The collegiate theater of the LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour war has begun playing out. OSU's Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra planned to come back for his senior year and so withdrew his name from this year's PGA Tour University standings. But he reversed course this week, taking the LIV offer. The Tour has promised sanctions against its members who go to LIV, but it can't penalize collegians who have yet to join the Tour. Lopez-Chacarra believes that will allow him to eat the LIV cake without jeopardizing a later Tour career. "
The PGA Tour will still be there when I’m ready," he said in announcing the move.
Meanwhile, Haskins award winner Chris Gotterup (OU), who made the cut at the U.S. Open and this week in Connecticut, plans a Tour career and is hoping to use sponsor exemptions to get there. He says LIV hasn't approached him.
The difference is that Chacarra-Lopez has fellow-Spaniard Sergio Garcia pulling strings for him. And it's probably easier for a Euro to envision a career without the Tour.
Gotterup says that "good golf takes care of everything" and that if LIV offered him he probably wouldn't
"entertain it too much." But he's a poster child for the Tour's vulnerability with college stars. The top-ranked college player
per Golfstat (Lopez-Chacarra is #2), Gotterup missed the top 5 in the multi-year PGA Tour University rankings. So, he only earned status on third-tier PGA Tour Canada, which puts him two full seasons away from Tour membership (one if he gets through KFT Q school)--with no guaranteed money.
The Tour is vulnerable to having its stars poached, but it's
really vulnerable in the college pipeline, for whom a Saudi investment of $1 or $2 million changes everything. As Lopez-Chacarra said, “This contract gives me peace of mind and ensures the future of my family.”
And in his mind, it creates no barrier to future Tour membership. But the Tour came out to say that collegians forfeit their PGA Tour University standing if they play in non-Official World Golf Ranking events. (LIV responded by applying for standing with OWGR.) Pierceson Coody
turned down a two-year, multi-million LIV deal that covered all travel expenses--plus a deal for brother Parker--because he thought it would jeopardize his Tour options. (He is the top-ranked player in PGA Tour University and earns full KFT status.)
But I don't see how the Tour can effectively bar independent contractors who have never been members. Hope the Tour offers more carrot and less stick for collegians.