Opinion: The PGA Tour is Totally Mishandling the LIV Situation

When I’m not working on my health and golf game, or penning the occasional opinion article for Golficity, I spend my days working in a very competitive field as the General Manager of a broadcast media group.

There are a ton of media competitors against us. Many of them have been successful for many years. Many of them have also lost business to our team over the past two years that I’ve worked for this company because there is something we choose to do and they don’t.

That one thing is we choose to do our job and not worry about what the competition is doing because we can’t control their actions. That doesn’t mean we ignore them. Hell, we probably know more about what they’re doing than they’d ever know. What it means is our team doesn’t talk about them because we’re focused on showcasing our product offerings to which we can demonstrate a quality difference.

Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour are scrambling right now. Several stars with big names have jumped ship to the LIV series, and more will most likely follow suit. The new competition is doing everything they can to get under the skin of the established Tour and make them sweat. And instead of working behind the scenes with quiet strength to find ways to stop the LIV from turning up the heat on the PGA Tour, Monahan and his team are letting LIV and the sports world see their sweat…and the PGA Tour is sweating profusely.

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Yes, reporters are going to and are constantly asking PGA Tour players and management about the LIV series because it’s the hot topic du jour in the world of golf. What the PGA Tour should be doing is telling reporters that no questions will be asked in their tournament press room about LIV and telling their players to not comment to the media about the LIV.

But what Monahan et al should be doing isn’t happening. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. 

It’s obvious that the PGA Tour has been getting their large stable of mega stars, television, and media partners to stand up and stand against the idea of a new competitor. Rory is constantly out front taking very professional shots. Justin Thomas has joined him too, as has Jon Rahm. Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo railed the LIV on last weekend’s coverage, and Golf Channel has also been critical with their pundit voices in what feels like a put it in your own words but coordinated counter attack. 

My question to the PGA Tour is why acknowledge the LIV’s existence? Why show in public that the PGA gives a damn what LIV is doing? The PGA Tour is actually the one who keeps letting the antagonist LIV Golf series get the better of them. The Tour needs to do what they need to do behind the scenes that will show in public the superiority of your product. Instead, the PGA Tour keeps taking the bait. Hook, line, sinker.

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In the end, it’s really the PGA Tour’s own fault for taking their eye off the ball and slicing it into the woods. At a moment when they need to assert their dominance, the PGA Tour is wearing a very nervous face in public, and that’s to their own peril and detriment.

Cover Image via Twitter