I have just finished reading a book by Iain Carter, the BBC radio golf correspondent for the past 21 years. The book is titled Golf Wars and it has the sub-heading of ‘LIV and Golf’s Bitter Battle for Power and Identity’. OK, so you now know what it’s about. There are many interesting and illuminating passages in it, not least when the author refers to last year’s Ryder Cup match in Rome. He writes:
‘European vice-captains, notably Nicolas Colsaerts, emerge on to the first tee to orchestrate thunder claps and chants and whip fans into a fever. It strikes me that this is not far removed from LIV’s vision of how the sport should be. Golf but louder. The thing is the people here care who wins. They know it is the sport in its purest form. As [Rory] McIlroy told me, “there is nothing contrived”. He is certainly correct about the golf that will follow. The orchestrating of the fans might be edging towards contrivance, but there remains a natural joy and ebullience to make this feel very special.’
He is, of course, correct. The atmosphere at a Ryder Cup is unlike anything else in golf, as players from both sides made evident in the second Netflix series of Full Swing. Apparently the best atmosphere at any LIV event in 2024 is likely to be found in Adelaide this coming weekend, maybe mostly because Australian fans seldom get to see many top-class professionals competing in their country, although I doubt even Greg Norman would suggest that fans would go bonkers about the prospect of the Crushers beating the Cleeks in the same way as they root for Europe or the USA. But my point here is not about LIV vs the Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup last year included one LIV golfer among the 24 players: Brooks Koepka. Since then, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who both played for Europe in Rome, have left to join LIV. Rumours abound that Viktor Hovland may follow suit. In a piece in The Guardian last week, the paper’s golf correspondent, Ewan Murray, wrote: “Guy Kinnings, the chief executive of the European Tour Group and a former Ryder Cup director, is under pressure to find a method by which the biennial event is not compromised while the DP World Tour is not seen to ‘give in’ to LIV converts.”
Related: Luke Donald humbled by players’ support for his return as Ryder Cup captain
I get all of that, and that fines and suspensions are part of the punishments handed out to DP World Tour players who play in LIV tournaments. But the Ryder Cup is of fundamental importance to golf in a way in which no DP World Tour event is. And the fundamental point to be borne in mind here is this: the Ryder Cup is Europe vs the United States. It is not the DP World Tour vs the PGA Tour. Once that is acknowledged, everything can fall into place.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com
