Major champion takes aim at PGA Tour over treatment of caddies

Former Open champion John Daly says he would like to see the PGA Tour treat caddies better. 

The 59-year-old - who recently threw his hat in the ring to become the next United States Ryder Cup captain - made the claim as he lamented the fractured nature of the men's game. 

The Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf launched in June 2022 and lured a number of major champions away from the established PGA Tour with enormous contracts and huge prize purses. 

Following more than a year of unprecedented disruption in the sport, during which both sides locked horns in court, the tours agreed to an armistice on 6 June 2023 under a framework agreement.

But that deal is yet to be consummated and the general school of thought is that it never will, with both sides going it alone. 

Daly told Hard Rock Bet that he is a fan of both tours and wants to see the sport finally come back together. 

"I just wish both parties would get together and solve it and be one, somehow or another," Daly said. 

"I think anytime you're doing more world golf, I think it makes golf bigger. 

"Now, with our World Golf Championships that started on the PGA Tour, it does go a little worldwide. But with LIV, if we can combine it somehow, I don't know the answer to that—that's up to those guys."

Daly added: "But I hate not seeing the best players in the world on a stage of one field, whether it be a LIV event or a tour event or a major. You see them in the majors, at least the guys that play LIV can play the majors.

"I don't know, it's just separated some really great golfers, and I just wish everybody could get along and get together where everybody's competing with and against each other, because I think that's what golf really needs—is seeing the best against the best every week.

"I'm not opposed to any tour. I love the PGA Tour, and I love the LIV Tour. I think it's a great motto for someone who [wants to be a success]. I've always believed when you're born, you live, you try to raise a family, try to make as much money as you can.

"But a lot of fans in sports, they don't see it that way, and I just see it like, 'Hey, we're only here one time. Might as well get all you can and play a game that you love to death like all the guys do.'"

"We need them"

Daly also suggested that the PGA Tour need to take a leaf out of LIV Golf's book. 

"They [LIV] take care of the caddies, they take care of everything, and it's something that we've always talked about," said Daly.

"I wish the tour would take a little more care of our caddies because they're a necessity—we need them.

"That would be a motto. I wish the PGA Tour would look after the caddies a lot more than they do. They do a pretty good job, but they can do a hell of a lot better. 

"The LIV Tour is over the top with the caddies, but it's a fun tour. 

"They have concerts, they play nine-hole pro-ams. Some of our tour events, I hear they play nine, and another pro steps in, plays a back nine, so the amateurs are getting two pros instead of one, which is a great motto.

"I wish we'd do it on the Champions Tour. But anyway, I think they just need to get along and get it together because golf is such a great game, and it's a worldwide sport now. As you can see, Europe keeps kicking our butt in the Ryder Cup now.

"It's a very competitive game, and it's a competitive world of golf, and we all need to come together and make it one."