Nick Faldo might have retired from regular television commentary duty, but the six-time major winner and tournament host at this week’s Betfred British Masters was back in the commentary booth for Sky Sports and took a potshot at LIV Golf when he was in the hotseat.
Tyrrell Hatton is playing in the event as he seeks to fulfil his membership quota for the DP World Tour and to remain Ryder Cup eligible, and Hatton is performing rather well as he tops the leaderboard midway through the second round.
But Faldo, on day one, suggested that Hatton was playing a “proper tournament” in a veiled attack on LIV.
But speaking to the press on day two, he went deeper when asked his thoughts on the possibility of LIV merging with the PGA and DP World Tours.
“I think they [LIV] are an island and go and do their own thing. That’s absolutely fine with me, go and play their tour,” he said.
“And I think we are now seeing that, wow, they’ve had three seasons, and they haven’t made much impact on the [viewing] numbers.
“Quite amusingly, pickleball was bigger than their two stars [Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm] in a play-off, the sort of excitement everyone wants. But it got beat for viewership by pickleball.
“I think bottom line is that the players have got the last laugh because they are being rewarded so much either through the size of the prize money or appearance fees and they are not moving the needle.
“I can’t see that changing because, as we know, it’s been so damaging to the public’s attitude to golf.
“I still talk to my producer friends in TV and people are just not watching [it]. It’s hurt the attitude towards golf.
“I did 18 years of television, and I was told not to talk about prize money. When the FedEx Cup went to 10 million, I went ‘wow, look at this, this putt is worth 10 million!’
“That was about the only time I mentioned money and now, all of a sudden, it’s ridiculous amounts. It’s really changed it.”
Faldo’s words came shortly after a Jon Rahm interview with the New York Post in which the Spaniard dismissed suggestions that he regretted his decision to join LIV.
“There’s zero validity to what any of that said,” Rahm said, referencing recent reports from a supposed insider who claimed to know for a fact that Rahm was suffering with ‘buyer’s remorse’. “I don’t know where it came from.
“I’m very comfortable with my decision, very happy with my decision, very, very eager for the future of my team and the league.”
Faldo, however, isn’t buying Rahm’s claims, and feels that the 2023 Masters champion thought that he effectively had a free ticket to cash in and that he’d be back playing in PGA Tour and DP World Tour events as he always had in no time.
“I think they all thought ‘why don’t I run off and get all these hundreds of blooming millions and they’ll sort it out in two years, and I’ll come back with a boatload’,” Faldo argued.
“I don’t think it is going to work like that and it shouldn’t, to be honest. Fine, LIV go and do their thing. They say they are going to supercharge excitement in golf – good luck.
“Some people think they can change the excitement level or view of it, but golf is golf. Golf is outdoor chess.
“The number one goal in golf as a player is to come up the last with a three-shot lead or more, isn’t it?”