Golf whose interest it is to promote teams as key to the future of the pro game. It’s a rare point of unity, with the other side of golf’s civil war also investing in the concept. This year's launch of indoor simulator TGL – Tomorrow’s
BETTER TOGETHER Joaquin Niemann believes
camaraderie has improved he and his teammates as people.
Golf League – by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and extension the PGA Tour, organises teams around major American cities in a format that airs on pri- metime and can’t be affected by weather. Commercially, there’s an idea that a team of golf- ers, even if geographically contrived, is worth more than their sum as individuals. Teams don’t skip events, miss cuts or suffer career-ending injuries that leave sponsors holding an empty bag. Fandom accrues and passes to generations, unlocking all manner of longer-term marketing deals. But as a golf lover, presumably you don’t care about any of this, the business. You’re more fascinated by how the greatest players in the world think, practice, compete, live. Money aside, what’s it like being on a team permanently, as opposed to the biennial gath- erings of Ryder and Presidents Cups? It’s a question that takes a pausing of hostilities to answer. (Though to truly put money aside, let’s first put it on the table. In 2024, Scottie Scheffler earned $63 million in prize money and bonuses. Jon Rahm earned $35 million plus whatever chunk we might allocate from his multi-year LIV Golf contract, es- timated around $300 million. In each of the 14 LIV Golf tournaments in the 2025 season, individual winners will receive $4 million and winning teams will receive $5 million towards their franchise op- erating budget. As unchanged by money as Schef- fler’s personality and competitive drive seem to be, let’s temporarily/graciously assume similar for the other top golfers of this world for whom dollars have reached mathematical abstraction.) I RECENTLY SPOKE TO SEVERAL TEAM CAP- TAINS in a LIV Golf players dining lounge, which does look different. Rather than individuals, a rov- ing eye always landed on four golfers in matching poppy polos, moving like slow tracers in and out of the buffet line and choosing tables collegially. But for the incessant ping pong game and throes of ex- citement reverberating from Sergio Garcia and his Fireballs GC, the following quotes are accurate.
ONE NICE THEORY ABOUT TEAM GOLF IS THAT it trains you to never give up. When your score is tethered to teammates, an individual is less sus- ceptible to wallow in self-pity on a bumbling back nine. “You never know what can happen on the last few holes. You may find something within you that you can carry to the next event. An 82 is al- ways better than 83,” says Jon Rahm, who recalls a moment in the locker room during his days at Arizona State University. He and the No 2 player combined for -29 in their home tournament, but the rest of the team dragged their score to -25 and a second-place finish. “I wish I would’ve gone and ripped them, told each person everything I thought they did wrong, that there was no chance anyone of them would ever be a pro playing like this. But instead, I tried to make guys feel better by saying ‘aw, you’re so talented’ and stuff like that. It was a split-second decision I’ve always regretted.” Rahm is now the captain of Legion XIII on LIV
“THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT I PLAY BETTER WHEN I AM AMPED.”
JOAQUIN NIEMANN
108 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JULY/AUGUST 2025
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