Facts: The LIV tour
LIV Golf is the official name of the new golf tour that will compete with the established PGA Tour in the USA and the DP World Tour in Europe.
The tour is financed by Saudi Arabia’s government investment fund and the total prize pool is 255 million dollars (just over 2.5 billion Swedish kronor). The country is accused of trying to wash away its reputation (“sportswashing”) when it comes to, for example, human rights through sport.
The biggest names to choose to play on the tour are Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter.
All have now been suspended from play on the PGA Tour. Some of them have already resigned their membership on the American tour, but for example Mickelson and Poulter have not done so.
Bryson DeChambeau, who won the US Open 2020 major, is also ready for the tour, but the 28-year-old did not play the premiere competition outside London last week.
The competitions on the LIV tour are played over 54 holes, without a qualifying limit with 48 players divided into twelve four-man teams.
The premiere competition was won by the South African Charl Schwartzel, US Masters winner in 2011. He received the victory check of SEK 47 million after going the three rounds of seven under par. American Andy Ogletree last finished at +24, but received around SEK 1.2 million for the inconvenience.
Eight competitions will be played during the premiere season. The grand final team final is played at Trump National Doral Miami, where the winning team’s winning pot is raised from five million dollars to 50 million dollars, corresponding to just over 491 million Swedish kronor.
World stars such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood have all chosen to leave the American PGA Tour to play on the cash-strapped LIV Tour, which has a total prize pool of SEK 2.5 billion. Johnson, for example, is also said to have received a total of SEK 1.2 billion just to play the tour’s competitions.
The PGA Tour has long threatened with action and at the same time as the premiere competition started outside London last week, the LIV players were reached by the news that they will be suspended from the American tour.
The European tour has not yet come with a similar message, but regardless of what happens in the future, men’s golf is currently being shaken to its foundations.
May play US Open
– I do not think it is good for golf, says the legend Annika Sörenstam to TT when she arranges her junior competition Annika Invitational at Vasatorp’s golf club outside Helsingborg.
– Then I’m not involved in any way. I have no “inside information”, but we can only hope that there will be a good solution in the long term, she continues.
The American Golf Association (USGA) has allowed the “Saudi stars” to participate in this week’s major US Open outside Boston, Massachusetts, but it is currently unclear what will happen to this year’s final men’s major British Open in mid-July.
At the moment, Sörenstam can not see that the new tour contributes anything positive to the golf world.
– What I have seen so far is not positive, but rather separates players, sponsors, partners and organizations, I feel that, says the ten-time major winner.
Sörenstam does not want to comment on the Saudi-backed venture, which is led by former major player Greg Norman, more than that. Then the 51-year-old prefers to talk about last week’s Scandinavian Mixed, which she hosted together with star colleague Henrik Stenson.
“Good for golf”
The competition in Halmstad was a great success when the Swedish shooting star Linn Grant won by as many as nine strokes. The Swede thus became the first woman to win a competition that was also part of the men’s European tour.
– Of course it was impressive from Linn right from the first round. Glad to see that she was holding over the weekend and on Sunday it felt like she was putting in another gear. She just ran away from the others in the starting field.
Grant’s progress resonated with the world. Not only Swedish newspapers wrote about the historic victory but also international news agencies and newspapers gave the 22-year-old and the mixed competition a lot of space.
– Great fun for the competition, Swedish golf and women’s golf in general. Linn and Scandinavian Mixed are worth that space in the press. This shows that the concept works and it is good for golf, says Annika Sörenstam.