{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European Tour, probably would not regard last Tuesday’s Daily Mail as his chosen reading while he is on holiday in Toronto, Canada. It might have made him splutter at the breakfast table, because in that day’s paper Derek Lawrenson, its golf correspondent, reported Paul McGinley, the 2014 Ryder Cup captain and a director of the European Tour, as predicting stormy days ahead for the European Tour while it faced challenges from the Super Golf League, which is backed by Saudi Arabian money, and the British-based Premier Golf League.
It is “time to put the hard hat on and prepare for three or four years of disruption,” was the opening sentence of Lawrenson’s article. “We’ve spoken to the Saudis on a number of occasions,” McGinley was reported as saying. “We would love them to continue to be part of our tour but they see it a different way. They think golf is stale and want to come in as disruptors and change the whole DNA of the game.”
The tone of Lawrenson’s article was that the Saudis felt they were able to launch the SGL, organise team events, and entice players from Europe and the US to play on it with the reward of huge sums of money, without those players being punished in any way by their home tours. The PGA Tour (and the European Tour) disagrees. “The Saudi lawyers reckon the PGA Tour can’t stop players from joining and still being members, but Jay (Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour) is adamant that he can,” McGinley said. “Unfortunately, it’s looking like we’ll end up with a massive legal case.”
The presence of the SGL and the PGL in the margins of today’s professional game means one or both of these organisations see golf as a means of making money for themselves and for the players, and in doing so shaking up an old game in a way that might never have been done before.
McGinley, a former player himself and now an administrator, clearly has sympathy with the players, particularly the young ones. “Imagine you’re a young star like Will Zalatoris, already in the world’s top 30 with lots of money,” McGinley told the Daily Mail. “Over the next two years, the PGA Tour will see every event offering $10 to $12 million in prize money. When the new US television deal starts in two years, the FedEx Cup will have a top prize of $50 million in no time with $1 million simply for making it through to the final event.
“The pension fund is equally well supported and you’re playing each week in tournaments with lots of history that donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity and are much loved in towns where they are held. So, do you want to risk that trajectory you’re on for a new thing that may only last a couple of years, where you’ll probably be banned and your career could well lose momentum?
“That’s how I’d be advising a young player, but we’re not arrogant enough to dismiss the threat we’re facing. The Saudis have got lots of money and people mad on golf who are aligned with the government. You have to respect their position.”
Global Golf Post contacted McGinley to see if the article in the Daily Mail accurately represented his views. Here is his reply: “My points were slanted a bit but in essence the point is that with the Saudis as well as the PGL both publicly talking of launching imminent tours, we in the current ecosystem are preparing for likely disruption at this stage to what we are currently doing and planning. We will not be arrogant in dismissing their ideas and are keen to find a common route.
“The ET board have clearly chosen what we believe to be a future pathway when we aligned with the PGA T(our) last year and see this as the best path forward for our members and the game. We are committed to that pathway and a route aligned within that ecosystem is what we would like the others to consider and align with, but we do realise they see things differently at this stage so in turn we are preparing for what could be a disruptive few years.”
There is no doubt that predators are circling the European Tour and maybe the PGA Tour in the US. One bid for a part of the European Tour has already been fended off but as sure as golf has tees and greens the predator or predators will return.
There was a striking contrast between McGinley’s comments and those by Pelley and Monahan a week earlier, when they gave details of a strengthening of the strategic alliance between the two tours first announced last November. In their 3 August press conference, Pelley and Monahan revealed that for the 2022 season the two tours would co-sanction one tournament in Scotland and two in the US, as well as boost the prize fund of the Irish Open, which Pelley described as “part of an overall commitment of the PGA Tour to help advance a wide range of European events.” Moreover, Genesis, a partner of the PGA Tour, would become the new sponsor of the Scottish Open.
Clearly this was a further attempt by the two tours to bulwark themselves against bodies such as the SGL and the PGL, even though the two administrators did not describe it as such. “I would just say … our focus is to do everything we can to continue to present the best schedules, the best playing opportunities and the strongest set of tournaments that we possibly can, and do that in the context of the strategic alliance,” Monahan said. “For us, you always have to operate with zero complacency. You have … to make certain you’re doing everything you can to create the best options for the best players in the world.”
Pelley added: “It wasn’t about fending off any competitors. What it was about was our desire to grow and build on the ecosystem that has served this game for the past 50 years. We believe that if we serve all our members as members’ organisations, continue to provide value for the stakeholders, continue to think about what is good for the ecosystems and the consumers, I think everything else will take care of itself.”
Both Pelley and Monahan were asked whether either of them had spoken to Andy Gardiner of the PGL, and both men were firm and curt in their responses. Pelley: “I have not talked to Mr Gardiner and have no intention to talk to Mr Gardiner.” Monahan: “I have not spoken to Andy Gardiner,” adding a moment later, “I don’t have any plans to do so.”
The presence of the SGL and the PGL in the margins of today’s professional game means one or both of these organisations see golf as a means of making money for themselves and for the players, and in doing so shaking up an old game in a way that might never have been done before. Pelley and Monahan know this better than most.
The conclusion? The tom-toms that generally give warning of a struggle are beating. On the one side are the defenders, on the other the disrupters. The battle lines have been drawn.
Top: Paul McGinley
E-Mail JOHn