‘Deal with it’ – Rocco Mediate defends Chris DiMarco’s LIV remark

Chris DiMarco’s viral comments made on a podcast appearance last week caused quite the stir. 

Speaking on the Subpar podcast, the three-time PGA Tour winner lamented the prize purses on the PGA Tour Champions and even claimed that he hopes the circuit is bought out by LIV Golf.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here,” DiMarco said. “I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

Those remarks caused an angry backlash on social media, with golf fans accusing the 55-year-old of greed in the twilight of his career.

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But Rocco Mediate, a three-time winner on the Champions Tour, has now leapt to DiMarco’s defence.

The comments, Mediate claims, were made completely in jest.

“So Chrisy said that, and that is a complete — joking, like, yeah, I want the LIV tour to buy us so we can play for more money,” he said on “The Rocco Hour.”

"If we're playing for any money at our age, we're happy."

Rocco Mediate's competed against Chris DiMarco for a long time. What did Rocco think about DiMarco's comments regarding LIV & PGA TOUR Champions?

He gives his thoughts on The Rocco Hour.@ChrisDiMarco | @RoccoMediate pic.twitter.com/FH1BgDcEn8

— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) April 2, 2024

“He knows, we all know — are you kidding me? If we’re playing for any money at our age, we’re happy. So back off Chris. Back off him. He was joking around. It was hilarious. It’s never going to happen. And we’re happy, trust me on that. Chris DiMarco’s quite happy where he’s playing golf. I don’t want to hear any of this beating him up. Stop it. Just stop it. Please.

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“They’re not buying the Champions. They’re not even looking at our tour. Our tour is just fine the way it is. OK. We’re playing for 2 million bucks a week, good. We’re 100 years old. No problem. So everybody that’s busting his b***s, just stop it. Just stop it. Please.

“It’s called a joke. Deal with it. Next.”

Mediate and DiMarco made a combined $39million on the PGA Tour during their garlanded careers and are now competing for a share of a $66.9million total prize fund on the over-50s circuit in 2024.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.