Brandel Chamblee has never shied away from broadcasting his feelings on the LIV Golf Series.
Over the last few months, the former PGA Tour player has ripped into all the players that have signed for vast sums of money, most recently at the conclusion of the US Open when declaring, “The right players spoke this week, and the right players put on a show today. Today wasn’t about money, it was about history and Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, going forward, will always be on the wrong side of history.”
Probably his biggest rant was at the beginning of June when he told Sky Sports that the reason given by players going to LIV – “growing the game” – made him want to puke.
Yesterday, the DP World Tour tweeted a clip of Haotong Li’s celebration after winning the BMW International in Germany, a memorable mix of relief and joy. It prompted one comment of:
“@chambleebrandel you will never see this kind of emotion on LIV Tour…”.
And the floodgates opened.
That led Chamblee to tweet reasons he believed that Charl Schwartzel, winner of the inaugural LIV event, “didn’t win 4.7 million”, claiming the winnings “went against his guarantee”.
Replies questioned the statement, although respected golf writer Bob Harig responded with: “This has been out there and I’ve checked with multiple people about it. Could they all be lying? Certainly. But none of the people I checked with knew the others. All said the prize money is extra in addition to the contracts.”
Former caddy and now ESPN reporter Michael Collins retweeted the post and added some of his own evidence, along with a screenshot of a chat he had with an unnamed LIV employee, categorically stating that “He (Schwartzel) has the money and it’s been transferred to him.”
Whilst Collins and Chamblee are hardly close, there seems there is more of this to come, the former continuing the chat with the cryptic statement, “There’s more coming… I’ve been to Switzerland… been telling people to stop throwing rocks in a glass house… but now some people need to be shown receipts of their hypocrisy.”
Late last night, the winner of the opening LIV event Charl Schwartzel, appeared to clear up the disagreement, claiming that Chamblee’s take was “untrue” and that he did indeed collect the winner’s check for almost $5 million on top of his guarantee.
After Golf journalist Mark Corrigan also claimed that the information Chamblee had was untrue, Lee Westwood took the chance to take a shot at the analyst, but Brandel hit right back while also saying he was happy to recant his opening take if it’s not the case.
Chamblee has since deleted his original tweet.
The second LIV event is due to start in two days’ time at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, and with continued speculation about who will join Brooks Koepka, Carlos Ortiz and Matt Wolff as newcomers to the tour, this story is a long way from over.
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Article originally appeared on: golfwrx.com
I’m curious as to what is the PGA afraid of, in letting private contractors work outside of their control? Hence Chamblee being their on air voice to bash everyone that is choosing to make some money..Even if it fails, does anyone think they would not either welcome the players back or be forced to let them back through the legal process?? Or maybe they are happy with the group of no names they have right now.. I mean, golfers in general, have the personality and excitement level of a homeless encampment..
The minutia doesn’t matter. The fact is that the players who went over to the Saudi tour did it for money, period. Would they have switched to the Saudi tour for the same money as the PGA tour to “grow the game”? What a joke. They’ve gone to a tour sponsored and paid for by a Saudi regime that kills it’s own citizens, denies them democracy, and endorses the murder and dismemberment of a journalist (on foreign soil no less). All to grow the game I suppose.
And Brandel and John don’t think that the PGA is “sportswashing” with the CCP? What is the human rights record of China? The PGA is in bed with the Chinese and taking lots of money from them, they are complicit in Sportswashing. Not defending Saudi, but China isn’t any better, they are just a partner of the PGA and giving them money. That is why the PGA says nothing about China’s human rights record as they sponsor tours and events in China. Hypocrite, just like Brandel.
You can blame the US government for the PGA pros doing what they did as it has kissed the ass of the Saudis over many administrations in spite of the many failures, rights violations, and the likes of the Saudis and of which the US government overlooks, ignores. So why pick on the golf profession. It doesn’t set public policy. blame your own f***k** government!
So does the PGA by supporting China..who does the same as the Saudis.. and they support Nike, who uses child labor.. why should the pga reap benefits from China and not allow the players to do the same from the saudis??
Money, money, money more money. Where & when will it end? Just look at Scottie Scheffler who has amassed nearly 20 million dollars in just under 6 months. If you call it chump change you are a fool.
This is all total BS from these pga pros,,,,just say I did it for the money and stop all the crap about growing the game. Just be honest. You havent grown crap …..all you have done is lost any good reputation you may have ever had. PERIOD.
Which Pros? And why is a persons reputation damaged for wanting to make as much money as he/she can? Have you ever taken a promotion without considering the pay increase? And are you saying that Lee Westwood or Pat Perez is a worst person because they wanted to make more money? If so, you sound like a progressive or worse, you sound like a liberal..C’mon Man!!