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Trump, whose Bedminster course in New Jersey will host the next
LIV event from July 29-31, feels any golfers who do not take
advantage of the money being offered to players to make the
switch will lose out.
"All of those golfers that remain 'loyal' to the very disloyal
PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when
the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a
big 'thank you' from PGA officials who are making Millions of
Dollars a year," Trump wrote this week on the social medial
platform Truth Social.
"If you don't take the money now, you will get nothing after the
merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees
were."
The Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf series has lured players with
the promise of guaranteed, big-money paydays and a reduced
schedule while the U.S.-based PGA Tour has suspended members who
opted to join the breakaway circuit.
Among the more high-profile players to join LIV are World Golf
Hall of Fame member Phil Mickelson, who was reportedly paid $200
million to jump ship, twice major champion Dustin Johnson and
2020 U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau.
Critics say LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's
Public Investment Fund, amounts to blatant 'sportswashing' by a
nation trying to improve its reputation in light of its history
of human rights abuses.
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour in Europe are united in their
stand against LIV and three weeks ago announced a strengthening
of their alliance to combat the threat.
Bedminster was supposed to host this year's PGA Championship but
the PGA of America relocated it after Trump exhorted his
supporters to march on the Capitol in January 2021 as Congress
met to certify his presidential election defeat by Joe Biden.
Trump's Doral course is also scheduled to host the eighth and
final event of the inaugural LIV season in October, a team
championship with a $50 million purse of which $16 million will
be awarded to the winning foursome.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
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