Thought for the Day
A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at
Big Season, Big Money and Bad Blood
Now that the dust has settled on the first season of LIV golf, perhaps it’s time to take a long hard look at what it has done to/for the game and who are the big winners and losers in this new sporting landscape.
First, the winners, and all the headlines have pointed out that Dustin Johnson trousered just over $35 million in his debut season with the outcasts. This is made up of almost $11 million as an individual, a further $7 million team prize and an $18 million bonus for finishing at the top of the LIV standings. All this, of course, in addition to the reported $125 million he got for signing on in the first place. By anyone’s standards that’s a lot of moolah so it’s no wonder that he sits happily in press conferences, batting away impertinent journalist questions and grinning like the cat that got all the cream and a fair slice of salmon.
But then, Dustin Johnson has always carried about him the air of someone who finds the game, at times, to be ridiculously easy, and who strolls fairways with all the concern of a drugged-up hippie. Creating a legacy, re-writing record books and striving to capture majors above all other prizes has never seemed of great importance. He plays a demanding sport to a supremely high level because he can, and in the process is richly rewarded so that’s enough, it seems. And if someone is going to pay him a whole lot more, and forget about adding his name to the rollcall of the game’s greats, thanks very much.
In my view, however, he’s not the biggest beneficiary of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. That man is Pat Perez. His individual winnings for the season are just over $961,000 which, by LIV standards is pretty paltry but not really a surprise considering that he never finished above 16th place in events where, apart from half a dozen world beaters, the field was of relatively modest talent. He had the good fortune or good sense, however, to be part of Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces, which topped the team leaderboard, as a result of which he raked in another $7 million, which put him in eighth place overall in the final money list and that’s not counting his reported signing-on fee of $10 million. Compare that to the $1,200,000 he won in 2021, his last full season on the PGA Tour.
Perez was, unlike several mealy-mouthed contemporaries, refreshingly honest when he signed-up, saying quite simply he did it for the money. So it was no surprise when, at the end of season party, he said: ‘Yeah, all the push-back, all the negative comments, everything we’ve gotten, at this point I really don’t care. I mean, I don’t care. I’m paid. I don’t give a damn.’
It’s hard to disagree with the 46-year-old journeyman pro, and to him, and the other fading stars who see their best golf only in the rear-view mirror (yes, that’s you Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia et al), good luck to them.
The other major beneficiaries of LIV Golf are the lower-ranking players on both the PGA and DP World tours, who are now going to get guaranteed money at the end of the season, irrespective of how they perform. The US Tour announced in August that it is increasing prize money at 12 events to match those of LIV Golf and they would have an average purse of $20 million. In addition, the money for the player impact program will be doubled to $100m and will pay out to 20 players, not 10. Not only that, tour rookies can claim guaranteed earnings of at least $500, while lower-ranked players will get a travel stipend of $5,000 for each missed cut. The DP World Tour has followed suit with a similar, but less valuable, scheme so for the first time, golfers on the major tours will get money for simply being there, rather than through their achievements on the course.
It is also difficult, however, to disagree with veteran Rocco Mediate, who recently took issue with Greg Norman for saying that LIV golfers ‘felt liberated’ as a consequence of leaving the PGA tour. Rocco said: ‘What’s going on now, it kind of pisses you off the way guys talk about what gave them everything that they have. Think about Greg Norman, everything he has came because he played on the PGA Tour, and what, that wasn’t that good enough?
‘Of course, it’d be great to make the money, I don’t blame them at all. They’ve been going to Saudi Arabia for a million years for appearance money, that’s not even an issue. But do it the right way, how about a thank you?’
The biggest winners of all, potentially, are the armies of lawyers that are being employed by the established tours and LIV Golf to fight their way through the courts. LIV thinks those it has signed up should retain the right to play wherever and whenever they want and earn world ranking points while they’re doing it. The established tours reply is, in essence: ‘You made the decision to leave, so live with the consequences.’ The legal battle, the first big exchange of which will happen in February, could run for years.
As for the people who have lost the most, it’s difficult to look past Phil Mickelson. He finished 39th on LIV’s money list with earnings of $1.8 million, compared to the $2,707,000 he won on the 2021 PGA Tour. Yes, he got a $200 million signing on fee but he shed lucrative sponsors the way my dog sheds its coat. Much more importantly, he lost the respect and admiration of millions, not for signing with LIV, but for the mendacious way he threatened to do so simply to strongarm his home tour into making changes he wanted. As a consequence he’s irrevocably tied to a people he describes as ‘scary motherfuckers’, playing out his remaining career in exhibition matches that no-one, at least for the moment, gives a damn about.
Oh, and of course there’s golf itself. The game with a hard-earned reputation as an exemplar of etiquette and manners, now riven by internecine strife, with opposing factions throwing insults at each other across a canyon of mutual loathing. Oh well; it’s nearly Christmas.
Quotes of the Week
The ultimate judge of your swing is the flight of the ball
Ben Hogan