A storm has been brewing this week at The Country Club ahead of the 122nd U.S. Open.
BROOKLINE, Mass. – A storm has been brewing this week at The Country Club ahead of the 122nd U.S. Open.
Not ominous skies and impending storms. No, the disturbance took root more than two years ago in the Middle East with talks of an upstart golf league that would rival the PGA Tour and potentially pick off some of the game’s best players.
Last week, the league known as LIV Golf which is backed by the controversial Saudi Arabia regime and led by Greg Norman played its first tournament in London, the headliners being Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter. Also last week, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed agreed to terms and will be defecting to LIV Golf.
All of the players have been suspended from the PGA Tour by commissioner Jay Monahan.
This week outside of Boston, all the game’s best players have converged to try and win the U.S. national championship, as cherished a major as there is.
Yet the majority of the conversation has been about LIV Golf. Question after question after question has been about LIV Golf.
Two-time U.S. Open champion and four-time major winner Brooks Koepka is sick of it. In fact, the man with the calm demeanor on and off the golf course got a touch heated during his gathering with the media.
“I’m here at the U.S. Open. I’m ready to play U.S. Open, and I think it kind of sucks, too, you are all throwing this black cloud over the U.S. Open,” Koepka said Tuesday. “It’s one of my favorite events. I don’t know why you guys keep doing that. The more legs you give it, the more you keep talking about it.”
A few questions later, LIV Golf came up again. And again. And again.
Brooks Koepka addresses the media during a press conference for the U.S. Open golf tournament at The Country Club. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Is there a dollar amount that would make you go to LIV Golf? Isn’t LIV Golf perfect for you since you can concentrate on majors and play 8-10 other tournaments with huge purses? What about the future of LIV Golf?
“I don’t understand. I’m trying to focus on the U.S. Open, man. I legitimately don’t get it. I’m tired of the conversations. I’m tired of all this stuff,” he said. “Like I said, y’all are throwing a black cloud on the U.S. Open. I think that sucks. I actually do feel bad for them for once because it’s a sh–y situation. We’re here to play, and you are talking about an event that happened last week.”
BROOKLINE, Mass. – To no one’s surprise, the first question Rory McIlroy fielded in his gathering with the media Tuesday at The Country Club ahead of the 122nd U.S. Open dealt with the Saudi Arabia-backed, Greg Norman-led LIV Golf.
This despite McIlroy’s scintillating victory last Sunday in the RBC Canadian Open, where he outdueled Justin Thomas and Tony Finau over the last 36 holes for his 21st PGA Tour title. That number was significant to McIlroy, for it is one better than the 20 Tour titles Norman won, which the world No. 3 gleefully pointed out on more than one occasion.
It was his latest salvo at the rival league that held its first tournament last week and has lured top stars away from the PGA Tour including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Bryson DeChambeau with its enormous signing bonuses, huge purses, 54-hole individual and team formats with no cut and a shotgun start.
McIlroy, along with Thomas, has been the face of the PGA Tour’s resistance to LIV Golf, frequently speaking out against it and voicing disappointment in those players who joined (PGA Tour members who joined or will join have been or will be indefinitely suspended from the PGA Tour) despite the alleged human rights violations by the Saudi Arabia regime and charges the country is using its billions of dollars in a sportswashing attempt to overshadow those same atrocities.
“It’s the right thing to do,” McIlroy said when asked why he has been so outspoken. “The PGA Tour was created by people and Tour players that came before us, the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer. They created something and worked hard for something, and I hate to see all the players that came before us and all the hard work that they’ve put in just come out to be nothing.”
He also noted the “massive legacy” of charitable dollars the Tour has doled out.
“They all have the choice to play where they want to play, and they’ve made their decision,” McIlroy said. “My dad said to me a long time ago, once you make your bed, you lie in it, and they’ve made their bed.
“That’s their decision, and they have to live with that.”
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his shot from the second tee during a practice round prior to the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club on June 13, 2022 in Brookline, Massachusetts. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Back in February, McIlroy said LIV Golf was dead in the water after more than a dozen of the game’s top stars pledged their allegiance to the Tour’s flag. Some of those players, however, backtracked and headed to the new league.
