The post Dean Burmester’s clubs: Inside his LIV Chicago-winning setup appeared first on Golf.

The post Dean Burmester’s clubs: Inside his LIV Chicago-winning setup appeared first on Golf.

It was bound to happen.

This year, South African Dean Burmester has played some of the best golf of his career and also become somewhat of a YouTube celebrity with his engaging appearance at LIV Duels Dallas alongside George Bryan of the Bryan Bros.

This week at LIV Chicago, Burmester outlasted Jon Rahm and young star Josele Ballester in a one-hole playoff to claim his second career LIV victory and a team win for The Stingers.

Known as one of the longer hitters on LIV, Burmester used a Titleist GT3 driver and a Srixon Z-Star XV golf ball to navigate the brutally difficult and dried-out Bolingbrook Golf Club. Ranking third in driving distance on LIV with a 326-yard average, the rest of his bag is built for control with a combo set of Srixon ZXi7 (4) and Z-Forged MB (5-PW) irons.

GT3 is an interesting piece in terms of Tour usage. From where I sit, it seems to be the driver that many non-staffers have in the bag. My take is that the very neutral CG, in combination with face progression, allows the driver to mitigate a left miss while not being right-biased compared to its competitors in the same “Tour Driver, Lower spin” category.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out at LIV Indiana, the final individual tournament of the season. Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann are still in play for the overall season title.

Here is the rest of Burmester’s bag:

Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

Srixon Z-STAR XV Golf Balls

Z-STAR SeriesWhether you’re chasing major championships or your next personal best, the all-new Z-STAR series is the choice for serious players everywhere. Featuring reformulated cores and covers across the line, this generation of Z-STAR golf balls delivers greater distance, optimized spin, and tour-level stopping power around the green. It’s a formula designed to give you one thing: pure performance when it matters most. Z-STAR XV provides maximum ball speed for unmatched Driver and Iron distance. Its premium 3-piece construction gives skilled players complete tour performance, tee to green.

$49.99 from Fairway Jockey

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Driver: Titleist GT3 9@8.25 (C1 SureFit Setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black TR 6X

Titleist GT3 Custom Driver

GT3 – Speed-Tuned Distance & Control GT3 offers Titleist’s boldest combination of power and personalization. With a speed-tuned design that allows you to precisely match performance to your most frequent contact location, you can make your biggest drives even bigger while taking total control over flight and shaping. For players with a relatively consistent impact location, GT3 offers a precisely adjustable CG Track to max out distance and directional control. Seamless Thermoform Crown A reimagined ultra-lightweight design, born from a new Proprietary Matrix Polymer. The tunable acoustic properties of this unique composite allow Titleist engineers to realize new material gains while maintaining our signature sound and feel. All wrapped in a clean look that inspires total confidence. Split Mass Construction A breakthrough in internal weighting unlocks longer drives and enhanced directional control in GT3. The Adjustable CG Track now sits closer to the face for more dynamic CG control, while additional discretionary mass is pushed to the back of the club to maintain optimal stability through impact. Advanced Aerodynamics GT3 features a new raised tail contour that represents a dramatic shift in driver aerodynamics. Previously impossible to execute due to design constraints, this advanced shaping results in a driver that swings faster while still providing optimal CG control.

$649.00 $449.99 from Fairway Jockey

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3-Wood: Ping G440 Max 15
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black TR 8X

Fujikura Ventus TR Black Wood Shaft

NEW FOR 2022! Introducing a new profile to the lineup, VENTUS TR. Born from the continuous quest for improvement and backed by enso®–driven analytics and Tour feedback, VENTUS TR builds upon one of the most trusted and best-selling wood shafts in Fujikura history. Jockey Tip: The TR Black is the stiffest VENTUS profile to date. Ultra-stiff tip and handle sections work in unison to support players with Tour-like speeds that prefer the feeling of minimal to no flex during the swing. As a shaft designed for players with a fast transition, spread tow fabric reinforces the mid/handle section even further, holding up to even the most aggressive moves to the golf ball.

$350.00 from Fairway Jockey

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7-Wood: Ping G400 Max 21@19.5 (Big Minus)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black TR 8X

PING G440 Max Custom Fairway Wood

The G440 fairway family (MAX, LST, SFT) advances PING’s reputation as a Tour-preferred model of choice through a re-designed face structure and low CG system. The face is taller for more confidence off the tee while maintaining a CG location that delivers high- launching performance off the ground. The MAX model (which fits most golfers) is available in five lofts (including a new 4-wood) to provide more gapping solutions.  HIGH MOI Easy to launch, stable design increases forgiveness.  FLEXING FACE Maraging steel face flexes for more ball speed, optimizes spin.  TALLER FACE PROFILE Improves performance off the tee, maintains low CG.  FREE-HOSEL DESIGN Saves weight to lower CG, optimize launch/spin and increase forgiveness. 

$369.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Irons: (4) Srixon ZXi7, (5-PW) Srixon Z-Forged II
Shafts: KBS C-Taper 130X

Srixon ZXi7 Custom Irons

$199.99 from Fairway Jockey

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Wedges: Cleveland RTZ Tour Rack (50 Mid/10, 56 Mid/10, 60 Adapt/8)
Shafts: KBS Tour 610 125

Cleveland RTZ Custom Wedge

All-new RTZ Wedges are made with Z-Alloy, a completely new steel formula that enables a zero-compromise design approach for incredible feel, better durability, and more consistency for our best performing tour Wedges yet. Plus, there’s an all-new ADAPT grind featuring full-face grooves, to give RTZ Wedges more versatility than ever before.  Z-Alloy  Z-Alloy is a brand-new steel with better feel. It’s softer, lighter, and remarkably durable. It gives RTZ Wedges superior feel, better forgiveness, and more consistency. On RTZ Tour Rack Wedges, Z-Alloy’s rust-resistant properties ensure longer-lasting, like-new performance.  HydraZip HydraZip is a unique system of face blasts and laser-milled lines formulated to maximize spin performance under wet conditions. This technology is dynamically configured by loft groupings, which helps balance spin across lofts, while maximizing spin in adverse conditions.  ZipCore This low-density core technology replaces heavier material in the heel and hosel area with a lightweight, low-density, vibration-dampening material. This proprietary core allows us to shift the Center of Gravity closer to where you strike the ball, while simultaneously adding MOI.  UltiZip UltiZip’s sharper grooves cut through grass and debris at contact, while deeper grooves help make space for grass, sand, dirt, or water to clear the impact zone, giving RTZ Wedges stronger, more consistent spin from the fairway, rough, or bunker. 

