2023 Masters Golf:PGA vs. LIV
BLUEJAYWAY
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in Sports Talk
Can't wait for the drama to unfold and hear the commentary by Jim Nance. How he may skirt the obvious issues surrounding the 2 factions. Want to see Rory and any LIV golfer in the final pairing on Sunday. There's your drama. I plan on covering a few LIVers, but will also spread $ around on Scottie, Rahm.
Successful transactions:Tookybandit. "Everyone is equal, some are more equal than others".
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there's a lesson to be learned from all of this. and that is, competition is a good thing. the PGA Tour has always ruled the roost. there was no reason for change. it had a "if it's not broke, don't try to fix it" mentality. the status quo was king.
then, an existential thread in the form of a rebel tour came a callin'. LIV waylaid the PGA Tour with an overhand right. it staggered the PGA Tour, but the bell rang. the PGA Tour convalesced, and when it came out for the next round it opened a can on LIV by way of a serious cash infusion that invalidated the rebel tour's strategy. now, LIV has been relegated to a inferior sideshow.
the framework of the PGA Tour has been forever altered -- for the better. more money. numerous designated events that ensure the best fields. but the evolution doesn't end there. a virtual golf league set to launch in '24. no-cut tournaments that guarantee your favorite golfer will be playing the weekend. on and on.
were it not for competition, none of the aforementioned would exist. currently, LIV is on the deck trying to beat the 10-count. i watched about 5 minutes of action last weekend and couldn't take it anymore. but to its credit, it forced the PGA Tour's hand. and that, in turn, fortified the sport of golf.
bring on the Masters.
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
I have watched most of the 2 tournaments that LIV has had this year since they are now on the CW network. Now the pga tour has reluctantly copied a lot of what LIV has done in giving the money to the players.
The pga tour had to bribe the "star" players by offering a PIP (sp?) bonus, which tiger got the most just from showing up in web searches. The pga limited field 'no-cut" tournaments also guarantees the star players that they just have to show up to get paid.
I originally didn't like the LIV shotgun start, but I am now a fan. This past weekend was a 4 way playoff and most of the players were on different holes when finishing, so they didn't know how safe / risky they had to be playing each of their final hole.
There is also the team event portion. It helps motivate the teammates to keep grinding it out for the team score. And during the playoff, all the teammates were there rooting for them in the playoff. It was also talked about how most of the teams practice together and do things away from the course. The international players/teams have always seemed to play well at the ryder and presidents cup events. Also a lot of the younger players are still used to college golf where most of the play is team golf.
As Galaxy has stated, I agree that the game of golf has been fortified. I do not agree that the LIV is an inferior sideshow. The defending Players champion was not allowed to compete a couple of weeks ago. So the pga tour advertising having the best fields is not a correct statement. Golfers like Rory Sabatini are only on the page tour because of the defections to the LIV tour.
I can relate more to LIV tour as they are allowed to wear shorts, play both an individual and team games just like myself and buddies on the weekend.
JMO
Time will tell.
@Alfonz24
i appreciate your take. and i appreciate that it's different from mine. that's what makes the world go round.
i was very open-minded when LIV launched. i couldn't wait to see some newness in the sport of golf. but it didn't take me long to realize that i couldn't stomach it -- for myriad reasons. and based on what i've read, i'm in the majority. when LIV opened the season in Mayakoba a few weeks ago with its first-ever TV broadcast, not only was it smoked in the ratings by a non-designated PGA Tour stop (Honda Classic), but it was even outdone by "World's Funniest Animals" that showed on CW later that day. and then, inconceivably, last weekend's ratings were worse -- a .14 rating in the 18-39 demographic across 33 markets. suffice to say there's little, if any, traction being gained.
and unless they get extremely creative, the days of them luring a top-tier player away from the PGA Tour are over. if a tour stud was going to cross over, he would have done so already. it's definitely not going to happen now, now that the PGA Tour has injected so much cash into purses that they now rival LIV's. if anything -- and this is just my opinion -- there's a better chance of LIV players defecting back to the PGA Tour at some point down the line. i've already read stories about some LIVers who are expressing buyer's remorse.
.02
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
.....
Maybe some influential, behind the scenes, trillionaire linksman decided to play the long con so as to ensure that all of this happened. What kind of odds would you give that?
Are any betting sites handling any LIV action?
When liv started up and mickelson was one of the first to sign up it just seemed like pure greed especially in light of the now infamous comments he made.
The pga made him very rich and he turns on them like a spoiled child.
There’s something to be said for loyalty so I’m a big Rory fan but actually prefer watching the women play as you don’t find the big egos and greed like in the mens game
@galaxy27 @Alfonz24 it sounds like both of you were at different places in your love affair with the PGA when the LIV tour came around. It doesn't surprise me to read these diametrically opposed views.
However, it sounds like you @Alfonz24 are not impressed with the changes the PGA has made subsequently.
I realize I'm just repeating things that you both said, and that my comment has no point. Please disregard. Thank you.
@thisistheshow
you know what they say about imitation..............it's the sincerest form of flattery. fonzie was very right about the tour mimicking LIV, but they had to. eotd it all boils down to the almighty dollar, and the PGA Tour was seemingly bringing a knife to a gunfight. all of a sudden, a massive infusion of the monetary kind took place. when the dust settled, all of the changes on tour basically guaranteed that the top players would become richer than they already are. and that's what they had to do, otherwise they ran the risk of losing more of them.
as it currently stands, there's really no reason for a big name to leave the PGA Tour. all you really need to know is if Hideki Matsuyama passed up an offer in the region of $400 million, then the tour's gravitational pull has been, and i'll use this word again, fortified.
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
I am impressed GLAD that the pga has made changes, only that they were "forced" to make these changes to keep the current players. If LIV had never happened, then the pga would still only be offering scraps (not that millions are scraps, but the pursues have dramatically increased because of LIV) to their members.