The golf world was still reeling from the shock of Sergio García’s resignation from the PGA Tour as Dustin Johnson used a sunny morning on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead on Tuesday to calmly announce he had done likewise.
The impact of the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series, which begins with a $25m (£19.85m) event here on Thursday, continues to reverberate. Nothing is happening in isolation. Hot discussion now surrounds whether Garcia and Johnson, synonymous with the Ryder Cup for their teams, can remain as a part of the biennial event.
“It’s hard to speak on what the consequences will be but for right now, I resigned my membership from the Tour,” said Johnson, the world No 15. “What the consequences are going to be … I can’t comment on how the Tour is going to handle it.”
Johnson won five matches out of five when the US trounced Europe in September. Last year, the PGA of America’s chief executive, Seth Waugh, was unequivocal. He said: “If someone wants to play on a Ryder Cup for the US, they’re going to need to be a member of the PGA of America and they get that membership through being a member of the tour.”
Johnson, who has about 100 million reasons to support the LIV Series, said he hoped Waugh would rethink his position.
Last week, the PGA of America said it was “premature to speculate on any Ryder Cup implications”. But the PGA Tour, which is expected to outline its stance on exiting members over the next 48 hours, is absolute in its opposition to the Saudi scheme.
Johnson had pledged allegiance to the PGA Tour, where he has accumulated $74m in on-course earnings, as recently as February. “I don’t want to play golf for the rest of my life, which I’ve felt like I was probably going to have to do,” the 37-year-old said. You have to wonder about the scale of his monthly outgoings.
The position of García, a Ryder Cup hero in European context, is different. He has not resigned from the DP World, formerly European, Tour. While that body also stands against the LIV Series, nothing has been said by them in public or to players regarding the scale of sanctions or Ryder Cup cost for those who tee up at Centurion. García will bide his time before making any call on Europe.
Enter Kevin Na. Last Saturday, he became the first player to announce he was leaving the PGA Tour to pursue LIV riches. Na believes it is far from a given players will be ostracised from the Ryder Cup. “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said.
“Whether I’m right or wrong, I don’t know, but I’m saying that as of now, nobody has made an announcement about ‘You’re not being eligible for the Ryder Cup.’ Doesn’t the Ryder Cup want the best players playing for the tournament?”
Pressed on Waugh’s sentiment, Na added with a smile: “Rules can always change.”
Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace have also tendered PGA Tour resignation. That has consequences for the Presidents Cup, presided over by the PGA Tour and in which the South African trio have been regular participants.
Na spoke positively about the PGA Tour, with his depiction leaving the inference that he simply could not be bothered with a potential courtroom battle over playing status.
“I have nothing but love and thanks for PGA Tour, what it’s done for my career for the 19 years that I’ve played it,” said the world No 34. “I don’t want to be in a legal battle with where I’ve worked for 19 years. I just didn’t want to be a part of that.
“I wanted to be more positive going into LIV. I didn’t want any negativity going towards my new chapter of my new career. This has the potential to have the best players in the world and to be maybe the best tour in the world.”
Explanations for featuring on this stage ranged from mildly convincing to woefully lame. Graeme McDowell nudged depressingly close to the domain of ‘I am not a politician’ when asked how he could square involvement with effectively working as an extension of a Saudi PR machine.
“I wish I had the ability to be able to have that conversation with you,” the Northern Irishman said. “If we tried to cure geopolitical situations in every country in the world that we play golf in, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf. It’s a really hard question to answer.
“We’re just here to focus on the golf and what it does globally for the role models that these guys are and that we are.”
A dozen captains for the $5m team element of this tournament were confirmed. So, too, names as ranged from “Cleeks” to “Fire Balls.” Ari Fleischer, best known for his role at the White House and advocacy of the invasion of Iraq, opened press conferences with a range of soft-ball questions. One journalist, irate at not being permitted a poser to Na, asked Fleischer if he was the recipient of “blood money” during an unseemly kerfuffle at the media-centre door.
All this before Phil Mickelson has sat behind a microphone. We really are living in the most extraordinary of golfing times.
