Combating Fake News: Debunking the LIV Golf Roster Narratives
One of the general themes that I’ve been covering in my columns the last few months has been about the hypocrisy and the negative way that the LIV Golf League has been covered in the media. I’ve gone as far as calling the golf media, “The Corrupt Golf Media.” Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean everyone in the golf media is corrupt, but there’s been enough bad information — influencing masquerading as journalism — that it raises questions about the integrity and the agendas of many in this group. Yes, it does sound a little bit “Trump-ian” but you know, in my opinion, that was probably the best part about the Presidency of Donald Trump — the exposing of “fake news”, “biased media”, and in some cases “corrupt media” over the past 6–7 years. This is coming from someone that has voted Democratic most of my adult life. With all of the investigations into certain “news stories” peddled as “fact”, only to be uncovered as inaccurate later, this is an idea that is now out in the open in pop culture. And look, this idea isn’t new either, so if you want to dive deeper into “Why the News Is Not the Truth”, please read the linked article by Peter Vanderwicken from the Harvard Business Review. By the way, that article was written almost 30(!) years ago. This concept also dates back to the late 1800’s via Joseph Pulitzer (yes, that Pulitzer). Again, this is not new, and the PGA Tour and it’s media partners seem to have perfected many of these tactics.
So let’s continue on this hypocrisy narrative. We’ve already discussed many of the reasons for this biased media approach — but this has also extended out to the players that have signed with LIV Golf over the past year. It’s been a fascinating insight going on via golf media and social media — seeing a player heralded in one moment, and then when he decides to play at LIV, all of a sudden he’s “not good,” or “washed up” or “he’s left the competitive golf landscape” and is somehow now inferior to his counterparts on the PGA Tour. It’s quite strange, is disingenuous at best, corruption at worst, and raises a lot of questions about why this is necessary? Great golfers are meant to be celebrated — usually. It’s a narrative that we need to debunk.
Has anyone *really* done a deep dive into the players at LIV and put them up against their former compatriots at the PGA Tour? Well, let’s do it now! The facts are this: back around March 2022, Rory McIlroy declared that LIV was “dead in the water” and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said that “[The PGAT] was moving on [from the idea of LIV].”
A year later, 13 of the top 32 players in the Official World Golf Rankings from that time are now playing on the LIV Golf circuit. 20 of the Top 52 and 34 of the Top 100 players. Also, from the 2022 Players Championship, 5 of the Top 10 finishers are now at LIV. That is a *significant* amount of the top talent. It’s not *all* the talent, by any means, but more than anyone could have imagined this time last year.
So that’s at the top of the rankings, but let’s dive deeper. I’ve listened to many golf influencers over the course of the past 9 months pontificate about Chase Koepka and James Piot whenever they are trying to delegitimize the level of players at LIV — it’s a frustrating narrative in my eyes. They’re very good, young players still in their 20s. This negative spin is in spite of the fact that the PGA Tour has up to 8 sponsor exemptions for most events. INCLUDING the aforementioned Chase Koepka (2021 Honda Classic where he finished T30 & the 2022 Honda Classic) and James Piot (2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Charles Schwab Challenge, Memorial Tournament). Clearly, both have been invited to multiple events in the past year on the PGA Tour.
If I wanted to try to delegitimize the PGA Tour, I might mention how they have doled out exemptions to pro football players like Tony Romo, and pro tennis player Mardy Fish to play in recent PGA Tour events. This action was actually lauded by golf journalist Eamon Lynch as recently as 2019, and encouraged the PGA Tour to give out *more* of these exemptions. For anyone that’s been following, Lynch has been one of the biggest critics of LIV Golf, who has tried to delegitimize it any chance that he gets — although his reasons behind that have not been entirely transparent. Country music singer Jake Owen was even invited to play in a Korn Ferry Tour event (PGA Tour’s minor league), as have pro athletes Jerry Rice, Steph Curry, among others. Look, all are very good amateur golfers in their own rights, but you can’t say they “earned” their right to be there. They were given an opportunity, didn’t meet Tour standards, and subsequently are not members of the Tour. Again, you can use any anecdotal examples to try and make a point — I choose not to — and I have no issue with these special situations.
Just like with the PGA Tour, at LIV you’re given the chance to take advantage of the opportunities that you’re given — generally more time than a single tournament — LIV contracts can be anywhere between a single event (see 2019 US Amateur Champion Andy Ogletree) or up to 1–2 years for the special exemptions. If you don’t play well, given those opportunities, you can quite easily find yourself on the outside looking in for future events. This goes for Ogletree, who didn’t play well in his 1st event (finished in last place), and was relegated to the Asian Tour for 2022–23. Ogletree has since won TWICE on the Asian Tour, and is in a good spot to potentially earn a spot back at LIV in 2024 via the Asian Tour International Series Order of Merit. Koepka & Piot both need to play well this LIV season to keep their spots on Smash GC & Hy Flyers GC respectively, or they may find themselves where Ogletree was last season if they are in the bottom 4 of the 48 person individual standings.
I’ve also heard from many “popular” golf influencers that LIV Golf consists of what equates to “48 Sponsor Exemptions” that don’t necessarily deserve to be on the circuit. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a less accurate representation of the high quality of players at LIV. Guys, these are not golf influencers or non-golfers that have been invited to LIV. The LIV roster consists of many of the most accomplished golfers, and greatest champions in golf history. Not “ancient history” either — recent history. 12 of the last 27 major champions since 2016 (44%). Between the 2020 US Open (start of the 2020–21 PGA Tour season) and the 2022 Players Championship (prior to the forming of LIV Golf), LIV Golfers won 23 out of 69 regular season PGA Tour events (1 out of every 3). That win clip is akin to Tiger Woods’ win percentage during the height of his powers. Imagine removing Tiger Woods’ from the PGA Tour between 1997 and 2009 and the impact that would have? That’s a gigantic loss of talent spread out over 17 different players. And that’s not counting all of the wins that LIV players have accumulated across the other major worldwide golf tours (DP World Tour, Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia). To think that the LIV Golf players wouldn’t continue winning PGA Tour events is disingenuous.
