Tiger Woods calls LIV breakaway players betrayers
Golf legend Tiger Woods said that the LIV Golf breakaway players had “turned their backs” on those who helped them reach the top during an impassioned eve-of-the-Open address.
The 15-times major winner said that he also supported the R&A’s decision not to invite Greg Norman, a double Open champion and LIV Golf’s chief executive, to the 150th-anniversary celebrations at St Andrews. “Greg has done some things that I don’t think are in the best interests of our game,” Woods, 46, said. “I believe it is the right thing.”
Woods sounded incredulous that the LIV players, bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, would risk their participation in future majors by joining the breakaway tour. “What they’ve done is turn their backs on what has allowed them to get to this position,” he said.
He also fired a pointed warning to the young players who have jumped ship. “I just don’t see how that move is positive in the long term for a lot of these players, especially if the LIV organisation doesn’t get world ranking points and the major championships change their criteria for entering the events.”
The PGA and DP World Tour have suspended members decamping to LIV Golf, but the majors have so far allowed the LIV players to take part. Although independent of the tours, gaining entry to the majors is related to world ranking points.
LIV Golf events at present do not count towards the rankings, but an application has been submitted and will be heard by the board of Official World Golf Rankings in St Andrews today. LIV Golf chiefs have said that it would be silly if they did not get points and called for the application to be fast-tracked.
“Who knows what’s going to happen in the near future with world ranking points, the criteria for entering major championships,” Woods said. “Some of these players may not ever get a chance to play major championships. That is a possibility. It’s up to the major championship bodies to make that determination. It’s a possibility that some players will never get a chance to experience this right here, never walk down the fairways at Augusta National. I just don’t understand it.”
Woods, who is believed to have turned down close to a billion dollars to join LIV Golf, was also critical of the 54-hole LIV format, the “blaring music”, up-front payments and the motivation of those taking the money. “What is the incentive to practise or go out and earn it in the dirt?” he said. “You’re just getting paid a lot of money up front and playing a few events and 54 holes.”
