The world of golf is experiencing a moment of turbulence with the arrival of a new competitor: el LIV Golf Invitational Series. Yes, this tournament – which is sponsored by a Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund – has burst in with force and resources to shake the foundations of the PGA Tour, the competition that dominated the world stage of this sport and that now tries at all costs to prevent the flight of its best exponents.
And he hasn’t made it… for the first date of the nascent tournament – which will be played from June 9 to 11 at the Centurion Club in London, England – the historic Phil Mickelson, who has won six majors in his career and 45 PGA tournaments, heads the list of “rebel” golfers, followed by Dustin Johnson, one of the most relevant players in the last decade, as well as the Spanish Sergio García.
The three of them have started a revolt that will be joined by Bryson DeChambeau (28 in the world) and Patrick Reed (36 in the world) for the second day of the tournament that will be played at the end of the month in Portland.. The PGA’s biggest fear has begun to take shape, despite the threat to ban golfers competing at LIV for the rest of their tour.
Even, the body’s greatest hope is that the four majors join its veto, but so far they have ignored the suggestion that the PGA has made.
The money, the big difference
In recent decades, andhe PGA Tour built an empire that every professional golfer wanted to be a part of. With tournaments of different levels of hierarchy, those who managed to belong to the tour claimed to have profits of thousands of dollars.
For example, in the 2021-2022 season, the tournaments that distributed the least money among their participants were the Puerto Rico Open, Corales Puntacana Championship, Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship with 3.7 million dollars; for the winner the bag was 666 thousand dollars. The one that gave the most money was The Players Championship, which had a bag of 20 million dollars, which guaranteed the champion 3.6 million.
Nevertheless, the nascent LIV Golf will distribute 20 million dollars in seven of the eight tournaments that it has scheduled in its first season, and for the last one the bag will be 30 million. The champion on each day will win four million.
Perhaps the difference is not so noticeable with The Players in terms of the number of the champion; however, the contrast is evident with the last positions. Due to its format, the PGA Tour rewards up to 90th place, who in their most onerous tournament receives 33 thousand dollars. Only 48 golfers will participate in LIV Golf, so the last site has already secured a bag of 120 thousand dollars; yes, almost four times what I could aspire to before.
The LIV Golf format
And to break completely from the PGA Tour, LIV Golf – whose CEO is former number one golfer Greg Norman – has an individual and team competition format (of four golfers) simultaneously. 54 holes will be played, without a cut so the 48 golfers will participate until the last day.
As for the equiwell, these will change every day, and LIV Golf will be the one that appoints the captains. The eighth tournament will be exclusive to the teams.
Yes, with these elements today the dispute begins.
The rebels
Dustin Johnson
Ranking: 15
He won 24 PGA Tour tournaments, in addition to the 2016 US Open and the 2020 Augusta Masters.
Sergio García
Ranking: 57
He was number 2 in the world for 18 weeks; he won 11 PGA titles and the 2017 Augusta Masters.
Phil Mickelson
Ranking: 72
He is a golf legend with 45 victories on the PGA Tour, as well as six titles in major tournaments.
MGC
