'I Just Cringed' - Tour Pro Criticises LIV Golf Team Championship

The 2023 LIV Golf League season drew to a close on Sunday with its Team Championship at Trump National Doral in Florida.

There, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC team claimed the honours to win the $14m prize money after finishing two shots ahead of nearest rivals Range Goats GC.

However, despite the action bringing to a head a season comprising 14 tournaments over eight months as well as the huge $50m prize fund on offer at the finale, one pro who was left cold by the experience was Eddie Pepperell.

The DP World Tour player, who was in Spain for the Andalucia Masters while the action unfolded in Florida, aired his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) in response to a clip of Bryson DeChambeau’s winning putt posted by Golf Digest.

He wrote: “I tried, sincerely, I just tried to watch this and feel something genuine. Joy, inspiration, something. And I just cringed. It’s just all cringe, the whole show, the teams, the individuals. Hate to s*** on something but honestly, it’s just so far away from being compelling.”

Pepperell has never been afraid to criticise LIV Golf. In April, he became involved in an online spat with one of the players on the circuit, Richard Bland, after saying of the stadium hole at LIV Golf Adelaide that he was “not sure how much LIV is really changing things here” given a similar hole used at the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale on the PGA Tour.

He has also said that removing the cut in tournaments, which famously applies to LIV Golf events, is “one of the worst things to happen to golf’ and poked fun at the money involved in LIV Golf in a sketch over the size of the contracts given to players to compete on it.

Despite Pepperell’s well-publicised stance on LIV Golf, though, he still drew some criticism for his comment on the Team Championship, which led to a follow-up from the two-time DP World Tour player.

He wrote: "As always, the classic ‘jealousy’ comments come out when criticising LIV. I’ve no reason to hate LIV or be jealous, if anything I’ve benefitted from it. I’m just observing like everyone else it’s obvious pitfalls. It had a chance to create something special and it hasn’t.”

In another response, Pepperell also hinted at what he sees as lacking from LIV Golf – the cost of failure.

In reply to a comment on his recent poor form he wrote: “Hopefully I will figure it out, and if I don’t, then yes maybe one day I will join you regular weekend golfers. But that’s the beauty of professional golf and what keeps players sharp, that possibility of gut wrenching failure. Something that isn’t present on LIV unfortunately."

Whether LIV Golf, which has just appointed a new Chief Operating Officer, will be able to win over Pepperell in the future is unclear, but he did reserve praise for DeChambeau following his team’s success, writing in response to one fan: "He’s different, pushes the boundaries, explores ideas and is ultimately excellent at golf. In my opinion Bryson is probably the biggest loss to the PGAT to LIV.”