LIV tour discussion

[Guest]

3 hours ago, NoName said:

what's the Rory of all people comment about? my understanding is that he is pretty liked in the locker room and is absolutely one of the faces of the sport, plus he is 33.

 

I'm not an huge golf fan, but know the names and keep tabs on majors. Watching the Full Swing show, Rory seemed like a good dude.

Brooks Koepka? Not so much. 

[TonyTexas 10525]

1 hour ago, alincoln said:

Yeah, the PGA Tour has responded with surprising effectiveness to the LIV threat.

Most of the changes the PGA made were already on the drawing board as a 70% bump in TV money kicked in last year. The  LIV threat just accelerated things a bit.

[UTexasFight 9527]

15 hours ago, NoName said:

what's the Rory of all people comment about? my understanding is that he is pretty liked in the locker room and is absolutely one of the faces of the sport, plus he is 33.

 

Hint: he’s not the most charismatic guy.

[Mileslong 4728]

I actually like LIV if for nothing else it pushed the PGA Tour into action.
Easy decision for most, especially Phil. He can play the Masters and PGA for life, British until he’s 60. I’m not a fan of most of the players that left but why not? Politics? Lol. Legacy? Lol.
 
Jay Monahan is in over his fucking head and he didn’t like being called out. Crippled Tiger is doing all he can, playing for no reason. The tour is trying to promote fucking Rory of all people as its spokesperson. It’s a shit show and entertaining.

Politics is the only reason 75% of US LIV fans are even watching it. Let me be more specific, MAGA republicans make up 95% of US LIV fans.

Why? All because the PGA pulled the PGA championship from a Trump course. Trump, sho used to live the PGA now hates them.

Ergo, all MAGA fans now hate the PGA and champion LIV. The vast majority I’ve had discussions with online don’t know anything about hold but got involved only because Trump got dissed.

These LIV “fans” will soon tire of pretending to be golf fans and will quit watching. There are Euros and Middle Eastern who follow LIV for their own reasons but the. Skeuomorphic if US fans must be 90% republican

[NoName 16397]

1 hour ago, Mileslong said:

Politics is the only reason 75% of US LIV fans are even watching it. Let me be more specific, MAGA republicans make up 95% of US LIV fans.

Why? All because the PGA pulled the PGA championship from a Trump course. Trump, sho used to live the PGA now hates them.

Ergo, all MAGA fans now hate the PGA and champion LIV. The vast majority I’ve had discussions with online don’t know anything about hold but got involved only because Trump got dissed.

These LIV “fans” will soon tire of pretending to be golf fans and will quit watching. There are Euros and Middle Eastern who follow LIV for their own reasons but the. Skeuomorphic if US fans must be 90% republican

let's not CR this up, but the people i know who watch LIV either 1) love the shit out of some golf and are excited to watch more golf or 2) their favorite player went over to LIV (DJ in most cases) - i personally don't know anyone who exclusively watches LIV.

[alincoln 2385]

You are both lying.  No one knows anyone who watches LIV

[Pam Cummings 9658]

2 hours ago, Mileslong said:

Politics is the only reason 75% of US LIV fans are even watching it. Let me be more specific, MAGA republicans make up 95% of US LIV fans.

Why? All because the PGA pulled the PGA championship from a Trump course. Trump, sho used to live the PGA now hates them.

Ergo, all MAGA fans now hate the PGA and champion LIV. The vast majority I’ve had discussions with online don’t know anything about hold but got involved only because Trump got dissed.

These LIV “fans” will soon tire of pretending to be golf fans and will quit watching. There are Euros and Middle Eastern who follow LIV for their own reasons but the. Skeuomorphic if US fans must be 90% republican

I think they love posting about it online but the numbers suggest even they aren't watching. At the end of the day, the % of people who actually care about watching pro golf is extremely small, and most of that % realizes that LIV is stupid.

[Wally Fairway 5585]

3 hours ago, alincoln said:

You are both lying.  No one knows anyone who watches LIV

 

I am interested in how James Piot (former US Am champ & Spartan Alum)  does at the LIV events, but even that doesn't make me watch them

[crash_davis 23115]

On 2/27/2023 at 8:16 AM, NoName said:

what's the Rory of all people comment about? my understanding is that he is pretty liked in the locker room and is absolutely one of the faces of the sport, plus he is 33.

