Long live real golf
Bemoaning the never-ending LIV saga, plus a take on the 4 Nations Face-Off
Watching Torrey Pines on Sunday was a nice way to decompress after the Canada-U.S. fisticuffs on Saturday night.
And Torrey provided its own drama down the stretch, with Ludvig Aberg surging over the back nine to win his first tournament of the year. We’ve now had seven winners from seven different countries this year — good stuff.
Meanwhile, in Australia…
The leading edge
By Nate
It’s been three years since LIV fractured professional golf and it still pisses me off.
In that time frame, I’ve watched over 3,000 hours (maybe more?) of YouTube golf and PGA Tour combined. (I might have a problem). I’ve also caught maybe a single hour of LIV.
At their biggest event of the year, LIV Adelaide, newly hired CEO Scott O’Neil immediately bought into the delusions of the golf ‘disruptor.’
“You don’t have to look to far past our leaderboard to know that outside of majors, if you want to see the best players in the world, there’s only one place to see it, and that’s at LIV,” O’Neil said.
LIV fanboys eat this up like Thanksgiving dinner, but the truth is that it’s all la-la land. The persistent lack of self-awareness and inauthenticity stemming from executives and funnelling down to pseudo-fans almost has me wishing a merger never happens.
As it stands, LIV currently has 5 of the top 50 in Data Golf rankings. Don’t try to tell me Joaquín Niemann beating Richard Bland and David Puig is more impressive than Ludvig Åberg winning over Scottie Scheffler.
But yes, I get it. It would be nice to see Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau back on the PGA Tour.
And then you try to justify LIV by viewership numbers and business success and you’re left in the same dark place.
Per
, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund investment in golf will reach $5 billion by the end of the year. Billion!!! In 2023, they operated at a loss of $395 million. This isn’t some growth-at-all-costs big tech strategy, it’s ultimately just an epic failure and waste of money. Of course, that’s assuming the Saudi’s want to successfully grow the game and not just sports-wash North America to create strong foreign affairs. As far as viewership numbers go, the first round of LIV Adelaide reached 114,000 — a significant increase from Week 1, yet a jarringly poor result.Hold your horses, though. Up in the broadcast booth at Torrey, Tiger Woods noted he expects the golf world to “heal quickly.” How and when that manifests? We have no clue. But if it means I don’t need to hear about how great and transformative LIV golf is, I’m in.
Let’s get this show on the road. Long LIV live real golf.
The false front
By Myles
The 4 Nations Face-Off = the Presidents Cup. Granted, we didn’t get to see Taylor Pendrith and Wyndham Clark drop the gloves last year at Royal Montreal. But the events have a lot of the same energy: kinda contrived yet the players seem to give a shit.
And while I’m betting that Canada and the U.S. would split most of the 4 Nations titles if the event happened every other year, Sweden and Finland could play the role of the hard-luck International Team.
Mostly, the 4 Nations is fun — but it also feels like a warmup for the real thing, which is next February’s Olympics, now less than one year away. And my fear is that the Canadians have made many of the same mistakes the Americans make at the P Cup. Mainly, they left a lot of their young stars (Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini, et al) at home in favour of vets who are ingrained in the Hockey Canada Ol’ Boys Club. And sure, they may still win the 4 Nations and Olympic gold, but it does feel like that kind of management could eventually catch up to them.
To Nate’s point above — golf fans are well aware of the importance of international competition. Amid the splintering of pro golf, the Ryder Cup and P Cup have risen in stakes and drama.
It’s nice to have international hockey back in our lives now, too.
Links roundup
Favourite watch: Spittin’ Chiclets takes on Bob Does Sports in a YouTube match filled to the brim with chirps, shanks and birdie juice
Favourite moment: Åberg drained a hole-in-one en route to his second PGA Tour victory
Justin Thomas chipped in to force OT and did a somersault — in separate matches. Tommy Fleetwood jarred one in overtime. Is TGL fun again?
Swing thoughts
By Myles and Nate
Breaking 🚨: too many swing thoughts is not good.
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Your voices work so well together! Really liked this one.
Great article. Im also anti-LIV. I think there are ways we can improve golf’s watchability than fracturing the experience for everyone.