Category: Opinion

LIV Golf League And Buyer’s Remorse

Is Jon Rahm On His Way Out of LIV Golf?

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.             

Hit Them With Your Wallet

How To Reject Woke Culture With Your Personal Wealth

Very much so!
Photo courtesy of alamy.com

Since the Obama years, this country has been peppered with woke culture left and right. From companies adopting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies to government agencies lowering standards of employment in the name of “equality.”

Companies like Meineke, Safelite, and Vrbo, to name a few, want you to think masculinity is a thing of the past as they continue to feminize males in their television commercials.  

Financial services companies like Chime and SoFi encourage financial irresponsibility by offering their customers the ability to access money they haven’t earned.

Advertising companies continue to use people in their television commercials who are not representative of the overall make up of American society. Omitting those with the purchasing power is not a winning strategy, but companies continue to fall down that rabbit hole. They think this omission is the right thing to do because of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies.

I decided a long time ago that I was not going to cater to these companies and institutions. They have the right to conduct their business and aimed their advertising to certain segments of the population, but I also have the right to choose who I will give my business to.

During Covid, I refused to patronized businesses who wanted me to wear a mask. Despite the fact our government said masks were useless, these businesses insisted on enforcing it. I have adopted the same approach towards the DEI culture and any company who pushes this nonsense down our throats.

My first victim was XM satellite radio. I got a 3-month freebie from my car dealership after a service, but after those three months I decided XM was not for me.  The service is expensive, and the programming is poor. Any broadcasting service who excludes a race of people should not be allowed to exist.

For example, why do they have to have Black channels only? If any other outlet would offer White only channels that would be deemed racists, but for some reason XM gets away with it. So, when they called me to subscribe to the service, I told them no thanks.

The best part was when the customer service representative asked me why. I told him I was not going to patronize a business who excluded a group of people based on their skin color. I added their programming was not geared towards people like me, and I was not going to pay for a service that was not inclusive.

I have to say that it felt really good, very refreshing knowing the power of my personal purse is a powerful one. Unlike our Congress, I do understand the power my money has over my everyday life decisions.

XM is not the only company I have rejected in my everyday life, but I think you understand where I am coming from.

You do not have to settle for less.  You have the power to tell these companies, no. Money moves the world, and as a consumer you have the power to reject companies who do not share your values.

Your hard-earned money means something, use it wisely.

337 Million People In The United States…

Are Harris And Trump The Best We Got?

Republican Party candidate Donald J. Trump and Democratic Party candidate, Kamala Harris. Photo courtesy of cnn.com

We should be embarrassed!

As Election Day is upon us, I cannot fathom the idea of having to choose between Donald Trump or Kamala Harris to be our next president.

As we only have a two-party system, it seems Americans are happy to accept whatever these two parties have to offer, without question and without a challenge.

It is true that under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris regime the country has fallen into social and financial chaos. Everything is more expensive, and our national security is a disaster as a result of an “Open Borders” policy.

It is also true; under the Trump presidency the country was in great shape. We had an economic and energy revival the country has not seen in decades. But we also witness a president who was a bad judge of character, appointing people to positions who did not have the country’s best interest at heart.

Donald Trump’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the most un-American episodes in American history. It began with “14 Days” to contain the spread, and the rest is history. Donald Trump left the door open for the Biden administration to impose unconstitutional lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Millions of lives were lost and millions more were destroyed by the government.

Turned brother against brother, and family members were instructed, by the government, to turn on each other. It was a dark period in our nation’s history.

Unfortunately, today, Donald Trump continues to brag about operation Warp Speed.

So, here we are, in another one of our country’s crossroads. We are, in what appears to be, one election cycle away from becoming Venezuela under a Harris administration or survive one more election cycle under a Trump administration.

Yes, I mean when I say survive. A Trump presidency may be able to pause the inevitable, but as long as people continue to vote for the same people into Congress, nothing is going to change. The United States Congress has become a career, instead of the public service the Founding Fathers had in mind.

We are faced with the choice of electing the best of two evils. We have nobody but ourselves to blame for this political travesty. American society has become so morally weak, it has forgotten that it has the power to change the country’s trajectory.

Facebook, Tik-Tok, Instagram, X, and the likes, are the equivalent of what the Roman poet Juvenal referred to as “Bread and circuses.” Keep the population superficially appeased instead of giving them honest public service or legislation. The Romans knew how to do it, but even the Roman Empire could not stop their demise.

Why do we have to settle for garbage? That is a question that will haunt me.

McIlroy’s Nightmare Continues

Whoop! Whoop!

Rory is “Fighting Something” Photo courtesy of msn.com

Rory McIlroy is definitely fighting something: A weak state of mind.

I am all for technology and taking advantage of every piece of information available. But to allow technology to dictate how I am supposed to play or live my life, that is a whole different thing.

It seems Rory McIlroy is doing that. Golf.com is quoting him saying after his first round at the 2023 PGA Championship, “I’m fighting something.”

“I thought I got a great night’s sleep last night, and I look at my WHOOP, and I was 22% recovery, and my skin temperature was 3.5 degrees higher than what it’s been, I’m fighting something.”

Say what? My WHOOP? Oh brother! Calling McIlroy a basket case is an understatement.

Honestly? I do not know what to make of Rory McIlroy. But if you thought for a minute I would give him a pass, you are highly mistaken. McIlroy made his own cozy bed, running his mouth about things he did not know anything about, and disrespecting lots of people in the process.

Sleep well on that bed Rory. Whoop! Whoop!

Rory McIlroy Chose To Be The Leader Of The Pack

His Woes Are All On Him

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.