Often funny and relevant on Twitter , the Englishman Eddie Pepperell split a long “thread” to analyze the consequences of the changes in rules and calendar on the PGA Tour next year. He fears that these new features will ultimately favor LIV Golf…
Double winner on the DP World Tour in 2018 ( British Masters and Qatar Masters ), Englishman Eddie Pepperell has been in decline in terms of performance for a few years. But there remains a voice that carries on the European circuit.
He is often “offensive” when it comes to LIV Golf and he sometimes has heated exchanges on social networks with his dissident compatriots, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood , great defenders of the Saudi circuit.
Last year, he even published a tasty video with “very British” humor in which he pretended to be a player in the middle of negotiations with his agent to obtain a transfer bonus on the dissident circuit.
This weekend, the 238th player in the world launched into a long comment on Twitter where he explains in substance why the changes made by the PGA Tour for 2024 ( reduced fields on the “Elevated Tournaments” and absence of cut ) risk benefit rival LIV Golf, as these changes were championed by Rory McIlroy himself in an effort to strengthen the PGA Tour’s position.
Many high-profile players who won’t finish in the FedEx Cup top 50 may be tempted by the LIV…
“Next year, if we add the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, 98 players will be guaranteed to play the whole season for a lot of money (the 48 from LIV will be designated on non-sporting criteria, which is one why I say this circuit “sucks”).
Take the example of Tyrrell Hatton , who is currently 99th in the FedExCup . What do you think will happen if the LIV makes him a proposal and if he does not finish in the top 50 of this FedEx Cup in 2023? He might be tempted to leave. There are like him a lot of high profile players for whom this is likely to be the case… ”
The Pieters case
Pepperell therefore explains that reserving the most lucrative PGA Tour tournaments for a limited number of players is a counterproductive idea if it was taken in order to defend the American circuit against the exodus of headliners on the built circuit. by Greg Norman .
“Furthermore, removing the cut from these lucrative PGA Tour tournaments will give LIV an additional argument in its claim for world points,” Pepperell continued . I believe the PGA Tour had an opportunity to bury the LIV by continuing what they are doing this year which is giving a lot of money to a lot of players (the top 120 in the FeEx Cup) . They do the opposite by giving even more, but to a smaller number of players. He therefore risks losing more players by doing this. »
Further, he explains that what happened with Thomas Pieters a fortnight ago when the Belgian took over the management of LIV a few hours after being refused the right to play the Genesis Invitational could therefore happen again. very quickly.
His arguments stand up. What do Rory McIlroy and Jay Monahan think ?
Source: golfplanete