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CROMWELL, Conn. — The Travelers Championship in central Connecticut, contested on a golf course beside cornfields, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this week, which makes it one of the oldest continuously operated PGA Tour events. Through the decades, the tournament has changed names and venues, but in a small state lacking a professional franchise in one of the four leading North American sports (the N.H.L.’s Hartford Whalers left 25 years ago), the Travelers has been a prized mainstay of Connecticut’s sporting calendar.
It has also been valuable to the PGA Tour, reliably drawing some of the biggest crowds of the tour season. It is beloved by golfers because of its homespun approach that showers players’ wives and children with personal attention, and that in turn has produced a host of marquee winners like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson.
The 1995 winner was Greg Norman, then the No. 1-ranked men’s golfer worldwide. Norman is the chief executive of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, which has roiled the PGA Tour by luring top golfers with guaranteed contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In the span of two months, the upstart circuit has threatened the primacy of the PGA Tour, and, potentially, the tour’s legacy events like the Travelers — which, in addition to entertaining southern New England golf fans, has attracted sponsorships that have led to more than $46 million in donations to 800 charities.
The chief beneficiary most years has been a camp in northern Connecticut that helps about 20,000 seriously ill children and their families each year and was founded by a state resident, the actor Paul Newman.
The focus of the intense showdown between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, whose major shareholder is the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, has been garish monetary offers to already wealthy golfers — along with a host of geopolitical underpinnings — but unseen in the struggle are other connected entities, like Connecticut’s treasured golf tournament.
Could LIV Golf, which has planned eight events this year, including five in the United States, eventually upend or diminish the Travelers Championship and the other 30-plus PGA Tour events like it around the country? Already, Mickelson and Johnson, who were recently banned from the tour along with every other LIV Golf defector, are missing from this week’s field. Mickelson, 52, probably would not have played, but Johnson, the 2020 champion, had enthusiastically promised in February to return to Connecticut.
Standing on a hillside in the fan gallery overlooking the 18th hole during the first round of the Travelers on Thursday, Jay Hibbard of Woodstock, Conn., said Johnson was missed, “but not that much.”
“Dustin took the money and made a choice, but I don’t come here to root for any one golfer,” Hibbard, 39, said. “Most golf fans come for the atmosphere and to see great golfers up close. And there’s enough other major champions out here this week.”
Standing nearby, Mike Stanley of Plainville, Conn., said: “It’s a little depressing to see things get split up because I think it’s natural to want all the best guys playing together. But there’s still a bunch of top guys — I was following Rory McIlroy today and then Scottie Scheffler.”
Scheffler and McIlroy are first and second in the men’s world rankings and were joined in the Travelers field by four other top 15 golfers. By contrast, no player committed to the LIV Golf tour is ranked in the worldwide top 15.
Inside the players’ locker room here this week, Sahith Theegala, a 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie, said the players his age are of a similar mind: Their loyalty is to the PGA Tour.
“I come from a modest upbringing,” Theegala said, “and I feel like the value of money has been kind of lost. It just seems like a million dollars, which a lot of guys earn on this tour, gets thrown around like it’s nothing, right?”
Asked if he was worried about the future of PGA Tour events like the Travelers, Theegala shook his head.
“There’s a history and legacy of this tour that the young guys have longed to be a part of,” Theegala said. “A new tour has no standing; you’re literally just playing for money.”
A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf Series
Card 1 of 6
A new series. The new Saudi-financed, controversy-trailed LIV Golf series held its first event in June. But what is it? Who is playing it? What’s all the hubbub, and how can you watch it? Here’s what to know:
What is LIV Golf? The series is an upstart professional golf circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Its organizers hope to position it as a player-power-focused alternative to the PGA Tour, which has been the highest level of pro golf for nearly a century.
Who is playing it? The 48 players in the initial LIV Golf event were not exactly a who’s who of golf, and many of the biggest names in the sport, such as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, have stayed away. But there were big names and former major champions, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio García.
What is attracting the players? The LIV Golf events are the richest tournaments in golf history. The first tournament’s total purse was $25 million, and the winner’s share was $4 million. The last-place finisher at each event was guaranteed $120,000. That is on top of the appearance fees and nine-figure signing-on payouts some players have accepted.
