Somehow, some way, in the year 2024, it was Chris DiMarco’s turn to take the stage as the main character in professional golf, as he was paraded in front of the firing line after some intemperate comments.

Speaking with the SubPar Podcast, DiMarco sounded off about the impoverished life of a senior tour player. “We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said. “Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC that made more money than our purses.”

This is, of course, completely deluded. We don’t really need to add to the pile-on of people shouting this down. The Champions Tour is a circuit with little value or appeal, set up in a time before the PGA Tour’s sweet, sweet pension had really hit its stride. The current crop, like DiMarco, has benefitted from that pension program. The tour generates very little organic interest or profit. That they play for any amount of money, when cutting bloat and needless costs might become in vogue, should be considered a blessing.

We can all agree the comments were delusional. To what magnitude — Gooch levels, Hahn levels — is up to your subjective taste. But the sentiment should not come as surprising. It’s yet another player looking around at all the cash and wondering where theirs is. The value they create on their own, or lack thereof, is immaterial to the argument.

His stupid comments are being thrown into the latest “pro golf is only about money” laments, suggesting this is why fans are turning away. These complaints seem overly sanctimonious at best, naive at least. DiMarco’s whining or any of the other frequent money talk doesn’t really mean some new dark force is controlling golf. It’s always been about the money. It’s pro sports. Almost everything is about the money. The Masters is about money. They just have so much they don’t have to talk about it, either their own or anyone else’s. I don’t know if the ratings are down because fans are tiring of money talk. It’s probably more because the golf has been uninteresting and the best players are in disparate places. But DiMarco’s comments were dumb, an easy log to throw on the “this is going to drive fans away for generations” fire. Nothing about all the money talk is appealing, to be clear. And admitting that money is always part of the game doesn’t give a player the right to lay any obnoxious greed bare without any backlash, especially when that player’s golf is inconsequential.

Maybe money is being discussed out loud too often. Maybe the money is coming from some places you don’t like. Maybe too many pros are looking around the room and saying they want theirs in a manner that’s unbecoming. So it might be heartening to contrast the charming comments of Peppy Peter Malnati with the mindless mumbling of DiMarco. The money talk might be exhausting or disenchanting, but to suggest some new dark force controls pro golf is a different, flawed complaint. The fuel powering the pro golf engine is the same as it ever was.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.