After two years of intense debate and recriminations around the war between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, things are starting to settle down. Thanks to the proposed PGA Tour-PIF agreement, other parts of the golf world have taken center stage.
That is unless you’re Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee. Chamblee has long been one of the most vocal critiques of LIV and Saudi Arabia’s increasing influence in the game of golf. And the tweets started flying again last week.
After LIV protagonist Phil Mickelson, a frequent target of Chamblee’s ire, said he believed more Tour pros would join LIV, Chamblee countered on X (formerly Twitter).
“He says other stars will join,” Chamblee wrote, “but what he means is, he HOPES other stars will, just like all those do who find themselves catastrophically on the wrong side of an issue, hoping that others will come along and help them ameliorate the embarrassment of their actions.”
He continued mixing it up with commenters on his post, though Mickelson himself never responded.
On Monday, the PGA-Tour LIV rift was still occupying Chamblee’s thoughts, so much so that he took to X again and launched a lengthy, 248-word post on the subject.
This time, though, instead of taking Mickelson to task, Chamblee took the time to honor three Texan Tour pros — Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris — for “turning down crazy millions” from LIV to stay on the PGA Tour.
“Grateful to PGA Tour stars Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth who helped ensure the history of the PGA Tour by turning down tens of millions, but especially to Will Zalatoris, who as an injured but rising potential superstar told the Saudis (MBS) to stuff their 130 million dollar offer because he wanted to be, not only on the right side of history, to create an inspiring legacy,” Chamblee wrote on Monday. “In addition to Zallatoris, the Coody brothers, Pierceson and Parker, turned down multimillion dollar and potentially life changing offers because they believed legacy has more currency than hypocrisy.”
In the same post, which you can read in full above, Chamblee harshly criticized Saudi Arabia’s involvement in pro golf as a way to “launder their reputation.”
He closed the post on an ominous note, writing, “Golf is facing an existential threat that has far more implications than even the game of golf.”
We’ve yet to hear any official decisions regarding the proposed agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Those negotiations will likely determine the fate of LIV. For now, LIV is forging ahead in 2024 which we should hear much more about in the coming weeks.
