Golf
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Just seen the prize money for the 1st event - over $100K dollars for the person who finishes last. You had to finish top 30 in the Masters to earn that much. Can see why some of the old timers are jumping into it to feather their nests until they can milk the Champions tour
Dustin Johnson isn't old. Just going for the money
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This is the most interesting sports story at the moment by miles. So many interesting threads to it all.
The core truth is the PGA Tour is broken and it's hurting golf. It's a 52 week schedule with only 8 or so tournaments that actually mean anything. But the other 44 have served to slowly suck the oxygen out of the rest of world golf.
The Australian Open is a case in point. It used to attract a great field, good (not great) prize money, played on some beautiful courses. But now it can't compete with the Bumfuck Open, because it offers more money but also it's critical for mid-tier pros to play as often as they can on the PGA Tour.
But it's more than just the impact on the international game. The PGA fields are bloated. The courses are dull. The formats are tired. It's the same shit each week. The PGA Tour is dying for a shake-up.
So in one sense, LIV Golf may well spark the PGA Tour into action because it is a major threat to it's future.
The amount of cash being thrown at has-been or never-was players is staggering and they are just getting started. Reed and Dechambeau are gone. Rickie Fowler gone. Harold Varner, Jason Kokrak, Abe Ancer, some South Americans, maybe Adam Scott will go soon too.
But the format of LIV is ridiculous. Team golf is amazing when the teams actually have a history and a reason for being. I care about Europe vs America, not FC Smash against the Lip-Out Lads. Not to mention the shotgun starts and all the other garbage. And of course the Saudi blood money that underpins it all.
I don't like LIV, I won't watch it, but I do hope it might spark some good outcomes overall.
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@antipodean said in Golf:
Just going for the money
Professional sportsmen. I don't begrudge them that as much as I thought I might. It's really up to the administration of these sports to ensure they maintain their relevance.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging. And regarding Barbarian's post, I think he has articulated many of the players' concerns about the PGA in a way Phil wished he had
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Am sure he is consoled by his buckets of cash.
Funny but petty
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@1kiwi amusingly...
"I get to have a life outside of the game of golf as well. [It's] a business decision for my family's future."
Bryson has no wife or children...I suspect the LIV folk gave them some standard responses...unless he failed to add, when I have one in the future
Who cares, fuck, let the fluffybunnies play golf.
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@taniwharugby said in Golf:
@1kiwi amusingly...
"I get to have a life outside of the game of golf as well. [It's] a business decision for my family's future."
Bryson has no wife or children...I suspect the LIV folk gave them some standard responses...unless he failed to add, when I have one in the future
Who cares, fuck, let the fluffybunnies play golf.
He doesn't strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed
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@MajorRage Yes that bunker shot was his moment to seize triumph or disaster - and we have seen disaster often at the 18th of a major. The PGA was the first time he was in the mix for a major on the final day and he flubbed it - but he hit 17 out of 18 greens on the day, with a hot putter he would have strolled to the win.
Zalatoris is already setting himself up in the Colin Montgomerie role - he hasn't even won a PGA event yet but has top 10 finishes in 6 of the last 7 majors he has played in - with 3 runners-up finishes.
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Was a cracking open. Leaderboard chocked full of big game players. Great course that killed you if you were wayward.
Give me Zalatoris' record over a guy like Cantlay every day. A major top 5 is worth more than winning the Boise State Open Presented by Taco Bell. But you get the feeling he needs to win one soon.
Can't wait for the British at St Andrews.
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@MajorRage Yes that bunker shot was his moment to seize triumph or disaster - and we have seen disaster often at the 18th of a major. The PGA was the first time he was in the mix for a major on the final day and he flubbed it - but he hit 17 out of 18 greens on the day, with a hot putter he would have strolled to the win.
Zalatoris is already setting himself up in the Colin Montgomerie role - he hasn't even won a PGA event yet but has top 10 finishes in 6 of the last 7 majors he has played in - with 3 runners-up finishes.
It was a phenomenal shot in its own right but to do it when your opponent had middled the fairway with a driver with an almost perfect tee shot, all on the last hole of a major.
It was a brilliant finish and I do feel for Zalatoris on that putt that was millimetres from landing.
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Sources: Koepka latest to leave PGA Tour for LIV
Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is the latest golfer to defect from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, sources have confirmed to ESPN.
The more high profile players that jump to LIV thr sooner the PGA will need to reach a compromise.
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@barbarian said in Golf:
Was a cracking open. Leaderboard chocked full of big game players. Great course that killed you if you were wayward.
Give me Zalatoris' record over a guy like Cantlay every day. A major top 5 is worth more than winning the Boise State Open Presented by Taco Bell. But you get the feeling he needs to win one soon.
Can't wait for the British at St Andrews.
Yes the time of year when people will point out to you that it is The Open and not the British Open.
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Cameron Young with a dream first round -8. Nailed a good birdie on the 18th to finish his day.
Old man Ernie Els is -5 after 13 and is swinging like he was 20 years ago.
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Love the Open, love the old course.
By rights the players should be ripping it to shreds in light conditions, but the course has put up an admirable fight.
Love where Cam Smith is. Didn't think he played all that well but his chipping and putting is so good he just hangs in there. The course is so well suited to him, getting up and down is probably going to separate the men from the boys.
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@barbarian unreal that the leader his all 18 greens in regulation. Yes they are unnaturally large but balls were screaming off them too.
Super round.
Ryan Fox there or thereabouts at -1 and I think the other Kiwi is +1
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The greens were playing fast and some weren’t dealing well with it.
A bit of controversy today about how long it took for some of the groups to complete the round. I read that it took some 6 hours! Someone on Twitter posted “Max Homa estimates it took them an hour just to play No. 14.”
