The Majors Hold All the Cards

Phil is in. Rickie Fowler, too. DJ is already shopping yachts.

The LIV Tour is now in motion. Some big names have jumped aboard.

There is nothing wrong with anyone taking an obscene amount of money when offered. No laws have been broken and no one is getting hurt. Good for everyone who makes that personal decision.

However, there is a huge shoe waiting to drop. What will the other three Majors do – assuming the PGA will not allow any LIV players to participate in their Championship?

In many ways, the USGA (The US Open), Royal & Ancient (The Open), and The Masters control the future of the PGA.

If they allow LIV Golf players into their Championships, there is literally nothing stopping a cascade of other players jumping on the LIV Golf money train.

Whether some players abandon the PGA Tour altogether or simply cherry-pick LIV events to try to cash in, there is no doubt it would cause a huge blow to the primacy of the PGA Tour in the golfing world.

“So I can play less, earn more, and still play all the Majors?” is a compelling argument.

It would also throw the FedEx Cup, PGA Money List (for exemptions and card status), and PGA Tour card systems significantly out of whack.

Sponsors would lose money, event attendance where all the good players are at a LIV event would crater, TV audiences for PGA Tour events would slide, and all hell would generally break loose.

Simply put, if the best-of-the-best aren’t competing on the PGA Tour week in and week out, the PGA Tour loses hundreds of millions of dollars in advertiser, sponsorship, and brand valuation money.

It could lead to fewer events on the PGA Tour to avoid conflict with LIV golf events and an overall shrinking of the PGA Tour as a business and brand.

On the other hand…

If the USGA, the R&A, and The Masters come out in a unified position of banning LIV Golf participants, LIV Golf is immediately on life support.

There are obviously some who don’t care – see the field for the first LIV Event. Losing status on the PGA Tour and being unable to play the Majors is worth the chance at generational wealth for others.

Again, good for them. Get your worth. Secure the bag, and all that stuff.

But for many – I’d argue most – PGA Tour players, being cut out from the Majors would be a non-starter.

If the governing bodies align with the PGA Tour (and likely the DP World Tour), LIV golfers become the equivalent of golfing pirates, outlaws sailing the seas, like phantoms in the fog, searching for riches.

Their names will be scrubbed from websites. Their sponsors will abandon ship in droves. They will simply no longer exist as far as the traditional golf world exists.

But they will be filthy rich. And as Carl Spackler says, “So I got that goin’ for me.”

This should all play out in the next week before the US Open.

So strap in, the future of Golf may never be the same after next weekend.