{"id":242020,"date":"2022-09-02T12:30:33","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T12:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/ryder-cup-liv-golf-rocky-road-to-rome\/"},"modified":"2023-02-10T13:41:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T13:41:10","slug":"ryder-cup-liv-golf-rocky-road-to-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/ryder-cup-liv-golf-rocky-road-to-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"The rocky road to Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-227128\" src=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ryder-cup_John-Walton-PA-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"The rocky road to Rome\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"yoast-reading-time__wrapper\"><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text\">Estimated reading time: <\/span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__reading-time\">5<\/span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__time-unit\"> minutes<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The 2022 PGA Tour reached a dramatic climax last weekend with Rory McIlroy overhauling Scottie Scheffler at the Tour Championship to become the first player to claim the season-decider for the third time. In Boston this afternoon, LIV Golf will begin the fourth event of its inaugural Saudi-financed \u2018rebel\u2019 series. Next Thursday at Wentworth will see the start of the BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event of the DP World (formerly European) Tour. Yes, there\u2019s a lot going on in golf right now, albeit much of it behind the scenes and most of that making for uncomfortable conversations. Which we will get to.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>On Tuesday it was announced that European qualification for the 2023 Ryder Cup match at Marco Simone Golf &amp; Country Club in Rome, which will conclude on October 1, will begin next week. The qualifying period will end on September 3. The 12 players will make the team by being one of the three leading players on the European Points List; one of the three leading players on the World Points List; or one of the six captain\u2019s picks at the discretion of Luke Donald \u2013 who got the gig when Henrik Stenson upped sticks and left for LIV Golf in July.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Wholly understandably, and rightly, Tuesday\u2019s announcement included no mention of LIV Golf, although on his appointment at the beginning of last month Donald had said: \u201cThere\u2019s a legal situation going on. I don\u2019t think that situation\u2019s going to get resolved any time soon. So until it does, I can\u2019t really comment on it.\u201d Sergio Garcia, Europe\u2019s all-time Ryder Cup points scorer, is one of the LIV golfers who is seeking clarification as to his prospective status for the match in Rome. He has said he would resign from the DP World Tour, of which he presently remains a member, if he is banned from Ryder Cup participation. It is thought some non-LIV golfers, notably Jon Rahm, think that should not happen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#x1f399; &#8220;This is what you may be leaving behind&#8230; I just don&#8217;t want people making decisions hearing information from one side and not from another&#8221;<br \/><br \/>Rory McIlroy says players should be making decisions with &#8216;all of the facts&#8217; in front of them &#xfe0f;&#x26f3;&#xfe0f; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/j5XpJoxKwA\">pic.twitter.com\/j5XpJoxKwA<\/a><\/p>\r\n\u2014 Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkySportsGolf\/status\/1564674455644807169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 30, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>When he joined LIV Golf at the end of July, Paul Casey said somewhat gnomically: \u201cWe could ask Mr Kinnings [Guy Kinnings, Ryder Cup director] why the relationship deteriorated between the European Tour [sic] and Saudi Golf. We\u2019ve got a lot of questions but right now they all seem to be coming our way, not his.\u201d He also said: \u201cThere\u2019s been a time where I\u2019ve actually given up my European Tour [sic again] membership because playing two tours was too difficult [but] I think a lot of guys would love to play LIV and also retain their European Tour [again] membership and then be part of the Ryder Cup if they can.\u201d It is expected a legal ruling on that point will be delivered in February.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Back to Rory McIlroy, who has been one of the front-runners in the PGA Tour\u2019s recent reimagining of itself in order to ward off the threat posed by LIV Golf (no space for that here and if you\u2019ve read this far you\u2019ll know all about it anyway) and has probably been the most vociferous critic of LIV Golf among the leading players. \u201cI hate what it\u2019s doing to the game of golf,\u201d he said at East Lake on Sunday. \u201cI really do. It\u2019s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth and seeing 18 of them [LIV golfers] there. It just doesn\u2019t sit right with me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>One of those 18 will be Lee Westwood, who is among the many who have been openly sceptical of the so-called \u2018strategic alliance\u2019 between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. He told John Huggan for Golf Digest: \u201cI\u2019ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years. There\u2019s not been much give. They have always been bullies\u2026taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour.\u201d (See, he\u2019s at it, too). He has a point, and the announcement at the end of June that from next season the top-10 finishers on the DP World Tour rankings will earn a PGA Tour card seems to cement its position as a feeder system to Jay Monahan\u2019s circuit; a transatlantic Korn Ferry Tour, if you like. As the flushingitgolf blog said: \u201cWhat would Seve make of all this?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Westwood also told Huggan: \u201cLook at how often leading Europeans have recently supported the European Tour. See how many times they have come over and played in events. Typically, the answer is not many.\u201d Again he has a point, which is why it is so notable that McIlroy is playing at Wentworth &#8211; indeed, and at Marco Simone in the Italian Open the following week. Having said that, McIlroy did say of the PGA Tour last weekend: \u201cThis is the best place in the world to play golf. It\u2019s the most competitive. I don\u2019t know why you\u2019d want to play anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He is right, of course \u2013 the PGA Tour does have \u201cthe best players; it\u2019s got the deepest fields\u201d\u2013 but such an emphatic declaration just as he was about to cross the Atlantic to play a couple of tournaments in Europe did sound rather graceless and McIlroy mostly says the right thing, or at least he mostly says what he thinks in the right sort of way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It could be an interesting week at Wentworth, both on and off the course. However, it does seem the emergence of LIV Golf will be or has been handled largely successfully by the PGA Tour (despite this week\u2019s defection of Cameron Smith, the Open and Players champion and world No<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GolfTodayUK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">.<\/a> 2) but has left the DP World\/European Tour fundamentally and substantially weakened<a href=\"\/the-father-of-the-owgr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">.<\/a> Looking back to Paul Casey\u2019s comments, one wonders if Keith Pelley, CEO of the DP World Tour, and his colleagues ever contemplated a \u2018strategic alliance\u2019 with an entity that was not the PGA Tour; maybe one not a million miles from Mecca? Looking ahead, it could be a bumpy journey from here to the Eternal City in a little over a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong><em><strong><em>You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/f-factors.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">f-factors.com<\/a> plus you can read more by him on golf at <a href=\"http:\/\/robertgreengolf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">robertgreengolf.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How will joining LIV golf impact Ryder Cup selections?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":242022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","priority_tax-featured-posts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The rocky road to Rome - Golf Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rocky road to Rome - How will joining LIV golf impact Ryder Cup selections? 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He has played golf on more than 450 courses around the world, occasionally acceptably.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/robertgreengolf.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/author\/robertgreen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The rocky road to Rome - Golf Today","description":"Rocky road to Rome - How will joining LIV golf impact Ryder Cup selections? Garcia, seeking clarification as to his prospective status","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/ryder-cup-liv-golf-rocky-road-to-rome\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The rocky road to Rome","og_description":"Rocky road to Rome - How will joining LIV golf impact Ryder Cup selections? 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