How much Saudis spend on LIV, and a pro sums up fan angst | Weekend 9
Greg Norman signs autographs during LIV Golf's event in Australia.
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Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com
Let’s call this an opinion … on an opinion … on opinions. We’ll start in reverse order. And the takes.
On the subject of pro golf and its perceived ground-under-repair state, seemingly everyone’s had a thought. The number of views, it seems, outnumber those on a Bryson DeChambeau YouTube video. As one example, just listen in on Wednesday’s pre-Genesis Invitational press conference with Rory McIlroy, who, when questioned, offered his assessments on:
— Getting PGA Tour and LIV Golf players back together, saying: “Like for me, we’ve all done better from all of this. Whether you stayed on the PGA Tour or you left, we have all benefited from this. I’ve been on the record saying this a lot, like we’re playing for a $20 million prize fund this week. That would have never happened if LIV hadn’t have come around. I think for the — I think everyone’s just got to get over it and we all have to say OK, this is the starting point and we move forward. We don’t look behind us, we don’t look to the past. Whatever’s happened has happened and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone. If people are butt hurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went or whatever, like who cares?”
— How he came to peace with potential reunification, saying: “Because I look at what I made in 2019 before LIV came around and I look at what I’ve made after LIV came around and it’s very different. Like I don’t know what to say, I earn more money now than I did in 2019 and if LIV hadn’t have come around, I don’t know if I would have been able to say that.”
— President Donald Trump’s involvement in Tour-Saudi PIF negotiations, saying: “So the president, he can do a lot of things. He can also — he has direct access to Yasir’s [Yasir Al-Rumayyan] boss. Not many people have that. Not many people can say, I want you to get this deal done and by the way, I’m speaking to your boss, I’m going to tell him the same thing. There’s a few things that he can do. He can be influential. He loves the game of golf, he has — I saw it when I was playing — I was playing with a — I was playing with Sheik Hamdan of Abu Dhabi the day when he got elected in November and the respect he has in the Middle East is — I don’t think people appreciate how much respect that he has there. So I think whenever he says something or he — they listen and I think that’s a big thing.”
There were more takes from McIlroy, but the only judgement here is that, since his answers weren’t short, McIlroy appears to have spent at least some time thinking about things. You can appreciate that.
But is everyone thinking about things, you know, properly?
A day earlier at the Genesis, Collin Morikawa wondered that. Here, then, was his opinion … on opinions.
‘Get over it’: Rory McIlroy says PGA Tour-LIV unification works only in 1 way
“Yeah, I think a lot more people have opinions,” he said, “and there’s nothing wrong with that, and they’re sharing that. I don’t know if we’re all focused on how do we make the product better for people, right? I think we’ve made golf really, really good for ourselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think every one of us feels like we deserve that and I think we do.
“But how do we keep growing, getting more engagement, getting more eyeballs to the sport? How do we have people want to come out to the golf course and say, I want to go watch these 20 players play? I think we’re sometimes focusing on small issues that are important, but then we make it like it’s going to solve the whole thing.”
Did Morikawa have an example? He did. He said look at the discussion around cutting PGA Tour cards from 125 to 100.
“They say it’s going to make it better for slow play and better for fans or whatever, right?” Morikawa said. “It makes it better for the membership because now those 100 guys that keep their card can say I can set my schedule in January, January 1st, and this is what I’m going to play. Even guys that are 125 right now, they’re still like, maybe I get into this, maybe I get into that. Aside from the big Signature Events, aside from the majors, I’m saying full-field events.
“So it’s just focusing on the right things of saying — of thinking about the product. How does it come off on TV, how do people watch it at home, where do they watch it, why do they watch it, why do people want to come out? People want to go out to Phoenix because it’s a party, there’s nothing wrong with that. Each tournament has their own thing, right? Each tournament has their kind of own, what do I call it, just has its own essence, the way it shows out.
“So it’s tough to get that when you have 40-something events. There needs to be a focus on that versus the minute, minute stuff that could affect, you know, smaller, lesser group of people.”
As for an opinion … on an opinion … on opinions?
In a few minutes, Morikawa summed up fan angst built up over the past few years, didn’t he? Field sizes and purse sizes and other such items may make the employees happy, but do they please the ticket-buying and broadcast-watching consumer? If they really do, great. If they don’t, put these items on the clock, to borrow a phrase from another recent topic.
‘He’s trying to get his way:’ Pro fires back at Rory McIlroy over latest PGA Tour-LIV comments
Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9.
