In some regards, the scenes in Etobicoke, ON and Hertfordshire, UK this weekend were quite similar. Golf was played, winners were announced, and trophies were hoisted. But for those who have been following the current PGA vs. LIV blood feud closely, the 5,700 odd kilometres separating the two venues seemed relatively minor in comparison to the chasm between the competing ideologies of the sports two most lucrative tours.
Across the Atlantic, Charl Schwartzel won both the individual and team titles with fellow South Africans Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen and Hennie Du Plessis at the LIV Golf Invitational this past weekend. For his efforts he pocketed a cool $4.75M from the individual and team purses, which is nearly the same total he earned his last 4 years on the PGA Tour combined.
Those hefty tournament payouts, combined with large upfront signing bonuses have loomed large over the sport the last several weeks as a slew of prominent golfers have jumped ship to the Saudi backed startup tour.
But to truly understand how a sport as focused on tradition, decorum, and “gentlemanly conduct” arrived at a place where battle lines are being drawn, one needs to rewind more than just a few weeks.
The PGA Tour is for all intents and purposes, an institution at this point. Founded in 1929, the tour has been in continuous operation for nearly a century, with all other tours (Challenge Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, Asian Development Tour etc.) essentially acting as funnels to the “big leagues” of the PGA.
For the better part of the last 93 years, the PGA has operated without any true rival. They offered the largest purses, the best competition, and the most visibility for golfers and sponsors alike.
If you were to ask any aspiring golfer what their ultimate goal was, inevitably their answer would begin with earning a PGA Tour Card, and likely incorporate winning a major tournament of some kind in their dream scenario. The point being, their entirety of their professional aspirations began and ended with the PGA.
With upwards of 95% of professional golfers making their primary income as club or teaching professionals as opposed to “touring professionals”, the PGA Tour was the penultimate destination for the best players on Earth.
At least it was until recently…
Like all successful products, the PGA has had more than its fair share of imitators over the years. Most would fizzle out within a few events, while others wouldn’t be able to secure the same level of sponsorship dollars or TV deals to be able to provide the lucrative purses the PGA could. As a result, the top tier talent would invariably move to the PGA ranks, and the rival tour would fall by the wayside.
However, as developing countries around the world began to evolve into burgeoning economies, the sport which was once almost exclusive to North America and Europe, quickly became a more global phenomenon. Suddenly the golf industry saw major influxes in demand for equipment, and facilities in regions like South Africa, South East Asia, and the Middle East.
In fact, according to Forbes, one of the fastest growing markets of the 209 countries around the world with golf courses is Vietnam, which as of 2019 had 78 courses, with another 43 in development.
This globalization has led to non-traditional markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia taking a keen interest in the sport. It may be sand dunes, and desert that most people think of when they hear the “Middle East”, but to the region’s elite, fast cars, horse racing, and golf are the new norm.
Dating back to 2019, Saudi Arabia has hosted the Saudi International, an event formerly sanctioned by the European Tour, which drew some of the top names in golf. Similar to the new LIV model, golfers were paid considerable up front appearance fees, regardless of how they fared on the course.
Which is about the time when the idea for a Saudi backed tour began to take form. Using funds from the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the country began recruiting notable names from the golf world to help make their vision a reality.
LIV, which is actually the Roman numeral 54, a nod to the number of holes competitors play under their newly launched format, and not an acronym, began by securing 2 time major winner Greg Norman as their CEO. The de facto “face” of the organization, Norman’s history as a 20 time winner on the PGA Tour, golf wear designer, and course architect was expected to lend legitimacy to the start up in the early stages.
Armed with seemingly unlimited cash reserves, and a reputable face at the helm of the organization, LIV then began the daunting task of assembling a field that would not only delight their audiences back home, but also capture the interest of golf fans around the world as well.
Unlike the PGA Tour who have multi-year contracts with some of the largest cable companies on the planet, and entire specialty channels devoted to promoting their product, the Saudis were essentially starting from scratch. Rather than fight the PGA on their turf, they opted instead to go with a digital streaming launch, partnering with YouTube and Facebook to broadcast their events across the internet.
