The players who took the decision to move to LIV Golf can justify it in whatever manner they see fit, but it's difficult to think that they moved for any reason other than the money.
Not only is the prize money on offer on the Saudi-backed venture well above what is available on the PGA Tour, many big name golfers were also offered astronomical sums of guaranteed money in order to jump ship. It is rumoured that Phil Mickelson received $250million after signing his contract, with Dustin Johnson handed around $150million.
That is a lot of money to turn down and it is understandable why many pros, especially those near the end of their careers, would accept the money.
However, many people have grown increasingly annoyed as the players in question refuse to acknowledge that money was the driving factor in their decision. They have repeatedly treated the golfing public as idiots as they trot out phrases such as 'growing the game' to explain the move, even though their motives were quite clear.
Bubba Watson gives ridiculous reason for LIV Golf move
LIV Golf hasn't exactly been a major hit with golf fans, both in terms of attendances and viewership. They attempted to implement a number of changes to make the sport more appealing to a younger audience, such as shotgun starts and introducing a team competition.
The team names are hilarious, with the likes of 'Aces', 'Crushers', and 'Fireballs' sounding like they were concocted by a five-year old.
The changes have failed to capture the imagination of the public, although Bubba Watson seemingly doesn't see it that way.
When asked about his reason for moving to LIV Golf, he recalled a highly questionable story about watching the tour with his 10-year old son, who was seemingly captivated by the team names.
Sit back and enjoy this tall tale.
Bubba Watson shares one reason why he signed with LIV Golf:
"My 10-year-old son was sitting in the bed with me, and we were watching golf on the TV, and he knew the Aces – everybody knows the Aces, they keep winning. He knew the Aces, he knew the Stingers..." pic.twitter.com/K8iPp3dYVp— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) January 31, 2023
I had surgery, and my son is sitting with me in my bed, and how I signed up with LIV is my 10-year-old son was sitting in the bed with me, and we were watching golf on the TV, and he knew the Aces -- everybody knows the Aces, they keep winning.
He knew the Aces, he knew the Stingers. He didn't know individual names, he just knew the team names, and for a 10-year-old to never watch the game of golf but now watches it, now I knew that there was a product to be had. LIV has a niche, it has a reason.
My son is used to the Yankees. He's used to the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs. He's used to watching teams, and that's the one thing that golf, high school golf has a team, college golf has a team, and then one of the biggest events in the world is the Ryder Cup, and it's a team event.
Now that professional golf has a team, we're going to be able to get the below-60-year-olds watching Golf Channel to the 10-year-olds now wanting to watch. I think we're on to something with LIV, and that's why I want to be a part of it...
To grow the game is not getting the 60- and 70-year-olds to play, it's getting the young kids to play. That's what I mean by getting the young kids to learn the game faster so the game is on a good growth pattern over the next 10 to 100 years.
Yeah, we're calling bullshit on that one.
While Bubba Watson may claim that this touching moment with his son was the reason behind his move to LIV Golf, we would hazard a guess that the rumoured $50million signing fee he was handed also played some small part.
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