Is this the face of Buyer’s Remorse? Photo courtesy of yardbarker.com
A year ago, LIV Golf was rejoicing with the signing of their biggest star today, Jon Rahm. They gave him a huge contract, including his own team, Legion XIII.
There is no denying that Legion XIII has done pretty well in their first year, including Rahm winning the 2024 Individual LIV Golf Championship.
But it was not an easy trek for the Spaniard in 2024. He did not perform well in the Major Championships, withdrawing from the U.S. Open with a foot injury, and it took him several starts to win his first LIV Golf individual championship in England.
Rumors have been floating around about Rahm’s feelings and the LIV Golf League. Mostly coming from voices on the Golf Channel, who are not in love with LIV Golf and will go at any length to discredit the league.
I personally posted the question about Rahm’s rumors to LIV Golf via their YouTube channel and got no response from their PR department, Greg Norman, or Jon Rahm.
Fast forward to LIV Golf Individual Championship week. During his press conference, Rahm was asked about his future in the DPWT and the ongoing saga on the payment of fines and his participation in the Ryder Cup.
Rahm said that he was not planning to pay fines, and he wanted to be part of the Ryder Cup. At this time, the case has been reviewed by a DPWT panel and in the meantime he will be eligible to play in the Acciona Open De España .
To add more mud to the already murky waters, Rahm skipped the LIV Golf Team Championship citing an illness. I would guess he let Norman know from Spain as the Acciona Open De Espana is going to be played this week.
Most LIV Golf doubters will see this as a “Buyer’s Remorse” move from Rahm. I do not know what it means, but in the absence of LIV Golf management addressing the aforementioned rumors, it is easy for the opposition to create lots of chatter.
Will we see Jon Rahm in LIV Golf next season? Perhaps or perhaps not. The PGA Tour would be smart to buy his contract out from LIV Golf and return him to the PGA Tour, but I am not sure how these contracts have been negotiated to begin with.
One thing is certain, Rahm leaving his team out to dry during the LIV Golf Team Championship is not what been a team captain is all about and has left a lot of questions about his future with LIV Golf.
There is no doubt, Rory McIlroy is one of the best professional golfers in the world. His accomplishments are well documented and he can be a very entertaining golfer when his game is on.
Unfortunately, this is not what McIlroy has been remembered for as of late.
Since the creation of LIV Golf, McIlroy chose to be the de-facto leader of the PGA Tour. Taking on LIV Golf, Phil Mickelson, and the great Greg Norman, he decided to interject on something he obviously did not have much knowledge of.
For over a year, press conference, after press conference, McIlroy has sounded like PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s loudspeaker, unlike Jon Rahm who decided to concentrate on his game and stayed above the pettiness of it all.
Nobody can deny the fact, LIV Golf has changed the face of professional golf and has forced the PGA Tour to be transparent. McIlroy is making more money because Phil Mickelson and LIV Golf shined a light on the PGA Tour’s alleged financial shenanigans.
As a result of McIlroy’s lack of attention, and self appointed leadership role, his own game has suffered and it seems his mental health has taken a hit. His performance at the 2023 Masters was dismal and he chose to disappear for over four weeks, missing his second PGA Tour “Elevated Event” of the season.
According to him, he needed a mental health break from golf. I have to admit, I needed a mental health break from all his nonsense.
This evening, I watched his interview with Golf Channel’s Kyra Dixon and I have to say, he sounded like a man without conviction. His weak answers were telling and it showed me he is not ready to return to the “Big Time” yet.
McIlroy looked more like a lost teenager than a professional golfer on a mission.
My unsolicited advice? Rory McIlroy needs to pay more attention to his own professional career and leave the adults in the room deal with the nuisances of the Tour.
Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee. Photo courtesy of golfnewsri.com
Another week and another opportunity for Brandel Chamblee to make a fool of himself on national television.
On Monday’s episode of Live From The PGA Championship, Chamblee went on a full frontal attack against Phil Mickelson and LIV Golf.
Along with Rich Lerner and Paul McGinley, they were discussing Phil Mickelson’s recent Twitter spat with the USGA and his use of vulgar language. Seriously? Vulgar language?
Chamblee went on to say Mickelson was riding a high after his second place finished at The Masters and that was one of the reasons why he was going after the “establishment.”
He stated that Tiger Woods, not Phil Mickelson, was responsible for the increase in PGA Tour purses. This is laughable to say the least. Phil Mickelson sounding the horn on the PGA Tour alleged financial shenanigans and the emergence of LIV Golf were part of the reasons why the Tour came up with all the changes and increase in purses.
As he went on, Chamblee insinuated Augusta National was a hacker’s paradise.
He alleged Mickelson’s second place finish at The Masters was expected because Augusta National is where, and I am paraphrasing, ‘has been’ golfers go for a second wind, including the likes of Jack Nicklaus in 1986. Say what?
He continued to spew his normal garbage about how LIV Golf was losing lawsuits and players were not happy. According to Chamblee, Mickelson made a lot of promises he did not fulfilled and players were complaining about it.
I do not know where Chamblee is getting his bad information, but LIV Golf players are pretty happy and people are watching more and more.
He continued to ramble about Mickelson, insider trading, and all kind of nonsense that had nothing to do with golf, nor golf fans care about.
Chamblee’s LIV Golf Derangement Syndrome is real and it only continues to make him look like small and irrelevant.
It was funny to see the triumvirate of Rory apologists at the Golf Channel making all kind of excuses as to why Rory McIlroy shot a 76 today in the first round at the Players Championship.
Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee, and Paul McGinley, were commenting on how McIlroy looked tired, his swing was out of sorts, and how he seemed not to be in the moment. I do agree with their assessment, and I will add, McIlroy even looks old.
Unfortunately, the reasons for their assessment are completely misleading. Since the inception of LIV Golf into the picture, McIlroy chose to be the face of the PGA Tour. In addition, as the Player’s Advisory Council Chairman and one of the Player Directors at the PGA Tour Policy Board, he took upon the responsibilities, and it is his job to defend the “product.”
The Zoom calls and meetings are part of his duties, and he is not the first one on tour history to deal with those duties and responsibilities.
Perhaps he is having a problem dealing with it and it has creeped into his own game.
For Paul McGinley to say McIlroy has taken “more bullets than other players” and use it as an excuse to justify his lackluster performance, is a joke. McIlroy chose to be the “lead player voice” on the PGA Tour.
Unlike Jon Rahm, and some of the other top players, who have chosen to just play golf and let the suits at PGA HQ deal with LIV Golf, McIlroy chose to take the fight to LIV Golf on his own. He has berated Greg Norman, LIV Golf players, and has flipped flopped his positions about LIV Golf from week to week.
One week he hates LIV Golf and this week he thanks LIV Golf for making the PGA Tour a better product. Perhaps he is indeed tired and cannot keep his convictions or lack thereof together.
At the end of the day, Rory McIlroy has nobody to blame but himself for his failures on the golf course. Jay Monahan is the commissioner of the PGA Tour; he is the man in charge of all the administrative issues and grievances concerning the tour.
McIlroy is a professional golfer and that is where all his energy should be concentrated on.
For him to think that he can carry the torch for the tour all by himself, it is silly and detrimental to his game and psyche. PGA Tour players want to do one thing and one thing only, play golf. All that other mumbo-jumbo they cannot control is unnecessary noise they do not wish to deal with.
Rory McIlroy is his own man, and he is responsible for his own decisions, plain and simple.
Rory McIlroy owns his woes and they are all in his head.
Elevated or Good Old Hot Air? Photo courtesy of gigsalad.com
As we all know, the PGA Tour, and its commissioner, Jay Monahan, are trying everything they can do to diminish the impact LIV Golf has had in professional golf.
From using their cheerleaders at the Golf Channel, the lame golf media, and the United States court system, the PGA Tour wants to totally erase LIV Golf from the face of the earth. Of course, that is not going to happen.
As part of their strategy, and in order to bring the “best” players in the world together, one of the tools they implemented was the designation of “elevated” events in order to have the top players in the world on the field to battle it out.
It sounds great, but let us be honest, without the likes of Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Cameron Smith, a PGA Tour event does not have the “best” players in the world on the field. But that is a whole different conversation.
The following is the 2023 schedule of designated “elevated” events, in addition to the Major Championships, and the winners so far. (OWGR at the start of the tournament week.)
Jan. 5-8: Sentry Tournament of Champions $15,00,000 (Jon Rahm) OWGR Ranking: 5
Aug. 10-13: FedEx St. Jude Championship $20,00,000
Aug. 17-20: BMW Championship $20,00,000
Aug. 24-27: Tour Championship $75,00,000(includes bonus)
In a nutshell, the top 20 players will have to play in all the 13 designated “elevated” events with the option of only being able to skip one during the season. For example, Rory McIlroy chose to skip the SENTRY Tournament of Champions; therefore, he has to play the remaining 12 events for the season.
But, hold on a minute, hypocrisy is fixing to kick-in. As reported this week at the Players Championship, moving forward into the 2024 season, the Tour Policy Board voted to make the designated “elevated” events, limited field events with “no cut” format.
This is highly hypocritical from a tour who has mocked LIV Golf for not having cuts as part of their tournament’s format and a limited field. Now, it is all good because it is the PGA Tour doing it.
Even the biggest hypocrite, Rory McIlroy, stated this week “The emergence of LIV has benefited everyone who plays professional golf.” He went on to say, “this has caused a ton of innovation at the PGA Tour, and what was an antiquated system has been revamped to mirror where we’re in the world.”
Innovation, meaning they are going to steal LIV Golf ideas and make them their own. The PGA Tour is such a sad joke. An organization that lacks integrity and principles is not worth anybody’s time or effort.
As to McIlroy, I never thought he was the most intelligent person in the world, so to hear him say theses things after two years of criticizing LIV Golf, LIV Golf players, and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, it’s not only expected, but predictable.
In my opinion, McIlroy is a clown, and his flip-flopping regarding LIV Golf shows that he is not the best at handling a juggling act. He is the designated PGA Tour “useful idiot”, and he has done an excellent job at it, while Monahan sits and watches on the sidelines.
So far, the designated “elevated” events for the 2023 season have delivered some level of competition.
Having said that, I think in order for this to work, you cannot have the #46 ranked player in the world, whooping the top 20 ranked players in the world on these “elevated” events. If this were to become the norm, I do not think it would bode well for the tour or the sponsors.
With all due respect to Kurt Kitayama, but sponsors do not want the #46 ranked player in the world winning a tournament with the likes of Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy in them. Kitayama moved to #19 in the official world golf rankings after his victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
So, as The Players Championship is on its on its way, a little known PGA Tour player by the name of Chad Ramey who is ranked as the #225th player in the world by the official world golf rankings, is leading the way after shooting a 64.
Is that is going to be the “product” the PGA Tour is going to sell as “elevated”, they may have to come up with a better plan. Hot air is not going to sell.
As a side note, after shooting an opening round 76, I would suggest McIlroy concentrates on his game and leave the adults in the room and administrative types deal with the tour shenanigans.
