LIV Golf (Saudi PIF), "Mergers," and More

[ChetlovesMer]

It seems like forever ago that Phil was this guy:

There have, of course, been other folks who's public image has taken a hit. 

But I can remember folks who loved Phil. Calling him "The People's Champion" and stuff like that. He was praised for his work/personal life balance, etc... 

People loved him, and it wasn't that long ago. How things change. 

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

People loved him, and it wasn't that long ago. How things change. 

Some still do.

[ChetlovesMer]

Just now, iacas said:

Some still do.

Agreed. There will always be a group that will stick by "their guy" no matter what. 

But it's definitely not the same. 

[imsys0042]

1 minute ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Agreed. There will always be a group that will stick by "their guy" no matter what. 

But it's definitely not the same. 

When this first hit, on Twitter it was like 60/40 for Phil in the comments.  A lot of people will still root for him, but I don't think he'll ever get back to where he was.   

[jmanbooyaa]

Have we seen the last of DJ at weekly events? Only majors for rest of 2022?

[Friz]

1 hour ago, jmanbooyaa said:

Have we seen the last of DJ at weekly events? Only majors for rest of 2022?

If we even see him at majors.

The USGA also released on a statement on Wednesday addressing the players who have signed up for the LIV event. "We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world ... however we reserve the right, as we always have, to review any competitor's situation on a case-by-case basis," the statement read.

[Alx]

6 hours ago, Troy Ocker said:

Sure Mr. Suppressor and Dictator, give me enough green and I'll perform at your fancy dinner party. 

What is going on with people? Would they take money from Hitler, Idi Amin, Mugabe or Stalin to make them shine a little brighter as well? 

Very dissapointed with every single one on that list. Just ban them from the European tour, the PGA tour and all majors for life and strip them of all silverwear won already.    

Do you feel this strongy about the UAE working with the PGA?

[GolfLug]

5 hours ago, boogielicious said:

If there sponsors drop them, it may cause some to think twice. 

Ah.. you meant their current sponsors.. like RBC dropped DJ. I misunderstood. Thought you meant the LIV sponsors. 

[klineka]

7 hours ago, Troy Ocker said:

Very dissapointed with every single one on that list. Just ban them from the European tour, the PGA tour and all majors for life and strip them of all silverwear won already.    

What a horrible take.

So you honestly think every single player on that list should no longer get credit for things they did 5,10,15+ years ago? What about the prize money they won in those events? Should the runner up in every one of those tournaments be considered the winner?

They won those events fair and square, just because they made a questionable moral decision later in life doesn't mean they still aren't/weren't deserving champions of the events they won previously.

[PeaceFrogg]

On 6/1/2022 at 10:15 AM, iacas said:

@Friz, they're making it up as they go.

Originally, the teams were going to be the teams for the year, with a captain possibly having an ownership stake… they've kinda stolen the team idea from the Premier Golf League (https://premiergolfleague.com), so… they're just making shit up.

That's no surprise with Greg Norman as commissioner. That was his approach to every final round of every major he ever led after 54 holes.

[ChetlovesMer]

3 minutes ago, PeaceFrogg said:

That's no surprise with Greg Norman as commissioner. That was his approach to every final round of every major he ever led after 54 holes.

[Big Lex]

It's a tough one...not everything is black and white, but no matter how you parse it out, it's hard to get past the moral hurdle of sportswashing. 

I fear DJ and Schwartzel will not be attending any further Champions' Dinners.

[jmanbooyaa]

I could see The Masters taking a hard line on this. Can they nullify their wins or ban them from attending?  Probably more than later than the former.  If the majors do take a hard stance that could prevent some from playing LIV. 

[iacas]

Augusta National could do whatever it wants. Everything there is an "invitation."

Will they? I don't know.

[ChetlovesMer]

I hope there isn't any nullifying wins. 
When has that ever been a good idea? 

I'm already supposed to pretend I didn't see The USC Trojans win the 2005 Orange Bowl just because Reggie Bush's mom got an SUV and an apartment 150 miles from campus from somebody who didn't even work for the school. 

I'm supposed to pretend Lance Armstrong didn't win 7 straight Tour De' France titles. Even though they didn't give those vacated titles to anyone because they literally couldn't find a contender in the field who wasn't doping. 

I'm supposed to pretend I didn't see Louisville win the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. 

We are supposed to pretend the 1988 Tulas Women's Golf Team didn't win the National Title. 

The list of vacated wins and titles goes on and on. It's silly and ridiculous. Just one man's opinion here, but asterisks and vacated titles are silly because when ever anyone speaks of those years they still say things like "USC won the title but...." 

So, in this case we'd just end up saying "Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters but...." 

[Friz]

Every single instance of vacated wins was because someone did something wrong at the time they won.  That isn't even the case here.  No one is going to have any wins taken away.  They may very well not be invited back in the future, but their wins at the time were legitimate and a decision made in 2022 is not going to change the legitimacy of something that happened before this

[boogielicious]

I agree we should nullify anything. But there’s no reason to invite them for future events. The LIV can make there own Masters, US and British Open and their version of the PGA Championship. No coat tail riding allowed. They shouldn’t be allowed to sponge of the other tours that grew the sport for them.

BTW, I have an Aussie friend who met Tiger way back in 2001 or 2 in Australia. He said Tiger was delightful to the fans. Greg Norman on the other hand was a dick. I guess he’s always been that way.

[turtleback]

1 hour ago, jmanbooyaa said:

I could see The Masters taking a hard line on this. Can they nullify their wins or ban them from attending?  Probably more than later than the former.  If the majors do take a hard stance that could prevent some from playing LIV. 

I agree that it would be absurd to take titles away from Liv players.  But I think the Masters should disinvite them from playing in the Masters, and past champions should be disinvited from the Champions dinner.

These players are dead to me.