Xander Schauffele hits a shot final Friday on the ninth gap at Muirfield Village.
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Xander Schauffele wonders if he’s been “shafted.” He’s questioning the that means of loyalty.
Schauffele additionally says he sees the underside line, too.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Schauffele’s views on the proposed deal among the many PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund had been blended. They had been difficult. They had been comprehensible. In an interview final yr with GOLF’s Dylan Dethier, the world’s No. 6-ranked golfer mentioned he had met with LIV Golf, who can also be Saudi-backed. Could he have acquired the massive, assured cash that so many others took? Perhaps. But he stayed with the PGA Tour. He heard propaganda that the established model was the clever — and morally appropriate — alternative.
And now? The Tour and the Saudis are teammates. They will function a brand new, for-profit enterprise and finish pending litigation among the many sides. There shall be some form of path again for LIV gamers, too. The conflict is over, a minimum of because it had been over the previous yr.
And within the interview with the Sunday Times — which you’ll read in full here — Schauffele had some ideas.
“What does loyalty mean these days? I don’t quite know,” Schauffele informed the Times. “From a long-term perspective, more cash being dumped into the sport once more is an efficient factor. The product was all the time going to be higher with the [LIV] golfers we all know, the main winners, all included.
“But trying to put my own emotions and sentiments on the matter aside is going to be hard.”
He was not alone. In a press convention on Wednesday, a day after the deal was introduced, Rory McIlroy mentioned a lot the identical. He had been the de facto face of the Tour. He had helped revamp the Tour’s schedule for this yr. He had listened to commissioner Jay Monahan say at one point: “Had you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” — a reference to Saudi Arabia’s poor human-rights file and hyperlinks to 9/11.
“I said it to Jay yesterday: You’ve galvanized everyone against something and that thing that you galvanized everyone against you’ve now partnered with,” McIlroy mentioned. “So, yeah, of course I understand it. It is hypocritical. It sounds hypocritical.”
To higher perceive LIV vs. PGA Tour, I talked to a prime participant within the fray
Dylan Dethier
In the interview with the Sunday Times, Schauffele had extra ideas.
“Yeah, I guess [betrayal] would be the charged word,” Schauffele says. “Irony involves thoughts as properly. From the messages I’ve had, everyone is taking it a bit personally, which is honest, to an extent. I used to be positively left at midnight, like most guys, which is irritating from the transparency facet. I believed we had been making some headway in that division, however clearly not, as a result of there wasn’t a complete lot of belief within the first place.
“As tour pros, we try to rationalize situations when we compete, but some guys are feeling hot-headed, some are more confused, some are emotional. We have a really interesting group [of players] that are trying to deal with this situation.”
Which will, little question, make this week’s U.S. Open … one thing? Nothing? Maybe it is going to be a few of each, when PGA Tour and LIV Golf execs break bread collectively at Los Angeles Country Club.
But to finish this story, we’ll share that the tip of the Sunday Times interview with Schauffele requested him about Patrick Cantlay. And gradual play.
And that Schauffele supplied a splendidly dry-humor quote.
Here’s that story link once more.
