A group of LIV Golf players reportedly had a number of questions for the Saudi-backed series' bosses, after a mandatory meeting was called ahead of their second event of the season in Tucson last week.
LIV burst onto the scene in 2022, luring in a number of golf's biggest names thanks to lucrative signing on fees and mega-money prize pots. Even those in charge of the Saudi-backed circuit were surprised by its impressive rise, and thus went on to introduce a bumper-14 tournament campaign for 2023.
Despite its early successes though, it seems not all is well at LIV headquarters - with a number of its playing members reportedly unimpressed with changes that have been brought in for the new season.
It follows a report from The Fire Pit Collective , which revealed that topics discussed within the all-player meeting included a new pace-of-play policy, drug testing procedures, and the increase and sharing of prize money and the forwarded timeline of the breakaway circuit. The latter was seemingly a surprise to many.
One player told Fire Pit Collective : "Some guys thought their contracts for this year are for 10 tournaments, not 14." Season two has also seen a change in the pay structure, with winnings earned in the team aspect of the event, being paid into each franchise, rather than the personal pocket is a player.
This has proven to be another problem, with the unknown golfer adding: "But even with more tournaments there is no bump in the guaranteed money they signed for. Last year the players kept their share of the team winnings but now that money goes back to the team."
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Another player also shared their concern, adding: "Why are we standing on a podium spraying each other with champagne when we don’t get the money?’ So that’s interesting. And now there is talk that [LIV leadership] wants to put more of the total purse toward the team component.
"But, again, guys have it in their contract they would be playing for $20 million on their own. So you can imagine there is a lot of conversation right now.” The move has defended by LIV bosses though, with one unnamed 'executive' claiming that pumping the winnings into the franchises is more beneficial from a 'business point of view'.
"It would maximise the team values, because their valuations are based on revenue," the executive revealed. "From a pure business point of view, it would have made more sense from the very beginning to put all of the purse toward the teams But that would have been a vast departure from what the world of golf has known forever, and we wouldn’t have been able to sign all the players. In time we may move in that direction—we’re fluid on that.”
