Golf insider joins Substack brigade

Harig brings news-breaking expertise to Daily Drive; reports on LIV, Phil and Shinny

Bob Harig has been inside the ropes with golf’s stars like Tiger Woods for decades (Scott Halleran)

Back before Tiger Woods appeared on the Merv Griffin Show, Bob Harig was caddying at Inverness Golf Club in the Chicago suburbs. He never became particularly good at playing golf himself, but he caddied well enough to receive an Evans Scholarship to study journalism at Indiana University when it was considered a basketball school and a football laughingstock.

Times have changed. Indiana is a football powerhouse now and Harig has been covering golf as a journalist for more than three decades with the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, ESPN and Sports Illustrated. He’s covered more than 140 major championships — including every one of Tiger’s 15 major wins as well as all of Phil Mickelson’s and Rory McIlroy’s six each — and events on every golfing continent. He’s written three books on golf, including his most recent Tiger v. Jack: Golf’s Great Debate.

Two weeks ago, Sports Illustrated shuttered its golf coverage. So now one of golf’s ultimate insiders will continue breaking news and covering golf on Substack with The Daily Drive. His new role will begin in full next week during the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills — the same event and place where he covered his first major 40 years ago when Raymond Floyd won the 1986 U.S. Open there. Harig will continue at next month’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale and the Presidents Cup at Medinah as he forges ahead doing what he does best as an independent journalist.

Please help support Harig’s work by subscribing to The Daily Drive. Through July, we’ll be offering a reduced annual subscription rate of $59.50 and a group of five or more at $52.50.

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LIV Golf’s shotgun starts require cameras to be everywhere all at once (Jamie Squire/LIV Golf via Getty Images)

Shotgun divorce? LIV may shed unique feature

By Bob Harig

Love it or hate it — and no doubt, there are strong feelings on all sides — the shotgun start has been a distinctive part of the LIV Golf model since its inception in 2022.

But can it really be part of a new-format LIV Golf 2.0 in 2027?

Probably not, almost certainly due to a re-configured model that will see LIV Golf no longer receive funding from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Why? Because a shotgun start is enormously expensive from a broadcast perspective, and LIV Golf to this point has taken on the task of paying for all production costs.

According to sources familiar with how LIV operates, its budget for TV production last year was in the neighborhood of $85 to $90 million for the 14-event schedule, which doesn’t include the salaries of the on-air talent.

That works out to approximately $6 million per event, or roughly double what it costs to produce a PGA Tour event. And the PGA Tour has media rights deals and sponsorship arrangements that help the various networks cover those costs.

LIV, of course, is doing all this on its own and without the robust TV rights and sponsorship fees to cover the costs. Although the league has reported year-over-year increases in both areas and has seen positive response in a handful of its international markets, such gains were viewed in the bigger picture of the Saudi Arabia benefactor.

A shotgun start — where a group begins the round on each of the 18 holes instead of going off the first and 10th tees — is expensive because it requires a tower and camera person at all 18 holes. And that is more pronounced on the final day when it is possible that the winner or those in contention may not finish on the 18th hole.

LIV has already cut out a costly feature with its “Any shot, any time” offering that allowed a viewer on the app to locate any player in real time and watch his round. (The Masters doesn’t even do that; its similar player shot tracking feature can be viewed after some time has passed.)

That was an impressive viewership perk that was dropped at the LIV Golf Korea event a few weeks ago with LIV offering refunds to users who paid and were displeased at the decision.

LIV Golf is faced with cutting costs in the aftermath of the PIF decision, with CEO Scott O’Neil in search of some $300 million in funding from investors to move forward after this year.

Cutting costs on the broadcast would seem imperative but would be a substantial rollback from what those who follow the league are used to seeing. A few fixed towers as well as handheld cameras would be more in line with the cost structure necessary in a world where funding is no longer unlimited.

LIV Golf has not commented publicly and has gone to market with its ideas for the future, seemingly wanting to keep as much of the current setup as possible, with various reports suggesting a scaled-down schedule and purses are part of the new LIV Golf plan.

As he attempts to raise the millions of dollars necessary, O’Neil faced a question earlier this week that he could not honestly answer. He made an appearance on the CNBC’s Halftime Report in which he explained how he is meeting with investors.

With last week’s LIV Golf Spain event completed, the league now has a six-week break prior to its next event in the UK, July 23-26. O’Neil was asked: “Can you guarantee today that the four remaining tournaments on your schedule will actually take place?”

“What I can guarantee is a heck of a return if you come invest in this business,” O’Neil said, conspicuously deflecting the question.

That is not exactly a strong endorsement of LIV’s immediate future but it’s understandable that O’Neil is going to hedge after all that has occurred in the last two months.

