In the Room Where It Happened
We have all the details on what was said at Tiger’s secret meeting as the PGA Tour elite circle the wagons
By Alan Shipnuck
August 19, 2022
Back in February, as Saudi-backed LIV Golf was on the verge of launching, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan famously declared, “We’re moving on.” This has become golf’s version of “peace for our time.” In the ensuing six months, Monahan has tried to thwart LIV’s incursion by making a moral argument, at one point saying on national TV, “Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” Unmoved, no fewer than a dozen of his members bolted for a more lucrative competitor. Monahan has also tried to sway players by belittling the LIV product as a “series of exhibition matches.” His members continued to vote with their feet. The exodus is about to accelerate: On Aug. 29, the day after the FedEx Cup concludes, LIV will announce six new signees, including one long-rumored superstar. This is not a collection of old-timers playing out the string or unknowns plucked from second-tier international tours—all six players are PGA Tour members who competed in last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first playoff event in the Tour’s flagship product, the FedEx Cup. All six are expected to tee it up at the LIV event in Boston that begins on Sept. 2, triggering their ban from the PGA Tour. This will deeply impact another of the Tour’s marquee events, the Presidents Cup, which will begin three weeks later minus a heckuva lot of star power.
With all of this as the backdrop, the events of the past week mark the beginning of a new campaign in the ongoing battle for the soul of golf. Those who want to join LIV have already made their decision. Tiger Woods did not jet into Delaware on Tuesday and convene a meeting with the cool kids in an effort to talk anyone out of leaving. His mission, as a self-appointed shadow commissioner, is to reshape the PGA Tour in a way that enough new money will flow to ensure top players will want to stay, while giving himself a slice of the pie and more of a say in how the Tour operates.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the meeting, Woods and the 20 top players he assembled discussed the formation of a tour-within-the-Tour: up to 18 no-cut tournaments featuring the top 60 players competing for $20 million purses. This basically would be two WGCs per month in the newly condensed January-August schedule. Such a structure would codify the schism between the Tour’s haves and have-mores, with lesser players consigned to lower-wattage tournaments for far less money. (One consolation that was floated at the recent Player Advisory Council meeting is fronting each of the 200 or so Tour members $500,000 per year, taken against their winnings.) Of course, this proposed slate of super-events sounds very much like what LIV has already created, with its 48-man, no-cut fields vying for $25 million purses. As word has leaked out among the players from both tours about what was discussed at Woods’s confab at the Hotel du Pont, there has been a certain amount of gloating among LIV loyalists that the Tour is stealing its blueprint. Says one LIV golfer, “The best part is the lower-tier guys [on Tour] don’t even know what is coming.” As for the lower-tier guys on LIV, some will now be bumped to the Asian Tour (which has been revitalized by a $300 million commitment of Saudi money), but there is a mechanism for some to play their way back onto LIV through the Asian Tour’s International Series.
Woods’s new role as an activist is a fascinating turn for a 46-year-old whose playing days are clearly dwindling. He has been an amateur golf historian going back to boyhood, when he tacked Jack Nicklaus’s career achievements above his bed. He cares deeply about his legacy and knows that a badly diminished PGA Tour does not help burnish his legend. But Woods is also a rapacious businessman. LIV frontman Greg Norman recently let slip that Woods turned down a $700-to-800 million offer from the Saudis, which begs the question: Beyond goodwill, what is the payoff for Woods to go all-in with the PGA Tour?
The answer is hinted at in the form of Woods’s adviser J.P. McManus. The self-made billionaire, whose Adare Manor will host the 2027 Ryder Cup, is a confidante to many top players. It was at Adare last month, during McManus’s eponymous pro-am, that Woods first gathered a small group of players to discuss reshaping the PGA Tour. A talking point at the most recent meeting was for the Tour to renounce its nonprofit status, which both Woods and Rory McIlroy are said to support; doing so would force the Tour to pay taxes—estimates range from $20 million to $50 million annually—but give it much more freedom in how it conducts its affairs. The Tour can’t come close to matching the Saudi money by squeezing its corporate sponsors for a few extra million dollars, but a fundamental reshaping of its business model could change the calculus. If the Tour were to privatize, heavy-hitting investors such as McManus (and his best friend Dermot Desmond) and private equity firms could pump in billions of dollars, and top players could be compensated with equity positions, as LIV has done with some of its stars. If the Tour needs to make Woods whole for turning down the LIV largess, the easiest way would be to award him, say, 10 or 15 percent of a $5 billion business, which is what initial valuations have been. Woods’s duties would include hosting the L.A. Open (and perhaps more tournaments), captaining Presidents and Ryder Cup teams, and, as McIlroy put it coming out of Tuesday’s meeting, serving as the Tour’s alpha.