How can I watch the new tour? Despite its high-profile golfers and its big-money backing, LIV Golf has not yet secured a broadcast rights agreement in the United States and will be shown on lesser-watched streaming services in much of the world. In the United States, this week’s tournament will be available via live streams on LIVGolf.com, YouTube and Facebook.
He added: “You can’t buy clarity of mind and playing with a clear conscience.”
Joanna Aversa of Waterbury, Conn., who was attending her first Travelers, wondered if LIV Golf’s entry into the men’s golf marketplace might not broaden the appeal of the sport.
“In the past, the golf community has been painted as being very elitist,” she said. “Maybe with some golfers exiting for these big contracts, we might get a whole new wave of fans who feel more comfortable because they don’t have to know all the top people and things like that. They can just come out for the good golf and have fun.”
Financially, officials for the Travelers said the event was on sound footing. Nathan Grube, the tournament director, said ticket sales for this year’s event had outpaced the 2019 tournament, which was the last time the Travelers was not restricted by the pandemic. Corporate hospitality tents are sold out. With all net proceeds going to charity, the total donation, which was more than $2.2 million last year, is expected to rise.
“This is a good place to be right now,” Grube said.
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for sick children that Newman founded in 1988 opened this year on the same day as the first round at the Travelers. The organization has hospital outreach programs that bring the summer camp experience to the bedsides of children at dozens of locations throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. All programs, which are devoted to assisting children with cancer and other diseases like sickle cell anemia and blood and metabolic disorders, are provided free of charge.
“Being the primary beneficiary of the Travelers Championship has let us expand our reach,” Ryan Thompson, the camp’s chief communications officer, said on Friday. “It’s so much more than a golf tournament; it’s a source of community pride for all it contributes.”
Festivals are back, baby! It has been a few years. What even is a festival? That one’s easy: it is a collection of musical performances on a farm, during which you lose your phone and your friends and it rains. As we emerge from a pandemic in which strangers were viewed as a danger, in a time of political polarisation and fragmented micro-subcultures, are people still interested in coming together for events like this? What is a festival for, in the UK, these days?
To find out, I have decided to cross the country, taking in as diverse a festival experience as possible. I will be hitting six of them in one bank holiday weekend (which now I’ve written it down, seems like a mistake). There’ll be cowboys and punks and home counties teenagers in Adidas trackie tops. I’m going to eat terrible food, dance to music I don’t enjoy, and talk to as many people as I can. I want to know why they have sought out these fields of Britannia, and what they hope to find. I also want to know how much the beer costs, and if the toilets are the hellholes I remember. I do not want to get rained on.
Day 1
Jubilation, London
Nutty dressers … Rhik starts his festivals odyssey at Madness’s Jubilation event in London. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
I am at Jubilation, a festival to mark the beginning of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. It is a sunny day, I am surrounded by smiling faces, but I enter on edge. Flag-waving gives me the platinum heebie-jeebies. Anticipating a sea of union jack caps and red faces, I am surprised to see rather more red fezzes: the uniform of Madness fans. Jacqueline from Derby has seen today’s headline act 18 times since the age of nine. “I thought there’d be more red, white and blue,” agrees her fellow festivalgoer Suzanna. “But it’s pretty monochrome. Or two-tone, like the ska thing.” I guess music trumps monarchy.
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Policemen gamely hold cameraphones, and take group shots. A beer costs £7, and the toilets are in good nick. The biggest queue is for churros: a little sugar to balance the Nutty Boys. I dance with a woman from Ruislip on a log, and realise I’m having fun. The best festivals do this: give life to the adage that strangers are simply friends we haven’t yet met. The assumption is good vibes; something that sets it apart from our online lives, where we assume every stranger is an unsolicited attack we haven’t yet met.
Whirly gig … Rhik at the Jubilation festival. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
Log woman keeps dancing as I take a breather and talk to her friend. Were they concerned about being in crowds again, after successive lockdowns? “I haven’t given it a second thought,” log woman’s friend Sharon admits. She’s reassured by mass immunity, and growing knowledge about Covid. “This is normal: people being together.” She gestures to the throng of inebriates, swaying to No Woman, No Cry. “What we went through in the pandemic, that was … ” Madness? I suggest. She laughs. Banter unites all tribes.
