The PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger has left everyone in shock.
The ramifications of what will be a super-league that’s for profit are still being figured out. The players involved may not have even known this was happening. And golf fans? Well, they’re out here making The Office jokes and wondering just how awkward it’ll be between Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson.
Yes, it’s a lot. And it’s only going to get weirder.
So as we buckle up and get ready for the fallout from all this, it’s time to talk winners and losers.
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Let’s run down who’s winning here and who’s not:
Winners: LIV Golf and its golfers
Hey, are you a LIV Golf member who took a huge payday to leave the PGA Tour? Are you an upstart golf league that wasn’t getting watched much but was making enough waves to disrupt the norm?
Congratulations. You are rich today.
Winner: The PGA Tour
Only in the sense that it felt like the tour was about to collapse under the weight of its changing rules to get more star power in and out every week, along with the threat of more golfers taking the money from LIV for an easier schedule and more guaranteed income.
Speaking of money …
Winner: Money
There was so much talk about sportswashing and the Saudis funding LIV and what that meant.
But take it from Succession. As Logan Roy said so perfectly: “Money wins.”
PGA tour to merge with LIV golf, the Saudi/PIF backed group that paid huge money to top golfers and the one that Rory and Tiger rejected. pic.twitter.com/KL4Mlf7nfG
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) June 6, 2023
How sad.
Losers: PGA Tour golfers
Imagine waking up to find this out. And imagine if you were weighing getting paid by LIV, declining, and finding this out:
Reaction from Sahith Theegala. Players just in absolute shock. pic.twitter.com/E8rCLvOtCi
— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) June 6, 2023
How do you think Rickie Fowler feels right now? He turned down a $75 million LIV offer. Top players on LIV are ecstatic: they got huge upfront $ and their franchise values just skyrocketed. Tour players can still cash in as LIV will be recruiting again but the gold rush is over.
— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) June 6, 2023
Losers: Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods
This:
Tiger and Rory saved Jay's job by backing him and his plan to keep players with the PGA Tour.
He just stabbed both of them and the players in the back.— Ron Mintz (@MintzGolf) June 6, 2023
Although I’ve seen this speculation on Twitter:
Can I get some way-too-early odds on Tiger and Rory starting their own breakaway golf league?
— Ty Hildenbrandt (@tyhildenbrandt) June 6, 2023
Loser: Jay Monahan
Sure, he gets to win a lot of money and saved the PGA Tour in some fashion. But he’s got a boatload of furious players who he has to face and fans calling him out for serious hypocrisy:
I don't know how any player who turned down LIV money and stayed with the PGA could believe anything Jay Monahan says ever again. He made them take every arrow, hid in an office for a year, then double crossed them on CNBC.
Better get them paid, I guess.
— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) June 6, 2023
Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA TOUR, using 9/11 to shame players last year for taking life changing money from LIV…
Now, he has no problem with the money and merges LIV Golf with the PGA. Disgusting.pic.twitter.com/CUhIodZIpi
— Stephen Geiger (@Stephen_Geiger) June 6, 2023
TBD: The sport of golf
Are we going to see a change in the way the game is played with this merger? No more or fewer cuts? Fewer tournaments? No more or fewer four-day events? More guaranteed payouts?
And how will that change the way the game is played? We’ll see when we learn more details.
