Saudi Arabia’s investment in the sport is huge: Al Nassr made Cristiano Ronaldo the highest paid player in the world, at age 38, with more than 200 million dollars a year. Since 2020 they have hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah, with a contract of 650 million dollars for 10 years. They have also made millionaire payments to host boxing matches, horse races, tennis tournaments and even a couple of WWE events, one of the monsters of wrestling.
Golf was not left out of that investor appetite and since last year there has been a schism with the PGA Tour: the Arabs created the LIFE Golf, a circuit in which several of the great figures of this sport are already present, in a format very different from that of the other tours in the world (see box). And one of the last to join this scenario is the Colombian Juan Sebastian Munoz, who leaves behind seven years of career between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA, with a victory in each circuit and more than 9 million dollars in earnings.
Muñoz, according to what he told EL TIEMPO, is not leaving for money, although he knows that this factor will give him peace of mind for the present and the future: the amount has not yet been revealed. The 30-year-old from Bogotá put other factors ahead, especially friendship and solidarity with many friends who have already made the leap to Arabia and who are now waiting for him to team up. His first presentation will be in two weeks, in Mayakoba (Mexico).
How did you make the decision to go play at LIV?
I take it well. That topic started in August, and at first there was a lot of internal debate: what am I looking for from golf, what am I looking for from life. Many players began to leave for the LIV, there were fewer and fewer Latinos left on the PGA Tour and there were fewer and fewer of my team left, so I made the decision to keep what I like about golf, that community with which I have stayed in golf. Time also had an influence: now that I am going to be a father soon, it will guarantee me to be at home more. It will also allow me to stop putting pressure on myself, to play for so long sometimes without meaning. You want to win every week, although there is not much difference from a big event to a small event. This is going to re-energize me for all the events I’m going to play. I’m happy. Relax, more than anything, for what is coming, and ready to start in Mexico.
How was the first contact with the people of the LIV?
The first contact occurred, above all, through Joaquin Niemann. I would not have been interested in LIV if it hadn’t been for the possibility of making a team with my friends playing golf, something I never imagined possible. That did not exist a year ago. Joaquín is playing well and they offer him to be captain of the team and offer him a large amount of money. I left the matter in his hands: if he stayed on the PGA Tour, well, I wouldn’t leave, and if he did, as it did, well, there was a great chance that I would leave. When he decides to leave, he starts looking for a way for me to be part of that team. Then Mito (Pereira) got engaged, Joaco had already left, Carlos (Ortiz) had already left, Abraham (Ancer) had already left, so I was left alone and began to wonder what I was going to do. When I played in the Presidents Cup and won there, I thought I was going to stay on the PGA Tour and my mind was still there. Later, when I went to Japan and other tournaments, I realized that the mission of winning individually is not close to the mission of winning with your community, with your team, with your family, if you will. I feel that this is my mission.
How much did having played in the Presidents Cup, which is also in teams, and having defeated the world number one, Scottie Scheffler, influence you in making the decision to change tours?
I hadn’t felt that team relationship for a long time, maybe since college, and it was very cool. I had set the goal of playing that tournament with Joaco, with Cam Smith, with Abraham, but many of them had already gone to LIV. With those who were there we shared a very special time and we did everything to fight. I think we got it. Then came a comment from Mito: “Imagine doing this for people you really care about.” The concept is very fun. That did have an influence. But in the heat, when I beat number one, I thought my mission was to stay on the PGA Tour and see how far I can dream, but then I realized that I wasn’t as motivated from within to achieve individual glories.
“In the heat, when I beat the number one, I thought my mission was to stay on the PGA Tour and see how far I can dream, but then I realized that I wasn’t as motivated inside.”
How were those PGA Tour tournaments after the departure of your group of friends?
At first it didn’t hit me that hard. There was no way for me to go to LIV. Carlos managed to leave because of his relationship with Sergio García. Abraham left because he was very hot at the time and they took him out of one. I was still focused on what was mine, only when I saw that the way to leave was opening up, did I start to focus on that. I met Carlos and Abraham at the PGA Championship, also at the British, I kept seeing them. But with Joaco we almost always rented houses, we stayed together, so when he left, I had to find a hotel. We traveled with someone who took care of us, a physical trainer that I shared with Carlos, and he already needed her in Singapore, in Thailand, so he could no longer help me. Things began to change in my world in quite a remarkable way. I started to feel alone: it was similar to my first years on the PGA Tour, where I didn’t have this team yet, where I felt alone, where, playing well or playing badly, you had to get to the hotel and be with yourself. We had created a world with these people on the PGA Tour and that was gone.
