I’m one of a huge number of amateur golfers who watch professional golf and are paying at least some attention to the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf developments (“One year in, LIV plays long game,” June 5 GGP).
But amid all of the discussions on broadcast and social media, as well as the snide comments and virtue signaling from both sides, I’ve noticed one glaring fact: Both leagues are forgetting a very instructive part of sports history that needs to be considered. And I don’t mean golf.
In October of 1972 – 50 years before LIV Golf’s first event – the upstart World Hockey Association played its first games. For months, it had made lots of waves by luring players away from the National Hockey League. It offered them more money – in many cases, much more. Chicago Blackhawks star Bobby Hull, one of the NHL’s most visible and highest-paid players, had made $150,000 in 1971-72. When he jumped to the WHA, his 1972-73 salary soared to $1.25 million. The WHA also changed some of the existing playing rules and added a few others to make the game more exciting.
Once the new league started play, there were problems – particularly money problems. The NHL did everything to torpedo the WHA, which refused to go away and largely stayed afloat despite what many hockey people had predicted early on. Lawsuits were filed both ways. Some teams failed miserably and either moved to other cities or folded outright. But there were also franchises that made lots of money and were competitive. Knowledgeable people on both sides agreed that some of those teams could beat a fair number of the established NHL teams if given the chance.
After five or six years, it became evident that the WHA couldn’t hang on by itself, but its mere existence already had forced NHL teams to start paying players more money. The NHL could no longer afford to ignore the WHA without risking permanent damage to the game. A difficult but necessary truce was arranged, and at the end of the 1978-79 season, the WHA’s best four remaining teams – Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and New England (Hartford) – were admitted into the National Hockey League.
There are, as you can see, some definite parallels in the battles between the NHL and WHA and the PGA Tour and LIV (it’s a far more accurate analogy than the NFL/AFL situation, which was a merger).
Scott Noris
Farmers Branch, Texas
Even though he was left in the dark on this agreement, Greg Norman is vindicated – again (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
In 1993-94, Norman proposed an idea for a World Golf Tour that would see the top players come together in a series of big-money, small-field events. Tim Finchem, commissioner of the PGA Tour at the time, adios-ed it … then developed the World Golf Championships events, starting in 1999.
Norman heads up LIV with the same ideas that were proposed in ’93-94. The PGA Tour caves, and here we are, with no mention of Greg Norman.
Nobody considered Ben Hogan as an afterthought when he helped lay the foundation in 1946 for the eventual revolt of players to pull away from PGA of America in the late 1960s.
Donn Byrne
Carol Stream, Illinois
Do you think players such as Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler should sue the PGA Tour? They gave up hundreds of millions to back the tour, and now the guys who took the money are going to be welcomed back. What a betrayal by the PGA Tour. Re-entry to the PGA Tour should require that all monies be returned by the LIV players before they are allowed to compete in the new tour (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
It seemed as if LIV was slowly dying. Nobody was watching. I watched for about 10 minutes, and it was obvious. Even analyst David Feherty seemed bored.
The Saudis need to put up a few billion to compensate the guys who backed the PGA Tour. Otherwise, this is the greatest injustice in the history of sports.
Robert Dietrich
Oxford, Pennsylvania
The PGA Tour is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit entity. The tour files an annual IRS Form 990 tax return. That tax return is available to the public on various websites. As the commissioner of the tour, and a tour employee, Jay Monahan's total compensation is shown on this tax return (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
Monahan will now be the CEO of the currently unnamed umbrella entity, which will be for-profit. For-profit tax returns are not available to the public. That means the tax return and all financial information about this entity, including employee compensation, will be hidden from the tour players and us.
Charlie Jurgonis
Fairfax, Virginia
The U.S. PGA, European-DP World and LIV tours are to merge (“Hazy horizon awaits LIV players,” June 5 GGP).
All current legal actions canceled/annulled. The concept of team golf promoted by LIV to be incorporated.
LIV players (having paid suitable lip service to the European-DP World Tour disciplinary procedure) to be reinstated.
All in all, perhaps the least surprising outcome (except to those who’ve taken their news feed directly from the PGA and European-DP World tours for the past 18 months).
Unfortunately, it will mean the current format of PGA Tour now becomes the unchallenged top dog in professional golf.
