PGA Tour vs LIV Golf: The battle intensifies but just how have we got to this point?
Whether it’s McIlroy himself - the most outspoken critic of LIV Golf - and Greg Norman firing not-so-subliminal shots at each other, or news of more top golfers making the jump to the Saudi-backed series, there is rarely a moment of calm. As a result, it may have left many onlookers unsure as to what exactly has happened so far, and the current status of LIV Golf’s battle to be treated as an authentic, elite tour. So let’s give you the rundown.
WHAT IS LIV GOLF?
LIV Golf is a newly-formed, professional golf tour supported and financed by the Public Investment Fund - the wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Fronted by golfing legend Greg Norman, It has received heavy criticism, as many see it as ‘sportswashing’. This simply means that the country is attempting to mask their shocking human rights record by improving its public image.
Norman has claimed that the Saudis are not ‘his bosses’, and the LIV Golf fund is different to the Public Investment Fund. Honestly, who is he kidding?
Other men involved include Mohammed bin Salman, the chairman of the PIF, while also the crown prince, deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence in Saudi Arabia. Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan is the governor of the PIF, and also the chairman of Newcastle United football club. Majed Al Sorour is an advisor to the PIF, and additionally CEO of Golf Saudi, Saudi Golf Federation and Director of Newcastle United Football Club
The format of play is different to that on the PGA Tour. Instead of events consisting of 72 holes, there are instead just 54 holes over three days, with no cut (an elimination process in other tournaments to trim the field), and play commencing by a shotgun start.
There is also a team element blended in to give it another dimension, with 12 teams of four, drafted each week. The aim of these changes is to make golf more eye-catching and exciting for the casual viewer, and draw more eyes to the sport. Apparently, anyway.
Tournaments are spread out across England, the USA, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Oh, and Donald Trump has endorsed LIV Golf, if you needed some assistance in formulating an opinion.
PRIZE MONEY
The biggest difference, and the factor that has managed to sway some of the world’s biggest players to jump ship, is the mind-boggling amount of money being distributed.
For the seven events during the first season, the total purse per tournament was at $25 million - $20 million in individual prizes and $5 million in team events. The winner would claim $4 million, while last place would still pick up $120,000. 'It's the taking part that counts' has never been so relevant.
In 2023, Norman revealed that they would really get up and running, with 14 tournaments during the year. There will be 14 established teams, 48 players, and a whopping overall purse of $405 million, an increase on 2022’s $225 million.
Dustin Johnson was crowned the ‘Individual Champion’ at the end of the seven tournaments, and as a result, won just the $18 million. When he was presented with his winnings, he cut a a devasted figure.
The season-ending team tournament is yet to be played. The winning team in the ‘LIV Golf Team Championship Finale’ will split $16 million between a team of four, with a further $34 million distributed between other teams.
Insanity.
SO HOW DID IT BEGIN?
Eleven months ago in November, Saudi-backed investments revealed that they had plans to invest $200 million into the Asian Tour and overhaul the circuit, but the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (European Tour) were quick to shut it down. However, months later, the Saudis delivered on their promise, which did indeed include a 10-year deal with the Asian Tour.
They announced the details of their LIV Golf tour in July, a month after they managed to recruit some of the world’s best golfers to take place in their curtain-raising tournament at London's Centurion Club. Charl Schwartzel was the victor and secured a whopping $4 million first-place prize. At the same time as this, the Canadian Open on the PGA Tour and Scandinavian Mixed on the DP World Tour were going on.
The money involved?
The purses were $8.7 million and $2 million respectively. LIV tournaments have purses of $25 million, as mentioned previously. A seismic difference.
Even more sensationally, Hennie du Plessis finished second behind Schwartzel, and banked $2.95 million altogether. That’s more than what the winners of three of the four major titles get (The Open, PGA Championship and The Masters).
The players that made the switch to LIV Golf included six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, four-time winner Brooks Koepka, two-time winner Dustin Johnson, and other major winners like Sergio Garcia and Bryson DeChambeau. Some reports stated that Johnson was to pocket $116 million from joining the tour - as long as he fulfilled contractual agreements (more on that in a second).
