Bit by bit, day by day, the world’s best golfers are accepting golf’s brutal state of play: LIV Golf Series is a force and not going away.
Once Rory McIlroy was the biggest critic, now he is calling for peace talks between golf’s great agitator Greg Norman and USPGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
It’s not just the PGA and DP World Tour that has lost some of its star power, with 12 of the past 24 major winners plying their trade on the LIV Golf Series, but some of the sport’s glamour events.
Last month, with LIV’s defectors ineligible to play, including the world’s hottest player Cameron Smith, the United States Team smashed the International Team in the 2022 Presidents Cup, with a final score of 17.5-12.5, in their ninth consecutive victory.
The great fear is next year’s Ryder Cup in Rome will be a one-sided affair, with the event robbed of witnessing some of its biggest stars.
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It has meant Jon Rahm – the 2021 US Open and one of the game’s best players on the PGA Tour – has urged administrators to allow the rebels the chance to compete in the tournament.
No longer is the PGA Tour the be-all and end-all, with the LIV Golf Series an unstoppable beast that is showing no signs of slowing down.
Laughed off earlier in the year, Greg Norman’s run Golf Series, financially backed by the deep pockets of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, have brought together the hottest playing field in golf.
The LIV Golf Series does not appeal to anyone – the 54-hole tournament, shotgun starts, no cuts and team events are aspects many struggle to see the appeal – but the sheer pedigree of talent wooed by the mouthwatering sums of money and the prospect of not playing nearly as much, as well as taking the sport to different areas in the world, has rocked the establishment.
It was not long ago that McIlroy – the four-time major winner and last season’s FedEX Cup champion – decried what LIV Golf had done to the game. He still does, but his stance has softened.
“I hate what it’s done to the game of golf. I hate it. I really do,” he said.
In June he added, “There’s no room in the golf world for LIV Golf. I don’t agree with what LIV is doing. If LIV went away tomorrow, I’d be super happy.”
Now, he is urging the respective tours to come together, believing golf is the loser from the infighting between the respective tours.
“I don’t want a fractured game,” McIlroy said. “I never have.
“You look at some other sports and what’s happened and the game of golf is ripping itself apart right now and that’s no good for anyone. It’s no good for the guys on this side or the sort of traditional system and it’s no good for the guys on the other side, either. It’s no good for anyone. There is a time and a place for it. I just think right now, with where everything is, it’s probably not the right time.
“But saying that, I don’t think we can let it go too much longer. So I’m all for everyone sitting around the table and trying to figure something out for sure.”
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Norman on his new ‘legacy’ in golf | 01:57
Rahm – one of golf’s best players on the PGA Tour – has never been quite as strong on the subject, but now he has urged Ryder Cup officials to allow LIV defectors the chance to play in next year’s Ryder Cup.
“The Ryder Cup is not the PGA Tour and European Tour against LIV – it’s Europe versus the US, period.” Rahm said.
“The best of each against the other, and for me the Ryder Cup is above all. I wish they could play but it doesn’t look good.”
Indeed, it does not.
The indefinite bans issued by the PGA Tour render the US LIV players ineligible for the next September’s showdown in Rome, while a UK hearing in February will decide if the DP World Tour can deliver its own sanctions.
Cantlay suffers epic meltdown on 18th | 01:53
Until then the likes of Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sam Horsfield remain in the Ryder Cup qualification standings.
Across the Atlantic and the United States side will have a huge makeover from the one that smashed Europe at Whistling Straits 19-9.
Major winners Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed will be missing from the team, while Phil Mickelson’s dreams of captaining the United States are over.
Yet, the ones who are squirming the loudest are those who remain on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
For Rahm and McIlroy, their legacies could be defined by who they meet on the tee — and those who they beat.
