Fans watch on the 17th hole during the LIV Golf Invitational Series Chicago in Sugar Grove, Ill., Sept. 18.
Photo:
Brian Spurlock/Zuma Press
The latest battle in the golf-tour wars was fought this weekend in Chicago, where the upstart LIV staged an event featuring shotgun starts, booming music, skills tests for fans, and a growing list of players who have bolted from the straitlaced PGA Tour for what the new circuit calls “Golf, But Louder.”
Phil Mickelson
collected a reported $200 million to join LIV, backed by Saudi Arabia’s $620 billion Public Investment Fund.
Dustin Johnson
and
Bryson DeChambeau
got more than $100 million each. The latest big-name defector, 2022 British Open champ
Cameron Smith,
signed for a similar sum before his LIV debut this month in Boston, where commissioner
Greg Norman
parachuted to the first tee and tossed beers to fans.
The golf establishment had hoped LIV would be on life support by now. Instead it kept making headlines and converts. Last month the PGA Tour announced multimillion-dollar boosts in prize money and a new guaranteed minimum of $500,000 a year for players who stay in the fold. Loyalists including Tiger Woods, who turned down more than $700 million to join LIV, and
Rory McIlroy
are teaming up for “Monday Night Golf.” Such long-overdue innovations might not have happened without pressure from LIV.
Pressure is one thing; “blood money” is another. That is how
Bob Costas
describes LIV’s wealth, charging defectors with helping the Saudi regime “sportswash” its human-rights record. Opponents dubbed LIV the Bonesaw Tour, a reference to Saudi assassins killing journalist
Jamal Khashoggi.
Donald Trump,
who hosted a LIV event at his course in…
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