Category: Golf

LIV Derangement Syndrome

The Hostile Takeover of the DP World Tour by Another Name

DP World Tour Commissioner, Keith Pelley and PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and the suits at PGA Tour headquarters are suffering of what I call LIV Derangement Syndrome or LIVDS.

LIV and Greg Norman have created the perfect storm and the PGA Tour does not know how to tackle it.

Sure, they have their useful fools at the Golf Channel doing their bid on television, even during golf tournaments. Taking away from the live coverage to virtue signal about how the PGA Tour is better than LIV, the Saudis, and their billions of dollars.

Throwing silly names around like “sportswashing” and claiming moral superiority over those who chose to join LIV and Greg Norman’s vision of golf.

There is no secret that as much as I enjoy watching professional golf, I think the PGA Tour is a greedy organization and under Jay Monahan’s leadership, even more so. But that is my personal opinion of the organization’s leadership and not of the players.

In the latest stunt coming out of PGA Tour headquarters, the PGA Tour has been forced to rethink their strategy and alliances in an attempt to defeat LIV and maintain a monopoly on professional golf.

Jay Monahan and DP World Tour Commissioner Keith Pelley have disclosed a new 13-year operational joint venture partnership. The main talking points are:

  • PGA Tour increases existing stake in European Tour productions from 15% to 40%
  • DP World Tour guarantees growth in annual prize funds to members for the next 5 years
  • Sunshine Tour/PGA Tour Australasia now enjoy a formal pathway to the DP World Tour
  • Starting in 2023, the top 10 players at the end of season DP World Tour rankings will earn PGA Tour cards (in addition to those already exempt)

In their combined press conference, Jay Monahan said, “It was clear from the outset that our Strategic Partnership with the European Tour Group was a powerful agreement for both sides, and we are thrilled with today’s announcement of this expanded partnership. We will continue to collaborate on a global schedule and key commercial areas as we draw our organizations and memberships even closer together while innovating to provide the most entertaining and compelling golf possible to fans around the world.”

Keith Pelley went on to say, “Building on the success of the existing Strategic Alliance between ourselves and the PGA Tour, this move will significantly enhance the meritocratic ecosystem that has successfully served the professional game on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 50 years. It is a natural extension and progression of what we have been doing over the past few years and I passionally believe that this move is the right thing for our players, our Tour, our fans, and the game of golf in general.”

He went on to say, “Our two tours have undoubtedly drawn closer over the past few years and today’s announcement strengthens both Tours for the betterment of our memberships.”

It is curious to me that all of the sudden the PGA Tour is so enamored with the DP World Tour. After all, the PGA Tour has never encouraged their members to participate on the DP World Tour, and is public knowledge American players do not like to play in Europe or in any other continent where the DP World Tour runs tournaments.

Very few Americans are members of the DP World Tour or care to be members of the DP World Tour.

The DP World Tour has always been seen by many as a lesser tour, with most of the European born stalwarts jumping ship to join the PGA Tour in the United States.

This is all happening now because of Greg Norman and LIV Golf. Otherwise, Monahan and his crew would have never made this move. If that is not the case; why now?

Simple, the PGA Tour is in a crisis and needs the DP World Tour to fortify itself from LIV defections. Will it work? I am not so sure.

Going from 15% to a 40% investment, is a big jump, and anybody spending that amount of money is going to want something in return. Again, nobody knows the details of this “Strategic Alliance,” but if I owned 40% of the DP World Tour, I am going to expect to have a huge voice in any business decisions affecting the tour.

The rest of the talking points are nothing more than ways to deter current and future players form joining LIV.

In my opinion, this is nothing more than the equivalent of a hostile takeover of the DP World Tour by the PGA Tour. The DP World Tour will now be the useful idiot to counter LIV, and they will be at the mercy of Jay Monahan.

Even the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA Tour feeder tour, has agreed to award 30 PGA Tour cards in 2023. That is five more PGA Tour cards. The PGA Tour hopefuls have a long way ahead to fulfil their dreams. Thanks Jay!

The PGA Tour is also bringing back the defunct Q School to spice things up and make it even harder for players to get to the PGA Tour.

