Now that LIV Golf’s dispute with the PGA Tour has entered the court system, it won’t take long for the next legal blow to land.
A hearing has been scheduled for 1 p.m. PDT Tuesday in San Jose, California. Judge Beth Labson Freeman will hear a request by attorneys representing Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford for a temporary restraining order so that the three can play this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of three playoff events on the PGA Tour. Upon competing on the rival LIV Golf circuit, they and other players were suspended by the PGA Tour. The three were among 11 LIV players who filed a 106-page antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week in U.S. District Court in Northern California.
Though the antitrust dispute likely will play out over the coming months and perhaps years, legal experts predict, the plaintiffs’ need for injunctive relief is immediate. The $15 million FedEx St. Jude event begins Thursday at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.
Tuesday’s hearing will be available to the public via the judge’s Zoom video feed on her webpage HERE.
While compiling a record-tying 82 victories on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods soared to the top of the tour’s career earnings list. With more than $120 million in tournament prize money – certainly only a fraction of what Woods has earned in off-course endorsements – what would the Saudis needed to have offered to get him to jump to their new LIV Golf series?
Well, $700-$800-million didn’t do the trick.
That’s according to Greg Norman, LIV Golf’s CEO, who said in a nine-minute interview on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show that the Saudis, via their Public Investment Fund, failed to lure Woods with a three-quarter-billion-dollar offer. Woods steadfastly vowed to remain loyal to the PGA Tour.
“That number was out there before I became CEO,” Norman said. “So, that number has been out there, yes. And look, Tiger is a needle-mover, right? So, of course you’ve got to look at the best of the best. So, they had originally approached Tiger before I became CEO. So, yes, that number is somewhere in that neighborhood.”
The PGA Tour’s 2022-23 schedule doesn’t look dramatically different from recent versions in terms of when and where tournaments will be played.
What they’re playing for – dramatically increased purses – is where the big change lands.
The 47-event schedule will feature eight invitational events with purses ranging from $15 million to $25 million for the limited-field events, a response, at least in part, to the big-money challenge presented by LIV Golf.
Additionally, the FedEx Cup bonus pool will increase to $75 million, with the Comcast Business Top Ten going to $20 million and another $50 million in the Player Impact Program.
It will also be the last season under the wraparound schedule before the tour returns to a calendar season in 2024. The new schedule also will reduce the number of qualifiers for the FedEx Cup to 70, down from 125.
By increasing the purses to at least $15 million in eight events, the tour expects to bring the top players together more often. The Sentry Tournament of Champions, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial Tournament, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship, Players Championship, FedEx St. Jude Championship and BMW Championship have the largest purses on tour.
Those eight events, along with the Tour Championship and the four major championships, are expected to create a top-tier level on the PGA Tour, with star players adding a handful of other events to their individual schedules.
For a look at the schedule, click HERE.
It’s no secret that golf’s demographic tends to skew toward the older TV viewer, and that’s not bad, according to a recent study published by Sports Business Journal.
LIV Golf, the upstart tour financed by Saudi petro-dollars and built on a louder, hipper image than the established professional tours, is selling itself toward a younger demographic. PGA Tour officials, however, embrace their circuit’s older viewers, recognizing that they generally earn more money and hold executive-level jobs that appeal to advertisers. And, the study finds, network ratings for PGA Tour events have increased in recent years while the overall number of sports hours consumed on TV has dropped (READ MORE).
TAP-INS
Despite a 2.7-percent rise in U.S. rounds played in June compared with the same month last year, rounds played for the first half of 2022 remain down from the first six months of last year, according to a Golf Datatech report. The pandemic-fueled golf boom sparked big spikes in rounds played in 2020 and 2021 (READ MORE).
Shanshan Feng, the first Chinese golfer to win a major championship and ascend to the No. 1-ranked player in the world, has retired, the LPGA announced. Feng, who turned 33 on Aug. 5, won the 2012 LPGA Championship (now known as the Women’s PGA) among 10 titles since joining the women’s tour in 2008. “I really miss the tour life, and I miss everybody on the tour – the fans, the media, the players, everybody – but this is the time that I need to move on,” she said (READ MORE).
U.S. captain Davis Love III completed his staff for next month’s Presidents Cup, appointing Steve Stricker and Webb Simpson as assistant captains for the biennial matches against the International team. The matches are scheduled for Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Simpson resides and is a member (READ MORE).
England’s David Howell became only the third player to reach 700 starts on the DP World Tour when he played last week’s Cazoo Open in Wales. Howell, 47, is a five-time winner on the former European Tour and a two-time Ryder Cup player. He trails only Spain’s Miguel Ángel Jiménez (717) and Scotland’s Sam Torrance (706) on the list (READ MORE).
The Genesis Scottish Open will be played at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, the tournament’s home for the past four years, through 2026, the DP World Tour announced. The tournament traditionally precedes the Open Championship (READ MORE).
Hot Springs (Arkansas) Country Club will host the 2023 Junior PGA boys and girls championships, the PGA of America announced (READ MORE).
Tiger Woods announced the debut of the TGR JR Invitational on Oct. 9-10 at The Hay at Pebble Beach and The Links at Spanish Bay. Woods’ design company recently renovated The Hay as a short course (READ MORE).
Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Massachusetts, will be the site of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and the 2028 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the USGA announced. Brae Burn, a 1912 Donald Ross design, has hosted seven previous USGA events, including the 1919 U.S. Open won by Walter Hagen and the 1928 U.S. Amateur won by Bobby Jones (READ MORE).
The Compliance Solutions Championship will debut next year on the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit announced. It will be played June 22-25 at Jimmie Austin Golf Club in Norman, Oklahoma (READ MORE).
Staff and Wire Reports