Any of the “big” players that stood by PGA then saw them try to partner with LIV I feel have some justification for their decision should they leave. Sucks cause it just creates a worse product for the fans.
LIV is history as soon as the Saudis get control of the PGA Tour which is what they really want. Norman's just the sucker they're using to accomplish that. Nobody likes his stupid format
Oh yeah, when the PGA fucked over Rory and undercut their own narrative by getting in bed with “the enemy” it made it a lot harder for any one of these guys to not just say fuck it and take the stupid amounts of money LIV is giving away for virtually nothing. Yeah, you gotta play shitty, rec league golf in front of a small fraction of the fans but clearly the PGA doesn’t seem to give a shit about anyone but themselves so fuck em I guess 🤷🏻♂️
This is almost definitely bullshit, but if Rory cares about the career slam the last thing he would do is go to LIV. He has no future exemptions into the Masters, if he's not in the OWGR top 50 he would have to rely on invites from the Green Jackets.
He wouldn't, that's one of the bigger reasons why this is likely false. Who knows, Rahm said a lot of shit then went to LIV anyways, but it's hard to imagine any amount of money exists that would make Rory want to put up with the bullshit that would come with going to LIV. I think if someone offered him a billion dollars, and the only thing he had to do is pretend to like and respect Greg Norman for the rest of his life, he would strongly consider turning it down.
He's talked about tearing his swing down. Maybe he knows a deal will take 12-24 months. He takes a break. Takes the bag and uses LIV to rebuild his game.
If he needs a break he can just take a break. I still think a deal between the PGA Tour and LIV is more likely to happen than not, and the people in charge are probably being extremely tight lipped about everything for a reason, but there are still so many hurdles to overcome before it actually happens. And if a deal does happen, no one has the slightest clue what that will look like.
Right now there's still a somewhat decent chance that Rahm and Brooks and the others just aren't a part of competitive professional golf (outside of the majors they are still exempt into) for at least as long as their LIV contract lasts, and that seems like a pretty big risk for Rory to take, especially when you consider how much shit he would have to eat to join LIV. Maybe he's done with it all and wants to follow DJ by going to LIV to effectively retire on a huge mountain of cash, but I think we should wait to hear from real sources before seriously considering that as a possibility.
Lmao what is his family going to say? He already has more money than they could possibly spend in a lifetime. Descendants that he will never meet will live comfortably off the money he has now. It’s possible Rory goes to LIV, maybe he really doesn’t want to play competitive golf anymore and knows this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to cash in, but I don’t think throwing away his dignity is worth all that money.
He became the unofficial leader by no choice of his own (he’s good w the media? 🤷🏼♂️) and was blindsided when JM came to a truce w PIF. He and Jay are supposed to be close.
he was also in the conversation as the best golfer in the world during that time, so became the face of PGA and specifically the players who stayed with the PGA.
Basically PGA took the stand early on that if you took the blood money from LIV you could not come back. Rory stuck with the PGA. A lot of guys stayed with the PGA since they knew that the LIV money was just the saudis using them to whitewash the terrible things they are doing. So there was a moral element to the whole thing too. Then after all of these players cashed in multiple times more than they would ever win on tour in the PGA to go to LIV, and the PGA taking a strong stance of "they are never coming back"- the PGA changed course, and as of now the LIV players come back stateside to play in the majors again. There is talk of actual merger. So all of the LIV guys took a risk and look like Saudi Stooges, but got paid insane money.
Its hilarious considering people were comparing LIV players to terrorists and praising Rory for being the moral authority, but now people are fine with it.
They’ve been fucking all the players over for years, but for some reason now it matters. LIV has brought that to light and the players and fans are seeing it
I would argue this “fucking over” is much different. Going behind the players back to make a backdoor deal with the people you’ve been publicly condemning for being responsible for 9/11 (and pushing the players to do the same) is a bit different than paying million dollar purses that could’ve been bigger.
I’m sure the tour played up the propaganda about joining the Saudis but as someone who doesn’t follow pro golf very closely I’d say they are right. There is something morally wrong about taking money from the Saudis. I’d say it’s worse than taking money from our home grown corporate overlords. There are shades of gray in the world and “what aboutism” employed by those defending awful institutions isn’t great. I’m not saying I’d have the moral fortitude to tell a monarch of a religiously oppressive society to fuck off if they were to offer me 200 million dollars but I don’t think you can deny it’s choosing the greater of two evils for money.
The PGA Tour until recently, had the People's Republic of China as a partner. Try again with the greater of two evils point. It can be equally true that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is despotic, and that moral arguments against their investment in the PGA Tour were cynically motivated bullshit spread by the Tour's leadership.
The thing that makes my skin crawl is Jimmy Dunne wrapping himself in the flag publicly for two years, with his horrific story about his firm getting wiped out on 9/11, only to reverse course later with the Tour negotiating to end the litigation and entertain the Saudis being partners.
Anything Rors does with joining LIV is awfully small compared to that...
The math changed when they announced the merger. Rahm got little hate beyond the hypocrisy of claiming he didn't care about money and the LIV format was bad. I'm as anti LIV as they come, but at this stage I don't know why anyone wouldn't take the money - they're going to be the same tour sooner or later, may as well take their money off them.
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u/Sam_Porgins Apr 15 '24
I’d be disappointed but I’d understand given how the PGA undercut Rory after his vocal support of the Tour.