All of this is good talk at a time when professional golf is evolving. The PGA Tour is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at LIV, but with over $900 billion dollars in assets, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia can finance LIV for a long time.

Nobody knows how this is going to work out, but one thing is for sure, players like McIlroy and Justin Thomas will not have to worry about earning a paycheck. They just need to keep blabbering Monahan’s talking points and they will be all right.

In the meantime, the LIV Golf Series will be teeing it up in Portland this week and people are going to watch.

The Hypocrisy of the PGA Tour Continues

The PGA Tour is Becoming Stale by The Minute

You bet Jay!

After hiding in an undisclosed location, Jay Monahan decided to face the press, and the public, at a press conference from the Travelers Championship.

On Tuesday, he had a closed-door meeting with the PGA Tour membership where they discussed the idea of adding more money to its flagship events. Does this means the PGA superstars are staying in the PGA Tour? Maybe for now.

On Wednesday, Monahan said in his press conference this was already in the works but admitted the moves were “obviously accelerated by the current environment.” He is talking about LIV and their lucrative recruiting of PGA stars.

I do not believe for one minute Jay Monahan intended to raise the purses for PGA Tour events, this is all in response to LIV.

Among other things Monahan talked about was a remake of the tour schedule and lots of more money. The total amount of the new purses amounts to a $54 million dollar increase. Jay is so clever, get it? 54 like LIV (54.)

This is supposed to be divided among the 8 biggest events, including raising the purse for the Players Championship to $25 million with six others to $20 million.

Monahan was quoted as saying, “I am not naïve.” “If this is an arms race and if the only weapons here are dollar bills, the PGA Tour cannot compete. The PGA Tour, an American institution, cannot compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars to attempt to buy the game of golf.”

Is Jay Monahan an utter moron? Nobody is competing against the PGA Tour, and nobody is trying to buy the game of golf. Since when the PGA Tour has a monopoly or ownership of professional golf? Let us not forget, the PGA Tour did the same thing to the PGA of America. The PGA Tour was the LIV of its time.

As to the schedule, the PGA Tour is returning to a calendar-year schedule. The schedule will go from January to August. They will also have a shorter fall season.

Speaking of the fall season and the “Fall Series.” This is where the hypocrisy of the PGA Tour and Jay Monahan are in full display.

They are going to have a series of up to three international tournaments after the conclusion of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Here comes Johnny! The events will be a limited-field and no-cut events. The format is currently under review by the Player Advisory Council.

This sounds like LIV 2.0. Jay.

This is supposed to allow the top players to increase their earnings for the season and for the tour to get some player’s commitments to play during the off season.

So far everything Monahan has disclosed only benefits the top players.

For those outside of the top 70 at the end of the regular season, they will be competing in a “compelling, consequential final stretch” that will set their status for the next season.

What that means? Only Monahan knows, if he does know at all.

As for players who have decided to join LIV, Monahan was clear. “I think our position there is very well established as it relates to any players that are going to play in future events.”

Monahan is basically saying, once you are gone, you are gone. That type of obtuse attitude only hurts the fans and the PGA Tour.

The future of the DP World Tour and LIV players remains in limbo and commissioner Keith Pelley still evaluating the situation.

Unlike the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour cannot afford to banned players. The DP World Tour does not enjoy strong fields week in and week out, so they need the likes of Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood.

The only events on the DP World Tour hurt by the PGA Tour decision are going to be co-sanctioned events and the DP World Tour already has indicated players will be banned from participating on those events.

Interesting to me is what the Major Championship bodies are going to do. So far the United States Open did not banned the LIV players and the Open Championship will not do it either.

This is at least for this year, but as “open” championships I do not see how they could get away with banning players who are either exempted or those who qualify.

That leaves the PGA Championship and The Masters. Those two could be toss ups, but I do not think is in their best interest to ban those players. If they do, I will not be watching and I am sure I will not be the only one.

When asked where all this extra money was coming from, Monahan stated, “coming from a combination of sponsor contribution, ways to continue to sell more within those events themselves, and our reserves.”

I guess Phil Mickelson was correct when he alluded the PGA Tour had money stashed away and kept it from the players. Maybe?

It seems none of this was supposed to be out in the open this soon, but Monahan agreed that the arrival of LIV speed things up.

