Harmon: Rebels should be honest about LIV money
LIV Golf players should admit they jumped ship for money, claimed Butch Harmon, as he insisted Phil Mickelson should be forgiven.
The Saudi-funded breakaway series has lured some of golf’s biggest names from the PGA Tour with lucrative eight or nine figure offers.
But some players have insisted they did not solely defect for the mega-money deals, claiming they believe the series ‘is growing the game’.
Harmon has told those players to cut the ‘BS’ but insisted they have the right to grow their bank accounts as he admitted he would take the money.
Speaking on his son Claude’s podcast, Son of a Butch, Harmon said: ‘I think the players that went to the LIV – you’re probably not going to agree with me on this – they created the problem because they went for the money, there’s no doubt.
‘That’s BS about I’m going to play less and I’m going to spend more time at home. No, you went for the money. So just say that.
‘I think the PR of the LIV has not been good. The guys should have got together and be honest.
‘This “I’m going to grow the game better” – no, that has nothing to do with it; you’re not growing any game. They’re growing their bank accounts. Which every sportsman has the right to do – to get the best deal you can get.’
Harmon also believes former pupil Mickelson deserves forgiveness, insisting ‘nobody’s perfect’.
‘Well, Phil’s very honest,’ Harmon said. ‘And I think, in all honesty, I’m going to give Phil some credit. People didn’t like it, but a lot of the things he said about the Tour I think were true. And I think the Tour is now seeing that and they’re trying to change a lot of that stuff.
‘So you got to hand it to Phil for that. He has taken a tremendous amount of criticism for it.
‘You know there’s things that have come out about him and his personal life that he hasn’t done, and look, hey, we all make mistakes; nobody’s perfect. There’s things in our past that I think bygones should be bygones.’