LIV Tour Discussion Thread (*** NO POLITICS ***)

[ahenderX]

1 hour ago, MtlJeff said:

 

Aspiring tour golfers are still people at the end of the day. LIV is a new company trying to pay them more. I'm sure they care about playing in the Masters, US open etc...."some" history yes is important, i'm sure these guys grew up wanting to play the Masters

 

But if the Masters bans LIV golfers or the PGA threatens to boycott to get them banned. Do 23-24yr olds on the PGA tour look at this like "Wow awesome, this other tour that could've doubled my earnings now might not exist because of my employer---so i have to choose between earning less or playing in this tournament i wanted to play in because of them....umm, sweet?"

 

I'd guess while they won't say so publically, very few of the tour guys under say, 35....want LIV to go away. And i would guess if push comes to shove, they would abandon the majors for way more money. Maybe i'm wrong

 

 

 

 

To my knowledge, one person has made the boycott statement — Davis Love III. I seriously doubt this is even being considered. The PGA Tour, going forward, will focus more on what the players want right now, as well as what is needed to stop LIV from poaching current and future talent. The BMW tournament meetings this week will lead to many changes across the PGA Tour landscape. As for the Masters, previous winners may be there but not other LIV players. Maybe Augusta National could offer a pay-per-view option where no LIV players are shown. I would pay extra for this.

[jls667]

48 minutes ago, DrivingChamp said:

 

 

 

I've been curious about Ricky's stance as he's been quiet of late and was one who actually said he'd consider it early on. That coupled with his struggles made me think there's a decent chance he'd go at some point but I doubt he'd arrive and drive over with Tiger if he was going to have a different opinion or vote.

[Frankensteins Monster]

53 minutes ago, DrivingChamp said:

 

Rickie should be driving.

[AUTIGER07]

50 minutes ago, DrivingChamp said:

 

The PGA Tour should’ve picked Tiger up in a party bus with external monitors playing highlights of the 1996 Masters but instead Monaghan chose to redeem some of his Enterprise points to get Tiger and Ricky a free upgrade for the Nissan SUV instead. 

[NMBob]

there is zero justification for the usga to ban golfers from the us open.  That would just make a monopoly lawsuit likely to succeed for the liv golfers.  Showing how the rules making body of golf just went in cahoots with the pga tour.    Also, if they get anymore players on liv on top of a probable cam smith, then majors would not be able to say they have all the best golfers in the world competing for their title.  Open, does not mean open.   Same for the R and A and The Open championship.   

 

The masters, can do what they want, but if they ban them, that would be a bigger distraction and advertising for Liv rather than just letter the world ranking points issue drive most off eligibility.   If so many players hate liv golfers, maybe the green jack holding liv golfers won't come by choice anyway.

 

 PGA championship, is for golf professionals of all types?, except ?  I guess they could not develop any qualifying for non pga tour golfers , but then the tourney would not be an all Professionals championship.   Are liv golfers like DJ still members of the PGA , but not members of the pgatour?  The pga tour players championship is the tour championship, not the PGA championship, right?  But, i think they might be able to get by with it, unlike the usga and R&A.  

 

As for a players strike of the majors, again, if the majors fell for the blackmail, then the monopoly lawsuit would look easy wouldn't it?   It also would bring great coverage to liv, and I think, most likely, be the first step in a settlement between the two tours.  Seems a bad idea, go ahead and strike and don't hold the majors , all while liv then schedules a tournament to watch instead??   What is the PGA tour without the majors...go ahead, keep striking... would be the liv response.  Just seems like a plan that easily backfires.

 

different topic:  Ricky let Tiger drive the vehicle lol ?

Edited August 16, 2022 by NMBob

[mitchl]

1 hour ago, DrivingChamp said:

 

 

Oh no Rickie, you letting Tiger drive?    Yikes!   🙂

[MtlJeff]

5 hours ago, mitchl said:

 

If they wanted to collaborate, then don’t make the commissioner/CEO a guy who wants to destroy the PGA and has been harboring a 30 year old grudge.   

