PGA Tour Pro Calls Out Jay Monahan & Co. for Copying LIV Golf Amid Growing Frustration

In May 2025, after Erik van Rooyen’s runner-up finish at the 2025 CJ CUP Byron Nelson earned him a $1.079 million payday, he candidly addressed a question about the PGA Tour’s eight signature events: “How honest do you want me to be? I hate it.” Rooyen’s point was that the strongest fields at the Tour can only come with “the most players in them.” Undoubtedly, the Tour’s signature events, limited to 70 to 75 players, fall short of that. And although Ryan Fox, another PGA Tour pro, criticizes the Tour for the same reason as Rooyen, he also takes issue with them for “copying” LIV Golf’s structure.

Here’s the thing: In 2022, after LIV Golf significantly impacted the golf scene by attracting 36 players from the PGA Tour with lucrative signing bonuses, smaller fields, a team format, and $20 million purses, Jay Monahan & co. introduced “designated events” on the Tour. The original announcement stated that these events would feature smaller fields of 70 to 78 players, larger ($20M) purses, and eliminate the 36-hole cut.

When Ryan Fox reflected on these changes during an interview on the Sliced Podcast, he expressed his frustration over it. Fox began, “Yeah, a little bit [of frustration]. Um, I’ve been kind of on both sides of them now. And look, playing them is great.” However, Fox is still critical of the events, “I felt like when they were created, you know, obviously there was the, there was, I don’t know if “war” is the right term to put it, but you know, there was LIV versus the PGA Tour, and you know, I always felt like the argument against LIV was the competition side of it.”

Interestingly, in 2023, when Jay Monahan faced the same question, “did the PGA Tour copy LIV?” he refused to acknowledge the similarities and replied, “Do you think we really look the same?” Well, Ryan Fox doesn’t buy that. He continued, “I felt like maybe with those signature events, it was a bit of a copy of what LIV was trying to do, and that was maybe a, you know, a different direction than what the PGA Tour should have done.” 

And Ryan Fox’s accusations aren’t unfounded. LIV Golf’s schedule features 54-player fields, including two wild-card entrants, competing in three-day events where the lowest score determines the individual champion and the team with the lowest score claims the title. Players earn points toward individual and team championships at the end of the season. In contrast, the PGA Tour, as stated earlier, introduced eight Signature Events with higher cash prizes, more FedEx Cup points, and limited participation to fields of over 70 players.

Interestingly, Ryan Fox isn’t the first one to accuse the Tour of “copying” LIV Golf. In 2022, Lee Westwood, one of the defectors, said of the sweeping changes at the Tour, “I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with. It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is not competitive. They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields.” However, Ryan Fox is still critical of the signature events. He points to a lack of “underdogs” in these events and says, “I think the one thing that they potentially lack is the story, like a storyline.” However, Rory McIlroy doesn’t agree.

Rory McIlroy feels the PGA Tour’s “Signature Events” are working

Rory McIlroy has expressed strong support for the PGA Tour’s signature event model, which was introduced as a response to the emergence of LIV Golf. Golf analyst Dan Rapaport highlighted McIlroy’s perspective during a podcast, recalling their conversation at the 2025 Travelers Championship. Rapaport said, “I asked Rory about this earlier in the week when I was at the Travelers. I said, ‘How do you feel three years in if the signature event model is working?’ and he said, ‘I think it is working if you look at the tournaments we’ve had and the winners we’ve had. Yeah, it was a fantastic show the week after the US Open!”

He also stated, “I think the Signature Events have gone great. If you look at the list of winners — myself, Ludvig, JT, Scottie, Russell Henley at Bay Hill — the list of winners, I think they work.” Keegan Bradley won the Travelers Championship, becoming the eighth distinct winner of the eight signature events, and he had the lowest world ranking (No. 21) among this year’s champions.

The only other winners of signature events outside the top 10 in the world rankings were Russell Henley (14) at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Sepp Straka (17) at the Truist Championship. Currently, all eight winners of the signature events rank within the top 12. So, is there a right or wrong in this discussion?