OT: PGA and LIV Golf to merge….
- Thread starter mikemarc1
- Start date
The PGA Tour doesnt have to be broke if it changed its model....but it shouldnt have to change its model the PGA Tour supports many many things outside mens golf and raises alot of money for charity. How many golfers women & men and tours does does it support along with amateur events. None of these garbage ass players would not have the money & opportunities they have without the PGA supporting them all along their journey tonthe PGA Tour.
It does not have to change...because someone from a country that does not like Americans has enough money to buy players...all these garbage ass players have shown they can be bought by anyone. The great thing about golf or any other sports...todays stars are tomorrow's has beens. There's plenty of youth coming up to replace them
Huh? I certainly do not. There are more tournaments without the name players and a bunch of nobody's is winning tournaments because they suddenly became low level tournaments as the top must play in the signature event and pass on all the rest these days. Good For You watching!
I agree with what Bus says above but you lost me with PGA Tour supporting players. The Tour doesn’t support you unless you are good enough to be there. Part of the reason why some players took the LIV money.
I belivwe the PGA players are considered independent contractors but are banned from the tour if they appear in events unsanctioned by the PGA .
The players pick which PGA events they want t play in and can address the media without restriction , but can be punished for offensive statments
LIV players are considered employees and sigh contracts for a certain amount of years ( on an individual bases) with signing bonuses and the ability to earn more playing LIV events and LIV players are not permitted to make any appearances in the media, or grant any exclusive interviews, without obtaining prior approval from the LIV .
My opinion is the LIV signing bonuses were intended to pull players away from the PGA tour and force a merger.
The PGA found funding that kept from needing to merge and now it's a case of (which happens first) the LIV backers getting tired of funding their tour or the PGA not having the funds to continue to hold out.
Both have supporters claiming the other will give up first and no one really knows what will happen .
They'll just find faults and claim the ( LIV/PGA) isn't worth watching because of those faults.
I belive the PGA feels if it can last to 2026 the LIV won't want to pay outragious resigning bonuses to the player whose contracts need to be renewed ( those signed by the LIV for 4 years in 2022) and they will come back to the PGA.
The LIV is banking on the PGA to not be able to financaly keep up the fight and work out a deal before 2026
Are you referring to all the past their prime players? If so, I agree they are better off at LIV.
Guys like Brooks, BDC and Rahm are in their prime and took the funds. Then there are the guys you are referencing…guys past their prime that wanted a payday. However there are also young guys that took the guaranteed cash over supporting themselves on the PGA and KF tours. Can’t blame them for taking the $.
Has golf jumped the shark for non players?
Will it fall to boxing's level?
A look at some of my SPORT Magazines from the 50's shows much higher interest for both.
Then again,it's a much different USA.
Will it fall to boxing's level?
A look at some of my SPORT Magazines from the 50's shows much higher interest for both.
Then again,it's a much different USA.
The COVID boost is over. Golf will be ok. If country clubs start running specials again, we can start the speculation of the sport dying.
When you say the COVID boost is over, are you referring to rounds being played? There has been no letdown by me. Rounds are still hard to book and I play with a ton of people that only started playing during COVID. Seems like they are still into it. Country club demand has not gone down. The only thing that has gone down is viewership and interest of pro golf. But I think some of that is related to COVID and the fact people would rather play a round than watch it now. At least that is true for me and my buds.
The problem is no one gives a shit about the format. So they cant be the elevated event.
In part because they lost players. But those viewers didn’t flock to LIV, which has an anemic TV viewership. And streaming isn’t much better viewer wise.
People are just not watching golf.
It starts with TV, follow by rounds played. But it will still be a net positive. The growth is over.
You are 100% wrong that players, at least the top players get to choose when they play. The signature events are mandatory stops for for the top 50 IIRC. If you miss one you get a huge deduction from your year end bonus. Rory missed one event and lost $4 million. Meanwhile Tiger has been the highest bonus paid golfer missing a ton of events two years in a row. Wonder what he got this year?