Martin, also down from Derby, has combined his interests by wearing a union jack fez. Why is he here? “Because we can be. The world is unlocked!” He loves the feeling of people brought together like this, for a single purpose. The purpose itself is less important. With his north African hat, clear blue eyes and broad smile, Martin’s joy at being here is infectious, and I loosen up. “Just seeing the fence gets me excited!” I raise an eyebrow. “You know you’re at a festival when you see the fence,” he explains. Can’t argue with that. Maybe – just maybe – this is going to be one of the great weekends.
Day 2
Buckle & Boots, Stockport; Slam Dunk, Leeds
Yeehaw agenda … Rhik saddles up at Buckle & Boots. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
I am up bright and early, which is a mistake, as the train to Manchester is cancelled. The seats on the next service are all double-reserved, and the politely seething game of musical chairs that ensues is more British than anything I saw yesterday. I could have done with more sleep, I think, as we pull into Marple Bridge, near Stockport, for Buckle & Boots, a country music festival. I’m not wearing either.
It’s like stepping back in time, or at least sideways. A saloon town in the old west. A fella wearing naught but dungarees strides past. There are women in tasselled boots and Daisy Duke shorts. Dogs sport neckerchiefs. A silver resin cow stands at the top of a rubble road, off which open-sided barns act as stages. There are a handful of merchandise stalls, so I buy a large black cowboy hat to blend in.
Barefoot Blue Jean Night by Jake Owen plays through speakers. The volume drops as Derby-based songwriter Kezia Gill mounts a double-decker bus stage. She sings Amazing Grace, with amazing grace. Karl Hancock owns the farm here, and admits he’d never been to a festival before he organised one. He’s done a solid job, by which I mean the toilets are great. Metal floors, proper walls. By the stage, a sign reads “Let’s get a little day drunk”, and it’s hard to sum up festivals better.
Singer Kezia Gill with Rhik at Buckle & Boots. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
Handyman Tim, from Dorset, remembers meeting Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton at a country show at Wembley stadium when he was 10. “Huge stars would be walking around before the show.” The magic of small festivals is that they retain this levelling of the field. Punters rub alongside artists hanging around before sets, or getting on it with their mates. I bump into William Michael Morgan, tonight’s big act and one of the only other cowboy hat-wearers here. These days country fans wear baseball caps, he tells me. Tall, handsome, with a Mississippi drawl, he’s very cool. I may as well be cosplaying as a morris dancer. We pose next to someone wearing an Elizabeth II face mask. “All hail the Queen!” Morgan smiles. “Is that what you guys say?” We definitely don’t say that, I tell him.
You may know a country fan by the vans they keep. Outdoorsy people always have great mobile homes, models of practical ingenuity. I take a quick tour of the campsite. There are custom-fitted Ford Transits, and a swoonsome 24ft Airstream. Outside their tent, a couple offer me a cream scone. How do they keep the cream cold? Mark, known to his friends as Stretch, shows me a cool box with five frozen bottles of water inside. “Even when the box is too hot to sit on, inside it stays cold for five days.” Top tip. But I have to keep moving.
Rock around the clock … Rhik at Slam Dunk. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
I jump on another train. It is half the number of carriages it should be, seat reservations being once again the real wild west. I’m heading to Leeds, for punk and hardcore festival Slam Dunk. It’s intimidating. The first person I see at the festival is wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Dying slowly is dying lonely.” Yet they are standing beside a big red double-decker that exclusively sells British fudge: to my mind, the least hardcore of the confectionery options (Sour Jawbreakers probably the most).
Why do people like this screamy music, I ask one festivalgoer. “Why does anyone like anything?” they respond, which is fair enough, really. “It’s aggressive, but it’s also positive,” reflects another reveller. “My entire shoe is full of snakebite and black,” he adds, as a separate point.
Finding emo … Alexisonfire play the Slam Dunk festival. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
I do love the theatricality of this subculture, the dramatic eye makeup and gothic cabaret dress up. Some of the people here are spectacular. I’m asking a glamorous cartoon witch where Slam Dunk is located on the hardcore spectrum, when a man interrupts us, nervous but keen. “You look like Jemmy LaVey, the tattoo artist,” he says, twice. LaVey screams and lets him know this is his lucky day. I’ve lost my drink, so her friend pours hers into my mouth. I guess the pandemic is over.
