As the emergence of LIV golf continues to divide the sport, a former winner of the PGA Championship has urged those on the tour to take a stand against the breakaway series. Davis Love III, who captured his one and only major in 1997, has encouraged players to boycott the sport’s four biggest tournaments in order to take a stand against the Saudi rebels.
Like many, the US captain of the Presidents Cup has grown tired of the lengthy dispute between the two organisations and hopes players on the PGA Tour take matters into their own hands. “Well, here's the biggest lever; and it's not the nice lever,” Love told Sports Illustrated.
“But if a group of veterans and a group of top current players align with 150 guys on the Tour, and we say, 'Guess what? We're not playing,' that solves it, right? If LIV guys play in the US Open, we're not playing. If they sue in court, and they win, well, we're not playing. You know, there won't be a US Open. It's just like a baseball strike."
The PGA suspended all its members who had jumped ship to its Saudi-funded rivals, also barring them from being able to play in the Ryder Cup. The DP World Tour recently fired Team Europe's Ryder Cup captain Henrik Stenson after he became the latest to defect to LIV Golf for a $48million signing-on fee and won his first event this week in New Jersey.
The Swede registered a final round of 69 at Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey to claim victory by two shots over Dustin Johnson and Matthew Wolff and pocket the individual first prize of 4 million US dollars (£3.28million). The 46-year-old also won 375,000 US dollars (£308,000) as part of the Majesticks team – along with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sam Horsfield – which finished second in the team event.
“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” Stenson joked in a post-round interview on LIV Golf’s YouTube stream. "It’s been a good first week obviously. Nice to be here with the guys getting a feel for it. It’s been a busy 10 days and I’m extremely proud I managed to finish as well as I did. Got a little wobbly at the end but that (par) putt on 17 was massive.”
Stenson claimed he opted to play LIV with the intention he would still be able to captain Team Europe at the next Ryder Cup. However, after a meeting with Ryder Cup Europe officials, it was clear that was not acceptable and former world number one Luke Donald is due to be confirmed as his replacement this week.
“Yeah, it has been a bit of a roller coaster, no question,” Stenson said late on Sunday. “I think there might have been a little bit of extra motivation in there this week. When we as players have that, I think we can bring out the good stuff. Yeah, I certainly did that this week.
“I guess that’s been a bit of a theme over the course of my career, I think, when I really want something I manage to dig a little bit deeper, and a lot of times we manage to make it happen.”