As I said from day 1 the LIV was never after the PGA but the DP Tour and it's looking like they will succeed.
Of course they were after the PGA tour. Are the top players on the PGA or DP Tour?
PGA is going to lose more players. Maybe not from the top ten, but LIV is gutting the PGA of its good second-tier players. This hurts PGA events and the sport itself. Gotta make a deal and end this.
Other than the PGA Tour, this is a bit OT.
If you follow the Tour you know Chris Gotterup has struggled since winning the Myrtle Beach event, missing 7 of 11 cuts mostly because of poor driving.
Well today he did something you don't see a lot. On the 440yd, Par 4 4th, he drove the ball 408 yards straight down the middle, leaving him 70' from the pin. Unfortunately after a nice chip he missed a 5' Birdie putt.
The 2nd round has been suspended with him on the 5th hole. He's -1 with the cut currently bouncing back and forth between -2 and -3.
If you follow the Tour you know Chris Gotterup has struggled since winning the Myrtle Beach event, missing 7 of 11 cuts mostly because of poor driving.
Well today he did something you don't see a lot. On the 440yd, Par 4 4th, he drove the ball 408 yards straight down the middle, leaving him 70' from the pin. Unfortunately after a nice chip he missed a 5' Birdie putt.
The 2nd round has been suspended with him on the 5th hole. He's -1 with the cut currently bouncing back and forth between -2 and -3.
I've been thinking about this....LIV golf will never be successful in the states. It's more of a foreign player format. The majority of tourney's are overseas. What great US player is going to want to make the jump
1) No longer on TV
2) lots of worldwide travel
3) No network is going to give a TV contract with off peak tourneys
4) the US players they get are has beens
5) They can only bleed the Saudis for millions upon millions for so long
I do think they should do a Ryder Like tourney between PGA & LIV thoug
1) No longer on TV
2) lots of worldwide travel
3) No network is going to give a TV contract with off peak tourneys
4) the US players they get are has beens
5) They can only bleed the Saudis for millions upon millions for so long
I do think they should do a Ryder Like tourney between PGA & LIV thoug
Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are has beens??? Damn so stupid!
Viewership numbers for The Showdown would rank near the bottom of 'The Match' series
The viewership numbers for The Showdown are in, and they're not great.
www.yahoo.com
Confirms no one cares about big name exhibition matches.
I legitimately don’t care about anything other than the majors. There’s nothing the PGA Tour or LIV can do to change that. Have to imagine there’s a bunch of others in this boat.
Viewership numbers for The Showdown would rank near the bottom of 'The Match' series
The viewership numbers for The Showdown are in, and they're not great.
Confirms no one cares about big name exhibition matches.
Yes, because it’s more than just money. The majors don’t care how much star power you have. If your game is not on point, you don’t make the cut. Some of the majors, anyone can qualify and win.
Soooooo I am so anti LIV but was thumbing thru channels and popped on LIV on FOX. Had it on for 15 minutes saw 1 or 2 live putts and no live shots. What a shitshow there is ZERO chance I would ever watch that horror show again. Watching dudes playing in shorts is so anti-pro golf to me. It is what it is exhibition golf. All the PGA has to do is wait it out LIV is not bleeding money it is gushing blood.
it will fail miserably once the guaranteed money stops flowing. These dudes lose their edge when they just show up and collect their $$ Cam Smith 30th in that non talented has been field is a disgrace. At end of contracts when they do get the big $$$ the Rahm's Koepka's will jump ship.
Their only chance of survival is to grab the young foreign players that would play on the DLP as they are used to playing in front of nobody already & continue playing all the places that the tour's do not play
The only thing I would grab from LIV golf is a team dimensiion which is intriguing...it would make the tour guys not pack it in on shit tourneys
it will fail miserably once the guaranteed money stops flowing. These dudes lose their edge when they just show up and collect their $$ Cam Smith 30th in that non talented has been field is a disgrace. At end of contracts when they do get the big $$$ the Rahm's Koepka's will jump ship.
