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Former golfer and current golf content creator Paige Spiranac chimed in on the ongoing debate surrounding the LIV tournament. She slammed players criticizing the tour for taking a one-sided approach.
Besides Woods, many top golfers have already joined the Saudi-backed tournament. PGA Tour winners Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, and Louis Oosthuizen have sided with the LIV Series despite facing heavy criticism.
The multimillion-dollar LIV Series, backed by the Saudi Arabian government, began doing rounds in the media due to its controversial nature. The claims of the new series challenging the PGA Tour became obvious when it offered hefty sums to star players. The controversy peaked when ace golfer Tiger Woods reportedly turned down an offer worth $700 to $800 million to play in the LIV Golf Series.
Paige Spiranac quit professional golfing to become a content creator on social media. With over 3.5 million followers on Instagram, Spiranac is now an influencer who makes golf-related content. Despite being inactive from competitive golfing, she remains a popular name.
Paige Spiranac revealed that she wasn’t on either side of the debate
The former pro-golfer said that she isn't “anti-PGA or anti-LIV.” However, Spiranac slammed players who openly spoke against the PGA Tour during the LIV Golf debates. She claimed that many players used the situation for their monetary benefit.
Speaking on her Playing-A-Round podcast about the recent debates, Spiranac said:
"James Hahn had these series of tweets that were so incredibly out of touch. So, you’re asking them to cover your expenses, okay! Maybe we can add that, maybe we can add better accommodations for the players. But at what point…. They're going to keep wanting more and more and more. Where does it stop? At some point, you are an employee and there are some things that you have to do.”
She went on to say:
"Stop being a f**king baby about it. You get to play golf for a living. You're making millions and millions of dollars. I understand that there are things that probably need to improve. I'm sure that the tour should've listened a little bit more, but the same things are going to happen with LIV."
Paige Spiranac stated that she was unimpressed by those bashing the tour during the LIV Golf debate. During a conversation with podcast co-hosts Amanda Rose and Teddy Greenstein, the golfing content creator said,
"Down the road, I think a lot of players are going to be like, 'Oh, maybe it was better than the PGA Tour.'"
What is the LIV Tour?
Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, introduced the LIV Tour series. The controversial series dubbed the biggest golf tour in history kicked off in June this year. The series, backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), has a prize pool of $250 million.
It was revealed that the top players were offered large sums of money to participate. Many players, including the 2021 PGA Tour champion Phil Mickelson, accepted LIV’s offer. However, the controversy blew up when the PGA Tour suspended players who appeared in the Saudi-backed league. Following this, the golfers challenged the decision in court and failed.
