Golf legend Jack Nicklaus heavily slammed the LIV Golf circuit after the second season got underway last week.
Many within the golfing world have had their say on the emergence of the controversial Saudi-backed circuit and the lucrative offers launched to those on the PGA Tour. The 18-time major winner appeared on Sir Nick's Round Table Chats on YouTube to discuss LIV Golf, which changed the landscape of the sport.
Despite taking exception to the eye-watering sums of money up for grabs, the 83-year-old does not blame those who have chosen to defect to LIV. "I don’t fault the guys who have gone to LIV," he said. "You have to make a choice, between playing golf for a short period time, for a lot of money, to put away for your family, or do you have the loyalty to play regular golf, then the senior tour and into retirement.
"It’s a quick hit and that’s their call, and I don’t fault that. But I don’t think it’s been good for the game of golf, the PGA Tour was forced to react and I don’t like the way we’ve automatically created a secondary tour within the main tour, we’ve created a second layer. But times change though, so you go with the times. The future of LIV will depend on how these legal cases are handled.
"It’s money trying to buy the game, it’s trying to buy respectability, and I don’t think that’s what it’s all about. Somebody said they’re trying to buy the ability to sit on the veranda at Augusta National sipping Mint Julep with the membership and be accepted. It’s trying to gain acceptability within the mainframe of the game of golf.”
Nicklaus enjoyed a phenomenal career, winning an astounding 118 titles, 73 of which came on the PGA Tour and holds the record for the number of majors won.
Nicklaus had the opportunity to earn some serious cash to work for LIV - but the golf icon rejected two offers over £80m. As the prize money within professional golf continues to increase, Nicklaus insists that financial gain was not the motivating factor while he was a player.
“During my era, I did what I did, I won a few tournaments and there wasn’t much money, although we thought it was good money then,” Nicklaus added.
“My lifetime earnings including both tours was about eight million or something like that – 10 guys make that now every year! There’s a lot to be said about today’s era, but I wouldn’t trade what I did – I loved it.
“The game of golf we played was because we loved the sport, we never played for money – money was a side thing that because we won on the golf course we could use our names to go and make a living – today the guys make a living on the golf course, which we didn’t.”
