Men’s Golf threatens to be blown apart with new event that could see an exodus of players leaving the main golfing body

The Centurion Club in Hertfordshire will be the centre of attention when this week a new event in the golfing calendar threatens to blow apart elite men’s golf.

48 players will compete at the Centurion Club, which is situated 30 miles north of London, in the opening tournament in the LIV Golf Invitational Series, a wealthy project funded by former world number one Greg Norman.

Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer and the legend that is Phil Mickelson have all said they will be taking part in the event.

Mickelson, who hasn’t played since February after comments made about the breakaway tour, has now had a change of heart and decided that in his words he wants to return to golf with a “renewed spirit and excitement”.

It’s an interesting decision from the American, or has he know decided that he doesn’t want to miss out on a chunk of a very large cake with a fistful of dollars inside it.

Earlier last week week former world No.1 Dustin Johnson confirmed that he would be playing in the new event.

There has been reports that Johnson has signed on for a fee of $150m, before even competing in the first of eight $25m events that will be offering prize money of $4m to the winner and a healthy $120,000 for finishing in last place.

The money invested is small change for the Saudi Arabian people who are funding this new idea by the kingdom’s vast Public Investment Fund(PIF). These people are looking to rewrite the future of golf as we know it.

Both the PGA Tour and DP World Tours refused their players waivers to allow them to compete in Norman’s series, with all players liable to severe sanctions, possible fines and bans as well.

Future Ryder Cup roles are now in jeopardy for some, with more players deciding to turn their back on the PGA circuit and DP World Tours to play in this series.

Ultimately, the PGA and DP World Tours will have to come up with a solution to stop players from breaking away to join Norman’s new venture.

It will as always be about the money. The PGA are going to have to raise their stakes much higher, if they can or will lose out to Norman’s Saudi Arabian cash.

This week will be a testing week for the world of golf. This event is new territory for the game with the ultimate test being are the fans going to sign up for this type of event.

According to the LIV website, three day ground passes are sold out. However, over the weekend both Westwood and Richard Bland tweeted out promotional codes offering free day tickets to the first 100 who signed up.

Interestingly, as of the start of the week these codes were still working, which remains to be seen just how many punters have taken up this offer.

We will have to brace ourselves for what promises to be an interesting time ahead in the wonderful world of golf.

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