LIV Golf’s eight captains through the first-ever opponent choice convention.
Getty Images
DORAL, Fla. — If there have been any lingering questions on Phil Mickelson’s consolation as LIV Golf’s main entertainer, he answered them early Wednesday morning at its team championship. It wasn’t his flip, however the man making extra money than anybody becoming a member of the tour made a degree to be the primary to talk.
“Woah, woah, woah, woah,” Mickelson started, interrupting Brooks Koepka in an effort to coax him into choosing Mickelson as an opponent. Phil fortunately reminded the room of about 150 that he beat Koepka on the 2021 PGA Championship.
Koepka rapidly shot again a barb of his personal, chiding Mickelson for by no means reaching World No. 1. Mickelson then complimented Koepka’s sea foam inexperienced shirt, asking if he had ever received a inexperienced jacket. Whether or not the traces have been scripted, almost each LIV captain got here in armed with objective and humor. They wished to inject vitality into the proceedings.
About 10 ft and two fellow LIV captains (Ian Poulter and Kevin Na) separated Koepka and Mickelson within the eight-player press convention. From the opposite finish of the dais, Bubba Watson chimed in that he, too, has a inexperienced jacket. Koepka selected to face off with Watson’s team in Friday’s opening matches and at last had an opportunity to clarify: “Booba [Koepka’s chosen nickname] has been calling me the wrong name all year — Bruce — so I felt like it was a good opportunity to get back at him.”
‘First time I have felt betrayal’: Rory McIlroy opens up on LIV defections
Kevin Cunningham
Thus went a lot of the subsequent half-hour — playful however in the end uninspiring trash speak between the captains and their teammates. Like a lot of LIV’s first summer season, a few of this present was fairly entertaining. Harold Varner III sat within the entrance row alongside media members and shouted out how Koepka has “beaten [his] ass” each time they’ve confronted off.
But additionally like a lot of LIV’s first summer season, a few of it felt woefully pressured. When hostess Su-Ann Heng talked about Ian Poulter’s singles monitor document, Kevin Na jumped in to say “nobody wanted to play foursomes with him.” When Poulter was requested about it seven minutes later, Na pressured the identical joke once more. “Nobody wanted to play foursomes with him.”
Koepka, Poulter, Joaquin Niemann all made their opponent choices, leaving Mickelson dealing with Cameron Smith’s team and Mickelson himself destined for a lopsided singles match in opposition to Smith.
“This sucks, right?” Mickelson stated. “I imply, I don’t like the way in which this all labored out.
“Look at Cam smile. Look how happy he is. This didn’t really work out the way we had planned at all.”
The 37-minute press convention was as jovial as something we’ve seen from LIV golfers throughout this turbulent summer season, a far cry from the discourse dominated by the league’s connection to Saudi Arabia, its battle in opposition to the PGA Tour, the towering sums of cash assured to gamers and what it all means for, say, future Ryder Cups.
But if Mickelson’s efficiency Wednesday was any indication, LIV golfers are determined to maintain the eye on the team championship, a first-of-its-kind skilled occasion. They have spent months defending LIV Golf’s team facet, which some argued has reinvigorated their careers. Wednesday was a main alternative to double down on it. So when Mickelson was requested to readdress feedback he made in current weeks — that LIV Golf was trending up and the PGA Tour was trending down — he backtracked a bit.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said stuff like that, I don’t know,” Mickelson stated. “But if I’m just looking at LIV Golf and where we are today to where we were six, seven months ago when people were saying this is ‘dead in the water’ … It’s pretty remarkable how far LIV Golf has come in the last six, seven months. I don’t think anybody can disagree with that.”
Mickelson’s description was met by applause from the again of the room, the place about 50 LIV staffers had congregated to look at their work come to fruition. It was a special reminder of how LIV Golf has modified. Four months after the primary press convention of his LIV Golf profession concerned dozens of thorny questions in a contentious media heart outdoors London, Wednesday’s decidedly friendlier affair came about within the luxurious Ivanka Trump Ballroom at Trump National Doral. About 100 yards away from the convention room is a resort constructing actually named the Phil Mickelson Villa. Mickelson received right here through the PGA Tour’s 45-year stretch on the property. It’s acquainted territory.
Non-captain golfers stand off to the facet of the captains press convention.
Getty Images
This week’s season finale has been propped up by an unimaginable, $50 million purse — simply don’t confuse it with a win-or-go-home competitors. When Joaquin Niemann contacted Adrian Otaegui asking him to affix his Torque GC team for the championship — Otaegui performed the primary LIV occasion however hasn’t competed since — it was an invitation to make some huge cash. Perhaps as a lot as $4 million. You can discover some apparent technique in Niemann’s resolution, when you look laborious sufficient. (Otaegui received on the DP World Tour 10 days in the past.)
The total summer season has been outlined by LIV Golf’s upstart existence, its gaudy guarantees and its authorized calls for, however its first seven occasions have fallen wanting that. Rather, they’ve been a barely totally different model of professional golf as we already knew it: stroke play occasions that includes a few of the finest golfers on this planet. LIV has lengthy boasted about its team occasion as one thing no different tour on this planet has. They’re right about that.
The remaining query now is, will it all reside as much as the hype? Some of the primary promotional materials created for LIV Golf promised rivalry can be created among the many 12 franchises, like in different sports activities. But within the technique of touchdown so bluntly onto the floor of professional golf, LIV created the other — a band of brothers who again one another in particular person, to the press and on social media. It’s been precisely what Rory McIlroy stated just lately: Us vs. Them. Wednesday’s ballroom was flanked by non-captain members hanging out and chatting amongst one another. When it concluded, the group piled out into the hallway and headed for the course collectively, the place the groups lastly break up into their very own teams. Clenched fists there weren’t. At least not but.
Source link
