Golf’s renegade circus got here to an underwhelming finish on Saturday at Centurion as Charles Schwartzel hoisted aloft a trophy that carried no nice significance. The South African had taken a three-shot lead into the ultimate day of the inaugural LIV Golf occasion and the gimmicks of a workforce format and a shotgun begin did not spark any added twists or turns via the bushes in Hemel Hempstead as he coasted to victory by one shot.
It was a day that lacked drama and supplied few reminiscences that can stay lengthy in sporting reminiscence, with no one capable of mount a problem whilst Schwartzel faltered on the again 9. That won’t cease it from being deemed a convincing success by LIV Golf’s Saudi backers, although. The attention-watering prize cash on supply was a larger topic of fascination than any sporting benefit and its pull on {the golfing} world solely grows stronger as Patrick Reed and Pat Perez have been introduced as the newest established PGA Tour names to leap ship.
Schwartzel collected a winner’s cheque price an astonishing £3.2m for his first skilled victory in over six years, however the wealth seeped down the leaderboard right here like an oil slick. Hennie du Plessis, who at the very least utilized a level of stress on his compatriot Schwartzel, earned over £2m for ending second. Peter Uihlein’s birdie putt on the 18th that pushed him right into a share of third was price £180,000 alone. Andy Ogletree might need completed in useless final on 23 over par however the American nonetheless left with a assured £100,000.
They’re the huge, life-changing sums with which the PGA Tour can not compete and make no mistake, it’s only a matter of time earlier than the group of ageing rebels lured listed here are remodeled right into a extremely aggressive discipline. Golf has little ethical advantage to assert and loyalty and legacy will proceed to fall sufferer to vulgarity and greed.
“I needed to keep calm, I made a nasty mistake on 12 however I’m happy with how I hung in and it’s a fantastic feeling,” Schwartzel stated. “The blokes placed on an incredible present, what they’ve achieved (at LIV Golf) is past our expectations. The best way they deal with everyone and the amount of cash they put up as prizes.”
If we now know the gamers could be simply purchased although, there are nonetheless facets to the LIV breakaway that require greater than just a little fine-tuning. The workforce format added nothing to the spectacle apart from an extra lining to the gamers’ financial institution accounts and few of the followers in attendance appeared to purchase into the idea. The so-called ‘Stinger GC’ workforce, comprised of South Africans Schwartzel, Du Plessis, Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen, received by 14 pictures and picked up one other £600,000 every for a feat of which they absolutely had taken little discover of throughout their remaining rounds.
Greg Norman has blended into the background since his gaffe finally month’s media launch when he claimed “all of us make errors” in reference to the homicide of Jamal Khashoggi, however the Australian was all smug and smile as he returned to the highlight for a prize-giving ceremony that did not impart any which means to Schwartzel’s victory apart from the pound indicators that got here earlier than it. However maybe that’s precisely what makes LIV Golf such a foreboding proposition. There isn’t a pretence or disguise to its objective, it isn’t a type of refined sportswashing, it’s up entrance and blatant, seizing on a sport that’s greater than a keen stooge. Saturday solely proved that will probably be ready to take action with appreciable success.
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Kaynak: briturkish.com
