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On Wednesday this week Greg Norman, twice Open Champion and CEO of LIV Golf, gave an interview to his local newspaper, the Palm Beach Post. Interview by Tom D’Angelo

Q When did you first think about starting a new league?

A In 1994, ’95 I wanted to start one because I knew being a global player at that time golf had an opportunity. There was virgin space sitting there available for the players to have an equity stake in growing another tour for their own right.  I always fought for players’ independent rights for decades.

Kerry Packer in Australia was one of my best friends. I saw what Kerry did for cricket and thought, ‘My God, if he can do that fir cricket, look at where it is today with franchise values in India in the billions of dollars for team cricket. So I got a lot of this education and foresight very early on in my career and I knew I could move the needle because of my playing ability and my personality.

Q Was recruiting players to join LIV easier or more difficult than you envisioned?

A I thought it wasn’t either one.  It wasn’t difficult because once you sat down with the players, walking through the business model and seeing the opportunity from a franchise perspective, getting their agents was the difficult part. Once they grasped hold of it, done. Bingo.

Q Was the PGA Tour ripe for someone to come along and start a rival tour?

A 100 percent. They rested on their laurels thinking they’re the only game in town, they’re the monopolist, they can control the game and this is the way it’s going to be. From a player’s perspective I’ve always said the Tour works for us, we don’t work for the Tour.  And I was in the minority with that voice.

Q Did you envision this level of backlash from the Tour?

A I knew their game plan before it even started because of what happened in ’94 and ’95.  Obviously, the game is a little different because of the financial backer we have, because of the players looking at in a different prism, the fans are looking at in a different prism.  I think the PGA Tour, I actually feel sorry for them because they’ve really hurt themselves by the rhetoric they’ve been spreading.

I’ve taken the high road.  OK, you want to say these stupid things, go right ahead.  Our business model has stood up to the players and they absolutely love it.  Our product has stood up to the players and the fans and they absolutely love it.

Q Your reaction to the Department of Justice investigating whether the PGA Tour engaged in anticompetitive behaviour in the fight with LIV Golf?

A They brought it on themselves.

We haven’t done anything other than putting together a business model and giving independent contractors a right to earn a a living doing something else, as well as still being a member of the PGA Tour.  The entire business model from the ground up was built to coexist within the ecosystem of golf, coexist within the majors, coexist with the DP World Tour, coexist with the PGA Tour.  Allowing the players to play here and play there.  

That is a testament to their stupidity, quite honestly.  Instead of sitting down and taking a phone call from us and just say ‘hey, work this out.  We can do it. .It’s an easy fix it’s ridiculous.

Professional Team Golf

Q Where did the team aspect come from?

A We did a 12-month survey on a global basis “What do the fans want?” Part of that survey was me going to the Ryder Cup and seeing that fan engagement from a team perspective and I said, ‘This is what it’s all about. This is what we got to do”. The fan survey came back saying that we want to see more team golf. The players want the individual side from a competitive standpoint, we need that. But how do you integrate and bring in more fan engagement, you create the team side.  How do you create a team?  You bring in a principal player, give them a franchise to build themselves.  The league owns 75 per cent and they own 25 percent.  A healthy team, a healthy league, no different than any other league, NFL, NBA, cricket. We’re going to monitor and help them build their team value.

Q So the ultimate goal is for 12 teams to run themselves, do their own marketing, sell their own sponsorships?

A Yeah, absolutely. (It’s the principal player’s) responsibility to manage that team. You have to bring in the people. You have to bring in the management. We’ll oversee that and we’ll help.   And that’s how you build this value.  The number of players that are. Principal players today that are excited about the opportunity is just incredible.. To see them engaging with our internal team is infectious.

Now when you see Carlos Ortiz holing a 40 footer (in Portland) and the team members erupting and making more money than they’ve ever made in one tournament, that’s what it’s all about… And wives and significant others coming up to me and saying, ‘I’ve never seen my husband so happy’.  This is the stuff these people don’t see or hear.

Q How confident are you that you’ll be able to sell these teams?

