The LIV tour against the PGA Tour – the half hour that split the golf course

It was a quarter past two on Thursday. Four trumpeters dressed as British grenadiers, with red uniform jackets and tall, furry hats on their heads, blew a fanfare next to the first tee where Phil Mickelson knocked out the premiere ball for a brand new golf tour at The Centurion Club outside London.

In a so-called shotgun start, all 48 participants started at the same time from different holes.

It took less than half an hour before the response to the rebel action came.

While the players in London was on the second hole, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent out a letter to all members informing them that those who participated in the new LIV series or do so in the future will be suspended from the US tour.

“These players have made their choices for their own financial reasons,” Monahan wrote, noting that it was a violation of the PGA Tour rules to participate in another competition without permission.

20 minutes later, LIV golf responded with a statement, calling the PGA shutdown “vengeful” and saying it “deepens the rift between the tour and its members”.

Phil Mickelson wore a black vest in windbreak when he struck out, with the Augusta National Golf Club logo embroidered. Maybe it was a mistake, because he switched a bit into the round. He has won the Masters, golf’s most prestigious tournament always played at Augusta, three times. Now he must not come back.

It is Saudi Arabia’s investment fund who funds the LIV tour, and veteran Mickelson has gotten into trouble by enumerating Saudi human rights abuses and then saying:

– When I know all this, why should I even consider joining? Because it’s a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to change the way the PGA Tour works.

The premiere of the LIV tour was also preceded by press conferences with a very tense atmosphere.

Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell himself took up the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. According to the CIA, it was Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, chairman of the investment fund, who ordered the murder.

“I think we all agree that the Khashoggi situation was reprehensible,” said Graeme McDowell, adding:

– But we are golfers, and personally I feel that golf is a force for good in the world. I try to be a good role model for children, I know what the sport of golf has taught me and I love to use the sport of golf as something that helps development around the world.

The AP’s reporter asked a question, speaking of which the tour would be a good force:

– How does it help the women who are oppressed in Saudi Arabia, the migrant groups who are denied their rights, LGBTQ individuals who are criminalized, the families of the 81 men who were executed in March, and those who are bombed in Yemen?

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Graeme McDowell exhaled, saying:

– I wish I had the ability to have that discussion with you. I think that if we as golfers were to try to solve every single geopolitical problem in the countries we came to, we would not play much golf. This is a very difficult question to answer. We’re just here to focus on golf and what it does to the role models that these guys are, that we are.

So-called sportswashing is a well-known concept at this point, and Saudi Arabia is believed to see the golf tour as a public relations project for the country. But Saudi elements were missing in London. Instead, the players were driven around in classic black taxis and an old red English telephone booth was set up in the area.

The tour is called LIV because it is Roman numerals for 54, the number of holes played. The competitions run for three days, and the players are also divided into four-man teams, whose names and comic book-like symbols have caused some scornful reactions. They are called Fireballs, Smash, Hy Flyers and Crushers.

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The LIV tour has no significant TV contract, and is broadcast live on Youtube. This year it has eight races, the first in England, five of them in the USA, one in Thailand and one in Saudi Arabia.

The tour also has the biggest the prize money ever in a golf competition. When Charl Schwartzel won the London competition on Saturday, he took home the individual prize of four million dollars, approximately 40 million kronor, he was also part of the winning team, which gave another 750,000 kronor.

But you do not have to perform to get compensation, the jumbo in place 48 gets 1.2 million kroner.

At the same time as Charl Schwartzel won, 37-ranked Patrick Reed announced that he would be the 20th PGA Player to drop out of the Saudi tour. In a decade, he has earned $ 37 million on the PGA Tour – Schwartzel won over a tenth of that amount in just three days in London.

But the Saudis have not managed to attract the best players. Only 20 on the LIV tour are under 30, 10 are over 40 years old.

Tiger Woods is said to have thanked no to nine-digit dollar sums to play at LIV.

With huge costs and very unclear prospects for making money on the LIV tour, write Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga says players should ask themselves what the Saudis are paying them so much for.

“The answer: They buy your reputation.”

At the press conference after his victory, Charl Schwartzel was asked how he viewed the financing of the tour.

– Where money comes from is nothing I have ever looked at in my career.

Read more: LIV tour premiere winner: Schwartzel

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