Late last year, the rumours were running wild, and yet Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele stood back probably chuckling, and just watched the circus for a while. Or maybe they didn’t care at all.
The two friends from Southern California, ensconsed in the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, were being put out there in some corners of social media as the next high-profile PGA Tour players who would jump to LIV Golf. One Twitter account in particular was probably responsible as the firestarter, posting on November 16 that Schauffele’s move was a done deal, even specifying what team he would captain.
Of course, if the rumour had been true, it would have been an explosively compelling “get” by LIV, considering the stature and skill of the two American stars, who have a combined 15 wins on the PGA Tour while becoming US team match-play stalwarts at the Presidents and Ryder cups.
Instead, Schauffele, 29, appeared on a podcast in mid-November and completely shut down the idea of bouncing to LIV, and while Cantlay took extended time off following the 2021-22 campaign, he returned on Tuesday ahead of this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions and said he has no plans “as of now” to make a jump.
Both players are entered in the TOC this week and The American Express Championship in La Quinta, California in two weeks.
“I think it’s because I haven’t been too vocal one way or the other,” Cantlay, 30, said at Kapalua of why he thinks he’s been a target for the rumours. “So, I think that’s probably where it is. Guys, for the most part, seem like they’re pretty polarised on this issue, and I view it as it’s been a competition for top talent, like any other business. But I have no plans to do that as of now, which has been my stance for, you know, basically the whole time.”
On the No Laying Up podcast in November, Schauffele said he hadn’t been paying attention much to LIV rumours and had to Google it when friends were asking him about it.
“I pretty much just told everyone what I’m telling you: I haven’t talked to anybody,” Schauffele said. “I was pretty much minding my own business in Vegas and then this whole thing blew up. Why it blew up and how it blew up I have no idea … probably similar to the first time around, just random rumours that catch wind and it just blows up in your face.”
Cantlay can be a different character to try to nail down. At the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July, he said he didn’t “take too much stock in outside noise” regarding LIV. Pressed further, he admitted, “I don’t have any plans at the moment to leave [for LIV] after the FedEx Cup.” In September, before the Presidents Cup, Cantlay said he thought the contentious battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would be but a ”blip on the radar” in 10 years’ time.
On Tuesday, Cantlay spoke of how much LIV’s presence has changed golf in one year—from greatly increased purses to what it might do for fan interest in the long run.
“Everyone’s trying to innovate and make golf better all of a sudden,” he said. “I think that will be a massive benefit for the viewer because I think now more than ever competition is making people evolve and making people grow and think outside the box.
“So I think it’s been really good and will be good for professional golf in the long run. But it’s been such a polarising issue that it’s made people, you know, feel emotional about something that has been the same for such a long time.”