A I’m very confident.  Understanding that it’s never been done before in golf and understanding the popularity of golf on a global basis and understanding the virgin space sitting there and the lost opportunities the PGA Tour hasn’t taken control of… I think the chances of ultimate success are very high.  The fans are embracing it after six rounds of golf, the energy level within is enough to say I’m very, very confident it’s going to be an easy product to get out there.

‘Firestorm of controversy’

Q Your reaction to the players who have been outspoken against LIV?

A Shame on (those) who create this firestorm of controversy when you look within their own system when they got 23 odd sponsors who do $40-plus billion dollars of business with Saudi Arabia. C’mon, seriously?  If you’re going to go down this path just be ready to accept you’re going to get some stuff coming back your way.  And it’s not hard to find it.

Billy Horschel made this comment about the hypocrisy of the (LIV) players.  I’m sorry for Billy for saying that because I’ve sat down with Billy Horschel, I’ve talked to him…just be true to yourself when you’re making those comments.  Because he has seen what LIV is all about.

Q So with the money coming from Saudi Arabia you knew there would be backlash?

A Let’s just take Saudi money away from it, it was going to happen irrespective because you’re going up against a monopolist. If It was a hedge fund out of New York, would it be any different? Maybe, because it was U.S. money.  I can’t answer that question because it’s not the case.  But I will say, the business model because it’s disrupting a monopolist, it would have happened.

Q Did you ever hesitate one bit because of where the money is coming from?

A Me, no. Why? Because I’ve been to Saudi Arabia.  I’ve been building golf courses in Saudi Arabia.  I was part of the internal change in their culture to some small, small degree because golf is a force for good on a global basis.

When I see the good the game of golf is doing within the country, it’s no different than Vietnam.  Pick a country where I’ve built a golf course I can tell you point blank the value golf has brought to that country. We are building multiple golf course sin Vietnam.  Vietnam is a third-world communist country.  Vietnam recognises golf and its free market capitalism has been a godsend to them. It’s just exploded in that country and created a 6 to 1 tourism dollar improvement.  And Saudi Arabia is doing the same thing using the game of golf as a force for good to open their country to tourism.

It’s just insanity to me people sit back and try to hurt the development of the game of golf through political or whatever reasons. It just disappoints me so much because I see the true value of what golf has done on a global basis.

Q What was your reaction when Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee called for your removal from the World Golf Hall of Fame?

A I did find it laughable.  Has Brandel Chamblee ever been to Saudi Arabia?  Has he ever built a golf course in a third world country? He’s a paid talking bobblehead.  That’s all he is.  He’s got my phone number. He’s never picked up a phone and asked me a question.  Sadly, you’re making yourself look like a jerk.  It’s like water off a duck’s back to me.

LIV-ing in the pro golf ecosystem

Q Do you believe LIV golfers will earn World Golf Ranking points?

A WE have abided by all the technical rules committee’s request.  We checked all the boxes.  Our strength of field is there.  The criteria for the ask is there.  I hope as an independent organisation they remain independent for benefit of growing the game of golf.  They’ve done it for other tours.

Q Two events in, has it exceeded your expectations?

A Going into Centurion, my expectation was OK, we’re not really in London, we’re at a golf course. Was it a great recognised golf course. Not really. How are we going to be received? We were received really well. So I would give London on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 7.5.

Then we’re getting ready for Portland and we’re all very nervous about Portland because of the Oregonian attitude towards Saudis.  The elephant in the room, right?  We had letters from the 11 mayors against us.  From our CSR (corporate social responsibility) we got rejection, rejection, rejection.  OK, this is going to be an interesting week.

We go in there expecting the worst and it turned out to be 11 out of 10 because the fans spoke. It was about the game of golf.  It wasn’t about Saudi money.  It was about Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson. Portland, the northwest, was starved for golf.  It was a resounding success.  I walked three holes every day with the fans. I’m signing autographs and I’m going ‘Oh my gosh, this is real’.

Q Do you need a stronger field than two in the top 20 and about 20 of the top 100?

A We have more announcements coming.  Out of respect to The Open we’re not going to make any announcement this week.

In the world of business you got a competitor coming to challenge you, understand what your competitor’s got by sitting down and signing an NDA, having a conversation and see (what) works for us.

