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    With the PGA Tour Season Over, LIV Golf Looks to Strengthen Its Foothold

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    Cameron Smith, the No. 2 player in the world, is among six veteran players who will make their debuts for the breakaway series at an event outside Boston this weekend.BOLTON, Mass. — Roughly 11 weeks ago in the Boston suburbs, men’s professional golf welcomed the game’s best players to the 122nd U.S. Open. Five days before that event began, the inaugural LIV Golf tournament in England was ending; it was largely treated as an anomalous curiosity.When Phil Mickelson, the well-compensated headliner of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, played his first holes at the U.S. Open, he was greeted politely, but the gallery also loudly snickered when one fan yelled: “Sellout!” At the conclusion of the championship, many in the tradition-bound golf community found amusement in noting the dreadful play of the small gaggle of LIV-aligned golfers, most especially Mickelson, who missed the cut with a score of 11 over par.On Friday, another Boston suburb will host the fourth LIV Golf tournament. But no one is laughing at the upstart circuit anymore.Since the June midpoint of this year’s golf season, the breakaway circuit, financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, has lured away a deep collection of top golfers from the PGA Tour and coerced the rattled Tour into hurriedly adopting fundamental systemic changes to remain competitive.Even after the more-established PGA Tour ended its 2021-22 season on Sunday, LIV Golf continued to seize the spotlight by announcing its biggest talent acquisition, the signing of Cameron Smith, the world’s second-ranked male golfer and the reigning British Open champion. Smith, 29, was joined by five other PGA Tour veterans, including Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who is 23 years old and ranked 19th, and Harold Varner III, a 32-year-old American who is ranked 46th.Unlike nearly every one of his predecessors who have abandoned the PGA Tour for the rival series, Smith, who was reportedly paid $100 million to join LIV Golf, did not try to shamelessly deny that money played a factor in his decision. But he spent considerable time describing how the shorter LIV Golf schedule would allow him to spend more time in his native Australia, adding that he had not been home in three years. And he harped on a familiar theme — a feeling that LIV Golf offered a refreshing, youthful vibe — that has been preached by other defectors, each of whom did so fully aware that they would be suspended from participating on the PGA Tour.“I think this is the future of golf — I think it’s been the same for a very, very long time, and it needs to be stirred up a little bit,” Smith said. “I think it needs to change. I kind of see this as a new chapter in my life.”Harold Varner III said he was stunned by the negative comments on social media his decision to join LIV Golf engendered.Andy Lyons/Getty ImagesOn Friday, Smith, Niemann and Varner will play in the first of three rounds of the 54-hole LIV Golf event at the International Golf Club in Bolton, Mass., a small town about 40 miles west of Boston.Protests and controversy about LIV Golf’s financial backing have dogged each of the series’ three previous events, which were held outside London, near Portland, Ore., and at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. A similar reaction may occur in Bolton, a town of about 5,600, which has made a designated area near a golf spectators’ parking lot available to protesters.Varner conceded that when his decision to commit to LIV Golf was announced on Tuesday, he was stunned by the negative comments on social media it engendered. Varner, a popular PGA Tour player and one of the few Black golfers in tour or major championship fields, said he took the time to read each of the derogatory remarks, even though he was cautioned not to.“I’m not ashamed of being Harold,” Varner said, then added: “But it was terrible. Who likes to be hated? I hate being hated. I’d rather not even be known than be hated.”But Varner, who earned $10.4 million in prize money on the PGA Tour, said he took LIV Golf’s upfront signing bonus — his payment has not been disclosed — to protect his family financially. Noting his modest upbringing in Gastonia, N.C., Varner said: “For a kid that grew up where I grew up, it was an opportunity for me to just make sure my kid never would be in that situation — ever — and that means the world to me.”Amid all the buzz and tumult the LIV Golf venture has created, one unequivocal reality has emerged about this summer’s disruption to golf’s status quo: There will be a lot more prize money distributed to virtually every top professional player. Late last month, the PGA Tour suddenly revealed that beginning next season the average purse for 12 of its existing events, plus an additional four tournaments yet to be named, would be $20 million. That’s a sizable jump in player earnings, and, not coincidentally, closely mimics the prize money available at the eight LIV Golf events this year.The PGA Tour also announced it was augmenting the Player Impact Program it began last year that paid 10 top players from a $40 million pool based on their popularity as measured by internet searches, general golf fan awareness, mentions in the media and broadcast exposure. The new program will now reward twice as many players from a bonus pool that has ballooned to $100 million.And finally, the tour plans to guarantee lower-level players $500,000 in annual earnings and a travel stipend for missed cuts at tournaments.Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who is ranked 19th in the world, also left the PGA Tour.Andy Lyons/Getty ImagesIt is entirely conceivable, even probable, that had the PGA Tour implemented these changes a month before this year’s U.S. Open, the LIV Golf series might have largely remained the afterthought that most in golf expected it to be three months ago. Although, upfront payouts of $100 million, or even $200 million, which Mickelson reportedly received, may have changed the golf landscape regardless.As another LIV Golf event dawns, and the PGA Tour goes into what is typically its off-season, much is undecided, and there is intrigue about what will happen next. How could there not be? The sport is in the midst of an unprecedented showdown with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.But waiting on the sidelines are golf’s most influential power brokers, and they are the leaders of the four separate governing bodies overseeing the men’s major championships: the Masters Tournament, the P.G.A. Championship (which is not run by the PGA Tour), the U.S. Open and the British Open.The leaders of each of these entities have conspicuously avoided praising LIV Golf this year. Some have been downright dismissive and contemptuous of golf’s new tour. These groups may hold golf’s future in their hands, with the reserved, assiduously circumspect officials of the Augusta National Golf Club getting the first opportunity to make a profound statement for 2023.One thing is certain. The severe splintering of men’s golf may have been unforeseen back at the U.S. Open in June, but the brightly colored LIV Golf banners sprouting in another Boston suburb this week — they read, “Golf, but louder” — prove how much has changed in such a short time. More

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      The U.S. Open That Almost Didn’t Happen

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      One of the U.S.G.A.’s most cherished courses, the Country Club is tucked away in an exclusive neighborhood with little room for the demands of a modern major tournament.BROOKLINE, Mass. — The Country Club, the site of this year’s U.S. Open, had come close to not staging the major tournament at all, until the club realized there was something to the adage of being the smallest house in the nicest neighborhood.The Country Club is on the short list of the United States Golf Association’s most cherished institutions, one of the five clubs that banded together in the 1890s to form the association. It was the site of arguably the most important moment in American golf history — the 1913 U.S. Open won by the amateur Francis Ouimet in a playoff over the celebrated British professionals Ted Ray and Harry Vardon.But the club is tucked away in an exclusive neighborhood in a Boston suburb with little room to accommodate the growing demands of modern major tournaments. The P.G.A. of America awarded the club its 2005 championship, but it decided it would be too much and pulled out.Explaining the decision in 2002, John Cornish, the chairman of the 1999 Ryder Cup matches at the club, said, “We were faced with the need to downsize the scope of services, local corporations and the media. The club presented this to the P.G.A. and concurred with the P.G.A. that the changes would not be in the best interests of the P.G.A. Championship.”The U.S.G.A was not convinced that the Country Club could host a modern U.S. Open. John Bodenhamer, the association’s chief championships officer, said on Wednesday that “this Open almost didn’t happen.” The 1988 Open was held in Brookline, for the third time over a 75-year period, but Bodenhamer was skeptical there would be a fourth at the course.“The footprint was small,” Bodenhamer said. “It was in a residential community. There were just too many hurdles to overcome in what we do and what you see out there now.”Bodenhamer said the U.S.G.A.’s position changed in 2013. That year, the U.S. Open was held at Merion Golf Club, outside Philadelphia. It, too, has a small footprint and is in a residential suburban neighborhood. But the tournament proved to be a success and soon Bodenhamer was in touch with officials at the Country Club to see if there was any interest in hosting a U.S. Open. There was.Grounds crew workers mowing a rough on No. 4 at the Country Club earlier this week.Robert F. Bukaty/Associated PressIn July 2015, the U.S.G.A made it official: The Country Club would hold its fourth U.S. Open, in 2022, and put on a U.S.G.A. event for a 17th time. Only Merion, with 19, has been the site of more, and the Open is scheduled to return there in 2030.