There is another type of person with whom I’m fascinated. It is the person who turns up to metal gigs in, for example, a Ben Sherman shirt. Is this a normcore thing? Do they love the music, not the lifestyle? I approach a guy in Oakley shades and ask what’s going on. He’s Belgian, he tells me, here on a stag do. The rest of the party turn up. “Do you want me to dropkick the stag?” one asks me. He launches himself towards a gentle-looking blond man, kicking him in the chest with both feet. The blond man flies backwards, but then gets up placidly. It is impressive, and for some reason very funny. Turns out they’re all stunt performers. What’s your favourite part of this festival? I ask sunglasses guy. “The mosh pit,” he smiles. I should have seen it coming.
There is a mosh pit happening, which I quickly decide is not for me. If I’m going to have my head kicked in, I don’t want it to be to a soundtrack of Sum 41. Plus, I’m only halfway through my festival odyssey and already very tired. Step count for the day: 16,000.
Day 3
Mighty Hoopla, London; Creamfields, Chelmsford
Rainbow alliance … Rhik and revellers at the Mighty Hoopla in south London. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
At this point it should be noted that I hate festivals. When I was young I wanted to stand out from the crowd, not be in one. I have just about accepted my ordinariness now, but still find humanity en masse to be smelly and inconsiderate. But even I have to admit everyone at this event smells good.
Mighty Hoopla is a two-day 90s-themed queer festival in south London’s Brockwell Park. In recent years it has gained a reputation for being an alternative Pride, and the first act I see is gender-bending drag, with full-frontal nudity. Attractive gender-nonconforming redheads in mesh tops sass past. It’s nice to be at an event where everyone makes an effort. There wasn’t even a mirror in the men’s room at Buckle & Boots; the biggest queue here is for the glitter-painting studio.
Pretty in pink … glittery face-painting at Mighty Hoopla. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
Friday was messy, apparently. It was a great atmosphere, though, notes Hoopla’s fire-safety officer Bradley. “Men in bras, everywhere you look a different colour, people up in trees.” He used to be in the London fire brigade, and now works events. Sophie, sitting under a tree with her fiancee Jenny, isn’t ready for crowds. There was a Bognor Regis Hoopla in January, the first without Covid-test entry requirements. It was overwhelming, she says. But today is calmer, and everyone has their own attitude to risk. Sophie’s sister, who is 37 weeks pregnant, is currently in the middle of a heaving tent nearby, watching 90s girl band Cleopatra coming at her.
What’s it like playing a festival? I head backstage to vox-pop some VIPs. “This is a time capsule,” says Kate Nash dreamily. She last played here in 2019, and returning is closing a loop. I don’t ask Macy Gray anything, because I’m too intimidated. I see someone I know. Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem, AKA Madonna-but-funny. It’s been disorienting watching a friend become the best pop star in the country, but quite useful. I think she needs a wee, but I pepper her with questions instead, because that’s what fame boils down to.
Festivals are special, she hums, because a crowd has chosen to see an artist, in a very particular mood. “Everyone’s out-of-office is on, and there’s a warm, balmy hedonism they want to have. Soundtracking that feels like making life a movie.”
No warm, balmy hedonism for me. My Hoopla experience ends in tragedy, at a stall where festivalgoers can swap their footwear for festival Crocs. The trade is meant to be temporary, but I take mine away to have some photos taken with drag queens, and put my trainers down. By the time I remember, they are long gone. I Marie Kondo’d my wardrobe recently, meaning they were my favourite and, crucially, only shoes. But it’s already time to move on – to the scariest place on Earth.
In tents degree … Rhik at Creamfields. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
I arrive at a field in Chelmsford with a 50,000 capacity, beats pumping out of a sound system the size of a Death Star. Creamfields South is an electronic dance music festival and spiritual home to bigger boys. I have turned up hungry and sad and wearing sea-green Crocs decorated with plastic cherries. It’s already evening, so people here look as tired as me, eyes popping out of their heads or staring into space. There’s a lot of litter, and couples lying down stroking each other.