$199.99 from Fairway Jockey

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Putter: Odyssey Tri Hot 5K 7 DBL

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

The post Dean Burmester’s clubs: Inside his LIV Chicago-winning setup appeared first on Golf.

The post Marc Leishman’s clubs: Inside his LIV Golf Miami-winning setup appeared first on Golf.

The post Marc Leishman’s clubs: Inside his LIV Golf Miami-winning setup appeared first on Golf.

In what was arguably the toughest layout since LIV Golf’s inception in 2022, Marc Leishman fired a flawless four-under 68 to capture the title at LIV Golf Miami. After hitting it wide right on the 18th and having to chip out, Leishman was still able to get up and down for par (his eighth in a row) to hold off Sergio Garcia for his first victory on LIV.

Not only did Leishman take home the individual trophy, but his team, Ripper GC, dominated the field to win the team championship.

Here’s a look at Leishman’s winning sticks. If you know specs fairly well, you’ll see some interesting things. His irons are four degrees upright, and he’s sans 3-wood. He basically makes a 5-wood head work as a 4-wood and makes a 7-wood into a weak 5-wood. As a low launch, high spin player, this makes perfect sense.

Leishman plays with a ton of loft throughout the bag to get the ball up but also pairs that with a lower spin to level it all out.

Take a look inside his unique setup that helped deliver him a win at Trump National Doral.

Driver: Callaway Ai-Smoke TD 10.5@10.7 (D/S)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45.25 inches, Tipped .5, D3)

ALSO AVAILABLE AT PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE, Callaway

5-wood: Ping G430 Max 18 (Big – @16.5)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X (Tipped .5, 42.5, D3)

7-wood: Ping G430 Max 21 (Big – @19.5)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X (Tipped 2, 41, D3)

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Ping

Irons: (4-P) Callaway Apex CB 23
Shafts: Nippon Pro Modus3 130X (Plus .25 length)
Lie: 4 Up
Lofts: (4-9) 24/27/31/34/38.5/42.75

Callaway Apex CB Custom Irons

The new Apex CB ’24 Irons are designed for the most discerning tour pros and elite ball-strikers. This tour-cavity back is designed with an all-new forged construction for a pure feel, precise shot-making, and workability. THE ULTIMATE TOUR IRON. The new Apex CB ’24 Irons are designed for the most discerning tour pros and elite ball-strikers. This tour-cavity back is designed with an all-new forged construction for a pure feel, precise shot-making, and workability. PURE FORGED PERFORMANCE The Apex CB Irons are forged in a 5-step process from 1025 carbon steel, creating the buttery-soft feel discerning players crave. The body and face are forged as one-piece while MIM weights placed strategically in the heel and toe create a perfectly balanced design for enhanced workability and control. PROGRESSIVE CG DESIGN FOR ADDED CONTROL A progressive CG throughout the set improves trajectory control. The long irons feature a lower CG that promotes towering shots that land soft into greens while the short irons utilize a higher CG for a lower trajectory to promote more spin for added control. DYNAMIC SOLE DESIGN FOR ENHANCED TURF INTERACTION The new Apex CB Irons feature a Dynamic Sole Design with a pre-worn leading edge to cut through the turf more efficiently and trailing edge relief to ensure a clean exit. The result is an iron sole that maintains speed through the turf and promotes consistent contact on all shots.

$215.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Wedges: Vokey SM10 46/10F@47, 50/08F@51, 54/10S@55, 60/A
Shafts: Nippon Pro Modus3 130X

Titleist Vokey SM10 Raw Custom Wedge

For every shot, every lie, every course, there’s a grind fit for your swing. Finding the right grind to match your swing and playing conditions will give you the best turf interaction, contact and shot performance. Master Craftsman Bob Vokey has spent decades crafting, developing and improving his tour proven grinds to fit players of all levels.Anyone can manufacture a wedge, but it takes a master to turn a piece of high-performance technology into an instrument of creative control. Bob’s six tour-proven grinds are designed to offer maximum creativity, versatility and consistency, all meticulously developed through years of working with the best players in the world. PROGRESSIVE CENTER OF GRAVITY SM9 features a progressive center of gravity (CG) throughout the lofts, which optimizes ball flight, accuracy and forgiveness. Using tapered top lines and varied hosel lengths, the Vokey R&D team has raised the height of the CG in the higher lofts, which promotes a lower, more controlled flight.The CG is also forward of the face, resulting in increased MOI, exceptional feel and a club face that simply wants to square up at impact. SPIN MILLED GROOVES SM9’s patented Spin Milled grooves are meticulously engineered through a new cutting process to maximize spin and durability. The process starts by cutting the face perfectly flat with a high-speed saw. Then every groove is individually cut based on loft and finish; low lofts (46°-54°) are designed with narrower, deeper grooves, while higher lofts (56°-62°) have wider, shallower grooves.Micro-grooves are individually cut in between grooves, which maximize spin on partial shots. A proprietary heat treatment is applied to the impact area which doubles the durability of the groove without impacting feel, making it the most durable groove in golf. The process is only complete when every Vokey wedge is 100% inspected for utmost quality and performance.

$225.00 from Fairway Jockey

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TGW

Putter: Odyssey Versa #1W DBL

ALSO AVAILABLE AT PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE, Odyssey

Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour

Callaway Chrome Tour Golf Balls

Chrome Tour is the new gold standard in Tour Balls. From core to cover, every detail in the new Chrome Tour has been optimized for the better player seeking distance & feel. HYPER FAST SOFT CORE New Hyper Fast Soft Core produces exceptionally fast ball speed for long distance. SEAMLESS TOUR AERO New Seamless Tour Aero delivers a consistent ball flight on every shot. HIGH-PERFORMANCE TOUR URETHANE SOFT COVER New High-Performance Tour Urethane Soft Cover consistently delivers greenside control with incredible feel.

$54.99 $44.99 from Fairway Jockey

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE, Callaway

Want to overhaul your bag for 2025? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

The post Marc Leishman’s clubs: Inside his LIV Golf Miami-winning setup appeared first on Golf.

The post The inside story of how LIV Golf vs. the PGA Tour began appeared first on Golf.

The post The inside story of how LIV Golf vs. the PGA Tour began appeared first on Golf.

