LIV Golf's Pat Perez Owns Inflammatory Quotes Incorrectly Attributed to Dustin Johnson
"It was me.” That was Pat Perez’s text Monday to Sports Illustrated when asked if he was the one who made comments about PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour in the 4Aces' press conference after winning LIV Golf's event in Australia on Sunday.
A story from the Australian Associated Press on Monday reported that Dustin Johnson made some full-throated comments about Monahan when asked about Monahan’s thoughts about him or LIV Golf.
'We don't give a damn how he feels,” read quotes attributed to Johnson. “We know how he feels about us, so it's mutual.”
Perez, who along with Johnson, Peter Uihlein and Patrick Reed play on the 4Aces, completely disputed the report.
“DJ said nothing, it was all me,” Perez said in a text from Singapore, where LIV Golf plays this week. “I said we don’t care what Jay thinks cause we know how he feels about us and when I say WE, I mean me. I can’t speak for the whole group.”
Perez went on to say that he knows that he is on the outs with the Tour and that he’s fine with it.
“I know that Jay doesn’t ever want to see me again,” Perez said.
Johnson’s agent David Winkle responded to the claims that the quotes were Johnson's.
“I spoke with Dustin from Singapore this morning at which time he emphatically denied making any such statement,” Winkle said in a statement. “He elaborated by saying his actual response to the question was 'no comment,' but mentioned that others interviewed may have answered differently.”
LIV Golf’s Jane MacNeille, SVP, Player Communications tweeted that “Dustin didn’t say it, Pat did. AAP reported it incorrectly.”
Why were the comments attributed to Johnson incorrectly and not Perez?
The inaccuracy can apparently be traced to poor reporting and an edited transcript.
LIV’s MacNeille and Perez said the comments came from Perez, but they are not on the transcript provided by LIV Golf after the 4Aces' interview.
Neither the question by the reporter, the “no comment” by Johnson nor the answer by Perez is in the transcript, but clearly the question and answers were made during the press conference according to Perez.
"We are trying to avoid that kind of hostility in our press conferences," MacNeille told Sports Illustrated. "The question created an eruption of chatter and everyone said 'no comment' but one player (Perez) and it was indiscernible as it was kind of a chaotic scene. So we decided to remove it from the transcript."