There is chaos here, definite last-night-of-festival vibes. Earlier, a man running from security got tripped up and caught with 500 of something up his arse, a guard tells me. How is there room for 500 of anything in there? Undercuts and bucket hats are the boys’ uniform, or Balmain T-shirts. The girls wear psychedelic bodycon dresses and look freezing. Everyone is having an incredible time, though, and has endless energy.
Gurn, gurn, gone … Rhik and his new pal Sonny at Creamfields. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
This is not my sort of place. Yet Creamfields is an institution, having staged events in 24 countries over 24 years. In the single evening I’m here, I could catch Calvin Harris, Carl Cox, Deadmau5, Fisher, Armand Van Helden or Paul van Dyk. There are DJ sets from Faithless and Idris Elba. Peter Tong is here. The fact I know who these people are is testament to the extraordinary strength of its lineup. For many of the young dance fans here, this is the centre of the Earth. There’s no queue at all for the bar, or food.
But can a festival be too big? “It’s a bit moody,” agree some of the older dance fans I meet. They prefer the smaller, sun-kissed vibe of Ibiza weekenders at clubs such as DC10. I have to admit some of the boys are a bit pumped up and shouty. There’s no queue at all for the bar, or food. Campers must have brought their own supplies in. Rylan is name-checking the festival sponsors from the loudest, tallest screens I have ever seen. He looks crystal sharp. If you like intense light shows, big beats and advertising, get yourself here. I don’t like any of those things (though I do like Rylan). Eventually, I have an existential meltdown in the toilets, which have no paper and are overflowing with cans of Strongbow Dark Fruits, used sanitary towels and loads of little freezer bags, which is weird. Maybe people brought oven chips in, and that’s why they’re not hungry.
Day 4
In It Together, Port Talbot
Soggy bottom boy … Rhik at In It Together. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
A long journey to Port Talbot, on the coast of south Wales. The train carriages aren’t labelled, so I don’t know which side my reservation is in and wedge myself in among some football fans. Today is a huge match, Wales v Ukraine. But I’m travelling to In It Together, a new festival focused on community. It’s the last leg of my odyssey.
There are teething problems with the water supply, I’m told. But the festival has a good heart. There’s a DJ called Homebass operating out of the back of a van … which is just funny. The music aims to cater to all tastes. A kids’ steeplechase event is in process. “I wouldn’t bring my kids to a festival. I know what goes on,” says one of the DJs, as we munch flatpack burgers. Overheard conversational snippet of the day: “Don’t put me on any socials!” “Don’t worry, nobody wants you on there.”
Things are nervy in the events industry. I had planned on attending a different festival today, but it was cancelled. Some have gone bankrupt. The rest are out of practice putting on events at scale, or their staff are new to it. Plenty of lighting designers and associated artists have been out of work for a year, and found other jobs. We cannot take for granted this coming together of people, and its life-giving qualities.
Wrist of fun … Rhik’s six wristbands from four days of festivals. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
Festivals are sites of communal and joyous togetherness, but can also bring up difficult feelings. The Samaritans’ festival branch has been going for 50 years, and is a crucial, consistent presence at events from Creamfields to biker fests. “There’s the Billy No-mates feeling, that you’re the only one not having fun,” says a volunteer (I can relate). “People fall out with partners. Or they come in at 2am when their friends are sleeping, and they can’t.”
As if to remedy the water supply issues, the heavens open. Is there a more depressing sight than a bouncy castle being taken down? I seek solace in a wellness tent. Osteopath Lucinda Morgan rocks my body on a massage table. Rain beats on the canvas like white noise, and I start to pass out. I find myself thinking about what St Martin-in-the-fez said about enjoying the fence. At festivals, time is centred on pleasure, the way it was as a child. Boundaries are an essential part of that freedom.
Chakra can … Rhik enjoys a holistic body treatment at In It Together. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
My reverie is broken by a roar. As Morgan realigns my C7, Gareth Bale’s free kick deflects in off Yarmolenko’s head, sending Wales to the World Cup. For the first time in 64 years. I go outside and take in the pandemonium.A blond man opens his bare chest to the torrential rain, screaming. There is singing, flag-waving. Hordes stampede through the mud, a single flow with an obscure agenda, or just carried along by the crowd. It’s a historic moment. But I’m very cold. “We are in this together!” roars an MC from the stage. I want to be in my flat, alone.
