Scott O’Neil has mastered the now common human trait of saying a lot without actually saying anything at all. It’s all business talk and LinkedIn gunge that gets shoved down our throats from everyone in high positions.
I would not be surprised to see a post on LinkedIn from O’Neil providing an update on LIV’s situation saying we have been working closely with the team at LIV and have collaborated with a lot of different people who are passionate and driven as we strengthened relationships. He would probably sign off by saying: Forever grateful for all the incredible people, brands, businesses and clubs I’ve been lucky enough to work with since taking the role.
If you haven’t seen his LIV Indianapolis press conference. Grab yourself a good whiskey from the shelf and drink every time he says “transaction.” There are people you’d follow in to battle. O’Neil is someone you would actively avoid if he was sitting at the bar.
Rory McIlroy was absolutely dead right when he responded to a question about the value that LIV players could bring to the PGA Tour should they return. “Have they brought value to LIV?” He asked before swiftly moving on.
Anyone who is part of a company that squandered $6bn can’t honestly say they added anything to that enterprise. Even the players who are being referred to have been shocking.
Jon Rahm, sure he’s won plenty of individual titles but he’s been a disaster in the major championships. Bryson DeChambeau won a US Open but has ultimately flattered to deceive outside of that. Cam Smith doesn’t look like he remembers how to play golf while Brooks Koepka came back to the PGA Tour a dishevelled version of his former self.
From an Irish point of view Graeme McDowell went over as a has been in 2022 and continues to be just that. Tom McKibbin did well to win in Hong Kong last year and playing in all four majors has been good to see. But he hasn’t shone on LIV how I thought he would, outside of team events which do not count.
But you have to question how much these players actually care about their own performances given the petro pumped millions that are as gettable as low hanging fruit. The mask has been torn off those who moved to “grow the game” or “chose a different path.”
At least G Mac finally held his hands up and said he followed the money and all the stuff he said when he first joined in 2022 was nonsense.
LIV Golf is unwatchable and has been a disastrous failure from a product standpoint. The PGA Tour has become diluted and for the most part is also unwatchable. Golf courses that look the same from one week to the next. Main sponsors of traditional events are gone, classic golf courses have been replaced by TPC hit and giggle. The public are getting ripped off, sponsors are not getting bang for their buck and TV audiences are down.
The only people who are getting bang for their buck and who have come out as the big winners of golf’s feud over the last five years are the players themselves.
LIV events carry a purse of $30m while the PGA Tour retaliated with ‘Signature Events’ with purses of $20m as the DP World Tour players also competed for record prize pools. All proven to be unsustainable in the long term but all made hay while the sun shone.
The big losers are the public, paying more money to attend diluted events, paying more money for food and drink at said events and the classic Sunday night sit down to the PGA Tour isn’t what it used to be. The golf market is not big enough to cater for three main tours in the men’s game.
I said a few years ago that golf was in danger of becoming like tennis. It only matters four times a year. That is exactly what happened. The other winners in this feud have been the four majors and the Ryder Cup. It’s the only time the best players from all tours come together.
How many of us have made a conscious effort to sit down on a Sunday night for a few hours and watch golf on television since the Open Championship?
The DP World Tour may come out smelling the roses here too as many LIV players will be reinstated as members depending on previous criteria while others have entered Q-School. Once the FedEx Cup ends at the end of August, the best European players on the PGA Tour will play some big events on the DP World Tour, coupled with the beefing out of fields with LIV players, it will be a good autumn of European golf.
By that stage the future of LIV may be confirmed, or will it be a long dark winter of waiting? One thing is for sure. LIV has been great for the bank balances of the players who went but it hasn’t done anything for their careers.
If there are to be punishments handed out, wouldn’t it be gas to see some of them rocking up to the Alps Tour or HotelPlanner Tour, or Korn Ferry Tour on private jets or first class flights while their fellow competitors rent a Renault Modus?
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