A tense Scottie Scheffler shut down a reporter asking about the futures of LIV Golf stars following his round at Donald Trump’s Doral course on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund officially pulled the plug on future funding for LIV Golf this week, leaving the rival league to scramble for new investment.
However, when asked about the future of the golfers who broke away from the PGA Tour to rake in the millions from the PIF, Scheffler was in no mood to discuss it on Thursday.
‘I just got off the golf course,’ an unimpressed Scheffler replied after shooting an even-par first round at the Cadillac Championship. ‘I don’t know what you want from me.’
The newsletter ‘Money in Sports’ reported earlier this year LIV Golf has spent $5.3billion since it began in 2022, a figure likely to exceed $6bn by the end of the year.
LIV Golf spent about $1bn luring top names away from the PGA Tour when it launched – Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, among them.
A tense Scottie Scheffler shut down a reporter asking about the future of LIV golfers
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has officially pulled the plug on future funding for LIV
Amid the collapse of LIV Golf, President Donald Trump expressed his belief that the players on the Saudi-backed rebel tour should be welcomed back to the PGA Tour with open arms.
Trump, who previously was involved in discussions to merge the PGA and LIV leagues, told reporters, ‘I do believe that all of the golfers should be playing against each other.
‘They were viewing something as a monopoly, but it’s swaying away. It should be the opposite of a monopoly.
‘I want to see Rory [McIlroy] playing Bryson DeChambeau. I want to see big Jon Rahm playing Scottie, who is so great. Scottie Scheffler is great.
‘They have great players on LIV, but it’s almost like people want to see that. That’s why the Masters was so good because you saw everybody together.
‘The Tour wants to have the best players. You can’t have the best player that they’re boycotting now. They may do something, you know, a little bit, but they’ll all be back on tour and it’ll be great. I don’t know what’s happening with LIV.
‘I’m not sure what’s happening with LIV, but they are playing at my course in two weeks on the Potomac, beautiful course. But right now [the PGA Tour] at Doral, which I own.’
Scheffler’s response comes just weeks after he also reacted angrily to a Masters reporter at Augusta.
Donald Trump expressed his desire to see the top golfers playing against each other again
Scheffler also reacted angrily to a Masters reporter moments after finishing his third round
The two-time green jacket winner had just carded a sparkling seven-under-par 65 to surge to seven under for the tournament but he didn’t take too kindly to some of the questions he was asked in his post-round press conference.
A reporter said to him: ‘That was a 65 today. What did it feel like it could have or should have been?’
Scheffler, unimpressed, scolded the reporter by responding: ‘That’s just a terrible question. Next question. Awful.’
He was then asked: ‘Along those lines, what color would you call these putting surfaces?’
This time, a smiling Scheffler said: ‘Grass. I already ripped on one question that wasn’t that bad, so I’m not going to rip on another one.’
He also didn’t take too kindly to being asked: ‘This might qualify as another bad question, but you tended your own pin on 18. Do you remember the last time you’ve done that here?’
Less than impressed again, a laughing Scheffler replied: ‘Here? Shoot, I don’t know. Yeah, that’s not great.’
