Lee Westwood says new PGA Tour look is just a ‘copy’ of LIV Golf, points finger at ‘hypocrites’
ATLANTA – Former No. 1 in the world Lee Westwood said he can only laugh at the sweeping changes the PGA Tour announced Wednesday in response to the growing threat of LIV Golf.
Westwood, who was one of the first PGA Tour members to leave the Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf Invitational Series, said his old tour is borrowing a lot of ideas from his new tournament.
“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players came up with,” Westwood said 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 to the unbroken side of LIV and short-term sectors.”
On Wednesday, the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, announced that the top PGA Tour players have committed to competing in at least 20 tournaments, including 13 advanced tournaments that will have average sums. is 20 million dollars.
Unlike LIV Golf events, most PGA Tour tournaments are 72 holes and have 36 cut holes. LIV Golf events have 54 holes with no cuts.
“Now, funnily enough, they’re proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV,” Westwood said. “Hopefully, at some point, they’ll all choke. And hopefully, they’ll be interpreted like we were in the early days.”
Monahan has suspended more than two dozen PGA Tour players, including past major champions Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reedto compete in LIV tournaments without conflict events released from the PGA Tour.
Westwood, who in 2010 became the first British golfer since Nick Faldo 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, also criticized the PGA Tour for its treatment of the DP World Tour of which he is also a member. The PGA Tour and DP World have a strategic alliance; The DP World Tour also suspended and fined its members for playing in LIV Golf events.
“I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has performed over the years,” Westwood said. “There’s not much ‘give.’ They’ve always been the bullies and now they’re getting their support All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger [Woods] came to visit is up wallet prize. In turn, that took all of Europe’s best players out of the European Tour. They had to play in the United States, taking all their world ranking points with them. That’s their strategy: ‘Put your money away. Get all the players. Hog all world ranking points. ‘ This becomes self-perpetuating. What we’ve seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has been doing for the past 25 years. “
