Just before the 2024 season of LIV Golf kicked off, Adrian Meronk had to make what was “undoubtedly the toughest decision of my life,” in his own words. And rightly so. The Saudi tour gave him two days to accept a substantial financial offer and join their project. A proposal that came just as the Pole had secured his PGA Tour card for 2025 as one of the top 10 ranked players in the Order of Merit of the DP World Tour.
As if that wasn’t enough, just at the moment when he had to choose between the two options on the table for his future, Meronk was suffering from a high fever and was confined to a hotel room in San Diego, in the days leading up to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. “I couldn’t eat all week,” he recalls. “I felt worse than ever, with a high fever. And it was a now or never moment…”, he explains in an interview with Golf Digest.
“It was a week before the first tournament of the LIV Golf season in Mexico. I spoke with my agent, my family, my friends… Everyone influenced the decision in some way, and we ended up making the decision together. We thought that LIV Golf would be the most beneficial for my well-being and that of my family. I know I made the right choice. I’ve played good golf this year and learned new things,” explains Adrian. However, the debate was quite intense…
“I made the decision based on several factors. One was my desire to play less and enjoy my life a bit more. Last year I ended up very tired after what had been the best season of my career. But I didn’t have time to enjoy anything because I had to go to Australia to defend my title at the Australian Open. I remember thinking how nice it would be to play fewer tournaments. So that was perhaps the main reason that led me to decide to join the LIV,” he details.
“There were also economic reasons,” he admits with absolute honesty. “It would be foolish to deny it. I would be lying if I said otherwise. And I can’t imagine anyone taking me seriously if I did. But I’ve really enjoyed being part of the team and travelling together. It’s been much more entertaining and reminds me of my time at East Tennessee State. It’s been nice to have that support system around me. Being from Poland, the PGA Tour sometimes felt like a lonely place,” reveals Adrian.
The Ryder issue was another decisive aspect after not being chosen by Luke Donald for the event in Rome: “Not making the Ryder Cup team definitely opened my eyes to the fact that I need to focus on myself, my career, my game, and my life. I realised that the Ryder Cup is not the most important thing in the world. I would love to play, and if I perform well enough next year, I could qualify. But it’s not my priority. Before the last match, it was all I thought about. I looked at the rankings every week.”
His relationship with Luke Donald hasn’t been very smooth, to say the least, but he plans to move on. And like Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, Meronk has appealed the suspensions and fines received for his move to LIV Golf and can currently compete in DP World Tour tournaments and continue to earn points. However, the Pole has a very particular view on this whole unresolved conflict between circuits despite many months of discussions.
“I would love to see some kind of cooperation between the tours,” he acknowledges. “All the fines and not having a proper World Ranking make no sense. I don’t even look at the rankings anymore. But, on the other hand, it wouldn’t be the worst if the PGA Tour went its own way and everyone else joined together to create a global circuit everywhere except in the United States. I like that idea. It would be amazing. The Asian Tour is flourishing at the moment, so that might happen,” he suggests, proposing his particular ‘cordon sanitaire’ to the US circuit.
Until then, he will remain focused on the events he can play on the DP World Tour and his base tour, LIV Golf, with goals set for 2025: “I’ve enjoyed my time with the Cleeks team. The competition is strong, especially at the top. To finish in the top 10, you have to play very good golf. This year I’ve only played well and finished 18th [with earnings of $5.5 million] on the money list. But I don’t regret the decision I made”.
