Brooks Koepka stole the show at the 2023 PGA Championship, earning his third PGA Championship title and the fifth PGA major championship of his career. LIV Golf’s Koepka winning the event created storylines in the aftermath. One involved his swing instructor, Claude Harmon III, who went off on a tirade that put NBC Sports/Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee on target.
Per Golfweek, Harmon III (the son of famed golfer and instructor Butch Harmon) made scathing comments on the ongoing conflict between the PGA and LIV. He also blasted Chamblee. The golf analyst came under criticism from Harmon because Chamblee used the phrase “sportswashing” about LIV Golf, which Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund bankrolls.
The “sportswashing” aspect Harmon III (seen above) cites is a big talking point that opponents of LIV Golf have maintained ever since the tour began to blossom. Harmon denigrated Chamblee, referring to him as a “paid actor” by both NBC and the Golf Channel. He also lobbed criticisms at Eamon Lynch of Golfweek.
“Brandel is a paid actor by NBC and Golf Channel. All he’s trying to do is get his lines and shows for the Golf Channel. He’s just trying to get lines for Brandel … And I mean, I love him, I think Eamon is a fantastic writer, but for Eamon Lynch and Brandel Chamblee, who worked for NBC [and] Golf Channel to utter the words’ sports washing’ when the company they work for televised the last two Winter Olympics in Russia and China with the same leaders that they’ve had. It’s not like they were good leaders back then. It’s not like Putin was a good guy, right?”
While recent developments have seen several LIV golfers pull out of that organization’s lawsuit against the PGA Tour, it doesn’t seem like relations between the two entities are close to being mended. Not if Claude Harmon III and his opinions on Brandel Chamblee have anything to say about it.
[Golfweek]
