David Puig was one of the first college players who was presented with this kind of choice as he was considering his professional golf future.
Go the traditional route and try to earn his way onto the PGA Tour, or take a contract with LIV Golf, where he could make money right away.
Puig shocked the golf world when he left Arizona State early in his senior year, turned pro and joined LIV Golf in September 2022. The then-20-year-old was the first amateur golfer to go straight from college golf to the new Saudi-backed PGA Tour-rival.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, Puig went over the circumstances of the decision with co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. Puig said at first he had reservations about making a league just because he was uncertain where things were going to go with the upstart league.
“But I talked with my parents and with my team, and we just thought that making that decision was the best for us,” he said. “But there was just some reactions from people like, who is this guy or we’re never gonna know him or this guy sucks, LIV sucks, all that through social media. But hopefully, you know, it obviously got better, but hopefully it keeps getting better in the future.”
After the past few years, Puig said he has felt tensions soften a bit, especially with the play of some of the leagues stars like Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, who won majors in 2023 and 2024.
“So I don’t know if it’s gonna get better or not, but at least the fans, I think they’re just starting to realize that we’re just not bad people or anything like that,” he said. “We’re just playing somewhere else.”
Because Puig went straight to LIV Golf, the PGA Tour immediately suspended him and he has yet to ever tee it up in a PGA Tour event, except for four major appearances the last two seasons. But that doesn’t mean he has any regrets.
“I love it, man. They do an awesome job,” he said. “I mean, we’ve been pretty much everywhere in the world. They treat us very, very well. The courses are great. People are great. The players are, you know, if you’re looking like history of the players, I mean, there’s a lot of players that are unbelievable golfers. So for me, just playing with them, alongside them and just kind of learning from them, it’s been unbelievable.”
For more from Puig, including who the top tempers on LIV Golf are, watch the full episode below.
