Settle in, this may take a while.
Condescending letters have been written. Brushoffs have been given. Lawyers have been alerted.
Anyone who thought that the Greg Norman-driven rival league taking aim at the PGA Tour’s best and brightest would admit defeat and take its Saudi-backed billions back where it came from was reminded last week that people with 12-figure cash at their disposal can afford to take their time to get what they want.
It doesn’t mean they’re going to ultimately succeed but a bad week isn’t scaring them off despite one recurring and salient point:
This new group and shamed mouthpiece Phil Mickelson seem to be the only ones who believe professional golf, specifically the PGA Tour, isn’t good enough.
Norman may never have won the Masters (it’s a shame really given the theater he provided there) but his letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan which started with “Surely you jest,” brought to mind the letter from Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson to women’s rights activist Martha Burk, which said, in part, that the club’s membership policies would not be made “at the point of a bayonet.”
It’s possible it will have the same effect.
The letters deal with different circumstances but the tone was the same – irritated and borderline personal.
It landed in the PGA Tour offices like another piece of mail.
No fire alarms went off. No statements were crafted. Business as usual continued.
“Move along,” or words to that effect, was Monahan’s message to players at the Honda Classic last week.
Apparently, Norman’s missive was met with the same message.
The grand plan has been forced to change – those waiting on player announcements from the new league are still waiting – but the pursuit isn’t being abandoned. “No” could mean “not now.”
The point Norman and his LIV Golf Investments (LGI) group were intent on making was that despite the bruising events during the week of the Genesis Invitational – you remember Mickelson’s image-gutting comments and the various player proclamations of loyalty to the tour – they are not going away.
In his letter, Norman accused the PGA Tour of bullying players, choosing to ignore the biggest hurdle his group faces isn’t necessarily the tour but overcoming the human rights issues that dog his Saudi backers.
LGI, which imagined having a stable of players the equal to their C-suite lineup by now, is not walking away from a $300 million investment in the Asian Tour, even if it could fairly be seen as a potential entrée to a far bigger role in the global golf hierarchy that has been thwarted, at least temporarily.
This is bigger than Monahan and Norman but the sides – and the captains of those sides – were brought into sharp relief last week.
The PGA Tour says it can ban any member who signs with the new group, citing its rules of membership. It’s like working for Coca-Cola and wanting to sell Pepsi on the side.
Norman’s group says players are independent contractors and therefore free to play when and where they choose. It would be interesting to see how much freedom players who have signed or will sign with Norman’s group will have. Surely, all that Saudi money comes with strings attached.
This isn’t really about golf.
It’s about money and power.
It’s also about Monahan and Norman.
Monahan is a businessman wise beyond his 51 years who has ascended to perhaps the most powerful seat in golf but whose ethos keeps it from making it about himself.
Though he has a seat at golf’s high table of power, Monahan would just as soon talk about his days of playing golf with his father and brothers. He knows the game is also a business but at his core, Monahan remembers it is still a game and if that is lost, so is what matters most.
Behind his outward grace, Monahan is anchored by a passion for the game as well as a toughness and a commitment to work toward the common good. He will push hard for what he believes is right and he believes keeping the PGA Tour secured from outside threats is at the top of his current priority list.
Norman did not start this Saudi-backed attempt to restructure professional golf. He was recruited by the group that is now LIV Golf Investments because of who he is and because the scars of a failed effort to restructure professional golf in 1994 haven’t fully faded.
Norman is the anti-Monahan. He’s a global superstar, the best player in the world for more than six years even though many define him by what he didn’t accomplish. As much as any player, Norman – like him or not – has demonstrated the value of creating a brand.
His logo is iconic. From wine to course design to real estate, Norman is his own multinational corporation. Where others see risk, he sees opportunity.
He was blessed with charisma and an edge. He won far more than Fred Couples but never had that kind of adoration. Norman made professional golf better with his swagger and style.
Norman and Monahan are playing chess now. Monahan is playing from a position of strength but Norman’s group believes it can win in court if the tour follows through on its promise to ban players who sign with the new organization.
The tour will argue that players don’t have to join the PGA Tour to play in events but, if they don’t, they can’t share in the FedEx Cup money, the lucrative pension, the insurance plan and other programs designed to reward members.
Don’t like it? Don’t join.
Norman’s group will argue that players should be allowed to play where they want – especially his purported new league – and to prevent that is to violate antitrust laws. Expect LGI to make a move of some sort soon to reframe the discussion after taking a pie in the face two weeks ago.
Norman closed his letter saying, “Commissioner – this is just the beginning. It certainly is not the end.”
Can someone get Judge Judy on the line?
Sounds like we’re going to need her.
Top: Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman
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