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Saudi World Golf Tour 2022/2023 Thread

It will always be the Wachovia Championship to me anyway
 
It's over. The idiots and greedy assholes of the world won. Can't compete with stupid levels of money. Golf will now be irrelevant for all but 4 or 5 weeks a year.
 
This is from Golf Digest, and it makes sense that the Saudis did this to gain leverage in negotiations because the PGAT has been talking to other investors:

For the past two weeks sources have told Golf Digest that PIF looks at Rahm as a bargaining chip amid worries the PGA Tour will ultimately walk away from the proposed framework agreement, the belief being that the tour could not afford to lose someone as valuable as Rahm. With Rahm in tow, it certainly bestows leverage in PIF’s corner and could force the tour to accelerate its deal with PIF to minimize collateral damage. That option is on the table. Conversely, there are a number of voices with the tour that deem Rahm’s separation as an act of war and that it violated an unspoken agreement between the two parties (since the no-poaching clause was eliminated from the deal due to antitrust regulations). So, in spite of the outside belief this could force the sides together, it could do the opposite. The ball is truly in the tour's court to prevent this schism from spiraling further out of control, but it is unclear if decision-makers with the tour have any hunger for cooperation after Rahm's exit.

The thing is that if the addition of Rahm is the tipping point to force a deal between the PGAT and PIF (which I would guess is the primary motivation for Rahm signing; he's going to get his money, and was told that a deal is imminent with PGAT, which among other things will allow him to play in the Ryder Cup and several elevated events with PGAT players), it's going to be structured to benefit golf's stars, and will screw everyone else (the Saudis money gave the leverage to the golf's stars).

There will be around 10 combo events for the stars of LIV and the PGAT, but while they will likely be 72 hole events (so was the Hero World Challenge; so, its not really a big lift to play golf four days in a row), they will have no cut and will have restricted fields. Boring massive money grabs. The PGA will continue with some of its other events with the promise of a few players qualifying for these super combined events, but those fields will be watered-down and feel like the glorified Korn Ferry tourneys; LIV will keep some of its own irrelevant events, particularly those in the Middle East and maybe a couple on Trump courses, but those events will continue to be a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it.

Agree that golf will be irrelevant, or at least not as fun to follow, except for the majors. Then, again, even though the fields were weak, actually thought a bunch of the Fall PGA events were really fun to watch (and bet on).
 
Glad that college and amateur golf have gotten more broadcast time. That will be more fun to watch than the garbage that results if LIV "wins" (i.e., buys enough good players to significantly impact the PGAT product while remaining irrelevant itself).

Oh well, those who play on weekends won't notice much difference anyway.
 
If the PGA and DP are losing leverage, and this is war, they should talk to their friends at the USGA, PGA and R&A and get the LIV guys banned from the majors.
 
cville deac said:
If the PGA and DP are losing leverage, and this is war, they should talk to their friends at the USGA, PGA and R&A and get the LIV guys banned from the majors.
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Exemptions for winning mean something. Sorry you have the red ass over this but Phil, Dustin, Jon, Patrick, Sergio get to come back to the Masters. Many get to go to The Open till they are 65 or whatever. Can’t just go around acting like a snowflake Squad member and banning people you don’t like. 😂😂
 
cville deac said:
If the PGA and DP are losing leverage, and this is war, they should talk to their friends at the USGA, PGA and R&A and get the LIV guys banned from the majors.
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That would seem like illegal anti-competitive conduct and probably not a great idea
 
I’m hearing a bunch of major funds may be backing the Tour, including Bezos Bros.
Private funding would kill any merger possibility that must occur by 12/31.
The Tour is not dead yet.
 
DeacsPop said:
I’m hearing a bunch of major funds may be backing the Tour, including Bezos Bros.
Private funding would kill any merger possibility that must occur by 12/31.
The Tour is not dead yet.
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Why would it kill a merger? It might dilute the ownership percentage of the PIF, but it would also mitigate their risk.

I really don't care where the money comes from if they don't make wholesale changes to the product they put on TV. Outside of the majors and Ryder Cup, pro golf has gone from being a weekly watch for me to unwatchable the last few years.
 
Because I believe deep down inside, the Tour has no interest in merging with the PIV. They are strictly being boxed in financially. And while I agree that the Tour has lost some key players, the game they play is superior. The LIV format is awful and totally unwatchable.
 
DeacsPop said:
Because I believe deep down inside, the Tour has no interest in merging with the PIV. They are strictly being boxed in financially. And while I agree that the Tour has lost some key players, the game they play is superior. The LIV format is awful and totally unwatchable.
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I'm somewhere in between you and LK. The elevated tourneys, and the tourneys on great courses are still a must watch for me. But the mid summer and fall tourneys, and the tourneys in between elevated events with terrible fields are pretty meh for me.

I had thought that the pending merger between the PGA, DP and PIF would mean the dissolution of LIV after this season because why would the Saudis want to continue throwing $$ at an awful product that no one watches. So now I am just confused.
 