 

I didn't think much of Rory before the Netflix series. I didn't dislike or worship the guy. I like him because he is a really good golfer. I just never pulled for him probably because he plays for the other team in the Ryder cup. 

After watching the series, I like the hell out of him. He put himself out there as the de facto spokesman for the PGA tour. He earned a ton of respect from me. And then to see him win the Fedex was cool in karma is rewarding you kinda way. 

To see what he stood for compared to the other dudes who jumped to LIV for one rea$on alone.

[crash_davis 23115]

LIV is the XFL of golf. Aint no one watching that shit.

[alincoln 2385]

Exactly.  You could easily spend most of your waking hours watching golf and golf content without watching LIV.

[tx 3 putt 77393]

LIV vs PGA would break all viewing records 

make it wwe style. Crazy intros and championship belts for the winners 

[Pablo 495]

I recorded Sunday's 5 hour broadcast and skimmed through it last night.  The repeated TEAM promotion was annoying.  The constantly flipping around scoreboard, even more annoying.  Not knowing half these golfers, annoying.  Seeing Dechambeau gloat about his TEAM winning and saying he's been terrible for the last 18 months, priceless!

[crash_davis 23115]

hahahahahahhahaahha. This looks to be the beginning of the end. I wonder how much longer the Saudis are going to throw money at this. LIV is paying CW to televise the tourneys (paying for their production costs). They will "revenue share" which probably means they will split the money from the commercials. They won't make money off the commercials because no one is fucking watching. Looks like the Saudis are starting to turn off the faucet. Pat Perez is going to actually have to be good at golf. You have to think DJ, Brooks and Cam are regretting the fuck out of this decision. Unless the PGA takes the back, they'll be reduced to playing on the int'l tourneys after LIV folds next year, or earlier.

 

https://www.golfwrx.com/707519/report-liv-golf-makes-drastic-changes-to-travel-expense-and-team-payout-distribution/

Report: LIV Golf makes drastic changes to travel expense and team payout distribution

 

According to Alan Shipnuck of The Firepit Collective, executives at LIV Golf are making an effort to “rein in” Greg Norman.

Shipnuck was at last week’s LIV Golf 2023 debut in Mexico, where “The Shark” didn’t speak to reporters. Shipnuck believes that was not by coincidence, and writing in his article this week, the journalist reported that a LIV executive said:

“Every reporter wants Greg to escalate things and he always takes the bait. It turns into, ‘Fuck me? No, fuck you!’ He almost can’t have a conversation without returning fire. Does this escalation behoove us? Clearly not. We’re trying to turn down the temperature.”

Shipnuck also revealed that in an aim to cut down the exorbitant spending, they’ve now decided that all travel costs will be on each of the respective teams.

“In the quest to build a more self-sustaining business, LIV has off-loaded all of the travel costs to each team, though, recognizing the tour is still in its early days, it did supply a stipend for this season. (The plan is to abolish the stipend beginning in 2024.)

“Players still keep the individual money they win—in Howell’s case, that was a tidy $4 million—but the $3 million for the team victory goes into the Crusher coffers, not the players’ pockets.

“Each player is paid an annual salary by the team, and at year’s end bonuses and/or profit-sharing is a possibility. But that depends on how much the team earns and how much it spends, which has brought class wars to LIV.”

That is certainly an extraordinary development, with each team choosing to allocate funds in any way they see fit. For instance, Brooks Koepka is choosing to give each player of Smash GC an allowance for travel and hotels.

“The Smash is giving team members a set amount that can be spent however they want, but if a player burns through this allowance, he is on the hook for his expenses for the rest of the season.”

2023 has already brought massive changes to LIV Golf, and there is seemingly an attempt to make the cash flow of the league more sustainable long term.

[crash_davis 23115]

Cam, DJ and Brooks

 

[Blotto 23570]

On 2/27/2023 at 11:21 PM, UTexasFight said:

Hint: he’s not the most charismatic guy.

Maybe not, but he's still 5x more charismatic than tiger woods, who actually might have negative charisma. Tiger was just so good at the game, he was the face of the tour by default. Now that he's no threat on the course, they need to move on.

