Golf’s war over but road to peace is looking rocky
McIlroy’s declaration that there had to be “consequences” for those LIV Golf players who return to the PGA Tour touches on one of the great unknowns of the deal struck by the tour, its DP World Tour allies and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). Whether fines, suspensions or community service whitewashing fences and reputations is the answer, McIlroy’s words showed the level of simmering anger in some quarters. It was wise to say Yasir Al-Rumayyan, soon to be his new chairman, is a “very smart, impressive man”, but there is trouble ahead.
Another player told The Times that 99 per cent of players at Tuesday’s meeting at the RBC Canadian Open were against the merger. There have been calls for Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, to resign. Even Monahan admitted that he had been hypocritical by changing long-term enemies into partners. Then he gave a cringe-worthy interview when quizzed about how the families of 9/11 victims felt. It was a distinctly different vibe from the celebratory tweet from LIV totem Mickelson: “Awesome day”.
Awesome day today 😊 https://t.co/qUwVJiydym
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) June 6, 2023
Even if the merger gets past boards and the US Department of Justice’s antitrust arm, Justin Rose thinks it will be difficult to re-assimilate LIV players. After playing with McIlroy and shooting an impressive three under par at the Canadian Open yesterday (Thursday), he said: “The headline seems like it’s just going to be this very smooth transition and, ‘Come on back, boys, it’s all done now’, but I don’t think that’s the case. I’d probably be more concerned if I were on LIV right now than the PGA Tour.”
Rose said he did not think that LIV players would be “outcasts forever” but said “a harmonious world of golf” was not “going to happen overnight”.
Paul McGinley, the former Ryder Cup captain, also envisages tense times. “It may look like the LIV guys that went over there and took the money are now coming back in and they’re the winners. They’ve been very giddy on social media and they look like they’re the smartest guys in the room. That really isolates the PGA Tour players who stayed loyal.”
Mickelson loves being the smartest guy in that room and if the PIF invests billions into the new for-profit commercial group, he can claim to have done exactly what he set out to do by revolutionising the PGA Tour. Whether he can also waltz back into the mainstream, rejoin a tour that suspended him even before he played an LIV Golf event - for trying to recruit players - and move seamlessly from last year’s pariah to this one’s peer are grey areas. It may also be that he does not want to.
Greg Norman has given a rallying address to LIV Golf employees in which he reportedly said that LIV would remain “a stand-alone entity” and that came from the very top - presumably Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor. Cho Minn Thant, the chief executive of the Asian Tour which received $447 million of PIF money last year, said: “I contacted LIV Golf and they say it is business as usual, but as we all know things can change very quickly. I do think the PGA Tour and LIV can coexist but they would have to evolve.”
If LIV survives, with team events interspersed through the season or as an add-on, Mickelson may well be satisfied with that, given his 25 per cent equity in the HyFlyers team and claim that 54-hole LIV events are the best way to prepare for majors.
McIlroy, who said his Wednesday press conference was the most uncomfortable he had felt in a year, made his view of Mickelson clear when he was captured by Netflix cameras shouting “f*** Phil” at the Tour Championship. On Saturday Mickelson tweeted about how nobody at LIV would have McIlroy “because they’d have to deal with his BS”.
As worn out as Mclroy was after the Masters and his need for an off season, LIV would be perfect for him. Problem is I don’t think there’s a team that wants him on it because they’d have to deal with all his bs.
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) June 3, 2023
For Mickelson, perhaps more than any player, this has been an extraordinary 18 months. He was the big name signing that gave the Saudi project its star, so they did not care when he told journalist Alan Shipnuck: “They’re scary mother***ers. They execute people for being gay.” So why do it? “Because this is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
Happy, awesome day, then, if not a happy family. No more recruitment, but a Golf Channel report that a recent world No 1 had been in advanced talks with LIV has led many to conclude that Jon Rahm is not a PGA Tour stalwart.
Some hatchets will be more easily buried than others. McIlroy, four shots behind England’s Aaron Rai and other early clubhouse leaders in Toronto, practised with Brooks Koepka at the Masters and said there were different dynamics to different relationships. For Mickelson and other “winners”, the comeback trail promises to be rocky.
The Times
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Those wags who do the groupings at the US Open used to have little shame. They would select players based on their size, popularity and even personality. If they were still getting their puerile kicks from their picks they would no doubt put Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson together in Los Angeles next week.