19th Hole

Report: Anthony Kim spoke to PGA Tour officials about LIV Golf

Published

1 year ago

Oct 24, 2022

The legal battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf continues, and some interesting revelations will be made in court on Monday.

Related: WITB Time Machine: Anthony Kim 2010 Houston Open

According to Sports Illustrated, the PGA Tour has been burdened with the requirement to provide a full answer to the question posed in Interrogatory No. 1, which reads:

“Identify each individual who communicated on behalf of the PGA Tour with any other person (including Tour Members) or entity regarding any New Tour. Your response should include individuals who communicated with (a) the European Tour, (b) Augusta National, (c) PGA of America, (d) USGA, (e) OWGR, (f) Royal & Ancient, (g) Asian Tour, (h) Japan Tour, (i) Sunshine Tour, (j) Ladies Professional Golf Association, (k) Ladies European Tour, (l) any broadcaster, (m) any vendor or service provider to the PGA Tour, (n) any advertiser or sponsor, (o) any player agent or representative, (p) any golfer (including PGA Tour Members), or (q) any other person or entity not expressly excluded by this Interrogatory. Your response need not include communications with the PGA Tour’s counsel or the press. For each individual you identify, identify the date(s) of the communication(s), the medium of the communication(s) (e.g., in-person, phone, text, email, etc.), and the other person or entity to whom the communication was made.”

During last week’s discovery hearing, Judge Susan van Keulen ruled that the PGA Tour had to come out with the full list of these players, former players, sponsors and broadcasters.

After some back and forth due to the time and effort it would take the PGA Tour to provide the list, Judge Van Keulen made a ruling on October 19th that read:

“By 12 p.m. (PDT) on October 19, 2022, Defendant Tour is to identify in a verified interrogatory response all individuals who were authorized to speak on behalf of the Tour during the relevant time period (September 1, 2019-present; “Time Period”) regarding competitive or potentially competitive tours. The interrogatory response will indicate which individuals had verbal, in addition to written, communications regarding competitive or potentially competitive tours during the Time Period.”

The PGA Tour’s response of people it spoke to about LIV Golf came on October 20th and included 31 PGA Tour employees and 179 different entities including some big TV Networks like Netflix, Amazon, Apple and HBO. They also revealed 22 sponsors, 27 vendors, 28 agents and 71 players they’d spoken to about LIV Golf.

Most interesting among those who the PGA Tour have spoken to is none other than the legend of Anthony Kim.

Kim was a lightning rod who won three PGA Tour events and participated in both a Ryder Cup and a Presidents Cup for the United States team. Although he hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event since 2012, he is still widely talked about due to the enormous talent and potential he possessed at a young age. He is believed to have had an insurance policy that would pay him $10-20 million in the case of a career-ending injury.

LIV Golf was dissatisfied with the list and believes that the 179 names given by the PGA Tour was far too few.

Court proceedings are set to continue this week and we should more information in regard to “question 1” as the case progresses.

Man charged with stealing millions of dollars worth of memorabilia from Augusta National

Published

2 hours ago

Apr 18, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, a man has been charged in Chicago with stealing millions of dollars’ worth of memorabilia from Augusta National.

The man, Robert Globensky, was charged with transporting the memorabilia across state lines.

The report states that between 2009 and 2022, Globensky allegedly transported “millions of dollars’ worth of Masters golf tournament merchandise and historical memorabilia” from Augusta National “and transported to Tampa, Florida, knowing the same had been stolen, converted and taken by fraud.”

The document was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Per the court records there is no mention that Globensky worked for the golf club.

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19th Hole

Talor Gooch: 54 holes is more exciting for the fans

Published

2 hours ago

Apr 18, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

Over the past few weeks, two of LIV Golf’s biggest stars, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson, have both expressed that they believe LIV could go to 72 holes.

While speaking to BBC Sport, Rahm said he “wouldn’t mind” going to 72 holes.

“If there ever was a way where LIV could go to 72 holes I think it would help all of this argument a lot.”

“The closer I think we can get LIV Golf to some other things the better. I think it would be for some kind of unification to feed into a world tour or something like that.

“I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to 72 holes.”

Phil Mickelson, while speaking after his final round at The Masters, also said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if LIV went to 72 holes.

“I don’t think it makes a difference either way. We’ve got mini-tours playing 54, Champions Tour playing 54. I wouldn’t be surprised if some or all of LIV events went to 72. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoy the competition.”

Another one of LIV’s top players, Talor Gooch, expressed on Wednesday that he feels quite differently.

“It’s just funny to me, this arbitrary number of 72.”

“Why is it not 90? “Why is it not 108? We just decided to make that number the number, for what reason?”

“Everyone’s talked about world ranking points and all this stuff, but no one’s talked about what do the fans enjoy more?”

“People want something that’s going to be more exciting. And I personally think that the 54 holes is more exciting for the fans.”

After Gooch’s comments, I decided to get some fan feedback for myself, making a poll on X. With about 4,500 votes in at the time of writing this, roughly 84% of voters in the poll indicated they’d prefer 72 holes to just 16% saying they’d prefer 54.

Rahm prefers 72 holes
Gooch prefers 54 holes

Where do the fans stand?

— Matt Vincenzi (@MattVincenziPGA) April 17, 2024

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Brandel Chamblee has ‘no doubt’ who started the McIlroy/LIV rumor and why

Published

1 day ago

Apr 17, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Earlier this week, rumors began to fly that Rory McIlroy could be making a shock switch to LIV Golf which caused quite the stir on social media.

However, on Tuesday, McIlroy emphatically shut down those rumors, telling Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town:

“I honestly don’t know how these things get started. I’ve never been offered a number from LIV and I’ve never contemplated going to LIV. Again I think I’ve made it clear over the past two years that I don’t think it’s something for me.

It’s unfortunate that we have to deal with it and this is the state that our game’s in. I’m obviously here today and I’m playing this PGA Tour event next week and I will play the PGA Tour for the rest of my career.”

Golf Channel analyst and longtime LIV critic, Brandel Chamblee, took to social media before McIlroy’s statement to point the finger at “Saudis/LIV,” who he believes started the rumor:

I have no doubt that this rumor was started by Saudis/LIV… to benefit Saudis/LIV after such a poor showing, as a group, at The Masters.

I’d be very surprised if this turns out to be true. https://t.co/SWNgjHtWSM

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) April 16, 2024

When one user pushed back on Chamblee’s claim that LIV golfers had a poor showing at the Masters, Brandel went further into why he believes the opening major of the year was a failure for the breakaway tour.

You think they paid 3 billion for a few top tens and to be +82 as a group at major? A senior citizen beat some of their “stars” and almost all the game’s of LIV players have deteriorated since they sold their souls to the Saudis who only bought a moment in time… nothing else. https://t.co/xERkYsztIJ

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) April 16, 2024