UNCIVIL GOLF WAR CONTINUES TO CHURN

PGA Tour, LIV feud a big talking point ahead of U.S. Open

Phil Mickelson was hitting balls on the driving range at the U.S. Open on Tuesday when a fan yelled, “Phil, how are the pockets lookin'?”

The golfer gave a smile and his trademark thumbs up, then reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out a wad of cash.

The golf world is a little dizzy at The Country Club in Brookline where a little more than a century ago, Francis Ouimet famously took down the golf establishment by winning the 1913 U.S. Open as a 20-year-old American amateur. A hundred and change years later, the golf establishment is once again under threat.

This time, not from a local working class hero, but from

Phil's pockets and the even deeper pockets the famous golfer now represents.

The battle for the future of professional golf between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-funded LIV Golf has made its way to the U.S. Open, and it remains the hot topic.

Canadian Mackenzie Hughes was practising beside Mickelson on the driving range and didn't see Phil's exchange with the fan, but admitted things are getting a little weird.

“I'm hitting balls beside Phil. and Phil's a totally separate commodity from the PGA Tour now,” Hughes said. “And it seems weird because he's been a fixture for so long out here on tour.

Even seeing DJ, I saw Dustin (Johnson) yesterday and it's got a weird feeling to it, everything just feels off.”

Depending on how golf's uncivil war pans out, there is a good chance that major championships might end up being the only place the two worlds of golf collide. Of course, the PGA Tour would much prefer if the four majors found a way to keep LIV golfers away from the sport's biggest tournaments. That seems an unlikely solution for a number of reasons, one being that intentionally weakening your field is probably not at the top of the list for any of the four majors. Also, the four majors, thinking a little selfishly, could actually benefit from a fractured golf world as their tournaments would likely grow in stature if they were the only place all of the world's best players came together to face off.

“It will always seem weird going forward seeing those guys come back to compete at majors, because then we won't see them for months,” Hughes said. “Let's say from the British Open all the way to the Masters, you won't see Phil for eight months.”

Hughes said he agrees with Jay Monahan's decision to suspend the players competing on the LIV series.

“It's detrimental to the tour if those guys play when we have one of our big events with RBC that same week,” Hughes said of LIV'S debut taking place opposite the RBC Canadian Open.

“It's detrimental to the tour's product, and RBC is one of their biggest sponsors, so I think that the tour is well within its rights to do what it did and we'll see if it holds up.”

As much as tournament organizers and players might be tiring of questions and distractions, most golfers I've spoken to last week at St. George's and here at Brookline admit it's the talk inside the ropes as well.

Nobody has been more outspoken than Rory Mcilroy in support of the PGA Tour, and on Tuesday he said he has a hard time understanding why any younger players would choose to join the Greg Norman-led Series.

“A lot of these guys are in their late 40s — In Phil's case, early 50s — I think everyone in this room, and they would say to you themselves, that their best days are behind them,” Mcilroy said. “That's why I don't understand for the guys that are a similar age to me going because I would like to believe that my best days are still ahead of me, and I think theirs are, too. So that's where it feels like you're taking the easy way out.”

Of course, as Mickelson's reported Us$200-million deal and his full pockets reminded us on Tuesday, in the end it's often about money.

Of course, not everyone will be offered nine-figure sums to make the jump, and there are sure to be more players jumping ship in coming weeks.

On Tuesday, Hughes was asking a question a lot of golfers will have to ask themselves as this war rages on.

“I think about guys like Phil and DJ, do they really need more money?” Hughes said.