On the golf course, tensions are rising: The PGA Tour, after decades of dominance, has a new rival. This entity has pockets deeper than anyone can even fathom and have poached countless star golfers from the tour. Its name is LIV Golf. Everything is great on the surface: Significant increases in pay, no player cuts, a relaxed schedule, three days of golf instead of four.
It would be perfection, if not for the fact that LIV is funded by Saudi Arabia. That’s all you need to hear and it will cause people to wince. Once the reality of their new boss is mentioned, it creates an ethical dilemma: Do you take the windfall of cash being offered or do you reject it due to the Saudi’s terrible reputation and human rights abuses?
This is the new conflict of golf, and it’s one that isn’t going away any time soon.
source
3:47 careful Vince mcmahon. You wouldn't want your top stars disappearing in the middle of the night.
And now LIV GOLF ⛳ has won, the Saudi's own professional golf 🇸🇦
Now they have merged. I'm sure Tree jinxed this to happen somehow lmao.
And now the two sides have merged
Looks like it's time for a sequel! 🙂
Please, tree, please do a video on LIV. Golf is buying out PGA Tour right now as we are currently speaking?
Turns out the PGA tour has a price.
Fk GOLF
Who is here after the merger between PGA and Liv Golf?
And the war is over. The merger has happened. Monahan has now lapped Goodell, Manfred and Bettman as the worst Commissioner in sports
Back here now that there’s a merger. Can’t say I’m surprised.
…and now they are merging
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Funny now they’re merging
6.6.2023..Here after the news The PGA Tour merges with LIV Golf & DP World Tour (European PGA Tour).. Ending Golf's Cold War.
Lol and now PGA and LIV announced they are merging. The Saudis won this cold war
Who's here after hearing about the LIV-PGA Merger.
They have now merged.
The cold war has ended. The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have merged.
BIG news. Needs another video because of the massive shift in the sport of golf.
The War is over. The Saudi’s bought the PGA Tour. They quite literally own the sport of golf now.
Breaking news: The tours are merging into one entity
Now PGA Tour, European Tour, and LIV Golf announced to merge together. Who see that one coming?
Almost one year later, the PGA Tour has agreed to merge with LIV Golf.
Do you care about human rights or do you care about money? Those who have joined the liv tour have made their priorities very clear. Cant support it, wont watch it, Saudi Arabia is a horrible place run by horrible people
Top notch video, Tree. No strong bias, just straight reporting of the information regarding the professional golf spectrum.
ok, now lets talk about how Saudi funds owns or is funding biggest startups in the world. They also own a stake in everything from apple to google to oil to solar panels or the fact they are the biggest arms importer in the world (They are the biggest client of US)
Would Jack or Arnie have sold out to LIV – hell no, and I'll raise a glass to them.
PGA just mad that they are the minor league of golf spare me the pearl clutching
golf is a petty sport for petty people obsessed about a little ball. Look at soccer, how many major leagues are there? and people are ok with it.
Here after LIV Golf announced they gain an American TV Deal with the CW Network..The Cold War of Golf continues.
A follow-up video, this time on WWE being sold to Saudi Arabia, sounds like a good idea.
And now Ronaldo has joined al nassar sportwashing is real and a huge problem
PGA give players guaranteed money… Easy
Lol such a propaganda video against Saudi Arabia,🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well, guys joining LIV doesnt have 100s (mcilroy) millions of endorsments in there carriers and winnings averaging 7millions/year amd he is still in his prime and probably will be for a decade…Phil is a billionare but he is 50yo….i tjing even if such a major shift happens most will play forLIV
At the end LIV and PGA will find a middle route…PGA is losing great players but LIV will never be able to pull off total shift because of masters and majors, its still Champions Leaugue of golf and you can't compae it with Liga Europe even if there were bigger earnings…
So i understands arguments frin both sides and both are legit so there is plenty of wil to work things out and to find sinergy…LIV for making money and bring golf to crowds and PGA tornments will always be about prestige so we dont see that yet, but LIV&PGA with some will can make great sinergy..i am sure in year or two all of top players will compete together again, and all will be happy with it
Millionaires vs billionaires! golf sucks now!
Update: PGA Tour has announced a LIV-style series debuting, I think, in 2023. I would guess this shreds LIV in the ratings when it happens.
