Former US Open champion reveals ONLY solution for LIV Golf vs PGA Tour
Eight-time PGA Tour winner and former US Open champ Geoff Ogilvy believes he has a solution to save golf in the wake of the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
Eight-time PGA Tour winner and 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy believes he has a solution to save golf in the wake of the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
Ogilvy, 45, recently hopped on a podcast with The Firepit Collective to discuss the future of the game with Alan Shipnuck and Michael Bamberger.
It really is an extraordinary time. The lawsuits are being filed left, right and centre. Players are accusing each other of being hypocrites.
Related: LIV Golf to announce "seven new names" ahead of Boston event, claims reliable source
Tiger Woods is reportedly leading the PGA Tour's response and is now acting as a de facto commissioner. Patrick Reed is ... I don't even know.
What happens from here is truly impossible to predict. But Ogilvy reckons he has a solution to avoid a "bloodbath" and "players hating on each other in the locker room."
Random thought: Not great to be using the word bloodbath.
Ogilvy told the publication: "Finding a way to have the PGA Tour benefit - golf as a sport benefit - from the biggest sponsor in the world wanting to get involved, I think, is the fastest way to no bloodbath.
"It would be better if the PGA Tour controlled golf. I mean, because they've proven that they do a pretty good job at it.
"Dallas has been a tournament for - I wouldn't know - 80 years or something. Byron Nelson sat on the 18th green for 50 years.
WATCH HERE:
To save GOLF, the only move is compromise. Geoff Ogilvy outlines a solution to the madness.
Podcast out now with @AlanShipnuck and @BambergerBot
Listen: https://t.co/38QNbt7UkE
Watch: https://t.co/g3WcyGAR9t pic.twitter.com/3DM2ec4TOW— Fire Pit Collective (@firepitstories) August 18, 2022
He continued: "You can't build that with a check. With money. You know, like you can't recreate the Memorial in a year. You can't recreate Hilton Head or the L.A. Open or the Sony Open or Canadian Open, you can't just recreate tradition, you've gotta earn it.
"If you buy into the argument that this LIV Saudi side - they're not going to go away. I don't why we wouldn't give them a chunk of the year and let them build some tradition, earn some legitimacy, make our members a pile of money over here but stroke play season, the serious golf happens from January to August or whatever it is - this is real golf and you have to prove to us that you can do it properly.
"Something in that sort of area is the only way to avoid the most blood on the floor and to stop all this petty arguing and players hating players in the locker room and crazy tweets lawsuits.
"It's too good a sport to just play around with like this just to have ego contests on one side on the other I think it's a shame because it's just going to be messy until it gets sorted."
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Ben joined the GolfMagic team in September 2021, initially as a content executive.
These days, he assumes the position of content manager.
