LIV is hot garbage bc their players are hot garbage

Tour will be fine if they keep the vast majority of the top tier. there's too many events anyway. having a nice set number where we know the top 50 will be playing will be better in the long run

And more "hot garbage" top 20 players joining their ranks?

Again, we will need to wait and see what is put on the table. No-cut limited size events won't cut it.

All of this resembles a traditional pump-and-dump, with Norman doing the pumping and the PGA Tour getting dumped.

We need to replace the Presidents cup with a PGA Tour vs LIV event.

Trying to figure out what the Woods-McIlroy "Stadium Golf" project might be. Sounds like a derivative of The Match but with simulators taking the place of actual golf, and winners advancing to a final later in the season.

I don't see how this could generate much in the way of ratings, as there is no mystery in how far or how well pros can hit shots. Maybe it will be "something completely different" as John Cleese might say.

i go by datagolf rankings (and i must say kudos to the OWGR ppl for adding a 'strokes gained world ranking' tab to their recent website upgrade earlier this month) as they're superior to the OWGR. that said, let's take a look at the current LIV rankings. i'm including Cam Smith bc he's gone. i don't really blame Cam. he's not an American. he's likely to play in every major over the next five years (although there is risk here). he won't be able to defend his Players title but the $100m+ will help soothe any sorrow he may feel for missing out on that

datagolf

Smith - #5
DJ - #10
Gooch - #25
Casey - #28
Oosthuizen - #33

OWGR

Smith - #2
DJ - #21
Ancer - #24
Koepka - #25
Oosthuizen - #30
Casey - #33
Brybaby - #35
Kokrak - #38

so LIV will have one top 20 OWGR player when Smith makes it official

now the NLU guys report in their pod yday that (with the caveat any of these guys could pull a Koepka) Cameron Young, Hideki, Adam Scott, and Niemann are all committed to the Tour after the players-only meeting. let's assume this is true. who are the big names (other than Smith) in the next announcement of seven new players that has been touted recently?

this time next year, LIV could very well have only one or two top 50 OWGR players. ducy?

simply by going off the OWGR's inclusion request checklist for professional tours, LIV has no chance of having their application approved. zero. and no conspiracy theory needed. LIV doesn't come close to meeting the requirements for approval. this isn't even mentioning the fact that their events wouldn't generate many OWGR points anyway

the big anti-trust case in the U.S. won't start until 2024 at the earliest. LIV golfers' OWGR rankings are going to die on the vine. those not eligible for majors already won't be playing in majors (barring going through the qualification process any joe schmoe has to go through).

imo LIV isn't likely to get a major U.S. media entity (TV or streaming) to sign a deal with them. 1) the product is ****, and 2) the MBS PR hit wouldn't be worth it

LIV players are signing up for big money, yes, but also for golf irrelevancy

Right, I pointed out earlier how major winners will have strong inducement to bolt to LIV, as they have 5 year exemptions built-in, so that includes Cam Smith, and any others that meet that criteria going forward. What you should be looking at is OWGR when the player joined LIV, as these guys are dropping like lead balloons because they have no ranking points.

Remember too that whatever was "agreed upon" last week is subject to significant change. For starters, all this stuff has to be legally wrangled out, then voted on. That goes back to how PGA Tour gets this money to pay the players (including "stipends" I understand) whose values have magically gone up by 3x in the past 6 months. If it requires PGA Tour to go corporate, that will change the dynamic in player relations, event locations, sponsorships, marketing, relationships with existing event organizers, relationships with charities and other non-profits, TV deals, on and on. It will likely take years to get all of that sorted out. Of course the players don't really care about all of that, all they want is their $ and they are holding PGA Tour hostage with this ever present mass exodus to LIV.

What results will likely be the end of what we now know of as the PGA Tour. Essentially an upgraded Korn Ferry tour lacking world class talent, with promotion to a rebranded WGC.

I characterize LIV as an enterprise that simply uses golf as a veneer for marketing purposes. It is not golf, certainly not competitive golf. There is no need to destroy the Tour because players are getting $ from a marketing enterprise. The major championships are in a good place and there is no need for concern there. The Tour should think about it that way and not destroy themselves in the process. Nobody wins except a few suddenly cash rich players who are getting way over market.

those major exemptions are going to get stripped. can't imagine each of them do not have some sort of 'good of the game' or otherwise clause in them

I'm sure Monahan is having that discussion with the principals. But the majors are separate orgs and don't want the appearance of conspiring against the players. I've heard "good standing" clause thrown around. Majors get away with renouncing exemptions for amateurs who turn pro, so maybe.

If they strip the majors exemptions, they suck. Simple stuff. This is a big pissing contest with the neighborhood bully (PGA) being challenged and pitching a fit. The more this goes on, the more I am attracted to LIV. I wonder how many people feel like me. Note, current regular PGA events are boring as hell already.

what an awful day for Greg Norman and his pet project

Interesting that the big meeting last week did not include Matsuyama. The rumor is $400M from LIV.

I got it -500 he stays as is, with perhaps an inducement from some Tour partner not publicly known.

NLU said Hideki wasn't at the meeting because they weren't able/going to provide a translator (same reason Im didn't attend). they reported that Hideki would receive the minutes of the meeting

Interesting. -400?

it has become clear the PGA Tour will get creative and find ways to funnel money to Hideki

The most common reason most of the LIV'ers state for leaving the PGA (other than money) is the fact that they have to play too many tournaments with no off season.

Mono ham's answer is to force his top players to play more tournaments with extremely limited choices of where to play (only 3 wild cards).

Also by doubling down on the banning of players it just opens up continued competition, which probably is not a good thing when the PGA's competition has unlimited funds. I'm sure this was expected from LIV and they are ready to throw more money at players.

Maybe. Monahan had to throw a carrot to the networks so he can get a bigger TV deal to help defray the anti LIV costs.

from what's been revealed from some of these LIV contracts, the LIVtards aren't as free as they would like to have us believe

How much of the supposed $2 billion the saudi's put up for this is still left if Matsuyama gets $400 million? They are absolutely torching money.

Yeah, it has to be upwards of $1B already.

Seems like amateur hour on both sides of this debacle.

For sure, that's why all this is so entertaining. Did people tune in to Jerry Springer because everyone was so squared away?

Just lol at the bolded...have fun with that garbage

No one gets paid the cash up front.

The funny thing is Phil whined about having no control of his brand when in fact he is giving away full control to the LIV as well


Personally I hope they never welcome the players back and they can not appear in Majors and LIV shuts down and screws the LIV players over. I might feel different if the LIV players had said I did it for the guarenteed cash and less tournaments

Interesting

Don't really get Cam Young, he'd be able to get into all of the big money events, even those with limited fields. Probably had signed something already so he's locked into going.