Former Major champion Rich Beem has given his take on why golfers defecting from the traditional tours to the up-start LIV Golf Series are being subjected to such widespread backlash.
Without much fuss, several major sporting events have been hosted in Saudi Arabia and boosted by the country’s mammoth sovereign wealth fund. The Jeddah street circuit has become a feature on the Formula 1 calendar, for example, while Anthony Joshua and Oleksander Usyk will travel to the Kingdom for their blockbuster heavyweight championship rematch in August.
Video: What is LIV Golf?
Why, then, have the likes of Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter had their morality scrutinised to closely for featuring in the Greg Norman-fronted breakaway circuit?
“I’m just gonna say it, the money makes it look a little bit gross,” Beem told BoyleSports Golf Betting. “When you hear the numbers being thrown around – for winning a tournament it’s $4 million when you’re playing against 48 guys. And if you look at the 48 guys, half of them play horrible. When you look at the disparity between first place and last place as far as the scores go, that’s a little bit bizarre.
“It’s been more than just the entire F1 going, it’s not like the tours going to Saudi Arabia. It has a different vibe to it than anything else. Maybe it’s because of the fact that we are independent contractors, but you’re also breaking away from the PGA Tour.
“I think it’s just the fact that there’s so much money being thrown at the players. I say thrown, offered, because have these guys maybe earned the right to accept all this money? Sure they have, they’ve had some amazing careers.
“Mickelson has 40-odd PGA Tour wins, six major championships; DJ with two; Brooks with four. These guys have got some pretty tasty CVs, but I think it’s about the money more than anything else.
“It looks like these guys are buying a tour or buying players, whereas the F1 has to go there as a group. Even boxing, the promoters are the guys that want to have it there. I think it’s just a different look for golf, something…
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