One hundred rounds later and LIV Golf shows no signs of going away as LIV Greenbrier gets underway on Friday.
From a staggered beginning in London two years ago, the Saudi backed tour has held its own in golf’s landscape with $4million first prize cheques and a host of top class players mixed in with those who have had their time in the sun.
One of those players whose best days are long behind him is Bubba Watson who believes LIV Golf has changed the face of the sport and believes Scottie Scheffler’s winnings of $27.6 million is a testament to the financial impact LIV has had on the game.
“Yeah, this is exciting times. When I think about going through the motions of deciding I wanted to come to LIV, I thought about the 10-year plan, on paper, what the goals were, and it’s met my expectations. It’s been better than that,” said Watson, a two time Masters winner.
“We’ve changed the face of golf. So to be on that side of history is pretty special.
“I know years ago when the PGA TOUR made that same decision, and when I’m saying years ago, we’re talking ’50s, ’40s, whatever year Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and them made the other tour, so we’re a part of that. It’s an honor and a privilege to say I’m a part of that. Scottie Scheffler has made a lot of money this year because of the changes that we’ve started putting in place.
“I believe that golf is actually growing in the right spot, and I think team golf is here to stay. So I’m excited for the next few events, the next few years, and hopefully the RangeGoats can beat the Crushers.”
US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau became the second LIV golfer to win a major after Brooks Koepka won the US PGA Championship last year and the American believes the breakaway tour is close to exploding into life despite the fact the tournaments are not eligible to give away world ranking points.
“I didn’t know where we would exactly be after 100 rounds, but I can tell you that the ideas behind it, especially when I was having conversations back in 2022 and whatnot with where this was going to go, I expected there to be a lot of progress, but the progress has been amazingly awesome, from everything that we’ve done, everything that each team has individually done, the players, what they’ve done to make this league what it is now today is quite impressive.
“As I look at a five-year vision, 10-year vision, I just see this thing exploding here shortly.
“When people start to see the true value that we’re bringing, that intrinsic value is only going to exponentiate over the course of time, which is what I’m excited for. I’m waiting for that kind of domino effect, for it to start falling in that cool direction that we see here on our side at LIV, especially with the team aspect.
“It feels a lot like — it’s some of the highest level golf but you feel like you have a family out here and some really good friends that can help, I guess you could say, make everybody better. That’s what I’m excited to see is how that progresses, how it transforms, the sponsors that come in, the people that are a part of it, that want to be a part of it.
“For me to see that potential out there, we’ve just got to get after it and get it because it’s all right there for the taking, and I’m super excited for these 100 rounds and how they’ve gone. Obviously I’ve won a couple, and the Crushers have done well, and we’ve won a team championship, and I’m super proud of the guys. That’s what we’ve set out to do.
“But we want to keep doing that. We want Paul, Baan, Charles to keep pushing forward and I’ll keep doing my job, and that’s what I’m excited about, and hopefully it pushes these guys on other teams to keep pushing forward, as well.”
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