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The LIV Golf Tournament (or Saudi Blood Money: It's Not Just for WWE Anymore!)

King Kamala

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I never thought I'd post a golf thread but this story seems bigger than sports tbh. The LIV seems like the biggest threat to an established sports league in decades and the PGA seems paralyzed in responding. TIL that most of their Majors are independent entities and they can just decide whether or not the LIV players in their tournament.
www.theringer.com

ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg on Covering the LIV Golf Tournament

Discussing how the LIV Golf Tournament came to be and why this story matters
www.theringer.com www.theringer.com

Could this just be the start? If this is successful, who is to say the Saudis won't say "Hmmm. Let's try other sports!" And even if it fails, it basically looks like a rounding error for the Saudis.
 
snuffbox

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I thought the PGA was dismembering suspending golfers who do that Saudi thing.
 
HarleyQuinn

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The USGA has already said that LIV golfers can play in the U.S. Open so that's kind of a blow to the PGA's stance IMO.
 
King Kamala

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The Masters is deciding rn whether or not to let LIV golfers.

The Masters are kind of a good ol' boys network and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they decided to let the LIV players play in Augusta.

Allegedly, Tiger Woods turned down upwards of a BILLION DOLLARS to play in the LIV Tournament.
 
Gert

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I think the USGA and R&A (Open Championship), are basically letting everyone in to avoid litigation before the tournaments this year. But since they have open qualifications in both unlike the PGA Championship and the Masters, I think that LIV players will never truly be banned.

The Masters is also interesting because they will do whatever the hell they want and also there are currently 5 LIV players (DJ, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel & Phil Mickelson) are former champions and have lifetime exemptions in theory.

LIV has also appealed to get sanctioned by the OWGR which is very important for the players because all of the Major give exemptions to end of the year and current Top 50 players. My guess is everyone besides DJ and maybe Talor Gooch could drop out of the Top 50 by the next Masters.
 
King Kamala

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www.espn.com

'Incredibly polarizing': Start of the LIV Golf era brings golf and a flood of questions

At Saturday's LIV event at Centurion Golf Club in London, it felt less like a golf tournament away from the rope line and more like a festival.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

A screenwriter would probably say "The O'Jays 'For the Love of Money' is too many obvious of a choice to play at the Saudi bankrolled golf tournament."

Also jfc...the LIV Golf Tournament hiring Ali Fleischer to handle PR also feels way too on the nose for real life.
 
SFH

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Someone close to me did a 6 month teaching gig in Jeddah at the University. The money was ridiculous, but he said in the end, wasn't worth it because almost everything he would have made over his normal 9-5 salary was eaten up by "kidnapping insurance."
He had to take an unpaid leave of absence from his 9-5 for the 6 months. They paid him whatever 6 figueres, but after insurance and expenses, he basically made the same net income he would have made had he just stayed put here.

The experiences, good and bad, made him feel like he grew as a person. He still corresponds with the students and teachers he met there. Is the government there brutal, corrupt, and backwards in many areas? Yes. But he also was able to experience another country and see first hand what's going on. The negatives do outweigh the positives, he's not going back. He literally witnessed a public execution.

A lady at the university brought him to the Jeddah equivalent to Starbucks one day. When they got back to class one of the male teachers pulled him into another room and said that because of the differences in cultures, "you don't understand her intentions. In America, that's just two colleagues having coffee. Here, she's trying to get you to ask her to be one of your wives and bring her back to America. Don't have anymore 1 on 1 coffee meetings with her because you'll be leading her on at that point."
tl;dr Saudi Stories

Anyway - what does kidnapping insurance run for multi-millionaires in comparison to thousand-aires?
 
Gert

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LIV's recent moves of going after Gary McCord, David Feherty and potentially Charles Barkley is actually pretty good moves beyond the top 3-6 guys they have signed. Granted for now, the majority of the people who love those three probably don't know how to get YouTube on their TV's, but I think you can make a case that beyond DJ, Bryson, & Koepka and maybe Phil getting people in the booth lots of people know and have some reverance too might be better than throwing 35-45 million at Paul Casey.
 
