With golf’s FedEx playoffs set to commence Thursday, we now realize we were short-sighted back in May when we suggested that Dallas’ Big Three of Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris were here to save the AT&T Byron Nelson. We now understand they are here to save the PGA Tour.
What a wild, turbulent ride the normally placid golf world has traveled in 2022. The PGA Tour remains the home to more of the planet’s best golfers than any other circuit. But the defections to the Saudi-backed, easy-money world of the LIV Tour are more considerable than we ever imagined. There are several ways to view this.
Seven of the golfers that finished in the top 20 in FedEx points a year ago are gone to the LIV Tour. And, yes, they shall remain ineligible for these playoffs and future PGA Tour events. A federal judge dismissed the suit filed by Taylor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Stafford in Northern California Tuesday seeking a Temporary Restraining Order that would have allowed them to play in this year’s FedEx playoffs. It’s easy to see how a federal judge might not buy the “irreparable harm” the golfers were hoping to show after signing guaranteed contracts in the millions. It is believed Phil Mickelson was guaranteed $200 million to sign with LIV while Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson were paid in the $150 million range.
It is the major championships that provide the best illustration of what has been lost. Since 2016, 11 majors — almost half — have been won by players now on the LIV Tour. That range includes one each for Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, SMU product Bryson DeChambeau and Mickelson, two for Johnson and four for Koepka. As of now, these golfers can continue to compete in majors which are not run by the PGA Tour (that includes the PGA Championship). But it serves notice that many of the world’s best golfers won’t be battling it out each winter and spring from California to Florida to Texas on the circuit with which we have become so familiar.
It was less than a year ago that the DeChambeau-Koepka rivalry had become enough of a regular news story that the two were featured in a silly made-for-TV “grudge match.” Who could have guessed that neither would be a PGA Tour golfer or that Koepka’s eye-rolling at DeChambeau’s weirdness would be confined to a Tour that plays 54 hole events with no cuts, no current major TV deal or anything else to define it besides an embarrassment of millions pouring out of Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund.
The LIV golfers don’t really care where the money comes from, or what it represents as long as the checks don’t bounce. As a result, American golfers such as Koepka, DeChambeau and Johnson are no longer eligible to compete for the Ryder Cup, one of golf’s most prestigious events. This is a Presidents Cup year — a competition between U.S. golfers and players from Australia, Asia and South Africa — and the leader of that international field, Cameron Smith, continues to dodge questions as to whether he is headed to the LIV Tour when the season ends.
“I’m just here trying to win the FedEx Cup playoffs,” Smith said Tuesday.
He won the British Open with a remarkable 64 on Sunday last month and is No. 2 behind Scheffler in FedEx points. His loss would add to the list of international players who once played at least scattered PGA Tour events that have chosen the LIV life.
For a golf fan, going out to the Nelson or Colonial and perhaps telling your kid “there’s a recent Masters champion” has been like a rite of spring. Well, Mickelson won the 2010 Masters and Charl Schwartzel won in 2011 and Bubba Watson captured two Green Jackets in 2012 and 2014 and Garcia won in 2017 and Reed took home the title in 2019 and Johnson set the course record at 20-under par in 2020.
And they ain’t coming to the Nelson or Colonial any more.
Fortunately, the young Dallas-based stars will be around for a while, having given no indication of defection. Scheffler, who won four tournaments in six starts earlier this year, just picked up an additional $5 million in bonus money prior to the start of the playoffs. There are millions more to collect if he can maintain his No. 1 position in the standings.
(Yes, it seems there is money on the PGA Tour as well.)
Spieth remains as popular as ever and sits at 15th in the points. A hot Scotty Cameron putter could propel him into the hunt. But maybe Zalatoris is the one who is due. He’s 12th in the standings after finishing sixth in the Masters where he was second behind Hideki Matsuyama a year ago, came in second at the PGA Championship and then lost a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick to finish second at the U.S. Open. He still hasn’t won but he’s forever getting close.
At least for the next three weeks the winners will create their own storylines, and the drama will come solely from the golf courses. But there’s little doubt the Tour sustained its most permanent damage ever in 2022 and can’t afford to let the ship keep sinking in 2023. Maybe the quick dismissal of the LIV golfers’ lawsuit in California will help plug those holes.
