Merger between PGA Tour and LIV doesn't mean there is peace in golf

Brooks Koepka was being widely congratulated Tuesday morning on Twitter for sending out this four-word message after the news of the LIV-PGA Tour peace treaty exploded:

"Welfare Check on Chamblee."

It was considered to be quite the humorous barb aimed at Golf Channel's verbose LIV critic, Brandel Chamblee, but considering the track record of the evildoers with which PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was making peace, the idea of checking on Chamblee's health was not without merit.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is led by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who answers to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had Jamal Khashoggi murdered and dismembered when the critical journalist was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, so Chamblee — considering his two years of vehement criticism toward LIV Golf — would be advised to be looking out for black limousines following him on highways or when walking near city streets.

The same Saudi power structure with which Monahan was celebrating this deal in a Tuesday morning news release also is now proudly offering political embraces to Russia, China and Iran.

Quite a hat trick of chums there.

As for Tuesday's news, let's start by admitting golfers such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, to name a handful, are unlikely to experience financial difficulties in the years ahead.

Yet, hundreds of millions — including the $800M offered to Tiger by LIV — are considerable bundles to be left out of their bank accounts based on Monahan's pleas over two years ago to stay loyal to the PGA Tour.

That plea included Monahan saying he was against negotiating with Greg Norman's privateers, and then the commissioner did so completely behind the backs of the players — the people for whom he supposedly works.

Californian Sahith Theegala, a budding Tour star, said: "Just craziness … I'm sure there's a reason for it, but it's not going to be a good enough reason for the utter lack of communication. How are the top 10 players in the world finding out on Twitter? …

"No way players are going to be OK with this."

Tom Lehman (Player of the Year in 1996) and Tim Herron (four victories) were Minnesota success stories on the Tour. They were both in Madison, Wis., on Tuesday for this week's Champions Tour (seniors) event.

"I can't even imagine how upset some of the players are that didn't take the LIV millions," Lehman said Tuesday on the phone. "This came out of left field for everyone this morning.

"If there's a split tour, a large slate of elevated events for the top players and then all the rest in secondary tournaments, it's exactly what Greg Norman was talking about, pushing for, when I made it onto the Tour for a second time in 1992.

"Thirty years later, it looks like they are following a Greg Norman plan, which I wouldn't recommend. A lot of players already didn't trust Monahan, and now he's done a 180-degree-about-face on LIV."

This was the question asked of Lehman: If it's a split tour, with the top 50-60 playing events twice a month plus majors, how does the entry-level player — such as Lehman in 1992 — get the chance to play himself into the elite fields and become a Player of the Year four years later?

"That's one of the big concerns," Lehman said. "If there's no way for those guys up on top to move down because they're playing in set fields, how is the 22-year-old starting off and not a phenom but someone getting steadily better, going to move up?

"Also, the players that jumped over to LIV, are they just going to come in and reclaim their old standing in the players' ranking? If that happens, Monahan is going to have real problems with the players that stayed loyal to the Tour.

"I think those guys should come back below the players who get to the Tour out of qualifying school."

Herron said: "Getting all the players back together is probably the best thing for golf, but I wouldn't like the way it came about — all done in the dark — if I was still playing the PGA Tour.

"I know one thing … the Tour owns the Champions Tour, but it isn't too worried about us. We're playing for the same money as when Hale Irwin was winning everything 20 years ago."

We will hear next week what this means for the future of the 3M Open after this year's event at TPC Twin Cities (July 27-30). That's when tournament executive director Hollis Cavner will be allowed to discuss the changes that are afoot.

He'll be optimistic, because he's Hollis.