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

[iacas]

Hmmmm.

Katie Kearney, Brian Urlacher, Hailey Ostrom, Stephen Malbon…

Oh, and I assumed y'all would see Charles Barkley, Chris Harrison I missed but he's the TV guy. Clay Travis is apparently a radio/TV host. And the Geoffrey Zakarian is a celeb chef.

[Sandy Divot]

17 hours ago, Aguirre said:

Not all of them, of course, but I can't help but notice that LIV has also attracted a lot of the tour's designated assholes.

I read a tweet today that said, “The LIV Tour has more pricks than a hedgehog .”

 

[Shindig]

Hmm, Sir Charles playing with Sergio Garcia.  What did he (Charles) ever do to deserve such a fate?  I'm not sure how much nonsense he's willing to stand from LIV, but that insult should get him to reject them on its own. 

[Zeph]

There’s Trumpet 1 and Trumpet 2, also. Not very surprising and certainly not a reason to watch. A reason not to watch in fact.

[iacas]

29 minutes ago, Shindig said:

Hmm, Sir Charles playing with Sergio Garcia.  What did he (Charles) ever do to deserve such a fate?  I'm not sure how much nonsense he's willing to stand from LIV, but that insult should get him to reject them on its own. 

Charles is hardly a saint.

[Friz]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Love it.  These guys are now going to be contractually obligated to play probably a minimum of 20 events for LIV, will still want in the Majors to get to 24.  18 of those will be fixed dates, maybe they have a little flexibility for which International Series events they play, but just compare it to what the PGA Tour offered.  Play a minimum of 15 events, majors count toward that 15, and you can choose which events you want to play all season.

I'm so happy these guys got the "freedom" they were looking for.

[iacas]

5 minutes ago, Friz said:

Love it.  These guys are now going to be contractually obligated to play probably a minimum of 20 events for LIV, will still want in the Majors to get to 24.  18 of those will be fixed dates, maybe they have a little flexibility for which International Series events they play, but just compare it to what the PGA Tour offered.  Play a minimum of 15 events, majors count toward that 15, and you can choose which events you want to play all season.

I'm so happy these guys got the "freedom" they were looking for.

Greg Norman keeps using the words "free agency" and "free agents" but I don't think he understands what those words mean.

[Moxley]

On 7/27/2022 at 8:04 PM, Golfingdad said:

So this is pretty consistent with their getting all of these just-past-their-prime big names that are not really relevant anymore.  Obviously DJ and Bryson and maybe 1-2 others are still in their prime, but it brings up a thought that very well may have already been mentioned in here (I'm certain it must have - ya'll are smart) ...

Just how much better can these guys possibly get when they're playing so infrequently?  And how much incentive do they even have to care and play well if they've already been paid?

I can't imagine when all is said and done, even if they acquire a few more names, that the quality of their golf improves.  And now (if I'm right about that) I kind of want the majors to let these guys all play and so everybody can see how much they suck.

Oh yeah - and CHIII said "its not about the money."  He didn't elaborate beyond that but my guess is he's growing the game? 😉

 

You say they are not relevant, but that's subjective. They may not be relevant to you, an avid golf fan who watches golf regularly ( though you are setting the bar high as he still gets top 10's and won a couple of times a few years back, long after his major winning peak, and could easily win again) but the same does not hold true for everyone.

I think he's relevant to the more casual golf fan who tunes in and sees a leaderboard with names like DJ, Bubba, Koepka etc battling it out. Both the strength and depth of the field may not be as strong as a simultaneous PGA tour event, but when that fan looks at that leaderboard and sees names like Lee Hodges and Michael Thompson on the first page, the Liv offering is arguably more compelling, as they already know the famous guys. 

They know they wont get all the best players in the first year, so they are finding a different way to make the product marketable.

 

 

 

[70sSanO]

4 hours ago, Moxley said:

I think he's relevant to the more casual golf fan who tunes in

I think you mean “streams”, not “tunes in”.  LIV doesn’t have any TV broadcasting as of yet.

This doesn’t mean a casual fan won’t stream LIV, but it is not the same as channel flipping and seeing the LIV tournament leaderboard and the PGA.

John

[Aguirre]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

Hmmmm.

Katie Kearney, Brian Urlacher, Hailey Ostrom, Stephen Malbon…

Oh, and I assumed y'all would see Charles Barkley, Chris Harrison I missed but he's the TV guy. Clay Travis is apparently a radio/TV host. And the Geoffrey Zakarian is a celeb chef.

Clay Travis is a giant piece of shit.

[Shindig]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

Charles is hardly a saint.

I agree, but I still wouldn't wish a day with Sergio on him. 

6 hours ago, Friz said:

Love it.  These guys are now going to be contractually obligated to play probably a minimum of 20 events for LIV, will still want in the Majors to get to 24.  18 of those will be fixed dates, maybe they have a little flexibility for which International Series events they play, but just compare it to what the PGA Tour offered.  Play a minimum of 15 events, majors count toward that 15, and you can choose which events you want to play all season.

I'm so happy these guys got the "freedom" they were looking for.

Who could ever have imagined it would go this way?  I wonder if they'll still even want to play more events if they get the PGA Tour or Euro Tour to unsuspend them.

8 minutes ago, Aguirre said:

Clay Travis is a giant piece of shit.

Breakfast call for Shooter McGavin...

[GolfLug]

Stenson is acting all surprised, indignant and pissed off about losing RC captaincy but didn't think of checking before signing up with LIV. That's either really dumb or he is fake raging.

[Beastie]

Bernard Gallacher fears Greg Norman will not reach a compromise over LIV Golf

---

A conversation needs to be had and a compromise reached, but Im not entirely convinced that Greg Norman...

