Sir Nick Faldo: LIV Golf Players Have Gone Soft in Fail-Free Environment

Golf legend Nick Faldo isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to LIV Golf players. He thinks the Saudi-backed tour’s massive paychecks and no-cut format are making some golfers lose their competitive edge.

“Sport is bloody tough,” Faldo told TalkSport. “The fear of failure is just as powerful as the quest to win.”

The three-time Masters champ believes playing without that pressure to make cuts has changed some players – and not for the better.

“When you’re on a fail-free tour, you can’t fail. It makes you go soft. I think some of those players have gone soft.”

With 12 LIV Golf players teeing it up at Augusta National this week, Faldo’s comments are raising eyebrows. He even suggested last year’s Masters champion Jon Rahm might struggle to defend his title after “playing resort courses in his shorts” on the LIV tour.

But it’s not just the players Faldo’s taking aim at. He thinks LIV’s entire business model is crazy.

“It’s the one and only business model in the world where the money’s going out the window and very little’s coming in,” he said. “You couldn’t go to your bank manager and say, ‘This is my business model.'”

What really seems to bug him? Players he says “we’ve hardly heard of” competing for $20 million purses without having won anything significant.

The golf legend also thinks all the money talk is turning fans off. “I sat there for television and I did not mention prize money that many times in 18 years,” he said. “Then all of a sudden we’re saying $10 million, $20 million, $100 million – everything was about money.”

Looking ahead, Faldo believes the PGA Tour and LIV might be better off staying separate. Both tours’ players are “making a fortune” anyway, he points out.

There might be a silver lining though. Faldo thinks this year’s Masters could bring back some excitement to golf TV ratings: “Augusta – got a feeling we’ll have a good one and the viewership will be good.”