It just baffles me they haven’t even had the decency to do it.  We opened the door for them a couple of times and they didn’t want to come in.

Q Are you worried this will tarnish your image?

A I answer that this way, unless you truly understand the business model and the good LIV is going to do for the game of golf, then don’t even bring that up.  Maybe my legacy had always meant to be this.  My legacy on the golf course was –  I love to play the game of golf, I could put bums on seats, I could hit a white golf ball from point A to point B better than most.  And I was proud of doing it.

Maybe the lost opportunity in the game of golf has been brought to another place because of my vision, my belief, my commitment.  And it’s not just me – I have executives from all around the world, they’re not involved with sports but they’re the smartest business people I’ve ever been around – it’s just because I’m the CEO.  I’m extremely proud of it.  It doesn’t bother me how people have their opinions because they don’t know the facts.

Written by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post. tdangelo@pbpost.com

On Tuesday Jack icklaus was awarded the honorary citizenship of St Andrews. He is only the third American, after Benjamin Franklin and Bobby Jones to be awarded this honour.

I was in the town heading to pay my respects to Old and Young Tom Morris. I stopped one of the stewards outside one of the university to ask for directions and he said you can’t get to it at the moment there are too many falling rocks, it’s dangerous so it’s closed.

But, he said, you can see Jack come out in a minute, And he let me go across the courtyard past Younger Hall where Jack was being invested as an honorary citizen of St Andrews.

Inside too were Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Sandy Lyle, Dame Laura Davies and Jose-Maria Olazabal all being given honorary degrees.

Jack come out in a minute? He took a couple of hours.While I waited and waited patiently a dear American friend passed in a courtesy car, with just a driver, so I was able to wave to him.

Eventually Jack and Barbara paraded the streets in a blue and white Rolls Royce and I ran alongside them. It was a moment. A farewell, because he won’t be coming back again.

During one of the practice rounds I heard a player saying that he had “done a Nakajima” on the road hole.

In case you don’t know of Japanese tour pro Tommy Nakajima and his antics on the 17th hole at St Andrews, here’s what happened during the 1978 Championship. Doing a Nakajima is now written into bunker instruction lore.

This Nakajima is not to be confused with the World’s number one amateur 21 year old Keita Nakajima who has been comepting here this week. What a remarkable swing, which you can see here. What a hugely exciting prospect to follow in the footsteps of Hideki Matsuyama.

This beautifully restored and colourised picture by Mancave Originals showing Bob Jones practising for the 1927 Open Championship at St Andrews

We must doff our caps to the Sky Sports Golf team who, with the 6 hour rounds at this Open Championship have been on air from 6.30am to nearly 9pm.

This Radio Times excerpt for this day in 1988 shows what golf coverage of the Open used to be like. Five hours on BBC 2 and 40 minutes highlights. How lucky everyone is who has a Sky Sports subscription.Not a weak link in their excellent team and dedicated workhorses all.

It’s been an emotional week for so many of us here at St Andrews, there’s something in the air. But nothing like seeing Tiger Woods pull his cap over his face because he had tears streaming down as he heard an unbelievble ovation from the crowds who filled the 18th stands and lined the fairways. cheering, stamping their feet in approval, applauding him onto the green.

But – he didn’t stop on the Swilkan Bridge.

And that is a hopeful sign that he’s not done with golf yet. If he had stopped and doffed his cap, as Jack and Arnie and Tom and so many great Open champions have done before to make their final bow to the game at the home of golf, we could well have known that a retirement statement was coming. But after he signed his scorecard to miss the cut he stopped to talk to the host broadcaster.

“It was an unbelievable warm ovation and very emotional for me. The collective warmth and understanding. I’ve been coming here since 1995 and the next Open at St Andrews may not be until 2030. I just don’t know how my health will be, whether I’ll be able to compete at St Andrews. I’m sure there will be more Opens, but maybe not at St Andrews. I just don’t know if I’ll still be playing”.