The train home is again rammed, this time with football fans eating kebabs. The atmosphere is different now the contest is over. The Welsh and Ukrainian fans praise each other’s keepers, show respect and solidarity. It’s touching. Although they are smelly and noisy and there are too many of them, people are OK. Still, it’s time to go home. My clothes are soaked, I’m talked out, and sitting four feet from vomit. Never again. If someone has my shoes, please can I have them back?
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has announced the addition of four new World Tour stops for the 2023 until 2026 cycle, with investment from the governing body and the Infront agency funding the circuit’s expansion.
The BWF World Tour’s revamped 31-event calendar will see the introduction of new Super 500 tournaments in Australia, Canada, Finland and Japan. The series’ other 500-level competitions will take place in Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand.
As part of the World Tour’s expansion plans, the Malaysia Open will become one of the tour’s Super 1000 tournaments, joining the All England Open, China Open, and Indonesia Open.
Meanwhile, the India Open and Singapore Open have both been promoted to 750 status, with existing events in China, Denmark, France, and Japan remaining at the Super 750 tier. Elsewhere, the HYLO Open and Orléans Masters competitions have been elevated to Super 300 level.
“Badminton is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world with all-time high participation and fan numbers,” said BWF secretary general Thomas Lund.
“More tournaments give us a fantastic opportunity to enhance the sport’s reach around the world, not only in established territories, but into new ones as well. It also allows for more players to enter our elite circuit and gain valuable experience.
“We were very encouraged by the large number of high-quality bids we received and that bodes well for a bigger and better tour across the next four years. It enables us to commit to higher prize money, greater coverage on television and online, and spectacular presentation, all contributing to an enhanced world-class sports product that we seek.”
The International Boxing Association (IBA) has opened the bidding process for World Boxing Tour (WBT) events for 2023-2024. During that period there will be six key WBT events that are planned to offer points toward Olympic qualification.
The events are expected to be spread between continents, ensuring fair opportunities to earn a chance to box at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“For many years, IBA has delivered World Boxing Championships for men, women and youth. The World Boxing Tour was designed to expand the opportunities we make available for boxers around the world to participate in international tournaments featuring the best boxers. We are excited to partner with National Federations to deliver the World Boxing Tour and help turn the dreams of boxers worldwide into reality,” said IBA president Umar Kremlev.
A hosting outline has been provided to IBA National Federations, featuring WBT requirements, financial expectations, governance models and more, while highlighting the benefits of hosting. This will also enable potential hosts to be more actively engaged in the bid process from an earlier stage and to better understand the WBT events as a platform that creates shared value by facilitating exchanges between athletes, spectators, media and organizers.
IBA secretary-general Istvan Kovacs added: “When developing the World Boxing Tour, we had to consider not only IBA’s or the boxers’ needs, but also benefits for the hosts. With our model, hosts can expect a straightforward bidding process, supported event delivery, a partnership approach to rights and responsibilities, reasonable expectations, and significant measures aimed at sustainability and legacy.”
The newly designed hosting requirements and a draft of the competitions’ calendar which has been reviewed, revised and approved by the IBA Athletes’ Committee and the IBA Competitions Committee were distributed among all National Federations.
In a memo to players last week, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan informed those who defied the circuit’s regulations and played the first LIV Golf event that they would be indefinitely suspended.
Monahan’s swift reaction to those who violated the Tour’s policy, a group that included Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, was predictable. Meanwhile, DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley remained noticeably quiet on the showdown between professional golf’s established tours and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit. That changed on Tuesday.
“From many of your messages and my conversations, I know that many of you share the same viewpoint that Jay Monahan expressed in his note to PGA Tour members,” Pelley wrote in a memo to his players. “Namely that the players who have chosen this route have disrespected the vast majority of the members of this Tour.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spoke out Sunday on players leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf.
DP World Tour players had previously been informed that they would not be able to play the LIV Golf event or the Asian Tour invitational series event, which were both played in London, if they were eligible to play that week’s event on the European circuit. But unlike the PGA Tour, Pelley didn’t answer with swift suspensions.
“Some members asked me why we simply do not follow what the PGA Tour have done and immediately suspend these players,” Pelley’s memo to his constituency read. “While I understand the frustration, I remind you all that although we work closely with the PGA Tour, we are different organizations and our rules and regulations are therefore different too.”
