2022 PGA Tour

[jncuse]

Going to be lots of heat in some of these US open pairings that have PGA and LIV guys. Should be interesting from that regard.

I can see why McIlroy is upset - he wants to stay with the PGA because it is a much more competitive, intense and rewarding environment (disregarding financial aspect). LIV will just dilute the non-major events (for everybody), and will hurt the earnings potential for those that stay in the more competitive PGA environment.

Interestingly the tournaments that are going to benefit from this the most are the majors, that are operated by neither PGA or LIV. Those events will become even bigger because they are combining players from both environments - the delta between non-major events and major events will be even larger than before.

 

[jncuse]

I was trying to think what the PGA could do to try to appease the bigger stars. The PGA certainly has a quiet dispute brewing itself between the stars and the tour jabroni's. The PGA only has so much revenue and operates as a non-profit charity, which limits what it can do as well.

Perhaps they can create 4 annual super events, really big purses, that are for the top 40 players only initially determined based on some criteria (both performance and marketability). Each year 10 players get promoted to play in the super-events, and 10 of the 40 get relegated?

If I was the PGA I would also consider offering membership back to select individuals on the LIV, where they can play both - but in order to play any single PGA event they need to commit to 8 or 10 of them annually, the events being largely at the choosing of the PGA tour. This would be a way for the PGA to strengthen the profile of specific events or round out some. Above may not work, but something to think about.

 

[goofnoff]

The 911 survivors' organization sent a letter excoriating the golfers who jumped to LIV for obvious reasons. IMO the people who jumped made a Faustian bargain. Can the Putin Invitational be far behind?

The PGA has made it clear that they are not going to allow players to use the PGA to build their reputations and then sell those reputations to the highest bidder.

 

[MSOrange]

 

[Symphony Steve]

We shouldn't be elevating those who run the PGA Tour to hero status. What we SHOULD be doing, and many are doing, is going after these blood money golfers who are banking Saudi blood money w/o remorse.

While this is generally a political-free place, and correctly so, I will merely point out that the Saudi Blood Money Tour will be stopping at, wait for it, a Trump property later this year. I'll, um, bite my tongue.

 

[br801]

We shouldn't be elevating those who run the PGA Tour to hero status. What we SHOULD be doing, and many are doing, is going after these blood money golfers who are banking Saudi blood money w/o remorse.

While this is generally a political-free place, and correctly so, I will merely point out that the Saudi Blood Money Tour will be stopping at, wait for it, a Trump property later this year. I'll, um, bite my tongue.

Actually, two of the eight LIV events will be held at Trump properties. It is hard to imagine Donnie will stay away and not thrust himself into the spotlight those weeks.

 

[jncuse]

Actually, two of the eight LIV events will be held at Trump properties. It is hard to imagine Donnie will stay away and not thrust himself into the spotlight those weeks.

We shouldn't be elevating those who run the PGA Tour to hero status. What we SHOULD be doing, and many are doing, is going after these blood money golfers who are banking Saudi blood money w/o remorse.

While this is generally a political-free place, and correctly so, I will merely point out that the Saudi Blood Money Tour will be stopping at, wait for it, a Trump property later this year. I'll, um, bite my tongue.

Will be interesting to see if the New York Post will call out the Trump aspect of the tour.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[Fat tire 13]

Sources: Koepka latest to leave PGA Tour for LIV

Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is the latest golfer to defect from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[Oakland]

First I've seen this. I liked him more as an announcer than as a player - Nantz wrote of this in his latest Golg Digest column (which are almost always excellent). He and Nantz were a good team. I hope the new guy is better than Paul 'might be the best...definitely for sure' Azinger. A little surprised that he is retiring in the USA. Wife looks young and cute. Hope he is happy.

 

[Oakland]

Sources: Koepka latest to leave PGA Tour for LIV

Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is the latest golfer to defect from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

www.espn.com

Wow! DJ, Bryson, and now Koepka - this is starting to seriously hurt the PGA.

Each big name that goes makes it that much easier for the next to go - how many big names can the Saudis afford?

 

[Oakland]

So disappointing to see him bring a bad iron game to the US Open when he is driving it well and was the #1 putter.

 

[djcon57]

Wow! DJ, Bryson, and now Koepka - this is starting to seriously hurt the PGA.

Each big name that goes makes it that much easier for the next to go - how many big names can the Saudis afford?

Unlimited as the point of their business isn’t to make money

 

[690West]

Fun fact. Dusek was a red ram

 

[PoppyHart]

First I've seen this. I liked him more as an announcer than as a player - Nantz wrote of this in his latest Golg Digest column (which are almost always excellent). He and Nantz were a good team. I hope the new guy is better than Paul 'might be the best...definitely for sure' Azinger. A little surprised that he is retiring in the USA. Wife looks young and cute. Hope he is happy.

The CBS gig is twice as time intensive as the NBC role, and he did the Golf Channel coverage for many of them as well. He was like the Sung Jae Im of broadcasters.

We’ll see what Immelman brings to the table. They should have poached Justin Leonard. I think he’s the best of all.

 

[goofnoff]

I don't know the name of the female golf reporter who is out on the course, but I think she does a great job. She has a lot of insight.

 

[PoppyHart]

I don't know the name of the female golf reporter who is out on the course, but I think she does a great job. She has a lot of insight.

Dottie Pepper, former LPGA star.

 

[jncuse]

The LIV Group has certainly cornered the market on the villains or at least the more divisive players on tour (Reed, Dechambeau, Koepka, Mickelson)

And sometimes when you have not so great a field, seeing one of those players on the leaderboard gives you reason to cheer on a lesser light. So its certainly a loss for the tour.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Dottie Pepper, former LPGA star.

From Saratoga Springs, NY. Born and bred and still lives there.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[Newhouser]

This is akin to when you call your insurance agent to say I'm dropping you because I found coverage at a cheaper price, and agent responds "I can match that". If you could have you should have...

 

[PoppyHart]

I think these are all very sensible changes. I really think they need to better address the college kids who have no status upon leaving school.

So many players in the last 5-10 years have been "tour ready" from the start: Spieth, Thomas, Hovland, Wolff, Morikawa, Zalatoris, Scheffler, Davis Riley, Rahm, etc... The tour can't allow these guys to get away. Cutting one's teeth in PGA Latin America events for peanuts is not going to do it.

 

[jncuse]

This is akin to when you call your insurance agent to say I'm dropping you because I found coverage at a cheaper price, and agent responds "I can match that". If you could have you should have...

Not sure about that. These recommendations would appear to re-distribute a decent amount of cash. The PGA only has a certain pool of money to work with.
These recommendations would take from the middle/lower class of the tour, and moves more of it to larger $ small field events. And potentially these small field premium events might be more attractive to sponsors and TV, raising the pool of money.

Its probably something the PGA tour was hoping to avoid as it wanted to appease its members as a whole, and the middle/lower class are still the majority of ownership. But at some point that middle class had to realize their earnings were still a heck of a lifestyle and it was getting threatened.

I had actually raised this as an option in a few theads. Create a handful of super-events. I would like if they operated on some sort of "annual relegation" basis. Says its a field of 50 -- the bottom 12 or so get in those events get demoted, and the top 12 in the regular events get promoted the next year... would just add some extra drama to all the events.

 

[jncuse]

An amazing opening round by IG Chun at the LPGA Championship today.

I'm not sure if I have ever seen anyone beat the entire field that day by 5 shots (at a major anyway)