Petty grievances: PGA Tour stifles opps
LIV affiliation denies Bland, Canter; Harrington's thoughts on another Ryder captaincy
European Open is Laurie Canter’s maiden win (Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
There is nothing to celebrate, but Thursday marked an anniversary nonetheless. The date June 6 is burned into the memory banks for a different D-Day, golf’s version, although it has yet to lead to any kind of real peace.
Yes, the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia dropped lawsuits a year ago, an important step especially for the tour, which was bleeding close to $100 millions on legal fees trying to fight the LIV Golf threat while the PIF didn’t want to have to open up its books to the world.
But the “framework agreement” that was to bring the entities together and forge some sort of alliance has yet to materialize. The New York Times reported that the newly-formed “transaction committee,’’ which includes PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Tiger Woods, was to meet in New York this weekend with representatives of the PIF.
In recent weeks, there have been statements about progress, but it’s slow, with no deal imminent. What does PIF want? How much money are they willing to put into the PGA Tour? What happens to LIV? Is there a pathway back for players who left? Can LIV and the PGA Tour co-exist? What role will Congress, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have in the final say?
Meanwhile, LIV Golf is back playing this week in Houston, it’s eighth tournament out of 14 but going up against one of the best PGA Tour events, the Memorial Tournament. LIV has showed no signs of slowing down as it continues to plan for a future that doesn’t suggest it will be diminished in any way.
There continue to be examples of the divide, two of which occurred recently.
Laurie Canter won the European Open last Sunday on the DP World Tour, thus moving into the top 10 on the circuit’s season-long Race to Dubai. It was the 34-year-old Englishman’s first DP World Tour victory and sets up a lot of opportunities for him.
“This is what I’ve always wanted to do — to win on the DP World Tour,” an emotional Canter said.
“Now that I’ve done it it’s going to open up some opportunities for me. If I’m going to try and climb the world rankings and get myself up and playing in the biggest tournaments in the world you have to know how to win and I think you only get that belief once you do it. Hopefully it means I can push on and go from strength to strength.”
But Canter has also been a reserve player for LIV Golf the last few seasons and played in its first two events this year before the signing of Anthony Kim. He lost out in a playoff at last December’s LIV Golf Promotions event, where he was trying to earn a full-time spot.
So Canter is now faced with a dilemma. What if LIV calls and asks him to play? It’s hard to turn down the kind of money being offered at LIV — a minimum of $50,000 for finishing last — but it comes with a potentially higher cost: being shut out on the PGA Tour.
Last year the PGA Tour and DP World Tour struck an agreement whereby the top 10 in the season-long Race to Dubai standings who were not otherwise PGA Tour members could earn a PGA Tour exemption. Canter is in line for that.
But then there is a PGA Tour rule that will be viewed as petty or necessary depending on which side of golf’s dividing fence you sit. Any non-member of the PGA Tour who participates in a LIV Golf event cannot play any PGA Tour-sponsored event for a year from the time of the last LIV event he played in.
For Canter, that would mean he’d be ineligible until February 2025, potentially missing out on some early-season events in which the DPWT 10 would be eligible to play, including the Farmers Insurance Open where France’s Matthieu Pavon won this year. Pavon came off the DP World Tour list from 2023.
When LIV Golf was launched, the PGA Tour put the rule in place as a way to discourage players, especially young ones, from competing in any LIV events. Andy Ogletree, a U.S. Amateur champion who had no PGA Tour status, played in the first LIV Golf London event in 2022, finished last and was barred from competing on the PGA Tour the rest of the year. Ogletree could not Monday qualify or go to Q-School even though the week of the London event he had no possibility of playing in any PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament.
KitchenAid Senior PGA champion Richard Bland (PGA of America)
Richard Bland also presents another example of the PGA Tour’s punitive measures to exclude LIV players. The long-time European pro won his first DP World Tour event at the Betfred British Masters in 2021 at age 48. Now 51, Bland has played well for LIV in three years and recently was invited to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, which is run by the PGA of America and co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour Champions.
Bland won the senior major championship, which comes with a one-year exemption on PGA Tour Champions. Bland, however, can’t use the exemption because of his ties to LIV Golf. The news got to Bland — who probably should have known better — via social media.
“They didn't even contact me. I read it on social media,” Bland said. “We all know why. That’s fine, but just be honest. Don’t hide behind the, ;Oh, he won a tournament that’s not run by the PGA Tour.’ Just say it’s because I’m on LIV. I’m probably the first senior major champion who hasn’t had an exemption onto the Champions Tour. I guess I’m a bit of a trend-setter.”
Henrik Stenson, who plays for LIV Golf, told The Mirror that such a ban shows how uneasy the rift remains.
“I think that, officially, when the framework agreement came in place it was supposed to be a truce,” said Stenson, the 2016 Open champion. “Then when Richard Bland won the Senior PGA a week ago he found out on social media that, well, you aren’t going to get any starts on the Champions Tour because you play LIV. I mean, Richard has never been a member of the PGA Tour, but just because he plays LIV he is not able to play on the Champions Tour is how I understand it.
