Masters legends call for unity in men’s golf
NICKLAUS, PLAYER, WATSON SAY TOP PLAYERS COMPETING AGAINST EACH OTHER IS BEST
Three of golf’s living legends agreed on Thursday at the Masters on a need for unity in the men’s professional game. Speaking at Augusta National after hitting ceremonial tee shots, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player urged the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the players themselves to put an end to the fractured landscape.
Watson said he let his thoughts be known with a statement that ended Tuesday’s Masters Champions Dinner.
“I got up and I’m looking around the room, and I’m seeing just a wonderful experience everybody is having.
“They are jovial. They are having a great time. They are laughing.
“I said, ‘Ain’t it good to be together again?’ ” Watson said on Thursday.
“And there was kind of a pall from the joviality and it quieted down, and then Ray Floyd got up and it was time to leave,” Watson said.
“And in a sense, I hope that the players themselves took that to say, you know, we have to do something. We have to do something.”
Three players with a combined 35 major championship wins addressed media at the Masters, covering a wide range of topics, but none as pressing to the game as the ongoing disruption at the top of the sport.
Golf ’s greatest champion, Nicklaus, agreed with Watson’s remarks on Thursday when asked for his views on what a proper resolution should look like.
“The best outcome is the best players play against each other all the time.
“That’s what I feel about it,” Nicklaus said.
“How it’s going? I don’t know, I don’t want to be privy to it.”
The 84-year-old Golden Bear said he recently spoke with Jay Monahan, but told the PGA Tour commissioner he didn’t want an update on negotiations because he didn’t want to have to lie to the press when asked about it.
He did share that Monahan told him, “We’re doing fine.”
“If Jay thinks we’re doing fine, we’ll get there, I think we’ll get there,” Nicklaus said.
“And I certainly hope that happens, the sooner the better.”
South Africa’s Player said that any animosity and confrontation is bad for business.
“The public don’t like it, and we as professionals don’t like it, either,” Player said.
Player also warned of potential bad blood should the sides come to an agreement that doesn’t reward the stars who chose not to go to LIV Golf.
“It’s a big problem because they paid all these guys to join the LIV Tour fortunes, I mean, beyond one’s comprehension . ... Now these guys come back and play, I really believe the (PGA Tour) players, that if they are loyal, should be compensated in some way or another; otherwise, there’s going to be dissension.”
Following the theme of Watson’s remarks at the Champions Dinner, on Thursday the 74-yearold continued to put the onus on the players to put an end to the division in the game.
“The players really kind of have control I think in a sense. What do they want to do?” Watson said. “We’ll see where it goes. We don’t have the information or the answers. I don’t think the PGA Tour or the LIV Tour really have an answer right now.
“In this room, I know the three of us want to get together. We want to get together like we were at that Champions Dinner, happy, the best players playing against each other.
“The bottom line: That’s what we want in professional golf, and right now, we don’t have it.”