In a segment that should embarrass every golf fan who still tunes into the Golf Channel, Rich Lerner hosted a so-called “news” discussion last week, reacting to rumors that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) might be pulling back support from LIV Golf.

The video, titled “Reaction to Report of Saudi PIF Cutting Support for LIV Golf,” features Lerner treating the conversation like straight, objective reporting.

His guest? Eamon Lynch — the same Golfweek columnist and Golf Channel regular who has spent the last four years waging a one-man jihad against LIV Golf and its players with some of the most unhinged, personal attacks in sports media. 

There was zero disclosure. Not a single mention of Lynch’s well-documented, foaming-at-the-mouth hostility toward the league he’s spent years trying to destroy. No caveat that this wasn’t neutral analysis — it was a known partisan delivering a monologue dressed up as journalism.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t “both sides.” This is Golf Channel platforming a commentator with a rap sheet of vile rhetoric and pretending it’s balanced reporting. It would be the equivalent of a cable news network inviting a hard-core partisan operative — say, a far-left commentator who’s spent years calling for President Trump’s impeachment — to deliver “straight analysis” on rumors of impeaching the sitting president, with no mention of their politics or history. Viewers would rightly scream “corrupt bias.” Yet here we are in golf media, and it’s treated as business as usual.

Lynch’s track record is public record and ugly. He’s called Phil Mickelson a “shameless pawn for murderers.” He labeled Graeme McDowell an “upfront whore.” He’s mocked LIV players as suckered for “short-term cash,” dismissed the league as a “toxic product,” and repeatedly framed it as an “evil empire” fueled by “blood money.” Patrick Reed was so fed up he actually named Lynch (along with Golf Channel colleagues) in a $750 million defamation lawsuit tied to the network’s relentless attacks on LIV defectors.

This isn’t measured criticism of a rival league’s business model or Saudi funding questions — legitimate topics that deserve debate. This is years of personal, moralistic smears aimed at players who made a career choice.

Lynch has been one of the most consistent, unapologetic anti-LIV voices in the industry since the league launched in 2022. And Golf Channel brought him on to opine about the league’s possible demise without a single word of context about that history.

In the segment, Lynch hammered LIV’s supposed lack of transparency and questioned why they’d even want to spend their money on a “busload of washed up golfers” — with no pushback from the host. He also suggested that players like Jon Rahm don’t even know what’s in their own contracts. Fair game if it came from an independent voice. But from a guy who’s spent four years rooting for the league’s failure? It’s not analysis — it’s victory-lapping with a straight face.

Rich Lerner, one of the network’s senior voices, let it all slide. No pushback. No “for balance, here’s the other side.” Just a panel nodding along as if this were objective breaking news. It’s embarrassing for Golf Channel, which still positions itself as the authoritative home of golf coverage. This isn’t journalism; it’s advocacy disguised as reporting.

Golf fans deserve better. They deserve disclosure when a network trots out one of its most vocal critics to wishcast a story. Instead, Golf Channel doubled down on the same echo-chamber bias that’s alienated a huge chunk of the fanbase.

The irony is thick: while traditional media loves to lecture everyone else about “trust in institutions” and “journalistic standards,” Golf Channel can’t even manage basic transparency on a story involving one of its own recurring guests.

LIV Golf’s future remains uncertain — that much is fair to report. What’s not fair is pretending Eamon Lynch is the impartial messenger.

Golf Channel and Rich Lerner just proved, once again, that when it comes to LIV, they’re not covering the story. They’re trying to will its demise. And they’re not even honest enough to admit it.