One, Reed isn't that popular. He's a name, probably for some of the wrong reasons. I don't think the PGA Tour is sad to see him bolt either. He and his wife and her family have been a real headache for them. Golf Digest has a story on Reed and the issues he's caused. He complains about a ton of things, as does his wife. The tour actually have the wife a direct contact in their office because she called to complain so many times that they were tired of her just randomly dressing down people for apparent slights.
OT: Phil Mickelson
- Thread starter Knightmoves
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One, Reed isn't that popular. He's a name, probably for some of the wrong reasons. I don't think the PGA Tour is sad to see him bolt either. He and his wife and her family have been a real headache for them. Golf Digest has a story on Reed and the issues he's caused. He complains about a ton of things, as does his wife. The tour actually have the wife a direct contact in their office because she called to complain so many times that they were tired of her just randomly dressing down people for apparent slights.
DeChambeau is absolutely not a surprise. Neither is Reed. Fowler? Not really. He's incredibly popular with fans and other tour players but criticism of him over the years is he focuses too much on his brand and making money through sponsorships than playing great golf. So him grabbing the LIV money wouldn't be a stunner. Wolff is another for other reasons. He's dealt with a lot of mental issues he's been open about. A short LIV season (and maybe less pressure) might actually appeal to him.
again, golf channel called Bryson leaving a surprise, especially considering just a month ago he reaffirmed his commitment to the tour. Agree to disagree.
I watched some of it streaming. Crowds were weak, it wasn't a great production. The field was pretty weak too. I am sure it will get better as they host more tournaments but for this to be a success, they have to pull other top players. DJ, Reed, DeChambeau, Phil........... that ain't enough.
The other thing I wonder is how long until the Saudis wants some form of return on their investment here? Are they just going to flush millions down the toilet to paying the players to join their tour AND THEN pay massive purses? At some point, this has to be a money making venture for them. That means better sponsorships, better TV options, bigger crowds, merchandising, etc. But if they can't start pulling other stars to make their fields better, I struggle to see how this works out for them long term.
I mean if you could watch LIV with just DJ and Phil or watch a PGA event with JT, Speith, Scheffler, Schauffle, McIlroy, maybe Tiger, etc......... which would you watch? It's a no brainer at this point until LIV starts pulling some other big names.
The other thing I wonder is how long until the Saudis wants some form of return on their investment here? Are they just going to flush millions down the toilet to paying the players to join their tour AND THEN pay massive purses? At some point, this has to be a money making venture for them. That means better sponsorships, better TV options, bigger crowds, merchandising, etc. But if they can't start pulling other stars to make their fields better, I struggle to see how this works out for them long term.
I mean if you could watch LIV with just DJ and Phil or watch a PGA event with JT, Speith, Scheffler, Schauffle, McIlroy, maybe Tiger, etc......... which would you watch? It's a no brainer at this point until LIV starts pulling some other big names.
Golf Channel can say whatever they want. The fact they believed DeChambeau was their mistake. Most people never believed DeChambeau was not going to entertain this. He's also a another that I think the PGA Tour isn't exactly crying over leaving. He's been kind of a headache for them as well.
Now if they can peel off a Thomas or a Speith or a Scheffler or even Koepka, then I think you are going to start to see a bit of real sweating from the PGA Tour office.
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Agree, the Tour ain’t losing sleep over him leaving. That’s a whole nother debate
Bryson going to LIV from back in Feb.
bubba rumors from 2 months ago.
And Matthew Wolff is not a shock. He suffers from mental health issues and has talked publicly about the stress of the grind.
here is what everyone misses with respect to LIV. In any given week if 10 of the 120 entrants play competitively on the pga tour it makes for great TV, and there are always new youngsters waiting in the wings to break through and become a new star.
with LIV they just don’t have the numbers. Look at the leaderboard where 18 of 48 were 15 shots back and really only 4-6 in contention. This is kinda boring golf.
the RBC is a perfect example. 2 guys had a legit shot at 59 and late on Sunday it’s a great match with 3-4 guys grinding to the finish.
LIV is nothing more that a traveling carnival at this point.
the thing is..there’s rarely any PGA events the 6 of the guys mentioned will all play. That’s what hurts the PGA. You never know when the top golfers will be in a field or who
they’ll be up against.
Let alone the ones they all do play, will they even be in contention on Sunday to watch…
ok but please don’t say because I’m shocked I “don’t follow golf”. Plenty of people who follow golf professionally were shocked, as I linked.
it’s the first event. Lol. Give it time. This has been a dream Tourny for the PGA.awesome final pairing (or threesome) on Sunday.
but a pairing like this on Sunday is certainly not the norm in the PGA
If it’s true that the Saudis are Sportswashing with LIV Golf then I’ll bet that they have set aside 3-5 years of investment in this. That would be very costly for the PGA Tour imo.
