Fred Couples has called out what he perceives as the insincere reasons given by some players for joining LIV Golf.
The 1992 Masters champion gave his thoughts on why players have opted to join the circuit in an appearance on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio. He began by offering a tongue-in-cheek scenario of what he would like the next player to sign for LIV to say.
He explained: “I want to see the next superstar to say, ‘I’m going to that LIV. Do you know why I’m going? Because it is unreal. They play Riviera and they play TPC Phoenix in front of 300,000 people and they do this and they do that,’ but I want them to go for free and then go on CNN and every TV show and say why they’re going because it’s that good.
"100m doesn’t get it, 200m doesn’t get it, 300m doesn’t get it, but for 400, it’s a great product, it’s a great show, my ass! Tell me the next guy, if it’s Tony Finau, ‘I’m going to free, boys. I love this tour. I don’t like the PGA Tour anymore.’"
Jon Rahm has said the size of his offer from LIV weighed into his decision to join the tour.Fred Couples has no problem with that, but he'd like for everyone to stop telling him how great LIV's product is.@fredcouplesgolf | @coachgeorge805 pic.twitter.com/E0CzcR3EgIDecember 12, 2023
While Finau has confirmed he won’t be joining LIV Golf in the off-season, there is an expectation of others being tempted, particularly after current Masters champion Jon Rahm opted to leave the PGA Tour behind to sign up, reportedly for a sum in the region of $560m.
Despite other players having also joined for huge sums, one of the reasons regularly given by stars for signing for LIV is the desire to grow or change that game, but Couples is not buying that line. Instead, he explained that he had no problem with players joining for financial reasons, but that they should be honest about it.
He added: “No one’s going to do that, so what does that tell me? It tells me it's all about money, which is fine, but don’t sit there and then go on and say they’re changing the game.”
Couples, who became the oldest player to make cut in April’s Masters at Augusta National, certainly has plenty of experience where it comes to seeing first-hand how the game has evolved over the decades, and he also pointed out that the game was changing long before LIV Golf came on the scene.
He said: “What are they changing? Actually, for 50 years golf has been changed. Arnold Palmer changed it, Jack Nicklaus changed it, Tiger Woods changed it. The LIV tour ain’t changing a thing.”
The 64-year-old has long been a supporter of the PGA Tour in its battle with LIV Golf. He responded to the PGA Tour's decision to deny its players releases to play in the first LIV Golf event by writing on X: "Denied... denied... denied."
DENIED….DENIED….DENIEDMay 10, 2022
He has also questioned the reasons given by players for signing up in the past. Last year, after Open champion Cameron Smith joined, he took a dig at his stated motivation of wishing to spend more time in his homeland of Australia,
Couples wrote on Twitter (now X): "To all my friends who I missed birthdays & weddings …… so sorry, I was busy earning a living on the PGA Tour and in my line of work the goal is to EARN your way to work weekends. And by weekends i mean 72 holes. Sorry not sorry.”
To all my friends who I missed birthdays & weddings …… so sorry, I was busy earning a living on the @pgatour and in my line of work the goal is to EARN your way to work weekends. And by weekends i mean 72 holes. Sorry not sorry .September 1, 2022
In August last year, he also described players who joined LIV Golf under the pretence of changing the game as “comical.” He said: “All these guys think they're changing the game and to me, it's comical. It's really comical. To have music on every tee and have people drinking beers and think that’s cool. I never thought the cast and crew that would do that would be the guys doing it."
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