Their biggest acquisition would soon be The Open champion, Cameron Smith, who made the move soon after his major victory in Britain. The reason why this felt like such a game-changer, was because they managed to lure someone over who was in their prime - unequivocally one of the best players in the world. Most of the other names were older golfers past their best, or those who simply were struggling to make an impact.
He was offered a $100 million deal, but as long as he completes the requirements of his contract. Not talking about the tour in interviews is one of them. Nothing dodgy about that at all.
Golfing legend and 15-time Major winner Tiger Woods was offered a contract to make the switch to the Saudi tour, which he rejected. Reports claimed that including bonuses for winning tournaments, his overall prize money could eventually reach up to $750 million (yes, you read right).
Seven hundred and fifty million. $750 million. Three quarters of a billion.
No matter which way it is written, it's still hard to comprehend.
Following their first tournament, LIV announced the schedule and purses for the remainder of the season.
Rory McIlroy was very vocal and resolute in his belief that the tour would not go anywhere, and was always keen to get some digs in whenever he could.
After winning the RBC Canadian Open, which was his 21st PGA Tour victory and consequently overtaking Greg Norman of all people, he wasn’t shy to hide his delight.
Norman wasn’t going to just let it go though.
“I take it as a compliment that Rory wanted to beat my 20 PGA Tour wins,’ he said.
“His next goal should be to win more than 91 tournaments globally, or to maintain No.1 in the world for more than 331 weeks.”
McIlroy reclaimed his throne at the very summit of golf just a few days ago, but before the CJ Cup, the Northern Irishman resumed the war of words.
When asked if he was targeting a specific number of weeks at No.1, he said: “332. I don’t know if I can, but that’s a number in my head”.
The pin-up boy of the PGA Tour has very much been fuelled by the ongoing battle, producing some of his best-ever golf.
HOW DID OTHER TOURS RESPOND?
The PGA and DP World Tours took swift action. The former banned all LIV Golf players from playing in their tournaments, while the latter gave them a three-event ban alongside a £100,000 fine. Players were also barred from playing in the Ryder Cup.
Ian Poulter - who joined the breakaway group - filed legal action against the DP World Tour, and his ban was ‘temporarily stayed’. However, the PGA were up for the battle.
They removed every player who had headed for the money from their FedEx Cup rankings, and refused to let up.
It isn’t fully clear as to the major championships’ long-term policy on LIV Golfers, as so far, they have been happy to let them play.
Before the PGA Championship back in August, McIlroy was disgusted by the fact that they were able to take part in majors.
"I hate what it's doing to the game of golf. I hate it. I really do. Like it's going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth in a couple of weeks' time and seeing 18 of them there.
"That just doesn't sit right with me."
As a result, 11 golfers, including Mickelson and DeChambeau, filed an antitrust lawsuit against them, but this number has since dropped with several dropping out. Mickelson, Abraham Ancer and Jason Kokrak were just a few of the names who did this.
LIV Golf themselves joined the antitrust lawsuit, describing the PGA Tour as ‘an entrenched monopolist with a vice-grip on professional golf’. Norman called them ‘anti-fan and anti-golfer’ and saw no reason as to why all the tours can’t co-exist.
Speaking to Fox News a few months ago, he said: “Our model is 100% built around the golf ecosystem from the ground up. We are not trying to destroy the PGA Tour or the European Tour.
“We are there to work within the ecosystem to show that it’s a big enough space. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry."
The trial is set to begin on January 8th 2023, with the judgement on July 23rd.
Further changes made included the PGA and DP Tours agreeing to strengthen their alliance, with three events set to be co-sanctioned between the two.
PGA commissioner Jay Monahan also stamped down his authority by putting more money into his tour. In August, he announced a record $428.6 million prize purse for the new season across 47 events. He also added a set of limited-field, no-cut events, in the mould of LIV Golf, while also increasing the bonus pool for players.
THE ISSUE OF WORLD RANKINGS
The most recent issue that has riled up both sides has been that of world ranking points. The Official World Golf Rankings stated that they did not recognise the Saudi-backed league, and as a result, players would not be allowed to gain ranking points.
