Professional American Golfer, Ryan Palmer criticized the players who defected to Liv Golf for wanting to return to the PGA tour.
The Liv Golf event is a professional golf tour supported by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi-Arabia that has been established as a parallel to the PGA Tour events. Greg Norman, the CEO of the tour, has announced incredibly lucrative prize money of $25 million per event in the Liv Golf Invitational Series.
The latest Liv Golf event was played on June 9, 2022, at the golf course of former president Donald Trump. Many top players from the PGA Tour have continued to withdraw from the concurrent PGA events to play at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
PGA has put sanctions on their Saudi-backed rival and warned the players to dissociate themselves from it. Yet, It did not prevent prominent golfers like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and Henrik Stenson from joining Liv Golf despite warnings of suspension from PGA.
However, not all players are supportive of the controversial Liv Golf Tour. Some of the greatest of the game of golf such as; Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have turned down Liv Golf Tour membership. Also, 4-time PGA Tour winner, Ryan Palmer has been quite vocal against the Liv Golf players for a while now.
Recently in an interview on the SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, the 45-year old blasted his former colleagues. “They chose that route, all you heard was ‘play less, be home more’, well now you want to play and come out and play the big events next year and then play over there. I just don’t get it.” stated Palmer
Joining Sobel & The Caddie at TPC Southwind, Ryan Palmer sounded off on LIV Golf & how PGA TOUR players are reacting to the anti-trust lawsuit filed by 11 players.@RyanPalmerPGA | @JasonSobelTAN | @ESPNCaddie | #HittingTheGreen pic.twitter.com/A2t29KnLVa
— SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) August 9, 2022
Palmer’s contemp is mainly directed towards the several golfers, who now desire to come back to play on the PGA tour after the conclusion of the Liv Golf event. Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, and Matt Jones have filed a lawsuit against the PGA hoping to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Since then, Many of the top names including major champions like Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, who opted to play for Liv Golf, have added their names to the lawsuit to return to PGA.
Asked to reflect on the lawsuit, Palmer heavily criticized the players’ motive, “You know what, you chose the circus, stay in the circus.”
“We’re here on the PGA Tour, the greatest stage in golf in my opinion. It’s different. In my opinion there is no incentive to play golf out there. There is nowhere to go from there.” added Palmer