Instead, Pelley said because of the “complexity of our situation,” he will evaluate how the LIV Golf and Asian Tour events impacted the DP World Tour events played the same weeks – the European Open and Scandinavian Mixed event. Pelley said the circuit will decide how to handle those who violated its policies on June 23, which is also the commitment deadline for the Scottish Open. The Scottish Open is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.
Last week’s LIV Golf event featured numerous DP World Tour members, including Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Richard Bland.
With a tumultuous build-up and a succession of frequently jarring pre-tournament media engagements all but done, the LIV Golf Invitational Series will tee off at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire.
Former world number one Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson are among the leading lights taking part in the competition, which is not being recognised by the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).
Major winners Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen are also involved, along with European Ryder Cup stars Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
Johnson is the only player currently ranked inside the world top 20 taking part – Oosthuizen slipped to 21st this week – but intrigue remains significant around the Saudi-backed project that organisers are billing as “golf, but louder”.
So, what accounts for this volume alteration other than the well-documented vast wads of cash? Here, we run through the inaugural LIV Golf schedule and format, along with the prize money on offer.
What is the schedule for the LIV Golf Invitational Series?
This week’s opener is the first of eight events, spanning four countries and running until the team championship finale at Trump National Doral, Miami in October this year.
Course
Location
Date
1
Centurion Club
Hertfordshire, England
June 9-11
2
Pumpkin Ridge
Portland, Oregon
June 30 – July 2
3
Trump National Golf Club Bedminster
Bedminster, New Jersey
July 29-31
4
The International
Boston, Massachusetts
September 2-4
5
Rich Harvest Farms
Chicago, Illinois
September 16-18
6
Stonehill
Bangkok, Thailand
October 7-9
7
Royal Greens Golf & Country Club
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
October 14-16
8
Trump National Golf Club Doral
Miami, Florida
October 27-30
LIV Golf format explained
The LIV Golf Invitational Series features two competitions that will take place concurrently: an individual event and a team event.
The first seven events will take place over the course of LIV Golf’s four-month regular season. The eighth event will be the team championship in late October in Miami, where teams compete against one another in a matchplay format for the LIV Golf team trophy.
Individual event
The first seven LIV events will have an individual competition, where each golfer will compete in a strokeplay format over the course of 54 holes, as opposed to the standard 72-hole tour events.
There are no cuts and the golfer with the lowest score after 54 holes will be declared the winner. The events will feature shotgun starts – each player starting at the same time but at a different hole, as opposed to consecutive playing groups starting one after the other at the first.
On each day of the opening competition at Centurion Club, the golfers will make their shotgun starts at 14:00 BST. The trophy presentation is scheduled for 18:30 BST on Sunday, highlighting the compressed playing time that the shotgun format allows.
Team event
Each event will feature 12 teams made up of four golfers each, with LIV Golf appointing a captain to lead each team. Those captains will then select the other three players for their teams in a snake draft format each week, as was the case for the opener in London.
Captains will also select the lineup for each week. Each team will have its own logo, name and colours.
During the first two rounds, each team’s best two scores will be used to decide where they rank. That number rises to three in the third and final round.
The team championship in Miami will be a four-day, four-round match-play knockout bracket.
LIV Golf prize money
Each regular-season event features a $25 million purse (£20 million), with $20 million to be split over the 48 golfers taking part. The winner stands to make $4 million, with the player bringing up the rear in the no-cut format having the consolation of pocketing $120,000.
The remaining $5 million will go to the top three teams, with $3 million, $1.5 million and $500,000 covering the respective podium positions.
At the end of the individual events, players who have participated in at least four will divide a $30 million bonus pool. The individual champion will net $18 million, the second-place golfer $8 million, and the third-place $4 million.
The winning team after the season finale will receive $16 million, with the group in last place still able to split $1 million in tournament earnings.
The world of professional golf is embroiled in a very messy, very public divorce with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.
Thursday in London, 17 of the world’s top golfers, including Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, teed off in the first event on the new Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf tour.
Even though 10 of the 17 players had already formally resigned from the PGA tour, commissioner Jay Monahan officially banned all of them from playing in future PGA events moments after the London event began.
