Rabu, 07 Juni 2023

In wake of merger with LIV Golf, a trip inside (and outside) the heated PGA Tour players meeting at RBC Canadian Open - Toronto Sun

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It was a supposed wedding that looked more like a funeral as many PGA Tour players filed glumly out of a mandatory meeting with commissioner Jay Monahan late Tuesday afternoon at the RBC Canadian Open.

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The blockbuster news of the day, an unlikely marriage between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World, blindsided everyone from the game’s biggest stars to the tour’s rank-and-file. It also had commissioner Monahan on a jet to Toronto. Shortly before 4 p.m., Monahan arrived at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in a large black SUV, ironically able to avoid gathered media by slipping into the clubhouse through an entrance to the players locker room.

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  1. Canadian Corey Conners prepares to putt on the 17th green during the final round of the British Open on Sunday at St Andrews, Scotland.

    Corey Conners on LIV Golf: 'It's not right for me'

  2. CEO of LIV golf Greg Norman looks on from the first tee box during the first round of a LIV Golf tournament at Trump National Golf.

    Why the PGA Tour-LIV Golf war ended in marriage

The scene going into the meeting at Oakdale was undeniably tense, with pitchforks more the mood of the day than golf clubs. One veteran player with more than 250 career PGA Tour starts opted to skip the meeting, sharing an opinion seemingly felt by more than a few: “I wasn’t going to waste my time listening to a liar.”

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The meeting lasted more than an hour, before players finally filed out, most with blank looks on their face, and next to none interested in discussing what had gone on inside. Forty-somethings Aaron Baddeley and Geoff Ogilvy were among the few who stopped to speak with Golf Channel, but the vast majority of players weren’t in the mood for conversation.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan held a meeting with PGA Tour golfers at Oakdale Golf and Country Club on Tuesday after the shocking announcement of a merger with rebel league LIV Golf. Few players were in a mood to talk afterward. GETTY IMAGES FILE
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan held a meeting with PGA Tour golfers at Oakdale Golf and Country Club on Tuesday after the shocking announcement of a merger with rebel league LIV Golf. Few players were in a mood to talk afterward. GETTY IMAGES FILE

Whether unhappy, angry, or simply still processing what they had heard, it was hard to blame them. For the past year, Monahan had worked furiously to sell players on the value and values of the PGA Tour. The silver-haired, silver-tongued commissioner had promised players they could sleep easy knowing their tour would unflinchingly remain firmly on the moral high ground, even going as far as to say that no player would ever have to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour.

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Until Tuesday apparently, when all that went out the window following a backroom deal that — if you believe reports — not a single player was privy to. After Tuesday’s announcement, any star golfer who turned down an offer from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf on moral grounds will soon find himself working for them anyway — minus the massive windfall of course.

“The biggest thing for me is the loss of trust,” Mackenzie Hughes told Postmedia, walking through the parking lot after the meeting. “You can see how, as players, we would feel conflicted. We don’t have a say on a players-run tour. He says it’s ‘your Tour,’ but it’s not. That’s the feeling. That we don’t have any say in the matter.”

According to several players, nothing close to a concrete plan was offered by Monahan. What was described was a framework for a merger that was far from fleshed out. The temperature going into the meeting was hot, and nothing the commissioner said cooled it off.

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Hughes said one issue that continues to bother him is that any merger or deal still has to go through the five-player directors on the PGA Tour Policy Board, so why didn’t it start there?

“To me that’s all stuff that should have been done previously — like, run it by those player directors and ask, ‘Is there a chance this will this get passed by you guys?’ Because if not, it’s a non-starter,” Hughes said. “If those five guys are unanimously against it, why even have the discussion?”

The players on the policy board are Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati and Charley Hoffman. Simpson was one of the first players out of the meeting, but turned down a request for an interview.

Hughes and fellow Canadian Corey Conners sit on the larger Players Advisory Council this year for the first time. Hughes told Postmedia earlier this year that his interest in joining the PAC stemmed from a feeling of being out-of-the-loop during the pandemic. If he felt misinformed then, imagine how he feels now.

Judging by the scene at Oakdale on Tuesday, he’s not alone.

“I don’t know what the way forward is,” Hughes said.

jmccarthy@postmedia.com

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2023-06-06 23:44:13Z
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