The split is widening between golf’s preeminent tour and the Saudi-backed startup, and the game is poorer for it. Bob Harig proposes how they could live together.
Bob Harig, Sports Illustrated
The acrimony continues, with peace seemingly a fleeting thought. The idea of any kind of common ground when it comes to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf seems impossible to imagine. Now.
But it’s clear that LIV Golf is not going away, as many expected. And as the LIV Golf Invitational gears up for its third event this week at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey, the rhetoric only will seemingly get worse, as the prospect exists for more players to defect.
Remember the Patrick Cantlay-Bryson DeChambeau duel at last year’s BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup playoffs? The six-hole sudden-death playoff won by Cantlay that helped propel him to the FedEx Cup title? Something like that can’t happen outside of the major championships now.
DeChambeau, just two years removed from his U.S. Open win at Winged Foot, made the move to LIV Golf and is no longer allowed to play in PGA Tour events. His choice. But the fact remains the sport is headed toward a fracture that those who are taking part in the new venture are willing to endure.
For some, that’s fine. Good riddance, they say. But the overall picture does not appear bright for the game. And the idea of coming together, however abhorrent that might seem to the PGA Tour leadership, might be necessary.
Rory McIlroy a few weeks ago wondered if it might be time for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to take a call from LIV commissioner Greg Norman. Jon Rahm said at the British Open he’s upset there might not be a way forward to LIV players to compete for Europe in the Ryder Cup. A prominent sports agent in Europe, Chubby Chandler, told INews in the UK that “they all have to get around a table and talk. They will have a massive problem otherwise.’’
With that in mind, how could some sort of meeting of the minds between the PGA Tour (and thus the DP World Tour) and LIV Golf work? There are no easy answers here. But it doesn’t take long to come up with an outline of ideas that could be the basis for something that sticks. Here goes:
1. Allow PGA Tour players (and DP World Tour) to compete in LIV events
Compromise is key and without it there is no chance for any of this to work. But for there to be a way forward between the two entities, there can’t be suspensions of PGA Tour players. They need to be able to compete on both circuits. The question: how?
Norman has said he believes that LIV Golf is “additive.’’ He continually has stated he’s not looking to replace the PGA Tour or even thwart players from players doing both. But if you are going to play 14 LIV events – the League concept going forward – it’s impossible to meet the PGA Tour’s minimum of 15 events for membership.
So here’s the compromise: LIV reduces its number of events to 10, and the PGA Tour lowers its minimum for those competing in LIV events to 10. That’s 20 events total, including the major championships, with obviously the ability to play more on the PGA Tour if desired.
2. LIV Golf would help subsidize PGA Tour purses
If you pass that first hurdle, those who compete in LIV events could still be PGA Tour members. And in exchange for the rights to get any PGA Tour member to sign on, LIV in turn could subsidize purses for the events played opposite LIV events. Let’s say $5 million per event, or a total of $50 million if there are 10 LIV events. If Saudi’s Public Investment Fund can afford huge signing bonuses to players, it can afford this rather paltry sum when the end game will help make LIV money in the long run. So this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, in theory, would get a $5 million boost, which would go a long way toward helping the rest of the membership not able to play in LIV events.
3. There would have to be some sort of TV agreement
This could obviously be a sticking point. And where compromise again would need to be in play. Would the 10 LIV events come under the PGA Tour’s television rights agreement? That is a complicated issue, and would likely mean the whole thing would need to be renegotiated. Not a simple task. If so, how would revenue be split? Most likely, LIV would want to make its own TV/streaming deal and cash in. But the way the Tour’s rules are written, it would require a fee for its own players to play on another circuit at the same time as its own events. The Tour owns a player’s media rights. In exchange for allowing players to compete in LIV events, the Tour would most certainly want some sort of financial return.
4. How is the PGA Tour helped by this arrangement?
It beats seeing a slow trickle of players – which is bound to happen the longer this plays out – head to LIV. And while you’d possibly be losing a majority of the top 50 players in the world to 10 LIV events, at least you’d have them for 10 of your own with the possibility of more. No matter what you think of this concept, it’s not great that Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, among others, won’t be playing in the Players Championship in March.
5. The Schedule
The way LIV is set up now, five of its eight events this year are scheduled for after the FedEx Cup playoffs. That was not done randomly. LIV saw September and October as a good time to play a majority of its tournaments. There’s nothing to keep that from happening with a PGA Tour collaboration.
Let’s say they go with this hypothetical 10-and-10 model. LIV could potentially play once a month starting in February through July – a total of six events – and then leave four for September and October. Norman has said he is not interested in playing tournaments against legacy PGA Tour events, so a LIV player could still compete in the four majors, the Players, the Genesis, Arnold Palmer and Memorial. He’d need two more, which could consist of playoff events or others if not eligible. And if he falls behind in points, he’s got tournaments after the Open to try and earn a place in the playoffs.
6. The World Rankings
Ranking points would no longer be imperative for LIV events. With access to the PGA Tour, LIV players would benefit from earning points in those events. It would actually incentivize them to compete in more PGA Tour events if points are necessary. The LIV events, with their big purses and season-ending team championship would, in theory, be compelling enough.
7. A chance for success
If you are of the mindset that you don’t want LIV to succeed at all, that you hate the Saudi funding source, that you prefer the PGA Tour as it is now structured with no outside competition, then these ideas are not for you. And if the PGA Tour is of the same mindset, it can continue to do what it is doing by suspending all PGA Tour members and not allowing access to its tournament. And that is what could happen. But it would also face the risk of continually losing top players to the big money.
With some common ground, LIV’s 48-player fields with a good number of top players and the added team component might gain some traction among golf fans. It wouldn’t be every week, but a diversion from the regular PGA Tour grind for six months. And then something else to perhaps embrace after the FedEx playoffs. The majors would still be king, as would the Players and a majority of the favorite PGA Tour stops.
Those events that go up against LIV events would get enhanced purses and players competing in them an opportunity to gain ground on the LIV players, who would not be earning FedEx points. And perhaps those tournaments could be rotated.
It would also be helpful if the LIV events ended on Saturdays, thus giving the PGA Tour event opposite it a stage to itself on Sunday.
8. Last thing
If all of this happens, something for LIV to consider: drop the shotgun starts. Go to a two-tee start with eight groups of 3 each of the first two rounds, then go to twosomes of both tees on the final day. It’s still a condensed window of golf, which is one of the objectives. And far easier to follow.