For LIV Golf, it was the perfect storm. Hurricane-force winds buffeted the final round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Sunday, allowing for an unobstructed view of the climax of the year's opening tournament on the Breakaway Tour.
The curtailment of the PGA Tour's first signature event was so convenient for them that one wonders if Saudi Arabia bought the weather, too.
Viewers looking for a classic Sunday golf experience had no choice but to attend LIV's season opener at Mayakoba. In the end, Joaquin Niemann of Chile won on the fourth extra hole in near darkness.
And, to be fair, even if the $20 million Pebble Beach tournament could run a full 72-hole course, for many fans it might have been a last-minute choice in what to watch. unknown.
Proposed by LIV, Niemann fights hard to beat major-winning Spaniards Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, and the US Open champion tries to stop Ludwig Aberg and Mathieu Pabon on the California coast. Windham Clark, which one would you choose?
The latter was being played at an iconic venue on the California coast, which was brought down by Clark's extraordinary 60 points on Saturday. The former was a $25 million shootout at a Greg Norman-designed resort course in Mexico, where Niemann clinched his first card in the 59th round.
There was sensational golf at both events, but nothing better captures the madness of the modern game than the fact that last week a total of 134 golfers (80 in the US, 54 in LIV) competed for a total of $45 million. There is nothing to represent. He will be cut in both tournaments.
With such a limited tournament size and an average take-home pay per man of $336,000, why do many say men's professional golf has become completely out of touch with reality? is easy to understand.
At Pebble Beach, Clark was declared the winner as he was unable to advance to the final round, but the Mexico tournament provided a fascinating climax for those who had access to the coverage.
Rahm tried to start paying back the hundreds of millions of dollars he earned in a late-season transfer by rushing into contention. The possibility of a showdown with his former Ryder Cup partner Garcia was enough to tempt me into streaming the finale. The website page suggested that I was one of about 29,000 people watching this activity.
It was decent and welcoming coverage. On commentary, traditional golf networks were trying to market the tournament to a broader audience rather than the usual narrow cast that assumes all viewers are already golfers.
The caddies were wearing microphones and had meaningful conversations with the players. It was refreshing to feel like they were putting the audience first.
At least, that was my impression. Is it too optimistic to suggest that competition between tours could ultimately lead to a better overall product for fans?
That seems to be the only good thing to come out of the current mess, but as LIV embarks on its third season, it looks like this issue will get no closer to being resolved.
Both circuits are diluted by division, so neither of last weekend's champions can say they beat the best fields in the world. And the latest developments seem to bring us no closer to a solution, rather the opposite.
The PGA Tour is getting a boost from a $1.5 billion investment with Strategic Sport Group announced last week. In the future, there is a possibility that it will attract cash from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which supports LIV.
But while Jordan Spieth, a member of the PGA Tour's policy committee, doesn't think Saudi money is needed, his successor on the board, Rory McIlroy, says the Middle Eastern influence is essential. claims.
McIlroy has reportedly left a WhatsApp group made up of leading players. Apparently he's tired of the endless bickering.
The Northern Irishman insists a deal with PIF is essential to reintegrating the game.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice continues to insist that any deal with PIF must be formally scrutinized, which would mean significant delays even if an agreement is reached.
And where does the Wentworth-based DP World Tour fit into this? There are many players and officials who feel that its formal “strategic partnership” with the PGA Tour is fading away.
The idea that Europe could potentially pivot to an alliance with the PIF, thereby providing a path for LIV recruits like Rahm and others back into the establishment ranks, is no longer considered as fanciful as it once was. ing.
That said, the DP World Tour just announced FedEx as its new sponsor for this year's French Open, and the deal is seen as a direct benefit of the formal arrangement with the PGA Tour.
Meanwhile, in the United States, a gravy train is running with an excess of chunky, creepy fare. LIV heads to Las Vegas for Super Bowl week, while the PGA Tour sets up camp just south of Arizona for the raucous WM Phoenix Open.
WM stands for Waste Management. This is what we need when overly wealthy rival tours with substandard products and no consistent future progression are vying for our attention.
It might be time to switch to the weather channel.
