BOCA RATON, Fla. — LIV Golf is as divisive with the PGA Tour Champions crowd as it is with other professional golfers.
Most of the veterans do not follow LIV and have no interest in the golf or the format, but they understand that the money is difficult for some to turn down.
Then there is Hall of Famer Bernhard Langer, who believes the series, which is financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is damaging the sport.
“I think it’s hurting golf, I don’t think it’s good,” Langer said. “I don’t see that they have a business plan but I can understand for some people it’s difficult to turn down that kind of money.”
Langer’s impression of the league is tame compared with that of legendary caddie Mike Cowan, the man known as “Fluff” who gained notoriety for being Tiger Woods’ first caddie. Now 74, Cowan has been on Jim Furyk’s bag for 23 years.
I asked Cowan for a caddie’s perspective on LIV.
“It doesn’t exist in my world,” he said. “I don’t give a (expletive) about it.”
Cowan then warned he’d have to be bleeped a lot more if he continued.
PGA Tour Champions payouts chump change compared with LIV
The PGA Tour Champions is holding its penultimate event at Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club this weekend. Golfers are playing for the $350,000 first-place prize and the top 36 will advance to Phoenix where the Charles Schwab Cup champion will be crowned and earn a $1 million bonus.
Chump change compared with the money being thrown around by LIV.
LIV concluded its inaugural season Sunday at Doral with a $25 million purse. LIV awarded $255 million in prize money and bonuses for eight events this year. That number will climb to $405 million for 14 events in 2023.
This is why those on the Champions tour, some of whom earned a solid living on the PGA Tour, understand those who could not turn away from generational money.
“These guys are making a bunch of money,” Scott McCarron said. “I don’t blame any of the guys for going. If I was a young guy, I probably wouldn’t go. I’d want to win majors and I’d want to be on Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. The older guys, I don’t blame them for going.”
McCarron won about $12.65 million in two decades on the PGA Tour. That’s about what Peter Uihlein made this year in eight events on the LIV series. But Furyk took home more than $71.5 million in prize money on the PGA Tour, so he has a greater understanding of what it’s like to be…
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