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It’s been less than a year since LIV Golf officially embarked on its quest to take on the PGA Tour with the help of the virtually endless stream of money the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has funneled into the upstart league in an attempt to fundamentally alter the landscape of the sport.
Just how far LIV Golf has come en route to achieving that goal is still up for debate. It may have successfully poached a number of high-profile players, but the events they’ve played in have largely failed to produce any truly memorable moments on the course; the fact that players being permitted to wear shorts at a tournament is possibly the most newsworthy development to come out of the competitions it’s held so far speaks volumes.
With that said, it’s been fairly hard to write off the organization entirely due to the impressive amount of drama its members have treated us to thanks in no small part to the seemingly neverending back-and-forth between the golfers who’ve defected and those who’ve pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour.
It’s hard to think of many players in that second camp who’ve been a more vocal critic than Rory McIlroy, who seemed to recently tease the possibility of some sort of truce between the two organizations. McIlroy has also had a pretty solid ally in his corner in the form of Tiger Woods, who seems to be a bit more content with making moves behind the scenes as opposed to serving as the face of the pushback.
With that said, the legendary golfer has made it pretty clear he’s not a huge fan of the approach LIV Golf is harnessing (and one he declined to endorse by turning down the hundreds of millions of dollars he was offered to make the leap).
Over the summer, Woods questioned why anyone would feel particularly driven to win a LIV Golf tournament based on the combination of guaranteed money and the unconventional manner in which the contracts are reportedly structured. It appears those comments didn’t sit well with Pat Perez, who decided to clap back at Tiger during a recent appearance on Claude Harmon III’s Son of a Butch podcast.
Perez—a veteran but middling pro who is easily one of the biggest beneficiaries of the LIV Golf Model—argues Woods is being somewhat hypocritical based on the financial security the generational talent has had since his first year on the PGA Tour, saying:
“That’s the stupidest s—t I have ever heard of in my life. That’s one of the stupidest things I think he has said. The incentive is the fact that last place is 120,000, first place is four million. You cannot win four million on the PGA Tour.
Now, next year you might; they finally got the perks. But last time I checked, he signed a $40 million deal right out of college, was flying on the Nike jet. He found incentive. He could have shut it down right then.”
With that said, Perez all but admits Woods is probably the exception as opposed to the norm at the end of that quote.
Does that discredit his argument entirely? Not necessarily, but it seems a bit foolish to even discuss that hypothetical scenario when the person at the center is known for the tireless drive and motivation that’s helped them win 15 majors and 82 PGA Tour tournaments over the course of one of the most storied careers in the history of any sport.