Also things if you’re interested in collaboration - don’t recruit players in the locker rooms.

Lastly, is someone forcing you to watch the 3M or John Deere?  Is it like that scene in Clockwork Orange?  Sounds horrible.
But if the Tour signed up to have these 8 big dollar tournaments, then if it was like WGC, then those count as part of the 15, so now the players are down to just playing 7 regular PGA events.    I guess you could make it so the 15 events doesn’t count that but then you will have players whining about 15 PGA + 4 majors + 3 Playoff, + 8 LIV events.   

 

And does LIV still sign those guys under contract so they don’t have any choice but to go to all LIV events?
 

 

I don't believe Norman has been commissioner since the beginning. It's been widely reported that for example when LIV approached Tiger , Norman was not even involved yet. Weren't there reports that at the onset, there was talk of collaberating with the tour and having this be a compliment to it? This was likely before Norman's time. Maybe Norman never even gets hired in an alternate universe

 

Correct, nobody's forcing me to watch the PGA's product , of which probably 50% of it i find to be pretty stale. 13-15 events are very compelling and the rest seem to exist mostly to sort out spots 80-125 on the money list which is fairly blah . Another 7-8 LIV events with a team element or something else... that everyone would play in due to dollars, i thought might be a better overall product for the fans because it's differentiated at least. So yeah, 22-23 events maybe total for top guys.

 

I'm not some mark for LIV golf though i'm sure some think so. I just didn't find the PGA tour all that compelling for roughly half the season. It seems worse every since they moved the PGA championship earlier. Maybe even do the LIV stuff during Q4 when the PGA is dead....There seems there could've been so many ways to figure this out before all the egos got involved

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by MtlJeff

[Stevens24]

Something must be seriously up for them to call a meeting like this and fly Tiger in. There have been rumors that multiple players were looking at leaving after the FEDEX. I do not know who but they are obviously nervous. 

 

I do not see the Majors(except maybe the PGA) banning LIV players who are exempt or have qualified as they do not want to hurt their reputation when now the Tour is looking wounded. 

 

We will see how it plays out

[mikewohlwend]

5 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

As of now, LIV has 2 of the top 20. One great player in his 20s.

 

Who are the 2 top 20 players? And what one is great?

[SurfDuffer]

4 hours ago, DrivingChamp said:

 

Tiger was looking pretty hobbled in that video.  I just think the PGAT has made such a mess of this.  They've damaged their own brand more than the competing LIV Tour ever could have.  Bans and boycotts are petty and stupid.  Let the players play where they want to.  End the stupid petty nonsense and clean house in the PGAT top management.

[2bGood]

7 hours ago, AUTIGER07 said:

The PGA Tour should’ve picked Tiger up in a party bus with external monitors playing highlights of the 1996 Masters but instead Monaghan chose to redeem some of his Enterprise points to get Tiger and Ricky a free upgrade for the Nissan SUV instead. 

 

Yes kind of weird given it is the BMW, and Nissan is not a sponsor of Ricky or Tiger

 

4 hours ago, SurfDuffer said:

 Let the players play where they want to.  End the stupid petty nonsense and clean house in the PGAT top management.

Does LIV let the players play were they want to? No the players have to play the LIV events. 

 

If the LIV guys decided to start skipping events to play on other tours, do you think the LIV tour would be okay with it? No consequences? 

[iBanesto]

13 hours ago, johnseg said:

The guy has one PGA Tour win and a total of 9 on what is considered the PGA and Euro tours. He turned pro in 2002 and hasn't won since 2018. I don't care how many top tens or runner-ups he has had during his career.

 

When I see his name on a tee sheet I don't think he has to be one of the favorites.

 

You know the OWGR is based on a rolling 2 year period and not a player's whole career.

 

You stated that the OWGR is about "playing pretty mediocre in the right events/fields". Finishing with 3 top 3 major finishes and another top 10 in a WGC, is more than playing "pretty mediocre" as it was against the best field assembled. 

 

Finishing 2nd in a major is worth more than twice as much in terms of OWGR points compared to win at the John Deere Classic for example as it is based on strength of field (SoF).