 

[NoName 16397]

15 hours ago, crash_davis said:

hahahahahahhahaahha. This looks to be the beginning of the end. I wonder how much longer the Saudis are going to throw money at this. LIV is paying CW to televise the tourneys (paying for their production costs). They will "revenue share" which probably means they will split the money from the commercials. They won't make money off the commercials because no one is fucking watching. Looks like the Saudis are starting to turn off the faucet. Pat Perez is going to actually have to be good at golf. You have to think DJ, Brooks and Cam are regretting the fuck out of this decision. Unless the PGA takes the back, they'll be reduced to playing on the int'l tourneys after LIV folds next year, or earlier.

 

https://www.golfwrx.com/707519/report-liv-golf-makes-drastic-changes-to-travel-expense-and-team-payout-distribution/

Report: LIV Golf makes drastic changes to travel expense and team payout distribution

 

According to Alan Shipnuck of The Firepit Collective, executives at LIV Golf are making an effort to “rein in” Greg Norman.

Shipnuck was at last week’s LIV Golf 2023 debut in Mexico, where “The Shark” didn’t speak to reporters. Shipnuck believes that was not by coincidence, and writing in his article this week, the journalist reported that a LIV executive said:

“Every reporter wants Greg to escalate things and he always takes the bait. It turns into, ‘Fuck me? No, fuck you!’ He almost can’t have a conversation without returning fire. Does this escalation behoove us? Clearly not. We’re trying to turn down the temperature.”

Shipnuck also revealed that in an aim to cut down the exorbitant spending, they’ve now decided that all travel costs will be on each of the respective teams.

“In the quest to build a more self-sustaining business, LIV has off-loaded all of the travel costs to each team, though, recognizing the tour is still in its early days, it did supply a stipend for this season. (The plan is to abolish the stipend beginning in 2024.)

“Players still keep the individual money they win—in Howell’s case, that was a tidy $4 million—but the $3 million for the team victory goes into the Crusher coffers, not the players’ pockets.

“Each player is paid an annual salary by the team, and at year’s end bonuses and/or profit-sharing is a possibility. But that depends on how much the team earns and how much it spends, which has brought class wars to LIV.”

That is certainly an extraordinary development, with each team choosing to allocate funds in any way they see fit. For instance, Brooks Koepka is choosing to give each player of Smash GC an allowance for travel and hotels.

“The Smash is giving team members a set amount that can be spent however they want, but if a player burns through this allowance, he is on the hook for his expenses for the rest of the season.”

2023 has already brought massive changes to LIV Golf, and there is seemingly an attempt to make the cash flow of the league more sustainable long term.

i may be wrong but re: Travel the plan was always paid travel in year 1, stipend in year 2 and then it's up to the players/teams for year 3.

[HouTex 1891]

14 minutes ago, Blotto said:

Maybe not, but he's still 5x more charismatic than tiger woods, who actually might have negative charisma. Tiger was just so good at the game, he was the face of the tour by default. Now that he's no threat on the course, they need to move on.

 

Tiger is not charismatic?  I have to disagree and I was not an early fan.  He’s grown on me in recent years and especially with the tampon joke.  

[crash_davis 23115]

5 minutes ago, NoName said:

i may be wrong but re: Travel the plan was always paid travel in year 1, stipend in year 2 and then it's up to the players/teams for year 3.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/golf/liv-golf-expenses-players-caddies-29345935

No idea if this was always the plan but I couldn't find any articles confirming that. The above is just one of many articles which imply that travel was pulled from the players. Some articles alluded to the Saudi backer being pissed off at videos of the players and families partying on the private jets.

[Grade of D as in David 13253]

11 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/golf/liv-golf-expenses-players-caddies-29345935

No idea if this was always the plan but I couldn't find any articles confirming that. The above is just one of many articles which imply that travel was pulled from the players. Some articles alluded to the Saudi backer being pissed off at videos of the players and families partying on the private jets.

I'm guessing it was the video of Pat Perez singing we are the champions on the plane with a bottle of champagne after finishing DFL that didn't sit well.

[thunderlounge 7929]

14 minutes ago, HouTex said:

especially with the tampon joke.  

See, it’s things like this that remind me that while we may not see it on TV much, there is still fun being had out there.

I like that. If you can’t have a little fun along the way, what’s the fucking point?