“Behind the scenes it is not as if everyone is holding hands and singing songs together, so there is still things to be worked out. … It has not been ideal but hopefully brighter minds than us can come to a solution.”
Stenson is right. There is still considerable animosity on both sides. Bringing players back together won’t be easy. The hard-liners on the PGA Tour want penalties imposed. Those who play for LIV Golf and might want to come back believe that idea is ludicrous.
Then you have situations like Canter and Bland, players who have never been PGA Tour members, do not particularly move the needle in any way, but have found potential ways to gain access that is or will be denied.
A year later, it is easy to see why such a large divide still exists.
Pádraig Harrington will take his place in the WGHOF next week in Pinehurst (Chris Keane/USGA)
Paddy on ’27 Ryder: ‘Give somebody else a go’
Pádraig Harrington will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday in its new home at Golf House Pinehurst in North Carolina. On Wednesday in a Zoom call with Irish media, the three-time major winner from Ireland reflected on all of his career accomplishments that got him to this point of recognition as one of the game’s all-time greats, while still relishing the opportunity “to catch lightning in a bottle” again and keep adding to his championship ledger on the senior circuit.
One thing Harrington, 51, doesn’t feel he needs to do, however, is get another chance at trying to be a winning Ryder cup captain. His team lost in 2021 to a powerhouse American team at Whistling Straits.
But with Luke Donald returning to the helm for Team Europe in 2025 at Bethpage Black after a triumphant captaincy last fall in Rome, the idea of getting a second bite at the captain’s apple was broached to Harrington with the 2027 Ryder Cup being staged at Adare Manor in Ireland – a place where Harrington won his only Irish Open in 2007.
Considering that the list of candidates for European captains was severely cropped with so many presumed choices in the pipeline going to LIV Golf, would Harrington want another crack at it in his home country?
“No,” Harrington said with a laugh. “I used to say I didn’t think it was ever … it was always a one and done when it came to the Ryder Cup. It seems like at the moment, obviously, Luke was the right man to go back in with the job at Bethpage. I tell you what, it’s a big ask to go into Bethpage, I think.
“Look, we’d all love to have a second go. But, certainly, I have not been pitching for that in any way, shape or form. Yeah, give somebody else a go. It’s a great honor to be Ryder Cup captain. It really is a great honor to be Ryder Cup captain. I’d love to be a winning Ryder Cup captain. I’d love all that sort of stuff. But, hey, I’m happy to see somebody else have a go and somebody else get that chance. Because it is a great honor and there’s plenty of deserving candidates and there will be plenty for 2027. So, you know, let it happen naturally. I don’t need to be doing that. Yeah, it’s something I’ve done and … I’m happy to see other people have a go.”
Harrington’s one chance got delayed a year by the pandemic in 2020. By the time his squad got to Whistling Straits in 2021 — with travel restrictions still in place preventing a representative European fan following — his team was aging out against a young and hungry American team that rolled to a 19-9 win.
“It’s strange with Whistling Straits,” Harrington said this week. “It’s really tough to lose, you know, to go out there as a captain and lose. It was tough. We can talk about the circumstances, you know, COVID and really the change in the makeup of both teams over the year was incredible. The U.S. seemed to be very weak the year previous and they were incredibly strong and deserved winners, no problem. So yeah, I can come up with excuses in that.
“But time mellows and I’m proud to be a Ryder Cup captain. I’m proud that my team had a great week that week in everything we did; everybody loved the week and was very appreciative of everything except for losing, which is what you’re going to be judged on. But time heals. You can only do what you can at the time and I don’t feel like we left any stone unturned for that.”
Unless a peace accord between the PGA and DP World tours and LIV Golf is resolved, a once-likely captaincy on home turf by Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, 44, might not be possible in 2027 despite the 2010 U.S. Open champion and four-time Ryder Cupper never being antagonistic since seizing the opportunity to join LIV as his career on the U.S. and European tours was waning.
“Would I love to be the Ryder Cup captain in Ireland in ’27?” McDowell told the 5 Clubs podcast with Gary William last year. “I picture myself standing there on the stage giving the opening speech looking at my team behind me. I mean, beautiful. You know, I’ve got a tear in my eye just thinking about it. But that wasn’t a guarantee, it wasn’t a given.”
Other European heroes and presumptive captains in the Ryder Cup pipeline – Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter – have likely burned any bridges to reconciliation that would get them back in good enough graces to ever be considered. Henrik Stenson had his captaincy revoked for 2023 after signing with LIV, as Europe turned to Donald.
If not local favorites Harrington or McDowell in 2027, the most likely candidates in the to helm Team Europe would be Francesco Molinari, 41, or Justin Rose, 43. Ireland’s Shane Lowry will only be 40 in 2027 and would certainly prefer to try to play for Team Europe on home soil than be captain.