At Stake This Weekend For LIV Golfers: A Claret Jug, and Respectability

It's possible that a LIV Golf regular could win this British Open, and Alex Miceli wonders how that could further roil the already choppy waters of pro golf.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Good vs. Evil.

Many books, movies and songs are written, shot and composed with the fight between the virtuous, moral, decent and respectable against the wicked, vile and immoral.

The theme of good vs. evil is highlighted throughout the bible, Shakespeare’s tragedy "Macbeth" and in all eight "Harry Potter" movies, where author J.K. Rowling drives the point home.

Maybe this is overkill considering the rest of this discourse will be about the genteel game of golf, which has become a moral and potentially legal quagmire as insurgent LIV Golf challenges professional golf's ecosystem.

Dustin Johnson is LIV Golf's highest-ranked player in the world and highest on the leaderboard at the British Open.  :: Rob Schumacher/USA Today

The war is foremost about control, money, and power in the professional game. More specifically, it’s the DP World Tour and PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf.

In Friday’s second round of the 150th Open Championship, Dustin Johnson shot a 5-under 67 and with that performance put LIV Golf squarely in the spotlight.

The establishment has feared that a LIV golfer could not only contend, but possibly win a major championship. Such a victory would lend credence that LIV is not exhibition golf, as Tiger Woods said, but that its 54-hole, shotgun start has actually been good preparation for championship golf.

“But what these players are doing for guaranteed money, what is the incentive to practice?” Woods said, criticizing LIV Golf in his Open championship press conference on Tuesday. “What is the incentive to go out there and earn it in the dirt? You're just getting paid a lot of money up front and playing a few events and playing 54 holes. They're playing blaring music and have all these atmospheres that are different.”

Positive attention for LIV at a major-championship venue would be unacceptable to the ecosystem, and it would counter some of the negative comments from the players like Woods and McIlroy.

Johnson is one of the original members to join LIV, and his jump from the PGA Tour to LIV was one of the biggest prizes for the nascent tour.

His performance on Friday at the Old Course moved the two-time major winner into the clubhouse lead and when the dust settled in the second round, in the third-to-final group and four shots back.

It was a shot across the bow in a war that already has had many battles with many more on the horizon.

Ahead of Johnson are two of the game’s young stars in Cameron Smith and Cameron Young, players that the PGA Tour is counting on to replace and solidify its value and strengthen fields that have taken somewhat of a hit as LIV golfers have departed.

Tied and paired with Johnson is newly minted Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, creating a pairing that, for many, might highlight the good vs. evil theme.

Of course, individually neither man is necessarily good or evil, but they represent groups that are considered good and evil.

For the sake of argument, Scheffler, who represents the traditional tours and the current ecosystem, will be characterized by most as the good, and the revolutionary LIV and its players as evil.

Talor Gooch, another LIV golfer on the leaderboard, would argue that.

“Everybody, it feels like, is against us, and that's OK,” Gooch said after a 3-under 69 that kept him in contention at 7 under. “It's kind of banded us together, I think.”

Neither Johnson nor Scheffler will be wearing boxing gloves or brandishing weapons. But two organizations that are opposites in their stance on what pro golf should be will be represented by players duking it out on Saturday in the third round of the Open.

The winner, if there is one, will have won a small battle in a war that continues to grow in fury as more PGA Tour players jump to LIV. More players will almost surely defect to LIV after the Open and again after the FedEx Cup concludes at the end of August.

In a good story, it’s never clear until the very end if good or evil triumphs.

That will be true after the third round as well, but one thing is clear: if Johnson, Gooch or any other LIV Golfer wins the Claret Jug this week, it will be not only a big story, but also propel LIV Golf to new heights. Others may start to wonder if LIV is a rebellion, or the new ecosystem itself.

More British Open Coverage From SI.com/Morning Read

> Tiger Woods Isn't Retiring Yet, But St. Andrews Revealed That His Competitive Days Are Over
> Matt Fitzpatrick Moves Into Position to Chase Rare Double at British Open
> Tiger Woods Understood That Friday's British Open Ovation Could Mark an End
> Tiger Woods, Collin Morikawa, Phil Mickelson Among Notable Players to Miss Cut
> Slumping Collin Morikawa Leaving St. Andrews Early After Missed Cut at British Open
> What to Watch In Round 3 at St. Andrews: Leading Hair, Rors' Roars and More Birdies
> LIV Golf Against the World? Dustin Johnson's Not Feeling It at St. Andrews

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