One of 21 players who teed it up for LIV Golf that failed to make at least $1 million in individual earnings, PGA Tour defector Pat Perez is feeling his oats after taking home about $8 million total by virtue of being on circuit champ Dustin Johnson’s team the 4Aces.
Perez, who previously said he didn’t care about all the negative pushback LIV has received because he is getting paid, took some shots at Tiger Woods while speaking with Claude Harmon III on the Son of a Butch podcast over some comments the 46-year-old star made back in July at the Open Championship. Woods, who reportedly turned down as much as $800 million from Greg Norman to join the Saudi-backed series, questioned what incentive LIV’s golfers have to perform at the top of their game when they are already guaranteed money just to play.
“What is the incentive to practice?” Woods said over the summer. “What is the incentive to go out there and earn it in the dirt? You’re just getting paid a lot of money upfront and playing a few events and playing 54 holes.”
Speaking with Harmon on the podcast, Perez took exception to what Woods said more than three months ago. “That’s the stupidest shit I have ever heard of in my life,” Perez said. “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 four million. You cannot win four 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 deal right out of college, was flying on the Nike jet. He found incentive. He could have shut it down right then.”
Woods, of course, has not shut it down and is still attempting to play meaningful golf as he recovers from the injuries he suffered in a car crash in February 2021. And despite not playing any important events for months after missing the cut at The Open in July, Woods just won the Player Impact Program (PIP) for the second consecutive year. Though official PIP money is still being finalized and the Tour is expected to announce the winners sometime near Thanksgiving, it’s believed Woods is going to bank somewhere near $15 million in prize money.
Not too shabby for a guy who hasn’t won a major since 2019.
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