elevated events were not a move to establish an exclusive club
‘The reason we’re trying to do this is we’re trying to build a tour for the future [and for] young, ambitious players who want to be the best players in the game,’ McIlroy added.
‘If you want to be the best player in the game, the PGA Tour is where you want to be because it is a pure meritocracy. There’s nothing stopping guys from playing in these elevated events. There’s nothing stopping guys from getting in the PIP. You just play better. You work your ass off, you play better, and if you do that, you will get into these events.’
Another wrinkle to the elevated events is the requirement that the game’s top players compete in all of those designated tournaments as a prerequisite for eligibility in the PIP bonus pool.
Therefore, members of both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, such as McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Hovland and Shane Lowry, face challenges when putting their schedules together that allows them to compete at their best.
In addition to better lining the pockets of players, the breakaway’s arrival on the scene has also provided entertainment value to the sport.
The battle has witnessed Mickelson’s outburst, suspensions, court cases and bitter exchanges of digs and insults – the only thing lacking is a full out brawl outside the pub, maybe they’re saving it for season two?
Scottie Scheffler appeared to walk directly over Smith’s line on the green in what many suggested as a dig at the Australian who was linked to the Saudi-funded breakaway
Before LIV’s first event Phil Mickelson caused a stir with his Saudi motherf*****s’ comments
The gentleman’s sport is rarely mentioned in sport’s main news channels channels outside of Woods and the majors, it has still been almost continuously in the headlines, despite there being no Ryder Cup, no Solheim Cup and no Olympics this year – all thanks to the furor too LIV.
The theatrics have also provided fodder and hype for the upcoming Netflix documentary on the PGA Tour, which has already teased that LIV Golf and ‘memes’ will be mentioned, building up the excitement for its release.
However, the soap opera is set to continue with LIV’s second season featuring an expanded schedule, which has already stolen a course from the PGA Tour.
There’s still court cases to be settled, the world rankings uncertainty to be straightened out and possibly even more defections incoming.
We have yet to see how the rebels will fit the 14 events around the traditional golfing calendar, especially after the news broke that Augusta chiefs have opted against banning them from the Masters.
With that decision, Augusta is also set to play stage to, hopefully, a Real Housewives-eque reunion of defectors vs. loyalists. A Garcia-McIlroy-Mickelson grouping, now that could be interesting.
Whether Norman and Co. can tempt any more stars to the dark side and how both LIV and the PGA Tour can continue to finance their new mega-money schemes remains to be seen but one thing is for sure – golf is set to continue grabbing headlines.
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