Woods’s agent is Mark Steinberg, the founder of Excel Sports Management. Excel is known in the industry to chase dollars ruthlessly, so it is a curiosity that not a single player in its stable has signed with LIV. (Justin Rose was inches away, but the deal fell through at the last minute.) That Steinberg has kept LIV at arm’s length has fueled suspicions among various players that he—and by extension, his most important client—are playing the long game with the Tour. One insider describes Woods’s recent actions as a “coup,” but that would compel him to depose Monahan. Woods doesn’t need to run the PGA Tour. He just has to save it—for himself and sundry others.
In 1994, Alan wrote his first cover story for Sports Illustrated as a 21 year-old intern, and in the ensuing quarter-century he typed two dozen more. He is the author of eight books, including best-sellers Bud, Sweat & Tees; The Swinger (with Michael Bamberger); and Phil. Shipnuck has won 13 first-place awards in the annual Golf Writers Association of America writing contest, breaking the record of Dan Jenkins, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Alan lives in Carmel, Cal.
Excellent article.
Every sentence emerging from this debacle is destroying one of the greatest sports and more importantly the values it can introduce and instill in our youngsters. Everything I have ever known, appreciated and loved about golf is that it is all based on merit. As a junior, you get to play the big course because you’ve reached a certain level and have a fair idea of the etiquette of the game. You play your rounds to achieve your first handicap, you hopefully reach an acceptable level to play in the men’s or women’s competitions. You lower your handicap, play at a higher level on better courses, you’re successful, you dedicate yourself to becoming a pro golfer, you achieve your dream and excuse the language, you enter this shit show !
Nicely said!
Agree wholeheartedly.👏👏👏
Why is it acceptable for the European Tour players to move up to the PGA Tour but not acceptable for the PGA Tour players to move up to the LIV Tour???
You consider it is a move up to the Liv exhibition series.
Because you’re not moving “up”. You’re moving to a 54 hole exhibition series and being paid for simply showing up.
One aspect of this contentious battle among competing tours has been skirted in virtually all the stories I’ve read between the PGA tour and LIV. The business model of the LIV tour is fatally flawed by definition: 54-hole tournaments. One cannot compare 54-hole tournaments with 72-hole tournaments. Independent of one’s perspective on guaranteed contracts and purses, the blaring music, and shotgun starts (they should do scrambles.) With 54-hole tournaments, I cannot see how any of the regulatory bodies can give LIV players world ranking points. A monumental mistake.
Because jay monahan didn’t murder a journalist in an embassy
Beautifully put! All of it is indeed a shit show. Monahan & The PGAT’s heretofore unbridled greed and hubris have sown this whirlwind. Pro golf as we have know it is dead. It’s not LIV’s fault. The blame begins and ends with Monahan & PGAT. And good luck with Tiger, Rory et al. leading this “new and improved” PGAT. They’re rank hypocrites who have raked in blood-stained Saudi $$$ – not to mention Chinese $$ – over the years. Unreal!
Very well said. It is the love of the game. Not the money.
Upon entering your golf career, let’s hope you place well in a tournament, quickly!
I’ve heard that professional golf can be very difficult in early years if not prepared & well budgeted. Travel, lodging & meals for yourself & caddy can get burdensome with just a few missed cuts. The majority are scrapping by, the payouts at some events are ridiculous. Yet, a fund was utilized to increase payouts in defense against LIV, a fund few knew about.
