NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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We were wondering when a club manufacturer would make a meaningful statement about LIV Golf.
This past week, it finally happened.
According to founder Bob Parsons, PXG has opted not to renew the deals of several players who left for the breakaway circuit. The company’s website has removed Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, Hudson Swafford and Cameron Tringale, all of whom moved on to LIV while under contract with the brand.
That leaves PXG with not a single staff member inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking. The top of its stable now reads Joel Dahmen, Luke List, Zach Johnson and Eric Cole.
“We’ve had some guys that had contracts that went on that tour, and I honored the contracts,” Parsons said in an interview with Esquire. “But now that the contracts are up, I have no contract with them, and I don’t think they can contract with sponsors with the LIV tour, at least. I don’t know. I could be speaking out of school, but if I had an opportunity to (sign them again), I wouldn’t do it.”
Parsons, who served in Vietnam as a rifleman in the U.S. Marine Corps, cited Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks as one of his reasons for not wanting to do business with LIV players.
“I just cannot bring myself to do anything with (LIV), and the guys who are heroes (in the military), they all agree with that,” Parsons said.
This is the first manufacturer to oppose LIV publicly. Some in the industry believe other companies will follow a similar tack of letting most player contracts expire without renewal.
Although moral reasons for doing so could be involved, sponsoring LIV players can also be less attractive from a business standpoint.
Most players are required to wear team gear during LIV competitions; some of them also have to wear team apparel in non-LIV tournaments. In LIV events, that apparel extends to team golf bags as well. (It doesn’t appear that players are required to use team bags in non-LIV events, based on the staff bags used at the Masters.)
That means some LIV players don’t have the same valuable sponsorship space PGA Tour players have, a factor that could dissuade companies from continuing certain partnerships.
Rules are not the same for all LIV players, however. Cameron Smith (Titleist), Dustin Johnson (TaylorMade), Joaquín Niemann (Adidas) and Brooks Koepka (Nike) are among competitors who don the logo of a manufacturer or apparel company on their hat during LIV competitions rather than wearing a team hat.
To highlight the nuances with contracts, consider that Niemann and Koepka wore no team logo of any kind during competition days at the Masters, but Smith and Johnson did. In his pre-tournament press conference, Smith even noted he brought matching sets of golf shirts, one having the “Ripper GC” logo on the sleeve and the other set not having it. Johnson wore a “4 Aces” logo prominently on his chest, as did Reed, who was wearing multiple team logos each day. Phil Mickelson was in that category as well, given he had a “HyFlyers GC” logo on both his shirt and hat.
We’ve also noted some players wore manufacturer or apparel hats for LIV events last year but now are wearing team hats. Talor Gooch wore a Callaway hat in LIV events as recently as LIV Golf Tucson earlier this year, but he was wearing a “Range Goats” cap when he won two weeks ago in Adelaide, South Australia. He also had added a “Golf Saudi” logo to his shirt. Branden Grace was another who had a Callaway cap in LIV events last year but switched to a “Stinger GC” logo starting at LIV. Gooch and Grace are both still listed as staff members on the Callaway website.
The takeaway? Players have all sorts of different contract situations, and manufacturers and apparel companies could be looking at sponsoring LIV competitors on a player-by-player basis.
Sean Fairholm