No Cuts and the LIV comeback?

Good morning afternoon, golfers. This is Easy Pars, the golf newsletter that wants to celebrate our growth with a small token of our appreciation (more on that a bit further down).

Our own E. Gator was on a late flight to get to the Player’s Championship, so today’s email is a few minutes hours late.

Let’s get into it:

• Phil tried to LIV the PGA, before the PGA LIV’d itself

• Uh oh, PGA players are shouting out LIV

• LIV making the (international) long play

Hate to say I told you so…

52-year-old Phil Mickelson knows golf.

Like really knows it.

Not only as a massively accomplished player, but he also understands the business side of it.

And way back before anyone even knew that LIV would be a thing, he went to the PGA Tour and told them, “hey, I’ve got a billion-dollar idea.” 

Check out this tweet

The PGA Tour, of course, ignored him.

Would that have put the PGA Tour in a better position to fend off the well-heeled newcomers?

Probably Who knows?

But yeah, hate to say it, but Mickelson told you so…

Maybe competition is a good idea after all.

Rory McIlroy is no fan of LIV.

If someone has been critical of them, it’s been Rory.

But you got to hand it to him; he gives credit where credit is due. In a recent statement, he conceded that LIV has spurred innovation on behalf of the PGA Tour.

John Rahm said something very similar. And this was after the Tour had released its plan to do the reduced field-no cutoff thing.

I guess it was incredibly obvious to him that he and his fellow PGA Tour golfers would make a significantly larger amount of money next season.

Does it mean we're closer to a world where both leagues can embrace their friendly competition and bring out the best of each other?

Nah. Probably not.

They still have the whole ugly legal battle going on.

But Rory, well, he’s just happy to be making more money doing what he loves, and LIV Golf (at least in part) is to thank for it.

Time to high-five?

Couple weeks ago, we said not to count LIV completely out, due to the seemingly low ratings. A long-term play seems to be afoot, which we showed in meme form.

It’s not easy when you’re going up against the biggest organization in the world.

Nobody wants to get on the PGA Tour’s naughty list.

They’ve been pretty good at making an example out of deserting players by banning them from events and the whole legal thing they’ve got going on.

But at some point, someone was bound to throw caution to the air and support the other guys (aka LIV). Resorts World Sentosa, a big Asian hotel company, just signed on as LIV's most recent sponsor.

They’ll be backing the LIV’s Singapore event, the fifth in their tournament calendar.

Now seems like a time for a high-five to the LIV, but let’s wait a bit longer.

The play clearly conveys the interest of golf in Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. These are locations that many say the PGA has been slow to give the credit they deserve.

LIV looking to gain ground where the PGA seems to lack? We’ll see.

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That’s all we’ve got today, golfers. Look for another email sent right to your inbox, full of jokes and memes, coming your way Monday morning.

Later gator,

E.