Remember when we thought a pandemic golf season two years ago was crazy? Man, 2022 had it all. The return of Tiger Woods, the founding of a controversial golf league, the disappearance (and reappearance) of one of golf’s most beloved figures and so much more. But now let’s take a breath. Here, we’ll look back (and look ahead) at the 10 most memorable moments of 2022.

No. 10: Nelly Korda’s rollercoaster year ended with promise for 2023
No. 9: How Tom Kim stole the show at the Presidents Cup
No. 8: How Lydia Ko rediscovered her game in 2022
No. 7: Rory McIlroy was an absolute force
No. 6: Scottie Scheffler is a major champ
No. 5: Cam Smith’s breakout (and tumultuous) year
No. 4: What happened to Phil Mickelson?
No. 3: This year’s Tiger Woods comeback was nothing like the others
No. 2: LIV Golf arrived via cannonball. 2022 was never the same

***

There’s no question that the biggest story of the 2022 golfing year was LIV’s high-profile intrusion into the professional golfing world. But there are plenty of questions following the league as we head into its first full season in 2023. There are important, specific questions, like whether Greg Norman’s seat is getting warm or whether LIV has made meaningful progress when it comes to a TV rights deal. There are also important, big-picture questions, like what this means for the future of the PGA Tour or what Saudi Arabia wants out of all of this, anyway.

But to understand where LIV is going next year it’s useful to look back at how it got started this year. Below you’ll find the cover story from our September issue of GOLF Magazine on the origins of LIV vs. the PGA Tour. Enjoy!

***

The rumors swirled ’round Riviera Country Club, riding a south wind across the netted driving range, up the hill and across the massive, Spanish-revival clubhouse; whispers passing from players to sponsors to executives and, finally, to media members, the inevitable end point for every conversation. Who’s going? How many millions? Wait, are you sure?

It was February in Los Angeles, the week of the Genesis Invitational. Riviera is one of the PGA Tour’s prized venues. Genesis is one of its top sponsors. And the tournament is hosted by its greatest icon, Tiger Woods. But, behind the scenes, there were two sides bracing for war.

Suddenly sensing the extent of the threat on its doorstep, the PGA Tour was frantically seeking to secure its players’ loyalty and, by extension, the Tour’s future. On the other side, LIV Golf was readying an announcement that would serve as the introductory paragraph to a new chapter in the sport — one that would put the first serious challenge in decades to the Tour’s supremacy.

The breakaway league, funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and helmed by Tour legend Greg Norman, still consisted of just a half-dozen employees and zero public presence, but months of wheeling and dealing — plus promises totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — had turned them into a serious player on golf’s world stage. Now, unbeknownst to much of the golf world, they were on the brink of securing commitments from 24 players. That was a significant number because it represented fully half the slots in their new venture, which would accommodate only 48 golfers: 12 teams of four players each.

Not everyone was comfortable with the arrangement. Sergio García, himself intrigued by the league’s potential, texted Norman to warn him that some younger players were “s—-ing in their pants” at the prospect of a PGA Tour suspension should they opt to play in LIV events. Other pros were more committed. According to a lawsuit that would be filed by LIV golfers five months later, Bryson DeChambeau was among those already under contract, while others had all but signed on the dotted line.

At Riviera, players were pressed by both leagues to pick sides. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour, denouncing LIV’s legitimacy and the worrisome source of its funding. Others acknowledged LIV’s intrigue. Adam Scott called LIV’s proposed schedule — initially more forgiving than the grind of the Tour—“very appealing.” Lee Westwood, making his allegiance clear, was among those who said he’d already signed an NDA with LIV.

But on the morning of round one, all the jockeying was abruptly upended by one explosive two-word phrase. Sensing that the sport was nearing a seismic shift, former GOLF writer Alan Shipnuck posted an excerpt from his soon-to-be-released Phil Mickelson biography. In it, Mickelson — who’d been commingling with Saudi financiers and, more recently, publicly airing his discontent with the Tour — spoke openly about LIV’s controversial Saudi backing, calling the Saudis “scary mother-f—–s.” Still, that wasn’t enough to dissuade him from aligning with LIV.

“We know they killed [Washington Post scribe and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” he told Shipnuck. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider [joining the upstart league]? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

The quotes made international headlines, and within hours conversation around LIV had turned toxic. Fearing blowback, players withdrew commitments left and right, and the PGA Tour seized the moment to force the hand of some of its most high-profile members: Recent major champions DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson released statements reinforcing their commitments to the PGA Tour.

By week’s end, LIV’s demise seemed imminent, from without and within the organization. Rory McIlroy, unquestionably the PGA Tour’s most prominent and vocal supporter, summed up the mood: “It’s dead in the water, in my opinion,” he said.

Less than six months later, LIV is anything but dead.

Over Labor Day Weekend, Norman staged LIV’s fourth event — a competition at The International outside of Boston — with a 48-player field that included Johnson, DeChambeau and Mickelson. By this time they’d signed World No. 2 Cameron Smith, Ryder Cup stars (García, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood), major champs (Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Henrik Stenson), promising Tour stars (Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Matthew Wolff) and the winners of seven of the last 13 Masters. They’d doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money, paid out more through its events’ mega-purses, launched a new tournament format, laid the groundwork for the construction of team franchises and established LIV as a legitimate threat to the establishment. Oh, and every player who teed it up was indefinitely suspended from the PGA Tour.

So how did professional golf get here? And where is it going? It helps to look at it all through the prism of three key factors: money, innovation and loyalty.

1. HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

After the Genesis, even LIV’s employees were convinced that McIlroy was right. This thing was dead in the water. The PGA Tour had drawn a line in the sand, making clear that punishment would be swift and harsh for players who defected to LIV.

But money always talks. And in this case, LIV’s catchphrase — “Golf, But Louder” — proved prophetic. The CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation, Majed Al Sorour, believed in the league’s vision, and the managing director of the PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, was intent on making it happen. How? With a little determination and a massive infusion of cash. The directive was clear: LIV would stand up a product in 2022. LIV would stage a series of events. And whoever was in those fields would make bank beyond imagination.

It’s impossible to talk about LIV without talking about money. Money is LIV’s foundation. Its massive sums have garnered headlines, its up-front direct deposits have demonstrated the league’s commitment, and its promises of generational wealth have allowed them to arrest the interest of previously content Tour pros. Some have even admitted as much.