The PGA organization was apparently prepared, PGA players were recalling Phil Mickelson’s claims of skimming. A few, very few unfortunately, looked back to Greg Norman’s statements about the PGA in the late ’90’s when he created the WGT to compete. Two of golfs premiere players, one Hall of Fame & one future Hall of Fame, that make claims of inappropriate to criminal activity by the PGA. No insults or dismissive comments will silent these concerns. Everything becomes known eventually. It’s just sad for golf, the players and we fans that nothing has been done, to date.
Unfortunately this is all gospel and full of fallacies. The tour is not going for profit. More information and articles coming tomorrow refuting this story. I used to respect Alan’s writing. In fact I have many of his sleeping bear press books. But he gave up the biggest reveal in the Phil book six months before the book’s release. And now he is spewing bad information from inaccurate sources. Furthermore, some may wonder which side is Alan really on?
I pray most of this is not true.but if so than it would become true that money would ruin professional golf. The purity of amateur golf will be all that is left and that is fine with me.! Watching the the emotions of these players during the u.s amateur was all i need to still believe golf is the greatest sport of all.
I gave up on pro football 20 years ago because it was all just about money. I still watch college but haven’t watched a pro game in all that time. Professional golf is ruined.
Quite a few college players are now making more than many NFL guys. The NFL is much better entertainment than college these days. Times change.
The College game is going through similar changes. NIL, super conferences, transfer portal, player unions, etc. The B1G just locked in a one billion dollar tv deal.
Well Said
Agree.
Why does Alan have to be on any side? That’s not what a journalist does.
Speaking of inaccurate information: What Sleeping Bear Press books? Shipnuck’s never written one for them.
It’s four days since the article was posted. Where is the refutation (not to be confused with denial)?
Check Mate. It is over. Death sentence to Presidents Cup.
Ship & The FPC do it again. Cut through all the guessing and supposition to bring us the facts!
How do you know these are the facts?
PGA “leaked” it.
Gotta believe one of those 15 in the meetings has signed with LIV who is contractually required to recruit PGA players.
According to the contract that was obtained by the WSJ, the players are only required to assist in recruiting if asked. In other words, LIV golf doesn’t want their players acting as loose cannons and trying to recruit just anyone. LIV (Norman) targets the players the organization wants and then says, “You’re close to Player X. Talk to him about joining.” I’m sure Mickelson was sent to talk to Rahm. Poulter no doubt talked to Sam Horsfield. Chase Koepka was certainly sent to talk to Brooks. But none of them are just out recruiting wantonly with Norman’s direction.
WTF -great journalism always provides a source even if anonymity is promised
Woodward and Bernstein will be surprised to hear this take. Lol.
The things in the article are hardly all “facts” that have had any verifications. They are, more accurately, a golf journalist’s mix of fact, opinion and conjecture.
Statements which contain language like “hinted at”, “ongoing battle for the soul of golf”, according to a source…”, “one insider describes…”, are not indicative of facts. Those are the earmarks of creative journalism and the fine art of faking it.
Bingo.
Great article Alan. I wonder how the move to this tour within a tour, where the tournament’s have no cut and limited fields, will impact OWGR points. It was my understanding that the OWGR requirements included that the events had to have a cut after 36 holes. This move would surely put the cat among the pigeons at the OWGR and the majors.
The number of events definitely sets it apart, but the WGC’s have always gotten world ranking points, justified by them being a series within a tour. The argument is that you must consistently beat the world’s best players to qualify for no-cut events. Where as LIV is all no-cut events. With the new OWGR system in place, the OWGR could probably afford to actually give LIV world ranking points in the end ( 2 years from now approx) They would be fighting for so few points they could never earn enough points to get into the top 50.
Norman is trying to say LIV Invitational Series is to the Asian Tour/LIV International Series what the WGC events are to the other tours. Curiously, we’re down to one WGC event now, the Match Play.
My personal wish is that the tour would make significant world events a part of the equation, bumping up their prize money and making them elite tournaments: Australian Open, South African Open, Japan Open, Argentine Open, French Open, Canadian Open, etc. Add value to the events and give them the global stature their historical significance merits.
Thanks for being one of the only non-hack, honest, golf writers out there. Fascinating as always!