“I guess I took a lot of players’ statements at face value. I guess that’s what I got wrong,” McIlroy said. “You had people committed to the PGA Tour, and that’s what the statements that were put out. People went back on that, so I guess I took them for face value. I took them at their word, and I was wrong.”
Despite the defections, he said he didn’t think relationships would be strained.
“I’m still going to be close with the guys that have made the decision to play those events. It’s not as if you agree on absolutely everything that all your friends do. You’re going to have a difference of opinion on a lot of things. That’s fine. That’s what makes this a great world. We can’t all agree on everything,” McIlroy said. “I just think for a lot of the guys that are going to play that are younger, sort of similar age to me or a little younger than me, it seems like quite short-term thinking, and they’re not really looking at the big picture.
“Again, I’ve just tried to sort of see this with a wider lens from the start.”
As for his golf, McIlroy likes what he has seen of The Country Club and added he has a little more pep in his step after his win north of the border as he tries to end a major drought of eight years. Adding to his confidence is knowing he is the last player to win a PGA Tour event the week before winning a major championship, pulling off the double with victories in the 2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship.
“It gives you a lot of confidence,” he said. “I think it was the fashion in which I won last week was what gave me the most pride. Got a lead early in the back nine. Lost that lead. Was tied with two holes to go, and then I showed some really good resilience and birdied the last two holes to get the job done.
“My last two showings in major championships have been pretty good (second in the Masters, eighth in the PGA Championship). So I’m getting back to a place where I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with my game and a lot more comfortable at the biggest, not really the biggest championships in the world, but it’s more the biggest and toughest tests in the world. I think my game is now at a place where I feel confident going to these golf courses that are set up more difficult than everyday Tour events and knowing that I have the game and the mentality to succeed on them.”
Picking out the highlights from Lefty’s wild press conference.
BROOKLINE, Mass. – Donald Trump, 9/11, Saudi Arabia’s controversial regime, therapy, gambling problems and self-reflection.
And some golf.
In his first stateside interview since January, Phil Mickelson was on the receiving end of a battering-ram like volley from media members Monday ahead of Thursday’s start of the 122nd U.S. Open at The Country Club.
In 25 minutes, Mickelson, who will be playing in his 30th U.S. Open, was on the receiving end of 32 questions that covered a slew of subjects, the majority stemming from his decision to join LIV Golf, the rival league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and led by Greg Norman.
Mickelson reportedly received $200 million to join the league and was promptly suspended from the PGA Tour by commissioner Jay Monahan shortly after hitting his opening tee shot last week in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event in London. He tied for 33rd in the 48-man field and won $150,000.
“I wanted to say that it’s nice to be back, nice to see you guys,” were Mickelson’s first words. “It’s been four months. It’s been a necessary time and an opportunity for me to step away a little bit and put a little bit of thought and reflection into going forward and how to best prioritize things.”
The U.S. Open is coming later this week at Brookline’s The Country Club, and let’s just say it might get really awkward in the leadup to golf’s next major.
The USGA announced recently that it wouldn’t ban golfers who joined the Saudi-backed LIV series from competing in the tournament, which means some big names will be teeing it up in the face of PGA Tour golfers openly taking shots at LIV.
So that means we’re probably going to see guys like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, and it’ll be reeeeeallly interesting to see how the gallery and other golfers react this week.
Here’s a list of the LIV participants who qualified for the US Open:
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The first week of the PGA Tour vs LIV Golf is in the books and there was one clear winner and one very clear loser from all the golfing action.
The winner: The PGA Tour, which had a beauty of a finish on Sunday that saw Rory McIlroy hold off Justin Thomas and Tony Finau for his 21st PGA Tour victory. McIlroy wrapped up his victory in front of thousands of screaming fans who almost stormed the 18th green in celebration and then he took a tremendous shot at LIV Golf CEO/commissioner Greg Norman.
It was all such a fun and festive scene in Toronto.
