Major champion implores PGA Tour to make 'common sense' call over key LIV Golf issue
Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover has made it clear what the PGA Tour needs to do with one LIV Golf issue going into 2025.
Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover may not like the direction the PGA Tour is heading in, but it's clear he believes LIV Golf players should be involved in next year's signature events.
At present, players who have joined the lucrative breakaway are indefinitely banned.
A report from Bloomberg earlier this week suggested the North American circuit and the financiers of their rival have finally agreed a deal that would see the PIF of Saudi Arabia take a six per cent stake in PGA Tour Enterprises.
If true, it would surely mark the beginning of the end in hostilities in elite men's professional golf.
Until then, though, there will be a divide in the talent pool.
Glover reckons this is unsustainable, and he explained why in an appearance on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio.
Tournament |
The Sentry |
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am |
The Genesis Invitational |
Arnold Palmer Invitational |
RBC Heritage |
Truist Championship |
the Memorial |
Travelers Championship |
The big American reckons the signature events, of which there are eight in the 2025 schedule, should simply contain the very best players.
"If you're going to put a top-end event, there’s some top-end, huge talent playing LIV," Glover said. "[They are] players that would obviously benefit the PGA Tour.
"If we're going to have a for-profit money-making organisation, then we're going to need those guys, and golf needs them too.
"If that's unification, if that's playing head-to-head, whatever they come up with, the best players in the world need to be playing."
Watch:
Should LIV golfers be allowed into Signature Events? A listener posed the question to Lucas Glover, who is open to it if fields are expanded overall.
— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) December 12, 2024
Check out The Lucas Glover Show on the SiriusXM App!
: https://t.co/ix9AQeOgcV pic.twitter.com/p1zHx89TiT
Glover also took the PGA Tour to task over the fact some of the signature events have limited fields.
It limits drama and competition, Glover said.
"It should be a fuller field if you’re putting up $22 to $25 million for one of these events, or maybe even more, who knows, but limiting the fans and limiting the TV audience to 70 to 80 players, it really limits the story lines," he said.
"It limits the drama. It limits the overall competition, in my opinion, because the more bodies, the more golfers, the more competition.
"That's just common sense. And on top of that, you take it one more level. It's better for the fans on site, because then you get golf all day."
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