It’s a PR fiasco. Not only is defending champion Jon Rahm not in the field at The Sentry — this week’s ongoing event on the PGA Tour — but 2023’s ‘Player of the Year,’ award has been presented to Scottie Scheffler on the sidelines of the event. Scheffler has been the dominant force in world golf for the past two seasons. In 2023 he won twice on the PGA Tour including the much coveted Players Championship. But Rahm, who wasn’t able to defend his title this week, won four times in 2023 — including the Masters Tournament — and played a key role in Europe’s Ryder Cup win. Not surprisingly, there’s been some controversy about the award: Rahm was almost considered a shoo-in before he dramatically announced his departure for the LIV Golf Tour in December 2023.
All in all, not the kind of media attention you want around your event, and one has to feel for the sponsors of The Sentry. The only saving grace, possibly, could be that Scheffler — who, at a cumulative score of 16-under-par leads the field by a stroke at the time of writing — wins The Sentry. Just to reaffirm his credentials, as it were, as the man in form.
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The good bit to emerge from this latest development is that it does appear like the LIV Golf — PGA Tour saga is finally on its last legs. The deadline to close the ‘deal,’ which was expected to be signed by the end of 2023, has now been extended into 2024. Even the PGA Tour’s biggest supporters agree that Rahm’s departure has given the Saudi-backed league decisive leverage in the ongoing merger negotiations between the two Tours. And that’s not all: Rahm’s departure has been followed by public statements by Rory McIlroy in which the Ulsterman has diplomatically admitted that he may have been a bit hasty in his previous criticisms of players who’ve shifted to the LIV Golf Tour and has come out in support of Rahm. “It’s hard to sit here and criticise Jon because of what a great player he is and the experiences I’ve had with him, but all I would say is that I will be disappointed not to play against him more regularly in the future,” he told Sky Sports. McIlroy also indicated that he couldn’t foresee a European Ryder Cup team bereft of Rahm. “Jon is going to be in Bethpage in 2025 so because of this decision the European Tour is going to have to rewrite the rules for Ryder Cup eligibility, there’s no question about that. I certainly want Jon Rahm on the next Ryder Cup team,” he said.
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It reads almost like a playbook. The way a well-funded entrant came in and disrupted a complacent professional sports league, weaned away the latter’s best players, exposed the former’s inadequacies, capitalised on its weaknesses, and eventually usurped control over the sport. It has now come to light that overtures made by the PIF to the PGA Tour, back when the sovereign wealth fund was exploring investment into sport, were ignored. Clearly, that snub didn’t go down well.
At this juncture, no one can expect a player of Rahm’s calibre to reject a deal that is reportedly worth an astonishing $500 million, when it is likely that the new pro golf landscape is likely to be dominated by the PIF sooner rather than later. This is what makes Rahm’s suspension from the PGA Tour somewhat counterproductive — the Tour needs to prioritise preserving the interests of its sponsors. The suspension has meant that Rahm wasn’t able to defend his title at The Sentry this week. And let’s face it, Rahm is unlikely to be heartbroken about missing out there. The sponsors miss out on the buzz a star presence would have created, and so do golf fans.
At the end of the day, while winning on the PGA Tour is a career goal for all professionals, elite players focus mostly on Major Championships. Earlier during the week, on the sidelines of The Sentry tournament, Patrick Cantlay recounted an anecdote from the time he visited Tiger Woods’ house in 2021. With three wins and the FedEx title, Cantlay had just won the PGA Tour’s ‘Player of the Year,’ award and was, self-admittedly feeling quite chuffed about that. “I went over to Tiger’s house, I think to talk Ryder Cup after I had won Player of the Year, and it felt like a big deal to me at the time that I had got a Player of the Year, and they give you this little Jack Nicklaus bronze trophy,” Cantlay told the media. “So we’re walking through Tiger’s house and we’re in the basement and he’s got like, 11 of ’em lined up right next to each other all in the corner of the basement – boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.”
It reminds me of the comments McIlroy made a couple of years back at The Masters Tournament about how Woods only displays trophies from wins at golf’s four major events. “I went over to Tiger’s house a few weeks ago to see him, and in his family room he’s got his trophy cabinet, and it’s his 15 major trophies,” McIlroy said. “I said, ‘That’s really cool. Where are all the others?’” McIlroy said Woods didn’t even seem to know, telling him, “My mom has some, and a few are in the office, and a few are wherever…I’m just thinking to myself, how easy it must have felt for him if all he cared about were four weeks a year. The other stuff must have been like practice. So that’s like a really — that’s a cool perspective to have,” he said.
Come 2024, and I think it’s a fair conjecture that most of the top players in the world, McIlroy and Rahm included, have come around to precisely that point of view. Nothing like visiting the Big Cat to get perspective on your place in golfing history and what’s really important. As for Scheffler, I suspect that the 2023 Player of the Year trophy isn’t going to find pride of place in Scheffler’s trophy cabinet. Still hope he wins The Sentry tonight.
