The PGA Tour Thread

The Masters can invite whoever they want and Niemann ticks enough boxes tbf.

Niemann won outside of LIV last year and had some top 5s in 10 starts. Plus a collection of top 5s on LIV with 2x wins. Finished 2nd on LIV individual rankings to Rahm. This year he won the last LIV event and was 3rd in an Asian tour event.

He plays events outside of LIV on DP or Asian tour and features so you could argue he's still a top player. Whereas Leishman played 3x non-LIV events last year. MC in one and was T3 twice (both weak fields in Australia). He was 15th overall in LIV last year.

He's playing objectively superior golf to Leishman and trying to play extra events to get OWGR points.

Data golf shows rahm as 4th, hatton 7th, Bryson 12th and Nieman 13th on current play, taking field strength into account. 4 of top 13 form players doesn't seem too bad for LIV.

Many ways to skin a cat etc, I genuinely don't have much of a view given how little (never) I watch LIV. He's definitely generational and it's definitely not good for golf in general to divide the talent, a shame we only see the best together a few times a season.

No Rahm is like Starwars without Vader 😐️

Probably 2027 if I was a betting man. This year will getting to the table for talks, next year transition and 2027 full steam ahead. There are some big retainers and contracts set to expire on LIV over the next 1-2 years for the early joiners.

When/if DJ and Phil get new cheques flashed in front of them, it will be interesting to see how how many zeros are on the end this time. I'd imagine all those legacy contracts are one-offs and will not be offered in future.

Eg the PGA or LIV both wouldn't be happy if X player has exlusivity over the other tour and vice versa. There will probably be "salary" capping to a low number or outright withdrawal of those contracts. I think all fans would find it fair that DJ/Poulter/Westwood/McDowell et al should have to play to win and step off the gravy train.

PIF estimated that they'd spend $5 billion on the first few years of LIV. It's insane money. Imagine the good it could do if that money was spent elsewhere. Or if it was left in golf to grow the game globally.

Incredible course to do it on too. Must be the best 59 yet considering course difficulty.

Clearly aren't miles ahead of the rest.

https://www.golf365.com/news/is-2025-rory-mcilroys-year-5-tour-aces-with-the-best-pga-win-percentages#:~:text=Rory%20McIlroy%20%E2%80%93%2010.98%25&text=But%20winning%20more%20than%20one,to%20make%202025%20his%20year.

Rory has the best win percentage on tour. Yes even better than Scottie.

No sign of Xander there.

You can definitely argue that they are the best 2 players. But to say they are miles ahead of the rest like it's some kind of straight shootout between Scottie and Xander is clearly not correct.

Wrong again.

https://www.pgatour.com/player/28237/rory-mcilroy

27 wins from 259. 10.42% win rate. Anyway the difference is arbitrary.

To say Scheffler and Xander are streets ahead of the rest is just nonsense. On their day any one of Rahm, Rory, Bryson, Ludvig, Morikawa etc are all more than capable of taking down Scottie and Xander.

I corrected you on the same Incorrect comment 3 months ago. I see you've gone from scheffler having the best tee to green to strokes gained to the lowest stroke average. Total strokes gained is a better metric and as mentioned previously, rory had a better season and almost 2 better than scheffler in 2024.

Absolutely baffling to say Xander is miles ahead of the rest with scheffler when he is third in the world rankings.

Laurie canter in players due to top 50 in the world but he’s the first player who’s played a liv event to play on pga tour. Surprised they allowed him in. He played two of them and not signed up for a full team member but still