So there’s our answer. When Tiger chooses to bow out, it won’t be here at the home of golf. Unless the R&A return to the five year rotation to bring the Open back to St Andrews perhaps, or even sooner. Perhaps it will be Goodbye World at Augusta. But for now, we can breathe out that Tiger plans to still stick around and compete on his own terms as he is able.

I got up to St Andrews on Tuesday and arrived from the airport about 10.30, to catch the end of Tiger’s practice round. The atmosphere around the two practice days was electric, it was very special and different from any other Open all week. I’ve attended nine Opens at St Andrews and nothing has been like this. 

As Tiger said himself you had the sense that this was the biggest open championship there ever had been. I caught up with him as he left his presser and he seemed to look different. He strode out to his courtesy car where his girlfriend, caddie and manager were waiting for him. He’d had his say about how he felt about LIV golf and he looked lighter, almost as though a big decision had been made. And at the Celebration of Champions and the Champions Dinner he was smiling broadly, and joshing with Lee Trevino, waving at Rory McIlroy’s little daughter who waved back from the Old Course Hotel.

“Let’s hope it won’t be the last time we see him here” said someone watching as he strode out. He had deftly dodged questions from the press about his future with “I just don’t know” but he admitted that St Andrews is his favourite golf course in the world and it was right that he was here. It was much more important that he was here than any other champion and we all waved to his departing car, just in case.

He had a late start on Thursday and the round was interminably long, finishing near 9pm. Several times he stood on one leg, lifting the damaged right foot off the teeing ground. This was the leg that he had nearly lost in his car accident. He was clearly finding it hard going.  With the Open returning to St Andrews probably in another five years, and he now being 46 it may be the last time he competes, although former champion Mark Calcaveccchia is in the field at 62. He seemed to struggle with all aspects of his game, but the galleries carried him along on a wave of emotion.

As he played the 14^th on Friday and American private plane was spotted coming into land at the airfield that was the former RAF Leuchars, very likely to take Tiger away from all this. I wondered whether in three holes, on the Swilkan Bridge there would be a special goodbye wave and an announcement at his presser as he missed the cut. He wouldn’t have wanted to have left like this but it was huge that he got here at all.

Although LIV CEO Greg Norman was disinvited from the celebrations of the 150^th Open the spectre of LIV was still present. One journalist riled Phil Mickelson by asking him to expand on his emotions about being advised to stay away from the dinner and celebration of champions. It was clearly a sore subject even though he explained the situation with the logic of a robot, sticking to the “line to take’ that had been worked out in advance. Using words like “ecstatic and incredibly happy” about his future, didn’t fit with what was seen. Every picture tells a story and he did clearly look very stressed out and his face betrayed his emotions. Whether, logically, all that money offered by LIV, the time off, the chance to play a different format with other top competitors would be enough when the reality down the line kicks in. Particularly so when the LIV tournaments have so far been attended by rentacrowds on free tickets, not fully engaged with the concept. 

Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson’s caddie brother Austin were definantly wearing LIV branding and Ian Poulter was clearly booed on the first tee. It did lend an undercurrent to the week as there were a lot of press questions about the “civil war’ in mens professional golf.  But somehow, it hasn’t spoilt the week. There is a bigger, almost spiritual thing going on. When I got on to the course on Tuesday I was surprised how emotional it felt because I haven’t felt that before at St Andrews. It was interesting.

Before getting into the championship there were a couple of magical events in the town which were worth waiting a couple of hours to see.

I ran alongside the blue and cream open top Rolls Royce which had Jack and Barbara Nicklaus in the back. They were waving royally to the cheering crowds which lined the streets after Jack had been invested with the Freedom of St Andrews, only the third American to be so awarded after Benjamin Franklin and Bobby Jones. Jack looked clearly moved. The ceremony in St Andrews’ University Younger Hall is available to watch. And out came Lee Trevino, Catriona Matthew, Sir Bob Charles, Sandy Lyle and Jose-Maria Olazabal who had all been awarded honorary degrees. It was quite a moment to see all of this.

And the following day at Younger Hall was a lovely memorial service for the beloved BBC broadcaster Peter Alliss. His family also paraded round the streets of the old grey toon accompanied by a piper. Peter had planned to retire at this championship, but he passed away after the Masters late in 2020, so it was fitting that the ceremony took place here so that he could be part of it all.

