Merging of PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV!!

newport2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120695981#Comment_120695981

They'd never block it on the grounds of morality, agreed. But there may be legal issues with it, effectively creating a monopoly in golf.

https://www.mediaite.com/sports/the-scandalous-pga-tour-liv-golf-deal-will-likely-never-happen-expert-argues/

Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

daithi7

https://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/we-live-in-a-free-market-and-the-big-gorilla-is-entitled-to-come-in-padraig-harringtons-latest-take-on-liv-merger/a1141450798.html

Richard Hillman

https://twitter.com/NUCLRGOLF/status/1668669809498763293?t=FEjFGpCYoEV2iHBTVa3kng&s=19

Rambo gone? He gets his Spanish team going with Garcia and some wonga to boot from PIF/LIV?

I'm starting to believe that this could end up being LIV or a renamed entity being the number one brand and the PGA as the American feeder tour.

daithi7

https://www.si.com/golf/news/after-marathon-meeting-pga-tour-players-appear-ready-to-work-with-saudi-public-investment-fund

blue note

I never got to post here at the time, but I must say I'm sickened by the merger. I don't particularly care about the traditions of the tournaments. They're all invented, even the Open. The great thing about them is that they have the best players in the world playing against each other on interesting courses. I never cared that with the introduction of LIV we could have been losing PGA tour staples. It would be much better to see competitions move around the world. The shotgun starts and 54 holes and team aspect were all grand too. There's no particular reason a course has to be 18 holes and no reason a tournament has to have 4 rounds. Having teams in golf that hire and fire players wouldn't be great. The fairness of being able to qualify for events is a strength of the game. If we started losing a deserving Irish or American player because a Chinese guy is worth more to a team that would be a shame. But the team aspect could be somewhat interesting.

But it's what the Saudi's are buying with their money that's the problem. They're not hoping to make money from golf and they don't care about the game. It's the good image that they are after. The best example of sportswashing by far that I can think of is Abramovich at Chelsea. He is one of the Oligarchs propping up Putin and after the invasion of Ukraine, the fans were holding up banners and chanting his name. Former players and media pundits were praising him. This is what the Saudis want from golf. When they're executing gays and journalists, keeping women in the dark ages, etc, they want people saying there's two sides to it, it's complicated. I wouldn't be surprised if they get a major over there in the coming years.

From the start when I saw the figures being thrown around I thought it was inevitable that they'd win. Money always wins. And professional golfers are more greedy and selfish than they average person. When I saw what the PGA were increasing their pots to and their annual revenue figures I thought that makes no sense, they can't possibly sustain that, they must just be raiding their coffers. Increased TV deals and asking their sponsors to double their contributions for essentially no different product - that sounded like pie in the sky stuff. Great if it works, but you can't go ahead with those prize pots until it does. And still, after a year of LIV I somehow forgot all of that and thought, LIV isn't going to work. They don't have the players even with all that money and the profiles of the ones they do have are waning. Which made it an absolute sucker blow for me when this deal was announced. I feel sorry for McIlroy more than just about anyone. He was offered the hundreds of millions and decided to turn it down for principled reasons. He'll probably get that money or much of it at least now anyway. But he did have the choice of selling out and taking it and chose not to. Now he has no choice if he wants to continue to play the game. I hope I don't start watching the golf now. Maybe the majors and the Irish Open, but I'll be disappointed in myself if I start watching regular events. But I watch a bit of formula 1, so I wonder will my boredom and curiosity on a Sunday night get the better of me. We'll see.

benny79

Great post @blue note! Totally agree apart from the LIV stuff 😂 I love the 4 day format & cut.. I basically hate everything about LIV but am sickened by the merger!