Open chief Martin Slumbers backed Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy by insisting there are no free lunches in golf. And the Royal and Ancient boss has warned LIV rebels they may face changes in qualification criteria to get into future stagings of the Championships.
Slumbers made his strong statement as the 150th Open gets underway today at St Andrews. The historic event gets going at the Home of Golf amid a backdrop of controversy in the game surrounding the controversial Saudi-backed series. Woods and McIlroy are both staunch supporters of the current PGA and DP World Tour ecosystems with the American superstar having questioned the motivations for LIV players against his days of grafting up the ladder and “doing it in the dirt.”
Slumbers took a similar stance and said: “There is no such thing as a free lunch. I believe the model we’ve seen (LIV events) is not in the best long-term interests of the sport as a whole and is entirely driven by money. We believe it undermines the merit-based culture and the spirit of open competition that makes golf so special.”
