Zalatoris on his money and LIV’s generous sums: I never played for money

If you’re looking for the biggest loser among professional golf’s top players, it’s probably American Will Zalatoris. The twenty-six-year-old golfer, also known as Happy Gilmore, was injured just before the very top of this year’s PGA Tour and lost a considerable amount of money. That’s part of the reason some fans are pointing him in the direction of LIV Golf.

On several occasions, Zalatoris has narrowly escaped the top spot in some of the PGA Tour’s series of tournaments. It wasn’t until early August that he broke his long wait when he won the St. Jude Championship, the first of three FedEx Cup play-off events.

With that victory, he catapulted himself to a tie for second place in the season standings. He went into the peak of the season in the form of his life. But then he suffered an unexpected injury during the BMW Championship. Zalatoris withdrew from the tournament, hoping to return to East Lake for the PGA Championship.

But he didn’t. Although he qualified in the top 30, the starting field had to do without him. A small band-aid was the reward of “only” $500,000, which the last player at the PGA Championship automatically cashed in.

Had it not been for an unfortunate injury, it is more than clear that he would have earned a lot more money. The player in tenth place took a full one million dollars, while the winner Scottie Scheffler earned a whopping $18 million.

MONEY ALL THE WAY DOWN TO SECOND PLACE

With Zalatoris losing such a large sum of money due to an unfortunate accident, speculation began about whether it would be more profitable for him to move to a competitor, LIV, which is generously subsidized by a public fund in Saudi Arabia. However, as you can see, money is not the main thing for the talented American golfer.

“I’ve never done it for the money. Never,” Zalatoris said in an interview with In Depth. “If the US Open were to give out $100,000 to the winners, I would still show up at the US Open. There is no amount I would give in exchange for a trophy,” Zalatoris assured his clear stance.

While today’s LIV Golf representatives think that players on the PGA Tour are underpaid, the American golfer rejects that claim. According to him, the major tournaments he can participate in are far more important. It’s one of the things he would never risk for a more generous sum of money.

“The money these guys are getting right now (at the LIV) is just more money. It’s not life-changing money. It’s still just extra money,” he described his perspective.

To people who ask him why he doesn’t go to the competition for more money, he says, “Look, I haven’t even won yet and I’ve already made over $10 million on Tour. If I say I feel like I’m undercompensated as a PGA Tour professional, what does that say about me?” he replied by asking about finances.

Source: PGA Tour, In Depth