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

[Shindig]

11 hours ago, jbishop15 said:

NBA 2K Expansion team-ass logo

xkcd: Hyphen

10 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Will Sergio be able to hack up the greens with his temper tantrums in this new format?

No, the LIV rules clearly limit on-green tantrums to spitting in the cup, not hacking up the greens.  

[Missouri Swede]

2 hours ago, imsys0042 said:

That’s like getting audited and saying “I’m not good at math”.

I don't know.  Seemed to work in Breaking Bad. 

[70sSanO]

So far LIV is getting the players that are logical choices to leave, with the only exception being DeChambeau.

If DJ only wants to play for a few more years, this works out well as he can come back and be welcomed on the Champions, if he wants to.

Few people will miss Reed or even Fowler.  Rickie has really been struggling for a long time and I was surprised he didn't jump right away.  I doubt he likes going back to qualifying, or Korn Ferry.

Bryson is interesting as he has a legitimate chance to win more on the PGA, especially if his injuries are behind him.

It will be interesting if the prince calls him Brooksie.

John

[iacas]

48 minutes ago, 70sSanO said:

If DJ only wants to play for a few more years, this works out well as he can come back and be welcomed on the Champions, if he wants to.

Uhmmmmm…

Also, Rickie hasn’t jumped.

[Aguirre]

I know I'm jumping in late but 35 pages is a lot to read. So sorry if it has been covered.

1. We know this is "sports washing" (as mentioned many times before in this thread), and I assume that because of that, the players have secured their money in contracts, and presumably in neutral nation banking systems, but can they be sure of every dollar? I wonder. This is clearly going to be a tour operating in the red. There's literally zero chance that they can operate profitably with these kind of payouts. No chance. IMPOSSIBLE CHANCE. The Saudi's have done this before. Soccer/football fans can remember the (I think) Saud Cup which eventually morphed into the Confederations Cup. It wasn't profitable. They jumped ship. They WILL NEVER BE PROFITABLE with this tour. You sure you're getting the money? If you're Bryson's age, you sure it's worth the risk?

2. The majors may decide to assign exemptions to these tournaments at some point, but right now they are not. The talking heads are pointing out that the USGA has allowed them to play in the US Open, but these players are already exempt. What happens when those exemptions expire? What becomes of the OWGR points allocation? If the USGA, R&A, Masters Committee, and the PGA of America decide otherwise, this tour is dead in the water. And you've burned your bridge. Now you're MORE beholden to the tour than you ever were.

3. Do any of you care to watch these events? Because on the surface, I do not. These ideas of "super leagues", in any sport, rely on the idea that as a neutral I will tune into a big event. And if you have a big event every week, surely I will watch! That's absurd. It doesn't work that way. At the top of their games, a slam final between Federer and Nadal was must watch (or must DVR watch later) viewing for me. But it wasn't if they met in a Masters series event. Just because you create a WGC-style field every week you play, doesn't make me feel it's big tournament viewing appointment. 

4. I'm a big statistics guy. I'm a very good poker player, do well at sports handicapping. A forty eight player field does not bode well for entertaining Sunday rounds. It is too thin. And it's too thin even if the 48 are in the world top 150. Maybe even top 100. You will get a lot of events where the Sunday back nine begins with somebody up five shots. 

5. The underdog story. This happens on the PGA Tour far more often than on the ATP Tour, because of the nature of the sports and field size, but it's part of the charm. How are you putting up and coming players in your field, and who are you freezing out? This is a mystery. It makes it smell more like a "celebrity" professional golf tour than an actual athletic competition, where a committee of marketing executives tell me who to watch, rather than the results tell me who to watch. 

6. f*** Saudi Arabia and their sports washing blood money.

[Dr. Manhattan]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

I've heard… the Masters will not give the same type of reaction as the USGA. And that at least one Masters champ was going to go to LIV and decided against it because of what they were told by Augusta National.

 

If Augusta bans them, that's enormous. Biggest golf tournament in the world. I wonder if the USGA will change their stance at that point? USGA statement seemed very specific about 2022 in particular and left open a chance that they will have a different stance next year. 

[iacas]

6 hours ago, Aguirre said:

A forty eight player field does not bode well for entertaining Sunday rounds.

They’re done on Saturday.

😊

[jbishop15]

here we go

[mcanadiens]

9 minutes ago, jbishop15 said:

here we go

So would it be fair to say, Liv's shotgun start will "trigger" the PGA Tour? 😆

Sorry. I know that's bad.