And in the Royal and Ancients newly refurbished Golf Museum was the most wonderful photographic display honouring Seve Ballesteros compiled by his family. The R&A encouraged everyone to leave a message about what made St Andrews such a special Open venue.  I wrote “our Seve winning in 1984” and finished with what he always said “everything is destino”.

The golfing gods have already chosen the man who will be bestowed with the great honour on Sunday of being not only the champion golfer of the year, but the 150^th champion. This will be an important winner at this unfortunate time of discord because this championship has been like a peak of a crescendo. We need the worthiest winner on Sunday.

Great article from Golf Journal about the Els Centre for Autism

I’ve just spent $39.99 and had eight hours on and off listening to the audio version of Alan Shipnuck’s biography Phil The Rip Roaring (and Unauthorised) Biography of Golf’s Most Colourful Superstar and I’ve come away feeling exhausted and grubby.

As I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog, every year another drama with Phil Mickelson. This book has brought it all to a shattering crescendo. Not only is the content shocking in parts, the whole range of the dramas are set out showing a pattern of behaviour that hasn’t been seen before by fans. All of this is a huge wake up call for everyone.

As of now we don’t know whether Mickelson will tee up at the first Saudi backed LIV tournament near London next week or whether he’ll return at the US Open or what his next move will be. I have long suspected he will walk away from the game and go straight into politics. That or come over here and do pantomime. Baron Hardup. Now there’s a role.

The shocking fact of Mickelson’s accrual of $40 million gambling debts over four years was released to the public before the book was published.  This shows Shipnuck’s vigour as a journalist that he found out about this through the financial forensics that were carried out when Mickelson was a relief defendant in an insider trading lawsuit. He also writes in a fair and balanced way. It’s just that some of the content has such a smell around it. He gives equal attention to Mickelson’s huge talent as a golfer, his victories, his random and generous acts of kindness and the writes about his family with respect. The book is also entertaining and light in other parts.

But I do wonder whether it is personal.

The book begins with an altercation between Mickelson and the writer at the 1999 PGA and Mickelson says

“you’re not a writer that I respect”. 

We hear several stories (two Ryder Cup captains in particular) of people who have been wounded for many years after by Mickelson’s actions and spiteful tongue. We are told that Mickelson was “scared as shit” about the book coming out and that his agent approached Shipnuck a number of times about becoming their employee, all of which he rejected.

The relative silence on social media since the book came out is noticeable. It was sold out on Amazon last week. Perhaps readers are still processing that things appeared to be one way, but were in fact another.

The pre-publication release of the remarks about the Saudi Golf League which caused so much controversy led to Mickelson sending out a statement in which he said the remarks he made were off the record. Even if this were so, why pick up the phone and tell the journalist writing a book about you? A story is recounted about Mickelson leering at a female golf fan and remarking that she was “hot” and then remarking to golf writer John Feinstein who overheard “that’s off the record, right?” Clearly he does know what off the record means. 

The only explanation for him actively picking up the phone and shooting his opinions to a journalist he is apparently scared of is that he is extremely self destructive subconsciously. It’s no wonder that Alan Shipnuck ran with such information and is making huge sales of his book.

Before I mention things I’ve noted about the murkier parts of the book, I must say that I felt there was something odd about the way Mickelson’s personal life was treated.

Compared to the driving edginess of the rest of the book, this was saccharine. Amy Mickelson is portrayed almost like a Disney character. She reminds me of Ella in the movie Enchanted. Bearing in mind Mickelson’s previous girlfriend was objectified  – Tana Rae Figueres’ breasts were apparently so big her male college teammates wondered how she could swing a golf club round them… With Amy and Phil I wondered if there are any adults in the room? As the person nearest to him, she doesn’t seem to stand up to him, keep him grounded or stop him from making so many huge mistakes. Why didn’t she or his caddie (who is his brother) tell him he was making a mistake to prevent him from getting so entangled with the Saudi Golf League? “Our gang” of close confidants and professional advisors – none of them seem to have done him any favours.