Ah, there’s a few of them in the The Fire Pit, to be fair. 😉👌🏼
Superb piece, as usual, by Alan.
JP is an absolute Master of business, here in Ireland and abroad.
This entire thing makes perfect sense now.
Watch this space.!
“Master of business” yeah okay Fergus. His Wiki page makes no mention of how he got to be a billionaire, which is probably unprecedented for any billionaire bio anywhere. My guess? Soros-like currency manipulation. He’s no better than the Saudis, though I grant you his PR is better. The Paddies seem to consider him a national hero, which is hilarious. The fact that he’s hosting the Ryder Cup at his jumped-up resort course is a joke and a blot on Irish golf.
The majors are still going to have all the best players right? Outside of this I couldn’t care less what happens.
Tiger Woods should be named commissioner immediately. He’s coming up with the ideas and everyone’s listening to him, while Jay Monahan has been fiddling while Rome burns. Not sure how that’d work with him still wanting to play the Masters, but it would be for the greater benefit of the PGA Tour for him to be put in that official position.
All due respect, Tommy…we don’t know whose ideas they are that Tiger delivered to “The Fifteen”. Pretty sure the money side of the remarks came from Rory’s finance buddy, the only guy who would “make Tiger whole” for stepping up. He’s the only one who could be the alpha.
Thinking the marketing guru commissioner, Jay Monahan, picked the wrong consigliere when Rory became the mouthpiece for the Tour a while back. Jay might be wondering when he’s gonna be invited to “a meeting” and the guy inviting him will be someone he trusts lol. Golden parachute time approaching for Jay and uncertain times on the horizon for the Tour.
I think I’m done with professional golf as I have with all the other pro leagues. The money and greed is too much for my sensitive stomach. Ha.
Marty, you nailed it. Include the colleges in there too. There’s no place for the fan anymore.
I enjoyed the U.S. Amateur semifinals Saturday and final Sunday immensely on GC while the peacock was broadcasting the PGA’s latest pro money-grab event. The quote Jim Mora “PLAYOFFS?!?!?”
It’s amazing how reactionary the PGA Tour has been at all of this. A lot of these changes are chapter and verse of LIV chirps from the very beginning. With Tiger comes the big money, and it’ll be very interesting to see what develops. Got to believe a lot of good, solid tournaments (looking at you, Colonial) are in for a very rocky transition period.
I can see how the equity stake can serve as a solution for the short-term. Brilliant. However, once equity ownership is distributed to Tiger, Rory, Scottie, JT, etc, what do you do to persuade the next generation of stars to stick with the Tour? They’d have to buy into the Tour, and I’m sure the original “ownership” group would ask a pretty penny. I don’t know. Maybe they just need a short-term solution to survive the moment.
Great article Alan. Thoughts: Ryder Cup will be better with the young guys rather than the jerks (BDC, BK, PR). Also, forget OWGR points for LIV. Need 10 events to apply, 72 hole event, a cut, a way to have a weekly entry and 75 players/tournament. Unless they rip up the charter, points will be impossible and LIV players will sink.
Fake news!
Fascinating story & background. I wonder what the trickle effects will be for college & junior golfers and programs.
Not sure many 12 year olds are saying “Man I hope the liv tour folds I can only play the pga” or even “man, I can’t wait to go play the liv!”
I know my golfing kids don’t give a damn about any of this nonsense.
Tiger always makes sure he gets his. Not sure he is the guy I would want to follow.
Tiger deserves whatever he can get. Sans Tiger, the Tour would have an even narrower appeal than it does now and a fraction of the revenue from TV.
If the PGATour deploys this model, it is clear evidence that Greg has been right for 25 years: The current PGA Tour model delivers numerous opportunities for the up and comers and journeymen, giving them chances to become stars, by underpaying the current top performing stars who underpin the mass audience/TV revenue model. It is interesting that none of golf media, who seem married to the system they know, have even asked where the tour came up with all the millions that were recently added to the 6 “upper tier” tournament purses (Bayhill, Memorial, etc.). Proposal described in this article is essentially the LIV model, finding a different bank. If you feel sketchy about the Saudi money, please also look into who sponsors the European DP world tour, which is essentially the government of United Arab Emirates. That’s another fact that the golf media, including my beloved writers at the FPC, simply don’t want to address. Change seems to be coming with me want it or not. How do we, as fans raise our voices to express our preferences? That’s another thing the golf media could help us with.