The loser: The soulless players who left the PGA Tour to go play meaningless exhibitions that are funded by the dirty money of killers. Charl Schwartzel won the LIV exhibition in London and collected just under $5 million bucks but there wasn’t one memorable or meaningful shot from the event which was immediately forgotten by anyone who follows golf.
It was all such an empty and desperate scene in London.
It really couldn’t have been a better weekend for the PGA Tour, which had some of the best players in the world playing their best down the stretch of a really fun event that had actual meaning to it.
On the other side, LIV Golf had a bunch of mediocre golfers swimming in irrelevancy and playing for an amount of money that is a ton, sure, but means nothing in the big picture of the sport.
Here’s what the PGA Tour should do moving forward with this turf war – gleefully wave goodbye to any player who decides to give up and play for the dirty money instead of playing for lot of money and legacies on the PGA Tour. The Tour doesn’t need those players around, fans won’t miss them (when was the last time that Graeme McDowell did anything interesting on the golf course?), and the players can go off and enjoy the emptiness that is LIV Golf.
The players should be the ones doing the talking and they should be doing it with both their mouths and their games. It’s their Tour and their livelihoods and their legacies on the line and that showed yesterday with McIlroy and JT giving everything they had down the stretch and then saying to each other afterwards that they should run it back this week at the U.S. Open.
Yesterday was awesome golf. What happened the thee previous days at the LIV exhibition was not awesome golf and it will continue to be bad no matter how many more middle-aged dudes who don’t matter any more make the jump. There was no buzz to that lame event in London, despite how much the announcers tried to tell you that there was.
Yes, the PGA Tour is in a very tough spot right now. It’s going against a dirty league backed by an endless amount of cash. The Tour is going to lose some more players that nobody really cares about (hello, Pat Perez!). And you know what? That’s just fine. Let the soulless guys who want to play out the string go and play out the string on sad YouTube live streams.
And let Rory, JT and other stars who really get it to carry the Tour and the sport to bigger and better things.
It can be done.
Quick hits: Ump makes embarrassing call at first base… Bad MLB history made by Cubs player… Joe Maddon’s sad mohawk… And more.
– Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel took the mound late in Sunday’s blowout loss to the Yankees and gave up a homer on a 35 mph pitch, which broke a bad MLB record.
“It’s been an unfortunate week that was created by some unfortunate decisions,” said Monahan.
Earlier this week, commissioner Jay Monahan suspended PGA Tour players who participated in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event outside of London for an unspecified time, a group including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.
On Sunday, during the CBS telecast of the final round of the RBC Canadian Open, Monahan didn’t backtrack on his decision.
In other words, expect more suspensions for players who join LIV Golf.
“It’s been an unfortunate week that was created by some unfortunate decisions, those decisions being players choosing to violate our tournament regulations,” Monahan said. “It’s my job to protect, defend, and celebrate our loyal PGA Tour members, our partners and our fans. And that’s exactly what I did. And I don’t think it was a surprise to anybody. Given how clear I had been about how we were going to handle this situation.”
When asked by CBS’ Jim Nantz why players can’t play both, Monahan responded quickly and decisively.
“Why do they need us so badly? Because those players have chosen to sign multi-year lucrative contracts to play in a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over again,” Monahan said. “You look at that versus what we see here today, and that’s why they need us so badly. You’ve got true, pure competition. The best players in the world are here at the RBC Canadian Open, with millions of fans watching, and in this game, it’s true and pure competition that creates the profile in the presence of the world’s greatest players.
“And that’s why they need us. That’s what we do. But we’re not going to allow players to freeride off of our loyal members, the best players in the world.”
The rival league will have seven more events this year, each a 54-hole, shotgun start, no-cut, 48-man tournament with a team format. The next tournament will be in July opposite the John Deere Classic. Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Pat Perez will join LIV Golf and play in Portland.
In addition to staggering signing bonuses – Mickelson reportedly received $200 million to sign, Johnson $125 million – LIV Golf will dole out $255 million in prize money. Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, won the inaugural LIV Golf event, his first title since 2016. Schwartzel pocketed $4 million for the victory and another $750,000 for being a member of the winning team.