It’s also impossible to talk about LIV’s money without acknowledging the controversial nature of its source. The PIF, effectively LIV’s sole backer, is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. While Saudi Arabia has been making strides toward modernization, it faces ongoing criticism for its human-rights record, including its alleged role in supporting the 9/11 hijackers and its treatment of dissenters, including the slaying of Khashoggi. Saudi money is pervasive in the global marketplace — including the sports world, where the PIF has invested in Formula 1 racing and soccer’s Premier League and, notably, where Saudi money is tangled up with the sponsors and partners of the PGA Tour. But LIV critics argue there’s something quite different about working directly for the Saudis and, in effect, laundering their image.

That argument has proven more compelling for some players than others. When LIV employees talk about the league, they don’t mention “sportswashing.” Instead, they compare themselves to Uber or Netflix, companies that prioritized growth and disruption over cash flow. The players who’ve signed on talk about balanced lifestyles and the pleasure of more family time. But, inescapably, money is the driver.

On March 16, LIV announced an eight-event schedule set against some of the PGA Tour’s weaker events. The eight LIV tournaments boasted $225 million in prize money, dwarfing the weekly prizes doled out by the PGA Tour. Norman himself said he hoped a no-name player would win the debut event’s $4 million first prize just so top pros would see how much cash was there for the taking. On May 10, a month before LIV’s first scheduled event, Norman announced that LIV had received an additional $2 billion in funding from the PIF, a sum that allowed them to make offers that some players would not be able to refuse.

LIV’s negotiations were swift. They approached players and agents at PGA Tour events at breakneck speed and made clear that today’s offer may not be here tomorrow. In the context of the Tour, which has never featured guaranteed money for its players, the contracts that followed were stunning. The reported sums for up-front deals included $200 million for Mickelson and an estimated $125 mil each for Johnson and DeChambeau. Brooks Koepka’s deal came in at around $100 million, while would-have-been Ryder Cup captain Stenson and Masters winners García, Reed and Charl Schwartzel each fetched over $50 mil. (Even more eye-popping was an offer that hadn’t been accepted: In August, Norman told Fox News that LIV had dangled $700 to $800 million in front of Woods. He declined.)

News

Those reported contracts thrust the spotlight back on the PGA Tour and its commissioner Jay Monahan. And they begged the question few golf fans would have ever thought to ask: Are professional golfers, many of whom pocket tens of millions of dollars each year, underpaid?

The PGA Tour is an enormous enterprise. Balancing the competing interests of players, sponsors and fans is a constant challenge. But in recent years, the Tour had already made moves to enhance the fortunes of its talent. The FedEx Cup, first established in ’07 to increase the take for players, raised its top prize to $18 million (up from $10 mil) in 2022. In 2021, the Tour implemented its Player Impact Program, a $40 million pool divided among the players who it deemed had “the most positive impact on our business.” With the Tour’s new TV deal kicking in, top pros were going to get a raise — but with LIV looming, that raise came faster and more dramatically than they’d planned. Mickelson had talked about the changes that could be brought about with increased leverage. Now that he and so many others had jumped ship, the Tour did change. The PIP fund more than doubled to $100 million. Every PGA Tour player is guaranteed $500,000. Bigger tournaments with bigger purses are on the way (more on that shortly). Talor Gooch responded to those changes with two words, speaking on behalf of LIV defectors: “You’re welcome.”

In other words, things seem to be working out fairly well for the players, who are getting paid. But what about the fans? Big picture, and in light of LIV’s guaranteed money, maybe the better question is: Does all this dough make for a better product? Or does the division that comes with it mean a potential calamity for the sport?

2. DOES THE GAME REALLY NEED FIXING?

Why golf? It’s not the only sport the Saudis are involved in, but it’s the only one they’re attempting to redefine. There’s a cultural impetus to the Kingdom’s investment in the game — it’s a symbol of relevance, stateliness and legitimacy in many of the world’s developed countries. Because golf doesn’t have teams, purchasing a franchise — like the Saudis had done with Newcastle in the Premier League — wasn’t an option. The next obvious thought was Why not create our own league?

The PIF considered the PGA Tour ripe for disruption because its product was, they say, stale. The Tour’s calling cards can also be considered shortcomings. There are tournaments every week, which leads to oversaturation and burnout for fans and players alike. Four days of golf with as many as 12 hours of competition every day? That’s a lot to keep track of. And despite the Tour’s wishes, not every one of its 48 tournaments can draw a compelling field and blockbuster ratings.

LIV’s argument is that it has developed a superior golf product, or at least one that makes pro golf more attractive to viewers, specifically younger viewers. The tournaments are shorter, running 54 holes instead of 72. Shotgun starts mean the viewing windows are five hours instead of all-day affairs. LIV’s team format adds, they think, a compelling extra dimension, affording fans the chance to — à la any team sport — align themselves passionately with a group rather than a single player.

That team element ties into LIV’s vision for the future of golf — and ties back to money too. Beginning next year, its “franchises” — with names like the Niblicks and the Iron Heads — will solidify. Team captains (think Mickelson, of the Hy Flyers; or DeChambeau, of the Crushers) own a 25 percent equity stake in their franchises. Over the next several years, they’ll plan to do what they can to increase the value of those franchises before LIV offers them up for sale to outside investors. In a world in which the value of sports teams continues to skyrocket, LIV envisions a day when it consists of a dozen billion-dollar franchises.

That’s not to say their vision will become reality. There are hurdles between here and those 10-figure valuations, and complexities involved in who will get paid and how. LIV’s tournament broadcasts are running on YouTube this season, and although it’s likely LIV will end up with a streaming deal in 2023, they still won’t be on traditional cable, where the Tour draws the bulk of its eyeballs. There’s further uncertainty around its team model. In a sport whose history is built on remarkable, individual achievement — think Jack, Tiger, Hogan, The King — will fans ever really care about the Niblicks? It’s a grand experiment.

Part of the experiment is whether golf’s historic tournament format needs a rethink. Critics say that LIV’s flashy format makes for drama-free exhibition golf — no cuts, no grind, no real stakes. Its three-day shotgun starts yield a champion more quickly, but with no excitement. And golf was never meant to be a sprint anyway. Should the game’s heart and soul — one player competing against the field, under pressure and with everything (including his paycheck, pride and legacy) on the line — be sacrificed so LIV’s early adopters, many of whom are past their career peaks, can ride their Saudi millions into the sunset? LIV’s defenders argue that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. The Tour can keep their storied formats while LIV offers a change of pace. After all, golf isn’t the only sport trying to speed things up.

