Biggest disruption of Saudi tour is words, not golf

The theme of the Saudifunded LIV Golf series is, “Golf, But Louder.”

Money talks, loud enough for Dustin Johnson to get an offer he couldn’t ignore, for Brooks Koepka to do an aboutface within a week, for Pat Perez to be smiling after shooting 80.

Inflated signing fees from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund were always going to attract criticism. Now an additional layer of noise is starting to surface, mainly because some of these players decided to take the money and run their mouths.

Talor Gooch got more attention for his words than anything he ever did on the golf course. For those unfamiliar with Gooch, he won his first PGA Tour title in the final tournament of 2021 against a field that had no one from the top 10 in the world on the weekend. He has played seven majors in his eight years as a pro.

When asked during the inaugural LIV event outside London whether it was fair to be criticized for contributing to “sportswashing,” Gooch replied: “I’m a golfer. I’m not that smart.”

And then he proved it last week at Pumpkin Ridge when his team (4 Aces) won by seven shots, each member paid $750,000. Gooch was asked if he could feel the energy from the crowd.

“I haven’t played a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, but I can’t imagine there’s a whole hell of a lot of difference,” Gooch said. ”This was as cool as it gets.”

As cool as it will ever get for him, no doubt. The comment was absurd, even by Gooch’s standards. This was the player who posted a “You’re Welcome” gif when the PGA Tour reacted to LIV by announcing changes to its schedule geared around bigger purses for top players.

No doubt, the new league is a disruption, and that’s not all bad.

Changes announced two weeks ago will make the PGA Tour leaner and better without losing the ideal that “play better” still rules the day. Chief among them is getting back to a calendar year (January through August) with an offseason that offers something for everyone, or nothing at all if someone wants a clean break.

The money was always going to increase with a new media rights deal, now channeled more to the players who made media want to invest in golf.

But this disruption also has drawn a line between who wants to be rich and who wants to be a star, and they are not necessarily connected. There is growing animosity from the latter who would like the former to be a little more transparent.

“I understand that they’re being fed everything on what to say and all this stuff, but for them to say that it’s all for the betterment of the game … to be perfectly honest, I just wish one of them would have the balls to say I’m doing this for the money,” PGA champion Justin Thomas said on the No Laying Up podcast. “I personally would gain a lot more respect for that.

“But it’s just the more the players keep talking and saying that this is for the betterment of the game, the more agitated and irritated I get about it.”

This is not about 54 holes being more exciting than 72. It’s not about playing for a team. And it’s not about playing less. Otherwise, those who signed up wouldn’t need the tour they left.