It comes as absolutely no surprise that professional whiner Bubba Watson and his surgically repaired knee are heading to the LIV exhibition series.
He fits the profile perfectly: Over 40, injury-prone, looking for a big payday, no longer competitive on the PGA Tour.
You may or may not recall and Bubba and wife Angie are the parents of not one, but two children they adopted — obviously Bubba is oblivious to, or has no issue with Saudi Arabia’s laws that prohibit adoptions.
He joins the latest defectors — Charles Howell III, Paul Casey and Saudi-logo sporting Jason Kokrak. None of the aforementioned could bring themselves to say they made the move for the big money when quizzed by a New York Times writer earlier this week up there at The Donald’s course (Trump Bedminster) where this third installment of the Saudi-backed traveling circus/exhibition/free cash handout is being staged.
So this latest LIV offering, the second on American soil, starts Friday and once again, this sports-washing league seems to live off of rumors, speculation and innuendo.
Latest is that The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land (aka Greg Norman) and his cronies are turning away bunches of top 50 players who want to join the ranks of the defectors.
Perhaps the Saudis are beginning to realize that they paid way too many millions to have Phil Mickelson shoot in the mid 70s every time he goes out in one of their events.
The more you listen to Norman and his stooges, the more you begin to realize that it’s almost like this whatever-you-want-to-call-it is making things up as it goes, if you will.
The guys like Mickelson have defected because they told everyone they want to play less, travel less and collect the huge payday.
One of the LIV’s huge downfalls is that members won’t be earning any ranking points from the Official World Golf Rankings. So The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land has a solution to that issue. Seems Sharky has announced 2023 plans for a 14-event schedule and stated players will also be expected to compete in “numerous” Asian Tour International Series events (where OWGR points are available due to the full field 72-hole format). Those tournaments are in Thailand, England, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, Indonesia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe and the Americas. Now given that football-game-gambling Mickelson wants to play less, well, that means these guys will have to travel across International Date Lines and considering that they don’t even want to travel across state lines, well, it just makes you laugh.
As we’ve previously mentioned, these LIV events, at 54-holes with limited fields, don’t stand much of a chance of getting World Rankings points.
More from the LIV rumor front tells us that players who initially received huge offers, have found those are drying up.
Then there’s the startling revelation that the Saudis actually expected this to become a “for profit” venture.
Knowing that Norman is pretty much a front-man/ceremonial face for this league, they went out and hired a guy who used to work for our Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Atul Koshla — who was the Bucs’ corporate development and brand officer.
“I’ve worked in sports business for a long time,” Kholsla recently told Golf Digest. And if you look at the investment portfolio of our primary investor, the Public Investment Fund, they have invested all over the world in incredibly large businesses and profitable businesses. Their view of this is no different. That’s the expectation that we have from our board.”
So given this circus is already close to a billion dollars in the red, where’s this “profit” going to come from?
Well, Kholsla, who carries the title Chief Operating Office, says they’re trying to figure that out.
The big money from Kholsla’s former world — The NFL — comes from television rights. So good luck with that. LIV can go to all the television networks and show how they have literally “thousands” of viewers on U-Tube!
The Donald Effect:
Then there’s The Donald. Not sure that Trump becoming a big supporter of the LIV is a good thing. The PGA Tour has quietly had its lobbyists whispering in the ears of key Congressional and Senate members. And we know how Congress loves The Donald.
So if we were The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land — we might be a bit nervous with Trumpster singing LIV praises.
And speaking of praises, there wasn’t much to praise when it comes to LIV defectors and their collective performances in this seasons four major championships.
The results are in and here’s how they fared:
The Masters: No top 10s, five top 20s (Dustin Johnson T12, Talor Gooch T14, Kevin Na T14, Lee Westwood, Jason Kokrak T14). The PGA: No top 10s. One Top 20 (Talor Gooch T20); U.S. Open: No top 10s, no top 20s. The Open Championship: Two top 10s (Dustin Johnson T6, Bryson DeChambeau T8); four top 20s: (Kaewkanjana T11, Ancer T11).
As for the latest LIV member, good old bi-polar Bubba can bring his pissy-whiney deportment to the proceedings.
He should fit in quite nicely.
Just don’t let the Saudis know that he adopted two children.
12 Comments
forky76
If you do the maths.. playing 14 liv events is 25% less golf than playing 14 pga tour events. Less wear and tear on the body.
As to the sign on bonus cheques drying up, that also makes complete sense. As I mentioned in a comment on here weeks ago, the 48th guy to sign up isn’t getting $100m. The early jumpers took all the ‘risks’ and reap all the rewards.
Tom Edrington
And boy, paying Phil Mickelson 100M plus to average 75 was a pretty good decision…..They’ve got a billion plus already in this fiasco, I don’t know any math that can make them “profitable”
baxter cepeda
Time math will tell.
