I noted in my post The blackbirds are singing, the blackthorn is out and so are the magnolias (12 April) that these were the signs that spring is here and 2023 is now fully underway, with a summer of sport presaged by the first golf "major" of the year, last month's Masters. The hawthorn is now in glorious full bloom, as in the example below from my patch of semi-tamed Welsh hillside and we wait with anticipation the next golf major, the US PGA this month and then cricket's Ashes.
Oh, and with trepidation, the end of the football season.
Just as I like the flow of the British seasons, I rather like the golf calendar the way it is, with the four Majors, three of them held at different venues each year, albeit from a list in each case, but the Masters always at Augusta. The Masters comes early and whets the appetite just as the weather here is getting warmer. I try to make golf the all year round sport the sport's bodies say it is, though it can be a relief to get back in the clubhouse in January and February after playing. The courses play very differently in the late spring, summer and early autumn, when the grass is growing properly and can be mowed to optimal height. And it's unavoidable that warm and waterproof layers, even with modern materials, inhibit your swing even if you're hands aren't frozen solid (as mine feel like whenever the temperature is below about 6C). The Masters heralds the arrival of the better course conditions and playing with a maximum of one sweater.
The great thing about familiarity with a famous golf course like Augusta or Sawgrass, even just from years of TV watching, is that in getting to know the holes, contours and how the ball is likely to run, you often know as soon as a player hits a shot whether or not he's nailed it, if only because of the modern day ball tracking being shown. The holes become as familiar as old friends. They wouldn't be so friendly if you were actually playing them as they are fiendishly difficult. While the top pros can make it look easy the very best club golfers, playing off handicaps close to scratch, would do well to get anywhere near breaking a hundred shots for a round on the course as set up for the Masters.
But that golf calendar remains under threat from the Saudi bankrolled LIV golf tour, which has been attracting top players to defect from the established tours.
Given its heritage and status it wasn't a surprise that the golfers who have joined LIV and so become pariahs on both the US PGA tour and DP World tour (as the European tour is now known, after its Dubai based sponsors) were so pleased to be able to play at the Masters. The organisers of the Masters go their own way on who qualifies so, for example, past champions can play into their dotage, basically until they decide not to.
Past champion Phil Mickelson's achievement in tying for second place, along with another LIV mercenary Brooks Koepka, was remarkable given not just his age (52) but also his relatively poor form since he set the record for the oldest player to win a major (The US PGA in 2021, aged 50 years and 11 months). To put Mickelson's final round of 65, the best at the Masters by a player over 50, into context the last time Lefty scored 65 at Augusta Tiger Woods was still an amateur.
Referring to the LIV contingent present, Mickelson said afterwards he was "grateful we get to be here and compete and be a part of this great championship...we're all really appreciative to be a part of this...It's great for the championship to have all the best players in the world here playing and competing. It's fun for... me as a past champion to be able to be a part of this and continue to be a part of this great championship."
Indeed some golfers I know take the view that LIV and the established tours should co-exist so that it would be normal for the top players to compete whenever they choose to do so. I don't agree.
Some of the criticism of LIV has been its format, 54 holes rather than 72 and with no half way cut. 54 holes doesn't bother me too much but I think the cut is important, as it allows a very large field to enter and play on the first two days while avoiding silly o clock starts on the final two, which also gives some cushion against weather delays preventing an on time finish. It also adds a lot of competitive spice on day two of the four.
However, my main problem with LIV is very simple: it's anti-competitive, like the European Super League proposal in football. Why? Simply because you have to be invited to compete in it. Anyone can seek to qualify for the US and European tour and, by doing well, earn the right to compete at the majors. It's on merit. LIV isn't.
There was a suggestion from one of the LIV golfers before the Masters that, were one of them to win, there would be a big LIV group celebration by the 18th green. I'm so pleased we didn't get to see that. It would have been hugely offensive to me, a bit like watching a bunch of privileged Bullingdon club types celebrating their good fortune and rubbing everyone else's noses in it.
Meanwhile LIV's legal cases, seeking to get the right for their players to be able to play in events on the traditional tours when they fancy it, are foundering. A London court ruled the DP World Tour had acted correctly in imposing sanctions on players like Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter who had played in LIV events without a release allowing them to do so. And in the USA a Californian judge lost her temper with LIV for failing to provide documentation for their case with the PGA Tour and released the date in January 2024 for the trial itself, saying last month "I will now look at my schedule when I can hear all of your motions. It may be two years from now" as she is currently setting dates for trials in mid 2025.
So the LIV golfers are likely to stay in semi-exile for a good while yet, playing in their closed events that the other top golfers in the world don't get to play in. Some are still able to play in major events for which they have qualified for a number of years by dint of past performance or because they still have enough unexpired ranking points from events they played in within the last two years. Those points will gradually wither away - part of the LIV argument is that they should get ranking points for playing in their own closed shop LIV tournaments, which is just tough as it was their choice to walk away and join a restricted club.
So yes it was nice to see them all playing together at Augusta. But that's the point: they're not all playing together because some of them chose to sling their hook an play in competitions that are restricted to the in crowd. So personally I wouldn't welcome them back at all. Indeed, I'm quite surprised that the US PGA is allowing 18 LIV players to compete at its own championship, the next 2023 major to be played, starting on 18 May. I guess they have to ensure they are following their own rules to the letter. But I think it would be jarring to see a LIV golfer win the US PGA's main annual event when they were the ones who chose to ignore the rules they had signed up to.
So live and let LIV players compete? Not for me. As I said at the start I like the golf calendar the way it is. It's the LIV events that have prejudiced the situation where all the top players play in the majors. And I'm not keen to pay money to watch a rival tour as well as the established one. So I'm going to continue to ignore the LIV events. (They are so unpopular though that it isn't easy to find where they are shown).
Meanwhile the PGA Tour is making changes to try to reduce the risk of more of its players defecting to LIV, as the LIV tour will have to keep tempting new players to join to maintain interest and avoid a gradually ageing profile in its events. These changes include even larger purses, no cut and smaller field events to pander to their elite players. I'm uneasy about these changes but they aren't without precedent on the tour and they don't break my basic rule as any golfer can qualify to play in these events if they do well enough on the tour.
Unlike LIV. You lot made your bed with the Saudis chaps. Live in it.
The latest developments in the court cases were reported at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/apr/04/dp-world-tour-wins-landmark-arbitration-case-against-liv-golf-rebels
and https://www.si.com/golf/news/judge-loses-temper-in-liv-golf-vs-pga-tour-hearing-postpones-trial-date
The changes to the US PGA Tour are covered at https://www.golfcare.co.uk/blog/2023/03/pga-tour-2024-shake-up-everything-you-need-to-know/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=april23newspol
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