The world of golf is deeply divided after 17 players were banned from participating in the controversial Saudi Tour.
Phil Mickelson offers a preview of what the new world of golf should look like.
“You hit the ball well, it was so much fun,” said the American star after his first round in what is perhaps the most controversial in the history of this noble sport. critical questions? Unsolicited: “I’m not ready to discuss anything PGA related.” Shortly before that, journalist Mickelson was prevented from attending the press conference by gorilla security.
The elite class of golf has been deeply divided since Thursday at the latest. In London, the inaugural event of the notorious LIV Golf Investments chain, funded by millions of Saudis, took place. And just minutes after the first springboard for co-stars there, such as Mickelson or German pro Martin Kaymer, the former industry leader PGA, took action.
The PGA Tour suspends 17 players
The PGA has banned 17 players from its tournaments, including six major winners in Mickelson, Kaymer and Dustin Johnson (USA), Sergio Garcia (Spain), Louis Oosthuizen and Charles Schwarzl (South Africa). Players who have decided instead to play for huge sums of money in the PGA in the future for ridiculous amounts of money in the LIV – even if it comes from the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, and therefore was created at the expense of gross violations of human rights.
‘I can understand why you played there,’ said Northern Ireland’s leading player Rory McIlroy, who himself resisted the dubious hype: ‘Everyone has a right to decide for themselves – but that’s not a good golf development.
In fact, a cleavage at the golfer’s top complicates many things. So far, whoever has won the most important PGA Championships has been the best in the world at the time. However, in the future, the winner of the Master, for example, will have to ask himself whether he will not be inferior to the Michelsons in the parallel world that day.
LIV Jumps Against the PGA Tour: “Revenge”
In purely monetary terms, LIV has an advantage over PGA. The most profitable PGA event of 2022 is the Players Championship, valued at $20 million, with $3.6 million in prize money for the winner and 41,000 for the runner-up. LIV’s inaugural advocacy tournament offers a total prize pool of $25 million, of which four million are for the winner and $120,000 for the runner-up.
Kaymer recently admitted: “I’d be lying if I said money isn’t a motivator” Sky Sports He confessed. Now the man from Mittmann, who has slipped to the world number 215 and has been waiting for a professional win for eight years now, is no longer in the top league of his career. On the other hand, Mickelson, who won the PGA Championship last year, trades in an athletic perspective for a lot of money.
It’s by no means the Mickelson family would have had to live exclusively on spaghetti with ketchup without the Saudi expense allowance – the 51-year-old has an income of about $800 million. Now the road to the most famous tournament is off limits for him, and he has also lost his right to start in the Ryder Cup, the classic comparison between the United States and Europe.
PGA’s actions are “revenge,” LIV stated in its first statement, “the rift between the Tour and its members has deepened. This is certainly not the last word.” The “Gulf War” may have just begun.