Phil Mickelson: Viewership debate unfolding “as expected” 🤔🤔
Some PGA Tour stars have openly questioned the value of an official world golf ranking system that doesn’t include LIV golfers.
This wasn’t a surprise to Phil Mickelson, who cited a social media campaign last year to get the OWGR to recognize LIV events. “I have nothing more to add.
But things are starting to happen the way we thought they would,” Mickelson said Thursday ahead of this week’s LIV event in Hong Kong. The Saudi-backed league has declined to join the OWGR, and some of the PGA’s biggest stars, including Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Matt Fitzpatrick, have questioned the legitimacy of the rankings without some of the world’s best players.
“Obviously the rankings are less valuable now when a lot of really good players aren’t earning rankings points,” said Hovland, who reportedly turned down a big-money offer to join LIV. It is the latest sign of easing tensions between players from rival tours. That support has allowed Mickelson to tout the “extremely powerful” product he believes LIV offers worldwide. He described the league as a startup that was flexible enough to experiment and implement new ideas without having to go through years of bureaucratic red tape.
One example, Mickelson said, is the well-received nine-hole pro-am format in which LIV players compete against each other before the competition. “I think it’s very important, an important part of the overall experience, and it means that the interaction between players and fans on a professional sports day is important because a lot of these players are the ones who take decisions in favor of golf, to sponsor golf, support other professionals or simply bring publicity to the game,” Mickelson said.
“It’s positive for both parties. When it was discussed with LIV, it made sense, and we did it. “And vice versa, I tried it for 10 years to happen on the tour (PGA), and we received two events to do this and received four events to do it. That’s right. I think this shows how flexible LIV Golf is and our ability to make quick decisions and act quickly on improvements, doing everything we can to make golf more enjoyable.’’ Hong Kong is the fourth of 14 events scheduled for LIV Golf’s third season, and also one of eight different international stops. While many have questioned the league’s format and the billions of dollars invested in recruiting star players, Mickelson said the international nature of the circuit shows how the league is growing the game worldwide. “I’m proud to be a part of LIV Golf and all of the LIV players are proud and enjoying being here,” he said. “There are a lot of things that can be changed to make things better and we continue to do that every week and make small changes. “But our product is extremely strong. We have a lot of the best players in the world and the ability to mobilize the best players from around the world and showcase the highest level of golf in parts of the world that have never been exposed to golf before has really helped grow the game.