The PGA Tour and its backers have had some pretty strong things to say about the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series as it pilfered some of their most notable players away. Meanwhile, the Tour has also announced that it will be increasing purses and commitments from top players in a move right out of the LIV playbook. That hasn’t been lost on Lee Westwood.
The 49-year-old recently told Golf Digest that the Tour’s plans are “just a copy’’ of LIV Golf.
“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,’’ Westwood said of the PGA Tour’s plan. “It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is ‘not competitive.’ They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields.
“Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV. Hopefully, at some point, they will all choke on their words. And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days.’’
While Westwood is trying to draw a comparison between LIV’s 54-hole events with no cuts and set fields and what the PGA Tour is doing, it’s not the same. The Tour won’t have 54-hole events and many of these elevated tournaments will still include cuts. There also isn’t going to be any kind of “team” aspect as there is in LIV Golf. The similarity, however, can be found in the massive purse size.
Westwood also chastised the PGA Tour for monopolizing the best players in the sport.
“I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years,’’ Westwood said. “There’s not much “give.’ They have always been bullies and now they are getting their comeuppance. All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger (Woods) came on tour is up the prize purses. In turn, that has taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour.
“They’ve had to play in the States, taking all their world ranking points with them. That was their strategy: ‘Put up the money. Get all the players. Hog all the world ranking points.’ Which becomes self-perpetuating. What we have seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has done for the last 25 years.’’
The LIV Golf community has been coming out in full force mocking the PGA Tour over the way it’s changing its model to meet the financial incentives that LIV offers its golfers. The PGA Tour still has the advantage of infrastructure and partnerships, however, to make their efforts stick.