[WBT 20662]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:31 PM, crash_davis said:

hahahahahahhahaahha. This looks to be the beginning of the end. I wonder how much longer the Saudis are going to throw money at this. LIV is paying CW to televise the tourneys (paying for their production costs). They will "revenue share" which probably means they will split the money from the commercials. They won't make money off the commercials because no one is fucking watching. Looks like the Saudis are starting to turn off the faucet. Pat Perez is going to actually have to be good at golf. You have to think DJ, Brooks and Cam are regretting the fuck out of this decision. Unless the PGA takes the back, they'll be reduced to playing on the int'l tourneys after LIV folds next year, or earlier.

 

https://www.golfwrx.com/707519/report-liv-golf-makes-drastic-changes-to-travel-expense-and-team-payout-distribution/

Report: LIV Golf makes drastic changes to travel expense and team payout distribution

 

According to Alan Shipnuck of The Firepit Collective, executives at LIV Golf are making an effort to “rein in” Greg Norman.

Shipnuck was at last week’s LIV Golf 2023 debut in Mexico, where “The Shark” didn’t speak to reporters. Shipnuck believes that was not by coincidence, and writing in his article this week, the journalist reported that a LIV executive said:

“Every reporter wants Greg to escalate things and he always takes the bait. It turns into, ‘Fuck me? No, fuck you!’ He almost can’t have a conversation without returning fire. Does this escalation behoove us? Clearly not. We’re trying to turn down the temperature.”

Shipnuck also revealed that in an aim to cut down the exorbitant spending, they’ve now decided that all travel costs will be on each of the respective teams.

“In the quest to build a more self-sustaining business, LIV has off-loaded all of the travel costs to each team, though, recognizing the tour is still in its early days, it did supply a stipend for this season. (The plan is to abolish the stipend beginning in 2024.)

“Players still keep the individual money they win—in Howell’s case, that was a tidy $4 million—but the $3 million for the team victory goes into the Crusher coffers, not the players’ pockets.

“Each player is paid an annual salary by the team, and at year’s end bonuses and/or profit-sharing is a possibility. But that depends on how much the team earns and how much it spends, which has brought class wars to LIV.”

That is certainly an extraordinary development, with each team choosing to allocate funds in any way they see fit. For instance, Brooks Koepka is choosing to give each player of Smash GC an allowance for travel and hotels.

“The Smash is giving team members a set amount that can be spent however they want, but if a player burns through this allowance, he is on the hook for his expenses for the rest of the season.”

2023 has already brought massive changes to LIV Golf, and there is seemingly an attempt to make the cash flow of the league more sustainable long term.

[Hate 20144]

I have no idea if this is real or not, but I sure do hope so.

[4th&Five 41586]

Uhhh…is Phil sick?

 

[Updawg 2286]

Saudis poisoning him to get out of paying his contract

[Longhornstampede 3186]

He's looked like that since since shortly after going to LIV. been hiding it behind the heavy stubble and sunglasses. He can now afford the coke and paid off his gambling debts

[thunderlounge 7929]

2 hours ago, Longhornstampede said:

He's looked like that since since shortly after going to LIV. been hiding it behind the heavy stubble and sunglasses. He can now afford the coke and paid off his gambling debts

Lucky!

[crash_davis 23115]

All those dudes got paid huge money for posh deck seats on the Titanic. Some of them were ready for retirement anyway. But Fatrick, DJ, and Brooks threw away their golf futures by whoring themselves to obscurity.

How long until CW execs drop LIV for re-runs of I Love Lucy which is guaranteed to make them more ad money?

 

https://nypost.com/2023/03/19/liv-golfs-tv-ratings-somehow-get-worse-with-tucson-event/

According to a report, the ratings spiraled downward during its second event of the year this weekend in Tucson, Ariz.

Kevin Van Valkenburg of the golf-centric No Laying Up reports that LIV Golf scored a 0.14 rating in the key 18-49 demographic across 33 markets from their Arizona-based showcase on Saturday.

It’s a worse performance than just three weeks prior.

Just last month, LIV Golf had their TV debut for its first 2023 event in Mexico, and the ratings were disastrous.

LIV Golf Mayakoba similarly scored a 0.2 in Saturday’s overnight ratings, and were outdone by “World’s Funniest Animals” later that day.

