Even the best laid plans can go astray. But if something starts as a shambles, it generally stays a shambles, and that’s where we are with LIV Golf.
Another deadline for announcing the field of 48 to play at Centurion Club in the first event of the brave new “re-design” of the sport of golf passed on Monday.
We were told last Thursday, two weeks before the start date, would be the day we’d finally see – after two years of bluster – who was actually playing in this $500 million moneygrab.
That deadline passed, as did one on Friday. Saturday, Sunday? Nothing. Monday…nope.
Fast becoming a laughing stock
Charlie Woods will be on the Champions Tour before the LIV Golf field is announced
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) May 27, 2022
Golf on social media, meanwhile, is having a field day, and LIV is fast becoming a laughing stock.
The reason why we’ve been waiting is unquestionably as those tempted by LIV don’t yet want to commit until they see what the consequences are. But the PGA and DP World Tours aren’t saying what the sanctions, if any, will be.
Of course, Norman has already said he “has the back” of any players declaring for LIV. One assumes he means footing the bill for any legal appeals. That doesn’t seem to have convinced many, if any.
But put yourself in the main tours’ shoes. Why should they give any advance notice? If by keeping their cards close to their chest they can make a complete ass of LIV’s big opening event, they’re sure as hell going to do it.
Because they, like anyone else who has been following this from the start, simply don’t believe LIV’s recent assertion that it wants to live within golf’s current ecosystem (sorry, I hate that word in this context, but not much else will do).
The language has always been ‘revolution’
Current LIV Golf field: pic.twitter.com/my9A2BToX7
— GolfSpy MPR (@GolfSpyMPR) May 28, 2022
From the start, through the various pronouncements made both pre-Norman and since he’s been the public face, the tone was aggressive. There was nothing about co-existence until public perception looked askance at the project.
Before that, it was always about a “revolution”. Nobody doubted this was an attempted takeover of golf, a coup, when it started. They’ve continued to talk about a “re-design” of the sport, and you can be sure they don’t mean golf’s establishment would be doing the re-fit.
The established tours didn’t hunker down behind the barricades, with the tacit support of the governing bodies, by accident.
Only last weekend Norman was calling the PGA Tour “criminal”. Why would the tours believe he wants to work within the system?
Norman’s jacket is, we hear repeatedly on golf’s whispering wall, on a shoogly peg. Foot in the mouth one too many times, his crass “anyone can make a mistake” excuse for murder at the media day being just the most foolish.
But then again, LIV without Norman would be all too easily ignored. Who else can generate any publicity for them, even if it’s dreadful stuff like the media day?
Bratches’ departure a bad sign
Wow, LIV Golf grounds access tickets are $85 /£67 😮 for a tournament in 2 weeks time that we don’t know the field of. #golf #pgatour #livgolf pic.twitter.com/Q9YUrGDIyO
— Be The Right Club (@btrcgolf) May 30, 2022
The second worst sign for them was the abrupt departure of Sean Bratches earlier this month. The former commercial director of F1 was their most significant hire outside Norman.
Just in March Bratches was telling City AM magazine that LIV had ridden out the negative response and this year would be like “the movie Rocky, when the music starts playing and Rocky starts fighting back”. Less than two months later he threw in the towel.
But the worst thing is this extended delay in announcing who is playing. Even those willing to pay the extortionate ticket prices for Centurion – four times what you paid for the final day at The Belfry at the beginning of the month – need to have some idea who is playing.
Rory McIlroy has backtracked on his declaration in February that LIV was “dead in the water”. More like taking on water, and plugging the holes with all that cash they have.
But the bottom line remains the same as it’s always been – LIV needs players, and moreover players of consequence. If it doesn’t have any, it’s a non-starter.
Molinari is a great choice by Stenson
Team 🇪🇺🏆 pic.twitter.com/xkkeFCH4l5
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) May 30, 2022
How important – really – are Ryder Cup vice-captains? Disparaged as buggy drivers by many, the main purpose of the job would often appear to be simply getting in the queue to be future captains themselves.
Paul McGinley started the trend of having five vice-captains – one for each fourball/foursome and one to “babysit” those left out. It seemed like overkill, but the Emeritus Professor of Ryder Cup Studies insisted it was necessary, and who can doubt him?
After all, Nick Faldo tried to do it without any at all at Valhalla in 2008, and lost to one of the weakest US teams ever assembled.
Edoardo Molinari’s appointment as vice-captain in 2023 to Henrik Stenson would seem like a home pick. An Italian presence in the backroom at a Ryder Cup in Rome.
Maybe so. But “Dodo” is also known as the smartest man in golf – far, far more clever than certain self-proclaimed ‘geniuses’ we could mention. And he’s a stats specialist.
The importance of golf analytics
The stats have become a huge thing in Ryder Cups. Thomas Bjorn used them to great effect in Paris in 2018. Steve Stricker embraced them at Whistling Straits to determine his pairings.
Molinari was one of the first players to keep his own stats as an amateur – mostly for fun, he says.
Clearly his idea of ‘fun’ might differ from yours and mine, but he now advises other prominent players on their stats. How to analyse and interpret them, that is, rather than just counting.
He’s since developed the StatisticGolf app and is a consultant to prominent players like Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick – two certainties to be in the Rome team.
At T2G we’ve started to get a little edgy about next year’s European team this last month. This is a reassuring and encouraging appointment.
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