“They own you now” – Shane Lowry takes a jibe at Jon Rahm for his ‘growing the game’ with LIV Golf comment
Jon Rahm recently moved to LIV Golf. In the announcement, the Masters champion talked about siding with the Saudi-backed series to ‘grow the game.’ While this is a line repeated by several LIV golfers including Phil Mickelson, it didn’t sit well with Shane Lowry.
While the Irish golfer noted that he was ‘not surprised’ by Rahm’s defection, he took time out to attack the comments made by the Spaniard. Lowry found it hard to digest that multi-millionaires like Rahm and Mickelson were moving away from the PGA Tour to “grow the game” as they claim. The golfer said that players are “owned” by LIV and they have “been told by the communications team” to say certain things.
Speaking about Jon Rahm and LIV Golf at a press briefing at Amgen headquarters, Shane Lowry said, as quoted by the Irish Independent:
“I think what Jon said about growing the game and stuff, that’s obviously what they have to say. They’ve signed on the dotted line. They’ve been told by the communications team that this is what you say when you’re asked this and you have no other choice really because they own you now.
I don’t know if it’s been damaging (to golf’s image) but people who have spent their hard-earned money going out to join a golf club and buy golf clubs and play golf for the weekend, it’s tough for them to listen to the guy who’s already worth whatever say he has to do this to put food on the table for his wife and kids.”
The 36-year-old admitted that golf is in “a funny place” over LIV Golf. He continued his attack on the Greg Norman-led league and lauded European Ryder Cup teammate Viktor Hovland for turning down offers from the breakaway tour.
Jon Rahm lauds LIV Golf’s evolution over the last 2 years
Earlier this month, Rahm claimed that the “evolution” of LIV Golf over the last two years prompted him to defect from the PGA Tour. The reigning Masters champion, who reportedly signed a contract worth $566 million, praised the series for ‘evolving on the game of golf.’ He said that the controversial series ‘really captured his attention’ over the last two years.
Following his LIV Golf announcement, Jon Rahm said, as quoted by Golfweek:
“Obviously the past two years there’s been a lot of evolving on the game of golf, things have changed a lot and so have I. Seeing the growth of LIV Golf, seeing the evolution of LIV Golf and innovation is something that has really captured my attention.
I think the growth that I’ve seen and how it’s become a global business, right, and how we can impact golf globally, and in a much meaningful way, is something that’s been very enticing.”
It is pertinent to note that Jon Rahm was a strong critic of LIV in its initial days. The World No.3 had earlier criticized the Saudi-backed series’ 54-hole format and said that it was “not really appealing” to him. He even said that the three-day event was “not a golf tournament.”