A poster inside the players’ service tent at Brookline is full of signatures, while competitors – who may be parting ways soon – get in some work on the practice range. (Click on images to enlarge.)
BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS | For all the things this U.S. Open could be, here’s another one:
It could be one of the last times when the best players in the world are together at the same place, at least for a while.
They will do it again next month at the Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews but after that, the splintered world of professional golf will go its various ways, with some players chasing money and some chasing championships while the game endures what feels like a civil war.
The fissure is already bone-deep, with the new loyalists to LIV Golf and its Saudi-backed mega-millions on one side, the PGA Tour defenders on the other, the awkwardness as real as the deep tangles of fescue lining the fairways at The Country Club this week.
It’s possible the professional game will never look the same as it did when the Masters was played two months ago and LIV Golf still was conceptual, not concrete.
Now, it’s all very real, contentious and concerning.
“Y’all are throwing a black cloud on the U.S. Open. I think that sucks. I actually do feel bad for them for once because it’s a shitty situation. We’re here to play, and you are talking about an event that happened last week,” Brooks Koepka said in a huff Tuesday morning, having deftly avoided inquiries about his future plans, his name swirling as a prime target for LIV Golf.
It’s not so much about last week in London as it’s about later this month in Portland, Oregon, when a stronger field is expected in the second LIV Golf event, if the rumored defections come to pass. And it’s about what happens beyond that.
This week should be about returning to The Country Club for the first time in 34 years and the exaggerated difficulty built into the U.S. Open’s DNA. It should be about the rough being too high, the greens being too fast, the penalty for a missed fairway being too severe.
Maybe it will be, once they start counting birdies and bogeys Thursday morning, but the cloud Koepka referenced is real, even if only in the metaphorical sense as a splendid week of summer weather is forecast for the greater Boston area.
This is a place where one revolution took hold nearly 250 years ago and where another, smaller in scale but no less profound within its sheltered world, is fermenting. No need for a modern-day Paul Revere. Greg Norman and LIV Golf already have arrived, not actually on site but on the minds of everyone.
Even practice round pairings are under scrutiny. Dustin Johnson, one of the LIV Golf whales, was scheduled to go out Tuesday afternoon with Harold Varner III, rumored to be heading that way soon, but their plans changed, scuttling some of the intrigue.
Jon Rahm, who stands shoulder to shoulder with Rory McIlroy as a staunch defender of the PGA Tour, teed it up with Phil Mickelson and Kevin Na, guys who already have cashed their checks from LIV Golf.
It’s part espionage, part subterfuge, part playing golf with your friends.
“This is one of the biggest tournaments of the year, and no amount of money will ever change that.” – Rory McIlroy
This is about battle lines, not putting lines. It’s about professional priorities and personal prerogatives. It’s about defending the PGA Tour on one side and celebrating the cash grab on the other.
“This is one of the biggest tournaments of the year, and no amount of money will ever change that,” said McIlroy, who has – willingly or unwillingly – become the face and the voice of the PGA Tour in this increasingly uncomfortable battle.
Every side in a fight needs its leaders, and McIlroy has become that for the tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan is charged with protecting the business of the tour – and the tour appears to be on its back foot at the moment – but McIlroy represents the soul and conscience of, for lack of a better term, the traditionalists.
On the other side, there was Phil Mickelson on Monday looking and sounding like a man who seemed uncomfortable with the decisions that led him to where he found himself, tens of millions of dollars richer but poorer in ways that should matter more.
It led to McIlroy being asked whether he has lost respect for Mickelson, given his willingness to leave a tour where he built his legend and earned nearly $100 million in prize money. It is an awkward question to ask, but it speaks to the moment, players being quizzed about someone else’s personal choices.
“As a golfer, I have the utmost respect for Phil,” McIlroy said. “I’ve been disappointed with how he has gone about what he has done, but I think he has come back and shown some remorse about how he has handled some things, so I think he has learned from that.
“Who am I to sit up here and give Phil a lesson on how to do things? He has had a wonderful career. He is his own man. He is a great addition to the field this week. Am I disappointed he has taken the route that he has taken? I am, but I still respect him tremendously.”
Like McIlroy, Rahm has fully committed himself to the PGA Tour. He watched the LIV Golf debut but said 54-hole events with no cut are not true golf tournaments. He has a point. LIV’s biggest challenge may be getting fans to care about the outcome. If it feels like a series of exhibitions, the novelty will expire quickly regardless of how fat the paychecks may be.
When the LIV Golf opportunity gained traction, Rahm said he and his wife, Kelley, talked about the nine-figure sums being offered to some players.
“We’re like, will our lifestyle change if I got $400 million? No, it will not change one bit,” Rahm said.
What is undeniable is how the landscape has changed. Last week. This week. Next week and beyond.
Others have chosen to take the money, making personal peace with the stained source of that money. To some people it matters where the money comes from; to others, it doesn’t.
What is undeniable is how the landscape has changed. Last week. This week. Next week and beyond.
For good. For bad. Perhaps forever.
Which brings us back to McIlroy.
“Look, they all have the choice to play where they want to play, and they’ve made their decision,” McIlroy said two days after winning the RBC Canadian Open. “My dad said to me a long time ago, once you make your bed, you lie in it, and they’ve made their bed. That’s their decision, and they have to live with that.”
Eventually, this week will be about the golf, and by Sunday afternoon someone will be hugging the U.S. Open trophy the way Rahm did at Torrey Pines last June.
Then everyone will go their separate ways again.