When LIV Golf brashly crashed into the edifices of Old and New World golf, when it broke “rules” long codified, in their own interest, by the establishment, when, like the demon spawn of Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch, it threatened the existing hegemony and stole away with some of the game’s great players to reimagine what “world golf” could look like, the PGA Tour and R&A circled wagons, and peered out through splayed fingers at the Saudis and their caravan of colour and noise and confusing, terrible disruption.

One thing for certain: it has stirred things up.

PGA Tour Players – their players, actual PGA Tour players - were offered money good enough for generations of Koepkas, Smiths and Rahms to never work again.

Some have argued that these people mentally checked out, that they'd taken the money and run-dead since. Until Smith’s near-win in the Australian Open, much Accepted Group Think had it thus for the Queenslander. There’s been a similar knock on Dustin Johnson. Bryson DeChambeau, not so much.

Regardless, the Establishment fought back, as of course they would. We own the money spigot! Not you, corporate raiders from the House of Saud! And as for you, Greg Norman, you pirate! After everything we’ve done for you, this is how you repay us? You are dead to us, Shark Man. Tell your story walkin’.

PLUS...

What's going on between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour? This...

Within two minutes of being outed as golf magazine writer, the question will inevitably come: what’s going on between LIV and the PGA Tour? And my answer always is ...

And the PGA Tour unleashed their dogs of war. Then-CEO Jay Monahan actually said it: “We are at war”. They went to the White House. They put up Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods as their champions. They hammered Norman, and carried on with high dudgeon and the moral clarity of Evangelicals in the Trump government – we are good, they are bad, ends shall justity means. For the good of golf? We are golf.

Mainly, though, as they knew that must ultimately come to pass, the PGA Tour fought LIV with eye-watering sums of money.And Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas did not go to LIV, and Smith, Rahm and DeChambeau did. And for the last year or so, the PGA Tour has been largely okay with that.

Today there is a détente, of sorts, as the Establishment sits back and waits for the Saudi money to run out, all the while selling fans the pup of non-elevated, reserve grade tournaments sponsored by those corporates who kicked in less than those that sponsor the “signature” ones, or whatever they call them, pass the beer nuts.

But here’s the thing: the Saudi money won’t run out unitil somebody invents an electric version of the T-model Ford.

While the return of world class names Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed is not ideal for, let's call them "optics", LIV’s investment in youth - Elvis Smylie, Tom McKibbin, Caleb Surrat, et al - is not indicative of a league that's planning on folding any time soon.

There is a new sponsorship deal with Aramco, the Saudi petrol company, who have as its chairman the bloke who is also chairman of the Public Investment Fund. The PIF has provided upwards of $US5 billion in seed money for LIV, and will continue to while there’s a risk to ever-important “face”, what business types call pride.

And thus! LIV remains an anomaly on the world golfing stage, an outlier, a point of difference; delicious to golf media for its disruption and colour, something of a snooze for television viewers given the “exhibition” feel that even some its players, according to informed sources, acknowledge is a thing.

LIV Golf remains a work in progress. They call themselves an “emerging league”. And like the NRL's Peter V'landys taking tips from punters about rule changes, they are not afraid to change up.


The biggest change, of course, is that it’s gone from LIV holes to LXXII holes. Rahm called the move “logical”. Johnson didn’t crack a smile while declaring he was “excited”. 

DeChambeau called it “proactive” before telling Today's Golfer that he was "indifferent" to the move because he had signed up to play 54 holes and not 72. DeChambeau has some power-chips to play ahead contract negotiations. What that space.

According to League chief Scott O’Neill, “the most successful leagues around the world - IPL, EPL, NBA, MLB, NFL - continue to innovate and evolve their product, and as an emerging league, we are no different."

"LIV Golf will always have an eye towards progress that acts in the best interest of LIV Golf and in the best interest of the sport,” O'Neill said.

LIV has done what they had to. The great knock on the league – one of them, anyway – is that it didn't attract actual, “official” world ranking points, and thus its players, and future players, needed to otherwise earn cracks at major championships which remain the only, true, legacy, non-team, non-amateur, non-exhibition tournaments there are, if you think about it.

So now Elvis Smylie can earn 23 points for winning LIV Riyadh and ascend into the OWGR top-100, while Chris Gotterup can win in Arizona and earn 59 points and slot into world No.5. What that space, also.

And check out this space for a preview piece by Golf Australia magazine's Matt Cleary, our man-on-the-ground at The Grange:

PLUS...

Last Stand: LIV Adelaide to rock out at The Grange

Excellent golf, super-fine course, smokey food, funky tunes, cool brews - there's a lot to like about the spectator experience at LIV Adelaide which remains the LIV league's crown jewel, reports our man-on-the-ground at The Grange, Matt Cleary.