Former Open champion rips into LIV Golf after latest rumour is confirmed
'I want nothing to do with it. I wouldn't walk across the street to watch' - former Open champion slams LIV Golf as his home course is linked as possible new venue.
Former Open champion Sir Bob Charles has ripped into LIV Golf by claiming he wouldn't be seen 'walking across the street to watch' if a tournament was ever hosted in his native New Zealand.
There have been rumours coming out of the Saudi-bankrolled circuit in recent months that Christchurch Golf Club in New Zealand could be in line to soon host a LIV Golf League event.
LIV Golf officials reportedly took a scouting trip to the venue earlier this summer.
But Charles, 88, who is a patron of Christchurch Golf Club, has confirmed in an interview with The New Zealand Herald that he 'wants nothing to do with it' if LIV Golf does strike a deal with his home club.
Scroll down for his comments...
Charles, who won the 1963 Open Championship in a 36-hole playoff at Royal Lytham & St Annes and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008, told The Herald:
"I hope they're not playing at either of my golf courses. I don't endorse LIV Golf in any way in fact, quite the opposite. I want nothing to do with it. I wouldn't walk across the street to watch.
"The traditional game that I've played for 50 years travelling around the world is in total upheaval and they're causing havoc - they're causing problems, and I just have no time for LIV whatsoever.
"It's not the traditional game... we had a certain set of rules, we had an organisation and they're a bunch of boys playing in short pants. So I've got nothing nice to say about them whatsoever."
Charles also hit out at the current LIV Golf roster, despite it now including some of the world's best golfers including Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
In the eyes of Charles, who won six times on the PGA Tour between 1963 and 1974, he is unconvinced any of the LIV Golf players deserve the millions of dollars they receive from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Charles also admits he hasn't even heard of some of the LIV Golf players that compete on the circuit in 2024.
The New Zealand golf legend added:
"They've been offered some obscene sums of money and some of the guys that play, I've never ever heard of. I don't know that they deserve the money which they have been offered."
The Herald have had it confirmed by Christchurch GC general manager Mike Hadley that LIV Golf officials did indeed pay a recent visit to the club, but that 'no follow up' meeting has yet to have been arranged.
LIV Golf has just two more events left on its 2024 schedule with the Individual Championship taking place in Chicago next month, followed by the Team Championship in Dallas.
Rahm and Joaquin Niemann are set to fight out the Individual Championship, while DeChambeau's Crushers GC will look to defend their team title at the end of September.
Players in the drop zone will be fighting to remain on LIV Golf in 2025 with strong performances in Chicago.
Captains will then get the option to trade some of their players in the transfer window before the start of the 2025 season.
It is understood LIV Golf will confirm their full 2025 schedule at the end of 2024.
CEO Greg Norman has confirmed that LIV Golf will continue to go alone even if the PGA Tour does strike a deal with PIF.
Many in the golf industry are hopeful if a merger is officially struck between the PGA Tour and PIF that it will lead to some form of unification in the professional game following a divide that has now lasted more than two years.
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