Graeme McDowell surmises that the PGA Tour fabricated the LIV Golf story and regrets “helping” Saudi Arabia.

On LIV Golf, McDowell broke his silence and apologized for supporting the rival tour while also criticizing the PGA Tour.

“I think we are proud to help them on that journey,” McDowell said, “if Saudi Arabia wanted to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be and they have the resources to accelerate that experience.”.

He now regrets his controversial remarks made last June before the Centurion Club’s inaugural LIV Golf event.

He discussed those remarks on the Scottish golf journalist John Huggan’s podcast, The Thing About Golf, a little over a year later.

In the past 16 months, McDowell said, “I feel like my skin has thickened up a lot.”.
“The first three or four months, I didn’t handle it very well.
My reputation, which I had worked hard to establish over a 20-year period, had just been destroyed, which bothered me.
Is it really that erratic, you ask?
The answer is, yes, it is.
You will undoubtedly come under fire from the public in an instant.
“.

After switching to the rival tour, the Northern Irish veteran acknowledged that he thought he spoke too much.

I try to be as good as I can,” he said.
“I do my best to express what I felt.
Occasionally, you say too much.
“.

He has obviously not grown from his mistake, though.
Then McDowell made a point of blaming the PGA Tour in a spectacular way.

McDowell said to Huggan, “I don’t know if it was a planned, strategic narrative funded by the PGA Tour.
“I mean, when I say that, I’m just speculating.
“.

It has not been necessary for the PGA Tour to fabricate a story alleging that Saudi Arabia has tried to sport-wash its image. The evidence stands on its own.

He still felt the need to justify his actions, though.

Huggan was informed that he had been “prepped” by LIV Golf to respond.

“I wasn’t a paid envoy for Saudi Arabia’s human rights.
According to McDowell, I worked as a paid ambassador for a golf tour.
You begin responding to intractable queries.
Even though we had been prepared to say that by this golf tour that pays me, I regret the answers I gave, even though they weren’t necessarily incorrect.
“.

“This new start-up golf tour, which is a financially rewarding opportunity for me at this stage in my career, is paying me; it’s not the Saudi Arabian human rights organization. The last.
“.

Naturally, it was about the cash.
“It didn’t need to be said,” McDowell remarked.
“Of course, that’s what I was there for; it was a business decision.
“.

It’s energizing to hear McDowell be so open-minded.
Just a shame it happened after his reputation had already been tarnished and more than a year had passed.
However, as he noted, it was all business.