 

[mosesgolf]

IF the majors wanted to ban LIV players they could implement a bylaw that requires all players must be in good standing with PGA Tour or DP Tour etc.  

[BlackDiamondPar5]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:12 PM, RichieHunt said:

 

I was at Greensboro working with clients on Tuesday.  Talking to the Tour players the general vibe was that they respected the players that made the decision to go to the LIV Tour and there were some that would take the offer (at least seriously consider it) if the LIV Tour came a knockin'.

 

That being said, they don't agree with the tact that some of the players have used and being dishonest about it.  Contrary to what social media believes, the players on Tour largely support Jay Monahan.  They know that the LIV Tour is attempting to make the PGA Tour a feeder Tour and Monahan, in turn, is trying to prevent that from happening.

 

They know that there's not a single player on the LIV Tour that would play all of the 14 mandated LIV Tour events and then play the minimum 15 events required by the PGA Tour.  It's just not going to happen.

 

The guys that I've heard attack the LIV Tour because it's Saudi backed is Rory McIlroy and that's about it.  The rest have bashed the players like Mickelson...who was telling players that the PGA Tour was withholding $20B in names and likenesses from them which is an outright lie.

 

Or the claim that the PGA Tour 'stole' talent from the Australian and European Tours.  The PGA Tour never sought out players from Australia or Europe (or even the US), never offered them guaranteed money to play.  Nor did the PGA Tour hold tournaments in Australia or Europe at the same time Aussie and Euro Tour events were going on.

 

And what was the PGA Tour supposed to do?  Reduce their purse sizes so it wasn't appealing to play in the US?  Not allow international players to play on Tour even though they were willing to qualify for the Tour?  

 

Even in Monahan's interview with Jim Nantz he never bashed the Saudi's and even stated, point blank, that they've allowed players to play tournaments in Saudi Arabia.

 

The bashing of the Saudis has been largely done by the media and Rory McIlroy.  

 

I certainly see the hypocrisy with Rory being endorsed by Nike who is largely tied to China and their track record of human rights is rotten.  But I don't know if his criticisms are off base.

 

The same goes for the media.  You could argue that Chamblee was incorrect on reporting that the prize earnings are recouped against the LIV Tour contracts.  But the LIV Tour's lawyer stated, in court, that the money was recouped against the contract on Tuesday (LIV Tour officials have stated that this was still not the case).

 

The LIV Tour pros have stated that it's like 'winning the lottery' to be on the LIV Tour...and they still want to double dip...particularly after bashing the Tour that supposedly oppresses them so much.  

 

It's just an amazing amount of dishonesty all for a sports league that isn't stopping them from playing for another league where they can make 4-6x as much (not including the guaranteed contracts), is paying for a large amount of their travel expenses and at half the schedule.  

 

One of my clients went to the LIV Tour.  I was elated for him to do so because it mean more money and a lighter schedule so he can spend more time with his family, particularly as his children head into their teenage years.  Most players on Tour 'get it' and respect that decision.  Of course it helps when he's just upfront and honest and says that he had a great career playing the PGA Tour, but the money and schedule was too good to pass up instead of making inane pizza shop customer analogies and claims that the Tour unfairly owns their media rights and how the Tour stole talent from other Tours or Scottie Scheffler purposely walked in Cam Smith's line to get back at him for allegedly signing with the LIV Tour.

 

 

 

 

 

RH

 

 

^^^^Great post that everyone should read. One critic you didn't mention was Phil. Phil said some highly damaging and critical things about both the Saudi's and the PGAT. 

[Short Pete]

13 hours ago, jls667 said:

 

 

I've been curious about Ricky's stance as he's been quiet of late and was one who actually said he'd consider it early on. That coupled with his struggles made me think there's a decent chance he'd go at some point but I doubt he'd arrive and drive over with Tiger if he was going to have a different opinion or vote.

Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas will not seriously consider joining the LIV circus. Maybe Fowler was interested in the beginning. But I guess that all the the stuff that went down concerning LIV in the last two months including the lawsuit has him convinced that LIV is not for him. If a player could play one here and there many more would consider joining, as the money is just too good if you can have at it both ways. But that's not the case, and if LIV doesn't alter almost everything in their concept to attract more relevant players this will be dead by the end of the year. They don't announce things because there is nothing to announce. If Smith and Leishman don't join the main attraction in Boston will be Bubba Watson. That's as exciting as attending a Quiet Riot concert without one single original member.

[bscinstnct]

14 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

 

I don't believe Norman has been commissioner since the beginning. It's been widely reported that for example when LIV approached Tiger , Norman was not even involved yet. Weren't there reports that at the onset, there was talk of collaberating with the tour and having this be a compliment to it? This was likely before Norman's time. Maybe Norman never even gets hired in an alternate universe

 

Correct, nobody's forcing me to watch the PGA's product , of which probably 50% of it i find to be pretty stale. 13-15 events are very compelling and the rest seem to exist mostly to sort out spots 80-125 on the money list which is fairly blah . Another 7-8 LIV events with a team element or something else... that everyone would play in due to dollars, i thought might be a better overall product for the fans because it's differentiated at least. So yeah, 22-23 events maybe total for top guys.

 

I'm not some mark for LIV golf though i'm sure some think so. I just didn't find the PGA tour all that compelling for roughly half the season. It seems worse every since they moved the PGA championship earlier. Maybe even do the LIV stuff during Q4 when the PGA is dead....There seems there could've been so many ways to figure this out before all the egos got involved

 

 

 

I think there’s blame on both sides for the adversarial situation.

 

The Tour perhaps shut the door hard on any potential of working together. And liv went ahead and launched with the plan which, if successful, will pretty much destroy the tour.

 

I say that because I assume liv would be pleased if every member of the top-20 played in their 14 planned events. Add the majors and that’s 18 events. That leaves like a small handful of pga starts not to mention the 15 tournament minimum.

 

The tour and all the 2nd, 3rd tier events is what enables those “blah…80-125 in the money list” to have the potential to make a living and improve. 
 

Look at liv guy Hudson Swafford. He played the kfc/pga tour for 9 years. Ranked between 38-167. Making between 300k-2MM a year. 
 

The only reason he even exists as a pro, and now runs to liv, is because the pga tour has those boring events where at least a few top guys played and he could make a good living. 
 

So, now he turns his back on the tour. Ok, fine, “he hit the lottery”

 

Then he sues the tour!

 

Anyway, sorry to ramble, let’s see how TW makes out. I assume he will try to cut to the chase. See what the top guys want to stay, and go to Monahan and look to get the best, viable, situation for all. Maybe also discuss if the guys would be open to boycotting the majors. That would be a hardcore move but it could be a good negotiation tactic to see how the majors respond. 

 

PS-we go “way back” so I know you know I’m just goofing around. But liv Boston tix are now

 

$5

 

https://www.stubhub.com/liv-golf-invitational-series-bolton-tickets-9-2-2022/event/150340224/?quantity=1

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by bscinstnct

[smashdn]

17 hours ago, bscinstnct said:

Yes and now liv is a threat to the pga tour/dp tour.

 

The difference is that liv is a threat to the majors.   <Of the majors' own doings.  See below.
 

As @MtlJeffsaid, if the liv players lose owgr to qualify, what’s to say liv won’t just go and have its own 50MM majors?  <Who controls the purse strings of the OWGR?  For "opens" the LIV players can qualify the "old fashioned way."  What's to say they won't create their own major?  Well, firstly nobody "creates" a major, they sort of happen organically and through consensus and with history, things I don't think LIV has on their side at the moment.  Purse alone doesn't make a major.  Might make it attractive though.

 

Thats why I think the best thing is for the majors to disqualify liv players and stick with the pga tour.  <Which would just exacerbate what you said above.

 

 

On what grounds do you disqualify a player who qualifies for a major?  With The Masters, I can see it happening more easily as they are an invitational and write (and break) their own rules as they see fit.

