The lingering glow from a U.S. Open worth remembering for all the right reasons – a brilliant stage in The Country Club, a leaderboard with names that turn heads and Matt Fitzpatrick’s magnificent fairway-bunker shot on the 72nd hole – lasted exactly one day.
By Tuesday morning, there were multiple reports that Brooks Koepka – despite multiple denials of having interest in the millions being offered by LIV Golf – was off to join Greg Norman’s band of new brothers as is Abraham Ancer.
For a guy who says he thrives on competition, it looks as if Koepka chose compensation instead. If he can’t get fully engaged for regular PGA Tour events, how much will he care about 54-hole, no-cut exhibitions with a reported nine-figure payday already banked?
Asked last week about the earlier defections of other players to LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy said he had made the mistake of taking them at their word when they said they weren’t going.
Here is what Koepka said Feb. 9 in Phoenix:
“It’s been pretty clear for a long time now that I’m with the PGA Tour. It’s where I’m staying. I’m very happy. I think they do things the right way, people I want to do business with. I’m happy to be here.”
Here’s Koepka on Feb. 23 at the Honda Classic:
“Everyone talks about money. They’ve got enough of it… They’ll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it.”
Evidently, Koepka was right.
This is serious business. The first LIV Golf event in London was a relatively successful curiosity and the second one in Portland, Oregon, next week will feature a field that includes Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, among others.
This is an existential crisis for the PGA Tour, which is responding by drastically reinventing its operating model in an effort to stem the growing momentum LIV Golf has developed.
While Norman’s group has yet to sign a player ranked among the top 15 in the world, it has plucked four players who earned PIP money from the PGA Tour last year, money the tour might consider using instead for its promised enriched purses or to fund stipends to players to offset the cost of doing business on the tour.
This is serious business. The first LIV Golf event in London was a relatively successful curiosity and the second one in Portland, Oregon, next week will feature a field that includes Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, among others.
“Right now it’s an uncertain time for golf, but if you think about it in the larger business landscape, it’s a competition for talent. So if the PGA Tour wants to remain the pre-eminent tour for professional golfers, it has to be the best place to play for the best players in the world,” said Patrick Cantlay, who said he has not had any direct contact with LIV Golf representatives recently.
In a meeting with players Tuesday morning and at a tour Policy Board meeting in the afternoon, commissioner Jay Monahan pushed an agenda driven by changes to the schedule that includes eight tournaments with purses of at least $20 million, most if not all of them having limited fields. Monahan also, according to reports, reinforced the tour’s position that players who choose LIV over the PGA Tour won’t be allowed back, though someone is likely to challenge that in court sometime soon.
It’s the tour’s attempt to play offense after being put on the defensive for weeks.
When the new tour season begins in September, it’s expected to be the start of an extended super season that will run through late 2023 with the goal of returning to a calendar season, rather than a wraparound schedule, in 2024.
There also have been discussions about revamping the FedEx Cup system, limiting the playoffs to only the top 70 players at the end of the so-called regular season, gradually trimming to 30 players at the Tour Championship.
The top 50 in points after the playoffs would have access to three of the big-money events in the fall, likely to be played outside the United States. Players who finish outside the top 70 would play fall events to keep their status inside the top 125 in points.
Is that enough to hold off the LIV Golf insurgency?
What happens with the DP World Tour, currently in a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour but said to be listening to LIV Golf overtures, and whether Official World Golf Ranking points will be awarded to LIV events are critical elements.
If the PGA Tour can strengthen its alliance with the DP World Tour, which means giving the former European Tour more than a few playing spots in the Barbasol and Barracuda championships in exchange for adding spots in the Scottish Open, it will have further secured its flanks.
Should CEO Keith Pelley opt in with LIV Golf, the landscape is suddenly more threatening to the PGA Tour.
The majors base much of their qualifying criteria on the rankings, and if the decision is made to deny points to those rankings, it would benefit the PGA Tour and almost certainly lead to a court case. Why, for example, should Tiger Woods’ small-field Hero World Challenge be worthy of points but not LIV events, the argument would go.
With Monahan, Pelley and representatives from the USGA, PGA of America, R&A and Augusta National having a say in how points are distributed, the plot thickens.
At the U.S. Open last week, the rumors, whispers and speculation continued about which players may or may not be taking Greg Norman’s bait. Listen long enough and it was easy to believe everyone was thinking about jumping and almost no one was thinking about leaving.
“We’re in a weird time right now,” Harris English said Tuesday.
“It definitely is awkward, especially if some litigation comes down the road. I mean, they’re pretty much coming after us, the players. So, it’s going to be an interesting couple months.”
When Collin Morikawa saw his name being thrown into the LIV camp, he responded with a flat denial on social media. New U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick threw his support toward the PGA Tour, as did Xander Schauffele, joining McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods.
The U.S. Open was a reminder of many things. It brought The Country Club back into the golf consciousness and became a star again. The USGA nailed the setup and now finds itself on something of a roll with the national championship.
It also showed again what the game can be at its highest level. It was nice to set the fractured and fragile business of professional golf aside for a few days and enjoy the shot-making and the spectacle.
It was fun while it lasted.