More players have made the choice to abandon the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) and jumped ship over to a brand new Saudi-backed upstart league that has been making strides to poach the top players from the PGA Tour.
Both 43-year-old Charles Howell III, who has not managed to win a tournament since back in 2018, and the 37-year-old Jason Kokrak, who has won twice in 2021, announced that they have both made the choice to bail on the PGA to make the move over to the LIV Golf Invitational Series. The two players from the U.S. joined 46-year-old Henrik Stenson, who is a two-time European Golfer of the Year that managed to take a victory at the British Open back in 2016, over in the new league.
All three are now slated to compete this coming week at the LIV event to be held at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
All the while, former President Donald Trump, who is the owner of quite a few golf courses around the world, leaped into the battle between the rival leagues, of which the LIV has managed to pinch some top golfers of the PGA Tour such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau with offers of hundreds of millions of dollars.
“All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,” explained Trump via social media. “If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were. Good luck to all, and congratulations to really talented Cam Smith on his incredible WIN!”
All the while, a report coming from Irish Golfer stated that Bubba Watson, a superstar from the U.S., is reportedly planning to join the league alongside Australian Marc Leishman.
Over the past few weeks, a decent number of PGA members have issued statements of intent to bail from the top league in the world in order to join LIV. Among them are Sergio Garcia, Talor Gooch, Andy Ogletree, Branden Grace, Matt Jones, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel, Hudson Swafford, Peter Uihlein, Lee Westwood, and Turk Petit.
This particular exodus has forced the PGA into action.
“We have followed the Tournament Regulations from start to finish in responding to those players who have decided to turn their backs on the PGA Tour by willfully violating a regulation,” a release from the PGA stated. “The players are being notified that they are suspended or otherwise no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play, including the Presidents Cup. This also applies to all tours sanctioned by the PGA Tour: the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Champions, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica.”
“The players listed below did not receive the necessary conflicting events and media rights releases — or did not apply for releases at all — and their participation in the Saudi Golf League/LIV Golf event is a violation of our Tournament Regulations,” concluded the PGA.