The wolf, finally here it comes.
This morning Beijing time, the LIV Golf Investment Company, where the former world's number one Greg Norman is the CEO, issued a notice announcing the official establishment of the "LIV Golf Invitational Series" (hereinafter referred to as the LIV Golf Invitational Series) - that is, the rumored "Saudi Golf League"! The 8-stop fixture schedule for the first season of 2022 was announced.
Backed by the wealthy Saudi Arabian sovereign fund, the LIV League threw $250 million (about 1.67 billion yuan) as the total prize money for the 8 races of the 2022 season! It has surpassed half of the PGA Tour's total prize money ($427 million) of the more than 40 races throughout the season.
Staggering $250 million in total prize money
And this is only the beginning of the change, the LIV League will also be in the form of a team game, playing only 3 days per leg without a promotion line, and "drafting" players before each game... According to the official announcement of the Norman team, we have summarized the three highlights of the LIV League:
1. Under heavy money
The LIV League has a maximum of only 48 players per leg, and they will be divided into a team of 4 people, for a total of 12 teams. However, the performance ranking will be divided into two parts: "individual competition" and "team competition", the first 7 races, the total prize money of the individual competition is 20 million US dollars (about 120 million yuan), of which the champion alone won 4 million US dollars; the other 5 million US dollars, will be divided by the top 3 teams of the team.
At $20 million, it's the PGA Tour's current highest-prize money event and the players' tournament in the world' highest prize money. The $4 million in championship prize money has surpassed the $3.6 million that Cameron Smith won the Players' Tournament last week. Obviously, if you look at the prize money alone, the LIV League is already more attractive than the PGA Tour.
The $3.6 million in the Smith Players Championship is already the highest prize money on a single PGA Tour
Not only that, the LIV League also benchmarked another big sign of the PGA Tour - "FedEx Cup". After seven races, the top 3 players in the overall ranking of the season will also get a piece of the prize pool of 30 million US dollars (about 190 million yuan) ! You know, the total prize pool of the PGA TOUR Federal Cup, although as high as $75 million, is divided by 30 players.
The 8th leg of the LIV League, the season finale, did not announce the venue and details. But what is certain is that it will be a team tournament, and the total prize money of the tournament will be close to 50 million US dollars (about 310 million yuan)! Thus setting a golf record.
2. "Basic Salary System"
The LIV League only plays 3 rounds per leg and does not have a promotion line, which means that as long as the players who complete the game, regardless of the results, have bonuses in the account - for golfers on various professional circuits around the world, this is probably a huge attraction.
Unlike other professional sports such as the NBA and soccer, there is no "base salary system" for professional golf. That is to say, if you do not qualify in a game, not only is it equivalent to 0 income, but you must also bear the cost of travel, practice, coaching, caddies, etc. - equivalent to "losing money" this week. The absence of a "guaranteed wage" is also seen as the biggest risk to the career of professional golfers.
The LIV League with a unique and innovative format
Norman, the "Great White Shark" who has been immersed in the professional high world for decades, obviously understands the "sore point" of the player group, so he threw out the "base salary system" as a big killer - according to the currently announced format, even if a player ranks at the bottom of a LIV league, that is, the 40th place, he can at least receive about 100,000 US dollars (about 630,000 yuan) in prize money! You know, Lin Xiyu ranked second in the LPGA Thailand tournament last week, and the prize money was only $150,488,000. And last season's Central Tour bonus Wang Zhang Huilin accumulated 536,425 yuan in prize money throughout the year, which is less than the level of the last place in a LIV league...
If a player plays 7 LIV league games, even if all of them are in the last place, as long as they finish, the total income will reach 700,000 US dollars (about 4.44 million yuan) of income - which is almost the level of 145th place on the PGA Tour last season (equivalent to twice Zhang Xinjun's total prize money this season), and if it is placed on the Korn Ferry Tour, it can be ranked 2nd!
3. 18 holes of simultaneous teeism
According to David Hill, a broadcast consultant at LIV Golf Investments, one of the big flaws in the current PGA Tour is that golf fans may not be able to see the game of their favorite players when they turn on the live broadcast to watch the final round.
Top stars are the reason why many fans watch the game
The LIV League does not have this problem. Each match features an 18-hole kick-off "shotgun format", meaning that every player competes with the other players at the same time. As soon as you turn on your phone or TV, you can theoretically see the heart-watering golfer swinging.
