Peter Malnati says fans now sick of golf’s constant money talk

The three-time PGA Tour winner and 2005 Masters runner-up (55) hopes LIV Golf buys the PGA Tour Champions, adding that purses on the senior circuit are “kind of a joke”. DiMarco, who banked nearly $23 million on the PGA Tour, had his say on golf’s Subpar podcast.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here,” he said on the podcast. “I mean, this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week [at the Players Championship] that made more money than our purses.”

Pádraig Harrington took home $300,000 for winning the Hoag Classic, but the Dubliner’s post-victory comments were all about that winning feeling and the joy of reliving past glories.

“I got to play for some good money, but not like the kind of money these guys are playing for,” DiMarco said. “It seems like every week there’s another person passing me on the career money list in just a couple years being on Tour.”

​DiMarco admits he’d have said, “See you later, I’m gone,” had he been made an offer of LIV magnitude back in the day.

“Golf has come a long way, and it should,” he said. “I don’t fault any of those guys for going to LIV. It’d be a purely monetary thing for me. You’re talking generational money these guys are making, and it’d be nice to have that in the bank and have my kids taken care of.”

Di Marco’s comments contrasted wildly with those of last week’s Valspar Championship winner Peter Malnati, who will partner world number one Scottie Scheffler in this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open. Scheffler is going for his third win in a row following his victories in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players, and Malnati, who tearfully explained after he won for the first time in eight years that it was all about fulfilling his childhood dreams, has had enough of money talk. “We can all remember when we were kids, and we were all kids at different times, but the things that moved us that we watched,” Malnati said at Memorial Park Golf Course, where Harrington is the lone Irishman in the field.

“I remember watching Jordan and the ’97 Bulls, I remember watching Tiger in the 2000 Masters. I didn’t care one iota what Jordan’s contract was. And I think people are sick of that. I think people are just sick of the narrative in golf being about contracts on LIV, purses on the Tour, guaranteed comp on the Tour.

“I think people are so sick of that. They want to see sport; they want to see who are the best in the world at what they do, do it at a high level and celebrate that, celebrate the athleticism, celebrate the achievement.”

World number one Scheffler is looking to become the first man since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three PGA Tour events in a row, while Harrington is looking to drive the ball well on a course with light rough — a style of golf that’s often suited him. “I’ll be needing this club a lot this week,” Harrington said of his driver.

“Big golf course, very light rough, difficult greens with tricky run-offs.”

Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow play the Ford Championship at Seville Golf and Country Club in Arizona, where world number one Nelly Korda will also be going for three wins in a row.

Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy yesterday committed to the BMW PGA Championship, which will be held from September 17-22, the week after the Irish Open.

Indian Open, 7.30am

Houston Open, 12.30pm

(Both live on Sky Sports Golf)