Xander Schauffele was asked about LIV Golf and the pursuit of money in golf during his pre-BMW Championship press conference and he didn’t hold back in his response
Xander Schauffele has hit back at the media for casting a negative light on golfers chasing lucrative paydays.
The topic of money has been a hot-button issue in golf circles, especially since the launch of LIV Golf in 2021. The Saudi-backed league’s hefty financial incentives have sparked intense debates among fans, players, and commentators about the ethics of pursuing such wealth.
Schauffele, while gearing up for the BMW Championship with its staggering $100 million prize fund, shared his perspective on the matter. He pointed out to journalists the apparent double standards in sports reporting when it comes to financial gains.
“The media has been an interesting thing to me the last two or three years,” he said. “There’s a reason behind inflated purses and a lot of people have been talking about money.”
He noted that while golf tends to get negative press for its big money moves, other sports figures are celebrated for their massive earnings.
“The news that I do read, it’s funny, it’s really negative. It’s painted really negatively in golf, which is fine. I think people like to hate on anything these days.
“But when I look at other sports, when someone gets a $300 million contract, there’s all these positive comments about how someone got their bag or they’ve worked so hard to get this and they deserve it, things like that.
“It’s interesting to me. I think maybe golf is a gentleman’s game and you’re not supposed to talk about money, but all the media wants to do is talk about money.”
In order to make his point, Schauffele compared the earnings of the PGA Tour to the lucrative contracts awarded to NFL quarterbacks.
“You look at the top-10 quarterbacks,” he continued. “Scottie [Scheffler] has won seven times, I think that’s including Olympic gold. And he’s made significantly more than everyone else.
“If you look at how much 10th has made, the 10th-best player in the world has made, it’s not going to sniff how much Scottie has made. That just shows you how well Scottie has played in these big tournaments.
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