LIV Golf faces 5 fascinating questions during the off-season | Monday Finish

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we reject everything super secret high stakes private poker invites until further notice. To the golf news!

GOLF THINGS I LOVE

Hollow out.

By now you may have seen several iterations of what is a strong contender for golf shot of the year: American Jordan Gumberg looking for Eagle on his 72nd hole at the Genesis Championship to retain his DP World Tour card by one shot. But what strikes me about that shot is how much professional golf is all about refusing to give up.

Team Australia won the Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown, the LPGA team event that takes place every two years and features country teams participating in a week of match play competition. The event may have skipped your radar because much of it took place in one night (the New Korea Country Club isn’t on ET at all), but the Aussies took it to the U.S. team in the finals, with Minjee Lee And Hanna Green each winning their singles matches. (More here.)

Junghwan Lee won for the first time on the DP World Tour – and did so on home soil, by three shots. Lee immediately assumes DPWT status with the win, which is also the first on tour by a Korean player since then Ben An last year at the same tournament. (More here.)

Pongsapak “Fifa” Laopakdee punched his ticket to the Masters by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at the Emirates Golf Club, coming back after six shots with birdies at 10, 13, 15, 17 and 18. He then made birdies on all three playoff holes to win by one shot. A fun fact about the junior from Arizona State by Evin Priesterwho was on the scene this week: the Thai 20-year-old sings to himself when he’s nervous, an idea he borrowed from Jeeno Thitikul.

Steven Alker won on the PGA Tour Champions by a full touchdown (and extra point!) firing 20 under par at the Simmons Bank Championship, blowing away two runners-up at 13 under par. It is his tenth win on the senior circuit and he rises to No. 1 as they progress to the play-off final. (More here.)

And Yani Tseng re-entering the winner’s circle of the Ladiesst European Tour, the final step in an unlikely comeback that included some remarkably low lows, but now serves as a small triumph of the human spirit; Tseng has overcome the putting yips by switching to left-handed on the greens. Golf is endlessly difficult but endlessly fascinating, even if you reach No. 1 in the world.

SHORT HITTERS

5 unanswered questions LIV will face this offseason.

When you say to yourself: Hey Dylan, isn’t it your job to answer these questions? I’d say, you know, that’s fair enough. Consider this an interesting list for you and a to-do list for me. Here are five questions surrounding LIV that also impact the rest of the professional golf ecosystem:

1. Who signs LIV?

Since LIV’s inception, this has consistently been the most intriguing question surrounding the league: who will they recruit elsewhere in the golf ecosystem? The first wave and a half in 2022 was dazzling, everyone came from there Phil Mickelson Unpleasant Bryson DeChambeau Unpleasant Brooks Koepka Unpleasant Joaquin Niemann Unpleasant Cam Smith and more. The 2023 signing Jon Rahm was also a shock, especially when it was accompanied by Tyrrell Hatton. So who will LIV claim this offseason? Which PGA Tour players will defect? Who will be the biggest name?

2. Who will LIV re-sign?

The news came last weekend via Flushing it that LIV had been restarted Dustin Johnson’s contract, which would expire after the 2025 season. The 4 Aces captain is coming back, meaning LIV probably made it worth doing.

Some of LIV’s big names are now in an interesting position; on the one hand, LIV needs them to stay on to keep the momentum going. On the other hand, their influence in negotiations with LIV is hampered by the fact that they may have nowhere else to go.

The biggest negotiation by far will not take place this season but will play a role Bryson DeChambeauwhose contract runs until 2026. He’s a full-time content creator and something of a media mogul in his own right – it’ll be interesting to see how his relationship with LIV and with his Crushers evolves as he thinks about revival, while also balancing his side quests.

3. Does LIV receive OWGR points?

Included in a great and comprehensive Global Golf Post profile from John Hopkins (which you should read here) from the now retired OWGR chairman Peter Dawson were two interesting nuggets:

-It is not clear to him why LIV continues.

“I really don’t understand why the PIF [Public Investment Fund] and Saudi Arabia are continuing to do it,” Dawson continued. “They are doing great things for the women’s game with the PIF Global Series and they have great plans within Saudi Arabia to expand golf for their own people and for tourism. These initiatives deserve our applause, but LIV seems to be the odd one out.”

-and he is disappointed that they did not reach an OWGR resolution.

“I was very disappointed that we couldn’t do this with LIV,” he said. “It goes without saying that players on the LIV tour are good enough to be ranked because they were previously. But OWGR has a duty to ensure that all of the thousands of players in the system are ranked equally. Some aspects of the LIV format made that impossible. In my opinion, OWGR made the only decision it could make at the time.“

That OWGR failure was partly due to LIV taking its toys and going home, withdrawing the application rather than working with the powers that be on acceptable grading standards. But with new leadership installed on both sides of the relationship and a new application on the way, it will be interesting to see how the OWGR board and LIV find common ground – and possible points.

4. What will happen to Henrik Stenson?

Henrik Stenson is the most high-profile LIV golfer to finish in his “Drop Zone,” outside the top 48, which under LIV rules meant he was automatically relegated. (This is true with Anthony Kimalso plus Pereira mythamong others.) But we haven’t really seen LIV leave one of its stars yet, let alone a co-captain of a team (the Majesticks) like Stenson.

5. What exactly will promotion and relegation look like?

LIV has hosted a Promotional Event each of the past two seasons. Another one should take place in December, and presumably Stenson, Kim and Pereira could join in – but if it does happen, LIV hasn’t made any announcements on the subject yet. The answer to this question is intertwined with #3 and 4 (and perhaps 1 and 2 as well) because questions of promotion and relegation are crucial to what makes this an open versus closed shop, where new players earn their place. Perhaps they will consult with the OWGR on this issue. Maybe there is another route they can build through the Asian Tour or the International Series. Again, we mainly have questions.

Time to work on the answers…

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

It’s an unusually sunny Monday after a turbulent weekend; Saturday night the lights flickered all night thanks to pouring rain and 50mph winds, and on Sunday I got photos of a hailstorm in Chambers Bay. But this is inspiring weather, the kind that makes you end up in a mediocre bucket on the way home from work, takes the dog for an extra-long walk, and makes the evening hours feel precious instead of dark and shortened. I hope it’s the same where you are.

We’ll see you next week!

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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