LIV Golf Gains Yet Another Personality, The French Love Cali, And The Long-Awaited Meeting Between The PGA Tour And Saudi PIF
We don't need too much of an introduction for this week's edition of Par Talk. The Farmer's Insurance Open delivered one of the worst leaderboards we've seen in quite a while, LIV Golf continues to do business while the PGA Tour continues to be addicted to sitting still, and someone tracked down the Saudi's jet in New York.
Thankfully we have a revamped version of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am to look forward to this week as the Tour's schedule goes from 0 to 100 over the next few weeks.
Tyrrell Hatton To LIV Golf Continues The Series Of Blows To The PGA Tour
Tyrrell Hatton is reportedly headed to LIV Golf to join Jon Rahm's new team for the upcoming season. While the Englishman bolting for the Saudi-backed circuit isn't some sport-altering move, it does continue the pattern we've seen for months on end, and that's LIV advancing and winning and the Tour doing nothing but watching.
When this LIV Golf vs. Everybody Else battle began, the emphasis on the actual talent of the players on each side was at the forefront, but now that we're a couple of years into this war, we have to start looking at other aspects, including personality.
Tyrrell Hatton joining LIV Golf continues their dominant poaching of players with a personality. (Photo by Tim Heitman/Getty Images)
And right now LIV is winning the personality fight in a landslide. Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, and now Hatton - whether you like them or not - is a loaded roster from a personality standpoint.
The powers that be at LIV realize that they are still fighting an uphill battle from a pure golf standpoint, and will continue to do so with their unorthodox format, while also recognizing that a way to combat that is adding players who people pay attention to.
While it's cost the Saudis hundreds of millions of dollars, LIV has passed the personality test with flying colors.
READ: THE MULTITUDE OF REASONS AN ANTHONY KIM COMEBACK WITH LIV GOLF MAKES ALL THE SENSE IN THE WORLD
What the PGA Tour has on its side are the out-of-nothing storylines of guys winning on what is still the most prestigious professional golf circuit in the world. That won't go away, and the diehard fans who appreciate those moments aren't going anywhere, but LIV is garnering attention from those fans because its roster of players is far more entertaining than the middle-of-the-pack set of players filling up leaderboards.
The simple argument surrounding which side is winning is just that, simple, but anyone suggesting LIV is irrelevant or still miles behind the Tour isn't living in reality.
Matthieu Pavon Tops Wildly Underwhelming Leaderboard At Farmers Insurance Open
Matthieu Pavon became the first Frenchman to ever win on the PGA Tour with his victory at Torrey Pines.
For how wild it is that that statement is true in the year 2024 with the Tour welcoming so many international winners, two things can be true at once. Pavon's win was impressive, and literally historic, but the leaderboard was far from either of those things.
Personally, I didn't mind the 'underwhelming' list of names who had a legitimate shot at winning on Saturday, but I'm not like most golf fans. I'm someone who follows the sport day after day, I recognize every name on the first page of the leaderboard while most golf fans wouldn't have recognized more than three.
It doesn't take a golf expert or diehard fan to recognize that the top storyline from one of the upper echelon events on the schedule being 'a Frenchman who just earned his Tour card won' is far from a good thing.
This week's Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a signature event with no cut, needs to produce a star-studded leaderboard on Sunday. Odds are that it does, and the Tour better be hoping those odds fall in its favor.
A Long-Delayed Sit Down Between The Tour And Saudi PIF
A few Par Talks ago we detailed the fact that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan had not met one time since announcing merger plans on June 6, 2023. According to some flight trackers, the streak of not meeting face-to-face appears to have ended, but that doesn't necessarily mean an announcement on the two sides coming together is imminent.
Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan have decided to talk for the first time in many many months, according to a new report. (Getty Images)
Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated brought attention to the fact that an Aramco jet Al-Rumayyan frequently uses was in New York City last week at the same time the PGA Tour's plane was in town. It's a safe bet that the two sides held discussions about the ongoing merger negotiations as well as the role American investors of the Strategic Sports Group will play in all of this.
This somewhat secret meeting should signal that an end to all the madness may be over sooner rather than later, but at this point in time the only thing we really know is that the Saudis are expected to invest billions just like the Strategic Sports Group is, but how the seating is arranged at the table that is professional golf is still a complete mystery.
Sportico reported that the Strategic Sports Group, which includes Fenway Sports, is set to begin investment in the PGA Tour as soon as this week. Perhaps that's the first domino to fall and the many in front of it will fall shortly thereafter.
Follow Mark Harris on X @itismarkharris and email him at mark.harris@outkick.com