Whatever prospects LIV Golf defector Sergio García might have held as a player or, more likely, future captain with Europe’s Ryder Cup team appear to have vanished in the wake of his latest antics.
García was fined an undisclosed amount by the DP World Tour for his withdrawal after posting a first-round 76 last month at the BMW PGA Championship, which was delayed because of the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, the tour confirmed to Golf Digest. García was photographed two days later on the sideline at a football game at the University of Texas, his wife’s alma mater.
Since signing with the Saudi-funded rival tour this year, García has disparaged the PGA and DP World tours. By opting to play in LIV Golf’s recent tournaments in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and skipping two DP World Tour events on his native Iberian Peninsula, García, 42, won’t meet DP World Tour membership criteria. Thus, he will be ineligible to contend for a spot on the 2023 team, and the odds are growing longer for a once-certain future captaincy.
García compiled a 25-13-7 in 10 Ryder Cup appearances and holds the match record for most points, with 28½. READ MORE
It’s all a matter of perspective, of course, but from Phil Mickelson’s vantage point, the future of the golf world is taking shape. And, in Mickelson’s world, that focus should be on LIV Golf more than the PGA Tour.
“I think going forward, you have to pick a side,” Mickelson said last week before the LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. “You have to pick what side you think is going to be successful. And I firmly believe that I’m on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf.
“We play against the best players in the world on LIV, and there are a lot of the best players in the world on the PGA Tour. Until both sides sit down and have a conversation and work something out, both sides are going to continue to change and evolve. And I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards, and I love the side that I’m on.”
LIV Golf, led by Australia’s Cameron Smith, the No. 2 player in the world and the reigning Open champion, has 12 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. The PGA Tour has 19 of the top 20. LIV Golf, which features 48-man fields in 54-hole events competing for $25 million purses, does not meet the criteria for OWGR points, so its players have been dropping in the world order.
Mickelson was one of LIV Golf’s early signings for the inaugural 2022 season, lured by a reported $200 million guarantee. He won the 2021 PGA Championship, his sixth major championship and 45th career victory on the PGA Tour, just a month shy of his 51st birthday. Since jumping to the rival tour, Mickelson and the other defectors have been indefinitely suspended by the PGA Tour. LIV Golf members can compete on the DP World Tour pending the outcome of a legal decision in the U.K. that is expected early next year. In the meantime, LIV Golf has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. READ MORE
FirePitCollective.com rebutted the contention by Phil Mickelson last week before LIV Golf’s event in Saudi Arabia that he “never did an interview” with Alan Shipnuck, whose report on Mickelson’s views of the Saudis as “scary mother-------” shook the golf world. READ MORE
American Dustin Johnson locked up the season title in LIV Golf’s inaugural year, securing an $18 million bonus for his place atop the 2022 standings. Despite not having won in six starts, Johnson earned $12.758 million entering last week’s tournament in Saudi Arabia. With the bonus, he surged past $30 million in season earnings with LIV Golf. In 307 tournaments spanning 15 seasons on the PGA Tour, Johnson made $74,897,059 as a 24-time winner. READ MORE
LIV Golf is considering a 36-hole cut as the rival tour seeks to meet Official World Golf Ranking standards, but there’s a catch: it would affect only three players. Eugenio López-Chacarra, the Spaniard who recently left Oklahoma State and won LIV’s Thailand tournament on Oct. 9, said in a Spanish-language interview with Hugo Costa that the proposed cut before the third and final round would trim the field from 48 to 45 players, with the three casualties still being eligible to participate in the team competition on the final day.
LIV Golf has retained McKenna & Associates of Arlington, Virginia, as management consultants to help promote the rival tour’s agenda to U.S. lawmakers, Politico reported. READ MORE
TAP-INS
A movie about the life of John Daly is in the works, according to a published report. Actor Jonah Hill will portray golf’s bad boy in the biopic, Above The Line reported. READ MORE
The city of Austin, Texas, is investigating a potential zoning-code violation after photos surfaced of topless women passing out alcohol at Avery Ranch Golf Club during a tournament earlier this month run by the Yellow Rose adult entertainment club, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The event sparked outrage from parents of Vista Ridge High School’s golf team, which held practice at the course during the event. READ MORE
For one week, at least, the PGA Tour’s fall schedule will feature most of the game’s top stars. Fifteen of the top 20 players in the world ranking, led by No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and defending champion Rory McIlroy, highlight the field for this week’s CJ Cup in South Carolina, which begins Thursday at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland. World No. 3 McIlroy has not competed on the PGA Tour since he won the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup titles in August. In three recent starts on the DP World Tour, he has finished among the top four. READ MORE
The International Crown tournament will return to the LPGA schedule next year, the tour announced. The Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown, a biennial match-play tournament of teams from eight countries, will be played May 4-7, 2023, at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. Three editions of the International Crown were played from 2014 to 2018 before the 2020 event was canceled because of COVID. READ MORE
Puttshack, an upscale, high-technology mini-golf venture, has acquired $150 million in funding to support real-estate acquisitions for expansion, the company announced. The capital infusion was led by BlackRock and Promethean Investments. Puttshack, launched in 2018 by Topgolf’s co-founders, brothers Steven and David Jolliffe, operates two sites in the U.S. and four in England, with 11 more U.S. openings projected by the end of 2023. READ MORE
The European Tour group became the first professional golf tour to commit to net zero carbon emissions as it signed the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework. The group, which consists of the DP World Tour, Challenge Tour and Legends Tour, vowed to achieve the emissions target by 2040. READ MORE
Seven members of the Ukrainian Golf Federation’s development program who had been scattered across Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of their homeland visited St. Andrews, Scotland, to participate in a special high-performance golf camp, the R&A announced. The Project Ukraine golf camp was organized by women in the golf industry who are part of the R&A’s Women in Golf Leadership Development Program. READ MORE
Stockton (California) Golf and Country Club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after failing to renegotiate repayment of a $7.8 million loan from the Bank of Stockton, The Record newspaper reported. The club had been up for auction, which was halted by the filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of California. The club, which dates to 1914, took out a $7.8 million loan to build a 44,000-square-foot clubhouse, which opened in 2006. READ MORE
The USGA marked its 25-year association with The First Tee by awarding 25 chapters of the youth-development program with grants totaling $325,000. READ MORE
Staff and Wire Reports