A Saudi fund convinced great golfers to leave the PGA Tour: how many millions is a dream worth?

How much money is a lot of money? The question will have different answers depending on the interlocutor. Bill Gates will give an answer, Tiger Woods will give another, and any of us mortals will give another. The question should then be formulated in another way: How much money would be enough for us to live very well for the rest of our lives?

Humanity from all times has sought progress. The passion to investigate, discover new things, advance in technological issues that make our lives better, easier, the desperate search for cures for diseases that have advanced medicine exponentially in the last 100 years, is in our DNA. and so on. We always want a little more every day we seek to improve in order to live better. We would all like to receive a little more, not because of greed, but to be able to give our children a better education, to have more security in health matters, to be able to take a trip that we always dream of, to make this or that improvement where we live, etc. The issue is that in this search to improve sometimes we do not find the limit because we will always want a little more. That is why the question: How much would we like to have in order to live very well for a lifetime? One, five, ten, one hundred? Everyone will have their own answer.

Before continuing with this column I want to clarify something: I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THE LIV Series. The Saudi Sovereign Fund that is financing this new tour You have every right in the world to invest where you think best, and if you understand that the investment you are making is the best for them, go ahead and good luck, as the great Armando Silva used to say. Then there is the opinion of each one about whether or not we like the team format, the 54 holes or the shotgun. To put together a great circus, directors, clowns, animals, jugglers, tightrope walkers, tents, etc. are needed. LIV has sought out many of the best in each area and has put together a very capable team to carry this endeavor forward. All the pieces are important, but the players are the most valuable because they are the ones who will make this successful. The only way to tempt players was with money and there they made the most important investment.

At first they were looking for a legend, Phil Mickelson, and it does not matter here the reasons why the left-hander accepted the enormous sum of money with which they tempted him. From there other big names like Dustin Johnson y Louis Oosthuizen were added, to which others with less cartel were added such as Schwartzel, Garcia, Grace, Poulter, Westwood, etc. All of them signed an agreement by which they receive a guaranteed sum of money for participating in the tournaments. I believed at one point that the prize pools were independent of the guarantees, but at the hearing for the lawsuit that the players made to be able to participate in the PGA Tour playoffs last August, the LIV’s lawyer made it clear that the prize pools of prizes went against the guarantees. This means that, if a player was guaranteed 40 million per year, in that season he does not collect any prize until he exceeds the 40 million barrier. This means that the big names do not play for the prize because it seems impossible to win that amount throughout the tournaments. Another of the arguments of many players who signed with the LIV stated that they wanted to spend more time with their families and that the LIV allowed them to play less and thus spend more time at home.

In this first season, which ends at the end of October, there will be 8 tournaments, but by 2023 the LIV Series announced that there will be 14 tournaments plus two of a series of tournaments belonging to the Asian Tour. A total of 16 weeks in the year, playing in Europe, Asia and North America. So far the facts.

There is another fact that all professional players have in common, and it does not matter what sport we are talking about: they are all ultra-competitive in everything they do. They don’t like to lose at anything and they need that adrenaline rush that they only get when they are involved in the competition. The most successful are the ones who manage to enjoy the pressure of defining the most prestigious events in the world.

We come to the point of today’s column and I am going to take the case of the two players who, in my opinion, are the most important: Joaquin Niemann and Cameron Smith. They are for me the most emblematic for the following two reasons: they are elite players and they are very young.

The Australian won more than 11 million in prizes and bonuses for the Fedex Cup, while Joaquín took nearly 6. To this we must add advertising contracts and presentations that the best in the world do for different companies or tournaments. Suppose Smith rounded 15 and Niemann rounded 9 in order to move forward. No one knows how much they each got to leave the PGA Tour and go to LIV, but It would not be unusual for the winner of the Players and the Open, and number 2 in the world ranking, to have been paid a figure of over 100 million dollars, while on the Niemann side it is a little below that same mark. Many of the contracts that the players signed are for 3 seasons, so we can assume that these two did it for the same period of time. The conclusion that immediately follows is that Smith will earn as much silver in one year at LIV as he does in three playing at the same pace on tour, and something similar would happen to Niemann.

This is where the questions pop up: Is it worth leaving the high competition for silver? Does it make sense at such a young age to go play for any prize and for any title? Are they going to keep practicing and perfecting their game when there is no silver or title at stake? How long will it take to “get bored” playing for nothing?

Many of you will have the quick and obvious answer: what if they get injured and can’t play anymore? More than valid answer. Injury insurance exists in the world for these elite athletes. There are for golf and any other sport and activity. Singers, models and the most famous artists of various disciplines have their most valuable qualities assured.

This is the part I don’t understand in Smith and Niemann. I don’t judge their decisions. I just don’t understand them. It seems very logical to me that someone like Mickelson (if his financial problems are true, I understand him even more), like Poulter, Westwood or Perez (over 45 and with their careers ending), or like Koepka and DeChambeau who may not have 100% recovered from their injuries and they cannot practice everything they need to fight well up front as they like, I even understand Dustin Johnson that at 38 years old and having won 24 times on tour, Masters and US Open included, Player of the Year, Fedex Cup, Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and a place in the Hall of Fame assured, don’t feel like practicing anymore and want to spend more time fishing than at the Driving Range. I can understand all of them. I do not understand two young people with everything to gain and a bright future.

Being able to play the best championships in the world and feeling the adrenaline rush of throwing a putt to win the Masters, the Open or the championship they dreamed of as a child. I don’t think any of them when they were kids and spent hours on the putting green thought that the putt they were about to putt was to win 1, 2 or 100 million. It was always the putt to win one of the big titles. The argument that they are going to play less and spend more time with their families does not work either because the tour requires 15 weeks and the LIV in 2023 has already announced that it will be 16, in addition to having to travel around the world. Maybe they’ll think about playing at LIV for the life of their contract and then going back on tour. It could be and hopefully one day they’ll come back because it’s a pleasure to watch them play, but I think they will lose 3 or 4 years of competition and that is not easy to recover, beyond that the tour leaves them or not return in the future. This is why I don’t understand them. Obviously they didn’t put those sums in front of me and it must be difficult to say no. That’s why I don’t judge them. I just don’t understand them.

It seems to me that giving up your dreams is something that should be priceless. He obviously has it.

KEEP READING: