Rick Shiels took a lot of heat when he decided to sign with LIV Golf before the 2025 season.
It has now been just over a year since Shiels entered the partnership. The agreement gave him the opportunity to work closely with many of LIV’s top players, which some critics viewed as beneficial for his brand but not necessarily for fans.
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LIV Golf remains one of the most divisive topics in the sport. Questions about its ownership continue to linger, and it has dramatically changed the landscape of professional golf over the past few years.
Rick Shiels believes there is one big misconception about LIV Golf
Photo by Stuart Franklin/R&A/R&A via Getty Images
Some of the changes have been positive, though. The PGA Tour has made several adjustments to keep their top talent from switching over.
Still, money played a big part in why some high-profile players made the move to LIV. That shift fuelled a narrative that those within the league were not as motivated because financial security was no longer an issue.
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Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Shiels pushed back against that idea.
“The criticism for players that have moved to LIV is they don’t care anymore. Bloody hell, that’s not the truth. I go to a driving range the week of a LIV event, I can’t believe how hard they’re practicing. I can’t believe it. It baffles me.
“Some of these guys who have signed for hundreds and hundreds of millions are out there, rain, shine, humidity, whatever, beating balls, practicing, working hard, wanting to get better, wanting to win majors. It’s like wow. Any interaction I’ve had with these guys, I feel like if you had a game of tiddlywinks with them, they’d want to destroy you. They want to bury you,” he concluded.
LIV players are definitely struggling to silence the stereotype
It is fair to wonder how LIV has affected certain players, and there are early signs that some have not maintained the same drive.
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Cam Smith was an Open champion and ranked second in the world when he left the PGA Tour, but things have not gone as planned since.
In 2025, he played all four majors but missed the cut at every one of them. And while Jon Rahm has not completely fallen off, by his own high standards, his performances have dipped a bit over the past two years.
Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed have both left LIV in recent months, which has not reflected well on the league. It is still too early to draw firm conclusions about how much LIV impacts a player’s form.
But so far, there is not much evidence pushing back against those questions either.
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