Dave, get serious. Name a professional league/tour/athlete who cares about the fans. It’s all about the greed for the owners, league officials, and athletes. Look at what’s happened to college football. Golf is just the next sport to surrender to the God Almighty dollar. I love golf and I love that at least Alan has put a focus on the amateurs in his website. Are we back to that point in golf history when the amateurs were top dogs? Can you say Francis Ouimet?
Ugh. This is worse news than players leaving for LIV. Get ready for fans to tune out. No ratings, no sponsors, no money.
I actually think bringing back the WGCs is a great idea. Drop the minimum to 10 events for top 60 players. 4 majors, 4 WGCs, 2 other events and they are done for the year if they choose. Still gives young guys plenty of opportunities and keeps smaller well attended events like 3M and Rocket Mortgage meaningful. Leave it to the players with zero fan input to screw it up.
Figjam Fake Phil makes/earns over $800mm over his career for playing Golf. He now wants to destroy the Tour that raised his faux “Brand” and he wants to destroy it. Truth, is he lost his “beloved” Gulfstream G4 because he couldn’t pay the vigorish, he lost his jet because of his gambling addiction. Dudes who were once real no shit Jet rich need a lot of therapy when they lose their jet and have to now timeshare a jet. Norman has a statue of himself in his garden and as Freddie said nobody has ever liked him. The Saudi’s are sportwashing and these are the whores that agreed to sleep with them.
So Phil was right the whole time?
Keeping 200 PGA Tour members united could have only apparently happened in a utopian world. Ego, revenge, greed, etc could only be held at bay for so long. Jack & Arnie created the PGA Tour player ownership model and it shined like the brightest star in the galaxy for over 50 years. Baseball’s history should have been a lesson to all of the tour’s members. Phil, Norman, Johnson, etc. may have been the wiser to know “the good of the many outweighs the good of the few”. Yet at the same time the under starry PGA tour ecosytem those “studs” could have built their own empires like Jack, Arnie and Tiger did because the Tour also knew that “the good of the one sometimes outweighs the good of the many”.
Maybe the PGA scale was tipped to far towards the many vs the few. In Phil’s eye it surely was. I just wish both his concerns and also how he handled them were done more compassionately. Regardless and for whatever other reasons, it seams this utopic united player self-ownership/ruled self-governing body has come to an end, seemingly like all good things do.
Phil was right.
Monoghan is out
Jan-Aug is PGAT
Aug – Jan is LIV
They all make a lot more money
US tax Payers get about $50M more
What did I miss?
The PGA Tour has flourished because of corporate sponsors and the media rights fees that exploded in the Tiger era. If LIV Golf continues to poach top players, how long will it take for those sponsors, networks, etc. to decide that the Tour isn’t the wise investment it once was?
Sounds about right, JP. Sponsors of the Tour are usually very proactive when it comes to their marketing/ad budget and their bottom line ROI. Curious that the Tour’s Bd of Directors are largely “money men”, but all the rumblings from the players in the last few years about better compensation for the stars of the Tour didn’t push them to act? Or is Jay the big guy who decides all the moves.
This is beginning of the end of professional tour golf.
The professional game is eating itself. There will be a tipping point at which the pure golf fans interest will wane; like disillusionment with overbloated NFL and Premier League teams.
The professional game will continue, but it will be firmly squared to the corporates and hospitality market; a sterile soulless existence.
The genuine lover of the game will fall away and migrate to something a bit more authenticate and with the games touts and best interest at its core. Sad situation.
Fans vote with their remote control, And both Tiger’s select events and LIV (if it gets on air) are going to get ratings. For different reasons. There is no need to play when the NFL is on for US Fans. Maybe the Cup(s) become a Super Bowl just like the upstart AFC getting one chance to beat old man NFL?
Hopefully with these no cut tourneys they maybe do a few events where they mix in some of the LPGA.
