Hovland’s the current World No. 4, a three-time winner on this year’s PGA Tour and he denied recent rumours he will be joining the reigning Masters champ on the rival Tour.
“It’s a bit too stupid to criticise the players for leaving”, he responded on Rahm’s departure in speaking in his native Norwegian tongue with Discovery’s FORE! podcast,, with his comments translated into English.
“It would be a bit silly to criticise the players for leaving, after all you only hear one angle in the media, and there are quite a few different parts happening at the same time here.
“I totally understand why he (Rahm) left. That’s a lot, a lot of money.
“Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about the position I’m in, and I’m very grateful for everything. But the management has not done a good job. They almost see the players as labour and not as part of the membership. After all, we are the PGA Tour. Without the players, there is nothing.
“When you get to see what happens behind closed doors, how the management actually makes decisions, which are not in the players’ best interest, but best for themselves and what they think is best … they are businessmen who say that, ‘No, it should look like this and that.’ There is a great deal of arrogance behind it all.”
Hovland also used the podcast to express his views on the opening three events he will play on the 2024 PGA Tour season schedule, with each being the new ‘Signature’ no-cut tournaments, a format he clearly does not agree with.
Those events include next month’s The Sentry and February’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and then the Genesis Invitational
“You need the competition with 150 players and a cut,” he said.
“If you don’t play well enough, you’re out. There is something about it that makes your game a little sharper. If I had gone to LIV, I don’t think I would have become a better golfer?”.
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