Greg Norman signs autographs during LIV Golf's event in Australia. Let’s call this an opinion … on an opinion … on opinions. We’ll start in reverse order. And the takes. — Getting PGA Tour and LIV Golf players back together, saying: “Like for me, we’ve all done better from all of this. Whether you stayed on the PGA Tour or you left, we have all benefited from this. I’ve been on the record saying this a lot, like we’re playing for a $20 million prize fund this week. That would have never happened if LIV hadn’t have come around. I think for the — I think everyone’s just got to get over it and we all have to say OK, this is the starting point and we move forward. We don’t look behind us, we don’t look to the past. Whatever’s happened has happened and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone. If people are butt hurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went or whatever, like who cares?” — How he came to peace with potential reunification, saying: “Because I look at what I made in 2019 before LIV came around and I look at what I’ve made after LIV came around and it’s very different. Like I don’t know what to say, I earn more money now than I did in 2019 and if LIV hadn’t have come around, I don’t know if I would have been able to say that.” — President Donald Trump’s involvement in Tour-Saudi PIF negotiations, saying: “So the president, he can do a lot of things. He can also — he has direct access to Yasir’s [Yasir Al-Rumayyan] boss. Not many people have that. Not many people can say, I want you to get this deal done and by the way, I’m speaking to your boss, I’m going to tell him the same thing. There’s a few things that he can do. He can be influential. He loves the game of golf, he has — I saw it when I was playing — I was playing with a — I was playing with Sheik Hamdan of Abu Dhabi the day when he got elected in November and the respect he has in the Middle East is — I don’t think people appreciate how much respect that he has there. So I think whenever he says something or he — they listen and I think that’s a big thing.” There were more takes from McIlroy, but the only judgement here is that, since his answers weren’t short, McIlroy appears to have spent at least some time thinking about things. You can appreciate that. But is everyone thinking about things, you know, properly? A day earlier at the Genesis, Collin Morikawa wondered that. Here, then, was his opinion … on opinions. “Yeah, I think a lot more people have opinions,” he said, “and there’s nothing wrong with that, and they’re sharing that. I don’t know if we’re all focused on how do we make the product better for people, right? I think we’ve made golf really, really good for ourselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think every one of us feels like we deserve that and I think we do. “But how do we keep growing, getting more engagement, getting more eyeballs to the sport? How do we have people want to come out to the golf course and say, I want to go watch these 20 players play? I think we’re sometimes focusing on small issues that are important, but then we make it like it’s going to solve the whole thing.” Did Morikawa have an example? He did. He said look at the discussion around cutting PGA Tour cards from 125 to 100. “They say it’s going to make it better for slow play and better for fans or whatever, right?” Morikawa said. “It makes it better for the membership because now those 100 guys that keep their card can say I can set my schedule in January, January 1st, and this is what I’m going to play. Even guys that are 125 right now, they’re still like, maybe I get into this, maybe I get into that. Aside from the big Signature Events, aside from the majors, I’m saying full-field events. “So it’s just focusing on the right things of saying — of thinking about the product. How does it come off on TV, how do people watch it at home, where do they watch it, why do they watch it, why do people want to come out? People want to go out to Phoenix because it’s a party, there’s nothing wrong with that. Each tournament has their own thing, right? Each tournament has their kind of own, what do I call it, just has its own essence, the way it shows out. “So it’s tough to get that when you have 40-something events. There needs to be a focus on that versus the minute, minute stuff that could affect, you know, smaller, lesser group of people.” As for an opinion … on an opinion … on opinions? In a few minutes, Morikawa summed up fan angst built up over the past few years, didn’t he? Field sizes and purse sizes and other such items may make the employees happy, but do they please the ticket-buying and broadcast-watching consumer? If they really do, great. If they don’t, put these items on the clock, to borrow a phrase from another recent topic . Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9. 2. McIlroy had another take that I’ve been wondering about for a while: The division in men’s pro golf is unfortunate — but has it made the majors even better? Said McIlroy: “I think we’re both sort of like this has been great for the major championships. We all get together at the major championships and that’s been a really good thing.” The thought is along the lines of the feeling we talked about in this space a few weeks back — since the times are few when the best are all together, you appreciate them more. Of course, having everyone together, say, 20 times a year would be OK, too.
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