 

But, on what grounds would you disqualify, say Bryson DeChambeau, if he went through the qualifying process for the US Open and was successful?  Being a member of a certain golf tour is not a pre-requisite.  Being a professional golfer is not even a pre-requisite.  

[dfeldss]

11 hours ago, SurfDuffer said:

Tiger was looking pretty hobbled in that video.  I just think the PGAT has made such a mess of this.  They've damaged their own brand more than the competing LIV Tour ever could have.  Bans and boycotts are petty and stupid.  Let the players play where they want to.  End the stupid petty nonsense and clean house in the PGAT top management.

 

They can play where they want! They're doing it right now

[smashdn]

14 hours ago, Stevens24 said:

Something must be seriously up for them to call a meeting like this and fly Tiger in. There have been rumors that multiple players were looking at leaving after the FEDEX. I do not know who but they are obviously nervous. 

 

I do not see the Majors (except maybe the PGA) banning LIV players who are exempt or have qualified as they do not want to hurt their reputation when now the Tour is looking wounded. 

 

We will see how it plays out

 

PGA of America still has a tip titled "Escape a Bunker Like Brooks" on their website.  A) They are still milking his name or B) he is PGA member and they don't care where or how he is a professional at golf.

[smashdn]

7 hours ago, 2bGood said:

 

Yes kind of weird given it is the BMW, and Nissan is not a sponsor of Ricky or Tiger

 

Does LIV let the players play were they want to? No the players have to play the LIV events. 

 

If the LIV guys decided to start skipping events to play on other tours, do you think the LIV tour would be okay with it? No consequences? 

 

That is the difference between an independent contractor making their own schedule and one who is under contract with stipulation stating which events they have to play.  Sort of one of the major cruxes of the whole issue at hand here.

[MtlJeff]

1 hour ago, bscinstnct said:

 

I think there’s blame on both sides for the adversarial situation.

 

The Tour perhaps shut the door hard on any potential of working together. And liv went ahead and launched with the plan which, if successful, will pretty much destroy the tour.

 

I say that because I assume liv would be pleased if every member of the top-20 played in their 14 planned events. Add the majors and that’s 18 events. That leaves like a small handful of pga starts not to mention the 15 tournament minimum.

 

The tour and all the 2nd, 3rd tier events is what enables those “blah…80-125 in the money list” to have the potential to make a living and improve. 
 

Look at liv guy Hudson Swafford. He played the kfc/pga tour for 9 years. Ranked between 38-167. Making between 300k-2MM a year. 
 

The only reason he even exists as a pro, and now runs to liv, is because the pga tour has those boring events where at least a few top guys played and he could make a good living. 
 

So, now he turns his back on the tour. Ok, fine, “he hit the lottery”

 

Then he sues the tour!

 

Anyway, sorry to ramble, let’s see how TW makes out. I assume he will try to cut to the chase. See what the top guys want to stay, and go to Monahan and look to get the best, viable, situation for all. Maybe also discuss if the guys would be open to boycotting the majors. That would be a hardcore move but it could be a good negotiation tactic to see how the majors respond. 

 

PS-we go “way back” so I know you know I’m just goofing around. But liv Boston tix are now

 

$5

 

https://www.stubhub.com/liv-golf-invitational-series-bolton-tickets-9-2-2022/event/150340224/?quantity=1

 

 

 

 

I guess the question i would have is, the guys ranked 80-125 year in and year out -- Do we really care if they play professional golf? I have zero against these guys on a personal level of course and i wish them the best. But pro sports is a business, people don't watch the NBA to watch PJ Tucker play hard nosed defense, they want to watch Lebron and Kevin Durant etc

 

So yeah, i feel like maybe there was this ask internally, about number of events, about getting more of that sweet guacamole to the guys in the top 50. This arguably creates a better product too because most of us knucklehead fans are dumb, we just want to see the same names over and over (name recognition at the top of leaderboards tends to lead to better ratings--People like dynasties in basically every sport other than the NFL which is it's own superbeast of a thing)

 

I think the PGA tour would've been a better product if it was ~20 events where all the top dudes played, got paid, and gave us a bunch of tournaments with awesome fields. Maybe all of Q4 could've just been a 3 month Q-school for the 80-125 guys after the top 50 or whatever is locked in

 

I get the impression things like this were kinda rebuffed, which led to LIV getting a bit more bold in what they set out to do. And now the PGA is kinda like "Hey wait a minute, no one said there were no takesies backsies!"

