Phil, Rory & Kermit the Frog
A four day recap of the year so far in golf off the course.
Where are we now and where are we headed?
Rory McIlroy made headlines this week after being asked some direct questions by Gary Neville on his new ‘Overlap’ podcast - hosted by four football (soccer) legends in the UK. To simplify his answers for a non-golfing audience, Rory went back to basics, admitted some bad judgement on his part at the inception of LIV and reiterated that he wants to get back to being a golfer - resigning from the Player Board and approaching the year with a particular focus on mending relationships; a) to prioritise the sport - and b) to sharpen his mindset heading into the Masters.
In the podcast environment he came across as genuine - initially hesitant but eventually warmed to the situation. His quotes were taken and turned into dramatized headlines very quickly - but the essence of what he was saying was fairly straightforward.
McIlroy said that he understood the reasons behind Rahm et. al leaving the PGA Tour, and reflected that if you were in the latter stages of your career then jumping to LIV made a lot of sense. His main gripe was the players who left then scorning the PGA Tour for all they had done wrong in the past, but did concede that LIV exposed a lot of flaws in the PGA Tour model.
His quotes were taken out of context and turned into ‘Rory Says Rahm Made the Right Decision on LIV’ sort of stories. This isn’t entirely true, but it did lead to a mature response from Phil Mickelson; and a slight jab in the ribs from Brooks Koepka.
Phil said:
“It’s time for me and others to let go of our hostilities and work towards a positive future. Rahms’ signing is turning into a bridge to bring both sides together”.
Brooks chose to tweet without words, deploying an excellent use of Kermit the Frog. I feel he is happy to sit back and watch the professional golf scene unfold exactly as he was told when he signed on. His wife, Jena Sims, also added to the Rory comments; simply resharing the Overlap podcast and writing ‘New Year, New Rory.’
This seems quite a good summary, as the tide turns in favour of unity rather than division, especially when we see that viewing figures are still relatively low for LIV and even bigger golfing events, especially compared to what we would consider smaller sports.
The UK Darts World Championship came to a conclusion last night, where 16-year-old runner-up Luke Littler was able to draw in more eyeballs than the Ryder Cup, according to Eddie Hearn. For context, the darts final had a 4.8m total audience and a peak of 3.71m, the highest ever non-football audience recorded. Even the semi-final of the darts drew in more views than Ryder Cup Sunday.
Considering we all want to grow the game, one Tour is the logical conclusion, regardless of opinions on the matter. More views in one place, rather than a fractured viewership that is utterly confused by proceedings.
So, if you can believe it, after two years of confusion and a clear binary approach to the LIV-PGA Tour saga, it seems that the golf fans and even some top players are now singing from the same hymn sheet. The first few days of 2024 have allowed for some fresh perspective before we kick off the first scheduled tournament of the year at Kapalua. January is not a great month for watching sport, so it gives us time to hash out what’s going on in the background.
The Unity Stage has potentially been reached, and perhaps the Unified World Tour (or, stick with the name NewCo) is something we see launched in 2024, with a mixture of team golf, individual events and freedom of movement between players.
Patrick Brennan
4th January 2024