Graeme McDowell has admitted he regrets not being honest about his reasons for joining LIV Golf after losing most of his playing privileges in the United States.
McDowell, the 2010 US Open winner, was among a number of high-profile golfers to make the switch to the breakaway tour four years ago.
Last month he said he had paid the DP Tour the relevant fines that would allow him to compete on both the European circuit and LIV events, citing a desire to compete at the Irish Open and play some part in the Ryder Cup.
He has played twice and been a co-captain twice, memorably securing the winning point in the 2010 renewal.
The future of the Saudi-backed tour remains in doubt after the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced plans to withdraw financing at the end of the year, having spent more than €4.6billion since 2022.
“I regret a few things I said in the beginning, stuff like growing the game,” the Antrim man told SI.com.
“I was ready to jump ship and go get a real job. I should have just said it for what it was ‘this is good for my bank account’, and I’m getting a runway to play the game of golf for as long as I possibly can.
“I don’t think we could have ever imagined how deep this would go. The hatred.
“It’s funny, but if we can shift the narrative away from Saudi Arabia and bring some US money and get rid of that narrative … because that narrative is just nasty.
McDowell won four PGA and 11 European Tour events in his career
“I think we all knew that we were going to have to stand on our own two feet at some point to be able to make this into a legitimate business.
“When you’ve kind of got the type of cash that we had in the beginning for a startup company, it was a little crazy and maybe not very real.
“It’s kind of like we’re turning 18 now. I’m going to go into the real world. We got to fend for ourselves a little bit. We try to make this into legit business.”
The 46-year-old added: “I don’t know where this is going to go.
“There’s a lot of players out here that if this goes away, they’ve got nowhere to go.
“Do they deserve that? Is that their own fault? There’s a lot of people out here that have their jobs tied to this, people who work here.
“All the negativity on social media the last three weeks … it just disappoints me on so many levels.
“There are people who hate this, hate this product with passion, and they can’t wait for it to fail. I partly get it, and I partly don’t get it. It’s a little sad on some levels.”
Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau (above) insists he would focus on his YouTube channel should LIV Golf not survive.
As a two-time major champion, DeChambeau has an exemption to play in golf’s four premier events for at least another two years, but he does not have anywhere else to play outside of LIV.
However, DeChambeau has already considered his options should LIV not bring in the necessary funding to continue.
“(If) we don’t find a solution, for me I think it’s really enticing, depending on what everybody says on the (PGA) Tour and what they’re going to strike me with as a penalty, which is quite unfortunate in my opinion, considering what I could do for them,” he said at the LIV Golf Virginia event at Trump National Golf Club.
“From my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more.
“I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”
Asked whether he was concerned about whether LIV would pay up his contract, which expires next year, the American added: “Your guess is as good as mine.
“I was completely shocked (by PIF’s withdrawal), I didn’t expect it to happen. A couple months before that, it’s like, ‘We’re here until 2032. We’ve got financing until 2032’, and so I told everybody.
“And then I haven’t had any communication and unfortunately things are moving on in a different direction. Obviously, they wanted to move on.”
DeChambeau and his representatives have held talks with the PGA Tour on a broader level in relation to the state of world golf.
“Look, the (PGA Tour) isn’t doing great either. Let’s be honest about the situation,” he said.
“They’ve got the media. They’ve got everybody on the side that helps pump it up but they’re reducing field sizes, cutting employees and restructuring their business too.”