Georgie Bingham: time for a climb down and a clean up
Team Captain Cameron Smith of Punch GC, Greg Norman, CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, and Marc Leishman of Punch GC talk after the team championship stroke-play round of the LIV Golf Invitational - Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on October 30, 2022 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Patrick Smith/LIV Golf via Getty Images).
Can we just call it as it is - the circus, the breakaway to LIV golf has meant we’ve all listened to, laughed at and occasionally been outraged by a whole lot of absolutely nonsense.
Mostly from Greg Norman - that man is angry isn’t he? I can only conclude he’s furious he came second so much because I can’t work out why anyone who’s had the career he’s had, mostly thanks to the game he loves would be so extraordinarily furious about his former paymaster.
There’s been silly petty behaviour from Sergio Garcia, also from Ian Poulter about his right to leave the tour that’s given him everything and then alongside a few others to complain vociferously/pathetically even litigiously about their right to play BOTH tours - which I have renamed spoilt-man-cake-and-eat-syndrome - I’ll add Patrick Reed (boo hoo), Phil Mick (blah blah) these behaviours, backed financially by LIV’s bottomless-pit legal department, - have made this whole last eight months a very silly era in golf. (There have been a few LIV players; Harold Varner III, DJ, Lee Westwood, Matin Kaymer, who’ve taken the move, taken the money, for their own reasons and taken the crap that comes with that and shown that it isn’t hard to behave well, or at the least not like big pathetic cry-babies.)
“I accept LIV is here to stay. I don’t have to like it, and I worry horribly about European golf in all this, but short of LIV’s format failing horribly it’s not going to run out of funds anytime soon.”
There’s been, without question, some damage to the game and I guess I wonder where does it end? Cry-baby behaviour doesn’t suit golf politics. It suits the game itself as and when necessary, it’s great to see on course meltdowns - but off the course there’s no room for boo-hoo or “poor me” here. At the top, this is still heading to court as the PGA and LIV battle it out for OWGR rankings and the right to exist/coexist in the space they both demand they deserve. The PGA detractors will argue LIV is doing to the PGA what the PGA did to the rest of the world when it demolished other tours and took the best players decades ago. If LIV wasn’t funded by a bloody regime I think they’d have many more backers in this argument; their funding may be unsavoury but their existence is fascinating.
Greg Norman, CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, shakes hands with fans during the team championship stroke-play round of the LIV Golf Invitational - Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on October 30, 2022 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images).
Interesting though that some of the players, the non whinging ones, have started to ask for resolution. I think many of them just accept LIV isn’t going anywhere and they just want to golf without this constant barrage of politics and whining.
I accept LIV is here to stay. I don’t have to like it, and I worry horribly about European golf in all this, but short of LIV’s format failing horribly it’s not going to run out of funds anytime soon. I wonder though where the climbdown begins. LIV’s climbdown needs to be to stop funding whining players every little whim. I don’t care if Ian Poulter wants to play every tour every where every week like a greedy pig, I don’t care for Patrick Reed crying foul because the big boys don’t like him and his rap sheet of former questionable behaviour makes him a target, or so he claims.
“There’s been silly petty behaviour from Sergio Garcia, also from Ian Poulter about his right to leave the tour that’s given him everything and then alongside a few others to complain vociferously/pathetically even litigiously about their right to play BOTH tours - which I have renamed spoilt-man-cake-and-eat-syndrome”
As for the PGA Tour, their climb down is tougher - it comes from the very top. They don’t have a right to claim superiority on anything except being around for longer. They can’t put their fingers in their ears and shout “la la la la la la” until it goes away. It isn’t. I’d love for both parties to sort their grievances before it goest to court. Probably wishful thinking. Both parties superiority complexes are very complex and gargantuan in size. Plenty of pigheadedness to overcome first.
Footnotes:
Yes Greg needs to go for this to progress.
Yes LIV golfers need to play 72 holes to get OGWR points
Yes indeed, having seen next year’s LIV schedule, I can confirm all players claiming they joined LIV to spend more time with their families are in for a bit of a shock unless they’re taking them on the road.
Georgie Bingham, broadcaster and journalist, writes a bi-weekly column for The Cut Stuff. She’s golf obsessed. She’s ready to go behind the tour.
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