Lee Westwood, a former world No. 1, had a laugh Thursday at the major changes the PGA Tour announced Wednesday in response to the threat of LIV Golf, calling many who ripped the rival league “hypocrites.”
Westwood — one of the players to defect to the rival Saudian Arabian-financed LIV Golf Invitational Series — said the PGA Tour is now using many of the same ideas of the new tour.
“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,’’ Westwood told Golf Digest in an interview published Thursday. “It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is not competitive. They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday said the PGA Tour’s top players had committed to compete in at least 20 tournaments, including 13 elevated events that will have average purses of $20 million. Eight of the events already have been announced.
“Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV,” the 49-year-old Westwood said. “Hopefully, at some point they will all choke on their words. And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days.”
Nevertheless, there is one big difference between the two tours. Most PGA Tour tournaments are 72 holes and have 36-hole cuts; whereas LIV Golf events are 54 holes with no cuts.
Monahan has suspended more than two dozen PGA Tour players, including past major champions Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed, for competing in LIV tournaments without conflicting-event releases from the PGA Tour.
Trying to stem the tide of more LIV big-name defections, the PGA Tour, also announced they are increasing the funds in the Player Impact Program (PIP) to $100 million, with the 20 top players being rewarded via the fund. The PIP program is weighed on different “awareness criteria” and will no longer be solely based on a Q score or social media reach. They also announced a $500,000 guaranteed minimum against earnings for all exempt players.
Despite these Tour changes, more LIV defections are on the way. The new league will announce seven new additions after the conclusion of this week’s FedEx Cup Tour Championship, according to Alan Shipnuck of The Fire Pit Collective. One of them reportedly will be Cam Smith, who won the British Open and Players Championship this year.
Westwood also said the PGA Tour has treated the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, for years despite their recent strategic alliance. The DP Tour also has suspended and fined its members for playing in LIV Golf tournaments.
“I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years,” said Westwood, who in 2010 became the first British golfer since Nick Faldo to become the No. 1 player in the world. “There’s not much ‘give.’ They have always been bullies and now they are getting their comeuppance.
Westwood also said LIV Golf is just following the PGA Tour’s blueprint for the last quarter of a century.
“All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger [Woods] came on tour is up the prize purses,” Westwood said. “In turn, that has taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour. They’ve had to play in the States, taking all their world ranking points with them. That was their strategy: ‘Put up the money. Get all the players. Hog all the world ranking points.’
“Which becomes self-perpetuating. What we have seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has done for the last 25 years.”
When asked by Golf Digest if he’s bothered at all by the source of LIV Golf’s funding, the Saudia Arabia’s wealth fund, Westwood stuck to a familiar answer many LIV golfers have given since joining the new tour.
“The questions on the Saudi government and their policies are unanswerable,” Westwood said. “My response is just to try and not answer them. I’m not a politician; I’m a golfer. But I do know that sport can be used as change for good.”
Westwood said he also believes there is a double standard between golf and other sports that have or are doing business with Saudia Arabia.
I don’t understand why golf is being taken to task so much,” Westwood said. “Why is football [soccer] not being held to the same standard for having the World Cup in Qatar? Why was [heavyweight boxer] Anthony Joshua not criticized more for fighting in Jeddah last week?”
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