It’s a PR fiasco. Not only is defending champion Jon Rahm not in the field at The Sentry — this week’s ongoing event on the PGA Tour — but 2023’s ‘Player of the Year,’ award has been presented to Scottie Scheffler on the sidelines of the event. Scheffler has been the dominant force in world golf for the past two seasons. In 2023 he won twice on the PGA Tour including the much coveted Players Championship. But Rahm, who wasn’t able to defend his title this week, won four times in 2023 — including the Masters Tournament — and played a key role in Europe’s Ryder Cup win. Not surprisingly, there’s been some controversy about the award: Rahm was almost considered a shoo-in before he dramatically announced his departure for the LIV Golf Tour in December 2023.
All in all, not the kind of media attention you want around your event, and one has to feel for the sponsors of The Sentry. The only saving grace, possibly, could be that Scheffler — who, at a cumulative score of 16-under-par leads the field by a stroke at the time of writing — wins The Sentry. Just to reaffirm his credentials, as it were, as the man in form.
The good bit to emerge from this latest development is that it does appear like the LIV Golf — PGA Tour saga is finally on its last legs. The deadline to close the ‘deal,’ which was expected to be signed by the end of 2023, has now been extended into 2024. Even the PGA Tour’s biggest supporters agree that Rahm’s departure has given the Saudi-backed league decisive leverage in the ongoing merger negotiations between the two Tours. And that’s not all: Rahm’s departure has been followed by public statements by Rory McIlroy in which the Ulsterman has diplomatically admitted that he may have been a bit hasty in his previous criticisms of players who’ve shifted to the LIV Golf Tour and has come out in support of Rahm. “It’s hard to sit here and criticise Jon because of what a great player he is and the experiences I’ve had with him, but all I would say is that I will be disappointed not to play against him more regularly in the future,” he told Sky Sports. McIlroy also indicated that he couldn’t foresee a European Ryder Cup team bereft of Rahm. “Jon is going to be in Bethpage in 2025 so because of this decision the European Tour is going to have to rewrite the rules for Ryder Cup eligibility, there’s no question about that. I certainly want Jon Rahm on the next Ryder Cup team,” he said.
McIlroy’s comments aren’t necessarily a volte-face but more of an acknowledgement of a new reality, a new ecosystem that he’s going to be a part of, considering that the purse strings will rest clearly with the Saudis, it would have appeared like bad form for McIlroy to continue to publicly denounce them.
It reads almost like a playbook. The way a well-funded entrant came in and disrupted a complacent professional sports league, weaned away the latter’s best players, exposed the former’s inadequacies, capitalised on its weaknesses, and eventually usurped control over the sport. It has now come to light that overtures made by the PIF to the PGA Tour, back when the sovereign wealth fund was exploring investment into sport, were ignored. Clearly, that snub didn’t go down well.
At this juncture, no one can expect a player of Rahm’s calibre to reject a deal that is reportedly worth an astonishing $500 million, when it is likely that the new pro golf landscape is likely to be dominated by the PIF sooner rather than later. This is what makes Rahm’s suspension from the PGA Tour somewhat counterproductive — the Tour needs to prioritise preserving the interests of its sponsors. The suspension has meant that Rahm wasn’t able to defend his title at The Sentry this week. And let’s face it, Rahm is unlikely to be heartbroken about missing out there. The sponsors miss out on the buzz a star presence would have created, and so do golf fans.
At the end of the day, while winning on the PGA Tour is a career goal for all professionals, elite players focus mostly on Major Championships. Earlier during the week, on the sidelines of The Sentry tournament, Patrick Cantlay recounted an anecdote from the time he visited Tiger Woods’ house in 2021. With three wins and the FedEx title, Cantlay had just won the PGA Tour’s ‘Player of the Year,’ award and was, self-admittedly feeling quite chuffed about that. “I went over to Tiger’s house, I think to talk Ryder Cup after I had won Player of the Year, and it felt like a big deal to me at the time that I had got a Player of the Year, and they give you this little Jack Nicklaus bronze trophy,” Cantlay told the media. “So we’re walking through Tiger’s house and we’re in the basement and he’s got like, 11 of ’em lined up right next to each other all in the corner of the basement – boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.”
It reminds me of the comments McIlroy made a couple of years back at The Masters Tournament about how Woods only displays trophies from wins at golf’s four major events. “I went over to Tiger’s house a few weeks ago to see him, and in his family room he’s got his trophy cabinet, and it’s his 15 major trophies,” McIlroy said. “I said, ‘That’s really cool. Where are all the others?’” McIlroy said Woods didn’t even seem to know, telling him, “My mom has some, and a few are in the office, and a few are wherever…I’m just thinking to myself, how easy it must have felt for him if all he cared about were four weeks a year. The other stuff must have been like practice. So that’s like a really — that’s a cool perspective to have,” he said.
Come 2024, and I think it’s a fair conjecture that most of the top players in the world, McIlroy and Rahm included, have come around to precisely that point of view. Nothing like visiting the Big Cat to get perspective on your place in golfing history and what’s really important. As for Scheffler, I suspect that the 2023 Player of the Year trophy isn’t going to find pride of place in Scheffler’s trophy cabinet. Still hope he wins The Sentry tonight.
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