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    COLUMN: PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger bonanza unlikely to benefit Pinoy golfers

    Golf is booming worldwide, but sadly it remains a hand-to-mouth, fairway-to-green existence for most local pros
    Jun 10, 2023
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    PHOTO: JGTO / PGT
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    BILLIONS of dollars are expected to pour into golf in the aftermath of the shocking merger between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour with LIV Golf, the upstart league funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

    After two years of acrimonious bickering among officials of the leagues and their top players, with major insults exchanged along the way, the two groups have agreed to move forward as partners.

    The agreement has caught everyone by surprise, but most affected are players from the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. It is they, after all, who stood by their organizations, turning down hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts while some of their illustrious colleagues, many of them major golf champions, jumped into what was then the unknown and even the unwanted.

    READ: Shocking turnaround: PGA Tour, Euro Tour merge with LIV golf

    Whether it was loyalty to the tour or an embrace of the principle not to have anything to do with an organization funded by Saudi Arabia, with its record of human rights abuses, the PGA Tour players — led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy — stayed put despite offers of hundreds of millions of dollars to jump ship.

    One of the big issues against Saudi Arabia is that its officials ordered the killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist. Equally big issues include the regime’s reputation for torturing dissidents, mistreating women, and imprisoning, sometimes even killing, people for being gay.

    So, what just happened is mind-boggling. Those who transferred to LIV Golf — such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, and Phil Mickelson — are probably having the last laugh. They were maligned many times over, although they ignored these as they signed up for millions of dollars. Greedy was a common word thrown at them, and so were immoral and unprincipled.

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      It's now possible for Mickelson & Co. to believe that all the tirades were worth it. Besides the signing bonanza, they also took in massive amounts in prizes in LIV Golf events in which the winner’s prize was a staggering $4 million per event. In contrast, a PGA Tour event could only guarantee between $1.5 and $2.5 million.

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      With the merger, it is now possible for the rebels led by Mickelson to return to the PGA Tour while they keep their millions from LIV Golf. It’s a distinct possibility that infuriates PGA Tour loyalists.

      On the other hand, the merger has nearly guaranteed the continued prosperity of golf because PIF, the lead organization under the new umbrella forged by PGA Tour and LIV Golf, has promised to invest billions in the new collaboration.

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      For golfers, this is a very juicy proposition. When the dust settles, players from all sides of the spectrum are expected to embrace the new setup and, maybe, set aside the principles that made them abhor LIV Golf to begin with.

      Many believe money will prevail in the end. Playing for several millions each week does have a way of softening the hardest of hearts and bending the most righteous of principles.

      As the golf world is turned upside down, Filipino golfers remain outside looking in, maybe hoping that loose change from those billions would find its way here.

      Unfortunately, that may not happen anytime soon. Philippine golf, despite its long history and its continuing promise, still appears to be in its infancy. In Asia alone, it has been left eating the dust of neighboring countries, notably of Thailand. Thai male players compete regularly in both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour and are also prominent in the Asian Tour. Just a few years ago, one of its women players, Ariya Jutanugarn, became world number one. And each week it seems, a Thai player is a contender in the LPGA.

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      We cannot even claim champion Yuka Saso as our own. Ranked 36th in the world and winner of the US Women’s Open two years ago, the Philippine-born Saso has since taken up Japanese citizenship.

      In our own backyard, we only have one player of note in the Asian Tour. Miguel Tabuena, 28, appears to have rich form this season, winning in one and tying for fourth in another. Before this, his last win was four years ago. But with a world ranking of No. 539, he’s way below to have any impact outside Asia.

      Tabuena has said his other objective is to play in LIV Golf. Perhaps the politics and morality of playing under the Saudi banner is not an issue. Like hundreds of other golfers, his bottom line is to make money from his God-given talent.

      Indeed, few Filipinos actually make money from golf these days. Besides Tabuena, another is Juvic Pagunsan, who surprised us again by winning in the recent Japan Golf Tour, a league comparable to the Asian Tour. It’s his second win in two years! At 45 years old, his feat is awesome.

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      So, golf remains a hand-to-mouth, fairway-to-green existence for most local pros who cannot just go off and travel and are stuck fighting for the largesse provided by Ricky Razon, whose firm ICTSI bank-rolls the local golf circuit. The billionaire also supports the international campaigns of a number of female and male golfers, including Tabuena.

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      Many of our captains of industry play golf, but very few of their companies support golf. They are mostly invested in basketball. Or, in many cases, eagerly support golf clubs’ tournaments for guest-members, collectively pouring millions of their resources annually on what is already fertile ground.

      If they finally put some of that money into golf development, then perhaps we can have someone to root for in the Masters, the US Open, the PGA Championship, or the British Open, or even all of the above.

      That will be the day.

      Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph

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      PHOTO: JGTO / PGT
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