Pádraig Harrington admits that he turned down a lucrative offer to join LIV Golf.
Speaking on the Late Late Show after opening up a free public putting green at Marlay Park, Harrington revealed that the Saudi backed tour came calling with an offer for him to join but he said thanks, but no thanks.
The three-time major champion has taken a balanced stance on the PGA Tour, LIV standoff over the last 12 months and also said on Friday night that he has not fallen out with any friends who defected to LIV.
“I got a text message but I didn’t want the temptation. If somebody comes around and offers you a hundred million, five hundred million, that’s a lot of temptation. It’s a lot of temptation and I didn’t want it. Sometimes you just don’t need it.
“I’m not going but I’ve lots of friends who go and they’re still my friends. I can see why people would go and I can see the good of it in terms of inclusion if things change.
“Some of the guys have gone for free, but there’s a lot of prize money. Whether they should go or not is up to the individuals – some of the guys who’ve gone wouldn’t have been in good financial situations.
“I also see that the competition for the PGA Tour has turned out to be very good. Everybody tuned in to the Masters to the LIV and PGA players.”
Part of Harrington’s reasoning for not joining LIV Golf was due to the human rights issues in Saudi Arabia. However, he believes including countries like Saudi Arabia can only help in improving moral issues.
“I wouldn’t want to live in Saudi Arabia as it is now, but I do believe inclusion changes things. The more international inclusion of Saudi Arabia, the more the people will go, ‘you know what – we want to change things.’ It’s not that long ago here we used to put pregnant women in mother and baby homes. 1996 was when the last of them closed so we’re not that far away from it.”
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