PROFESSIONAL GOLF IN TURMOIL

Don't appreciate golf?  Return tomorrow.  What is the state of men's professional golf?  In turmoil:

• In one corner, the new Saudi-backed LIV (called so because play 54 holes in 3 days instead of 72 in 4) Golf group, an enhancement of the Asian Tour.
• The CEO is Greg Norman.  He played villain almost 30 years ago when he tried to establish a super golf League competing for massive purses.  Failed to get started.

• 
  Supposedly paid Phil Mickelson $200 million and Dustin Johnson $100 million to join.
• Offered Jack Nicklaus $100 million to be the public face and Tiger Woods a whole lot of money...but they declined.
• Will have 8 events.
• There will be 48 players in each tournament, playing as individuals and part of a four-man team.
• No cuts.
• It will be a shotgun start.
• $25 million purse in each event.
• 
  Last weekend completed its first tournament in London with 21 of the top 50 professional golfers.  
• Charl Schwartzel (right) won $4.75 million.
• Phil Mickelson won $146,000.  This charter effort was not televised.  Access on live stream from 9AM on  YouTube, Facebook or LIVgolf.com
• Next tournaments will be held in Oregon, New Jersey, Boston and Chicago, with Pumpkin Ridge in Portland scheduled for June 30 to July 2.

• 
  Versus the Professional Golfers' Association (the tour) and U.S. Golf Association (the governing body).
• They have suspended everyone who joined LIV, and they were removed from the FedEx Cup list.
• Appear to be supremely pissed off.

• 
  The DP World (or European) Tour remains silent, except it has problems with Saudi Arabia's poor human-rights record, and indicates it is in strategic alliance with the PGA/USGA.
• Majors...the Opens, at this time, remain open to all golfers...except for, maybe, the PGA Championship scheduled for Oak Hill next year.  
• Considerable complication expected for Presidents and Ryder Cups.

So what is happening at the U.S. Open this weekend?  Well, that is part of the problem.  Those LIV rebels were kicked off the PGA tour.  But they're all here.  Well, Phil Mickelson did terribly and with a +11 missed the cut.  Others now gone for the weekend include Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Na, Talor Gooch and Brandon Grace, while Jinichiro Kozuma and Jed Morgan did worse than Mickelson.  Dustin Johnson is playing today, but not doing really well.  Scottie Scheffler, #1 in the world today, and not an outcast, just rolled in an eagle to take the lead at -6.  Colin Morikawa, also a good guy, is at -5.  Tough course, for Scheffler is the only one today so far playing under par.

So all is gloom and doom today in the game, but, perhaps this could lead to a true world alliance.  The NFL, founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, changed their name to the National Football League in 1922.  Then came the American Football League in 1960, leading to a merger to inaugurate the first Super Bowl in 1966.  Most successful and scandal-free franchise in the world.

Over time, and this could also take as many as six years, we might end up with a World Golfer's Association.  They'll create a fifth major, to be called the Global Super Open.

Let me end with Annika Sorenstam, who seemed to have returned to the women's circuit at the age of 51. She is the only female to shoot a 59 and actually now and then played on the men's tour.   A 10-time major champion, 8-time LPGA Player of the Year and 72 tour wins, why is she back?  Simple, she was invited to play earlier this month for the U.S. Women's Open, and just wanted to perform for her family.  She did win the Women's Senior Open last year by 8 strokes.

Maybe it was for her ANNIKA Foundation she started in 2007 to support women's golf.  Last year she launched Fizzy Beez, a ready-to-drink cocktail sweetened with organic honey, which is female-owned and operated, and established to donate proceeds back to nonprofits.  You have a choice of Cosmo, Margarita, Mojito and Moscow Mule.  Today only sold in Ohio, but soon to expand.

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