Rickie, PReed and the LIV "Series"
The renegade series - not a tour for legal reasons! - continues to dominate the headlines.
Rumors abound that either during this PGA Championship week or shortly after, a lot of names will drop to reveal what golfers have expressed interest in joining the renegade golf NOT A TOUR JUST YET that Greg Norman is the face of, backed by the Saudis. Most of the names we’ve heard so far are decidedly NOT the current face of golf, and instead are either guys on the fringe (see: Garrigus, Robert) or once big name players at the tail end of their career and earning opportunity (see: Westwood, Lee; Kaymer, Martin; Poulter, Ian).
Before Phil Mickelson made it MUCH harder for golfers, especially American golfers, to join up there were rumors of much sexier names such as Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and others. Many of those ‘pledged fealty’ to the PGA Tour after Mickelson’s quotes went public, but those names got out there and may well join forces with LIV when things settle down.
However, two names haven’t ever really been linked, and I find both of them interesting.
One is Patrick Reed - here is a man who doesn’t seem like he’d wrestle with ethical and moral challenges (fair? Who can say? But he’s got a resume of cheating allegations and probably would have a hard time saying no to a guaranteed eight figure check). The Twitter account @USEGolfFacts, which is run by someone in Reed’s family (most likely his wife Justine) and has been on a continued rampage about how unfairly treated Reed is on tour.
Many of the tweets come late in the evening, perhaps after one too many glasses of chablis, but if anyone has been laying the groundwork about why the PGA Tour is unfair, it’s Reed. And he’s played over in the Saudi International event in the past, eagerly citing how it helps ‘grow the game’ to a comical degree.
But while I expect his name to be part of the revealed players trying to play in London next month, so far it’s been crickets. I swear on everything that’s holy, if LIV decided NOT to invite Patrick Reed (where they’ve extended offers to folks like Matthew Fitzpatrick’s BROTHER who hasn’t even turned pro yet), it might actually turn me into a fan. Or, at least, not as much of a hater.
C’mon, Greggie, make your move.
The other name - which I and others probably falsely assumed simply wasn’t interested - is Rickie Fowler. And then this week, this dropped:
Fowler is 33 years old, has won five times on tour and earned over $40,000,000 while on tour. He’s also won twice on the European Tour and two other worldwide wins. More to the point, he also earns an estimated $10,000,000 a year (some reports suggest MUCH more than this) in endorsements and is in more commercials than probably anyone else on tour.
But Fowler is an interesting use case because his career is clearly at a crossroads. As noted, Fowler’s fame has always outpaced his performance - while he did finish in the top-5 in all four majors back in 2014, he’s never won one and has “only” five wins on tour. The last one was over three years ago, and he’s currently ranked 146 on the FedEx Cup list, which means if the season ended today he would not have an automatic card for next year.
However, because he’s (currently) 22nd all time in career earnings, he could use a one-time exemption for being a top-25 career winnings AND the next year use a one-time exemption for being in the top-50. This just gets him a card, not an invite to specific tournaments, but he’d get to play enough on this alone and based on his profile get sponsors exemptions to plenty of tournaments he doesn’t qualify for with this privilege.
So, Fowler would play, for at least two more seasons. (It’s worth pointing out that the fact that Fowler could play for two more years is actually a bug, not a feature, of the PGA Tour and prevents a lot of young talent from getting the opportunities to play … but that’s a topic for another post.)
It’s also possible that the well of endorsements may start drying up. Lack of wins hasn’t dampened this for Fowler too much, but it’s worth noting that many of his sponsors (Rocket Mortgage, Mercedes, Farmers Insurance) are getting absolutely hammered in the stock market, losing about 40% of their equity in the latest downturn, and hurt for sure by rising interest rates. (Hat tip to one Mr. HWB for this detail.)
If the endorsements dry up and Fowler can’t make cuts, he stops earning … anything. He clearly has enough money now, but if the Saudis offered him (for example) $30,000,000 guaranteed with a chance to win millions of dollars in every tournament, would he say no? Could he say no?
IF Rickie joined LIV, I think Twitter might break from all the hot takes. (It might also actually get me to quit that platform, finally, if Elon Musk buying it doesn’t do that first.) Fowler is many things, but he’s incredibly liked across the tour (a good shift from when he was voted “most overrated” about seven or eight years ago) and is a huge public presence. Fowler joining the tour would be impossible to ignore. People who are eager to throw shade on Westwood, Bryson and Mickelson (who is popular but has always had a known, shady side to him) would get stuck between release patterns trying to decide HOW to react here.
Rickie’s quote is smart, he’s suggesting he’s intrigued because the model of how tournaments would be run is a potentially better product. But the real reason Rickie is interested is that he’s smart enough to see the trajectory of his career and LIV could be a true lifeline. But he’s also a pretty thoughtful guy, and someone who I wouldn’t think would be eager to get into business with the Saudis. So it’s a true who-can-say-situation.
And I’m eager to see what happens. What about you?