PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Weird week. Then again, weird has become the norm at the Genesis Invitational in recent years.
Weird, too, is the best way to describe the state of professional golf at the moment, with the great divide between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf and that “framework agreement’’ that seems flimsier than the current state of Tiger Woods’ health.
When a PGA Tour event is going to be remembered more for the bizarre Friday scene of an ambulance outside the service entrance of Riviera Country Club waiting to take an ailing Woods to the hospital (he never got into the ambulance) than for who won the tournament Sunday (Hideki Matsuyama), this is a problem.
It’s not the look the PGA Tour wants — particularly for one of its signature “elevated’’ events.
In the end, the only thing that separated this tournament in its previous L.A. Open iterations from the current “elevated’’ event status was the elevated payouts doled out to the players ($4 million to the winner).
Woods withdrew with flu symptoms six-plus holes into his second round Friday.
Later that day, Jordan Spieth, one of the most popular players in the world, was disqualified for inadvertently signing for an incorrect score on his scorecard and also was not around for the weekend.
Meanwhile, defending champion Jon Rahm — arguably the best player in the world — wasn’t welcome here because he took hundreds of millions to go to LIV Golf. Nor was the 2022 winner, Joaquin Niemann, who’s also playing on LIV.
Because of that bizarre circumstance, the ever-popular and always humorous Max Homa, who won the 2021 Genesis, joked before the tournament that he was the “double defending champion.’’
Speaking of the champion, Matsuyama and the thousands of spectators ringing the natural amphitheater of the 18th green were deprived Sunday of seeing Woods, whose foundation hosts the event, present the winner’s trophy.
Woods was nowhere to be found, presumably back home in Florida recuperating from the flu.
I never question an athlete’s injury or illness because only the person who’s injured or ill knows how bad he or she is feeling. But for Woods, two days removed from the flu diagnosis, not to be at Riviera on Sunday to present the trophy wasn’t a great look. The sponsors who pump millions into the event to benefit Woods’ foundation could not have been happy about his absence.
“I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to take a picture with Tiger today,’’ Matsuyama said after he won.
It’s difficult to imagine Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer not powering through the flu to make sure they were on hand to present the trophy to the winner of the Memorial or Arnold Palmer Invitational at the end of the tournament.
The Woods’ withdrawal and the ambulance drama, along with Spieth’s DQ and top-ranked stars like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler never making a true run added up to less buzz than there should have been for an “elevated’’ PGA Tour event.
The lack of buzz can directly be attributed to Woods’ early departure from the field and the divide in the game. Imagine what this week would have been like with Rahm defending his title and with Johnson, DeChambeau and Cam Smith also in the field.
It would have been a hell of a lot better. It would have felt like, ahem, what an “elevated’’ event is supposed to feel like. And the players on the PGA Tour who are honest with themselves know it.
“It’s been a little strange,’’ Jason Day told The Post, speaking of the agitated state of the game. “Like, we’ve had an agreement [with LIV] and yet one side [LIV] is still poaching players and it’s like, ‘Are we really agreeing? What’s going on?’
“We need to come back together at some point because we need the best players in the world playing against each other. That’s the best product. It just doesn’t work this way. We’ve just got to take all the emotion out of it and say, ‘OK, what’s better for the game?’
“If better for the game is bringing all the (LIV) guys back, then that’s better for the game and isn’t that a better product? There’d probably be a little bit of a disconnect at the start between some players, but give it some time and all of a sudden, things will be back to normal.
“It wasn’t too long ago as a [PGA] tour we were against LIV and now we’re in an agreement with them in what potentially could be a partnership. So, we’ve got to just sit down and take all the emotion out of it and make the best decision for golf.’’
Canadian MacKenzie Hughes, in a candid walk-and-talk interview with CBS this week, called it “kind of unfortunate where we are in the game right now,’’ adding, “It seems that it’s just all about the money and, ‘How much money can I make?’ It’s kind of lost the spirit of the game in the process.
“It seems like some guys have lost a little bit of sight of that and now we’re in a place where fans are just generally a little fed up with it. And those are the people that drive our sport.’’
Perfectly stated.