Asked if he would consider a partnership with LIV, Monahan said, “hypotheticals.” Meaning? No way in hell.

So there you have it, Monahan’s answer to LIV is to pay the top players more money, create a LIV style “Fall Season” so the top 50 players can double dip and make more money, and no clear path for those players above the top 70 in the world.

The PGA Tour continues its journey towards irrelevancy.

Quotes for this article courtesy of Golf.com

GWRX

Cyberbullying By Any Any Other Name?

Photo courtesy of logopond.com

GWRX is an extremely popular golf related social media outlet. I have been a member since 2007 and have participated in their forums sporadically.

As with any social media outlet, sometimes people get in some heated conversations and say things that may not be “socially” acceptable or deemed “offensive”, even if they are not.

That is “par for the course,” you give, you take, and move on, nothing personal until it gets personal.

As with any moderated forum, moderators are supposed to enforce the rules, but they are to be enforced equally and unbiased. That is not the case with the moderators at GWRX.

On many occasions I have reported abuse posts which they choose to ignore, giving me no choice but to defend my self in the open forum.

As a result, I get the warnings while the individuals who I reported continue to spill their vile comments without repercussions.

I am a very thick skin individual, but when you start to question my patriotism and my loyalties, I will fight you to the end.

My credentials and what I have done for this country speak for themselves and I will not allow some faceless individual tarnish my reputation.

The management at GWRX decided that they were going to suspend me for defending myself, so I decided to cancel my 15-year association with them.

I am posting this, not because I care about GWRX, but because this illustrates why I have so much disdain for social media and the cowards it protects.

Having rules mean nothing when the rules are selectively enforced, and this is how GWRX operates.

GWRX is cesspool and, in my opinion, encourages cyberbullying. The owners do not care, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

From United States Open Championship to United States Open Invitational?

The USGA and the LIV Debate

USGA CEO, Mike Whan Photo courtesy of socalgolfer.com

As the LIV Golf Series continues to light hairs on fire among the professional golf organizations, United States Golf Association, CEO, Mike Whan held a press conference at Brookline, Massachusetts.

I personally think, Mike Whan is probably the most competent CEO the USGA has had in a long time and almost got me convinced to rejoin such organization.

That was until I listened to his press conference.

I liked the fact that he defended the right of those players who qualified to participate in the tournament.

After all, the U.S. Open is an “open” championship, meaning anybody who qualifies, and meets the USGA requirements, earns the right to play in it, regardless of if they are a LIV, PGA, DP World Tour, or just an amateur player.

During his press conference and addressing LIV, he was quoted as saying, “at the end of the day we ran this championship by asking ourselves, did those people (LIV players) disqualify themselves from the 2022 Open? And we believed the answer was no, and that’s the decision we made.”

About moving forward and LIV players. “It would be a lot of hypotheticals for me to get what LIV is going to be by the time we’re talking about this next year, but as we would any year, we’re going to definitely reevaluate field criteria. We would any year.” “We will take a look at what the landscape looks like.”

When asked if LIV players could be banned from future U.S. Opens, his reply was telling, as much as it was disappointing, “Yes.”

Here Mike Whan is absolutely wrong, and he knows it.

The U.S. Open is that an “open” championship. Anybody who meets the USGA criteria, be a professional or an amateur golfer, has the opportunity to attempt to qualify, and if fortunate enough to qualify, on to the tournament.

The USGA also offers a plethora of exempted categories in which players do not have to qualify at local venues.

To suggest he would consider banning LIV players from participating in the U.S. Open regardless of if they earned the right via exemption or qualifier, is contrary to the concept of what the U.S. Open is all about.

Keeping the best players who have earned a right to play our national championship from playing the tournament does not grow the game. The USGA should know better and act accordingly.

If not, then might as well rename the tournament and called it the U.S. Open Invitational.

Resources:

https://www.usopen.com/qualifying/exemptions.html

https://sportsempire.org/the-rules-to-qualify-for-the-us-open-golf-tournament/

The Politicization of Professional Golf

New Lows For The PGA Tour

September 11, 2001 Photo courtesy of ff.org

The LIV Golf vs The PGA Tour saga continues, but it has finally taken a turn where I never thought the PGA Tour or anyone else would go; 9/11.