 

[Beastie]

One of the things I don’t like about watching golf is schmalzy sycophant commentators. Well after 5 minutes of watching LIV, I’m nauseous already. 
Hyperbole, ass kissing, “everyone’s just so happy and relaxed this week”.🤢🤮🤑

Its not a golf tournament it’s a bullshit exhibition. 

 

[mcanadiens]

3 minutes ago, Beastie said:

Hyperbole, ass kissing, “everyone’s just so happy and relaxed this week”

You'd be happy and relaxed to if you could bank on millions and shoot +10 at the same time.

Hope the boys aren't in a coma out there.

[jbishop15]

 

[DaveP043]

6 hours ago, Dr. Manhattan said:

If Augusta bans them, that's enormous. Biggest golf tournament in the world. I wonder if the USGA will change their stance at that point? USGA statement seemed very specific about 2022 in particular and left open a chance that they will have a different stance next year. 

I think the USGA has done what's appropriate right now, they published a specific list of criteria, and they're not going to change that criteria just a week or so before the competition starts.  However, given a year to prepare, they have the opportunity to make a different decision for 2023.  Separately, the OWGR folks may not recognize performance in the LIV Tour, or may value it so lightly that LIV players won't get enough points to be exempt from qualifying.  That would relieve the USGA from doing anything specific, they can simply keep the exemptions the same, and require LIV players not otherwise exempt to go through Local and Final Qualifiers.

[saevel25]

 

 

[Darkfrog]

18 minutes ago, Beastie said:

“everyone’s just so happy and relaxed this week”

Didn't really get a sense that there was any meaning in this for the players. I guess when you take tens to hundreds of millions of dollars up front, your competitive spirit and will to win might be dampened a bit.

I watched for about 10 minutes - youtube said there were 34k people watching which doesn't seem like a lot.

11 minutes ago, Beastie said:

Its not a golf tournament it’s a bullshit exhibition. 

I was hoping to see the team uniforms, but alas, none. Everyone was just dressed like they usually dress.

Pretty boring golf, and if felt like it was moving slow (but only tuned in for 10 minutes).

There is a different style of leaderboard, not really sure that was a feature that needed to be innovated.

Golf course seemed like a non-descript generic course, but the announcers did mention it was in perfect shape, lol.

The announcers mentioned that all of the players are really great golfers, even if we haven't heard of them, lol.

The announcers mentioned the crowds were huge and the event was sold out. There seemed to be a medium sized group following the Phil/DJ/whoever group, but another tee shot I saw had zero fans in the picture.

Some shots had a tracer, and some didn't, even within the same group.

[Kingkat1954]

Just seems like the LIV is just "paid golf exhibition". They are on teams, without a cut, only 54 holes, guaranteed money. With Bryson joining, makes me wonder how hurt his wrist is? Maybe worse than we know? 

 

Also, the pros that have signed up, I wont miss watching. 

Just tell the truth. You joined for the millions they offered. Not more competition, just more money. 

 

[klineka]

18 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

The announcers mentioned that all of the players are really great golfers, even if we haven't heard of them, lol.

To be fair, depending on what your comparison point is, they're right. It's certainly not an elite field but it's not like it's a field of Phil, DJ, Sergio, and a bunch of high school state champions.

18 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

Pretty boring golf, and if felt like it was moving slow (but only tuned in for 10 minutes).

No different than the beginning of Round 1 on any average PGA Tour tournament. I doubt very many people will consider the first few holes of the RBC Canadian Open this week as "exciting golf"

18 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

Golf course seemed like a non-descript generic course, but the announcers did mention it was in perfect shape, lol.

Again, no different than the majority of the PGA Tour courses that get played on a weekly basis

18 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

Some shots had a tracer, and some didn't, even within the same group.

Same thing happens every single week on the PGA Tour, and the PGA Tour does this week in and week out so they should be much better at it.

 

A lot of what you just stated as observations, issues, etc aren't unique to this LIV tournament, they exist on the PGA Tour as well.

This kinda sums up my thoughts thus far

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by klineka

[mcanadiens]

13 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

I was hoping to see the team uniforms, but alas, none.

Yeah. Saw a logo on a caddy's bib, but that's it.

Really could have played up the team aspect to it more. Groups of three and nobody from the same team are playing together. Since it is a shotgun start, none of them will see their teammates until it is all over. Kind of defeats the point.

Match play would have been a better choice.