Mark Harris
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Matt Jones has turned into quite the confident character since joining LIV Golf. In a recent interview in his home country of Australia, the 42-year-old reflected on the moment he signed with the Saudi-backed league before taking a shot at Americans and their mindset about traveling, of all things.
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Jones spoke with the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event in Australia and laid out the situation after he came to the decision to join the breakaway circuit. He was actually in a room with Rory McIlroy when the news broke during last year’s Memorial tournament.
“I was on the tables in the therapy room with Rory [McIlroy] and [Billy] Horschel when my name come out during that tournament,” Jones explained. “They were fine. They understand for a lot of guys, ‘Why wouldn’t you’? I don’t have the money and contracts those guys do. It made sense for me.”
Instead of simply sticking with the story that it was a good move for his career, Jones went on to claim that a lot of Tour players are actually “jealous” they never got an offer from LIV.
“Not one person I know was being critical, they might have been a little upset or jealous. I think there’s a lot of that. Maybe they didn’t get contacted or a chance to do it – and then they were bitter and jealous.”
Jones may not be wrong, plenty of other 40+year-old Tour players may have been wishing for a guaranteed payday from the Saudis, nevertheless, it’s a rather bold comment to make.
It wasn’t the wildest thing the Aussie said, however.
With his new employer playing a tournament in his home country this week, Jones took that as an opportunity to pick apart the PGA Tour schedule and its lack of an event in Australia. He doesn’t seem to think American players, and the fact they “don’t like to travel” has something to do with the Tour staying in North America, for the most part.
“To have someone fly down here for one week would be tough, knowing Americans and how they don’t like to travel. You would have to have a week off before and after to fit it in,” Jones said.
That’s a rather rich comment – no pun intended – coming from Jones who is mighty happy to travel anywhere to play golf when he knows there is a signed paycheck waiting for him on Sunday.
Nobody could have seen Matt Jones being the most outspoken LIV golfer, yet here we are.
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And still, no one knows or cares who the fu(k he is.
“He doesn’t seem to think American players, and the fact they ‘don’t like to travel’ has something to do with that.” I could be missing something here, but this is an oddly worded sentence — especially in that the next paragraph seems to indicate that Jones _does_ think that American golfers don’t like to travel. Again, I could be misinterpreting something, though.