Only a few hours ago, Graeme McDowell made a plea that he would like to fight for the role of the 2027 Ryder Cup captaincy. With Luke Donald unsure if he would like to continue, the Northern Irishman expressed his interest in bringing the team together at Adare Manor. His alignment with LIV Golf may put many off, but McDowell explained that he only made the switch to enjoy the last few years of his career as a pro. Yet, his statement was twisted into something he never meant to say.

The 46-year-old was left infuriated with how the media had changed the meaning of his statement. He tweeted, “Clickbait at its finest here. The article is about what it would mean to me to be the Ryder Cup captain in Ireland in 2027. Misquoted regards “ekeing out a living”. Supposed to read “ekeing out the last few years of my playing career”. I’ve been incredibly fortunate and if it was all done tomorrow all I would have is gratitude. That’s all.”

While he claims to have jumped ship to LIV Golf to still compete with the top players and enjoy the sport, the golf community took it as his fight for survival. Many fans assumed that he had to switch because he couldn’t earn a living playing against Scottie Scheffler & Co. in the PGA Tour. That not only reflects badly on McDowell but also presents LIV Golf in a bad light. However, as the 2010 U.S. Open champion explained, that is not the case at all, and he’s actually enjoying his time in the Saudi league.

Despite his statement, stats show that LIV Golf players have largely lost form once they made their switch. Let’s look at what the analysts have to say about it.

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Have LIV pros become subpar after they stopped competing against Scottie Scheffler & Co.?

Until making the switch, many of the top players signed by LIV Golf were performing exceptionally well on the PGA Tour. Cameron Smith had captured The Open Championship 2022, Jon Rahm had just won the 2023 Masters Tournament, and the others were also winning regularly. However, most of them lost momentum ever since they made the switch.

Since joining LIV Golf, Rahm hasn’t made the top 5 in any of the majors he has participated in. He even missed a cut in a major for the first time in 5 years in 2024. Brooks Koepka had a great stint at the beginning of 2023. However, he, too, has been on a horrid run since. This season, he missed the cut in 3 out of the 4 majors. Things got so bad that he ended up shutting himself off from his family. In the end, reports came in that Koepka had to apologize to his wife for the way he treated them.

Not all players have lost their form once entering the Saudi League. Bryson DeChambeau has shown a lot of improvement since joining LIV Golf. Despite a few missed cuts, he won the U.S. Open once and finished as the runner-up in the PGA Championship twice. He has also found success outside of the professional golf landscape. DeChambeau is doing well as a YouTube & TikTok content creator, excelling in his political career, and has also developed an excellent public persona. But considering that just one of the players found so much success after jumping ship, was it really worth the risk of switching from the PGA Tour and stopping to compete against the top golfers like Scottie Scheffler & Co.?