As US Open starts, dueling tours tee off on each other and LIV players face big questions
Professional golf suddenly finds itself in a precarious position.
The emergence of the controversial LIV Golf tour is providing a lucrative and less-taxing alternative to the PGA Tour, which is causing a split among some of the best golfers in the world.
Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson Dechambeau and Patrick Reed — all major winners — have recently defected from the PGA Tour to play for LIV Golf, banking millions in signing bonuses for a tour that has just eight events a year (compared to 48 on the PGA’s schedule). The purses are far larger and there’s a unique format that includes three-day tournaments, shotgun starts and no cuts. Other big names will likely follow suit.
Mickelson was reportedly given a $200 million deal to join LIV after earning roughly $95 million in winnings over his 30 years on the PGA Tour. Johnson made roughly $150 million from the new tour, trouncing his $74 million in PGA earnings.
“This is something that I thought was best for me and my family,” Johnson told reporters at LIV Golf’s inaugural tournament in London last week.
Charl Schwartzel, winner of the 2011 Masters, won the event and a $4 million purse, the largest in professional golf history.
Players in LIV tournaments should expect awkward moments from difficult questions posed by journalists. Golfers are simply not used to that kind of treatment. At last week’s tournament, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were asked, “If Vladimir Putin had a tournament, would you play that?”
Neither had an answer. The next question: “In a generality, is there any way you wouldn’t play on a moral basis? If the money was right, is there any way you wouldn’t play?”
After a pause, Poulter said he wouldn’t answer the question. But there will be more.
It’s well within players’ rights to do what they wish and follow the money and easier schedule. But those decisions come with a cost. There are fair questions about the ethics and morality of joining an organization backed by the Saudi Arabian government, which has a terrible human rights record and has been accused of supporting the 9/11 attacks recently by members of victims’ families.
That’s an entirely different discussion from the value of participating in the PGA Tour, which has a bigger field and history of hosting the sports’ biggest stars, including Tiger Woods, who reportedly turned down a massive offer to leave for LIV Golf.
The discussion about the future of professional golf is coming to a head this week at the U.S. Open being played at the Country Club just outside Boston. The defectors to LIV are competing in the event because the majors are independent of either tour, leading to an awkward dynamic where current PGA stalwarts continue to criticize those who have left for the more lucrative and less prestigious option.
“I grew up my entire life wanting to play the PGA Tour,” world No. 5-ranked Justin Thomas said to reporters this week, “wanting to break records, make history, play in Presidents Cups, play in Ryder Cups, and the fact that things like that could potentially get hurt because of some of the people that are leaving and if more go, it’s just sad. It makes me sad. I’ve grown up my entire life wanting to do that, and I don’t want to do anything else. The people who have gone, they’re entitled to make that decision. Not that I agree with it, but everything’s got a price, I guess.”
Rory McIlroy last weekend took home first place in the RBC Canadian Open by firing a final round 62. It marked the 21st tour victory for the four-time major winner who has been a vocal opponent of LIV. He took particular pride in overtaking Greg Norman’s 20 tour victories. Norman is the new CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf.
“I had extra motivation of what’s going on across the pond,” McIlroy told reporters Sunday. “The guy that’s spearheading that tour has 20 wins on the PGA Tour and I was tied with him, and I wanted to get one ahead of him. And I did. So that was really cool for me, just a little sense of pride on that one.”
Mickelson, of course, drew deserved criticism for comments he made to a biographer in excerpts that were published in February. He lost nearly all his sponsorship deals and was unofficially exiled from the PGA tour before he was officially suspended for participating in LIV’s first event last week when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended all players who left for the new tour.
“They’re scary m-----f-----s to get involved with,” Mickelson said of the Saudi government. “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay.
“Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. I’m not sure I even want [the SGL] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour.”
The new tour will continue to make it impossible to keep politics out of sports — which is notable given the expanding polarization of the political climate in the United States.
The LIV tour is also supported by former president Donald Trump, who saw the PGA of America remove last month’s PGA Championship (the second major on the annual schedule), from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey following the insurrection attempt by Trump supporters at the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 of 2021.
LIV’s third event on its schedule will be held at Trump’s course in Bedminster, and the final event of the season in late October will be at Trump National Doral in Miami. Trump has been a vocal critic of the PGA since events were moved away from his venues.
Surely, not every golfer that has left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, or will leave in the future, is doing so for political reasons or to sportswash oppressive regimes. There’s far more money and a much easier schedule on the LIV Tour. Those are perfectly justifiable reasons to switch. But Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and alleged support of the 9/11 attacks, along with the alignment of the former president who continues to make false claims about the 2020 election and subsequent coup attempt, can’t be ignored.
Those involved in LIV Golf have argued the tour will be around for years and years to come, which might provide the biggest threat to the PGA Tour’s 93-year existence. There’s no overcoming the seemingly endless amount of cash LIV can throw at players. And with more PGA stars expected to join, LIV Golf will draw more eyeballs, more sponsorships and more opportunities to grow its reach.
LIV is unique in that it can challenge the status quo more substantially than other leagues in American sports because of its massive cash investment, which was reportedly $2 billion from the Saudis, to start. That wasn’t true of the UFL and other football leagues trying to provide alternatives or minor league variants to the NFL. There’s been no real challenge to the NBA since it merged with the ABA in 1976. Major League Baseball has never had a domestic adversary like LIV Golf represents to the PGA Tour.
So buckle up, because this is shaping up to be a tug-of-war that could last in perpetuity. Hopefully, for the sake of golf fans who simply enjoy watching the majors, like the U.S. Open happening this week or the Masters every April, the split among the tours doesn’t change the Grand Slam events we love most.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 8:32 AM.
