Getty Image / Michael Cohen
Former 3-time PGA Tour winner Chris DiMarco raised some eyebrows in the golf world this week when he expressed his desire for the LIV Golf Tour (Saudi-backed PIF) to purchase the Champions Tour, sometimes called the Senior PGA Tour, and start overpaying senior golfers.
Chris DiMarco, who famously lost to Tiger Woods in a playoff at The Masters in 2005, spoke with the GOLFs Supbar Podcast and suggested that players on the Champions Tour are hopeful that LIV will get involved. He called out the weekly purses on the Champions Tour as meager.
The moment comes about 12 minutes into the episode:
Chris DiMarco said on the show “we’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour. Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”
He then defended the LIV Golf Tour members who left the PGA Tour to chase more money, saying “They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?” Adding “I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”
NoLayingUp editorial director Kevin Van Valkenburg saw Chris DiMarco’s comments and remarked “Imagine looking at golf’s dwindling TV ratings (at the highest level!) and feeling like the you and fellas on the Grandpa Tour deserve more money.”
To contextualize how out of touch DiMarco’s comments are, Van Valkenburg added this tweet:
Imagine how many NFL players would like to play flag football for a $2 million purse each week deep into their 50s.
Now consider that the lowest-rated NFL game last year (out of hundreds nationally broadcast) drew 2 million more viewers than the U.S. Open.
— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) March 27, 2024
Kevin is an extremely well-respected writer in the golf space and member of the golf media. His post on X, formerly Twitter, picked up a lot of responses with most of them amounting to what this person said: “He has to be a joking but I know he’s not.”
If you’re reading this and you can’t immediately identify which channel Champions Tour Golf is televised on or name a single upcoming event, then you should absolutely understand why the golf world is dunking on Chris DiMarco right now.
Why would LIV Golf purchase a senior tour that nobody’s watching to begin with?