Their only chance of survival is to grab the young foreign players that would play on the DLP as they are used to playing in front of nobody already & continue playing all the places that the tour's do not play
The only thing I would grab from LIV golf is a team dimensiion which is intriguing...it would make the tour guys not pack it in on shit tourneys
Didn't LIV lose something like $400 million in '24? It's popular in Australia but nowhere else.
The waitlist at my club is the longest it’s ever been and it takes 3 years to get in. I don’t even want to say what the initiation fee is. I’m sure some low level clubs will fall back but if there is less interest, I’m not seeing it.
These LIV guys made a mistake. That league will fold and only a few of them got close to the money that was being reported. Many of them have little or no sponsorship money coming. For a few guys it will have been worth it bit at the end of the day many of them are no better off than they would have been had they kept competing.
One club near me used to be a neighborhood club with 60k initiation fee. That is now approaching 100k. Next tier up is about 150k. The waitlist isn’t too crazy if they actually want you as a member. I’m shocked at the prices of golf clubs. Drivers are now $650 dollars stock. Crazy $$$$
Tiger seemed to think something will happen this year about the 2 tour's merging for some events. Monahan is the bottleneck. A guy that is getting paid $23mm /yr for doing nothing. The PGA should fire him. The indoor team aspect shows that the players like some form of a team game similar to LIV. My guess we'll see one tournament to start to incorporate the Team game for a tourney.
The general concept of the merger is simple. LIV becomes the teams focused league and scraps individual play.
This indoor league TGL is very cringy though. Some guys trying too hard to look cool with the big chains. "hamming" (is that a word) up the intro's. I watched a couple matches. Seems like the turf and sand gives off weird mishits. Not for me.
Yeah, not interested in the indoor league concept, but team play with LIV is pretty cool.
Many of the LIV bots on twitter seem to be indicating that an announcement is coming soon, but the general tone from them now seems to be trying to temper expectations of what LIV gets/becomes. They had a lot of bluster before about how LIV had the upper hand, would own the PGAT, etc but now some are admitting there is talk of cutting the number of LIV events, etc. if the merger goes through.
The miscalculation the LIV bots always seemed to make was the belief that because the PIF had bottomless money bags they had all the leverage but at some point, with losses mounting, that leverage just started to fizzle. Because even the PGAT, with their own cash constraints, knew that even the PIF wouldn't stand for flushing billions down the toilet for years with little return. They also miscalculated how attractive their product would be. They get minimal crowds. They have limited TV and streaming viewers. While the PGAT was losing viewers the last few years, they weren't flocking to LIV, they just weren't watching golf.
Even with the recent inclusion of LIV golfers with exemptions into the majors, the LIV people were talking they should get 10-12 each major and now they are getting a small handful, which is certainly a win for them but again their demands for more slots shows how out of touch with reality they were with their leverage.
The miscalculation the LIV bots always seemed to make was the belief that because the PIF had bottomless money bags they had all the leverage but at some point, with losses mounting, that leverage just started to fizzle. Because even the PGAT, with their own cash constraints, knew that even the PIF wouldn't stand for flushing billions down the toilet for years with little return. They also miscalculated how attractive their product would be. They get minimal crowds. They have limited TV and streaming viewers. While the PGAT was losing viewers the last few years, they weren't flocking to LIV, they just weren't watching golf.
Even with the recent inclusion of LIV golfers with exemptions into the majors, the LIV people were talking they should get 10-12 each major and now they are getting a small handful, which is certainly a win for them but again their demands for more slots shows how out of touch with reality they were with their leverage.
It's not just LIV players. Tiger talking to Jim Nantz yesterday.
"I think things are going to heal quickly. We are getting this game going in the right direction, it’s been headed in the wrong direction for a number of years. The fans want all of us to play together, all the top players to play together and we are going to make that happen."
It could be this year? Or it could be very soon this year?,' asked Nantz.
"Yes. Yes and yes," Woods responded while laughing.
Big topic on Golf Channel this morning!
