If there’s tangible progress in talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, Justin Thomas did not learn about it as he vented frustration over the lagging negotiations and restricted info out there to his friends.
Whereas PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan cited “substantial progress,” Thomas stated he is retaining his head down and taking part in golf as a result of he is undecided what else to do because the merger mission approaches its second anniversary.
“I believe we’re form of previous the extent of exhaustion,” Thomas, 31, stated Tuesday in Ponte Vedra Seashore, Fla., website of The Gamers Championship this week.
“There’s simply so many people, actually on either side, each us on tour and I believe the LIV gamers, that we do not actually know what is going on on and we’re simply taking part in golf and hoping for the very best and since there’s lots that we do not know and that we will not management.”
Thomas gained The Gamers in 2021 earlier than Cameron Smith gained in 2022 and Scottie Scheffler rattled off consecutive victories at TPC Sawgrass. One week after Rory McIlroy forged doubt concerning the immediacy of a possible union between LIV and the PGA Tour, Thomas stated he understands it may not matter the place gamers stand on what they take into account a drained subject.
“It is not such as you or anyone can say, ‘All proper, that is what we will do,'” Thomas stated. “I believe clearly everyone must be on the identical web page, and I believe when it will get to that stage, I do not know if the federal government’s getting concerned. There’s simply so many issues above my pay grade which might be concerned that I do not learn about, that I most likely should not or cannot communicate to.”
Monahan acknowledged the place and leverage held by LIV probably has modified for the reason that framework settlement between the circuits was signed in June 2023.
Thomas stated he is aware of the PGA Tour has been a beneficiary of the breakaway LIV Golf circuit, particularly with elevated match purses and different alternatives that did not exist earlier than the golf panorama started to shift. He nonetheless would not agree with a few of the maneuvers made to get up to now.
“There is a couple guys like a Phil [Mickelson] or a Bryson [DeChambeau] that how they went about it perhaps is not precisely how I’d have, however they did say some issues that had some worth to them or had some reality,” the 15-time tour winner stated.
“It is onerous to say, has it made the sport of golf higher? Yeah, perhaps accomplished some issues on tour which have improved the tour, however the sport of golf as an entire, if it is separated in several [tours] and creating some animosity, then that is not essentially higher.”
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