PGA Tour respond to Bubba Watson's pay-for-play claims after LIV season finale
The PGA Tour have responded to Bubba Watson's pay-for-play claims after the conclusion of LIV Golf's inaugural season in Miami.
Bubba Watson, who now plays in the LIV Golf League, has had some interesting things to say recently.
Before LIV Golf's inaugural season came to a close with the $50m team championship in Miami - which the 4 Aces GC won - the two-time major champion gave an extensive interview to The Times of London in which he opened up on a number of topics.
One of those was his problems with anxiety. It wasn't too long after he won his second Green Jacket that he noticed a considerable amount of weight loss.
Related: Bubba Watson claims he's owed $1.5m
Watson told the paper: "I thought I was going to die". Apparently, LIV Golf has helped him "live again" (no pun intended).
Another one of his claims was that he was paid under the table to appear in PGA Tour events.
In other words, he and many other players were given guaranteed pay days. This would have gone against the PGA Tour's regulations.
Related: DP World Tour announce guaranteed pay days
Watson said:
The PGA Tour have now released a statement to ESPN, who originally reported Watson's comments.
In response, a spokesperson said:
WATCH:
Here's the clip of Bubba Watson talking about those criticizing the #LIVGolf guaranteed money and the same thing is happening on the PGA Tour:
"We've all been doing that, we've all been playing for guaranteed money" pic.twitter.com/fdG6kXhPfL— LIV Golf Updates (@LIVGolfUpdates) November 3, 2022
Related: Dustin Johnson's caddie on LIV Golf life
Watson has yet to hit a shot in a LIV Golf event yet because of a knee injury.
He will be a team captain for the Niblicks GC in the 2023 LIV Golf League.
Watson announced he was signing for LIV Golf in July for a reported fee of $50m.
At the time he was the 11th major champion to sign for the controversial series, joining the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
More names are expected defect from the PGA Tour in the coming weeks. One of the LIV bosses, Atul Khosla, wants their new signings completed before the end of 2022.
Greg Norman, LIV's commissioner, has targeted at least seven new signings with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele reportedly two of his key targets.
The aforementioned Johnson won the most money on the course in 2022 in LIV Golf events.
Click here to see just how much money they all won.
Watch our latest YouTube video:
Ben joined the GolfMagic team in September 2021, initially as a content executive.
These days, he assumes the position of content manager.