And the format of thursday's opening and saturday finishing is also a big "benefit" from the fans' point of view - watching the final round of the LIV League does not delay them from watching the next day's PGA Tour and DP Tour championship drama.
Tough with the PGA Tour
Of course, the LIV League also faces many weaknesses such as "who will participate" and "no world points". Due to the previous "Mickelson gaffe incident", the world's top ten stars have drawn a clear line with Norman's brand-new tournament and collectively declared their "allegiance" to the PGA Tour.
However, in Norman's own statement this morning, it is implied that many "world's top players" have begun to take the initiative to consult, expressing great interest in participating in the LIV League.
Norman and Mickelson, who is most pro-LIV league
"I would like to say that the response we received was incredibly enthusiastic." The 67-year-old Jaws said, "I mean players in the 'single-digit tier' of the world rankings who emailed me early this morning saying they were very excited to learn what we had announced. ”
However, according to the PGA Tour rules, if its members participate in other tour events held in the same week, they need the "special approval" of the PGA Tour president. Moreover, if the tournament is held in the United States and Canada, it will be confirmed that no license will be obtained.
Thus, the most bizarre part of the LIV League schedule emerges – the date and venue of the match.
As many as four of the seven announced races are currently in the United States, and at least three are set in the same week on the PGA Tour. It is interesting to note that the "same week clash PGA Tour" selected by the LIV League is an ordinary game in the PGA Tour that is not easy to attract top stars.
The John Strong Deer Classic, Rocket Credit Classic, and Flying Tower Championship are three PGA Tour, and the number of the world's top 20 stars participating in the past year is a pitiful 1, 4 and 2 respectively. And the prize money level of 7-8.4 million US dollars in these three games is not at all in the same order of magnitude as the 20 million in a single leg of the LIV League. At that time, how the PGA Tour players will choose, whether some people will risk the ban and still dare to participate in the LIV League, I am afraid that it will cause a huge controversy.
Where is the HSBC Champions Tournament going?
It is also worth noting chinese fans that the final date of the LIV League is set for October 28-30 – and that week is precisely the time of the 2022 World Championships - HSBC Champions! This means that Chinese fans are eagerly awaiting the "Asian Grand Slam" on their doorstep, which will directly collide with the year-end drama of the LIV League.
Among the "Shanghai Events" brand recognition, the HSBC Champions Tournament is the top P event
You might say that the HSBC Champions tournament will be held is still unknown. Indeed, in the context of the current repeated epidemic situation, whether the HSBC Championship can be restarted after 2019 depends on the progress of vaccine development and the degree of opening of the mainland. However, in the "2022 Shanghai International and Domestic Sports Event Plan" released by the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau at the end of last year, the World Championships-HSBC Champions Championships won the highest level of "P" event certification for the first time, becoming the top sports event in Shanghai with the same name as the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, the Shanghai ATP1000 Masters and the Shanghai Marathon.
With the smooth holding of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, effective closed-loop epidemic prevention measures and a sense of security in epidemic prevention "bubble" provide a successful model for holding major international events in China in the future. Making the HSBC Championship "return" after three years is not a distant dream.
But the problem is that the "World Golf Championship" status enjoyed by the HSBC Champions tournament is probably not the same as that of three years ago. In the 2021-22 PGA Tour schedule, the "World Championships" that once had as many as 4 stops throughout the year were only left with 1 Dell Technology Hole Race, a record low!
The World Championships used to feature 4 events a year for a long time
And it was this hole-to-door game that the top players were also YiXingshan, and the stingico players championship champions Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy and Bryson De Chambre had announced their withdrawal from the 64ers tournament a week before the game. Whether the world championships that have only achieved fruitful results throughout the year can gather the world's strongest 70 people have been marked with a big question mark.
In terms of the size of the prize money, the $12 million World Championship can no longer be compared with the 20 million checkbook issued by the LIV League. Not to mention the LIV Grand Finals, which coincided with the HSBC Champions, had a $50 million jackpot pool! Faced with a strong opponent with 4 times the prize money and a one-day schedule, whether the HSBC Championship in Shanghai can attract top players to join as it has in the past decade is deeply worrying...
The last time the HSBC Champions tournament was held was in 2019
Since "the wolf has come", can the World Championships still be held? Is there still a need to exist? It may be the reform of the PGA Tour's heavy hand. In this "unprecedented change" in global golf for decades, in the context of the epidemic of foreign exchanges, I am afraid that only time can tell us the answer to the HSBC Championship.
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