Honestly I don’t know what event you watched to come away with those conclusions. That final round was an embarrassment to professional golf tours around the world.
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Agree. The product is a joke. I won’t be watching for all kinds of reasons, but on top of all the obvious ones, who would want to support something Greg Norman heads? It is so easy to root against that guy
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Let’s be honest the final round was pretty lackluster. I think the shotgun start was good for the first two days but the drama was kind of gone by the end and somewhat confusing to be honest.
Overall it wasn’t that terrible, the formula could be improved definitely but much like the FedEx cup was boring at the beginning now it’s something we all look forward too after like 8 seasons.
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Having 75% of the field be so far behind the better players was pretty brutal to watch though.
Dustin Johnson applies for membership for the DP World Tour
Gangsta move if you ask me
Top players can get plenty of world golf ranking points by playing just the Rolex Series events on the DP World Tour, if they’re not banned
If they are banned from the DP World Tour too then there’s also the Asian Tour, which is in line for a humongous upgrade
The LIV players are going to play and get world ranking points from somewhere. Where that is remains to be seen
No matter what they decide though the International Series is getting a huge upgrade. A number of good players from the DP World Tour are playing and trying to win a lotto ticket into the Invitational Series event. They’ve figured this game out
I guess that’s one way to grow the game, introduce soap opera elements LOL. The PGA Tour is doing a great job!
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I’d assume the next few will start to resemble WGC type fields. and no doubt be stronger than the DP Tour.
It didn’t feel remotely competitive, beyond a few of the European Tour players being massively pumped to make a big cheque.
I’d imagine they’ll get a lot more serious if/when they’re ranked, and when the massive signing on bonuses dwindle.
I sadly watched the entire final round and it was, as Matt and others have said, a complete embarrassment to professional golf.
Charl hit it like absolute trash the entire back 9 (hit 1 or 2 drivers that went off the planet, otherwise bunted irons) but somehow Du Plessis and Uihlein were hitting it worse and couldn’t put any pressure on him. Of course this isn’t that surprising considering neither are good enough to hold a PGA Tour card. The field was so thin that they got away with it, and walked away with the biggest checks in golf history.
The shotgun format was comically bad. Phil dragged all the fans out to hole 4 so it was like a funeral for the final group until they got to 18, where they were met by some clueless golf fans waiting for the Jesse J concert to start. And the commentators were acting like this was a huge success all the way through, actually had to mute it a various points.
And the team format… not sure what they expected when they let Louis, Charl, and Grace form their team pre-draft. Funnily enough the other captains got paid so much just for being there they didn’t even care to complain.
This just isn’t tournament golf, it’s a joke.
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If they only could stop pretending it’s not only about money. That’s all there is. Not even 1% is about something else. The biggest joke of an argument is that so many asian golfing fans have found the game and now needing to be taken care of. Not realizing, or ignoring the fact that it’s “traditional” golf that got them there through the likes of Matsuyama and like a zillion class female korean golfers and not something new and fancy like this event of paganism. Game of golf is as good as it needs to be. If anything, it needs a new TW, like athletics had Bolt, but that can’t be forced.
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Yeah I have seen no evidence that 72-hole stroke play isn’t the best format for pro golf. Especially when you remember that the primary goal of a legitimate tournament is to identify and reward the best players over that week.
If a new format emerged organically and accumulated merit over time then I’d have no issue with it but throwing a billion dollars at an unproven shotgun start, team aspect, 54 hole event series and expecting it to work is ludicrous. Not to mention it is splintering the PGA Tour in the process.
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Such a treat watching the best in the world put up an incredible show in Canada right now.
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US Open will be fun
It’ll be billed as the battle between the LIV golfers and the PGA Tour
I’m hearing that Rickie Fowler, Matthew Wolff, Justin Rose, Bubba Watson, Jason Kokrak, and Harold Varner III are in the pipeline for the LIV series
I hope you realize that the ongoing soap opera drama is drawing in new eyeballs who otherwise would be treating pro golf as a punchline to a joke. That’s one way of growing the game LOL
All due respect my man, but you might just be making stuff up at this point and your blind support of the LIV tour so far makes most on here question your takes, TBH.
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Well we’ll see how many of those names sign. Deals can always fall through last minute but I’m expecting a high batting average from the list I gave
Make no mistake, I am a fan of the PGA Tour golf too and I watch a ton. I watched some of the Canadian Open too. Rory was on fire all weekend (so was Finau)
I am a big fan of more golf, more entertaining storylines, and more opportunities to make money betting on golf (LOL).
I would like to see the Asian Tour get the full treatment from books too at some point
I’m actually going to agree with Daniel. The bitterness on both sides is fantastic drama.
I live in the UK, and every other week of PGA Tour golf for the last couple of decades has constantly talked about money. This week, we were instead told a couple of times every hour how prestige and quality of player matter far more than money.
I’d imagine this will be the rhetoric for every single week until the Tour Championship, where suddenly we’ll be told ad nauseum that this is the richest week in golf.
It will be funny to watch everyone squirm next week if a LIV player wins. I’m also going to be interested to see the reception the LIV players get. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Boston crowd boo and heckle them throughout.
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The bitterness on both sides is fantastic drama.
To each their own, but I might be more into it if Saudi blood money wasn’t involved. It’s not even “political”, it’s basic human rights, and if you keep looking for reasons to say “I guess this could be interesting” instead of saying “fuck those guys” — we are starting the conversation on a completely different page.
Can’t change how others think, but they won’t get a second more of my attention. Frankly, it would be nice to see @matt_courchene and @will_courchene ignore it all together.
Yeah, I don’t really want to get into the political and moral components of it because I feel the argument against is strong enough without that. I think there are several arguments to be made for us covering this (and also some to be made against). From a moral standpoint, I don’t really see the framework that gets the average person to say no to this Saudi venture but yes/no to so many other things related to sport, business, and charity in our lives. You can call that whataboutism, but it’s also about having a consistent worldview with logical principles.
But I obviously understand where you are coming from. I think at the very least we should have the historical LIV data on our website as there will now be top players playing most of their rounds there. I would view that similar to the journalists who covered the event this week despite being very against the source of the funds.
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Honestly, if that’s your attitude then you probably would have to dismiss a lot of sport. When big bucks are involved, generally somewhere along the line something reprehensible will have happened.
I think the vast majority of people would take the massive pay rise to work for the Saudis, while disassociating themselves personally from any atrocities they commit.
I’ve been a Newcastle fan for 25 years, they were purchased by the Saudis last year and the fans are on the whole massively excited at being able to spend enough to eventually compete for trophies. None of the existing players demanded a transfer away from the club when the Saudis took over. The WWE go to Saudi Arabia twice a year, and right now the only two active wrestlers who don’t go is someone of Syrian descent and his best friend.
Basically, I’m into it for the entertainment and want to see the horrible people on both sides act ridiculously.
Fair point, I guess you guys couldn’t really put out your best product without the data from the events. In my mind though these guys shouldn’t even be playing in the majors making their “data” as useless as they are.
Agree to disagree. For me, this is a perfectly reasonable place to draw a line.
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Btw, no offense, but you’d do well performing at a LIV golf media event!