Pat Perez was one of the first players to sign up to the LIV Golf setup back in 2022, but he could be set for a premature exit from the breakaway league as he sits on the brink of relegation
Ex-PGA Tour star Pat Perez didn’t mince his words when criticising Tiger Woods after his switch to LIV Golf. Now, two years later, his stint in the breakaway league could be nearing its end.
Perez chose to ink a deal with the LIV setup following its explosive entrance onto the professional golf scene in 2022, signing a contract reportedly worth $10 million (£7.9 million) with the Saudi-backed series. His move – like many others – was met with criticism for joining forces with Greg Norman and his team.
One of those critics was none other than arguably the greatest golfer of all time, Woods, who questioned the competitive spirit and ‘incentive’ of the LIV setup in its infancy due to its lack of cut and generous payouts for players finishing at the bottom of its leaderboard.
Perez, however, was far from pleased with these comments. “That’s the stupidest —- I have ever heard of in my life. That’s one of the stupidest things I think he has said,” he vented on the Son of a Butch podcast.
“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 deal right out of college and was flying on the Nike jet. He found incentive. He could have shut it down right then. He had a lot of guarantees. You know what, and he was the hottest thing.
“He’s made so much money off the course, he found incentive to go. But again, he only played how many tournaments. He didn’t go – I never saw him at John Deere, never saw him supporting all these events. He played in the majors, he played in the WGCs and that was it.”
“He played Torrey. Never played Riv. But he’s worth every dime. In fact, like I said, he’s two billion short of where he should be, I think.”
During his stint with the controversial league, Perez tasted victory, clinching the inaugural LIV team championship in 2022 alongside the 4Aces.
Despite a robust performance from the three-time PGA Tour champion the next year, Perez’s latest season on the Saudi-funded tour has been rocky, both personally and for his 4Aces squad. As it stands, the previously unstoppable 4Aces languish at ninth in the overall rankings, and things look even more grim when focusing solely on Perez’s individual efforts.
Following nine tournaments, Perez finds himself in a precarious 47th position in the league table, teetering on the edge of the drop zone with just three games left to play. The 48 year old managed to carve out some much-needed breathing space from the relegation spots after finishing tied-14th at LIV Nashville last week – his best showing this season.
He’ll certainly need to replicate this form in Spain, the UK, and West Virginia if he’s to guarantee his survival.
