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Viktor Hovland has confirmed he won’t be shifting to LIV Golf however has criticised PGA Tour management for taking a look at gamers as ‘labour’; after weeks of hypothesis, Jon Rahm confirmed that he had signed for LIV Golf in a deal understood to be price as much as £450m
Final Up to date: 18/12/23 6:52pm
Viktor Hovland is the newest participant to criticise the PGA Tour management
Viktor Hovland stated he utterly understands why Jon Rahm signed with LIV Golf, however the world’s No 4-ranked participant does not plan to be the following marquee participant to bolt to the Saudi-backed league.
In an look on the “Fore” podcast in Norway, Hovland stated he doubts he would bolt for LIV, largely because of the league’s no-cut format.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged the big sum of cash Rahm signed for, reported to be greater than £450m together with contract and signing bonuses, whereas taking goal on the “vanity” of the PGA Tour’s management.
“It might be a bit too foolish to criticise the gamers for leaving. In any case, you solely hear one angle within the media, and there are fairly a couple of totally different components occurring on the similar time right here,” Hovland stated in Norwegian as translated by Eurosport Norway, per Golfweek.
“I completely perceive why he left. That is so much, some huge cash.”
Butch Harmon believes Jon Rahm’s departure would possibly enhance the urgency of the PGA Tour to type their Framework Settlement with LIV Golf
Hovland’s star standing has taken off in a 2023 throughout which he received the FedExCup title in August and the £14.2m ($18m) bonus that got here with it.
He additionally received the Memorial, the second leg of the playoffs on the BMW Championship and tied for second at each the PGA Championship and the DP World Championship.
It has been an immensely rewarding 12 months for Hovland on the course, however his earnings can be dwarfed by a possible supply from LIV. The 26-year-old asserted that the format nonetheless doesn’t enchantment to him.
“I do not assume their product is that nice. I am not such a fan of, for instance, taking part in with out a lower,” Hovland stated. “You want the competitors with 150 gamers and a lower. Should you do not play properly sufficient, you are out.
“There’s something about it that makes your recreation just a little sharper. If I had gone to LIV, I do not assume I’d have turn out to be a greater golfer. After which it’s, in a means, finish of dialogue.”
Sky Sports activities Information’ Jamie Weir explains what affect Jon Rahm’s transfer to LIV Golf means for the game as a complete
Hovland has dedicated to the season-opening The Sentry in Maui, which is a no-cut occasion, together with the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am, the WM Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational.
Rahm had equally sturdy objections to LIV’s format earlier than he signed with the league. He has been suspended from the PGA Tour, stopping the Spaniard from taking part in in The Sentry forward of LIV’s first occasion of 2024.
Might Hovland take an identical path as Rahm within the close to future?
“No, I doubt that,” he stated.
Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland set a Ryder Cup document as they thrashed Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka with a 9&7 win on day two
Hovland was additionally the newest to offer a blunt criticism of the PGA Tour’s decision-makers.
There’s a December 31 deadline for the tour to finalise a cope with the Public Funding Fund. The framework settlement that additionally consists of the DP World Tour was introduced in June, to the shock of the tour’s membership that was not concerned within the closed-door discussions.
The secrecy of these talks generated important anger from many gamers.
Viktor Hovland was in impressed type in his singles match in opposition to Collin Morikawa, profitable 4&3 as Europe edged nearer to regaining the Ryder Cup in Rome
“The administration has not accomplished a superb job. They nearly see the gamers as labour, and never as a part of the membership. In any case, we’re the PGA Tour. With out the gamers, there may be nothing,” he stated.
“Whenever you then get to see what occurs behind closed doorways, how the administration really makes selections, which aren’t within the gamers’ finest curiosity, however finest for themselves and what they assume is finest.
“They aren’t skilled golfers in spite of everything. They’re businessmen who say that, ‘No, it ought to seem like this and that.’ There may be a substantial amount of vanity behind all of it.”
Tiger Woods has since joined the coverage board and is closely concerned within the ongoing discussions because the tour seeks funding for a brand new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. ESPN reported that greater than £2.37bn ($3bn) can be injected by Strategic Sports activities Group into the brand new entity.
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