Edited March 20, 2023 by crash_davis

[Pam Cummings 9658]

It's not about making money or having success. It's a side show to distract from Saudi human rights violations. That's all it is. And you can "but America" all you want and we certainly have a lot of skeletons in our closet and are a hypocritical bunch when it comes to that stuff. But that doesn't change the reality of what LIV golf is.

 

The whole thing just carries a scummy and fake vibe because it's scummy and fake.

[4th&Five 41586]

Does sports washing work if nobody is paying attention?

[crash_davis 23115]

I'm sure this is already known but it's news to me, dammit.

So I guess they are trying to make LIV like Formula 1 or someshit? Sell off the teams to commercial entities to own and run? I had no idea that was the model. 

Each team will soon have their own P&L. Companies can buy the teams and earn returns on their winnings. Players will have contracts which can be bought, sold, terminated? And to get new talent, they're going to hire some up and coming dude to join a team?

I cannot wrap my head around this and how it will ever succeed. 

 

https://firepitcollective.com/liv-golfs-growing-pains/

Edited March 20, 2023 by crash_davis

[closetohumping 17462]

Whoever said the MAGA crowd prefers the LiV May be wrong. Breitbart is making fun of their ratings 

[conVINCEd 21469]

4 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Whoever said the MAGA crowd prefers the LiV May be wrong. Breitbart is making fun of their ratings 

They like it because 20% of the events are held at trump golf courses.  That’s the only reason.  If they held a croquet competition at a trump property the idiots would show up and act like idiots.

[crash_davis 23115]

The belt tightening continues. Fuck the production workers.

I wait for Feherty to tweet his full support of this decision.

 

https://iatse.net/liv-golf-strips-broadcast-crews-healthcare-other-benefits-despite-1-billion-in-projected-spending/

In LIV Golf’s 2022 inaugural season, crewmembers worked under a union contract, which contributed to the healthcare and retirement benefits that workers deserve. But the deal changed for the crew in LIV’s 2023 sophomore season. Workers were shocked to learn that LIV had pulled the rug out from under them by shifting to a non-union production company and circumventing the need to provide important employee benefits. As it stands the technicians behind LIV Golf’s telecasts are some of the few in major sports who do not receive health and retirement benefits when providing world-class coverage.

“I gave up other work last year to commit to LIV because I knew I would receive much-needed healthcare contributions to keep my family in coverage,” said one crewmember. “But now that’s all changed, there seems to be plenty of money to spend on extravagant excess but not to guarantee the crew that puts their product on the air access to healthcare. These are industry standards, and the LIV executives could care less.”

Making this sudden change in working conditions worse is that the Saudi Arabian Government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the primary financial backers of the league, have seemingly bottomless pockets and no aversion to spending extravagant sums with the 2023 LIV season projected to cost $1 billion. Five golfers alone account for more than half a billion dollars in guaranteed contracts, tournament purses are in the tens of millions, and players, caddies, and extended entourages receive lavish private flights. These factors considered; the technicians bringing these events to television should be getting industry-standard wages and benefits.

[crash_davis 23115]

There are 14 tournaments planned for this year. Does this shit fold before the end of the year? Say they are into their 6th tournament and they are still getting beat in TV ratings by World's Funniest Animals, do the Saudis cut their losses and pull the plug? If the tour folds, do the asshat players still get their millions from their contracts? And do the Saudis kill Norman for convincing them to throw away a few hundred million/a billion dollars? 

Edited March 21, 2023 by crash_davis

[conVINCEd 21469]

Just now, crash_davis said:

And do the Saudis kill Norman for convincing them to throwing away a few hundred million/a billion dollars? 

[tx 3 putt 77393]

LiV circling the drain …..

 

[aggie08 21530]

On 3/20/2023 at 8:12 AM, crash_davis said:

But Fatrick, DJ, and Brooks threw away their golf futures by whoring themselves to obscurity.

These dudes chose LIV because they knew that they could get paid, then immediately get welcomed back into the PGA if (when?) LIV crashed and burned like nothing happened.

I hope that the PGA says fuck all that...but I'm not holding my breath.

[aggie08 21530]

6 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Whoever said the MAGA crowd prefers the LiV May be wrong. Breitbart is making fun of their ratings 

MAGA loves the idea of a bunch of entitled assholes fucking the establishment--even to support fucking Saudis--but they don't actually enjoy watching golf on a weekly basis. Their support was always going to be short-lived.

