Mayaboka welcome to LIV Golf no surprise

By Neville Idour

The decision by Mayakoba in Mexico to host the first LIV event for 2023 did not surprise given the various factors at play. However, being a regular venue for the PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Classic meant that decision would bring a reaction from the PGA Tour.

So again, not surprisingly, the PGA Tour’s reaction was not to renew the 2023 event although Mayakoba’s chief executive Borja Escalada made it clear to PGA Tour chief executive Jay Monahan they would be happy to host both tours.

When asked if the PGA would be happy to share the venue with LIV the reply was “That’s a great question.” At last report the question had not been answered. When asked why they didn’t renew, a tour spokesper- son declined to comment.

Escalada’s team had been in consultation with LIV for more than two years. Greg Norman had designed the El Camelion course so had a long association with Mayakoba. Escalada was also close to many LIV players such as Graeme McDowell, Pat Perez and Mexico’s biggest stars Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz.

Add to that, Escalado’s fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia is designing a course at Mayakoba that opens in 2024.

Escalada did his homework. He invited several players to his home for dinner and sounded them out about LIV Golf when it was just blowing in the wind. In the following months he had many conversations with Greg Norman and other LIV people and players, as well as PGA Tour executives .

His team considered all the various factors and decided to sign with LIV partly because they felt it would open a huge window to the world. Also a big factor was the PGA Tour could not offer Mexico’s Ancer and Ortiz who the young golfers look up to.

Add to that the new elevated PGA schedule that the top 70 ranked players are expected to play in has effectively relegated the nine autumn events to little more than a qualifying school where players ranked 71 to 125 in the FedEx Cup will battle for their cards for the next season. Not great for the sponsors knowing the top 70 don’t have to play and likely won’t. This leads to thinking what could have been. Had the PGA Tour at least sat down with Norman and LIV rather than not even acknowledge their several approaches the autumn season could have been achieving it’s purpose while LIV provided the icing on the financial cake for the top players who wanted to play the LIV schedule.