PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF announce newly formed commercial entity to unify golf
A new tour, as unlikely as it is to happen, would get massive sponsorship and TV deals. Not just in America but worldwide. It'd get a lot of support from huge organisations everywhere.
It's just too much work for the players though. They'd have to go and find top class professionals in multiple areas of business and sports to get it up and running.
Qatar didn’t buy FIFA, they allegedly bought a vote though. This is something completely different, and legal, we can only assume.
Thinking about it a bit longer, this was always going to be the end result that suited the pga tour & the liv golfers. If Monahan has to be the fall guy to get it done, he's gonna be rewarded handsomly for it at the cost of his job. How they'll get the current PGA pro's to come around is another story, maybe just pay them all lump sums and milk that saudi cow for all its worth.
If the influential PGA tour players really didn't know anything about this then I think it's absolutely crazy from the PGA, and they have left themselves open to strikes and possibly a new players association forming to replace them (with a new tour) - one that will have the popular support of the American people and the backing of patriotic companies for advertising.
Qatar beat them to that one...
Jay Monahan won't survive another week.
Liv win, Jay Monahan is CEO but his boss (Yasir Al-Rumayyan) is the Chairman.
The minority ownership by PIF is BS because the PIF have all the cash
Yes, it simply was cash.
The PGA have a better product. LIV had more money but it failed to capture the imagination.
The PGA would have run out of cash in a couple of years with these elevated tournaments costing them a fortune in prize money so this gave the Saudis an opening. Nearly every man has his price and they found Monahan's. Monahan will claim it was all done for the good of the game to unify it again. The Saudis on the other hand have successfully ditched LIV and instead got the whole sport.
On a personal level I'm disgusted by this. I'm not sure I'll ever watch golf again.
I love golf both as an amateur player and fan of the best players, the respectable ones.
9-11 families united have come out and heavily criticised this merger. Their Chairman had this to say,
“Mr. Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologise for being a member of the PGA Tour.
“They do now — as does he,” Strada said. “PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed.
“Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money — it was never to honour the great game of golf.”
“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” Strada said.
“But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones.”
Hopefully leaders of Women's rights movements and the LGBTQIA community join in.
Jamal Khashoggi must be turning in his grave.
If a group of terrorists from Yemen make an attempt on American lives the likes of Monahan will be partly responsible.
Edit to add: I think Monahan will be gone very soon. That players meeting in Canada apparently had a lot of calls for his resignation. There's a lot of unhappy players. We'll be hearing from them by Monday I'd imagine.
That’s immaterial in this current moment. The wall of Middle Eastern money buying up key sporting assets is practically unlimited: they can pay massively over the odds and are intent on doing so.
That article....to be a fly on the wall at that meeting.......
Optics of 9-11 families outside next PGA tour event should be fun.
It's been reported by pretty much every golf journalist. Not even Woods knew about it. Yes it is extremely unusual, hence why Monahan will be hammered for the move (even moreso than he already is)
I'm struggling to see who blinked first. The mega deals those who went to LIV with are now looking incredible, those who stayed with PGA must be insenced.
The cynic in me thinks it's a bit too convenient for the top PGA tour players to not be involved in the talks or not know anything about this.
mentions it early on in the piece here…..
Poor statement by PH, but expect a lot of equivocation and whataboutery from the players that held out. It's really the only card they can play when asked about it. The fact that it holds absolutely no water is beside the point, it's a response to a difficult question and all they have is hope that people move on. And people will move on.
This is akin to Saudi Arabia buying FIFA, is that a fair comparison? Surely that's unprecedented
It's not unlimited money.
The whole point of Saudi sportswashing is because the money is running out and they need to 'diversify' their economy.
Maybe not - but has been strikes in Sport - depends if they can work out how to reward people who stayed.
They own Elite Pro Golf.
Which is a far cry from any of us here. They don't own my golf.
Bizarre statement from Harrington.
The issue isn't whether Saudi Arabia is a perfect country (no country is perfect), the issue is they are deliberately using Golf (and other sports) as a form of propaganda and the players by getting involved are essentially playing a role in their propaganda.To the best of my knowledge I don't remember the Irish government paying professional sportspeople/team to be used the promote this country and distract from it flaws.
Also Saudi Arabia conducted a war on Yemen for the last few years and deliberately causing a massive famine causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands, the Irish government has never done anything that abhorrent.
There will be no strike. There’s nowhere else to go. Play or **** off. Nobody’s opinions matter when weighed up against a wall of unlimited money. Everything is for sale at the right price. And fans will lap it up.
If they did not get the go ahead from players - you could see a strike next.
Mushy, Where did you see that about there only being 3 people involved? Not saying you're wrong necessarily but it would be extremely unusual for the board of an organisation like this not to be required to approve such a huge decision. As the board includes Rory (as well as Patrick Cantlay, 3 other players and 4 independent non-golfer directors) I'd be very surprised if he wasn't involved in voting on the proposal. Whether he voted yes or no is another matter.
I didn’t say golf was bigger than soccer. I said the money thrown around in golf is insane. People use the money as a stick to beat soccer with. I said the money in golf is equally as insane.
Gary Neville.
This is the bit I don't get - why didn't the PGA hold their grounds ? Cash ?
You haven't a clue what you are on about - because soccer is unbelievably bigger than Golf.
As in players not getting on? That'll easily be sorted, I assume not everyone does anyway
Seems Rory knew nothing of this, was only Jay and 2 other board members involved. Bonkers stuff
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