By The Numbers - part the fifty fifth

Most, may be all (I don't watch as much as one might suppose), sports pundits are just shills for whoever Daddy Warbucks is for that sport or specific event. So it was with some mixture of amusement and scorn that I heard one of said pundits claim that DeChambeau's top of the leaderboard place at the end of the third round (he's not yet on the course) of the US Open was due to his skipping to LIV. Now, my objection to all things PIF/Saudi is just that: all things. LIV is merely one of the greenwashing efforts. It's not as if the high priced golfers LIV pilfered from the PGA were living in shacks on Poverty Hill (that's from a Kingston Trio song; one of the few that made a point) on PGA wages.

The pundit's point, he said, was that LIV offered DeChambeau more time off to recharge, be with family, and such. Made him a better golfer. That assumes, of course, that tournament participation is materially different betwixt the two:

LIV - only 14 tournaments; as far as I can find, all must be attended
PGA - 15

Now, there is a ranking of PGA players at season end, and only so many (125, or more with exemptions, at last count) get to keep playing privileges; said points basically amount to money winnings, so playing only 15 tournaments might make it difficult to keep one's card. OTOH, LIV poached from the top tier of PGA players (including DeChambeau) who aren't likely to fall below the cutoff.

In sum, then, DeChambeau took the blood money out of simple greed. Same as the rest. And the thing is: all this 54 hole team play (LIV, get it?) with mammoth guaranteed money (so far, at least) is so undergraduate (or, professional rasstling); putting on your Big Boy Pants is what you're supposed to do after you finish school. Only beer drinking sub-GED sloths would be pleased with a LIV tournament.