Golf legend labels LIV as 'island that should do own thing' and mocks rebel circuit over pickleball embarrassment

Faldo, who is hosting this week’s Betfred British Masters at The Belfry, also expressed his frustration about how he feels Saudi Arabia throwing huge amounts of money at LIV has been “damaging to the public’s attitude to golf” and believes that a recent play-off on the circuit involving two of its star players – Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka – attracting less viewers than a low-key pickleball event was a sign that it is “not moving the needle”.

It’s now close to 15 months since the shock announcement that the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had struck a peace deal after a civil war had broken out in the game following the launch of the Greg Norman-fronted rebel circuit in 2022.

A so-called Framework Agreement has been at the heart of ongoing talks that have involved PIF chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Tiger Woods in his role as a PGA Tour board advisory member but, with little sign of any real progress being made, it remains to be seen if the sides can come up with a new landscape that involves a pathway back to the PGA Tour for the likes of Rahm, Koepka and US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.

Speaking earlier this week, PGA Tour commissioner Monahan had little to say about the nuts and bolts of the discussions, but his remark about the circuit now being in a position to do things on “our terms” thanks to $3 billion deal struck with the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) in February was a stick-out line in his pre-Tour Championship media conference at East Lake in Atlanta.

“No,” replied six-time major winner Faldo, speaking at The Belfry, to being asked if he felt the talks can ultimately be constructive for the good of the game. “I think (LIV Golf) are an island and go and do their own thing. That’s absolutely fine with me, go and play their tour.

“But I think we are now seeing that, wow, they’ve had three seasons and they haven’t made much impact on the numbers. You know, quite amusingly, pickleball was bigger than their two stars in a play-off (Koepka beat Rahm in that sudden-death shoot-out in the LIV Greenbrier event earlier this month), the sort of excitement everyone wants. But it got beat for viewership by pickleball, yeah!”

Three-time major winner Rahm was lured to LIV Golf for a whopping $450 million at the end of last year after massive sums of money had already been splashed out to sign the likes of Koepka, DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed.

“I think the bottom line is that the players have got the last laugh because they are being rewarded so much either through the size of the prize-money or appearance fees and they are not moving the needle. So they got the last laugh, I think,” added Faldo, who is hosting this week’s DP World Tour event in the Midlands for the second year running and is hoping to see it grow in terms of field strength over the next few years.

“I can’t see that changing because, as we know, it’s been so damaging to the public’s attitude to golf. I still talk to my producer friends in TV and people are just not watching. It’s hurt the attitude towards golf. I did 18 years of television and I was told not to talk about prize-money and I could think of two or three but did not get to five. I can think of when the FedEx Cup went to $10 million, I went ‘wow, look at this, this putt is worth $10 million!’ That was about the only time I mentioned money and now, all of a sudden, it’s ridiculous amounts. It’s really changed it.

“But I think Rahmbo, obviously Bryson and Brooks are the only ones that the tour misses, to be honest. So let them go and do their own thing. The PGA Tour has set their schedule for next year and I think the DP World Tour will respond with this ‘Back 9 Swing’ as I think Guy [Kinnings, the DP World Tour’s CEO] has said they might expand it a bit. Gosh, that’s tonnes of golf.”

Did Rahm, for instance, believe an agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf was close when he signed on the dotted line? “Yeah, I think they all thought why don’t I run off and get all these hundreds of blooming millions and they’ll sort it out in two years and I’ll come back with a boatload,” observed Faldo. "I don’t think it is going to work like that and it shouldn’t, to be honest.

“LIV say they are going to super-charge excitement in golf - good luck. Golf is golf. Golf is outdoor chess. The No 1 goal in golf as a player is to come up the last with a three-shot lead or more, isn’t it? But you have people saying ‘well, that wasn’t very exciting, a bit anticlimatic’. But every player out there wants to come down the last two holes with a cushion - that is the No 1 goal.”

On more than one occasion this year, it’s been rumoured that Rahm has been unsettled in his new working environment and it was even suggested recently that he’d considered handing back his money to PIF in order to pave the way for a return to the PGA Tour, where LIV players are all currently banned.

“People may not understand this just making the cut thing,” said Faldo of the LIV format not involving a cut. “I did all that TV and I saw Rahm fist-pumping when he made the cut at Riviera when he was 14 back. Rory getting up and down a couple of times in the last three holes. So the way I analyse it is that failure is part of sport and it is as much motivation to some people as winning. It’s the fear of failure, but there is no failure in LIV; it’s fail-free!

“Those guys who are the best in the world, there is no freaking prize-money on the line. They want to make the cut for whatever the reason may be. Whether it’s embarrassing if you miss or feel you could still win, as some guys even ten shots back have. That is pure golf. You’ve maybe got six holes to play and you know you aren’t playing well and you are one outside the cut and somehow you force yourself to make it. There’s nothing more pure than that.”

Through a loophole, having appealed against the fines and suspensions he’s received for playing in LIV Golf events without an official release from the DP World Tour, Tyrrell Hatton is teeing up in this week’s tournament at the iconic Ryder Cup venue in Sutton Coldfield, but whether or not the world’s best players are back competing against each other more regularly again outside the majors is unclear at this stage.

“I know Saudi has a bottomless pit of money, but it would have been so much nicer if they’d done it differently,” continued Faldo, who is now based in Montana this week but remains a darling of English golf fans. “They could have got a lot more by going about it differently. They could have waltzed in and said to South Africa, for example, what’s your tour worth? They’d have been given a number and could have doubled. The same in Australia and could have come to Europe and done the same thing as well.

“They could have given first and we would all have had a different attitude and they would have got a lot more out of it because I’ve heard they’ve spent an awful lot more than what they’ve said. There is no business model when people really have no ROI, is there? This is unheard of that somebody couldn’t care less. Then they all say it’s fantastic. But, if you started a company and kept saying to the bank manager ‘oh, it’s fantastic’ but you’ve given me 60 grand and I’ve only brought in three, what’s he going to say? It’s not going to last very long, is it?”