“This is a throwback U.S. Open,” Bodenhamer said. “I think when you go around this place and you just see, they didn’t move much dirt with donkeys. They had a little bit of dynamite, but that was it.”There are rock outcroppings, blind shots, small greens and the punitive U.S. Open rough. There is a short, downhill par-3 that hasn’t been used in a U.S. Open since 1913. There is the famed dogleg left 17th hole, scene of Vardon’s bogey in the playoff in 1913 and Justin Leonard’s long birdie putt in the 1999 Ryder Cup as part of the U.S. team’s comeback.“I promise you something magical will happen on No. 17,” Bodenhamer said. “It just has to.”The Australian player Cameron Smith called the Country Club “my favorite U.S. Open venue I think I’ve been to. I love it, mate.” He is competing in his seventh Open, which has included stops at Pebble Beach in California, Oakmont near Pittsburgh and Shinnecock Hills and Winged Foot in New York.That is the message Bodenhamer said he has been receiving all week.“The players love this place,” Bodenhamer said. “The ghosts of the past matter. You can’t buy history. You can only earn it. And the Country Club has it.” More

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      How Mike Whan Is Changing U.S. Golf

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      The new chief executive, who turned the L.P.G.A. into a thriving tour when he was its boss, is sprinting to advance the game.The United States Open is returning this week to the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association. It will be the club’s fourth U.S. Open. Its first, in 1913, when a 20-year-old amateur won, still lives in sports lore.The club has also hosted several United States Amateur and United States Women’s Amateur tournaments and a Ryder Cup. Founded in the 19th century, it has deep traditions.But this time around, the United States Golf Association, which chooses the clubs and organizes the U.S. Open and 13 other national championships each year, has at its helm a new chief executive who has cultivated a reputation for being the opposite of a traditionalist. The executive, Mike Whan, is a changemaker, in the parlance of the corporate marketing world he came up in.For 11 years before joining the U.S.G.A. last year, Whan was the commissioner of the L.P.G.A., taking it from a struggling U.S.-based entity to a thriving global tour with more events and more prize money.“He rebuilt the tour, and then reimagined its future, by bringing new events, new sponsors and a new value proposition around diversity and inclusion to the L.P.G.A.,” said Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, the L.P.G.A. Tour’s player president, when Whan stepped down. “He has that rare ability to get people of all ages and backgrounds excited and on board with his vision.”While the U.S.G.A. attracts criticism like any governing body, it has created a wildly lucrative event in the U.S. Open, the revenue from which funds most of the organization’s other championships and initiatives around turf grass and water conservation.Compared with the PGA Tour, the U.S.G.A. looks even better. The PGA Tour, whose playing privileges were long the goal of professional golfers, is fending off an attack on its status by the new Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series, which has lured away many players.Add in one more factor: Interest in golf from recreational players is still riding a post-pandemic high. If it’s not broke, as the saying goes, what does Whan have to fix?“Change is in the process,” Whan said in an interview at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania. “A 35-year-old Mike Whan would have changed everything. The 57-year-old Mike Whan says, ‘Where am I needed?’ I’m not needed on championship setup. That was Mike Davis’s specialty.”Davis was Whan’s predecessor, a 31-year veteran of the U.S.G.A. who served as its executive director and then chief executive. He pushed for changes to course setups and tried new things like different heights of rough and giving public courses, including Erin Hills in Wisconsin and Chambers Bay in Washington, a chance at hosting a U.S. Open.Davis was given credit for trying different approaches around the championships, some more successful than others, but also for investing in some of the less public research projects that the U.S.G.A. funds. But Davis was also criticized, for how he set up courses (too hard) and for how the association regulated equipment (not tightly enough).The U.S.G.A. plans to build a player pavilion at the Pebble Beach course, the first time it is making permanent improvements to a host site. Douglas Stringer/Icon Sportswire, via Getty Images“Their No. 1 job should be controlling the equipment,” said Alex Miceli, a longtime golf commentator, referring to the debate over the distance a pro can hit a ball. “The U.S.G.A. did a horrible job with that. It’s like the Federal Reserve saying, ‘Inflation is going to be transitory, inflation is going to be transitory, inflation is going to be transitory.’ Well, it isn’t.”Whan said in the interview that he had no interest in wading into the course setup debate. That’s the domain of John Bodenhamer, the association’s chief championships officer.“When I walked into a setup meeting, I said to John, ‘I’m not necessary here, and I might be a detriment,’” Whan said. “The only guidance I’ve given is once you have a plan or a strategy, don’t change it. Don’t let scores or the media change it. Athletes don’t want that. I know that from being the L.P.G.A. commissioner.”Yet when Whan came on board after last year’s U.S. Open, several senior U.S.G.A. executives left, with the chief commercial officer departing on Whan’s first day in charge and the chief brand officer leaving about a month later.Whan then did something that no association executive has done: He brought in a title sponsor for one of the organization’s marquee championships. The United States Women’s Open, which dates from 1946, is now the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica. The partnership with the health care company nearly doubled the purse to $10 million. When the Australian golfer Minjee Lee won the championship this month, she took home a record $1.8 million first-place check.Whan said in the interview that his focus was on improving the important things the association did that no one saw.“On planes, I’d get the question, ‘What does the U.S.G.A. do?’” he said, pulling out a card with “U.S.G.A.” written down the side. “I came up with Unify, Showcase, Govern and Advance.”And for him the last one is a priority. “‘Advance’ was the big one that was missing,” he said. “We don’t want to preserve; we preserved croquet and that’s not good.”Big areas of investment are strategies to reduce water usage and to develop junior golfers that way other countries do.While Whan said he had no desire to tinker with the U.S. Open, he’s also not about to neglect the tournament that brings in around 75 percent of the organization’s revenue.“The key is not to take it for granted,” he said, drawing a comparison to professional bowling, which dominated weekend television time when he was a child, but has fallen off drastically. “If we take it for granted, there’s no reason we couldn’t end up like bowling.”He repeated an oft-told story about Jason Gore, a former PGA Tour player who is the senior director of player relations at the U.S.G.A. Where the players win their U.S. Opens matters, Gore told him.While the men’s side is sewed up with stern tests for the next decade, including Oakmont, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach and Merion, Whan has made a push to have equally prestigious sites for the U.S. Women’s Open, with Riviera, Merion, Pinehurst and Pebble Beach on the roster.Securing these sites has come with U.S.G.A. investments. At Pinehurst, the association is building a second headquarters. At Pebble Beach, it is building a permanent player pavilion, which the course can use for other events. Taking a long-term view, the organization has done capital improvements to a host site; in the past it has put up and taken down structures.These initiatives are meant to make it easier for the U.S. Open, an immense logistical undertaking that ties up courses for months, to come back year after year. But it’s also to have sites host other events and work toward his goal of advancing other initiatives.“I don’t need U.S. Open partners,” Whan said. “I need partners in growing the game. We want to make sure these cathedrals of golf accept the responsibility to host not just the biggest and the most financially lucrative events.” More

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      At This U.S. Open Venue, the 17th Hole Is Known for Drama

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      The Country Club in Massachusetts is a founding U.S.G.A. venue, and that hole has always provided drama, including an amateur’s U.S. Open win in 1913.One of the most important venues in American golf began as a place to watch amateur horse racing. Founded in 1882, the Country Club in Brookline, Mass, the site of this week’s United States Open, is one of the oldest clubs in America and one of five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association. Yet none of that might have happened if not for the niece of one its members.Florence Boit was visiting Pau, France, in 1894 when “she came across an old course built by Scottish soldiers in the 1850s,” said Fred Waterman, the club historian. When she returned to the United States, she introduced the game to her uncle Laurence Curtis, a member of the club who would become the