PGA Tour star "told Saudis to stuff $130m offer" to join LIV Golf

Golf analyst Brandel Chamblee reveals the huge fee Will Zalatoris turned down to join LIV Golf.

24 Oct 2023

PGA Tour star "told Saudis to stuff $130m offer" to join LIV Golf

Golf analyst Brandel Chamblee has taken to Twitter to praise a number of PGA Tour stars including Will Zalatoris for refusing huge money offers to join the Saudi-bankrolled LIV Golf League.

Zalatoris, according to one-time PGA Tour winner Chamblee, "told the Saudis (MBS) to stuff their $130m offer because he wanted to be, not only on the right side of history, to create an inspiring legacy."

The 2022 FedEx St Jude champion is understood to have given the offer some serious thought but ultimately decided the best bet was to remain on the PGA Tour and focus on qualifying for the majors.

Zalatoris, 27, might not have yet won a major but he has finished second in three of them (2021 Masters, 2022 PGA, 2022 US Open).

The talented American has been ruled out of action ever since undergoing back surgery in April 2023, but he will return in 2024.

Despite finding himself in the world's top 10 prior to his spell on the sidelines, Zalatoris will return from outside the top 30.

Texan Chamblee, who has hit out at LIV Golf multiple times since its inauguration in the summer of 2022, also commended other PGA Tour stars from his home state such as World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and three-time major champion Jordan Spieth "for turning down tens of millions".

Revealed: The huge offers the world's best PGA Tour players turned down to join LIV

As a Texan, I’m well aware of my bias, but bias withstanding, not enough can be said about the Texans who turned down the crazy millions to join LIV.
Grateful to PGA Tour stars Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth who helped ensure the history of the PGA Tour by turning down… pic.twitter.com/d52GL7yREO
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) October 23, 2023

LIV Golf did eventually get hold of some of the game's biggest stars in Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, each for more than Zalatoris' offer.

But Chamblee believes the biggest PGA Tour stars in the game today have all made the right decision to stick rather than twist.

He tweeted:

"As a Texan, I’m well aware of my bias, but bias withstanding, not enough can be said about the Texans who turned down the crazy millions to join LIV. Grateful to PGA Tour stars Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth who helped ensure the history of the PGA Tour by turning down tens of millions, but especially to Will Zalatoris, who as an injured but rising potential superstar told the Saudis (MBS) to stuff their 130 million dollar offer because he wanted to be, not only on the right side of history, to create an inspiring legacy. In addition to Zallatoris, the Coody brothers, Pierceson and Parker, turned down multimillion dollar and potentially life changing offers because they believed legacy has more currency than hypocrisy. The Saudis (MBS) want to use golf to launder their reputation but perhaps as much or more, to use golf as a crutch to diversify their economy that is almost solely based upon petroleum but largely hindered by their subjugation and some would argue their enslavement of women, which truncates their intellectual and entrepreneurial development. They want to use golf as a vehicle for economic expansion, to obviate the necessity of modernizing their archaic and medieval views about women, which obviously hinders their economic expansion. If we allow golf to be bought out by the Saudis ( MBS), we will tacitly be supporting the subjugation of women. Golf is facing an existential threat that has far more implications than even the game of golf."

It remains to be seen how many more PGA Tour players decide to join LIV Golf ahead of its 2024 season, but given all the extra cash pumped into the elevated events, a new Monday Night TGL hosted by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and potential new merger with LIV Golf's very own bankrollers, PIF, it would seem highly unlikely there will be too much transfer activity among the world's top 20 this off-season.

But you can be certain LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman will be doing his very best to halt the momentum of the PGA Tour in keeping hold of its stars.

The Great White Shark recently told how his phone has been off the hook with demand from player agents wanting to join over the past 12 months.

As for exactly which players have been showing an interest remains to be seen heading into LIV Golf's third year.

LIV Golf concluded its second season on Sunday night with DeChambeau's Crushers crowned season champions in Miami.

The circuit then announced its first big signing ahead of the new season.

What do you make of Chamblee's criticism of Saudi Arabia's influence in the game? Do you think any more PGA Tour stars will move to LIV Golf in 2024 or has the PGA Tour done enough to keep hold of them all? Share your thoughts and comments over on the GolfMagic social media channels.

Take me to more golf news!