What would the world of football be like today if the plan of the European Super League driven Real Madrid y Barcelona. In football we may never find out, but where a new alternative has emerged is with the LIV Golf Serieswhich was born to challenge the monopoly of PGA Tourprotected by “cannon shots” of money, a more relaxed calendar and an enviable quality of life for golfers.
to put in perspective what is happening in world golf with the appearance of this “league of dissidents” with Saudi petrodollars behind, in medieval we talked with Josefa Goutjournalist specialized in golf, who puts the subject in a simple perspective: Tiger Woods was offered $800 million because they have all the money in the world to make LIV the cutting edge competition.
halftime: Josefa, thank you very much for your time. Could you explain to us what the LIV Golf Series is and why it has generated so much noise?
Josefa Gout: To explain what the LIV Golf Series is, we must first talk about the PGA Tour. It is the highest competitive professional golf circuit in the world. That means those who belong to that tour are the best in the worldthe great figures who have won hundreds of times like Tiger Woods. At the end of the season, only the top 125 golfers in the world remain on the PGA Tour. and they can compete in this circuit that can have up to 50 tournaments a yearwithout that meaning that one should play them all.
Recently a new league emerged which is LIV Golf. One of its great differences with the PGA Tour is that in that only golfers who make the cut at tournaments get a check. In PGA tournaments they are played over four rounds, after the first two rounds there is a cut and if you are eliminated in the cut you don’t get a penny.
In the case of LIV they arise with the support of Saudi Arabiacreate an economic fund that inject impressive amounts to take away golfers by paying them a lot of money to commit to playing in the LIV Golf Series. What happened is that the PGA Tour felt threatened and told all golfers if they go to LIV, they can’t play on the PGA Tour.
mt: What is so different about LIV that has caused such a stir on the PGA Tour?
JG: LIV emerges as something disruptive in golf, they want it to be different, not boring or for old peoplethat young people get involved and consume more golf in a different way. They propose a model in which they make a shorter season, in 2023 there will be 14 tournaments, and in the last tournament it is like a Final in which only the best will play. Also, they propose that golfers not only compete individually, but also in teams, something innovative because there is no such thing in professional golf. For example, Mexicans Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz are from the Fireballs team together with the Spaniards Sergio García and Eugenio Chacarra.
In LIV everyone earns money, obviously if you are last you earn lessbut everyone gets paid to be in a tournament, unlike what he said about the PGA Tour. In this league each tournament is played 54 holes, three rounds and everyone starts playing at the same time. So we are talking about an innovative league, with a lot of money and that signs great golfers, that’s why the PGA reacts by closing doors and boycotting those who leaveThat’s why those who play on LIV Golf can’t be on the PGA Tour.
mt: We could say that, in soccer terms, LIV Golf is equivalent to the European Super League that Real Madrid and Barcelona sought to promote to break the monopoly of FIFA and UEFA.
JG: It’s a great comparison, just like that. If the European Super League had gone ahead it would be like what is happening in golf. We know that FIFA is a monopoly and if you want to play club football or have a National Team in the World Cup, it must necessarily be through FIFA. It’s the same in golf with the PGA Tour because If you want to play the best tournaments, which are the four Majors, you must do it with the PGA Tour.
mt: The Arabs have all the money in the world to support this new league, but are the amounts so far compared to what is earned on the PGA?
JG: Tiger Woods was offered $800 million to go to the LIV Golf Series, obviously “depending on the toad is the stone”. Another example is the Mexican Abraham Ancerwhich was already consolidated within the Top 25 of the world ranking, but the figure they offered him was 65 million dollars for three years, that is the rumor of the amount. At the end of the day, already they have an insured amount and if Abraham does not win again, he has 65 million insured. To this we add that the purses of each event are 50 million dollars, much larger than in a regular event of the PGA that give about 10 million divided among more golfers.
mt: What do you think is behind the decision of Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz to leave the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf? Beyond economic issues that are obvious.
JG: Money is obviously essential, but you have to think about the quality of life and I give Carlos Ortiz as an example this 2022 in particular. He had played 20 tournaments in the PGA Tour season and had won just over a million dollars. In just two LIV events, he’s already won more than $5 million in prize money.
Speaking of Carlos himself, he played three consecutive PGA Tour tournaments in which he did not make the cut. He needed to get his swing back, but his coach lives in Dallas and he lives in Guadalajara, so at the end of those three weeks of tournaments, instead of flying to Guadalajara, he must fly to Dallas to work with your coach and he only had one week off to see his three daughters. We talk about seeing her family a week a month or sometimes longer apart. That was a fundamental factor for Carlos Ortiz to choose to go to LIV.
mt: Where is golf headed with the emergence of LIV and Arab support? Because they are involved in sports with boxing shows, WWE events, the Spanish Super Cup and more.
JG: LIV is a lot of fun because it is an unknown even for the golfers themselves. At the moment, the LIV Golf Tour does not award points for the World Ranking and obviously not for the PGA Ranking either. because they are two different rankings, the PGA with all its endorsed tournaments and the World Cup has the Asian tour and some other lower level ones that add points, but the LIV Golf tournaments do not award points at the moment. If LIV receives World Ranking points in the near future, it will be very competitive.but if it doesn’t happen, the golfers are obviously going to want to score points thinking about being able to compete in all four Majors.
mt: Finally, the fact that Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer are no longer with the PGA, how does it affect the main tournaments in our country?
JG: The Mayakoba Open and the Mexico Open (antes World Golf Championship: Mexico Championship) there are two PGA Tour tournaments in Mexico, which means that Abraham and Carlos cannot compete in ellos for being members of LIV Golf. Definitely this is going to affect the two tournaments because the Mexicans want to go see their figures, many fans of that went to Mayakoba or Mexico City. Perhaps on television it does not affect so much because where golf is really consumed the most is in the United States, but In terms of income and ticketing, I think it is a very hard blow for the Mexico Open and Mayakoba that Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer are not there.