But even with the backing of the Saudi government, Norman as the CEO, and streaming deals with two internet giants, LIV still had to convince golfers to walk away from lucrative endorsement deals, and the tradition of the PGA Tour to join their fledgling upstart league. Lucky for them, there’s very few problems that mountains of cash can’t solve these days.
And considering the less than stellar human rights track record Saudi Arabia has, and the high likelihood that notable golfer’s sponsors could develop cold feet at the thought of one of their athletes joining LIV, they were going to need to flex that financial muscle if they hoped to put a dent in the juggernaut that was the PGA.
The first domino fell back in 2019 when rumours of a rival league, then tentatively called the Premier Golf League, became public. Commissioner Jay Monahan was quick to make it known that golfers who chose to play in the new league would be ineligible for future PGA Tour events.
The PGA then upped the ante by forming a “strategic alliance” with the European Tour to combine resources for scheduling, prizing, and commercial opportunities for their member bases. The Premier Golf League never materialized, but LIV, which officially launched in October 2021 surely took note of the hardline stance the PGA was prepared to take to ward off competitors.
Knowing that any players they approached would likely face sanctions at best, and potentially outright banishment from future PGA events, LIV believed they needed a high profile name to get the ball rolling. Enter Phil Mickelson.
Arguably the second most recognizable golfer of his generation behind Tiger Woods, Mickelson was exactly the kind of known commodity LIV needed to establish its viability in the world of golf. A 45 time PGA Tour winner, with 6 major championships under his belt, including an historic win at the 2021 PGA Championship, “Lefty” was Norman’s number 1 target in the early stages.
In committing to the LIV series, the Saudis were reportedly prepared to offer Mickelson a contract worth $200M according to sources. However, both Mickelson and his representatives have so far declined to publicly comment on what the actual amount the golfer was paid.
To put that figure into perspective, the 51 year old turned pro 30 years ago, and has accumulated $95M in tournament winnings over the course of his three decade PGA career (2nd all time to only Woods). And when sums in the 9 figure range start to get tossed around, it doesn’t take long for news to leak.
In February of 2022, less than 5 months after LIV officially launched, Golf Digest published a piece in which Mickelson blamed the PGA Tour’s “obnoxious greed” as one of the reasons he was looking to play elsewhere. In that same piece, which was quickly picked up by other national media outlets, the 30 year vet took several shots at the PGA while also pointing out Saudi Arabia’s chequered human rights history. A fact that likely didn’t sit well with his new employer.
***Author’s note: Saudi Arabia’s track record of human rights related issues is long and complex, and far too nuanced for me to attempt to shoehorn into this piece. For a more thorough understanding of the issues at play, please consider reading pieces from author’s far more well versed in the subject than I (such as this piece by Amnesty International).
Attempting to enact damage control following the release of the piece, Mickelson retreated from the public spotlight for some time to “reflect” on the matter. While LIV had yet to publicly announce the signing, many within the golf community knew it was already a done deal, and that if the reported sum was true, Mickelson would be far from the only golfer taking his talents to the new circuit.
On June 1st 2022, LIV formally announced its roster for the tour’s first ever event at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire, UK. The field included not only Mickelson, but also several major championship winning golfers, and former world number 1’s as well. Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, and Lee Westwood were amongst a surprisingly star studded field, prepared to help usher in a new era of golf which combined both individual and team play aspects in its events.
It wasn’t long after that Mickelson made his first public appearance since his controversial comments. When questioned by the press, the ASU alum remarked “There are a lot of things that I regret and I am sorry for the hurt that it’s caused a lot of people. I don’t condone human rights violations at all. Nobody here does … And I’m certainly aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible… I don’t know how else I can be any more clear. Again, I love this game of golf, I’ve seen the good that it’s done and I see the opportunity for LIV Golf to do a lot of good for the world and I’m excited to be a part of this opportunity.”
Perhaps learning from Phil’s missteps, two time major winner Dustin Johnson was markedly more guarded with his responses at the June presser, simply offering “I chose what’s best for me and my family.” The former world number 1 was reportedly paid $150M to join the Saudi backed league according to Yahoo! Sports.
