NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — Whether you believe the first shot was fired when Phil Mickelson said the PGA Tour uses “manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics” and its commissioner, Jay Monahan, won’t do what’s right “unless you have leverage … ”
Or it was when Monahan revoked playing privileges for those who jumped to LIV Golf and labeled Greg Norman’s venture “an irrational threat” and one “not concerned with the return on investment or true growth of the game,” this has gotten juicy…
And not above some good ol’ fashioned pettiness.
As the LIV Golf Series’ inaugural event in the United States starts Thursday at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club outside of Portland, Oregon, the traditional league vs. the wild child continue to trade insults and strategically-timed announcements.
Monahan upstaged the start of the first LIV event in London by announcing those playing in the Saudi-backed series were suspended from the PGA Tour. That ruling came as the entire field was teeing off in LIV’s shotgun-start format.
LIV countered by welcoming Brooks Koepka to its team minutes into Monahan’s news conference at the Travelers Championship a week ago to announce the PGA Tour was raising the purse at several tournaments.
On Tuesday, as LIV was introducing three of its newer members, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Matthew Wolff, at Pumpkin Ridge, Monahan was revealing the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are expanding and strengthening their alliance.
This is turning into Duke vs. North Carolina. Red Sox vs. Yankees. All at odds with each other.
And make no mistake, LIV Golf certainly has gotten the attention of the PGA Tour.
So what did some of those players who decided to walk away from the PGA Tour do? They started firing back.
Like Pat Perez, the 46-year-old who is unapologetic for seeking more money while working less after 20 years and 515 starts on the PGA Tour.
Perez took a look at the field of this week’s PGA Tour event, the John Deere Classic, and it was like chum in the water.
“The Tour has tried to strong-arm us all year and come with bans and suspensions and all that,” he said. “And how’d that work? Look how many guys are here. That didn’t work at all. So the top threats and all that kind of stuff, and how many major winners do you have here compared to John Deere? It’s not even close.
“The Tour wants to keep talking about strength of field … the strength of field is here. So whether everybody wants to talk about…
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