The 2012 US Open winner is yet to be convinced by the Premier Golf League despite reports of $30m offers to golf's biggest names
“Too Many Unknowns” – Webb Simpson Doubts “Far-Fetched” Premier Golf League
Webb Simpson says he thinks that the Premier Golf League seems “pretty far-fetched” to actually happen and that players should go after records, not dollars.
The PGL is back in the news cycle after The Telegraph reported that a number of high-profile players had received $30m offers to join the league, which is planned to start in September 2022.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, speaking on Tuesday evening at the Wells Fargo Championship, reportedly made it clear to members that they will not be allowed to join the PGL and retain membership of the PGA Tour.
Luckily for Monahan, many of his top players will be more than happy to remain on the PGA Tour and one of those, by the sounds of it, is 2012 US Open champion Webb Simpson.
“Yeah, it’s been an interesting couple of years with this other league,” Simpson said of the PGL ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship.
“I don’t really get into the details at all, I let my agent handle everything, but from the beginning it seemed like something that seems pretty far-fetched to actually happen.
“You know, to come in and shake up the way golf’s always been.
“I don’t have any up-to-date information I guess as to how it’s progressed in the last couple of months.
“I haven’t talked really about it since The Players Championship. I love the PGA Tour. It’s given me an incredible opportunity these last 12 years of my life.
“It’s hard for me to believe that it’s really going to happen and the guys will really jump ship and go to a completely different way of golf than we’ve always had.”
Webb has his say on the PGL
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Simpson thinks that many of his peers are happy playing on the PGA Tour, where the money is already fantastic.
The American, for example, has won $42m on the PGA Tour with seven wins, 11 runners-up finishes and 80 top-10s.
“I think so. I think some guys have spoken on it that they’re very happy, very thankful for, you know, this particular opportunity we’ve had in golf. I feel like it’s only getting better,” he said.
“Purses are going up, seems like we play better golf courses and golf course condition is getting better. Everything seems to be getting better with the PGA Tour.
“So I think there’s too many unknowns and too many things they would have to figure out for this thing to actually work.
Related: McIlroy dismisses Premier Golf League – “I’m out”
“Are the best players in the world really going to go to this tour if only eight of the top-25 in the world ranking are going to go?
“I think as a top player, I want to play against the best.
“At the end of the day, you have a career long enough, I think most of these guys, they’re financially set. They want to break records, they want to win.
“Be like Dustin, win like 20 times, be a life member, whatever it might be.
“You create a new tour, all these records get kind of thrown out the window, I think.
“I just think too many thing like that are going to come up.
“I don’t think throwing X amount of money at guys is as appealing now as it maybe once was because of how great the opportunities we have on the PGA Tour.
“Whatever the number is, 350 million we’re playing for this year, and what FedEx has done, Wyndham Rewards, now Comcast, there’s so many opportunities for guys to make a great living here.
“If I’m a guy who’s on my way to make history like a Dustin or, you know, a few other top guys, I want to go after records, not a dollar.
“So we’ll see what happens, but that’s kind of where I sit on it.”
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