What is LIV Golf’s future — and does anyone care?

By Paul Gueorgieff Editor, Golfer Pacific NZ

Is the end of LIV Golf nigh?

The fact that LIV Golf has signed up out-of-form New Zealand player Danny Lee makes me wonder just what its future is.

Lee has played 10 tournaments on the PGA Tour for the 2022-23 season and missed the cut five times.

The previous season, 2021-22, Lee missed the cut or withdrew eight times from just 13 starts.

There is no question in my mind Lee signed up for LIV simply for the money —nothing else other than perhaps being able to perform in much less competitive company.

But does it mean the end of Lee’s golf career as far as really competitive golf at the top level goes? He now faces the distinct possibility of being banned from the PGA Tour in the United States and the DP World Tour, previously known as the European Tour.

But what got me thinking about LIV’s future was a newspaper column by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post.

Jenkins was named the United States’ top sports columnist in 2001, 2003, 2010 and 2011 by the Associated Press sports editors. She is the author of 12 books, four of which were New

York Times’ bestsellers.

In other words she can string a sentence or two together.

Jenkins wrote: “The failures are piling up so fast that the PGA Tour may not even need lawyers to beat LIV. It’s going to beat itself with its own sour-smelling hustle, its jinks-on-the links-forclinks gutter golf.’’

Jenkins took full-blooded blows at one of LIV’s biggest signings Phil Mickelson and its chief Greg Norman.

She wrote: “The news value of its debut last year, championed with patent unease by Phil Mickelson, has long faded. What’s left is just the militant fruitcakery of Greg Norman, whose emanations from his empty luminescent head never quite form into actual substance.’’

Jenkins did not fail to mention the name of Lee and one of the other new signings, Dean Burmester.

“To hear Norman tell it, LIV 2023 would begin with a “momentous” TV deal and seven more top 20 player signees.

“As the second season opens this week (at the end of last month) in Mayakoba, Mexico, it’s got a laughably desperate TV pact with the CW Network … and no new big names. It was just more blow-harding that evaporated into a few lower-level defections such as Dean Bur- mester and Danny Lee.”

Jenkins kept the punches coming as she referred to the likes of Brooks Koepka and Mickelson.

“Golf, but loud, is one of LIV’s slogans,’’ Jenkins wrote.

“But all that apparently refers to is Ian Poulter’s pants by Pixar. Poulter is at least a likeable star, more audience-friendly than laconic burnout cases such as Brooks Koepka or that aging inveterate scrounger Mickelson …

“Starting Friday (at the end of last month) in Mexico, all of them will resume crapping around in an incoherent, non-competitive, no-cut, drama-repellant 54-hole format with locked-in appearance fees.’’

The comparison between LIV and the PGA Tour was inevitable by Jenkins.

“The supposed duel between LIV and the PGA Tour for the soul of the game is already over. Which entertainment product is better?

“Richard Bland and Pat Perez jacking around at places such as Crooked Cat in Orlando, a course that the PGA Tour used for Q school events? Or the winsome Max Homa weeping with competitive agony as he chases mighty young Jon Rahm across layouts such as grand old Riviera?’’

Jenkins did not hold back when referring to LIV Golf being financially backed by Saudi Arabia.

“From the outset, LIV was a home for buttercup-bellied moral cowards clutching at cash from a murderous regime, but it quickly has evolved into a refuge for guys who have lost their taste for competition.

“Who cares who “wins” more money among such a scrabbling bunch? Only the torrent of blood-spattered Saudi coin made Norman’s follies viable in the first place, and now the best young guys are turning down the money. LIV’s incursion is failing, and eventually all that will be left is the unpleasant smell of its corruptions.”

I have not previously read such a damning report of LIV Golf and it certainly got me thinking.

What worries me is the future of Lee. Even though he had not been playing well he had still been earning a reasonable income.

His 10 starts on this season’s PGA Tour had earned him $US320,000.

The season before he included a second in the Bermuda Classic which saw him take home $US578,000 and his earnings for that season were $US966,000. When was the last time you earned nearly $US1 million in a year having not per formed very well?

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