Golf: The PGA Tour has some competition with LIV Golf

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The PGA Tour now has some competition in the golf world. That would be LIV Golf. The tour is back with Saudi Arabia’s money. The tour has been kicked around for a while now. Former PGA Tour player, Greg “The Shark” Norman was a key cog in getting the tour started. The major reason why is the players want to make more money. I am not saying that the players on the PGA Tour do not make money. They do except for the middle-of-the-pack players that do not get the big major corporate sponsors. On the LIV Tour, the person who finishes last will receive close to $125,000 from what I have read. There is no PGA Tour tournament where anyone who finishes last will come close to making that kind of change. With all the other sports mostly being team sports, in golf you are alone.

The LIV Tour offered two billion dollars to Tiger Woods to come over and play on their tour. He turned it down and decided to stay on the PGA Tour. Woods has withdrawn from the US Open because his leg injury is still bothering him. He has played in The Masters and PGA Championship and struggled after the first two rounds. In fact, he dropped out after three rounds at the PGA Championship. I think it was the right move for him since the Open Championship is at St. Andrews. That course is where Woods has played well in the past on the oldest course on planet earth. On the other hand, many top tour players have decided to join LIV golf. Former number player in the world Dustin Johnson has decided that his PGA Tour days are over. The first big name that took the jump was Phil Mickelson.

Mickelson did not play in the first two majors after he mentioned comments about the LIV Tour. Many people called him a traitor for thinking about leaving the PGA Tour. Mickelson has been a star on the tour for many years and had many different sponsors. He is not one of the middle-of-the-pack players that struggle to win and get sponsors. He received a nice penny as well since joining LIV golf. Some of the other notable players that have made the jump are Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Kevin Na, and Lee Westwood. All these players have won multiple times on the PGA Tour. At the end of the day, these players want to make more money than at the present time the PGA Tour cannot provide. Many are surprised that the PGA Tour did not try and do the same long before now. But the PGA reacted.

It suspended all the players from the PGA Tour. On the other hand, many have turned in their membership. The first LIV golf tournament took place in London. They have promised many different parts of the world that the PGA Tour does not go to. The European Tour also does not travel to many of the locations that LIV will go to. The tour only plays three rounds instead of four. Charles Schwartzel won the first tournament and enjoyed every bit of it. You can watch the LIV Tour by going to their website and it’s free to stream it. They will have to continue to have people tune in because it will be hard to attend their tour events. I think at the end of the day is that it is good for golf to be seen more globally. Maybe one day the two tours can get along.