Laura Davies reflects on golf’s changing times and LIV Golfers: ‘They are easily replaced’

The swingin’ 60s? Well, maybe not quite.

“I’m not enjoying playing at all,” sighed Dame Laura Davies with a self-deprecating chuckle as she mulled over the state of her game at 60-years-young.

The 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews could provide a wonderful swansong for this decorated, celebrated champion but Davies herself won’t allow sentiment, and the prospect of a dewy-eyed, visor-doffing last hurrah over the Swilcan Bridge, to cloud her judgement.

“Next year will be the final one of my exemption, but at the moment I don’t think I can tee up,” reflected Davies, who was the guest of honour at the PGA in Scotland’s annual glass-clinking luncheon in Glasgow on Wednesday.

“I’m playing in a few senior events before then and if I show any signs of encouragement at all then I might play. But I don’t want to take someone’s spot. It would be lovely to walk over the bridge on the 18th but not at 35-over-par. It won’t be as much fun.”

About those who left for LIV

It’s all fun and games, meanwhile, in the wider world of golf at the moment. Jon Rahm’s colossal deal with LIV Golf – yes, you can roll your eyes again – has had the kind of earth-shattering impact you’d get with a nuclear weapons test.

So, what does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current situation?

“It just goes to show that everyone has their price,” she said. “The trouble is for these players going to LIV is that there are guys going to fill their boots who are very good players. We’ve already got Ludvig Aberg coming through, another superstar in the making.

“And look at Cam Smith? Would anyone actually know how he is doing with LIV and that he was the Open champion before he went? Nobody really knows how he plays any more.

“Don’t get me wrong. If anyone offered me that kind of money, I’d be there. I’m not criticizing them, but they are easily replaced. Maybe people won’t think about Jon Rahm eventually?”

As for Davies actually sitting down and watching any of LIV Golf’s 54-hole product? She’d probably be more interested in gazing at a bucket of soot.

“I’m not interested in the three rounds or the shotgun start,” she added. “As a sports fan, I like 72-hole championship golf where you finish on the 18th, not the fifth. LIV is not for me.”

Davies was making hay in a different financial era.

“My biggest check was $240,000 and that was at the JC Penney event with John Daly in 1999,” she reflected. “I think most of my checks on the LPGA were between $60,000 and $90,000 for winning. In the women’s game especially, it has all changed for the better and good luck to them. I’m not envious of these girls one bit as I love to see it.”

With 87 worldwide wins, including four majors, Davies has such a haul of silverware, her mantelpiece is probably the size of the Hoover Dam.

In the team environment, meanwhile, the Solheim Cup would always stir the senses.

“1992 at Dalmahoy is probably my best memory in Scotland,” she said of an against-the-odds European win over a star-studded American team.

“I still think it’s hugely underrated. If you look back over the last 50 years of sport, it’s one the biggest upsets. I think 10 of the U.S. players were all Hall of Famers. We were just a bunch of players who pretty much turned pro in the four or five years earlier and we beat them. Incredible.”

Pearls of wisdom

Davies continues to offer her pearls of wisdom as a broadcaster of both the men’s and women’s game. One wonders what Joey Barton, the former footballer and full-time crank who has made a series of withering, stone age observations about female football commentators, would make of it all?

“I’m a big fan of the fact that if you’ve been there and done it (in any sport) you can talk about it,” said Davies. “Trish Johnson, Dottie Pepper, Morgan Pressel. All the girls who do golf, they’re all multiple winners and major champions. It’s not at the power level of men’s golf but the pressure is no different. I don’t know why Joey would say something like that?”

After a rapid-fire chinwag, it was time for Davies to receive her PGA recognition award.

“I always loved being the certain of attention on the course … but not off it,” she said with a wry smile.