There was a feelgood factor after LIV Golf’s successful debut in Australia. Following the event in Adelaide, which was played in front of sellout crowds, Marc Leishman declared it "had a real Major feel" while 4 Aces GC player Peter Uihlein said “the sky is the limit”.
Another 4 Aces GC player with plenty of praise for the tournament was Pat Perez. However, he also found time to aim a barb at PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
Perez, who won three times on the PGA Tour before making the move to LIV Golf, responded to a question on how Monahan would be feeling by saying: "We don't give a damn how he feels. We know how he feels about us, so it's mutual."
It is well-known that there has been no love lost between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour since the former’s emergence last year. Monahan responded to players teeing it up on the circuit by suspending them from the PGA Tour. Eleven LIV Golf players, including Perez, then filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. However, the American later withdrew his name from it.
Still, the hardline response to LIV Golf clearly still rankles with Perez, who also had a dig at the PGA Tour following the opening event of the 2023 season, LIV Golf Mayakoba at El Camaleon Golf Club. The venue had previously hosted the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship. Before the season opener, the 47-year-old, when asked about the its move to LIV, said: "I love it because we're here and the tour is not. End quote."
Perez’s attitude to Monahan and the PGA Tour is in stark contrast to comments he made before the 2022 Genesis Invitational. Back then, he raved about the PGA Tour and its commissioner, saying: “Our purses are going up. Jay Monahan's done a phenomenal job getting our purses to go up. Jay and the Tour, from what I understand, is doing a phenomenal job."
He continued: “They talk about growing the game. I don't see how that group over there is growing the game. The Tour has done phenomenal things. They do phenomenal things for the communities that we go to. They have programs for underprivileged now. That's how you grow the game.”
Nowadays, Perez's enthusiasm is reserved for his current circuit. Like many fellow LIV Golf players, he also waxed lyrical about the Adelaide tournament, saying: It's phenomenal. Like the boys said, crowds were incredible. They were screaming for me all day every day, and 12 was electric. It was just unbelievable.
"I birdied it every day, so I gave them a little more show, but I had a blast. I really did. I had a blast. It was an unbelievable event. That many people out here screaming and having fun, you could just see how this LIV thing is just really exploding."
This week, Perez is expected to take part in the LIV Golf Singapore event at Sentosa Golf Club as 4 Aces GC look for another win after their victory in Australia.
