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Sir Nick Faldo believes LIV Golf should remain separate from the game’s established tours and that Jon Rahm was wrong to think he could bring about a swift resolution to golf’s civil war.
Progress on the “Framework Agreement” announced by the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in June last year has been infuriatingly slow, with mixed messages coming from both sides.
Tyrrell Hatton said on Wednesday that “certain conversations” this month meant he was more positive about a deal being done, but PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan hinted on the same day that Strategic Sports Group’s 1.5billion US dollars investment has changed the landscape.
“We now have the structure and the resources we need to define the future of professional golf on our terms and the significant support of a world-class group of investors,” Monahan said ahead of the Tour Championship.
Faldo would be happy if Monahan’s remarks meant LIV Golf stayed in its own lane, telling the PA news agency: “I think they are an island and go and do their own thing. That’s absolutely fine with me, go and play their tour.
“And I think we are now seeing that, wow, they’ve had three seasons and they haven’t made much impact on the [viewing] numbers.
“Quite amusingly pickleball was bigger than their two stars [Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm] in a play-off, the sort of excitement everyone wants. But it got beat for viewership by pickleball.
“I think bottom line is that the players have got the last laugh because they are being rewarded so much either through the size of the prize money or appearance fees and they are not moving the needle.
“And I can’t see that changing because, as we know, it’s been so damaging to the public’s attitude to golf. I still talk to my producer friends in TV and people are just not watching. It’s hurt the attitude towards golf.
“I did 18 years of television and I was told not to talk about prize money. When the FedEx Cup went to 10 million, I went ‘wow, look at this, this putt is worth 10 million!’
“That was about the only time I mentioned money and now, all of a sudden, it’s ridiculous amounts. It’s really changed it.”
Ahead of his Masters title defence in April, Rahm told the BBC he agreed with the suggestion that his move to LIV could prove to be a “tipping point” in negotiations between the two sides, but six-time major winner Faldo thinks differently.
“I think they all thought why don’t I run off and get all these hundreds of blooming millions and they’ll sort it out in two years and I’ll come back with a boatload,” Faldo said.
“I don’t think it is going to work like that and it shouldn’t, to be honest. Fine, LIV go and do their thing. They say they are going to supercharge excitement in golf – good luck.
“Some people think they can change the excitement level or view of it, but golf is golf. Golf is outdoor chess. The number one goal in golf as a player is to come up the last with a three-shot lead or more, isn’t it?
“But you have people saying ‘well, that wasn’t very exciting, a bit anticlimactic’. But every player out there wants to come down the last two holes with a cushion.”
