I find myself in the same camp as those who expressed disinterest in the week-to-week PGA Tour and will pay attention when the majors come around (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP).
I have said from the beginning of this LIV business that golf is still a niche sport that sold the professional tours to advertisers on the story that its small audience was a very well-heeled slice of society.
At some point, golfers started to think they should command Shohei Ohtani or Lamar Jackson money. It’s ludicrous and demonstrates a total ignorance of the economics of sports. However, the Saudis have thrown a wrench in economics by their willingness to spend, with no thought about a bottom line or a return on investment.
I am old enough to remember baseball’s Curt Flood and what free agency did for athletes, turning the three major sports in this country into revenue-sharing arrangements between management and labor.
Will golf now become a global free agent free-for-all?
Perhaps a younger generation will warm to team golf, music, and myriad online gambling options.
I will continue to enjoy the game, which has provided pleasure and challenge to people for about five centuries.
Al Jamieson
Burlingame, California
I am a 76-year-old left-handed golfer who is able to play 4-5 times per week and also still enjoys competitive golf. I have watched maybe a total of 11 holes of LIV Golf – six holes watched at one time and the remaining five holes divided into two sessions. I do not like the team concept in any way shape or form. I love the Ryder Cup but dislike the Presidents Cup. I am a PGA Tour backer to the core. The PGA Tour has been a strong supporter of developmental tours helping to provide a place for professional golfers to hone their skills and move up the professional golf food chain to hopefully get to the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is also a strong charitable giver to the local communities where their sponsored professional events take place (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP).
I just detest any organization that lets another organization have the expense of doing all the development of players. Once this has been accomplished, then (they) just take the best of the cream, having done nothing to develop that cream. Due to LIV, I am expecting the PGA Tour to walk back some, if not walk away, from having charitable giving being a priority. LIV at this time definitely does not have charitable giving in the community as being a primary concern. LIV is making charitable contributions but not having the impact that the PGA Tour is having, as I understand.
I cannot understand some of the upper-echelon PGA Tour players saying they deserve more money along the lines of professional football, basketball, hockey and baseball players. First thing is, professional golfers do not have the TV viewership that these sports have by any stretch of the imagination. They don’t draw the live crowds that professional football players draw at each of their events. These PGA Tour players ignore they have the best retirement plan in any professional sport by a significant margin, but these players overlook that. They probably overlook it because even those PGA professionals that are not the elite can build an excellent retirement if they are able to make cuts and remain on the PGA Tour for a decent amount of years.
I dislike the talking points (of) the majority of tour pros who went to LIV stating they went to further the game of golf. They went for the money and nothing else, so just say it. Many of us amateur golfers would have done the same thing for that kind of payday. Just say, “It was for the money.” A few did, but very few did so.
Jim Mason
Freeport, Florida
I could not agree more with Jim Nugent that the excessive greed shown by the PGA Tour players and the resultant demands being placed on tournament sponsors is ruining the game (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP). Add to that the arrogance and total lack of appreciation of the players on the men’s tour and, frankly, I have zero interest in watching men’s professional golf any longer.
Here’s some supporting data: Last year, I paid my $250 (I think that was the amount) volunteer fee to be a marshal at the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. On Saturday of the tournament, it rained for most of the day. Brooks Koepka, in one of the final groups that day, hit his tee ball left of the 10th fairway and just outside of the ropes, nearly hitting a spectator. I was the marshal in that area, and by the time Koepka and his caddie got to the ball, I had moved the spectators back, marked the stake holes and removed the stakes and roping so there would be no obstructions for his next shot. Koepka’s caddie arrived first, and I asked him to let me know what else they needed. Koepka then arrived and got a favorable ruling (my opinion) from a rules official for a drop, allowing him to move his ball back toward the fairway, but still in the rough. Never once did he ask if everyone was OK from his errant shot, and never once did he or his caddie offer a “thanks” for locating his ball and clearing the spectators and the ropes for his next shot.
In contrast, in 2022, I attended the Women’s PGA at Congressional. One of the ladies, Allison Emrey, whom we followed on Thursday, made it a point to say “thank you” to every volunteer she walked near during the course of her round. This was refreshing, though no surprise to me as I’d met Allison a few times at an Epson Tour event I helped to run (Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic). But, Allison wasn’t the only player whom I noticed expressing her appreciation for the volunteers.
So, for me, my support of the professional game will be limited to the LPGA and Epson Tour events going forward.
Chuck Goodykoontz
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Money has ruined college football, too. And to top it off, a high school quarterback getting $1 million in NIL!
The PGA Tour had to raise purses in order to compete with LIV in hopes of keeping their best players from defecting and then ran out of money needed to sue LIV. Hence the merger (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP).
