After three LIV Golf gamers completed within the high six eventually month’s Masters, few will write off the Saudi-backed circuit’s probabilities to supply a PGA Championship winner.
Elite golf’s civil warfare will get its second showdown of the 12 months beginning Thursday at Oak Hill, the place the perfect gamers from the US PGA Tour and LIV Golf League battle for bragging rights and a significant title.
Rich offers from the Saudi-supported breakaway group lured a number of high stars from the PGA Tour, which then banned LIV gamers from its occasions. Lawsuits adopted however the courtroom battle is not less than a 12 months away.
In the meantime, the 4 main tournaments have saved their entry guidelines and function the crucible for such LIV stars as reigning British Open champion Cam Smith of Australia to face high PGA expertise like Masters champion Jon Rahm of Spain.
Phil Mickelson, who received the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island to grow to be the oldest main winner at age 50, skipped final 12 months’s PGA after vital feedback about LIV’s Saudi backers had been made public.
The six-time main champion is again this week after sharing second within the Masters with fellow LIV Golfer Brooks Koepka, assured the upstart gamers have made their level.
“There are players from all over the world on many different tours and you’re bringing the best to play against each other in the majors,” Mickelson mentioned. “That’s what the game of golf should be.”
Or as LIV’s Harold Varner put it concerning the breakaway crowd: “I guess they don’t suck.”
Masters followers and PGA gamers welcomed LIV gamers at Augusta National, setting apart harsh phrases in some circumstances to deal with golf.
“It was good for the fans to see that we still communicate, still play together, still practice together, do everything the exact same,” four-time main winner Koepka mentioned. “And nobody really had any negative thing to say. We’re still the same people.”
So far no LIV participant has received a significant since becoming a member of the circuit though the LIV contingent on the PGA Championship has amassed 17 majors amongst them through the years.
There can be 18 LIV gamers on the PGA Championship. But with LIV occasions not receiving world rating factors and majors utilizing world rankings in deciding berths, future spots for LIV expertise may depend upon doing properly on the majors.
“If the majors continue to have that as their ranking system, then they are biting it quite heavily,” mentioned LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau. “It’s disappointing that somebody takes such a hard stance.”
“If these tournaments are the best in the world, you’ve got to have the best (players),” two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson of LIV mentioned. “To keep them out or to make them lose world ranking points is not the right way to go.”
Can PGA, LIV co-exist?
With music at occasions and golf blended in with different leisure, LIV presents a brand new vibe in comparison with the extra structured PGA Tour and hopes to co-exist.
“It’s a different product but it’s definitely really cool,” Mexican LIV participant Abraham Ancer mentioned. “I don’t feel like you need to pick sides. You just have another option to watch golf.”
The PGA Tour has created designated occasions with large purses and restricted fields to rival what LIV supplied, and Australia’s Jason Day mentioned the adjustments have helped everybody.
“A lot of the decisions we’ve made, there has been a reaction to what LIV has brought to the table,” Day mentioned.
“To be honest, I think everyone’s better for it. We’re playing for more money on both sides. What’s more sustainable, I’m not sure, but I’m looking at the picture right now and it feels pretty good.”
Watson sees rising the game as a win for each excursions.
“It’s about all of us coming together… and watch the game of golf grow to a place it has never been before,” Watson mentioned.
“Not as fast as some people want and not as nice as some people want, but I think we’re in the right spot and 10 years from now, it will be a different conversation.”
Aussie LIV participant Marc Leishman in contrast LIV’s 54-hole occasions and PGA tournaments to one-day and Twenty20 cricket codecs, saying there’s room for each to entertain golf followers.
“I do hope there gets to a position where there’s resolution to this, because the game of golf doesn’t need to suffer,” mentioned LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman.
“It’s (the PGA Tour’s) choice of what they want to do and if they want to keep putting up road blocks, we’re not going to go anywhere.”