Graeme McDowell has produced so many big moments in his career that have come against the odds whether it be in the Ryder Cup, a major championship, or beating Tiger Woods in his own backyard in 2010.
Forever a battler, a grinder and someone to admire. Someone who got the absolute maximum out of his swing and his game during a fantastic career.
On Friday night G Mac rolled back the years and produced the goods as he holed a putt worth the $5million he has earned on LIV Golf, despite doing absolutely nothing of note for two years.
But form is temporary and class is permanent and up stepped the 2010 US Open champion to send the mighty Cheeks through after he and Bernd Wiesberger held off… Matt Jones… and Jed Morgan… Who? And the funny thing is nobody gave a damn.
There were jubilant scenes among McDowell and his Cleeks teammates and rightly so. Whatever you think about LIV Golf, to hole a putt to win in dramatic circumstances is a thrilling feeling at any level of golf. However, this is supposed to be one of the flagship events on the Saudi backed tour and frankly, you would see more spectators at a Barton Cup.
Earlier that day Mexican player Carlos Ortiz hit a stunning shot to a par-3 to win his match. The video did the usual rounds on social media as LIV Golf cherrypicked the finer moments. But what was most noticeable was the emphatic applause of the crowd. All three of them. You could literally hear all three people in attendance clapping.
The reality is that not many people care about LIV Golf, despite the constant parading by players as this new utopia in contrast to the same old boring regime on the PGA Tour. The proof is literally in the pudding.
You’d get more of an atmosphere at mass!
Poorly attended events are not unique to LIV but what makes LIV Golf unique is that they have spent in excess of a billion dollars to create this soulless arena and it makes you wonder as the breakaway tour looks set for a third year, is this really proper golf?
The format? Yeah, the PGA and DP World Tours could go for something like that, but then again the Golf World Cup filled that void and hasn’t been played since 2018. The PGA Tour also hosts team tournaments every season so in essence, is the LIV Golf Team Championship just a poor man’s Zurich Classic?
In the interest of balance, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are no stranger to soulless events, does anyone watch the DP World Tour on a regular basis anymore given the lack of star quality? The DP World Tour has long been dismissed as a feeder tour to the PGA Tour, but LIV looks like a retirement home. 48 players having testimonials. Exhibition, although perhaps not given the poor crowds!
Outside of a few standout events in Europe, many are poorly attended anyway and plenty of PGA Tour events lack any sort of atmosphere so again, LIV isn’t alone in this regard.
Other than the Australian swing LIV put on earlier this year, the crowds have been shockingly bad, despite the claims of growth from Greg Norman.
Perhaps LIV need to rethink where they host tournaments as US events on the PGA Tour aren’t always particularly well attended.
The Irish Golfer staff travel the length and breadth of the country following the Irish amateur championships and as a matter of fact, you get more fans and a better atmosphere at events than has been seen at the LIV Team Championship.
What is remarkable about Saudi Arabia is their willingness to spend money without consequence – if you have it, spend it. But what they have done in golf is pour around a billion on four or five genuinely massive names and not much else. Brooks Koepka admitted money was the sole factor on a recent podcast but in reality he, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith are just putting an unrealistic gloss on some mediocre fields.
This isn’t uncommon, the same scenario is happening with the Saudi Pro League. Stadiums are packed out to see Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema and co but just down the road, former Liverpool and England captain Jordan Henderson is hacking around in front of 900 fans for a team managed by Steven Gerrard.
That’s not proper football and LIV is not proper golf and one has to wonder how long the Saudis will keep paying for this product when they are getting little or nothing in return.
Leave a comment