PGA Tour veteran Fred Couples already had taken a couple of swings at LIV Golf and its CEO, Greg Norman.
Now, the 1992 Masters champion apparently has responded to a quote from one of the latest big-name defectors to the Saudi-backed LIV tour — 2022 British Open champion Cameron Smith.
The 29-year-old Australian reportedly signed a deal worth more than $100 million to join LIV ahead of its Boston tournament this weekend.
“To all my friends who I missed birthdays & weddings …… so sorry, I was busy earning a living on the @pgatour and in my line of work the goal is to EARN your way to work weekends,” the 62-year-old couples wrote on Twitter. “And by weekends I mean 72 holes. Sorry not sorry.”
Smith had told Golf Digest earlier this week that the money “was definitely a factor in making that decision…but the biggest thing for me joining is [LIV’s] schedule is really appealing.”
“I’ll be able to spend more time at home in Australia and maybe have an event down there, as well,” he added. “I’ve lived over here seven years now, and I love living in the US, but just little things like missing friends’ weddings, birthday parties and seeing your mates having a great time at rugby league games has been tough.”
Couples previously had taken shots at LIV, saying “all these guys think they’re changing the game and to me it’s comical, it’s really comical. To have music on every tee and have people drinking beer and think that’s cool. I never thought the cast and crew that would do that would be the guys doing it.”
Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau were among the high-profile PGA stars who previously had jumped ship to join Norman – the two-time British Open champ — with LIV.
“I have a funny feeling I know where it’s coming [from] and it’s coming from their leader [Norman], who no one’s liked for 25 years,” Couples said last month. “And that’s not being mean, that’s just … that’s the truth. He’s not a friend of mine, but he never would be because we don’t get along. But he’s running a tour that he thinks is incredible.”
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