Gert

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LIV looked a lot like a Trump MAGA rally this weekend, as they probably got irrationaly more popular with 34% of the United States.

Henrik Stenson won this weeks tournament on the heels of accepting a 40 million dollar offer to join LIV; which he was then immediately stripped of his 2023 Ryder Cup captaincy.
 
King Kamala

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Do you think a cable network is going to take the bait and broadcast this? I feel like the 34% of the US that this appeals to correlates with the number of Americans who still have regular old cable and satellite.

Then again, does the number of people who watch this even matter with the amount of money the Saudis said they're willing to burn?
 
Gert

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Yeah I think any real outcome is in play. It’s funny because I feel like most pro-LIV people aren’t making good faith arguments.

I don’t like LIV because it makes the PGA fields worse without putting on a product that I think will be great. Like with the XFL in 2001 or 2002, there are good aspects that the PGA should look into, but they are going to have to spend really big money on some of the top guys that are rumored (Cam Smith, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay), and even then I’m not sure I am still locked into a no cut, hybrid team & individual event.

I think if I’m one of those above guys I look for Phil Mickelson money or better, because ultimately I think golfers that are currently good will actually be better than names that are playing poorly. And if the money isn’t that good, the new TV deal kicks in during the ‘23 season and the money will get better on the PGA Tour as well.
 
Gert

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Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Abraham Ancer, Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Kokrak, Matt Jones, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein all filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour this year.

I haven’t read it, but I think it’s along the lines of not being able to play on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour (Euro Tour).

I think it’s interesting because you have guys like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka & Patrick Reed are not on the lawsuit.

Phil alleges that he was given a two year ban by the PGA Tour for trying to recruit guys to LIV.
 
Gert

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Talor Gooch, Matt Jones & Hudson Swafford lost a TRO today that would have allowed them to play in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs due to the points they accrued.

Probably a better day for the PGA than LIV in regards to the above lawsuit. The judge essentially asked about how much money LIV golfers were making and said that it hurt part of the “monopoly“ argument.

Probably the most interesting part of the day was that “some” of the contracts are a draw where the winnings they get in the team and individual portions of the tournament go against their signing bonuses, which they previously denied.

Its also rumored the Cam Smith, the #2 ranked golfer in the world and defending PLAYERS champion and Open Championship winner is going to LIV for 100 million, which I still think he short changed himself if that’s true.
 
909

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Seems like the bleeding is stopped with Cam Smith. Some other more minor players leaving but nothing that will break the tour.

golfweek.usatoday.com

Report: Hideki Matsuyama to forego LIV Golf, stay with PGA Tour

Matsuyama was long rumored to be leaving for the breakaway series.
golfweek.usatoday.com golfweek.usatoday.com

golfweek.usatoday.com

Report: Cameron Young won't join LIV Golf, has ‘decided to stay’ with the PGA Tour

It seems as if the PGA Tour’s recently announced changes are already having an impact.
golfweek.usatoday.com golfweek.usatoday.com

I would say this really hurts LIV's prospects which is a good thing. They had to sign more quality name players to really make this work.
 
HarleyQuinn

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Say what you will but... https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/golf/dustin-johnson-liv-golf-miami-spt-spc-intl/index.html

"Johnson’s $4m cut of the team competition winnings lifts his earnings from the inaugural series to $35,637,767, according to The Associated Press. It marks a mammoth spike in earnings for Johnson who, in just eight LIV Golf events, has matched almost half a career’s total winnings on the PGA Tour. Across 16 seasons and 307 events on the sport’s flagship tour, the two-time major winner amassed almost $75 million in prize money."
 
HarleyQuinn

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Yeah, ESPN.com posted an article where Rory basically says he felt used by the PGA Commish as the "face" of the PGA while this LIV stuff was going on. A lot of the PGA membership are livid over this.
 
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