I'm sorry, but you may as well have said "according to my cat"......social media is the worst

1) why would doing business with a golf property, including one owned by Trump, be controversial and
2) Why did PGA pull its tournaments from his courses. Seems pretty idiotic

Obama and Biden are also fans of brutal regimes, as has every president ever, what is your point?

Nah, just the media you follow has been on a full blitz bashing LIV for months. A ton of golfers come from red states and are friends/golf with Trump that still play on the PGA Tour.

you're being obtuse here as a bit right carolina? surely you possess critical thinking skills, no?

Funny observation here. I am not a huge Trump fan, but all my liberal friends think I am MAGA because Joe Biden is just so bad and I say so. Literally nothing was worse under Trump than it is now since Biden came into office. I am also not a fan of LIV. The one good thing about it is possibly getting the PGA to behave more properly, but I didn't realize that until I had bashed the heck out of LIV. So, I see a possible silver lining here. Because the PGA has sucked for years.

I don't see the point of making LIV political. It cuts directly to the core of what merit-based competition is all about. That should not be political at all.

Everything else is a side show.

If LIV were XYZ funded by nuns I would likely feel the same way as I do now.

Ok

Still not really getting the point that several of us have made

I mean the reasons the PGA decided not to do business with Trump are obvious.

If you think that is just the PGA being stupid/woke/PC/too political or whatever, then you are likely one of the fans Liv is targeting.

All I am saying is that Liv aligning so closely with Trump is not an accident, when you look at the overall image they are trying to sell. As I stated, I am sure some people are attracted to that image and I would say good for them, even if it's not for me.

I am not one of those people who blames the players for taking the money. I just think the league is a joke that holds zero interest, golf-wise. If suddenly a guy like Rory went to Liv (will never happen, but hypothetically) - I would instantly stop caring about how well Rory plays, where he finishes, etc. Because the league is a meaningless exhibition. So whatever new names they add, has zero impact on whether I will watch. It seems pointless to me, whether Brooks/Bryson or whoever are playing there or not.

i believe the 'donation' amount to host courses has been kept private so far, but could be wrong.
without knowing the numbers, i would bet the two trump owned courses will be paid at least 10x more than the two escalante golf owned courses, and escalante will still get close to $10m total for the trouble.
campaign donations filtered through golf gyrations

how dare you accuse the Trump Organization of unscrupulous business activities REDeYe

Leave out the politics Golf is pretty much one of the few sports were if you do not perform you will get paid very little. As well if your injured you get paid nothing

There are some golfers that just never get a chance to compete. Your young and a rising star and they throw 5-10 million at you. You would be a fool not to take it

Its not like other sports were your injured or say mentally unfit to play and collect your 15 million salary

Just a comment about the name of the sponsor - The Korn Ferry Tour. Yeah, it seems odd.

But, I always thought the Nationwide Tour was a bad investment for the Nationwide Insurance company. It was too easy to think of the name as representing the geographic nature of the tour, and not the Nationwide Insurance company itself.

It just seemed ironic that if there never was a set or single sponsor for that tour, that the Nationwide tour would be a good name anyway...lol

I'd be shocked if LIV is a thing in a year - they can't be making money with the payouts and even billionaires do not like lighting money on fire. I think this is an idea backed by a lot of money and they're willing to give it a go, but the lack of interest will have them pull out at some point. It's a house of cards - hopefully the players get quick paydays, but if the Saudis stiff you there's not much you can do about it.

As a fan though why should I care? You can and will make huge amounts of money playing golf on the PGA Tour, if you are one of the best. I don't watch a league because I like that their injured players still get paid.

Unlike team sports, if you're good at golf you have an equal chance to make it on the PGA tour. Doesn't matter your pedigree, what college you went to, where you come from, or anything else. Probably the purest merit-based sport there is. There are tons of players who probably could have played in the major leagues or the NBA, who never got a real shot for one reason or another.

I guess what you are saying makes sense from the player perspective (guaranteed money is better than not, more money is better than less). But that means zero to me as a golf fan. The tournaments are dull exhibitions that mean nothing.

Oh and the little fact that the players are working for a murderous regime and in the process funnelling millions to the guy who tore the US apart by refusing the peaceful transfer of power. I doubt benefitting the Saudis or Trump matters much to these guys when the cash hits their bank account.

it's from the sovereign wealth fund which is basically how the saudi royal family gains cover to say "this money belongs to the people not us"

that fund is 620 billion dollars currently, they've invested 2 billion into LIV to go for 2 years

they may not continue after 2 years but that seems unlikley given that a big chunk of that money is spent for commitments to the tour that will last more than 2 years so they will run much cheaper going forward and most the costs were sunken one time costs to lure guys like DJ and Ancer

they've invested far more in several soccer teams than they have in LIV and are happily spending much more each year with those clubs to overpay to bring in the best players

LIV isn't going anywhere so long as courses willing to host and top pga golfers willing to switch over - after a year or two some tv networks may accept this, capitulate and stop fearing upsetting the pga and start broadcasting

i have a colleague who was at the opening day protests, separately worked his way into a board meeting for the environmental non-profit that unknowingly rented out the draft party venue and was eventually escorted from the property. after that he parked a chair at the downtown hotel where everyone is staying and proceeded to have conversations with the players as they arrived. hotel management asked him to leave, he moved his chair to the next property but kept approaching players on the sidewalk. he left after the cops were called.

coincidence or not, today he sent this to a group email:

good for him

an American patriot

can't tell if sarcastic or honest,
but either way it doesn't matter

being serious. good on him.

btw the message you put in spoilers doesn't have any text.

huh? it has plenty

he sent a msg to the UAE? i guess i'm missing something.

flip that around.
a UAE # called him

hmmm ok. interesting. not sure what to make of that.

just went to my YT page and the LIV final round was one of the six offerings at the top (i watched ~20 mins of the first round in London). obv have no interest and didn't click. said 104k ppl were watching.

saw Paul Casey just joined the Bonesaw League.

If it lasts long enough, a few years, predicting the PGA will incorporate a couple of its big events and take the players back. And money from the sands in the deal of course.