second president of the U.S.G.A.Soon after Curtis introduced the game, several members, despite never having seen a proper golf course, laid out six rudimentary holes on the club’s grounds. While none of those holes remain today, the rugged and rocky terrain the course sits on set its character.Built on rock outcroppings and winding through ridges formed by glaciers, the Country Club is a creation wholly of its time, with a layout and surface that is challenging to golfers of all skill levels, including the best in the world.Since 2007, Gil Hanse has been the consulting architect at the club, and he said that, unlike similar courses of that era that were “fit into the landscape, the holes of the Country Club seem to have been draped on top of the land that was there.”Part of the course’s charm are its small greens, unlike most in major championship golf. Hanse has worked with the club to expand its putting surfaces where he was able, but players this week will be aiming at smaller targets than usual.The Country Club has a long history of hosting U.S.G.A. championships, beginning with the 1902 United States Women’s Amateur. Including this year’s Open, it has hosted 16 U.S.G.A. championships, one in every decade except for the 2000s.Francis B. Ouimet, center, with Harry Vardon, left, and Ted Ray at the U.S. Open in 1913. Ouimet, an amateur, defeated Vardon and Ray in a playoff.Associated PressA famous championship played at the club was the 1913 U.S. Open, when Francis Ouimet, a 20-year-old amateur who grew up across the street, beat Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in a playoff victory. Ouimet’s win catapulted golf’s popularity in the United States. Waterman said that, in the 10 years after Ouimet’s victory, the United States went from having 340,000 golfers to 2.1 million.It wasn’t Ouimet’s amateur status alone that made him golf’s folk hero at the time. He caddied at the club and took up the game using balls he found around the course and his brother’s clubs. He would often hit balls in a pasture at his own makeshift course. Ouimet’s unlikely victory and humble origins were chronicled by the writer Mark Frost in his book “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”In the 1913 playoff, the three golfers came to the 17th hole with its green sitting only 275 yards away from Ouimet’s childhood home and Vardon down one. Ray was already out of contention. Vardon tried to cut the corner of the dogleg left hole, but came up short, his ball landing in a bunker that now bears his name.This allowed Ouimet to take a more conservative route right of the bunker. Unable to reach the green, Vardon splashed out and then shot a bogey, while Ouimet went on to birdie the hole and take a three-stroke lead. He breezed home from there.Ouimet, who died in 1967, had a distinguished amateur career, winning the 1914 United States Amateur. In 1951, he became the first non-Briton elected captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. He never turned pro.Fifty years later, when the U.S.G.A. returned to the club to honor Ouimet’s win, the 17th hole again proved pivotal. Arnold Palmer missed an 18-inch putt that put him two strokes behind the leader, Jacky Cupit.“Cupit didn’t know he had a two-stroke lead on Palmer, and he told me if he had, he would have hit an iron off the tee and played to the middle of the fairway,” Waterman said.Instead, thinking he needed to reach for more, Cupit hit a three-wood, landing in the long grass next to the Vardon bunker, but not in it. He made double bogey on the hole to tie with Palmer and Julius Boros. Cupit still had a chance when he arrived at the 18th green and the 72nd hole of the championship, but he missed a 15-footer “by one inch,” Waterman said. He and Palmer lost to Boros in the playoff.Justin Leonard was mobbed by the American team during the Ryder Cup in 1999 after sinking a birdie putt from over 40 feet on the 17th hole at the Country Club.Craig Jones /Allsport, via Getty ImagesThe three U.S. Opens played at the club have gone to a playoff, and the 17th has always provided the drama. “It’s a match-play hole in a stroke-play event,” Waterman said, causing the golfer to consider his opponent especially down the stretch rather than just allowing the golfer to play his own game.In the 1988 Open, Curtis Strange three-putted the green, forcing himself to fall back into a tie, but he won the playoff the next day for the first of his two consecutive U.S. Open wins. The 17th also provided the 1999 Ryder Cup with a frenzied celebration after Justin Leonard made a putt from over 40 feet to win the hole against José Maria Olazábal, causing the American team and its fans to flood the green.The Country Club has provided a lot of drama. Frost, the author, said he believed that something else was at work at the club.“The course is an enduring American classic perfectly designed for dramatic finishes,” he said, “but my more mystical side thinks Francis might have something to do with it.” More