Surprising Revelation About LIV Golf Contracts Has People Questioning Its Entire Existence

Over the past year, LIV Golf has injected the sport with a virtually unprecedented level of drama that makes the kind of blowback typically reserved for of a visibly drunk foursome that reported a 56 at a charity scramble on a course they’ve never played before look positively quaint in comparison.

By now, there’s no real use in rehashing the various arguments for and against the burgeoning PGA Tour killer. When LIV drew a line in the sand trap, it didn’t take long for virtually every golf fan to decide which side they want to stand on: you’re either a person who can’t stop using the word “sportswashing” after discovering it exists a few months ago or couldn’t care less about players seizing the opportunity to secure a massive bag.

On Tuesday, three of those players (Talor Gooch, Matt Jones, and Hudson Swafford) had LIV attorneys representing them in court as part of an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit to participate in the FedEx Cup Playoffs after defecting to the upstart league in the middle of the PGA Tour season.

The judge’s decision to rule against the trio was fairly notable, but it had nothing on another development that turned plenty of heads when a member of the LIV Golf legal team appeared to admit the prize money won in tournaments is used to recoup the sum paid out upon signing a contract with the league.

If you’re curious why that’s such a big deal, LIV has previously denied claims made by Brandel Chamblee and others that the massive paydays golfers have received are essentially an advance.

For example, if Cam Smith is actually getting $100 million to make the leap, he’d theoretically need to make a total of $100 million by playing in tournaments before he’s eligible to take home any more money (to put things in perspective, the winning purse at a recent LIV event in Portland was worth around $7.5 million).

If that is indeed the case, there’s very little incentive for LIV golfers with a contract structured in that manner to take any tournament that seriously when you consider how long some of the biggest names would have to consistently finish at the top of the leaderboard before being able to earn more cash.

It’s obviously worth noting a LIV spokesperson quickly issued a statement disputing the many reports concerning what unfolded in court (but when you combine the organization’s track record with its general lack of transparency, it’s hard not to take that claim with a grain of salt).

The veracity of that revelation may be up in the air, but that didn’t stop plenty of people from pondering the biggest question that it raises if turns out to be the case: why does LIV Golf even exist?

If they don’t win, they get / have their money.

If they do win, they already get / have their money.

If this is the case, then the LIV players are truly playing for nothing

— B&B Sports Art (@BBSportsArt1) August 9, 2022

So there is a much bigger incentive for the less marketable players to win as they have a better chance of exceeding their contract. The big names have no incentive to win as they can never earn enough to start earning on top of their gauranteed contract?

— Meemo82 (@Meemo823) August 9, 2022

So they are literally playing for zero stakes?

— Pattyboomboom (@patttyboomboom) August 9, 2022

So guys like Bryson and DJ have 0.0 incentive to try

— Mike G (@MikeGIn713) August 9, 2022

So, no incentive to perform, what a great tour, not.

— DRo13 (@daniel_rojek) August 9, 2022

At this point, it seems like it would be in LIV’s best interest to release some more details to back up the aforementioned statement in order to clear the air. With that said, I’m not holding my breath.

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