LIV THE GALLERY OF GOLF 2023

LIV THE GALLERY GOLF CLUB MARANA AZ NEAR TUCSON                                 

MARCH 17-19 PURSE $25,000,000 PAR 71

This is LIV’s second event and goes up against PGA’s Valspar.   Tickets sell for $30 to $97with Club tickets from $260 to $745. On TV, it looked like there were no more that 1,000 people in attendance. A feel good story, is James Piot’s.  He won the US Amateur at Oakmont in 2021  which qualified him to play in The Masters and the US Open missing the cut in both. He had no sponsors to turn Pro and received a call from LIV and was paid, what he called a phenomenal amount to sign.  In 8 events in 2022 he was 32nd with $1.9M in earnings, Mickelson was 40th with $1.8M.  For an unproven young man just out of Michigan State this was a pretty good deal.  On March 16, Golf Digests reported that Fred Coupes, who has the same agent claims that Will Zalatoris turned down $35M then $130M to join LIV.  He been runner up in the Masters, PGA Championship, and US Open, but has not won a major yet.  Takes a lot of guts to turn down that much money.

FAVORITES AND ODDS 

Cameron Smith 9/1

Taylor Gooch 16/1

Piot’s 350/1

Dustin Johnson 11/1

Charles Howell 20/1

Watson 90/1

Joaquin Niemann 11/1

Mito Pereira 20/1

Mickelson 160/1

Abraham Ancer 14/1

Patrick Reed 20/1

B. Koepka 35/1

Paul Casey 14/1

Carlos Ortiz 22/1

Pieters 28/1

Is the balance of power with top 10?  Some of these guys might like to be back in the PGA.

ROUND 1

#1 Marc Leishman 64-6 Will make more money than on the PGA Tour

#2 Abraham Ancer 66-5 Biggest surprise, “B” player on PGA.

#2 Louis Oosthuizen 66-5 On the downside and would probably not win again on the PGA, but taking tons of money from LIV. 

#2 Matt Wolff 66-5 A great prospect who had a lot of emotional issues on the PGA.  

Playing well on LIV and I am happy for him.  One of the better stories for LIV.

#5 Joaquin Niemann 67-4 One of the better young stars signed by LIV.  He will win often and make a ton of money, but depending on the outcome of LIV he may regret his defection in the future.

#5 David Puig 67-4 who is he?  But he has won a lot of money on LIV.

#5 Peter Uihlein 67-4 Another “B” player who is making a lot of money.

#8 Sergio Garcia 68-3. As Fred Couples said a “Clown”.  Seve turning over in his grave. 

#23 Phil Mickelson Playing poorly.  Might have trouble on the Champions tour.  Keeps putting his foot in his mouth, and may have permanently tarnished his legacy.

ROUND 2  Marc Leishman leads by 2 over Garcia, Mickelson 6 back at #10. I watched about 5 minuets of TV coverage.  AWFULL!  Hate the uniforms, shorts and scoring chart which emphasizes teams.  Love David Faherty, but he seems out of his comfort zone.

FINAL ROUND After watching parts of TV coverage of this tournament I am convinced that LIV’s future is in doubt.  I don’t think their format is what the golfing fans want to see. I will give credit to LIV for waking up the PGA to treat their players with the opportunity to be compensated with NBA, NFL, MBL $.  However, I will be very selective on my BLOGS coverage of LIV and concentrate on the PGA.

Winner   Danny Lee in 4 man playoff with Oosthuizen, Steele, Ortiz 

Second place on  Who cares, everyone made a lot of money, which is why they joined LIV.