OT: LIV Golf and The PGA Tour Merge
In what so far has been a slow news day, LIV Golf and The PGA Tour have merged. Also appears to include the DP World Tour.
https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/37805785/pga-tour-liv-golf-dp-world-tour-announce-merger
Felt like LIV had 2 more years max at their current burn rate before the PIF would wash their hands of the league. Again they played the PGA Tour Execs, and now just basically recouped their initial investment with the news today.
Wow, now we're in bed with those scary M'f'ers.
There's a lot more that Saudi Arabia already owns in the U.S. that is much scarier than golf.
Owning water sources out west is pretty f'ing scary.
Now?
I thought this was a late April Fool’s Day joke on my news feed when I first saw the article.
PGA players should be furious, and if Collin Morikawa’s response of finding out about this on Twitter is any indication, they are.
Don’t know how any of them could ever respect Jay Monahan again. What a sell out.
"You are looking live at the majestic grounds of Augusta National Golf Club, where golf legends are made every year. Hello everybody, this is Jim Nance along with Verne Lundquist bringing you the 2024 Masters on CBS, sponsored by Skilsaw, the dismembering tool of choice for those tough jobs at home and at work."
I started reading this in Musberger's voice. Frankly it works a lot better that way!
I want you to know that you are one of my favorite posters on this board, Don. Outstanding.
I also read it in Musbergers voice…it works
Gross ..... but as Ted DiBiase said, everybody has a price. The Saudis reached the PGA Tour's price.
next up: alien golfers.
"E.T. birdied a par 3"
Talk about your raw capitalist/profit perspective...here you go.
Merging is always an excellent way to defuse any antitrust issues.
This tells me that the PGA Tour's lawyers told them they were going to lose, and lose big. There's really no other explanation that makes any sense.
J - I wish those lawyers would have worked with Mark Emmert and the NCAA a number of years ago.
I believe this was inevitable and was the intended end game by the LIV people. They followed a similar model as the ABA, AFL and USFL.
Remember the Pyrrhic victory of the USFL? They won the anti-trust suit vs. the NFL when trying to force a merger but were awarded damages of $1, tripled to $3 under anti-trust laws. LIV Golf has made out much better.
Quote from the story that makes the most sense.
No f***ing way.
So the moral high ground the PGA, and many of their players, self-proclaimed to be standing on was all a farce?
Here’s my shocked face 😐
The PGA tour claiming any moral high ground is laughable but it sounds like a lot of the players for both LIV and the PGA didn't know about the deal. I'm sure the PGA guys are still pretty pissed.
Less than a week ago, someone who used to play competitive golf said the following:
“I don’t even consider those guys part of the game anymore. I don’t mean that in a nasty way. This is a PGA Tour event and we have the best field we can possibly have for a PGA Tour event for those who are eligible to be here. The other guys made a choice of what they did and where they’ve gone and we don’t even talk about it.”
The "old" competitive golfer who said that? Jack Nicklaus.
I expect they’ll quit golf then to show they meant what they said …..
oh wait, no they won’t, they’ll take that Saudi money just like everyone else
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a new golf league.
The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary; like 9 figure contracts for Golf sponsored by Saudi Arabia. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet.
That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige" where the people at the top all get richer and strung you along for a year wondering if this really was a conflict.
Great film. The Prestige I mean.
The Pledge is a pretty good one too.
It’s got to be a double!!
Whenever I see "magic trick" I think of Gob Bluth's quote in Arrested Development.
Glad to see after sportswashing the Saudi fund they were able to escape any legal ramifications.
LIV always felt like a doomed venture but I really assumed it would have lasted longer than basically a year.
EDIT: Nevermind, I misread the article. So the Saudi fund now gets even more influence but, again, doesn't have any legal exposure. Fantastic job PGA - what a bunch of horseshit.
Everyone has their price.
Eventually, all those zeroes at the end of that check make you forget about (or at least tolerate) exactly where that money came from and who's blood was spilt to make it happen.
Everyone's patriotism, pride, love of tradition, all of that becomes flexible when there's a blank check thrown in front of them.
Saudi Arabia is a U S ally and we provide them arms. Almost all PGA sponsors do business with the Saudis. Why don’t people protest our govt rather than golfers ? Why doesn’t Chamblee complain about our government ? He is a tool for the PGA monopoly.
Yeah the outrage over this was always kind of faux. Maybe now Rory McIlroy can stop talking down to other players and maybe, like, contend in a major this year the way LIV players are?
Right? I hate when people witness injustice and then claim to be outraged by it. Phonies! When I see somebody doing something horrible, I just laugh and shrug and keep walking. #psychopathologyiscool
Oh so the LIV players are psychopaths? Wow.
No, sir. Psychopaths see injustice and laugh and shrug and keep walking. But not everyone who ignores injustice is a psychopath.
Yeah, they've been such great pals.
I just booked an evening tee time at my local municipal golf course for $21. Suck it, LIV.
chocolay downs?
Unfortunately not. I'm back in Wisconsin, so Chocolay Downs is only used during vacations nowadays!
NB, Wisconsin - as I am sure you've enjoyed - has a number of very, very fine golf courses - though, the fees for a few can be "up there".
It's been a pleasure for me to play venues including Erin Hills, Whistling Straits, the other three Kohler Courses (River, Meadow Valleys, and Irish), University Ridge, Sentry World, the Brute and Briar Patch (Highlands) in Lake Geneva (Grand Geneva), the Bog, and The Bull.
Sand Hills is on my "to play" list.- with hopes of getting there in the next year or two.
And, in one bit of commentary - I thought it was a tragedy - and ridiculous - that the USGA "cut down" the rough at Erin Hills after players complained about it during their practice rounds. Erin Hills is a very interesting course - and, I've played it in tougher conditions that the pros did when the US Open was held there in 2017.
Take dead aim - go low!
I for one, liked the fact that I could watch the PGA without Phil, Bryson, Ian Poulter, DJ and Patrick Reed.
I think you need heros and villiains to make it interesting. The current PGA tour is too bland.
It is flat out unwatchable. And while I am sure the respective legal positions had a lot to do with this, I also think that PGA is beginning realize they need the guys they lost.
330 - with all due respect, I disagree. The PGA tour isn't in a spot where they need the players who left to join the LIV tour. The PGA tour looked at the dollars the Saudis offered to play a role in worldwide golf and asked - "You said Billion, not Million. Right?"
That could be the case. But American sports is so heavily influenced by foreign money that I never really cared about what LIV was doing. It has been completely selective outrage. For me personally the PGA fields are so relatively weak right now that it is hard to watch it so I am fine with this development.
Maybe I'm just ignorant, but which teams or leagues among the Big 4 are directly influenced by foreign money? I'm not aware of any foreign ownership of in the MLB/NFL/NHL/NBA in the same way that there is in the EPL or other European soccer leagues (basically, a money laundering/sportswashing operation)?
'89 - I think the EPL is the one global entity with the greatest following.
My view is - Some Americans follow the EPL, but - how many Europeans, South Americans, Asians, etc. - follow the NFL?
The US Sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL) - as much as I enjoy them - don't have the GLOBAL draw that soccer, especially EPL, does...
Right, I don't disagree. I was responding to the poster that said that U.S. sports is heavily influenced by foreign money. I'm just not aware of that in the same sense as Russian oligarchs or Gulf wealth funds owning European teams.
Joe Tsai owns the New Jersey Nets.