Nick Faldo Shades LIV Golf, Says 'Nobody's Really Interested' in Team Format

An outspoken critic of LIV Golf, Nick Faldo offered more thoughts on the circuit and why he doesn't think it's going to work even after a merger with the PGA Tour.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday before the British Masters, Faldo explained "nobody's really interested" in the team format because it doesn't feel like a team event:

"They're not going to get the sponsorship that they want. They call it a team [event] and it's not because it's stroke play. You see your mates on the putting green and say, 'Play well' and you see them in the scorer's tent and say, 'What did you shoot?' That's it. A team is out there helping, shoulder to shoulder. That's a true team.

"You have the ultimate team event, the Ryder Cup, you know the passion and the atmosphere of that. They're not playing with the same passion and atmosphere as the Ryder Cup."

LIV's format includes 54-hole, no-cut stroke play tournaments and a team championship. Teams are comprised of four players, with multiple scores from each round counting toward the team's overall total.

The top four teams from the regular-season standings receive a bye into the semifinals, with teams seeded five through 12 going head-to-head in the quarterfinals. The teams play three matches (two one-on-one singles matches, one two-on-two alternate-shot match), and whichever team wins twice advances to the next round.

The semifinals follows the same format, with the four winning teams advancing to the finals. The final round of the team championship moves to a 16-player stroke-play format. Team captains are paired up against each other, and the team with the lowest cumulative score wins.

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf shocked the world on June 6 when they announced a merger, along with the DP World Tour, to form a collectively owned golf league.

Despite the merging of the two groups, Sports Illustrated's Bob Harig reported LIV leadership has told all involved parties the circuit will play out the rest of its schedule this year and in 2024.

Faldo previously told Sky Sports' Jamie Weir the LIV tour "is meaningless" and is "not growing the game of golf."

The 65-year-old did say on Thursday he thinks the merger will end up being a good thing for the sport because of the new money coming in from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

"I think when the dust settles, whether it takes six months, a year, whatever, my goodness, pro golf is in an overall better position financially than we were back in the day," Faldo said.

Finalized terms of the merger have yet to be announced, but the framework of the agreement obtained by Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press noted the PGA Tour and DP World Tour "have agreed to work with Saudi backers" to determine how players who jumped to LIV can be welcomed back and what potential discipline they might face.