How much did the economic factor weigh?
Of course it affects. In golf, until this year, there was no guaranteed term. Or well, it does exist, but for the biggest stars on the PGA Tour. In some tournaments they get paid to play and others don’t. I also realized that when I was in Japan. I said to myself: ‘I came here alone and I paid everything to get here and here there are some guys who pay them to be here.’ It was no longer fair to me, they took off the bandage of love and trust on the PGA Tour. On the other side you know something is guaranteed and you know how much it is right away, you literally know why this guy is there. The financial issue, obviously, helps me to put my family in a better position now and in the future, and there are also more possibilities to grow. On the PGA Tour you can grow individually and make your mark. But, for example, when the super players had their meeting in Delaware, they didn’t invite me, they were only the Top 20. Then you realize where they want you the most and where you are most important.
You and your wife are close to having a child. How much did she have to do with the decision?
Daniela respected everything. This decision process has had several answers: yes, no, then yes, then no, and then yes again. She remained patient and supportive. When she asked her, she would tell me which she preferred and which she didn’t, she brought a lot to the conversation, she didn’t force me to make a decision out of pride. We talked about it many nights.
How much does playing in teams now change, as opposed to doing it individually every week?
The experience of the Presidents Cup is that you feel a greater responsibility for your peers. It’s cool, I felt in the Presidents that I couldn’t leave them alone and that me and my golf could be one step further. It was similar to the Olympics: playing for Colombia made me see that I could go a little further. Or like when I won at the Korn Ferry in Bogotá: yes, it was me, but at first no Colombian had won or we had been in the fight for the title. I did it for us, for Bogotá, for Colombia. I have had flashes of very good golf when I have had to play for something other than myself, like my individuality does not fulfill me, the title as a whole fills me more, the story of all and not that of just one. I don’t know why that happens, I guess it’s because of the way I was raised, because of that sense of family.
One of the criticisms of the LIV is that, since the players have guaranteed money, the motivation is lost. How do you analyze that?
I don’t know, suddenly for players who have already spent their quarter of an hour, like Phil Mickelson, or like Dustin Johnson, who is playing very well, but who has already touched the sweetness of having won a Major and been number one in the world . I don’t, and the truth is this is the opportunity to show that if they took us to the LIV it’s for a reason. I feel that this fills us with fuel and encouragement to show what we have. That argument that the LIV is not competitive, that it is an exhibition, well yes, but no. I don’t know of any of these guys who have played well all their lives, who have been on the Tour for 20 years, give up. If that happened, they would have lost the card a long time ago. It’s going to be very entertaining and I feel like it’s going to be very competitive as well.
With the move to LIV, what is your plan for the Majors?
It changes quite a bit. The Majors are one of the things that were on the lines and that could be lost and now they are going to be lost. LIV players, for now, do not receive points for the world ranking. The LIV is working on it to see how it can be changed. For now, the plans would be to qualify for the British Open and the US Open, which are the only Majors that qualify, the other two not.
Phil Mickelson responded to a reporter’s trill about a possible tournament between players on the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, in a format similar to the Ryder or the Presidents, and said that the LIV would win more than likely. Do you think so?
Hahahahaha… I don’t think anyone earns much of anything. I don’t know what the format would be. I don’t forget the number of faces I saw who were on the PGA Tour a year ago and who are not now. Not to go so far, Abraham (Ancer) won this week in Arabia and he did it alongside Cam Young, who was rookie of the year and has been playing well, he is one of the new stars on the Tour: Abraham, hitting softer, 40 or 50 less yards, he beat him. Obviously, I feel like they will continue to be competitive. The PGA Tour is in a campaign of not messing with the LIV because they don’t want to support that Tour at all. There is quite a lot of rejection of any type of event or mention. That is the boat we are in right now and we have to move it forward.
How do you think this schism between the PGA Tour and the LIV is going to be resolved?
I thought they were going to get close when the rumors started about Greg Norman’s departure from LIV. But it was the other way around, Norman was given much more power. I feel that this year will be another year of, I don’t know if distancing, but at least, I don’t see rapprochement.
Jose Orlando Ascension
sports deputy editor
@josasc