Speaking of transparency, where does Fire Pit get its revenue? Do the 12 businesses listed at the bottom of this page replace all the income Bamberger & Shipnuck lost by leaving Golf.com? Impossible. Please, help us follow the money boys; who is paying the rent?
Baseball had to do the same thing years ago. Natural evolution of the game. Corporations vs Kings with Tiger being face of Tour & Norman face of LIV.
The balance of power has just shifted from LIV to the PGA resulting in a predictably more equitable playing field.
Alan’s content is suspect, and should be looked at through a “ Jaundiced Eye”. The only relevant take here, is the suggestion of the tour potentially giving up their nonprofit status, which has always been sketchy at best. All other highlights of this article, have been either reported prior, or simultaneously by other outlets. This is what Alan does, where he takes a small “ Snippet “ of storyline,bundles it with previously reported information, and morphs it into an article, or n the case of. “ Phil”, a book. Alan’s book on “ Phil” is the quintessential example “ Journalistic Mediocrity “, which was nothing more than previously written, rehashed, well documented, Phil stories, bundled around his latest “ Saudi Quote”. The book read as if it was written by a high school journalism student.
Well said….most of “Phil” was already “out there”, published from prior Alan pieces. Useful to a reader who does not follow the Tour but a disappointment for those of us expecting previously unknown revelations. Grade it as college level UCLA journalism.
RIP Tommy, blessings to your family….you had one of the sweetest swings ever to grace the PGA Tour.
The “blood money” and “legacy” talk re: PGAT events was always a silly ruse. I mean, everyone does business in Saudi and what exactly is the “legacy” of the Tour Championship’s staggered start format? Why do the decades-old legacies of actual PGAT blue-blood events (like, LA or Colonial) played on bona fide championship courses, (unlike all but one TPC), have their titles eclipsed by corporate sponsors? Bc the 47 week traveling carnival that is the PGAT is about corp sponsorship not golf. If increasing the number of no-cut, limited field events is the path that the PGA loyalists are pursuing to outflank the LIV, thats funny-sad. Merger is inevitable. Only question is whether Greg/Saudis or Tiger/Rory get the equity stake, so let’s get to it. The current PGAT is bland and probably dead as we know it. Rival Tours, both full of stars would be better. PGA Tour season Jan-June, LIV Champions League Season August-October, PGA-LIV Cup to follow. Sprinkle some LIV qualifiers into the PGA season with a relegation/qualification tourney to replace Tour Champ. DP/KFT takes over lesser DP/PGAT events. Why wait till 2024, let’s do this now!
Hey Vinny…for sure…”the Tour” is already backstopped with sponsors who all do enormous amounts of business with Saudi.
Here’s a snippet from ProGolfWeekly:
“Yet, if you look at the U.S. tour’s title sponsors, a majority have business relations with Saudi Arabia, and/or footprints inside the Kingdom.
In fact, the PGA Tour’s big-money postseason – the three-tournament series – is entirely title-sponsored by brands with a presence in the Kingdom. For instance, the Tour’s biggest of all brands, FedEx – the title sponsor of the season-long FedEx Cup race and the postseason’s first tournament (FedEx St Jude Championship), has a “direct presence in Saudi Arabia,” according to tweet last year.
Then you have this week’s BMW Championship, the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. The German automaker also has a footprint in Saudi Arabia, including its own official Twitter account. Will the winner this week in Delaware earn “blood money?”
Next week is the Tour Championship Presented by Coca-Cola, which also has a super-sized footprint in the Saudi Kingdom.
To recap, the three events which comprise the PGA Tour’s season-ending flagship series are all title sponsored by Saudi Arabia-allied companies (FedEx, BMW and Coca-Cola).
You can’t make it up. And that’s just the start.
The Tour’s flagship tournament, The PLAYERS Championship, has three presenting sponsors which it calls “Proud Partners.” They are: Grant Thornton, Optum and Morgan Stanley. All three do big business with the Saudis.”
LIV Golf CEO, Greg Norman, recently trolled the anti-LIV media with the following questions: “Why does the PGA Tour have 23 sponsors doing 40 plus billion dollars worth of business with Saudi Arabia? Why is it okay for the sponsors?
