Things were just right for LIV Golf. The final round of the PGA Tour event at beautiful Pebble Beach had to be cancelled because of the bad weather. This made room for the Saudi-funded circuit.
The action was great, with Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, and Joaquin Niemann all coming down the stretch. Garcia and Niemann then fought in a sudden-death play-off that lasted four holes and ended with Niemann winning on a green that was lit up by the lights of a hospitality house.
But, of course, it did to some watchers who wouldn’t have been interested in LIV even if it showed Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus coming in at the last. Fans of old music didn’t seem to like the music, which was the main complaint on social media.
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It’s true that not everyone likes the steady beat in the background. It makes me think of Colin Montgomerie, who walked slowly off the 18th hole at a European Tour event while the DJ playing in the clubhouse could be heard by the golfers. With a red face, Monty asked the head referee, “What are you running here?” I asked, “A golf tournament or an f—— disco?”
People who were mad on Sunday night should have been mad about something else. Have you heard about the scandal with the world rating points? Niemann holed a 20-footer in the Mexican dusk to beat Garcia, but at Pebble Beach, officials decided that there was no chance of even a
Monday finish because Mother Nature was still doing her worst over the Californian course. Wyndham Clark was the leader after three holes, so he was named the winner and given £2.9 million.
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The result was by no means satisfactory. Swede Ludvig Aberg, who keeps getting better, didn’t know that he needed an eagle to tie Clark when he played the last hole on Saturday. Aberg didn’t get the chance to go for it because he didn’t know what was on that famous five. It was unavoidable, and Aberg will move on.
Besides the £1.75 million prize for coming in second, he is also now ranked 11th in the world, which is some comfort. The 25-year-old has made this amazing rise in just 18 professional events. Only Tiger Woods has gone from 14th to third in the rankings in such a short amount of time (17 events, the 1997 Masters). With his third Tour win, Clark jumped to No. 6 in the world.
That’s where the shame is. Clark got full ranking points for winning a pro-am with 54 holes. Antony Noto, who Google tells me used to be the COO of Twitter, was with him in the first two rounds. Thank you for your understanding. Noto is a successful businessman who deserves the $100,000 or whatever it costs to play in the AT&T Pro-Am. However, he and all the other non-professionals on the fairways that day, including Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, had no right to be there while one of the Tour’s £20 million “signature events” happened. It makes a joke out of high-level sports.
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But you can probably tell there is something a little strange going on when a “elite sport” gives one 54-hole win—which includes, as we already said, weekend hackers—a huge 72 ranking points and another 54-hole win—which does not include weekend hackers—no ranking points at all.
That’s why there is. After the talk with Niemann, golf was made fun of. Niemann said, “I believe I can become a major winner.” “But first I need to get in them.”
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The 25-year-old from Chile has won twice, finished fourth, and come in fifth in his last four events. Three of them were on the DP World Tour. He is one of the best players right now, according to everyone, and he would be a favourite in the Masters, USPGA, US Open, and Open. But right now, he isn’t eligible for any of the Big Four because LIV hasn’t been given official status by the board that keeps track of the Top Four.
They told LIV in October that their application had been denied, giving reasons such as the fact that the separate league was made up of teams and that the series was seen as a closed shop. Once the choice was made public, many people said, “Well, the players knew it was risky” and “They picked money over the majors.”
But don’t look at it through the lens of money-hungry players or whatever you think of them. Instead, look at it through the lens of the majors themselves. They want, or should want, the best pitch possible, with the best players going up against each other. But because they use a clearly broken ranking system, they won’t have Niemann or Talor Gooch at their events this year.
Both the game and the experience for fans are worse. According to LIV’s analyst Jerry Foltz, the majors “are on the verge of becoming asterix majors” during Sunday’s show was not as strong as he said it was.
But he does make a point. It’s clear that the rankings aren’t helping to decide who gets into the biggest events, so they should either be changed or thrown out. Sunday proved that the world rankings are not useful.
