Comments from Pat Perez surrounding the LIV Golf Series have come back to haunt the American, after winning £6.5 million on the breakaway circuit's maiden season. Perez has been one of the main beneficiaries from the Saudi-funded series, having been part of team champions, the 4 Aces.
Perez received plenty of criticism throughout the campaign, with his mega-money winnings and eventual title coming after he averaged a finish of 32nd in a 48-man field across the year. In a sensational comeback, Perez hit out at his critics following his team's season-ending win in Florida.
Claiming he 'didn't care' about the hate he received, Perez said: "All the push-back, all the negative comments, everything we've gotten, at this point I really don't care.
"I mean, I don't care. I'm paid. I don't give a damn." The 46-year-old has not always been on board with the LIV Golf idea though. Like many, Perez was quick to write off LIV, and pledged his allegiances to the PGA Tour back in February following Phil Mickelson's controversial comments surrounding Saudi Arabia and the breakaway circuit.
Speaking at the Genesis Invitational earlier this year, Perez said: "I just don't know how much water it's [LIV Golf] going to hold anyway. I don't know how long it's going take. They're not going to follow Phil [Mickelson], they're not going to follow [Bryson] DeChambeau unfortunately.
"You need the young crew right now to go do this thing. I don't know exactly what Phil, why he's got so much hate towards the [PGA] Tour... I'm in line with the PGA TOUR because that's all I have, that's all I have. For me to make roughly $40 million total with everything of a guy that got kicked out of college, that whole thing and was supposed to be a garbage man really.
"For me, yeah, I've earned every penny of it because we have to do it all the time. Like everybody else, they've earned every penny that they have." LIV has found itself locked in a battle with the PGA Tour and its commissioner Jay Monahan.
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Perez was one of the controversial players to jump ship this summer, and thus had his Tour membership suspended by Monahan alongside Mickelson and co. In February however, the 46-year-old could not praise the Tour boss enough for the 'phenomenal' work he had done, whilst also hitting out at LIV's attempt to 'grow the game'.
He went on: "Jay and the Tour, from what I understand, is doing a phenomenal job. 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."
