A stalemate in world golf. Unless the PGA and LIV find common ground, nothing will be the same

COMMENTARY – It’s a complicated situation. The traditional and seemingly untouchable PGA Tour must defy the competition. Like a bolt from the blue, the new, financially attractive to players, LIV Golf Tour has arrived on the scene. Competition tends to be a boon in the sporting environment, but it does have some catches. The PGA wants nothing to do with the LIV Golf project, while the new competition steals their greatest jewel in the form of elite players. Now, baba, give me some advice on how to get out of this.

The whole issue can be looked at from several angles, but from all of them there are pros and cons. The most fundamental issue seems to be the funding of the LIV Golf Tour. Not that it is fundamentally wrong that it is a much bigger pile of money than the PGA Tour, but the problem is where the money is flowing from.

Saudi Arabia doesn’t have the best reputation in historical world values, and certainly not in the US. Part of this has to do with the unpleasant and not-too-distant history of September 11, 2001, when an investigation into the then series of terrorist attacks revealed that the absolute majority of the bombers came from Saudi Arabia.

Not that it can be said that Saudi Arabia, as a state, is responsible for the atrocities of that time, but it is certainly the most painful strike at the heart of America in modern history. And of course there are terms like corruption and human rights violations. This whole thing just doesn’t, overwhelmingly, smell good to Americans.

Which means they don’t like the idea of a Saudi-subsidized project taking over world golf either. Trouble is, it’s already kind of happening. It’s not about history, of course; the PGA Tour probably already has that in its pockets for good. The showcase of the American Tour’s image today, however, is the golfers themselves.

Many of them have simply stopped worrying about the origins of the money. The prospect of a better financial situation and less workload is simply irresistible to them . Which, in a way, is understandable.

Just look at the list of a few names:: Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer or more recently Henrik Stenson.

If you lure all these names to the same tournament, it will be a spectacle. But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. The recent fourth major of The Open season still offered an all-star ensemble, but with the current direction, the attractive starting field will dwindle.

The PGA Tour stands by its principles and condemns competitive competition entirely. And it does so in such a way that it will suspend its former superstars if they choose a new alternative career option.

Thus, the PGA Tour is slowly losing ground. The math is quite simple in this regard. Great players make great ratings, great ratings make great profits, great profits generate great interest. Big interest in golf, generates big interest from sponsors, their financial capabilities in turn generate big interest from the players who ultimately make up this whole game.

Everything just fits together and builds on itself. Of course, the PGA can still stand firmly on its own and many of their fans will appreciate that too. But what’s next? To maintain the current direction, the PGA Tour is about to lose its luster. It will become a sort of second league as the stars make money for themselves and someone else, somewhere else.

Relying on the predictions of some detractors that LIV Golf will fall on its nose after a while because it is not a project built on real values would be too risky. It has to be acknowledged that world golf is in a crisis beyond memory or expectation. And in the final analysis, everyone is going to figure it out, because there is nothing worse than being able to divide a society even in a sport that is supposed to bring people together.

DOES MCILROY’S ATTITUDE CHANGE ?

The seriousness of the situation is probably beginning to dawn on the players themselves, who would prefer to draw an inverted cross on the new competition. Rory McIlroy, for example, recently said in an interview with the BBC that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour management should start holding talks with LIV Golf. The constantly escalating tensions are only increasingly dividing golf itself as a game. He made it clear that both sides should find common ground.

“I wish the chaos and tension would end already. In retrospect, I conclude that some steps were probably missed. There is a division in our game instead of everyone coming together,” GolfExtra quoted McIlroy as saying.

“I can understand people’s reservations about things to do with the Saudi regime, but at the same time, if these people are serious about investing billions of dollars in change and in the sport, I think it’s ultimately a good thing. But it has to be done the right way,” added the winner of four majors, who has previously rejected a clear and strict switch to competition.

But the aforementioned Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson, who was named captain of the European Ryder Cup team in March, has also spoken similarly. He is now preparing for the upcoming third event in the LIV Golf series.

If things are to settle down and golf’s future looks rosy again, someone has to step aside. And apparently, it will have to be the PGA Tour willy-nilly in the end, unless it wants to rely on its younger unwilling sibling to one day outgrow it completely.

There’s a well-known saying – the money will be there, we won’t be there. Only now, the game is to make sure that in the future, golf is exactly as it was created to be. An intelligent and gentlemanly sport that brings people together.

Source: PGA Tour, LIV Golf, GolfExtra