Money in golf.

 Sat 6.8.2022.

With this title, you know I'm not talking about Malaysian golf (whatever that is). There's no money here. I mean, I play for money, too. Probably everybody at SIGC plays for money, except Jay (ex dental nurse Jay plays, hubby ex lecturer Mat pays). We're not talking about the 2 ringgit per hole stuff. We're talking about big money. Malaysian professional golf (whatever that is), is peanuts, and we know what that is - it's for monkeys.

I'm talking about the rising furore between the PGA of America and LIV golf backed by Saudi money. I'm talking serious money here. It's USD vs Saudi oil money. The proud Americans won't let it go by. Limitless Saudi oil money will stand by.

Hitherto, the PGA has been the premier tour in world golf. All pro golfers aspire to  that tour. You've  arrived if you earn your PGA tour card. Once in, you make 10 cuts a year, and you have USD 1 million in the kitty.  If you're Malaysian, you work your way from the Malaysian Tour (whatever that is), to the Asian Tour, then to the European Tour and gain sufficient success there ( one win would help ), and you're into the rich PGA tour. Like Vijay Singh.  Though he's Fijian,  he started here in Malaysia, mainly Johore and Sabah. He went to the Safari Tour after that, before joining the European Tour, where he notched a few wins, and was accepted into the PGA tour. The remarkable thing was, he had a Malaysian wife and could have played for Malaysia. He wanted to, but Malaysian officials as usual had no imagination and ignored that request. Vijay eventually rose to No 1.  Although he held that ranking for only a brief period, he did it when Tiger was around, just coming into his prime.

Unlike Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and India made incredible progress on the world golf scene, with Phillipines and Indonesia trailing back. All are like us in size, all eat rice, but all not like us in golf tours. Our Asian neighbours show us how they do it.  There have been world-class golfers, including world no. 1, from Japan, Thailand and South Korea, especially now, and they're from both sexes. All have had Major winners, and  from both sexes.

Greg Norman became world no. 1 years before Tiger Woods. He benifitted from the PGA Tour. Even as long  as 20 years ago, Norman had made known his idea for an alternative world class tour. It failed to get support and attention. Probably the Tiger effect on world golf in the last 10 years reignited the idea in Norman's head. That there is no good relations with Tiger must have helped.

PGA Tour money was nothing before Tiger Woods. He made USD 120 million on the course. LIV Golf offered almost as much to Tiger to just switch camp.

Not everybody made the same money that Tiger did. So a tenth of that was enough to induce about a dozen of past PGA Tour winners to abondon ship and join LIV Golf. Very few of them could possibly make as much even if they  stay on but cannot finish in the top 10 bracket.

Naturally, PGA Tour has risen to the LIV challange, and increased the prize money. What now ? Number 1, can PGA sustain it ? Number 2, can LIV push the cash harder ?

I make these notes when I saw the next step taken by the PGA deserters. They've gone to court.

Vijay Singh also once took the PGA Tour to court. I've not followed that and don't know what the outcome was. Since Vijay is still playing, he couldn't have lost. It might have been some sort of settlement, somewhere.

These 2 cases meant a lot of money was involved, not just about  the prize money, but also in the whole litigation process. 

More earth shattering issues have been hauled to court, which golf isn't. Most people wouldn't lose sleep on it. The courts of law always find a way to wriggle out of the moral issues, which are the real human burden borne through history. There are technical questions that can be the escape route for these wily judges.

The tussle can grow intense, because it can easily become a proxy fight between US and Saudi Arabia, between West and East, or God Forbid, between Islam and Christianity !

For the moment, it's all about money. Lots of it.

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