Scheffler blames LIV golfers
Of course, “this thing” is the negotiations with the PIF, which will set golf ’s course for the future. Monahan, typically, said little about that during his state of the game address Tuesday. He revealed only that he met recently with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and that the deal with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of professional sports team owners that includes an initial investment of $1.5 billion, does not impact negotiations with the PIF.
“While we have several key issues that we still need to work through, we have a shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential,” Monahan said. “It’s going to take time … I see a positive outcome for the PGA Tour and the sport as a whole. Most importantly, I see a positive outcome for our great fans.”
The fans are not the only ones suffering while the game is fractured. The Players’ field does not include last year’s Masters and PGA Championship winners. And not having LIV’s Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka is just the start.
Six of the top 80 in the Official World Golf Ranking are LIV golfers who are ineligible for The Players: Rahm, Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann. And that does not include Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson.
“I don’t think it helps the tournament,” Schauffele said. “I think you would like to have those players playing, in an ideal world, but I feel like we’re sort of beating a dead horse.
“Everyone kind of knew what was going to happen when they made a decision, and this was probably the highest probability chance of the outcome, which is to have people on different tours at the time.”
The man who tops that world ranking list, Scottie Scheffler, puts the blame for the state of the game squarely on the shoulders of one group of players.
“If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left,” Scheffler said of those who defected for LIV. “We had a tour, we were all together, and the people that left are no longer here. At the end of the day, that’s where the splintering comes from.”