Between a rock and a hard place

By Michael Davis

AGAIN we are forced to turn our attention to the insanity of the LIV breakaway tour and the traditional golf governing bodies banging heads with one another instead of calmly reaching a solution where everyone can mutually co-exist.

You cannot help but wonder if a lot of big egos are colliding behind the scenes with nobody prepared to take a backward step.

We certainly hope this is not the case and we cannot claim any real knowledge of what is going on in the corridors of power on both sides.

But our greatest fear is that Australian golf fans might end up the whippings boys in this scrap for ascendancy on the world golf stage. There is a real chance they will miss out on seeing Cam Smith and Marc Leishman play on home soil before Christmas.

Smith and Leishman have been confirmed as starters in the resurrected Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria golf clubs in Melbourne and the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.

But organisers of both tournaments have been placed in an awkward predicament after the pair signed with the renegade LIV circuit.

By so doing, as things stand now, the pair cannot play either on the US PGA or DP World (European) tours.

And here’s where it becomes tricky for us. Both our Open and PGA are co-sanctioned events with the European tour.

For its part, the PGA is in real danger of getting splinters in its backside by sitting on the fence. And to be fair, we understand the dilemma. 

But on hearing of Smith and Leishman’s defection to the LIV Tour, PGA chair, Rodger Davis, chose to take a diplomatic approach to the news at least for the time being.

“We acknowledge the announcement that Cam Smith and Marc Leishman are joining the LIV Golf League. 

 “Currently, world golf is in somewhat of a state of flux and the PGA of Australia is doing all it can to navigate through this disruptive period, whilst squarely maintaining our focus on our core constituents.

 “The PGA of Australia is a member-based organisation and we exist to support golf and all of the membership base. As such, we’re focussed on providing career opportunities for our vocational members and pathways and playing opportunities for all of our tour members domestically and then onto some of the world’s biggest tours.

 “As a collective Australian golf ecosystem, we will keep investing in supporting our young Aussie women and men touring pros as they work their way through their golfing journeys.”

Come on Rodger, get to the point.

Davis added: “We maintain strong alliances with both the DP (European) World Tour (DPWT) and the PGA Tour – which includes DPWT co-sanctioning of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship and the ISPS Handa Australian Open – and we’ll continue to work with them, particularly on initiatives that grow professional golf in Australia.

“These two major Australian events headline the upcoming summer of golf, one of the biggest for years, and there’s no doubt our fans are looking forward to our growing line-up of homegrown stars like Cam Smith, Marc Leishman, Hannah Green, Lucas Herbert and Min Woo Lee.”

If Rodger tires of golf administration perhaps a career in politics beckons.

In his defence, the games amateur body, Golf Australia (GA), is also treading warily.

GA is the body in charges of the combined men’s and women’s opens in Melbourne.

With Victorian government backing, the event is shaping as a spectacular golf festival in a hitherto unseen, simultaneous, celebration of the men’s and women’s games.

Already Melbourne golf galleries are excited at the prospect having the men’s championship back in town for the first time in many years after what seemed like an eternity of its being staged in the harbour city.

We fear, however, that in the end, GA may have to fall into line with the sentiment expressed by the powers that be in Europe and the USA.

GA has forged strong bonds in recent years with both the big tours and might feel it has to honour the partnerships.

But surely there is some flexibility here. Perhaps a goodwill gesture from the golf’s ‘big boys’ Europe and America, acknowledging how important these events are to golf in faraway Australia.

After all, we are but a minnow on the international golf stage these days.

So let’s hope sanity prevails and let’s hope the Australian Open and PGA both go ahead with Leishman and Smith in the field.

But our real fear is that in the end it may not happen.