62 Wednesday June 8 2022 | the times
SportGolf
After months of talk about human
rights, sportswashing, “obscene”
money and even Mel C’s DJ set, Saudi
Arabia’s golf disruptors got down to
business yesterday. Dustin Johnson led
a wave of resignations from the PGA
Tour, Kevin Na predicted LIV Golf
would become the premier world series
and Phil Mickelson jetted in to join
people he had previously dubbed “scary
motherf***ers”. Greg Norman main-
tains he does not want a fight but it was
24 hours when knuckle-dusters shared
prominence with bluster.
As one journalist followed a former
White House press secretary and now
LIV Golf man out of a tent in St Albans,
with questions about “blood money”
falling on deaf ears, the surreal impact
of the Saudi rebel series was clear.
Three months ago Rory McIlroy
claimed the project was “dead in the
water” and needed Tiger Woods. We
are now told Woods rejected an offer of
close to a billion dollars to join the
breakaway, but the LIV Golf Invitation-
al Series, led by Norman and paid for by
the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, is alive
and shin-kicking.
For a saga that has been rumbling on
for two years, this was a big day. It began
when Mickelson, 51 and a six-times
major winner, ended the self-imposed
exile prompted when his machinations
with the Saudis were exposed. His
grouse with the PGA Tour centres on
what he claims is “obnoxious” greed
over media rights and a belief it is run as
a coercive dictatorship. He has now
committed to playing the inaugural
event at Centurion Club near St Albans,
starting tomorrow, and denied he had
signed up because of gambling losses.
Then LIV Golf put its first players
before the media at Centurion. Dustin
Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Louis
Oosthuizen faced the mood music.
Johnson, 37, the highest-ranked player
in the field at 15 and not normally one to
overdo the overthinking, said he had
resigned from the PGA Tour. Oost-
huizen, Sergio García and Charl
Schwartzel, all major winners, have
done likewise. Na, the world No 34, also
quit, saying he wanted to be a “free
agent”. He took issue with the idea he
was taking a risk and said he expected
the LIV Golf series to become a super
league with world-ranking points, thus
keeping the majors on the radar.
The Ryder Cup situation looks more
problematic. Seth Waugh, chief execu-
tive of the PGA of America, has already
said that US Ryder Cup players need
to be members of the PGA Tour to
be eligible. McDowell, who has not
resigned from anything, asked whether
it would be healthy if European players
who had done much for the biennial
contest ended up banned. All the Euro-
peans remain hopeful and the DP
World Tour is saying little.
“When you look at the European
Rebels can play
at next major
despite leaving
the PGA Tour
play in next week’s US Open near
Boston. They issued a statement saying:
“We simply asked ourselves this ques-
tion — should a player who had earned
his way into the 2022 US Open, via our
criteria, be pulled out of the field as a
result of his decision to play in another
event? We decided that they should not.”
The majors are run by four different
governing bodies and not the main
tours. Johnson’s resignation is the most
worrying for the PGA and DP World
Tours, which have refused to issue
releases for their members to play in
Hertfordshire. Jay Monahan, the PGA
Tour commissioner, has threatened
rebels with life bans, and it is believed
the players tendering their resignations
have done so to avoid that affecting
their eligibility for the majors.
“For right now, I resigned my mem-
bership from the Tour,” said Johnson,
the 2020 Masters and 2016 US Open
champion. “I’m going to play here for
now. That’s the plan. I can’t comment
on how the Tour is going to handle it.”
Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open cham-
pion, explained his resignation by say-
ing this was going to be his last year on
the PGA Tour anyway, but Johnson’scontinued from back
Who leads the teams
The organisers have announced the
names of the 12 team captains and
the names of their four-man teams.
New teams are picked before each
tournament:
Dustin Johnson (captain of 4 Aces)
Graeme McDowell (Niblicks)
Ian Poulter (Majesticks)
Kevin Na (Iron Heads)
Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger)
Martin Kaymer (Cleeks)
Peter Uihlein (Crushers)
Phil Mickelson (Hi Flyers)
Sergio García (Fire Balls)
Sihwan Kim (Smash)
Talor Gooch (Torque)
Wade Ormsby (Punch)How the team competition works:
Best two of four strokeplay scores
for the first two rounds, best three
for the last roundThe beaming smiles of four players put on stage by LIV Golf at Centurion ClubLouis Oosthuizen Dustin Johnson
surely has a shelf life, though, and the
plan is to morph into a super league in
2024, with Na pointing out where this
may really be heading. “I feel like LIV
Golf has the potential to be the next
world stage,” the American said. “I
envisage it as being the world tour. I like
to use the word ‘super-league’. This has
the potential to have the best players in
the world. I feel this is an opportunity to
be part of something that’s going to be
amazing in the future.”
