Who knows what the future has in store for men’s professional golf. Pádraig Harrington told Irish Golfer and other media outlets at Royal Troon that he doesn’t see a world where the PGA Tour and LIV merge, and though he’d be the first to admit that he doesn’t have his ear to the ground like others do, the likelihood is that certain players making guest appearances on the opposing tours and that’s as close as it comes.
One thing that was reinforced this week, however, is that links golf needs to play a bigger role in the future landscape, whatever it may be. The major championships usually stand alone in terms of the drama they deliver, but 2024 may have broken fresh ground in that regard. The Masters was incredible thanks to the adverse weather, gusting winds and the carnage that ensued. The US Open on a firm and fast Pinehurst required a different level of precision and heightened short game imagination and delivered one of the best major championship finishes in recent memory, and the Open Championship at Royal Troon was a battle of attrition that identified the players with every weapon in their arsenals.
The US PGA Championship was the joker in the pack, played on a dartboard-like course where the formula was simple; drive it long, wedge it close, sink the putt. Basically, the same formula that is delivered week-to-week on the PGA Tour. Xander Schauffele has emerged as one of the elite major championship players of this generation, so having him emerge as victor, and in the manner that he did, at Valhalla added a level of credibility to the event that the setup didn’t really deserve, but the fact remains that golf is at it’s best when the turf is firm, the wind is blowing, and ideally, there’s a mix of the two.
This year, with the Irish Open returning to Royal County Down, we’re being treated to three weeks of links golf after the Scottish Open and Open Championship – and we’ll have four with the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October – but despite the rescheduling of the Irish Open being to the liking of the pros who get to decompress for a couple of weeks after the FedEx Cup playoffs and then return to Europe, it would be a much more attractive prospect if it were played in the run in to the Open Championship as it previously had been.
If we were tearing up the script and starting afresh, there should be three consecutive weeks of links golf before the links season culminates at the Open Championship. The Scottish and Irish Opens are already well established, but add in the Welsh Open or another championship in England, alternating so that once every three years each tournament occupies the prime slot in the schedule the week preceding the Open Championship.
Few top players would commit to playing all three, but there’d be a scattering across all of them and, as Royal Troon showed, the players best adept at modifying their games to handle the stiff winds, to utilise different shot shapes, to chop their way out of fescue, and to plot their paths round the course will be best equipped to land the Claret Jug.
As the riches in the game continue to increase – Nick Dunlap earned $720,000 for winning the Barracuda Championship on the PGA Tour this week where the highest ranked player in the field was 59th in the world – the prestige of being a major champion is only likely to increase because, for the already incredibly wealthy, titles are the one thing that money can’t buy.
But if Harrington is proven correct and the PGA Tour and LIV don’t come to an agreement to merge, then this will never happen with the current Strategic Alliance between the DP World and PGA Tours as the PGA Tour will always hold the balance of power and the balance of power will always be a U.S. centric model.
But in the event of satisfactory agreements not being made, there is a huge opportunity for the DP World Tour to step into the void and strike an agreement and with additional financial investment, then a proper links swing could and should be a real prospect.
One or more of these links swing events as a co-sanctioned DP World Tour/LIV event would guarantee a top-class field, and top class players playing top class links courses is a win-win for golf fans worldwide.