This is the most interesting sports story at the moment by miles. So many interesting threads to it all.
The core truth is the PGA Tour is broken and it's hurting golf. It's a 52 week schedule with only 8 or so tournaments that actually mean anything. But the other 44 have served to slowly suck the oxygen out of the rest of world golf.
The Australian Open is a case in point. It used to attract a great field, good (not great) prize money, played on some beautiful courses. But now it can't compete with the Bumfuck Open, because it offers more money but also it's critical for mid-tier pros to play as often as they can on the PGA Tour.
But it's more than just the impact on the international game. The PGA fields are bloated. The courses are dull. The formats are tired. It's the same shit each week. The PGA Tour is dying for a shake-up.
So in one sense, LIV Golf may well spark the PGA Tour into action because it is a major threat to it's future.
The amount of cash being thrown at has-been or never-was players is staggering and they are just getting started. Reed and Dechambeau are gone. Rickie Fowler gone. Harold Varner, Jason Kokrak, Abe Ancer, some South Americans, maybe Adam Scott will go soon too.
But the format of LIV is ridiculous. Team golf is amazing when the teams actually have a history and a reason for being. I care about Europe vs America, not FC Smash against the Lip-Out Lads. Not to mention the shotgun starts and all the other garbage. And of course the Saudi blood money that underpins it all.
I don't like LIV, I won't watch it, but I do hope it might spark some good outcomes overall.