 

I'm trying not to sound like a bad guy here but i don't really care about the 93rd ranked player. Or if he wins a tournament in October. I remember reading Jack Welsh's book about when he was CEO of GE. One of his great strategies was cutting any business they weren't top 3 in to focus on what they were good at. I just kinda wish the PGA tour would do that...LIV seems to be trying to be that, albeit with several well known flaws (they got some work to do too, obviously)

[mosesgolf]

2 hours ago, bscinstnct said:

 

I think there’s blame on both sides for the adversarial situation.

 

The Tour perhaps shut the door hard on any potential of working together. And liv went ahead and launched with the plan which, if successful, will pretty much destroy the tour.

 

I say that because I assume liv would be pleased if every member of the top-20 played in their 14 planned events. Add the majors and that’s 18 events. That leaves like a small handful of pga starts not to mention the 15 tournament minimum.

 

The tour and all the 2nd, 3rd tier events is what enables those “blah…80-125 in the money list” to have the potential to make a living and improve. 
 

Look at liv guy Hudson Swafford. He played the kfc/pga tour for 9 years. Ranked between 38-167. Making between 300k-2MM a year. 
 

The only reason he even exists as a pro, and now runs to liv, is because the pga tour has those boring events where at least a few top guys played and he could make a good living. 
 

So, now he turns his back on the tour. Ok, fine, “he hit the lottery”

 

Then he sues the tour!

 

Anyway, sorry to ramble, let’s see how TW makes out. I assume he will try to cut to the chase. See what the top guys want to stay, and go to Monahan and look to get the best, viable, situation for all. Maybe also discuss if the guys would be open to boycotting the majors. That would be a hardcore move but it could be a good negotiation tactic to see how the majors respond. 

 

PS-we go “way back” so I know you know I’m just goofing around. But liv Boston tix are now

 

$5

 

https://www.stubhub.com/liv-golf-invitational-series-bolton-tickets-9-2-2022/event/150340224/?quantity=1

 

 

 

Hmmmm $93 for the unrestricted view tickets.  Me thinks one can have all the unrestricted views they want from the $5-$6 tickets.  😂 

[tiderider]

13 hours ago, SurfDuffer said:

Tiger was looking pretty hobbled in that video.  I just think the PGAT has made such a mess of this.  They've damaged their own brand more than the competing LIV Tour ever could have.  Bans and boycotts are petty and stupid.  Let the players play where they want to.  End the stupid petty nonsense and clean house in the PGAT top management.

are you saying the pgat should do away with their 15 tournament requirement?

[DrunkCaddy]

While losing players to the LIV hurts the PGA, it certainly should be manageable, especially if the PGA can keep most of its biggest names.   The bigger issue is when do the sponsors start to waiver?   I suspect Tiger showing up has more to do with the $60M he collects in endorsements each year than a personal friendship with Monahan.   I wonder if there might be companies that are starting to second doubt if they want to be involved with the tour in 2023 and beyond?    This could get really ugly.  

[Purple Toupee]

9 hours ago, 2bGood said:

 

Yes kind of weird given it is the BMW, and Nissan is not a sponsor of Ricky or Tiger

 

Does LIV let the players play were they want to? No the players have to play the LIV events. 

 

If the LIV guys decided to start skipping events to play on other tours, do you think the LIV tour would be okay with it? No consequences? 

The LIV players who signed a contract have to play all the LIV events.  That’s what they signed up and got paid in advance for.  On weeks where there isn’t an event, they can play wherever they want.  LIV isn’t pretending that they’re independent contractors, but they’re also not telling them what they can do on their off weeks.