Great video but this is dumb. Athletes are not politicians. PGA is criminally underpaying, the could fix this in the wave of a hand. It’s all posturing. Would you give up your chance in the Olympics because they’re in china?
We don't care…..
Don't forget, even Happy Gilmore played in the PGA tour. Let's see if that golf legend gets a payday with LIV
Tf was that transition into talking into Saudi Arabia tho💀💀💀
Of course the PGA is NOT about the money. After all, they’re a NON-PROFIT…. Just like the NFL.
I refuse to watch the PGA anymore. Let’s see the executives work for minimum wage and then we can believe it’s not about the money. If it’s about winning then how do you measure winning in the corporate arena? Your title? Your rank on the corporate ladder? Great, then give up your stocks and most of your compensation and keep working for titles and awards.
Has everyone lost their minds?! If there are 100 tournaments a year paying out $100 M and suddenly there are 50 more tournaments paying out $50 M and I have a 25% more likelihood of winning or making more $ because there’s more room for more golfers to have a better livelihood, then it’s better for all who want to become pro golfers.
Say goodbye to the stuffy bloated pompous PGA asses who think they own the game. They do not!
All i know about golf….Tiger Woods, he can drive golf ball, but cant drive a car!
What I catch is most players defecting from PGA think that LIV is the necessary evil to reform the PGA… while also getting paid doing that
I think a good comparison to what is going on between the PGA and LIV is the infamous split in darts in the 1990s. Darts is still no where near the history and doesn't hold in high regards towards golf.
With the PGA banning the defectors to LIV reminds me of when the BDO (then the leading darts organization) banned the players who defected to the PDC from ever competing in the BDO (it was a group of the initial 16 players including every active champions at the time, two players later returned to the BDO.) The game of darts suffered a steep decline in popularity during the late 80s and early 90s, thus, prize money fell down, players can't have their own sponsors' patch, losing TV coverage (it wasn't even broadcasted live, only part of a sports show on the weekend) and many of these players decided to form the PDC because of the BDO ineptitude.
BDO still had more prize money to offer but next to no name players, PDC had the stars and quickly have their own version of the championship (yes, from 1994 to 2019, there were two versions of the darts world championships) and their own majors. PDC starts to pick up steam and becomes more lucrative thanks to being more relaxed with players being able to have their own sponsors own display on their jersey. BDO had a lot of up and coming new players but a good majority of these players, who would join the PDC and have really decent careers there, some even becoming world champions in the PDC. With more ineptitude from the BDO, they lost their world championship status in 2020 and folded just later that year. While the PDC today is largely unchallenged with higher prize money (they overtook the BDO on the front around the 2000s), and better standards of play.
What killed the BDO was their stance on looking at the sport from more of a semi-professional side, even though when the split happened, a good number of players have already turned as a full-time professional. Ignoring the complains from their players.
What is going on in golf is somewhat similar but still different on so many other fronts. The majors in golf still hold more legitimacy and prestige, especially how the history of the game revolves around these majors and the PGA. If the ban keeps going, don't be surprised if LIV decides to host its own majors. But, it won't have any legitimacy against the ones that we have currently. As time goes on, this is going to be a rather interesting time to be a golf fan. I can see both organizations going strong for the next decade or two, but sometime, one might fall off to the sides. Who will it be? Us fans and media can have a say, but at the end, it's always about the money in todays world.
First (probably only) time I've given a sh!t about golf. Well done, Tree. Well done 👏
Especially for the mid and lower-tier guys, I honestly can't fault them for taking the money. Golf is how they make their money, how they feed their families, and it's a huge investment in time and money, and all of that can go away in an instant if you get injured or cut. They need to be able to live off of that money for the rest of their lives if something happens and it's really hard to blame them for trying to secure their family's future
At this point, the biggest loser is the golf itself. LIV golf tournament doesn’t have much competition and PGA tour lacks superstars they have banned. I don’t think they can find a way to salvage the sport.
I can respect F1 drivers and WWE wrestlers that have no say over where they are forced to perform.
I have 0 respect for any person who would willingly work FOR the propaganda arm of a brutal authoritarian monarchy.
Interested to see what happens if a check is a few days late in LIV. What’s someone gonna do, call the Treasury of Saudi Arabia for a wire?