Nick Roger: Let’s live in harmony between LIV and golf

LIV Golf destroys the traditional image of the game. (Image: PA Wire)

I did some reading this weekend. Yes, you don’t just read the text and look at the pictures. The article was about the Dacanacui ceremony in ancient Peru.

Have you ever heard of her? Simply put, it’s an annual tradition that helps us enter the New Year with a clean slate and involves a delicate, diplomatic process known as physical violence.

The men, women and children of Chumbivilkas province are fighting together as a means of resolving the many grievances and grievances that have accumulated over the past 12 months. Clearly, all this back-to-back slapping, slapping, slapping, and slapping helps foster camaraderie and strengthen community bonds.

After everyone pulls things out of the closet and trades opinions for a few hours, they all get together for a drink and celebrate. Ironically, members of The Herald’s sports desk perform the same reverential ritual by kneeling in the office at Christmas.

Anyway, I thought Takanaku could be used to solve an ongoing problem in the world of men’s professional golf. Can the bosses of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund speed things up with some nibbles and drinks after missing the Hogmanay deadline to finalize their collaborative partnership plans?

Imagine that scene. How many times have LIV boss Greg Norman and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan rolled in the mud, held hands and thrown a few shots for a pint of peace before finally signing a master agreement? It doesn’t get any funnier than some of the capers that took place last year. But it’s 2024 and everything is still surrounded by uncertainty. The commoners of the aforementioned Chumbivilkas will probably wipe their chapped lips, tight brows and crooked noses and say, “We did something crazy by tearing down our neighbor’s fence, but at least we get Bloomin’. “The situation will be resolved quickly.” Last weekend’s Sentry Event in Hawaii, the PGA Tour’s first signature event of the new PGA Tour season, demonstrated just how badly the ongoing recession has affected the men’s game.

A year ago at the same tournament, Jon Rahm 2023 shot a 63 in the final round, overcoming a nine-shot deficit to claim a stunning victory. Of course, as Lam is currently employed by LIV, he was unable to attend the 2024 games.

The dilution of PGA Tour events continues. Unless something goes wrong sooner rather than later, April’s Masters, the first men’s major of the year, will see all the game’s leading players gathered on the same stage for the first time. Great news about Augusta’s show. Not very good compared to everything that came before.

The casual observer, who seemed more excited to see the material on the shirt than the crest of the wave, was met with puzzled looks. Regular tourist activity has declined and the claims may be less attractive. What’s more, despite LIV’s self-promotion, hype and fuss, their TV audience numbers are about the same as you’d get if there were a few people outside the old Dixons store watching the football scores broadcast from showcase. Saturday afternoon. Everything is reduced. Greed and disloyalty led all but a number of increasingly powerful players to surrender to the Saudis. The situation on both sides remains completely unsatisfactory.

In all of this, it’s easy to find reminders of golf’s humble place in the wider sporting landscape. Recently, the American Sports Business Journal released its list of the best sports broadcasts of 2023. The final day of the Masters was the most watched golf event, with 12.1 million viewers. However, it was ranked 131st in the overall ranking of compulsory sporting events.

Here the Ryder Cup attracted an average of 750,000 viewers on Sky, a record figure. With last week’s World Darts final watched by 4.8 million people on the same platform, it’s understandable why golf is preventing more people from hitting the ‘off’ button. The current clutter does nothing to attract and hold attention. Last week, Rory McIlroy, one of the loudest voices against LIV, softened his stance on the whole situation. “I can’t say we’ve lost the fight with LIV, but we’ve accepted that it’s part of our sport now.” The aforementioned Norman said he was as happy as a cat that took over an entire dairy farm. Of course, cream.