'This Is a Big Distraction': U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III Is Over the LIV Talk

Love announced his captain's picks for the upcoming matches and when the discussion shifted to LIV — as all discussions in golf do now — he called it 'sad.'

Davis Love III was on a call Wednesday to announce his Presidents Cup picks for the matches to take place in two weeks. Inevitably, the conversation turned to LIV Golf and its impact on the competition.

Several players who might otherwise be at Quail Hollow Golf Club in two weeks for the Presidents Cup are ineligible to compete, severely damaging the chances of captain Trevor Immelman and the International squad that comes in having lost eight in a row.

Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, Carlos Ortiz and Marc Leishman are just a few of the international players who have gone to LIV Golf and won’t be competing.

Dustin Johnson earned the most points for the Americans last year in a victory at the Ryder Cup.

This week, with no PGA Tour event scheduled, the issue has gone overseas where sniping among players has been a storyline at the BMW PGA Championship outside of London, where the DP World Tour is staging its flagship tournament.

“I feel bad for the game of golf right now that this is the story going in,’’ said Love, who captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2012 and 2016 and was an assistant to Steve Stricker last year at the Ryder Cup. “We’ve got however many days until we actually tee off, and they’re (DP World Tour) playing a great event his week and the story is Billy Horschel and Jon Rahm wishing guys weren’t there.

“That’s sad. I feel bad for all of us, really. Trevor has a job to do and that’s to take 12 guys and get them ready to play. I have to get these 12 guys (on the American team) who are dying to play. It will be a great show once it starts. But this is a big distraction away from what we should be talking about.’’

Love referenced comments made by Horschel — who was one of his six at-large picks for the U.S. team — and Rahm, who suggested it was poor form for the LIV Golf players who are competing in the BMW PGA Championship. Rahm gave a pass to the European Tour veterans who are eligible such as Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia, but suggested the likes of Talor Gooch and Abraham Ancer were out of line for showing up at an event in which they had never played.

“I honestly don’t think that the American guys who haven’t supported the Tour should be here,’’ Horschel said at Wentworth, site of the tournament. "Abraham Ancer (who is from Mexico), Talor Gooch … you’ve never played this tournament, you’ve never supported the DP World Tour. Why are you here?

“You are here for one reason only and that’s to try to get world ranking points because you don’t have it (on LIV Golf).

“It’s hypocritical because of what some of these guys have said when they said they wanted to play less golf. It’s pretty hypocritical to come over here and play outside LIV when your big thing was to spend more time with family and want to play less golf.

“I wouldn’t call Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter hypocrites because they never said they wanted to play less. The guys that have publicly stated they want to play less, those are the hypocrites.”

Horschel, the defending champion of the BMW PGA Championship, will play on a U.S. cup team for the first time. He joined Max Homa, Kevin Kisner, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Cameron Young as at-large picks made by Love.

Six other players had previously qualified off a points list: Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau made the team automatically.

The International team will be led by Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, but losing Smith — the reigning British Open champion and Players Championship winner — along with the likes of Niemann and veteran Oosthuizen is a big blow to a team that nearly upset the Americans three years ago in Melbourne, Australia, where the U.S. prevailed 16-14.

Love, 58, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has been outspoken in his disdain for LIV Golf and its disruption. At one point, he wondered if PGA Tour players might consider boycotting major championships if LIV players are allowed to compete in them.

“I think the Tour players, the Max Homas and Rory McIlroys have done a good job,’’ Love said last month. “I think the undercurrent of guys are getting more and more fed up with it, that these guys are threatening our way of life, they're trying to take money out of our pockets and cherry pick our best tournaments.

“The majors have to make their own decisions. I loved what (R&A CEO) Martin Slumbers said, I think they're all going in the right direction, but the PGA Tour players, we support the PGA Tour and we support the rules and we need to stand up for them.’’