Scottie Scheffler: Golf's 'splintering' caused by LIV defectors - ESPN

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — If golf fans are upset that the best players in the world aren't playing in the same events such as this week's Players Championship, world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler said they need to turn their anger to the side that caused the sport to fracture.

«If the fans are upset, then look at the guys that left,» Scheffler said Tuesday. «We had a tour, we were all together and the people that left are no longer here. At the end of the day, that's where the splintering comes from.

»As far as our tour goes, like I said, we're doing our best to create the best product for the fans, and that's really where we're at."

While Scheffler will try to defend his title at the 50th Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm and other past major champions like Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau aren't in the field because they're playing in the rival LIV Golf League.

The PGA Tour's flagship event, known as the «fifth major,» doesn't boast the same deep field that it has in the past.

«If guys want to go take the money and leave, then that's their decision,» Scheffler said. «I'm not going to sit here and tell guys not to take hundreds of millions of dollars. If that's what they think is best for their life, then go do it. I'm not going to sit here and force guys to stay on our tour.

»But at the end of the day, this is where I want to be, and we're continuing to grow what we're doing, and what they're doing is not really a concern to me."

Earlier Tuesday, during his first news conference since the Tour Championship in Atlanta in August, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the circuit's negotiations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had