LIV players are still eligible to compete in golf’s four major tournaments, which the PGA does not control.
Phil Mickelson of the United States plays from the first tee during the first round of the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational on Thursday. (Alastair Grant/The Associated Press)
“These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons,” Monahan said in a statement. “But they can’t demand the same PGA Tour membership benefits, considerations, opportunities and platform as you. The expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners.”
LIV Golf quickly responded: “It’s troubling that the tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing.”
Like many divorces, this is about money.
The eight-event LIV tour is being funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is controlled by members of the Saudi royal family and has about $600 billion in assets. It is offering prize money of $25 million per tournament, dwarfing even the biggest purses on the PGA tour.
It’s also paid massive appearance fees to entice top players to join this new tour. Johnson and Mickelson were reportedly paid $150 million and $200 million before ever hitting a shot.
Fracturing the game
The RBC Canadian Open, one of the oldest stops on the PGA tour with a total purse of $8.7 million, is being held this week in Toronto and is the first PGA event to go head to head with the LIV tour.
(LIV is the Roman numeral 54, referring to the 54 holes that make up tour events as opposed to the 72 on the PGA Tour)
Even before the tournament began, RBC lost its main spokesperson and face of the Canadian Open when Dustin Johnson abruptly bolted to the LIV Tour.
Wyndham Clark of the United States lines up his putt on the 8th green during the first round of the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto on Thursday. One of the oldest stops on the PGA tour, the Canadian Open is also the first PGA event to go head-to-head against LIV tour. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)
Tournament officials point to a quality field featuring five of the top 10 players in the world and robust ticket sales as evidence that despite LIV’s arrival on the scene, the PGA is stronger than ever.
“You want to watch the best players in the world, especially some of the best young players in the world. They’re here in Canada. They’re here in Toronto,” RBC Canadian Open tournament director Bryan Crawford told CBC.
At the same time, players expressed worry about how this new deep-pocketed tour could change golf’s future.
“Any decision that you make in your life that’s purely for money usually doesn’t end up going the right way,” said four-time major winner Rory McIlroy. “I think it’s a shame that it’s going to fracture the game.”
Canadian golfer Graham DeLaet, who played for more than decade on the PGA tour before recently retiring, says it will be hard for many players to turn their backs on money never seen before in golf.
“There’s a lot of ethical and moral questions regarding where the money is coming from but guys make their own decisions and, when that cheque is dangled in front of your eyes, I mean it makes things a little more difficult,” DeLaet told CBC.
As DeLaet points out, this story is about more than just money and golf. It’s also about politics.
There has been a renewed focus on Saudi regime backing the upstart LIV tour and its atrocious human rights record including, most recently, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
WATCH | LIV Golf’s big money has lured top golfers away from PGA tour:
Saudi-funded golf league poaches top talent from PGA tour
The LIV Golf league funded by the Saudi government is poaching some of the world’s top golfers, including Dustin Johnson, to leave the PGA Tour.
Golf vs. politics
In the days leading up to the London event, players like Mickelson did their best to keep the worlds of golf and politics separate.
“I’m certainly aware of what happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible,” Mickelson said. “I’ve also seen the good that the game of golf has done throughout history, and I believe that LIV Golf is going to do a lot of good.”
Mickelson, right, shakes hands with Saudi businessman Yasir Al-Rumayyan after the first round of the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational at St. Albans, England. Al-Rumayyan is the governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is backing LIV Golf. (Paul Childs/Reuters)
Fellow LIV player Graeme McDowell rejected the notion that by participating in the Saudi backed tour, he was normalizing or excusing the regime’s atrocities.
“I think as golfers, if we tried to cure geopolitical situations in every country in the world that we play golf in, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf,” he said.
Still, some contend that for golfers, many who have made a fortune playing the game, this should be about more than the money being dangled by the LIV Tour.
Cheri Bradish, a sport marketing professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, argues that the golfers who so far have rejected LIV’s overtures may be the ultimate winners in this just-beginning battle.
“If you want to think about keeping your partners, doing your speaking gigs and still having relationships commercially and people will argue with $150 million, you don’t need those,” Bradish said.
“But you want to believe in this society. that sports figures will understand that they can and could and should do very good things with the platform that they have.”
