PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – To play in the Saudi International or the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am?
Patrick Cantlay is at Pebble Beach.
The world No. 4, reigning FedEx Cup champion, and PGA Tour Player of the Year said ahead of this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that he was approached to play in the conflicting event in the Middle East that is paying appearance fees reaching seven figures to some players.
More than 20 players were granted releases from the PGA Tour to play in Saudi Arabia but had to agree to play the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at least once in the next two years. Cantlay doesn’t have to have his arm squeezed to play Pebble.
“It’s one of my favorite places in the world. I love the Monterey Peninsula and I love Pebble Beach and so every time I’m here I feel lucky and no different this week,” said Cantlay, who has two top 10s including a tie for third last year in five starts at Pebble. “I love California golf, and this is the epitome of California golf and so I think it’s great and I definitely feel at home. Greens that are for the most part traditional and very severely sloped back to front. Poa annua greens and in general the properties are more condensed. There’s less real estate so it feels like the properties are a little older in general and that’s just golf I played growing up in junior golf. Whenever I’m on Poa annua greens at a course like Pebble Beach it feels like I’ve played courses like that my whole life.”
But Cantlay didn’t slam the door on playing in Saudi Arabia in the future. Nor has he made a definitive decision on a proposed Saudi Arabia-backed, Greg Norman-led league that would rival the PGA Tour. Norman and LIV Golf Investments have pledged $300 million into the Asian Tour with 10 new events.
The league, which would be based on team competition, would offer hundreds of millions more in guaranteed purses.
LIV Golf Investments is backed by the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund. Saudi Arabia has been harshly criticized for its human rights record and the country is among the top executioners in the world; people are put to death annually, some in public beheadings.
“I think with the amount of money they’re talking about it’s always very tempting. I think it’s tempting for everybody. And to deny that would be, you know, maybe not true,” said Cantlay, who has two wins and two other top 10s in his last four PGA Tour starts. “I think it’s a complicated thing and I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I think there’s two sides to every coin and if people want to be more interested in golf and want to put more money into golf, I think that’s a good thing.
“I think it’s tricky because it’s not always in the fashion that people would have expected or wanted, and I would say at this point I’m definitely a curious observer as to see what happens and who decides to play.”
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Especially if a certain number of the world’s best players did join the league.
“I think definitely there’s a want of the best players in the world to play against the other best players in the world,” Cantlay said. “It’s a complicated equation. I wouldn’t be surprised if people’s tune changed quick if the best players, if a majority of the best players in the world wanted to play anywhere. Because if they did, I think there’s a real desire of the most competitive people out here to play against the best players in the world almost no matter what.
“But more of my point was, it almost doesn’t matter who or what or where or how, if the best players in the world, a large percentage of them are playing, and the stakes are high and like all of them are there and I’m not there, I’m going to be disappointed, because that’s exactly what I want to be doing.”
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