David Feherty: 'Grow the game? Bull****! This is why I joined LIV Golf'

While LIV’s army of defectors have continued to trot various nonsenses about why they joined the breakaway league – ‘growing the game’, ‘more time with family’, ‘exciting new format’, blah, blah, blah – few have been openly honest about the true reasons why they actually jumped ship.

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Step forward golf analyst David Feherty, who although produced an off-course defection after ditching his NBC and Golf Channel duties for the Greg Norman-captained ship, has eventually come clean.

“Money,” He told Toledo Blade. “People don’t talk about it. I hear, ‘Well, it’s to grow the game.’ Bulls***. They paid me a lot of money.”

Feherty joined LIV ahead of its third invitational in Bedminster, signalling a major signing for Norman given his notoriety as one of the voices of golf.

Having won five DP World Tour events as a player, the former Northern Irishman then established himself behind the mic for CBS, spending 18 years with the station before moving to NBC and Golf Channel in 2016.

Now with LIV Golf, Feherty insists the move also offers him personal benefits, alongside the obvious monetary ones.

“[LIV gives me] an opportunity to be myself again,” he said. “It’s become more and more difficult, especially in sports broadcasting, to have any kind of character.”