LIV Golf’s seemingly endless supply of Saudi funding is coming to an abrupt end. Overrud is another asset the PGA Tour covets. This one doesn’t have a price tag.
A blank canvas.
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While LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neill tried to signal hope for the cash-strapped future of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the PGA Tour was bouncing from one signature event to another on the short path to the PGA Championship Alonimink.
That’s a meaningless schedule.
From the first major at the Masters to the second major at the PGA Championship, top players will face three $20 million signature events and two majors over six weeks. What followed was a grueling five-week stretch of three $20 million events and The Players Championship on both sides of the country.
What could be the solution? The Future Competition Commission is working on it, but there’s no doubt that blowing up and rebuilding a model that’s been in place for 100 years, with tweaks along the way, has proven difficult.
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The idea is to allow the best players to play against each other more often, and not many people would object to such a concept. Four years ago, 23 players privately gathered in Delaware to rally for the Tour and LIV Golf Tournament (three of them later defected to LIV).
From there, a 2023 schedule emerged that promises a 20-event schedule in which top athletes will compete at least 17 times. Rory McIlroy skipped two of those games.
And McIlroy has already missed two major events this year after winning the Masters. Four other players in the world’s top 15 did not compete in last week’s Cadillac Championship in Doral. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will not play at Quail Hollow this week as he will play up to four consecutive tournaments, two of which will be home events in the Dallas area, starting with the PGA Championship.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolup, who appointed Tiger Woods to lead the competition committee, was aware of the crisis when it was announced last August.
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“Every event is important, and how do we actually move forward with a competitive schedule that leads into the postseason so that the best golfers can come together and actually perform well?” Rolup said at the Tour Championship. “It’s all an open question and we’re going to look at it without prejudice.”
But this isn’t an open-and-close affair, and there’s not a whole lot of history behind it on the PGA Tour. History is one of the sport’s greatest assets, until it becomes a hurdle when trying to effectively start over.
Mr. Rolup mentioned two tracks in March, shedding some light on the committee’s progress. One is for elites competing in high-stakes events at famous golf courses, and the other is a proving ground for other tournaments on the schedule.
The trick was to find a ladder to get from one place to another. But the crisis facing players over when to play remains unresolved.
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The simple part of the tour was sinking two events in Hawaii. Kapalua’s title sponsor, Wisconsin-based Sentry, appears to be a good fit for Torrey Pines. This joins Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach and Riviera on the West Coast with “The Greatest Show on the Lawn” (Phoenix).
Florida State currently has five tournaments. There are 4 weeks in March.
And perhaps the biggest question with more opinions than answers is what is the right number of tournaments? How often should all the best players be on the same golf course?
“Somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder how much desire there is for 20 major tournaments,” Matt Kuchar said late last year after spending several hours with Rolup to understand his vision.
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That led to another question.
“I’m still scratching my head over what happened at the World Golf Championships,” Kuchar said. “They had a great field. Sure, there were some unknowns, but for the most part, the top 40 or 50 players in the world played. Tiger won half of them, so obviously they were successful from a television standpoint.”
“Why would you think any other version would work?” he said. “I don’t know.”
The last year the WGC was in full swing was the year before LIV was released. Sponsorship issues and the COVID-19 pandemic played a big role.
But this is reinventing the wheel, and there are definitely many bumps in the road.
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That’s where LIV Golf and its first leader, Greg Norman, could have used a mulligan. Shotgun start and 54 hole competition. Team concept (remember the early team names Niblicks and Punch?). It’s golf, but it’s loud – maybe too loud.
LIV had a blank canvas and came up with paint-by-numbers.
O’Neill has been left to draw up a business plan to lead the team to potential buyers, which perhaps should have been done long ago when funds were plentiful, in an attempt to emulate the popular and highly global F1 series.
The future is now in serious doubt. A lot has been written over the past few weeks. The media is buzzing around Trump National in Virginia, largely ignoring LIV Golf, at least until competition begins Thursday.
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On the day LIV announced the location for its first event, Norman boasted, “Finally, free agency has arrived in golf.” He may have been ahead of his time. That’s because if LIV Golf can’t survive without Saudi money or can’t find enough investors, there will be a glut of free agents.
Meanwhile, Rolup held a press conference the week after the U.S. Open to provide an update on the new competitive model the PGA Tour is building. There are a lot of moving parts.
Lots of paint.
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On the Fringe breaks down golf’s biggest topics of the season. AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
