Sunday will see a line drawn under the most memorable season in PGA Tour history, if not the tumult that rendered it so. At best, there’ll be a brief respite before the next announcement of defectors to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit. When it comes, it will closely resemble those that have preceded it: an accomplished player window-dressed with dross, whose bank accounts will soon be more impressive than their trophy cases ever promised to be.
The anticipated departure of Cameron Smith is the biggest coup LIV has managed and, as a fishing buddy of Tour brass, one sure to be keenly felt. The names alongside Smith’s will serve only to underline the uncomfortable reality that mediocrity pays awfully well on the PGA Tour, even for the perpetually winless. The most familiar among them might be Cameron Tringale, but only because he’s followed almost everyone on Twitter. As of Saturday, that number is 29,458, an almost incalculable multiple of the crowd he’s ever likely to draw through the turnstiles. Somewhere in Greg Norman’s conscience (stifle thy snorts!) he must dread a day when the Crown Prince Googles the achievements of the players for whom he is paying spectacularly over market value.