3. A TRADITION UNLIKE ANY OTHER?

This year’s JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor in Ireland featured both PGA Tour and LIV players; the field was assembled long before the sport’s chasm had fully opened. But the concentration of top pros at a low-stakes event meant it was the perfect opportunity to circle the wagons. A small group of top Tour players — led, in part, by Tiger Woods — convened a meeting to talk about the Tour’s existing structure and to figure out how to hold the line.

Woods’ presence was significant. The fact that he turned down such a monstrous LIV offer means he’s walking the walk. And he’s been clear that some of his motivation is based on his own résumé. His career was built on the framework of the PGA Tour, so, for the sake of his legacy — and, for that matter, the long history of the game — he’d like to see it continue as the sport’s dominant circuit.

It was the first of several such meetings, culminating in a players-only meeting at the BMW Championship featuring roughly two dozen of the Tour’s biggest names. By the time they left the room they were in near-unanimous agreement: The best way to secure the PGA Tour’s future was to get all its players on the same page, simplify its season and guarantee the best pros would be in the same fields much more often. And thus the era of big-money Elevated Events was born. This will be still be the PGA Tour. But it’s an updated version.

It’s easy to cringe when Tour fans cite values like “tradition” and “legacy” because it all sounds boring. But these things are also vitally important. Why do we care who wins the World Series? Terence Mann told us in Field of Dreams. “Baseball has marked the time. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again.” We know what it’s worth because of comparable competitions for decades prior. Think of sport’s greatest stages: Wimbledon. March Madness. The Super Bowl. We care about this year’s because we cared about last year’s, and the year before that, and the decade before that. Rip away that context and tradition and sport suddenly becomes less romantic. Less worth rooting for. Less… essential. In an age of upheaval, that may matter only to the nerdiest of the golf-watching community, but this is golf, where “A tradition unlike any other” actually resonates. LIV defectors have secured guaranteed millions, with millions more to come. That is clear. Less clear is what it means for golf that some of its biggest names might just be kicking its institutions to the curb.

The Ryder Cup is one such institution under threat, not only because some of its more interesting characters — Poulter, García, Koepka — are now ineligible to participate, but because Henrik Stenson chose to walk away from the Cup captaincy, an honor he’d counted among the highest of his career, to take a LIV deal. In the end, if the game’s best players aren’t invested in the meaning and importance of golf ’s history and historic events, why should fans be?

There is a silver lining in this conflict. The Tour is staying the course. More pros left for LIV at season’s end, but the Tour endures. LIV isn’t going anywhere either. The two leagues will continue down parallel tracks, at least for a while. Their clashes have drawn eyeballs to the golf world. Intrigue follows the game’s future. LIV’s interests don’t align with the Tour’s at present, which means neither will feel good about a compromise, which means this will all continue.

As for the players? Initially it was all good between them. No hard feelings from those who stayed —Tour leaders like Woods and McIlroy and Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth — toward those who had left. “Business decision” and all that. But in early August, after 11 LIV defectors filed suit against the Tour for wrongful suspension of their Tour memberships, the tenor changed. On Twitter, Tour everyman Joel Dahmen summed up his peers’ feelings best: “It sounds like some people want their cake and to eat it too.”

In the weeks since that filing, Tour pros and LIV pros have continued to trade barbs, whether through the media or through social media or in the safe havens of their respective tours. Friendships have gone sour. Showdowns continue to grow increasingly tense. There will be uneasy meetings to come, whether at the BMW PGA Championship or at next year’s majors or beyond — though exactly where is impossible to say.

Sports rivalries have traditionally been settled on the field. Now judges and juries will determine the future of our game. Nobody knows quite how it will play out, but the world will be watching.

The author (cautiously) welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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The post The inside story of how LIV Golf vs. the PGA Tour began appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Johnny Manziel shares his thoughts on LIV Golf from a fan’s perspective appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Johnny Manziel shares his thoughts on LIV Golf from a fan’s perspective appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by Johnny Manziel who shares how the emergence of LIV Golf has impacted him as a fan.

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Thanks to our official sponsor Dewar’s. Make sure to check out their Reserve Bar listings today: https://www.reservebar.com/collections/house-of-dewars

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Johnny Manziel shares his thoughts on LIV Golf from a fan’s perspective appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Fred Funk on the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Fred Funk on the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 8-time PGA Tour winner Fred Funk who shares his thoughts on the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf.

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Thanks to our official sponsor Dewar’s. Make sure to check out their Reserve Bar listings today: https://www.reservebar.com/collections/house-of-dewars

This week’s episode was brought to you by Rapsodo. Just go to www.Rapsodo.com/Subpar and use Promo Code SUBPAR for $100 off the MLM personal launch monitor. Right now, Rapsodo is also offering a $30 off bundle discount for MLM and their Premium Subscription. So SubPar listeners have the opportunity to save over $130 total, with purchase of the bundle package.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Fred Funk on the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 challenges LIV Golf faces in fight for TV rights appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 challenges LIV Golf faces in fight for TV rights appeared first on Golf.

Sports leagues exist, fundamentally, to make money. And any league with the hope of eventually making money has at least one common thread: a TV deal.

For pro sports, no revenue stream is as profitable or as vital as media rights — agreements in which leagues bundle the “right” to broadcast their events exclusively to networks and, more recently, streamers in exchange for considerable sums of cash. The PGA Tour’s media rights agreements make up an estimated 41 percent of the league’s annual revenue. For other leagues, the percentage is even higher. Today, as ever-larger sums are handed out to leagues worldwide, media rights are expected to gobble up an ever-larger piece of the revenue pie.

It is not difficult to understand why media rights are an essential piece of the puzzle for LIV Golf. LIV aspires to be a major sports league, and media rights are one area in which it glaringly is not like most major sports leagues.

Presently, the upstart league has no media rights partner. Its events are available free of charge and commercial-free on YouTube, among other free-to-air options. Barring a sudden shift before the final event of its inaugural season in Miami, LIV will have staged an entire competitive season without earning a penny for its media rights, all while shelling out millions for a broadcast crew to stage each of the events.

LIV, of course, would like to see that change. It has been engaged in negotiations with potential partners dating back to the beginning of the summer, and representatives from FOX Sports, CBS, NBC, Amazon and AppleTV have all reportedly been approached about their interest. But the list of solutions isn’t as simple as Saudi Golf Federation CEO Majed Al Sourer suggested to the New Yorker.

