With the backing of exciting money from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the new company has threatened to alter the traditional setting of the Gulf, to which the PGA Tour reacted strongly on Thursday, banning 17 of its players, including a lifelong member. Phil Mickelson – to participate.
LIV Golf’s statement in response to the distributed punishment was nothing more than a premonition.
“The era of free agency is beginning,” he said.
And with the funding behind it, the burst of stars signing up and the length of time the new tour has enjoyed for fans, on the ground of St Albans, it sure seems like the beginning of something, not a flash in the pan .
Controversy
A few feet from a massive bar with loud background music, a group of young men strive for a challenge on a trip to Miami with all expenses paid, while two entertainers, both in stilts and suits with the traditional 19th century British. clothes, poses for photos with fans waiting to be tested.
A few meters away, the big winners of several occasions Mickelson and Dustin Johnson start playing. Without a doubt, the LIV Golf series makes noise.
It has taken a few years to get to this point, however, led by former world number 1 Greg Norman and with a staggering amount of money behind it, including $ 250 million in total prizes, the new golf league is here.
He has not come without his blows on the road. The announcements of the established circuits – the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) – have gone on and on, while many players have expressed their reluctance to leave pre-eminent golf establishments and their disappointment with their peers. to leave.
But for fans in attendance who were told by CNN Sport about the controversy over players appearing on the new tour and accepting money from Saudi Arabia, a country with a heavily criticized human rights record, it didn’t seem to bother them. One told CNN before Thursday’s play that he did not “accept the controversy.”
“I came to see the golfers,” James Bowman said. “I’m a golfer, so I came to see some of the best golfers in the world. I’m grateful for the problems, but not for me personally.
“So I support more excursions. I think there are more opportunities for more people to see more golf. This is the closest a big golf event has ever been to my house, so I think it’s a good opportunity for more people see golf. “
Another told CNN that he believes that while the PGA Tour has been “big” for the game, golfers are “independent contractors” and should be able to do their job as and wherever they want.
‘Golf, but stronger’
A row of black taxis remain idle waiting to transport a selection of the most important golf names to their respective tees for the start of the shotgun, where all competitors start at the same time, another change implemented to make the product be more attractive to fans.
Despite the impressive amount of money behind it, not everything is glamorous for the 48-man camp as they sit and wait stranded in the back of taxis next to bags.
As the most ambitious golf company approaches its inception, viewers are bombarded with a variety of images and sounds.
There is an overpass of old planes and trumpet sounds from some members of the British Army band. They even get a sighting from Greg Norman who came to witness the inaugural outing.
As its self-proclaimed motto says, “Golf, but stronger.”
And around 2:15 pm UK time, they are finally ready to get started.
Hundreds of fans gather around the first tee to witness the departure of Mickelson, Johnson and Scott Vincent. However, for the rest of the course, the story is very different. Mickelson and Johnson on the first tee are a clear tie for fans. But for other players starting with different tees, it was much quieter.
“Right where you started, I was standing in the third exit box for about 10 minutes and there was no one with me,” Charl Schartzel said after the first round. “And I finally pulled out my phone and called Graeme (McDowell). I said, ‘Graeme, mate, where are you? Am I in the right box?
“That made it very different for me than you would be used to being advertised on the first tee.”
Ticket sales for the event have been slow, and players have offered hundreds of fans the chance to win free tickets to attend. The tournament has a limit of 8,000 tickets per day and the official ticket sales numbers have not been made public.
It’s hard to tell if there are nearly 8,000 fans in attendance, but everyone is in a good mood, particularly to be able to see a game legend like Mickelson do his magic. He is known for his usual “Phil!” as he makes his way along the route.
Among its fan zone, team format, fewer rounds and post-round concerts, organizers have tried their best to attract a wide demographic. But not everyone is impressed.
For Paul Stubbens, who says he has attended the US Open, the PGA Championships and the Masters, the “immersive” fan zone may not be as special as I expected.
“It’s great, but it’s no different to the PGA,” he said. “It’s no different. In fact, maybe I was expecting a little more from it.”
Awkward questions
Just when it looked like golf could become the main story, the PGA Tour dropped the hammer, handing out suspensions to 17 players to play in the LIV Golf series, minutes after Thursday’s opening round.
Many of the affected players were questioned immediately after the round, and some, like Mickelson, preferred not to comment, while others were only finding out at the time.
A few meters from the mixed zone where Mickelson was grilling, golfer and journalist Alan Shipnuck, whose appointment of the six-time big winner in possibly joining the LIV Golf series, making derogatory comments about the record of human rights of Saudi Arabia and asserting the kingdom. was responsible for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi because his next book led the golfer to take a break from the sport: he was asked to leave the facility.
At a time captured by CNN Sport’s Alex Thomas and which has since gone viral on social media, Shipnuck faced two security men, while LIV Golf CEO Norman remained on the background. In a screenshot of a text conversation between Shipnuck and Norman tweeted by the former, Shipnuck said, “Do you know I just got out of Phil’s press conference muscle for a couple of criminals? Luckily for you guys, I keep calm and escalate the situation. “
Norman said he hadn’t heard it, before Shipnuck responded with a screenshot of the video with Norman looking at the incident in the background.
“You can’t invent this shit! I texted Greg Norman before someone sent me this video; I had no idea he was lurking behind me,” he tweeted.
The incident wasn’t the glamorous end of the day the LIV Golf series would have wanted, and there will be many more awkward questions to come, but the new golf competition seems to live up to its motto.