2. McIlroy had another take that I’ve been wondering about for a while: The division in men’s pro golf is unfortunate — but has it made the majors even better? Said McIlroy: “I think we’re both sort of like this has been great for the major championships. We all get together at the major championships and that’s been a really good thing.”
The thought is along the lines of the feeling we talked about in this space a few weeks back — since the times are few when the best are all together, you appreciate them more. Of course, having everyone together, say, 20 times a year would be OK, too.
One takeaway from the week — and the weeks ahead
3. Whatever comes of top-tier pro golf, a stop — or stops — in Australia is a must. This quote from South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas was telling.
“Australian golf wasn’t getting the recognition that it deserves from investors in the rest of the world,” he said ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Adelaide event. “This is a sporting nation, and golf is part of our sporting identity. It was sort of looked over and ignored. Australian golf fans could only dream of having a Brooks Koepka playing here amongst all of the others. Like it was seen as a fantasy. LIV Golf gave the opportunity to achieve that. Naturally fans responded.”
If LIV remains, multiple stops in Australia should be considered. If there’s a global tour, making the Australian Open part of that circuit should be considered.
Best non-GOLF.com read for your weekend
4. What am I reading (besides the thoughtful prose of my colleagues)? This article is worth your click.
Here, Adam Schupak of Golfweek wrote about a report from the Money in Sport website that looked into the financials reported by LIV Golf’s UK arm. Some takeaways? Operating losses were listed at $394 million, and the Saudi PIF investment into the tour could reach $5 billion by the end of the year. Wrote Schupak:
What we learned from LIV’s sparse first Fox TV ratings
Money in Sport concluded: “We know from the statutory reporting by the Jersey holding companies that the total capital approved by PIF is now at $3.9 billion, $1.0 billion of which relates to LIV Golf UK and the balance to LIV Golf Inc. in the U.S. Clearly the U.S. financials must be considerably worse than the rest of the world performance reported by LIV Golf in UK. PIF’s investment in LIV Golf could approach $5 billion by the end of this year, with further big bills on the horizon if they want to retain the top golfers as their contracts expire.
Best instruction tip for your weekend
5. It comes from … me, along with my fellow mid-handicap colleagues at GOLF.com. Our instruction guru, Zephyr Melton, had asked us for a tip to break 90, and you can read here how we responded.
Breaking 50 for nine holes is the milestone I’ll never forget, though. I was 16, and we were on a family vacation in Northern Michigan. Dad dropped me off, told two 30-somethings to watch after me and gave them some beer money. LOL. (One day, I’ll write more about my dad.) Anyways, I must have looked at that 47 for about an hour.
A golf story that may interest only me
6. Here, as first discovered by the Fried Egg’s Brendan Porath, you can purchase a weekend bag designed in collaboration with the Cleeks, a LIV Golf team — for $4,800.
Another golf story that may interest only me
7. Here, Mary Jo Pitzel of the Arizona Republic writes about a proposed bill in Arizona that would allow golfers to bring their own booze on golf courses. These paragraphs from the story are good:
The bill was inspired by a visit to the Cowboy Golf Classic in Prescott, where Kolodin and three fellow lawmakers saw a sign that specifically banned carry-on cocktails and cited the state law that makes it so.
The best tips for breaking 90, according to mid-handicappers
He saw a similar admonition at the Orange Tree Golf Course in Scottsdale and spotted a statewide issue that he said needed solving.
“It does annoy me, as a member of the Legislature,” Kolodin said. People are out on the course to relax and have a good time and it’s not a good look to have lawmakers blamed for dampening their spirits, he said.
One golf/non-golf thought for your weekend
8. On X, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said that Tiger Woods was not just the greatest golfer of all time — he may be the greatest athlete of all time. In response to an X user who said that Jack Nicklaus was the golf GOAT, Chamblee wrote:
In major wins, yes he is. But what if Hogan’s career hadn’t been interrupted by WW II AND his accident in 1949? What if Hagen had 4 majors to play in instead of three in his prime, and for that matter, if the powers that be hadn’t demoted the Western Open from its “major championship” status? What if Bobby Jones hadn’t retired at 28? Majors are certainly A WAY to judge the best player of all time but it is problematic to be sure. I think the best way to judge the best player of all time is a combination of major wins and the level of dominance a player had in his or her era, measured by win [percentage] and margin of victories, compared to other eras over time. In that regard, Tiger is not just the greatest golfer of all time, he may well be the greatest athlete in the history of sports.
A feel-good moment for your weekend
9. Here’s Scottie Scheffler offering a young fan a putting tip.
What live golf is on TV this weekend?
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