[Purple Toupee]

7 hours ago, mosesgolf said:

IF the majors wanted to ban LIV players they could implement a bylaw that requires all players must be in good standing with PGA Tour or DP Tour etc.  

So no more amateurs at the Masters?  The Opens are only open to professionals?

 

I don’t think you thought this through.

[mitchl]

17 hours ago, jls667 said:

 

 

I've been curious about Ricky's stance as he's been quiet of late and was one who actually said he'd consider it early on. That coupled with his struggles made me think there's a decent chance he'd go at some point but I doubt he'd arrive and drive over with Tiger if he was going to have a different opinion or vote.

if you are Ricky, and you are spending off time  with JT, Jordan, and Tiger…. Flying in Tigers jet and whatnot… and you’ve already got. $50m….. do you sign a deal for $80m to go hang with Perez and Brooks and give up your bros?

[TM4me]

Could not access the full article because I do not have an account, however here is the headline:

 

LIV Golf’s Player Contracts Include Restrictions to Go With the Big Money

A contract reviewed by The Wall Street Journal includes requirements to wear LIV gear at non-LIV tournaments, restraints on interviews and an agreement to help recruit other golfers to the Saudi-backed upstart

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/liv-golf-pga-tour-contract-11660744567

Edited August 17, 2022 by TM4me

[mitchl]

35 minutes ago, TM4me said:

Could not access the full article because I done have an account, however here is the headline:

 

LIV Golf’s Player Contracts Include Restrictions to Go With the Big Money

A contract reviewed by The Wall Street Journal includes requirements to wear LIV gear at non-LIV tournaments, restraints on interviews and an agreement to help recruit other golfers to the Saudi-backed upstart

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/liv-golf-pga-tour-contract-11660744567

 

Now this is interesting.   I wondered how much the R&A appreciated the LIV gear on Reed.   While I continue to want to see the LIV players in the majors if they have exemptions — I can certainly see restrictions by the majors on sponsorships by golf organizations, as it takes focus off the major’s organization and the independence of the majors.   It would just be ugly if we end up with a bunch of players going all Daly-like with DPWT, PGA, or LIV emblazoned all over them like it is some sort of dumb team event.  

[me05501]

19 hours ago, NMBob said:

there is zero justification for the usga to ban golfers from the us open.  That would just make a monopoly lawsuit likely to succeed for the liv golfers.  Showing how the rules making body of golf just went in cahoots with the pga tour.    Also, if they get anymore players on liv on top of a probable cam smith, then majors would not be able to say they have all the best golfers in the world competing for their title.  Open, does not mean open.   Same for the R and A and The Open championship.   

 

The masters, can do what they want, but if they ban them, that would be a bigger distraction and advertising for Liv rather than just letter the world ranking points issue drive most off eligibility.   If so many players hate liv golfers, maybe the green jack holding liv golfers won't come by choice anyway.

 

 PGA championship, is for golf professionals of all types?, except ?  I guess they could not develop any qualifying for non pga tour golfers , but then the tourney would not be an all Professionals championship.   Are liv golfers like DJ still members of the PGA , but not members of the pgatour?  The pga tour players championship is the tour championship, not the PGA championship, right?  But, i think they might be able to get by with it, unlike the usga and R&A.  

 

As for a players strike of the majors, again, if the majors fell for the blackmail, then the monopoly lawsuit would look easy wouldn't it?   It also would bring great coverage to liv, and I think, most likely, be the first step in a settlement between the two tours.  Seems a bad idea, go ahead and strike and don't hold the majors , all while liv then schedules a tournament to watch instead??   What is the PGA tour without the majors...go ahead, keep striking... would be the liv response.  Just seems like a plan that easily backfires.

 

different topic:  Ricky let Tiger drive the vehicle lol ?

 

 

On PGA Tour radio I heard someone say that the USGA is unlikely to ban anyone. Rather, they are likely to change their policies with respect to offering exemptions.

 

Theoretically any LIV player who was willing to play the qualifiers would still be able to play the U.S. Open. 

 

The only downside of that would be having several Top 100 ranked players showing up to qualifiers and impacting who else from that section manages to play his way in.