The league is led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. Players have faced criticism for playing LIV Golf because of Saudi Arabia’s alleged human rights violations, which include the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“As Rory put it, $100 million isn’t going to change his life. But a couple million changes my life completely.”
Angel Yin walked off the 18th green at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles with a USGA pin attached to her shirt where a logo used to be stitched. The pin was a gift from a tournament official, but it underscored the fact that a 23-year-old former Solheim Cup player has no sponsors. Nothing on her hat, her shirt or her bag.
Earlier this year, Yin took the place of defending champion Lydia Ko, who tested positive for COVID-19, at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International. Yin tied for 10th at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club and said she couldn’t pass up another opportunity to work on her game and make money. She compared the quality of the Saudi tournament to a top-tier LPGA event like the Cognizant Founders Cup.
Yin, who admittedly hasn’t watched the news much to read up on the latest in human rights conditions in Saudi Arabia, was heartened by the number of young girls on the range each day for clinics, and what she’d heard from Americans on the ground about strides being made by the Kingdom.
“The way I see it, if they are willing to invest money into women’s golf,” said Yin. “I don’t see how that can hurt.”
In recent years, the laws in Saudi Arabia have changed to allow women to travel abroad and drive a car. However, the male guardian system that’s still in place requires a male relative’s permission to marry, divorce or leave a shelter or prison.
Last month, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman was seen as downplaying the 2018 killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi during media day for the inaugural event in London. In March, Saudi Arabia put to death 81 people in a mass execution.
Many view the massive sums of money being thrown toward golf by the Saudis as brazen sportswashing.
As the golf world grapples with the potential ramifications of the new LIV Golf Series, which kicked off this week in London and resulted in some of the game’s biggest names being suspended by the PGA Tour, many wonder what future plans Golf Saudi might have for the women’s game.
Already entrenched in the Ladies European Tour, Golf Saudi currently backs six events – including the Aramco Team Series – which feature prize money that’s three to four times a typical event on that tour. Players on the LET must compete for Saudi money to have a chance to keep their cards, forcing some to choose between their livelihood and beliefs.
With the LET falling under the LPGA’s umbrella, the tour is already a partner of the Saudi government. In addition, several LPGA players – such as three-time major champion Anna Nordqvist, Carlota Ciganda, Bronte Law and Alison Lee – sport both the Amarco Series and Saudi logos on their hats and shirts.
It all seems to beg the question, what comes next in the women’s game?
Alison Lee of the United States reacts after making a putt on the 13th hole during the second round of the DIO Implant LA Open at Wilshire Country Club on April 22, 2022, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Nordqvist wouldn’t comment to Golfweek on her partnership with Golf Saudi. Lee, a former standout at UCLA, won the Aramco Team Series event in Sotogrande by five shots last year for her first professional title.
“To be honest with you, it’s hard to compare what the partnership that Aramco Series has with the women versus what’s going on with the men,” said Lee, “it’s apples and oranges. The women on the LET, they play for almost nothing. It’s very similar purse sizes on the (Epson) Tour.
“A million-dollar purse for them is huge, absolutely huge. It’s almost life-changing for some of those girls when they make a big check at the end of the week. I feel like on the men’s tour, you don’t have guys rooming every week with another player; you don’t have them sharing an Airbnb; you don’t have them sharing a rental car, staying at host families every week.”
For LPGA players, the allure of a rare appearance fee at Aramco events is too good to pass up. Yin said expenses for the year on the LPGA can reach six figures. As Lee said, even those who make the cut at an LPGA with a $1.5 million purse might not earn enough to cover expenses for the week.
“Sponsors are meant to help you with your expenses throughout the year,” said Yin. “When you have that stress lifted off of you, you can play golf more free and not worry about whether or not you can pay rent.”
The LPGA wouldn’t comment for this story, other than to say that the tour has not received an offer from LIV Golf, which is contrary to what CEO Greg Norman told the BBC. Norman said their offer to make a substantial investment similar to the Asian Tour was rejected by both the LPGA and LET. But, he continued, that doesn’t mean it’s over. (LIV golf has already invested $300 million toward the Asian Tour.)
