LIV Golf’s legionnaires flounder as Royal Troon throws up perfect storm

Greg Norman was on hand at Royal Troon on Saturday. The managing director of LIV Golf and bête noir of the game’s bastions, has previously been banned from the Open. Two years ago he was turned down for a letter of invitation to St Andrews, but this weekend he has been given “the full privileges” befitting a former championship golfer.

There’s more to it than meets the eye, as is often the case in tidbits about LIV, the Saudi-funded villain league. The R&A joked a few months ago that Norman wasn’t on the list for the Open, but that there were still “tickets available on the resale platform or via hospitality; he’s welcome to watch there.” However, faced with the knowledge that Norman would be coming anyway (either via a tout or more likely on the guest list of one of his players), the R&A rolled out the red carpet this weekend.

As negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund continue over how to integrate Saudi Arabia’s ambitions for a sporting revolution into the most traditional of athletic environments, it is tempting to read every interaction with LIV for signs of the state of affairs and a possible shift in the balance of power. This applies to maneuvers on the course as well as off it.

The majors are essentially separate from the skirmishes of golf’s Civil War, but the lack of world ranking points for LIV competitions means that it is just as difficult for players to get into one of the four showpieces as it was for Norman. However, at the 152nd Open, a total of 18 breakaway golfers started the first round, a record for a major in the ‘LIV era’ (of two and a half years).

That number had been reduced somewhat by the time the competition reached the second half. Some of LIV’s biggest stars were felled by the cut, including former Open champions Henrik Stenson, Cameron Smith and Louis Oosthuizen. The biggest name of them all, Bryson DeChambeau, was also defeated. After a year in which his performances at the majors (winning the US Open, finishing second at the PGA and tied for sixth at the Masters) had led to debate over whether LIV was making any headway in golf’s heartlands, the big man sputtered again on the links, heading home with a scorecard of nine-over par.

That left 11 players for the third round and a chance to make their mark on the tournament. However, that chance was roundly rejected on the day, and while there is still one chance to make amends, experience so far – and the weather forecast – suggests that is unlikely.

The opening rounds of the day saw a number of LIV legionnaires, that combination of retired stars and well-paid substitutes, making their way around the course in favourable conditions. Abraham Ancer, currently ranked 371 in the world, the most successful golfer in Mexico and a member of LIV’s ‘Fireballs’ team, was first out and shot a round of 70, one under that day and his best score of the tournament. Phil Mickelson, the winner of six majors and a $200 million signing fee, also came home in 72, a score that could have been even better had he not needed three putts on the par-five 12th. To balance things out, however, was Andy Ogletree, ranked 285 in the world, who shot a 79 and dropped strokes on half of the holes he played.

The afternoon promised to offer better food for Norman, with Jon Rahm followed by the pair of Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, with Chilean prospect Joaquín Niemann coming in last. It was almost as Rahm, last year’s runner-up, stepped to the first tee that the heavens opened on the Ayrshire coast, but the LIV boys, well, they didn’t like it.

Rahm held his course steady enough, dropping strokes on the second and 12th but birdied the third to move one over for the day and two over for the tournament. Four-time major winner Koepka, meanwhile, had to retake his tee shot on the fourth en route to a double bogey and posted a 40 on the back nine to drop him to eight over on the scoreboard. Johnson also dropped two strokes, this time on the 17th, to finish with a 72, but Niemann outshone them both by taking nine on the par-four 11th, hitting the ball out of bounds twice.

LIV boasts that it is a competition that brings you golf from “the most electric cities in the world”. It’s fair to say that Troon doesn’t quite meet that criteria. Nor does links golf and a lack of experience with the conditions will surely be cited as a factor in any perceived underperformance. You could go further and suggest that a course that played devilishly for everyone is almost antithetical to the central LIV idea of ​​”exciting” low-scoring golf. Either way, Saturday at the Open looked to be exactly the kind of challenge that golf’s revolutionaries are not suited to, not that the tournament lost much for it.