Last February Dustin Johnson pledged allegiance to the PGA Tour. On Tuesday he changed his mind and became the highest-ranked player in the world to defect to the Saudi-backed LIV Series.
The LIV Series will hold the first of its eight planned events outside London at the Centurion Club starting June 9. It released a list of 42 players for the field but has plans for 48.
Johnson, a brand ambassador for RBC Bank, was expected to play in next week’s RBC Canadian Open (June 9-12) and was featured on tournament promotions but obviously D.J. will be a no-show there. RBC released a statement that said it was “extremely disappointed” with Johnson’s decision.
Johnson said in February that he was “fully committed to the PGA Tour.” He’s obviously broken that commitment. David Winkle, Johnson’s manager with Hambric Sports released this statement:
“Dustin has been contemplating the opportunity off-and-on for the past couple of years. Ultimately, he decided it was in his and his family’s best interest to pursue it. Dustin has never had any issue with the PGA Tour and is grateful for all it has given him, but in the end, felt this was too compelling to pass up.”
You read that and should note that “compelling” is a totally incorrect term. Winkle should have said “lucrative” in its place.
Johnson may be facing the reality that his once immense skills are eroding. He has slipped out of the top 10 and is currently 13th. D.J. holds 24 career PGA Tour wins, which makes him a life member of the Tour. He won the 2016 U.S. Open and the 2020 Masters, his last victory. He failed to win in 2021 and has had an uneventful 2022 by his standards. He missed the cut at the recent PGA Championship, missed the cut a the RBC Heritage in his home state and tied for 59th at the Byron Nelson. He will turn 38 on June 22.
There were other recognizable names on the lists as well — Louie Oosthuizen, Kevin Na and a real surprise — Taylor Gooch. Louie is No. 20 in the world rankings, Na 33 and Gooch No. 35. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Richard Bland were expected to defect to the LIV Series and their names were among the 42.
There’s a Koepka on the list but it’s not Brooks — it’s his younger brother Chase — who has been unable to make much progress toward getting a PGA Tour card. He’s been given sponsor’s exemptions into tournaments his brother has appeared in but failed to make much ground. Another is Peter Uihlein, son of former Acushnet chairman Wally Uihlein.
Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel is on the list so are DP World Tour stalwarts Bernd Wiesberger and Sam Horsfield. Hudson Swafford and Branden Grace, both winners on the PGA Tour, are on the list.
The PGA Tour had no immediate response to the list. The Players Advisory Council met yesterday at The Memorial.
The one big name that wasn’t in the LIV lineup was Lefty himself — Phil Mickelson. It was Mickelson’s dabbling and flirtations then later admissions of working with the Saudi league that got him in hot water and he has been somewhat of a ghost ever since. The LIV is keeping five spots for Asian Tour players but will obviously leave the light on for Lefty if he wants to take the money and show up in London.
The London stop is the first of eight events — each is three rounds (54 holes) with shotgun starts. There are five events slated in the United States — Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club (Portland), July 1-3, Trump National Bedminster, July 29-31, The International (Boston), Sept. 2-4, Rich Harvest Farms (Chicago), Sept. 15-18 and Trump Doral (Miami) Oct. 29-31). Two other events are in Bangkok and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Here’s the list of LIV participants (in alphabetical order):
Oliver Bekker, South Africa; Richard Bland, England; Laurie Canter, England; Ratchanon Chantananuwat (amateur), Thailand; Hennie Du Plessis, South Africa; Oliver Fisher, England; Sergio Garcia, Spain; Talor Gooch, USA; Branden Grace, South Africa; Justin Harding, South Africa; Sam Horsfield, England; Dustin Johnson, USA; Matt Jones, Australia; Sadom Kaewkanjana, Thailand; Martin Kaymer, Germany; Phachara Khongwatmai, Thailand; Sihwan Kim, USA; Ryosuke Kinoshita, Japan; Chase Koepka, USA; Jinichiro Kozuma, Japan; Pablo Larrazabal, Spain; Graeme McDowell, Northern Ireland; Jediah Morgan, Australia; Kevin Na, USA; Shaun Norris, South Africa; Andy Ogletree, USA; Louis Oosthuizen, South Africa; Wade Ormsby, Australia; Adrian Otaegui, Spain; Turk Pettit, USA; James Piot (amateur), USA; Ian Poulter, England; David Puig (amateur), Spain; J.C. Ritchie, South Africa; Charl Schwartzel, South Africa; Hudson Swafford, USA; Hideto Tanihara, Japan; Peter Uihlein, USA; Scott Vincent, Zimbabwe; Lee Westwood, England; Bernd Wiesberger, Austria; Blake Windred, Australia.
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
This has nothing to do with eroding skills. Every golfer today goes through his ups and downs and DJ beautiful mind is one who’s focus has gone up and down as much as anyone. But make no mistake, Dustin Johnson is still a major winning type of player. This is a player who could show up to pga tour events for life. But still chose the alternative. That’s powerful.
The sponsor aspect is interesting. What’s on my mind is a while ago I saw some article about how much these players get from sponsors. While the numbers from sponsors are nice, if you can get it, they are literally nothing compared to the signing bonus from LIv, not to mention the tournament prizes. And even if sponsors like RBC ditch DJ, others will eventually pay for their logos on DJ…Not that he will need the money…then again with Paulina DJ and The Great Ones bank accounts are likely always in some jeopardy.
Of course Gooch is anything but eroding. And he is as good ol boy American (seeming) as it gets. This is the one that really worries me if I’m suddenly-toms-boo Monahan. We also see top amateur players or just turned pros with plenty of talent signing. Also very powerful stuff.
There is room for more names but already there is a lot of quality on this list. As more players of quality make this decision -which gets easier to make with each quality name that does so— it just opens the flood gates that much more.
As I’ve been saying regardless of where players want to play most of their golf, players should play LIv some so as to take a stand against any tour threatening to cancel players for playing any other tour.
No tour will lose money. All these golf tour, even with some new competition, will only continue to grow their revenue. All This is just more opportunities and money for players.
It’s time golfers establish themselves as the independent contractors they have always been told they are.
And DJ of all people, is leading the way. All you can say is wow.
Tom Edrington
Wow to the money, see ‘ya later to DJ; In my other comments to you I think I”ve addressed the Independent Contractor issue….you don’t join a company or organization without signing an agreement, even if you are an independent contractor and agree to abide by those rules; We sign agreements, agreeing to not disagree; Well, yes, D.J. is free to go. I certainly won’t miss him and I think a lot of it also had to do with the FAT commission his management company earned from that 125M; DJ’s skills are eroding; He won every year on Tour for seemingly forever, now he’s going on two years without a W — take off your blinders, Baxter.