LIV golfer’s fiery comments on PGA commissioner were mistaken as a Dustin Johnson quote

No, that wasn’t Dustin Johnson disparaging PGA commissioner Jay Monahan. But the LIV star still received blame for it.

Golf fans likely were surprised to read this quote Johnson allegedly made about Monahan. After all, Johnson is trying to play nice. An an LIV star, he avoids criticizing the PGA. And he recently said he’d like to earn a spot on the U.S. Ryder team.

Then came this comment.

“We don’t give a damn how he feels,” Johnson said of Monahan, according to the Australian Associated Press. “We know how he feels about us, so it’s mutual.”

The LIV made its tournament stop in front of a rowdy crowd in Adelaide, Australia this past weekend. Reporters interviewed players, most of whom are recognizeable faces here in the United States. But in this case, there appears to be a case of mistaken identity.

If not Dustin Johnson, what LIV golfer called out Jay Monahan

Pat Perez stepped forward to lay claim to the quote. The 4Aces team, which includes Johnson, Perez, Peter Uihlein and Patrick Reed, won the tournament and did a press availability. The team took up for Johnson and then Perez text messaged a reporter with Sports Illustrated.

“DJ said nothing, it was all me,” Perez said in the text. He already was in Singapore, the site of the next LIV tourney.

“I said we don’t care what Jay thinks cause we know how he feels about us and when I say WE, I mean me. I can’t speak for the whole group.” Perez also acknowledged that PGA leadership isn’t that fond of him. That’s cool.

“I know that Jay doesn’t ever want to see me again,” Perez said.

Dustin Johnson’s agent also tried to set the matter straight. There was no need to blow up relations between the PGA and LIV using his client.

“I spoke with Dustin from Singapore this morning at which time he emphatically denied making any such statement,” said David Winkle, Johnson’s agent. “He elaborated by saying his actual response to the question was ‘no comment,’ but mentioned that others interviewed may have answered differently.”

LIV media relations had passed out copies of the press conference transcript. The question about Monahan and Perez’s answer weren’t included in the transcript. So a reporter in Australia must’ve guessed who said it as they transcriped their quotes.

Jane MacNeille, senior VP for LIV Player Communications, said some quotes were removed. 

“We are trying to avoid that kind of hostility in our press conferences,” MacNeille said. “The question created an eruption of chatter and everyone said ‘no comment’ but one player (Perez) and it was indiscernible as it was kind of a chaotic scene. So we decided to remove it from the transcript.”