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The future of professional golf was made slightly clearer on Wednesday, after a deal struck between the PGA Tour and the American-based Strategic Sports Group (SSG) that will foundationally change the structure of golf’s pre-eminent professional circuit.
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A players’ meeting explaining the deal was held by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday morning. Tour members from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and the developmental Korn Ferry Tour were invited to attend the video call. An announcement released shortly after the meeting detailed a $3-billion total investment from SSG, beginning with $1.5 billion.
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The injection of capital is expected to put the PGA Tour, led by a battle-weary Monahan, on surer-footing following a two-year financial war with the Saudi-led LIV Golf league that has poached many of the PGA Tour’s most colourful stars, including Jon Rahm, Bryson Dechambeau and Phil Mickelson.
The deal will see the PGA Tour morph from its non-profit roots — a favourite tax-loophole of professional sports — to become a for-profit corporation under the name PGA Tour Enterprises.
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The new company will be led by Monahan and its structure will see the tour’s players, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and others, become equity owners in the new company. A move the PGA Tour hopes will offset some of the risk of players jumping ship to rival LIV Golf.
According to the PGA Tour, players “would collectively access over $1.5 billion in equity” in the new company in the form of grants based on career accomplishments, tournament results, future participation and services.
“By making PGA Tour members owners of their league, we strengthen the collective investment of our players in the success of the PGA Tour,” Mohanan said. “And partnering with SSG — a group with extensive experience and investment across sports, media and entertainment — will enhance our organization’s ability to make the sport more rewarding for players, tournaments, fans and partners.”
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SSG is made up of a group of deep-pocketed sports ownership titans that includes Red Sox and and Liverpool FC owners Fenway Sports Group as well as New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s investment firm HighPost Capital. Included in the consortium, among others, are Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Chicago Cubs owner Thomas Ricketts and Boston Celtics ower Wyc Grousbeck.
Last June, before negotiations with SSG began, the PGA Tour had announced a surprise framework deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, owners of LIV Golf. The deadline to complete that deal with its chief rival came and went in December, but both sides agreed to an extension.
The PGA Tour will continue working on a deal with the Saudi PIF despite Wednesday’s deal, adding that progress has been made and that new partner SSG has signed off on an investment by PIF.
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Wednesday’s agreement between the PGA Tour and SSG won’t end the big-money war for the future of golf, but it is expected to give commissioner Monahan’s side some much-needed leverage in what has been a rather one-sided battle of attrition between golf’s top tour and the deep-pocketed Saudi PIF.
“The faster that we can all get back together and start to play and start to have the strongest fields possible I think is great for golf,” Rory McIlroy said Tuesday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
For fans, the future of golf won’t immediately look any different with the game’s best players still split between rival tours (LIV Golf’s third season begins this week in Mexico), but Wednesday likely will be seen as the first step to putting a broken professional game back together.
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Once a staunch opponent of LIV Golf and the pre-eminent voice of the PGA Tour, McIlroy’s stance has dramatically softened and, like many fans of the game, he sounds ready to see the world’s best players back competing against one another on a regular basis.
“I’m done with trying to change people’s minds and trying to get them to see things a certain way or try to see things through my lens because that’s ultimately not the way the world works,” the four-time major winner said. “I think life is about choices. Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here. If (LIV players) still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back.”
What the future of professional golf will eventually look like is still a mystery, but we’re finally getting closer to finding out.
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2024-01-31 18:00:00Z
CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vdG9yb250b3N1bi5jb20vc3BvcnRzL2dvbGYvcGdhLXRvdXItc3RyaWtlcy1pbnZlc3RtZW50LWRlYWwtd2l0aC1hbWVyaWNhbi1ncm91cC1ub3Qtc2F1ZGlzLWZvci1ub3fSAQA
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