IT seems world professional golf has been hit by an earthquake and it’s going to take an enormous recovery effort and mature heads to repair the damage.
The reaction from the PGA Tour to the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series headed up by Greg Norman has been swift.
The PGA Tour has taken a hard-line stance on defectors and the DP World Tour has followed suit and taken a big stick to the players who signed up to play the LIV Golf Series.
Players including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed et al have been suspended by the PGA Tour while 16 DP World Tour players including Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia were each fined £100,000 ($178,000).
Apparently, that didn’t go down well with Spaniard Sergio Garcia.
He allegedly “flew off the handle” and took his anger out on fellow players in the locker-room at the BMW International in Munich.
The ongoing bickering between the golfing bodies (PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf) has reached a point where a truce should be called.
Surely firing missiles into each other’s camps doesn’t help matters and should be left to school students.
What good does it do to oust world-class players and keep them suspended indefinitely because they signed up to play a new tour with a different format?
Boycotting LIV Golf signees hurts golf fans who only want to see them play against the best players on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour.
While it penalises the fans it also prevents LIV Golf players from accumulating world ranking points that will eventually exclude them from the majors.
Now that the rules have been set down will Louis Oosthuizen be denied a spot on the International Team for the upcoming Presidents Cup?
If he is sidelined what will the PGA Tour do if the International Team captain, Trevor Immelman, insists he wants Louis on the team?
Golf does not need a Cold War.
One man who is tired of the squabbling is nine-time major winner Gary Player. He believes golfing bodies should not be critical of each other.
“I don’t like people on both sides being critical of the other,” he told Sky Sports News. “What saddens me is to see the fighting that is going on and it is unnecessary.
“Golf is such a wonderful game and we must never forget this – the heart of the game is the amateur, not the professional.
“The PGA Tour will always have the best and strongest players in the world.
“But remember, the players that are playing there (LIV tour) now need the money and they have families and I don’t blame them for playing there.
“And there are not of lot of them that can’t win on the regular (PGA) Tour anymore, so they are wisely taking the money.”
By taking the Saudis’ money, the players have put family security and life in retirement ahead of golf.
Still, Player believes there is a place for both tours.
“I just hope they settle everything in an amicable way and we go from strength to strength because golf is a passport to the world,” he said.
“If they so desire to play the LIV Golf tour that’s their choice and their freedom.
“Freedom is on the wane around the world, but they still have the freedom to choose and be grateful.
“This is far more complicated than people make it out to be. A lot of people are giving opinions and know a helluva lot about nothing.
“I hear a lot of detrimental things being said, but remember the Saudis are our allies.
“Who are we to criticise people for human rights?
“Look at what is happening around the free world – killing policemen, burning cities down, shooting children. Are we really in a position to criticise?
“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
“We live in a world now where it’s either law suits, quick to criticise, people on phones (taking videos) having nothing better to do, media that want to manufacture stories.
“We live in a very strange world today.”
By joining LIV Golf are these players any different to those cricketers who signed to play World Series Cricket?
Remember when Kerry Packer set up his own series in the late 1970s by secretly signing agreements with leading Australian, English, Pakistani, South African and West Indian players.
And then there were the rebel cricket and rugby tours to South Africa when that nation was banned from playing internationally during the Apartheid era.
Many Australian cricketers went to South Africa to play and the world didn’t end.
I remember seeing a cartoon where an administrator carpeted one of the rebel cricketers and said: “You’re banned until you want to come back.”
Yes, we do live in a strange world and it’s time for the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf to put their differences aside and get on with growing the game – not tearing it apart. LIV and let live!
FOOTNOTE: The Australian tour is yet to decide on what action it will take against the players who signed to play LIV Golf. Petty to ban Greg Norman from attending the R&A’s 150th Open Championship celebration at St Andrews. See page 20 of the August issue.
Chief writer David Newbery has been living, breathing and writing and editing golf for more than 30 years. His extensive knowledge of the game comes from covering golf around the world. Hired by Inside Golf in 2009, David previously worked as the editor of The Golfer for 25 years and before that worked for numerous daily newspapers in Australia and overseas. The Brisbane-based journalist describes his golf game as “a work in progress”, but has had the privilege of playing golf with some of the game’s best players including nine-time major winner Gary Player. David enjoys travelling, reading, music, photography and spending time with family and friends – on and off the golf course. 