“Will Jay Monahan go to each and every one of those CEOs of the 23 companies that are investing into Saudi Arabia and suspend them and ban them?
“The hypocrisy in all this, it’s so loud. It’s deafening.”
What’s the old expression…”golfers in glass houses shouldn’t be flinging their 9-irons”.
Proving once again, money is the root of all uncompelling sporting events.
I enjoy following the women’s pro game more and more every day. I like my golf drama on the course, not in the courtroom or secret backroom deals.
Phil was right all along… He called LIV an opportunity to fundamentally reshape the way PGA Tour operates. Sounds almost machiavellian now when you reflect on it. Everything he predicted/said in that interview with Alan is playing out as he stated. He said he wasn’t even sure he wanted LIV to succeed. However, he believed the balance of power needed to swing back to the players. Look at all the changes The Tour is making now. None of this happens without Phil jumping ship. All the “top” Tour players who blasted him (JT, Rory, etc.) should pay their respects because seems like they are about to cash in big time if any of these changes are a go.
#LIVGolf really should change its name to #LOLGolf
What do people see as the potential of Liv Golf? My views on Liv were initially very similar to Rory/Tiger’s i.e. I am a strong supporter of the PGA Tour and its history. However, if you take the “Saudis are bad” factor out and think Liv through, you potentially get the following:
Liv gains traction. The 12 teams are sold to companies like Red Bull, Mercedes, Rolex etc. They each now own the rights to a team of players. I have no idea what a team might be worth but the franchise fee of the Seattle Kraken in the NHL was $650 million and hockey is a niche sport like golf.
Liv can then implement a salary cap like other sports so each team has say $100 million/ year to spend on players. This would make it quite interesting as if you sign two very top end players, then maybe you need to find some up and comers or rebounding veterans to fit within the salary cap. Length of contract, trades etc. could make the league interesting in addition to the individual golf events/results.
Players would be very motivated to play well as they can easily be replaced when their contract expires. Much has been written about players not being motivated after signing a big contract but Lewis Hamilton does not appear to lack motivation racing F1.
Liv can sell the franchise rights to each team and then sell to the teams the contracts for Dustin, Bryson, etc. as well. The contracts for the weaker players likely have little value once the teams get going but that is a cost of getting the league off the ground.
A part of me hates to say it, but Liv Golf has tremendous potential and Liv does not need to negotiate with the PGA and DP World Tour. Liv can completely disrupt golf and make money.
Alan, what are your thoughts?
Golfers on all the Tours are essentially entertainers. Blessed with great skill, many make fantastic livings because of the Tours. Now you have LIV paying upfront to have tourneys where it’s more entertainment than prestige. If the PGA Tour does what’s suggested, they will eliminate a lot of world wide quality golfers. What happens when a DJ or Bryson wins another major (U.S. Open or The Open Championship) or someone not in the upfront paid Tour player status wins?
I think LIV has turned the professional golfing world upside down.
I wonder which tour will be the first to let players wear shorts in the tournaments.. why not? alot of them wear them when they play practice rounds..
Hm. Does the PGA of America know that Tiger will be captain for life of the U.S. Ryder Cup team?
The money men are making pro golf all about the money. This nonsense about upper and lower tiers is divisive and elitist, and I am in no way surprised that Tiger, Rory and their puppet masters Steinberg and McManus are behind it.
FedX has been facilitating trade in Saudia Arabia since 1994. On October 6, 2021 FedX announced that they would invest $400 million in Saudi Arabia and added this to the article–“In addition to our commitment to the Saudi economy, we see FedEx Express playing an important role in developing the small and medium enterprise environment in Saudi Arabia, which forms the backbone of the economy, and represents 99% of Saudi Arabia’s private sector,” continued Muhs.” This obviously means that the FedX is using Saudia Arabia’s money to pay out a portion of the millions to the players at the conclusion of the tour championship. Someone please explain why this is different than Saudi Arabia paying LIV Golf and then LIV Golf paying the players.
Care to retract or update any of this, or the interview on twitter, given the now-obvious misreporting (not to mention the editorializing and sensationalizing)?