With a seemingly endless flow of money, LIV Golf was able to entice major champs like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau to join the Saudi-backed league. And yet, Will Zalatoris could not be budged.
According to Fred Couples, Zalatoris rejected multiple offers from the fledgling league, including a nearly $100-million jump from a $35 million initial proposal to a $130 million follow-up.
Couples and Zalatoris share an agent, potentially where the golf legend got his numbers from.
“I don’t know anything about the LIV Tour, except they overpay all of them,” Couples said to the Orange County Register.
Zalatoris has quickly become a PGA Tour mainstay. The wunderkind finished runner-up at the 2021 Masters, lost in a playoff to Justin Thomas at the 2022 PGA Championship and was an oh-so-close putt away from forcing a playoff with Matt Fitzpatrick at Brookline’s U.S. Open, all of which must’ve enticed LIV Golf to make an offer and then boost it dramatically.
Despite the LIV bid, Zalatoris will remain on the PGA Tour and looks to continue his dramatic climb.
“Money is zero object [for LIV],” Couples said. “I give Will a lot of credit; he wants [to stay with] the PGA Tour.”
