Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm refute Phil Mickelson’s claim that PGA Tour is trending down

At last week’s LIV Jeddah event, Phil Mickelson continued to believe that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are trending in opposite directions. The Tour is on a downward spiral, he said, while LIV is the future. Of course, that’s an opinion, and a that’s pretty easy to objectively refute. But has that ever stopped Mickelson?

Lefty is encouraged to support LIV Golf because the stronger the emerging tournament, the better it is for his financial future. However, all the powerful gunslingers in the world can’t make half-truths (at best) full truths, and a couple of PGA Tour superstars got back to him this week in a meeting. newspaper leading up to the CJ Cup in South Carolina.

“God, I love Phil, but I don’t know what he’s talking about,” said Jon Rahm, who has been friends with Mickelson for a long time. “I really don’t know why he said that. There are some changes being made, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to go down, right? I really don’t know why he is. I don’t really know. I think there are some big changes being made and big changes for the players on the Tour. what made him say something like that.”

The changes Rahm is referencing are underway. The Tour’s top players have all agreed to compete in the same PGA Tour tournaments in the future, and it will start successfully in 2023 with 17 tournaments (including 4 major championships) where every longtime player who hasn’t defected from LIV will tee off.

“I’ve been talking about this for a long time, and I think the people that have decided to stay here and play these tournaments, they or we haven’t done anything different from what we’ve always done, right? are not?” Rory McIlroy said Wednesday. “We’re playing these events, we’re PGA Tour members, we stick with the traditional system that’s been there. Those who have switched to LIV, they are the ones who caused the disruption, they’re the ones that have brought the golf world to stream right now.

“I guess for them to put it their way, it’s bold and… I think there’s a lot of propaganda being used and all. I certainly don’t see the PGA Tour trending downwards at all. All talent, most, 95% talent is here You’ve got people like Tom Kim to be the future of our game.

“I disagree with what Phil said last week. I understand why he said it because of his position, but I don’t think anyone with a logical view of the game of golf can. agree with what he said.”

McIlroy is literally right when 95% of the talent is on the PGA Tour. Currently, 19 of the top 20 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking compete on the PGA Tour. To be fair to LIV, it currently doesn’t receive OWGR points for its events, and Abraham Ancer, Joaquin Niemann, and Dustin Johnson are just outside of that top 20, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be in the top 20 if all else remains. and on the PGA Tour.

Regardless, McIlroy is correct. Logic and reason – not to mention data – suggests Mickelson is incorrect about his assertion at this time. That could change, of course, but the current gap between the LIV and the PGA Tour is a lot wider than what Lefty has alluded to.