Stephen A Smith blames the PGA Tour for the LIV Golf saga, with shame he says defectors should not face any punishment.

It’s not often you hear Stephen A. Smith weigh in on anything golf-related, and after hearing his reaction to the Saudis pulling their sponsorship of LIV Golf, we should all be incredibly grateful for that.

On Thursday, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) officially announced that it will cut ties with LIV at the end of the 2026 season after investing billions in the renegade circuit. Among the many questions to follow is what it means for players who left the PGA Tour to join LIV, who may be looking to jump back into the Tour.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp indicated that the way back for the renegades will be far from straight and clear. While it’s likely months away from knowing any solid details, Smith has an idea of ​​what it would take for the players to return to the Tour: absolutely nothing.

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Smith believes that the only figure to blame in this whole ridiculous saga is the PGA Tour, and therefore, should welcome the returning players with open arms.

“If the PGA decides to punish these golfers, we should all – excuse my language – should sit on the – like the white on the rice. They shouldn’t punish anyone. It was their negligence, their abuse, their taking golfers for granted that forced the existence of LIV to begin,” Smith said on Thursday’s ‘First Take’ show.

“The players didn’t want to leave the PGA. They were forced to leave because they wanted better opportunities based on the way they were treated. And we know this because the PGA came in after that, when LIV started to exist, and showed a willingness to make changes. They know they did the players wrong.”

“What they wanted was better management,” Smith continued. “And the PGA put their nose up like arrogant people, and they treated these guys badly. Now that this is going to go away, it’s said, and these players from LIV want to come back, I don’t want to hear anything about punishment.

Smith makes it sound like before LIV Golf arrived, players on the PGA Tour were playing on limited food stamps and traveling around the country week after week as walkers.

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Stephen A. Smith (C) attends the basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks at Crypto.com Arena on March 06, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)

Phil Mickelson earned $96 million on the PGA Tour before leaving LIV Golf. Dustin Johnson earned nearly $76 million, Sergio Garcia made more than $55 million and Bubba Watson was just shy of $49 million in PGA Tour earnings before jumping ship.

Smith is absolutely right that players left the Tour in search of better opportunities, but those opportunities had nothing to do with the legacy or fabric of the game as a whole. The opportunity was to make more money, and stars like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, to become generationally rich with nine-man contracts.

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ESPN analyst and executive producer Stephen A. Smith is in New Orleans ahead of Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 7, 2025, when the Philadelphia Eagles will face the Kansas City Chiefs. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)

As for Smith’s comment about the PGA Tour making “changes” after players left, yes, it did, because it had to. The Tour, a not-for-profit organization, has since faced off against its rivals, which were funded by the Saudi PIF worth more than 1 billion.

LIV Golf has undoubtedly forced the PGA Tour to evolve and change its operations to better benefit players, especially top talent. Smith didn’t just say that; he went to the Saudi regime with an atrocious human rights record that decided to throw blank checks at players to disrupt professional golf.