When asked what would happen if the PIF pulled its funding before the end of the year, O’Neil said, “You have to take an incredible organization like PIF at their word.”

Of course, O’Neil likely took PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan at his word earlier this year when he pledged funding into the next decade. That changed drastically soon after the Masters, when Al-Rumayyan stepped down from the LIV board and the PIF eventually announced it was pulling back.

There remains rampant speculation about the remainder of the season and whether LIV will be able to play it out. The Financial Times reported Thursday that the PIF has forwarded just $200 million of the $600 million it is set to equip LIV Golf with to finish its season but that the LIV Golf UK and LIV Golf New York events are expected to be played. There is less confidence about the Indianapolis and Michigan tournaments to end the season in August.

“We understand there’s a time constraint, but what a special time in the world to be able to get into the world’s most important sport, a global sport, and to come in at a ground level at a great price with an incredible return ahead,” O’Neil said in the CNBC interview. “So that’s where we’re locked in, and that’s our focus.”

Phil Mickelson has played only once this year in LIV’s South Africa event (Matthew Harris/LIV Golf)

A brief chat with Phil … and an explosive report

Phil Mickelson is not eligible for next week’s U.S. Open (nor did he enter to try and qualify), but next month’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale remains a slight possibility.

And yet, the breaking news reported by Golf Digest on Thursday might keep Mickelson out of the public eye for longer, saying that he’s been accused of inappropriate contact with a female employee and banned from the Southern California club where it allegedly occurred earlier this spring.

Mickelson, who turns 56 on June 16, has played just one event this season, a tie 48th in late march at the LIV Golf South Africa event. He has cited a family health matter as his reason for withdrawing from the other seven LIV Golf events.

He also skipped the Masters. And last month was the five-year anniversary of his 2021 PGA Championship triumph in which he became the oldest major champion at age 50, but Mickelson skipped the event at Aronimink, too.

In a brief text exchange earlier this week prior to the Golf Digest report, Mickelson said he has not ruled out playing in the Open and that if he does play there, he’d likely attempt to play the remaining LIV Golf schedule. But he said that is far from certain and “out of my control.”

As he has noted previously and without detail, “I’m helping a family member through a really tough time,” he said.

No Bones to pick with Shinnecock

Phil Mickeslson played three U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills and has an interesting history at the venue.

In 1995, he tied for fourth — four shots back of Corey Pavin — after a final-round 74.

In 2004, he had an agonizing runner-up finish to Retief Goosen, making a double bogey after three-putting the 17th hole from 5 feet to finish two back. They were the only two players under par and it followed Mickelson’s Masters victory that year and then a third-place finish at the Open.

In 2018, Mickelson was involved in a third-round controversy when he struck his ball while it was still moving off the 13th green.

Mickelson never won the U.S. Open, finishing runner-up a record six times.

During a conference call this week, Mickelson’s former caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, referenced those close calls in describing his own regard for Shinnecock Hills.

“I think that Shinnecock Hills is arguably the finest U.S. Open venue there is on the rotation,” said Mackay, who will be working the broadcast for NBC. “I absolutely love everything about it. I was really lucky enough to caddie in ’95 and 2004 for a player that had a great chance to win the event. I’ll never forget standing on 18 tee in the group behind Corey Pavin as he played that second shot into 18 with wood in hand and, of course, we all know what he did there, famously hitting it to 5 or 6 feet there on his way to victory.

“Just super, super excited to get there. I’m really interested to see what some of the amateurs may do next week, particularly Jackson Koivun who I think is poised to become a real young star in the game. But beyond that, I just think the golf course will shine next week and we’re due to have one of the great U.S. Opens ever played.”

Blissful youth or youthful bliss?

There are bound to be some fun stories that emerge out of those who this week qualified for the U.S. Open via one of the final 36-hole qualifiers. It is one of the cool aspects to the U.S. Open, the “open” nature of the event and how just about anyone (you need a 1.4 handicap index to enter qualifying) can play their way into the national championship.

There were 43 qualifiers who made the field at Shinnecock Hills next week via the 10 qualifiers on Monday. That is in addition to those who came previously from three other qualifying sites in Dallas, Japan and the United Kingdom, bringing the total number of qualifiers so far to 62 out of the 156-player field. Several alternates will also make their way into the field as the last exempt spots are determined on Monday.

One of those fun stories involves Chase Kyes, who recently completed his freshman year at Tennessee. Kyes went through the 36-hole qualifier at Hawks Ridge Golf Club in Georgia, shooting scores of 67-66 to snag one of the five qualifying spots.

Afterward, in near darkness, Kyes was interviewed by Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner, who learned that the first-time major participant didn’t realize when the U.S. Open is being played.

“I didn’t know it was next week,” he said. “I don’t even know man.”

He does now. And a big week awaits for him.