When your competitor gives Pat Perez a $10M signing bonus it’s safe to assume that they have more to invest in signing your players.
They talked about it on WFAN's Sunday morning golf show. Forgot the name of the host.
The greats only play all the other greats 4 times a year. And perhaps the Players. That is really all that matters.
I doubt Bruce would. Even though his brother is already in it. The rest who cares?
correct. But if all the geats were in LIV..would be much more frequent. Which is why in a way I’d love to see LIV poach the top golfers
It was their first event. You need to give it time. Saudis will definitely give it a couple years if not more.
Is the LIV Tour going to have an event in China.?
Does Phil do business with a Chinese company?
Might as well add a Chinese involvement to what this thread is about if China is going to be involved in this thread.
Yes I know you're replying to someone who talked about his business and the Saudis,
but making China an issue is just hijacking the Phil and LIV talk .
There will be pressure put on people to ignore the LIV tour and make Phil look evil, but
I doubt that will succeed because I don't believe there are enough people that feel strongly enough against Saudi Arabia to make that pressure effective.
As for China, is LIV Tour apparel or equipment made there that could be an issue used against the LIV Tour..
As we're at it , how many posting in this thread can say they don't own one thing that was made in Commie China.
So let's stick with Phil and the LIV tour and let the China connection be put in a thread that won't hijack it's intended discussion
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And Rory took all that UAE resort money for years to ditch them for Nike. Rory should keep his mouth shut.
Good reason for him to stay PGA ,don't need Saudi bucks to survive.
Found this list from 2021.
Full list of Nike sponsored Golfers:
Nike’s current line up is a select elite of Tour Golfers ranging from multiple major champions such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Suzann Petterson to upcoming stars such as Matt Wolff, Lucas Bjerregaard and Sam Horsfield.- Tiger Woods
- Rory McIlroy
- Jason Day
- Thomas Pieters
- Paul Casey
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Ross Fisher
- Sam Horsfield
- Tom Lewis
- Chris Wood
- Alexander Levy
- Romain Wattel
- Shubhankar Sharma
- Suzann Pettersen
- Francesco Molinari
- Lucas Bjerregaard
- Thorbjørn Olesen
- Dylan Frittelli
- Alex Norén
- Marcus Kinhult
- Tony Finau
- Russell Henley
- Brooks Koepka
- Julian Suri
- Nick Watney
- Matthew Wolff
- Jhonattan Vegas
- Michelle Wie
edit to add: I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the sponsors ditching LIV Tour players now go back to sponsoring them if the LIV Tour proves successful.and the players name recognition makes it a good business move
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do you have China made products in your closet??
Hope not if you feel Nike shouldn't endorse any athlete.
Seems like most of the apparel business had it's products made by those Commies.
Being against one scumbag state doesn't make the other scum better.
I have no love for those commies, but know even those that hate them wear made in China apparel.
Even if because they didn't look at the made in ( country) label when product was bought.
It was made by the commies and if not thrown out, can't cry over a company that's product is made there giving an athlete bucks to push their product because you bought products made in China
If someone refuses to buy Chinesse made products or gives them away after mistakenly buying one, kudos to that person.
I can't knock those who are sponsored by Nike and act like taking Saudi money is better.
I'll just try and talk about how I feel side issues won't hurt the LIV Tour's chances for sucess because there are too many who don't care about the side issues.
Just like most people don't care who sponsors their favorite golfer (Nike or anyone else) , they just want that golfer to win and side issues be dammed.
As it looks, China is part of the discussion now and I helped make it a part of this thread.
Rahm was on #9. I was wrong about Finau and Morikawa. but was right that DJ is not top 5 fan favorite and that JT and Speith are ahead of him.
The dig was more likely do to Norman acting like a baby calling McIlroy "brainwashed" because he wasn't jumping to LIV. Norman is as much a douche here as the PGA Tour Prez.
What I find interesting is the feeling some here have of hoping the PGA Tour gets blown up and all the good players bolt for the LIV Tour. Why? Why do you care so much about the PGA Tour getting it in the kiester and the LIV Tour succeeding?
It is weird.
On the other hand the success of Liv is squarely in the world rankings, DT tour and Majors hands now.
one guess, is it in the best interest of those three orgs that the PGA tour is successful or LIV is successful. These guys are like bowl game commissioners. They have high paying do nothing jobs. They are not giving that up for Greg Norman.
I don’t think that is it. If the players want to do both, why not let them. As long as they meet their commitment to the PGA and LIV tours, what is the issue? I see PGA tour players on Euro tour all the time. PGA and Euro have an agreement. I assume they could have one here as well. Just seems like the PGA tour is being difficult.