LIV Golf and PGA Tour hypocrisy is only hurting an already fractured game

The power struggle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf over the last few years has divided the men’s professional game to what may be an irreparable extent. While the Tour and LIV’s financial backers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, held more talks last week, the game is seemingly nowhere closer to unification.

Hypocrisy has run rampant on both sides of the professional golf aisle since the rival tours began butting heads 2020. LIV players claimed they wanted to grow the game while they did everything possible to break it apart. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan largely ignored and took a moral high ground against the Saudi-backed circuit – which has been viewed as a way for the Kingdom to sportswash its controversial human rights record – before he reversed course and announced the shocking framework agreement alongside PIF governor and LIV chairman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, in June of 2023. Those are just a few examples.

Two more laughable claims came to light this week. We’ll start with the Tour.

According to a Bloomberg report, an agreement over the financial details between the Tour and PIF “inched closer” last week in New York, but a main point of contention remains: how will players who took hundreds of millions in guaranteed money to join LIV reintegrate with the Tour?

The report stated that some PGA Tour players want the likes of Jon Rahm and others to hand back some of the guaranteed money – in the case of Rahm, hundreds of millions of dollars – they’ve made from LIV. There was also talk of former LIV players paying fines to compete in Tour events, giving money to charity, or even agreeing to forfeit future career Tour winnings.

Rahm and his LIV colleagues won’t give back a dime, and they shouldn’t have to. Part of the reason LIV players were paid so much money was because they were taking a calculated risk. They knew they might never get to play on the Tour or in team events like the Ryder Cup – more on that to come – and that sponsors may forfeit deals. Both happened.

In order to compete with LIV and stop players from leaving, the Tour amped up prize funds and created ways to pay their top players outside of competition through avenues like the Player Impact Program, which paid out players based on their popularity and fan interest. The Tour players wouldn’t return the extra money they received in response to LIV, so they shouldn’t expect the LIV players to do the same for leaving.

The other hypocrisy comes from Ian Poulter, who said in a recent interview with Al Arabiya English that he wants the opportunity to be captain of the European Ryder Cup team. A member of eight Ryder Cup teams with an impressive 15-8-2 record, Poulter would’ve been a guaranteed lock for at least one stint as Team Europe’s captain. Nobody brought more emotion and passion to the event on the European side than Poulter.

Then he went to LIV, resigned his DP World Tour membership – which is necessary to represent the European team – and burned every bridge that connected him to the team.

Poulter said he’s “hopeful one day there’s a sense of coming together” and “there’s going to need to be some compromise. I’m hopeful one day we’ll see it.” Asking for a fire to be put out that he helped ignite is a bold move, even for Poulter. We’re talking about a guy who was a named member in a lawsuit against the PGA Tour and was mad that Ryder Cup social accounts didn’t wish him and Sergio Garcia a happy birthday in 2023. That’s not a joke, that really happened.

Decisions have consequences. Poulter knew joining LIV could ruin his chance at a captaincy. Same with Henrik Stenson, who was set to be captain last year before he was replaced after his LIV move. Leaving on a bad note aside, Ryder Cup captains have to be active and in touch with current players. No European players, potentially Jon Rahm aside if he retains his DP World Tour membership, have any connection to or fondness for Poulter. To think he’s still entitled to a captaincy shows the delusion that’s become ever-present in some LIV players. Just ask the heart of Team Europe, Rory McIlroy.

Comments and statements from both Tour and LIV players aren’t helping a fractured game. Golf fans are tired of the back-and-forth bickering and deserve more from the game’s best players and leaders.