In this contentious issue, we break down the obvious and not-so-obvious elements of this week’s legal bombshell, defy the increasingly personal rift created by the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, and celebrate a much-needed diversion at the Wyndham Championship.
cut made
The change you want. Before Wednesday’s lawsuit plunged the professional golf world into an all-too-real novel by John Grisham, the PGA Tour made headlines when it unveiled next season’s schedule highlighted by dramatic price increases.
Prize pools for eight invitational events will increase to between $15 million and $25 million, along with a significant increase in the circuit’s various bonus pools to $145 million.
Usually when people say it’s not about the money, it’s always about the money. Whatever the talking points and geopolitical factors that drive pro golf’s growing divide, the only constant is money.
The Tour’s response to LIV Golf’s lucrative bidding war may have come, as former Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson once said, “with the point of a bayonet,” but for those on the Tour next year, it’s dramatically more Money will be fighting, the talk is points and geopolitics probably don’t matter.
golf. Amidst the legal tussle and escalating anger is the tour’s regular-season finale and plenty of playoff potential.
Every year at the Wyndham Championship, someone pulls off an 11-hour rally and earns an unlikely postseason spot. That someone could be Brian Stuard this year.
Stuard started the week ranked 137 on the tour’s eligibility points list, but scored a 5-under-65 in Round 1 to move up to 124 on the prospective list.
“I don’t have much to lose. I’m kind of not in a really good position, so I’m just trying to figure out how to play good golf again and see what happens,” he said.
It would be an impressive resurrection story if Stuard, who missed eight of his first 10 cuts this season and has only two top-10 finishes, played his way into next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Cut made – not finished (MDF)
A deep dive. The 11 suspended LIV golfers who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tour on Wednesday have been the focus of most coverage, but a closer look at the 105-page lawsuit revealed just how involved this case could become.
In the lawsuit, filed by Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Ian Poulter and eight others, the players allege that the tour “also threatened companies and individuals in the golf and sports production industries that they would be banned from working with the tour.” become when they work with LIV Golf.”
The lawsuit relates to nearly a dozen vendors and companies that should be “blacklisted.”[ed]’ when they partner with LIV Golf, from tech companies to broadcast networks.
The lawsuit also alleges that golf courses were advised not to host LIV events, claiming, “The R&A penalized a golf course owner by issuing a policy that he would no longer host The Open on his course in the future for not hosting LIV gulf ‘there. a platform.’”
Whether any of these claims will stand up to legal scrutiny remains to be seen, but this example from the filings filed Wednesday is an indication of just how complicated this is about to get.
2022-23 winners/losers. The eight tour events that will see dramatically increased purses next season will certainly benefit from better fields and higher profiles, but beyond that it’s not as clear how the new schedule will land.
The Wyndham Championship, for example, is likely to take on a bigger role as the final event of the regular season after the list of automatic qualifiers was trimmed from the top 125 on the FedExCup points list to the top 70. But that remains to be seen what happens with the fall portion of the schedule.
There are currently nine post-Tour championship events, and starting next fall when these are removed from the FedExCup schedule, it’s unclear if these existing events will simply transition to what the Tour sees as a qualifying series.
Without status of being a FedExCup event or offering a Masters invite, it’s likely that the fall events will either fade away or dramatically lose importance.
PGA Tour players respond to LIV Golf lawsuit
missed cut
It’s personal. The rift created by those who pierced the tour for LIV Golf was largely civilized among play-for-pay types. That changed on Wednesday.
The antitrust lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of the Northern California District, challenges the Tour’s status as a premier circuit and threatens to dramatically disrupt the playoffs in the short term if a judge upholds three suspended players — Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones. a restraining order, allowing them to play the postseason opener next week.
The reaction of those who remained loyal to the tour was no longer restrained.
“You’re suing me. It’s sad for me,” said Ryan Palmer. “They are suing the 200 card-carrying members of the PGA Tour. They chose to go that route and play less, and now they want to play more.”
Davis Love III went so far as to suggest Tour players boycott events that the suspended LIV players are allowed to attend and revealed how personal this has gotten when asked what he says to Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf , would say.
“I have nothing to say to him,” Love said.
Tweet of the week:
After a lot of giving and taking on Twitter, Dahmen added:
#Cutting #line #litigation #LIV #Golf #PGA #Tour #runs #deep #anger #accusations
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