\u201cHe\u2019s guaranteeing opportunities for new sponsors,\u201d Faldo tells TG in a video call to discuss the ever-changing landscape of golf at the highest level. \u201cWell, he\u2019s been in meetings for weeks and there\u2019s been no word that somebody\u2019s come up with 350 million dollars. Most companies will go, \u2018Hang on, we\u2019ve had to work really hard to earn that 350 million dollars \u2013 you think we\u2019re just going to give it to something that\u2019s failing?\u2019 Good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faldo isn\u2019t pulling any punches \u2013 and his stance on why LIV Golf was destined to fail hasn\u2019t changed since the league was in its infancy.<\/p>\n
To save us trawling through four-year-old interviews with the six-time major champion, he\u2019s happy to remind us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter about the money because it\u2019s the competition you want,\u201d the 69-year-old says. \u201cIt\u2019s got to have meaning. There\u2019s no fear of failure at LIV. \u2018Oh, I played badly this week and I still get 200 grand.\u2019 And then there\u2019s always next week. It\u2019s all guaranteed. In sport, you\u2019ve got to have the fear. The fans have got to see that you can fail, and that it means something. That\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d <\/p>\n
Exhibit A, Faldo says, is Brooks Koepka\u2019s return to the PGA Tour<\/a> after four seasons and almost $50 million banked on LIV Golf. Along with Bryson DeChambeau, Koepka was one of two golfers to win a major while competing on LIV Golf. Since coming back to the PGA Tour, though, he\u2019s missed five cuts<\/a> in 15 starts, offset by just a single top-ten. Faldo, though, believes he\u2019s happy.<\/p>\n \u201cHe comes back to the PGA Tour and goes, \u2018Wow, I\u2019ve got to dig it out the dirt.\u2019 And he\u2019s really enjoying digging it out there. That\u2019s the pressure of failure. It\u2019s amazing. It could be the world number one, 14 shots back, and they fist pump because they\u2019ve just holed a putt to make the cut. That\u2019s one of the toughest things to do in golf. You\u2019re one outside the cutline with six to play and you\u2019re desperate to make the weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is real pressure on a Friday, because you\u2019ve got to dig deep and work out how to shoot a couple under when you\u2019re not playing great but you\u2019re desperate to make it happen. You\u2019re not going to go, \u2018I couldn\u2019t care less.\u2019 Nobody says that. Not even the world number one. It\u2019s important to make the cut.\u201d<\/p>\n Faldo\u2019s thought process pivots to Augusta in April.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot happened at the Masters,\u201d he explains. \u201cJoaquin Niemann is one of their biggest stars, and didn\u2019t get an invite. Tyrrell Hatton played several DP World Tour events, and he finishes highest. Of their superstars, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, one misses the cut and the other finishes 13 shots back. I think that really hit them.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then they go back to LIV, and they\u2019re superstars again, and winning again. So it just really pointed out that there is a huge difference in just playing golf for the scorecard and trying to compete, and not for dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, you wanted a boatload of cash, and you picked the right spot for that. But it\u2019s going to be meaningless if it all collapses. They\u2019ve wrecked their reputations. And now they\u2019re all clambering to come back and compete again. Because that\u2019s the whole challenge of sport \u2013 to push yourself a little further.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just the lack of a competitive edge that irks Faldo, who won 40 titles as a professional between his first in 1977 and last in 1998, including three Green Jackets and three Claret Jugs. <\/p>\n \u201cSo many things were a mess,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey all got excited about the shotgun start, but I have a friend who\u2019s in TV production, and he says, \u2018For one minute I\u2019ve got 18 golfers on the tee hitting a ball, and then I\u2019ve got 18 golfers walking, and then they\u2019re all hitting again.\u2019 This is a television nightmare. And they say, \u2018Don\u2019t blink or you\u2019ll miss it.\u2019 Well, yes, you did miss it, because you watched one shot and you missed 17 others.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the small field? Well, you\u2019d be bored out your brains playing against the same 56 guys like that. So some of their ideas were questionable.\u201d<\/p>\n LIV\u2019s biggest crime, though? \u201cI cannot believe they sat there and thought it would be great to make unknown golfers mega rich. What the heck? I don\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s been one of LIV Golf\u2019s strongest critics since its inauguration, but Sir Nick Faldo isn\u2019t here to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-822977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bryson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bryson-dechambeau-2026-masters.jpg\")
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