Tiger back, Rory and Scottie’s world number one battle ongoing, Jordan Spieth playing well, Justin Thomas’ resurgence, Wyndham Clark continuing to rise, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg, Max Homa and any number of other big-name PGA Tour stars in attendance, the Genesis Invitational should be a big deal.
And it is. Given how often we get to see Woods in action, anytime he plays is a bonus, but try as I might, I can’t escape the nagging feeling that there’s an increased hollowness to most PGA Tour events, especially the Signature Events.
By making them limited field, generally no-cut events – yes, the Genesis will have a cut, but 20 players is the absolute maximum that will find themselves with the weekend off after round two is in the books – the potential for somebody having a life-changing week is virtually zero. Yes, somebody will win, somebody will get presented with a trophy by Tiger Woods and get their name on a roll of honour that includes the likes of Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and a host of the other legends of the game, and somebody will get a cheque for $4 million – and a Genesis GV80 Coupé to boot – but realistically, nobody outside of the 70 players, caddies and their families, really cares about the latter.
Does a limited field really take away from the achievement of winning? A little, I’d argue, but only a little. Those on the outside looking in simply haven’t proven that they deserve their place in the field, meaning it’s difficult to point to any one individual and say they’d have played well, harder still to point to one and say he’d have contended, but as a cohort, at least one would have made waves.
But that’s not it. Not having Shane Lowry in the field is a disappointment from an Irish point of view, but not to the extent that would result in the sense of hollowness I’m feeling.
It’s not the course. Riviera remains one of my favourite venues to watch the professionals play because it asks strategic and imaginative questions. Despite length being an obvious advantage, it’s not a bomber’s paradise where the big-hitters can just wail away, find it and play on. To win here, you need to be firing on all cylinders. But most of all, it’s an historic venue, beautiful to the eye, and yeah, it’s got that little bit of Tinseltown woven into its fabric.
And it’s not the money either. PGA Tour golfers have played for oversized purses for years now, and the fact that the purses have gotten bigger makes little difference. The $20 million prize fund neither whets the appetite or detracts, it’s just there, sitting on the sideline, immaterial to me as a viewer, as a writer and as a fan.
No, what this tournament lacks – and what all PGA Tour events have lacked over the past two years – is having almost all of the best players in the world in attendance.
This week, there’s no defending champion. The 2022 winner isn’t in the field either, come to think of it, and he didn’t get the chance to defend his title last year, but this event used to have virtually all of the best players in the game teeing it up. Jon Rahm, by himself, is not enough to make or break a tournament, but coupled with fellow former champions like Dustin Johnson, Joaquinn Niemann, Bubba Watson, and Phil Mickelson, not to mention the other five or six LIV players who are undoubtedly good enough, it’s undeniable that it’s a much weaker and much less exciting event without these players involved.
Yes, they’ve made their beds. Yes, they got handsomely rewarded for moving to LIV, and yes, they knew exactly what the likely penalties would be for doing so. I’m not mourning their absence for them, I’m mourning it for me.
Because this is the future of the PGA Tour – at least for the next couple of years. We’ll see it again at Bay Hill in a couple of weeks, see it at The Players Championship the week after. In fact, we’re going to see it at all of the supposed big PGA Tour events until such time as agreement is reached that will see those good enough be allowed return and compete on the PGA Tour again.
Regardless of your opinion on LIV, on the players who helped build it, on the source of the money, on the product they deliver or on the competitive format they’ve set, it’s the golf fan, experiencing a feeling of hollowness at what was once one of the most highly anticipated PGA Tour tournaments of the year, that’s the real loser.
I’ll still watch, especially on Sunday – and not just because it’s my job to do so – but the tournament doesn’t mean what it once did.
And whatever way you look at it, that’s bitterly disappointing.
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