History will show Paying Phil was a key decision IMO.
Tom Edrington
I see Phil opened with another 75, he’ll be great for team play — lol
baxter cepeda
Phil’s hiatus is kicking his ass.
This does bring up a point:
Lot of things to like about LIv but one major thing to dislike (aside from the political stuff):
All 4 scores need to count on Sunday; day 2 gotta have at least 3 scores count. Maybe day 1 can still have only 2 count but that’s kinda lame but -again- by Sunday all 4 guys gotta play well to win.
4 scores counting Sunday…That’s what can makes team pro golf different than say amateur/college.
But anyways, Not to get too LIv geeky, but these Hi Flyers aren’t exactly amongst the favorites.
Wolff is doing better but still looks off and gotta wonder if he is ever gonna get his head on straight again.
weisberger and Harding are solid pros but the foursome clearly lacks compared to some of the other teams in star power form, depth, and chemistry as these 4 guys clearly have little to bind them.
Tom Edrington
All the various talk shows I listen to believe this is nothing more than an exhibition — Trump injecting himself into the proceedings detracts from any credibility they hoped for — free tickets, free beer? 2,000 fans on site? I guess folks weren’t all jazzed to go out and see Pat Perez!
baxter cepeda
I’m sure your favorite talk shows are saying just that. If you listen to the establishment all you will hear is a broken record of catch phrases like “exhibition”. This is all part of their desperate attempts to protect the status quo.
You like to use older ladies for your examples. Well My moms who doesn’t pay much attention to golf gets it with LIv. She understands the Saudi issues but aside from that she gets what LIv is doing. She knows the Saudis are no dummies in their investments.
Mom actually watched more LIv
Golf this weekend than she has watched golf since Phil beat Payne in Pinehurst; because of the cute Pager/baby story. LIv is much more digestible for casual viewers imo. The challenge for Liv will be their coverage not becoming like the pga tours coverage when the inevitable broadcast deal comes.
Tom Edrington
Yes, thousands agree with you, millions agree with me…..
baxter cepeda
I don’t know what the facts are on those numbers.
All I know is lot of things in this saga that I —and folks like Forky— said would happen have happened while the millions of things the millions said wouldn’t happen have happened. Tom knows.
IMHO, when the established media picks a side, perception of anything is very skewed. Media are supposed to present issues, but at this point in life they overtly drive people to think what they want people to think. LIv definitely has a problem with biased media. But they have so much damn money it really doesn’t matter. Eventually the media will obsess over some other issue getting clicks and LIv will continue its steady growth.
People really don’t seem to understand how much money these guys have, how well organized their people are in their invents, And how little they are failing because they have the funds and the people to get things done.
The Saudis have so much money they have to invest it into the world. Golf is but one small tiny thing these guys are going to be investing in that will move them and the world into the future. Like them or not, it is what it is.
Meanwhile the pga tour and euros have half asleep Monahan and douchy blue rims Pelley. Good luck with that. Both these organizations truly need great leadership to clean up these twos mess …and they need it like yesterday. That’s almost a fact in my mind but it’s still just imho.
Tom Edrington
How much money have the Saudis given to local charities, the First Tee, PGA junior programs and other initiatives that actually seek to “grow the game” — quick answer — zero. Trump will be taking over at the events they are staging on his properties, not good for this exhibition, which now has a political side serving…..
baxter cepeda
Don’t even get me started on first tee and especially the pga of America. Let’s just say the do some but they should be doing a whole lot more for young golf families considering the revenue he they make off the backs of everyone from the top golfers to humble pros and coaches.
A lot of leadership roles in these organizations are overpaid while the people doing the work make less and less and families increasingly get charged more and more to get less and less.
The pga tour should be running their own junior programs rather than giving just enough bucks To others In order to maintain their non profit status.
All these organizations need to do a better job with sponsors to help support young golfers. Think about how many countries really support their athletes. In America even top athletes, especially golfers, feel like they are on their own.
No arguments on Trump. When Trump left the Blue Monster it felt political. But not anymore.
LIv have to figure out if he is worth it, which we can save them some time and say he is not.
Maybe once he passes from this world his courses could be used again. But turning golf events into political shananigans by the man who fooled “special” people (his words to them) to attack our country, is downright idiotic.
I know Shark doesn’t tune in for the news, but somebody has to talk some sense into him. LIv has its issues but Trump does not deserve the LIv forum just for providing a few courses. They clearly don’t need his money.
Imo the Saudis and LIv should be developing 14 great courses that their team owners should own like stadiums. I’m still developing this idea…lol
Tom Edrington
Wait until Wednesday when the “Ghost Of Dan Jenkins” sets you straight.