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

[Elmer]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

https://www.si.com/golf/news/liv-golf-2022-end-of-year-daily-cover

Tremendous article.

That was a very good article.

 

I think LIV golf cam be summed up in the following quote - “Well, nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11. … But I can tell you that there are a lot of really great people out here today, and we’re going to have a lot of fun!”

[iacas]

Saudi-Backed LIV Golf Is Using PGA Suit to Get Data on 9/11 Families, Court Told

---

Saudi Arabia-financed LIV Golf and its feud with PGA Tour Inc. has divided fans, tested players’ allegiances and sparked legal battles.

 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

13 minutes ago, iacas said:

Saudi-Backed LIV Golf Is Using PGA Suit to Get Data on 9/11 Families, Court Told

---

Saudi Arabia-financed LIV Golf and its feud with PGA Tour Inc. has...

 

Absolutely disgusting. This evil butcher regime and their egomaniac front man Norman are the lowest of the low. The LIV players should be scorned and hopefully karma will catch up with them soon. 

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

Absolutely disgusting. This evil butcher regime and their egomaniac front man Norman are the lowest of the low. The LIV players should be scorned and hopefully karma will catch up with them soon. 

Its important to remember this is a response to a subpoena from a PR firm, the allegations may or may not be accurate.  This type of pre-trial wrangling really doesn't mean much of anything to me.

[mchepp]

This paragraph about Norman is a stinging review of him. It absolutely wins the article for me. 

Quote

With his cultivated air of luxury and his not-so-private affairs, Norman might fancy himself a JFK, but he’s more Richard Nixon—an obsessive and vindictive man with some big wins, and some even bigger self-inflicted losses. He is, to many, a cringeworthy figure. 

 

[iacas]

 

[woodzie264]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

 

🤔 so weird… they seem like such nice people to work for

[BlackDiamondPar5]

16 minutes ago, woodzie264 said:

🤔 so weird… they seem like such nice people to work for

Wonder if he was invited to a private meeting at the consulate with the regime? 

[boogielicious]

I wonder if Phil gambled all his signing bonus away yet.

[Aguirre]

On 12/30/2022 at 7:28 AM, iacas said:

https://www.si.com/golf/news/liv-golf-2022-end-of-year-daily-cover

Tremendous article.

Yes, excellent article. Also reminds me of how I'm less interested in the results of professional golf than I've been since I was a teenager. Which, unfortunately, was three decades ago. I'll be there for the majors. Everything else? Maybe not.

[dennyjones]

Lynch: Saudis dodging a U.S. court, impact on LIV Golf could be huge

---

Another risk to LIV is playing out in a Northern District of California courtroom

 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

After rejecting LIV's early overtures, Adam Scott proves he's all in on PGA Tour by joining PAC | Golf News and Tour Information | GolfDigest.com

Adam Scott doing something Phil never did. Take on an active advisory role in the PGAT, instead of just complaining and getting in bed with the brutal Saudi's. 

[Carl3]

Thanks to LIV I got to watch Tony Finau win back-to-back events last year and yesterday I got to see Hayden Buckley(?) at the top of the leaderboard before I turned the TV off and did something productive with my time. 🤣

The PGA better get its act together. Competition is the American way.

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Carl3 said:

The PGA better get its act together. Competition is the American way.

A) This isn't the PGA. It's the PGA Tour.
B) "Competition" ≠ "One company has a virtually unlimited budget"

This isn't about competition.

And FInau is great. And a really good dude.

Slights against him will not be tolerated.

😉

(But I'm serious, too.)

[Carl3]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

A) This isn't the PGA. It's the PGA Tour.
B) "Competition" ≠ "One company has a virtually unlimited budget"

This isn't about competition.

And FInau is great. And a really good dude.

Slights against him will not be tolerated.

😉

(But I'm serious, too.)

Thanks for the correction on the PGA. I like Finau too, but back-to-back is a rare thing that you would expect perhaps from a multiple major winner.

I think a better approach from the tour would be to let these LIV golfers back into the fold if they like. What better way to hurt them by letting players take their tens and hundreds of millions and then come back. Drain their coffers. 

Competition is allowing the best golfers in the world to play against each other at major events no matter what tour they align with. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

I like Finau too, but back-to-back is a rare thing that you would expect perhaps from a multiple major winner.

FInau has been one of the best players in the world for the last five years or so. He's been robbed of a few more wins, has finished in the top ten in multiple majors:

• T10 Masters 2018
• 5th U.S. Open 2018
• T9 British Open 2018
• T5 Masters 2019
• 3rd British Open 2019
• T4 PGA 2020
• T8 U.S. Open 2020
• T10 Masters 2021
• T8 PGA 2021

He's currently 12th in the OWGR. He was one of the lone bright spots on a Ryder Cup team in France. Here's a chart of his OWGR since 2017:

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

I think a better approach from the tour would be to let these LIV golfers back into the fold if they like.

Why would they want to do that?

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

What better way to hurt them by letting players take their tens and hundreds of millions and then come back. Drain their coffers.

What's the incentive to stay?

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

Competition is allowing the best golfers in the world to play against each other at major events no matter what tour they align with. 

You do realize that last year, 16 of the top 50 players in the world played at the Sony, while this year… 14 of the top 50 did. Basically, nothing this weekend really changed because of LIV.

[phillyk]

LIV Golf finally (!) has a TV deal

---

LIV Golf is finalizing a multi-year media rights deal with the CW, an agreement that will bring the...

LIV is paying CW for the coverage. They needed this step, for sure. We’ll see how their ratings do. 

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, phillyk said:

LIV is paying CW for the coverage. They needed this step, for sure. We’ll see how their ratings do.

SI said it was a revenue sharing deal.

https://www.si.com/golf/news/liv-golf-on-verge-of-announcing-tv-deal-with-cw-network

Or maybe they'll pay, but then split the revenues after that.