“Just because we offered that up,” said Norman, “we may have a different strategy going forward, so sit back and wait. We’re here for a long, long period of time. We’re here to grow the game golf on a global basis, not just in one specific sector, which is men’s. It’s across the board.”
Lewis, an LPGA board member who told Golfweek late last year that she wouldn’t compete in Saudi Arabia, said the tour is very concerned about what could happen down the road.
“We don’t have all the money and the power that the PGA does to kind of withstand all this,” said Lewis. “If tour players were to leave and start doing what the guys are doing, I don’t know what would happen to our tour. … We’ve kind of kept them at arm’s length.”
A Saudi man watches a golfer compete in the Saudi Ladies International golf tournament on November 15, 2020, at the King Abdullah Economic City, north of Jeddah. (Photo by Amer HILABI / AFP) (Photo by AMER HILABI/AFP via Getty Images)
Veteran American Marina Alex believes it would be foolish not to think the LPGA is in a vulnerable position.
With 15 events on the LPGA schedule with $2 million purses, it wouldn’t take much for LIV to create a women’s series that could draw away many of the tour’s top stars.
What could the LPGA do to potentially fortify itself against such a potential threat? Alex isn’t sure there’s a good answer to that question. As a women’s organization, it’s even more complex.
“I would just love for girls to have more sponsorship in general,” said Alex, “and it’s unfortunate that that’s not the case. And this is the next option for players, and I can’t fault them for that. If they think it’s going to change the trajectory of their career, how can you deny someone that opportunity?”
Ryann O’Toole looks at the situation on the men’s side and feels this shouldn’t become a battle about where players can compete. While she hasn’t been invited to compete in the Aramco Series, she’d like to participate.
“That’s where it becomes really a fine line,” said O’Toole. “When the LPGA says ‘Hey, you play for the LPGA.’ Well, we as players own the LPGA. At the end of the day, there should be no discrimination about where we should go to play, or what events we choose to play, how we choose to work. The same with the PGA Tour.”
If another women’s tour were created, O’Toole believes it would bring awareness to what many players have been saying: No more $1.5 million purses.
“We don’t want more events,” said O’Toole. “We want bigger purses. We want less weeks on the road.”
Lizette Salas has already competed in Aramco Series events. If a rival tour were to present itself, similar to LIV, Salas said she’d have to see where she is in her career. Many players, she continued, would take that opportunity “regardless of where (the money is) coming from.”
And what if such a tour or series would crush the nearly 75-year-old LPGA?
“Again, it has to kind of be right place, right time for me,” said Salas. “I would just have to analyze where I am in my career, what my core values are and if it’s a good place for me to play … but I’m not taking it off the table right now.”
Top American Nelly Korda, who competed on the Aramco Series last year in New York with sister Jessica, was asked at a pre-tournament press conference at Pine Needles if she’d be interested if someone came along and offered a $10 million purse every week.
“Yeah,” said Korda, “I don’t know if anyone would say no to that.”
Instead of the LPGA?
“Oh, that is something I’ve never thought of,” she continued. “Right now, I have my eyes set on the LPGA, and that’s where I’m thinking.”
Brittany Altomare, 31, has earned $3.1 million over the course of her LPGA career. She has yet to be invited to the Aramco Series but is keeping a close eye on what’s transpiring in men’s golf.
“Honestly, I don’t know what I would do if I was offered something,” said Altomare. “It’s hard, because morally I have an issue when everything that goes on there, especially towards women … but as Rory put it, $100 million isn’t going to change his life. But a couple million changes my life completely.”
While Poulter could be headed to litigation, Graeme McDowell resigned his membership to “keep the moral high ground.”
Ian Poulter won’t surrender his PGA Tour membership without a fight.
While several of the notable LIV Golf players suspended by the PGA Tour already had informed the Tour that they were giving up their membership – including Kevin Na, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia – Poulter said on Thursday that he elected not to resign his membership.
