Why are there still many high-level competitive golf enthusiasts, including the undersigned, who still don’t find the charm in the current landscape left after the emergence of LIV Golf?
Well, there are several reasons. At least six, plus a bonus seventh.
1.– Because LIV’s proposal still falls short and lacks competitive excitement, probably because the day-to-day of this league has revealed a deep underlying inconsistency that perhaps wasn’t anticipated: team golf and individual golf don’t mix. At least not with the current format: the discourse of the new golf was apparently structured around and from collective, team play, but the facts show otherwise from the very moment the prize pool mainly considers the individual player (each LIV tournament distributes 25 million dollars in prizes, of which 20 are allocated to the individual classification and 5 to the team classification. At the end of the season, moreover, the winner of the individual ranking pockets 18 million, compared to the 14 million the winning team receives in the Team Final).
2.– Because the PGA Tour‘s reaction to the threat of new competition has been as clumsy as it is unimaginative, bold, and, worse, unsustainable: if they give more money, we give more money. If they play without a cut, we establish some more tournaments without a cut. If their field is smaller, with all the logistical advantages that entails, we also reduce the list of participants in several of our best tournaments…
All these modifications, whether the players and the PGA Tour officials like it or not, neither concern nor interest the average fan. On the contrary, there are still many of us who prefer tournaments with a cut. And also those of us who believe that this sport holds a uniqueness that no other has, whereby the World Number 100 is very capable of being better than the Number 1 several times in the same year, in the same month, and even in the same week, a circumstance that, clearly, can and should be defended by the broader fields.
3.– Because the world ranking does not reflect reality with the precision that fans demand and need. What can we do: we like to know who the World Number 7 is, for example, with a reasonable guarantee that they truly are. This, among other things, can affect more or less directly the excellence of the Majors, where sooner or later a player who should be there might be missing.
4.– Because, although it is a purely subjective suspicion, many fans believe that, with the new landscape and new schedules, there are more great players who have lowered their performance, especially on the LIV side.
5.– Because the Ryder Cup, which should be untouchable, is affected in one way or another and almost never (and without the ‘almost’) for the better.
6.– Because debates end, and even start, with money, which becomes exhausting. And even disheartening. Even knowing that high-level competition, whatever it may be, is above many things a big business. Above many things, agreed. But not above EVERYTHING.
7.– Because Dustin Johnson, who is only forty years old, has lost the thread and doesn’t seem to care much either.