Shipnuck let another stink bomb drop through his website Fire Pit Collective 

Before the book was published he said he was in possession of information that would have been the most explosive part of the book, but he elected not to put it in because it was highly personal and would cause pain to too many people. That got people speculating. It may be that that could be keeping Mickelson away from golf so long – the part of his statement released in Feburary which says that he desperately needs to spend time with and prioritise those he cared about most. 

Perhaps he is thinking through all this because Shipnuck calls him a family man dogged by salacious rumours. We don’t know anything about this yet. But I can only observe first hand that he is certainly not very confident around women and so makes childish remarks. At the Walker Cup matches at Portmarnock Irelandthe furore over his “That’s not the place to hit it, the Irish women aren’t that attractive” erupted.He may have been six foot three but he looked no athlete. Huge pot belly, oily slicked back hair and pimples about to erupt, so he shouldn’t have said that.   But worse, after turning pro he came over here for a tournament and I heard him say this about a young female spectator who was in the gallery at the same time as his wife. 

“She’s jealous. That means I’m going to get what I want” (i.e. sex). 

Disrespectful all round. To the young woman involved but also to his wife who was in the gallery as it was spoken.

I found the descriptions of his compulsive eating e.g. 9 Taco Bells in a minute – quite telling. Alongside the obscene amount of money that he has lost gambling (he was apparently checking scores of football matches he had bets on during a Presidents Cup match) I wondered if this was his way of coping with stress. His weird coffee diet could not have been good for him, that amount of caffeine would have led to serious mood swings. 

But unstable metabolism and poor diet apart many of his difficulties do clearly come from his personality. He is above all a talker and enjoys verbal sword fights where he can come off as superior. Yet for all this articulacy, he also communicates in the most neanderthal way. His reported speech in the book is littered with profanity. He also seems to enjoy spiteful trash talk, covering it up as banter. One of his professional friends explained “he’s just Phil being Phil”. But that is not good enough. What is clear is that he really hurts people and no amount of fan interaction, guerning for the cameras or getting the missus to sigh “oh Philip” as she stands on tippy toes to snatch a kiss between the green and the tee, can compensate for this. 

Shipnuck observes that it was a strategic move for Phil to entertain the fans so that he would come off more likeable compared to the mechanical, solitary and foul mouthed Tiger Woods. But what the fans didn’t know was that Mickelson is equally as foul mouthed . “Total phony” observed Steve Elkington.

The split between Mickelson and his caddie of 25 years Jim “Bones” McKay is one of the most interesting parts of the book because it was Bones who fired Phil, three weeks before a public announcement. At the root of this was financial – he was owed over $900,000 in pay. They got weird and wouldn’t look at each other. Clearly, there were financial problems at the root of it all, even though Mickelson’s earnings were supposedly around $80 million a year before he lost his sponsors.

His verbal attacks on two Ryder Cup captains Hal Sutton and Tom Watson are examined even though he did say to Sutton “I am so so sorry” afterwards. He apologises after the damage has been done and he has shot his mouth off. I remember watching the final American team conference at the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and being astonished at the disrespect towards then 65 year old Tom Watson. Shipnuck explains this further that there had been tension between them all week which could have got physical. But in this instance at least something good came out of bad – the American Ryder Cup Task Force which examined what was going wrong and put new strategies in place which have led to two US wins since that showdown in 2014. 

Although in that instance Mickelson was the catalyst for change, it’s now very unlikely that he will ever be Ryder Cup captain himself. It was known that he had been ear marked for the matches at Bethpage Black in New York in three years time and apparently veteran Fred Couples may now fill the gap.

I found it shocking that he had turned down the Bob Jones Award apparently remarking that the USGA could shove it up their arses. His feud with the United States Golf Association reached a peak on hole 13 of the final round of the 2018 US Open when he played hockey back and forward across the hole with his putter. This got him a lot of media attention (which he seems to crave) but very little in the way of discipline. It was an indicator of his anger towards the way he felt courses had been tricked up at the national championship. The one he has never one but feels he should have won more than anything else.

