Adam Scott – the last winner of the Cadillac Championship at the Blue Monster – image PGA Tour / Getty
The news of the possible demise of LIV Golf reached a crescendo today with the indication that the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) will cease its funding of LIV Golf at the completion of 2026, leaving the four-year-old league searching for financial support that would seem impossible to secure.
With a reported US$6 billion already spent on its attempt to control the world of professional golf, the PIF has, it would seem, succumbed to the financial pressures of such costs and to the fact that the concept has not gathered the momentum many felt it would.
This writer has never been a fan of LIV Golf. I have had an involvement in various capacities in the professional game for 55 years, but while acknowledging the impact it has had in certain areas and regions, I can’t bring myself to get enthused about its role.
The concept of team golf in the form that LIV Golf introduced, in particular, appears to carry little interest for most golf fans, and the same could be said for the very contrived TGL supported and underwritten by the PGA Tour.
There is, however, little doubting the impact the league has had on the purses now being offered by the PGA Tour, which, without the arrival of LIV Golf, would never have reached the heights they are now at.
When LIV Golf arrived on the scene four years ago, only one event, the Players Championship, carried a purse of $US20 million or more. Today, 14 events on the PGA Tour carry prizemoney of US$20 million or more, the season-ending Tour Championship boasting prizemoney of US$40 million and there is little doubt that without the pressure for prizemoney growth LIV Golf created the PGA Tour, there is no way the number and size of such purses would be available.
Every one of the 72 golfers in this week’s Cadillac Championship at the Trump National’s Blue Monster in Miami should, therefore, take a moment this week to acknowledge the impact on the sort of purses they are now playing for and only because of the arrival of LIV in 2022.
This week, four Australasians will compete for one of those US$20 million purses: Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Adam Scott and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, with Day and Scott the only two to have competed over the Blue Monster previously.
The last time this event was played at this venue in 2016 the purse was US$9.5 million, a tidy sum back then, but now just the norm for a regular season event.
In fact, Adam Scott was the last person to win this event at this venue back in 2016, but much has changed with the layout upgraded by Gil Hanse, in the ten years since. Scott has also recorded three other top tens at this venue, including a 3rd place finish in 2013.
“It’s not that recent, but it’s great to be back here,” said Scott. “What had opinion like a staple on the PGA TOUR for 50 years I think. Good memories for me. Obviously, winning the last time we were here, but always enjoyed playing this golf course. It’s a challenge.
“It’s called the Blue Monster for a reason. It’s a big golf course, very penal. The wind can blow, and that’s the biggest challenge out here. So you’ve got to strike it well, just demanding tee to green. It’s great that we’re back, and looking forward to this week.”
Scott was asked just how much he has evolved as a player and athlete in those ten years since 2016.
“I think I’ve done a good job staying healthy and staying fitted and strong and relevant to the modern game. There’s a big difference between being 35 and 45, I think. At 35 you are looking at like a Rory McIlroy-type age where you’re still really in your prime.
“I still feel like I can play at a high level, but I’m looking to lift the ceiling a little bit and get in there and win again, maybe the good vibes here from 10 years ago will help me this week. But it is, it’s more demanding.
“I think in the past 10 years, as well, the amount of young players that can compete has increased a lot. I don’t know what that number is, but I would say more than doubled. The guys in their 20s are that much better; there are a lot more of ’em, so it’s definitely getting tougher out here.”
The obvious favourite is Scott Scheffler, who is playing the event for the first occasion given he was not even on the scene when the event was last played.
“My experience on this course is the last two days was all I saw,” said Scheffler today.
“I tried to go back and watch some stuff, but the golf course has changed a decent amount over time. The greens are bigger than they were a few years ago. Then, when you look back even further, the greens were a different type of grass.
“So when it comes to walking the course, this course in particular is pretty straightforward in a sense of like you can see off the tee box where you need to hit it, it’s just a matter of hitting it there time and time again.
“There’s not really many tricks to this golf course. It’s just very, very difficult. It’s a flat piece of land. There’s just a lot of bunkers, a lot of water and the golf holes are long. So with that combination, it’s going to be tough.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the winner at his last two PGA Tour appearances, Matthew Fitzpatrick, is not in the field, and neither is Rory McIlroy, further highlighting the impact that LIV Golf has had on the scheduling of players who, because of the money now readily available, can get to pick and choose a lot more than was the case previously.
Not sure they would have turned down a US$20 million event four years ago.
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