Two-time major champion John Daly has revealed he begged former world No. 1 Greg Norman for a place in the LIV Golf Series, whilst reserving praise for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Daly currently plays the majority of golf on the Champions Tour, the circuit operating for players over 50 on the PGA Tour. The American has been one of the sport’s biggest characters in recent years thanks to his rockstar - and sometimes bad boy - attitude.
Following a rollercoaster career on the American-based circuit, it seems the novelty of competing on the Champions Tour has worn off, and instead would like to make the controversial move to LIV Golf.
He told Piers Morgan Uncensored: "I begged Greg Norman to let me be on the LIV tour. I play two to three pro-ams every week on the Champions tour and we don’t play for a lot of money so I almost feel like: 'OK, I’m not getting a lot out of this. What are we doing?'
"Look, I’d rather play with amateurs than the pros sometimes but we’ve got to get compensated for that. The LIV tour is giving players that.
"They play pro-ams, it’s a big party, they play for a lot of money, which these guys that are on that tour, deserve that money. And I think there’s a lot of other guys that deserve that money. Especially this old man!"
The big question surrounding the series is the morality surrounding the funding and the involvement of the Saudi Arabian government. The state’s human rights issues has left many question marks over the circuit.
Daly, though, believes the criticisms are unfair, and had plenty of praise for the nation’s Crown Prince Bin Salman. He went on: "It’s unbelievable. The politics is so stupid in this. I could talk about Nike, I could talk about other companies. Little eight-year-olds are building shoes for Nike. OK. We don’t want to get into that, right?
"You want to talk about labour laws. We’re talking about golf. Guys that are playing golf. It’s an international sport. The Prince of Saudi Arabia is a great guy and he’s given so much money to golfers that deserve it. Well, there are some that aren’t deserving because I should be on that tour."