One would think that the PGA Tour could now reduce purses without future significant defections. LIV can handle only so many, right?
I echo the sentiment of club players. In 2023, I watched only the majors and some of the end-of-the-year championship events, including the seniors.
Jon Haas
Orange Park, Florida
Jim Nugent actually nailed it in his column (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP).
As a faithful PGA tour backer and follower, I see Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson with their new statements saying everything. I guess they all started realizing that it is the fans that ultimately pay their salaries.
I, too, will watch only the majors and the senior-tour boys as they are still truthful and sportsmen.
Michael O'Leary
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
I enjoyed Jim Nugent’s article (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP). However, I believe everyone is in for even bigger shocks from deserters this year: PGA Tour players and sponsors as well as fans.
In past years, we went to PGA Tour and LPGA events whenever they were in the area. I’m done. It’s too expensive and too much trouble just to see the golfers whom I want to see from a good vantage point.
I watched the tournament from Kapalua last weekend. “Too many ads,” was my wife’s comment on Saturday. But we didn’t know the network was front-end loading to allow for an “ad free” last hour on Sunday. Ad free? There were six breaks for Callaway Chrome. (Thank God no more Titleist.) How is that ad free?
We went to a LIV event this past summer and had a blast. Sat in an event tent having drinks and snacks and sat watching “golf with an attitude.” LOL. My 30-year-old son who’s not a golfer was even into it.
LIV is golf for my son’s generation. Music, merchandise, teams (betting coming).
I see three, maybe four other golfers jumping to LIV this year. I’m sure Greg Norman has noticed the huge Asian crowd following Tom Kim, Sungjae Im and Byeong Hun An.
I know there are talks with Japan for a venue, so it only makes sense to stock your pond with the right fish.
Peter Hansen
Perkasie, Pennsylvania
A fine article and commentary (“‘The most turbulent times in golf,’” January 8 GGP).
Here in Pebble Beach, with the “BS” of the new AT&T format, I write as a resident that the natives, er, pensioners and high school volunteers, are restless. Indeed, they have to pay for their costumes, are barely fed, and often endure complex travel issues during tournament week. They are certainly not interested in subsidizing a $3.6 million payout to a single-minded winner of questionable personal integrity … one who has no interest in the Monterey Peninsula. (Twelve in the field at the moment have never played Pebble Beach.)
Rake a bunker for a week, in compromising weather so “he” can collect $3.6 million, more than they will ever see in their business lifetimes? Nada.
John Peter Hagen
Pebble Beach, California
(Hagen is the author of “Play Away Please.”)
I always enjoy Ron Green’s columns, and based on the content, I consistently share his views on the game. In his recent column (“Finding common ground in golf’s uncivil war,” January 8 GGP), however, I sense the same attitude of resignation I am seeing in Rory McIlroy, Mackenzie Hughes and others on the PGA Tour side of the LIV debate, including the tours and others in golf’s establishment.
Vast amounts of money have not only encouraged several top-tier players to jump to LIV, but more troubling is its effect on many who have remained loyal to the PGA Tour, not to mention a softening of opposition by the PGA Tour itself and others in the golf establishment. Saudi Arabia is buying up U.S. assets, which is neither good for golf nor for America, nor is it inevitable. It is only inevitable if those in positions of power say, OK, you win. We will accept your horrific human-rights record and your totalitarian ways. We will just look the other way and point to that big pile of money you are promising. We also realize that even if we make you a minority partner, you will throw your weight around behind the scenes and get whatever you want. But we are also resigned to the fact that you will continue to recruit our players and diminish our tours if we don’t capitulate. So, how much are you willing to invest?
This makes me sad. Over this past year, I have watched less and less televised golf. There are other factors such as pace of play and the stunning number of commercials, but the overriding reason is that when I look at players now and know that what they really care about is money, and not the same love of the game that prompts me to play and watch it being played, I can’t enjoy watching it anymore.
Money is being defended as a reason for decisions, either as a motivating factor, or as a reason to fear Saudi Arabia as a threat to the game if we don’t capitulate. Neither is a good reason. We should be fighting for what we believe in, and for me that is golf’s legacy, history, and traditions, not how much money someone can use in a battle against the game’s legacy, nor how much someone receives for winning a tournament. We are in an existential fight over those priceless things, and we are giving up the fight.
Golf will never be the same because regardless of what is written in any agreements that are ultimately signed, it is that old saying, “He who owns the gold makes the rules,” that wins the day.
Ron Garland
Prescott Valley, Arizona
(Garland is the founder of the Golf Nut Society.)
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