World No. 2 Xander Schauffele claims the media casts a “really negative” light on money in professional golf, insisting that his focus remains on winning rather than financial gains.
Since the introduction of LIV Golf, the sport has been divided not just by increased prize purses and signing bonuses, but by a growing tension over the focus on money.
The surge in financial rewards has undoubtedly benefited the professional golf scene, but it has also deepened divisions within the sport, with top players no longer consistently facing off each week.
“The media has been an interesting thing to me the last two or three years,” said Schauffele, who has won over $50,000,000 on the PGA Tour throughout his career. ” There’s a reason behind inflated purses and a lot of people have been talking about money.
“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 gentlemen’s game and you’re not supposed to talk about money, but all the media wants to do is talk about money.
“Us players, I think the players that make the most money don’t think about money because it’s just not the most important thing.
“I mean, winning $25 million would be really cool and really nice, but I don’t think it’s going to change my life, and I can tell you if I lose and play bad, I’m going to be pretty upset about playing bad and not being able to peak at the right time more than losing money.”
Two-time Major winner Schauffele tees it up again this week on the PGA Tour as he looks to win the season-long FedExCup.
