John Daly gives his honest opinion about LIV Golf and admits “he would have played” in the Saudi-backed tournament
John Daly recently gave his two cents on the much-discussed current topic in golf - players moving to LIV Golf. This topic has been debated since the inception of LIV and gained significant traction earlier this week after Jon Rahm announced his move to the breakaway league on December 7, 2023.
John Daly, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, acknowledged that receiving compensation to participate in a league is not a terrible thing. The talented golfer claimed that he played in the European Tour events for the same objective.
In a video shared by LIV Golf Nation on X (formerly Twitter), John Daly stated:
"I think it's great. I would have played it! I was hoping that Finchem would say: "Ok, look, guys you play your 15 tournaments - go play it. We have to play 15 [events] on the regular tour and I think 11 or 12 on the Champions Tour. Once you do that, let us go play wherever we want."
"I think golf is a growing game. I'm not going to sit here and deny... I got paid a lot of money to go and play European events - what's the difference [with LIV]? There's no difference," he added.
The time when John Daly reportedly "begged" Greg Norman to let him join LIV
In 2022, many PGA Tour golfers made the jump to LIV Golf because of the nine-figure prize money and lucrative benefits on offer.
Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau were some of the first few stars to make the switch to LIV. However, there was reportedly no room for John Daly.
According to Fox Sports, Daly begged Greg Norman to let him join LIV. Daly was quoted as saying in an appearance on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" in 2022:
"I begged Greg Norman to let me be on the LIV Tour."
Daly reportedly even praised the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and added:
“The Prince of Saudi Arabia is a great guy and he’s given so much money to golfers that deserve it. Well, there are some that aren’t deserving [motions to himself again] because I should be on that tour.”
In Daly's opinion, the LIV circuit is better money-wise than the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions.
"I play two to three pro-ams every week on the Champions Tour and we don’t play for a lot of money, so I almost feel like, ‘Ok, I’m not getting a lot out of this. What are we doing?’," Daly added.