Pat Perez was his normal blunt self this week, along with his phrases and his alternative of apparel.
Particularly, the 46-year-old three-time PGA Tour winner donned a shirt emblazoned with $100 payments Tuesday evening on the welcome get together for the LIV Golf Invitational Collection forward of its second occasion, outdoors of Portland, Ore. When he met with the media just a few hours earlier, he wasn’t any much less delicate.
“For me, it’s actual easy. I’m 46. I’ve performed 515 occasions. I’ve been on the highway since 1998. I’ve been on the highway longer than Matt Wolff has been alive. I've an nearly 4-year-old. I missed my son’s beginning final yr,” Perez stated, when requested why he determined to leap from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf. “The underside line is I’m uninterested in being on the highway day-after-day, and I don’t need to do it now. This chance [is] like successful the lottery for me.”
It's certainly all in regards to the Benjamins.
After all, that a lot has been apparent to anybody who hasn’t been taking a nap for the previous six months. In terms of the controversial Saudi-backed golf circuit, which can tee off with its second match and first in america on Thursday, money guidelines every thing.
Like him or not, like LIV Golf or not, Perez at the least is being sincere. It’s a low bar in golf today, between the PGA Tour’s bungling grip on the game and the puppeteering of LIV Golf by a despotic Saudi regime to sportswash its abhorrent human-rights document. That little bit of candor is greater than will be stated for the opposite guys who shared the rostrum with Perez this week, with their causes for defecting starting from doubtful to downright ridiculous.
“My opinion modified,” stated Brooks Koepka, who's considered one of a handful of gamers to have reportedly inked a nine-figure deal to hitch the brand new league. “That was it. You guys won't ever consider me, however we didn’t have the dialog until every thing was achieved on the U.S. Open and figured it out and simply stated I used to be going to go a method or one other. Right here I'm.”
What Koepka wasn’t there for: Questions in regards to the specifics of his deal. In the identical breath, he stated “you'll be able to’t consider every thing you hear” and stated that these particulars are “irrelevant.”
Nor did he have any need to reply questions in regards to the supply of the cash, a few 9/11 survivors group that has blasted American gamers for taking part or in regards to the information that some members of host website Pumpkin Ridge stop the membership over the league’s ties to Saudi Arabia.
“We’re enjoying golf,” Koepka quipped.
Patrick Reed’s causes, in the meantime, reached a unique stage.
“To have a possibility the place I can play with a number of the high gamers on the earth and on high of it have a possibility that I really feel like for me is extra appropriate to see who one of the best participant is that week, as a result of everybody begins at the very same time,” he stated, noting the shotgun begin. “There isn't any such factor as a draw anymore. Now you’re on the golf course the very same time. Regardless of the climate is that day, that’s what you’re enjoying.”
“And I simply really feel prefer it’s extra of a household surroundings out right here.”
Then there was Bryson DeChambeau. He, like Perez, at the least has stated the transfer was a enterprise choice.
However a part of that enterprise additionally included doing the work of his benefactors.
“I perceive individuals’s selections on their feedback and whatnot,” he stated. “We’re golfers on the finish of the day, and I believe that I respect everyone’s opinion. That’s crucial factor individuals can hopefully perceive out of me is I do respect it. However golf is a drive for good, and I believe as time goes on, hopefully individuals will see the nice that they're doing and what they're attempting to perform reasonably than wanting on the unhealthy that’s occurred earlier than. I believe shifting on from that's vital, and going and persevering with to maneuver ahead in a optimistic gentle is one thing that could possibly be a drive for good for the way forward for the sport.”
Shifting on is inherently how sportswashing works. Even leaving that ingredient apart, one other query stays:
As extra gamers inevitably take the cash and run from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, will followers go along with them?
We will see.
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