The players all think they will remain
eligible for the majors, and the US
Open confirmed those who have quali-
fied are welcome at Brookline next
week. Na does not think a Ryder Cup
exile will follow either. “In my opinion
that’s not going to happen. No one has
made an announcement
about not being eligible for
the Ryder Cup.”
As for the banishment
from the PGA Tour, Nor-
man insists that LIV Golf
will defend players and
reimburse them for any
fines that are imposed.
Those resigning have side-
stepped a sanction, but it is still sure-
ly heading for a court battle and an
anti-trust lawsuit sometime soon.
And amid the trashy talk about
growing games and changing
Saudi Arabia, there was also a
concession that money shouts
in golf. “Myself, Dustin and
Louis have played all around
the world for 20 years chasing
pay cheques,” McDowell said.
“Outside the majors and the
Ryder Cups, it’s a business.” A big
and risky one.McDowell: We’re
proud to help the
Saudis on journey
The field at Centurion Club
All 48 players taking part,
sorted by world rankingD Johnson
L Oosthuizen
K Na
T Gooch
S Garcia
R Bland
S Norris
M Jones
P Larrazabal
P Mickelson
S Horsfield
L Westwood
R Kinoshita
S Vincent
I Poulter
B Wiesberger
H Swafford
O Bekker
J Kozuma
J Harding
S Kaewkanjana
L Canter
B Grace
C Schwartzel
H Du Plessis
P Khongwatmai
S Kim
JC Ritchie
A Otaegui
H Tanihara
M Kaymer
J Morgan
B Windred
W Ormsby
R 'TK' Chantananuwat*
P Uihlein
I Snyman
G McDowell
T Smyth
V Madappa
I Buranatanyarat
T Pettit
O Fisher
K Yuan
A Ogletree
C Koepka
D Puig*
J Piot*AgeWorld
ranking
37
39
38
30
42
49
40
42
39
51
25
49
30
30
46
36
34
37
27
36
23
32
34
37
25
23
33
28
29
43
37
22
24
42
15
32
24
42
27
24
29
23
33
25
24
28
20
2315
21
34
35
57
67
68
69
70
72
74
78
89
91
92
94
95
96
106
109
118
119
123
126
133
136
139
156
165
180
215
239
259
265
269
327
367
374
395
493
591
600
1,034
1,050
1,371
1,562
1,751
1,751
*AmateurTour and the players that are here this
week, they have done a huge amount
for the Ryder Cup,” McDowell, a
potential future captain, said. “It would
be a shame to see those guys not invited
back.”
The ball is now in the court of those
who want to preserve the status quo
and quash the upstarts. The PGA Tour
commissioner, Jay Monahan, has
threatened players with a lifetime ban
for joining a rival series. The DP World
Tour has not had any resignations but is
understood to be restricted to sanction-
ing players with fines that will be ren-
dered meaningless given that Norman
says he has $2 billion worth of backing.
It is not all golden oldies. Ratchanon
Chantananuwat is 15 and recently be-
came the youngest winner on a tour
recognised by the world golf rankings.
He was put up by the organisers yester-
day and looked almost mystified as
others shifted uncomfortably.
He said he was looking forward to the
team draft last night. Others may be
interested in LIV Golf’s press releases
about Mel C and the nightly concerts.
McDowell is old enough to concede
this is all spicy and divisive, with Bob
MacIntyre, the down-to-earth shinty-
playing Scot who is not involved,
lamenting the “obscene” pay packets.
When questions about Saudi Arabia’s
human rights record were raised, the
others on the stage at Centurion were
happy to hide behind McDowell’s ill-
fated attempts to answer. While some
argue that golfers should not be held to
any different level of scrutiny than the
UK government, Uber and Newcastle
United, others point out the exception-
al circumstances in which the man
chairing a fund for the golf has also
been accused of sanctioning the
murder of a journalist at the Saudi
consulate. Even Mickelson called the
Saudis scary in his infamous phone call
to his unofficial biographer.
McDowell’s take: “As golfers, if we
tried to cure geopolitical situations in
every country of the world that we play
golf in then we wouldn’t play a lot of
golf. Listen, this has been incredibly
polarising. Take the [Jamal] Khashoggi
situation. We all agree that’s reprehen-
sible. Nobody is going to argue that fact.
We are not politicians. I know you guys
hate that expression but we really are
not, unfortunately.”
He should have stopped
there but added: “If Sau-
di Arabia wanted
to use the game
of golf as a way
for them to get where
they want to be — and
they have the resources
to accelerate that experi-
ence — I think we’re
proud to help them on that
journey.”
If golf can get over any
moral qualms, which seems a
given, the future looks clouded.
At the moment players are mak-
ing much of the novelty of
three-day tournaments with no
cut and a team element. ThatRick Broadbent
Johnson is among the players to
have resigned from the PGA Tour