LIV CEO Greg Norman, having fulfilled his purpose as a stalking horse, will now be discarded. Rory McIlroy has been hung out to dry, in spite of his unstinted and genuine heart-on-a-sleeve support of the PGA Tour. Both of these guys have found out the true nature of professional golf, which doesn’t after all center around the legacy of the game, just the cold business of money making.
David Morris
Bristol, England
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has made it abundantly clear that it is all about the “Benjamins” (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
The PGA Tour has lost me as a viewer. I will poke my head in the TV room for the major championships, but never again for a tour event.
No wonder Monahan floated the idea of “no-cut” events recently. I believe in a meritocracy, which pro golf generally is. I could handle the World Golf Championships’ limited-field, no-cut approach because to get in, one had to be in the top 60 in the world ranking.
The LIV tour held no interest for me: 10 stars and a bunch of guys past their prime playing for guaranteed money – an exhibition, at best.
Talor Gooch didn't get invited to the U.S. Open because beating the likes of Pat Perez doesn't mean too much.
I cannot wait for a major sponsor or two or three, with a real moral compass, to say, “No, thank you” to the tour and drop out.
Oh, wait. Monahan is not worried. The Saudis will pick up the tab.
Stephen Cooney
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
It’s inconceivable that commissioner Jay Monahan would surrender the entire PGA Tour franchise to the Saudis and that the Saudis will own the world of pro golf (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP). This is a country that has 10 golf courses. 10! No way that Monahan has this authority.
It’s an awful deal by Monahan, who is in la-la land if he thinks he and the PGA Tour will control this new entity. The Saudis will bankroll this venture and will control it. Follow the money.
I wonder what kind of compensation Monahan was promised.
Deceit, betrayal, treachery, hypocrisy. Those are the words now associated with Monahan.
I hope the players reject this deal and fire Monahan.
9/11, Jamal Khashoggi, women’s rights …
Michael Collins
Naples, Florida
I am absolutely sickened and saddened by the merger of our PGA Tour with one backed by one of the most corrupt nations in the world (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
Saudi Arabia is well known for its abysmal human-rights violations, and atrocities against not only their own citizens but also ours.
Don McEachern
Venice, Florida
Sold out, disgraceful by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
I’ll not be watching golf now. Money, money, money, and Saudi manipulation and discrimination.
A very sad day.
Iain Davidson
Rickinghall, Suffolk, England
I am sickened by this new development between LIV and the PGA Tour (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
I will never again watch any PGA Tour LIV sports event on TV.
Michael Panveno
Highlands, North Carolina
Astonishing U-turn from the established tours (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
I wonder how much Jay Monahan and Co. got for selling out. Disgusted.
John Rooney
Glasgow, Scotland
You can put me on record as a “no” for this terrible deal (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
The PGA Tour is a sellout and threw all the players who stood by the tour under the bus. The tour and commissioner Jay Monahan went for Saudi money, period. I can’t wait to see how Monahan tries to square the Saudis’ awful human-rights record and 9/11 with the public. He can't.
The Saudis have been thumbing their noses at us. Fine, as I wouldn’t do business with them, either, for numerous reasons.
They are not our friends. I pray that this deal falls apart.
Guillermo Jenkins
Midland, Texas
I haven't watched a single minute of LIV golf since it’s been televised. Now, it seems the PGA Tour has sold its soul to the devil (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP).
I’m 67 and have watched and played since my teens. I will continue to play. I don't know how much, if at all, I'll be watching.
I’ll have to figure out something else to do on the weekends.
Doug Gonze
Holland, Pennsylvania
I am a member of Mapperley Golf Club in Nottingham, England, and I don't know if we are different from the clubs that John Hopkins frequents, but I never hear anyone mentioning LIV Golf (“Hazy horizon awaits LIV players,” June 5 GGP). It doesn't seem to resonate with many people I play with or meet at the club.
Exhibition golf is fine for non-golfers, but for aficionados of the game like myself, it is of less than no interest.
Francis Christie
Arnold Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
I can only imagine the disappointment those players who stayed loyal to PGA Tour must have felt (“New world order: PGA Tour, DP World, LIV unite,” June 7 GGP). It begs the question: How do those players be made whole compared to those who signed on to LIV? If they are not, how can they respect the PGA Tour going forward?
As a fan, it will take some time to swallow the tour’s decision to partner with LIV. The legal rationale for the partnership has yet to be fully understood. Details, I suspect, will be reported in days to come.
David Kepper
Las Vegas, Nevada
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