There is no getting around the controversial aspect of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, which teed off Thursday at the Centurion Club outside London. …
There is no getting around the controversial aspect of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, which teed off Thursday at the Centurion Club outside London. There have also been no shortage of reminders that the renegade league that has poached a number of big-name players from the PGA Tour with more on the way is somehow revolutionary and therefore will change not just how players approach golf but how fans watch and think about it. In some ways, it is very different from the weekly grind of the PGA Tour. There’s the team concept and the wacky team names and graphics. There was a player draft and a shotgun start with all groups teeing off at the same time across 18 holes. Of course, there is the enormous sum of money up for grabs in each of the 54-hole, no-cut slate of tournaments. Ah, the money. Whereas the PGA Tour has over the last handful of years eschewed its money list in favor of its season-long FedEx Cup points race — the winner of which gets $15 million — LIV Golf has spared no expense in driving home the point of what this new league is all about. Even as Kevin Na and Talor Gooch earlier this week comically tried to explain that one of the biggest appeals of joining the circuit was the shotgun start because it eliminates being on the wrong side of a PGA Tour draw, there were ample reminders throughout the broadcast of the first round what’s at stake financially. Splashy black and highlighter-green graphics showed just what everyone is playing for: a $20 million purse for individual players, with $4 million to the winner and $120,000 for last place.