The PIF wants multiple events with stacked fields, and eventually a major (like the PGA Championship) played in the middle east, with the Royal Family hob-nobbing with PGA stars. They want playing in SA (despite the atrocities) to be viewed as the same as playing in Ohio.
 
I don't blame guys for taking the money, but there's nothing sustainable about LIV. The path to get there is to become famous on the PGA Tour then sell your fame to the PIF. LIV hardly has any viewership and can't create a player like a Rahm or DJ. And the old farts clinging to relevancy just make half of LIV a glorified Champions Tour.

I do wish the Masters would just come out and say that as a private organization they disagree with the PIF and the damage it's doing to the traditions of golf and ban LIV players. Same with the PGA. The ties between the USGA and R&A probably make either open impossible to pull off a lockout, but they could very easily just change the exemption criteria and at least make LIV guys qualify. Of course they're too busy piddling about with golf ball rollback fights to do anything that matters.

Barring the scorched earth effort above, I hope the Rahm exit does end up in a stalemate if the PGA Tour can land enough funding to keep rolling as-is. Just announce the only path back to the PGA Tour is complete calendar year off of LIV. Draw a line in the sand and work with the majors to change their exemption rules. It'll sting for like 3 years then then parasite of LIV will have nothing left to feed on except unknown DP World Tour players and college grads who can't get their card after turning pro.

Then the PIF can go buy the Dodgers and Yankees and move them to Riyadh.
 
Pilchard said:
The PIF wants multiple events with stacked fields, and eventually a major (like the PGA Championship) played in the middle east, with the Royal Family hob-nobbing with PGA stars. They want playing in SA (despite the atrocities) to be viewed as the same as playing in Ohio.
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That would appear easier to do with the DP rather than the PGA. It would become the road to Jeddah instead of the road to Dubai. But this just goes back to they should have sports washed in the right way by originally partnering with the DP and doubling or tripling the $$ and calling the tour the DP House of Saud tour instead of throwing billions away to fund Greg's and Phil's war against the DP and PGA.
 
From their actions, I still do not understand the Saudis' end goal here other than to destroy the PGA Tour. And they are doing it strictly with government funds, so don't give me the "free market" argument. This is "government overreach" by a barbaric dictatorship, which, it would seem, would bother some of LIV's biggest fans. Guess not.

The most cogent explanation I have heard is that they really sold the team aspect hardest (well, alongside the bazillion dollar handout). And I get that and see how it could become popular with all of the top players. Something akin to NASCAR or Formula 1, or along those lines, was what was sold to at least some players who made the jump to LIV.

But this format won't work for that, at least not to draw an audience. They need to mix it up to play true team-oriented golf, which means head-to-head. With season-long set teams, it would be a lot of fun to watch matches between teams that incorporated better ball, alt shot, singles, and even scramble and shamble formats to show the common man how it's done, in addition to stroke play. That could sell, but instead, they just do shortened shotgun stroke play-only garbage. If a "merger" ever happens, that would be the best result for LIV in my mind - have the PGA Tour events for all, then have a team series for the stars where they play this kind of stuff for a season-long prize.

No sign of anything worthwhile yet though.
 
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cville deac said:
That would appear easier to do with the DP rather than the PGA. It would become the road to Jeddah instead of the road to Dubai. But this just goes back to they should have sports washed in the right way by originally partnering with the DP and doubling or tripling the $$ and calling the tour the DP House of Saud tour instead of throwing billions away to fund Greg's and Phil's war against the DP and PGA.
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The DP World Tour doesn't have any way to create actual stars though. Rory, Rahm, and the rest of those guys are only famous because of PGA Tour wins, American majors, and the Open Championship.

The whole thing sucks because basically it's a complete mess. The Saudis don't really have an end goal - this is a sport they have zero history with, they have one guy high up in the PIF who simply loves the game and hanging out with big name golfers. The only stars who'd buddy up with him were ones who either had a bone to pick with the PGA Tour or were desperate for money - and they'd been pimping an alternate tour for years. And he's been thrilled to be used by them because it's a bottomless pit of money.

The only thing that's real about any of it is the actual dollars from the PIF - players only even began considering leaving when actual fully funded escrow accounts with millions in them were created and could be wired in seconds. The launch of LIV was a joke, the coverage a joke, the format a joke, the back half of the field a joke, TV deal's a joke. The only legitimate aspects of it were things they could achieve by pouring money into it - some big name players, Trump course partnerships, Feherty, etc. At it's core though, it's still a joke. Just a highly lucrative one.

At this point I'd rather they just fire Monahan for a complete lack of competence for getting to this point, since he torched all the good will and commitment of guys like Rory and Tiger by going behind their backs. Use the Rahm buy out to cancel the partnership. Let them have a Middle East team tour or whatever, rope off the PGA/USGA/R&A from it, then just wait it out. The USA will continue to produce rock star golfers, as will the UK by way of the PGA Tour. You don't even need to ban LIV players, just make the schedules impossible to co-exist and tweak the exemption criteria. They do it every year anyway.
 
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