DP World Tour is expected to prevent LIV Golf players such as Phil Mickelson from playing the Scottish Open in JulyThe latest move in golf’s epic power struggle is likely to see those rebels who have committed to the LIV Series prevented from playing in the Scottish Open. Although still to be completely finalised, the sanction is among those expected to be revealed by the DP World, formerly European, Tour in the coming days.The Scottish Open, worth $8m (£6.5m) in prize money, ordinarily forms a key part of Open buildup for scores of players and is a marquee event on the DP World Tour. Entries close on Thursday. Continue reading...
The sport’s arbiters, the R&A and USGA, must find a solution so the Saudi-backed LIV Series can coexist with established toursThe return this week of the US Open to the Country Club in Brookline for the first time since 1988 would ordinarily be a cause for reflection. The 1999 Ryder Cup there was laced with controversy after a ferocious European reaction to premature US celebrations.There will be only passing reference to Curtis Strange’s playoff success over Nick Faldo. Sam Torrance and his famous broadside – “Tom Lehman calls himself a man of God. That was not the behaviour of a man of God” – likewise. Even the course setup presided over by the United States Golf Association, an annual debating...
Golf can offer sublime entertainment but is not a sport with any deep sense of social conscience. Why pretend otherwise?The centre cannot hold. All that is pure is gone. They’re shaving Aslan’s mane up there at the Centurion Club in Hemel Hempstead. And it has, of course, been genuinely shocking to see the grand old community game of professional golf, with its deep social ties, the beating heart of our post-industrial towns, reduced so easily to a row of shrugging men in leisure wear doing stuff on their own for money.This is after all the people’s game, or at least the People Like Us game, still played on every cobbled street and in every playground, providing that playground is at...
The Saudi-backed series began with an inaugural event that was quickly overshadowed by the PGA Tour’s reactionBalls in the air, missives in the post. Thirty minutes of the inaugural LIV Golf event had been played when a bulletin from Ponte Vedra overshadowed anything that was about to happen at the Centurion Club. Greg Norman stands with the banned of the PGA Tour.The Australian had been all smiles on the 1st tee as Dustin Johnson, Scott Vincent and Phil Mickelson appeared as the marquee group. Speaking before making his way on to the course, Norman admitted his desire to take on golf’s ecosystem had been something of a crusade. His action was guaranteed to prompt a PGA Tour reaction. It duly...
Rebel tour derided by Rory McIlroy starts in Hertfordshire with Dustin Johnson the biggest name confirmedDespite being as obvious an attempt at sportswashing as one is ever likely to see, it is difficult to determine what, if anything, the much-publicised LIV Golf Series is likely to do to serve its intended purpose of presenting a more benign, warm and fuzzy image of its backers in Saudi Arabia.Still in its embryonic stages, with the first ball not scheduled to be struck until later this week in Hertfordshire, things started badly for the Saudi rebel tour and seem to have gone downhill quicker than a bathtub full of pensioners in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine. Continue reading...