“If it was up to me, I’d make it in-house,” he said, apparently envisioning an NFL Network-type setup.

As the league closes in on winter, the list of potential suitors is dwindling, while the list of concerns surrounding the league is only growing. Below are five problems the Hot Mic is hearing about the new league’s pursuit of a TV partner.

1. The ratings are down vs. earlier LIV events.

Ratings prognostication is a problem typically reserved for those with advertisers they’re scared of underwhelming, but for LIV Golf, it’s actually bigger than that. Ratings for the upstart tour have sagged significantly since relatively stronger performances at LIV Boston, Chicago and Bedminster.

After landing audiences of greater than 600,000 viewers for the final rounds of those three events, both of LIV’s international events (in Bangkok and Jeddah) struggled to reach 300,000 viewers, seeing declines of more than 50 percent off the summer’s high watermark. At LIV Bangkok, things were worse in terms of average audience, which was one-third the size of LIV Chicago and one-fifth the size of LIV Boston.

Of course, it should be noted that LIV Bangkok was contested in the middle of the night for many Americans, while LIV Jeddah was played in the early morning. Still, these dropoffs suggest that YouTube viewers — many of them likely Americans — aren’t following the league as it shifts to different timezones; a concern for broadcast partners who will find themselves at the mercy of LIV’s tournament schedule.

2. The ratings are down vs. the PGA Tour.

Even if LIV’s ratings had held steady, they’d still be facing an uphill battle in competing with the PGA Tour, which has leveraged its partnerships with a trio of network partners (CBS, NBC and ESPN) into a steady spot atop the golf audience hierarchy.

According to documents obtained by GOLF, LIV’s final-round coverage has regularly struggled to reach half of the PGA Tour’s average third-round audience of 1.8 million viewers, while coverage from the league’s international stops has struggled to reach one-fifth of the Tour average.

A silver lining for LIV: there was audience growth in each of its last three U.S. starts, suggesting the league is trending in the right direction among American viewers. Still, you can bet TV execs will be watching closely to see how the league performs come next week’s season finale in Miami.

3. The advertisers aren’t there.

Rights agreements are, in truth, a symbiotic relationship. Sports bring in guaranteed audiences, which allows networks to bring in guaranteed advertising revenue, which allows leagues to collect guaranteed paychecks for their rights. This relationship has grown increasingly important as viewership tendencies have grown more sporadic in the streaming era.

LIV’s perceived value to a network is tied directly to the network’s ability to sell sufficient advertising inventory on LIV broadcasts — i.e., to a network’s ability to make money broadcasting the league. To date, LIV has struggled to draw sufficient interest from golf advertisers and sponsors to justify the cost of a rights contract.

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One potential avenue for the upstarts would be to adopt an agreement structure similar to that of the PGA Tour, which pre-sells advertisements to tournament sponsors on behalf of its network partners. Still, it remains to be seen whether LIV has the appropriate interest to absorb the risk of selling ad space itself.

4. Networks have busy schedules.

The proliferation of broadcast technology has helped LIV bring its product to fans without a TV deal, but it has also come at an extraordinary burn rate. LIV has spent millions attracting on-air talent for its high-tech broadcasts, and millions more assembling the crew and equipment needed to execute those broadcasts each week. Still, if there’s one benefit to a DIY broadcast, it’s that LIV can dictate the time, tenor and availability of its product.

LIV’s limited options in signing with a broadcast partner (CBS, NBC, ESPN and Turner all face some conflict of interest with the PGA Tour, leaving only FOX and some streamers) mean it could be forced to concede airtime to other network TV obligations.

Take FOX for example, where Golfweek reported LIV was nearing a deal that would pay the network in exchange for airtime (LIV has since denied this report). In the fall alone, the network has outstanding obligations with the NFL, college football, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the World Cup and college basketball. There simply aren’t enough hours in many weekends to afford LIV its requisite five hours of broadcast time.

5. LIV’s image is controversial.

Most sports leagues are not funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (or PIF) — a half-trillion-dollar pool of money owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and controlled directly by the crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman. The Kingdom’s money has allowed LIV to mount an unprecedented charge into the golf space, allowing for tremendous gains in the span of only months, but it has also come at a price. Saudi Arabia’s questionable human rights record and uncertain motives turned LIV into a political lightning rod, the size of which has only grown as the league has cozied closer to Donald Trump.

This, as most people who understand LIV’s broadcast predicament seem to agree, is a source of particular irony. LIV wouldn’t be where it is today without the Crown Prince’s money, but the idea of signing a league wholly owned and operated by Saudi Arabia has turned off some potential partners (Amazon and AppleTV among them) altogether.

Could these entanglements keep LIV from finding any sort of partner? It’s unlikely. But when it comes to striking an agreement, LIV could see itself with an uphill battle toward that first fundamental goal: making money.

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The post Greg Norman opens up on Rory McIlroy, the R&A and his ‘moral line’ appeared first on Golf.

The post Greg Norman opens up on Rory McIlroy, the R&A and his ‘moral line’ appeared first on Golf.

Greg Norman, when asked where professional golf will be in the next couple years, says “there will be some merging of the powers to be, just sitting down and having a conversation,” though he added his LIV Golf group does not want that right now. 

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In an interview this week with media personality Piers Morgan, Norman also said he would tell Rory McIlroy not to “begrudge the other players for making the decision” to join his upstart series. And the LIV Golf CEO said his “heat shield gets a little bit weak” when asked how he’s been handling criticism, then indirectly answered a question of what his “moral line” is. 

“My moral line is I believe in the product,” Norman said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “My moral line is I’ve been a big, staunch proponent of growing the game of golf on a global basis. My moral line is golf is a force for good. So when you have this opportunity — and I’ve seen it; I’ve seen it beyond LIV, prior to LIV; I’ve seen what I’ve done in Vietnam; I’ve seen what I’ve done in Mexico, through my other businesses, through golf course design. It is so resonatingly powerful to see the strength of what the game of golf can do in different countries around the world to change the economy of things, to change the hospitality, to change tourism, all these little ingredients that actually golf is the benefactor of, but actually golf was the initial reason why you could change these deals. 

“I am so proud to be in this role, I really am, because my whole life — somebody asked me the question the other day, Greg, do you think this is going to affect your legacy? And I said, you know what, maybe my legacy on the golf course is not my legacy. Maybe my true legacy is what we’re doing with LIV for the game of golf and giving this opportunity to collegiate players, eventually to women, guys we have today to be a true competitor to show that you are additive to the system, and our product is speaking for itself.”

