Six-time major champion Nick Faldo is fed up with LIV Golf and its merger saga with the PGA Tour.
“Personally, I think they should just go and do their own thing,” Faldo told talkSport.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has financed LIV Golf since its inception in 2022, poaching some of the biggest names from the PGA Tour in the process such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm.
LIV Golf runs 54-hole tournaments with no cuts, shotgun starts and teams.
These funky rules and guaranteed contracts often worth more than $100 million for players cause a stark difference in competitiveness, according to Faldo.
“The guys would fist pump, ‘I made the cut, I still have a chance to win,’” Faldo said about golfers competing in the PGA Tour. “That’s more important than, ‘Oh, thanks very much. I’ll waltz around for 54 holes and I’ve got a guaranteed check.’ That’s not sport. It’s not good for you.
“Sport is bloody tough. The fear of failure is just as powerful as the quest to win. And I think when you’re on a fail-free tour, you can’t fail. It makes you go soft. I think some of those players have gone soft.”
The aforementioned former PGA Tour stars turned “soft” LIV Golfers have won 98 PGA Tour events combined across their careers, with the 54-year-old Mickelson leading the pack at 45 wins.
Now, none are eligible to compete in PGA Tour events as the two sides feud.
The PGA Tour has made it clear that it prefers the world’s top golfers to be competing in just one circuit.
This comes despite the PIF’s recent offer of $1.5 billion for investment into PGA Tour Enterprises.
The PGA Tour declined because it meant LIV Golf would remain intact. The PIF also wanted its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to serve as co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises’ board.
PGA Tour president Jay Monahan has offered nothing but vague updates since first announcing the framework of a potential merger between PGA and LIV nearly two years ago.
Not even President Trump entering the fray has been able to melt the icy thaw between the two sides.
The PGA Tour isn’t alone in its dissent with LIV Golf.
“You couldn’t go to your bank manager and say, ‘This is my business model.’ He’d say, ‘Excuse me? We’ve only got this coming in and that going out?’” Faldo said. “The players are the luckiest things in the world … you’ve got guys we’ve hardly heard of, who’ve never won, playing in $20 million tournaments.”
LIV Golf is playing at Trump National Doral this week.
