If adding just an ounce of legitimacy to a tour funded by Saudi blood money wasn’t enough reason to not bet on LIV Golf, new details about its players’ contracts might be.
During a court hearing for LIV players suing the PGA Tour to participate in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, a lawyer for the players reportedly mentioned that money won in LIV tournaments is “recouped against the LIV contracts.” That sounds a whole lot like the players are competing for nothing.
Again, this was the argument from the lawyer for the players seeking to force the PGA Tour to allow them to play. It was a stunning admission to say the least.
Whoa, bombshell! Plaintiff's lawyer just let slip that LIV players' earnings are counted against their upfront money. This shall be explored further at a later date.
— Fire Pit Collective (@firepitstories) August 9, 2022
The LIV lawyer just said that the money won in tournaments is "recouped against the LIV contracts".
— Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood) August 9, 2022
From what we know, many of the top players who defected from PGA to LIV were paid a large bonus up front. If tournament earnings are recouped against that money, then it’s already been paid. There’s no additional incentive to win.
If this is true, and you’re a bettor, how can you trust anyone to be giving it their all? Not that this thing was built on integrity anyway.
$200m for Phil Mickelson
$150m for Dustin Johnson
$125m for Bryson DeChambeau
$100m for Brooks Koepka
$100m for Cameron SmithThat's $675 million from LIV Golf to sign 5 players. The total revenue for the PGA Tour in 2022 is somewhere around $1.5 billion.
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) August 9, 2022
From a LIV spokesman, who denies that prize money counts against contracts:
“Our counsel was responding to a different question about recouping or offsetting FedEx cup earnings.
“We maintain that every player’s contract is separate from prize money.”
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) August 9, 2022
It should be noted, this topic came up in June when Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee first said players didn’t make additional money from winning, and it was not so convincingly refuted in a LIV press conference.
But according to No Laying Up, the lawyer Tuesday said each player’s contract is different. So even if all player earnings aren’t recouped from the contract, it’s possible some are.
LIV goes on the record to refute what Brandel (and others have) insinuated about prize money being a draw against player contracts. pic.twitter.com/KljRYu8h2x
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) June 28, 2022
He moved very quickly passed that and did say that each contract is different, but did insinuate that not all guaranteed money is guaranteed. https://t.co/OgvD1sW1y1
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) August 9, 2022
This completely undermines the competitiveness of a tour where the competition was already thought to be sub-par at best, due to deviations from the standard game like no cuts and 54 hole tournaments—as opposed to the PGA’s 72-hole grind.
If there isn’t a true purse to play for on top of that, these players on the tour can literally show up without a care in the world, because they’ve already been paid. For a bettor, that’s not the type of event worth risking your precious dollars on.
In the meantime, a federal court ruled in favor of the PGA. The LIV golfers who defected—Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones—remain barred from competing the the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
A federal judge has ruled that suspended PGA Tour players Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones will NOT be allowed to play in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) August 9, 2022
An all-around bad day for LIV that will certainly have strong ramifications going forward with the legitimacy of its events are even more questionable than before.
