Padraig Harrington feels LIV Golf, the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour can co-exist by following football's transfer model in allowing players to switch between tours for one-off payments.
LIV's third season gets underway this week in Mexico with Jon Rahm the latest golf superstar to controversially depart the PGA Tour for the Saudi-backed league.
The Spaniard has formed LIV's 13th team and has taken his European Ryder Cup team-mate Tyrell Hatton with him too.
It's another blow to the PGA Tour and golf fans in general with Rahm and Hatton now only going up against the likes of Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler four times a year at the majors.
That has been McIlroy's biggest issue with the emergence of LIV, with the world's best players not unable to play against each other on a regular basis. write at least 2 paragraphs
Padraig Harrington wants LIV and PGA players to be able to transfer
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Harrington, speaking during the 2024 Ras Al Khaimah Championship on the DP World Tour, doesn't see it as big of an issue, insisting it helps the majors even more.
"I think it's one of the silliest ideas ever to have all the best players playing in the same tournament at the same time," he exclusively told GB News.
"We have the majors for that. And the rest of the time, hype up your guys and then bring them in."
The future landscape of golf remains unclear with an agreement between LIV and the PGA from last summer still dragging on due to pushback from players and anti-trust concerns.
The PGA Tour has now secured a mammoth $3billion deal with Strategic Sports Group, which gives players access to half as equity owners as part of a new for-profit division.
The move is seen as necessary for the PGA Tour to help provide some financial muscle to go toe-to-toe with LIV's spending power, although the deal doesn't include those on the DP World Tour.
Currently, LIV have been snapping up the PGA Tour's best players at a growing rate with Rahm the latest major winner to make the switch.
But Harrington feels an ideal world would see players like Rahm be able to return to the PGA Tour for a fee in a similar fashion to how football transfers work.
"Ideally I’d allow a transfer of players back and forth. I’d have no problem with LIV players getting invites to PGA tour events," Harrington added.
Padraig Harrington was speaking at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship
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"Nobody wants John Rahm missing out on the Spanish Open. If that’s the case, then certain invites have to be given to certain non-LIV players to play in their events when they’re in the right region for that.
"These will be ironed out in time. I don't necessarily see that they need to merge. They just have to co-exist and create a buzz.
"It’d be ideal if it was like football. If you wanna buy a player from another team, the team gets the money.
Jon Rahm can currently only play in the majors
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"So at the moment, LIV can buy the best players from the PGA Tour, but the PGA doesn't get anything out of it.
"The only thing they can do is keep the price high. They have to give a road back to players otherwise those players have no negotiating power when they continue to negotiate with LIV and that means their price goes down.
"The PGA want to ensure that price remains high because they want to make sure they can’t just buy everyone up."
