Will Liv affect the PGA majorly? I think the Masters will invite whomever they want.

The LIV guys will still be able to play in 3 of the 4 majors. The PGA Championship will be the only one they won't play in.

The PGA Championship is supervised by the PGA of America, not the PGA Tour. Those are two different organizations.

PGA of America could allow LIV players if it wants to do so. It is not beholden to the Tour, by my understanding, and neither are the other majors. The Open (R&A), U.S. Open (USGA) and Masters are "friendly partners," or whatever you want to call it, with the Tour, but they're not the Tour.

So the LIV players could, possibly, still qualify for the majors and participate. The issue is WAGR points, which primarily are earned via PGA Tour events because it's the tops in the world. The LIV players hoping to earn points on the Asian Tour would have to play a lot of them and probably win a lot of them because the points aren't as equal. Nor are they on the DP or other tours.

So the "we want to play less golf" rings hollow if you're having to play 8 or 14 LIV events and another 6-10 Asian Tour events to try to get into the majors. That's upwards of 25 events -- as many or more than most of the current LIV (or Tour) players play now. So that "play less golf, be with family" bullchit is just that -- bullchit. It's all about money.


Hearing in court is going on right now in California about the three players seeking to play in the FedEx Cup, which starts Thursday in Memphis.

IMO the judge hearing the PGA v three LIV players lawsuit for a restraining order likely will allow them to play. There's a lot to parse and hear and read about both sides.

The hearing relevations are interesting:

— Taylor Gooch had quite extensive discussions with the PGA Tour (email, texts, etc), more than "they didn't tell me/us anything or much"

— Some LIV players' winnings count against their signing-upfront money. So if Joe Golfer signs for $20M and wins $7.4M in the hit-and-giggle "competition" it would come off the $20M. That's reportedly for some golfers but not all.

Judge makes some interesting comments:

— Being a monopoly isn't necessarily bad or illegal until you start using that power against your competition

— After LIV claimed it couldn't achieve a foothold due to PGA's overbearing ways, Judge says that it projects 20% market share and that's not being held back. It's something. Might not be what the Tour has but it's not zero or "nothing."


— Says she leans toward the Tour because the LIV players knew the consequences of their actions against the clearly-spelled out rules and also waited so late to file an injunction request.

So those players have no financial incentive to win?

Nope, not really. Some get their money up front, some get "some" money up front and others, and so on. Depends on the contract with LIV.

But none of them left the PGA Tour without contractural assurances of being paid in some way, with winnings as extra or knocked off the payment.

Those "tournaments" are just exhibitions, IMO. What is the motivation to play if you're already being paid handsomely. Just so you can say "Whee, I won a LIV event against 29 other people!"


It's sort of like the Tour Championship at East Lake for the Cup. Thirty guys play. No cut, everyone gets paid. A guy in 16th could knock it around and take his check and scram. Or, he could play hard to try to get into the Top 10 and make another $500K or more. Either way, he's getting paid. Depends on his personal motivations.

With no cut and "here's your check" it hits differently than going home with zero after two days.

PGA wins. The three LIV players cannot play in the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Where did the theme of completion go? The drive to win or beat a field? Some of the guys to first leave made a bunch in commercials alone before they left - not counting what they made on tour which was lot of $$$
Does anybody watch the LIV? Does anybody care? I don’t !! Did Liv just destroy the tour? Probably? Did it hurt our economy,tv market etc? Oh yea. Did the turbine heads/saudis accomplish what they wanted? Sure they did!! The tour is losing best players on regular basis so loser = tour

Hope the Saudies don’t get to our other sports - but I would hope those guys would hav a competitive backbone

If it was a deal or agreement from within our own country - and something that helped our own country it would feel a little different and every man for himself sort of thing in the theme of bettering yourself. I hope I never take a paycheck from the devil
The LIV playing format actually sounds very lame - don’t matter where u finish u get paid either way - just show up. Kind of like the participation trophies idiots started giving out last 5-10 years! Glad my age group never got participation trophies!! You had to earn it - life or succeeding is earned not given!! Winning and doing well matters - well - at least it should. Hard work is what built this country - not just show up and get a freaking trophy crap - bout why liv sounds like

I am done w LIV talk - waste of my time and it does zero for our country in a positive way and it don’t say a lot for the guys that participate in it! I guess they could b bought - that’s not a complement

Money makes the world go round and these guys are basically securing multi generational wealth for their families. Sure, Cam Smith may have earned 100M over the next 10 to 15 years. Or he may have run into back problems and never won another tournament. I can't blame them for taking the upfront guarantee