Men’s professional golf is under siege.
The four major championships seem to be all that are left as oases where the top players in the world can actually convene, compete against each other and — hold your breath — kibitz, break bread and drink wine together.
Since the emergence of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour has reacted with such aggressive defensiveness against the Saudi-backed tour, banning players who were once stars on their circuit, it has played a part in tearing the sport apart.
The DP World Tour, in bed business-wise with the PGA Tour, has followed suit with a similarly hardline stance against the LIV players, cutting off its nose to spite its face in the process. Players who had a large hand in building what was formerly known as the European Tour and are now playing on LIV have been fined so many hundreds of thousands of dollars for their involvement with LIV that they’re being forced to resign their tour memberships.
The whole thing is frustrating, disturbing and sad.
Despite the narrative that insists on pitting the players from the PGA Tour and Europe against their colleagues who took the Saudi money, we learned at the Masters last month that it’s not the players, but the suits who run the tours, who are at odds over this.
At the Masters, Brooks Koepka of LIV voluntarily played a practice round with Rory McIlroy, who has been the unofficial spokesperson for the PGA Tour in its battle against the concept of LIV. Dustin Johnson waxed on about how much he has missed his fellow PGA Tour players, whom he never sees, because he’s playing on the LIV tour and has been banned from PGA Tour events.
That’s what makes weeks like this one, with the PGA Championship taking place at Oak Hill Country Club outside of Rochester, so welcome.
So, good for the PGA of America (which runs the PGA Championship), the Masters, the USGA (even though it has altered some of its qualifications to get into the U.S. Open field to hurt LIV players) and the Royal & Ancient (which runs the British Open).
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Those four tournaments are all that are left for golf fans to see the best players compete against each other. Even the beloved biennial Ryder Cup is becoming ravaged by the strife.
As for the narrative that the players from LIV Golf — with its 54-hole events, 48-player fields, rock-and-roll and shorts — can no longer hang with the big boys of the PGA Tour, that was rather dramatically dispelled around Augusta National just like the one that had the players hating each other. Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed, all LIV players, finished in the top four at Augusta behind winner Jon Rahm.
Talor Gooch, who entered the LIV tournament in Oklahoma this weekend having won the previous two tournaments, would otherwise be considered a favorite at Oak Hill, but is instead an afterthought, and at the moment hasn’t even qualified to get into the U.S. Open field, which should be an embarrassment to the USGA.
“We’re still the same people,” Koepka said at the Masters of LIV golfers. “I know if I’m healthy, I know I can compete. I don’t think any of the guys that played this event thought otherwise, either. I think that’s just manufactured by the media that we can’t compete anymore, that we are washed up.”
It’s not necessarily the media to blame, as Koepka suggested, it’s the lobbyist machines behind the PGA Tour that have weaponized the Saudi money thing — though the PGA Tour (and every other major golf tour) has done business with Saudi Arabia for years.
Last month at the Masters, we got a welcome weeklong break from the hypocrisy game and got to see the game’s best on the same course together competing for the same prize. This week at Oak Hill, we will get another one of those cherished events.
After the PGA Championship, however, we will get only two more for the year: the U.S. Open in June at Los Angeles Country Club and the British Open in July at Royal Liverpool.
So, enjoy it while it lasts.
