Laurie Canter’s time in LIV Golf ended when he could not safe a contract in Abu Dhabi’s December Promotions Occasion. Despite the fact that he wasn’t a part of the second season initially, he received to affix 11 massive occasions in 2023 after being a reserve within the first season. The Chipping Forecast podcast was a fantastic alternative for him to replicate on his time at LIV Golf and the nice reminiscences he made. The monetary provide from LIV Golf is troublesome for a lot of to refuse, together with for Canter. When somebody gives you that type of cash, you should suppose for some time, however many have principally determined to simply accept the provide and be part of LIV Golf.
“It’s an unimaginable alternative from a taking part in perspective, monetary is clearly the factor that instantly, as an expert golfer, would draw you to that. $25m with solely 48 folks is an incredible alternative.”- he mentioned, as quoted by golfmonthly.com
Laurie Canter talked about how he did not personally see a difficulty with the cash supply related to LIV Golf and the Saudis. He talked about feeling okay about it as a result of he had performed in golf tournaments in Saudi Arabia earlier than.
For the reason that starting of the creation of LIV Golf, many well-known golfers, specialists in addition to followers instantly criticized LIV and their hyperlink with Saudi Arabia. Regardless of the whole lot, LIV Golf survived, however additionally it is a undeniable fact that at the moment many are in opposition to such a Tour and imagine that it has no place on the golf scene. Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf, confused that issues are slowly altering and that LIV will dominate within the years forward.
Canter defined that as athletes, they typically go to totally different locations with various beliefs that may not match their very own. Canter referred to a time when there have been debates about delicate subjects like abortion legal guidelines in America, however he did not really feel overly nervous about the place to set his ethical boundaries on this explicit state of affairs.
Though many had been conscious of the primary cause why all or no less than most of them joined LIV Golf, the gamers needed to reply questions from journalists and clarify their choices. Canter isn’t glad about that.
“I can’t assist however really feel sorry for lots of the fellows who needed to do these interviews within the early days as a result of there’s no proper or unsuitable reply. Everybody’s received context to human rights – there’s a lot round it that it’s important to think about. It’s not a transparent space.”
In Canter’s view, being a professional golfer includes taking on possibilities to play wherever they arrive up, which is an enormous a part of sports activities. He thought this was an necessary dedication when entering into professional golf and sports activities general.
The very fact is that the PGA Tour dominated for years and was a spot for everybody. Nonetheless, the emergence of competitors modified the whole lot, and PGA leaders realized that they needed to take sure steps with the intention to scale back the affect of LIV Golf, but in addition forestall people from leaving the PGA Tour. Nonetheless, the monetary energy of LIV Golf is big, and it is vitally troublesome to withstand their advances.
Laurie Canter
Canter thinks that if the common golf excursions had talked to LIV Golf earlier than it began, issues may need been totally different. He believes there may have been extra cooperation early on. However as a result of established excursions did not interact with LIV Golf initially, LIV Golf determined to do its personal factor.
Some golf specialists share this opinion. Evidently the best choice in the beginning was a merger, or no less than one thing comparable. Nonetheless, the PGA Tour leaders had totally different concepts, and plainly they didn’t anticipate that LIV Golf may have such an affect. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless hope that the PIF and the PGA Tour will attain an settlement within the close to future and thus scale back the tensions which were happening for a very long time. The one hope for the time being is the merger. Perhaps we’ll have the possibility to look at the perfect of the golf scene in a single place. Impatience is rising, optimism is missing, however there’s nonetheless religion in lots of that really higher days await this sport.
He talked about that the PGA Tour did not discuss to them for some time, and the DP World Tour selected a special path. From LIV Golf’s viewpoint, they did what any new enterprise would do: targeted on constructing their product, getting high gamers, and aiming for fulfillment on their very own.
LIV Golf intends to develop sooner or later in the identical path. There are big possibilities that LIV will strengthen its title on this planet of golf sooner or later.