Thought for the Day
Experience is the name people give to their mistakes
Lies, Damned Lies and Delusions
It is quite mind-boggling to observe the capacity that some people have for self-delusion. The ability to shout and scream that they are correct, in direct contradiction to all available evidence. It always makes me think two things. First, how can you be so blatantly, myopically one-sided as to not clearly see what is blindingly obvious to the rest of the world? And second, how can you also not see that your petulant foot-stamping protest at what you perceive as injustice simply makes you look like a spoilt child?
These possibly ungracious but fully justified thoughts have sprung to mind because LIV Golf has been informed that its Baldrick-inspired cunning plan to get world ranking points has been rebuffed, for the moment at least. First, a little background. At the beginning of October, Greg Norman announced a ‘strategic alliance’ with the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) tour, which had virtually everyone in golf scrabbling around for information on a nonentity organisation of which few had heard. It transpires that this tour was founded in 2011 as a developmental or feeder tour but it hasn’t staged a tournament in over two years. But crucially, its events are recognised by Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) so LIV Golf thought that this was a way for its players to earn those crucial ranking points.
The OWGR, in the way of bureaucratic organisations the world over, said, in effect: ‘Thanks very much; we’ll consider it.’
Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf and no stranger to thinking he’s the only person in the room with a valid opinion says: ‘It doesn’t make sense. Just because you have a negative viewpoint and you’re one of the voting members of an independent organisation, that you hate LIV and you vote against it… Grow up.’
Greg Norman telling someone else to grow up is like Boris Johnson telling Vladimir Putin to behave in a more morally acceptable way.
Dear old Bryson DeChambeau, who is simply a stranger to thinking, said: ‘They’re delaying the inevitable. We’ve hit every mark in their criteria, so for us not to get points is kind of crazy. We have the top players in the world. We deserve to be getting world ranking points.’
To make five demonstrable errors of fact in one paragraph is quite something, even for someone as bone-headed as Bryson. There is nothing ‘inevitable’ at all about LIV golfers eventually getting ranking points, it is all yet to be decided. LIV has not hit ‘every mark in their criteria’, in fact they’ve hit virtually none. So, it is not ‘crazy’ for LIV golfers to not get the points. And no, Bryson, you do not have the top players in the world, in fact you only have one (Cameron Smith) in the top-20. So, finally, no you do not ‘deserve’ to be getting world ranking points. But ten out of ten for effort, Bryson. Well done.
Brooks Koepka said of the decision: ‘I don’t think it really was much of a response. I just hate when you sit on the fence. Not to say something to where it’s not really an answer and we’ll think about it. I don’t agree with – just pick a side. If it’s yes, if it’s no, it’s fine, we’ll figure it out from there.’
Couple of things there, Brooks old buddy. First, you seem to be saying that it doesn’t matter what the decision is, just make a decision. No time for thought, to consider the facts, weigh up the options and come to a fair and reasonable conclusion, just wade in there and go on gut instinct – and while you’re at it, make a statement to demonstrate just how vacuous and woolly your thinking has become. Perhaps you’re just tired from counting all the money LIV Golf has shovelled your way. Oh, and second, you’re wrong – the OWGR did come to a decision, albeit an interim one, they decided not to let your piddling little event have official ranking points. Wasn’t that clear enough for you?
Okay, having had a little fun at the expense of a few tantrum-throwing divas, time, perhaps, for a little perspective. The OWGR, which is run by virtually every conservative stakeholder in the game, and therefore instinctively opposed to LIV Golf, was never going to rush into a decision but it will, in the fullness of time, have to make a judgement based on its own entry criteria and not inbuilt antipathy. Second, it is becoming increasingly obvious that a compromise will eventually be reached between LIV and established golf. Rory McIlroy says perhaps LIV golfers should be allowed to gain ranking points and compete in majors, while Jon Rahm wishes they could play in the Ryder Cup.
At the moment both sides – LIV Golf and the established world tours, particularly, the PGA Tour and its CEO Jay Monahan – are being as boneheaded and intransigent as each other but sooner or later something has to give. So why not let LIV golfers play on those tours – it would be fascinating to see how many of notoriously travel-averse LIV American stars who were in Thailand last week would have rather teed it up on home soil. LIV Golf remains an exhibition-style sideshow, and the golfers who want to make an indelible mark on the game would still rather be at the main events, especially the majors and Ryder Cup, than a limited field, 54-hole event that means nothing except dollars.
Let them come and play wherever they choose but of course they can’t – no doubt their LIV contracts have them locked in more securely than a madman in a straitjacket. Inevitably, the only people who will really gain from this sorry saga are the lawyers who will be hashing things out in the law courts for years, if not decades, to come. It was ever thus.
Quotes of the Week
There are three roads to ruin: women, gambling, and golf. The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with golf
Andrew Perry