The Open Recap: Brian Harman wins at Hoylake

Brian Harman has won his first major championship in a somewhat dull final round at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. After a shaky start, similar to his 3rd round, which included 2 bogeys in his first 4 holes, Harman again steadied the ship to post a closing round of 71 (-13) to take the Claret Jug by a whopping 6 shots. The chasing peloton, which included the likes of Jon Rahm, Jason Day, Tom Kim and Sepp Straka, couldn’t close the gap and they all finished the tournament at -7 (T2).

In a rain affected final day (which coincidentally helped the Aussies retain The Ashes - get that in ya Bazball 😜), no one was really able to make a move that put pressure on Harman. In the end, it was a pretty stress free back 9 for the American, who comfortably handled the 36 and 54 hole leads. In claiming The Open Championship 2023, Harman has put his hand up as a big game hunter, much like his Instagram profile would suggest…

In terms of how the Aussies fared at this year’s Open, it was a mixed bag at best. Jason Day finishing T2 has continued his strong return to form this year, and this result will push him into the world top 20. Cam Smith will be disappointed with his showing as defending champion, finishing T33 along with Adam Scott on +1. After showing so much promise over the first 2 rounds, Min Woo Lee had another poor weekend sliding down the leaderboard to T41 (+2). It seems the young rising star still has some learning to do in dealing with the big stage when he gets himself into contention. Finally, the remaining Aussies of Herbert, Smyth, Micheluzzi and Crowe all missed the cut.

PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf - what you need to know

Unless you’ve been living under a golfing rock for the last 2 or so years, you will certainly have heard quite a bit about the global golfing stoush between the incumbent monopoly of the PGA Tour (PGAT) and the emerging disrupter of the LIV Golf League (LIV). But how much of what you’ve heard is accurate, and what is the current state of play?

Well, to help you cut through the all the hot air and BS, we have The Shank Show’s 10 things you need to know about the PGAT vs LIV saga:

1. The PGAT is a member run, non-profit organisation started in 1968, led by CEO Jay Monahan. It exists to further the interests of its members (golf professionals at tour level) by running major US tournaments and currently enjoys tax exempt status due to its corporate structure and charitable partnerships.

2. The LIV Golf League was established in 2022, financially backed by the Saudi Government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and led by CEO Greg Norman. The LIV proposition to players has emphasised massive prize purses ($25m), playing less events, and playing innovative formats around the world (including Teams and Matchplay formats).

3. Saudi Arabia has a bold strategy of investing in global sports to help the country become more mainstream and improve its reputation as a tourist destination. The Saudis have made big investments in other sports including F1, soccer, and Women’s golf.

4. The PIF made approaches to invest in both the PGAT and the men’s European Tour (now DP World Tour). They were not so politely told to go away, and in response, the Saudis created LIV. The PGAT then accused LIV of being a “sportswashing” racket for the Saudi Government.

5. LIV was preparing to launch its schedule at the same time as the PGAT’s flagship event (The Players) last year, but these plans were significantly disrupted by the leaking of controversial comments from Phil Mickelson, which golf journalist Alan Shipnuck claims were on the record. Phil is alleged to have said the Saudis were “scary motherfuckers” and he was using them for “leverage” against the PGAT.

6. LIV regrouped, albeit with a delayed launch and smaller number of invitational events in 2022. The PGAT threatened bans and fines to any players that defected to LIV and recruited families of 9/11 victims to express outrage at the rival league having any presence in the US. Despite this, LIV announced many big signings including recent major winners Dustin Johnston, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Bryson Dechambeau, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith.

7. LIV and a number of players commenced legal proceedings against the PGAT for antitrust alleging that the Tour had engaged in anticompetitive practices, which included the bans and colluding with other parties to prevent LIV tournaments from receiving Official World Golf Ranking points. The lawsuits have been bubbling away in the background and the disclosure process has been embarrassing for all parties with many sensitive documents making their way into the public domain.

8. Under pressure from its players that remained loyal, the PGAT revised its future tournament schedule, and created a number of designated events where the purses will be increased to $25m (interestingly the same as LIV purses) and all the best PGAT players have committed to playing in these events.

9. In 2023, the LIV schedule has added more events, and the quality of the tournaments has improved (although still a long way to go for some of the events). The high-water mark has undoubtedly been the hugely successful Adelaide event at The Grange Golf Club, where the crowds resembled a major championship - clear evidence of neglected international golf fans that LIV is trying to tap into.

10. The PGAT has been bleeding money in legal fees and it’s become apparent the increased purses for the designated events are not sustainable. Unbeknownst to any of the PGAT players, Monahan and 2 other PGAT Directors engaged in clandestine negotiations with PIF Chairman (Yasir) over a 6-week period in May/June 2023. Shortly after, and in a major backflip that an Olympic gymnast would be proud of, Monahan went on CNBC to announce a “framework agreement” that seeks to merge the PGAT, LIV Golf and DP World Tour into one commercial entity. The PGAT will be the administrator of the new entity (with Monahan as CEO) whilst Yasir will be Chairman and the PIF will be the sole financial investor.

Where things go from here is hugely uncertain. The framework agreement is non-binding and the parties have until the end of 2023 to agree the specific detail. We are finding it hard to see how this agreement will be implemented in practice as the Americans want control of world golf and to preserve the status quo as much as possible.

This has been clear in the words of Monahan and his chief salesman, Rory McIlroy, who has expressed clearly his hatred for LIV (below). Why would the Saudis put themselves in a position where they are simply funding the PGAT to continue to control world golf? The short answer is they wouldn’t. They will want significant say in the future shape of world golf, and whilst the PGAT might be the body that operationalizes the day-to-day stuff, nothing strategic will happen without the say so of Yasir and the PIF.

Finally, there are still ongoing investigations and hearings by the US Department of Justice and the US Senate regarding possible antitrust breaches. It’s hard to see how an agreement that merges the 3 largest leagues in world golf is not anti-competitive in some way. The PGAT should be very concerned if this “merger” falls over, because, if it does, you can be sure that LIV will launch a fresh wave of big money offers to those marquee players that remained loyal to the PGAT. Are the likes of Rahm, Matsuyama, Cantlay and Schauffele et al really going to knock back hundreds of millions of dollars again? We think not.

Who said golf is boring?

Here are some quick bites you might have missed to keep things interesting:

Franky Molinari letting one rip on the 1st tee

Victor Hovland getting “shat on” by a bird

Gary Woodland with our “Shank of the Week”

Schedule for the Week

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: The 3M Open - TPC Twin Cities (Minesota), $7.8m purse, Friday 28/7 to Monday 31/7 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 6am Friday.

• USLPGA: The Evian Championship (Major) - Evian Resort Golf Club (France), $6.5m purse, Thursday 27/7 to Sunday 30/7 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 7pm Thursday.

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