Wyndham Clark opens up on thorny LIV Golf subject: "That's something we wrestle with"

Wyndham Clark has called for the likes of Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson to play 'wherever the hell they want'. 

Clark became the latest player to be pressed on the thorny subject of whether players who jumped to LIV Golf should be allowed back on the PGA Tour when he hopped on the No Laying Up podcast this week. 

Unsurprisingly, Clark has mixed feelings on the subject given by his own admission he decided to turn down a lucrative offer to join the Saudi-backed league. 

And he still feels somewhat angry about the 11 players who decided to sue the PGA Tour in 2022 at the beginning of the game's 'civil war'. 

Related:

• Clark baffled by Johnson Ryder Cup decision

The 2023 U.S. Open champ was asked if there were any LIV players he would have a problem with playing in PGA Tour events in the future. 

Clark said: "I don't know, I guess it just depends on who it is. 

"I think guys that have had the career where they should be lifelong PGA Tour players, I think they deserve the right to come play the PGA Tour. 

"I think guys that maybe left and didn't have that pedigree and career and, I don't know if I think those are the guys that I'd struggle with because they made their decision, right?

"So they chose to go play there, take the money, and I think that's what a lot of us wrestle with. 

"You know, if Dustin Johnson wants to come back and Phil Mickelson and guys that have won, and Brooks, who have won majors and are most likely hall of famers, they deserve to play wherever the hell they want because they are so good. 

"But there's this [group] of other guys that I think that's where we'll struggle with because then we look at it going, man, a lot of us had a chance to take the money.

"And if we 100% knew that we could take the money and come back, then we'd all would have done that because we all would would have been way richer and come back and play at the highest so. 

"So it's a tough question, but at the end of the day, I really try to just concern myself with what I can control and if I'm playing my best golf regardless of what happens, I'm going to have a place to play. 

"And that's all I care about because I just love the game and I want to try to be the best I can."

Clark was asked if he has issues with the 11 players who sued the PGA Tour in 2022. 

Mickelson was among that group, as was Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Matt Jones, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Ian Poulter, Hudson Swafford and Peter Uihlein. 

"Yeah," Clark replied. 

He added: "That is something that I think frustrated a lot of us. 

"I mean, the PGA Tour gave everyone a platform and to create who these people were, to give them an unbelievable living and lifestyle. 

"And then, to turn around and sue them I just think is maybe not the right thing, regardless if they were in the wrong or not. 

"At the end of the day you're not suing PGA Tour as just the executives, you're also suing the players and that's what I think was frustrating for us seeing friends and guys that we're close with turning around and suing us.

"It's one thing if you're suing one person, if you just sue one specific guy or the the executives of the PGA Tour, I don't think that would bother us that much.

"But when you sue the Tour, that starts taking money out of our purses, that starts affecting our future on the PGA Tour."

Clark did concede that he has benefitted from the divide, regardless of the divide. 

"That's why I think that's why everyone now has changed their narrative a little bit and said, you know what, where things are now we just want to continue to grow that and do that with the best players, and I really don't know how that's going to look like."

You can listen to the whole podcast here. 

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