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The subject of morals is one of several surrounding LIV Golf; they are backed by the Saudi Arabian government, which has been accused of wide-ranging human-rights abuses. The financing, which Norman said in the interview was $2 billion, has been another topic. Offers of guaranteed money and record purses have helped lure players away from the PGA Tour, and there are lawsuits now on both sides, along with questions of how the four major championships will proceed. 

With that in mind, and LIV playing its sixth event next week in Bangkok, and the PGA Tour in the middle of its fall schedule, Morgan asked Norman where pro golf will be in a year or two. 

In short, he foresaw the sides meeting, the majors continuing to invite LIV’s players, and the Official World Golf Ranking remaining neutral.  

“Look, I ultimately believe there will be some merging of the powers to be, just sitting down and having a conversation,” Norman said on the show. “We don’t want it right now. We’ve tried. And going back to what you’re saying before, we didn’t create this turmoil. We just came in with another opportunity within the ecosystem for the players, for the fans. … We didn’t really start this big fight. We didn’t create this animosity. 

“And with the majors, quite honestly, they should be Switzerland, right. If I’m a major, I want the best of the best in my field. They’re the four Super Bowls, four FA Cups, they’re the four whatever you want to call them that should always remain up there — Switzerland — and away from anybody. For them to be dragged into this quagmire, yeah, there’s going to be a lot of questions that need to be asked about that, but they should be apart from them. If you’re a broadcaster of any of the four majors, you should be saying to them, we want the LIV players in there, because 26 of the top 100 players, right now, today, are LIV players. OWGR, they’ve got to be, again, Switzerland, because they’re an independent organization. There’s 22 other tour events in this world that get OWGR points. And I can tell you this: 21 of those 22 are inferior to what the LIV tour is all about. So why are we being targeted?”

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On the subject of McIlroy, Norman was asked what his “message” would be to him, considering McIlroy’s defense of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. In his most recent comments, ahead of this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, McIlroy said this of the conflict: “I’ve always said I think there is a time and a place where everyone that’s involved here should sit down and try to work together. It’s very hard for that to happen right now when there’s two lawsuits going on.”

“Well, my message is, Rory, you’re an independent contractor; you have the right to make your decision,” Norman said on the show. “Remember, Rory started on the European Tour. Then Rory decided to leave the European Tour to go play where all the money is, where I went to play, to the PGA Tour. Why do we do that? We do that because that was the only option we had as players. We had to go sign on to their rules and regulations; we couldn’t even negotiate their rules and regulations. We had to do the only thing we could possibly do, is play the Tour. What we’ve done now is give them options. Hey, Rory, happy days, do what you want to do. If he’s comfortable over there doing that, an independent contractor, he can. If Rory wants to go to the Middle East and get appearance money to play in tournaments, happy days, go play in those, Rory; that’s your choice. 

“Don’t begrudge the other players for making the decision that is a rightful decision under their independent contract or right to go do it. It’s just a shame that people have taken this stance when if you look back over a period of time, they’ve pretty much done the same things themselves.”

Later in the show, Morgan asked Norman how he was handling the back-and-forth between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour personally. 

Here is the complete exchange:

“You yourself have gone under unbelievable fire,” Morgan began. “You’ve been snubbed up at the Open; they wouldn’t let you go to the Champions Dinner, which I thought was actually very churlish. As a great golfing champion, a great sporting champion, how are you dealing with that kind of vitriol, the kind of disenfranchisement, from the sport and the official bodies that you were once so welcomed by? How are you on a personal level dealing with that?”

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“Look, to be honest with you, at times, my heat shield gets a little bit weak because I am a human being,” Norman said. “I’ve done a lot for the game of golf — I was the No. 1 player in the world for six years; I’ve done things in the game of golf; I’ve promoted the game of golf; I’ve grown the game of golf globally; I took a mission on myself as an individual player to fly all around the world; I was the first guy to do an exhibition match in mainland China; I was one of the first guys to go into the Middle East and do that. And through my golf business at the same time, continue to do that. So when they do these — what happened in the R&A was a petty, cheap, childish shot, to be honest with you. If you can’t rise above it all, shame on you. Because if you’re under pressure from other people exerting pressure on you, shame on you. For you not to sit down and have a discussion and understand what the LIV business model is and to see how it sits within the ecosystem, shame on you. 

“Because in business, and remember we’re a commercial entity, in business, you understand what you’re up here what your opponent’s got; you understand what your competitor’s got. Unpack it all and see if you can actually work together within the system to make both entities better for each other, not try and destroy us. And we haven’t tried to destroy the PGA Tour. We have worked very, very closely to work with them. 

“Have you lost personal friends in the golf world as a result of all this?” Morgan asked.

“One-hundred percent I have, yup,” Norman said, “Look, if they want to judge me on lack of information and a lack of what’s out there, they’re the ones with the small mind. When you know the facts, you understand the facts, you understand the delivery mechanism and the business model — let me say this, my C-suite are the best of the best in the world of business. The economists, lawyers, marketing, they came from a diverse section of sport and business, not golf. Why do I have over 100 of the best of the best in the business? Because of the business model, and the business model is showing through; the product is showing through. I’m lucky to have these magnificent people behind me. I’m lucky to have an investor willing to invest in the game of golf like they are investing. Golf is lucky to have this.”     

The complete interview is below:

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The post Report: LIV Golf exploring Fox Sports deal to buy airtime for events appeared first on Golf.

The post Report: LIV Golf exploring Fox Sports deal to buy airtime for events appeared first on Golf.

Only weeks ago LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman claimed that there was a bidding war of sorts brewing for the rights to telecast LIV Golf’s tournaments: “All I can tell you is that the interest coming across our plate right now is enormous,” Norman told ESPN 1000 in Chicago, citing interest from “four different networks.”

But according to a Golfweek report published Wednesday, the opposite is true: Rather than beating back would-be partners, LIV Golf is actually set to pay a network to air its tournaments.

According to the report, that network is Fox Sports, which would air the tournaments on its cable-television channel Fox Sports 1. One of the few big networks not currently involved in golf coverage, Fox has been a speculative frontrunner to carry the Saudi-backed league’s events; Norman also has a long-time friendship with Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch.

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When contacted by GOLF.com Wednesday, a Fox spokesman declined to comment on the report, but according to a source familiar with the negotiations, weeks have passed since the network’s last conversation with LIV Golf.

