Professional sports have been chaotic over the past few years.
Political interventions and COVID restrictions have hampered various leagues.
Now Donald Trump called out one sports organization for the big mess it created.
The PGA Tour is dealing with one massive headache.
Many marquee golfers have chosen to play in the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Tour because the payouts are substantially bigger.
And Donald Trump chided the PGA for not paying its players enough and allowing this to happen.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “So INTERESTING to see the PGA Tour finally start to treat its players fairly now that the LIV Tour has opened to such a big BANG…They have finally increased purses to players, substantially, and I am sure will soon be reducing their massive executive salaries in order to make things work.”
Even though the LIV tour is only available to watch via streaming, the prize money well outpaces the PGA.
From Golf Digest:
“[T]here is a lot of money on the line during the final-round shotgun start in North Plains, Ore. Overall, the purse for the individual competition in this first event in the Saudi-backed series is $20 million, with the last-place finisher guaranteed to make $120,000. By comparison, that is just shy of what the golfer finishing 16th at the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic will earn. Additionally, the three top four-man groups in the team competition will split another $5 million among then, the winning squad divvying up $3 million among the foursome.”
It’s no wonder players have chosen to play on the LIV tour, much to the consternation of some players on the PGA Tour.
Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy called out players who initially stated they would not play the LIV Tour.
McIlroy said, “I’m surprised at a lot of these guys because they say one thing and then they do another, and I don’t understand that. And I don’t know if that’s for legal reasons or if they can’t — I have no idea — but it’s pretty duplicitous on their part to say one thing and then do another thing.”
According to Trump, the PGA Tour created the mess through mismanagement.
Trump added, “The players are now asking, however, why didn’t they raise the purses long ago? Also, what will happen to the TREMENDOUSLY valuable Tax-Exempt Status that the PGA Tour now enjoys?”
With so much money on the line, LIV has been able to attract big names.
Golf Digest continued:
“LIV has been emboldened by the signing of a number of big-name players in the period between its first event and the one at Pumpkin Ridge—Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Abraham Ancer and Matthew Wolff, to name a few—and has spent considerable money providing players and their teams a first-class experience. The hope, it would seem, is for word to spread to other players who would fill out the 48-man fields.”
The PGA Tour got complacent and greedy, and now the higher-ups have a big problem on their hands.