To absolutely no one's surprise, LIV bit back, and announced a 'strategic alliance' with the MENA Tour. Yes, that's another tour you need to keep track of now.
MENA was formed in 2011, and is a Middle Eastern and North African tour. They have been receiving ranking points since 2016.
However, the OWGR refused to budge, and said they had given them too late a notice to receive ranking points any time soon. They are currently reviewing the situation.
The MENA Tour commissioner, David Swanson, decided to get involved too, because apparently, he was feeling left out of all the drama.
He stated that LIV's events should not be 'treated any differently to any MENA Tour event, every one of which has received OWGR since we were accepted into the OWGR framework in 2016."
LIV's poster boy Johnson believes that it is inevitable that players on the tour will eventually get ranking points.
"Hopefully they [OWGR] do the right ... hopefully they give us points, this will all be over and we won't have to talk about it anymore.
"The longer it takes obviously the more irrelevant it becomes for us. If you wait too long all our rankings are going to drop so much it's not even going to really matter."
Fellow LIV player Graeme McDowell also agreed with Johnson (coincidentally enough).
"I feel like LIV tried to do everything they possibly can to be legitimate in the eyes of the OWGR. It needs to be taken care of ASAP," he said.
"The word 'official' has to go away from OWGR if they don't take care of the players out here.
"All we want is to have a fair court, to recognise exactly what it is that we are doing. It's impossible to ignore the talent that's out here.
"The only assurances that we get from LIV is that we are ticking all the boxes that we can tick and continue to do what is necessary for the OWGR to look at us the right way."
McIlroy has had a more neutral stance on the situation of late, believing that everyone needs to come together to discuss the issue.
"I've always said that there's a time and place where everyone involved needs to sit down and work together," he said. "It's very hard to do that with court cases going on.
"There's a natural timeline to let things settle down a little bit. People can go into those meetings with a cooler head.
"I don't want a fractured game. The game of golf is ripping itself apart and that's not good for anyone."
Interestingly, he also wasn't fully against LIV players getting ranking points, but only if they merited it.
"If Dustin Johnson is somehow 100th in the world, it's not an accurate reflection of where he is in the game. But at the same time, you can't make up your own rules.
"I've not a problem with them getting ranking points at all but you have to meet the criteria. If you don't, it's harder to justify why you should have them."
Monahan revealed that he had no interest in holding talks with LIV, and was focused on the lawsuit. So much for that, Rory.
So what next?
Honestly, more of the same. More money thrown around, more jibes and mental games, and potentially more players jumping ship.
More stupidity too.
CEO Al Sorour, claimed he would, um, create his own majors.
"There was speculation that the Masters might ban LIV players. For now, the majors are siding with the Tour, and I don’t know why,” he said.
“If the majors decide not to have our players play? I will celebrate. I will create my own majors for my players. Honestly, I think all the tours are being run by guys who don’t understand business.”
After being on the receiving end of a lot of stick, he claimed he didn't mean it and was just frustrated.
Aren't we all?
About a week ago, Mickelson also said that he can see LIV trending upwards and PGA downwards and he is on 'the winning team'.
A certain Northern Irishman retaliated: "I guess for them to be talking the way they are, it's bold. I think there's a ton of propaganda being used and all sorts of stuff. I certainly don't see the PGA Tour trending downward at all.
"All the talent, 95% of the talent is here. You've got people like Tom Kim coming through [who is] the future of our game."
World No.5 and former US Open winner Jon Rahm (it's refreshing to be typing someone else's name) was also in shock at the comments of his good friend.
"Man, I love Phil, but I don't know what he's talking about," Rahm said. "I really don't know why he said that. ... I think there are some great changes being made and great changes for the players on the tour. I truly don't know what drove him to say something like that."
So, I think that's that. Hopefully that's been fully cleared up.
Unfortunately though, there's still a long way to go. In this game of thrones, House McIlroy and House Johnson are just getting warmed up, as they tussle for supremacy and the right to claim the 9-Iron Throne.
