By Steve Keating
TORONTO (Reuters) – After a three-year, COVID-19 forced hiatus the Canadian Open makes its PGA Tour return this week only to face another challenge with disruptive outsiders, the LIV Golf Invitational Series, crashing the party.
The Canadian Open and the LIV event at Centurion Club outside London, being staged almost simultaneously, will mark the first head-to-head showdown between the PGA Tour and the controversial big-money, Saudi-backed venture that is looking to shake up golf’s status quo.
The PGA Tour and the Canadian Open, the third oldest continually run tournament on the Tour, are offering up established prestige.
The LIV Series is offering super-sized prize money, the Centurion’s $25 million purse almost triple the Canadian Open’s $8.7 million.
But for those looking for the big payday, Rory McIlroy, the Canadian Open champion, cautioned there are some things money can’t buy.
“Any decision that you make in your life that’s purely for money usually doesn’t end up going the right way,” McIlroy told reporters after his practice round on Wednesday.
“Obviously money is a deciding factor in a lot of things in this world, but if it’s purely for money it never seems to go the way you want it to.
“You look at the Canadian Open trophy and you look at the names that are on that.
“You’re putting your name in history by winning these national championships. It’s something that money can’t buy or it’s something that money can’t give you.”
With the field at stately St. George’s Golf and Country Club headlined by McIlroy, world number one Scottie Scheffler and newly-minted PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, the Canadian Open easily trumps the LIV event for pure star power.
Major winners Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia will bring some cachet to the 48-man lineup of mostly unknowns at Centurion Club, who will play in front of curious galleries and broadcast on LIVGolf.com, YouTube and Facebook.
“People are entitled to choose as they wish,” said Thomas. “I don’t dislike DJ now. I don’t think he’s a bad dude. I’m not going to treat him any differently.
“He’s entitled to choose as he wishes.
“Now I’m disappointed and I wish that he and others wouldn’t have done it, but that’s their decision.”
The LIV series has had no direct impact on the Canadian Open beyond forcing organisers to swap out posters and other promotional material featuring Johnson, who had been the face of the tournament until he jumped to the breakaway circuit.
A former Canadian Open winner married to Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of Canadian hockey icon Wayne Gretzky, Johnson was a popular draw whenever he teed it up in Canada, but with VIP and corporate hospitality packages sold out and ticket sales brisk his absence has been shrugged off by fans and officials.
Still, the LIV event is proving an annoying distraction.
The golf world was buzzing on Monday about Mickelson’s decision to follow Johnson, Garcia and Graeme McDowell onto the LIV series.
The Canadian Open rolled out their big guns Scheffler, McIlroy and Thomas for media opportunities on Wednesday but were overshadowed by Mickelson’s press conference earlier in the day and new reports that Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed were about to join the PGA Tour exodus.
“Selfishly, I think and I know that the PGA Tour is the best place to play in the world and it’s just the decision is theirs,” said Thomas. “I just wish it wouldn’t be taking away from the great story lines and things that are going on (here).”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Toby Davis)
