Last year, LIV Golf was attempting to lure all of the world’s biggest stars to their tour. They were successful in landing major champions such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. They were also able to add a few younger players with great potential such as Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira.
However, there were still plenty of players LIV struck out on, including the winner of last year’s FedEx St. Jude, Will Zalatoris.
Zalatoris is one of the games most promising players, and already has a runner-up finish at The Masters, PGA Championship and U.S. Open.
According to Fred Couples, who was a speaker at the PGA Tour Champions breakfast prior to the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, Zalatoris turned down a lot of money to join LIV.
“I don’t know anything about the LIV Tour, except they overpay all of them,” Couples said. He then mentioned that Will Zalatoris was initially offered $35 million to join LIV and then later $130 million, both of which he rejected.
“Money is zero object (for LIV),” Couples said. “I give Will a lot of credit; he wants (to stay with) the PGA Tour.”
Zalatoris and Couples are both represented by the same agent, so it’s fair to assume he might have been aware of what LIV offered the 26-year-old.
