{"id":437335,"date":"2025-11-06T02:20:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T02:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437335"},"modified":"2025-11-06T02:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T02:20:04","slug":"graeme-mcdowell-says-the-best-are-responsible-for-the-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/graeme-mcdowell-says-the-best-are-responsible-for-the-divide\/","title":{"rendered":"Graeme McDowell Says The Best Are Responsible For The Divide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since its launch in 2022, LIV Golf has been at odds with the rest of the golf world.\u00a0 It struggles to get basic things like OWGR points, it has an ongoing rivalry with the PGA despite the constant talks about a merger earlier this year, and there is a constant string of pros, both current and former, who are always ready to take a few whacks<\/a> at the league.\u00a0 Recently, Graeme McDowell, one of LIV’s star players, has suggested that it is not the heads of the organizations who created the divide but rather another group.\u00a0 One that sees far more cameras.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup Captainship<\/span><\/h2>\n

The situation of the divide in the sport came about in an interview with Bunkered on Graeme McDowell\u2019s Ryder Cup ambitions.\u00a0 He wants to be the European Ryder Cup<\/a> team captain, and with talks about Luke Donald not being sure if he wants to do it again, McDowell started expressing an interest in the position.\u00a0 He said that being the captain would be the greatest moment in his life.\u00a0 The only issue is that there are a few roadblocks.\u00a0 Those roadblocks involve the divide that formed when LIV Golf launched.<\/span><\/p>\n

Graeme McDowell On The Divide<\/span><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that the divide between the leagues has affected LIV players the most.\u00a0 They see the most consequences.\u00a0 The PGA one-year ban has been the biggest roadblock for any player who wants to cross over.\u00a0 This has caused some tension with the LIV players<\/a>.\u00a0 Yet, for McDowell he doesn\u2019t see it as the reason for the divide in the sport.\u00a0 He revealed in an interview with Bunkered<\/a> that he believes that the best players are the source of the divisiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will say I don\u2019t deserve it, and I\u2019m responsible for a lot of what\u2019s happened. But I\u2019m a very, very small cog in this big wheel,\u201d McDowell said. \u201cThe divisiveness has come from the best players in the world. It hasn\u2019t come from the 40-somethings like myself that are just trying to eke out a living and staying competitive on an opportunity that was presented to us, which would have been crazy to say no to from a business point of view.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McDowell On Healing The Divide<\/span><\/h2>\n

McDowell\u2019s idea on healing the divide is pretty simple.\u00a0 Just let the players on the field together.\u00a0 He believes that opening the door to more LIV Golfers could turn down the heat between the leagues, or at the very least between the players.\u00a0 McDowell does suggest that he should be the first step in that.\u00a0 By being the \u201colive branch that puts some of this back together.\u201d\u00a0 However, McDowell is well aware that this dream is a long shot.\u00a0 He\u2019s not sure if it\u2019s even possible for him to get into the Ryder Cup as things stand now.\u00a0 As a result, he doesn\u2019t want to commit himself at the moment.\u00a0 McDowell does plan on making a few calls to test the temperature to see if it is possible, but for now, it is just an idea he has.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since its launch in 2022, LIV Golf has been at odds with the rest of the golf world.\u00a0 It struggles to get basic things like OWGR points, it has an ongoing rivalry with the PGA despite the constant talks about a merger earlier this year, and there is a constant string of pros, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,200],"tags":[8199],"class_list":["post-437335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-liv-golf","tag-graeme-mcdowell"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437340,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437335\/revisions\/437340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}