Phil Mickelson dropped a touch about LIV’s future; how a lot can we learn into it?
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Phil Mickelson mentioned one thing attention-grabbing on Thursday. Or possibly he didn’t. However we will marvel.
This weekend marks the ultimate competitors of LIV Golf’s 2024 season. Whereas the person competitors wrapped up final week in Chicago, this week marks the group championship, held for the primary time at Maridoe Golf Membership in Dallas. The conclusion of the league’s third season has LIV gamers looking forward to subsequent 12 months and past. Nevertheless it’s not possible to look to subsequent 12 months and past with out questioning how LIV’s future intersects with the PGA Tour’s future; any settlement between the 2 stays in complicated, protracted limbo.
Mickelson’s feedback got here close to the tip of a Thursday press convention, which started with LIV’s group captains choosing their opponents for weekend match play and completed with questions in regards to the league extra broadly. It was really Martin Kaymer who first broached the topic, responding to a query about what he hopes for going into 2025.
“At first, I feel all of us want to know that LIV continues to be a startup,” Kaymer mentioned. “They began solely two and a half, three years in the past, and the place we’ve come to up to now at this time has been completely superb.” He cited the necessity for additional changes “till we get all of it completely proper.” However he additionally prompt a notable tweak to the schedule.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do subsequent 12 months, if possibly the group facet will stand extra in — let’s say extra — I assume the place the group is extra vital than the person scores, so there are lots of talks happening proper now. That will be unbelievable as a result of that is what LIV is all about, the group facet.”
Louis Oosthuizen chimed in, echoing that team-first method.
“I feel going ahead all of us really feel that the group aspect of it, it’s going to in all probability take over and LIV Golf goes to in all probability be extra group than something,” he mentioned.
That’s the place Mickelson chimed in, first teasing the concept there stays curiosity from exterior gamers to signal with LIV — “Sure,” he mentioned, although he declined to broaden past that — earlier than he expanded on the thought of LIV doubling down on group play.
“The match play, the head-to-head facet of it’s bringing a special dynamic, a special really feel, a special vitality,” he mentioned. “And I feel the wonderful thing about LIV Golf is the flexibility to pivot and alter and do issues a bit bit extra fluid than different excursions, and possibly that is one thing we take a look at sooner or later having extra group occasions all year long moderately than simply the season-ending. This can be a lot of enjoyable. We’re all having fun with it. There’s extra curiosity. You discover there’s much more laughter, much more attention-grabbing matchups.
“I feel this week is mostly a particular week. It’s an thrilling week, and I feel it resonates extra with lots of followers, and possibly we must always do that a bit bit extra typically.”
So how ought to we learn into these feedback and the way do they hook up with the bigger golf world? One interpretation can be that it is a bunch of nothing, simply guys speaking off-the-cuff at a press convention. Possibly they’re trumpeting the deserves of group match play as a result of this week they’re taking part in group match play, the best way you would possibly go bowling for the primary time shortly and say to your buddies, “y’know, we actually have to go bowling extra typically.”
However I doubt it. When Mickelson speaks publicly he often means one thing by it. And the captains’ alignment on the topic suggests they’ve no less than spoken internally about this team-first emphasis, which, by the best way, isn’t any small change: it will signify a major departure for the league. Whereas LIV has marketed itself as a team-first product — the uniforms, the captains, the franchises — the mechanics of the league have nonetheless rewarded and prioritized particular person stroke play. Particular person purses have dwarfed group purses and group winnings reportedly return to the franchise moderately than the people, anyway. Most weeks, the group facet has felt like an add-on to the person competitors moderately than the focus. What they’re speaking about, then, is the “capability to pivot” to one thing totally different: a league that may be team-first for the primary time in fashionable skilled golf historical past.
This looks like a good suggestion for just a few causes. For one, it will additional differentiate LIV from different golf leagues; regardless of its shotgun-start, 54-hole format LIV continues to be stroke-play golf on the weekends, similar to the PGA Tour and each different big-time tour, too. For an additional, group match play is a reliably thrilling model of golf — within the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup and Presidents Cup, no less than. The Cleeks, up thus far, don’t have the identical built-in fan base as the US of America, however the format no less than has promise. Plus, LIV doesn’t have a lot to lose; it has already deserted its quest for World Rating factors and their sagging TV rankings counsel that one thing has to alter, in order that they have the pliability to take action. And if long-term worth is the objective, leaning additional into the group facet might theoretically juice the worth of the league’s franchises.
Let’s not cease there, although. Include me one step additional on this connect-the-dots journey. Let’s circle again to this concept that skilled golf is looking for a means ahead the place the PGA Tour and LIV can exist in the identical universe and overlap extra typically than simply the majors. Whereas there was some sensationalist reporting earlier this week that the sticking level in negotiations is Jon Rahm and different LIV execs paying again signing bonuses, sources I’ve spoken with don’t give that a lot credence. As a substitute the larger questions contain the Division of Justice, the dimensions of the Saudi Public Funding Fund’s funding and — this one’s our focus right here — how one can incorporate a model of LIV into the PGA Tour’s schedule.
Too many individuals with an excessive amount of cash and delight have gone too far down the LIV path to simply fold up store; that appears unlikely at this level. However maybe if LIV focuses extra in what makes it totally different — the group facet — it’s simpler to shift it from a direct competitor to a complementary piece of the professional golf puzzle. Maybe there’s a world the place group golf stays as LIV’s legacy, that group schedule folds into the PGA Tour schedule, the franchises proceed exist and LIV’s particular person gamers have a pathway to play in PGA Tour occasions.
None of that is going to occur shortly. That a lot is evident by now. Not everyone needs the identical factor, both. However there are indicators of schemes and indicators of compromise. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler arranging a made-for-TV match with Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. The PGA of America clarifying that LIV golfers shall be eligible for the PGA Championship and U.S. Ryder Cup group going ahead. The DP World Tour working with Jon Rahm and others to permit them to attraction their sanctions and compete within the meantime. And now, for the primary time, we may very well be seeing LIV make a change that makes it extra appropriate with the remainder of the golf world.
Professional golf’s unified future requires assembling a puzzle. In time we’ll see whether or not the stakeholders wish to discover a option to match it collectively — or in the event that they’d want to drop the field on the bottom, sending vital items skittering below the sofa.
