Money is important. There is no negating that. But sometimes, true passion is more important, at least to some. Brian Harman is one such golfer. The defending champion at Royal Troon this year remains unfazed by monetary matters, unlike some others. With LIV Golf taking some of the Tour’s best talents with its big bucks, Monahan’s PGA Tour, with the support of his SSG backers, is making leaps in the direction of making its events more lucrative.

First came the big-money signature event, then the fast-expanding purses of other events. Now, it’s the majors that have gotten involved in this race to keep up. It was recently revealed that the total prize of The Open went up by half a million this year by Martin Slumbers, CEO of The R&A. This means the winner will walk away with $3.1 million. However, it was also disclosed that such an increase might not be substantial in the long run.

For Harman, however, that seems not to be a problem. When asked in the pre-tournament presser if he would play the tournament if he got paid less or maybe nothing at all in the years to come, hypothetically speaking, he replied, “Yeah, I would personally. I’m not sure everyone would, but I would.”

He made sure to follow up on his reasoning of why he thinks this might not be lucrative for everyone. He said, “Because some people care more about money than I do, I suppose. I play golf to — I play golf for me. Like I play golf to see how good I can get at golf. I play golf because I enjoy torturing myself with things that are really hard to do. That’s just me. Most times when I get done with a tournament, I couldn’t tell you within commas of how much that I made that week.”

The idea of greed in pro-golf has come into question since the Saudi-backed league was inaugurated. Their promise of big bucks swayed away some of the top talents, leaving PGA Tour loyalists to question this sect for their greedy measures. But a fast-transforming PGA Tour also seems to be incorporating money into the machinery, as the previously announced $30 billion merger continues. There is no end in sight, as only vague promises continue to act as a bandage on these wounds of uncertainty. The only thing constant between the Tour and the breakaway league is the quest to best each other.

Within this dynamic, Brian Harman is not the only player who has noticed the rise of greed within pro golf. So who are these other pros with a similar opinion?

Max Homa and Rory McIlroy bash rising greed among pro golfers, albeit in their own ways

Ahead of the RBC Heritage, Max Homa talked about the rising greed in pro golf and acquitted players’ selfishness and blindness to the effect of their actions on fans. For Homa, the immense drama after money has led to the fans suffering from its after-effects and feeling nauseated.

The 33-year-old said,

“I think we hit this year-and-a-half- or two-year rut as both golfers and golf leagues that was just about making the players happy, and unfortunately and quite obviously the fans were not benefitted by that,” hinting at the player equity numbers that were later revealed. Homa’s critique was based on the rising backlash from the tour’s loyal fanbase as the bickering for money goes on.

Rory

McIlroy seemed to agree that “there’s never enough” in the game of golf. He said, “I think the one thing we’ve learned in golf over the last two years is that there’s never enough.” But what was shocking for most was the timing of McIlroy’s statements. This came shortly after player equity numbers amounting to around $50 million were revealed for McIlroy.

Regardless of what might’ve been McIlroy’s intentions, one thing is clear: the rising greed in the sports world is not going unnoticed.