Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus has offered his latest thoughts on Tiger Woods, LIV Golf and the future of the men’s game.
Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus says LIV Golf has been a ‘powerful addition’ to the men’s game and impacted the sport ‘a lot more than we thought it was going to’.
Nicklaus made the comments in an interview with NBC.
Elsewhere, the Golden Bear, now 83 years old, revealed when he spoke to the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in recent weeks he didn’t ask what the latest was with regard to the negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
Monahan shocked the world of sport when he appeared alongside LIV supremo Yasir Al-Rummayan on 6 June 2023 and essentially announced peace with their once bitter rival.
The commissioner came under heavy fire from his own members and some called for his resignation.
Since then the established tours have been locked in talks to try and navigate a pathway forwards.
Nicklaus argued that, despite entering into talks with LIV and by extension the Saudis, Monahan has done ‘everything in the best interest of the game’.
“I spoke with Jay [Monahan] about three weeks ago,” he clarified. As we conversed, I told Jay to stop telling me what she was doing. I’m not interested in finding out because Rich Lerner, the host of NBC, will question me about it, and I won’t have to respond if I don’t know the answer.
Thus, I’m not really sure where they’re heading. In the best interests of the game of golf, I hope they can all work things out.
“The LIV thing has been a powerful addition to the game, probably impacted a lot more than we thought it was going to, but it has, and it probably will continue to do so.”
Of Monahan, he said: “I know Jay’s taken a beating, but I’ve always been in full support of Jay. Everything Jay’s done has been in the best interest of golf and the Tour.”
Nicklaus’ comments come in the same week Rory McIlroy called for a ‘world tour’.
The Northern Irishman, who no longer sits on the PGA Tour’s policy board, believes there is an ‘untapped commercial opportunity out there’.
McIlroy said: “”My dream scenario is a world tour, with the proviso that corporate America has to remain a big part of it all. Saudi Arabia, too. That’s just basic economics.
“But there is an untapped commercial opportunity out there,” he continued.
“Investors always want to make a return on their money. Revenues at the PGA Tour right now are about $2.3bn (£1.8bn).
“So how would we get that number up to four or six? As far as I might be concerned, it is by searching externally. They need to think globally and spread their wings a little. I’ve been banging that drum for some time.”
With respect to Nicklaus, he likewise multiplied down on his past case that he accepts Tiger Woods will play senior competition golf.
He actually believes its past the point of no return for Woods, presently 48, to get his take of 18 majors.
“Assuming he stayed solid I think he would’ve gotten it, however he didn’t stay sound,” he said. “I feel awful for him.”