The parts of the book that made me feel unwashed were the stories about who he has been associating with. When Mickelson’s former gambling friend Billy Walters’ own book comes out in the Autumn, this is going to be another revelation. According to Shipnuck he and Mickelson were like brothers. But Walters went to prison for insider trading wheras Phil avoided it on a legal technicality which has since been overturned. Other associates have connections to the Russian mafia, have been involved in racketeering , are compulsive gamblers or bookmakers and then there are his connections to the Saudi regime who he calls “scary motherfuckers”. Perhaps he is just an adrenaline junkie who likes to live on the edge and mess with all this. No wonder his car has armoured doors and bullet proof glass. But messing at the cost of losing everything, his legacy of an illustrious 30 year career?

As someone on twitter said “Phil, you’re in a pickle mate”.

I listened to the audiobook right to the end of the credits. And there amongst the credits was this throwaway comment from Alan Shipnuck:

“I wish that I had got a chance to ask him about his belief in astrology”.

Well let me help you out there. Helpfully the book gives Mickelson’s birth time on June 16 1970.

Aha. Double Scorpio. 

Sun and mercury in Gemini (compulsive talker) but with the moon and ascendant both in Scorpio.

Scorpio – dark, secretive and most of all capable of being extremely spiteful. And a double dose of it. That seems to tally with everything exposed in the book. He likes the dark side even though the outside world sees the opposite, the grinning all American hero.

 Ah yes,  Double Gemini – the sign of two faces. But unlike golf writer John Hopkins I don’t think there are two Phils (or even that he’s been cloned). I think there is one integrated Phil. But he needs to see the overall picture.

And that’s what you spend $39.99 for.

So, everyone’s heard a lot, but what is it actually like to watch a LIV event? I went to the first day of the first LIV event at Centurion Club in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Truly, it was like entering a different world. Golf, but not as we know it. It was rather disturbing that St Albans, the birthplace of the Ryder Cup had been chosen as the first venue for the new LIV tour. The name LIV is taken from the Roman numerals for 54 the number of holes played per tournament.

The first thing to note was that it was very loud from the moment you approached the golf club. Loud recorded music and also marching brass bands. So that set the tone. The guards in their scarlet uniforms and bearskin hats either marched up and down for several hours or spent five minutes blowing trumpets to announce the start of the event.

The ticketing failed. Originally the tickets were on sale at £67. I got in free, and so did everyone else that I spoke to. Various media outlets were given a slew of free tickets and so it attracted a crowd that weren’t really interested in golf but were happy to have a free day out, particularly with a free concert at the end of each day with top headliners.

Once registered for the free ticket, attendees were sent an e-mail that was, quite frankly, draconian. Someone had come up with some really silly rules of attendance. You were not allowed to bring in any bag other than a tiny ladies handbag, really tiny, no woman has a bag that small, we carry around lots of stuff. Otherwise you were allowed to have a transparent bag. I scouted round my house looking for something even remotely like this and the only thing I could find was a pink Poundland special. It would have to do. But when everyone piled on the local bus from St Albans station, all the men had big heavy rucksacks, ignoring the rule. At the entrance the security guards were hapless to enforce the daft rule and let everyone in regardless. No one at the entrance seemed to know where anything useful, like a taxi rank, was. “Don’t ask me, the Job Centre sent me here” was one reply I got.

Once inside there was a Fan Zone to entertain the crowds, which were getting restless, having been let in at 11am with the tournament not starting until 2. This fan zone had obviously had been the brain child of a very clever marketing company who had thrown everything at it.

“Welcome to the future of golf” the logos screamed

“Don’t Blink” screamed another. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it?

As I moved through the fan zone I was startled when four actors, dressed In golfers of Gene Sarazen’s age (plus fours, flat caps) physically leapt out and took my picture. “There she is” screamed one of them. Excuse me? Did I sign a model release form for you? Who gave you permission to take my picture for pubicity purposes? I felt quite startled by the rather aggressive in your faceness of it. I’m used to poorly paid chuggers doing this to fund raise for charity, but this is LIV and presumably these actors were being well reimbursed.

There was a mega putt and chipping challenge, various rather expensive bars and food outlets and at the end of the zone was a large stage. At the end of play big stars Melanie C, Craig David, James Morrison and Jessie J performed. 

