LIV vs PGA

I have few joys life. Running on the treadmill. The morning crossword. Watching my golfer double bogey the first hole knowing I’m out of it before 1.3% of the tournament is over. Thursday morning watching the ESPN PGA leaderboard update is about the most fun I have. Unfortunately, LIV has compromised this drastically as the players playing in the PGA are not what they once were as evidence by the Honda Classic this week.

Watching Full Swing has only added to my disdain for the LIV golfers. These big name players, who can still play, have jumped shipped for the money because they don’t know if they can hack it against the world’s best. They decide that these MONSTER pay checks at this point in their careers are worth it. I understand that for guys like Casey, Garcia, Mickelson, Perez, Poulter, Stenson, Watson, or Westwood, they are in their career twilights and making money means more to them as it provides an even loftier standard for their families. This was clear when Poulter, who cherishes his singles record in the Ryder Cup, gave up his chance to be captain by leaving for LIV. This doesn’t bother me…much.

The issue is guys like Ancer, Brooks, Bryson, Cam, DJ, Grace, Leishman, Mito, Niemann, and Reed jump ship. Also, what’s a guy like David Puig doing coming right out of college into the league? Out of the 10 guys I named, at least some would be playing in the Honda Classic to make it more entertaining. Honda’s biggest names are Sungjae Im and Shane Lowry. That’s wretched. This is a watered down PGA event that has very little, to almost no, interest. That’s bad for fans and LIV is a major reason why if you smell what I’m cooking.

I’m trying to find a reason to like the LIV tour and can’t. The team format is dumb and boring. You can’t actually watch it without effort. The players aren’t in it for the competition. It’s supposed to be loud? True fans don’t want loud. They want the best competing against one another and not taking Saudi money. Money can be a great motivator and also a great deflator. Once you get paid, it’s no longer for the love of the game. Oh well. Onward to 2 shitty golf event this week.