I’m not sure how much the PGA and DP tours want to cut a deal, but if they do then as Gallagher says, Norman ain’t the man for that job.

[iacas]

More LIV golfers destroy their reputations as they sports wash for MBS | Opinion

---

At Saudi LIV Golf circus in Bedminster, golfers have no idea how to say anything meaningful about plight of women and LGBTQ people in Saudi Arabia.

 

[Sandy Divot]

8 minutes ago, iacas said:

More LIV golfers destroy their reputations as they sports wash for MBS | Opinion

---

At Saudi LIV Golf circus in Bedminster, golfers have no idea how to say anything meaningful about plight of women and LGBTQ people in Saudi Arabia.

 

They are trying to justify taking “ life changing money” without thinking about where it’s coming from. Most of these guys are married, and a lot have daughters. I would also guess the a lot have gay friends, or at least come in contact with gay people, and I don’t know how they can explain their actions to their family, and the gay people they know. Add to that, through various charities, they have probably come in contact with families that lost people on 9/11. I guess integrity has a price tag. I really don’t have a problem with a golf league trying to compete with the PGA Tour, I just don’t like where the money is coming from. Sorry for the long rant.

[ScouseJohnny]

As per Bernard Gallacher:

"We're in a tricky position now where major champions are switching to LIV Golf and hence potentially not being able to defend their crowns. It's undermining and devaluing golfing competitions on both sides of the Atlantic,'' he added.

Well, they chose that. Sometimes you can't have your cake and eat it.

"If things continue as they are, major championships will look completely different in years to come, and we must collectively ask ourselves if that's really what we want.

Seems as though that's more of a problem for the LIV tour - can conjure up a tournament that sufficiently captures the imagination of the golf-watching public, and the players involved, that it comes to be viewed as a "major?" The enormity of the purse, alone, won't achieve that.

I don't worry too much about the existing four majors; there will always be superb players who seek to capture those, and those competitions will remain as compelling as ever. I don't foresee the US Open merging with the US Amateur, because all of the highly-regarded professional players are now out there picking up their loot on a manufactured team in Greg's Circus.

Edited July 29, 2022 by ScouseJohnny

[Shindig]

3 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Stenson is acting all surprised, indignant and pissed off about losing RC captaincy but didn't think of checking before signing up with LIV. That's either really dumb or he is fake raging.

It's a classic case of stupid or liar.  

I think Stenson a few years ago had a poor shot and a classic reaction during a tournament.  I wish I had saved the image, I'd throw it here as a reaction.

42 minutes ago, Sandy Divot said:

They are trying to justify taking “ life changing money” without thinking about where it’s coming from. Most of these guys are married, and a lot have daughters. I would also guess the a lot have gay friends, or at least come in contact with gay people, and I don’t know how they can explain their actions to their family, and the gay people they know. Add to that, through various charities, they have probably come in contact with families that lost people on 9/11. I guess integrity has a price tag. I really don’t have a problem with a golf league trying to compete with the PGA Tour, I just don’t like where the money is coming from. Sorry for the long rant.

First, go ahead and rant.

I don't know the finances for these guys but I wonder just how life changing this money is or isn't.   Kevin Na had something like $38 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.  He also had endorsement deals.  Even after taxes and expenses, he had to still have a networth of at least several millions.  Maybe his lifestyle was more expensive than mine.  It probably was, but I doubt it was to the point where expected future earnings plus reasonable investment couldn't support him and provide enough for his kids and probably grandkids.  Certainly at least at the level that Warren Buffet provided to his kids.

He had already made just short of a million on the course this season by the end of May;  $3.6 last year, $2.8 the year before, $2.25 in 2018-19, $3.5 in 2017-18 (yes, I looked up the numbers).  

Okay, I don't mean to say "rich people don't need more money."   I just don't know how life changing their money is going to be.  Maybe it's the hours, but that's out the window now, too.  I remember my first raise at my first wage job.  I was making minimum wage and got a fifty cent an hour raise.  That was huge.  A year later, I got a part-time second job and, at that, I was making something like $11/hour.  I felt rich at that first paycheck.  I am long past that part of my life, and now raises mostly go into savings, and it's not like I'm super wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.  

I get that there are rumors that Phil Mickelson has gambling losses, or that Dustin Johnson bought more snow than Seward, and therefore they may have needed the money.  

I do wonder if anyone in their lives has brought up the civil rights issue to them.

15 minutes ago, ScouseJohnny said:

Seems as though that's more of a problem for the LIV tour - can conjure up a tournament that sufficiently captures the imagination of the golf-watching public, and the players involved, that it comes to be viewed as a "major?" The enormity of the purse, alone, won't achieve that.

The PGA Tour couldn't do that, so I can't imagine that LIV could.  Look at the attempts to make the Players a "fifth major."  I don't think it ever got that prestige.  I doubt it ever will.  And if the PGA Tour couldn't do that with decades of trying, I doubt LIV could any time soon, either. 

[iacas]

Charles Barkley says he is staying with Turner Broadcasting after entertaining LIV Golf interest

---

TNT basketball analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley says he's sticking with the network and ending his flirtation with joining the LIV Golf broadcast booth.

 

Quote

Charles Barkley says he's sticking to the NBA, turning away from any further overtures to join LIV Golf as a broadcaster.

"I want to thank Greg Norman and LIV for their interest in me," Barkley told the New York Post. "I wish those guys great success and nothing but the best. But, in my best interest, and being fair to Turner -- because Turner and basketball have given me every single thing in my life -- It is best for me to move on and I'm staying with Turner for the rest of my TV career."

Barkley told ESPN on Thursday he had not received a formal offer from LIV, but had spoken with Norman, the golf series' CEO.