This was rather funny as Jessie J sang her hit Price Tag:

“It’s not about the money, money , money

We don’t need your money, money, money

We just wanna make the world dance

Forget about the price tag

Oh yes, it is about the money. Winner Charl Schwartzel took,home $4,000,000 just for three days at this event.

The players were on the practice ground and putting green up to an hour before the shot gun start and they looked relaxed and ready to go. The two nine figure golfers, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson who got a two hundred million dollar fee for signing up, came off the practice ground last and refused to sign autographs for the two little boys who were waiting for them. This is what Mickelson looked like as he left the practice ground and walked to the first tee, to change his career forever. His first event since his self-imposed exile he was greeted with a polite smattering of applause and an American shouting “Go USA”, not “go Phil,” but “go USA”.

London black taxis took the players to their designated tees for the shotgun start. And then someone wearing a LIV uniform warned us “Greg’s coming” i.e part like the Red Sea, Moses is coming.

Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf strode onto the first tee to the fanfare of trumpets. Then a flypast of vintage World War 2 aircraft flew overhead.

Someone in the gallery broke ranks about this.

“It’s not the Queen, here we had her Platinum Jubilee last week!”.

Indeed, in contrast to the magnificent celebration of Her Majesty’s 70 years on the throne, these touches seemed inappropriate and even rather tacky.

I watched by the side of the tee as the first tee shots were played and sighed deeply. This was actually happening. There was no turning back now. I pulled my Open Championship 150 baseball cap down over my eyes, oddly hoping that the history of our sport might offer some protection from what was happening. When I pulled it back I saw that Greg Norman had pulled the Chief Sponsor from the Saudi Investment Fund into a long embrace that went on for a couple of minutes. He was grateful for the investment that had made all of this happen. It was an historic moment.

I had tried to make sense of what it was all about. Four players per team. What I noticed was that some of the team names were somewhat aggressive – “Smash”, “Punch”, “Crushers”. And then there were the team logos, quite a few of which reminded of the hyroglyphics I had seen at the Masonic Central Hall in London. This made me feel a little uneasy. There was something rather dark about these logos. Dustin Johnson’s team, the 4 Aces had a red four with what looked like a devils tail. But the Koepka brothers’ team, smash, had a logo which looked rather like how a cartoonist would draw a fart. A Cloud with some kind of explosion to it.

Sergio Garcia’s team, the Fireballs, had a picture of a golf ball wearing sunglasses bearing its teeth. This reminded me of the dog in the cartoon Darstedly and Muttley. The Cleeks GC (they were all called GC, short for Golf Club. I was once told not to write GC as an abbreviation for golf club, why I don’t know. But LIV seen to have adopted it, so there, I digress).

The Cleeks GC logo looked a bit like the old hammer and sickle of the old USSR flag. Slightly concerning. Mickelson’s team, by contrast to DJ’s red devil’s tail seemed to have angels’ wings drawn into his Hy Flyers logo. Other logos, such as the Iron Heads and Torque seemed to be composed of old bits of piping that a plumbers mate might use. In all, for the amount of money spent securing the talent, this branding seemed rather odd and amateurish.

Also, the LIV website lacks attention to detail. Some lesser known players such as Hennie Du Plessis and Kozuma have their height and weight on their pages as 0ft 0inches and -lbs. This is worrying, that the people running this new tour haven’t got to know the players properly.

So, to the golf. The atmosphere at Centurion Club was rather odd. It felt like an exhibition match and the professionals weren’t really trying, there was such a lack of investment in what they were doing, the lack of competition, though that may come in time. Rentacrowd,  passing the time before the live music began, often didn’t seem to know what they were looking at. I was content watching my favourite golf swing, belonging to Louis Oosthuizen, and marvelling at the power of Dustin Johnson and the exhuberence of Sergio Garcia. But I felt sad that I had to go to the circus to see players of this calibre ever again. 

My instinct is that they will get bored of playing each other and no amount of money will compensate for endlessly playing a format which is an entertainment product rather than pure sport.

Here’s the competitors