When informed that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan had lived up to his word and suspended 17 players who had “willfully violated its regulations” by playing in this week’s LIV Golf Invitational Series debut near London, Poulter told the media, “I will appeal, for sure. It makes no sense given how I have played the game of golf for all this time. I didn’t resign my membership because I don’t feel I have done anything wrong. I have played all over the world for 25 years. This is no different.
“I am committed to playing around the world like I have done for so many years so it is a shame if they view this as different. Of course, it’s going to be sad, when you feel you haven’t done anything wrong and want to promote the game of golf. It’s a power struggle and it’s just disappointing.”
Poulter made his comments following the first round of the inaugural event of eight tournaments scheduled for the LIV Golf Invitational Series, which is funded by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth investment fund of Saudi Arabia and one of the largest in the world. It has backed and is financing LIV Golf Investments, the parent company of LIV Golf.
While Poulter could be headed down the road of future litigation with the PGA Tour, Graeme McDowell explained that he resigned his membership “out of an abundance of caution” and to “keep the moral high ground.”
“I actually resigned about 30 minutes before I teed it up today,” McDowell said. “It was a tough decision. I wanted to keep the moral high ground and kind of remain a member of the Tour because I really didn’t feel like I needed to resign nor that I should have to resign. It was a very difficult decision. I kind of resigned out of an abundance of caution honestly because I feel like it puts me in a less litigious situation regards getting drawn into anything unnecessarily. But like I say, I didn’t want to resign. I love the PGA Tour. It’s been great to me. This is not about the PGA Tour is a bad tour. This is about being able to add on additional opportunities to my golf career. Really hard.
“Unfortunately this is going to be short-term pain, but I think all the players that are here this week have only been strengthened in their confidence that we are making the right decisions here because we feel like the execution level that we’re seeing here, the passion, the love of the game of golf that these guys have at LIV, that’s why we’re here. I feel like confidence has been strengthened. Even in the face of consequences which we knew were kind of on the horizon.”
When told of the ban from playing the Tour, including sponsor invites, Sergio Garcia claimed it didn’t apply to him because he was no longer a member.
“That’s one of the reasons why I resigned because I didn’t want to get into my legal battles,” Garcia said. “I’m very happy to be here for many reasons. It’s going to allow me to do what I love, which is playing golf. It’s going to allow me to see my family more, spend more time with my kids, 4 and 2, spend as much time as I can, and I make a good living doing it. For me it’s a win/win. I’m excited for what’s coming. Excited to finally be here playing and see the reaction of the people and the players and everything. So it’s very exciting.”
Garica confirmed that he has no intention, however, of giving up his membership to the DP World Tour.
“Why haven’t I? Because I would like to still be a member,” he said.
Asked if he still hopes to participate in future Ryder Cups, he said, “Definitely. First of all, I’m European, I love the European Tour. I played it for 23 years. Even though I played on the PGA TOUR, I always made sure that I kept my membership in Europe because I love The European Tour, and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to stay a member of the European Tour.
And obviously we’re going to have to wait and see what the European Tour does. But I definitely would like to keep my membership there, play at least my minimum, and you know, get my — as good a chance as I can to make The Ryder Cup Team because I love that event. But I guess we’ll see. We’ll wait and see what happens over there.”
McDowell shared Garcia’s hope that Keith Pelley, who heads the DP World Tour, wouldn’t simply follow in lockstep with the PGA Tour and ban the participants in LIV Golf from competing on their home circuit. The second LIV event happens to conflict with the DP Tour’s Irish Open.
“Will Keith follow suit? I hope he doesn’t,” McDowell said. “I think he has a fantastic opportunity here with a lot of European players and European Tour players that would like to subsidize their schedule with other events, especially if we are not allowed to play on the PGA Tour. I really hope The European Tour makes a good decision. They may have to follow suit with what Jay and the PGA Tour are doing, so watch this space.”
Maybe Phil Mickelson has had enough of Alan Shipnuck or Greg Norman wanted to make a point.
Maybe Phil Mickelson has had enough of Alan Shipnuck or Greg Norman wanted to make a point.
