Matt Fitzpatrick suggests soccer’s Premier League-like solution for PGA-LIV rift

Matt Fitzpatrick spoke about the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and the PIF-backed LIV Golf. The English golfer is gearing up to compete at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which begins on Thursday, October 3, and will run through the weekend, concluding on Sunday, October 6, in Scotland.

In a press conference ahead of the event on October 2, Fitzpatrick was asked by a reporter about his thoughts on the potential merger. The PGA Tour golfer replied with a suggestion for a league structure for golf, similar to the Premier League in soccer, as a way to "bring everyone together."

He said (via ASAP Sports),

"I had a few conversations with Billy Foster about it, my caddie. We spoke. Personally my idea would be you have basically like a Premier League, championship league, of golf, whether LIV is the Premier League or PGA TOUR is the PremiereLeague, whatever it is, and then you can bring everyone together.

"And there's more of a relegation-promotion, there's a few more stories there, you can work your way up. If everyone was together, I feel like that would be more beneficial, anyway."

Rory McIlroy shared a similar opinion about LIV Golf in an interview earlier this year. The Northern Irish golfer suggested that LIV could adopt a model similar to cricket's Indian Premier League. He said (via BBC),

"I would love LIV to turn into the IPL of golf. They take two months of calendar. You go and do this team stuff and a bit different and is a different format. If they were to do something like that I would say, 'yeah that sounds like fun,' because you are working within the ecosystem."

Notably, both Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy are playing at this week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

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Matt Fitzpatrick opens up about LIV Golf format

In the same press conference, Fitzpatrick also discussed the format of LIV Golf, which features teams of four players. While players compete in stroke play as individuals, the team events are only 54 holes long, and there is no cut.

Sharing his opinion about LIV Golf's format, the Englishman said,

"I'm not fully against the team aspect but if it's a closed shop there's not too many story lines in there. But at the same time, the PGA TOUR is that, becoming a little bit more like that. What formats are they going to do? Is there a 70-man field? I don't know.

"There's people that are smarter than me are involved. I'm very happy that Andy Cohen and SSG are involved in the PGA TOUR now. They know how to run businesses and know what to do and they are smart people. and smarter than me, and I would say smarter than the majority of the PGA TOUR players and golfers."

Notably, some LIV golfers are also participating in this week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Fitzpatrick is paired with Tyrrell Hatton, who joined the Saudi circuit earlier this year, for the first round of the tournament. They will tee off at 11:23 a.m. local time on October 3 as the DP World Tour event kicks off at 9:00 a.m.