Danny and the Golf Dilemma

By Ryan Nixon

Much has been made of LIV Golf, the Saudi backed golf tour headed by Greg Norman which has sent ripples through the golfing world. Top golfers such as last year’s Open Championship winner Cameron Smith, and other notable major winners such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson have joined the rebel league, foregoing their PGA Tour cards and Official World Golf Ranking points in the process.

LIV has been back in the spotlight the past couple of weeks, although not with quite the drama surrounding the start of the tour last year. And for the first time, it features a Kiwi flavour, as New Zealand’s second-highest ranked player Danny Lee was announced to be joining LIV Golf.

Lee’s defection is a decision which, financially, would seem to make sense for the 32 year old. It would be kind to describe Lee as a journeyman on the PGA Tour. Despite a breakthrough win at the 2015 Greenbrier Classic, in a season where he eventually finished 13th on the money list, Lee has never since been able to recapture that year’s form. His following seasons have seen him finish 75th, 68th, 98th, 74th, 40th, 182nd, and 104th on the money list. Those are results that have enabled him to sustain his life as a professional golfer, but not much more. With LIV Golf offering more money, for fewer events and 54 hole tournaments, it would make sense for someone of Lee’s ilk to jump ship.

Such analysis of Lee’s move puts aside the moral conundrums when joining a Saudi backed tour, with LIV Golf just another example of “sportswashing” given Saudi Arabia’s horrific human rights record. It’s not easy to brush such discussions aside, but the Netflix series ‘Full Swing’ which was released last week highlighted the difference in attitude towards golf between some of the top professionals.

The series itself is thoroughly enjoyable, made by the successful creators of Formula 1’s ‘Drive to Survive’, and the recent tennis based ‘Break Point’. It goes behind the scenes of some of the PGA Tour’s leading professionals, including multiple major winners Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Collin Morikawa, while also recapping some of last year’s biggest tournaments, including the majors. Some of the best episodes of the series focus on lesser known Joel Dahmen and his caddie, as well as rookies Sahith Theegala and Mito Pereira. It also had the luck – for lack of a better word – to follow the aforementioned Johnson and Koepka, and discuss their decisions to defect to LIV.

The comments made by both during the series, in contrast with outspoken LIV critic McIlroy, highlighted the contrasting views with which golfers see their sport. For Johnson, golf is a job. He’s now being paid exorbitant amounts of money to, in his eyes, work less. When put like that, you can understand the desire to leave the PGA Tour, freeing up time to spend with his wife and family. Koepka meanwhile has seen his body fail him, with numerous injuries hampering what had been a meteoric rise to the best in the world and four major titles. With doubt lingering over the hip and knee ailments which have plagued him, it again stands to reason why Koepka would take the big money on offer, as opposed to toiling away, doubtful about his ability to recapture the form of 2017-2019.

For others though, like McIlroy, golf is about more than being a job. ‘Full Swing’ portrays McIlroy as a student of the game, and someone who sees protecting and growing golf as important as leaving his own legacy. It’s a potentially heavy burden for a player suffering his own major title drought, but it makes for a strong juxtaposition compared with the attitudes of Johnson, Koepka and now, Lee.

Whether LIV manages to sustain itself as a rebel tour, eventually dissolves, or works in tandem with the PGA is yet to be seen. What we do know though, is that a show like ‘Full Swing’ is ideal for showcasing the world’s top players, and their differing attitudes towards the game of golf.

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