Either way, one of the strangest days in recent golf history ended at the Centurion Golf Club near London on Thursday evening with Shipnuck, the author of “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” being removed from what’s known as the flash interview area at the LIV Golf Invitational Series inaugural event.
Shipnuck, a partner for The Fire Pit Collective, traveled to the United Kingdom for the event and followed Mickelson during his opening round. Afterward, Mickelson spoke to members of the press, as is customary.
However, Shipnuck was not allowed to join.
He wrote on Twitter:
Well, a couple of neckless security dudes just physically removed me from Phil Mickelson’s press conference, saying they were acting on orders from their boss, whom they refused to name. (Greg Norman? MBS? Al Capone?) Never a dull moment up in here.
Golfweek reached out to Shipnuck, who replied in a text message: “I was credentialed and I was standing in the flash area at the start of Phil’s presser when they came for me.”
Not allowing a credentialed press member to attend a player’s press conference is unheard of on other golf tours, but things got stranger in the moments afterward.
Shipnuck sent text messages to LIV Golf’s commissioner, Greg Norman, to point out the incident, and Norman replied that he had not heard about it. Shipnuck did not know when he sent the message that Norman had seen the whole thing.
You cannot make this shit up! I texted Greg Norman before someone sent me this video – I had no idea he was lurking behind me. pic.twitter.com/thgdMlfTAR
In an email to Golfweek, Shipnuck said: “I have no ill will toward Phil. I just wanted to ask him one boring golf question, which is my job. Either he is being way too sensitive or the LIV folks are being too overprotective but, either way, they are overreacting.”
This incident comes two days after Associated Press reporter Rob Harris was cut off, removed from the LIV media center and reprimanded by LIV officials for not being “polite.” Harris was allowed back into the media center about 10 minutes later, according to ESPN.
“The security guards were inappropriately aggressive and physical, considering I was just standing there trying to make sense of the bizarre reasons they were citing for wanting to remove me,” Shipnuck said.
I tried to video this. Was told not to. I said 'don't be daft'. Couldnt work my mobile phone. At that point some dick – wasnt a security guard – grabbed me. I will find him. I debated with security guards on Alan's behalf. They signified it was not their choice. Nuts, mental etc https://t.co/hqnjlXo0Gl
The second round of the LIV Golf London event is Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET time. LIV Golf does not have a TV deal but is streaming the tournament on its YouTube channel.
“This whole situation is messy and ridiculous,” Shipnuck said to Golfweek. “If I have another boring golf question for Phil I’ll ask it because I did fly 6,000 miles to be here and I’m not inclined to be silenced by Greg Norman and his goons.
“Or maybe I’ll just focus on Chantananuwat Ratchanon. … he seems like a nice kid.”
Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio contributed to this article.
Just a few hours after being suspended by the PGA Tour, Charl Schwartzel took the lead in the inaugural LIV Golf.
Just a few hours after being suspended by the PGA Tour, Charl Schwartzel shot a 5-under 65 and holds the overnight lead in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament.
Centurion Golf Club near London is hosting the first-ever LIV event. The course is playing as a par 70 for the three-day, 54-hole, no-cut tournament. Schwartzel started his day on the third hole as the LIV circuit uses a shotgun start for its tournaments.
The 2011 Masters champion was among 17 golfers suspended by the PGA Tour on Thursday morning, not long after the first tee shots were struck. Of those 17, 10, including Schwartzel, had already resigned their PGA Tour membership.
In solo second is another South African, Hennie Du Plessis, who is at 4 under. He has five top-five finishes on the DP World Tour this season but has yet to win there.
Scott Vincent and Phachara Khongwatmai are tied for third at 3 under. Branden Grace and Justin Harding are tied for fifth at 2 under. Two of the LIV Golf circuit’s headliners, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, are among four golfers tied for seventh at 1 under, along with Sam Horsfeld and Laurie Canter.
The winner this week in London will receive $4 million. Everyone in the 48-man field will earn a payday by the end of the final round Saturday.
The league is spearheaded by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
