Major champion claims return of LIV golfers would 'obviously benefit' PGA Tour
A merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has been the talk of the golf world for quite a long time now. Amidst these talks, PGA Tour veteran Lucas Glover has stated that golfers from the Saudi-backed tour must be allowed to compete in signature events.
On social media platform X, NUCLR Golf uploaded a video from Glover's appearance on SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio in which he made the above-mentioned statement. As per Glover, the return of LIV Golfers would only benefit the PGA Tour.
Lucas Glover said:
"If you are going to put on a signature event, if it's going to be a top-of-the-line event, obviously there's some top-end, huge top-end talent playing LIV. And players that would obviously benefit the PGA Tour and that if we are going to have a for-profit money-making organization, then we are going to need those guys. And golf needs them too. At the end of the day, golf needs them. If that's unification, if that's playing head to head, if that's whatever they come up with, best players in the world need to be playing."
You can check out what Lucas Glover said about LIV Golfers in the video below:
Further in the video, Lucas Glover spoke against limiting the field to 70-80 players. He mentioned that placing a limit on the field size limits the storylines, limits the drama, and limits the overall competition. Glover added that more golfers in an event increases the level of competition.
Lucas Glover recently suggested what the PGA Tour needs to do to address slow play
One of the main reasons why the PGA Tour is looking at limiting field sizes is because of slow play. For quite some time now, slow play has not only been a problem for golfers competing in the event, but also for the viewers who tune in to watch some exciting golf.
In an interview via Golf Week, Lucas Glover mentioned what the Tour needs to do to address the issue of slow play. Glover, who is advocating for a fuller field, said that a warning followed by a penalty could be the ideal solution to curb slow play.
The American professional golfer said:
"You get a better pace of play policy or enforce the one you have better. If I’m in a slow twosome and an official came up and said, 'You guys are behind, this is not a warning, y’all are on the clock and if you get a bad time, that’s a shot penalty,' guess who’s running to their ball? That’s what we need to be doing."
While there have been policies to curb slow play across various tours, they have never been fully applied. However, recently, Jacob Skov Olesen was handed a penalty for slow play when he was competing at the Australian PGA Championship. This penalty handed to the DP World Tour rookie resulted in his fourth bogey that day.