28 June 2023 , 12:09
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Sir Nick Faldo has claimed there is no future for Greg Norman’s LIV Golf even with the “bottomless pit” of Saudi cash now in the sport.
Phil Mickelson today gave credit for all the changes in golf to the Saudi-backed breakaway league before the LIV Golf Valderrama this week. But Faldo has long been a critic of the “meaningless” 54-hole format run by his old enemy Norman.
The six-time Major winner is this week hosting the Betfred British Masters with DP World Tour is back on British soil for the first time this year - and the first time since the bombshell June 6 announcement of a deal between the PGA and DP World Tours and the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Faldo welcomed the “framework agreement” which he claimed will see the sport benefit from a “bottomless pit” of Saudi money.
But asked if LIV can survive, Faldo said: "I don't think so, because nobody's really interested: "They're not going to get the sponsorship that they want. They call it a team (event) and it's not because it's strokeplay.
"You see your mates on the putting green and say 'Play well' and you see them in the scorers tent and say 'What did you shoot?' That's it. A team is out there helping, shoulder to shoulder. That's a true team. You have the ultimate team event, the Ryder Cup, you know the passion and the atmosphere of that. They're not playing with the same passion and atmosphere as the Ryder Cup.
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"It's only half a dozen (players) that are really current, half of the field I don't really know and half the field are there for the very nice last-placed money that you still get if you shoot 20 over."
Sir Nick Faldo has been critical of the LIV Golf format (Getty Images)The eight LIV Golf event of the season starts in Valderrama tomorrow before returning to the Centurion Club - the site of the first tournament last year - on July 9. Speaking in Spain, Mickelson said: I think that right now we have basically an agreement to have an agreement. Everything over the last couple of years that we've been told by Greg and everybody on LIV has come to fruition, so we have a lot of confidence in what they have been saying to us because everything has been happening.
"We don't really feel the need to publicly posture our position. There's really no need for us to talk about things publicly but to just let it play out.
“Going forward, we're all very optimistic about where the game of golf, professional golf specifically, is headed. Also a lot of the changes that have been made because of LIV were all very appreciative, both on the LIV Tour as well as the PGA TOUR, and we're happy for the guys out there that they're having some positive changes there.”