The first-round crowds of the first LIV Golf event weren’t championship-sized, but they were just as good at locations around the Centurion Club as they were when Phil Mickelson started.
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Hertfordshire, England – The first LIV Golf International Series kicked off on Thursday with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from an entity with unlimited money to bid alongside a golf tournament.
There were Grenadier Guards, a fake version of the Buckingham Palace institution known as the Queen’s Guard, doing their duty in and around the Centurion Club.
There were taxis in London, perfectly organized outside the field to take players to their tee for the start of the gun, a different format not usually seen in professional golf.
There was the set of The Blades, a formation of planes hovering in the sky with the music playing and it started playing at 2:15pm local time.
And then…it was a golf tournament.
“Once you started, it was just golf for me. But the start was a little different,” said Charles Schwarzl, who leads South African teammate Henny de Plessis with one shot after the first turn 65.
Well, yeah, about that beginning. The beginning of the gun. Schwarzel started his tour on the third tee. When he got there, he was the only one. Wade Ormsby and Graeme McDowell had not yet arrived.
Schwarzel wondered if something was wrong. I called Graeme and asked, ‘Am I in the right place? “
It was.
While there has been great concern about starting a new endeavor like this, including defecting many PGA Tour players – with more to come – competing in a new format that includes teams, starting shotguns, only 54 holes and huge sums of money, it has evolved into Something you would expect at any professional golf event.
The crowds weren’t nearly as big as you’ll see next week at The Country Club for the US Open or at this week’s RBC Canadian Open, where the PGA Tour event is being played for the first time in three years due to the cancellation of COVID-19.
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But it was similar to what you might see early morning on the Golf Channel for a European Tour event (now DP World) in some remote places, with a large number of spectators in prominent positions and few spectators elsewhere.
And there were some other familiar scenes, like Phil Mickelson being knocked out of trees, Dustin Johnson standing over a missed hit, or Kevin Na – sometimes – walking inside.
There was a seemingly slight swing of Louis Oosthuizen, the look of annoyed Sergio Garcia and Schwartzel’s well-rounded play.
“Don’t get me wrong, this is the kind of golf course you need to focus on what you’re doing. It’s not an easy golf course. You have to drive the ball very well. It’s very tight. I only missed two motors, and I paid for it,” said Garcia, who shot the 71. Expensive.
“So it’s obviously something you have to focus very hard on, and it’s a very solid golf course.”
Phil Mickelson had been playing for the first time in over four months, since the last round of the PIF Saudi International Championship, where he finished 17th. This was the last tournament he played before his life was turned upside down due to his involvement with the LIV and the comments he made about the PGA Tour .
After a slow start, Mickelson settled down to play as a quarterback nine at 3-under par and hit 69, trailing Schwarzel by four.
“It’s been a while since I’ve played, so I don’t know. It looked really fun,” Mickelson said.
“It’s great energy here.”
When it was completed – and essentially, it was all over at the same time due to the beginning of Venice – the festivities began again. The players were taken back to the club in London taxis. They went to the registration area to sign and certify their scorecards. A few met with members of the media.
Then the music started again, planes hovered overhead and a concert with James Morrison and James Bay was scheduled to begin. It continued until the evening.
LIV Golf has spared no expense to join this golf tournament in two and a half months. You rocked the golf world in the process.
But once the ropes are in, well…it was golf.