In a statement to the Associated Press, a LIV spokesperson called the Golfweek report “incomplete,” adding: “As we have stated previously, LIV Golf is just beginning its process and is in active discussions with several companies about broadcasting the LIV Golf League. We caution that no one should draw any conclusions about potential media rights given that we are still in the middle of negotiations with several outlets.”

According to the report, if LIV does end up footing the bill to air its tournaments on Fox Sports 1, the league would also be responsible for overseeing the execution of the broadcast itself, as well as selling its own commercial sponsorships — an unconventional arrangement.

LIV Golf’s previous five events this year have been streamed commercial-free on YouTube and LIV’s own website.

The timeline for any potential deal is unclear. But LIV has three remaining tournaments on its 2022 schedule: Bangkok, Thailand, October 7-9, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, October 14-16, and Miami, Oct 28-30. LIV’s 2023 season begins in February.

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The post ‘I think it’s just fair’: Why this pro believes LIV events deserve World Ranking points appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I think it’s just fair’: Why this pro believes LIV events deserve World Ranking points appeared first on Golf.

It’s no secret that the LIV Golf Tour is a polarizing enterprise, but public perception is the least of its worries in its quest for longevity. Thanks to failing to meet certain criteria, the Saudi-backed tour is not able to dole out World Ranking points.

This is problematic for a couple of reasons. First, it hurts the legitimacy of the tour. A key critique of LIV has been its glorified-exhibition feel, and without any World Ranking points at stake, that claim is only bolstered.

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Second, without World Ranking points up for grabs, LIV players are free-falling in the Official World Golf Ranking, and many of them are risking missing out on the majors. Some of them have opted to play on other tours in the interim in an effort to sustain their ranking, but the strategy doesn’t seem sustainable.

So, LIV and its players are on a crusade for accreditation from the Official World Golf Ranking. The biggest hurdle they’ve faced thus far? They flat-out don’t meet the criteria. At 54 holes and without a cut, LIV tournaments fall short on two key components. The 48-man field size also hurts their cause, as an average field size of at least 75 players is required.

Despite these obvious shortcomings, LIV players are on a PR campaign showcasing why they think their tournaments are worthy of OWGR points. At this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Branden Grace became the latest to lay out his case.

“Look at the field that’s playing,” he said. “You’ve got the No. 2 player in the world playing on the LIV Tour. All of us, we’ve played golf and supported all the tours in the world — we’re hell of a players … I think it’s just fair.”

Grace hit on the typical LIV talking points (playing less golf, spending more time with the family, etc.), but the thrust of his argument centered around the quality of players in these fields.

But what about those pesky criteria? Well, Grace pointed out that while LIV might not meet all criteria, they do meet some of the bullet points.

“I know it’s the beginning of it,” he said. “But hopefully sooner or later we’re going to get there.”

It’s unclear when the LIV-OWGR issue will be resolved, but in the mean time, expect many more LIV-ers speaking out in support of their new tour.

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The post The lawsuit against the PGA Tour just lost its star plaintiff: Phil Mickelson appeared first on Golf.

The post The lawsuit against the PGA Tour just lost its star plaintiff: Phil Mickelson appeared first on Golf.

What is shaping up to be the biggest lawsuit in PGA Tour history has for months been known as ‘Mickelson et al vs. PGA Tour’, a fitting moniker considering Phil Mickelson was the biggest name of 11 original plaintiffs. That has suddenly changed as Mickelson has officially withdrawn his name from the lawsuit, along with three other LIV golfers Tuesday.

The suit, which was filed on Aug. 3, has progressed through an initial hearing (which the PGA Tour won, keeping LIV golfers from competing in the FedEx Cup Playoffs) and has reached the phase where discovery of information and documents is being dictated. Over the last eight weeks, a handful of LIV pros withdrew their involvement: Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Abe Ancer, and Jason Kokrak. When asked why he departed, Perez told SI.com, “I didn’t really think it through [when joining]. I did it to back our guys.”

Now on Tuesday, four other players have pulled out of the suit, namely Phil Mickelson, the lead plaintiff. Mickelson was working with his own counsel and had hinted at this weeks ago and finally made it a reality this week. 

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“I am focused on moving forward and extremely happy being a part of LIV, while also grateful for my time on the Tour,” Mickelson said in a statement. “I am pleased that the players on Tour are finally being heard, respected, and valued and are benefitting from the changes recently implemented. With LIV’s involvement in these issues, the players’ rights will be protected, and I no longer feel it is necessary for me to be part of the proceedings.”

Ian Poulter, Hudson Swafford and Talor Gooch have also withdrawn from the proceedings, leaving just Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Jones, Peter Uihlein and LIV Golf itself as the remaining plaintiffs in the case. Will the suit maintain its name of Mickelson et al vs. PGA Tour? Probably not. It is just further indication that the suit, which LIV Golf joined after it had initially been filed, was always trending toward LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour.

By pulling out of the suit, Mickelson and the others who followed do not fully clear themselves of involvement. As major pieces of the LIV Golf puzzle, it is still possible they could be deposed by either side for means of discovery. Mickelson’s name had been linked with a rival golf tour for more than a year prior to his official announcement in June.

The suit itself hinges on the competition between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour since LIV has entered the professional golf industry and pulled prime Tour talent to its side with guaranteed contracts, backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. PGA Tour members have long been discussed as independent contractors who can choose where and when they compete. But PGA Tour regulations limit the ‘where’ and ‘when’ when it takes place at the same time as Tour events. 

Members are allowed to apply for a release three times a year, 45 days in advance of an event, which the Tour either approves or disapproves. In the instance of LIV Golf’s first event, held in London in early June, Tour members were not granted releases yet continued to play in the event. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan promptly suspended them indefinitely or banned them from returning to the PGA Tour. Those golfers incurred additional suspensions as they continued to make starts in LIV events. That is merely one aspect of the lawsuit that LIV believes is an illegal, anticompetitive act. Despite numerous players and their council withdrawing from the suit, LIV contends it will move forward.

“Nothing has changed,” LIV Golf said in a statement. “The merits of the lawsuit — the PGA Tour’s anti-competitive conduct — still stand and will be fully tested in court, and we look forward to it. We stand by the players who the PGA Tour has treated so poorly, but we also recognize to be successful we no longer need a wide variety of players to be on the suit. We have our players’ backs and will press our case in court against the PGA’s anti-competitive behavior.”

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