LIV Golf’s Pat Perez Takes Shot at Tiger Woods After Recent Comments

Pat Perez did not mince words on his latest podcast appearance, when he challenged comments Tiger Woods made about LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed rival league to the PGA Tour.

Last week, the 46-year-old was a guest on the Son of a Butch podcast, hosted by his swing coach, Claude Harmon III. For the majority of the episode, the two candidly discuss some popular criticisms of LIV Golf. Harmon—who also works with LIV Golf members Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka—brought up one of the more controversial aspects of the rival league: guaranteed paychecks. He cited Woods’ blunt comments from his press conference at the 150th British Open back in July, which stood starkly against LIV’s payout structure.

“But what these players are doing for guaranteed money, what is the incentive to practice?” said Woods. “What is the incentive to go out there and earn it in the dirt? You’re just getting paid a lot of money up front and playing a few events and playing 54 holes. They’re playing blaring music and have all these atmospheres that are different.”

Perez was not shy about how his opinion differed from the 15-time major champion.

“That’s the stupidest s— I have ever heard of in my life,” Perez said on the podcast. “That’s one of the stupidest things I think he has said. The incentive is the fact that last place is $120,000, first place is $4 million. You cannot win $4 million on the PGA Tour. Now, next year you might. They finally got the perks. But last time I checked, he signed a $40 million dollar deal right out of college, was flying on the Nike jet. He found incentive. He could have shut it down right then.”

Perez has been one of just a few LIV Golf members who has openly admitted that the new tour’s monetary structure was a key driving factor in his decision to defect from the PGA Tour. He notably said that it was like “winning the lottery.”

On the PGA Tour, Perez earned $28 million over the course of his 22-year-long career. Playing as part of the 4 Aces team on LIV Golf, Perez earned $8 million this year alone. He finished 49th out of 68 on the individual earnings list but received $7 million for being part of LIV’s best team by the conclusion of the inaugural season.

“The incentive, the incentive, the fact that you can go from like 22nd place or 18th place, have a great Sunday, go from making 220 grand to $4 million, you cannot do that anywhere,” Perez continued. “That’s the incentive. I mean, you were out there, you’ve seen people, guys are grinding as hard as they ever have in their lifetime. Because not even that—you can go from making 160 grand to like $1 million. It’s very hard to do on the PGA Tour.”

Woods reportedly rejected a $700 million offer to join LIV. The five-time Masters champion has been consistent about his objection to the Saudi-backed league since its inception. He has even helped spur on changes to the PGA Tour’s structure—including elevated events and bigger purses—in response to LIV. In August, Woods and Rory McIlroy were leading hands in bringing a proposal to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan for this new structure, and it was quickly adopted in plans for 2023.