Sports betting amongst pros? Probably not good.

GM. This is Easy Pars. The golf newsletter that never breaks the rules, even if it’s a guaranteed win.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Pressure makes diamonds at the DP World Tour.

• LIV plans to take over the world in 2024.

• Two Korn Ferry Tour players were suspended for betting.

DP World Tour players punch their card for next season

Since we tend to focus so much on the top dogs of the golf world (the Rahms, McIlroys, and Schefflers of the world), we tend to forget how incredibly competitive the sport is.

That’s one of the reasons that make the performance of the top pros so incredible. They manage to play awesome consistently.

And it’s often this consistency barrier that becomes the biggest challenge for up-and-coming golf players as seen during this week’s DP World Tour events.

The recent Qatar Masters wasn't just about who took home the W. It was also a drama-filled stage where players fought to keep their DP World Tour spots for the 2024 season.

Sami Valimaki emerged as the ultimate winner, securing his second tour win after a playoff against Jorge Campillo.

Ranked 177th in the world before the tournament, Valimaki's emotional victory lifted him to seventh in the Race to Dubai.

Meanwhile, several players hanging around the 116th spot, aka the cutoff spot, on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai offered a masterclass on how to keep their cool under pressure.

Scott Jamieson, starting the week in 119th place, soared 37 spots on the points list, confirming his participation in next year’s tour. Ross Fisher, a former Ryder Cup player, can also rest easy knowing that he took the last exempt spot at 116th.

Veterans like Stephen Gallacher, Soren Kjeldsen, and Jamie Donaldson found alternative routes to keep their cards, thanks to their career money list rankings.

But not every story has a happy ending, since if some players go up, others inevitably go down. Such was the case of Daniel Van Tonder who found himself falling into the 117th place, despite making the cut.

This end-of-season is but a friendly reminder of how cutthroat golf really is.

LIV isn’t going anywhere

I think we can all come to terms with the fact that LIV isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

And we also need to come to terms with the fact that more people are warming up to LIV, even if it still doesn’t feel like it.

It’s got great golf, the events are pretty exciting, and even the team stuff is kinda cool.

Even though there aren’t a lot of official statements, here are a few things about LIV that are going to happen next season.

LIV is trying to take over the world.

Sure, the US golf market is clearly the biggest. But the rest of the world is also big and profitable.

And this seems to be the strategy that LIV is going for. They probably won’t be able to go head-to-head with the PGA Tour on their home turf, but the rest of the world is pretty much up for grabs.

This is why they host 8 international events vs 6 US ones.

LIV right now, probably:

They’ll keep on pushing the teams

LIV’s biggest differentiator is the team play element. And they’ll likely add more teams to the roster, they have mentioned in the past that they would grow the roster up to 15 from their current 12.

And if you asked the players who own 25% of their teams, this is what really made them turn to the LIV side of golf.

More PGA Tour players will crossover

Phil Mickelson has been quite open about sharing that his phone hasn’t stopped ringing from top-level players who would like to move to LIV.

This was to be expected when you have a Talor Gooch who made a gazillion times more money in one season of LIV than what he had done in his entire career.

It was even a good business move for the players who were at the bottom of the LIV rankings since they also made significantly more bank in their LIV season compared to what they were making in the Tour.

There haven’t been any announcements of who’s moving to LIV, but it’ll surely get a lot of attention.

IMO LIV will only grow as the years go by. They’ve got a lot of great talent and a bottomless checkbook to keep pushing the league forward.

Korn Ferry Tour players break betting rules

The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the PGA Tour.

It’s where the young guns cut their teeth before moving up to the big show, and it’s also where those who haven’t been able to keep up with the Tour’s pace hone their skills to give it another go.

As a part of the PGA Tour, the KFT players are expected to abide by the rules of every other PGA Tour player.

One of the big ones is “Thou shalt not bet on Golf, ever…”

And this one rule seems to have escaped KFT players Vince India and Jake Staiano.

Both players placed bets on PGA Tour competitions, but not on tournaments they were participating in. Which is maybe why they thought it was okay?

India, with career KFT earnings of $569,844, faces a six-month suspension. Staiano, who has played 17 total KFT events and earned $30,910, is banned for three months.

Meme of the Day

😂😂

That’s it for today. We’ll go back to not-betting on golf.

Later gator,

E.