4178 replies to this topic

[BSLChrisStoner]

• McIlroy: Golf 'ripping itself apart' as tours feud

[BSLChrisStoner]

• McIlroy: PGA-LIV feud getting 'out of control'

[BSLChrisStoner]

538: How LIV Golf Is Tearing The Sport Apart, In 3 Charts

https://fivethirtyei...rt-in-3-charts/

[BSLChrisStoner]

CBS Sports: The Power 18 golf rankings: Rory McIlroy opens in top spot as 2023 PGA Tour season kicks into high gear

https://www.cbssport...into-high-gear/

 

CBS Sports: Golf major championship predictions 2023: Xander Schauffele grabs first as Jordan Spieth bounces back

https://www.cbssport...h-bounces-back/

[BSLMikeLowe]

John Ourand of SBJ recently reported that LIV is close to a TV deal with The CW Network. The CW won't pay a rights fee, but LIV will sell the bulk of the ads and produce the events....so LIV is essentially just getting airtime. The CW isn't the sort of place that sports fans go to, but there's no lack of potential visibility (over 200 affiliates), so curious to see what the ratings might look like.

 

Another interesting side note: CBS, who is a longtime TV partner of the PGA, owns a minority stake in The CW. Wonder if the PGA is a bit unhappy with CBS right now.

[glenn__davis]

https://www.espn.com...-reconciliation

 

 

Some good Patrick Reed vs. Rory McIlroy nonsense.  Doesn't sound like the LIV vs. PGA Tour drama will be ending anytime soon.

[Mike in STL]

“Full Swing” drops on Netflix next Wednesday. If it’s a good as Drive to Survive (from the same creators) and throw in all the LIV drama, this seems like a can’t miss.

[BSLChrisStoner]

• Tiger (4 under) cards best round to par since '20

[BSLChrisStoner]

The Ringer: Eight Takeaways From Netflix’s ‘Full Swing’ Series

[Nigel Tufnel]

Sally Jenkins column on the LIV tour.

 

PGA Tour competitive drama exposes the folly of LIV Golf - The Washington Post

 

The airborne toxic event called LIV golf is slowly dissipating, and soon all that will be left is the mere faint scent of its portable toilets. The failures are piling up so fast that the PGA Tour may not even need lawyers to beat LIV. It’s going to beat itself with its own sour-smelling hustle, its jinks-on-the links-for-clinks gutter golf.

The news value of its debut last year, championed with patent unease by Phil Mickelson, has long faded. What’s left is just the militant fruitcakery of Greg Norman, whose emanations from his empty luminescent head never quite form into actual substance. To hear Norman tell it, LIV 2023 would begin with a “momentous” TV deal, and seven more top-20 player-signees. In fact, as the second season opens this week in Mayakoba, Mexico, it’s got a laughably desperate TV pact with the CW Network, which also boasts “World’s Funniest Animals,” and no new big names. It was just more blowharding, evaporating into a few lower-level defections such as Dean Burmester and Danny Lee.

 

“Golf, but louder,” is one of LIV’s slogans, but all that apparently refers to is Ian Poulter’s pants by Pixar. Poulter is at least a likable star, more audience-friendly than laconic burnout cases such as Brooks Koepka, or that aging inveterate scrounger Mickelson, who apparently would take checks from the slaughter of dolphins to get whole. Starting Friday in Mexico, all of them will resume crapping around in an incoherent, noncompetitive, no-cut, drama-repellant 54-hole format with locked-in appearance fees.

[Nigel Tufnel]

 

LIV can’t compete head-to-head. That has become clear. If you want insight into the difference between the world’s best players today and the spine-caved spongers on LIV’s exhibition circuit, watch a couple of insightful episodes from Netflix’s golf docuseries, “Full Swing,” filmed when LIV was just a hard twinkle in Norman’s avaricious eye.

 

Koepka and Poulter allowed the cameras to follow them especially closely and gave revealing interviews that show just how hollow-eyed and desperate they were over downturns in their careers and fears that they had become second-raters. Their motives for jumping at LIV’s cash are there for all to see; they say it all straight into the cameras. They didn’t leave the PGA because they wanted to play better golf against the best in the world. They left because they couldn’t anymore.

 

[Mike in STL]

Sally Jenkins column on the LIV tour.

 

PGA Tour competitive drama exposes the folly of LIV Golf - The Washington Post

 

Bravo, Sally Jenkins!! 

[Pedro Cerrano]

She went Nagasaki. Wow

[glenn__davis]

"Militant fruitcakery".  Lol.  

[BSLChrisStoner]

CBS Sports: 2023 Players Championship: Jon Rahm's dominance, Justin Thomas' struggles lead 10 storylines at TPC Sawgrass

https://www.cbssport...t-tpc-sawgrass/

[BSLChrisStoner]

CBS Sports: 2023 Players Championship missed cuts: Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick among stars not playing weekend

https://www.cbssport...laying-weekend/

 

CBS Sports: 2023 Players Championship tee times, pairings: Complete field, schedule, groups for Round 3 at TPC Sawgrass

https://www.cbssport...t-tpc-sawgrass/

[Mike in STL]

Dell Match Play Semis was shaping up to be a Scheffler vs. Rory final. #1 vs #3 in the world. Both lost their leads on the back nine, and lost in playoff holes, making for a Sam Burns/Cam Young Final. Talented young players, but not the matchup thats going to have me watching for the next 4 hours.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I’ll take Sam Burns.

But yea no Rory Scottie has to tick NBC off

[BSLChrisStoner]

ESPN: The Masters 2023: Ranking the favorites, contenders and hopefuls

https://www.espn.com...opefuls-augusta

[BSLChrisStoner]

CBS Sports: Masters 2023: Rory McIlroy grand slam pursuit, Scottie Scheffler repeat bid top storylines at Augusta National

https://www.cbssport...gusta-national/