What We'll Remember From 2022: Golf
As 2022 winds down, Sports Illustrated is looking back at the themes and teams, story lines and through lines that shaped the year.
It remains an interesting hypothetical question: What kind of odds could you have gotten at the beginning of 2022 that Tiger Woods would compete in the first two major championships, and Phil Mickelson would not?
Nobody could see that coming as the new year dawned, not with Woods dealing with troublesome and painful right leg injuries, not with Mickelson’s iconic status in the game enhanced just a half-year earlier when he became the oldest major champion in the game’s long history.
And yet on April 7, Woods was on the first tee at Augusta National. And Mickelson was not. A little more than a month later, Woods was on the first tee at Southern Hills Country Club. And Mickelson was not.
Through sheer will and determination, Woods made it back to competitive golf this year, although he played just nine rounds.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of controversial comments about the PGA Tour, the Saudi Arabian regime and its backing of the new LIV Golf League, Mickelson took a four-month leave from the game (he was later suspended by the PGA Tour) and became one of several high-profile names to jump to the new circuit.
And that became the story of the year in golf.
Only PowerPoint plans of LIV Golf existed in January, an idea that had various renderings and permutations going back several years. Greg Norman, the two-time major winner from Australia who won some 80 tournaments worldwide and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, was picked to run the new endeavor, being named CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf.
There were several starts and stops, rumors, plans to poach players and launch a full 14-tournament schedule with four-man teams playing for $20 million purses earlier this year.
That proved to be ambitious, but the entire concept hardly fizzled. Despite the controversy that Mickelson brought in February, with several players who were thought to be on board, retreating, LIV Golf pushed forward, announced an eight-tournament invitational series that begin in June, then withstood an onslaught of negativity and derision to launch at The Centurion Club outside of London in early June. Dustin Johnson, Mickelson and other majors winners such as Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer joined, later followed by Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and reigning Players Championship and British Open champion Cam Smith.
Although its 54-hole shotgun start format was often panned, LIV Golf continued to make news. There were protests at several events due to LIV’s backing by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Two events were played at former President Donald Trump courses—with Trump not only in attendance but playing in the pre-tournament pro-am and lauding LIV while panning the PGA Tour.
And when it was over, a lot of people made a lot of money, led by Johnson, who banked more than $36 million in individual, team and bonus cash—on TOP of what he was paid up front, reportedly more than $125 million.
Along the way, there was plenty of vitriol. PGA Tour players were suspended and later saw their memberships rescinded by commissioner Jay Monahan. Woods and Rory McIlroy took the side of the PGA Tour, trying to strengthen the product with an enhanced bonus structure and elevated tournaments. Both called for Norman’s ouster as a way to spur peace talks. That prompted Garcia to wonder why Monahan shouldn’t go, too. Mickelson said he was on the “right side."
Add it all up, and you have perhaps the biggest story in golf since Woods emerged to “Tiger Mania." It was certainly the most polarizing. And it promises to provide even more twists and turns in 2023.—Bob Harig
While you're here, here's a handful of SI's golf stories from 2022 that you might want to revisit:
LIV Golf Wraps Its First Event, and Golf’s Future is Uncertain
The staging of the event was top-notch, modest if not boisterous crowds were on hand at Centurion Club, the course presented a more-difficult-than-expected challenge, and Charl Schwartzel left with a $4.75 million of the $25-million purse. But golf suddenly finds itself in a place that might have been foreseeable but nonetheless has resulted in a tenuous situation that leaves the future of the game in some serious doubt.
His Delivery Was Wrong, But Mickelson’s Message May Have Been Right
Mickelson has long believed that the star players are not compensated in relation to their worth; that there are too many tournaments and that the big names should play together more often; and that the PGA Tour was sitting on a pile of money that should be going to the players. While his complaints about not getting to own his media rights were off-base—no sports league grants that to players, otherwise television rights fees and marketing agreements would prove to be far less valuable—he seemingly had a point as it related to other issues.
Exclusive: Phil Mickelson on LIV Golf and His PGA Tour Status: ‘I Haven’t Resigned My Membership’
“Gambling has been part of my life ever since I can remember. But about a decade ago is when I would say it became reckless. It’s embarrassing. I don’t like that people know. The fact is I’ve been dealing with it for some time. Amy has been very supportive of it and with me and the process. We’re at place after many years where I feel comfortable with where that is. It isn’t a threat to me or my financial security. It was just a number of poor decisions.’’