The annual and traditional meeting of the Honorary Starters at Masters with the media is a time to recall old stories and anecdotes, and there were plenty of them this morning too.
Invariably, as it is these days in the fractured world of golf, the conversation came around to ‘that’ topic – LIV Golf!
Each of them was asked their view about the negotiations, the ‘talk’ from both sides, the future structure, and what would be the best outcome. That’s a whole lot of questions, but if there was a group of veterans who could throw light on a possible ‘ideal’ situation, it would be the Big Three – Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player.
Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player want steady outcome to PGA - LIV talks
Nicklaus was somewhat circumspect and preferred to put his trust totally into Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour, but Watson was blunt and Player scathing.
Gary Player, a Saudi Golf Ambassador, was the most hard-hitting. He pulled no punches like he has done in the past.
“It's very simple. Anytime in any business whatsoever, not only in the golf business, there's confrontation, it's unhealthy. You've got to get together and come to a solution. If you cannot -- it's not good. The public don't like it, and we as professionals don't like it, either.
But it's a big problem because they paid all these guys to join the LIV Tour fortunes, I mean, beyond one's comprehension and the players that were loyal, three of us and others.
Now these guys come back and play, I really believe the players, that if they are loyal, should be compensated in some way or another; otherwise, there's going to be dissension.”
Dubbing world golf fractured, Watson, sometimes misunderstood and sometimes outspoken, said,
“You know, I got up at the Champions Dinner, and it was really a wonderful event. We were sitting down and we were having great stories about Seve Ballesteros and people were laughing..”
The two-time Masters champion and an eight-time Major winner, Watson, at the Champions Dinner, took the Chairman’s (Mr. Fred Ridley) permission, got up, and said:
“I'm looking around the room, and I'm seeing just a wonderful experience everybody is having. They are jovial. They are having a great time. They are laughing. I said, "Ain't it good to be together again?"
Then Watson added,
“There was kind of an appall from the joviality…. it quieted down, and then Ray Floyd got up and it was time to leave.”
“But I think in this room, I know the three of us want to get together. We want to get together like we were at that Champions Dinner, happy, the best players playing against each other. The bottom line; that's what we want in professional golf, and right now, we don't have it.”
Nicklaus preferred to play a safe shot, or at least so it seemed. He felt if the PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, said that the talks and discussion were going fine, then so it was.
