Reusse: LIV Golf, with the feel of the minor leagues, exists obnoxiously in the background

One can only imagine the sheepishness that distinguished professional golfers must feel when they are expected to show excitement as their team, the Crushers, defeats the RangeGoats to win the team portion of one of the 14 events sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s endless hundreds of billions and disguised under the title LIV Golf League.

Even before the first shot is launched, these tournaments proudly advertise they are minor league, since LIV is the Roman numeral for 54, and 54 holes are supposed to decide titles in senior men’s golf, and not on the varsity level of men’s professional golf, where 72 holes have been required since before Gene Sarazen.

If you are a golf follower and have tried to visit one of these tournaments on television, it takes about five minutes before reaching a point where there’s a decision to make:

Yes, you are going to turn it off, but you don’t know whether to laugh or to cry over what you’ve just seen.

A fifth of the screen is taken up with the current standings for these made-up-from-nothing teams. Announcers are trying to pump up viewers with their phony excitement, and a great player like Brooks Koepka is strolling around in shorts, and you know he’s there 100% for the guaranteed pile of millions and doesn’t give one hoot if he finishes first or 27th in the field of 54. And then last week, Koepka complained about LIV’s lack of progress in Year 4.

This is also where you now can get a glimpse of Dustin Johnson generally showing the indifference he demonstrated later in his time on the PGA Tour. Next to Tiger Woods, he was the most talented player in the world for a long stretch, but this is what he became:

As the 3M Open was getting started, tournament boss Hollis Cavner was able to recruit Johnson for the crowdless (COVID-19) event in 2020 and for star power in 2021. Johnson missed the cut on merit in 2020. The next year, he got to No. 18 on the cut line on the second day.

And then he looked 100% the part of someone who wanted to go home that Friday to wife Paulina and the kids, hitting a ball flush into the water.

Dustin signed with LIV in June 2022, and won his first tournament there. He has put up an annual victory since then, to remind everyone of his talent, but he’s more often getting lapped by players such as Dean Burmester.

The LIVsters are in the Miami area this weekend at Doral, a historic golf course now owned by Donald Trump, current president of the United States. With the stock market roiling, the beloved Tariff King arrived at Doral on Thursday for a golf cart ride and wave to pre-tournament admirers.

There are 12 LIV players in this week’s 96-player Masters field in Augusta, Ga. If one of those gents has won at Doral, this will get a courtesy mention when the player appears on the CBS telecast, but “nobody” — meaning at least 95% of North America’s golf audience — will have given it as much as a “you-the-man” at the result.

“That’s what I say to the [PGA Tour] commissioner [Jay Monahan],” Cavner said this weekend. “The Tour responded to LIV. It made changes. They worked.

“We’re back in good shape. Sponsorships are strong. TV ratings are back. Fans are showing up. And when LIV has a tournament, on Monday very few followers of our sport have any idea who won.

“There are a lot of good guys over there. I have many friends playing LIV. When they’re in Augusta next week, everything will be friendly for the most part.

“If something’s worked out so the LIV guys can play a few more tournaments in the course of the year, I wouldn’t see that as a big problem.

“But the way I see it, LIV came in, the Tour adjusted, and we came out a winner.”

Cavner’s Pro Links has two regular events on the PGA Tour: the Valspar in the Tampa Bay area last month and the 3M Open in Blaine in late July. Pro Links also has several senior events (including this week in Boca Raton, Fla., in conjunction with the Pro Football Hall of Fame).

Viktor Hovland rallied to beat Justin Thomas in the Valspar last month; great finish, big crowds.

“And the next day our Valspar college tournament started,” Cavner said. “PGA Tour University — where these college stars can earn their way directly to the Tour — is one of the best initiatives ever for us.

“Young guys like Luke Clanton, still amateurs, play in the tournaments in the summer, they have big games and big personalities … the galleries just love ‘em. Clanton, he played four days in the Valspar, played well, then headed to his car and started playing in our Valspar college event.

“I said to him, ‘Luke, you really going to be playing tomorrow?’ He said, ‘There’s nothing else I want to do, Hollis, but play golf.’

“There’s a bunch of tremendous young players now contending on the Tour, and there are more like Luke Clanton on the way. LIV’s got its deal, but the Tour … we’re good."