A group of 9/11 families felt compelled to send letters to those players who chose to joined LIV, as if these players were responsible for the death of over three thousand Americans at the hand of terrorists.

Before that, the widow of journalist Jamal Khashoggi demanded golfers participating in the LIV Golf League to be banned from major tournaments.

In other words, the world of professional golf has gone full blown political.

This is not new. This has been a trend since the start of the Ukraine War when governments around the world and sport organizations began to ban Russian and Belarusian players from participating in world sporting events, just because they happened to be Russian or Belarusian.

I think Commissioner Monahan is a stupid man, but to use the events of 9/11, and its families, as a tool to pressure the players, is shameful.

The truth is the Saudi Arabian government has never been charged or convicted with anything in connection to 9/11. The 9/11 Commission could find no solid connection between the Saudi Arabian government and the events of 9/11.

We may not like it, but those are the facts and everything else is just emotional conjecture.

Commissioner Monahan decided to crawl from under the rock he has been hiding and was asked by Jim Nantz why the players could not do both, LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.

Jay Monahan was quoted saying, “I guess I would answer the question by asking a question, ‘why do they need us so badly’? Obviously, they do not need you Jay, otherwise they would have never left.

He went on to say, “Those players have chosen to sign multi-year lucrative contracts to play in a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over again.” So, it is about the money for Jay, not about some legacy mumbo-jumbo.

Monahan went on to claim the best players in the game were at the RBC Canadian Open, which is not true, it was a relatively weak field.

“True competition creates the profile of the world’s greatest players,” and LIV golf players continuing to play the PGA Tour would be to let them “free ride.” “In protecting our loyal members, we can’t allow (LIV players) to free ride off that.”

A “free ride”? These players bring revenue to the tour. A “free ride” is a ridiculous statement to make.

Does he think people pay to see him at an event or they pay to see Dustin Johnson? This is how disconnected Monahan is from reality.

I am used to Monahan’s ridiculous statements, but where he crossed the line was when he decided that it was a good idea to use the events of 9/11 to justify his outrage.

He was asked about the Saudi Arabian government backing of LIV Golf and “potential” dilemmas for players who accepted the guaranteed money to play.

Monahan responded by saying “It’s not an issue for me, because I don’t work for the Saudi Arabian government. It probably is an issue for those players that chose to take that money.”

Is Monahan suggesting these players work for the Saudi Arabian government? Can this man be really this stupid?

He continued, “Why is this group spending so money recruiting players and chasing a concept with no possibility of return? How is this good for the game we love?”

The PGA Tour does not have an exclusive ownership of the game of golf, anybody is welcome to seek or start any kind of venture they wish. Monahan is afraid because more players are taking the plunge and LIV Golf is a real threat.

Why does Jay Monahan not complain about players who are sponsored by Nike? Nike makes their products in China, who by all accounts, is also a murderous regime and operate their factories under slave like conditions.

Yes, the Saudi Arabian government human rights record is nothing to brag about, but the hypocrisy is too big to bear.

The New York Post reported a coalition of 9/11 families sent letters to representatives of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, and Kevin Na, accusing the golfers of sportswashing.

When asked about it, Monahan said, “I think you’d have to be living under a rock to not know there are significant implications. Two families close to me lost loved ones.”

Then he goes on to cheapened their memories by equating their tragedy to the PGA Tour fight against LIV.

I do not need Jay Monahan to lecture me about 9/11 or its implications. I spent fifteen years of my life flying all over the world to prevent another 9/11 from happening.

Monahan using 9/11 as an excuse to move his agenda against Greg Norman is demeaning and an insult to the memories of those victims and their families.

He added, “have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” Now that he mentions it, he should apologize to the millions of law-abiding Americans fans and law enforcement officers.

After all, it was the PGA Tour, under his leadership, who gave an honorary tee time to George Floyd, a convicted felon, domestic abuser, and drug addict.

Folks, you know our society has hit rock bottom when institutions like the PGA Tour are willing to go the 9/11 route to fight for the survival of their monopoly. The PGA Tour and Commissioner Monahan should be ashamed of themselves, but we already know they have no shame to begin with.

Some of the quotes were courtesy of Sports Illustrated and Morning Read.