Cantlay Sees End To Hostilities Between LIV Golf And PGA Tour

The World No.4 thinks there’ll eventually be a resolution in the power struggle at the top of the game

Patrick Cantlay talks to the media before the 2022 Presidents Cup
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Patrick Cantlay is convinced that it’s only a matter of time until the power struggle at the top of the game involving LIV Golf and the PGA Tour is resolved.

The American, who is competing in this week’s Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow for the USA, explained that he sees a less fractured future for the game, and cited other sports behind his reasoning. He said: “I think what gets lost in all this is it's been so contentious, and it seems like it just continues to be contentious. I would be surprised if there's not some coming together intervention because I just don't know of any sport, really, that has a legitimate fractured sport.  

Video: What Is LIV Golf?

“So I feel like if we're 10 years from now, everyone will be like, ‘Oh, yeah, that LIV stuff. I remember that,’ and we'll all be playing at least some of the same events together. I find it funny that people are so amped up about it because I don't - I maybe don't get as emotional about it as everyone seems to be getting.”

Cantlay reiterated his desire to stay on the PGA Tour in July, confirming he had no plans to join LIV Golf after the FedEx Cup. The 30-year-old stayed true to his world, but a host of players did sign up for LIV Golf after the season-ending Tour Championship, including current World No.3 Cameron Smith. However, Cantlay doesn’t think any of it will be seen as a big deal in the future. He said: “I just feel like at some point, when you start looking back on it, people will be surprised to hear, you know, ‘Oh, man, it was, you know, really contentious.' Because it just, it will feel like a blip on the radar once it's all settled. It's just right now very unknown.”

Cantlay admitted that, despite his confidence that the fractures will eventually be resolved, he still hears plenty of locker room talk about players leaving for LIV Golf, but that he doesn’t think too much about it. He said: “Yeah, I mean, you hear all the time some new top 10 player's going, right? We've been hearing stuff like that for a year or more. So until it actually happens, I give it basically no credence.”

Cantlay is paired with Xander Schauffele in the opening round (foursomes) of the Presidents Cup as they face Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott.

Mike Hall
Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 


He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 


Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 


Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.