With his tour bleeding top end talent to a foe with a seemingly limitless budget, commissioner Monahan knew it was time to circle the wagons. The 52 year old immediately suspended all 17 players who elected to sign with LIV, making them ineligible to compete in PGA events indefinitely.
With the RBC Canadian Open taking place simultaneously with LIV’s inaugural event, Monahan used the moment to double down on his stance regarding his competition. In an interview with CBS during the final round of the Open, the commish stated “It’s been an unfortunate week that was created by some unfortunate decisions, those decisions being players choosing to violate our tournament regulations… It’s my job to protect, defend and celebrate our loyal PGA Tour members, our partners and our fans. And that’s exactly what I did. And I don’t think it was a surprise to anybody, given how clear I had been about how we were going to handle this situation.”
While his public remarks may have been tempered, reports suggest that the PGA was much more direct with their remaining membership as to how they truly felt about LIV and the possible consequences players may face should they have thoughts about joining the tour.
Back in May at the PGA Championship many players remarked how it felt odd that last year’s winner (Mickelson) wasn’t present to defend his title. Some of the PGA’s biggest stars wished Phil the best, and lamented how they were hopeful he would soon rejoin their ranks.
Fast forward a month later, and it was a decidedly different tune in the lead up to the Canadian Open both in the pre-tournament pressers and post round media availabilities. 2022 champion Rory McIlroy couldn’t resist taking a jab at Greg Norman and LIV in his victory speech, remarking “I think going up against the best and beating the best always makes it extra special… And then, look, I alluded to it, I had extra motivation of what’s going on across the pond. The guy that’s spearheading that tour has 20 wins on the PGA Tour and I was tied with him, and I wanted to get one ahead of him. And I did. So that was really cool for me, just a little sense of pride on that one.”
While Monahan and Co. surely enjoyed that public barb, their satisfaction was likely short lived as LIV announced they had also signed former US Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau, Pat Perez, and 2018 Masters winner Patrick Reed for their next event in Portland, OR this past weekend.
The 4th commissioner in PGA Tour history didn’t back down from his stance on why players couldn’t compete simultaneously on both tours, telling reporters “Why do they need us so badly?… Those players have chosen to sign multi-year lucrative contracts to play in a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over again. You look at that versus what we see here today and that’s why they need us so badly. You’ve got true, pure competition. The best players in the world are here at the RBC Canadian Open, with millions of fans watching, and in this game, it’s true and pure competition that creates the profile in the presence of the world’s greatest players.And that’s why they need us. That’s what we do. But we’re not going to allow players to free ride off of our loyal members, the best players in the world.”
Yet for all the money being buoyed about by the Saudi’s, there remains one player who’s eluded them thus far. Tiger Woods has spurned all attempts to date from the LIV tour to acquire his services, and it certainly hasn’t been for a lack of effort on the Saudi’s end.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Norman revealed that Woods had turned down a deal that was “mind-blowingly enormous; we’re talking about high nine digits.”
Yet with prize pools that dwarf their reputable North American counterparts, and signing bonuses that instantly grant generational wealth, how long Woods and other top end golfers can resist the allure of LIV remains to be seen. The tour announced back in March their initial 8 tournament schedule which includes $255M worth of prize money available for players and teams.
The unique 54 hole, no cut, shotgun start formats are certainly different from what the traditional golf fan has come to expect over the years. But whether this manages to catch on with audiences, or goes the way of so many of the PGA’s previous rivals is the billion dollar question.
For now, the LIV tour has produced more headlines from the bonuses it’s doled out, than any on course action. There was however one viral moment from the past weekend Norman’s organization can take credit for, though it’s unlikely its a moment they’ll be overly proud of:
With the US Open slated to take place this week at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, the PGA will momentarily turn its attention away from their competitors. However Norman and his deep pocketed backers will be back in action at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club on June 30th, and you can rest assured that Monahan and the rest of the PGA ranks will be coming up with a strategy to stop the current exodus of players in its tracks.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Peetlesnumber1. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.