[YGIFS 19452]

Yeah, I don't think it was ever brand-loyalty to the LIV tour.  I think it's more based on venues.  Most pro-Trump folks I know watched the LIV events at Trump venues and then immediately tuned out back in favor of the PGA.  And that's certainly understandable.  I once went to a Florida Steak 'n Shake with Dan Quayle.  Not because I liked him, but because he was buying.    

It's like Russia in the World Cup.  I won't watch Russia in 2026 if they somehow qualify for the World Cup.  But I will absolutely fall off the wagon and beat the shit outta somebody from Russia I see in a bar cheering for them.  It's not political, it's because I hate assholes.   

Edited March 21, 2023 by YGIFS

[tx 3 putt 77393]

 

[alincoln 2385]

14 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Yeah, I don't think it was ever brand-loyalty to the LIV tour.  I think it's more based on venues.  Most pro-Trump folks I know watched the LIV events at Trump venues and then immediately tuned out back in favor of the PGA.  And that's certainly understandable.  I once went to a Florida Steak 'n Shake with Dan Quayle.  Not because I liked him, but because he was buying.    

It's like Russia in the World Cup.  I won't watch Russia in 2026 if they somehow qualify for the World Cup.  But I will absolutely fall off the wagon and beat the shit outta somebody from Russia I see in a bar cheering for them.  It's not political, it's because I hate assholes.   

What was your original user name?  I can't quite place your insane fantastical ramblings.

[YGIFS 19452]

I think it was rather pragmatic given the other posts above me waxing wild on Trumpers/LIV.  All I said was that I think people watched the tournaments at his venues, then disconnected in favor of the superior product-the PGA afterwards.  Makes a fuckton of sense when you turn on what's left of your brain.  Verbosity aside, I'm the guy that points out the obvious shit.  You must be the other guy.  

Edited March 22, 2023 by YGIFS

[4th&Five 41586]

 

[Hate 20144]

 

[Wulaw Horn 19149]

So, the world #1 won at the masters and LIV guys finished 2, 3 and 4. 
Interesting. 
The quality of play out there doesn’t appear to be great, but the caliber of player is still plenty high. Hope this schism gets fixed and I really don’t see how it will make any majors better when none of those guys are in them in the next couple years because of OWGR collapsing for them. 
 

[crash_davis 23115]

6 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

So, the world #1 won at the masters and LIV guys finished 2, 3 and 4. 
Interesting. 
The quality of play out there doesn’t appear to be great, but the caliber of player is still plenty high. Hope this schism gets fixed and I really don’t see how it will make any majors better when none of those guys are in them in the next couple years because of OWGR collapsing for them. 
 

Fuck all of them. 

[alincoln 2385]

Was the LIV performance impressive? 4 guys in the Top 25 and 10 worse than 40th.  There will definitely be fewer LIV guys in next year with the likes of Ancer, Gooch, Kokrak, Na, Niemann, Oosthuizen, Pereira, Pieters and Varner needing big finishes in the other majors this year.  That leaves Phil (2), Reed (3), DJ (48), Koepka (2), Smith (34), Bubba (MC), Sergio (MC), Bryson (MC) and Schwartzel (50).  

[Hate 20144]

I was wrong about some of the LIV players being able to compete. I guess it’s just a matter of Brooks being healthy and the other guys being past champions at Augusta. We’ll see how they do the rest of the year in the majors.

[Wulaw Horn 19149]

9 hours ago, alincoln said:

Was the LIV performance impressive? 4 guys in the Top 25 and 10 worse than 40th.  There will definitely be fewer LIV guys in next year with the likes of Ancer, Gooch, Kokrak, Na, Niemann, Oosthuizen, Pereira, Pieters and Varner needing big finishes in the other majors this year.  That leaves Phil (2), Reed (3), DJ (48), Koepka (2), Smith (34), Bubba (MC), Sergio (MC), Bryson (MC) and Schwartzel (50).  

3 of top 4. 12 out of 16 making the cut. To say that it wasn’t impressive or to act like the they don’t belong or aren’t of major caliber is silly. Bryson isn’t healthy but if he was (if- not necessarily when) there is no way he’s not a top 25 guy in the world. 
the LIV has at least 20 players that would fit in quite easily to the top 100 in the world. It doesn’t make major championship golf better for none of those guys to be in it.