2022 PGA Tour
- Thread starter cshea
- Start date
You should bring your wife and daughters to Saudi for the interview. I'm sure the money will be worth their experience.I wonder how much they are paying the employees if the tour, I might want to go work there
If the stories about the workers building the Qatar World Cup stadiums are anything to go by, I wouldn't hold your breath.I wonder how much they are paying the employees if the tour, I might want to go work there
(FWIW, I *very* briefly pondered the idea of applying to be a part of LIV's commentary team. I mean, I've always dreamed of being a golf commentator, and there are very few ways of becoming one, and I imagined the money I might make from that gig would be considerable. But I also have a soul, so it wasn't a serious internal debate.)
I'm watching Featured Groups coverage of the Scottish Open, and Viktor Hovland just shanked a short-iron into the 4th green and then went right underneath his attempted pitch from deep rough and moved his ball about two inches. (And then he hit his second attempt at the pitch about 50 feet past the hole.) Scottie Scheffler, playing with Hovland, hit a long putt on the 18th green 30 feet past the hole and down a slope off of the green; he and Rahm both double-bogeyed the 18th while Hovland bogeyed it. And it's not ever that windy, by normal Scottish standards. They've speculated that some of the guys who played in the pro-am in Ireland on Monday and Tuesday are now playing on a very different course in very different conditions and haven't had the time to prepare properly for it.
LIV will probably try to take some of the PGA announcers which might create an opening for a guy like you
I kid I kid
It's pretty amazing that they've spent probably close to $2B just on players alone and there's no path to profitability in the near to medium term.
They have money to burn. I'm not even sure if they care if LIV itself is profitable.
We are all living in an economy powered, in part, by Saudi oil that we've bought. But to your question, if it was $100 million from the Saudis, it would depend on what else came with that, and also the chances of me earning something close to that on the regular Tour.
If it was me and I get $100M to golf or do some other inconsequential activity instead of be some variety of the corporate pencil pusher I am today, yes I would likely compromise my morals and accept the money. If I were a pro golfer and the option was PGA or LIV for $100M, the decision would be more complicated.
Says the guy that's never turned down $100M (guaranteed and most of it upfront).
The only time it would be a tough decision is if you were already making 100s of millions from endorsements (ala Rory and Tiger). Otherwise, regular Tour income doesn't even come close.
The biggest part of it being "more complicated" is I'm not remotely close to being a Tour golfer so who the hell knows what motivates me. For some guys it's money. For others it's competition. I don't know where I'd fall in that spectrum given I'm so far removed I can barely see it.
In addition to the bags of money, most of them are also punting the opportunity to play in majors and build a legacy.
It is. I have no idea what I would do if I was in my 20s, had already earned 25M playing golf, and was just offered 100M to play easier golf under similar circumstances. I wonder if the LIV players are contractually bound *not* to publicly support causes anathema to the Saudi way of doing things?
As part of the bags of money, they are now employees. Guys who have spent their whole lives as independent contractors doing what they want now have a boss, even if they don’t realize it. They have signed away their entire identity as pro golfers for good.
Everything is all parties and hugs and corporate jets for now, but wait until Brooks’ knee is sore and he can’t skip a pro am with a Sheik before an event. Wait until DJ wants to go fishing and he needs to fly around the world to do meet and greets. Wait until they expand to 16 events next year and are told too bad so sad. Wait until Greg Norman comes up with some stupid idea I haven’t even thought of. All while they continually get paraded up to parrot talking points that are continuously mocked and they’re mostly ostracized by their former peers.
I dont particularly blame them for taking the money, but Rory basically said it best. Most people take the money…but any decision based purely on money rarely works out well.
These guys are going to have to show to work 16 weeks a year even when they don't feel like it? And they only get paid generational wealth? God help them.
In more fun news, wind is whipping in Scotland today. These 2 weeks might be my favorite weeks on the golf calendar.
I'm amazed at some of he shots these guys hit out of the straw. It's so hard just to get your club through that crap.
FWIW, I don't think it's going to be quite as strong this afternoon as it was yesterday afternoon; the early/late wave has a significant advantage over the late/early starters.
Speaking as someone who has played three rounds in the past six days hitting shot after shot out of exactly that sort of straw, I heartily co-sign this. (EDIT - that said, I've not been impressed by the putting I've seen out there so far this week, especially lag putting.)
By the way, what commentators are you guys getting back in the States? I've heard that the weekend is going to be on CBS; are they going to have Nantz/Faldo et al. over here, I'm wondering?
Thirded. I spent too much of this past Tuesday in that crap, and it's a brutal shot for me just to get it out and advance it a little bit. As has been noted many times though the years, they're playing a different game.
Fowler is going to find himself in a very unfamiliar position by the time this round is over.
Rickie is going to be playing with our new US Open champion tomorrow, in the fourth-from-last group. The group after them is Xander Schauffele and Jordan Smith, the latter of whom earned both himself and his caddie a car by acing #17 today:
View: https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1545374954044243973
Could be a great weekend - everyone who made the cut is within 7 shots of second place, the wind should drop just a touch on Sunday (but still be pretty strong tomorrow), and let's just say that Cameron Tringale going wire-to-wire to win his first ever PGA Tour event isn't in anybody's script. Oh, and Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm - both at even par - will be playing together tomorrow. Yummy.
Disappointed we didn't get the Jordan S---th pairing for tomorrow - if Smith had made par at the 18th, he'd be playing with Spieth.
Man alive, I can’t wait for next week
View: https://twitter.com/kyleportercbs/status/1545847946494763010?s=21&t=0-bkFy6Mxq3vQzJ8jkzaTQ
View: https://twitter.com/kyleportercbs/status/1545847946494763010?s=21&t=0-bkFy6Mxq3vQzJ8jkzaTQ
As evidenced by that "birdie putt" that Schauffele just had. Pretty great 2 putt.
He's legitimately the one guy on Tour I don't trust to make anything over three feet right now.
Well done Xander, btw. That was a pretty gritty back nine after the horror show to end his front nine.