Greg Norman was on site at Royal Troon on Saturday. The chief executive of LIV Golf and bête noir of the bastions of the game has previously found himself excluded from attending the Open. Two years ago he was snubbed of an invitational letter to St Andrews, but this weekend he has been “afforded the full privileges” that befit a former champion golfer.
There’s more to it than that, as there often is in tidbits relating to LIV, the rogue Saudi-funded competition. The R&A had joked a couple of months ago that Norman was not on the list for the Open but that there were still “tickets available on the resale platform or hospitality; he’s very welcome to look there.” When faced with the knowledge that Norman was coming after all however (whether via a tout or more likely guest list from one of his players), the R&A this weekend rolled out the red carpet.
As negotiations continue between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund over how to integrate Saudi ambitions for sporting revolution into the most traditional of athletic environments, it is tempting to read every interaction with LIV for signs as to the state of play, and of any shift in the balance of power. This applies to manoeuvres on the course, as well as off it.
The majors nominally sit apart from the skirmishes of golf’s civil war, but the lack of world ranking points for LIV competitions means getting into one of the four showpiece events is often as tricky for the players as it is for Norman. Coming into the 152nd Open however, a total of 18 breakaway golfers started the first round, a record at a major in the ‘LIV era’ (of two and a half years).
That number was whittled down somewhat by the time the competition reached its second half. A number of LIV’s biggest stars were felled by the cut, including the former Open champions Henrik Stenson, Cameron Smith and Louis Oosthuizen. The biggest name of all, Bryson DeChambeau, was also dispatched. After a year in which his performances at the majors (victory in the US Open, second at the PGA and tied sixth in the Masters) had led to debate over whether LIV were making further advances into golf’s heartlands, the big man once again sputtered on the links and went home with a scorecard nine over par.
Still, that left 11 players in the field for the third round and a chance to leave a mark on the tournament. This opportunity was roundly spurned on the day, however, and though there remains one further chance to make amends the experience to this point – and the weather forecast – would suggest it is unlikely.
The early rounds of the day saw some LIV legionnaires, that combination of superannuated stars and well-remunerated makeweights, progress around the course in clement conditions. Abraham Ancer is currently ranked 371 in the world, the most successful golfer in Mexico, and a member of LIV’s ‘Fireballs’ team. He was out first and registered a round of 70, one under on the day and his best score of the tournament. Phil Mickelson, he of the six majors and $200m signing-on fee, also came home in 72, a score which could have been even better had he not required three putts on the par five 12th. For balance, however, there was Andy Ogletree, world number 285, who carded a 79 and dropped shots on half the holes he played.
The afternoon promised better fare for Norman to feast his eyes on, with Jon Rahm followed by the pairing of Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, with the Chilean prospect Joaquín Niemann bringing up the rear. It was pretty much just as Rahm, last year’s runner-up, stepped up to the first tee that the heavens began to open on the Ayrshire coast however and the LIV boys, well, they did not like that.
Rahm managed to hold his course steady enough, dropping shots on the second and the 12th but made birdie at the third to come in at one over for the day and two over for the tournament. The four-time major winner Koepka, meanwhile, had to redo his tee shot at the fourth on his way to a double bogey and posted a score of 40 on the back nine, slipping to eight over on the leaderboard. Johnson also dropped two shots, this time on the 17th, and finished with a 72, but Niemann outdid them both by taking nine on the par four 11th, driving the ball out of bounds on two occasions along the way.
LIV boasts of being a competition that brings you golf from “the world’s most electric cities”. It’s fair to say that Troon doesn’t quite fit that criteria. Neither does links golf and a lack of experience of the conditions will surely be cited as a factor in any perceived underperformance. You could go even deeper and suggest that the course which has played fiendishly for everyone is almost antithetical to the central LIV idea of “exciting” low scoring golf. Either way, Saturday at the Open appeared to be exactly the kind of challenge the revolutionaries of golf are unsuited to taking on, not that the tournament lost much as a result.
