๐ณ๐ซโณ๏ธ #WILD โ After Rory McIlroy hit a tee shot earlier, a heckler yelled "get in the bunker... I hope you live there today!"
Rory responded with a signal to the size of his belly ๐ญ
๐ฃ๏ธโ๐บ๐ธ JUST IN โ The announcers have confirmed that some spectators have been removed from the grounds at Shinnecock Hills after there was poor behaviour among some fans watching the final grouping of Wyndham Clark and Scottie Scheffler. โGet in the bunkerโ was shouted towards Clark and many fans were heard cheering for poor shots. They added that the USGA โdoes not condone any of itโ.
Thoughts?
A decade ago, Teal Nation became champions!
That squad was honored today in Conway & this a badass trip down memory lane for us all to relive that magical run!
Does history repeat itself in 2026?
While there are many people celebrating the demise of LIV, for far too long there were far too many mute mouths about the cancer that LIV was and is.
It tilted the game towards greed. It muddied the meritocratic aspects of golf. Itโs likely that the philanthropic foundations of this game will, to some extent, be eaten into to fund the future equity of PGA Tour players. It stalled, or killed, the trajectory of hall of fame players. It divided the game.
The only win, as I see it, is that LIV sought to launder the atrocities of the Saudis, but instead it further highlighted them.
As LIV players sold their autonomy, the whole sport seemed to be in the throes of transition, from professionalism to authoritarianism.
But the golf world knew that the Saudis were not interested in golf and that sport has norms that are worth preserving.
Money, not for merit, but for the murky purposes of sportwashing crowds out those norms.
It is in the striving to get better that one gets richer, that is the transformative influence of sport; both the athlete and audience benefit from the norms of competition. Sportswashing, what MBS/PIF were attempting to do with LIV by paying athletes for their celebrity to confer legitimacy on their murderous regime, reverses this process because it is only ostensibly about the competition, it is primarily about the obfuscation of the horrors of the regime. Both the athlete and the audience are robbed of the transformative influence of sport and what they are participating in and watching is merely a facade, a base amusement.
So it is no surprise that almost nobody watched.
Good riddance to the Saudi backed LIV.