Faldo takes a pop at LIV Golf and says that pickleball gets more TV viewers
Faldo has described LIV Golf as an “island that should do their own thing”, making the comment as Jay Monahan talked about the PGA Tour now having the “structure and the resources we need to define the future of professional golf on our terms and the significant support of a world-class group of investors”.
Faldo, who is hosting this week’s Betfred British Masters at The Belfry, also believes that a recent play-off on the Saudi-backed breakaway 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”.
Speaking earlier this week, PGA Tour commissioner Monahan had little to say about the nuts and bolts of the discussions that have been ongoing since the shock announcement 15 months ago 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.
However, his remark about the circuit now being in a position to do things on “our terms” thanks to a $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.
“I think [LIV Golf] are an island and go and do their own thing,” said Faldo, speaking at The Belfry. “That’s absolutely fine with me. 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 playoff [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, Brysnick
on 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 prizemoney or appearance fees and they are not moving the needle.
So they got the last laugh, I think,” added Faldo.
“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.”