Admin September 18, 2024
Prominent golf journalist Alan Shipnuck labelled PGA Tour golfers Tiger Woods and Patrick Cantlay ‘petty, vindictive and greedy’ after a wild rumour surfaced.
That rumour?
According to Bloomberg, an armistice between the Tour and rival LIV Golf League moved a lot closer after officials from both sides met last week in New York.
But it came with a huge and potentially messy caveat.
Some PGA Tour players want LIV players to pay back the massive sums given to them by the Saudi PIF before being granted a return to their former employer.
Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith are all said to have been paid north of $100m up front to join the breakaway.
Another pathway back for the ‘rebels’, per the report, suggested that LIV golfers could pay fines, forfeit future earnings or donate money to charity.
The topic of how to reintroduce LIV players to the fold has been addressed multiple times over the past two years.
It’s clear that some players, such as Woods, have strong feelings about it.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler stressed before the Players at TPC Sawgrass that there should be some caveat before returning.
As for Woods, he said back in February there were ‘daily talks’ about the potential return of LIV players.
“We are looking into, in all the different models, for pathways back,” Woods said.
“What that looks like, what the impact is for the players who stayed and have not left, and how we making our product better going forward – there is no answer to that right now.
“We are looking at varying degrees of ideas and what that looks like in the short-term we don’t know, in the long-term we don’t know what that looks like.”
“Trust me, there are daily and weekly emails and talks about this and what this means for our tour going forward.”
Needless to say, the latest rumour has received mixed reactions from golf fans online.
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall claimed the Bloomberg report was false.
“LIV players returning money—specifically Rahm—is not what’s holding up a potential PGA Tour-PIF deal, sources tell me,” he wrote on X.
“It’s how to integrate LIV players back, and what LIV’s future looks like in a unified game (current LIV iteration likely done, but will be around in some form).”
Patrick Cantlay
The aforementioned Shipnuck, who penned a tell-all book about Mickelson, claimed that Woods and his fellow policy board member Cantlay are just being vindictive.
He wrote on X: “I don’t care how petty, vindictive and greedy Tiger & Cantlay are…they can’t be this dumb, can they?
“No LIV golfer is going to refund money they received (and spent!) 2 years ago. No wonder Dunne, Stephenson & Flaherty ejected—vengeance is not a productive negotiating strategy.”
Shipnuck was referring to former PGA Tour officials Jimmy Dunne, Randall Stephenson and Mark Flaherty.
Dunne, who was the first to approach PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan over WhatsApp about a peace deal, resigned from the PGA Tour’s policy board in May.
Dunne, one of Rory McIlroy‘s closest allies, expressed frustration at the lack of progress between the Tour and PIF that no longer needed his input.
Stephenson walked out the door last July, citing the fact he could not support the LIV deal in light of the U.S. intelligence report concerning the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
Flaherty resigned in May 2024.
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