PGA Tour golfer Harry Higgs has joked the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series 'took all the a**holes and villains', while also highlighting an issue within the sport he calls the " Tiger Woods hangover".
In an interview with GolfWeek, Higgs highlighted the huge impact Woods' stardom, success and struggles have had on the coverage of golf, stating that during his prime 'no one had to be any good at their jobs ... [because] Tiger was winning and s*** just sold because he was showing up."
Higgs said: "I think it's part of the kind of Tiger Woods hangover, if we take it in a very, very, 30-thousand-foot view, where really no one had to be any good at their jobs.
"And I'm not saying that people weren't, because they were, but really no one had to be any good at their jobs within the golf kind of landscape because Tiger was playing, Tiger was winning and s*** just sold because he was showing up.
"We are certainly entering an era where that's going to happen less and less, if at all. I'm obviously rooting for it to happen as much as it possibly can because that just helps out everybody involved."
Higgs also addressed the ongoing division within the sport, with LIV tempting away several of the sport's biggest stars with lucrative deals and the PGA responding by suspending all LIV golfers.
"As for the division and all that stuff, I don't necessarily agree but I don't blame any of these guys for leaving," he added. "We joke back and forth – they took all the a**holes. They took all the villains.
"And that's a problem. They took some of our best players too. But those who have left haven't put this in a spot where it’s like, oh, s***, you know, all the great players are gone and playing somewhere else.
"That's not the case, but they took some of the ones who would have stories written about them maybe in a negative light with kind of negative connotations. And OK, that's kind of a driving force for people to read your story or for people to turn their television on. I struggle with this."
