During the past year, a new pro golf tour has emerged. The PGA tour has had a monopoly over pro golf for over 90 years, but all of a sudden a new tour emerged. The Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour emerged in June 2022 and started luring PGA players with outrageous amounts of money. Stealing some of the biggest names in golf, many current PGA players are not happy with the LIV tour.

Offering Tiger over 700 million dollars to join their tour, Tiger set an example by refusing. Tiger said, “I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position.” Tiger backing the PGA tour helped stall the leakage of players to the LIV tour, but the sheer amount of money being thrown around still has some leaving. Big names like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson (DJ) have joined the LIV tour recently with huge cash payouts for it. Phil trashed the PGA tour’s “obnoxious greed” as they recently “magically found” the money to fund new changes. Phil has been in the middle of this newfound controversy as he is one of the most outspoken advocates for the LIV tour. “I don’t think I’ll ever talk to him again,” golf legend Fred Couples said.

Much of the hate for the new LIV tour stems from their financial backers, the Saudi Arabian government, who have been accused of several human rights violations. The main reason golfers have joined is for the money. Being paid over 100 million to join, Bryson Dechambeau said it was “a personal business decision.” Other golfers such as Matthew Wolff and Abraham Ancer have been clear as well that they’re in it for the money. Can you blame them for taking advantage of an opportunity? Yes, yes you can. These golfers have already made millions, so why join a tour funded unethically? They aren’t in need of money at this point; it’s just greed taking over.

There is one other reason why players are jumping the PGA tour ship to get onboard the LIV tour: it is simply a different style of golf. Golf itself is going through a bit of a revolution because the game is getting younger and with that comes changes. More and more, golfers are turning the sport away from the traditional country club preppy style and into a more exciting and energetic style of play. New players are bringing speakers and alcohol to the course in order to make the game more fun for some, but others consider it disrespectful.

The LIV tour expresses this new style as they are relaxed on things like noise, celebrations, and player talk. The question is really up to what the individuals prefer. Most PGA golfers are more upset that players are so quick to turn their backs on the history of the PGA tour. The players that switched to the LIV tour still want to play in the PGA tour’s major championships; many people don’t think this should be the case though. These players think they can get the best of both worlds, but that is simply not the case.