WHEN LIV Golf emerged this time last year it was tempting to view the situation as similar to the schism that split cricket in the 1970s. In that case, Kerry Packer wanted to show test cricket on his television station, the Australian Cricket Board spurned him, and Packer took advantage of long-term dissatisfaction among the players to lure them into joining his new venture World Series Cricket.
As with LIV Golf, WSC rocked the foundations of its sport and prompted significant angst among traditionalists. There are other similarities: both utilised new formats, a wilder vibe and flattered the athletes involved with bundles of money and abundant hospitality. Both even had controversial Australians with a grudge at the helm (Packer and Greg Norman).
As with all comparisons, it is also vital to remind ourselves of the differences. A key contrast, in these cases, being the financial state of the two sets of sportsmen. Test cricketers in the 1970s were paid appallingly and were subsequently ripe for being seduced by Packer’s cheque book. LIV golfers, on the other hand and despite Norman’s determination to portray them as being cruelly denied their due, were always rich and are now considerably richer.
There might, however, be a connection between LIV and WSC which we have so far overlooked, one which is being revealed on the PGA Tour rather than on the renegade circuit. Because it is rarely discussed in the common narrative of WSC but, after two years of the world’s finest cricketers playing each other over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, they were both knackered and – frankly – bored.
Had LIV become what it wanted to be – the best 48 players in the world playing each other repeatedly – it might have encountered these exact problems. As it is, at least half the field is either not very good or in desperate form so it’s actually more of a regular bunfight between the better performers with the odd one-off exceptions.
But in creating “designated” events – tournaments beyond the majors which have huge prize money and elite fields – the PGA Tour thought it was protecting itself from the enticements of LIV but has actually created a situation where its finest players are being crammed into all same tournaments.
This week’s Memorial Tournament is another one and already it feels wrong. The ebb and flow of the season has gone, and with it nuance. The schedule, oddly, feels like the modern golf game: variety sacrificed for the power of the one dimensional.
There might even come a time soon when the narrative changes. At the start of the year we wondered if LIV golfers were playing enough. Soon, we might be wondering how the PGA Tour’s elite are playing too much. It’s a ridiculous palaver.
Oh well, off to Muirfield Village, otherwise known as ‘Jack’s Place’ because this is the course that Jack Nicklaus built and he created the Memorial Tournament to be played on it. It’s a classic of Nicklaus design thoughts with wide enough fairways (although Rory McIlroy has argued that the 2020 redesign has led to almost everyone hitting to the same spot from the tee) and an emphasis on high quality approach shots.
Having a strong Nicklaus record can be key this week, as the last four course winners suggest. Last year’s winner Billy Horschel had decent course form and had also finished second on another Nicklaus layout. Jon Rahm has been a runner-up on two other Nicklaus courses. Patrick Cantlay loves the Nicklaus co-designed Harbour Town and has won at Sherwood. And Collin Morikawa, a Muirfield Village winner in the Workday Open, has three wins on Nicklaus tracks.
Adam Scott
Time to take the compiler on with this price with a man who has missed just one cut in 14 starts at Muirfield Village. Moreover, on four occasions he ended the week in the top five with a best of second in 2019. In recent weeks he’s talked of turning some decent form into actual results and somewhat backed that up with fifth at Quail Hollow and eighth at TPC Craig Ranch. He gained over five strokes with his putter on those two starts and has also recorded improving Approach numbers last month.
Lucas Herbert
The Aussie is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour and also landed a first success on the PGA Tour towards the end of 2021, albeit in the lowly Bermuda Championship. This week represents a great opportunity for him to go well at a big price and maybe even have a first genuine tilt at a high quality PGA Tour event.
His three DP World Tour wins do not hint at a trend on first glance – in Dubai, Ireland and Japan – but the latter two came at Mount Juliet and Ishioka which are both Nicklaus designs. The last of those results came just a few weeks ago, he was also ninth on defence of his win at Mount Juliet and he finished T18th on debut at Muirfield Village in 2021
Sepp Straka
A second outsider and, while he’s not an Aussie but an Austrian, the rest of his case is quite similar to Herbert because he, too, likes Nicklaus designs. The 30-year-old Ryder Cup hopeful won at The Nicklaus Club on the Korn Ferry Tour and landed his first PGA Tour title at PGA National. He’s also been T12th at Montreux, T14th on debut at Muirfield Village and third at Harbour Town last year. He was also a very fine seventh at the PGA Championship just two starts ago.