Now, that the LIV Golf League has been formed, and the qualification criteria to get into the newly formed LIV qualification tournament has been made public, it’s pretty clear how the current LIV golf players were selected from various priority lists to form the captains, initial rosters, primary players and other invitations:
(1) Winners of major championships (since 2010): Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel (13)
(2) Recent Ryder Cup (2018/2021) and/or Presidents Cup (2017/2019/2022) team members: Joaquin Niemann, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer, Paul Casey, Branden Grace, Anirban Lahiri, Marc Leishman, Sebastian Munoz, Mito Pereira, Bernd Wiesberger (11)
(3) Top 200 in the Official World Golf Rankings: Kevin Na, Talor Gooch, Richard Bland, Dean Burmester, Sam Horsfield, Charles Howell III, Matt Jones, Sihwan Kim, Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Thomas Pieters, Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale, Harold Varner III, Matthew Wolff (16)
(4) Winners of the U.S. and/or British Amateur: Peter Uihlein, James Piot, Danny Lee (3)
(5) Top 20 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings: Eugenio Chacarra, David Puig (2)
(6) Asian Tour International Series Order of Merit winner: Scott Vincent (1)
(7) PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner: Jed Morgan (1)
(8) Special Invitation Exemption: Chase Koepka (1)
That accounts for all 48 players on the initial rosters for the 2023 LIV Golf League. To recap, 40 out of 48 players (83%) are major champions, played in the Ryder Cup & Presidents Cup, or are highly ranked golfers with most of these winners and team participants occurring within the last 5 years prior to the start of LIV. The major championships, universally seen as the pinnacle of golf, you’re fully exempt into playing in all 4 majors if you’ve won a major within the past 5 years. So there’s precedent that good play during the past 5 years is solid criteria for selecting the best players to participate in high level golf tournaments. Also, the Masters has a virtual lifetime exemption (Watson, Schwartzel), Open Championship through 60 years of age (Stenson, Oosthuizen), same with the PGA Championship (Kaymer). That only leaves Graeme McDowell, who last won on the European Tour in 2020 and PGA Tour in 2019. He’s certainly still capable of playing great golf. All of those players have *earned* the right to be at LIV.
The remaining 8 players at LIV (13% of the field) are young players deserving of an opportunity: up and comers, accomplished amateurs, and special cases, that virtually every high level golf tournament has — including all 4 majors. The PGA Championship includes the top 20 Club Professionals (13% of the field) — they’re not tour pros and would not be invited without this special exemption category. The 2023 Masters includes 7 Amateurs and roughly 7 past champions that have not won on the PGA Tour in 15 years or more. None of the above 14 are generally competitive in the event, and just fill out the field. That’s roughly 14 out of 90 (16% of the field). The US Open and Open Championship have similar invites.
The difference is that the special exemptions at LIV have good chances to play well at LIV and possibly win. Eugenio Chacarra is a rising star in the game of golf as one of the top college/amateur players in 2022 — and proved that promise by winning the LIV Golf Bangkok event in October 2022.
Augusta National: I hope you take a strong look at Eugenio and extend him a special invitation to The Masters — would be a great gesture to him and to honor your legacy of great Masters champions from Spain (Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal & Sergio Garcia) and further your tradition of promoting global golf.
Peter Uihlein, after years of struggling in pro golf, has found a home at LIV, and is cementing himself into a top 10 player on the circuit, finishing 3rd in the individual standings in 2022. That confidence has also spilled into his play in events outside of LIV — finishing in the Top 10 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour, matching the score or ahead of top players like Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Billy Horschel, Danny Willett, Francesco Molinari, and the Hojgaard twins. Peter is playing his best golf since being the #1 ranked Amateur in the world for 49 weeks in 2010 & 2011, ahead of the likes of Patrick Cantlay and Max Homa.
The average World Golf Ranking of the LIV players when they went to LIV (minus the exemptions), was approximately 70th in the world. Here are the players currently around that rank in the OWGR: Rickie Fowler, Adam Hadwin, Maverick McNealy, JJ Spaun and Nick Taylor. That would be your *average* player at LIV based on OWGR. Those players on the PGA Tour are all above average players. Fowler (currently 25th in PGAT FedEx Cup Standings), Hadwin (59th in 2023, 63rd in 2022), McNealy (48th in 2023, 38th in 2022), Spaun (46th in 2023, 34th in 2022), Taylor (21st in 2023). Hmmm, not quite the narrative that we’ve been spun about the level of golf being played at LIV is it? Again, the golf influencers have taken the anecdotal examples and propagandized those into trying to delegitimize LIV. This narrative needs to be thrown out in the trash because that’s where it belongs.
The past calendar year has been the most eventful and exciting year in golf during my lifetime. It’s been clear that the PGA Tour and the media have invested a lot of time in anti-LIV propaganda trying to delegitimize LIV Golf, it’s players, it’s funding, it’s leadership and everything around it. Most of this is not surprising, but remember, a lot of that is fake news, peddled by the Corrupt Golf Media. It’s time for the golf fan base to educate ourselves against these bogus claims and narratives, and I hope this helps put some of that messaging in perspective!
