Golf 2022

[Brazilian Villain]

Not a great round from Rory, hopefully that was his poor round, good to see Fitzpatrick and Hatton in contention.

Unfortunately not. Woods withdraws after his third round. https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/61539212

[Villa Lew]

Great round of 67 puts Matt Fitzpatrick in joint 2nd 3 behind the leader, he goes out last with Pereira at 7.35pm.

[Villa Lew]

Great effort from Matt Fitzpatrick, blew his chances on the 17th, not surprising as this was his first time being in contention for a major, likewise with Pereira. Also good to see Fleetwood having a good major finishing joint 5th with Fitzpatrick. As for Rory gave himself a great chance to be in contention to win, but blew it. Would think there is no way Tiger is going to play in the US Open, which starts 3 weeks on Thursday and it's looking doubtful if he'll make The Open.

Not surprising Thomas won the play off, his 2nd major win, first one was the PGA 5 years ago.

[UK Redsox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/61718753

Two-time major champion Dustin Johnson has resigned his membership of the PGA Tour in order to play in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series.

The former world number one will play all eight events of the fledgling $255m (£200m) series, which starts on Thursday at Centurion Club, London.

Johnson, 37, joined the PGA Tour in 2007 and has won $74m in his career.

"I don't want to play for the rest of my life, this gives me an opportunity to do what I want to do," he said.

It is reported that Johnson's career earnings are around $200m

I'm sure that he could quit today and not be short of money

[Kevin Dawson]

$74 million earnings, plus probably tens of millions in sponsorships / endorsements. They're paying him $150 million just for appearing in their eight tournaments. They tried to get Tiger Woods, and the offer to him was apparently in the high hundreds of millions of dollars, just for playing eight tournaments......

[PaulWinch again]

I find this all incredibly distasteful and greedy. Poor Dustin Johnson I’m sure he’d struggle to make ends meet on the PGA tour.

[Nev]

Really disappointed in Garcia as well. If there is an argument about freedom to play other tournaments then fair enough but the origin of the money here is vile.

[PaulWinch again]

Yes make no mistake this is pure greed and given the origins of the money it’s pretty abhorrent.

[Villa Lew]

As expected Woods has confirmed he will not play at next week's US Open, but is still hoping to play in the Open.

[Rotterdam]

I've got a freebie corporate pass to LIV Golf on saturday...I shall report back on the 'vibe'.

[Brazilian Villain]

Really disappointed in Garcia as well.

Disappointed in McDowell too. I'd say fine, play if you want to but you're banned from US PGA and European tour events.

[UK Redsox]

The organisers of The Majors should ban the players as well.

I think that's the step needed to make these players think again.

That, and a phone call from Jamal Khashoggi's family

[Drummond]

When you're being offered these, frankly obscene, amounts of money, how could you turn it down?

I can understand it if it was a small increase on regular fees/prizemoney, but the amounts we're talking about mean it's something that nobody could say no to.

The authorities etc, can ban them from the majors and Ryder Cup but that's it.

The question is whether fans will pay to watch, and that's where the high moral ground should come in to play. This is different to football, where clubs already have that link to supporters, golf is a one-man event.

[Nev]

When you're being offered these, frankly obscene, amounts of money, how could you turn it down?

I can understand it if it was a small increase on regular fees/prizemoney, but the amounts we're talking about mean it's something that nobody could say no to.

The authorities etc, can ban them from the majors and Ryder Cup but that's it.

The question is whether fans will pay to watch, and that's where the high moral ground should come in to play. This is different to football, where clubs already have that link to supporters, golf is a one-man event.

I can see what you're saying but then the major players involved are already rich beyond what many of us could even imagine and I think that's the crux of the argument, do they REALLY need the money that much that they will forgo their positions on the tour and in the RC? And that's without touching on the moral aspect of this and let's face it, that's what is so unedifying about all this.

[Rotterdam]

According to my source inside LIV Golf, saturday is 10,000 sell out.
If fines are sanctioned by PGA tour, LIV Golf will pay potentially them.