Fact or Fiction: The 2025 Players Championship Will Include LIV Golfers
Welcome to another installment of SI Golf “Fact or Fiction,” where we've made everything from a 2 to a “don't ask” on the 17th at Sawgrass.
If you're new here, we post a series of topical statements for writers and editors to declare as “Fact” or “Fiction” along with a brief explanation. Responses may also (occasionally) be “Neutral” since there's a lot of gray area in golf.
Do you agree or disagree? Let us know on the SI Golf X account.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass that talks with the Saudi PIF are “accelerating,” with a “shared vision to quiet the noise.” One year from now, the Players Championship will include LIV golfers.
FACT. If we're really heading for a compromise in the next year, I’d guess it would include a pathway back for LIV’ers to play select PGA Tour events. Sawgrass is no doubt a spot many LIV golfers would like to return to.—Jeff Ritter
FICTION. Even if a deal is consummated sometime this year, there will be so much to unpack. The idea that there could be any real unity in 2025 seems a stretch. Perhaps there’d be a one-week exception. But that seems doubtful.—Bob Harig
Cameron Smith won the Players Championship in 2022. Could he and other LIV players be welcomed back in 2025?
Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images
FICTION. Even if the Tour makes a deal with the PIF and LIV, the current players are so against bringing the LIV defectors back they would never let them back to play in Tour events so soon and surely not in their biggest event of the year.—Alex Miceli
FICTION. I’m just not convinced about this timeline yet. As much as I’d like to think LIV players should and will be reintegrated into marquee events by 2025 to reunite the game, I don’t love how prolonged this process has become. Monahan’s press conference gave us a whole bunch of nothing to hold on to. It’s been 10 months since the framework agreement and in many ways, men’s pro golf feels further divided now than it was then. If this standstill continues, I worry that the major championships will really be the only events that fans care about. We need a PIF deal.—Gabby Herzig
FICTION. Not sure I buy Monahan's optimism but even if I did, I don't think the Tour would want LIV stars in its flagship event just one year from now—because one of them winning creates a PR headache. When and if LIV players return, I could see it being a gradual re-onboarding where they are only allowed access to non-signature events first.—John Schwarb
Scottie Scheffler ranked fifth in strokes-gained putting for the week along with first in strokes-gained off-the-tee and around the green in his dominant Arnold Palmer Invitational win (he was also first in putting Sunday). If he putts that well in this year's majors he'll win more than one.
FICTION. It would be a historic season to win more than one major, and if he pulls it off it’ll take more than merely putting well. But if Scottie putts, he’s going to win multiple events this year, and probably at least one major.—J.R.
FACT. No question. He’s the game’s best ballstriker by a mile and continually gives himself chances. The four times he’s had 4-plus strokes-gained on the greens, he’s won. He can win with far less than that.—B.H.
FACT. Scheffler has been close in majors with a balky putter, with a hot putter he will have a much better chance at a second or third major in 2024.—A.M.
FICTION. More than one major is tough to say, but there is no question that Scheffler and his mallet putter are not messing around. If he continues to improve his putting even incrementally each week, he will be unstoppable, as his ballstriking continues to separate him from the pack. I’ll say confidently that Scheffler will win one major this season.—G.H.
FACT. It's fun to root for a milestone and the last double-major winner was Brooks Koepka in 2018. I say Scheffler wins at Augusta and Valhalla and gives golf a huge early summer storyline that's not about off-course turmoil.—J.S.
Wyndham Clark was ruled to not have moved his ball in the rough on Saturday at Bay Hill though it appeared to relocate when he placed his club behind it. Sometimes these situations make PGA Tour rules officials appear too lenient.
FACT. I mean, let’s just be reasonable here about what we saw. Did that ball move, or did it not? Of course it did. So, if there’s no penalty for that, officials are going too light on the players.—J.R.
FACT. At the very least, Clark could have received the two-stroke penalty for improving his lie. The problem is this is done so frequently on the PGA Tour and in professional golf that there is a reluctance to penalize it. The ball moving is fuzzier as you could argue he could not see that in real time without replay. But that would have been some lesson to hit him with two strokes for improving his lie.—B.H.
FACT. Far too lenient. Competitors and officials need to protect the field, not pander to players. They are not your friends.—A.M.
FACT. It sure looked like Wyndham’s ball moved based on the video replay of the situation. Rules officials are often too lenient on the PGA Tour and this is just the latest example. The lack of slow-play penalties and Carl Yuan’s TIO relief at the Sony Open come to mind. It’s time for some action!—G.H.
FACT. Apparently the “naked eye” standard of Rule 20.2 came into play and I can't buy that at all in 2024. Can you imagine the NFL having that? If golf is going that route than just take away all the close-ups and don't insult us.—J.S.
Rory McIlroy said he's in favor of making the PGA Tour “more cutthroat, more competitive” with fewer cards and therefore fewer players. That's the direction the Tour should go with its new for-profit entity with investors.
FICTION. I like the mix of events—some limited-field and some more wide open—and a closed shop would take away too many opportunities for rising young players to make a mark.—J.R.
FACT. But this is only in regards to whatever the new entity unveils, and that is a big disclaimer. For the regular PGA Tour, reducing field sizes and perhaps taking away multi-year exemptions is risky. So if you finish outside the top 100—no matter what you did in years prior—you’d be moved down to the Korn Ferry Tour? PGA Tour Enterprises is talking about some other form of competition for the best players. At least that’s McIlroy’s vision. And that obviously needs to have a narrow focus.—B.H.
FACT. If you want to make the Tour a pure meritocracy then McIlroy’s cutthroat idea puts the pressure on playing as well as you can play, all the time. Other sports don’t take games off, so the PGA Tour should look in that direction.—A.M.
FACT. I’m going to agree with Rory here more so because I believe he knows what type of structure might best appeal to the PIF in negotiations. LIV and the Saudis clearly want some sort of global status—they don’t just want to fold into the PGA Tour if a deal is struck. I think the Tour’s full-field events are really important to its legacy as those tournaments give rise to the game’s newest stars. But clearly, Rory’s motives stretch beyond that at this point. He quit the PGA Tour Policy board and has been preaching the same “top players on a world tour” idea for months. I think we should listen to him.—G.H.
FICTION. “Fewer cards” is a shot from the top rope that I think right now is going too far, these are livelihoods after all for guys that don't have Rory’s bank account. But for the elite events—the ones that will really matter to the new for-profit entity—I think the access needs to tighten. If it takes a math formula to get you into a signature event, then do you really belong?—J.S.
