“The players are being notified that they are suspended or otherwise no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play”
They are banning players who have agreed to play on an alternate circuit. The PGA has held a virtual stranglehold on pro golfers for decades, and the new LIV tour is challenging that with larger purses and no cuts (every entrant wins some money, limit 48 players per tournament). The new tour is chaired by Greg Norman and backed with a massive amount of Saudi money.
An interesting sidebar: the new tour will feature 54-hole tournaments in lieu of the traditional 72. I wonder if Norman had any input on that decision. If PGA tournaments had been 54-hole events, Greg Norman would have won six majors instead of two, and would have won the grand slam in 1986. In the real world, he won only one of the four majors (the British Open twice).
Norman was one of the top golfers of his era. He led the money-winners in three different seasons and won five Vardon Cups for having the lowest scoring average for a calendar year. But despite all of his successes, he is remembered is the guy who blew the big one again and again.
Norman’s most dramatic fold was the 1996 masters, when he entered the final round with a six-stroke lead, only to shoot an embarrassing 78, finishing five behind! That is arguably the second-biggest choke in the history of modern pro sports, behind only Bill Tilden’s epic choke at the Wimbledon semis in 1927. Tilden was ahead 6-2, 6-4, 5-1 (30-0) – and lost! Of course, Tilden didn’t do it on live camera, and didn’t do it time and again. Norman did both, to insure his image as the king choker.
- Norman achieved the Saturday Slam in 1986 by leading all four majors after three rounds, but won only the British Open. He blew the PGA with a final round 76, and the US Open with a 75.
- In 1984 he had waited until the fifth round to choke. He tied for the lead in the US Open, then shot a 75 in the playoff to lose by eight strokes.
- In the 1989 British Open, he was brilliant in the fourth round, shooting a 64 to come from way behind to get into a playoff. Based on what I’ve written so far, I’m sure you can guess what happened then. He was tied for the lead until the final hole, which he never even finished when he hit two sand traps, then knocked one OB.
- In the 1993 PGA, he missed a two-foot putt to lose a sudden-death playoff. Since he had also lost a playoff in the 1987 Masters, that gave him the playoff slam – he lost one in all four majors!
If I had been good enough to play pro sports, I feel like I could have challenged Norman as the greatest choke artist. One year my upstart co-ed softball team made it to the final round of the Dallas city championships. That’s a big deal in the kind of low-tier sports that I play. Dallas is a big-ass city with a lot of teams. We held a one-run lead with two outs and nobody on in the bottom half of the final inning. Their best player was up, but he didn’t meet it squarely and launched a soft, routine line drive right at my chest at third base for what should have been the final out. Easiest play in the world, like playing catch with your dad. I dropped it. I recovered quickly, but my throw was late on a heartbreakingly close call. Their team stayed alive and came back to win. Of course they had to score two runs after that, and those runs had nothing to do with me, but let’s face it, I single-handedly blew the city championship for a team that had recruited me while watching me play for another team the previous year!
So, as a choker myself, I really feel the pain when I watch the Normans and Buckners of the world. When I watch them, I feel like it’s me screwing up.
I have my doubts as to whether the PGA suspensions will be upheld by the courts. As all the pro golfers are independent contractors, forbidding them from “working” for a competing association is quite possibly an antitrust violation. While Major League Baseball has an undeserved antitrust exemption, they are the only pro sports league with one. All others get around antitrust law through collective bargaining agreements. I have no idea if the PGA has a CBA, but if they don’t, I can’t see the suspensions being upheld.
As for the criticism of the players for “selling out” to Saudi Arabia, I find it hard to fault a person that sells out to the tune of the $200 million which one golfer was guaranteed. Hell, I’d sell out for the $100 million another golfer was offered.
How old mower you when you choked…?
Mickelson and Norman are has been golfers…out for a buck.
35ish
Hopefully Dusty, clueless Phil, Sergio et al can still eke out a meager existence while sucking Saudi dick! 😮 $$$ rules the world notwithstanding …
Yeah, well, I’ve been grateful that the dollar having been the world’s effective reserve currency throughout my entire life has been berry, berry good for many middle class Americans.
So, maybe my nose gets the slightest wrinkle from the blatant bowing down to the almighty dollar. I’m not gonna live forever & thus find this sort of signal to be both familiar & reassuring.
Yeah. If I’d been as good as you, Scoops, I mighta been in a position to not be a clutch player, too. Oh, I had good eyes, good balance & good hands. I didn’t drop line-drives or fly balls, nor passes. My throws were on the money. Just without the arm strength to play third or throw deep. I was not a fast runner. No gold gloves for any fielder who doesn’t take away a base hit now & then.
I did surprise people in dodge ball. If you’re a good dodger, which I was, you can go unnoticed. Later in the game, though, with less targets to go for, lots of balls were thrown at me. If a ball was on the mark, I could catch it. I caught it with my fingers. The ball didn’t touch my arms. Heh.
Eh, I did OK in HORSE, too. Just, everything else in hoops needs speed or strength. Touch, I had. Which, overall, ain’t that valuable.
What I’m getting at, I guess, is Golf is not like Tennis. Winning at tennis is (at least when it’s played how I like it) all about consistency. As far as I can tell, no one is consistently, reliably, good at golf. The best players in the world play a lot of bad rounds that just don’t make news as it usually happens off the leaderboard.
Good for them. Golf was prime for a shakeup. 54 holes has always made more sense. 72 holes puts out weighted emphasis on endurance over skill. Breaking cartels is almost always a good thing. They should go after Amazon next.