LIV Golf: Four Burning Questions That Need Answering
By Bill Felber
3. What about the FedEx Cup?
The one huge event the PGA Tour does very much control is the season-ending race for the FedEx Cup. That is a three-event elimination with purses exceeding $50 million open to the top 125 qualifiers over the course of the full season.
At the moment, Johnson, Gooch, Na, and Swafford are all well-positioned to qualify for that field. Gooch is among the top 10 on the points list.
A suspension by the PGA Tour extending through the remainder of the 2022 season would potentially cost each of them — and particularly Gooch — millions of dollars. They obviously have run the numbers and concluded that they can make more on the hugely endowed Saudi Tour.
Given the field announced Wednesday – populated as it is with once-greats of the stripe of Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, and Ian Poulter – and foreign tour players with little street cred in the American game, that’s an eminently reasonable conclusion.
And that’s what makes the PGA Tour’s handling of the suspension question so pivotal. Tour officials must consider that if they do not act firmly and quickly against these players, their inaction could license more players to follow in the subsequent seven scheduled events. The next of those is to be held July 1 through 3 in the United States opposite the John Deere Classic.