As we leave golf at the Olympic Games behind, our attention shifts to the autumn season. One could perhaps not have a more vivid illustration of the present schism in golf than that on the same weekend that the DP World Tour celebrates its flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, which concludes on September 22, the LIV Golf Team Championship will be taking place in Dallas. It might be interesting to see which event has the most major champions in its field.
In fact, back to the Olympics for a moment. In Paris, Rory McIlroy (it is always Rory McIlroy!) said: “I think the Ryder Cup is the best tournament that we have in our game. Pure competition. And I think this [the Olympic golf tournament] has to the potential to be right up there with it. With how much of a shitshow the game of golf is right now, you think about the two tournaments that might be the purest form of competition in our sport – we don’t play for money in them. It speaks volumes for what’s important in sport.”
The men’s Olympic golf competition attracted 30,000 fans per day compared to 55,000 at the Paris Ryder Cup of 2018, although Pascal Grizot, the man responsible for organising both, reckons the Olympic attendance would have matched that of the Ryder Cup if he had been allowed to sell more tickets. As he points out: “Golf National is a great viewing course, with all its mounds, and there is simply more golf to watch in a strokeplay tournament than there is at the Ryder Cup.”
Grizot also runs the French Open, which will be played at Golf National in October. He describes well the situation facing a promoter such as himself – “I am saying to the public ‘please buy a ticket for the concert I am putting on even though I can’t tell you who you will be seeing’.” Hey, I was expecting Ed Sheeran and I got a performer from the pub! Similarly, in an interview in The Times last week, the great former athlete, Michael Johnson, spoke of the hurdles (sorry!) his new venture, Grand Slam Track, has to overcome in order to succeed. “In the past we have asked fans to buy a ticket and they then find the best athletes are not there or they pull out because they are not obligated.”
Related: Scottie Scheffler wins gold medal in Paris
Of course, despite what McIlroy said about “what’s important in sport”, professional golfers commonly playing for free is not going to catch on. It is the opposite of the Tours’ business model. Furthermore, LIV Golf has at its core the premise that when you go to a LIV tournament, you do know who you will be seeing. As for McIlroy’s “shitshow”, the LIV frontman, Greg Norman, has been telling colleagues that he suspects a deal between LIV and the PGA Tour will never happen. Who needs a deal more? I don’t know, but I do know that since the parties’ “framework agreement” was announced in June 2023, precious little seems to have occurred.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com
